Unintentionally Unsympathetic

When a character's supposed insecurities or embarrassing quirks are supposed to inspire sympathy, but fail to impress the audience because they're mishandled or plain written badly.

This is generally reserved for unpopular traits such as being overweight or being a nerd, both of which tend to be grossly exaggerated on television (see Hollywood Pudgy and Hollywood Nerd) and usually have nothing to do with anyone who might have such problems.

Sometimes these are humorous things in a character's past dredged up to embarrass them. This is supposed to make the character more human without affecting their present "perfection."

Often a problem with The Scrappy and some varieties of Mary Sue.

This is the opposite of Unintentionally Sympathetic.

See also Law of Disproportionate Response.

Examples of Unintentionally Unsympathetic include:

Advertising

• One series of Hoover ads portray their new vacuum as a reward for neat freaks. Except the neat freaks depicted seem to have mild OCD or Molysmophobia. An Australian run of hand sanitizer ads makes the same mistake, marketing the Dettol hand sanitizer to the 'signing a credit card slip with your elbows' market.
  • Ditto for that newfangled no-touch soap dispenser. Right, so's you don't contaminate your hands with any icky germs just before you, y'know, wash them. Anyone that unreasonably terrified of germs doesn't need to be catered to with a no-touch soap pump; they need professional therapy to help overcome an apparently Howard Hughes-level case of germophobia.

Anime and Manga

• Famously, Neon Genesis Evangelion has Shinji Ikari. As Evangelion is a Deconstruction of all things Super Robot, Shinji is insecure, weak-willed, shy, and unstable, as opposed to the stereotypical Hot-Blooded pilot. While plenty of fans see Shinji as The Woobie, just as many find him annoying and Wangsty and wish that he'd suck it up and start being a badass warrior. Of course, these audience members are either missing the point or taking umbrage with the You Suck that Shinji forces them to acknowledge.
• To a non-Japanese audience, Momotaro from the World War II propaganda film Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors comes off as a Complete Monster rallying adorable animals together to go to war and brutally kill British soldiers.
• Haruna from Tenchi Forever is supposed to be a sympathetic Anti-Villain; a woman dead before she can live her romance with the man she loves and whose soul feels so alone, than she is trying to recreate this love story with the grandson of her former lover. What many viewers see is a bitch who kidnaps, brainwashes and rapes a teenage boy.
• For many viewers, Mahiru Inami. We're supposed to feel pity because she can't help but punch any man that comes across, but that's something really hard to sympathize with, especially as she doesn't seem to do much to fix it. She also gets a romance plot with the main guy that is supposed to be endearing, but fails because it just looks abusive (and when the guy complains about being punched, he's the one shown as the bad guy).
• GE - Good Ending has Yuki, one of the main protagonists in the series. A good part of the manga is spent trying to get Utsumi, the protagonist, help her deal with her Broken Bird issues, only to have her throw everything out the window by asking him to rape her, in order to overwrite the bad memories she had with her previous boyfriend. Utsumi calls her out on it, so she dumps him because he's always too nice to her.
• Naruto falls into this sometimes as well. Similarly, the Belated Backstory of the legendary "Salamander" Hanzo, the ninja against whom the Sannin won their titles by surviving a battle with him sets Hanzo up as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who lost sight of his goals but is honored in defeat by his rival as a man who strove for peace. By starting a lot of wars and turning his homeland into an unlivable hellhole that produced the most psychologically broken, defeated human beings in the series, just because he was arrogant enough to think his strength could unite the world. Most fans still consider Hanzo an utterly unsympathetic character whose violent death at Pain's hands was richly deserved, as his claim of good intentions didn't make him any less of a paranoid warmongering dictator.
• A rare case of this trope being held by one of the development staff instead of audiences regarding a character occurred with Pokémon 3 via Molly Hale. Takeshi Shudo after reading a copy of the screenplay for the movie written by Sonoda and learning that the woman accompanying Spencer Hale back to the estate in the end credits was supposed to be Molly's mother, ended up stating that she came across as a child psychopath rather than a truly tragic character as a result due to Sonoda fundamentally misunderstanding what he intended to convey with the film and making clear he would never have gone that far to get a mother. This also acted as one of the reasons why he stopped making Pokémon movies afterward (the other being he was suffering from a severe illness that affected him for the rest of his life, which was also the reason the credits turned out the way it did).
  • On a similar note, it also ended up making Spencer Hale this as well in the Japanese version, since he was spending time trying to find the Unown and neglecting Molly and his wife (who was hospitalized). This probably explains why the English dub changed his motivation for seeking the Unown to him trying to find his wife after she disappeared during a prior attempt at locating the Unown.
• For lots of yuri fans, Chikane Himemiya from Kannazuki no Miko. She whines and wangsts about Himeko, steals her First Kiss when she's sleeping and then causes her lots of emotional and mental distress, is creepily touchy-feely towards a girl from the archery club and to her maid Otoha (who is in love with her, and Chikane knows it), and ultimately sexually (and emotionally/mentally) abuses Himeko as a part of her Thanatos Gambit to "release" her from her destiny.. The audience is supposed to like her and think she's a desperate girl who loves Himeko enough to do horrible things for her, but for many she's actually a gaslighter and abuser who sees Himeko as a sort-of thing to possess, sexually abusing her because she considers Himeko too weak to face the Awful Truth and thinks it's okay to take away near all of her agency regarding it.. Even more so, all the other Orochis faced extremely cruel things in the past like sexual abuse (Corona), orphanhood (Girochi), faith crisis due to war (Sister Miyako), work exploitation plus disillusionment (Reiko), parental abuse (Tsubasa and Souma) and experimentation (Nekoko). . . whereas Chikane is a rich girl who's been extremely sheltered and privileged in comparison, only "suffering" due to her thoughts on Himeko and their bonds.

