"There are certain acceptable negative traits that an audience will accept and sympathize with, and some that they won't. You cannot make Peter Griffin sympathetic. No matter how much he cries, no matter how much the world makes him suffer, no matter how much he acts like a toddler. Because he's a danger, and an asshole, and an abuser, and the world would obviously be better without him. And every scene he's in constantly proves this."
"Oh, boy, it's going to be one of these episodes. Okay, this episode tries its best to accurately have a child throw a massive temper tantrum, for the entirety of the eleven minutes. It's loud and it's annoying as hell, and it's not at all pleasant to watch. It probably wouldn't be pleasant for the target audience. And do you know what the real kicker is? We're supposed to sympathize with D.W., when this show is basically aimed at kids Arthur's age."
"Oh, that is really sad. I'm really sorry you couldn't be at Stewie's little league game after you promised to be there. Now can we please talk about the fact that you gave a baby herpes?!"
"Peter then goes on to tell his children he wishes they were never around. And for some reason, his family is a little bit upset with him. Are we supposed to be feeling sorry for Peter at this point? This is a guy who openly states he beat his children as infants, gives them drugs, assaults his daughter, beats his wife, attacks random people and cares nothing for anyone except himself! This guy deserves to be in jail!"
— PhantomStrider on Peter Griffin from Family Guy
"And yes, we get to see Starlight Glimmer's backstory. So, what terrible event caused her to believe that stripping a person of their individuality and identity was the only way to achieve true harmony and friendship? A friend got their cutie mark and had to move away... That's it?! Really? That's her excuse for starting her pseudo-Marxist cult? Good gravy! Sunset Shimmer had a better motive! Trixie had a better motive! Moondancer had a better motive, and she's not even a villain! And you know what? This backstory is actually exactly the same as another character's! Who is it you might ask? Apple Bloom! Yeah! These are exactly the same. They both had no cutie marks, they both also had a friend with no cutie marks, and they both lost the ability to hang out with said friend because of their cutie marks! Only Apple Bloom actually handled it maturely and sought out new friends. Look, I get it: people like to see characters redeemed, but only when they feel sympathetic to them; I don't feel sympathetic to Starlight at all because her motivation is so weak it makes her look like a giant womanchild!"
"Balto, what crawled up your ass and died? In fact, pretty much every main character in this movie is an asshole! Balto's an asshole for automatically thinking that the plane's gonna replace them and accepting the plane is the way of the future despite the fact that the mail is his son's only line of work; Kodi's an asshole for not wanting to help Duke even if he wants to be like his dad, who may I remind you, helped out humans before, and Duke's a nice guy regardless; and Boris is an asshole for lying to and taking advantage of the one character who's shown romantic interest in him. That's right, movie: as creepy as she is, you just made me defend Stella. I hope you're satisfied, because God knows I'm not."
— The Cartoon Hero on Balto III: Wings of Change
Sean: [to his father] I wish that you had died, and not her!
Nostalgia Critic: And I hope you choke on your testicles, you little prickhorse! Yeah, I hate him, and there's no way you can make me like him! I don't care if he cures cancer. I'm still not gonna enjoy this character. That was so mean-spirited and so out of nowhere that I hope he just spontaneously combusts when he goes into that room!
Nostalgia Critic: And I hope you choke on your testicles, you little prickhorse! Yeah, I hate him, and there's no way you can make me like him! I don't care if he cures cancer. I'm still not gonna enjoy this character. That was so mean-spirited and so out of nowhere that I hope he just spontaneously combusts when he goes into that room!
"And you, just as a testament to how fucking bad this movie is: Even with a backstory that his parents were killed while he was young, they still make him too unlikable to sympathize with! Even the Grinch narrator would be like [Cut to clips of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!] And given the choice between the two of you, I'd choose the uh... (cut to a picture of an angry Davey) Oh Hell no, I'm going with the green guy. At least he didn't make Jack and Jill. (singing) That movie was shiiiiiiiit!"
