Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Difference between revisions

* [[Values Dissonance|To a non-Japanese audience]], Momotaro from the [[Wartime Cartoon|World War II propaganda film]] ''Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors'' comes off as a [[Complete Monster]] rallying [[Beware the Nice Ones|adorable]] [[Killer Rabbit|animals]] together to go to war and brutally kill British soldiers.

* Haruna from '' [[Tenchi Muyo!|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.

* ''[[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 [[What the Hell, Hero?|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. [[You Keep Using That Word|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.

* The early ''[[Pokémon]]'' episode "Challenge of the Samurai!" has [[Character of the Day|Samurai]] constantly shame and browbeat Ash for not taking responsibility for his blunders, such as failing to catch a Weedle and allowing that Weedle to rile up a swarm of Beedrill that end up kidnapping his Metapod. The problem is, Ash's "blunders" are mistakes ''Samurai'' made in the first place. ''He'' stopped Ash from catching the Weedle by demanding a Pokémon battle at swordpoint, making it his fault that an angry Beedrill swarm are attacking them. But the episode treats Ash owning up to Samurai's mistakes as him learning his lesson as opposed to resigning himself to being the victim of Samurai's self-righteous [[Never My Fault]] mentality.

 

== Comic Books ==

*** As if it wasn't bad enough that Zinnia endangered Earth by helping Team Aqua/Magma trigger an apocalypse so she could get Rayquaza to swoop in and save the day, she does it ''twice''. And the second time she does it, she severely undercuts whatever good intentions she has by acting like a rude and condescending [[Smug Snake]] who deliberately sabotages safer attempts at preventing a meteor strike so she can act morally superior to Professor Cosmo and Steven, who had no way of knowing that their plan to transport the meteor to another dimension would have endangered that dimension's Earth in return. She also commits several acts of assault and burglary on top of that, and had it not been for sheer dumb luck, her plan to summon Rayquaza to destroy the meteor would have backfired and gotten everyone killed. And yet she's never taken to task over her actions, making her come off as worse than Archie and Maxie, who at least genuinely repented when they saw what their actions led to.

*** Depending on the game, Matt or Courtney start causing trouble to avenge their boss, who's bummed out after their defeat in the main campaign. While it isn't right, it's at least understandable. But what's a lot less understandable is the fact that they deliberately try to [[Disproportionate Retribution|'''destroy the world''']] over it. Despite inexplicably turning into [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]] on par with [[Pokémon X and Y|Lysandre]], they get off with a slap on the wrist and ''their bosses'' are the ones who have to apologize for their sudden descent into batshit insanity.

** In theory, {{spoiler|Chairman Rose}} from ''[[Pokémon Sword and Shield]]'' is a sympathetic, if misguided [[Anti-Villain]] whose patriotism and fear for the future cause him to take extreme measures to protect the Galar region from an impending energy crisis. But the attempts at making him sympathetic fall flat, not because he's too evil or crosses any major lines... but rather, because he's dangerously ''stupid''. {{spoiler|Galar's energy crisis isn't going to be a problem for '''thousands of years''', yet he's so impatient and eager to use the vicious Eternatus as an energy source that he can't wait ''a single day'' to execute his master plan in a way that ''won't'' endanger an entire stadium of innocent civilians despite Leon's warnings}}. The fact that he ''is'' deeply remorseful for what he's done to the point of turning himself in to the police takes the edge off a bit, but a lot of players still feel that he comes off looking like an impatient dumbass instead of a noble [[Tragic Villain]].

* Rocket Raccoon from ''[[Guardians of the Galaxy (2021 video game)|Guardians of the Galaxy]]'' is presented as a [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|lovable asshole]] whose heart is in the right place, but [[Jerkass|the execution]] makes it hard to like him, let alone love him. He constantly whines, bitches, and complains about everything Peter "Star Lord" Quill does, and won't hesitate to throw tantrums that compromise the team's missions. ''Every single time'' the Guardians hit a snag in their plans he'll chew out Peter, culminating in him {{spoiler|''briefly ditching the team'' in the middle of an important mission}}, and even after {{spoiler|he rejoins}} he'll still loudly complain and tear into Peter over the smallest thing. While you can have Peter call him out at multiple points, he often doubles down on his obnoxious behavior and [[Never My Fault|never genuinely apologizes for the way he acts]], making him feel like every bit the manchild that Peter is often accused of being.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

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[[Category:Audience Reactions]]

[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]

[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]

[[Category:Accidental Trope]]