Unintentionally Sympathetic / Western Animation

Shows with their own pages:

• Looney Tunes
• The Loud House
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

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Individual examples:

#-L

• Lemongrab was this in the Adventure Time episode "Too Young," because he appears to be severely mentally handicapped and had a job he was incapable of doing right (ruling a kingdom). Finn and Princess Bubblegum are disproportionately hard on him, up to the point of actually beating him up and making him cry. Averted in later episodes, where A) Princess Bubblegum helps Lemongrab, and B) Lemongrab is genuinely being a horrible person and deserves what's coming to him.
• Amphibia:
  • Sasha Waybright is this in the episode "The Dinner". Given that the audience already knows that the Plantars were Right for the Wrong Reasons to be skeptical about Sasha and Grime's Heel–Face Turn. We're supposed to side against Sasha when Anne defends her frog family from Sasha's temper. But the Plantars spend the entire episode ganging up on Sasha, and they take things too far when they remind Sasha of her near suicide attempt after her falling out with Anne. Sprig especially goes out of his way to antagonize Sasha whenever given the opportunity to the point of callously pointing out how she nearly fell to her death. They were bullying someone who lost her friend then attempted suicide, so it's no wonder why Sasha lost her cool and lashed out at them.
  • The reveal of Marcy stranding the trio in Amphibia on purpose was supposed to be seen as something that was just as bad as, if not worse than, Sasha and Grime's earlier betrayal. But unlike Sasha, Marcy did not do this out of spite towards them. She was just terrified of losing the two most important people to her. As she tries to justify her actions to both of them, Sasha is the first to single her out, but Marcy was just as much a victim of Sasha's latest betrayal as Anne was.
• This is the main reason why the Arthur episode "Arthur's Big Hit" is so widely disliked among fans of the show. In the episode, Arthur is meant to be in the wrong for hitting D.W. over his model plane. However, not only did he tell her countless times to not touch his plane, she chose to deliberately disobey him and throw the plane out the window after he had spent several days working on it. Worse, she blames him for "making a plane that can't fly" instead of apologizing for what she did, and seemingly isn't even scolded by her parents for breaking the plane (the parents claim that they'll have a talk with her, but there is never any evidence that they actually do so). This makes the rest of the episode worse, as when Arthur is hit by Binky (who didn't even want to hit Arthur and only did it because he wanted to prove that he was still tough), his parents treat it as a case of "what goes around, comes around". Since the first part gave him an understandable reason for hitting D.W. (along with D.W. blaming Arthur instead of apologizing), this comes off as a case of Disproportionate Retribution rather than Arthur getting what he deserves.
• In the Baby Looney Tunes episode "Mr. McStuffles", we're supposed to think Daffy is selfish for holding onto the eponymous toy that he rarely plays with instead of giving him to charity (or Tweety, which he eventually does). Granny and the other babies essentially force Daffy to play with Mr. McStuffles to prove that he still likes it. The truth is, you don't need to prove to anyone that something holds sentimental value for you, even if you don't use it that much, and it's not like Daffy was hoarding a bunch of dolls he never used. As much of a Jerkass as Daffy can be (well, by this incarnation's standards anyway), in this case it's easy to feel bad for him when Granny and the other babies make him go through such lengths to prove he still likes his toy. It just makes Daffy more of a Designated Villain than anything else.
• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • Clayface. Despite being a Jerkass who routinely emotionally abuses the friends who care about him, not being above theft and attempted murder to get what he wants, and his transformation into Clayface coming about mostly as a result of his own selfish actions, Matt Hagen is looked upon by some fans as a Tragic Villain in part due to said backstory of being screwed by a Corrupt Corporate Executive and in part due to Batman's admittedly unheroic actions in his second appearance (shutting down an experiment attempting to restore Hagen's humanity). It took him killing his own "daughter" (actually a piece of him that had split off and gained sentience) and laughing it off after the series was re-vamped into The New Batman Adventures for the fans to finally turn against him.
  • Lloyd Ventrix from "See No Evil" is a notable case of this. The episode generally paints him as a Invisible Jerkass criminal who is trying to steal his daughter Kimmy away from his ex-wife Helen and the ending where it’s assured he’ll rot in prison and never see them again as a “happily ever after” outcome. Except a good deal of viewers couldn’t help feeling terribly sorry for Lloyd since while his stealing and pretending to be his daughter’s imaginary friend is bad, his love for Kimmy is absolutely genuine and his motivation to just be with her is incredibly touching nor is he portrayed as abusive to his estranged family (at worst he thinks he can win back Helen’s love with money). This resulted in the moment where Kimmy rejects him upon learning her imaginary friend is her father who’s been raised to think is evil less Laser-Guided Karma and more Alas, Poor Villain than intended. Not to mention, the moment after this heartbreak while fighting Batman the latter warns Lloyd the chemicals that make him invisible are toxic and he replies “I don’t care” which pushes Lloyd into outright Death Seeker territory at that point. It’s especially notable since many other BTAS episodes like “Heart of Ice” were good at treating villains with redeeming traits sympathetically.
• Despite the writers' best effort to solidify him as a villainous character in Ben 10: Omniverse, Albedo still manages to become even more sympathetic than before due to Azmuth and Ben both being incredibly dickish to him by turning him into an 11 year old child after his defeat and laughing at his own misery. It doesn't help that, the one time Albedo seemed like he was about to have a Heel Realization, Ben chose to seize the opportunity to attack him. Granted, Ben pointed out that the newly found wisdom came at the cost of having stolen Azmuth's intelligence in the first place and added it to his own.
• Big Hero 6: The Series:
  • Fred in "Big Hero 7". While blabbing his secret identity to Richardson was a massive bone-headed move on his part, he was expected to comply with blackmail to make up for it, with Hiro telling Richardson he could have all of Fred's stuff that he wanted.
