History JerkassWoobie / VideoGames

* The town of Nipton in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. Yes, it was a WretchedHive, but it didn't deserve what [[TheSpymaster Vulpes]] [[LotteryOfDoom did to it]]

* Silver, the rival from [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]. He's a huge JerkAss, but once you learn about his past and FreudianExcuse...

*** Also, the quarians. They were kicked off their homeworld by a race of robot servants that TurnedAgainstTheirMasters, and now live as a [[FantasticRacism prosecuted]] vagrant people forced to wander the stars in a large fleet of ships. Not only that, but their immune systems mean they have to live in bulky biosuits or die. Before you call them outright {{Woobie}}s, [[spoiler: ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' rolls around and you learn that in the Morning War, they committed several atrocities not only against the geth, but against sympathetic quarians who tried to protect them]]. Not only that, but [[spoiler:in ''MassEffect3'', they attack the geth ''again'', even though it's clear the geth even want to reconcile with their creators]]. Depending on how you view them, [[spoiler:if you choose to upgrade the geth over Rannoch and can't stop the Migrant Fleet from attacking the geth again, it makes the quarian Migrant Fleet's destruction [[TheDogBitesBack at the hands of the upgraded geth]] [[KarmicDeath all the more sweeter]]]].

* ''MassEffect2'':

* In the VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto series: Sean "Sweet" Johnson from ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''. Yes, he is a gangster. But all he wants is to build his gang on respect and loyalty rather than money, to keep his neighbourhood dope-free and to wreak righteous vengeance on those who try to get his friends hooked on crack. He is betrayed by the people he trusted more than anyone and sent to prison. Oh, and both his mother and little brother were killed by drug dealers.
** Niko Bellic in [[GrandTheftAutoIV GTAIV]], who had spend his early life growing up in the Yugoslav Wars and eventually becoming a criminal.

* Alma Wade from ''FirstEncounterAssaultRecon''. Sure, she's a psychotic {{Yandere}} that tries and succeeds at raping you, but she's also went through hell itself trying to save her children, and the flashbacks that we see of her past, where she's taken to the vault, are horrible.

* Cpt. Mark Bannon from WorldInConflict. He seems like a [[TheNeidermeyer Neidermeyer]] who always disobey orders from Col. Jeremiah Sawyer. This has led to [[spoiler: the death of French Commandant Jean-Baptiste Sabatier]], and the killing of [[spoiler: many innocent Soviet civilians.]] But once you learn about his backstory, your opinion on him had changed. First, he had a telephone call with his step father. Then afterwards, [[spoiler: his treatment by Sawyer. But by the end of the Cascade Falls mission, Bannon redeems himself by volunteering for a holding action against an overwhelming Soviet force. He apologizes to the Colonel before he, along with his company, perishes in the nuclear explosion.]]

* Gunther Hermann in ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. While, like his partner Anna, he is a killing machine, it would appear that he has been handed the short stick in life, and he apparently had feelings for Anna, as he relentlessly hunts down [[spoiler: JC after he kills her.]] A diary entry in the catherderal level mentions that the author heard him crying once.
* The town of Nipton in ''FalloutNewVegas''. Yes, it was a WretchedHive, but it didn't deserve what [[TheSpymaster Vulpes]] [[LotteryOfDoom did to it]]

** A bigger example than even Tira is Aeon Calcos, also known as Lizardman. While he's served as a minor villain and by Soul Calibur 5 is a frightening man-eater with a case of RageAgainstTheHeavens, it's hard to find fault with ''why'' he hates the gods; he was a hero loyally fighting evil in Hephaestus's name before a rain of Soul Edge's power drove him temporarily insane and let priests of Ares turn him into a monster. Upon recovering his memories, Aeon is consumed with bitterness as he realizes his god abandoned him when he needed him the most, and is now caught between a man that wants revenge on the JerkAssGods and his bestial side, which wants to eat people. What makes it worse is nobody knows or cares that Aeon was a good man before outside forces turned him into a monster.

* Cpt. Mark Bannon from WorldInConflict. He seems like a [[TheNeidermeyer Neidermeyer]] who always disobey orders from Col. Jeremiah Sawyer. This has led to [[spoiler: the death of French Commandant Jean-Baptiste Sabatier]], and the killing of [[spoiler: many innocent Soviet civilians.]] But once you learn about his backstory, your opinion on him had changed. First, he had a telephone call with his step father. Then afterwards, [[spoiler: his treatment by Sawyer. But by the end of the Cascade Falls mission, Bannon redeems himself by volunteering for a holding action against an overwhelming Soviet force. He apologizes to the Colonel before he, along with his company, perishes in the nuclear explosion.]]

