Wimpification

One of these Rorschachs is not like the other.

So you have a male character who has Ho Yay with some other male character. He may be a Badass Big Guy in Canon, but in Fanon it is a different story. Once the Fanfic writers get to work, his characterization changes to a submissive Non-Action Guy. Congratulations. You've just seen Wimpification at work.

This is the male Fanfic equivalent to Chickification in which a male's character becomes more physically and emotionally vulnerable in order to pair them with a canon character of the same sex. This can be Hurt/Comfort Fic, but there is one difference. In a Hurt/Comfort Fic, the plot hinges on breaking a character with traumas so that another character can comfort them, often leading to a pairing. The character's characterization changes, often inexplicably or with only a Hand Wave, and the change is by definition for a pairing. Additionally, there often is no comfort, with the Wimpification instead paving the way for their becoming submissive to a partner who acts as the Seme.

In worst cases, the character is changed into an over-the-top feminine stereotype, which, if applied to a female character, would be deemed incredibly sexist.

Of course, Tropes Are Tools and this may be done well (or at least subtly enough so as not to interfere with the story) if, rather than creating new weaknesses for a character, the fic author simply exploits canonically existing weaknesses.

Anime fans refer to this process as ukefication (see Uke).

Subtrope of Out of Character. Often causes Badass Decay.

Examples of Wimpification include:

General

  • Any even slightly feminine (or even just less masculine/shorter than the designated partner) character is almost guaranteed to be put through this repeatedly. Heck, even the super manly characters will probably be subject to this at least once as part of a subversion or gag, this trope is just that common.
  • While a lot of Yaoi manga are written clearly for PWP and/or Smut purposes with wildly typical (and ridiculous) stereotypes amongst the characters, some generally well-written or at least intriguing BL manga might, in a clumsy stroke of depiction, mismanage the personality of the character designated as the "uke/neko/bottom," transforming him from a strong/quirky/interesting independent character to a weepy generic Moe-blob in (and worse, out) of bed once he and his love interest get together.
  • Minotaur's Sex Tips For Slash Writers has this to say about it:

One thing to be wary of is writing one partner as the "wife". Men, even gay men, are trained to be less emotionally open, less demonstrative. Yes, we do feel, and even occasionally cry, but gay men are every bit as emotionally closeted as their straight counterparts. Think of all the troubles you have in your relationships with men, and then double them. Instead of just one partner being distant, uncommunicative and emotionally stunted, both are.


