Jerkass Woobie/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

** Hell, even ''Dick'' starts crossing into this late in season 3, when he has something of a [[Heel Realization]] {{spoiler|about the way he treated his brother}}, [[ItsIt's All My Fault|blaming himself]] for {{spoiler|everything Cassidy did, including his suicide}}.

** [[The Baroness|Tess Mercer]] is an even better example. She may be a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], [[Dark Action Girl]], and [[Misanthrope Supreme]], but her brutal childhood, manipulation by Lex and Zod, and {{spoiler|the recent revelation that she was one of Granny Goodness' orphans}} earn her a lot of sympathy. Unlike Lex, she never crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]], and remains in [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] territory.

** Even Lionel qualifies. Born and raised in the slums, where his mother was an alchoholic and his father was a thief and murderer, he has to claw his way to the top of the financial spectrum (which he starts by [[Self Made Orphan|murdering his parents]]). Loses his younger infant son, Julian when (he thinks) Julian's older brother Lex accidentally kills him. Loses his wife, Lillian, who dies while Lex is still a pre-teen. Than Lex is rendered permantly bald by the meteor shower. When an adult Lex discovers what Lionel did to his own parents, Lionel's forced to drive Lex into insanity and erase his memory. This would normally make Lionel a [[Complete Monster]] except he actually feels [[Even Evil Has Standards|a great deal of remorse about it.]] He then learns, long after it's too late to do anything about it or make it up to Lex for it, that Julian was {{spoiler|actually deliberately murdered by Lillian.}} He undergoes a [[Heel Face Turn]] right around the same time Lex does a [[Face Heel Turn]], ensuring that he and his son will always be at odds. Falls genuinely in love with Martha Kent (and she even [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|seems to return some of that affection]], even if she's a bit freaked out by it), but can never fully win her over because he has to reveal to her that he's indirectly, unintentionally responsible for her husband's death<ref>Details:Lionel staged a meeting with Jonathan Kent to reveal he knew Clark's secret. Lionel's intention was to form an alliance with the Kents, but his arrogant demeanor combined with Jonathan's quick temper resulted in Jonathan physically attacking Lionel. While Lionel didn't strike back, the strain of attacking Lionel brought about Jonathan's fatal heart attack.</ref>. After being knocked out while trying to help Clark defeat Bizarro, is then kidnapped and tortured for several weeks by Lana Lang. He meets Grant Gabriel, the adult clone of his dead son Julian, and starts to bond with Grant...only to witness Grant being murdered on Lex's orders. He can never fully let go of his manipulative tendancies, so when he gets several cryptic threats about Clark, resorts to kidnapping him to keep him safe. Clark shuns him for this, since Lionel's not [[CreatorsCreator's Pet|Lana]] [[Protagonist -Centered Morality|Lang.]] Patricia Swann tells Clark that Lionel killed her father, further deepening the rift between them.<ref>And the very fact that Patricia's accusation makes no sense since her father died sometime after Lionel's [[Heel Face Turn]], only makes Lionel even more sympathetic than was perhaps intended.</ref> Lionel desperately tries to warn Clark and Chloe about the looming threat of Lex and the coming Apocalypse, [[Reformed but Rejected|but they'll now have nothing to do with him.]] Is finally cornered by Lex, and when he refuses to divulge Clark's secret, is murdered by his own son, dying friendless and alone.

** Admiral Cain could possibly be considered this; she fits the "simultaneously want to punch her and feel really sorry for her" part, at least. She witnessed the genocide of her entire species and then found out that [[Honey Trap|her girlfriend was an artificial construct created by the genocidal robots who were responsible]]. She was [[Revenge Before Reason|about to sacrifice what, as far she knew, was the last surviving human community in the entire universe in a pointless, essentially impotent gesture of revenge]], [[Bad Boss|killed her own second in command for questioning her tactics]], was a fan of [[Cold -Blooded Torture|questionably ethical interrogation techniques]], and generally [[Ax Crazy|appeared to be a few cards short of a full deck]], but under the circumstances, [[Freudian Excuse|it's sort of understandable]]. Particularly, [[Rape As Drama|what she all but says she wants the interrogators to do to Gina]] takes on new dimensions when you consider how she probably felt about finding out that she'd been (presumably) [[Rape Tropes|unknowingly]] sleeping with somebody who was willingly aiding in the attempted and nearly successful genocide of her entire species (not to mention the [[Squick]] factor of her having every reason to think that Gina is closer to a robot that happens to be made out of flesh than what we'd consider human).

* ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'': Arnold Rimmer. It's a comedy series, so his problems are usually treated light-heartedly, but given everything, [[Freudian Excuse|is it any wonder that he's a mess?]] In particular, he would have turned out like [[The Ace|Ace]] Rimmer ([[Phrase Catcher|what a guy!]]) had he simply been held back a year instead of being allowed to progress. Even when he gets a break, it turns out for the worst. Of course, the series also takes pains to point out that the Woobie part doesn't automatically excuse or justify the Jerkass part; he's still, in many ways, a loathsome, repellant coward, for the most part.<br />Perhaps no episode highlights both the Jerkass and Woobie portions of his personality better than "Me2", when we are faced with a second Rimmer Hologram. The second Rimmer is every bit the Jerkass the original was, except he seems to delight in focusing all of his worst qualities against the original Rimmer hologram. {{spoiler|Under the belief that he has been chosen for deletion, the original Rimmer hologram shares a deeply personal, and painfully embarrassing, moment from his life with Lister and Cat. It's revealed after he's finished that Lister had already deleted the second hologram as he'd exited the room.}}<br />Another good example is Terrorform. [[Anthropomorphic Personifications]] of Rimmer's self-hatred and inner demons are bearing down on the ship, which is unable to drag itself out of a swamp representing his despair. His friends take this opportunity to tell Rimmer that, regardless of their past differences, he is a member of the crew and they care about him. This briefly brings back to life the personifications of Rimmer's good-qualities, like his nobility and self-confidence, which hold off the demons and frees the ship from the swamp. {{spoiler|Upon escaping the planet, Rimmer asks the crew whether all of the things they said were just to escape and if they meant any of it. The crew's response? [[What the Hell, Hero?|A unanimous and immediate "No!"]]}}

* Malcolm Tucker, a spin doctor from ''[[The Thick of It]]'' whose ''job description'' is [[Magnificent Bastard]], has become one of these by season three. He treats the politicans he has to police like crap (although...well, [[Acceptable Targets]] and all...) and speaks in [[Cluster F -Bomb|Cluster F Bombs]] (when he's not talking of [[Country Matters]]), and, as one character notes, he pretty much "thrives on being disliked". He has a [[Morality Pet]] in the form of his secretary Sam, and one of the series' very, very few [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|crowning moments of heartwarming]] comes when he leaps to her defence and comforts her when she's crying (bear in mind that he takes the time to do this {{spoiler|in the middle of his sacking from Number 10}}. Glimpses into his personal life are very rare, but when we do see him at home, he's just lying forlornly on his sofa, eating crisps alone.

* Most characters on ''[[My So -Called Life]]'' have had been mean to each other but remain sympathetic in various different ways.

** Superpowered [[Serial Killer|serial killer]] Sylar had the seeds of sympathy sewn for him toward the end of the first season when we are introduced to his [[Evil Matriarch|domineering mother]], probably the root of his [[Freudian Excuse|obsession with being "special"]] that drove him to kill, going on to [[Gun Struggle|kill her accidentally]] when she attacks him with scissors. The season ends with him being run through with a sword, and though the second season, during which he recovered, had less in the way of Woobification, the third and fourth were ''rife'' with revelations of [[Parental Abandonment|parental abandonment]] by his [[Turn Out Like His Father|mass-murderer father]], [[Dead Little Sister|murdered birth mother]], multiple [[Gambit Pileup|twisted and improbable]] [[Mind Screw|mindscrews]] sending him through the [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]; that his first murder [[Driven to Suicide|might have been his last]] if Elle's [[Love Makes You Evil|betrayal]] hadn't driven him completely [[Axe Crazy]], and being [[Mind Rape|manipulated]] by Matt Parkman first into [[Tomato in The Mirror|believing he was someone else]] and then by trapping him [[Mental World|in a living nightmare]] after he realized that [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|copying an ability that makes him immortal]] [[Ironic Hell|might have been a ''bad'' idea]] does not help.

* Alex from ''[[GreysGrey's Anatomy (TV)|Greys Anatomy]]'' is a [[Jerkass]], but he also grew up in and out of foster care, had an abusive, drug-addicted father and an alcoholic mother, had a girlfriend breakdown, and when he finally started to trust someone, she got cancer and left him with her hospital bills over a stupid miscommunication. And he was shot. And he had to commit his brother to a psych ward after he had a psychotic episode and tried to kill their sister.

* ''[[MashM*A*S*H (TV)|Mash]]'':

* ''[[Cheers]]'': Cliff Clavin gets a lot of abuse for his [[Know -Nothing Know -It -All]] attitude. Mostly from Carla, but after a while, Sam also had difficulty hiding just how much he depises Cliff.

* Al Bundy from ''[[Married With Children]]'' is mean, egoistical, and hates everyone and life in general, but considering how practically everyone and everything, from his wife who constantly picks on him and refuses to do anything worthwhile around the house to the fat women who make his shoe salesman job hell to the universe [[Yank the DogsDog's Chain|yanking his chain]] whenever ''anything'' begins going slightly right for him, [[Sadist Show|craps on him]], you can't really hate him and even have to admire him for refusing to give up even in the face of everything in his life conspiring against him.

* Avon of ''[[BlakesBlake's Seven (TV)|Blakes Seven]]'' acts like a [[Jerkass|complete git]] for much of the time, refuses to trust anyone and points out ''repeatedly'' that anyone who trusts ''him'' is stupid. Then we learn that his lover died under torture, protecting him. Still later, it turns out that {{spoiler|she wasn't actually dead, but had been working for the authorities all along.}} At the beginning of Season 4, {{spoiler|the woman he maybe even ''liked'' a bit, who liked him back, dies.}} He spends two years searching for his {{spoiler|lost leader}}, going through failure after failure and [[Sanity Slippage|gradually losing his grip on sanity]]. ''This man needs a hug.''

* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'': Stephen Colbert (but not [[Stephen Colbert]]) is a delusional [[Small Name, Big Ego]] type who takes his own vanity and arbitrary biases to [[Insane Troll Logic|absurd extremes]]. It becomes difficult not to pity him during his more delusional moments.