History UnintentionallySympathetic / Webcomics

* A web comic by artist Mallorie Jessica Udischas depicts her AuthorAvatar laughing at LetsPlay/PewDiePie being burgled, then a new colleague of hers points out TheGoldenRule, and she sarcastically responds that they're going to be great friends. Many people who read the comic agreed with "New Guy" over her, and [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/new-guy started producing fan-art emphasizing his wholesomeness and empathy]].

* ''Webcomic/FiveNightsAtFreddysLostSouls'': Golden Freddy has started to evoke that reaction in readers from Night 5 onward. He's meant to be an antagonist, but many readers found themselves sympathizing with him more and more, especially when he started to be contrasted against the far less fleshed out Kelly. His dislike for teenagers and adult humans is given a very good reason in his own side story ''Crybaby'', his love for the Fazbears and desire to protect them is revealed as genuine, if misguided and possessive, and while he does do some reprehensible things, like telling Cody he'll hurt Bridget, he ultimately doesn't truly want to hurt anybody (until Night 6, anyway).

** Tootsie describes Alexandria Dairy's board of directors as "goons who only care about the bottom line" just because they were losing trust in Alejandra's capacity to lead and pushing for an investigation on her, actions that couldn't be further from plainly reasonable, since Alejandra was wasting their money for petty, personal reasons and taking the moral high ground simply for not going all in with her risky projects after starting them.

** Very little is known about the nameless female mouse who was seen in the chapter "Wrath of the Wolf King" that [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment lashed out at Drake]]; She might've come out of a very abusive/strict/controlling relationship where the guy insisted on doing everything for her instead of letting her live. That sort of thing can leave one with raw, easily-frayed nerves when faced with things that reminded of past situations when Drake opened the door for her.

* Naylor's prior series, ''Webcomic/BetterDays'', has Lucy's former college housemate, Rachael. Rachael is portrayed as a shallow, obnoxious party girl who [[TheFriendNobodyLikes annoys the rest of the housemates]] and cheats on her boyfriend, Tommy. While her cheating is understandably condemned, it's hard not to feel a bit sorry for her when Lucy decides to counter this by immediately stealing Tommy for herself, taking him into the woods, and giving him a blowjob, then ''laughing'' about it in Rachael's face when she finds out. Rachael is dragged up several times in later chapters, once in which she begs Tommy to return to her only to be coldly brushed off and another where Lucy sees that Tommy based the [[TheVamp over-sexed]] evil sorceress BigBad of his D&D game after her (which Lucy agrees is completely appropriate). It gets worse when despite Rachel being condemned as an evil cheater, a later storyline has Lucy herself considering cheating on Tommy just because she feels trapped being in a monogamous relationship (which was pretty much why ''Rachael'' philandered - she wanted to have fun before tying the knot with Tommy), and the same people who hated Rachael just are mildly concerned about Lucy possibly putting her relationship in jeopardy. She ultimately doesn't go through with it, but the amount of sympathy she's shown compared to Rachael is pretty jarring.
** When Lucy tries for a broadcasting internship, there are two girls she competes against. One is an incredibly, cartoonishly unethical journalist. The other... tells bad puns. This is played up as an incredibly annoying trait and a reason to dislike the girl, even though quite a few other characters tell bad jokes without getting nearly as much flack for it, she has no other dislikeable things about her shown, and she's believed to have been drawn simply as a TakeThat to a real-life person who annoyed Naylor online.

* Angelica from Jay Naylor's ''Webcomic/OriginalLife'' was meant to be the personification of everything the author didn't like. She ended up being the most likeable character in the entire strip, especially because everyone else is such an unrepentant tool to her, she comes across as TheWoobie.

** Very little is known about the nameless female mouse who was seen in the chapter "Wrath of the Wolf King" that [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment lashed out at Drake]]; She might've come out of a very abusive/strict/controlling relationship where the guy insisted on doing everything for her instead of letting her live. That sort of thing can leave one with raw, easily-frayed nerves when faced with things that reminded of past situations when Drake opened the door for her.
* In ''WebComic/GoblinHollow'', Penny gives a {{jerkass}} preacher a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, only to be reprimanded for it and slapped by Lily. We're supposed to see Penny as the bad guy, but to people who don't share Ralph Hayes Jr's beliefs that religious authorities must be respected no matter how unpleasant they are, she comes across as the victim instead.

