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

[twtd]

Law & Order: SVU: Olivia Benson, at least in her own mind, which a lot of fandom seems happy to agree with.

If you're reading Criminal Minds femslash instead of slash: Emily Prentiss.

I would contend that in Xena fandom, it is as hard pin down one woobie as it seems to be in Supernatural fandom, though I would say Xena, if I had to pick one. I can't agree with Joxer because he almost never even got mentioned in the fic I was reading. It was all about Xena's dark past and her suffering and Gabrielle redeeming her.

Bab5: Susan Ivanova or possibly Marcus, again, depending on whether or not you're reading the femslash.

Devil Wears Prada: Andy. The bad things always seem to happen to Andy (in order that Miranda's heart might grow three sizes and she can fall in love with her).

CSI: Sara Sidle, at least back when I was reading it regularly.

I'm sure that one of the characters in The Sarah Connors Chronicles is a woobie, but I don't follow the fandom, so I don't know if it's Sarah or Cameron, though I suspect that they trade off.

[axelrod]

SCC: I didn't get far (stopped somewhere in the 1st season? didn't have time), but I didn't think Sarah was a woobie. And the first season seemed to be about Cameron growing into the charismatic leader he has to become - so he didn't read as woobie. More like wasisface Cameron's uncle - unhappy childhood and youth, lost his beloved brother, lost his team, and generally seems to produce more angst that Sarah and Cameron combined.

[twtd]

I never watched it, and I've only read maybe three fics about it, but it seemed like the angst potential was there. Again, I read almost exclusively in femslash fandom, so in the fic I saw, all of the focus was either on Sarah or Cameron. Femslashers, almost to the point of pathology, do not seem to write about men, so John was barely mentioned and even having not read in the fandom, I can pretty confidently say that his uncle never showed up in a femslash fic (though I'm happy to admit to being wrong about that). Seriously, if you just read the femslash for that show, you'd probably be surprised to find that men even existed.

[axelrod]

... I mixed up Cameron and John's names in my previous comment.

Anyway. Yeah, never read any SCC fanfic whatsoever. And I guess there are so few characters like Sarah and Cameron and so few dynamics between two female characters like that, that I find I can't predict what tropes the ficcers are likely to utilize. Also, I've never been into femslash all that much.

[dysprositos]

(Cameron's the robot chick. Summer Glau. You're thinking of John Connor, and the uncle is Derek.)

I think John Connor makes for a better woobie than Derek does, though, because he still feels PAIN and SUFFERING when he, you know, suffers. He emotes more. And then there's the thing where he puts himself in increasingly dangerous situations for decreasing returns overall, the He Can't Just Kill Himself trope we all love to love (right? Who's with me?), that you just don't get with Derek. (Or maybe I just don't like Derek that much....) Or! Riley! She would make an epic woobie [SPOILER] if it weren't for her death. Maybe she's not really dead? Alt!timeline Riley? Hmm.[/SPOILER]

[axelrod]

(Yeah. Realized after I commented.)

Hmm, I guess I didn't watch far enough to get to where John takes stupid risks a lot. I think not emoting a lot normally is a frequent, though not necessary, quality in a woobie. Or maybe I'm being strongly influenced by Dean Winchester who only emotes on special occasions, bc boys don't cry and his dad would be disappointed in him. (Oh Dean. Not that it's likely, but I really do hope that someday your life consists of tinkering with vintage cars, sex, beer, chilling with your brother, and food. Your problem would be more feeling guilty about not helping people than with feeling bored.)

[dysprositos]

Well, by emoting a lot, I mostly mean he actually appears capable of looking sad or hurt and/or yelling. At first I thought his "my life sucks" moments were a bit excessive, then I: a) thought about how much his life does indeed suck and b) started thinking of the Connors as a more-functional Winchester family (like if Mary had survived instead of John, perhaps), with John Connor = Sam + Dean Winchester. (Which also helped every time his characterization seemed inconsistent; it was nearly always something either Sam or Dean would do. Also, it was fun to go "Winchester moment!" every time the Connors did something Winchester-like, which was surprisingly often.)

Or maybe I'm being strongly influenced by Dean Winchester who only emotes on special occasions, bc boys don't cry and his dad would be disappointed in him.

Well John Connor doesn't cry, he mostly just gets this "being the savior of mankind sucks" look on his face, or guilt-trips Sarah (who sooo doesn't need that shit, OMG). He's mostly just emotional compared to Derek actually. And Derek, well, I spent the whole show hoping that he would turn out to be a Terminator sent back by Skynet to screw up Cameron's mission, and did not get much in the way of facial expression to contradict this theory. He does pissed off pretty well, but then so does BtVS's Faith, and I can't really see either of them as woobies because of it (although they've both gone through a lot of shit). Y(and fandom's)MMV.

(Oh Dean. Not that it's likely, but I really do hope that someday your life consists of tinkering with vintage cars, sex, beer, chilling with your brother, and food. Your problem would be more feeling guilty about not helping people than with feeling bored.)

SECONDED. Add in fishing, though. I think we should make a fictional Minnesotan lake and populate it with cabins as, like, the Fictional Character Recuperation and Retirement Spot, for Jim and Blair and Sam and Dean and Jack O'Neill and [partner of choice] and so on. 'Cause some characters just deserve a good multifandom hangout after everything blows over.

[axelrod]

Hmm, I'm gonna have to give SCC another shot : ) I definitely see what you mean by the Connors being like the Winchesters, but if Mary had lived instead. Obviously, later plot arcs would be pretty different, since Mary's death in the fire was part of Yellow Eyes' modus operandi. Or maybe not, if we just switch it from mothers dying in a fire to fathers (SPN - now with %75 less fridging!) That's about the only way I can imagine Mary becoming a hunter again and *dragging her kids with her*.

I think we should make a fictional Minnesotan lake and populate it with cabins as, like, the Fictional Character Recuperation and Retirement Spot

It could be the RPG for when your favorite character dies horribly or are just plain getting screwed over by canon and you have to put your hands over ears, close your eyes, and say "lalala I totally didn't watch that episode".

Starbuck and Dean would totally be drinking buddies. Totally. And Owen from TW would hate them and snark at them lots. And Tosh would corner Starbuck once she found out Starbuck had once rewired a Cylon fighter. And - well, anyway.

[twtd]

And with something like Criminal Minds, with a strong slash and femslash following, it's hard to do a comparison between the popularity of Reid being a woobie and Emily being a woobie because the two 'sides' seem to be almost complete insulated from each other. Though I will say that the show lends more support to Reid, though that seems to be because the creators love to focus on him and his angst, almost to the point of short changing the other characters. I haven't done the math, but I'd bet there are almost twice as many Reid-centric episodes than there are character specific episode about anyone else.