Woobie
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| Synonyms: | woobify, woobifie |
| See also: | Weepy Uke Syndrome, Manpain, wangst, poor little meow meow |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A woobie is a beloved fannish character (often a BSO) who evokes in fans the desire to wrap him up in a blanket and cuddle and comfort him.[note 1] If a character is hard-working, and/or endures difficult circumstances bravely, and/or is often at the "h" end of the hurt/comfort spectrum, odds are good that fans consider him a woobie. The majority of the characters perceived as woobies are white and male.[1]
Woobies, especially if they're the smaller/shorter member of a slash pairing, have a higher risk of becoming feminized and/or infantilized. In fact, some people within fandom think that the process of woobification equates to infantilization and/or feminization of a male character.
The Bad Boy Woobie is a subtype of the genus woobie that may be becoming more common in canon.[note 2] Another subtype is the Iron Woobie, who not only has experienced a large amount of difficult, external circumstances, but also keeps moving forward, often with a more subdued outward response than a regular woobie character, regardless of how much more pain and suffering the current path they're taking is likely to end in.
Popular Woobies in Fandom
- Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess
- Lex Luthor from Smallville may be the original character to be called a woobie.[note 3][2][3]
- Spike from the Buffyverse
- Ianto Jones from Torchwood
- Daniel Jackson from Stargate: SG-1[4]
- Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis
- Sam Gamgee and Legolas from The Lord of the Rings
- Ben Linus from Lost
- Rory Williams from Doctor Who
- Tim McGee and Tony DiNozzo[note 4] from NCIS
- Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds
- Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries
- Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf. Possibly also Derek?
- John Mitchell from Being Human (UK)
- Dean Winchester (sometimes referred to as "D:ean" when he is especially angsty or sad face[5]) from Supernatural
- Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter
- Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter
- Iron Man a.k.a. Tony Stark from Marvel Comics and the movieverse[6]
- Loki from Thor
- Bucky Barnes from the MCU especially the Captain America Movieverse
- Clint Barton from the Marvel Comics and movieverse, usually used in Clint Barton/Phil Coulson fics
- Rocket and Peter Quill from Guardians of the Galaxy/MCU
- Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan
- Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist
- Guy of Gisborne from Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
- Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Kuchiki Rukia from Bleach
- N from Pokemon Black and White
- Fox Mulder from The X-Files
- Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Oikawa Tooru from Haikyuu
- Kise Ryouta from Kuroko no Basuke
- Nathan Prescott from Life is Strange
- A handful of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney characters, but particularly Miles Edgeworth, Apollo Justice, and Trucy Wright
- Everyone from Hetalia, though the show itself is the embodiment of woobification
- Butters Stotch from South Park
- Kenny McCormick from South Park
- Rin Matsuoka from Free!
- Takashi Shirogane, Keith Kogane, and Lotor from Voltron: Legendary Defender
- The Once-ler from The Lorax
- Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi
- Connor from Detroit: Become Human
- Luigi from Super Mario Bros.
- A handful of characters in Fire Emblem, but especially Lucius from Blazing Blade, Lyon from Sacred Stones, Soren and Pelleas from the Tellius games, the future children from Awakening, the Nohr siblings from Fates, many of the Blue Lions from Three Houses, and Alcryst from Engage
- Kent Parson from Check Please!
- Both Eduardo and Mark from The Social Network - it just depends on what the writer thinks
- Jensen Ackles in Supernatural RPF/J2 stories
- Harry Styles from One Direction
- Twiggy from Marilyn Manson
- Kurt Cobain from Nirvana
- Peter Venkman from Real Ghostbusters
- Dan Howell from his Youtube channel danisnotonfire
- Sans and Asgore Dreemurr from Undertale
- Noelle Holiday and Kris Dreemurr from Deltarune
- Dave Strider and Jade Harley from Homestuck
- Taylor Hebert from Worm
- Cody from Total Drama
- Evan "Buck" Buckley from 9-1-1
Meta
- Woobies Wanted - LJ post,[7] crossposting in Woobies Wanted - DW post[8] post by thefourthvine (February 27, 2010). Also names both Mulder and Krycek from The X-Files, Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds, Dick Grayson from DC Comics and a host of other stoic white men with manpain.
- Eliot Spencer, woobie[9] by jane_elliot at Epic Rants (December 19, 2010). Also name Legolas and Aragorn from LOTR, and Daniel Jackson from SG-1.
Notes & References
Notes
- ^ "A woobie (named for a child's security blanket) 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." TheWoobie entry at TVTropes (accessed 28 Feb 2010)
- ^
The URL (http://12-12-12.dreamwidth.org/18827.html) has been excluded from the Wayback Machine. Published: 2 Jan 2012. Accessed: 5 Jan 2012"The Bad Boy Woobie (BBW) is a particular type of character that has become increasingly popular over the past few years (I can think of several older teen shows that did not have a single BBW among the cast regs: Dawson's Creek, The O.C., the early years of Buffy--and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more that I just happen to have missed. Nowadays, though, almost every show I know has a woobie in the cast.)"– Field Guide: How to Recognize a Bad Boy Woobie, meta by 12-12-12
- ^ "For certain fans for various television shows, movies or books, woobie means something else entirely. It was popularized by several vocal Smallville viewers who thought all Lex Luthor needed was a good hug. Or something." Dee Stiffler, Gapers Block, "Let Go of the Woobie", posted 1 Aug 2005 (Accessed 28 Feb 2010)
- ^
comment at thefourthvine woobie post (2010-02-28).For the NCIS fandom: Tony DiNozzo. Not that he would admit to being a woobie, but again with the falling on his sword thing. Gibbs occasionally does this too, but Gibbs is kickass enough to plan ahead and never actually get beaten up in the process.
References
- ^ Are woobies necessarily male? Comment discussion started 2 Feb 2010 at thefourthvine's "Woobies Wanted" post. (Accessed 25 Aug 2013)
- ^ On the fandomwank wiki entry on Woobie, Lex is referred to as the "ur-woobie" (Accessed 28 Feb 2010)
- ^ "historical background" comment referencing Smallville origins on the history of woobies by mecurtin at 12-12-12's "How to Recognize a Bad Boy Woobie" post, 2 Jan 2012 (Accessed 5 Jan 2012)
- ^ "I am going to assume that I don't need to say Daniel Jackson or Ianto Jones, right? Those are sort of a baseline." comment by dragojustine, 28 February 2010, at thefourthvine's "Woobies Wanted" post.
- ^ Explanation of "D:ean" from a 2011 thread at Fail-Fandomanon
- ^ "For the most popular trope, OH NO POOR TONY, see most of the fandom." from *the Popular Tropes section of the Steve Rogers/Tony Stark fanlore page. (Accessed 1 Jan 2012)
- ^ "Woobies Wanted - My Shame Is TL;DR — LiveJournal". 2010-02-27. Archived from the original on 2022-04-24.
- ^ "thefourthvine Woobies Wanted". 2010-02-27. Archived from the original on 2022-04-24.
- ^ "Eliot Spencer, woobie - Epic Rants -- We Read Fic So You Don't Have T…". 2010-12-19. Archived from the original on 2022-04-25.