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{{trope}}
{{quote|
'''Tycho''': "I'm not sad."
'''Wes''': "No, but you look sad. Makes the ladies of Cartann's court want to [[Hurt
'''Hobbie''': "And Tycho the only one of us with a [[Happily Married|successful relationship]] with a woman. Missed opportunities, Tycho." }}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
== Subpages ==
{{subpages}}
== Other Examples ==
* [[Jesus]]'s path to the cross included a kangaroo court, beatings and insults, scourging with a whip, a crown of thorns pressed into his scalp... and that was prior to the cross, the details of which you can easily find elsewhere if you're not squeamish. And on top of that the unimaginable non-physical pain of his first and only separation from God the Father and the bearing of the penalty for every single sin ever committed by humanity, past, present, and future.
** ''Three'' kangaroo courts, one of them simply to mock him, and then further his punishment.
*** Especially since [[
** It is a testimony to the power of [[The Woobie]] when ''an entire major world religion'' is built around one.
** Job had a good life overall, but there was a time when he lost everything, and then [[It Got Worse]] -- he lost his children in a freak disaster. Then, his wife had only bad advice for him. And as if that weren't bad enough, his closest friends believed suffering to be karmic in nature, leaving him bewildered and wondering what he'd done to deserve all this. And it was all a test of character, which he passed, and his fortunes were restored. He must have been able to patch things up with his wife, too, because they had ten more children.
*** Even Worse, this was basically a bet between God and Satan, to see if Job was genuinely righteous, or only because of all the stuff God had given him.
**** Note that there are many Christians who believe that parts of the Bible are symbolic rather than literal. Job in particular shows indications of being a Parable: for example, the dialogue betwee God and Satan, shown nowhere else in the bible, and the fact that it's recounted as truth, but we are given no background on how the author might have been privy to it (In the rest of the bible, prophets who have visions in which they hear God speak directly generally describe the vision.) Life is a "bet" between good and evil, a human being given the chance to decide between the two of them. People suffer in this world, but those who trust God, even when She doesn't seem to be making much sense, are rewarded after. Suffering isn't a punishment, but an opportunity for achieving holiness.
* [[
* [[The Merchant of Venice
* Most major characters in novels by Stephen R. Donaldson, author of ''The [[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'', among other works, tend to fall into this category. He's very fond of putting his characters through [[Deus Angst Machina|incredibly awful situations and torments.]]
** Ironically, the biggest exception is Covenant himself, due to his being a [[Flat Earth Atheist]] [[Jerkass]] for 2 and 3/4th of the original trilogy, as well as crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] in the very first book by {{spoiler|raping a village girl}}, after which it takes a long time for him to regain any reader sympathy (if he ever does, and in the opinion of most fans, he doesn't).
* Berenice from the homonymous novel by Tessa Korber. Before the novel started, she suffered on a big, incredibly difficult trip to Babylon, only to be greeted by his brother Leonidas brutally scolding her. Then she gets sexually abused by Eumenes and Diocle, gets sent to Egypt where she must cope with two brash Amazons poking fun at her all the time, barely survives a battle against some rebels, gets sent to a city in Phoenicia and then towards an ice-cold fortress in Armenia, becomes Eumenes' sexual toy for a while, and then, while on her way back to Egypt with Diocle and Eumenes, her boat is raided by pirates.
* Frodo in ''[[
** There's also Faramir. His mother died when he was very young, and his father never quite got over it. Denethor also [[Parental Favoritism|strongly preferred his brother Boromir]] [[The Unfavorite|to him]], and even went so far as to say, when Faramir asked him if {{spoiler|Denethor would rather Faramir had died than his brother,}} "Yes. I wish that." This messed poor Faramir up so badly that he ended up going out on a suicide mission [["Well Done, Son" Guy|just to try and please his father]]. This only succeeds in sending the already horribly distraught Denethor crazy, as he crosses the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and tries to have both Faramir and himself burned alive, with Faramir only surviving because of Gandalf and Pippin coming to his rescue. But then, it all turns out all right for him. He ends up as the Prince of Ithilien ''and'' as Princess Eowyn's [[Second Love]].
** Gollum and even Grima might qualify. These are not of course good woobies just pitiful.
*** Is there a trope for "Bad Man over his head by becoming involved with someone Much Worse"? Because this is how I see Grima. I think his initial plan was that with Theodred dead and Eomer disinherited, he could use his position as Theoden's chief advisor to marry Eowyn and once Theoden died--he was very old after all--take the throne as her Consort. A nasty bit of politics, but pretty tame next to what Saruman was about.
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** Also, Rincewind. His status as the [[Chew Toy]] is played for comedy, but you still really want to give him a hug and a potato set him down somewhere quiet to sort rocks or something.
** Gaspode is up there too. All his backstory that we get in Men at Arms, The Fifth Elephant, Moving Pictures; I don't care if he's a smelly, mangy, infested, toothless mongrel, that dog's getting a sausage and a warm place to sleep.
{{quote|
}}
** Tonker and Lofty from the book "[[
** There's also Twoflower after ''[[
** All through ''[[
*** There's also ''[[
** Taken up to eleven with [[
* Ender, in ''[[Ender's Game]]'' by [[Orson Scott Card]]: bullied his entire life for being a walking talking violation of the population control laws (even if he was born legally,) he ends up {{spoiler|killing two other children in self defense while still only a child himself}} - because the adults who were supposedly protecting him were afraid giving him any sort of help would make him less useful. By the age of twelve, despite having any number of ''followers'' who would gladly walk through fire for him, he's [[The Chains of Commanding|totally isolated and alone]], with noone he could call a friend. He went to war to protect his sister at te age of five. When he finally sees her again at about age 10, on a trip allowed by the IF specifically to remind him he has something to live for, he has this conversation:
{{quote|
'''Val''': Memory does play tricks on us.
'''Ender''': No, you look the same. I just dont remember what beautiful means anymore. }}
::At this point, you just wanna hug him and never let anything bad happen to him.
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** Samwell Tarly qualifies as well. The very chapter that introduced him did a good job of establishing him as a woobie.
** Poor Podrick Payne.
** Most of the aforementioned are fairly decent human beings, but the Hound probably deserves special attention for his incredible ability to alternate between [[Jerk
** [[Draco in Leather Pants|Jaime Lannister]]. {{spoiler|Mostly after he loses his hand.}}
** This one's a minor side-character, but Lollys Stokeworth. The poor girl seems to have been designed by the gods to have misery heaped upon her.
** {{spoiler|Theon Greyjoy, of all people,}} attains this status in ''A Dance With Dragons''. In his previous role, he'd been unlikeable, arrogant, rude, and not very bright. In ''A Dance With Dragons'', he is mentally, physically, and emotionally scarred so terribly that he's terrified to so much as think his own name.
