History Main / WheelchairWoobie

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': Jean-Pierre Polnareff is an interesting case. Back in ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', he didn't fit this trope at all, being a PluckyComicRelief ButtMonkey who fought a majority of the battles in both the first and second half. He may have lost two of his fingers in the fight against Vanilla Ice, but besides that, he comes out mostly unscathed and returns to his home country of France peacefully. ...That is, until ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]''. [[spoiler:It's revealed that off-screen during the events of ''Stardust Crusaders'', he and Jotaro did research into the Stand Arrow that gave [[GreaterScopeVillain DIO]] his Stand, and found out that they were sold to his lackey, Enya, by the boss of Passione, Diavolo. Jotaro went to [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Morioh]], not only to meet his younger uncle Josuke after he was conceived in an affair by Jotaro's grandfather, Joseph, but also to uncover the Stand Arrows that Enya had sold to residents of Morioh. Meanwhile, Polnareff went to confront Diavolo himself and end his effective Stand peddling market, but Diavolo [[CurbStompBattle beat Polnareff into submission and knocked him off a cliff]], leaving him for dead. Polnareff survived, but he was left paralyzed in a wheelchair with prosthetic legs, and he had to go into hiding once Diavolo found out he was alive. From there on, he could do absolutely nothing until he caught wind that Giorno and Team Bucciarati planned to overthrow Diavolo, which he helped them to stop him, but at the cost of his own life when Diavolo found him in the Roman Colosseum.]]

** On Website/FimfictionDotNet, the Scootaloo group has an [[https://www.fimfiction.net/group/473/folder/4724/grounded entire folder]] set up for stories about Scootaloo discovering that she will never fly, and having to cope with that, often going full Woobie in the process.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

* Hunter Zolomon from ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' is a well known example. His life had [[DarkAndTroubledPast never been easy to begin with]] and when he was introduced, he had to use a cane to support himself due to a CareerEndingInjury back when he was working for the FBI. Later on plays this trope completely straight when Grodd paralyzes him during an attack to Iron Heights Penitary. His transformation from a bitter limp cop to WheelchairWoobie makes the final straw, makes him extremely angry and bitter, and he begs to then Flash Wally West to undo his crippling via time travel. Wally rejects his request due to fragility of time. Hunter, feeling betrayed by his best friend, attempts to go back in time to fix his life on his own. Unfortunately, since he isn't a speedster, all he manages to do is give himself TimeMaster powers... which slowly (from his point of view, in reality it's less than a second) drive him so insane that he becomes convinced that it's his destiny to become the next Reverse-Flash and make Wally's life more tragic. Throughout his career as Zoom, he's genuinely unaware that his attempts to help his friend are actually causing him great harm.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': [[BreakTheBadass After a rather brutal series of events]] (including being badly poisoned, nearly suffocated and falling from not one, but several cliffs), Korra is left confined to a wheelchair for at least two years. And as a bonus, that series of events was designed to make her feel useless in her role as the [[TheChosenOne Avatar]] (and kill the Avatar spirit forever), with her allies unintentionally adding to that by doing her job while she recovers. She prides herself on her strength and her role so this haunts her. Even when she gets out of the chair, a combination of trace poison in her system and her own doubts and fears leaves her a shadow of her former self for quite a while.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Nunnally Lamperouge/vi Britannia, although in ''Manga/CodeGeassNightmareOfNunnally'', [[spoiler:she regains her ability to walk in the end]]. The anime also makes reference to her undergoing physical therapy, but we don't see any results within the actual show. [[spoiler: By the time she becomes the Empress of Britannia, she has regained her sight - but is still wheelchair-bound.]]

* ''Film/AnnabelleCreation:'' Janice doesn't ''start'' the movie in a wheelchair, merely walking with a crutch due to polio. Then her good leg is broken, leaving her wheelchair-bound, despondent about her chances of being adopted, and defenseless against terrifying demon attacks.