** When Lucy tries for a broadcasting internship, there are two girls she competes against. One is an incredibly, cartoonishly unethical journalist. The other... tells bad puns. This is played up as an incredibly annoying trait and a reason to dislike the girl, even though it's not like the other characters tell bad jokes, she has no other dislikeable things about her shown, and she's believed to have been drawn simply as a TakeThat to a real life person who annoyed Naylor online.

* In ''WebComic/GoblinHollow'', Penny gives a {{Jerkass}} preacher TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, only to be reprimanded for it and slapped by Lily. We're supposed to see Penny as the bad guy, but to people who don't share Ralph Hayes Jr's beliefs that religious authorities must be respected no matter how unpleasant they are, she comes across as the victim instead.

* Syphile from ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' is treated like TheWoobie by many fans, despite her mistreatment of Ariel since the latter was only an infant and treating many of her friends and servants poorly. This is due in part to her background as a WellDoneSonGuy to her adoptive mother Quain'tana, who she was never able to satisfy, and the apparent abuse she suffered at the hands of Sil'lice, because she was tainted (and to top it off, the only reason she became tainted was to please Quain'tana, who then immediately rejected her). The author said that she was "not meant to have much redeeming features, she lost them all over time. I wouldn't portray her as anything else", but [[spoiler:given her death]] it's obvious that a lot of people felt for her. This is further compounded by the ContinuitySnarl of the canon, where certain elements like stories where Quain'tana explicitly beat her or Sil'lice and Mel'arnach raped her are no longer considered canon. In other words, she certainly wasn't treated well, but not nearly as horrifically as was formerly portrayed.
* Angelica from Jay Naylor's ''Webcomic/OriginalLife'' was meant to be the personification of everything the author didn't like. She ended up being the most likeable character in the entire strip, especially because everyone else is such an unrepentant tool to her, she comes across as TheWoobie.

* Pablo, introduced in ''The Fall of Little Red Riding Hood'', came across as way more sympathetic than the sociopathic, cold-hearted protagonist, mostly due to [[HumiliationConga all the crap]] [[GenderBender he's put through]] in the story. Naylor apparently never intended for readers to like him, so he made a follow-up comic where he pines for Mary Ann Huckleberry -- who completely ignores him while having sex with a well-hung horse -- while espousing his personal philosophy of selflessness (which is supposed to be despicable, by Naylor's Objectivist standards). It only made him even more tragic and relatable.

* Naylor's prequel, ''Webcomic/BetterDays'', has Lucy's former college housemate, Rachael. Rachael is portrayed as a shallow, obnoxious party girl who [[TheFriendNobodyLikes annoys the rest of the housemates]] and cheats on her boyfriend, Tommy. While her cheating is understandably condemned, it's hard not to feel a bit sorry for her when Lucy decides to counter this by immediately stealing Tommy for herself, taking him into the woods, and giving him a blowjob, then ''laughing'' about it in Rachael's face when she finds out. Rachael is dragged up several times in later chapters, once in which she begs Tommy to return to her only to be coldly brushed off and another where Lucy sees that Tommy based the [[TheVamp over-sexed]] evil sorceress BigBad of his D&D game after her (which Lucy agrees is completely appropriate). It gets worse when despite Rachel being condemned as an evil cheater, a later storyline has Lucy herself considering cheating on Tommy just because she feels trapped being in a monogamous relationship (which was pretty much why ''Rachael'' philandered - she wanted to have fun before tying the knot with Tommy), and the same people who hated Rachael just are mildly concerned about Lucy possibly putting her relationship in jeopardy. She ultimately doesn't go through with it, but the amount of sympathy she's shown compared to Rachael is pretty jarring.

