Woobie
From Fanlore
| Synonyms: | woobify, woobifie |
| See also: | Weepy Uke Syndrome, Manpain, wangst |
| 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 (usually him[1] and white) up in a blanket and cuddle him and comfort him.[2] If a character is hard-working, and/or endures difficult circumstances bravely, and/or is often at the "h" end of the H/C spectrum, odds are good that fans consider him a woobie.
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.[3]
Popular Woobies in Fandom
- Lex Luthor from Smallville may be the original character to be called a woobie.[4][5][6]
- Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter
- Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries
- Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings
- Legolas from The Lord of the Rings
- Blair Sandburg from The Sentinel
- Peter Venkman from Real Ghostbusters
- Spike from the Buffyverse
- Daniel Jackson from Stargate: SG-1[7]
- Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis
- Ben Linus from Lost
- Dean Winchester (sometimes referred to as "D:ean" when he is especially angsty or sad face[8]) from Supernatural
- Jensen Ackles in Supernatural RPF/J2 stories
- Ianto Jones from Torchwood[7]
- Iron Man a.k.a. Tony Stark from Marvel Comics and the movieverse[9]
- Bucky Barnes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe especially the Captain America Movieverse
- Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Loki from Thor
- Peter Quill from Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Guy of Gisborne from Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
- Dan Howell from his Youtube channel danisnotonfire
- Rory Williams from Doctor Who
- Tim McGee from NCIS
- John Mitchell from Being Human (UK)
- Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Kuchiki Rukia from Bleach
- A handful of characters in Fire Emblem:
- Tiki and Marth from the Akaneia games
- Tailtiu and her daughter Tine from Geneaology of the Holy War
- Eliwood, Lucius, and Nino in The Blazing Blade
- Knoll, Lyon, and Amelia in The Sacred Stones
- Soren, Rafiel, and Pelleas in the Tellius duology
- Henry and every second generation child in Awakening
- Leo, Takumi, Xander, Sakura, and the Avatar in Fates
- Alm, Celica, Rinea, and Berkut in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
- Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Marianne von Edmund, Ashe Ubert, Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Sylvain José Gautier, Edelgard von Hresvelg, and Lady Rhea in Three Houses
- A handful of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney characters, but particularly Miles Edgeworth, Apollo Justice, and Trucy Wright
- N from Pokemon Black and White
- Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Both Eduardo and Mark from The Social Network - it just depends on what the writer thinks
- Oikawa Tooru from Haikyuu
- Kise Ryouta from Kuroko no Basuke
- Nathan Prescott from Life is Strange
- Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan
- Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf. Possibly also Derek?
- Everyone from Hetalia, though the show itself is the embodiment of woobification
- Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist
- Harry Styles from One Direction
- Kenny McCormick from South Park
- Rin Matsuoka from Free!
- Kent Parson from Check Please!
- Takashi Shirogane and Keith Kogane from Voltron: Legendary Defender
- The Once-ler from The Lorax
- Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi
- Connor from Detroit: Become Human
- Twiggy from Marilyn Manson
- Kurt Cobain from Nirvana
Meta
- A 2010 discussion re who is the woobiest -- Woobies Wanted post by thefourthvine, Woobies Wanted; archive link page 1; archive link page 2; archive link page 3; archive link page 4; archive link page 5; archive link page 6, thefourthvine (February 27, 2010) 27 Feb 2010. Accessed 1 March 2010, at which point: 8 pages of comments. 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; archive link, at Epic Rants, December 19, 2010
References
- ↑ Are woobies necessarily male? Comment discussion started 2 Feb 2010 at thefourthvine's "Woobies Wanted" post. (Accessed 25 Aug 2013)
- ↑ "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 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 post by 12-12-12, 2 Jan 2012. (Accessed 5 Jan 2012)
- ↑ "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)
- ↑ 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)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "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)
