User blog comment:Stryzzar/Where to from the Reset Button?/@comment-27329394-20150110172035/@comment-27329394-20150116015106

Posting on a case by case basis to make this easier for me. Sorry for the late reply, but I might as well get to it.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but, you don't like Zoey right? You seem like the kind of person who dislikes boring characters in favor of comic relief characters. I can sort of understand if people who are fans of Mike don't mind boring characters, but I'm confused what you find great about regular Mike when he's accused of being just as boring."

I think you've misunderstood what I like about Mike. I truly think regular Mike is mediocre along the lines of Bridgette. Zoey, however, as a character, is far worse for me than just being boring due to godplaying, being a blatant writers pet, having no direction or consistently with her character whatsoever, etc.. Any reason I actually like Mike would be largely in part due to his alternate personalities that do have defined personalities, but his normal self isn't anything to write home about. His normal self also gets less time to develop because he is usually in another personality. The personalities are his gimmicks, so the Mike you see in my rankings is more of an average between all of them, and then he's placed lower than he would be if that was the only criteria due to his plots. That's not really relevant, but I might as well throw that in there.

"Even ignoring all that's offensive about him, very few people I know like Mike just for his regular self."

Mike's gimmick is having more than one character in him so this is a bit of a byproduct. Plus, the way your approach goes, it'd be mostly just him, so that wouldn't do anything either.

"...but unlike most character, Mike has a lot of justifiable reasons why he isn't a good character."

And a lot of his criticism comes from concept. You can't really do anything about that.

"I realize there are Mike fans out there, didn't DipDap make that blog about Youtube fans a while back?"

Sort of. It was also partially about how they act and seemingly about how many of them there were.

People who like Mike won't go out looking for an apology, since they don't feel anything's wrong. Which is why I'm suggesting the show itself do it.

Yeah, and the people who are upset about it are probably searching for an apology, which they could do on a blog easily. Other people probably just don't want the episode (or several episodes) interrupted by something they really don't want to hear. Which is why it doesn't need to happen on the show.

"Also the problem Mike haters have is where the entertainment value is coming from. If Mike's disorder was not used for an entertainment value then none of this would have started to begin with."

What I think a lot of people overlook is that it was perceived as a problem for him quite often. It was partially entertainment, but it was also for drama. The only real thing standing in the way of pure happiness between Zoey and Mike was his disorder. That's why personalities like Vito and Mal exist.

Other than that, it all comes down to concept. Bringing a dude back for an apology is not entertainment at all, so you still haven't fully accomplished it.

"Are you seriously saying those people out there who find Vito or Svetlana funny take precedence over everyone who was hurt by his portrayal?"

I'm not, but they exist, too.

"Even if Mike loses that entertaining part of him, the haters would at least know that Fresh gave an acknowledgement. He would lose fans, but he would lose haters as well."

Would he really lose haters though? They'll probably have a begrudging memory of Mike. Also, as you said, there are reason why he is a legitimately not good character, something that a lot of his haters tend to reinforce. I know nobody who hates (as opposed to likes) Mike only because of his disorder, because, to many, everything else he did still makes him a bad character.

"Well, isn't there a long list of characters, each with their respective fans begging for their return so they can get redemption?"

I see where you are coming from, but I think you have it wrong - it's not a simple as it seems. When you see people thinking Gwen needs redemption, they will still be high on their rankings. I'm sure you think Gwen needs redemption, and she's #14 on your rankings. Mike is #43. See the difference? People still have faith in Gwen, but not Mike.

"But ignoring that, Mike is the one character who managed to cause a flamewar against the show of a magnitude never seen before. As for it not working, well I think the attempt itself will be noticed. Many just want Fresh to acknowledge there is a problem to begin with, and at the moment they're accused of being ignorant or being irresponsible. Of course there's a chance of it going wrong, but so does everything that's ever existed. How about not the show at all, as there's a million possible things that could go wrong? Maybe Mike will never become a fan favorite, but if there's some acknowledgement of error, then the accusations are no longer as valid."

Doing it on their site instead of the actual show would accomplish this too. I've brought this up many times as a favorable alternative. This response suits a lot of other lines you just wrote in the next few paragraphs too. Literally just one thing needs to be done, and bringing him back on the show is not that "one thing."

"Just ask around here, if any Mike hater thinks everything that happened was just an understandable mishap, and all is forgiven."

They won't be as mad but they probably still won't like him. Even then, I doubt it will cause that much to change. For a real life example, when Adrian Peterson stated that he won't beat his child again, there were still people who were mad at him for doing it in the first place. Or when that lady on the cooking channel (idr her name) felt very sorry for making the racist comments, people still didn't want her show back on the air. I know real life is a lot different, but the point is that it happened and all they can do is slightly alleviate it.

"How about think of it this way. Not so much whether Mike should return, but if he does return this is what should be done with him?"

Not really. Again, I don't want to see some really blatant PSA when I'm watching TV for fun, since I'm assuming it can't be subtle from the way that this has turned out. I'd rather it just not be mentioned at all, he gets a character completely separate from the MPD... and I'd still expect an acknowledgement of what happened elsewhere.

"As I said above, I don't even fullout hate Mike. If you look at my rankings I have him in neutral territory."

I've personally always been a bit confused by some of your rankings tbh, and Mike is the biggest example. You bash Mike (and Amy) an awful lot for contestants you allegedly don't think are that bad.

"The problem the haters has it, Mike keeps getting liked for the wrong reasons."

There is never a wrong reason to like anything if you don't interpret it the same way. It's only wrong if you force people to think the same way as you or not accept them for their opinion. I think a lot of Mike haters do this, but I digress.

"So long as the show continues, Mike will keep getting associated with it, and I don't think Mike-hate will ever die down for good. Bad things always leave a stronger impression than good things."

So why fuel the fire again? Mike's existence is considered a bad thing, so merely announcing him will leave a bad impression on people. This is also the age of people overreacting on the internet, so it's going to be brought up even without that, no matter what happens, merely because people nowadays rarely forgive and forget, even if the people in question try to fix what happened.