Comic Books

• This proved to be a huge problem with the character Magog in DC Comics. When introduced in Kingdom Come he was a caricature of the worst part of 90's heroes, and was fairly popular for it, as he seemed so pathetic and remorseful. When he was brought into the main DC Universe he was given a huge push and eventually added to the Justice Society of America and later given his own series. He was shown to be a war veteran with PTSD, but proved to be so unlikable and mean to his teammates that he was eventually killed off in Justice League Generation Lost.
• Virtually everyone in Civil War. The Pro-Reg side may have become tyrants but the Anti-Reg wasn't easier to root for, freely committing mass destruction. It was one of the many critiques of the book's Idiot Plot.

Fan Works

• Many a Draco in Leather Pants fanfic can elicit this reaction. The writers clearly want the audience to root for their precious cinnamon roll(s) but Ron the Death Eater is actually pretty reasonable and hasn't done anything worse than Draco. Throw in the Protagonist-Centered Morality and Designated Hero that these fics live on and Ron seems to look better and more sympathetic than in their canon media.
• How I Became Yours is supposed to be about Star-Crossed Lovers Zuko and Katara missing each other and their happy reunion once he realizes his mistake in not pursuing their relationship post-series. However, Zuko is already married to Mai and cheats on her with Katara, fathering a child and risking ruining his reputation as Fire Lord for having an kid with a Waterbender and not his legal wife. Mai hides Katara's letters about the baby, and while this isn't exactly the best way to deal with it, she's the one seen as in the wrong for trying to protect her husband's reputation, to the point that Zuko throws her to the ground when he finds out and he's still supposed to be seen as the hero. Katara herself does nothing but mope and whine even as Sokka, Toph, and the Bei Fong estate servants knock themselves out to keep her happy, makes her unborn baby's death all about her, and later kills Mai in cold blood!! But the audience is supposed to be rooting for the pair to live happily ever after, with Sokka even calling Katara a hero for killing Mai via bloodbending (something that, were she mildly IC, would horrify her). Is it any wonder more readers felt sorrier for Mai than they did for any of the main characters?
• The Voltron: Legendary Defender fanfic Across The Multiverse features Akira Kogane/Keith traveling said multiverse desperately seeking his happy ending with Takashi Shirogane/Sven/Shiro after the latter is killed in the original Beast King GoLion 'verse. Simple, right? Except from the very beginning, Akira is selfishly obsessed with his and Takashi's love to the point where Takashi's death is all about him. Not once does he consider the others' feelings (especially Isamu, Hiroshi, and Takashi's brother Ryou who were affected most by the loss). The most unselfish thing he does is encourage Isamu to give Princess Fala a Love Confession, and even then it's only to get Fala off his back. He then tries to kill himself to find Takashi again, only for the Space Goddess to be disgusted by his selfishness and curse him to never earn that happy ending. Akira, now Keith, proceeds to throw himself across every Voltron continuity to find his lover, whine when it doesn't go his way, get super jealous when others MAY be interested in him, see said lover die after not loving Keith back (in what can easily be seen as a "punishment" FOR not falling in love with him), die AGAIN to keep chasing after him with no regard to his friends' feelings, and finally "sacrifice his own life" in the Legendary Defender continuity to seemingly protect Allura (which due to circumstances makes next to no sense). Instead of learning his lesson about not being a selfish twit who believes he's entitled to Shiro's cock, he's rewarded with Shiro and Honerva teaming up to fix it all better so the lovers can have their perfect happy ending (at the expense of Shiro's canon husband Curtis, who's mocked for being upset when Shiro dumps him for Keith). It's hard to feel any sympathy for him when his behavior is the exact opposite of Akira or Keith's in any incarnation of the franchise.
• Cori Falls's portrayals of her "heroes" Jessie, James, and Meowth are this trope to the letter. In canon, the trio do have sympathetic backstories: Jessie was poor and her mother was very much career-first before she outright disappeared looking for Mew, James grew up in a Gilded Cage with unsympathetic parents who engaged him to a junior dominatrix, and Meowth was abandoned as a kitten and had trouble finding real friends and family. Cori's fics take these backstories up to eleven by throwing all manner of angst and traumas at the trio, particularly Jessie. Unfortunately, the trio are also unrepentant in their self-righteousness, blaming their life choices and actions on anyone but themselves-especially poor Ash Ketchum, who becomes their walking target for violence and malicious hatred for daring to want to protect his Pokemon from them. Worse, during Stage 2 of Cori's fics, Jessie and James fight constantly over every single setback and go into It's All About Me mode over each other's issues! At least one sporker of the fics has pointed out the heavy Unfortunate Implications in this arc.
