User blog comment:ZeoSpark/Dave or Mike?/@comment-21325751-20140716205350/@comment-24152851-20140718145527

If I could just step in.

Firstly I agree TotalDramaFan82498 is entirely wrong in thinking Mike isn't offensive, but assuming he is "ignorant" that's not his fault. Ignorance is results from inexperience not bad intention. He means well, he wants to ease another flame war, so lay off him a bit.

Secondly Mike’s portrayal couldn’t be anymore offensive because he was 1) Labeled by his disorder, defined by it. 2) His disorder was used as a joke, in particular Svetlana and Chester who are excessively quirky gag characters.

However Ryan, I’d like to point something out. It’s fairly obvious Mike’s portrayal is anything but accurate, but I highly doubt it was intended to be accurate. Cory Doran states he liked the MPD simply because it gave a chance to have several different versions of the one character. They wanted to give Mike MPD because it they thought it’d be a great tool for humour. The bottomline: they were not trying to give an accurate portrayal of the DID, and they were most certainly not trying to raise awareness of the disorder. If they were I don’t think they’d be so blind as to think having an excessively cheerful gymnast dancing around and singing, would teach kids about the hardships of mental disorders. NO, not even they're that dumb. That’s what I would really like them to change. Mike’s there, nothing we can do about it. So in order to remove the stain he caused, bring him back and this time do the disorder correctly. Show the kids how serious the reality is, AND that it isn’t a joke or a superpower. It is a burden who many poor souls are plagued with (including someone close to me) and what teach the kids what they can all do to help such people.

Thank you for hearing me out.