>>88608962Like many, I believe that he kinda deserved much of what came to him in the pre-movie episodes because much of his torment at the time was a direct or indirect result of his own actions. For example in Squid's Day Off, his spiral down into insanity is caused by his excessive worrying about things he didn't need to be worried about and in the club house episode, he didn't need to enter the club house and whisk himself away to the middle of nowhere with the two creatures he hated the most.
After the movie, however, his torment became mostly a case of "he is grumpy so he should be tortured eternally even if he isn't doing anything harmful of self-harming". This is why the term Squidward Torture Porn became so popular when describing post-movie episodes centering around him.
