Board 8 > Best of the Trope Season 2: Day 220 - The Woobie

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Best of the Trope!

Here are the rules. Each day, I will post a trope from TV Tropes, and each poster can name up to three examples of that trope. Whichever nomination gets the most mentions wins! Posters may also name as many Honourable Mentions as they like, but they are purely optional and will not count towards the running score. You may look at the TV Tropes page for that day's trope for examples, but you do not have to pick all your examples from the page. You can nominate whatever examples you like, as long as they qualify for the trope. Each trope will last around 24 hours before the next one goes up.

In the event of a tie between 4 or more nominations, a tiebreaker poll will be run the next day to determine a winner.

Posters may also nominate any tropes they wish to see come up during the series. This is optional, and you don't have to do it every day, or at all. Tropes will be randomly selected from the list each day, except for some occasions where I will pick a thematically appropriate trope that may or may not be on the list.

Here's the list of previous tropes, so if you wish to nominate some tropes, check on here that it wasn't previously done. http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Best_of_the_Trope

Trope list:
Torch the Franchise and Run
Trash the Set
Grand Finale

The winner of yesterday's trope, Punch Clock Villain, was Wreck-It Ralph), who got 6 votes.

Previous winners: Day 181 onwards
Cliffhanger - The Snap (Avengers: Infinity War)
Anti-Climax Boss - Yu Yevon (Final Fantasy X)
Lights Off, Somebody Dies - Devil / Anthology of Interest (Futurama) / And Then There Was Shawn (Boy Meets World)
Broken Base - Genwunners (Pokemon)
Difficult But Awesome - Ana (Overwatch)
Disc One Nuke - Hawlucha (Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon)
Lampshade Hanging - How did Yzma and Kronk get there first? (The Emperor's New Groove)
Tier Induced Scrappy - Meta Knight (Super Smash Bros Brawl)
Squishy Wizard - Alakazam (Pokemon)
Clipped Wing Angel - Genie Jafar (Aladdin)
Cruel and Unusual Death - Executions (Danganronpa)
That One Level - Escape from the Water Slums (Jak II) / Water Temple (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence - Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars)
The Reason You Suck Speech - Quagmire to Brian (Family Guy)
Magic Knight - Geralt (The Witcher) / Bayonetta
Dem Bones - Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
Acrofatic - Po (Kung Fu Panda)
Game Breaker - Detective Mode (Batman Arkham Series)
Fluffy the Terrible - Fluffy (Harry Potter)
Deathbringer the Adorable - The Grand Master of All Things Bad (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon)
Storming the Castle - Leeroy Jenkins
BFS - Buster Sword (Final Fantasy VII)
Fat Bastard - Eric Cartman (South Park)
Mentor Occupational Hazard - Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars)
Oddball Doppelganger - Mimikyu (Pokemon)
Mood Whiplash - The destroyed village ends "A Girl Worth Fighting For" early (Mulan)
Names to Run Away From Really Fast - Shelly DeKiller (Ace Attorney)
Hostile Show Takeover - Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club)
Lean and Mean - Voldemort (Harry Potter) / Waluigi (Super Mario Bros.) / Slenderman (Marble Hornets)
Identical Stranger - Guy Incognito (The Simpsons) / Kingsonn Dededoo (Brawl in the Family)
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You - Bowser (Super Mario Bros.)
Humiliation Conga - Yzma (The Emperor's New Groove)
Shock and Awe - Pikachu (Pokemon)
Fat and Skinny - Junkrat and Roadhog (Overwatch)
Enemy Mine - Mario and Bowser (Mario RPGs)
Kindhearted Simpleton - Forrest Gump
Evil Costume Switch - Black Suit Spider-Man
Trauma Conga Line - Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion) / Spider-Man

Today's trope is the Woobie. Here is the link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWoobie

A "woobie" is a name for any type of character who makes you feel extremely sorry for them. Basically, the first thing you think to say when you see the woobie is: "Aw, poor baby!" Woobification of a character is a curious, audience-driven phenomenon, sometimes divorced from the character's canonical morality. And while it's technically a YMMV trope, it's hardly tough to spot the guy the writers intend them to be, considering all the bad stuff that tends to happen to them.

A story with the Woobie allows the audience to vicariously experience relief from some pain by fantasizing about relieving the Woobie's pain. (No, not that way! Well, okay, sometimes.) Woobification can also tie into a disturbing hurt/comfort dynamic, in which fans enjoy seeing the Woobie tortured so they can wish the hurt away. This is often explored in Hurt/Comfort Fic.

An important aspect of the Woobie is that their suffering must be caused by external sources. A character who suffers as the result of their own actions is a Tragic Hero and does not qualify.

TL,DR: A pitiable character you feel sorry for.

Nominations:
Butters (South Park)
Bruce Banner (Marvel Comics)
Eponine (Les Miserables)

Mikan Tsumiki (SDR2)
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Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3)
Jennifer (Rule of Rose)
Fiona Belli (Haunting Ground)

Hms:
Carrie White (Carrie)
Heroin Bob (SLC Punk)
Jennifer Simpson (Clock Tower)
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Todd Chavez (Bojack Horseman)
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Carrie White
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Butters
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Ramza (SMFFFC)
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FFXV characters (SMFFFC)
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Kate Marsh (Life is Strange)
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Replace Eponine with Kate. On that note:

Rankings so far:
Butters (South Park) - 2 votes
Kate Marsh (Life is Strange) - 2 votes
Bruce Banner (Marvel Comics)
Mikan Tsumiki (SDR2)
Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3)
Jennifer (Rule of Rose)
Fiona Belli (Haunting Ground)
Todd Chavez (Bojack Horseman)
Carrie White
Ramza (SMFFFC)
FFXV characters (SMFFFC)