Line #3 UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/FriendshipIsFailure


1	Mykan's {{Author Avatar}}s in ''Fanfic/FriendshipIsFailure'' are meant to be seen as martyrs who didn't get what they wanted and have to suffer for it. Actually reading the stories will tell you that they're just [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] {{Psychopathic Manchild}}ren who throw varying degrees of temper tantrums because life didn't bend down and [[IKissYourFoot kiss their feet]], and [[TheUnapologetic universally have a dubious understanding, at best, of the term "sorry"]] even [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic when they wrong other ponies]]. While sometimes they do suffer, a large part of it is self-inflicted. And when they do have a point, usually the other side is warped out of character for that to happen.
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4	* Stone Heart in ''Writer's Blockade'', ''Write a Wrong'', and ''Write of Way''. In the first story, we are meant to feel sorry for him because his best friend (Shining Hope) ended up with the woman he loved (Sandy Beam) and, in both stories, because no one supports his writing. However, he came off as creepy in the first story to Sandy. For instance, he frequently wrote LoveInterests based on her without her consent and didn't understand what the big deal was when she asked him to stop. Furthermore, when his life-long friends tried to help him, he interpreted it as an insult and cut ties with them, demonstrating how little he cared for them. Additionally, in all three stories, he expects people to accept his writing and treat it as good despite all the flaws in it, just because it's what ''he'' wants to write. He adamantly [[CantTakeCriticism refuses to accept any form of constructive criticism]], claiming that some (but not all) people will still bully him, only to turn around and [[NeverMyFault blame everyone else for his failures]]. The third story actually has him being somewhat successful, but he despises it all due to the revisions not fitting with his twisted view on how the world works, and he outright gives all of his payment checks to charity not out of the kindness of his heart, but because [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame he doesn't want to be rewarded for it]]. He's also a lot less pleasant this time around, outright telling a delivery pony to inform Celestia (Mykan's so-called "harmless crush") that she can "go to the devil", threatens bodily harm on Twilight, etc.
5	* Needle Stitch/Manny Collars in ''Fallout Fashions''. Presumably, we're meant to see him as sympathetic because he was "betrayed" by his extremely close friend Rarity when she took credit for a dress design he made for her as a gift and when he confronted her about stealing his dress design, she denied it and this ruined his reputation in Ponyville, forcing him to start from scratch in Manehatten. Except not only did Rarity regret the decision and apologize, she went out of her way to discontinue the dress thus risking a major PR disaster as a way to make it up to him... and Manny ''still'' refused to forgive her even after she helped his newly opened store get a lot of business. Manny's incredibly petty and unnecessarily complex way of dealing with the situation doesn't help. He changed his identity and got rid of his cutie mark simply because Rarity helped him get it. He goes as far as to specifically ban Rarity from his store and try to have her arrested when she attempts to get answers from him, which comes off less as payback for previous slights and more as him being just plain vindictive. Furthermore, the design Rarity copied was given to her as a gift by Needle; while passing it off as her own work was dishonest, Needle making such a big ruckus over something he gave away as a present makes him seem even pettier.
6	* Strings in ''Love Doesn't Work That Way''. He's meant to be seen as sympathetic because he loves Cadance who he can never be with which is affecting his mental health. Instead, he comes off as a pathetic loser who refuses to move on from a foalhood crush. It doesn't help he's planning to move away to get away from Cadance and doesn't even think of telling his close friend Sun Rae (who has an obvious crush on him that he completely misses) until the last possible second.
7	* Talon Ted in ''Pride and Punishment''. For starters, there's his complete refusal to make anything of his life simply because things are not going the way ''he'' specifically wants them to, only feeling satisfied when he gets someone else without a degree to do all the work for him. Heck, he goes as far as to rescind a ''charitable donation'' he made, purely to spite his sister (the author later edited it to make it look like Talon only threatened to do so, which isn't much better, and later he simply flaunted his charity, which is a bit better); by most standards, there's no way for him to climb back onto the moral high ground after that. Mykan (the author of this fic) eventually revisited the story and revised it to try and make Talon Ted more sympathetic. Key word being "try"; aside from removing the part about him rescinding his donation ([[OrwellianRetcon and inserting an author's note vehemently denying that he ever did and any implications thereof]]) and changing his job from toll booth operator to loading dock worker (sloppily, given that mentions of the toll booth still pop up in the text), the character is still pretty much the same, and the attempts at portraying Ath-Lita as "more abusive and insane" simply amounted to making her angrier - which, given her brother's behavior, is still entirely justifiable (if not more so, since Ted became ''even whinier'' in response) - and telling (but not showing) that she also uses her bat on other people for the slightest mistake.