* Gehrman from ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', once the first Hunter of Yharnam, a selfless person who can withstand a [[CosmicHorrorStory cosmic scale of horror]], reducing into a crippled, wheelchair-bound old man trapped in a dream. He wished to be freed from the nightmare and begged his friends to put him out of his misery, but they couldn't. By the time when you halted the source of nightmare, he insisted to offer you a MercyKill instead of begging you to kill him, [[SelflessWish wishing you to be freed]]. [[spoiler: If you reject his offer, he demonstrates quite handily that [[HandicappedBadass having a missing leg is not a big handicap for him.]]]]

* Kirito from ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' during the second half of the ''Alicization'' arc. Due to the [[MyGreatestFailure grief of losing Eugeo]] combined with the power surge damaging his brain, this leads Kirito to have an extreme HeroicBSOD that leaves him an EmptyShell for a large portion of the war. In this state he loses his ability to speak, most of his awareness of his surroundings, and most of his mobility. He requires intense care from either Alice or whoever is looking after him and necessitates being wheeled around in a wheelchair.

* Armie Buff from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' is bound to [[spoiler:her]] wheelchair due to a fire incident caused by an arsonist burning [[spoiler:her]] apartment home with [[spoiler:her]] mother inside, which made [[spoiler:her]] mother break a window and leap out with [[spoiler:her]] out of the fire. The resulting fall caused [[spoiler:her]] mother to die while Armie suffered injuries to [[spoiler:her]] legs. Armie becomes even more of a woobie when [[spoiler:her]] father is killed by [[spoiler:an egotistical politician under orders from someone else]]. [[spoiler:By the end of the trial, she reveals that she had healed months ago, but her shut-in behavior and fright of going outside made her stay on the wheelchair. At the end of the game, she has been accepted into the university's digs just like her late father, though she's doing so legally.]]

->''Sara Berry was a popular bitch\\
Hot bod, hot boy, cheer captain, plus she was rich\\
That girl had everything 'till hiccup and hitch: Julie Jenkins lost her leg in a wreck (Am-pu-ta-ted!)\\

* The player's brother, Doned, in the opening of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance''. He spends the rest of the game in a world where he can magically walk and gets upsets with Marche for trying to restore their original world as he felt utterly hopeless and envious of his brother being able to have a normal life [[spoiler:until Marche complains to him that their mother basically looked out after Doned way more than she ever did with Marche and very often left him alone at the house, and this coming after their family went through a divorce. Marche all but spells out that Doned is being an UngratefulBastard for just thinking being crippled is the worst thing that ever happened to him without accounting for what Marche dealt with.]] In the end, he's back in his wheelchair, but more accepting of his situation.

->Sara Berry was a popular bitch\\

'Til gossip stirred the student body would name Julie Jenkins, Queen of the Prom (Pi-ty vote!)

* ''[[Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]]'' parodies this trope with a recurring Koopa child in a wheelchair. Something unfortunate is guaranteed to happen to him any time he appears, but instead of being used for drama, [[CrossesTheLineTwice it's always played for laughs]].

->Well, Sara Berry was a popular bitch\\

The nominations for Prom Royalty came (Uh-huh!)\\

-->-- "The Ballad of Sara Berry", ''[[Theatre/ThirtyFiveMillimeterAMusicalExhibition 35mm: A Musical Exhibition]]''

->Sara Berry was a popular bitch
->Hot bod, hot boy, cheer captain, plus she was rich
->That girl had everything 'till hiccup and hitch: Julie Jenkins lost her leg in a wreck (am-pu-ta-ted)
->The nominations for Prom Royalty came
->Our Sara's senior year, and Queen was her claim
->'Till gossip stirred the student body would name Julie Jenkins, Queen of the Prom (pi-ty vote)

** WebAnimation/Snowdrop2013 tells the story of a blind pegasus. The first several minutes heavily play up the hardships faced by the titular Snowdrop due to her blindness (mostly her classmates wanting nothing to do with her). That plus her [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter over-the-top cute]] character design take the Woobie factor UpToEleven, tugging at the viewer's heartstrings with all the subtlety of a yak on crack.