History UnintentionallyUnsympathetic / Literature

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' where the protagonist, John Rumford, is cashiered out of the US Marines when making a principled stand... by refusing to let a woman Marine honor the dead of Iwo Jima. Because, you see, no women fought at Iwo, therefore no woman deserves to honor the dead as a Marine. This is his character introduction, by the way, and it only goes downhill from here.

* Bella Swan from ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', whose helplessness, constant whining, frequent disdain for other people, and lack of any real problems cause many to regard her as little more than a whiner. Ditto for her love, Edward, who is so smug and perfect that it's hard to care about any emotional issues he has.

** Wizarding society as a whole falls into this a fair bit. They treat things like love drugs or vicious pranks as something on par with a kick-me sign and consider wiping memories en masse or employing a SlaveRace to be similarly harmless. The government is hopelessly corrupt and ill-functioning, and the school isn't that much better. While some of these issues, such as anti-Muggleborn or anti-werewolf prejudice, are depicted as legitimate problems in their society, others are casually said and done by heroic characters and meant to come across as quirky or silly rather than wrong. One of the most commonly stated criticisms of the epilogue is that despite the cheerful tone and the claim that "all was well," [[StatusQuoIsGod nothing substantial really appears to have changed]] and the whole thing comes off like an EsotericHappyEnding.

* ''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'':
** In ''The Stingray Shuffle'', entertainment troupe members Andy, Frankie, Dave, Jeff, Saul, and Spider are portrayed as downtrodden, amiable underdogs who (minus Saul, who dies of a stroke) get a happy change in circumstances in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue. This is in spite of how (unlike one or two of their friends) they are completely indifferent toward their hypnotist Preston's penchant for using his craft to subject women and teenaged girls to a BedTrick ploy (although Spider has the excuse of being under hypnosis himself, causing him to fixate on other stuff throughout most of his page time).

* Zoey and her friends, in ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'' series. The group as a whole are supposed to be [[CoolLoser outcasts known as "the nerd herd"]], but it's hard to see them as that when all of them are given extra-special powers directly from the vampire goddess. All of them have a tendency to be pretty rude to each other (most often it being the Twins ''constantly'' making gay jokes at the expense of Damien and Jack), which is meant as friendly ribbing but doesn't really come across as such. Zoey herself is extremely judgmental, dubbing many female characters (including ones we never even see in the series) as "sluts" and "hos", constantly making disparaging comments about the behaviors or appearances of people in various groups (this includes, but is not limited to, goths, emos, chess club members, cheerleaders, people who use too much eyeliner, people who smoke marijuana, women who give blowjobs, people with bright red hair, girls who take dance class, and ''homeless people''). She's incredibly shallow, constantly focusing on outward appearance first and foremost. She constantly complains about suffering stress from the various hardships she has to deal with, but she does virtually nothing to solve the problems herself. Instead, she waits until the end of the book, when Nyx magically tells her what to do and gives her the powers to do it. When we see her meeting her mother on her birthday, she constantly reacts in a condescending manner, and makes no effort at all to reach her mother halfway on any attempts made to bond with her.

* Bella Swan from ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', whose helplessness, constant whining, frequent disdain for other people, and lack of any real problems cause many to regard her as little more than a whiner. Ditto for her love, Edward, who is so smug and perfect that it's hard to care about any emotional issues he has.

* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': Carrie's massacre of so many students is considered In-Universe to be a massive tragedy, though it's unclear if the reader is meant to agree. But many people who read the book or watch the movie adaptations don't feel particularly bad for them, since a lot of them either were mean to Carrie or didn't bother to help her. It doesn't help that many of them might have laughed at Carrie's anguish, which finally set her off.