* Tobias in ''[[
** Oh, don't let's skip the torture and all of the lovely aftermath stuff that came with it.
* This editor has never run into a bigger woobie than Patrick O'Brian's Stephen Maturin. At the beginning of the ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' series, he's already been through disillusionment with the world, along with the death of all his friends and the girl he loved. He goes on to get his heart broken again, gets tortured by the French, struggles with opium addiction, duels a man over a woman, during which he accidentally kills him, gets nearly fatally wounded, and insists, as repentance, on removing the bullet from his ribs himself without anesthetic, and is generally scorned for being Catholic and illegitimate. And that's just the first three books. [[Long Runners|Out of Twenty.]]
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* Subverted with Alice Maxwell, from [[Stephen King]]'s ''Cell''. She starts out as a woobie, after losing her mother in [[Zombie Infectee|one of the most emotionally scarring ways imaginable]]. After taking a while to recover from this, during which she nearly has [[Break the Cutie|a psychotic break]], she gradually heals, and becomes an endearing character in other ways. She proves herself to be quite [[Genre Savvy]], and actually has a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when she plays a major part in {{spoiler|blowing up a field of sleeping zombies with a propane truck}}. Of course, this is a book where {{spoiler|[[Anyone Can Die]]}}, [[Tear Jerker|so...]]
* Ilyusha from ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'': the son of a poor shipping captain who is beset upon by the protagonist's older brother and humiliated throughout the town. All he wants to do is restore his father's honor. He does this by ''biting'' the protagonist in a fit of passion, but we later learn he's not so bad (and not rabid). This is exacerbated later on when {{spoiler|he dies from ''[[Killed Off for Real|an incurable disease]]'' and then his father, the previously-mentioned shipping captain, goes insane from grief at the boy's funeral in a scene so horribly depressing it could drive jaded misanthropes to tears. Thus Dostoevsky kills off one Woobie and makes a Woobie out of the father}}. Poor bastard.
** Dostoevsky seems to have liked his woobies: ''[[
** In ''[[
* Marvin, the Paranoid Android from ''[[The
** Forget ''Mostly Harmless''... the moment the Guide series [[Jumped the Shark]] was the end of ''So Long And Thanks For All The Fish'', when {{spoiler|Marvin died}}.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' - particularly notable in the main character, but there's plenty to go around.
** '''Harry'''
*** His mom [[Death
*** He's gets tricked into starting a war between wizards and vampires, for which he gets blamed, {{spoiler|his lover got almost turned into a vampire}}. He then gets {{spoiler|drafted to fight in said war, after the toll its taken on the white council means they can no longer effectively enforce magical law. After a few years of genuine, full out war, watching young wizards rise up and be cut down before they're even old enough to drink in the regular world}} - let's just say he's not so happy-go-lucky anymore. He mentions in one of the books is that since the war started be hasn't been able to fold sunshine into a hankie - because you have to be happy to do it. Think about that for a minute.
*** He's also picked up a Death Curse from the former host of a fallen angel: {{spoiler|Die Alone.}}<ref> arguably fulfilled as of Ghost Story - after all, he ''did.''</ref>
*** Not to mention {{spoiler|hosting the shadow of a Fallen himself, after he slapped his hand over one of the cursed denarii to protect Michael's son. Said shadow drives him away from allies and generally screws with him, until by Naming it he gives it a chance to [[Heel Face Turn|take his side]]...and when it does so it promptly [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrifices itself for him]]}}
*** ''Changes'' starts kicking Harry from the very first page, and [[It Got Worse|it only gets worse]] until the very last page {{spoiler|where it stops kicking him and just [[Our Hero Is Dead|kills him instead]].}} Highlights include: {{spoiler|Discovers he has a daughter only when she is kidnapped by vampires. Has his entire life destroyed around his ears-- office, home, car, ''everything''. Breaks his back and has to [[Deal
*** ''Ghost Story'' has him {{spoiler|back as a ghost.}} Seing the devastation he's left behind him, especially the absolute mess that {{spoiler|Molly}} has become, and being nearly unable to affect anything {{spoiler|being dead and all,}} is agonising enough. Then, when Uriel confronts hiim with his options and he agrees to {{spoiler|move on to What Comes Next, he wakes up in a cave on Demonreach with Mab leaning over him. He didn't get out of his deal at all. His death, everyone's grief, Molly's agony - it was all pointless. Of course, he also gets a reminder that he wasn't as doomed as he thought in the last book - but it's still a high price to pay for seven words he'd have been owed regardless.}}
*** Then There's just the sheer guilt of realising that [[Doom Magnet|bad stuff happens to everyone around him]]. Shiro {{spoiler|dying for him}}, Michael {{spoiler|almost doing the same, and winding up crippled}}, Susan {{spoiler|getting half-vampirised...and then all-vampirised, at his urging}}, and that's only the beginning of the list. Yes, he does think the world hates him. [[Being Good Sucks|With good reason]].
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* Almost every character in ''[[House of Leaves]]''. The entire Navidson family, two of the three explorers that go into the {{color|blue|house}} (this troper excludes [[Ax Crazy|Holloway Roberts]]), Johnny Truant, and so on.
** Hell, the reader needs a good hug after reading this.
* [[
* Sarah Monette's [[The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth
* Sam from ''[[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]''. He's one of the few people who treated Sookie kindly from the start, has an open crush on her, and is a supernatural (a shifter) whose natural resistance to Sookie's telepathy would seem to make him a good match for Sookie (who blamed her lack of sexual experience not not wanting to take a man to bed and be privy to every one of his thoughts during). Not to mention he's been there for her time and time again (as a friend and bodyguard). Sookie knows all this, but keeps him firmly in the friend zone. The way she takes Sam for granted and her flimsy excuses for it make up approximately 75% of [[The Scrappy|the fandom hatred towards her]] and the sympathy towards him.
** ''[[True Blood]]'' seems to be following suit with its treatment of Sam, who gets yelled at by Sookie ''and'' Tara on a regular basis now, it seems, for basically doing nothing.