* The eponymous VideoGame/{{Alan Wake}} of the video game series. Considering the situation he was in.

* The eponymous VideoGame/{{Alan Wake}} of the video game series. Considering the situation he was in.

** Niko Bellic in [[GrandTheftAutoIV GTAIV]], who had spend his early life growing up in the Yugoslav Wars and eventually becoming a criminal.

* Nessiah of ''YggdraUnion'' sits on the borderline between one of these and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, and has a number of characteristics of both character types--he can be really, ''really'' manipulative and uncaring, but he is also ''seriously'' messed-up. Exactly what players perceive him as [[YourMileageMayVary usually depends on how much they sympathize with him]].

** Saïx, given the [[spoiler:glimpses we've seen of him and Axel in the past (as their Somebodies, Isa and Lea - seen in ''[=BbS=]'')]], is another [[YourMileageMayVary possible]] qualifier. And yes, he, too, had an AlasPoorVillain moment.

* ''TheLegendOfZelda''
** Ganon in ''TheWindWaker'', to a certain extent. Before that game, he was generally portrayed as a typical EvilOverlord who occasionally verged into CompleteMonster territory ([[MoralEventHorizon trying to feed all the Gorons to Volvagia comes to mind]]). His speech before the final battle in ''Wind Waker'', however, shows that his desire to conquer Hyrule stemmed from the awfully harsh life he had in the unforgiving desert. [[spoiler:Any sympathy he gains from players, however, gets a little diluted when he subsequently proceeds to beat the crap out of Link in order to snatch the Triforce of Courage]].
** Also, Midna, in ''TwilightPrincess'', except she became a Woobie after becoming much nicer.
*** Scrapper from "SkywardSword" is another example. He's generally very rude to Link, and unlike Midna, [[ItGotWorse never really gets any nicer.]] However, he is the last remaining one of his species. The fact that he's blissfully unaware of this, though, may qualify him as a full on JerkAss.

* GrandTheftAutoIV: Niko Bellic, who had spend his early life growing up in the Yugoslav Wars and eventually becoming a criminal.

* Yosuke of ''{{Persona 4}}''. A lonely teenager who is also the game's resident ButtMonkey. The girl he loved is murdered ([[spoiler:[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything possibly]] raped beforehand]]) and he finds out that she hated his guts when he goes to investigate. Most of the town hates him because his parents managed the new large chain store, driving out the local businesses. On the other hand, his social skills are nearly non-existent; his foot is pretty much permanently lodged into his mouth and [[InnocentlyInsensitive he can never seem to tell]] when his comments or jokes cross into insensitivity territory.

* Doctor Zeppot from ''DragonQuestVII'' isn't exactly a nice man, but his backstory as to ''why'' he's a jackass makes him oddly sympathetic.

* Liesolotte from ''ValkyrieProfileCovenantOfThePlume''. you'll want to reach through the screen and hug her, telling her it'll be alright...then break her ribs when you see what she did to Rosea in the "A" and "B" paths. (Heck, even what she tried to do to ''you''.)

* ''TalesOfSymphonia'': Zelos Wilder. He's a jerk, pervert, and totally lazy, and [[spoiler:betrays the group a few times, feeling the need to side with the side he thinks is the strongest]]. If you talk to him at Flanoir, however, you find out that [[spoiler: he had to watch his mother die from an assassination attempt aimed at him. Her dying words were that he shouldn't have been born. He also says that his parents were forced together, which causes him grief. His people only see him as the Chosen and not as a person.]] If you choose Kratos's ending, [[spoiler: Zelos betrays you, further solidifying his Jerkass status, but he also says, smiling the whole time, that he did it because Mithos promised to transfer the Chosen title to his sister. He also suggests that he's generally tired of living]].

** To wit, the main source of conflict between the two is that they were expelled from the archmage's court because they were suspected of killing the archmage. Neither of them did it, all the know is that they didn't do it and think the other did it but saw their inability to own up as cowardice and this turned into hatred, resulting Rosea either stabbing Liesolotte, Liesolotte stabbing Rosea, or them stabbing ''each other'' to death. however, as it turns out, ''neither'' of them did it...it was [[KarmaHoudini Fauxnel]] - who even ''admits'' to doing it. Essentially, there's nothing they can do.

* ''GodOfWar'': Kratos, who has spent a good amount of his life as a CosmicPlaything of the gods.

* Giygas from [[{{VideoGame/Mother1}} the first Mother game]] is an alien that [[spoiler:loved Maria and she cared for him]]. However, he was forced to kill her when his people ordered an attack as vengeance on George stealing their PSI information.

