Sometimes getting older means sympathizing with the villain in the story. Why is that a near-universal experience of growing up?

If you’re anything like me, movies are a huge part of your growing up experience. There are certain characters that lodged in my brain and spoke to me for a long time. Maybe I identified with them. Maybe I felt like I could learn something from them. Or maybe I just liked their outfits. Whatever it was, it’s common for kids to identify with characters. Storytelling is a huge part of our lives as children, and it continues that way into adulthood. But our relationships with stories might change as we get older. As we live life and have more experience, we might start to see things in a different light. That’s what this thread is all about. Reimagining our relationships with fictional characters.