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Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Difference between revisions
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* [[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.
* [[Broken Base|For many viewers]], Mahiru Inami of ''[[Working!!]]''. We're supposed to feel pity because [[Does Not Like Men|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, [[Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male|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 [[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.
** Sasuke seems to be meant to be seen as a morally gray character being led down the wrong path by his obsession with revenge, but to a number of fans his [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]], recent descent into mass murder of Samurai he could have easily defeated non-lethally, and callous disregard for how many people have to suffer for his own emotional satisfaction has caused a number of fans to consider him a [[Complete Monster]] that does not deserve Naruto's goodwill.
** 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.
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* Bella from ''[[Twilight (novel)|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 [[Settle for Sibling|only marries Rosaura de la Garza to be close to her sister Josefita aka Tita]] (who's stuck as [[The Dutiful Son|The Dutiful Daughter]]), heavily neglects Rosaura which furthers her increasing [[Jerkass]]ery and ultimately destroys [[The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry|her and Tita's already shaky relationship]], causes poor Tita quite the misery as well (and [[What the Hell, Hero?|she doesn't forget to call him out on it]]), and years later {{spoiler|bullies and pressures Tita when [[Nice Guy]] Dr. Brown shows interest in her}}. (Not to mention, [[Parental Neglect|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]]'' . Her first husband spends the first few months of their marriage waiting on her hand and foot, but when he eventually starts expecting her to pull her weight around the farm she [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|runs off with the first young hottie she sees]]. She even tells her grandmother that Husband #1 is completely incapable of ever being loved by ''anyone''...because he's ugly. Her issues with Husband #2 are more legit, but even then it's hard to sympathize—unlike Husband #1, he doesn't want her to do any work much, but she just complains more about being bored and how the little work she has watching the store is too much math for her poor little head. Then she tells him off ''on his deathbed'' and at one point blames all her problems on her dead grandma, who told her not to run off with Husband #2 in the first place. Jeez!
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{{quote| '''Cartman''': I'm not just sure: I'm HIV positive.}}
* In ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'', [[Base Breaker|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 [[Fridge Horror|are never confirmed to have gotten out alive]]). [[Your Mileage May Vary|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 [[Love Redeems|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]] [[Surrounded by Idiots|living in a world of idiots]], but he's so arrogant and [[Anvilicious|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 [[Flanderization|flanderized]] since then, with Brian coming out more sympathetic in their encounters, hasn't helped.
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