* Herschell Biggs from ''LANoire''. He refuses to accept Cole as his partner [[spoiler:after his affair with Elsa got out]], but he begins to like him afterwards. It's just that during World War I, he has witnessed people burned and is close to retirement.

** [[SuperSoldier Jack]]! ''Nothing'' in that woman's life has gone right, leading to us ''nearly'' forgetting that it's turned her into a HeroicSociopath with a persecution complex. It's also worth mentioning that the player can effectively turn her into even more of a woobie. She has been used and abused all her life and believes that everyone in the galaxy is only interested in themselves and what they can get out of other people. If Shepard chooses the Renegade sex option when she confronts him, that just confirms her belief, meaning she will continue to forever circle the drain of self destruction, making the realization that you could have been her first true friend and yet refused so much worse.
* Kain of ''LegacyOfKain'' could be the poster boy for HeroicSociopath, being the main protagonist of the series and a cold, bloodthirsty, manipulating, selfish schemer. However, he's only this way because he's learned that ''everyone'' in the world, stretching back and forwards through time, wants him dead. Why? Mostly because [[spoiler:it it's Kain's destiny to [[SavingTheWorld save the world]] by [[TakeOverTheWorld conquering it]] ([[KudzuPlot long story]]), and a lot of people are trying to take over Nosgoth too]]. This leads to him staking the existence of the space-time continuum on a single spin of XanatosRoulette to reclaim his proper destiny that others have robbed him of. His incredibly selfish and jaded outlook is spawned partially by all this, and partially by [[spoiler:the fact that he was corrupted with the insanity of Nuprator just seconds out of the womb and so was pretty much ascertained from birth to grow up to be a bastard]].

** [[BlackMagicianGirl Morrigan]] has had no human contact except for her uncaring and sometimes cruel mother for her entire life and has spent a lot more time [[VoluntaryShapeshifting as an animal]] than as a human. Her trust issues and pragmatism-at-the-expense-of-compassion attitude follow naturally.
* [[TroubledButCute Fenris]] from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' won't pass up an opportunity to remind everyone how horrible and dangerous mages are and how magic spoils everything it touches. Of course, he happens to be an escaped slave from a country run by power-hungry CompleteMonster mages and lost his memory of everything that happened before the ritual that gave him his lyrium markings (which amplify his fighting abilities at the cost of causing him pain and [[HatesBeingTouched an aversion to touching]]), so mages being horrible is literally all he knows of life before his escape. He has trouble adjusting to freedom, in part because his former master is still after him. He's illiterate, sucks at social interaction, justifiably paranoid, has trust issues, and often lets his temper get the better of him, for which he tends to apologise afterward. He also treats the mages in the party like crap; this is somewhat justified with Anders, as the story progresses, who is just as much of an ass, but he berates Merrill ceaselessly at the worst possible moments. Romancing him and helping him get over these issues is one of the many heartwarming moments in the game.

* Believe it or not, Jin Kisaragi from ''BlazBlue'' falls to this as well. He's a huge dick and can be called a disgrace to humanity in how he behaved. However, in the times when he was sane, he's actually a courteous man who seems to be ready to put his past as an AnnoyingYoungerSibling behind, until things from the past gets to him, and his EvilWeapon amplifies his emotions of the past, making him even more of a jerk than he usually is. There's also the fact that even when he worked his ass off to attain his position in NOL, his adopted family think that it's the family name that got him his position, making him feel outcasted even in his own family. [[spoiler:His "reincarnation" as Hakumen]] proves that, without said EvilWeapon, he can actually be a true hero, [[GoodIsNotnice but still a jerk.]]

*** Scrapper from "SkywardSword" is another example. He's generally very rude to Link, and unlike Midna, [[ItGotWorse never really gets any nicer.]] However, he is the last remaining one of his species. The fact that he's blissfully unaware of this, though, may qualify him as a full on [[JerkAss.]]

*** Scrapper from "SkywardSword" is another example. He's generally very rude to Link, and unlike Midna, [[ItGotWorse never really gets any nicer.]] However, he is the last remaining one of his species. The fact that he's blissfully unaware of this, though, may qualify him as a full on [[Jerkass JerkAss.]]

*** Scrapper from "SkywardSword" is another example. He's generally very rude to Link, and unlike Midna, [[ItGotWorse never really gets any nicer.]] However, he is the last remaining one of his species. The fact that he's blissfully unaware of this, though, may qualify him as a full on [[Jerkass Jerkass.]]