#but I just. don’t really fw the ‘Mike’s just as bad as Scott’ or whoever mentality that I’ve seen a bit. like I wouldn’t go that far

[mangora]

I’m a big proponent of the whole “Mike is an asshole sometimes” thing, I really am, I think it humanizes him a lot and just makes him a lot more interesting. He’s shitty towards his alters at times, he has his bitchy moments especially towards Scott, and he clearly has some anger that he doesn’t know how to express (hence Chester and Mal existing). But I really don’t like when people are like “Mike is a villain” or “Mike is actually a bad person” or “Mike is a manipulative liar” tbh. And I’m aware that it’s probably kinda my fault that that’s become a sorta popular sentiment because I’ve written fics where characters like Scott or Mal call Mike a bad person, and I do think that’s something they believe (or at least, I think it’s something Scott would say to get under Mike’s skin and something that Mal would say to push him away, and something that they’d both sort of convince themselves of to comfort themselves)— not saying this as a like “you guys don’t understand my writing thing” like genuinely I wrote a lot of that when I was just a worse author because I was like 16-17 and I wasn’t getting my point across well. But I just think people miss some of the complexity of Mike’s character when they reduce his worse traits to “Aha! See! Mike sucks!” because his reasons are pretty understandable I feel. Mike’s a teenager with trauma, it’s likely he doesn’t trust people easily and has had issues making or keeping friends in the past. Of course he’s worried about people finding out he has DID. Of course he hides it and of course that will negatively affect his alters. Of course he might have issues understanding that his alters are fully formed people. Of course he has issues opening up to close friends, because what if he loses them. Of course he gets upset when Scott is obviously fucking with the people he grows close to, and of course he doesn’t trust him. Of course he gets annoyed with and mad at Scott after he literally blackmails him— hell, Mike’s kind of a saint for not just throwing Scott off a cliff for that one, he’s the one person I can’t really blame for laughing at Scott in the trauma chair even if it’s still kinda out of character imo. Of course when Mal comes back he’s afraid to tell anyone about him and puts himself in danger to protect others, and of course when Mal traps him he’s angry at him. Like idk obviously this doesn’t make Mike a perfect flawless angel, these are still character flaws, it’s not good that he’s resilient to communicate these things— but also I don’t think it makes him a bad person really because it’s ultimately self-preservation done in the only way he really knows how, without the intent to harm anyone and without doing excessive damage in the process. He just wants to feel safe and loved man, I think that’s a lot better of an angle than “Mike’s actually a bad person and hates his alters and he’s a control freak and he’s just as bad as the villains”, like maybe Scott would think that or like, Chris might, but I feel like it’s kinda reductive to look at him that way. Does this make sense wtv my brain fog is like disastrous atm