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[mike837go]

Pulled from the WCDT (1931-35)

<snip> kudos to Jim for being so understanding. I see the similarities with Marten. 

Same author for both character have anything to do with that?

Strange thought: Are there any truly unsympathetic MALE characters in this strip?

I know Steve can be a jerk sometimes, but it's the women and the 'bots that cause most of the trouble.

{donning the fireproof suit now}

[mike837go]

Copied from WCDT (1931-35):

Sven was the unsympathetic male in the comic, rich, successful, didn't have to do much in life, just coasted along and has presumably a crapton of money. I say was, because since Faye mentally castrated him, Sven has become a little bit more sympathetic.

But there aren't many characters that has been designed to be "hated". Or if they are, they're usually just one shot characters we might not see again.

[Tiogyr]

It all has to do with perspective, because I feel zero sympathy for Marten whenever anything happens to him. He's pretty much a blank slate character that just reacts to the people around him.

[mike837go]

But is Marten truly UNsympathetic?

He's been described in the forums as a "manatee on codene" many times. But does that make his as annoying as say The Vespavenger?

[Boomslang]

Dale is unsympathetic.

He's creepy, he keeps showing up when he isn't wanted, and he's all but threatened Marigold. He's almost to the point where she should take a restraining order out against him.

Oh, and Agent Turing. He's a dick.

[mike837go]

Ah, yes forgot about them. Thanks.

We' haven't heard much from Agent Turing lately.

But, Dale, oooohhh I would like to see him given a one-way bus ride.  Grrrr.

[Carl-E]

No bus, but a comeuppance would be nice. 


The whole Gendo thing is really  getting annoying.  I wanna see Mari-chan dancing on the ashes of his dark-elf-or-whatever-he-plays-in-WoW. 


Oh, and Steve is only marginally sympathetic, at best.  I've never really been fond of him.  No matter how kick-ass his exploits were, he's still a bit of a dick. 

[John_Knee]

Dale is unsympathetic.

He's creepy, he keeps showing up when he isn't wanted, and he's all but threatened Marigold. He's almost to the point where she should take a restraining order out against him.

But you don't see a potential love interest there? They are both of different rival servers - I am thinking a Romeo and Juliet angle here, but any get together is very very very much in the future.

Hostilities started with Marigold anyway:

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1668

Round two, Marigold tells Dale to bring it....

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1680

And then Dale pops up now and again and only comments concerning WoW rather than any direct threat against her physically. I see all of his comments to be base upon server rivalty rather than a desire to see harm to her.

[Tergon]

I submit that for a strict definition of "Unsympathetic", it is unlikely that anyone in the comic has felt sympathy for Jimbo.  Awe, disgust, head-shaking astonishment, the desire for an air freshener, but not sympathy.

But for a more straightforward explanation, I just don't think Jeph likes writing arseholes.  A totally unsympathetic character is a two-dimensional one, as I'm sure we all agree, and he likes to flesh them out a bit.  The closest he's come to a genuinely bad person in QC was the VespaVenger, and even she had a Freudian excuse and a website full of fans.

Also, with regards to Dale:  I've said in other threads that if you try to slant your perspective just a little, what he's doing is actually as creepy as all hell with serious stalker and implied-threat undertones.  Pretty much everyone in-universe takes him with good humour, and when he's not trying to intimidate Marigold he's a regular guy, but I'd like to see more of him as a person rather than a rejected Saturday Morning Cartoon villian.

[Tanksenior]

I find Dale to be pretty sympathetic to be honest, he and Marigold have always been a bit flirty.

[TheEvilDog]

I find Dale to be pretty sympathetic to be honest, he and Marigold have always been a bit flirty.

Apparently you have a completely different definition to flirty compared to the rest of the world.

Right now, Dale is probably the closest thing the comic has to a (semi) regular jerkass character.

[Is it cold in here?]

Early Angus deeply bothered a lot of people here.

EDIT: Marten thought Dale and Marigold might be flirting: http://www.questionablecontent.net/1680

[Arrgh]

I always read what Dale's doing as flirting. Sort of a flirt-rivalry where Marigold's taking the rivalry part more seriously. Sure, if it happened in the real world just as depicted it wouldn't be cute, but I think things get exaggerated for comic effect in comics.

So no, I don't think there are any unsympathetic male characters. Or female characters. There aren't any real villains -- they all seem to have good intentions even if they don't pull it off so well.

