History Main / UnintentionallyUnsympathetic

* ''Webcomic/PrincessPrincess'': Amira and Sadie are less sympathetic than intended to some people given how they incessantly mock Vladric, mostly calling him "Butthead" instead of his real name just because he was marginally stuck up, not wanting to be rescued by a girl. It comes off as just slightly like Claire, Sadie's older sister, who cruelly bullies her.

** RWBY, JNR and Qrow's collective actions towards Ozpin when the AwfulTruth is revealed in Volume 6. While they have every right to be angry, the depth of their aggression towards him shows no regard for [[spoiler:Oscar's innocence as Ozpin's host]], or the fact that they've been shown such a personal, tragic back story that Ozpin has been reduced to tears right in front of them: Qrow punches [[spoiler:Oscar]] as he disowns Ozpin; Yang's rage is complicated by the audience not knowing whether she's ever revealed the secret she's keeping about Raven; and Jaune slams [[spoiler:Oscar]] into a wall because he's so angry with Ozpin. Their behaviour towards Ozpin is exacerbated in Volume 7 when they decide to keep the same secret from Ironwood that Ozpin kept from them, leading to Ironwood eventually turning on them the way they turned on Ozpin.

Often a problem with TheScrappy, the DesignatedHero, or a poorly done JerkassWoobie. Even a regular [[TheWoobie Woobie]] character can fall victim to this if they are [[{{Wangst}} overly whiny]] or [[DramaQueen overly dramatic]] (essentially acting more like a SpoiledBrat throwing a temper tantrum than a ''real'' victim you can actually sympathize with).

When a character's purpose is to get sympathy or motivation from the audience which fails because their story or personality is written poorly. It can be made even worse if they have to learn a lesson. Without being at least somewhat invested in the characters, the audience might have passed the point of caring when the character finally comes around.

Just like with CursedWithAwesome, it can be hard to dredge up sad feelings for a character whose life is in every respect more glamorous (or at very least, more interesting) than the audience members'. True unintentional unsympathy is generally reserved for unpopular traits like being overweight or a nerd, both of which tend to be grossly exaggerated on television (see HollywoodPudgy) and usually have nothing to do with anyone who might have such problems.

In fact, victim characters[[note]]A regular, intentional victim, not an AssholeVictim.[[/note]] (who are poorly written) in general can become unintentionally unsympathetic just as much as villain characters. This is especially the case if they act like a major {{Jerkass}} or SpoiledBrat the entire time but the narrative tries to paint them as a "poor little sweetheart". Also, the audience may find it hard to sympathize with a character who is TooDumbToLive or grabs an IdiotBall and decides to [[DoNotTauntCthulhu taunt Cthulhu]] or [[BullyingADragon bully a dragon]] (especially if the said monster was just minding its own business and wouldn't have done anything had the victim minded their own business).

However it's important to note that there are varying degrees of this. For example in one scenario the audience may not sympathize with a character in a particular scene but they can still be overall sympathetic. Whereas in another situation it's impossible to sympathize with the character at any point.

Occasionally, ValuesDissonance comes into play. A legitimate cause for {{Angst}} in the country that it was produced might seem like {{Wangst}} to fans abroad, and what might be acceptable behavior in one country might lose a character a great deal of respect from fans in another.

* Don José in ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}''. He is tragic, yes, but he's still ultimately responsible for his actions due to his own jealousy and possessiveness. Yet the story seems to expect viewers to blame [[UnintentionallySympathetic Carmen]] for everything he does and treats him like a hapless victim rather than his own person. Cristiano Chariot, who oversaw the 2018 Florence production, was concerned that Don José's [[spoiler: killing of Carmen]] would lead to real-life {{crazy jealous guy}}s to commit similar crimes, which influenced his own take on it.

* Platform/GoAnimate "[[YouAreGrounded Grounded]]" videos: The parent characters who are punishing the troublemaking kids, particularly those of "baby show" characters like WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}} and WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer. The makers of these videos intend for the viewers to side against Caillou and Dora (who, truth be told, [[AdaptationalJerkass aren't exactly good-natured children they were in canon]] themselves) and with their parents. But in all honesty, the measures the parents take to teach Caillou and Dora their lessons often come off as [[DisproportionateRetribution overly cruel]]. Even so much as hitting a sibling can lead to getting grounded for an incredibly long time or even murdered (directly or indirectly) by their parents. Additionally, sometimes the parents do stuff without Caillou and Dora just to be mean (sometimes even before the kid has even caused any trouble) and, in extreme cases, even tell them to their faces how much they and the world hates them. In the end, the parents frequently come off as [[AbusiveParents incredibly abusive]] {{Jerkass}}es not worth rooting for over the [[JerkassWoobie Jerkass Woobies]] Caillou and Dora.