Fanfic based on Anime and Manga

  • Canon example: At the beginning of the Gravitation manga, Shuichi is much more masculine than he is at the end. His character design even became more feminine over time until he became virtually indistinguishable from a girl by the start of the Gravitation EX sequel.
    • Even then, far too many Gravitation fanfics ukefy Shuichi even further until he becomes a 100% weepy uke, completely ignoring that he's been shown capable of standing up for himself when needed in canon even when Yuki is being a prick to him.
    • The anime basically bypasses this and goes right to making Shuichi extremely feminine from the get-go, right down to his voice. It's entirely possible to just imagine that his gender is different under his clothes with no further change needed to make the series hetero...
  • Another canon example in BL light novel and anime Ai no Kusabi is Riki. Chronologically, at the start of the story he's a Badass Biker that's a tough street gang leader well known for his proud, defiant and rebellious nature. By the end, he's a sensitive, weeping uke that no longer even attempts to put up a fight against those trying to control him and in need of rescue. One character states how hopeless he's become as far as keeping it together goes. However, the process did take a period of over 4 years in story.
  • Ishida Yamato from Digimon Adventure gets this a lot. Though if they swap roles Yagami Taichi also has serious history of this.
    • Ken and Daisuke both got their own moment each in fandom.
    • Writers tend to forget Takato's Character Development and make him a total, weeping pansy.
    • Masaru and TOMATO- er, Touma.
  • Sanji from One Piece is often made into a weepy uke because of his Bishonen looks and attempts to be sensitive to women, regardless of the fact that Sanji is frequently a Jerkass to his male crewmates and is nowhere near unable to stand up for himself.
    • This is also likely why many fangirls were upset with his design after the time skip. Frequently, in fan art, his chin hair would be omitted, but now in the manga canon, he has an undeniable goatee
  • Gundam Wing has Duo Maxwell, aka the "braided baka", who maybe one of the most infamous victims of this in all of manga/anime, going from a Deadpan Snarker Broken Hero who snarks at his friends yet helps them out when needed, into a brainless Keet who needs Heero's cock to be whole and is raped/abused/etc. by every single person he encounters.
    • In fact, all of the Gundam pilots have been victims of this at one time or another, and sometimes with two or more of them in the same story. If it's not Duo, it's usually Quatre. Sometimes, it's all of them at once. Gundam Wing fanfiction can read like poorly characterized lesbian drama WITH PENISES.
    • Zechs can get this treatment when Treize doesn't show him enough love.
  • Battler Ushiromiya, in both Japanese and American fanart. Usually the result of being turned into Beatrice's furniture and getting tortured.
  • In Naruto, there are many irate fans that did not like how Hidan was made the designated Uke in slash fiction pairing him with Kakuzu. The argument being that just because he looks slightly less muscular (and more like... a human?) than Kakuzu doesn't suddenly make him a weepy uke.
    • Naruto, because of his Keetness, he himself also has this done to him FAR too many times. He is rarely the Seme of whatever relationship in the latest fic. (One such example.)
    • Gaara is often hit with this as well even though his abilities are no laughing matter.
    • Neji has been turned into a weepy blushing uke for Shikamaru and others many times. And Kiba, maybe the most Hot-Blooded character in the series, getting the same treatment with numerous characters.
    • Umino Iruka might as well be named Uke Iruka. When paired with anyone, but especially Kakashi, he is ridiculously ukefied to the point that he's less Naruto's big brother figure and more like a Dude in Distress for badass Kakashi to save from the cruel shinobi world. Granted, we haven't actually seen enough of Iruka's personality to entirely call this characterization bullshit, but stats released would at least support that he's stronger than most of the special jounin out there, despite being a chunin. Give the guy some credit, he's a ninja, he's not helpless. Even if he's less powerful than other shinobi, he still took a huge shuriken to protect Naruto without hesitation, and also questioned Kakashi and others openly for Naruto's sake.
    • Deidara. Sure, he's got long blonde hair and is Sasori's partner, but he's NOT a caricature of a woman, yet the way he carries on in some fanfics you'd think he was about to give birth. This also happens to Itachi and Sasori sometimes.
    • Sasuke usually gets hit with this in fanfic as well, going from a vengeful loner to a weepy uke for Naruto, Itachi, Gaara, Kakashi, etc.
  • Done occasionally with Sousuke from Full Metal Panic!—most prevalently in certain slash fanfiction. Granted, his being an Uke was Canon and pretty much confirmed by Shouji Gatou (Sousuke's status as a "receiver" if he were to be in a homosexual relationship was outright stated in one of the side stories that Gatou wrote). However, some fanfiction takes this Up to Eleven, where Sousuke becomes much more emotional and... PMS-y (very unlike The Stoic he is)-- to the point where he actually seems to be depicted as a male version of Kaname.
  • Many Dragonball Z Vegeta/Goku fics have Goku go from a Badass Idiot Hero, to a Keet, sensitive Uke who stays on the bottom.
    • Frieza is usually also stripped from his smug, arrogant personality and becomes more of a boyfriend to Cell, most likely becoming pregnant sometime in the process.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho slash likes to do this to Hiei. Nevermind that it's not only severely out of character for him, but that Kurama, his most common partner, is a far more obvious subject for it. It must be his height.
    • Kurama gets his fair share of this, often involving Karasu and/or Yomi.
  • In Hunter X Hunter, Kurapika is most often the target of this trope. 99% of the doujinshi found is pre-timeskip and completely ignores Kurapika's Character Development and thus making him perpetually the motherly uke type to Leorio. In fanfiction, however, they give more attention to his development, but making him seduced/kidnapped by his mortal enemy, Kuroro, and in most of them he ends up joining the Spiders. This being when they don't turn him into a woman.
    • Also tends to hit Gon, whoever he's paired with. Also affects Hisoka, bizarrely, in fics where he acts a lot, well, gentler than he could reasonably be expected to act, even if he's the Seme.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia has many, MANY examples.
    • Germania gets wimpified just because he happens to look a bit like Legolas and because had to fight off the Roman Empire.
    • Italy isn't exactly a paragon of masculinity, especially when compared to Germany, and according to some of his conversations with Germany and Japan, he's still a virgin who has yet to reach third base. But considering that Germany, in spite of being One Head Taller and more muscular than Italy, has been shown to be so clueless about romance and sex that he had to consult a guidebook to figure out how to court Italy, their relationship is actually less stereotypical (and more Adorkable) than the plain lazy "uber-knowledgeable Seme Germany has to teach uber-naive Uke Italy how to have sex" depiction seen in some Germany/Italy fanworks would have you believe.
    • England often goes from the snarky, yet also sensitive Tsundere he is in canon, to becoming a weepy, emotionally-needy mess who pines endlessly for [insert: America, France, Canada, etc]. and is more than once the target of [insert: Russia, France]'s violations/torture/etc. so [insert: America, France, Canada, etc]. can literally pull a Big Damn Heroes to save him and let the Hurt/Comfort start. Either that, or America is a Bastard Boyfriend to him and England becomes a weepy mix of Purity Stu and Love Martyr, while the artist expects everyone to believe that theirs is as completely healthy and cute relationship. Also, some fanartists tend to draw him with extremely feminine hips...
    • America himself gets this treatment more often than you'd probably expect, with a number of fics conveniently forgetting that he's capable of effortlessly swinging a full-grown buffalo around (and that was when he was just a child, mind you) so that he can be tortured by England or Russia (or, in one notorious series of fics, gangbanged by the entire cast) without being able to lift a single finger against them. Maybe some certain fans just find the idea of the strong, self-assured "hero" becoming The Woobie fetishy. Or maybe it's a case of Misplaced Nationalism demanding revenge upon Eagle Land—for instance, in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, the Hetalia Kink Meme suddenly became filled with "Financial Crisis Gang Bang" fics, which were Exactly What It Says on the Tin. You Fail Economics Forever barely describes these works.
