User blog:Curshburger/TDAS Mike Rant

'''Just before I start on this, I’m not gonna be shying away from anything that’s been talked about multiple times before. If you’re tired of hearing Mike get ragged on, it’s probably best that you stop right here and go somewhere else. Now, let’s begin, shall we?'''

Now, you may or may not know that Mike is my least favorite character in All-Stars and that I dubbed him as my least favorite finalist in the series. I made a promise about half a year ago when I finished up my TDAS review that I would go into detail about what it is I dislike about Mike since I sorta just glossed over him. Today’s the day that promise is fulfilled. So...first thing’s first...

I honestly don’t hate Mike in this season as much as most other TD fans do, but the writers still screwed him up pretty badly. The biggest problem that I have with TDAS Mike is that he did not deserve to get nearly as far as he did. He made it all the way to the final two (and in my country, unfortunately won) without really doing much of anything. For about two-thirds of the season, he was literally being carried by Mal. And truth be told, even Mal himself wasn’t doing a lot, especially compared to previous villains. I mean, think about it:


 * Heather was responsible for eliminating Eva, Justin, Cody, Beth, Harold, Lindsay, DJ, Izzy, Geoff, and Duncan in TDI
 * Justin was responsible for eliminating Trent, Gwen, Izzy, and Leshawna in TDA
 * Courtney was responsible for eliminating Leshawna, Justin, Lindsay, and Owen in TDA
 * Alejandro was responsible for eliminating Harold, Bridgette, Leshawna, DJ, Noah, Tyler, Owen, Duncan, Cody, and if you count his ending, Heather in TDWT
 * Scott was responsible for eliminating Staci, B, Dawn, Sam, Dakota, and Mike in TDROTI

You have all of these antagonists eliminating a plethora of people, and the only person Mal eliminated was Alejandro. And even then, the only reason that happened was because the latter had a track record and therefore, wasn’t trusted. If Mal tried the same thing he did back in TDWT, I can guarantee you he would’ve been gone in a matter of minutes. At the very longest, he would’ve lasted one or two more episodes. Speaking of the sharp contrast with Mal vs. other villains, he never even had a real strategy. As bad as a villain as Justin was, he at least had a plan to try and manipulate Beth and Lindsay via his charm. But Mal? He just lays low the entire time like a lazy Mafioso from Town of Salem and goes around breaking people’s stuff. If he was really as bad as the writers were trying to make him seem, he’d be capable of doing so much more than that. And they definitely wouldn’t have needed to dumb the rest of the final five. Let’s be real here: in literally any other season, Zoey, Scott, Gwen, and Courtney would’ve figured out Mike was really Mal in probably four episodes max. But since this is TDAS, all of them (along with the rest of the cast) stay completely oblivious until it’s too late. Even Zoey doesn’t realize that Mal is who he is until the penultimate episode of the season, after multiple warnings from both Duncan and Alejandro.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the ending to Mike’s plot either. In fact, I don’t think this would be complete without it. I’m gonna be completely frank here: this is something that never really bothered me all that much. I’m definitely not gonna defend it, but it just doesn’t rattle me. But, I can definitely see why it’s hated as much as it is. It was very cop-outty, insulting, and just plain dumb. I mean, one of my closest friends suffers from DID, and she can’t just press a button to make that go away.

But that’s about all of the gripes that I have with TDAS Mike. What is it about Mike that ticked you off?