* ''The [[Inheritance Cycle]]'' has an accidental woobie in Murtagh: he's abused as a child, his mother abandons him to ensure a better life for {{spoiler|her other son}}, he gets beaten up by an Urgal at some point, his mentor dies helping him escape from [[The Dark Lord|Galbatorix]], he's imprisoned by the rebellion, {{spoiler|kidnapped, tortured, magically enslaved, and everyone up to and including the author vilifies him for it. The hero tells him the rebellion should have let him rot in a cell, for chrissakes.}}
** And what about poor Sloan? The author [[Designated Villain|wants to convince us]] that he's some kind of [[Smug Snake]] when {{spoiler|everything he did was to protect his own daughter Katrina, like every good father should. He gets tortured and permanently blinded by the enemy, and states upright that he doesn't care whether he won't get his sight back, to him the fact that Katrina is safe is enough.}} And how does Eragon, [[Designated Hero]] extraordinaire, repay him? {{spoiler|In one of the most revolting examples of [[Moral Dissonance]] ever, he magically condemns him to never see his daughter again, doing the exact same thing Galbatorix did to Murtagh. So now [[Family
*** Now, wait a minute here. {{spoiler|It is really that evil to make a '''blind''' man unable to '''see''' his daughter ever again?}}
*** Well, {{spoiler|Eragon specifically included in the curse the knowledge that Katrina and Roran would be happy even if they never saw Sloan again, and in fact were happy in spite of Sloan's help, which probably serves to create a sense of [[All for Nothing]].}}
** Elva might not be the character you'd think about like that given her nasty personality, but think of what made her that way. {{spoiler|She got [[Blessed
*** And what's worse is the author treats it like she was wrong to do so.
** And then there's Thorn. {{spoiler|Magically aged-up, but only in body and magic skills, with the mind of a child, brainwashed and forced to fight. And the poor thing gets treated like a villain.}}
* ''[[
** Ashfur. First losing your mother, then losing a mate and having to mentor ''their son'' can do a lot to you.
** Leafpool, who has always tried to do the right thing, but always has her efforts backfire in the end ("You can't always do the right thing. No matter how much you want to." "I know." Grief pulsed from his mentor [Leafpool], sharper and deeper than Jaypaw expected, "But I'll always try."). She's had to deal with the untimely death of {{spoiler|her mentor}}, leaving her true love, being an outcast in her own Clan, {{spoiler|secretly giving up her kits to be raised by her sister, and ''her own daughter'' trying to kill her}}, ("{{spoiler|I have lost my kits, the one cat I loved, and my calling as a medicine cat. Which do you think would be easier for me, to die or to go on living?}}") and she still manages to put on a brave face (the only reason Jayfeather notices that she is depressed is because he can sense her emotions).
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** Ekaterin - Married young to an twisted incompetent bastard ("One of those subtle feral parasites who have you asking yourself "Am I crazy? Am ''I'' crazy?") He turns out to have a crippling genetic disease he didn't tell her about until her son was born, with the same condition. finally decides to {{spoiler|divorce him, only to have him killed by terrorists}} Just starts to recover and build a life of her own when she finds out {{spoiler|Miles has been manipulating her...but she still finds it in herself to forgive him.}}
** Ivan - Seems to be the butt of all of Miles' escapades.
** Gregor - Becomes emperor at five years old, and grows up with all the pressure that implies hanging over his head. His mother is killed in the civil war, so he has to preside over two funerals for close family in the same two months...at five. Just before his majority he finds out his father was [[The Caligula|a sadistic killer who had to be destroyed for the good of the empire]] and now gets to worry about[[Royally Screwed
{{quote|
** Duv Galeni - Komarran whose family died and their fortune lost during the Komarr Revolt. Joins the Barrayaran military anyway. Kidnapped by his not-really-dead father, Ser Galen. Watches Mark (who was raised by Galen for the subsitution plot) kill Galen. A few years later, falls in love with Laisa, but she thinks he's just a friend, and after she and Gregor get engaged, he's the first one they call with the news. Then after he actually finds love with Delia, he gets framed for murder and treason and publicly arrested at one of the Emperor's parties. (And last and probably least, he finds out that he's likely to wind up with Mark as a brother-in-law.)
** Subverted in that despite all the crap heaped on them, ''every single one of these characters [[Earn Your Happy Ending|eventually gets the happy ending and the girl (or guy) of their dreams]]''. Lois might make her characters run the gauntlet, but karma will eventually repay them for their sacrifices.
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* The titular character from [[Stephen King]]'s novel, ''[[Carrie]]''. It's bad enough that her [[Evil Matriarch|religiously insane mother]] [[Abusive Parents|is always tormenting her]] - but, at school, she is constantly [[All of the Other Reindeer|being tormented by the other students]]. Even when, after being humiliated at the prom, she [[Beware the Nice Ones|goes on a killing spree]] - it's hard to [[Freudian Excuse|feel anything but sympathy]] for her.
** Stephen King seems to collect Woobies. There's John Coffey of The Green Mile, Henry from Dreamcatcher, Paul Sheldon in Misery...and of course all his characters are pushed through as much hell as possible, which is totally not helping.
* In [[Military Science Fiction]], while ''[[
* Read a Paul Kearney novel, any of them. There are so many woobies, I am glad this site gave this troper a name for them. Losing legs, falling in love with a woman who turns out to be your sister, getting turned into a werewolf. All par for the course.
* Arithon s'Ffalenn, from [[Janny Wurts]]' ''[[Wars of Light and Shadow]]''. Oh, so much. Most other Janny Wurts heroes, too.
* Folly, who briefly appears in [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''Spellsinger'' series. She's captured and enslaved by pirates, freed by the heroes, then given by the well-intentioned but misguided heroes to an [[Orphanage of Fear]] where {{spoiler|all inmates are forcibly neutered. The heroes do get suspicious and investigate in time to rescue her.}} Come to think of it, Jon-Tom Meriweather probably wobbles between this trope and [[Unlucky Everydude]].
** [[Alan Dean Foster]] also gives us Flinx, the main protagonist of the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series. He starts out the series as something of a [[Canon Sue]], but each novel since ''Flinx in Flux'' has left him more [[Wangst|depressed]] and convinced of the futility of associating with the people that he's [[The Chosen One|supposed to be saving]] from [[Ultimate Evil|absolute destruction]]. It doesn't help that he's pursued by nearly every authority in the Commonwealth (half want to imprison him, the others want to "fix" him), had his [[Love Interest]] [[Put
* [[Erast Fandorin]] ascends to Woobie at the end of the first novel and never quite leaves the spot. Favorite [[Great Detective]] as [[Benevolent Boss]]? {{spoiler|Killed for betraying him.}} Beloved first wife? {{spoiler|Blown to pieces on the day of their marriage.}} Best (and only) friend? {{spoiler|Killed in the second novel.}} Greatest love of his entire life? {{spoiler|Lost to him in ''Diamond Chariot''.}} Respected [[Old Master]]? {{spoiler|Murdered before his eyes.}} Devoted [[Battle Butler]]? {{spoiler|Repeatedly ends up in near-death situations.}} As [[Lampshade Hanging|one character once mentioned]]: he is "[[Born Lucky|loved by things]] but [[Screw Destiny|hated by fate]]".
