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What character did you used to hate, but now love?
🕑 Added 2024-08-29 02:25:06 +0000 UTCSome of us have fictional characters we like, some we dislike, others we love, others we despise, but then there are the characters we started off really disliking but grow fond of as a story continues. I can think of quite a few instances of this happening to me whenever I read a book, watched a movie, TV show, anime, etc. Too many choices, really.
If I had to narrow it down though, I'd have to end up choosing Katsuki Bakugo, from the anime "My Hero Academia". This anime started airing back in 2016 when I was a university student, and my college roommate was a massive fanboy of this series. We both loved anime, and he kept insisting that I needed to watch this show. The premise, animation, main protagonist, inspirational themes, superhero aesthetics, and voice acting did pull me in...but what almost kept me from not continuing the show mostly revolved around Bakugo, the protagonist's childhood friend-turned-bully-turned-rival. Let me be honest here and say I DESPISED this character. Not only did his constant yelling and shouting (Clifford Chapin, his English voice actor, has actually mentioned needing to end recording sessions early due to how worn out his voice gets, which I found hilarious! XD) get really grating in some parts, but I found his bullying behavior made him too unlikable. And he's not just a random bully who's forgotten about; he follows Izuku Midoriya around the main setting for quite a bit. Even when the series focused more on other characters and we saw Katsuki mellow out a bit, I didn't look forward to scenes with him. I still saw him as an angry little brat without much to keep me as invested in. If it weren't for my roommate's insistence and the show's other positives, I likely would've stopped watching the anime.
However...my opinion changed on Episode 23 of Season 3. Without going too much into spoilers, Katsuki and Midoriya get into another fight, but this one reveals a side of Katsuki that I absolutely did not see coming, and as the episode continues, the dynamic between the two characters changes in a way that is not only more positive, but actually leads to character development. By the time the later seasons come around, I'm beginning to see Katsuki as less and less of a bully, and we actually get to see him change into a more heroic and better person. Again, without going into spoilers, there's also a brilliant scene at one point in the later seasons where Bakugo acknowledges the mistakes he's made to a certain character, and it's probably the most impactful scene out of all "My Hero Academia". It's like the show's creator was planning this from the beginning, all the way back in Chapter 1. Suddenly, this leads to Katsuki Bakugo transforming from one of the most disliked characters to probably my favorite character in the show.
What about you though? Do you have a character you used to dislike, but now love?