— The Nostalgia Critic on Davey from Eight Crazy Nights
"This has to be the most selfish, male-dependent, uncaring, manipulative, self-centered, pretentious, idiotic, whining little bitch-bag you will ever see in your entire life! And honestly... that wouldn't be too bad a character, that'd be very, very interesting — IF IT WAS INTENTIONAL! But it's not."
— The Nostalgia Critic on Isabella "Bella" Swan from Twilight, "Top 11 Dumbasses in Distress"
"Am I supposed to feel bad for this guy? You kidnapped children! You gave me a concussion, and traumatized a young girl into memory affecting brain damage!"
Forsaken have always had an evilish SLANT, but their core tragedy was never lost in the shuffle, it's what made them so appealing to me as a playable race when I first started WoW and when I rolled my undead warlock. They were interesting — twisted, but in the end able to rise above and fight for what very little they had left, exact revenge on the Lich King, save the world like everyone else. And then they just became... evil all over and lost their nuance - like complete villains with only a few stand-out NPCs popping up now and then. And that CAN be fun, in a vacuum, but not as a progression from what they started as.
When [Battle for Azeroth] was announced I heard almost no decrying from Forsaken players about the loss of Tirisfal and Lordaeron/Undercity, and instead a lot of talking about Teldrassil and Silvermoon. If the Forsaken were something like what they were pre-Cata, I'd be upset for them - yet another thing they barely had that was theirs ripped away from them. But they're not sympathetic anymore. Hillsbrad is a disaster. All the nonsense in Silverpine and Gilneas. Sylvanas marches the Horde onto Kalimdor and burns Teldrassil, Alliance retaliate and removes them from the EK, and no one cares how the Forsaken people feel about this because They Started It and They’re Evil Now and [are] rarely shown as capable of thinking for themselves outside of Sylvanas' wishes.
If one good thing is to come out of [Battle for Azeroth], I hope it's a better exploration into the Forsaken and a turning point for them as a race, I want to see their nuance again, because Evil Plague Murder Zombies stops being fun when you realize that your undead toons are just... never actually heroes anymore in the grand scheme.
When [Battle for Azeroth] was announced I heard almost no decrying from Forsaken players about the loss of Tirisfal and Lordaeron/Undercity, and instead a lot of talking about Teldrassil and Silvermoon. If the Forsaken were something like what they were pre-Cata, I'd be upset for them - yet another thing they barely had that was theirs ripped away from them. But they're not sympathetic anymore. Hillsbrad is a disaster. All the nonsense in Silverpine and Gilneas. Sylvanas marches the Horde onto Kalimdor and burns Teldrassil, Alliance retaliate and removes them from the EK, and no one cares how the Forsaken people feel about this because They Started It and They’re Evil Now and [are] rarely shown as capable of thinking for themselves outside of Sylvanas' wishes.
If one good thing is to come out of [Battle for Azeroth], I hope it's a better exploration into the Forsaken and a turning point for them as a race, I want to see their nuance again, because Evil Plague Murder Zombies stops being fun when you realize that your undead toons are just... never actually heroes anymore in the grand scheme.
— Tumblr user Mad-Maddie
discussing the Forsaken from World of Warcraft
discussing the Forsaken from World of Warcraft"In conclusion, Gabriel Agreste, aka Hawk Moth aka Shadow Moth aka S***moth, is an awful villain and an awful character and an awful person! He's an abuser, he's a manipulator, he's just... horrible! Look, I'm fine with Gabriel acting like this. I'm fine if Gabriel acts like a heartless, unlikeable freak, as long as that's the whole point of his character. But the problem with this guy is that he is meant to be a sympathetic villain. He is the type of villain that we are supposed to be agreeing with. We're supposed to think his intentions are not really that wrong, despite his actions being objectively wrong, by giving us a reason. But that reason gets little to no explanation."