* Rhuald Sengar, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Emperor Of A Thousand Deaths]] from the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]''. All he wanted was to serve his king and be a [[Big Damn Heroes|Big Damn Hero]] like his older brothers. He [[Heroic Sacrifice|gave his life]] to protect the quest object from an enemy ambush... only to have that object be an [[Artifact of Doom]], which linked him to [[Big Bad Evil Guy|The Crippled God]], resurrected him, and made him the series embodiment of both [[Blessed
* The [[Dragonlance]] novels bring us Tanis Half-Elven, who due to his product-of-rape half-breed status is ''supposed'' to inspire Woobiedom in our minds, but the general consensus is that didn't work out too well. Broke knight Sturm Brightblade more fits the bill, being dedicated to the old codes of honor and justice (to the point of heroic death) in an age where such beliefs are antiquated and the knighthood is more a band of organized, well-armed bandits... except that Sturm is so resolute, it's almost like he won't let you consider him Woobie. Raistlin Majere has the long line of misfortunes - illnesses that stack, parental abandonment/loss, being the world's [[The Unfavorite|UnFavorite]] compared to his healthy, handsome twin, and more - but is generally so unpleasant about it that it's hard to empathize. (Not that it stops the [[Misaimed Fandom|fangirls]], though.)
** Caramon, Raistlin's twin, is distinctly Woobieish despite being the strong attractive type, due to a lifetime of devotion to a brother who spends 99.9 percent of the time belittling him, and the fact that even friends treat him as though he's mentally challenged despite it being shown that, away from his old situations, Caramon is actually a magnificent leader of men. (Not Raistlin-level genuis, but he's got Charisma.) And if you do not think that Tasselhoff Burrfoot is a Woobie after {{spoiler|Flint's death}}, '''YOU HAVE NO HEART.'''
** [[Dragonlance]] also gave us perhaps the first dragon woobies. First came Matafleur, also known as Flamestrike, an ancient red dragon who had fought for the Dark Queen in the previous war against the forces of light, and who in the War of the Lance was assigned to guard the children of the slaves of Pax Tharkas, to guarantee the good behavior of their parents. An evil monster, right? Except that her own children had died in the previous war, and she had gone mad, and now believed that the human children she was supposed to be guarding were her own children, whom she loved and protected. In fact, when Highlord Verminaard and his dragonmount Ember tried to attack the children during the escape attempt, Flamestrike laid down her life to save them. The other example was Pyrite, the most ancient gold dragon, and perhaps the most ancient dragon period, in the entire world. So ancient, in fact, that all his teeth had fallen out, forcing him to live on a diet of oatmeal and other soft, high-fiber foods. He was also almost completely deaf and almost completely blind, and he was senile, constantly thinking that it was still the last dragonwar and that he had to protect the long-dead Huma. The fact that they are both so powerful physically only makes these two dragons even more woobieish.
* Evanjalin/ {{spoiler|Isaboe}} from ''Finnikin of the Rock''. What happened to her doesn't make this troper want to cover her with a blanket and give her soup, I want to give her sedatives and antidepressants. She ''fucking witnessed and felt every person from her country who has ever felt pain- all the tortures, rapes, murders, sicknesses and hungers'', from the victims viewpoints, the witnesses, and sometimes ''the perpetrators''.
* Carrie in VC Andrews' ''Flowers in the Attic'' and the sequel, ''Petals on the Wind''. Has severely stunted growth from being locked with her siblings in an attic from age 4 to age 8, her twin brother is effectively killed with arsenic-laced donuts by their mother, she is friendless and tormented at boarding school, finally gets a chance at happiness with a fiance in a [[Throw the Dog
** In the ''Gemini'' series, Celeste: Always [[The Unfavorite]], her father dies, so does her twin brother, leaving her alone with her crazy mother who forces her to take on her brother's indentity, and she is at most 9 at this point. Her mother mistreats her horribly to maintain this delusion, she's never allowed to even go out, she's raped repeatedly by the only non-related person she knows who blackmails her into not telling, she isn't allowed to act as mother to her own daughter, the stepfather she grew to love dies, her stepsister is evil and Celeste accidentally kills her, and her mother, the only link the world she's ever had, dies, leaving Celeste completely alone and with no idea how to live in the world. Is it any wonder the poor thing goes insane?
* Poor, poor [[Watership Down|Blackavar]]. Living in the oppressive, militaristic Efrafa he attempts to escape. He is apprehended and as punishment his ears are torn up and he is kept under solitary confinement. Every morning and evening, while the other rabbits are feeding, he is made to sit where everyone can see him, as an example to other would-be escapers.
{{quote|
** And Fiver. When he's having epileptic fits and spouting [[Cassandra Truth]], you just want to cuddle him and feed him carrots until he feels better.
** I know this is weird, considering she's a minor character at best, but Hyzenthlay. That ''POEM''...
* Ebenezer Scrooge in ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' begins the book as a [[Jerkass]] and ends it as [[The Woobie]]. Which goes to show that even woobification can make a decent plot, provided that you write it well enough.
* [[Jeeves and Wooster (
** [[It Got Worse|It Gets Worse]] when [[Fridge Logic]] sets in re the [[Parental Abandonment]] situation. He seems to be [[Conveniently an Orphan]], which means that he was probably raised by one or more of his family members, who, as a whole, run the gamut from [[Jerkass]] to mentally unstable and never have a kind word for him. He considers Jeeves a [[Parental Substitute]] and even calls him "mother" in one book. ''Sniff''.
* Jochi in ''[[Conqueror|Lords of the Bow]]'' is picked on by the other kids and suffers the disdain of his father despite being quite possibly the toughest, strongest of them all. It's no wonder [[Fan of the Underdog|so many fans root for him]].
* Pretty much every character in Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, even perhaps [[Big Bad]] Brandin of Ygrath, but especially Dianora. Some may find her to be [[Angst Dissonance|too whiney]], but others [[Your Mileage May Vary|may find her to just be a very tragic character]]. Noteable exception to the "pretty much every character" is Alberico of Barbadior, who is completely unlikeable.