• The Ace Attorney epic Turnabout Everlasting does this to pretty much every main character except for Iris and Larry. To wit:
  • In order to protect Maya from Kristoph Gavin, rather than simply explaining things to her and asking her to lie low while he fakes their breakup, he begs Iris to pretend she and him are dating and breaks up with Maya for real. To Maya's credit, she does try to distract herself and move on, but Phoenix does nothing but wangst and mope over the loss of his true love. Later, he and Maya take forever to get it together as they keep running from each other and arguing. It makes their reunion less of a heartwarming moment than a "finally, this dumb arc is over with." Though Mia's spirit does eventually call Maya out on still making Phoenix feel badly about the whole thing later on, and she's able to make it up to him.
  • Franziska is a Clingy Jealous Girl over Edgeworth having slept with Lana Skye long before she and him were even together, and the two constantly fight about it. She miscarries one child, the second is stillborn, and she runs away from Edgeworth because she can't handle the grief and she's still butthurt over Lana. To be fair to her, losing children is painful as hell, but she lets her jealousy and wangst get in the way of trying to smooth things over with her lover so they can work through the tragedy together. Edgeworth, rather than immediately going after his lover and trying to smooth things over as soon as possible, sits and wallows in his own angst...while also criticizing Phoenix for doing the same regarding his situation with Maya. The fic is not yet finished, and the two still have yet to get their shit together as of the latest chapter!
  • Pearl Fey begins a romance with Luke Triton (the story uses the Professor Layton crossover as part of its canon) and they're your basic lovey-dovey couple...until Iris and Larry's wedding, when he catches Iris's garter and Pearl catches the bouquet, which according to tradition they'll be the next to get married. Naturally, Luke is stunned and hasn't been thinking about marriage, since he and Pearl are still teenagers. Pearl throws a hissy fit and runs away, and Mia's ghost appears, demanding to know Luke's intentions with Pearl. Because he didn't immediately swoon at the idea of marriage, the boy needs to be given a shovel talk rather than, say, Pearl needing a talking-to about not pressuring her teenage boyfriend into marriage so quickly.
  • Iris and Larry avoid this mainly by virtue of their romance being a side arc, plus they seem to behave more naturally than the main characters. When Iris is called a slut for liking Larry when she's supposedly dating Phoenix, it's easy to feel bad for her when she cries because it's hardly her fault Phoenix dragged her into some stupid ruse. Larry also shows sympathetic angst over his status as the known troublemaker and it's obvious he truly loves and cares for Iris, not pursuing a relationship with her because he doesn't want to be a homewrecker. When the two finally get married, it really feels like they earned that happy ending.
• Played with in The Transformers fanfic Crossfire and Consequences. The plot is kicked off when a group of humans who have taken to watching Autobot/Decepticon battles up close get accidentally vaporized by a stray shot of Bluestreak's. Given that the story does lampshade how idiotic the vaporized humans were, it's unclear how sympathetic the author intended them to be, but some reviewers made clear that they had no sympathy for the vaporized humans, noting that they were literally Too Dumb to Live.
• Rose Tyler in Through Trials and Tribulations. While there is ample reason to feel sorry for her, namely her mother being lost to her in another universe, there's also much reason to scorn her given that she seems to indulge in wangst and often goes out of her way to invoke Poor Communication Kills, refusing to tell the Doctor, her soulmate, about very important things, such as every cell in her body rewriting itself, simply because the plot demands it. After a while, she seems to be whining too much for anyone to really care about her.
• This Fire Emblem: Three Houses kink meme prompt turns the female Byleth into this by design. She chose the Black Eagle house but carried on an affair with the underage Dimitri, who fell madly in love with her. When he decides to go back to Faerghus, she quits her teaching job and abandons Edelgard to go with him. This is after Edelgard confided in her about her troubled past, too. While Byleth can canonically choose to side with Rhea after getting both C and C+ support with Edelgard, by this time she knows Edelgard is the Flame Emperor who's been causing danger around the monastery and is deciding she wants to protect multiple people who gave her a job and a place to stay. In this prompt, she's thinking with her crotch instead of her brain and running off with the beautiful prince, while abandoning a girl who trusted her. And she's meant to be a romantic heroine.