  • Hiro in "The Dog Craze of Summer." While he should have been 100% focused on his job from the very start, he was saddled by Granville with three high-maintenance dogs and a really huge manual for the task at the last minute without prior notice. His poutiness when Cass takes his video games away and makes him take the job isn't unwarranted as he never actually volunteered to watch the dogs and he was forced into taking the job without being told what it was first. When Hiro and Baymax are out on the streets looking for Fermi, Hiro's refusal to read the manual is explicitly shown to not be out of laziness but out of a concern that they don't have time to go through it and that Fermi could be in a bad situation. Having the last of his dogsitting money stolen from him by a supervillain comes off as excessive punishment after he got stuck in a floor retrieving Fermi and had most of the money taken by his friends for their help.
• In the Classic Disney Shorts, Donald Duck's multiple failures are meant to be deserved, especially when he encounters the likes of Chip 'n Dale. The problem is that most of the time they are the ones who start the trouble by stealing Donald's belongings or messing with his attempts at, well, having a life. When he does begin the fights, he gets royally screwed by the cartoon's end. Yet the audience is clearly meant to be rooting for Don's adversaries all the time, even if the duck has done no wrong whatsoever in the picture and the pests just felt like ruining his day for laughs and giggles.
• Hoggish Greedly from Captain Planet, to some, because some of his motivation is humanly understandable. His grandfather was, we are told, a nature-lover who treated him harshly; he was a self-made man who turned against environmentalism in the process. Anti-environmentalists the world over can relate. He also never completely understood the long-term damage he was causing, unlike most of the villains who loved what was happening, and even gets a considerably humanizing moment where he learns his factory has made his own son sick and closes it down without hesitation to save his son.
  • His henchman, Rigger is this too, as he frequently shows hesitation and concern when Greedly's actions hurt the environment, and it was once mentioned the only reason he even works for Greedly is because he couldn't find work anywhere else. One episode he even does quit working for Greedly to support his grandfather's environmentalist cause.
  • Wheeler as well. Word of God confirms that Wheeler was created to show how Americans are uneducated about environmental concerns. While somewhat Truth in Television, Wheeler ends up coming off as the only character who has any actual flaws to them (While everyone else arguably comes off as Flawless Tokens due to simply being foreign - and implied to have been from rural areas). Wheeler's always the one learning a lesson or ends up chided for not being aware of things (ie not knowing that burning coal can cause acid rain), even when such question is actually justifiable even from a writer's standpoint (As the audience may not know either). Additionally, it's revealed that Wheeler comes from the "Projects"^ExplanationSubsidized Housing, meaning his family and neighbourhood is notably poor., meaning that despite being American he most likely grew up in poverty. Suddenly his ignorance actually is very understandable - as he was forced to grow up in a notably different environment from the rest of the Planeteers. Add this to the amount of The Complainer Is Always Wrong he is on the receiving end of, you got a character who is way more sympathetic than the other role models.
• Sissi in Code Lyoko became this in hindsight once the prequel episodes aired. Throughout the first couple seasons, she is seen as a nosy Alpha Bitch with a crush on Ulrich. However, it turns out that she was the one who discovered Lyoko in the factory, but was afraid to go in. And when XANA targeted her, she told the her father (the principal) about it out of concern that they were in over their heads. Instead, the gang hits the Reset Button and are intentionally cold towards Sissi due to her betrayal. The problem is, Sissi does not even remember any of this happening, because never entering Lyoko means she wasn't immune to the memory-wiping effects of the time reversal. As such, the main characters come across as cruel for holding a grudge against Sissi for something that, as far as she and literally everyone else in the world is concerned, never happened. Fortunately she gets some Character Development, and one particular episode shows a different side of Sissi where she learned of Lyoko and, rather than betray them, trusted them because they had it under control and kissed Ulrich so he would remember how she felt.
• Dexter's Laboratory:
  • The numerous times that the titular character is depicted as a Jerkass for yelling at Dee Dee don't hold up due to the Made Out to Be a Jerkass usually being in play. Not to mention that when she isn't destroying his lab, a lot of problems are caused because of her merciless teasing of him.
  • Mandark as well, to some extent. He's supposed to be Dexter's rival that we Love to Hate. But aside from the episodes where he's not being evil, it's later revealed that his Hippie Parents tried to over-feminize him and named him Susan. They didn't approve of his love of science either. Add to that the fact that it's a cartoon where almost everyone is funny and that Mandark and Dexter aren't so different and could have been friends, and it all becomes Unintentionally Sympathetic.
• Swiper the Fox from Dora the Explorer is probably the most beloved character on the show, with some people feeling sorry for him due to his kleptomania and being shunned by Dora. This is probably why he ended up becoming less of an antagonist as the series went on.
• The Dragon Prince.
  • Humans in general. The conflict between them and the Elves is supposed to be seen as Grey-and-Gray Morality, but the humans are portrayed more sympathetically than the Elves by far, shown to have been persecuted for not having the natural ability to use magic. When humanity was shown Dark Magic (implied to have been taught to them by an elf), the immediate response of the Elves and Dragons is to demand they stop or be wiped out entirely. When they refused due to the above poor treatment of them before this, they were kicked off their ancestral homes and forced to live in lands that contained no natural magic, leading to further hardships including great famines.
  • Dark Magic itself. The narrative clearly wants us to believe that Dark Magic is always evil, since it requires the life force of other creatures to function. However, it is used to do plenty of good throughout the series, including saving hundreds of thousands of people from dying of hunger during a famine and healing Soren's broken spine. Furthermore, the creatures that Dark Magic wielders usually end up killing are either barely sentient (such as bugs) or are not shown suffering any pain when they die (the deer that Claudia kills to heal said spine), making fans see the use of Dark Magic as no different than hunting animals for meat. While the writers have said in interviews that Dark Magic is always evil, the evidence in the show itself tends to suggest that the intent of the people using it is more important than the magic itself, which comes across as more of a tool than anything else.
