Citations:woobie

Noun: "(fandom slang) a fictional character, often morally grey or a villain, subjected to constant stress and angst..."

 * 2006, Afşar Yegin, "Fan-Textual Television: Narrative Structure, Vituality And Fandon In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel And Veronica Mars, thesis submitted to Istanbul Bilgi University, page 109:
 * The conflicted portrayal of the character reaches its zenith during the sixth episode where Logan’s relationship with his abusive and morally despicable father solidifies his character into the woobie.
 * 2011, "Merisunshine36", quoted in Judith May Fathallah, "H/c and me: An autoethnographic account of a troubled love affair", Transformative Works and Cultures, Number 7 (link):
 * I hate how AOS fandom rarely questions this premise, and instead loves to depict him as some Mary Sueish (yes, I said it) combination of genius hero, tragic woobie, loving patriarch, sexual lion and occasional psychic" (note 3).
 * 2016, Jodi McAlister, "'You and I are humans, and there is something complicated between us': Untamed and queering the heterosexual historical romance", Journal of Popular Romance Studies, Volume 5, Issue 2, page 6:
 * This reviewer argued that Jude is a “woobie”: a fandom term for a character forced to suffer who is both pathetic and (often erotically) compelling.
 * 2018, Anna Blackwell, Shakespearean Celebrity in the Digital Age: Fan Cultures and Remediation, page 109:
 * In some instances, this characterisation then becomes part of a hurt/comfort fan narrative where the pleasure at the woobie ' s pain is transmuted into relief at their eventual recovery.
 * 2019, Chelsea Fay Baumgartner, "Bodies of Knowledge: Politics of Archive, Disability, and Fandom", Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Volume 8, Issue 2, page 233:
 * Disability remains so linked to sympathy and pity, that in the introduction to the trope, “Wheelchair Woobie” the author states that visible disability functions to “instantly mark” a character as unfortunate.
 * 2019, Will Cordeiro, "Breaking Bad and disabilities: Neo-liberalism, crip studies and critiques of ableism in the classroom", Journal of Fandom Studies, Volume 7, Issue 1, page 61:
 * If Flynn stands out as the most noticeably ‘disabled’ character, that may result from his satisfying the conventional script of what disabilities looks like in the media (in particular, the ‘Woobie’ trope).
 * 2022, Bruce M. King & Lynn Kozak, "#Patrochilles: Find the Phallus", in The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Gender and Sexuality (ed. K. R. Moore), unnumbered page:
 * But the post also rejects Patroclus as woobie, drawing attention to his amorous complicity in Achilles's crimes.
 * If Flynn stands out as the most noticeably ‘disabled’ character, that may result from his satisfying the conventional script of what disabilities looks like in the media (in particular, the ‘Woobie’ trope).
 * 2022, Bruce M. King & Lynn Kozak, "#Patrochilles: Find the Phallus", in The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Gender and Sexuality (ed. K. R. Moore), unnumbered page:
 * But the post also rejects Patroclus as woobie, drawing attention to his amorous complicity in Achilles's crimes.