Film

• In Unstoppable, main character Will Colson's wife has a restraining order against him keeping him from being able to see his son. The reason for the restraining order is because he suspected his wife was cheating on him, then gets upset when she won't submit to his spot check of her cell phone, grabs her violently, pulls a gun on a police officer and friend of his because he suspects he's sleeping with his wife, and she's not even cheating on him. Because he one of the heroes of the movie, we're meant to sympathize with him and want him to get back together with his wife, despite the fact that he could easily be the villain in a Lifetime Movie of the Week.
• In the Christian propaganda film Rock: It's Your Decision, the main character is meant to come off as a good Christian trying to steer clear from the "sins" of rock and roll and save others from it, but instead he comes off as a closed-minded and bigoted Jerkass to anyone who doesn't share the same values and interpretations of Christianity as the protagonist (and even then in some cases, as many Christians have no difficulty reconciling their faith and an enjoyment of secular entertainment).
• The Beast during the climax of Beauty and the Beast. When the angry mob of villagers invade his castle, his Heroic BSOD results in him doing nothing to defend his territory or servants, who jumped into the fray for him and would likely have been left alone if they hadn't moved. While understandably saddened about Belle leaving and his decision to put her happiness above his own, it is somewhat jarring that he won't defend the closest people he has to friends.
• A more infamous case of this occurring was in the first Toy Story, specifically in the Black Friday reel. Although it's unclear whether the toys, or especially Woody, were intended to be sympathetic to begin with in the Black Friday version, it nonetheless had them being depicted, as John Lassetter and the other Pixar staff stated when covering its development and the Black Friday reel mentioned that the story that resulted from Jeffrey Katzenberg made the principle characters of the story, especially Woody, as being "the most unhappy, mean people" and were clearly embarrassed with the result. In particular, Woody not only deliberately attempts to murder Buzz by throwing him out of the window, but he also was clearly shown to have zero remorse for doing so and even verbally abusing his toys as well as overall being far more snide in his dialogue. This in fact was part of the reason why the film nearly got cancelled and Pixar nearly ended up shut down, with one of their first steps in redoing the film being to tone Woody back down to being how they originally envisioned him and making sure his actions are framed in such a way that the audience actually cares enough about Woody to try to tell him not to do his bad actions rather than dismissing him as an unsympathetic jerk (one notable change was Woody having Buzz fall out the window by accident).
• The Apocalypseburg citizens in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, we are supposed to feel sorry for them when Armamageddon happens and they are all sucked into the black hole. However considering they blamed Emmet at the start for Lucy, Unikitty, Benny, Batman and Metalbeard to be kidnapped, ignore Emmet's Rousing Speech to go and rescue them and just cruelly slam the door in his face leaving him to do it all on his own and causing the Bad Future where Emmet becomes Rex Dangervest. Instead of them actually deciding to make their own rescue mission that doesn't involve Emmet, they just stay behind doing nothing and carrying on with their lives as if nothing has happened flat out abandoning the ones who got kidnapped why they were mad at Emmet in the first place. Hard to feel too much sympathy for them when they get swallowed by "Armammagedon".
• There have been a lot of cases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but Cap's retirement at the end of Avengers: Endgame is the big one. While the film frames it as Earn Your Happy Ending, to many fans it came off more as a rather selfish abandonment of all his friends and responsibilities, undoing his character arc of moving on, if not blatantly contradicting his Undying Loyalty to Bucky, while negating all of Peggy Carter's own Character Development for the sake of Steve's own happiness. As some fans and reviewers pointed out, both Thor and Tony also confronted lingering issues about their past over the course of the film, even speaking directly to the loved ones whom they had Parting Words Regret with, but moved on. Steve by contrast, decided to abandon everything after simply seeing Peggy again. And if one subscribes to the theory that Steve was Peggy's husband all along, rather than changing time, this means he willingly turned a blind eye to all the tragedies that befell his friends.
• Obi-Wan and to a lesser extent Yoda come across as this a bit in Return of the Jedi thanks to them being unable to appreciate the intense emotions that Luke is going through when they say he has to kill Darth Vader (his biological father). Fourth Wall Myopia also plays a role here as the audience knows that Vader is having doubts about turning Luke over to the Emperor, whose own Evil Plan calls for Luke to try and attack him, but Obi-Wan and Yoda do not.
• Jonathan Kent in Man of Steel. He asks Clark to not use his powers out of fear that the government would hunt him. But to most fans, it came off more as Jonathan telling his son not to save people.