• The Urpneys of The Dreamstone, the abused lackeys of Zordrak sent to steal the stone so as to make nightmares. They are abused regularly for any screw ups and contradictions to their bosses' plans (multiple mooks have in fact been killed as punishment) and, as with many Harmless Villains, usually face humiliating and merciless defeats from the Land Of Dreams (which is saying something considering how sacharrine the place usually is). Especially applies to Frizz and Nug, who spend a lot more time being pitiful Nervous Wrecks than doing anything particularly dastardly.
  • Add to that, unlike so many other villains, they don't have a choice in the matter. They were enslaved by Zordrak and are pretty much shanghied into every mission kicking and screaming. It doesn't help the heroes seem to know this, but still seem to treat them as evil jerks (complete with excessive And That's Terrible statements). Hell, even Zordrak, for such an overly demonic villain, has ridiculously petty ambitions, and most episodes devolve into the heroes basically tormenting and sometimes outright trying to kill the Urpneys for trying to give them scary dreams. The Urpneys' treatment was gradually downplayed as the show continued, though they still lingered as genuine villains.
• Family Guy:
  • Meg can come off as this in a lot of post-revival episodes due to her Butt-Monkey status coming off as unwarranted and the unfortunate trauma she goes through coming off as upsetting rather than funny.
    • Meg again when it comes to her dating Luke in the episode "Dial Meg For Murder." While Meg was completely wrong for dating Luke who was an escaped prisoner, she probably only dated him since it’s shown many times throughout the show that guys her age don’t want to date her her (and that they would rather harm themselves or their family members than to do so).
  • Connie can be this at times, Depending on the Writer. While she is indeed a cruel Alpha Bitch who deserves punishment for bullying Meg, some of her punishments from the Griffins can come off more as Disproportionate Retribution than Laser-Guided Karma, with her getting pummeled and sexually harassed. It kind of makes her bullying low-key, especially since she actually treats Meg less cruelly than the Griffins do.
• The Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Nightmare on Wilson Way" sort of puts Bloo in this situation. Near the end, he's scolded for giving Mac sugar, even though Bloo's reasons for doing so was to free Mac from his bonds (he had been tied up due to it being Halloween, and he tends to go...crazy when he has sugar) and escape the "zombies", which the others were pretending to be in order to pay him back for his prank. However, his prank was an annoying, but (mostly) harmless snakes-in-the-peanut-brittle-can-prank, while their prank actually made him fear for his own life (which The Other Wiki states that it could count as assault). It's also worth noting, that they didn't notify Mac about their prank which could have harmed him, especialy since it ultimately resulted in him running out into the street during his sugar craze.
• Philip J. Fry in Futurama episode "I, Roommate". The Aesop would seem to be "two people can be friends and not necessarily compatible in living together". Instead, Fry gets treated as the jerk for not wanting to leave a great home that isn't a good fit for Bender, because Bender is upset about them not being roommates anymore. Leela pretty much scolds Fry into moving back in with Bender even though Bender's "apartment" is literally a closet that's unfit for human habitation, and Fry had been miserable in it before. Everything turns out fine in the end because there's actually a perfectly decent living space behind the cubbyhole, but Leela didn't know that - she was basically telling Fry to suck it up so Bender wouldn't be sad.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • Jack O' Lantern in the Halloween Episode "Billy and Mandy's Jacked-Up Halloween", at least to some. He wants to ruin Halloween and get revenge on Grim for cutting off his head, and the reason why Grim did so was because the two made a deal that Jack would be given immortality, as the townsfolk attempted to execute him. There are two reasons as to why he comes of as sympathetic: 1) the fact that he no longer has a normal human head has taken a toll on his social life, as he can't live in the normal world without being viewed as a freak, and 2) he was executed only because he kept pulling petty pranks on the townsfolk.
  • Irwin is also this. He's a Stalker with a Crush who is infatuated with Mandy; this usually results in him getting beaten up, especially when he takes it too far. The problem is that Irwin, being The Chew Toy, is also punished relentlessly for no reason on almost an episode-to-episode basis. Thus, he's no longer just a Butt-Monkey whose injuries are hilarious and is getting his comeuppance for not leaving Mandy alone; he's a Woobie whose misfortunes are sad and, at many times, pointless. No wonder he was made the protagonist of Underfist; by the time it aired, the fans who liked Irwin were dying to see him win for once.
• Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983). He was meant to be the Big Bad, but he lost so often and had such terrible employees that viewers and even some of the writers started to feel bad for him, even when he was trying to do horrible things. Kids would actually send in letters asking if the showrunners could let Skeletor have a win or two, just to Throw the Dog a Bone. This is why later episodes included more Enemy Mine episodes; the writers decided to give Skeletor a few victories at fan request, but the only way the censors would allow it was if he helped He-Man defeat a mutual threat.
• Katnip of Herman and Katnip. He's depicted as purely evil because he's a hunter of mice and therefore Herman, which causes Herman to defend himself. As you might expect from that description, he's a fairly bald-faced knockoff of Tom, but he has even bigger issues with this than Tom himself. While Tom is an active rival to Jerry and shown as fairly intelligent and stylish to the point of being downright smug about it, Katnip is a pathetically inept hunter who comes off as an idiot. Meanwhile, Herman, despite being portrayed in a much more positive light than the often-mischievous Jerry, is also considerably more cruel and violent to Katnip, doing things like chopping him into pieces or burning him to ash, to the point of having canonically killed him. Given that Katnip never reads as a credible threat to Herman, it comes off as the latter being incredibly sadistic and cruel to this poor unlucky loser when he could easily just avoid him. It's not for nothing that the creators of The Simpsons specifically cited the series as an inspiration for Itchy & Scratchy...
