Squidward Tentacles

Squidward Tentacles "Everybody's a critic." Gender: Male Type: Entitled, Grumpy, and Sarcastic yet Relatable Loner Age: Unknown Species: Anthropomorphic Octopus Portrayed by: Rodger Bumpass Jason Maybaum (His younger Self in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run) Status: Alive Media of origin: SpongeBob SquarePants

Squidward Quincy Tentacles is the tritagonist and anti-hero of the Nickelodeon series, SpongeBob SquarePants. He is a grumpy and unlucky turquoise octopus who lives in an Easter Island head-shaped moai. He is a friend of his neighbors, SpongeBob and Patrick. However, he's often annoyed by them (obviously because of their childlike behaviors), and is the irritable straight man of the trio.

Why He Has All the Talent

1. Despite being a bad artist, he did make good art that people have enjoyed.
2. He is vain, aloof, arrogant, cynical, and grouchy, but he puts those traits to good use.
3. Much like characters such as Garfield, his sarcasm and vanity can be hilarious or just comical.
   • He's also had many other funny moments aside from his sarcasm.
4. Despite his grumpiness and arrogance, he has a good heart and actually cares about SpongeBob secretly considering him his friend and even saving his life, standing up for him, or protecting him on several occasions.
   • In "April Fools" although he did play a mean prank on SpongeBob before, he actually does apologize to him for doing so, although his attempts were raspy at first.
   • In "SpongeBob, Your´e Fired" he actually wanted SpongeBob to come back to the Krusty Krab, even when he gets annoyed by him.
5. He is proven to be more caring than his boss, Mr. Krabs. He even called him out for selling SpongeBob to the Flying Dutchman for 62 cents in "Born Again Krabs".
6. Rodger Bumpass does an awesome job voicing the character and his signature laugh.
7. Speaking of his laugh, it is very good and it has a vibrant side to him.
8. His clarinet skills may be poor (or just mid at best) most of the time, but that isn't always the case; he played the clarinet very nicely a few times.
9. His design is great and memetic, but his superhero design as Sour-Note is even better!
10. He is one of the most realistic and relatable characters in the show.
11. A lot like characters such as Donald Duck, Ren Höek, Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Benson from Regular Show, his maturity and life struggles makes him heavily relatable to adult fans.
12. peaking of which, whenever he makes mistakes in a jerky manner, he gets a reasonable comeuppance for his actions and he also learns from them. Making him rather sympathetic and likable as time passes on.
13. Though Squidward alone is cynical quite often, SpongeBob finds the good in him.
14. He's the only one who's aware that Mr. Krabs is a cheapskate, unlike SpongeBob.
15. There are times when he cares for SpongeBob like in the episode "Pizza Delivery", he stood up for him in the most satisfying ways possible.
16. He does have a point in berating his neighbors for their shared immaturity, stupidity, and annoyance.
17. In some episodes, he is put in charge of the Krusty Krab when Mr. Krabs is away. SpongeBob may have a good work ethic, but Squidward's maturity and intelligence give him an edge over SpongeBob. In fact, these qualities are the reason why he is chosen over SpongeBob to be the initial manager of the Krusty Krab 2 in the first movie!
18. He even leads a marching band with tremendous success, much to his rival's shock!
19. When the show declined between seasons 6-8, he was alongside Plankton, and Mrs. Puff who were the least flanderized of the main cast.
20. He was at his absolute best in the following episodes: Christmas Who, because he gives everything he has to the citizens of Bikini Bottom, and Dying for Pie, because he accepts to spend an entire day with SpongeBob, after SpongeBob eats a pie that Squidward believes he ate a bomb-camouflaged pie that he bought from a pirate.

Bad Qualities

1. He is an absolute Butt-Monkey who is unintentionally abused by SpongeBob and Patrick almost whenever they interact with him, to the point where the name Megward the Wizard is influenced by him along with Kyle Bloodworth-Thomason and Meg Griffin.
2. He can become way too unlikable due to his bad attitude, even when it is justified most of the time.
3. Some people get confused about whether he is a squid or not due to his name, even though he is actually an octopus, despite that he has six limbs (which would be two arms and four legs) when real octopuses have 8. (In fact, there was an octopus family that appeared in "Sailor Mouth" who looked like actual octopuses.)
4. He was used as a punching bag during some of seasons 4 and 5, as well as seasons 6-8 treating him as a complete and utter Butt-Monkey since some episodes such as "Boating Buddies", "Smooth Jazz at Bikini Bottom", "Cephalopod Lodge", and even "Choir Boys" showcase his actions in those episodes are either out of his own control or have nothing to do with him, to begin with.
   • Even after season 6 to 8, he can still have bad episodes that focus on him suffering in a miserable state of mind, and much to the point you sympathize with him in a pitiful manner.
5. There are a select few episodes where he at his worst. Here are some examples:
   • In "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?," he yelled at SpongeBob for waking him up and even called him "Idiot Boy." Unlike everyone else who felt guilt for driving SpongeBob away, he showed no remorse for driving SpongeBob out of town, and in the end, the worst part is he didn’t even say he was sorry.
   • In "Restraining SpongeBob," he filed a restraining order against SpongeBob all because of what happened at the Krusty Krab. Sure, SpongeBob bringing Patrick over to help him out with his restraining order is not any better, but even for a Squidward Torture Fest episode such as this one, it's really hard to sympathize with Squidward here since SpongeBob has done nothing wrong to him whatsoever in that same episode.
   • In "The Splinter," he makes SpongeBob suffer by making him break down and cry because he is glad SpongeBob got a splinter. Granted, he did have a point that SpongeBob would be on worker's compensation because he got a splinter, but the way he treats SpongeBob is him being a malicious douchebag who is taking joy in his suffering by flushing his hat and spatula down the toilet and making him break down.
   • In "Gullible Pants," he comes off as a karma houdini who convinces SpongeBob to make the Krusty Krab dirty and does not get any consequences in that episode. Not even after SpongeBob told Krabs he knew about his "secrets," to the point where Mr. Krabs even gets a bad ending To be fair, this might've been his payback to SpongeBob after what he did to him in Choir Boys.
   • In Sentimental Sponge, he callously reported SpongeBob to the sanitation police, who ordered SpongeBob to throw away his beloved garbage or else they took away his house. He had no right to do such thing as that wasn't his house.
   • In "Fiasco!," he wakes up when SpongeBob and Patrick try to give the "Fiasco" back when Plankton steals it, thus the police send Squidward to jail for "lying".
   • He was completely at his worst in "Little Yellow Book", since he was the one who read SpongeBob's diary and humiliated him to the point where he made him cry, and plus, he never even learned his lesson in that episode, not even after he apologized to him later.
   • In "Under the Small Top", he carelessly threw away SpongeBob's package after the mailman accidently sent it to him, when he could just even give it to SpongeBob, who is his neighbor.
6. Though he didn't see too much in decline in character much like Meg from Family Guy in seasons 6-8, he was flanderized into being a complete grouch that doesn't care for SpongeBob, even if it's justified.
   • the flanderizaion of him, while not noticeable, can sometimes show up in newer seasons like "SpongeBob in Randomland." His flanderization also consists of Squidward losing much of his arrogance that caused him to deserve the torment he gets, thus turning him into a one-dimensional character that serves to be nothing but a grouch around everyone. Luckily, this does not happen often.

Gallery

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  Halloween

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  Santa Claus

Trivia

• In a theory based on SpongeBob and his friends representing "The 7 Deadly Sins," Squidward is considered to be the "Wrath," as part of his character is that he can easily be pushed over the edge.
• He was born on October 9, 1977, making him a Libra.

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