Lord of the Rings: Opinions Then and Now

A few months ago, my brother and I started watching the Lord of the Rings. I'd watched it once before when I was fourteen. I was doing a kids club in a small town during the summer, and for a couple of nights at our host's house we watched it. When I watched it then, I thought it was all right. It was a very epic story but very straightforward, journeying from Point A to Point B, which in my opinion was kind of boring.

This time, it took my brother and me a while to finish all three movies since we would watch half of each one every few weeks.

By the time we were done, I was in LOVE. They are AWESOME. I was choked up by the end of the third movie, and when everyone is in the square of the city at the end and the hobbits go to bow to Aragorn and he says, "My friends, you bow to no one", well, that was the best part of the whole series.

I'd expressed my previous feelings towards LOTR to my dad and he commented that that was interesting, but why the difference? Why do I like these movies so much now, when I didn't before?

Who knows? Maybe it's because I've read a lot more and come to a greater appreciation of character and story development. Maybe it's because of the too much time I spend on the internet reading people's crazily in-depth analyses of various movies, TV shows and books that they love. Maybe it's because last time my expectations were high, and this time they were low.

I don't have an answer. I just think it's interesting how tastes change over time, from a variety of factors, even mixed factors. Every experience in our lives influences other aspects or our lives, or the way that we consume art. I just find the whole concept fascinating.

So I ask you, is there any sort of media or art that you used to hate but now love? Why do you think your feelings have changed?