* [[Tad Williams]] deliberately [[Invoked Trope|invokes this trope]] in the course of characterizing the [[Big Bad]], Ineluki, in his ''[[Memory,
** Many secondary characters are also easy candidates for woobiedom, as the [[Anyone Can Die]] nature of the story guarantees that there will be some spectacular suffering going on. The two standouts in a very long list are Leleth and Maegwyn. Leleth is [[Rebellious Princess|Princess Miriamele's]] handmaiden, who is savaged by hunting dogs and spends the majority of the novels in a nearly comatose state delivering prophetic dreams to the heroes. Maegwyn is a princess of the Hernystiri, a Celtic [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]], whose father and brother are killed early in the war and who is forced to lead the remnants of her people in exile, all while suffering [[Unrequited Love]] for Count Eolair. She eventually goes mad from the stress and, to add insult to injury, is [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]] by one of the Storm King's minions. What's particularly brutal about these characters is that {{spoiler|they both end up dying in order to give Simon the strength to return from near-death and confront the Storm King}}.
* Frankenstein's [[Loners Are Freaks|monster]]. He might look scary, but the poor guy's just really lonely. He starts out innocent, but society's mistreatment turns him into the monster they believe him to be. Among other things, he gets shot for saving a girl from drowning. His part of the novel makes Victor look like a completely pathetic douchebag. Just... just read it.
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* Enzo, the narrator of Garth Stein's ''The Art of Racing in the Rain'', is a ''dog''. A wonderful, clever, lovable dog with a ridiculous capacity for empathy and a master whose life is (most of the time) a cavalcade of misery. Also, Enzo announces that he's dying of old age. In the first chapter. This troper has never said "awww" more times over the course of a single book. You just want to pat him on his head and tell him he's ''such a good boy, yes he is, oh, who's a good puppy...'' God. There I go again.
** What about his owner, Denny? The guy just cannot catch a break. Enzo sums it all up pretty well here:
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* [[Shannara|Wisp]]. Oh God, Wisp. In ''Elfstones'', Brooks tells us so little about this poor fellow, but it's more than enough to draw [[Tears From a Stone]]. He claims to have once been an Elf, but [[Wicked Witch|Mallenroh]] [[For the Evulz|changed him to make him "cute"]] so he can [[Moral Dissonance|"roll around and play with the stick men"]]. The process also, incidentally, turned him into [[Personal Mook|a docile, ever-obedient, fawning slave]] to the Witch Sister, with his [[Catch Phrase|favorite remark]] being an indication of just how devoted he is: "Wisp serves the Lady." Coerced to help Wil and his party escape the dungeons (in a rather upsettingly rough hostage-taking, until [[Femme Fatale|Eretria]] is able to persuade him [[Distracted
** Prince Ahren Elessedil of the Elves, in ''[[The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara]]''. He's sent on the Voyage because his brother wants to get him away from the line of succession. He [[Jumped At the Call|Jumps At The Call]] because he sees it as the chance to be a part of a big adventure. He spends the next couple of books running for his life in the company of [[The Mole|Ryer Ord Star]], who he may be crushing on, despite being aware of her Mole status. He arrives at [[Disc One Final Boss|Antrax]]'s headquarters too late to help save [[Heroic Sacrifice|Walker]], then gets captured by [[The Dragon|Cree]] [[Smug Snake|Bega]] and [[Complete Monster|The]] [[Big Bad|Morgawr]]. He spends the last book being interrogated for information and watching Ryer change sides again to help The Morgawr, escapes because she creates a distraction for him, and is then confronted by Cree Bega who mocks him about Ryer's torture, possible rape, and suicide, before engaging him in a [[Knife Fight]]; this is after, in a previous scene, forcing Ahren to watch The Morgawr drain an entire ship's crew of their minds. By the end of the series, Ahren has no self-respect and no sense of his own worth left; he never goes home, and dies at the start of the next series with very little effort. From start to finish, his entire story is one big tragedy, and even in [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story|Voyage]], he is the standout Woobie. At least he managed to [[The Dog Bites Back|kill]] [[Complete Monster|Cree Bega]].
* This troper thinks he found the only character to ever invoke sympathy from him in an [[Ayn Rand]] story in Andrei Taganov of ''[[We The Living]]''. The guy gets strung along by both his "comrade", Pavel, who manipulates the system and lives the life of a corrupt capitalist he supposedly hates while Andrei remains true to his ideology and is mocked for it; and by his "lover", Kira, who manipulates him into using his power and position to help her help her true lover, Leo. Later, [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|he uses his power to get Leo out of prison and away from a death sentence]], he is then stripped of his position in the Party and is [[Driven to Suicide]], and Pavel makes a party of his funeral. In the end, Leo leaves Kira to become a gigolo and Kira dies while trying to cross a border, and I could say that I don't care about either of them, but is this what Andrei's sacrifice amounts to for those two assholes?
* Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire from ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''. No human being, let alone CHILDREN, should go through what happens to them. For the record: [[Parental Abandonment]], pursuit by a greedy psychopath, kidnapping, {{spoiler|''near decapitation'', being unjustly accused of murder and being forced to commit arson to maintain a disguise.}} One almost wishes they died in the fire with their parents so they wouldn't be put through all this...
** Lemony Snicket himself.
* In ''[[
* Eustace Scrubb is the resident [[The Jerkass|Jerkass]] for a good portion of ''[[Narnia|The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]''. Then he gets turned into a dragon, and suddenly your perspective on him changes. He's a different boy after he gets changed back by Aslan, but he still goes through his struggles and you still root for him all the way.
{{quote|
* Oscar from [[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]. He goes through every damn misery a kid can go through in New Jersey AND the Dominican Republic. Of course, his mother and his grandfather go through much of the same. Well, at least his grandfather doesn't have to live in New Jersey.
* Satou and Misaki from ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]''. Satou feels worthless most of the time and is a total screw up who tries to act like he's fine. Since the story is told from his first person perspective, "''I should just die''" comes up a lot in his internal monologue. Misaki is sort of a [[Stepford Smiler]] who goes from being cheerful to saying oddly depressing things that reveal how much she hurts. There are so many moments where I wanted to slap ''and'' hug both of them. {{spoiler|It turns out Misaki had been planning to kill herself for quite a while, then Satou tries to kill himself to stop her. They both fail and end up with a very strange [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]].}}
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** Sara becomes one after her father dies. And then there's [[All of the Other Reindeer|Ermengarde]] and [[Missing Mother|Lottie]]... That boarding school is like a Woobie breeding ground.
* If you read [[Speak]] in it's entirety and didn't have the desire to give [[Broken Bird|Melinda]] a hug, ''you are not human.''
* [[The Great Gatsby]] himself. He falls in love with [[Rich Bitch|Daisy]], fools around with her, is not able to marry her because of his financial status, is going to get rich enough for her liking [[Yank the
* Several characters in [[The Underland Chronicles]] have tragic pasts, and the events of the series ''[[It Got Worse|do not help]]''.
