With age comes wisdom—hopefully.
And with wisdom, our perspective changes—hopefully.
So it's only natural our opinions on certain characters from books, movies or TV shows change as we get older.
A Redditor asked:
"Who’s a character you despised as a kid, but now as an adult, you totally understand?"
Squidward
"I think all of us can agree on Squidward."
"I hated him for being so negative and ruining Spongebob's fun and boasting about his amazing art and clarinet skills."
"Looking back on it now, I relate to him so much."
- istantoomanygroups
"From being a kid and growing up to an adult, you might notice that your perspective changes from viewing the world from SpongeBob's eyes to Squidward's eye's."
- KrossVII
GiphyBatman
"Batman! As a kid I thought he was the worst super hero. Always annoying and his bla bla, no real superpower, only money."
"As a grown up, I started to see his pain and grief to which I can now relate. Trying to have an impact even without superpowers now hits very differently, it's more courageous....after all he's just a normal dude, like we all are."
"And yeah... being rich also sound a lot better now. And as a woman I also think he's very attractive now."
- TryingToBeeNice
GiphyRichard Vernon
"My mom one day re-watched the Breakfast Club and said that it was so outdated and that she related more to the teacher than the teens in the movie because she herself is a teacher and says she would hate working on a Saturday too."
- The_Theater_Girl
GiphySharpay Evans
"Sharpay Evans from High School Musical."
"She's presented as the bad guy for encouraging Gabriella to sign up for the theatre club, and mentioning there's lots of roles so she'd be likely to get something despite her inexperience, which, as someone who's passionate about acting, newbies don't get lead roles, especially when they have stage fright, which Gabriella has so bad she freezes up at the audition."
"Sharpay is a theatre veteran and the only one to sign up for a lead role, so it's completely understandable why she would assume she would get the lead. When she gets the drama teacher to change the audition dates to the day Troy and Gabriella have other events she's just testing their commitment to the show, proven by how well she takes it when she doesn't get the lead."
"She was also TOTALLY RIGHT to be concerned as in the third film Troy actively abandons the show."
"It's no coincidence that the hyper feminine rich girl is demonized for no reason whilst the morally dubious 'heroines' are girls who dress and act less femininely and actively make fun of girly girls."
- we-love-a-arty-queen
GiphyAnakin Skywalker/Darth Vader
"Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Now I know that he’s morally evil, I won’t deny the terrible stuff he’s done, but once you grow up you realize that you really can’t blame him for the stuff he did."
"If someone you loved were to die soon, you’d do everything you could to save them. He was easily manipulated by Palpatine into going against the Jedi Order."
"And as for Vader, he was just a man who had lost everything, he was broken, as any man with power with nothing to lose, 9 times out of 10 they’re going to abuse their power. That’s exactly what Vader did."
"But once he saw a chance to make things right, to save his son and finally fulfill the prophesy he was written into, he did it, even if it cost him his life."
"I definitely believe Anakin/Vader could’ve made smarter choices had he given himself a minute of thinking before taking action. But even then, I wholeheartedly understand why he did the stuff he did."
- PokemonBackpackKid
GiphyDisney Villains
"Any Disney villain, honestly I relate so much now, but as a kid I was always so upset when they came on screen."
"Now I watch and I’m like 'ah yes, they went through stuff and they decided to be mean. Guess it’s for protection at that point'."
"Look at Scar for example. He is the weakest lion but brilliant."
"He could have never won against his brother but he tried and lost, he then made a plan to kill the king."
- Randomthings1504
GiphyKing Triton
"King Triton. God, Ariel's so naive to me now as an adult."
"She doesn't know this dude aside from what he looks like, decides she loves him and is willing to give up everything and everyone to join him on land."
- One_Many3544
"I cringe now every time she says 'I'm 16, daddy!'."
"Nope, nope, nope."
- LakotaGrl
GiphyThe Skipper
"The Skipper on Gilligan's Island."
"I mean Gilligan helped shipwreck the boat, is always getting in trouble and you know as soon as they are rescued he will turn on the Skipper."
- VivaLasVegasGuy
Tv Land Technology GIF by TV Land ClassicGiphySo has your perspective changed on any of the villains of your childhood?
Did they make the list?
Let us know in the comments.
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