— Cyrus The Great on Gabriel Agreste, "Gabriel Agreste: Fascinating yet STUPID | Video Essay"
Kevin: You told them I was dead?!
Andy: I didn't want to come off as unsympathetic! Entertainment Weekly would have torn me apart!
Andy: I didn't want to come off as unsympathetic! Entertainment Weekly would have torn me apart!
— Mission Hill, Andy vs the The Real World.
"At last Danny has a reason to be a dour, funless bore: he's been smacked by a car and woken up in the afterlife. That'll put a crimp in anyone's day. One of my biggest issues with Dark Water is Moffat's choice of victim. It has been very hard to give a damn about Danny throughout the season because he has more often than not been portrayed as a right sourpuss, cramping the Doctor's style, dragging his assistant away from fun adventures for lunches in the park and games of scrabble at night and generally pooh-poohing the chance to travel through time and space. He's just not my kind of man. He's got both feet firmly placed in reality and he doesn't want to broaden his horizons. His relationship with Clara hasn't exactly been thrill a minute either... Obviously Danny being killed is a shocking moment but I was immediately thinking of how the show would benefit from such an act, which probably wasn't the effect Moffat was going for."
Dwarf King: Is there no land on this planet where we can live in peace? Oh, Goddess of Fate, why are we dealt such a hand...
Kid: Yer mob literally just commit ethnic cleansin'. You seriously ain't trying to act sympathetic are ya? I just recovered from me death bed. I really don't wanna get sent back for my eyes rollin' outta my head.
Dwarf King: Are humans really the greatest species on this planet? These heretics of evolution, these destroyers of the planet?... Ugh...
Kid: Seriously, pal. You were just smashin' about with a soddin' smog spewing tank. I don't think that thing popped outta th' damn turnip patch.
Dwarf King: Silence human. We are the ones dying! It is entirely your fault for having driven us out of our incredibly toxic swamp that was only being held together by a load-bearing monster from turning into an uninhabitable quagmire! Don't you see? You greedy humans and your wrecking of the environment caused us to mercilessly butcher another peaceful race so we could move into their much more vibrant and hospitable land to turn it into our new industrial stronghold. You monsters! Hi-ho!
Serge: Seriously, you're as sympathetic as the shit I took this morning. Have fun hi-hoing in hell.
Kid: Yer mob literally just commit ethnic cleansin'. You seriously ain't trying to act sympathetic are ya? I just recovered from me death bed. I really don't wanna get sent back for my eyes rollin' outta my head.
Dwarf King: Are humans really the greatest species on this planet? These heretics of evolution, these destroyers of the planet?... Ugh...
Kid: Seriously, pal. You were just smashin' about with a soddin' smog spewing tank. I don't think that thing popped outta th' damn turnip patch.
Dwarf King: Silence human. We are the ones dying! It is entirely your fault for having driven us out of our incredibly toxic swamp that was only being held together by a load-bearing monster from turning into an uninhabitable quagmire! Don't you see? You greedy humans and your wrecking of the environment caused us to mercilessly butcher another peaceful race so we could move into their much more vibrant and hospitable land to turn it into our new industrial stronghold. You monsters! Hi-ho!
Serge: Seriously, you're as sympathetic as the shit I took this morning. Have fun hi-hoing in hell.
"It's tempting to say this author is bad at characterisation, but that's not quite true. He's very good at characterisation, but terrible at making it match his intentions. I have a good picture in my head of Lord Potter the self-righteous arrogant bastard, Hermione the submissive damsel, and now McGonagall as a Wormtail figure abandoning her friends when someone more apparently powerful comes along, but that's obviously not what the author intended."
"The weakest part is probably Mirei Park's character, since it feels like they just didn't know what they wanted to do with her character. Her character ends up trying to be both a surrogate mother figure to Haruka but also a thoroughly unpleasant and dishonorable figure that makes the yakuza look good by comparison, but you can't really have someone lowkey threaten the orphans and also try to be a mother figure at the same time, so she just comes across as the worst protagonist-aligned character in the entire game.