    • As for Japan... let's just say that while he isn't exactly the most assertive or masculine-looking nation-tan in canon, there are several fics that surgically remove any hint of the 'subtle, but definitely present, touch of iron' behind his Japanese Politeness or the fact that he does know how to handle a katana (and successfully fought off the Hetalia Bloodbath 2010 kidnapper, that had been able to overpower Russia and General Winter, with a rolled-up poster) to turn him into a completely helpless Moeblob utterly unable to defend or stand up for himself. More than one of these fics even go so far as to have him be abused by America or claimed/possessed by bastardpirateboyfriend!England and either being a perfect and weepy Love Martyr (to a degree that not even a Yamato Nadeshiko would reach) or needing to be rescued by someone else. Mind you, this only happens to Japan about as often as he gets "semeified"/bastardized instead, just like with England.
The fact that canon does establish him as sexually inexperienced compared to Greece, who happens to be One Head Taller than him, doesn't really help. The better Greece/Japan fanwriters recognize that, sexual disparities aside, the two actually have a pretty equal relationship in canon with Japan actually being technically older than Greece (if you consider that Greece represents only the Hellenic Republic due to his mother literally being Ancient Greece), and that even if Japan's Moe traits tend to be enhanced when he's with Greece, he'd still have a touch of Inscrutable Oriental or at least a 'far more likely to quietly hide his emotions than become a blushy, weepy mess over them' vibe to him; the poorer fanwriters...don't.
    • While Canada is quite the sweetheart (unless you TRULY piss him off), some fangirls take his canon bad luck, soft-spoken behavior and Woobieness to make him a stereotypical uke in more than one France/Canada, Prussia/Canada, America/Canada and/or Cuba/Canada fic. Fanart that pairs Canada with a more 'assertive' male typically makes Canada shorter than the other male, even when this actually wouldn't be true due to his official height being the same as America's (which means that he'd be just as tall as his brother and taller than France or England).
    • Lithuania is so often made into Russia's Stockholm Syndrome victim or Poland's weepy Dude in Distress that the phrase "I'm damaged goods, Feliks" (which comes from a very bad Poland/Liet fic where Lithuania was raped by Bastard Boyfriend!Russia and needed Relationship Sue!Poland's Healing Cock) has reached Memetic Mutation in some circles.
      • Poland frequently, provided Lithuania isn't ukefied instead. Apparently, if someone has cross-dresssed ever, at all, under any circumstances, they will never be able to do anything except be a super-girly little uke for other guys.
    • China is very bishonen and kinda feminine-looking in some canon illustrations/strips, but it still doesn't justify the massive ukefication he gets in fanwork. Particularly Russia/China and Japan/China ones. And we are talking about the same China who fought and defeated Germany and Japan with only a ladle and wok.
    • Hong Kong sometimes is hit with the ukefication paddle as well, more often when his Seme is either England (and double if Hong Kong is still his colony), Japan, or South Korea. Fortunately for him, in the case of Macau this isn't as frequent; even when he more often than not ends up bottoming, HK will most likely his spine.
      • In regards to the other Asians, Korea tends to top his "partners" but sometimes becomes a victim of this if he's paired up with America, and occasionally with HK. Thailand is lucky enough to dodge this treatment unless he is the love interest of Imperial Japan, and Macau is almost exclusively paired with Hong Kong so he tends to be the top one instead. Though in the case of Korea and Thailand, it's a bit weird considering that both of them are pretty tall (Korea is about 179 cm, or at least tall enough to be at eye-to-eye level with America, and Thailand is just a little shorter so he should be at least 175cm).
    • And there's Finland, too. While his partner and most fan-popular Love Interest Sweden is quite taller than him, it doesn't explain why doujinshi and fanwork twist Finland into a little weepy Keet who may look even younger than Sealand, when Finland's character profile states that he has the look and the attitude of a 20 years old, while Sweden is 21. The way they're drawn in some doujinshis, you'd think they're something closer to 12 and 26, respectively. Yes, the pair invoke so many Boys Love Tropes as is that it's that much easier for fans to Flanderize Finland's Uke role along those lines. That's still not an excuse, as the charm of the pairing is seeing a huge guy like Sweden fitting the House Husband archetype far more than the slightly waifish Finland.
    • Ironically, Sweden is hit by the trope more than once as well. While he's still the tallest of the Nordics, one wonders how come Yandere!Denmark can rape and beat him as easily as he often does in doujinshii and fanart: if they're about the past dealings and wars of both nations, Sweden will get whipped/tortured/raped/etc. by Denmark, running away with Finland as to "escape" from his torturer/rapist (and sometimes wangsting about that).
      • Iceland sometimes gets hit with this as well, specially in regards to him and Turkey. While he is younger than the standard nation, this doesn't mean he's a pre-pubescent boy (he's mentioned to look at least 17), and while Turkey is depicted as being quite older than he is, it doesn't necessarily mean Iceland would submit to him completely. (Curiously, even with this factor, Turkey/Iceland ends up one of the few Turkey pairings in which he's not depicted as a Bastard Boyfriend.)
    • Greece actually isn't hit as hard by this trope in Turkey/Greece works as he could have been, as many of them depict him as a Tsundere capable of standing up and talking back to Turkey as an integral part of their Belligerent Sexual Tension. Nonetheless, just as many of them can leave you wondering why Greece acts like he's PMSing all the time or why he never seems to be able to hinder Turkey from belittling/abusing/raping him in spite of all his defiant words.
    • On the other hand, Germany is often placed in a similar situation when he's paired up with his older brother Prussia instead of Italy. Yeah, as mentioned above the guy looks ultra-super manly yet is really clueless about romance but that doesn't mean that he will become a super ultra submissive and mushy mess as soon as he and Prussia are romantically/sexually involved either. Germany may be clueless about romance, but not in regards to the mechanics of sex.
    • Prussia is subjected to this treatment as well when paired with Germany or Russia (the latter tending towards Rape Is Love and/or Stockholm Syndrome more often than not).
    • And on the other other hand, Italy's brother Romano is portrayed as a bitchy and whiny Uke caricature who still gets sexed up by "Boss Spain" whether he wants it or not. That is, unless Spain is the one subjected to this and Romano becomes a Domestic Abuser instead.
    • Switzerland, when paired with Austria. Probably the result of One Head Taller and one too many Tsundere traits.
    • On that note, Austria is a victim of this. A lot. He's skinny, too uptight about the aristocrat act, spends a little too much time on the piano, and doesn't really have a hardcore history of fighting to back him up. This somehow completely overshadows his nation's history as a great power run by very shrewd diplomats. Sure, most of his land and power came through arranging marriage, but he still had it. Yet he gets slammed with a sudden case of ukeism when paired with nations more action-oriented like Hungary or Prussia.
    • Honestly, Hetalia has so much Alternate Character Interpretation going around that every character gets ukefied by at least part of the fandom. And we're not counting the Chickification the girls go through too.
  • Oh, Yugi. How are you ukefied? Too many ways to name. In canon, he started out as a loser who was picked on a lot but still had enough backbone to stand up when people he considers friends are being attacked and over time grew more confident thanks to his darker Pharaoh friend. Also probably a master strategist able to rival Napoleon and Lee (if you take into account that all he does is play strategy games). But if you read fanfiction, he's a spineless little wimp who's always being raped or abused by everyone near him until "Yami" comes along and saves him. Or Yami kidnaps him and does the raping, torturing and abusing himself until Yugi falls in love with him and then he turns good and Yugi defends his actions to others saying that Yami's "misunderstood". Or when the Pharaoh leaves, Yugi becomes so emotionally unbalanced that he kills himself despite saying in the manga and anime that he didn't need him anymore. That unfortunately sums up pretty much 99.9% of Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction, 99.99% if you substitute Ryou Bakura and the Spirit of the Ring for Yugi and the Pharaoh.
    • Bakura gets this the worst in fanfiction. Granted, he was continually emotionally abused and manipulated by the Spirit of the Ring in canon, but there was no indication that he was ever physically abused (which makes sense when you consider that, contrary to what 90% of fanfics would have you believe, the Spirit doesn't have a physical form outside of Bakura's body and wouldn't be very likely to harm the one body he can inhabit) and he was able to stand up to the Spirit on several occasions when his friends' lives were on the line, two things that fans completely ignore in favor of turning him into a frail, weepy White-Haired Pretty Boy who exists only to be horribly abused by "Yami Bakura" and possibly redeem him with the power of twu wuv.