* Jim from ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'': According to a tweet from the author, she intended to portray him as a [[EntitledToHaveYou hypocritical]] DoggedNiceGuy - unfortunately there were several problems with his portrayal:

* Jim from ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'': According to a tweet from the author, she intended to portray him as a [[EntitledToHaveYou hypocritical]] DoggedNiceGuy, unfortunately there were several problems with his portrayal:
** In one of his first appearances in "Members Only" (aka Guys' Night Out) had him confiding in Angel about how he seemed to either be invisible to women, or easily glossed over as soon as they saw another guy, and that only other guys and lesbians seemed interested in talking to him... only to then realize that he's sitting by himself.
** The scene that followed the aforementioned tweet put him next to Chris who was just bragging about getting laid with Melody, [[StrawLoser painting him as a loser]] to whom it's okay to rub in its face that you are getting what he is not, and if that was not enough, when Jim snaps for this he is then portrayed by other guys as making the false dichotomy that since a Nice Guy can't get laid, then all guys who do must be Jerkasses

** After the webcomic ended, during the colored re-release of the strip, the author, Danielle Corsetto, admitted in the comments that Jim's characterization came out a little too sympathetic, and that she wished she would have conveyed more clearly what was wrong with him.
* Shawn and the other "carnist" in Webcomic/VeganArtbook. He's meant to be viewed as annoying troll with an addiction to meat and an irrational hatred of Vegans. However he and the other carnist [[StrawManHasAPoint usually make points more centered in reality than the story's heroes.]] He's also shown to be a tolerant person when it comes to other topics and his hatred of the vegans is hardly illogical given how violent and fanatical they are in the comic.
** Ditto with Bunny for being the only Vegan in the comic who tolerates meat eaters and isn't a violent lunatic. The narrative treats this like its a bad thing.

* A somewhat silly example in ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}''. The writer decided to do a joke mini-arc about [[WhatMeasureIsAMook Combine soldiers mourning the death of a comrade.]] The entire thing is utterly ''wreathed'' in {{Bathos}}, which is much of the joke; the gag is that members of the Combine Overwatch are inhuman cyborgs and it makes no sense for them to have loved ones, much less [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes adorable little kids]] who are ''literally wearing tiny [[GasMaskMook Combine uniforms]]''. However, since the comic brings in so many cliche elements of tragedy and coping with loss, it went all the way around and a lot of readers found the death of Frank oddly heartrending.
* ''Webcomic/SlyCooperThiefOfVirtue'' has atleast two characters; [[HeroAntagonist Chief Director Dominic Torus]] and [[OneSceneWonder a nameless]] [[StrawFeminist female mouse]].

** Very little is known about the nameless female mouse who was seen in the chapter "Wrath of the Wolf King" that [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment lashed out at Drake]]; She might've come out of a very abusive/strict/controlling relationship where the guy insisted on doing everything for her instead of letting her live. That sort of thing can leave one with raw, easily-frayed nerves when faced with things that reminded of past situations when Drake opened the door for her.

* A somewhat silly example in ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}''. The writer decided to do a joke mini-arc about [[WhatMeasureIsAMook Combine soldiers mourning the death of a comrade.]] The entire thing is utterly ''wreathed'' in {{Bathos}}, which is much of the joke; the gag is that members of the Combine Overwatch are inhuman cyborgs and it makes no sense for them to have loved ones, much less [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes adorable little kids]] who are ''literally wearing tiny [[GasMaskMook Combine uniforms]]''. However, since the comic brings in so many cliche elements of tragedy and coping with loss, it went all the way around and a lot of readers found the death of Frank oddly heartrending.

** Ditto with Bunny for being the only Vegan in the comic who tolerats meat eaters and isn't a violent lunatic. The narative treats this like its a bad thing.

* Syphile from ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' is treated like TheWoobie by many fans, despite her mistreatment of Ariel since the latter was only an infant and treating many of her friends and servants poorly. This is due in part to her background as a WellDoneSonGuy to her adoptive mother Quain'tana, who she was never able to satisfy, and the apparent abuse she suffered at the hands of Sil'lice, because she was tainted (and to top it off, the only reason she became tainted was to please Quain'tana, who then immediately rejected her). The author said that she was "not meant to have much redeeming features, she lost them all over time. I wouldn't portray her as anything else", but [[spoiler:given her recent death]] it's obvious that a lot of people felt for her. This is further compounded by the ContinuitySnarl of the canon, where certain elements like stories where Quain'tana explicitly beat her or Sil'lice and Mel'arnach raped her are no longer considered canon. In other words, she certainly wasn't treated well, but not nearly as horrifically as was formerly portrayed.