>>25562470You're right about the sympathy thing but that's because they don't have it in them to be able to sympathize. A symbiote latches on to a host but they aren't parasites, they are [spoilers]symbiotes[/spoilers]. They don't mean to or want to kill their host, sure sometimes they cause it's death, but they also give whatever it's latched on to ability to survive the unnamed alien planet.
The "venom" symbiote was put on Battleworld for battle purposes and when Spidey ended up with him it absorbed his thoughts, energy, and emotion (something their original hosts dont have). This causes it to go haywire.
The symbiotes feed on a substance in the spinal column/brain fluid and they only take enough to survive, but "Venom" is insane and he takes too much from Brock, giving him cancer. He inherits the greed emotion, you could say.
The symbiotes could cause pain but they don't "amplify the wearers emotion" like it's famous for, I blame the cartoon for that. Spider-Man wore the symbiote for only like a month and was FINE, he was in THE BLACK SUIT (that Felecia made him) when he was acting like a dick because his life sucked. The cartoon just glossed over that and made the symbiote make Peter a dick.