* It's not as apparent in the movie, but if you can read through the [[Novelization]] of ''[[Escape
* Dr. Goldpepper from the [[Galaxy Magazine]] short story ''Help! I Am Doctor Morris Goldpepper!'' A leading dentist, he was lured by aliens, with promises of glory, into servitude to aliens who meant to infiltrate us (maybe just to leech off of us, but maybe with more sinister aims), forced to make false teeth for the (toothless) aliens.
* Nicci from ''[[Sword of Truth]]''. Her mother, a [[Well
* [[Oliver Twist]]. Of course [[Woobie]] and [[Heartwarming Orphan]] usually go hand in hand, it just seems like poor Oliver is the world's [[Chew Toy]].
* [[Diary of a Wimpy Kid|Greg Heffley]]. Poor, poor, torchered, ignored, adorable, Greg Heffley.
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** Donia, a girl transformed by the curse. She is forced to carry the winters cold, being mistreated and Manipulated by Beira all the while, and even when she eventually is freed of it has to see the one she loves in anothers arms; her and Keenan love eachother, but can never be together.
* As hard as it may seem to believe, what with his habit of killing people and all that, but [[The Da Vinci Code|The Da Vinci Code's]] Silas is very much a [[Woobie]]. A passage in the book tells us of his background, and it is revealed that his Father was deeply ashamed of his son's albinism, blamed his Mother for it and beat her often, eventually killing her when Silas was seven. Silas was so guilty that he'd allowed it to happen that he killed his Father, before running away. Due to his appearance the other runaways wouldn't accept him, leaving him alone on the streets for years and years, growing into adulthood, never shown any affection, if people noticed him it was only because they were scared by the way he looked. After killing a docker who'd reminded him of his Father, Silas was sent to a hellhole of a prison where he was, again, rejected and taunted by his peers. He was able to break out when the prison was detroyed, and spent several days running, delirious with hunger and exhaustion with nowhere to go, until he finally collapsed. Upon being rescued by Bishop Aringarosa, he was overwhelmed with gratitude because it had been the first time in years and years that anyone had shown him any kindness, and Aringarosa had to name him, because he'd forgotten his real name, remembering only the insults he'd had to endure all his life. You can't blame him for being a touch unhinged, really.
* Balram's dad in [[
* The ''[[Codex Alera]]'' has a couple: Araris Valerian and Rook. Araris spends most of the series getting kicked around in various ways, some of them ''very'' painful (at one point he basically ''disembowels himself'') and [[Badass]] as he is, he still ends up needing to be saved several times. His backstory is [[Failure Knight|superlatively woobieish]], and he can't even catch a break when {{spoiler|acting like a helpful but [[Obfuscating Stupidity|seriously brain-damaged]] slave}}; even ''Bernard'' snaps at him. [[Stoic Woobie|Not that you could tell from how he acts]]. Rook, on the other hand, is the head of the intelligence service for the [[Complete Monster]]'s [[Complete Monster]] Lord Kalare, and though she hates him and would ''love'' to turn on him given the opportunity, can't because {{spoiler|[[I Have Your Wife|he's holding her daughter hostage]]}}. So she has to continue to work against the people who have become her friends during her time undercover, and doesn't even have the consolation of being able to cry about it, since that could make them suspicious. {{spoiler|And, when it looks like the poor woman is finally going to get some peace, Gaius drags her back into service and she gets killed by the Vord Queen.}}
* [[Winnie the Pooh|Eeyore]].
* Tom Robinson in ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]''.
** Oh God... This Troper has read [[To Kill a Mockingbird]] at least a dozen times, and every time Tom is convicted, I start crying.
* Jamie from ''[[The
* Dillard from ''[[Kingdom Keepers]]''. Basically, he's a [[Muggle Best Friend]] that quickly loses his <s> best</s> only friend once he becomes a DHI.
* It's impossible not to feel bad for 'Cita in the second [[Petaybee]] book- she is first introduced just after she fled a cult to escape an [[Arranged Marriage]] to a man who held her and her mother prisoner for years. Her given name at that point is Goat-dung.
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*** Most of the characters get this sooner or later. Valjean needs a hug every time he has those night-long angsts about what's the right thing to do (he always chooses the right and painful path). Also, poor Fantine needs deus ex machina so badly. Éponine, even if the fangirls made her an annoying Sue, is heartbreaking in the original. Azelma too when his evil dad makes her to smash a window and cut her hand. Also, Gavroche and his little brothers in the rain. Old Mabeuf who interestingly, takes a level in badass. Marius' poor father... *sniff* ... heck, even [[Inspector Javert]] could use a hug near the end, he's so confused and desperate.
* Ginger from ''[[Black Beauty]]''. Abused by nearly all of her owners before Squire Gordon bought her, and then just after she decided it was okay to trust humans, she was sold to a vain owner who tortured her (and Beauty, who is also a woobie) with a rein so tight she couldn't breathe while she was wearing it. [[Freudian Excuse|If you can blame Ginger for going crazygonuts after a few months of that]], ''you have no soul''. [[It Got Worse]]: The next ( {{spoiler|and last}}) time we see her, Ginger's next progression of owners have treated her so badly that she's [[Broken Bird|completely worn down, physically and mentally]], and ''hoping'' that her owner will be merciful enough to just shoot her. {{spoiler|He doesn't; he just works her to death. Literally.}} It's one of the most powerful depictions of animal cruelty in literature, and by God, ''[[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|it works]]''.
* [[
* Sublett from [[William Gibson|William Gibson's]] ''Virtual Light''. Where to start with this guy? First, he's an albino who has to wear sunscreen and reflective contact lenses constantly to avoid sunburn and corneal damage. Second, he has to chew special medicated gum multiple times a day because he has such severe chemical allergies that even walking into a room where cleaning fluid was recently used could kill him. Third, he was born and raised in a bizarre Christian sect that worships movies and TV, which confines him to his mother's trailer home as part of a penance ritual after he watches ''[[Videodrome]]'' on a recommendation from a friend ([[David Cronenberg|David Cronenberg's]] work is considered a tool of Satan). The only reason you ''shouldn't'' try to give this guy a hug is that your perfume/deodorant might put him in the hospital.