It doesn't help that her death, while not deserved, is ultimately the consequence of her own willingness to screw other people over for her personal gain, and given that she apparently had a falling-out with every single dance instructor in the area, I have a hard time believing that the fault was with Ogita and not her. And it's pretty bad when your murderer ends up coming across as more sympathetic than you do.
Worse yet, after her death, everyone just keeps talking about how great and amazing she is, and how they all want to fulfill her dream through Haruka, which is probably my most single hated kind of writing. It's not helped by the fact that Haruka's supposed dream to become an idol came out of basically nowhere, given that there wasn't really anything in the previous games to support it, so even that looks like Park was just projecting her own dream onto Haruka.
Her character is just a mess all around."
It doesn't help that her death, while not deserved, is ultimately the consequence of her own willingness to screw other people over for her personal gain, and given that she apparently had a falling-out with every single dance instructor in the area, I have a hard time believing that the fault was with Ogita and not her. And it's pretty bad when your murderer ends up coming across as more sympathetic than you do.
Worse yet, after her death, everyone just keeps talking about how great and amazing she is, and how they all want to fulfill her dream through Haruka, which is probably my most single hated kind of writing. It's not helped by the fact that Haruka's supposed dream to become an idol came out of basically nowhere, given that there wasn't really anything in the previous games to support it, so even that looks like Park was just projecting her own dream onto Haruka.
Her character is just a mess all around."
"Does he? Does he truly regret this turn of events? Well, tough shit, he's a murderer. I didn't see him regretting that turn of events."
— Arist's Persona 5 playthrough, in response to the narration's insistence that Akechi is a Tragic Villain
, in response to the narration's insistence that Akechi is a Tragic Villain"To clarify, a hateable character isn't inherently bad; many of the most iconic villains have little to no sympathetic qualities. We're supposed to hate them. The problem comes when we end up hating a character that the story presented as sympathetic or at least neutral. Maybe it's because they do questionable things that other characters never call them out on. Maybe it's because they get forgiven in a way that doesn't feel genuine. Maybe, and definitely the most prominent trait on this list, it's because their character development, if they get any, feels like a case of too little, too late."
— Josh Scorcher, Top Ten Hated Characters We're Supposed To Like, explaining the distinction in the video title.
, explaining the distinction in the video title."Oh, Rosebud was the sled he had as a kid. You know what? Kane was still a total asshole. I'm not sure his forlorn childlike wishes make up for 70 years of dickishness. I'm kinda glad his sled was never recovered and is now burning. It makes me, the viewer, feel the world at large is more balanced and fair. F*ck you, Charles Foster Kane. You were a total prick. Seems to me you got what you deserved."
"Gee, I guess I feel so sorry for him- oh look, he's selling his wife's priceless heirloom, still feel bad you piece of shit? […] He literally played a blood-hungry monster who wanted to drown children in a pool of toxins, and he's still more likeable than this guy."
— The Nostalgia Critic on Buddy Hall from Deck the Halls
"As insane as it may sound, I think the Phantom is more likable when he's an insane murderer. He's not a nice person, but you do get a sense of how he got to be so messed up and he does do the right thing in the end. You can't condone his behavior, but you can still feel sorry for him. The Phantom of Love Never Dies has all of the negative qualities of his original incarnation and none of the sympathetic ones. Since his situation has changed for the better — he's wealthy, successful, and has several people supporting him — he comes off as less of a tragic monster lashing out at a world that screwed him over, and more like a selfish bully hiding behind weak excuses."