** Cho in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. The reader is obviously supposed to feel sorry for her because [[spoiler: her boyfriend Cedric died]], but she comes across as a demanding and whiny brat who [[ThereAreNoTherapists hasn't sought out any help in dealing with her current emotional situation]] and repeatedly ''demands'' that Harry talk with her about it, despite him not ''wanting'' to talk about it, because [[spoiler:he not only also saw Cedric die, but also was fearing for his own life at the time ''and'' has been suffering from PTSD and nightmares of being back in the graveyard]] and bringing it up in every situation won't help. The fact that Cho sees nothing wrong with the fact that her friend ''ratted everyone out'' to Umbridge, which had the consequence of Dumbledore being forced to leave Hogwarts among other things makes her come across as selfish and incapable of seeing her part in it. After all, ''she'' was the one who dragged the friend, who didn't want to partake because it endangered her families career, to the meetings.

* Okonkwo, the protagonist of ''Literature/ThingsFallApart'' is meant to illustrate both the good and bad sides of the rich Igbo culture that was destroyed by the European colonists. But he seems to have far, far more of the bad side in him, given he's a racist, sexist control freak with few to no redeeming qualities who [[spoiler: savagely beats his own son after they convert to Christianity, causing them to leave the family]] and whose actions are looked down on by his fellow Igbo. The finale of the book, meant to be tragic or at least an AlasPoorVillain moment can instead come across as justice being served.

* Bella Swan from ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', whose helplessness, constant whining, frequent disdain for other people, and lack of any real problems cause many to regard her as little more than a whiner. Ditto for her love, Edward, who is so smug and perfect that it's hard to care about any emotional issues.

*** There's a scene in ''Breaking Dawn'' where the Cullens invite a bunch of vampires into town and give them keys to their cars so that they can feed on humans from out of town, because apparently their friends murdering people is okay [[RuleOfEmpathy so long as they don't know the people being murdered.]]
** From the latter half of ''New Moon'' and on, Jacob generally becomes this. His endless pining after Bella, even though it's obvious she'll always choose Edward over him, makes him come across as pretty dense (and also raises the question of what he finds so great about her that he constantly returns for more abuse). In ''Eclipse'' we're meant to feel sorry for him for being rejected, but he becomes unlikable when he continuously guilt-trips Bella into showing affection for him. This reaches its peak when, upon finding out she got engaged to Edward, he threatens to let himself die in battle if she doesn't kiss him... and then complains mid-makeout session that she's not putting her all into it. Any sympathy Jacob still has is lost in ''Breaking Dawn'', when he becomes infatuated with a baby. Thanks to convenient superfast aging, she ''[[YoungerThanTheyLook looks]]'' 17 by the end of the book, but he's still [[WifeHusbandry helping to change her diapers while planning to later make out with her, making him look like a pedophile grooming an infant for sex.]] Which he is. Naturally, this is presented as romantic.

* Joane Walker from ''Literature/TheWalkerPapers''. While admittedly having a metric ton of very good reason be sullen, cynical, and [[RefusalOfTheCall unwilling to take up her]] [[BecauseDestinySaysSo intended calling of Shaman]], the way she was written comes off as bitchy, idiotically immature, and obstinate out of spite towards the world, and her redeeming qualities are there just to artificially induce sympathy.

* Emerald “Emry” Blair in ''Literature/OnlySuperhuman'' is presented as a BrokenBird, but all her pain in self-inflicted. She spent several years as a juvenile delinquent and mod-gang member called Banshee. This was a rebellion against her father, who was once a member of the Vanguard habitat-nation. However while the other members were legitimate victims of AbusiveParents she ran away because she blamed her father for her [[FailureToSaveMurder mother’s death]]. While they just wanted some place to belong. Her recklessness SerialEscalation not only nearly led to two of her friends death but the death of an innocent person. Since it was entirely her fault her MyGodWhatHaveIDone didn’t hold much water.

UnintentionallyUnsympathetic in {{Literature}}.

