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

[coraa]

Kingdom Hearts - Riku
Final Fantasy 7 - Cloud Strife
Fullmetal Alchemist - Edward Elric
Dragon Age: Origins - Zevran
Elfquest - Redlance
Dragonriders of Pern - Brekke

[axelrod]

FMA: Definitely. Though Roy, too, possibly - he's really hard on himself. And then you can enter the two of them into a feedback loop of woobie-comfort-woobie.

I can see a good fanfic which actually develops the character of, say, Breda or Havoc or Fury (not Hawkeye) and which allows them to fulfill the woobie tropes. You know, Breda has sacrificed himself for the good of the Cause and is broken, can is commanding officer put him back together? And it all takes place in a corner of an abandoned warehouse because they're Hunted. Uh, I'd probably read it ...

(haven't been keeping up with canon lately, btw)

[coraa]

I actually waffled for a while between Ed and Roy, because yeah, Roy gets it a lot too. And they do tend to do the woob feedback loop thing when paired together. (Lots of fics where one of them is feeling awful, and then the other goes into a guilt death spiral about it, at which point the first one comforts them, and around and around and around...)

[elspethdixon]

Fullmetal Alchemist - Edward Elric

The fact that it's Ed and not Roy being the woobie in so many fics puzzles me, actually, since Roy is IMO the woobier of the two in canon (the onscreen suicide attempt would earn him permenent ultra-woobie status in most fandoms). I guess it's because Ed is smaller and younger.

[axelrod]

If you are working off of manga canon (which I prefer, and which is less angsty generally), then Roy is significantly less prone to woobiedom. But yeah, age and size have their influence, alas. They both are so unforgiving of themselves, but Ed had major trauma when he was eleven, and lost a parent when he was younger than that. And he's dealing with a lot of the same stuff Roy is, but as a teenager. I think he kinda needs a hug more than Roy - luckily, Izumi and Winry can do that, whether Ed wants them to or not.

[coraa]

There are a not-insignificant number of fics/discussions that woobify Roy, of course, but yeah, I think age/size has something to do with it. Also, a lot of people find confident-mastermind!Roy really sexy, and that seems to take away from the woobie factor somewhat in fanon.

[gamerchick]

Dragon Age: Origins - Zevran

Maybe it's just the particular fan community I move in, but I think Alistair definitely gives Zevran a run for his money in the woobiness department.

[wembley]

Heee, Redlance! The canon woobie! There's so little fanfic, though, is he actually a woobie in fanfic, too? (I want fanfic with woobie!Rayek. I'd read that in a hot minute. Also, where are my AUs where Rayek and Cutter and Leetah all try living in a dysfunctional three-way-relationship and nearly kill each other? But eventually work it out? Sexily?)