* Several characters in [[The
** The knife really slides in when the little fox girl who's heard his tale and helped him die peacefully finds the remnants of Itto's raft. The raft had washed up on a shore and grown into a Ship-Tree, hoping one day he would come and find her. Upon hearing about his death:
{{quote|
"Itto? Itto? Do you see how big and tall I've become? I'm a real ship now, not a silly broken raft. Aren't you proud of me?" }}
* [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan]] story "The Tower of the Elephant" managed the impressive feat of turning an ''[[Eldritch Abomination]]'' into one of these. Yag-kosha was once a member of a race of beings from beyond the stars that journeyed to Conan's world after being outcast from their own world by their kings, and lived for many, many years, seeing a lot of the history of the world of that time, and dying one by one until only Yag-kosha was left, the [[Last of His Kind]]. He was worshipped as a god by the Khitans until he was found by [[Evil Sorcerer]] Yara, who wanted power, and who eventually tricked him into divulging a secret he had not meant to bare, turned the being's own power against him, and enslaved him. Over the course of three hundred years, Yag-kosha was tortured, blinded, horribly abused and made to serve the sorcerer's evil will, and such was Yara's utter cruelty that Yag-kosha was not even allowed to kill himself to be freed from his centuries-long torment. When Conan found Yag-kosha in the title tower, after revealing the above to the young thief and warrior, the creature bade Conan release him from his agony, [[Mercy Kill|in the only way a being like him could be released]], as part of a "last gift and a last enchantment" to finally destroy his tormentor.
* Surely Sebastian from [[Brideshead Revisited]] counts? His family betray him, Charles betrays him, Kurt gets taken from him by the Nazis and he falls from being a beautiful and lively young man to a hermetic hanger-on at some backwater monastery, with plenty of alcoholic misery in between.
* Dominick Birdsey in ''I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb''. The book deals primarily with his struggle with having an mentally ill twin brother but what else doesn't happen to the poor guy? Abusive childhood, losing a parent, a painful divorce after losing his only child, severely injured at his job, an AIDS scare...
** And Dolores Price (later Davies) from Lamb's first novel, ''She's Come Undone''. Her abusive father leaves her mother, she's raped at thirteen years old before comfort eating her way to obesity. Her mother is then killed by a truck and she goes to college, where she is bullied because she is fat. After that, she witnesses the death of a beached whale and attempts suicide herself, and then spends seven years in a mental hospital. If that weren't enough, she then finds love - with an emotionally abusive idiot, whom she marries, becomes pregnant, and he forces her to have an abortion. Then her grandmother dies... Wally Lamb is very, very good at writing woobies.
* Peet the Sock Man from The Wingfeather Saga. Just -- Peet the Sock Man.
* In the ''[[Twilight (
** How about Leah? The author initially paints her as being a bitter, sarcastic bitch, but it's not without cause. Her father dies of a heart attack, which may have been brought on by the shock of Leah and her brother Seth turning into werewolves. She loses her boyfriend to her cousin Emily, thanks to [[Strangled
** {{spoiler|Renesmee Cullen}}, [[Fridge Horror|once you realize that she will grow up to be a little girl in an adult body]], with the additional [[Squick]] of [[Wife Husbandry|being expected to fall in love with]] her mother's ex-[[Love Interest]]. It's also kind of hard to ''not'' feel sorry for someone with such a [[Unfortunate Names|horrible]] [[Fail O'Suckyname|name]].
* Tom from ''Rot and Ruin''. Forced to run away with his then-18-month-old brother, Ben, leaving behind his Stepmom and zombified Dad because of the zombie outbreak. He loses several companions along the way. Him and his group were half-starved and being chased by zombies before finding a refugee camp. Fast forward 14 years, he's a closure specialist, paid by people to kill their zombified friends and family, which is an emotionally draining job. Ben hates him and believes he's a coward for running away instead of saving his Mom. His love interest {{spoiler|is severely beaten and dies in his arms.}} And close to the climax of the book he {{spoiler|gets shot over 40 times and falls into a horde of zombies.}} At the end, he has to {{spoiler|Kill his zombified Dad}}, and it's revealed that he {{spoiler|didn't rescue Ben's mother because she was already bitten. Ben hated him all those years for nothing}}
** {{spoiler|Add dying to the list at the end of the sequel.}}
* [[Gentle Giant|Fezzik]] from ''[[The Princess Bride (
** For that matter, what about Inigo? He grew up being dirt poor, but he didn't care at all because he had his father and loved him. And then he watched as his father was murdered by a bastard of a nobleman and no one dared do anything about it. While he devotes his entire life to being the greatest swordsman ever, he also becomes an alcoholic, which he is taunted by Vizzini over. And when he finally finds {{spoiler|Count Rogen}}, he is stabbed and is taunted with "You must be that little Spanish brat I taught a lesson to, all those years ago. Don't tell me you chased me all of this time, just to fail now". {{spoiler|It's immensely satisfying when Inigo kills him.}}
* [[Fitz Chivalry]] from Robin Hobb's ''Farseer'' and ''Golden Man'' trilogies. As one of the characters in the series remarks, Fitz is constantly either tearing around at a frenetic pace or lying in bed recovering from yet another injury. He also has pretty much every chance at happiness he seeks taken away from him, usually brutally.
* Kyle from ''Beastly'' goes here by the end of the story. He quickly abandons hope of anyone loving him, but he does really love Lindy and want her to be happy. Because of this, and even though he continues to wish she'd refuse the offer and stay with him, he lets her go home to her father, with an open invitation to return to him as a friend instead of a prisoner. When she doesn't come back, he believes she secretly hated him and resigns himself to a life alone. And to top it all off, on the night he's going to be stuck a monster forever, he gets a vision of Lindy being dragged off by a shady drug dealer who's implied to want her for prostitution. He goes to save her and is fatally shot in the process, after an entire subway full of people see him and call him a monster. He refuses hospitalization and decides to die in an abandoned warehouse, just so he can spend a few more minutes with her. His last thought before dying is that at least Lindy's safe and that he wants just one kiss from her before he goes. {{spoiler|Fortunately, he just makes the deadline and turns back.}}
* Arthur Dimmesdale from [[The Scarlet Letter]]. It's almost painful to watch this sweet, well-meaning, and intelligent man rip apart from the inside. YMMV, but this troper found {{spoiler|his death scene on the scaffold}} [[Tear Jerker|very touching.]] He fits the physical description, too: pale, with huge, sad, [[Brown Eyes
* Kaladin from Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. His family is {{spoiler|despised and abused by Citylord Roshone}}, to the point of {{spoiler|his brother Tien, at age 14, being drafted into the army by Roshone's orders}}, whom he follows to try and protect, {{spoiler|but Tien dies}}. As a spearman he continues to try and keep his squad alive, {{spoiler|but then most of them are killed by a Shardbearer}}, and the ones who remain {{spoiler|are killed by their own superior officer, Brightlord Amaram, who has decided the Shardblade and Plate rightfully belonging to Kaladin (who refuses them) would be better off in his hands and has to kill them all so it looks like he won them, as no one would believe that Kaladin just refused them.}} For this, {{spoiler|he is branded as a deserter and is sold into slavery}}. After being bought and sold numerous times and abused, he tries to use his surgeon knowledge to help a fellow slave, {{spoiler|whom the slavemaster kills, to make sure he doesn't infect the others.}} He becomes part of a Bridge Crew in Brightlord Sadeas' warcamp, where {{spoiler|a bunch of unarmored men carry heavy wooden bridges for miles and miles just to be shot at by a full line of Parshendi archers as a distraction from the real army}}. At one point, Kaladin nearly {{spoiler|commits suicide}} due to his station in life, but comes out of it when {{spoiler|Syl brings him a poisonous leaf he had treasured months earlier}}. When he discovers a tactic that would save bridgemen's lives, {{spoiler|it works for his well-trained bridge crew, but ends up getting the others killed, and crippling Sadeas' forces, causing a huge loss}}, for which he is beaten and then left to die tied to a wall in a highstorm, {{spoiler|which he miraculously survives}}. After which he is hated by the new officers in charge, who first put Kaladin's bridge crew on full-time chasm duty, then move their chasm duty to the night so they can be on full-time bridge running duty.
