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Unintentionally Sympathetic: Difference between revisions
→Western Animation
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* The Urpneys of ''[[The Dreamstone]]'', the abused lackeys of Zordrak sent to steal the stone so as [[Poke the Poodle|to make nightmares]]. They are abused regularly for any screw ups and contradictions to their bosses plans (multiple mooks have in fact [[You Have Failed Me|been killed as punishment]]) and, as with many [[Harmless Villain]]s, usually face humiliating and merciless defeats from the Land Of Dreams (which is saying something considering [[Sugar Bowl|how sacharrine the place usually is]]). Especially applies to [[Minion with an F In Evil|Frizz and Nug]], who are shanghied into nearly every mission plan and spend a lot more time being pitiful [[Nervous Wreck]]s than doing anything particularly dastardly.
* Many [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]] antagonists and villains [[Draco in Leather Pants|receive a pair of leather pants]] because of this. For instance [[Small Name, Big Ego|"The Great and Powerful"]] [[Jerkass|Trixie]], who (although she accidentally brings it upon herself with her boasting) ends up losing her reputation and probably mostly everything she possessed at the end of the episode, which some people believe was [[Disproportionate Retribution|disproportionate]] to her wrongdoings. There's also [[Jerkass|Gilda the Gryphon]], who loses her friend Rainbow Dash (though again, she brought it upon herself).
** The show has pretty much redeemed Trixie in canon now, after her second episode showed that even after being possessed by and driven insane by an artifact of ultimate evil, Trixie still doesn't have it in her to actually seriously injure anypony. Of course, she ''was'' arrogant and powerhungry enough to put that amulet on in the first place, but presumably it didn't come with a consumer safety advisory of 'Warning: Side effects of using the Alicorn Amulet may include paranoia, megalomania, poor impulse control, irrational phobias, and being reduced to the common sense of a particularly thick doorknob.'
** The high-tier villains also get this. Some people actually manage to sympathize with [[Mad God|Discord]]'s goals. It helps that he's a silly, goofy [[Trickster Archetype]] who spent [[And I Must Scream|1000 years]] [[Fate Worse Than Death|sealed in]] [[Taken for Granite|stone]]. (Even though he was sealed precisely for being evil in the first place, and his idea of fun involves copious amounts of [[Mind Rape]] and [[World Gone Mad|chaos]].)
** Nightmare Moon: even before she got better and turned into Luna, [[Ensemble Darkhorse|possibly the most beloved pony in the fandom,]] she came over as more of a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] than villain because at the very start of the pilot we are told that the reason she's been taken over by her evil alter-ego is because no-one appreciated all the hard work she was doing controlling night time. Sure, her [[The Night That Never Ends|Night That Never Ends]] would have killed everypony in Equestria when the food ran out, but all she wanted was a hug from her big sister.
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