• A Running Gag in Hey Arnold! is for Helga G. Pataki to go off where she thinks she's alone, only for Brainy to appear right behind her and breathing down her neck, only to get punched in the face. The episode "Helga on the Couch" calls this out as Troubling Unchildlike Behavior. However, Brainy is flat out shown to stalk Helga - the same episode "Helga on the Couch" depicts Brainy having followed her to an alleyway far far out of the way of either of them, and he cannot give an answer as to why he's there. This can easily be interpreted as her feeling threatened, and while Helga is a bully, she does have the right to self defence.
• Horrid Henry:
  • While Peter is a whiny, pompous brat who rubs his "perfectness" in Henry's face every chance he gets, he's often bullied by Henry and there were times where he ratted out Henry for legitimately bad behavior, not to mention there were a few occasions where Henry got him into trouble and got away with it.
  • Henry's Mom and Dad are often treated as Abusive Parents for telling off Henry for his bad behavior and favoring Peter over him, but one needs to keep in mind that Henry isn't exactly a paragon of well behaved children, so they can come off more like stressed parents having to deal with a destructive child, plus there were a few occasions where they have punished Peter.
  • Vera is meant to be seen as nothing more than a gross nuisance because she throws up a lot (including onto Henry at one point) and needed to be changed in "Horrid Henry Changes a Nappy", then threw her soiled diaper/nappy. However, she is only a baby and can't help any of these except for throwing her nappy, which she's too young to realise was wrong. Add this to the fact that she's one of the few characters who never acts mean to the others and she's quite popular to the viewers.
• In Ice Age, Soto, the leader of the Smilodon pack, is obviously the bad guy for wanting to kill baby human Roshan, but what isn't really taken into account is that Soto's reason for this is get revenge on Runar, Roshan's father, for killing half of Soto's pack for their fur-coats. Yes, the humans needed the resources to survive in Winter, and baby Roshan is innocent, but you can't really blame Soto for wanting retribution.
• Dib Membrane of Invader Zim sometimes falls into this. While he is a Jerkass Failure Hero who usually causes more problems than he actually solves and has a noticeable selfish streak, he is still a 12-year-old boy Surrounded by Idiots trying to stop a centuries-old alien invader from destroying his planet. Add in the way his peers treat him, coupled with a father whose barely there for him and routinely brushes his son off as "insane", and it's no wonder he's such a screwed-up individual. It makes his numerous humiliating failures come off as all the crueler.
• Invincible (2021): Mark after he considers quitting being a hero. Eve tells him that it is a jerk move, since he will feel guilty about abandoning people just because he has had a bad breakup. The problem is that Amber isn't the only reason he's considering this; there is also him nearly being killed by Battle Beast, Cecil and his dad taking complete control of his schedule, it damaging his social and personal life, and the pressure of everyone expecting him to instantly adapt to superheroics and be exactly like his dad. Not to mention William blames him for Rick becoming a Reanimen, and Mark is worried he's making things worse.
• Kaeloo: Mr. Cat in the episode "Let's Play Justice Masters". All he really wants is a chance to relax, yet the others' Unwanted Assistance leads to him being hit in the stomach with a kick scooter, possibly breaking his back and getting dunked in acid, and the abuse is taken to the point where he's on the verge of tears. A lot of fans found this episode a little too cruel to be funny.
• Kim Possible Dr. Drakken, bullied by his friends not even respected, or remembered, in his field.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • Book One has the unnamed Equalist protester who harasses Korra in the pilot. Many fans thought he came off as annoying but harmless, which made Korra's hostile treatment of him seem unjustified. When Bolin is later kidnapped by the Equalists, Korra seeks him out and physically threatens him for information, despite having no reason to believe this particular guy would know anything about that. Moreover, it's repeatedly stressed throughout the season that despite the horrific methods employed by Amon and his minions, the Equalists are actually right about the treatment of non-benders in Republic City. A non-bender supporting them is understandable, especially since at the time, Amon wasn't doing anything openly villainous to begin with. The season finale showed the protester gleefully cheering as Amon announces his plans to completely destroy airbending by De-Powering the last remaining airbenders, which definitely lost him the sympathy points, but this comes off as the writers attempting to retroactively justify the protagonist's actions by revealing the "victim" was Evil All Along - and not very effectively, since she still didn't know that at the time and, considering Korra's vicious treatment of him, he had more reason now than ever to believe benders were tyrannical beasts who would treat non-benders as they pleased and that the world would be a better place if their powers were removed. The presence of the "non-bender district" didn't help, since it gave the impression that Republic City either engaged in de jure segregation, or that bender families were so hostile that non-benders felt the need to live in a single enclave that ultimately made them vulnerable when the city's leadership decided to treat them all as potential criminals.
  • President Raiko is presented as an obstructive, petty blowhard who constantly antagonizes Korra and is a Pointy-Haired Boss to Republic City, especially in season 3 and Turf Wars. Except that he has every right to be angry at Korra, considering her actions at the end of season 2 destroyed a good portion of the city, left hundreds homeless, and crippled the city's economy due to the new spirit portals. And in Turf Wars, the same thing happens with the new, giant spirit portal formed from Korra's final battle with Kuvira, and yet he's portrayed as being "wrong" and "unreasonable" for wanting Korra to do something about it.