"It ultimately reaches this point where, when people were trying to beat him up for stealing their money, I don't really stop and think, 'I gotta help my friend Nozomi,' I just think, 'Yeah, I mean, (laughs) what did you think was going to happen?' And I feel like that's a very bad sign, because I just mentally ran through basically every Persona 3 character and thought 'Yeah, you know what, if you got into a fight, I think I would back you up.' I would back up Kenji, I would back up Kaz, I would back up Tanaka, any member of S.E.E.S.; if Bunkichi was about to get his ass beaten, I would help him out. And even though the intention is obviously for you to feel bad for him, I just don't."
— Fither on Nozomi Suemitsu, "Is This Persona's Worst Social Link?"
""I think the intent here was to make the town sympathetic and redeemable, which they weren't really in the original and that was kind of the point. The original movie has a rather cynical opinion of the masses, that people are easily duped in the face of things that are strange and foreign and it doesn't pull its punches on that point. But the '17 remake does by making the town redeemable, which isn't earned nor is there any emotional payoff when, I don't know, Mrs. Potts is reunited with Mr. Potts and Cogsworth is reunited with his apparent nag of a wife and then begs to be turned back into a clock. […] The town is skeptical towards [Gaston] so much that during "Gaston" Lefou is paying people to sing... WHY add this?! Why can't Gaston be genuinely admired by a small town who is taken by a good-looking guy who is secretly monstrous? Why do we need to make the town both more bigoted and more sympathetic? They're a poor provincial town! They're basic! They take everything at face value and that includes Gaston, Belle and the Beast, that's the whole point, I hate it!"
— Lindsay Ellis on the villagers in Beauty and the Beast (2017)
"I'm all... I'm all for, um, forgiveness. I think forgiveness is a beautiful thing. But in terms of storytelling, I don't see how somebody could forgive someone who lit them on fire and killed their fucking parents!"''
"CHRISTIAN IS A COMPLETE TWAT! Truly in love? That's such bullshit! (mocking) Oh, all you need is love lovelovelovelove... Who treated anyone that they truly loved this way? Why would you slut-shame her in front of an entire audience of people? Who calls that love? That's not love, that's bitterness! Oh, sure, [Satine's] actions are abjectly stupid and she's the victim of bad, stupid writing. But him? He's just despicable! He's evil! For as many times as he sings about LOOOOVE, he treats her in the most insulting, dirty, mean-spirited way that you can treat a human being. And the dwarf's over here. like, "Oh, she wouldn't do that!", and yet him, the one that's in love with her, can't figure this out? "Oh, yeah, love! I forgot about that! That's right! I'M SORR...you know what, I'm not even sorry, but we're still in love. SO LET'S SING ABOUT IT! In front of everyone and everything's okay! Oh, wait, you're dead. Awww." How would you feel if your loved one had some stupid misunderstanding that sprung from bad writing and then threw out all of their negative, horrible bile in one fell swoop... IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY?!"
Screenwrighter: And so Karli sets a truck of hostages on fire...
Producer: Okay, so, we're done trying to paint her in a sympathetic light, right?
Screenwrighter: No, we're still trying.
Producer: She... oh... she... okay...
Producer: Okay, so, we're done trying to paint her in a sympathetic light, right?
Screenwrighter: No, we're still trying.
Producer: She... oh... she... okay...
Professor Callaghan: Give me the mask, Hiro!
Hiro: He went in there to save you!
Professor Callaghan: That was his mistake!
Schaff: What the fuck, dude? He was, like, your prized student! Why do you have no concern over his death that you caused? Oh yeah, you're a one-dimensional villain in a kid's movie who isn't allowed to be a real human being with remorse for his actions. You know, Waternoose actually felt bad for Mike and Sully [when he banished them]. He didn't just say "LOL fuck them, I don't care." [...] And I know Charles Muntz tried to murder an innocent kid, but that dude was trapped in the jungle for 70 years with a bunch of dogs. What's your excuse to be an evil murder man? "Boohoo, my daughter is dead!" Well, I don't care if it's mean, everybody's got dead people. That's no excuse to be a fucking dick!
