If you're a part of my generation, chances are you've also grown up with the "High School Musical" movies. When I was younger, I was absolutely obsessed with these movies, so recently a friend and I decided to rewatch the entire trilogy. What I found was that the person that seemed like such an antagonist when I was young turned out to not be as evil as I thought.

Here's why we need justice for Sharpay Evans.

WARNING: All three movies from the "High School Musical" trilogy will be spoiled in this article.

When I was younger, Sharpay was the cookie-cutter mean girl. She was blonde, rich, always hungry for the spotlight, was mean to students like Kelsey, and tried to sabotage Troy and Gabriella's chances of getting cast for the school musical! It was obvious that she was the bad guy.

But when watching back through these as an adult, she looked completely different in my eyes.

Let's start with the first movie.

It's true that Sharpay was crazy about the drama department, but I've met plenty of real-life kids in high school who were just as dedicated. They basically lived in the drama room and did everything they could to make sure that the musicals were successes.

If you watch the part of the first movie where everyone auditions for the musical, you can see that everyone auditioning is comically bad. Were Sharpay and her brother Ryan getting all the leading roles because they were hogging the spotlight, or was it because they were the only ones talented enough to lead a show before Troy and Gabriella came along?

And to continue on the audition scene, Sharpay and Ryan showed up on time and coordinated a fun, lively song-and-dance number. Then after the auditions were over, Troy and Gabriella waltzed in and sang a slowed-down version of the song, which apparently was good enough to get them a callback even though they never properly auditioned.

This rightfully shocked Sharpay, since it was obvious that Troy and Gabriella were invested in other activities (Gabriella with the scholastic decathlon and Troy with basketball). When you're in a musical, you have to be dedicated. You have to show up to every rehearsal and put in hours of work. It would make sense that somebody like Sharpay — who lives for the drama department and has no other passion in life — would test their dedication to this musical.

Sharpay organizing the callbacks on the same day as the basketball game and the scholastic decathlon could be considered some evil plan, but it could also be seen as her testing their commitment. If Troy and Gabriella were going to drop the musical once basketball and academics got in the way, then they shouldn't have been a part of this musical!

But, of course, our protagonists cheat their way into being able to do everything by messing with chemicals and with the school's electricity (which doesn't seem entirely legal, but that's another story).

Meanwhile, at the callbacks, Sharpay and Ryan put on another show-stopping number with "Bop to the Top." At the last second, Troy and Gabriella come in to sing "Breaking Free" and at the beginning of the song, Gabriella looks out into the audience and can't sing because she has stage fright. Eventually, she works up the courage and they sing the duet.

Why on earth would Gabriella be auditioning for the lead in the school musical if she knew she had stage fright? It just seems logical that seasoned performers like Sharpay and Ryan would get lead roles, while Gabriella works on her stage fright by getting a supporting role. Then she and Troy could get leads in the next musical.

But no. The power couple brings in a massive crowd of popular kids to cheer them on, so they automatically win the parts while Sharpay and Ryan get cast as their understudies.

When this happened, did Sharpay have a diva rant? Did she yell at Mrs. Darbus or Troy/Gabriella? No! She congratulated Gabriella and wished her good luck in the musical. She was a good sport. Then they sang a happy song and it was the end of the movie.

Now don't even get me started on "High School Musical 2"!

It takes place during the summer after the events of the first movie. And who gets Troy, Gabriella, and all their friends summer jobs at a fancy country club? Sharpay.

She even got Troy a promotion and got some people from his dream college to hang out with him and offer him a lot of good opportunities for his future.

And what did Sharpay want in return? All she wanted was for Troy to sing a song with her at the country club's talent show. Doesn't seem like much of a hassle considering all she's done for him, right?

Wrong. Troy very reluctantly agrees to this and the Wildcats start to act like Troy's a completely different person. Just because he's trying to focus on his future and is getting lots of college opportunities doesn't mean he suddenly doesn't care about his friends!

They treat Troy's agreement to sing with Sharpay like he made a deal with the devil. Gabriella even breaks up with Troy because of how he's "changed."

Yes, it's true that Sharpay helped to make sure that the Wildcats couldn't perform at the show by implementing the "employees can't perform" rule, but it does make sense considering they were supposed to be working during the show and doing the performance would impede their work.

Come the day of the show, Sharpay's excited and ready to go on stage, only to find out that her act has been sabotaged by the Wildcats and Ryan, her own brother! They switched the song they were going to sing and cut Sharpay out of her own performance, making it into a Troy and Gabriella reunion duet.

Then they act like they were super gracious by letting Sharpay into their group number (even though this was the number that they straight-up stole from her).

Does she explode in a jealous rage? Does she call for the show to be stopped? Not at all! You can see at the end of the video above that she joins in with the group and has a fun time being Troy and Gabriella's back-up.

In fact, she ends up giving the award for best performance (that was sort of rigged to go to her) to Ryan, the brother that had just betrayed her trust, for choreographing the performance that had sabotaged hers.

Then they sing a happy song and that's the end of that movie.

Then "High School Musical 3" is just plain cruel to Sharpay.

For the whole movie, everyone works together to create their last musical. Then Gabriella gets into Stanford early and leaves (which is understandable and fine), so that means that Sharpay is to take over Gabriella's role.

They rehearse it like this, then on the day of the show, Troy leaves to go see Gabriella! He has absolutely no regard for the show and leaves it to the understudy, who's a guy that is hardly qualified for Troy's role at all.

So Sharpay is forced to sing a humiliating duet with this understudy guy until Troy and Gabriella magically appear to take over the song and finish the show in their original roles.

Not only did this ruin something that Sharpay and all the Wildcats were working so hard on for the entire school year, but it was embarrassing for Sharpay, whose entire life was this theater department.

As someone who knew a lot of theater kids in high school, I know that your last performance in your senior year is a huge deal and they completely ruined it for her.

But does she make a big deal out of it? Still no! She even decides to continue to help with the drama department after graduating. They sing a happy reunion song and that's the end of the movie!

As you can see, Sharpay was constantly humiliated and one-upped by two people who didn't care about theater nearly as much as her, yet she constantly supported them in the end. Sure, she did some questionable things in the movies, but most of them can be justified (but going that in-depth would take forever, so I'll spare you the details).

Would I go so far as to say that Troy and Gabriella are the villains? No. But next time you watch any "High School Musical" movie, remember that Sharpay's a protagonist in her own right.