* [[Needful Things]]'s Nettie Cobb. {{spoiler|Too bad she dies.}} Also, Norris Ridgewick.
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* De Sade's [[Justine]]. Sweet, kind girl who just wants to be good, but everyone she meets who doesn't want to beat and/or rape her wants to do something worse, and usually gets to do it. Some say de Sade was trying to make a political point about how the rich and powerful mistreat the poor and weak, but one can't help feeling he just enjoyed it.
* [[Little Women|Beth March]]. The [[Ill Girl]] of the March family, painfully shy around men and even more painfully aware of her flaws, and in love with a man who doesn't love her back. And then [[It Got Worse|it got worse.]]
* It would be easier to say who ''isn't'' a woobie in ''[[Uncle
* Aaron Stampler from ''Primal Fear'' {{spoiler|appears to be this, until the movies twist ending}}.
* Though you wouldn't think it, Artyom from Metro2033 is very smart, very naive, and, solely because he lacks a socio/psychopathic streak, he's constantly kicked both sides of the world, {{spoiler|like in the Nazi station, he kills a Nazi officer for shooting Vanechka, the mentally handicapped boy a friendly old man was playing father to, and he has a large rope mark around his neck for his trouble.}} Every two seconds, somebody says "It's up to you now." and he's got to do it, despite being quite scared of the Metro, not as strong as the many people still alive (Natural Selection in the works) and only doing it because he was {{spoiler|effectively blackmailed by Hunter,who still shows up every now and then in hallucinations to scare the crap out of Artyom.}} Plus, it would seem that the Metro itself is actively trying to kill him, as there's often some sort of unexplained noise, or gunfire, or strange phenomena just around the next corner. The worst part, though? There's literally nowhere else to turn. If he stops journeying to Polis, the Dark Ones will kill everyone in [[VDN Kh]], when he keeps going on he's almost killed every few seconds in a bizarre way, and if anyone wants to reclaim the surface and leave all the weird stuff in the Metro alone, they'll have to cleanse the atmosphere first, 'cause there's a nuclear winter on. Oh, and if Artyom were to die at any point, {{spoiler|he'd be absorbed into a hive mind of dead people that must eternally walk the Metro because Heaven and Hell were atomized in an [[And I Must Scream]] scenario.}} Really, at this point, a hug would be like trying to fix all the wounds of all the wars in all of time with a band-aid.
* And let's no one forget poor little Vardaman from ''As I Lay Dying.'' Those five words and it's obvious he needs a big hug and maybe a foster family.
* This may not be the best place to put her, but she has appeared in plays and epic poetry, so... Cassandra from [[Greek Mythology]]. A gorgeous princess, she [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|turned down the advances of Apollo]], who cursed her with the ability to make always-correct prophecies [[Cassandra Truth|that no one would ever believe]]. She predicted the fall of Troy, but [[Captain Obvious|nobody believed her]], and when it actually happened she was brutally raped, in a ''church'' no less, by [[Jerkass|Ajax]] [[Sociopathic Soldier|the]] [[Dirty Coward|Lesser]] (don't worry, [[Rasputinian Death|he gets his]]) and taken as a spoil of war, only for she and her kids to be murdered for no reason by [[Evil Matriarch|Clytaemnestra]].
* ''[[In Death]]'': Poor Nixie Swisher from ''Survivor In Death''. Her best friend and entire family are murdered in one night, with only her surviving. That happened because she woke up at night to get an Orange Fizzy, hid when the murderers came in, and the murderers thought her best friend was her. If that makes you feel nothing for her, then you must as soulless as the murderers in this story.
* [[
* Many people are this in ''[[
** Fletcher, especially as of ''Death Bringer''. {{spoiler|He has no friends and no life because of how devoted he is to Valkyrie, who ends up dumping him after cheating on him with a vampire. He realises that Skulduggery and the group insult him to relieve stress, and he actually ''likes'' it because he feels like he belongs when they do.}} Also in ''Faceless Ones'' he was kidnapped and implied to have been briefly tortured until he complied with the villains, and it was also hinted he might have issues with his father.
** Valkyrie, who ends up going through a lot of beatings, torture, watching friends die and general unpleasantness despite only being a teenager. {{spoiler|She's also Darquesse, the person fated to destroy the world and kill her own parents, which causes her no amount of distress.}}
** [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Skulduggery]] himself. His wife and child were killed in front of him, then he himself was brutally killed and came back as a skeleton. This along with the horror of war pretty much made him snap, {{spoiler|and become the [[Omnicidal Maniac]] Lord Vile}}. His insanity starts to show in ''Dark Days'', after being tortured by [[Eldritch Abomination|The Faceless Ones]] for the good part of a year.
* The Prince of Wales in [[The Prince and
* Haywood from ''Tales of the Frog Princess''. Let us count the ways. [[Missing Mom|Mother]] [[Death
** Chartreuse is a [[Jerkass Woobie]]. She's borderline [[Abusive Parents|emotionally abusive]] to her daughter Emma, and has a loathing of magic (Emma's a witch)... but this is because Emma resembles Chartreuse's younger sister Grassina, who's a witch, even though Chartreuse tried and tried for ''years'' to become a witch. As a result, Grassina was the favorite of their own horrible mother. Whether you like her or not, it's sort of hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy for her.
* ''[[Peter Pan]]'' gives us Tootles, the unfailingly sweet, ever-miserable, [[Born Unlucky]] Lost Boy. When he accidentally shoots Wendy and thinks she's dead, we get this memorable [[Tear Jerker]]:
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* Sarah Heap in ''[[
* Hans Christian Andersen's "[[
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