Unintentionally Unsympathetic / Cobra Kai

• Johnny can fall into this with regards to Robby. Johnny is meant to be seen as deeply flawed but well-intentioned in his efforts to reconnect with his son, but occasionally comes across as lazy or outright negligent. In particular, his decision to miss a vital meeting with Robby at juvie to stay with Miguel's family during his surgery drives Robby right into Kreese's arms and is quite selfish, since staying at the hospital made absolutely no difference to how the surgery went and the unconscious Miguel had no idea Johnny was even there, while Robby desperately needed Johnny's support. In Season 4, some fans found their reconciliation unearned, since all the work is done on Robby's end with Johnny only ever trying to talk Robby out of staying in Cobra Kai when Robby shows up on his doorstep and otherwise having no contact with him prior to the tournament.
• Some fans found it hard to sympathize with Demetri's underdog story of learning karate to fight back against Hawk in Season 2, finding the sheer extent of his whininess and laziness to make him too difficult to root for even after the bullying he has suffered and considering his outing Hawk as a bed-wetter to be Disproportionate Retribution for the latter's actions.
• While Tory has been the main instigator in her rivalry with Sam, much like Daniel during the first Karate Kid movie, Sam did her fair share of instigating with Tory such as trying to rifle through Tory's purse to get her mom's stolen wallet when she had no proof the wallet was even stolen in the first place (although her suspicions were not unfounded given how Tory had been very upfront about stealing a bottle of vodka).
• In Season 3, Tory is supposed to come off as sympathetic when the full extent of her home and family life is revealed, namely the fact that her mother is bedridden from dialysis and her brother is too young to work himself, she's got a predatory landlord who is trying to extort sex from her, along with a comment from Miguel when they talk at the sushi restaurant implying that she's mentally ill. However, the reveal of this information ends up actually highlighting the selfishness of her behavior, and makes her actions in Season 2 look worse in hindsight because it means she did everything, including instigating the school brawl that got her expelled and placed on probation, fully knowing how much it could put her family at risk, and did so over a boy who cheated on her and was clearly in love with Sam this whole time. It's not helped by the fact that Tory acts entitled by refusing to take responsibility and help Miguel after her stunt indirectly put him in the hospital, and she spends much of Season 3 continuing to willingly do things that could remove her ability to take care of her family, such as committing criminal activity and repeatedly seeking out physical fights with the girl she's on probation for fighting and maiming, despite Sam no longer trying to pick a fight with her.
• There's been a significant Broken Base as to whether or not Hawk's redemption over the course of Seasons 3 and 4 was earned. His Heel–Face Turn in the Season 3 finale is somewhat undermined by the fact that despite switching sides halfway through the home invasion, he still chose to participate in it and is therefore responsible for the property damage and injuries caused to the participants. Afterwards, he is forgiven by Demetri despite bullying him for two full seasons and breaking his arm after a simple apology, while the rest of the Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang alliance accepts him when he designs a new sparring deck for the dojo, which many see as him being Easily Forgiven. Although in Season 4, he undergoes a Traumatic Haircut at Cobra Kai's hands and considers this Laser-Guided Karma for his previous actions, audience members are still split over whether this was enough to gain him sympathy after everything he's done.
• Some viewers have noted that while Mitch does make a turn for the better after he gets kicked out of Cobra Kai by Kreese and rejoins Johnny at Eagle Fang, the only reason he even did so at all was because he was forcibly kicked out of Cobra Kai and if he weren't he would've through his own choice stayed loyal to Kreese's Cobra Kai and remained as sociopathic as everyone else there was in contrast to Hawk (who defected after realizing how far he'd fallen) and Bert (who got kicked out for not fully adhering to Kreese's ruthless ideology). Him getting booted by Kreese is meant to have the viewers feel sorry for Mitch and him going back to Johnny and becoming a better person is meant to be inspiring and heartwarming for his character but the fact that it took him getting forcibly removed from Cobra Kai for that to happen really dampens that feeling as he was essentially forced to become a better person (and would've chosen to remain a terrible person if he had a choice in the matter) rather than choosing to become one through his own volition. Also, the other characters, and by extension, the narrative of the show, never acknowledge that he assisted Hawk in trashing Miyagi-Do in Season 2 or beating up Nate in Season 3, acting as if Hawk was solely responsible and making Mitch a Karma Houdini for these actions. In Season 5, this comes back around as Mitch pulls a Face–Heel Turn specifically because he never wanted to leave the dojo in the first place, on top of being crapped on by the majority of the cast at a constant rate. Ironically, some have seen him as a Draco in Leather Pants and even going in full circle as Unintentionally Sympathetic.