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* In the first two or three ''Literature/{{Evernight}}'' books, Adrian is intended to be a [[ParentsAsPeople flawed yet loving parent]] to Bianca, but there are times - particularly in ''Stargazer'' – when he borders on being emotionally abusive. His [[OverprotectiveDad overprotectiveness]] of Bianca tends to manifest as constantly lying to her, treating her like a child (while also criticizing her maturity) and dismissing her concerns or opinions on important matters. Bianca's mother Celia can also be overprotective but she at least tries to understand where Bianca is coming from and makes an effort to meet her halfway, while Adrian snaps her at for so much as disagreeing with him, says Bianca has no choice about becoming a full vampire with no room for discussion, and criticises her friends simply for being human. He also gets angry because his daughter may or may not be having a sexual relationship with Balthazar, even though she's almost eighteen, he's been actively encouraging a relationship between them (which is a bit creepy considering that Balthazar is actually older than his own wife) and it's really none of his business. When Bianca cuts her parents off because of the lies they told her, Adrian has the nerve to act like she's just being a typical rebellious teenager over a 'little thing' [[spoiler: like ''lying to her about what she is her entire life'']], and even tries to guilt trip her by telling her how much she's 'hurting' her mother, with little acknowledgement of much ''Bianca'' might be hurting from all this.[[labelnote:spoilers]]For context, they never told Bianca they conceived her by making a bargain with the wraiths, who now seek to claim her as one of their own (which involves killing her). Her parents knew all along the wraiths would come for her and have been endangering everyone around her, but they hoped she would just unquestioningly become a full vampire without ever finding out. They also never told her that if she didn’t become a vampire, she’d inevitably become a wraith, which she and her loved ones find out the hard way[[/labelnote]] Luckily, he redeems himself in the fourth book by immediately and unconditionally accepting Bianca after [[spoiler:learning she's a wraith]].

* ''Searching for David's Heart'': On one hand, given her circumstances, we're supposed to feel sorry for Darcy throughout the story; on the other hand, she often displays selfish, sometimes callous, and overly {{Wangst}}y behavior towards her equally-unsympathetic friends and family.

* In Krystal Sutherland's ''Our Chemical Hearts'', Martin and Mary Sawyer are [[SmallRoleBigImpact minor but important characters]] whom the narrative treats as near-saints, which ignores the fact that situations becoming as bad as they did was [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom largely their fault]]. To elaborate, [[spoiler:they adopted their son Dominic's girlfriend Grace to get her away from her abusive mother, but a few years later, Dominic was killed in a car accident, which traumatized Grace and caused her to blame herself. The Sawyers continue to provide for Grace, which only feeds her feelings of resentment toward herself as she feels she doesn't "deserve" their love, and sets out to deliberately ruin her own life, up to the point of physically mutilating herself, to repay what she sees as a "debt" to him, with her mental health only growing worse after she falls for the protagonist Henry despite not being finished grieving for Dom. The Sawyers are, apparently, entirely content with letting her flagellate herself, and it's [[ThereAreNoTherapists never even mentioned if they found her a therapist]]. We're supposed to see both Henry and Grace as having entered their relationship for selfish, unhealthy reasons]], but not once are the Sawyers called out for their own selfishness and neglectfulness.

* In ''The Firebrand'', a wife argues with her husband about his decision to kill their newborn son, who is prophecied to bring doom upon their city. It's a justifiable point, but her arguments are ridiculously, unnecessarily, misandrist. Apparently their son should live because she's a woman and she says so - not because they love him, or it would be the right thing to do.

* In ''Black Blade Blues'', this is a bit of an issue. It's not a problem with Sarah herself, whose HairTriggerTemper and [[{{Gayngst}} discomfort with her own sexuality]] are clearly intentional issues for her to work through even before a magic sword starts ramping up her aggression, but it is a problem with her girlfriend Katie in the early parts. Katie seems to have realised that Sarah has a lot of unresolved issues from being brought up by [[TheFundamentalist a misogynistic Christian fundamentalist]] in a selection of homophobic small towns, but basically expects Sarah to just kind of spontaneously ''get over'' them, because apparently Sarah has access to little dials marked "Internalised Homophobia" and "Childhood Trauma" and can just turn them down whenever. (Katie does get more sympathetic later, but that's because Sarah starts to go seriously off the rails.)