The assumption of physical abuse probably stems from the fact that the spirit isn't exactly careful with Bakura's body (stabs him with the spikes of his ring, stabs his hand on a tower, stabs himself with a knife...) However, once Bakura's life actually was in danger (at the end of his duel against Yugi), he gave up victory and promised to protect him because he needed the body. In addition, while he was quite careless, he never really "punished" Bakura, or hurt him out of pure sadism, as fanfiction would like to make you believe. And given that Bakura got over it quite quickly and didn't turn into a shaking mess at the end of the series, it can be assumed that most of the time, he was rather "asleep in his subconscious", instead of being forced to witness the spirit's deeds.
    • Jonouchi, who in most fanfics is a defenseless "puppy" whom the mighty Seto Kaiba has to rescue from the clutches of his evil abusive father.
    • Marik, the resident Darkskinned Blonde, is one of the fandom's greatest ukes and lends himself well to an angsty rape-y story involving either his father or his own Yami.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Almost any male character could be given as an example, but it's seen most frequently in the case of Juudai, the guy who saved the world four times over before he's graduated high school. In fanfic, if he can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time it's amazing, much less survive a dangerous situation without Johan or Manjoume or whoever the seme of the fanfic is around.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's has Yusei. While the above two were at least submissive or had Keet traits, Yusei is, straight-up, one of the most intelligent, mature, stoic, and strong-willed characters of the series. In the average fanfic, he is instead living for the love of whoever the fanfic pairs him with
  • Poor, poor Allen Walker. He's a Moe, yes. He grows up into a Bishonen prettier than most of the female cast, yes. But he's also a Badass Adorable who will keep fighting even when he literally can't stand and a Circus Brat who can charm almost anyone into doing what he wants when he feels it's necessary. Yes, he's The Woobie, but he's the iron variety and a Broken Hero extraordinaire. Guess which parts slash writers leave out.
    • Especially noticeable in doujinshi, where he's typically shown wangsting about things that he hardly even angsts about in-series. Which results in him needing comfort sex from Lavi or Kanda. And if that doesn't happen, he'll normally be shown being rendered into an emotional wreck that's subsequently raped by Tyki. And then having comfort sex with someone.
  • Uryuu Ishida sometimes gets this treatment in Bleach Slash Fics.
    • Kira and Yumichika, two snarky long-term professional army officers, are almost always written as helpless damsels-in-distress who literally could not raise a hand to save themselves, let alone use any kind of weapon.
    • Jushiro Ukitake has been portrayed as this, due to his Ill Boy status and his close relationship with Kyouraku.
    • Tesla evokes this trope when paired with Nnoitra to a point that's almost painful to even think about. Granted, he already clings to the Espada like a drowning man clings to a piece of driftwood, but he's still a decent fighter and fairly self-confident in canon, and the way he's written and drawn in some fan works you'd think... well...
  • Tsuna of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
    • And Gokudera. And Dino. And Squalo. And even Hibari and Mukuro; they trade off on uke-ness when paired with each other.
  • Daisuke of D.N.Angel, when paired with his alter ego Dark or obsessed rival Satoshi.
  • Ciel of Black Butler. Way too many people make him seem very uke, most likely due to his age and the fact that he is often paired with his demon Battle Butler Sebastian. When you look at Ciel's actual personality traits, it's very clear while he has a small amount of inexperience/naïveté, he'd never be the blushy/weepy/submissive uke he's often portrayed as in fan works.
  • Shinichi/Conan of Detective Conan is not that feminine, but if he is in a yaoi fic, he is always the Uke. In some fanworks he's (as Conan, natch) even bottom to a ill shouta.
    • Kaito/Kaitou Kid, Shinichi's Worthy Opponent who is the most popular person to slash with him, gets this too sometimes, though usually in stories where he's slashed with his other detective rival Hakuba Saguru. At least he gets to be a Tsundere with Hakuba most of the time though (Unless the writer is Flanderizing Hakuba's obsession with Kaitou Kid to Stalker with a Crush levels anyway). On the rare occasion Kaito is uke to Shinichi instead of the other way around they remove the Jerk with a Heart of Gold Deadpan Snarker traits and make him a straight up Keet/MoeBlob, sometimes taking advantage of his apparent preference for disguising himself as women to make him into a Wholesome Crossdresser to boot (Okay, so it is almost canon and it does happen when he's Seme too, and even sometimes when he's straight, where it's Played for Laughs, but it's worse when he's being Ukefied).
  • Name any male character in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, they'll probably have received this treatment. Ironically enough, the top two targets for Ukefication seem to be Hot-Blooded badasses Kamina and Kittan, the latter most often being portrayed as this complete teary-eyed moeblob.
  • In 90% of all Death Note Slash Fics... who the hell is this Emo whiny prima donna that's replaced Light Yagami?
    • "I am just a poor little orphan boy and... Oh noes! There's a jam-eating Serial Killer after me! Saves me, Kira!"—L in Fan Fiction
      • Light and L are frequently OOC in Slash Fic because fans seem to forget that they both have "Seme personality traits" being Badass, domineering types: [dead link] . When shoehorned into Boys Love Genre stereotypes it's almost a guarantee that one of them will become weepy, emotional and that character In Name Only.
    • Mello, the badass mafia crimeboss, turns into a delicate, feminine uke.
    • Matt, the cool computer geek, also turns into a delicate, feminine uke.
    • Near, the quirky detective, also turns into a delicate, feminine uke.
    • Teru Mikami Badass, Bully Hunter Serial Killer Killer becomes a delicate, feminine uke. Though this one is more justified in that it's pretty much canon he'd do anything his "God" told him to. So you have the fics where he's licking Light's shoes clean...
  • This has a disturbing tendency to happen to Chrono from Chrono Crusade, even in Het fic. In a lot of the fics that use the more extreme forms of this trope, Chrono ends up being a rape victim at the hands of Aion, Joshua and even Father Remington, or at least involved in scenes with dubious consent.
  • Masaomi from Durarara!! is hit by this trope the most especially when paired with Izaya or Mikado when he's the boss. Izaya and Mikado get hit with this a lot more than one would expect with Izaya becoming a weepy, crying uke to Shizuo in most Shizaya fics and Mikado being turned into a super innocent moeblob to be ravished by any one of the male cast. The problem here is that in canon, Izaya is Izaya and Mikado is not the Nice Guy everyone sees him as.
  • Gilbert from Pandora Hearts. Vincent sometimes.
  • Death the Kid from Soul Eater. A majority of fanfics featuring him has him yearning or being the bottom.
  • Code Geass: Despite having the personality traits of a seme (and being taller than Suzaku), Lelouch is almost always ukefied because he positively sucks at physical education. And he looks pretty in a dress. People seem to forget that Lelouch hates dressing up like a girl (unlike Suzaku) and his upper body strength isn't bad: lugging around Nunnally up the Kururugi Shrine's stairs without any help and holding onto Shirley while they're both dangling off a building is very impressive. Admittedly, Suzaku was holding onto Lelouch's weight with the latter but still.
  • Although Vocaloid has no true canon, but there are some ridiculous examples of this (and even semefication) in its fanfiction.
  • Saint Seiya has a massive non-English speaking fanbase and this happens a lot, particularly with some of the prettier men-Shun, often, Hyoga and Shaka are the most glaring examples from off the top of this troper's head (Camus and Mu too). Considering how Badass these guys are in the series, and that some of them really have NO feminie qualities at all, it's extremely jarring to have Shaka killing Spectres in cold blood one minute and moaning like a whore under Aiolia the next. That being said, there are plenty of fanworks out there that avert this and write the characters extremely well.
  • Alviss of Marchen Awakens Romance suffers from this A LOT in fanfiction though it became in universe and literally almost canon when he was captured by Phantom.
  • Rare Female Example: H-Doujinshi with an Action Girl or a Bastard Girlfriend are likely to have her suddenly become weak or sweet just so the man can be in control.
  • Shion in No. 6 when paired with Nezumi.


