thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running ([personal profile] thefourthvine) wrote2010-02-27 06:56 pm
Entry tags:

Woobies Wanted

[profile] 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: [profile] 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.
elspethdixon: (tonybroken)

[personal profile] elspethdixon 2010-02-28 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
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.)
ext_72072: (Default)

[identity profile] garrideb.livejournal.com 2010-03-01 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
Please never stop writing these fics, btw.
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2010-03-01 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
IAWTC. :D
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2010-03-01 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
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: (Default)

[personal profile] elspethdixon 2010-03-01 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
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.