Woobies Wanted

[thefourthvine]

brown_betty and I have been discussing woobies. Further research - for the good of science! - is now required, and so I come to you for help. I need a list of woobies.

TVTropes has a great page on woobies [Warning: cherry_ice and I have determined that TVTropes is a black hole. If you click on this link, there is a chance you will never escape from the website. Leave a message for your loved ones before you click. Also it's a good idea to pack a lunch.], which features this definition:

"[The woobie] is that character you want to give a big hug, wrap in a blanket and feed soup to when he or she suffers so very beautifully."

And there is, of course, a huge long list of woobies attached, but a lot of those people are woobies in canon more than in fan fiction, and I want the fannish ones. I'm looking for the person in a given fandom who is always being hurt (and then comforted), the person who you just know is going to have a secret shame or a secret trauma or a secret disease, probably while he is being raped and beaten in prison by Nazis with spiky boots. In other words, I want to know who, in your fandom, is the character who you'd immediately think of if you read this header:

Title: Recovery and Revelations Part 7, 1/???
Series: Hold Me Tight Tonight (Confronting the Darkness)
Author: I <3 Woobies!
Summary: To protect the ones he or she loves, Character X sold his or her body to evil slaver alien wizards. Now Character X is finally back home. Can the [team/family/friends/loved ones/etc.] help him or her recover?
Warnings: Noncon, dubcon, torture, past child abuse and incest, betrayal, cutting, slavery, underage sex, involuntary drug use, porn, some swears.

In the future, there will be a poll. But first, I need the names to go in the poll. So tell me: in your fandom, who is the woobie? To make this extra-challenging, especially for you people in Harry Potter and Supernatural: you can only nominate one person per fandom. I want to hear about the Woobiest in All the Land.

Comments

[melannen]

Oh, god, and because I can't imagine how he has been left out thus far:

Tony Fuckin' Stark.

(Also, Kris Allen in AI8 fandom. Not that I'm reading that fandom or anything, nope not me.)

And I second the Lone Power mentioned on the LJ post. The archetype of all woobies everywhere. :D

[aldanise]

Seconding the Tony Stark wholeheartedly. (With equal disbelief that he didn't get mentioned earlier)

And I totally never thought that about the Lone Power, but se does get pretty woobified, doesn't se? Thirded.

[melannen]

I'm fairly sure there's a world out there somewhere in which "Fairest and Fallen" in the Speech translates most directly as "you're pretty when you suffer". :D

[brownbetty]

Now what Fandom do I put Tony Stark under? I'm guessing the movieverse?

[melannen]

I would say Marvel Comics or the Avengers? Movie!Tony is woobie *too*, but you don't get into the real *depth* of the woobie of which is capable until you start reading comicsverse fic - the movie only touched about 2% of his canon trauma, and then there's what comics fanon heaps on him on top of that as a result of Civil War.

[elspethdixon]

Definately 616!comics -- there are actual comics panels where the writers tell you in textbox narration that "everyone would totally be sorry for misjudging him if they knew he was dying!" (or words to that effect). At more than one point in canon.

I'm sure he's the woobie in movieverse fic, too, but like melannen said, the movie doesn't begin to touch the depths of Tony-torture the comics have carried out over the past forty years.

[elspethdixon]

Thirding Tony Stark. I mean, I probably wrote a good 10% of the woobie Tony fics out there myself (he's captured by aliens and tortured! He's dying of a mysterious illness! Everyone hates him because of Civil War and then he's electrocuted! etc.)

[garrideb.livejournal.com]

Please never stop writing these fics, btw.

[melannen]

IAWTC. :D

[melannen]

I suspect you are right, although I also suspect the amount of blatant woobie!Tony written by canon writers outweighs the entire output of the fandom by at least one order of magnitude. :D

[elspethdixon]

Tony, much like Zuko in A:tLA and Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond, pretty much has "woobie who is misjudged by everyone, while suffering terribly" built into his basic character template.

[garrideb.livejournal.com]

Fourthing. I think what really does it is how much of the canon and fanon harm done to him is self-inflicted for the good of others. If he must kill himself to save his team mates, he will do it. If he can kill himself to save his team mates, but there are two or three other, more reasonable ways to save them, he'll probably still kill himself. It's epic woobieness.

[elspethdixon]

If he must kill himself to save his team mates, he will do it. If he can kill himself to save his team mates, but there are two or three other, more reasonable ways to save them, he'll probably still kill himself.

And that's why we love him. Well, that, and the red thong.

[garrideb.livejournal.com]

Oh, the thong definitely plays a part!

[valtyr]

I have one issue of Teen Tony, and what does he do? Disobey Cap to go help the Avengers, and dangerously drain the power to his heart while doing so. He positively delights in near-killing himself. I think it's basically how he shows he cares. If he likes you, he'll try and employ you. If he really likes you, he'll hope for an opportunity to kill himself for your benefit.

The only reason they didn't replace Tony with a Skrull is because they figured said Skrull would stop his heart before he was off the starship, I reckon.

[garrideb.livejournal.com]

The only reason they didn't replace Tony with a Skrull is because they figured said Skrull would stop his heart before he was off the starship, I reckon.

This makes total sense! I imagine they tried to sneak multiple Tonys onto Earth before they figured this out.

I also have one issue of Teen Tony, but I wasn't as lucky as you. In mine he hits on Pepper and she slaps him. I try to pretend I didn't read it.