  • Book 4 has Kuvira. Yes, she's the Big Bad of the season and her goals eventually shift from wanting to restore the Earth Kingdom to conquering the United Republic, but it's really hard to see her as a villain when her arguments for her actions are so reasonable that even the heroes begrudgingly agree she has a point. Not helping is that her worst actions were never actually shown while we do see the good she brought. And the series finale revealing that she truly wanted to help the Earth Kingdom, but allowed her unresolved Parental Abandonment issues to get in the way doesn't help diminish this view of her character. Suyin's cold treatment of her after she genuinely apologizes for her actions, effectively disowning someone who considers her a surrogate mother, made Kuvira even more sympathetic. This extends to the comics, where Kuvira and others (including Korra) point out that she was the only one willing to even take on the job of fixing the mess the Earth Kingdom had become after Zaheer's actions, and that she accomplished a great deal of good before becoming Drunk with Power at the end of her campaign.

M-Z

• Chloé Bourgeois and Lila Rossi in Miraculous Ladybug are meant to come across as completely despicable bitches who deserve nothing but scorn and hatred from the audience. However, some fans think that both girls have a Freudian Excuse in which their unhealthy behaviours are rooted (Chloè was abandoned by her mother at a very young age, and has lived with an overly-doting father who always gives her everything she wants; and Lila is heavily implied to feel neglected by her mother, who is almost never around in her life), and that while it certainly doesn't justify their actions, both of them would deserve to be helped in sorting their issues. To such fans, the writing for both characters comes across as dictated by the author's petty spite. However, it is later revealed that Lila's implied backstory is, like everything involved with Lila, false. She is, in fact, living multiple lives, and she has multiple "mothers". For now, her actual motivation and, indeed, her very identity are left in the dark.
• Raiden in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm seemed intended to be the typical role for Raiden in the franchise: a Jerkass God who makes the protagonists sort out everything, best shown by the fact that whenever he refuses to come on a mission, someone makes a remark calling him out for his lame excuses. Thing is, Raiden doesn't refuse for some nebulous moral reason or honor code; he doesn't come along because most of the time, the protagonists are in Outworld, where he loses all his godly powers and could very easily get killed. Plenty of times, even that doesn't stop him from trying to help, and even then the protagonists whine about how he isn't doing ''enough''. Add in the fact that the other characters are generally bickering idiots, and most of Raiden's Deadpan Snarker moments being funny, and Raiden comes off as less of a Jerkass God and more the group babysitter.
• The Patrick Star Show: GrandPat in "The Yard Sale". The rest of the Star family show little sympathy towards him. They hold a Garage Sale primarily to sell GrandPat's stuff without telling him, while he's sleeping. While Cecil says that everyone contributed their own stuff to sell, we don't actually see any of this. It's clear that the family aren't handling GrandPat's stuff with respect: Patrick almost gives away a treasure chest full of jewels and gold coins for two dollars. His items also represent important accomplishments of his and aren't just useless junk; it's completely understandable why he would be mad at them for selling his stuff without permission.
• The Penguins of Madagascar:
  • Is hard to blame Roger for spending too much time in the Penguin habitat in "Operation: Neighbor Swap", considering the Penguins putted him without asking in a habitat that's not accommodated to his needs. It comes across less like a pesky new neighbor and more like someone making the best out of a complicated situation.
  • Yes, the rats still go too far with the Villain Ball in "Rock-A-Bye Birdie" by throwing a brick into a baby and trying to sunk the penguins into acid, but is very hard to blame them for wanting to keep Kowalski's ray that freshes rotten food considering they live in the sewers.
• Planet Sheen has Dorkus Aurelius, the Big Bad of the series. Not only did Sheen destroy his house at the beginning of the series, but he also replaced Dorkus as the Emperor's top advisor (keep in mind that Sheen isn't smart enough to pass the fourth grade). Now, Sheen regularly receives glory and praise for saving the planet (always from disasters he caused), while Dorkus is always trying to expose Sheen for the idiot he is. Not helping matters is how Sheen constantly makes fun of Dorkus' name.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • Rainbow the Clown. While he did suck the color out of Townsville, his transformation into Mr. Mime was clearly not in his control, so the beatdown he received from the heroes after he was turned back to normal was a bit harsh. Justified, as this ending was made by the writers in protest specifically to make the audience feel sympathy for Rainbow and cry foul. Originally, Rainbow was supposed to join in an ending musical number singing happily with the Powerpuff Girls thanking them for rescuing him, but the network refused to air an episode that supposedly showed such a destructive villain going unpunished. His cameo appearance in a later episode suggests he was eventually released from jail.
  • Buttercup in "Cover Up". Somehow the writers want us to think she's crazy for having a Security Blanket, but the girls are only five years old, and that's an okay age for having a blanket. When she bawls her eyes out when it is lost makes her even more sympathetic. At the end of the episode she is forced to give up her blanket. One wonders why Bubbles didn't take her side, considering that she has Octi, who is also an emotional crutch like Buttercup's blanket was to her.
• Robinson Sucroe: No matter how you look at it, Robinson's main rival Grumbleston is actually right; Robinson isn't truly living on a dangerous, deserted island. It's actually quite populated, and all the stories Robinson and his new friend Wednesday write about Robinsons' supposed adventures on the island are just tall tales. Grumbleson is mainly the villain because his methods to expose the truth are often quite devious.
• Rugrats:
  • Isla, the dog groomer from "The Dog Broomer", is meant to be seen as deserving the bad treatment she gets from the babies because Tommy was scared of her, and because Spike doesn't want to be groomed. However, she never actually did anything wrong; Tommy only thought she was evil because of his vivid imagination and dog groomers have to groom dogs to earn their pay even if the dog doesn't want it.
  • Cindy, a teenage barista from "Cynthia Comes Alive". True, she's an incompetent worker, but she didn't deserve to be blamed for the mess the babies made or for them to pull on her belly button piercing.