Hiro: He went in there to save you!
Professor Callaghan: That was his mistake!
Schaff: What the fuck, dude? He was, like, your prized student! Why do you have no concern over his death that you caused? Oh yeah, you're a one-dimensional villain in a kid's movie who isn't allowed to be a real human being with remorse for his actions. You know, Waternoose actually felt bad for Mike and Sully [when he banished them]. He didn't just say "LOL fuck them, I don't care." [...] And I know Charles Muntz tried to murder an innocent kid, but that dude was trapped in the jungle for 70 years with a bunch of dogs. What's your excuse to be an evil murder man? "Boohoo, my daughter is dead!" Well, I don't care if it's mean, everybody's got dead people. That's no excuse to be a fucking dick!
"Bryce's character change is so jarring 'cuz in season [sic] 1 and 2 he's so one-dimensionally evil; even after Hannah's death, the multiple confrontation [sic] with his schoolmates, him being called [a] 'rapist', etc., he still denied every allegation and continued being a flat evil character with no emotional depth. And then, all of a sudden, in season 3, he's like, 'Yeah man, I fucked up; I'm trying to change. I'm gonna go back to school and try to apologize to everyone. I'm doing yoga with my mom and I'm gonna act like a real victim because the world is just being so unfair to me.' Sorry, but [she briefly rolls her eyes while talking) I have zero sympathy. 'Cuz, I don't believe him, first of all. His character had no emotional growth throughout all the seasons and now, because, you know, he's gonna die, the writers tried to make me sympathize with him. No bitch. No."
— Sherliza Moé on Bryce Walker, 13 Reasons Why
Woolie: I've never seen a [character giving a] ghost monologue make himself worse.
Pat: I think the intended feeling you're supposed to come in with this is like, "Man, I know somebody like Vic. I gotta reach out and treat him right." No. No one's coming to here with that. You know what people are coming to this with? "Man, fuck that bitch! I'm glad he's dead! I should go kill my friend that reminds me of Vic!"
Pat: I think the intended feeling you're supposed to come in with this is like, "Man, I know somebody like Vic. I gotta reach out and treat him right." No. No one's coming to here with that. You know what people are coming to this with? "Man, fuck that bitch! I'm glad he's dead! I should go kill my friend that reminds me of Vic!"
— Best Friends Play NBA 2K16: Livin' Da Dream
"Stop being nice and grateful! How am I supposed to be a likeable protagonist if I don't act like a complete jackass?!"
— Linkara as Luke Cage, Atop the Fourth Wall, "The Punisher #61-62"
(some doctors are about to use an experimental drug to revive John Kirby)
Dr. Halman: (with sincerest sympathy towards Kirby) This isn't right, this is illegal and this is immoral. We have a vegetable laying here on the table that was a human being with a mind as well as a body.
Bill: He was a GREAT MAN!
Dr. Halman: ...We don't know what this formula is gonna do to this man's life... his mind was unbalanced to begin with. Phil, I'm telling you, I say let this man die in peace.
Mike: (tenderly) With at least some of the dignity and grace he brought to the field of axe murdering.
Dr. Halman: (with sincerest sympathy towards Kirby) This isn't right, this is illegal and this is immoral. We have a vegetable laying here on the table that was a human being with a mind as well as a body.
Bill: He was a GREAT MAN!
Dr. Halman: ...We don't know what this formula is gonna do to this man's life... his mind was unbalanced to begin with. Phil, I'm telling you, I say let this man die in peace.
Mike: (tenderly) With at least some of the dignity and grace he brought to the field of axe murdering.
"So, these are our heroes: mute, stuck-up, idiot, jerk, and flighty."
— The Blockbuster Buster summing up the cast of Inhumans
"Now they try to paint you as a victim, but as a painter, I must say they've done very poorly
Spending years in cells and I couldn't give less of a shit about your incel story!"