Literature

• Bella from Twilight, whose helplessness, constant whining, frequent disdain for other people, and lack of any real problems cause many to regard her as an Anti-Sue. Ditto for her love, Edward, who is so smug and perfect that it's hard to care about any emotional issues.
  • The Cullens in general could count. They are held up as the epitome of generosity and goodness. Even so, they generally are cold and anti-social to anyone who isn't another vampire or Bella, they are hostile towards the werewolves even though some (for example, Alice) never even met the werewolves before, and they are perfectly fine with letting vampires that do drink human blood hang around the area. Apparently their desire to protect humans only counts as long as they themselves are killing, and so long as the human isn't Bella. Also, every one of them except for Carlisle has killed at least once in their past, and recollections of said murders are generally treated as embarrassing incidents that are swept aside.
• Pedro from Like Water for Chocolate. He only marries Rosaura de la Garza to be close to her sister Josefita aka Tita (who's stuck as The Dutiful Daughter), heavily neglects Rosaura which furthers her increasing Jerkassery and ultimately destroys her and Tita's already shaky relationship, causes poor Tita quite the misery as well (and she doesn't forget to call him out on it), and years later bullies and pressures Tita when Nice Guy Dr. Brown shows interest in her. (Not to mention, he barely seems to acknowledge his and Rosaura's children unless it's needed for the plot.) So, Pedro is supposed to be Tita's One True Love and the right guy for her... why?
• Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God is this to modern readers, who see her as flighty and fickle regarding her husbands, especially the first one whom she married expecting him to wait on her hand and foot. She also runs away from him when he mistreats her, but is fine with her second husband Tea-Cake hitting her.
• Liv Walden in Danika Stone's All the Feels. We're supposed to feel bad for her because her favorite character died, her stern mother grounds her from fandom, and her best guy friend is dating a girl she hates. In reality, Liv is a Loony Fan who puts her entire life on hold to mourn the dead character to the point where she lets her grades drop, and the guy's girlfriend is actually a sweet person who just wants to be friends with her. On top of that, the actor who played her fave just wanted to move on from the role, so he's understandably pissed when her "he's alive" movement starts the production crew begging him to reprise it. But Liv runs off sobbing when he rightfully calls her out, and the actor is made to look like an asshole.
• April and Marcus in Spoiler Alert, but especially April. She nurses lifelong grudges against her parents for their body-shaming of her, can't let go of some stupid comments her past boyfriends made about her weight or what she was eating, and spills her sob story to the Discord server for her OTP before demanding they "think of her and her feelings" before they write a fat character in a fanfic because if they do it wrong, she'll be sad. She's supposedly a strong, confident woman who's proud of her body, but she spends the entire book craving validation from Marcus and shunning everyone who criticizes her as "toxic."