[Is it cold in here?]

Hannermom was described as "evil" by her own daughter in 1152.

[TheEvilDog]

There's evil and there's unsympathetic. At the end of the storyline, you get the impression that Beatrice knows that she has missed out a lot on Hanners growing up, and in the process you kinda feel sorry for her for that, because there isn't that much connecting her and Hanners. She is evil, but she is somewhat redeemed, at least in the eyes of the readers, by that admission.

[Doragon Shinzui]

The only male character I've never had any sympathy for was Dave.
Fucking Dave. (>_>)

[pwhodges]

But he got his girl...

(leaving Steve in the lurch yet again)

[TheEvilDog]

But he got his girl...

(leaving Steve in the lurch yet again)

Got his girl...despite having his shot earlier and Meena having broken up with him. Then proceeds to steal Meena while she is dating Steve. Oh and he is perfect too. Yep, a completely sympathatic character. /sarcasm.

Basically, Dave is one of the few characters I dislike to the point of hatred.

[pwhodges]

Also, as I recall, he was always drawn with his eyes shut...

[TheEvilDog]

Except for one occassion, but that might be because he was able to find some hobo and steal his eyes, replacing the black soulless pits that are hidden behind his eyelids.

[Carl-E]

Dave wasn't so much a character as he was a plot device. 

Same for Tortura...

[Welu]

Even though Clinton had a story that made Hanners feel sorry for him, I still don't think it justifies stalking her to her workplace and taking a photo of her to put online without her permission.

On one level I guess I can see why he did what he did but it doesn't explain the creepy way he went about it.

[therealjamesbrown]

Yea I'd have to say Dale is annoying, but I don't think thats going to be the same. He seems a lot like a nerd trying to date someone (Marigold), and of course screwing it up. I definitely see a nerd romance in the future between those two.

[Method of Madness]

Actually, considering Meena's the one who cheated on Dave, then broke up with him, only to go back to him while she was dating Steve, doesn't that make her the unsympathetic one?  (Then again, Dave did say that he respected their relationship, only to go and propose to her while she was still dating Steve, so...yeah...)

[Akima]

Strange thought: Are there any truly unsympathetic MALE characters in this strip?

How about Pretentious Record Store Dude AKA Nappy McTurtleneck?

[Is it cold in here?]

Good catch!

[Carl-E]

But...but... he's a one-off for the punchline, not a character!  We don't know a thing about him.  You might as well cite the evil genious on the island from Steve's DoKYA days! 

Very unsympathetic.  Stereotypically so, in fact. 

[pwhodges]

Not to mention the buskers; they were pretty much arseholes.

[cat_rant]

TBH I know folks will disagree with me on this one. But  I think Steve is an out and out douche! I can't stand him. 

[snubnose]

Well "truely unsympathetic" means to me that the person in question really lacks any redeemable qualities.

I guess Vespavenger is a nobrainer. Attempted murder in three cases, for no good reason whatsoever, if you do that, you truely proven yourself to be not a part of the nice crowd.

Very likely Hanners mom is the #2 entry. Even if its played for laughts, she is very likely to have commited a lot of crimes. We dont know how many and what kind, though.

To anyone else, it really depends upon how strict you are. I wouldnt give anyone else on the strip the "truely unsympathetic" label.

Personally I would call the most likely candidate for the next entry Sven. He pretty much hurt feelings of women left and right without ever thinking about it. Obviously he is currently trying to redeem himself.

Faye of course was a total bitch who is slowly progressing into a somewhat nicer human being.

Steve can be quite ... ignorant, but he isnt doing it on purpose and a very honest kind of guy.

Marten had a moment of major ***holery with Faye, but he was stone drunk, had broken up with Dora, and he has an otherwise clean record, and even Faye forgave him this incident.

Angus was horribly superannoying when he was introduced. He got massively better, though.

[Near Lurker]

I can't think of any truly unsympathetic characters at all, except maybe Hannelore's mother.  Even Vicky just made a mistake, no worse than what Sven does practically every time we see him.

[Is it cold in here?]

Good point: before the Pugnacious Peach rewired him, all Sven had going for him was superficial charm.

[Method of Madness]

Just wondering, who came up with the nickname "Pugnacious Peach"?  It makes sense, but I'm just wondering if it was in the comic or if it's a forum invention.

[jwhouk]

It was a forum invention after Marten's little "indiscretion" that she blamed on owls, IIRC.