Spending years in cells and I couldn't give less of a shit about your incel story!"
— Hannibal Lecter to Leatherface, Freshy Kanal Rap Battles
"Luther is just the most irredeemably horrible person of all time, but the way the film portrays it, you'd think the writers would want you to sympathize with his plight."
— JonTron on Luther Krank, Christmas with the Kranks
"Sorry to not be making any jokes here but it's wild that there's this family comic strip about a family incapable of expressing affection towards one another, maybe because they don’t actually feel affection, and we're supposed to like or root for these people."
"Impa. Freakin' Impa. We show up at the Earth Temple. And, she ends up rescuing Zelda. Great. But then, she's all like, 'You were late! Do my words sting?! Let them! You suck as a hero, and you don't even have a place here, and neh neh neh neh neh neh neh!' […] Because, rather than, take us with her... when, we have a sword, she is aware of the legend that Zelda is playing a part in, I might say, we have the sword of the legend; we have Fi with us, so we can prove who we are, rather than take that extra protection and not take any chances, she would rather proverbially slam the door in our face with her magical powers, closing the portal, and instead go on without us, just as a slap in the face towards us and for no other discernible reason... […] and then, because of her, we are almost late saving them from Ghirahim, who would've actually gotten his way, had we not gotten there as fast as we did! […] Would it have killed ya' to leave the portal open for two extra seconds?! Oh wait, no! It wouldn't have killed you, IT WOULD HAVE KILLED ZELDA! I'M JUST SAYING!"
"After a poor introduction where Patroklos murders civilians because he thinks they're evil monsters because a transparently evil man told him so, he very quickly abandons the sister he's spent years searching for because she turned into a monster to protect him. Having your new hero start out with flaws is good, but there aren't enough redeeming traits here to endear the audience to him to make them want to see him redeemed. He just keeps making huge mistakes, growing more and more out-of-hand until only a convenient time travel opportunity in the third act lets him fix them. And he doesn't feel like he's developed at all by the end, aside from accepting his sister even if she is a Malfested."
"They try really hard to make him a nice guy, but he just comes off as such an asshole."
''Another place where this episode loses its point is that the people in the shuttlecraft, or should I say primarily the lieutenants, come off as complete jerks. They're always hampering on Spock for the littlest of things. Spock breathes incorrectly and they're ready to be down his throat about it. They're always watching him to see if he screws up so that they can use it as an excuse to pounce on him.
The other three members are fine; Dr. McCoy picks on Spock a bit, but Dr. McCoy's always doing it from a good place. McCoy is always trying to help Spock lead the crew better with his goal being an improved situation for everyone, where the three lieutenants almost seem to take some particular joy in harassing him.
The other three members are fine; Dr. McCoy picks on Spock a bit, but Dr. McCoy's always doing it from a good place. McCoy is always trying to help Spock lead the crew better with his goal being an improved situation for everyone, where the three lieutenants almost seem to take some particular joy in harassing him.
— Jeremy Perron on the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Galileo Seven"
on the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Galileo Seven"Let me get this straight. Lori needs to put forth all this effort to properly apologize to Lincoln, but nobody expects Lincoln to apologize for yelling at his sisters, calling Lori the worst sister in the world, breaking Lynn's nose, smashing Luna's guitar, insulting Luan, ruining Leni's dress, ruining Lola's dress, blocking Lana's mud puddle, and taking Lisa's science equipment without asking.
— Lucy Loud, Peeking Through the Fourth Wall, Episode 8
Mom would rather go out and break laws than see her family. It's at this point where it feels like she doesn't understand motherhood. She may need a break, but abandoning her loved ones like this is going too far.