  • Angelica, while a Spoiled Brat, can qualify in episodes where she isn't actually being mean:
    • In "The Word of the Day", she's supposed to be in the wrong for swearing on TV, yet she didn't even understand why the word was bad, and she said it because she thought that was what she was supposed to say (she'd heard the host of the show say that "She thinks we're all little *(Sound-Effect Bleep)*" was the phrase the kids had to learn, and didn't realise that she was joking).
    • In "Silent Angelica", she's punished for allegedly making noise when asked to be silent, even though it was actually the babies making the noise.
  • Fluffy in "Babysitting Fluffy". She's meant to be an example of Cats Are Mean, yet the worst thing she did in the episode was scratch Phil, and that was because he'd tried to put a diaper on her.
• Santa Claus in Santa Inc. is supposed to be the closest thing the show has to a Big Bad, being intended to fill the stereotypical "controlling old white patriarch" role and ultimately being revealed to have a dark side namely, taking bribes and being the kingpin of a drug network. Yet he's also one of the most sincerely friendly and likeable characters in the World of Jerkass, genuinely likes his job, and is shown to be perfectly fair and open-minded when it comes to his business; his first pick for a replacement Santa Claus when he steps down is actually a black man. He certainly comes off as far better than abrasive, short-tempered, self-centered, self-righteous protagonist Candy Smalls. It's telling that when Santa ultimately sits Candy down and tells her that he will not select her as his heir, he does so in a very respectful and polite manner whilst making perfectly valid points — namely, somebody who hates children is a terrible fit for a role defined by its heavy interaction with children, as well as diplomatically pointing out her temperamental incompatability by noting that "warm and fuzzy is the job". And even as he does this, he also acknowledges that she is a skilled manager with brilliant ideas, and offers to make her the company's head director, in effect The Man Behind the Man to the next Santa Claus.
• Kyle of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power was initially written as a sort of Deconstructed Character Archetype to The Everyman trope, although the crew behind the show doesn't seem to understand the whole point of the everyman archetype. Word of God states that Kyle was meant to be a Joke Character. Among the kids who are raised to be child soldiers for the Horde, Kyle is pretty weak and gets a hard time from everyone, including his teammates. He also tends to be an easy scapegoat and is blamed whenever something goes wrong. But he is surprisingly very optimistic and humble despite the situation he's in, and is always trying his best despite his shortcomings. Most egregious is when he confides and befriends Bow when the latter is taken prisoner by the Horde and is literally thrown away when the Rebellion comes to rescue Bow.
• The Simpsons:
  • Bart Simpson can be this. Obviously, he's a brat and can be quite a Jerkass, but Homer strangles him constantly, he often feels ignored and useless in the face of Lisa's accomplishments, he's picked on at school, blamed for things other people have done, and occasionally gets hit with Disproportionate Retribution at the hands of other characters like Principal Skinner, Lisa, and Homer.
  • Homer Simpson in "Homer's Enemy". We're supposed to side with Frank Grimes — the idea of the episode is that a "normal" person wouldn't be as amused with Homer's antics as the other characters are. The thing is, while Homer is an idiot and an incompetent employee, and he does initially do a number of callous things like steal Frank's lunch and office supplies, once he learns that Frank dislikes him for it he spends the remainder of the episode trying to make amends. Meanwhile, Frank acts like a complete Jerkass towards him, and it's blatantly obvious that he's just jealous that Homer's life is better than his (as far as he knows, anyway), and notably part of what sets off this rant is Homer's family attempting to be kind to him by serving him a lobster dinner and being on their best behavior. Frank even goes so far as to claim that Homer doesn't deserve his happiness and attempts to humiliate Homer even after Homer tried to make amends.
    • Homer again in "Homer the Heretic." He opts to stay home from church one Sunday and when Marge and the kids go without him, he revels in having the house to himself for the first time in years. He enjoys it so much that he decides to stop going to church altogether. Marge, Flanders, and Reverend Lovejoy all try to get Homer to start attending services again, and he even dreams of being confronted by God himself. However, when you stop to think that Homer's duties as a full-time worker, husband, and father mean that he is never alone, it's hard to blame him for wanting just a few hours of me-time each week. And considering that when he does go to church, he often sleeps through the sermon (including at the end of the episode when he's convinced to go back), he's clearly not getting anything out of it anyway.
• Skunk Fu!: The Big Bad of the show Dragon, as mentioned in the show's opening and on the official website, was horrifically punished by heaven for doing his duty of protecting the valley animals and making it rain during a drought without heaven's permission. While it was still his own doing to blame the animals and get himself stuck inside Long Mountain, the show seems to agree with heaven that Dragon is evil, as if this was what made him evil and not his blaming of his old friends.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Sheldon Plankton can be this. He's evil, yes, but a lot of the time Mr. Krabs can be needlessly brutal towards him, and even go after him when he's not doing anything wrong.
  • Squidward Tentacles can be this too. While he was especially a Jerkass during the first three seasons, and half the things that happened to him were his own fault, later seasons often have him do little-to-no wrong, yet he still gets put through the wringer. Even if Spongebob and Patrick are generally nice guys, and the problems they cause are out of stupidity rather than malice, it's hard to pin Squidward as the one with the problem, for all his being an asocial Narcissist.
• Mala from Superman: The Animated Series in her first appearance "Blast from the Past". A Phantom Zone criminal who had participated in a failed revolution led by Not!Zod Jax-Ur actually fulfilled her sentence due to only being an accomplice. She's released by Superman who, in hope that she's fully reformed, attempts to train her to be a hero like him. Mala tries her damnedest but overdoes it during a robbery breakup by showing just a bit too much power. Then later she's more or less harassed by Lois Lane over being a Kryptonian woman, and finally she overhears Superman and Professor Emil Hamilton discussing putting her back into the Phantom Zone because she's not instantly the perfect Superwoman. Understandably she doesn't take this well and goes full villain by releasing her friend former boss Jax-Ur and attempting to conquer Earth. The end result was clearly just to give Superman some Kryptonian villains, but the set up is so moronic and demonizing that it's not hard to feel a bit sorry for Mala.
