#i dont condone violence so dont @ me abt that k.

[alicentsargent]

i cant stop overthinking this. theres a whole ass debate on twitter whether mickey hitting ian was ooc or not and i just gotta say -

there comes a time where people break tf down after being abandoned and abandoned time and time again. mickey was brought up in a violent household, he's made efforts to change and progress over the years, but you can't just forget about how he used to be since 'its been years and he's a changed man this is ooc!' i call BS.

its never been healthy! its never been promoted as healthy. punching ian was a violent act, but if yall wanna just look at this without critical thought bc you're on some pacifist kick by all means.

the way i see it, and really no ones gotta agree with me but we gotta stop cancelling what just happened and deem mickey as 'undeveloped' and regressed just bc he did something that was more s1-3 mickey.

we've never gotten to see mickey after ian's hurt him. e.g. 3x12, 5x12, 6x01, 7x11. the show has the habit of erasing mickey as a character after they show like 20 seconds of his emotions being hurt - especially post-s5.

mickey has felt abandonment and utter fking heartbreak from ian so many times, and yeah we can bring in how shit he was to ian in s1-3 but that doesn't make it 'even' or a competition on whos hurt who - that's a different story altogether.

mickey has put ian before himself too many times and after their time in prison together I really think he somewhat healed from the past, and i say somewhat, Liberally. i can defs see it giving mickey the idea of him and ian being more stable now since they survived everything and prisom together, and still made their way back to one another.

how many times do you think mickey hears i love you? from someone besides ian? probably no one right. the proposal scene was sweet as, you can see mickey tearing up bc he was happy.

the courthouse scene... that was just hit after hit. first ian didnt believe him abt paula, then he insulted him and basically called him a murderer, and even after that mickey was willing to sign and marry ian, (boy what are u doing...) and ian backed out (for his own reasons which we all kno abt).

and honestly. perhaps it is 'ooc' for mickey to hit ian, when ian is finally chasing him, finally wanting to talk it out with mickey and not just run away! and if you think of it from ian's pov, its growth. he's really trying here, i can see that.

but if you look at it from mickey's pov, he's shut tf down, he becomes overwhelmed, he leaves the room. the difference here, from the last times ian has 'left', is that ian finally followed. but that's not registering for mickey. he's not able to see that as 'this isnt the same situation repeating itself.'

so anything ian says is just sliding past, its not common to hear ian even talk about frank and monica but he did, ian was being vulnerable, but to mickey it just sounded like ian wanting to have the last word, to excuse himself, to not take responsibility for hurting mickey again.

and so i personally believe that when ian yells out 'i wanna know how you feel', mickey just wants to hurt him. maybe he was going to say something scathing and hurtful, but he snapped and punched him in the face.

its violent. its a punch. but its also 'leave me the fk alone NOW' and 'this is exactly how i feel do you feel that'

and boyyy do we have a lot more to unpack here from all of that but the 1 very important thing that stands out the most is mickey's unwillingness to listen. ian backing out, and not just that, but giving mickey that face, that face that mickey knows ian does right before he leaves him, mickey is transported to the past, it doesnt matter how differently ian tried to handle the situation this time. mickey's abandonment wounds run so fking deep and that's why i also think it wasnt ooc. mickey was finally done, he'd reached his capacity to hurt inside, the only thing he could control right there were his fists.

(mickey not helping ian and goin to the hospital AFTER ian fell down the stairs is a different story and i find that ooc and sad)