Live-Action TV

• At the end of season two of Robin Hood, Guy of Gisborne stabbed Maid Marian to death, sending his Character Development and Redemption Arc back to square one. Season Three tried to turn him into a Heartbroken Badass, ignoring the fact that for a significant portion of the fanbase, he had already crossed the Moral Event Horizon when he stabbed Maid Marian to death and thus forfeited any right to the goodwill of the audience. Even the actor hated him.
  • On the same show, the death of Kate's brother did not carry the emotional weight it should have done thanks to Kate's refusal to utilize common sense in her repeated attempts to rescue him. The writers were going for "headstrong" and "impulsive" in their characterization of Kate — unfortunately, all they really managed was "stupid." The ridiculous swinging between Wangst and trying to romance Robin didn't help her either.
    • And the cherry on top is the fact that Kate's brother was killed by Guy, resulting in a scene in which the audience has no reason to care about anyone involved.
    • And the cherry on top of that cherry is that depending on how you see it, Kate is at fault as well for the murder. he died because she got captured trying to get him out of the army and he died trying to save her. Some fans wonder if he might have survived had she just left him in the army.
• Cirilo Rivera from Carrusel. His unrequited crush on Maria Joaquina sometimes bordered on obsession. He never stalked her — let alone hurt her — but he did not give up on her no matter how much she turned him down. And let's face it — she was out of his league, which has NOTHING to do with their being of different races or even socioeconomic statuses; she, well, just didn't like him that way. But he would not stop, and kept showering her with gifts and attentions that she clearly didn't want and either upset her or creeped her out. Viewers were supposed to take Cirilo's side... but Maria Joaquina ended up being the one often favored by the audience instead, since in practice, nobody blamed her for not loving a kid that clingy (and borderline creepy) back.
• In the old series All in The Family, viewers are supposed to see Archie as unlikable, as he's a bigot and a rude, loud, nasty person. This means that in the frequent arguments he has with his son-in-law Mike, you're supposed to side with Mike. Problem is, Mike was something of a jerk too, his left-wing Liberal views often just as extreme - and just as absurd - as Archie's right-wing Conservative views. Worse, it's made clear that Archie is just a product of the time he was raised in, while Mike uses his liberalism as a way to appear superior to others, including his own wife. Ironically, Mike's extreme leftist views ended up making Archie look Unintentionally Sympathetic to such an extent that viewers actually rooted for Archie by default, enough that Archie Bunker was immortalized at the Smithsonian.
• Maya Hart in the Girl Meets World episode "Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels." The conflict is kicked off because Lucas called Maya short and Riley didn't stand up for her. Given that Maya regularly insults Lucas without any provocation, with Riley never standing up for him when Maya does so, you'd think she could handle one insult fired back at her. Not helping matters is everyone pointing out that Maya is short, and that Maya has never shown any angst about her height in the past so it seemed to come out of nowhere.
• Jade West from Victorious. It's generally implied that she's jealous of Tori because the new girl has caused her to become Always Second Best. Given that Tori always helps Jade out of a truly petty series of problems that were Jade's own doing (such as salvaging Jade's toxic relationship and producing Jade's play) and all could have been avoided if Jade had any impulse control or common sense, it was somewhat hard to root for her.
  • "The Worst Couple" was a good example. Everyone is supposed to feel bad for Jade because Beck, her boyfriend of two-plus years, broke up with her but she acted like such a mega-bitch to everyone that the question was less "Why would Beck want to break up with her?" and more "Why hasn't Beck broken up with her?"
• Doctor Who:
  • As part of the Hype Backlash/Values Dissonance that she accrued, much of what Rose Tyler did proved off-putting to later viewers. In Series 1, she was an Entitled to Have You Hypocrite towards both the Ninth Doctor and Mickey (who was accused of murdering her when she missed a year and Rose never apologized for that). When she's trapped in another reality, where she has a now obscenely wealthy version of her father, all she's concerned with it returning to the Doctor, even working on a way to return before the Dalek threat rears its head. To many viewers, she came off as ungrateful, selfish and spoiled.
  • The Ninth Doctor to some. While he had a Freudian Excuse, some viewers found him a wangsty It's All About Me Jerkass who insulted anyone who blinked funny.
  • The Tenth Doctor, Mr. Martyr Without a Cause, didn't come across too well in "The End of Time", reacting with open outrage that he had to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, something that none of his predecessors or successors did. The 2013 specials did do a bit to address this with the retcon that the Tenth Doctor was the Doctor's penultimate incarnation, explaining why he was reluctant to use up his final regeneration.
  • River Song in "The Wedding of River Song." In the name of saving the Doctor, she causes every point of time/space to collapse causing untold trillions to suffer in agony, yet River outright says that she'll suffer more than any of them if the Doctor dies. Her punishment? Get married to the Doctor and voluntarily be locked in a Cardboard Prison.
• Jughead is often a recipient of this in Riverdale. He has good intentions but he's often overreacting to incidents that no one else considers important or championing for the cause of someone who doesn't want his help (the Southside Serpents were against his crusade to keep Southside High open and had to be convinced to aid him).

Newspaper Comics

• Anthony from For Better or For Worse, so very very much. You're supposed to feel sympathy for him because his wife doesn't want their baby and he "doesn't have a home," but not only is it irritating, it rubs in the fact that he harassed her into have a child she didn't want in the first place. He lost even more ground when it came to light that he even promised that he would stay home with the kid, but had no intention of keeping that promise because he expected the magic of motherhood to kick in and somehow make his wife want to quit her job (which was heavily implied to make more than his did) and raise the kid anyways. But she's supposed to be the bad guy for wanting him to keep his promise and because she's not maternal. It doesn't help that she was suffering obvious postpartum depression in all but name.
  • Recently, almost everyone in the strip has begun to qualify. They're bitchy, selfish, and utterly unlikeable. April (the supposedly bratty teen who sasses her parents by...asking nicely if she can do her homework instead of eating dinner at the table) is the only Patterson readers actually liked by the end.

Video Games

• One of the biggest criticisms of The Last of Us Part II faces is that, despite its numerous efforts to the contrary, Abby is stunningly unlikable and unsympathetic. While just about everybody understands why she would want to kill Joel, the fact that she actually goes through with it, the insanely vicious and sadistic manner she does it in, her lack of remorse and her overall mean & ruthless personality (including gleefully attempting to kill a pregnant women) destroys a lot of the sympathy the player may feel for her. It also really doesn't help that she basically gets away scot-free at the end, while her friends all suffer Ellie's wrath and Ellie herself ends the game with her life in ruins.

Western Animation

• South Park parodies this numerous times. For instance, when Eric Cartman contracts HIV he constantly reminds people of it for sympathy, and any time something bad happens to Cartman, he attempts to milk sympathy and fails.

Cartman: I'm not just sure: I'm HIV positive.