Fanfic based on Comic Books

It's pretty easy to tell which side a Steve/Tony slashfic falls on by figuring out whether the fic's implication is a) Tony briefly dropping his canon control-freak persona is a huge, jaw-dropping deal that shows how special Steve is to him, or the fic's implication is that b) Tony must have a natural Uke-ish personality all the time (inexplicably hand-waving his canon control freak tendencies). Choice b) obviously requires a lot of canon warping.
    • The opposite also happens, (mostly in the movie fandom) with Steve being portrayed as a shy, sexually inexperienced boy scout who needs Tony to teach him how to 'fondue'.
  • In Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson fics, Dick gets hit by this trope fairly frequently. This phenomena is unique in that it manages to be both a pretty justified-by-canon characterization and full-fledged Fridge Horror at the same time. You see, Dick did have this sort of personality and this sort of emotional dynamic with Bruce. In fact, he's had it for most of his existence (since 1940!). The problem? The period in his lifetime where Dick had this sort of dynamic with Bruce was when he was Robin, i.e. underage. Cue Squick.


Fanfic based on Film

  • Happens to New!Kirk. Nu!Chekov gets this constantly, no matter who he's shipped with. Has become a source of Internet Backdraft among some segments of the fandom.
  • In District 9 Slash Fic (what little there is), Wikus is generally turned from a mentally unstable and violent Half-Human Hybrid to a scared little kitten who quickly abandons his smoking-hot wife for a seven foot tall grasshopper, and may or may not mother its children.
  • Sometimes in The Dark Knight Saga fanfiction, Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow—who is most pleased while torturing mental patients or verbally stomping everyone else in the room—becomes weirdly effeminate. And wimpy. And willing to lick dirt off his partner's shoes. Huge insult to him and to women. Really, just because the guy's scrawny doesn't mean he's not a power-hungry, self-respecting villain. Probably has to do with Batman pulling his hair in Batman Begins. Fic writers liked the imagery so much, they decided Crane liked it too! Well, that and the fact that Cillian Murphy is a very, very handsome person.
  • Face, when paired with Hannibal.
  • Professor Charles Xavier, thanks to being played by the very pretty James McAvoy in X-Men: First Class, more often than not plays Uke to Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto.
  • Similar to his comic book counterpart, after Captain America: The First Avenger premiered, it's become fairly common nowadays in Marvel movie fics to depict Steve Rogers—who in movie canon tells bullies to shut up in theaters, talks back to Nazi super soldiers, risks a court martial to do the right thing, and leads the Howling Commandos in WWII—as some kind of adorable, harmless, overgrown puppy who's ripe for the picking by either Tony Stark/Iron Man, Howard Stark, Black Widow, Darcy from Thor, Thor himself, Loki, Bucky (!)--hell, practically every Marvel movie character.
    • Being fair, while the MCU canon establishes that Steve Rogers is a man of limitless courage who cannot possibly be intimidated into backing away from whatever the right thing to do is in any given situation, it also establishes that he pretty much is a giant human puppy dog when it comes to social interaction and that he will go to truly ridiculous lengths in the name of friendship.
  • The eponymous Sherlock Holmes from the 2009 film gets this all the time. For everyone. Men, women, villains, heroes, Watson, alternate versions of himself and Watson, mice...


Fanfic based on Literature

  • A lot of Harry/Draco fic contains this, in one way or another.
    • And Remus/Sirius and occasionally Harry/Ron.
    • Both Harry and Draco in My Immortal, despite not even being slash.
  • Wicked Lovely: Quite a bit of Irial/Niall does this with Niall. And Seth gets this with pretty much everyone, even more than Niall. He might be pretty quiet and stuff in canon, but he most likely could stand up for himself if he needed to. Fanfic... disagrees.
  • Despite the fact that Legolas is a badass archer who can rival Gimli in terms of badassery he finds himself the damsel in distress in fics that involve him and Aragorn.
    • Applies to many, many elves, most disturbingly seen with Glorfindel.
    • Aragorn too, especially if Sauron or Legolas is on top.
    • Frodo, all the time. With anyone.
  • While Elphaba is still the Seme in most fics, she's often considerably more sensitive and emotional than in even the musical.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, one of Jon Snow's subordinates is a handsome young man known as Satin, who was previously a prostitute, having been pimped out by his mother as a boy. Fan perception is that Satin is a Camp Gay Pretty Boy who is always swooning over Jon. However, in-text, there's no indication of Satin's sexual preference (a different issue than the gender(s) he was forced to sleep with), and while Satin certainly likes and respects Jon (as a Heroic Bastard, Jon defends fellow "outcasts"), there is not much evidence of this being anything but platonic.