[Boomslang]

I think there's a divide here between people who are thinking of "Male characters for whom I personally feel no sympathy towards" and "Male characters who it is completely impossible for anyone to feel sympathy for".

I acknowledge the lack of the latter, but I'm not surprised. I can think of very few characters, in all of fiction, who fit into that category. Of the former, there are quite a number of possibilities, depending on personal views.

[Tergon]

I think the closest I can come to a truly unsympathetic character, in any fiction, would be The Joker.  Even then the writers did take a few shots at making him seem a little sympathetic, but then he simply laughs it off, acknowledges that he truly doesn't care about anything in his past that might make him sympathetic, and proceeds to murder a busload of orphans for the sheer fun of it.

The closest we can come to someone with antics like that would be, of course, Pintsize.  Who has indicated that he enjoys traumatising orphans, and has a great fondness for weapons of mass destruction.

Therefore, the only male character in QC for whom one cannot feel true sympathy is Pintsize.  Even though he's only technically "male" and the lack of sympathy is mostly because he's not nothing to be sympathetic about.  Little dude is a ball of tiny blue chaos, there's nothing about him to feel bad for.

[cesariojpn]

Therefore, the only male character in QC for whom one cannot feel true sympathy is Pintsize.  Even though he's only technically "male" and the lack of sympathy is mostly because he's not nothing to be sympathetic about.  Little dude is a ball of tiny blue chaos, there's nothing about him to feel bad for.

I beg to differ about "its" gender. Or the proper terminology to use. I dunno, Gender Fluid?

[Tergon]

It's been established that, for whatever it is worth, Pintsize is a male character.  It may mean nothing more than a preprogrammed setting, but he identifies as specifically male, so he counts.

[cesariojpn]

It's been established that, for whatever it is worth, Pintsize is a male character.  It may mean nothing more than a preprogrammed setting, but he identifies as specifically male, so he counts.

For all we know, Pintsize's downloads of porn might've corrupted the memory abit, so in that one instance, he was a she for a fleeting moment.

[Tergon]

Someone's projecting...

 

[Tiogyr]

I think the closest I can come to a truly unsympathetic character, in any fiction, would be The Joker.  Even then the writers did take a few shots at making him seem a little sympathetic, but then he simply laughs it off, acknowledges that he truly doesn't care about anything in his past that might make him sympathetic, and proceeds to murder a busload of orphans for the sheer fun of it.

The Joker is easily more sympathetic than other characters. The breakdown he had the one time that the Martian Manhunter telepathically forced him to realize how much suffering he was causing, for example, was pretty well done (and on the flipside, his speech during that otherwise horrible Emperor Joker bit where he explains why he's planning to wink all of Existence, well, out of it).

Plus, there is this:

[cesariojpn]

Someone's projecting...

 

I don't have a mechanical/cyborg fetish.

[Carl-E]

I beg to differ about "its" gender. Or the proper terminology to use. I dunno, Gender Fluid?

OK, I know you were tryingto say that an AntroPC's gender is a fluid thing, but Gender Fluid just sounds too much like happy batter. 

[cesariojpn]

I beg to differ about "its" gender. Or the proper terminology to use. I dunno, Gender Fluid?

OK, I know you were tryingto say that an AntroPC's gender is a fluid thing, but Gender Fluid just sounds too much like happy batter.  

I dunno, i'm getting confused at all the "alternative" genders out there.

I remember at one party, I was like: "Wait, I don't call you transgendered, just ...in transition?"

[Carl-E]

I usually just ask their name...

[Boomslang]

Exactly. If someone gets mad at you referring to them by their name, you shouldn't be associating with them. The fact that our language is pronoun-deficient is annoying, though.

[cesariojpn]

Exactly. If someone gets mad at you referring to them by their name, you shouldn't be associating with them. The fact that our language is pronoun-deficient is annoying, though.

Ugh, my previous comment is just one of my many adventures into my subset of friends. Oddly enough, it all started with silverware.....

[Carl-E]

A knoife, by any chance?   

[mike837go]

**Ahem**

As the troll who started this thread, I would like to get back on topic.

The question is "Truly unsympathetic male characters in THIS strip?"

My opening statements excluded the 'bots and the women.

So far we've got Dale, Dave and Agent Turing. With a couple of one-timers that were set up as the butt of the joke.

Any other candidates?

[Method of Madness]

Dale's a chill bro.