• In X-Men: Evolution, Lance's romantic subplot with Kitty starts with him saving her life — from an accident that he caused. He had also previously attempted to attack Kitty, and due to the nature of his powers, he tends to cause a lot of collateral damage (sometimes near schools populated by children who are never confirmed to have gotten out alive). To some people, all this makes it kind of hard to believe that Kitty would want him for a boyfriend. This also puts him in the somewhat unusual situation of being a common victim of both Ron the Death Eater AND Draco in Leather Pants.
  • A weird inversion actually happens because of this. The time Avalanche did attempt a Heel Face Turn, Scott doesn't buy it and proceeds to mistrust him. This is made out to be wrong of Scott, except, he is completely justified in mistrusting him: Lance was actually his biggest rival and had pulled crap on him and others before. While we (as the audience) knew that Lance was trying to do good things for Kitty's sake, Scott simply lacked such knowledge since Lance had given him reason to be antagonistic, and thus it's understandable to have him not trust Lance off the bat, and it would've been Out of Character otherwise.
• Brian from Family Guy. The audience is obviously supposed to feel sorry for him since he's a Starving Artist living in a world of idiots, but he's so arrogant and prone to dropping anvils that he just comes off as a Jerkass.
  • Ironically, when Quagmire called him out on everything in one episode, he became unintentionally unsympathetic, as many found it hypocritical for Quagmire to be saying these things to Brian and felt he had no right to. That his hatred for Brain got flanderized since then, with Brian coming out more sympathetic in their encounters, hasn't helped.
  • Lois in the episode "And I'm Joyce Kinney." Lois befriends the titular news anchor and trusts her with her secret of having made a porn movie in college. Joyce promptly betrays her trust and announces said secret on the evening news, causing Lois to be ostracized by the town and humiliated to the point of tears. Poor Lois, right? Not really, for two reasons: One, this is post-Flanderization Lois, who treats her family and random strangers like shit just because she can. Two, back in high school, popular Lois played a humiliating prank on a chubby Joyce, and this was Joyce's revenge. It's hard to feel sorry for her when she hides crying in her room over the whole thing.
  • In the episode "Peter-assment", Peter's boss Angela starts sexually harassing him and eventually demands he sleep with her. She's initially portrayed as in the wrong for it, but when he rejects her, she tries to kill herself. He saves her, and then she begins to cry about how lonely she is since she hasn't been with anyone in ten years. It's supposed to make her behavior more understandable and sympathetic, but as Mr. Enter pointed out in his review, she's been trying to force herself on a married employee who clearly doesn't want her. Her weeping and wailing about how much her life sucks because she can't get laid doesn't change this.
• A few of Ben 10‍'‍s villains happen to be this following their redemption. One example is Kevin 11. While the series reasons away why he became evil (partly because of his upbringing and partly because absorbing electricity makes Osmosians become psychopaths), he was willing to murder hundreds of people for money in his first appearance.
  • Another example is the Highbreed. While admittedly they were suffering from a terrible disease that was killing them, it was still rather baffling that their attempted extinction of every other race in the galaxy was forgotten about after Ben cured them and they turned good.
  • Ben himself got this in Ben 10: Omniverse. They tried to bring back his Idiot Hero qualities but took it too far to the point that Ben came across as a selfish thrill junkie.
• Cree Lincoln from Codename: Kids Next Door fits this perfectly. While there are people who treat her like a Draco in Leather Pants, she's utterly loathed by the fanbase because of this. While is pretty clear she's a treacherous villain, we're supposed to sympathize with her because deep down loves her heroic little sister Abby/Numbuh 5 and wants to reconcile with her. Except she spends all the time treating her like CRAP, tries to kill her numerous times, and all her supposed Pet the Dog moments get destroyed by the next episode. If that wasn't enough, she wants to reconcile with her on her own terms, meaning coercing Abby into pulling a Face Heel Turn without any concern for her feelings whatsoever. And yet poor Abby still loves and cares about her, even when she repeatedly proves she doesn't deserve it.
  • What makes her particularly loathsome is that her status as a villain does NOT excuse her abusive behavior towards her sister. Many other villains who are supposed to be worse than her (Mr. Boss, for example) treat their fellow family members with love and respect, even if they're on the heroic side. Heck, it goes to the point Father himself is considered far more sympathetic by comparison!
  • However, it's hinted the reason for her behavior is due to being unwillingly corrupted, and her moments with her sister being the last traces of conscience she has left. If this proves to be true, she would be instead a Tragic Monster, averting (or at least downplaying) this trope.
• Gravity Falls may have characters that are considered sympathetic but these are the ones that aren't, even though they're supposed to be:
  • Ford Pines, Stan's brother. He treated Stan like shit for years over a single mistake he made in their past.
  • The girls who get mad at Dipper in the episode for "flirting" with a different girl at every new tourist trap are this. He never even dated any of them, so their treating him like a cheating bastard is ridiculous.