* ''Webcomic/FiveNightsAtFreddysLostSouls'': Kelly, ''Kelly'', '''''Kelly'''''. From the start the comic makes it clear that she's deeply distrustful of the Fazbears and that she carries some sort of grudge against them. This is implied to be the result of past trauma, most likely to do with the Fazbear murders or a springlock incident, making her pretty much a HeroAntagonist. However, this FreudianExcuse did nothing do endear her to readers, who primarily saw a massive {{Jerkass}} isolating and ruining the Fazbears' friendships with Cody and Bridget out of pettiness. This wasn't helped by her continued sour and cold behavior toward [[TheCutie Bridget]], down to deliberately traumatizing her by telling her the animatronics' DarkAndTroubledPast, in order to scare her away form them.

** Stolas is portrayed as a lonely poor little rich boy stuck in an AwfulWeddedLife and turning to his childhood friend Blitzo for affection, without any real acknowledgement that what he is doing to Blitzo is SexualExtortion; he exchanges SexForServices for access to the grimoire Blitzo cannot do his job without, and is within his rights to punish or kill Blitzo for stealing the grimoire in the first place, which Blitzo knows. In the first few episodes Blitzo is visibly uncomfortable when receiving calls from him, so one can't even argue that he doesn't mind. Stolas also dirty-talks to Blitzo on the phone ''in front of his own underage daughter'', which could be classed as sexually abusive towards her as well. Make matters worse, a lot of the second season, which follows [[Recap/HelluvaBossS1E7Ozzies a dramatic]] DownerEnding where Blitzo calls Stolas [[AmIJustAToyToYou out on his behavior]], the show portrays Blitzo as being the messed-up one of the pairing who has to fix himself while Stolas is framed as the wronged party. Most of Blitzo's episodes have centered around [[Recap/HelluvaBossS2E5UnhappyCampers fixing his]] [[Recap/HelluvaBossS2E6Oops ruined relationships]] while the only development Stolas has made was [[Recap/HelluvaBossS2E1TheCircus calling a divorce with his wife]] and just {{Wangst}}ing about how how lonely he is and [[Recap/HelluvaBossS2E4WesternEnergy being the occasional]] DudeInDistress.

** Stolas is portrayed as a lonely poor little rich boy stuck in an AwfulWeddedLife and turning to his childhood friend Blitzo for affection, without any real acknowledgement that what he is doing to Blitzo is SexualExtortion; he exchanges SexForServices for access to the grimoire Blitzo cannot do his job without, and is within his rights to punish or kill Blitzo for stealing the grimoire in the first place, which Blitzo knows. In the first few episodes Blitzo is visibly uncomfortable when receiving calls from him, so one can't even argue that he doesn't mind. Stolas also dirty-talks to Blitzo on the phone ''in front of his own underage daughter'', which could be classed as sexually abusive towards her as well.

** Stolas is portrayed as a lonely poor little rich boy stuck in an AwfulWeddedLife and turning to his childhood friend Blitzo for affection, without any real acknowledgement that what he is doing to Blitzo is SexualExtortion; he exchanges SexForServices for access to the grimoire Blitzo cannot do his job without, and is within his rights to punish or kill Blitzo for stealing the grimoire in the first place, which Blitzo knows. In the first few episodes Blitzo is visibly uncomfortable when receiving calls from him, so one can't even argue that he doesn't mind.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': Loona. She beats up her adoptive dad despite him never once raising a hand towards her, rescued her from an OrphanageOfFear and completely dotes on her. She snaps at the slightest bit of criticism and treats her coworkers like crap, and it’s meant to be played off as humorous and endearing. [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale This is the same show]] where the abuse that characters like Moxxie and Stolas face from [[AbusiveParents Crimson]] and [[DomesticAbuse Stella]] is played ''dead straight and not for laughs at all.''

* Website/GoAnimate "[[YouAreGrounded Grounded]]" videos: The parent characters who are punishing the troublemaking kids, particularly those of "baby show" characters like WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}} and WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer. The makers of these videos intend for the viewers to side against Caillou and Dora (who, truth be told, [[AdaptationalJerkass aren't exactly good-natured children they were in canon]] themselves) and with their parents. But in all honesty, the measures the parents take to teach Caillou and Dora their lessons often come off as [[DisproportionateRetribution overly cruel]]. Even so much as hitting a sibling can lead to getting grounded for an incredibly long time or even murdered (directly or indirectly) by their parents. Additionally, sometimes the parents do stuff without Caillou and Dora just to be mean (sometimes even before the kid has even caused any trouble) and, in extreme cases, even tell them to their faces how much they and the world hates them. In the end, the parents frequently come off as [[AbusiveParents incredibly abusive]] {{Jerkass}}es not worth rooting for over the [[JerkassWoobie Jerkass Woobies]] Caillou and Dora.