Fanfic based on Live Action TV

  • Spock often ends up being the uke in Star Trek Slash Fic. There's a reason for that (well, it's good enough for fangirls, anyway) -- in "Amok Time", Spock complains that he didn't think pon farr would apply to him as a half-Vulcan. This implies he hasn't experienced it before, which, in turn, implies he is a virgin. However, Kirk is far more frequently ukefied than Spock, especially in pon farr fics, where Spock is usually shown going into a feral predatory mating frenzy. Apparently, this somehow affects Kirk's personality too.
  • Power Rangers has a fan series called The Zedd Chronicles in which Tommy Oliver (yes, THAT Tommy Oliver) gets a bit of this. He's mainly very sensible, but you can easily see how he's the 'woman' in the relationship.
  • Very popular with Jack/Ianto authors in the Torchwood fandom, despite the fact that in canon Ianto gets more and more badass as the show goes on. That is, until his sister questions him about his relationship with Jack in Children of Earth.
  • Calling all Supernatural writers. Yes, Sam, Dean, and Castiel might be woobies, but that's because they have more than enough reasons to. None of them would get weepy over a cut and need tender "brotherly love" because of that.
    • Castiel warrants special mention. To wit: fandom likes to portray a Castiel that cries at the drop of a hat, is slightly more vulnerable—emotionally and physically—than a thirteen year old girl, and is prone to descriptions more befitting of a puppy or kitten. Mind you, this is the same angel who, in the actual show, barely changes his facial expressions, takes stabbings, beatings, and explosions without batting an eye, and beats up his angelic brothers—and the occasional Winchester—with some regularity.
  • Simon Tam from Firefly tends to get this treatment, especially if he's paired with Jayne. The fandom seems to forget that he's an extremely gifted trauma surgeon, cunning planner, and essentially took on the entire Alliance to protect his little sister.
  • Happens to the Doctor of Doctor Who far too often. Okay, so he often seems to be a Chaste Hero, but he's also, in general, emotionally stunted and repressed (see: his definition of "all right" in "Forest of the Dead") and Minored in Asskicking. Ukefication is generally brought on by the Master or Jack Harkness.
  • If you think Glee fandom can't Ukeify Kurt Hummel, you haven't ventured into enough Puck/Kurt fics. While a good portion is actually good—keeping Kurt snarky, bitchy, and confident even while showing his soft and/or hurt side—a roughly equal percentage turn him into a weepy, whiny, clingy thing with less self-esteem than a mosquito bite and absolutely no spine.
  • In the majority of Big Time Rush fics, Logan is frantic, uptight and skeptic with good reason, but typically he's portrayed as a whiny wimp who reluctantly gives in (sometimes very reluctantly). The others are susceptible to this as well. There's a sorting algorithm of dominance which almost directly correlates to height; Kendall tops James tops Carlos tops Logan (results may vary). Kendall can even retain some of his natural seme qualities while biting pillows.
  • Merlin. Far too many authors seem to forget that he is actually a man, and a pretty badass one at that.
  • Greg from CSI gets this a lot. Despite the fact that the only time he's shed a tear on the show was when he had accidentally killed a teenager, got the crap kicked out of him, and had to tell the truth to his mother who he had been lying to for years. The fact that he's often the victim of this when he's paired with Nick, who's been reduced to tears at least three times to date, only rubs salt in the wounds.
  • Dr. Spencer Reid of Criminal Minds is practically the perfect uke—with rare exceptions, whenever he is paired in a slash ship, Reid is ALWAYS on the bottom, even when he is sexually confident. It doesn't help that his actor, Matthew Gray Gubler really does look kind of feminine, and that Reid already checks off most of Uke qualities. All fan fic writers don't really need to ukificate any further other than just putting in a slash ship.
  • Wilson and Chase from House. Or occasionally even House himself.
  • Matt, Mohinder, and specially Peter, from Heroes.
  • Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother fics. In canon, he's hyper-masculine, pushy, forceful, extremely insensitive, loud-mouthed, aggressively seductive, personal-space-invading, and specializes in actively getting women into bed, not the other way around, and hates losing control and is repelled by intimacy. With Robin, the nature of his canon feelings for her might excuse an exception, but most slash involving him is with Ted, which makes his ukefication even stranger, since nearly all his Ho Yay-ish moments with Ted (and there are a lot of them) involve Barney as the forward, demanding, overbearing instigator (which slashers can interpret as 'seductive') while Ted is either resistant or passive, and constantly finds himself helplessly overpowered or manipulated by Barney's charm. In fics, of course, Barney's often a weepy, delicate, emotional, clingy thing with virginal vibes who's sooooo hurt by any standoffish-ness from nasty old Ted/Robin/whoever's screwing him today. Perhaps fic writers think Neil Patrick Harris is just too good-looking to be in the "man's" position.