• Super Mario World: Of all characters, Hip and Hop get this treatment in "A Little Learning". In this episode, Hip and Hop want to attend Dome City's school despite the protests of King Koopa and the parents of the cave children. The sympathy hits during the science fair when they coordinate a volcano experiment. After Koopa accidentally blows up the school with it, Princess Toadstool expels them which many fans feel was unjustified. They never meant any harm with their volcano as evidenced by Hip's reaction when it goes out of control. The Humiliation Conga they endure, where they get Swallowed Whole by a piranha plant and Yoshi before being spat into a warp pipe, doesn't help.
• Talespin: Colonel Grogg from "War of the Weirds" is a stern, paranoid, Trigger-Happy soldier, who apparently got promoted due to Nepotism. Still, it's debatable whether he deserved to be subjected to Gaslighting and a Humiliation Conga just for wanting to defend Earth against what looked like a real alien invasion and being prepared to arrest anyone who is guilty of the serious crime of perpetrating a hoax against the military (although Baloo didn't set out to do that in the first place).
• Tangled: The Series has two notable examples of this:
  • A number of people had this feeling about Varian during his time as the Arc Villain of Season 1. The series paints Varian as someone who fell to the dark side and crossed the line by committing high treason against Corona, as well as assault and attempted regicide, over something that was his own fault. While it definitely cannot be denied that Varian's actions are not acceptable in any way, it should also be noted that prior to this, Varian was a young teenager who was left all alone for months (granted, he had Ruddiger) without any guardians. He even had to lie low due to the people of Corona falsely believing he attacked Rapunzel, and was chased out of his own home by King Frederic's guards simply because he had the Demanitus Scroll. Him refusing to take the blame for his father's imprisonment in amber (which wouldn't free his father anyway) is understandable, considering how badly it'd affect him if he had to admit he was responsible for the loss of his only remaining family member, not to mention it was a complete accident stemming from his desire to save Corona from the black rocks. It's also hard to blame him for resenting Rapunzel and King Frederic, given that Rapunzel didn't bother to check on him after the blizzard was over, and Frederic outright ignored the problem about the black rocks and, as mentioned above, sent guards after Varian even before he did anything against the royal family.
    • The problem unfortunately resurfaces itself in Season 3, with Varian continuously having to atone for his actions, whereas the royal family's (unintentional) part in shaping him to be villainous isn't addressed, making it seem as though Varian was the only one who messed up. Rapunzel also only brings up how she had to be there for her kingdom during the blizzard, even though she had months to check up on him. The bad things that happen to him in "Be Very Afraid" and "Cassandra's Revenge" are meant to be Laser-Guided Karma, but many found them to be highly excessive considering everything he'd already been through and how hard he's worked to make up for his actions.
  • In a similar vein to Varian, Lady Caine. When she was a child, her father, a mere petty thief, was thrown in a cage like some animal, a sight she had to experience at a young age that likely traumatized her. She never saw him again, and it's likely he was a single father given she seemingly had no mother to sway her away from the wrong path, heavily implying she had to fend for herself afterwards and made her own life choices ever since. While her blaming Rapunzel and trying to abduct nobles as an adult are terrible, her circumstances render her hatred for Corona's law and aristocracy very understandable, something the series (as well as Rapunzel) never acknowledges, instead painting her as merely a greedy and narcissistic thief.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • In the episode, "Prom-ise Her Anything", Montana Max is being legitimately stalked by Elmyra, who wants him to go to the prom with her. He does not have any romantic feelings for her, and does not even want to go to the dance, but because Max is the Designated Villain, he is shown as being in the wrong for rejecting Elmyra.
  • In the Spring Break Special, Plucky becomes this in the climax. He is minding his own business and just tries to get a girl duck to like him. Buster and Babs are running from Elmyra, who is under the impression that Buster is the Easter Bunny and in The Stinger, she's right, and just as Plucky's about to kiss the girl duck, they plant fake rabbit ears on him to trick Elmyra into thinking he's the Easter Bunny. Usually, Plucky is an Asshole Victim, getting punished for trying to do things like upstaging Buster and Babs and trying to make a quick buck^note the latter of which he tried to do earlier in the special by selling the Tan-Meister 6000, but gave up on it after meeting the girl duck, but this time, he didn't do anything to deserve Elmyra catching him. It also doesn't help that Buster and Babs joke about the situation rather than showing concern for Plucky's well-being.
  • Plucky also comes off as this in "The Anvil Chorus" (part of "It's Buster Bunny Time"). After spending the entire episode tied up, Buster and Babs rain anvils on him and blast him with cannons despite him not doing anything to deserve it.
• Tom of Tom and Jerry fame, especially in the infamous Gene Deitch era. While he does at times instigate the conflict, he usually gets attacked by Jerry without having provoked him, or is forced by his physically-abusive owner to get rid of him, and is still viewed as the villain (on the other hand, he sometimes wins against Jerry).
• Total Drama:
  • Ezekiel, full stop. Meant by the creators to be little more than an expendable first elimination not to be missed by viewers during Island, he garnered a surprisingly large fanbase instead, as many felt sorry for him as he was booted out for being Innocently Insensitive and simply too naive to know any better. In response, the creators brought him back in World Tour, but he got kicked off first again and mutated into a Gollum-like creature — all of which was Played for Laughs. Many viewers were displeased with his treatment and now clamber for him to be restored to normal and be given a proper chance - something that went unfulfilled, given that Ezekiel remained a monster for the rest of the series.
  • Heather in World Tour. Despite being willing to be a team player, she is treated like she is plotting against the others. Especially evident when Heather tried to warn Leshawna about Alejandro, Leshawna attacked her.
