Bittersweet Candy Bowl

James my beloved

i'd be mad at the "i could change your mind" bit if he wasn't so right about sandy being awful

I'm mad at it. Romantic gestures need at least a modicum of consent. James could still be a great friend, and Mike can use such a friend. But right now, he's a creep. A creep with a good heart, but still a creep! You don't let your body move when your heart isn't heard and won't listen. At least James is making amends quickly.

I think the "I knew that? I knew that!" is him covering up that he didn't know. He's confident enough that he'd rather own doing it on purpose than admitting that. That's my theory anyway, I can see it being either.

It doesn't matter if so-and-so is an awful person. Romantic gestures do not solve anything, they do not address or fix the core issues. But it is a nice reminder that they are still kids who believe in ideals such as that one. So far the way this comic handles things in romance and *further* is that agency and transparency is important before big commitments. And even people who are good together don't necessarily need to be romantic, jumping from one partner to the next won't solve anything.

Mike clearly did not mind that kiss 👀

Aagh. they‘re so cute! Mike just date him instead.

I'm all aboard this train, I'm out there laying tracks

That’s not how that works lol…

That sweet look on Mike's face in the second panel... it feels like he'd be open to this if he didn't have his own baggage to deal with. I'm sure there's some kind of relief there to having someone outside of his regular group of friends think so positively of him, I wonder if this will be a good push in the right direction of helping him get out of a miserable situation

Only thing I'm a little concerned about is that as it stands, James seems to see Mike the same way Mike saw Sandy in the start of their relationship, with a glorified image that can do no wrong. I really doubt Mike would take as much advantage of it as Sandy did, intentionally or not. But even still, there's a lot Mike has basically kept from his new friends, likely with the expectation that revealing everything would drive them away and he would lose this beacon of light he finally found in his life. Now, to be fair, most of them did see the Paulo face slam and still decided to give him a chance, but James didn't. It's up in the air how they would react, but if Mike's past relationships are going to keep coming up and disrupting his time with his new friends, he probably should bite the bullet and start opening up to them, rather than using them as an escape from his past relationships. Honestly, I'm kinda hoping to see some of that in these next couple pages, though at this point I wouldn't be surprised to see Mike try to start bottling his feelings up again either.

That's very fair, Mike's really just as likely to shoulder something like this as another mark against him and something else that he has to hide from Sandy as he is to find forward momentum with it. I think that a lot of the self-destructive cycles he keeps finding himself in can be really shaken up with some kind of outside perspective, even if it doesn't end up with James and Mike being anything besides just friends (I really just think that look of sincere flattery he has is pretty refreshing, all things considered!) Maybe having someone say right to his face that he's feeling so low and awful about himself because of his current relationship will give him a nudge towards being honest about it with his older friends - if James could pick up on it, no reason to think the others aren't still seeing Something there too even if he's not being as upfront about his worries - but maybe it won't. I'm excited to see what kinds of ripples we're going to get in the story because of this.

This is the happiest we’ve seen Mike in a while. I think he should go for it with James bc this whole Sandy bs is just draining on him. He should cut his losses and try for a real relationship that isn’t so one sided.

I'm pretty stunned Mike didn't mind. So, if Sandy and Lucy weren't a thing...would he? Because that's how this reads.

Omg that faaaace before he thinks of sandy

Mikes happy reaction is heart breaking : (

As much as I hate him I do want to see him happy. Cmon mike. Forget about sandy!!!

I needed to see what Mike did after that and got patreon and after seeing this. its the tamest Mike has ever been with a Kiss in this series.

James! come on man that's no good. 'I knew but I thought maybe you might be down to cheat and dump her for me', that's a human being! I know you like this boy and WE the audience know that Sandy's mistreated him and their relationship is bad but James doesn't actually know anything about her other than that he wants her boyfriend. I know he's a generally sweet person but this strikes me as surprisingly callous towards someone he doesn't know at all.

As we've seen throughout the series, back in '08 (or it's actually '09 in the comic now!) internet relationships weren't seen as "real". I'm giving James the benefit of the doubt that maybe he wasn't really being callous and more-so thought that Mike was using having a long-distance girlfriend as a "cover" for being interested in guys.

Mike the Destroyer is about to destroy him!

I like James and feel like maybe he is just a bit lost with hinself- I don't think he is intentionally being skeemy but I think he has a lot to work on with himself. Him swooping in like this with knowing Mike clearly is taken even if he is being manipulated badly isn't the best start. I feel like he needs some more growing up to do- but I realize his intentions are not initially to rob Mike from her, just think he is getting carried away with letting his emotions decide before thinking first. I don't honestly know who I particularly see Mike with- but I'm not sure if I personally see Mike with James in my eyes. Not yet at least- my mind hasn't shipped them yet. But I am definitely still open to see what happens. I just really hope James works on himself a bit and does some self reflecting about how he goes about things like this. Hate to see him end up being creepy by trying to manipulate Mike too just because he is weak :/ but I am getting slight manipulation vibes from James at the moment and I just hope he isn't going down that road with Mike. Mike mat have messed up a lot but being someone personally who has been manipulated over and over and over again- I just hate to see Mike possibly go through that. It's not fun and it's very painful when you come to realize it later... I have a bad feeling Mike may go down the road Lucy went with mental health if this goes the way I'm sadly feeling 😞

I'm really hoping it's a product of its time. We have to remember that BCB takes place before the 2010's before Facebook even had DMs, and dating online wasn't a normal thing. I'm hoping (by his reaction) that James maybe thought that Mike having a "girlfriend" was simply a cover for him actually being into guys and now he's backtracking.

What girl is he talking about??