Fanfic based on Video Games

  • Fire Emblem has this in spades, the most common victims being Eliwood, Guy, Wil, Sain and Lucius of The Blazing Sword and Marth of the Akaneia series. It doesn't help Marth does display weepy uke traits in the OAVs, either.
    • In the Tellius verse, Soren gets this with no exception. Physically, he may look like one, but yaoi fans tend to forget about his personality. The justification they have for it, though, isn't present unless you get an A level Support between Ike and Soren, so it's a case of Flanderization as well.
    • Reyson, Naesala, and Zihark also get this in varying degrees.
  • Sengoku Basara fandom does this with frightening frequency to both Sanada Yukimura and Mouri Motonari. In the anime series, Yukimura regularly survives discipline from his mentor that creates new land formations, sets people on fire with his fists, fought Honda Tadakatsu to a standstill, and deals with a young lady being preyed on by Eldritch Abominations in a polite but very emphatic way. Most doujinshi and fanfic has him whimpering and crying while Date Masamune takes his innocence. As for Motonari... the less said about his disposition, the better. Anybody attempting to top this guy would do well to watch out for a razor hula in the ribs, if not a strategically-placed bear trap.
    • Yukimura is a curious case as people often have him crying and whimpering when it's him taking Masamune's innocence (or what remained of it, anyway), or at least until they get around doing the nasty. It's probably the effect of his youthful naivete combined with an emotional and open personality.
    • Also, Ishida Mitsunari, an extremely disturbed and violent man with a frightening temper that snaps at any given opportunity; the fans make a point of playing him as a Troubled but Cute Tsundere in desperate need of a good lay from his nemesis Ieyasu (whom Mitsunari makes it his raison d'etre to murder) to put him in his place and turn him into a blushing, fluffy kitten.
  • Happens to Damon Baird in Gears of War Slash Fics. After all, who cares about being in character when it gets in the way of hot sex?
  • Pretty much every yaoi fic ever written involving Final Fantasy VII does this to either Cloud or Vincent. Yaoi writers seem to love taking the Iron out of Iron Woobie.
    • Pairing a character with Sephiroth is pretty much a guarantee that the character will be Ukefied out the wazoo. In less frequent Sephiroth/female character pairings, she is usually reduced to a weepy, ineffectual Damsel in Distress regardless of any canon badassery on her part. One exception is when Sephiroth is paired with Genesis. Then it's usually Sephiroth who undergoes the Ukefication.
  • Sora and Roxas, in Kingdom Hearts end up on the wrong side of this trope when they're paried up with Riku and Axel, respectively. Naga Eyes is a particularly infamous case.
    • Several of the Organization XIII members get this too. Here's a list of the worst examples;
      • Demyx and Zexion seem to be the biggest targets. they both get paired with all the other members, and almost always end up as the ukes. Zexion seems to be the bigger victim of this, seeing as how when he gets paired with Demyx he usually gets portrayed as the uke.
      • Marluxia is an unusual example of this, most Fan Fic that he's in portrays him as Camp Gay, even if it isn't Slash. It seems to be because of his pink hair and control over flowers.
      • Even Saix isn't immune! While most slash fics about him have him as the Seme, when he gets paired with Xemnas he becomes little more than a pet. Thanks to the discovery that both of them are possessed by Master Xehanort, the idea of any kind of sexual relationship between them becomes very creepy, regardless of who's on top.
    • Commented on, with other fanfic tropes, in Those Lacking Spines. There is an Ukenator 3000, and ukefication is mentioned by name. Quoteth Vexen as if it was a biological disease:

This state wipes the personality and demeanor of a victim completely clean, replacing it with one of complete and utter submission. This causes the victim to become weak, fluffy, emotional and utterly incapable of standing up for themselves, wanting only to be in contact with others to further spread the epidemic. It is quite frankly disgusting.

  • A significant amount of Metal Gear Solid Slash Fic tends to do this to either Otacon or Raiden. To be fair, both characters are audience surrogates, and since Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls and the Uke is meant to be the Audience Surrogate for a female audience, this was a predictable occurrence. However, that doesn't make it any less cringe-worthy.
    • Solid Snake gets it a lot too, but since this is mostly a backlash against the idea above it's usually handled with a little more style with him—used more for Woobie appeal than Unfortunate Implications. Not always, though.
  • In Tales of Symphonia fandom, this seems to have become the standard portrayal for Yuan, particularly when paired with Kratos. Never mind that Kratos is canonically submissive to the Big Bad for most of the game -- his outfit during that time is even modeled off Japanese bondage gear or that Yuan is a defiant Manipulative Bastard with what looks like they might be control issues: Yuan is prettier, so he gets to be uke.
    • In many Tales of Vesperia yaoi fics, Yuri, who literally has 14 Badass tropes applied to him, has a tendency to get this treatment, ESPECIALLY if paired with Raven or Flynn. Then again, this could be partially due to his appearance, which is even lampshaded in-game.
  • You'd think that Army of Two, a game that centers on teaming-up between two equally badass, equally competent, equally manly ex-Army Rangers who are now Private Military Contractors would be able to avert this trope. Unfortunately, what little Army of Two Slash Fic there exists happens to have a significant bias towards making Salem (the slightly smaller member of the duo) the receptive partner in any sexual encounter. In all fairness, Salem's characterization is rarely derailed into attitudinal submissiveness, but he's still made the "bottom" in sexual encounters more often than not because he's shorter than Rios. Because in real life, the taller dude always tops, and because the taller you are the more "alpha" you are, and sex is really about establishing a social pecking order rather than something that happens between two people that like each other. Not to mention the Fan Art which makes Salem into a Bishonen.
  • Left 4 Dead 2: Oh poor, poor Ellis... What has being paired with a narcissistic, shady conman done to you?
    • The Hunter goes from snarling and tearing out peoples' intestines in-game to being downright cuddly in many fan portrayals.
  • Assassin's Creed has a lot of this:
    • There's Ezio/Leonardo, where the distinguished artist/inventor suddenly becomes an uke.
    • Strangely enough, it can be either in Altair/Malik fics.
  • Team Fortress 2 has a funny variant in which both participants get Ukefied—Heavy/Medic. Heavy goes from being a big shaved bear that hates people to a cuddly teddy bear, and the Medic gets downgraded from a sadistic, bloodthirsty Back-Alley Doctor to a warm and caring lover. Of the two, Medic definitely gets it worse, though. In the fandom in general, the Scout also has a tendency to be Ukefied (which mostly has to do with the fact that he's small and skinny and has no facial hair).
    • Hello, Cuanta Vida. Our main character Assassin PMCs have way too many reservations about killing, and our lead Spy, Jordi, is a self-described coward who has never committed murder before arriving at Teufort. However, the fan comic does provide ample grist for those who suspect that the Scout's braggadocio is an ill-executed cover...
    • If someone's crated a work for the ship Sniper/Spy, it's likely that one of them will be ukefied - usually the Spy, but not always.
  • There are several fan works where Alex Mercer from Prototype gets this treatment.
    • Unless he is paired with Desmond Miles from Assassin's Creed, where "Desu" gets the treatment while Alex becomes a violently jealous Tsundere no truer to canon than his uke version. Don't expect the female characters or indeed, anything at all from either series to get referred to, even obliquely, if they get in the way of the sex. That includes Alex's body being composed top to toe of an insanely deadly disease.
  • Link from The Legend of Zelda franchise.
    • It's an elf thing. The fact that he dresses in what looks like a skirt doesn't help either.
  • Lucas from Mother 3 suffers a bit of this, especially when paired up with Ness.
  • The Furry Fandom may never get respect, but they'll certainly garner a lot less bile from the various corners of the internet once they stop doing this to Tails.
  • While the World of Warcraft fandom is far from being free of this — usually with some poor blood elf as the victim — the bickering ex-cops Asric and Jadaar seem to dodge the bullet quite neatly. (Then again, this may be because due to their personalities, Jadaar—who's a huge, hulking draenei—is usually presumed to be the uke.)
  • In the Pokémon fandom oddly enough the Memetic Badass/Memetic Sex God that is Red gets this when paired with Blue, Misty, or sometimes even Leaf.
    • Ash often gets this. Considering they're both borderline Keet in canon in contrast to the more hard-headed or stoic characters, it sort of makes sense.
    • More recently, both Hilbert (aka Touya or Black) and N have been hit with this. The latter's Bishonen looks don't help.
    • Sabrina has gotten hit hard with this. While she isn't the antagonist adaptations tend to put her as she's not quite a sobbing, blushing uke like fanart often has her as.
    • Silver tends to get this in spades recently in fanworks that pair him with Lance.
  • Despite the Fundamentally Female Cast, Touhou fandom is swimming in this trope, numerous Badass Adorables inflicted with anything from immobilising stuttering to complete submission and helplessness when faced with the character with whom the writer has decided to pair them. Turning Remilia (an ancient terror of the night with a habit of eating people) into a child with a Precocious Crush, or turning Alice (an antisocial hermit that prefers her dolls over people and possesses enough snark to challenge Marisa) into either a sterotypical Tsundere or a lovesick puppy are the most common, though enough searching reveals examples for nearly every character. Night Sparrow Love is probably the most famous example, and while well-written as an independent work it's difficult to remember that Mystia and Mokou are a con-artist and a borderline-Death Seeker respectively, not the blushing, Cannot Spit It Out sufferers that are depicted.
  • Garrus Vakarian and Thane Krios of Mass Effect are often subjected to this in a semi-rare het invocation of this trope whenever they're paired with a Female Shepard. But due to Fan-Preferred Couple status, Garrus gets it worse than Thane does.
  • Luigi. Yes, that Luigi. His canon personality may be soft and gentle and he may be a coward, but plenty of slashers have a nasty habit of removing the spine he does have.
  • Akechi Mitsuhide of Samurai Warriors frequently gets affected by this, especially when paired with Oda Nobunaga. While he is emotionally vulnerable, some writers seem to ignore his courage and determined defense of his beliefs in order to make him a spineless follower and devoted slave of the Demon King.
  • Akira of Togainu no Chi. Debatable and may or may not be justified or even exist depending on which route is taken. He starts off as a strong and confident fighter, with no need to rely on anyone else. When he encounters certain sex scenes, he becomes like a typical Uke. This is justified through excessive guilt from the death of Keisuke in Shiki's route.