  • Anne Maria to the older fans. She was supposed to be The Hate Sink because of getting in the way of Mike & Zoey's relationship. However, Because of having a distinct personality and interactions with others, many of them preferred her to Zoey and Mike. Especially when Zoey and Mike became the Spotlight-Stealing Squad in All-Stars and both became scrappies.
  • Scott in All-Stars. The constant abuse he suffered despite not being an active antagonist came off as unwarranted and unfair, his stories about how poor his family is seemed more depressing than humorous, and his PTSD fear of sharks being played for laughs was widely considered distasteful.
• Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: Taylor, of all people, comes out sympathetic when her mother Kelly reveals her father bought off all her accomplishments and trophies. Taylor was nothing but a spoiled brat that was spoiled by her father while bullying her mother throughout the show. Taylor would brag that she had all these talents and skills but would always come up short in the challenges and blame her mother for her failures. In the episode "Hawaiian Honeyruin", Kelly eventually loses patience with her daughter when they lose the challenge, and she blames her while saying that her mother is not used to winning like her. Kelly revealed that Taylor had never won anything in her life; Taylor was confused and told that her room was full of trophies. Kelly revealed that her father bought all her trophies from the mail, pointing out why she did not wonder why the trophies came from the mail, and her father bribed all her coaches to lie about her skills. Taylor desperately asked about The beauty pageants; she won them; those can't be fake, only for Kelly to smugly tell her that you can fake anything with enough cash. Even Don admits that was cold. This moment was supposed to come off as Kelly giving her spoiled daughter a long-overdue reality check, but the thing is, Taylor genuinely thought she was skilled and earned those trophies and had no idea her father bought them. While arrogant about her skills, Taylor wasn't delusional because she thought she was greater than she was or could buy her wins; she genuinely thought that she earned her accomplishments and was devastated to learn the truth. Taylor later accepted her limitations regarding her skills in a later challenge, those she made it clear to her mother that she was still unhappy to learn about all her accomplishments being fake. And with Taylor's skills at holding her breath, it's implied that she would've genuinely worked to be skilled, given the right motivation. Taylor comes off less as a spoiled brat who thinks she's skilled when she's not and more as a girl whose parents were too lazy to train and bought off her wins, sabotaging her when she could've been a genuine winner.
• Transformers: Animated: Blackarachnia. She was written to be a pitiful character, but the writers went a little too far by making her Left for Dead by her True Companions, romance with Optimus Prime, and a poor girl driven mad by her freakish mutation and having to join the Decepticons just to survive, then told by an old buddy it would have been better if she died and hints that there was still some goodness in her. However, Word of God seems to imply the Heel–Face Turn the audience was hoping for was kind of in their heads.
• Velma: Fred is supposed to be the butt of the joke as the racist, sexist, misogynistic Manchild but the over-the-top constant mockery of him in-universe feels incredibly undeserved and an assassination of the original character. His behavior overall has him acting more like an immature child who doesn’t know any better thanks to his infantilizing mother and his father’s toxic masculinity, which combined with his desperate need for approval makes it hard to laugh when other characters constantly mock him and feel no guilt for his wrongful conviction purely because he's a stupid, rich white boy. Furthermore, he manages to be the least awful of the main cast in a World of Jerkass, being the only one who seems to change for the better while the rest of the cast either stagnates or gets worse — not only is he considerably less obnoxious, racist, and sexist than the titular Velma, and not only does he genuinely make attempts, however pathetic and misguided as they may be, to change for the better, but he also actually makes some pretty integral discoveries in the series' ongoing mystery which makes him the easiest person to root for overall.
• The creators of Voltron: Legendary Defender, when speaking of Lotor, claimed that he wasn't a character who could get a redemption arc, and people forgot he was a villain. It's true that Lotor was hardly a saint; he tried to kill hundreds in the name of accomplishing his plans and deceived Allura, the woman he loved, to make it happen. But he was also a Child of Two Worlds who had sympathy for both, a Visionary Villain who had a genuinely good end goal, was an ally to the protagonists for half of his appearances, and a survivor of an abusive family. Allura tells him to his face that he's just like his father, which seems undeserved as his father's motives were truly selfish and he killed far more people. And when Honerva, his mother, gets redeemed while still living despite her attempt to destroy the universe in a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, it makes the claim that Lotor was beyond saving seem even more myopic. His final fate and Family-Unfriendly Death, which the creators actually laughed while discussing, came across as bizarrely cruel when far worse villains got redeemed or at least died with dignity. This is at least fixed in the final season, where we see how Lotor's attempts to be a better person than his father backfired on him, turning him onto a path of darkness. Lotor also contacts Allura in his ghostly form to help her find a way to defeat Honerva, saying bluntly he hates her as much as the princess does so she can trust him. Indeed, his advice and guidance help Allura find the key to undoing the witch and foiling her Evil Plan. Parallel Lotor comes off as an innocent child and more distrusting of his mother suddenly returning.
• Winx Club: The first time we see Princess Diaspro, she is just attending an event with Prince Sky and is attacked by Bloom, who assumes she is Icy because Icy would want to mess with her. Diaspro had no idea her fiancé had been flirting with another woman and Bloom doesn't explain herself in any reasonable manner, so of course the Princess defends herself. We are supposed to side with Bloom on this, but the real issue here is Sky didn't tell Bloom he was already engaged and flirted with her anyways. Sky not only gets off scot-free for this, but immediately dumps Diaspro. It's easy to feel sympathy for her since while she's not the nicest person, no one deserves to be cheated on. The writing team seemed to be aware of this and in her next major appearance wrote Diaspro into a Psycho Ex-Girlfriend with much less sympathy points although for some the problem persists purely due to how Unintentionally Unsympathetic Bloom and Sky continue to come off as.

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