Quote Originally Posted by Anteros View Post
The story definitely started out that way. The other characters have all grown though. Even Arlo, who I originally hated, has become a mature and reasonably good person. John's progress has been the other way. It makes sense for the story, but it does not make him a sympathetic character when the rest of the cast is all growing up and becoming better people while he's throwing temper tantrums about no one liking him and crippling people in the process.
So, John is a victim of bullying all his life. As a result of this he becomes a villain. Once he became a villain some of the people who used to bully him started to become better people. John is struggling to accept that his lifetime of conditioning to believe that everyone is a bully is false but he is trying to do so. And you sympathize with the people who drove him to this point but not him.