  • Mabel Pines is generally a nice kid, but in the episode "Weirdmageddon" she's so obsessed with holding onto the summer and her childhood that she lets Bill Cipher start an apocalypse. Many fans also take issue with her treatment of Dipper in some episodes, feeling she gets her way at his expense too much.
• More or less everyone on The Simpsons has fallen victim to this at one point or another, such as when Bart is just a bit too much of a Jerkass to root for or Flanders' Nice Guy persona skews into condescending and sanctimonious. The most prominent recipients however are:
  • Lisa Simpson. While she's often very easy to sympathize with (being the Only Sane Man who suffers from Middle Child Syndrome), she can often be pretentious and pushy when it comes to her beliefs. "Lisa the Vegetarian" actually had her learn this lesson after she starts shaming other people for eating meat.
    • Her treatment of Bart is also a sore point with some viewers. While no one will deny that Bart is a brat and that Lisa is right to be angry at his meaner jibes, there are several episodes where she takes it too far. A good example is "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister." Bart was a jerk to her, sure, but that didn't warrant her getting the law involved just to keep him away when she could have just as easily asked her parents to step in.
  • Marge can often come across as this usually when she's embodying Moral Guardians and/or "Stop Having Fun!" Guys or a victim of Values Dissonance. In "Homer's Night Out" for example, she shames Homer for dancing with a belly dancer at a bachelor party, claiming he set a bad example for Bart. Discounting the fact that Homer didn't know Bart was there or took the photo, that's what you're supposed to do with a dancer. Homer's "crime" was being a perfect gentleman to the dancer.
  • Bart himself gets this now and then. Sure, it's easy to feel bad when Homer strangles him and people brush him off as a troublemaker when he tries to do good, but he's also done plenty of nasty things for kicks - even breaking the law on many occasions. Plus, half the time Homer strangles him is in response to Bart antagonizing him first.
  • Homer, too. He had a rough childhood, is overweight and bald, and is insecure about being hopelessly average at best, but he's broken the law even more times than Bart and can be incredibly selfish. The fact that the series is still on the air and he's had to learn the same lessons a dozen times by now doesn't help.
  • The most infamous case in the series however might have been the title character of "Homer's Enemy", Frank Grimes himself. Frank's Hilariously Abusive Childhood was sad but at the end of the day, that suffering had turned him into an Entitled Bastard who felt he deserved to be in a higher position than Sector 7G because of it. And while his frustrations at Homer were understandable, it's important to remember that Homer was constantly trying to reach out and befriend Grimes, even showing concern during his psychotic breakdown. Frank by contrast gave Homer a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in his own home in front of his own family.
• The human kids in the Season 2 finale of Transformers Prime. While Ratchet wasn't blameless, there's the implication that everything is his fault, something that fanfic writers take him to town over. However, Jack outright said that the kids had been sitting there for over an hour before the Decepticons abducted them. They could have gotten a ride home from their families or called Ratchet earlier. Not helping things is how entitled they, Miko in particular, seem in assuming that the Autobots, who were at the time trying to revive Cybertron, are their chauffeurs.
• Sam Manson in Danny Phantom. For all that she rants about no one respecting her individuality, she doesn't respect anyone else's. In "Phantom Planet", she's furious that Danny gave up his ghost powers for the sake of his friends and family and they're now stuck doing boring things. She's even invoked The Unfair Sex (spying on Danny's date with Valerie, but getting pissed when he spies on her and Gregor because he suspects Gregor is one of the bad guys).
• Amethyst had a notable moment in the Steven Universe episode "Too Far." After she'd encouraged Peridot to mock everyone else about their deep and serious issues, she takes great offence at Peridot doing the same to her. The episode ends with Peridot apologizing, justifying it as her not knowing that wasn't how things worked on Earth, but Amethyst knew Peridot didn't know better and egged on her insulting, making her come across as a thin-skinned bully who can dish it out but can't take it.
  • When Steven allows himself to be taken back to Homeworld by Aquamarine and Topaz in order to stand trial and face execution for his mother's rebellion against the Diamonds, he returns to an angry, distant Connie. The audience is supposed to sympathize with her because Steven giving himself up caused his loved ones all kinds of mental anguish, and was selfish since it implied that he had no faith Connie's abilities to help fight Homeworld. However, Steven was in a lose-lose situation where a ton of his human friends were at the risk of being killed by the sociopathic Aquamarine, and she was legitimately too powerful to fight seeing as how her wand could stop a powerful fusion like Alexandrite dead in her tracks, raising serious doubts about whether Stevonnie could actually do anything to help. Giving himself up to Homeworld so they wouldn't kill his friends was the only thing he realistically could do, and Connie comes off as the selfish one for being so slow to forgive him.
  • In Steven Universe: Future, Steven's mental health takes a turn for the worst when childhood trauma from his adventures manifests as violent PTSD. While it's sad to see him suffer, plenty of fans were infuriated by his refusal to talk to his friends and family, and instead blaming them for his problems when they went out of their way to get him to tell them what was wrong. When his mental health deteriorates and he grows more and more destructive, many fans believed he no longer deserved any sympathy.