8	* [[Fanfic/TheEndOfEnds Count Logan]] once again makes his way here; he's still supposed to come off as sympathetic to audiences (or at least to Mykan) in spite of his atrocious misdeeds, which is kind of hard to do as his visit to Equestria results in [[spoiler:[[WouldHurtAChild him ripping]] off [[OffWithHerHead Flurry Heart's head]] just [[ForTheEvulz because he can]]]], which is generally the kind of thing writers have villains do to show that [[MoralEventHorizon they're completely beyond redemption]]. And, of course, he's still his same old OmnicidalManiac self. The author tries to justify Logan's actions as him being possessed by the Dark Prognosticus, which in turn was only made possible by Beast Boy being an unbearably {{wangst}}y asshat to begin with. In addition, this explanation falls completely flat given that Logan has several moments in the story that suggest he's at least partly in control of his actions, and none of those have him expressing any amount of remorse. In fact, what really shows Logan's lack of remorse is that he doesn't blame the Dark Prognosticus or himself for his actions, he blames Terra instead. While it was not his fault Terra dumped him, she also had no choice but a normal life, and what she did doesn't excuse Logan blowing up planets and guilt tripping her for it. Mykan has recently tried to backpedal and say Logan is cursed, not possessed. However, [[VoodooShark all of the same issues are still there]]. And being cursed and having a [[DarkAndTroubledPast bad past]] simultaneously, while sad, still can't excuse mass murder, considering it is similar to the backstories of famous villains like [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]]. (Not to mention he's refused to acknowledge he ever said he was possessed in the first place.)
9	* Beast Boy's AU counterpart Garfield Logan in ''HSM V Ways of Life'' is just as bad if not worse. He acts like a complete {{jerkass}} to everyone no matter how nice to him they are and actively kicks people while they're down. Nevertheless, we're clearly meant to feel sorry for him on some level because he lost his parents when he was a kid, was tossed around from abusive foster home to foster home until he was left living in a creepy mansion where wolves try to get at him every day and has to work hard at his job to the point he barely gets any sleep. What ruins this, however, is that anytime someone actually tries to help him get a better life, he tells them to get lost and he doesn't need help so clearly he's not that bothered by his crappy life if he feels he can afford to deny genuine offers of help. He's also a jerk to Terra and unlike Count Logan, he doesn't have the excuse of having his heart broken by her.
10	* Helper Soul. We're meant to see him as sympathetic because he lost the use of his leg in an accident which he blames his former best friend Night Light for which cost him his royal guard aspirations. Except Helper lost that leg saving Night Light from a life or death situation, making him look more petty than sympathetic. It doesn't help he's ''yet another'' character who's bitter over the fact he DidNotGetTheGirl. Another [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks big issue]] is that his backstory is ripped off from [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Master Org]], a horrible villain from ''Franchise/PowerRangers''... and Mykan still expects you to find him sympathetic. It's for these reasons he's seen as less of a victim of circumstance and more of an AssholeVictim. The rewrite of the story changes the incident that cost Helper his leg to Night Light saving Twilight Velvet from an accident over Helper, leading to a beam falling on Helper's leg and crushing it, in order to make him look more sympathetic. Ironically, this removes the one part of his backstory that could've made him sympathetic in any way, as he's still the same jealousy-driven {{Jerkass}} he was in the original, with the only upside being making Night Light more of a jerk.
11	* Davis is meant to be seen as sympathetic because Kari doesn't wanna be with him and he's in love with her. The thing that has him fall into this category is that he turns it into a much bigger deal than it would have been and he won't stop complaining about it. He also has almost literally dozens of other girls who are interested in him but he very callously rejects them all because "They aren't Kari", making him look incredibly shallow. One could even make the argument he's less sympathetic than the above-mentioned Beast Boy. At least with Beast Boy, you could argue that he's taking it badly because Terra wants nothing to do with him[[note]]it still doesn't work and they're not the same but there's a better case to be made[[/note]] but Kari still wants to be Davis's friend even if they aren't a couple, making Davis look ''incredibly'' petty.
12	* While Miser Stash has an actually pretty sad backstory, it's supposed to completely justify his attitude towards everyone else who enjoys Hearth's Warming. Since he just perpetuates the circle of misery he was a victim of, it doesn't. Also, while he didn't burn the tree, throwing a lit cigar on the street is still a crime which deserves punishment like a fine for the potential of burning something important, like what he was falsely accused of doing, so he isn't ''entirely'' innocent. When he is bailed out and proven innocent, despite still committing a minor crime, he [[UngratefulBastard simply curses all of the ponies and exiles himself out of spite.]]

Context UnintentionallyUnsympathetic / FriendshipIsFailure