— MC Toon Reviews on The Loud House episode "Rita Her Rights"
on The Loud House episode "Rita Her Rights" This movie is too forgiving to its characters. One of my favorite aspects of Knives Out was Johnson's brutal commentary of classism & the upper class. And if it was brutal in Knives Out, it is absolutely scathing in Glass Onion. But then the film tries to exonerate the suspects; it wasn't their fault, they were indebted & blackmailed by the villain. This forgiveness seems counterproductive to Johnson's commentary (especially when two of the characters are a public figure who sees making racist statements as "telling the truth" & an MRA).
"Sonic, for all of his unpredictability, has always been a deeply compassionate character. He is also a fixer. He sees something he doesn't like? Boom tackled. He sees someone scared and alone? He'll get them somewhere safe and will cheer them up in the process. And I think that that's nothing new. Anyone can claim that and they wouldn't have broken any new ground. The problem is that Ian Flynn and other writers over in IDW, in their attempt to make Sonic appear compassionate, they've actually managed to do the opposite.
"The first time Sonic battles with Surge, Surge lays out her entire pain and frustrations, at how Starline has screwed with her head in such a violating way, that she can't even think straight. She doesn't know if the thoughts she is thinking and the emotions she is feeling are even hers or Starline's tampering. And Sonic is over there BRUSHING the entire thing off! As if it's nothing!! He keeps spewing his meaningless platitudes and escalating the situation!! If I was Surge I'd want to bash his skull in too!! Why is Sonic being such a duchbag [sic] to the victim of the situation here?!?! Just because his words were dressed nicely, didn't mean he wasn't any less of an insensitive ass!!
"Yeah Sonic very rarely has taken serious situations seriously, but he has never been this cruel to someone who was in such pain!"
It's perfectly fine to have an unsympathetic protagonist, as long as they are presented as such. But Elle is meant to be the sympathetic plain-Jane everygirl that we're supposed to root for, and the film completely fails to establish her as such.
— Cynical Reviews, regarding the protagonist of The Kissing Booth and its sequels
"I definitely have to say that I remember this episode very clearly from seeing it when I was a kid, and I remember it making me uncomfortable back then as well. I remember back then thinking how weird it was that, in the end, they show Curly sitting on his stoop crying his eyes out, and it's almost like they're trying to make you, the viewer, feel bad for him. However, he's the bad guy in this story. He's the creep who was perving on this poor girl who very directly told him to knock it off. It just felt really odd that they tried to paint him in such an innocent light when what he did was very inexcusable."
— DuskTillShawn covering the Hey Arnold! episode "Curly's Girl", The Dark Side of Hey Arnold! - Rhonda (Episode 5)
(Episode 5)"Any and all reprehensible actions the alpha takes can be dismissed either by his good looks or a really good round of groveling. A good alternative is to justify his jerkish behavior with a traumatic backstory. See, if I robbed a bank, all I would have to do is to explain to the police that I was bullied when I was younger and all would be forgiven. That's exactly how that works! Past trauma should be wielded against the love interest in order to pacify their criticism, not be used as a way to explore a character's traits. Why use trauma to explain behavior when we can use it to excuse behavior? Or... you know, just ignore the alpha's bad behavior completely with no explanation whatsoever. ...I think I'll do that."
—JP Beaubien, Terrible Writing Advice, ALPHA HEROES
"Speaking of tragic backstories, sob stories are the best! Having a character with a stock tragic backstory always engenders sympathy in the audience and can never backfire, like if I write a villain who murders children. But it's okay, he was trying to kill his troubled childhood by proxy. The audience has no choice but to sympathize with him because the touching piano solo says we have to. The villain is "understandable" now that I've given him a tragic backstory even if I skip all the steps between "parent dying of cancer" and "destroying all space-time". He's justified in his actions to destroy the entire universe because some people were mean to him. Tragedy can be used to excuse any action and is great for anti-heroes. Trauma should be used to excuse behavior, not explain it. Never have a character with enough functioning brain power to point this out when the villain tries this excuse."
—JP Beaubien, Terrible Writing Advice, CHARACTER BACKSTORIES