Fanfic based on Web Original


Fanfic based on Western Animation

The entire Stan/Kyle dominance thing is also a tad strange, given it is true that, taking their personalities into account (Stan as the sensetive push-over and Kyle the blunt and stubborn smart guy), the two seemingly managed to switch roles in the eyes of the fandom. While some notice this and switch it around, they are in the small minority of the shipping community.
  • Happens not infrequently to Starscream, of all 'bots, in Transformers fic. A natural consequence of being frequently shipped with Megatron...
    • Also in the Transformers universe, Rattrap from Beast Wars suffers horribly from this.
  • 2D from Gorillaz has this fate due to the fact the he is described as a pretty, dumb, naive boy. Since he is most commonly shipped with Murdoc, well, he definitely gets to be the bottom.
  • Dib from Invader Zim got this so much someone on deviantART responded by making a club dedicated to making him the seme, with a corresponding club for the more traditional Zim-seme.
    • Purple also gets this in RAPR works, which Flanderize the fact that he's somewhat goofier than Red to ridiculous extremes.
  • Believe it or not, this actually happens often to Noah from Total Drama Island. Cody sometimes too, although he's fairly uke in canon to begin with.
  • Poor, poor, |Woody...
  • The title character of Ben 10 gets a lot of this. Any fanart featuring him and arch-nemesis Kevin 11 will recieve a "Ben looks so seme!" comment.
  • Rex of Generator Rex, mostly when paired with Van Kleiss.
  • Toki and Skwisgaar. Despite the brutal nature of the show, it's extremely rare to find a fic that doesn't write either or both of them as weeping, self-harming schoolgirls who only need the healing light of cock. Charles and Pickles occasionally suffer from this, though it's usually Pickles and his family problems that turn him into a submissive, spineless, crying uke, bonus points if there's incest with his scumbag brother, Seth.
  • Edd from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy gets hit with this. He gets turned from a sensitive guy to an all-around stereotypical uke; often with an exaggerated Edd, Eddy, or Kevin as the seme. Eddy gets this to, sometimes even when Edd is the Seme; though typically when he's paired with Kevin or sometimes Ed. He gets turned from his brash normal self into a blushing Tsundere. Occasionally Jimmy will also turned into a uke, though he's similar to the Butter's examples, even with Sara, listed above and has become more masculine (or at least aggressive) over the series.
  • Oh Danny Phantom, why are you so ukefied?
  • Robin from Teen Titans often gets this when paired with Slade. Canonically, he's a serious, if somewhat Hot-Blooded, and capable leader. In Slash Fic, he's often written as naive and submissive.
  • Pietro Maximoff(Quicksilver) from X-Men: Evolution. True, he is a lot more feminine, and also fits the stereotype of the traditional uke more than his usual slash partner Lance(Avalanche). But that doesn't mean he needs to turn into a weepy teenage girl in so many Lance and Pietro fanfics.


Fanfic based on Real Life

  1. ↑ because it's all he consumes aside from beans for energy for durations of time
  2. ↑ because of his abusive prostitute mother
  3. ↑ because he does that while jumping out of a window on the fifth floor of a building
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