Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Tbh if anything, I hope after Augustus and Lucy leave the track (however that may be), James and Mike have a talk about things, even if it’s brief. I personally agree and hope James doesn’t get punished for being around Mike, but I also do hope he stands firm and maybe confronts Mike on his behavior on a more personal level. Maybe an “I wish you would have trusted me and opened up to me about that more” kind of thing, and putting a little bit of distance between them for a bit. Not cutting him off or abandoning him outright, but I have to imagine it’s a lot to take in at once, and might end up giving Mike the push he needs to get better

Since this is Mike we’re talking about here, he’ll most likely that reasonable olive branch the worst way possible (e.g. “oh so you’re abandoning me as well!” or “once again I’m the fucking bad guy!”), but as long as James doesn’t get punished or get more wrapped up in this drama that he should have absolutely no part in, I’ll be satisfied.

What would you want him to do to atone? Apologize? He’s done that, avoid her? He was also doing that they came to him he happened to join track and he still stayed away from her idk what you guys want him to do other than transfer schools

Sometimes these comments are really scary of what people want or expect, or want to happening to others

THATS WHAT IM SAYING its like theyre too closely relating with a semi toxic character who’s grown and treat her enemies like theirs COMPLETELY ignoring her flaws

You guys aren’t remembering that Lucy DID come to him and apologise and even told him what she did was wrong and she was sorry she didn’t see that sooner. He ripped into her and bullied her for it. Two wrongs don’t make a right. She actually has been avoiding him no questions asked this whole entire time. Has not once caused any kind of fuss over it. She has been suffering in her head silently about everything he told her. How he would take all her friends and she would just be alone. That pretty much no one cared about her. He pushed her into that mentality. He could of at least acknowledged her trying to change. He didn’t have to forgive her or anything but it never warrents tearing someone down especially if they are trying to make good changes to mend things. What he did was just as bad as what she did to him before realising. Mike has been wrapped up in himself for a while and while yes he doesn’t have to do anything for her and doesn’t have to avoid her, he could at least be kind about it and not so much of a jerk about it. He has said sorry in his mind about this all but has not said it to her face. He hasn’t said sorry to Lucy ever for it. He doesn’t truely feel the pain he caused her. Yes she messed up but at least she realised it and tried to fix things and has worked really hard on herself to be better. She has learned from her mistakes but Mike hasn’t. He let sandy get to his head and he is only just now seeing that but still has too much pride to admit that he hurt her to her face. He needs to own up to what pain he caused Lucy just like Lucy was trying and did own up to what she did to Mike. Like I said, two wrongs don’t make a right. He doesn’t have to avoid her but he should at least acknowledge his part in all this and he has been ignoring it.

Also not to mention that he played her not too long ago in December and made her think something that never was going to happen just so he could rebound and then toy with her emotions and start it all over again. That was uncalled for and not fair. He never apologized for that either.

She apologized in eternal flame thag was her first ever apology and the first one ti him meanwhile hes apologized over what happened countless times and also apologized in eternal flame their teens and these kids keep fumbling these interactions also December was well before eternal flame isnt it about a year ago hes trying to change she’s trying to move on but theyre relapsing bring it back up as a reason he should be punished makes no sense of you actually want the characters to grow unless you dont and you just kinda want Lucy to stay hurt and mike to stay tortured this whole thing didnt even initially start becuase of the incident between mike and lucy they just happen to both be upset over something at the same time we havent even confirmed if its each other theyre angry about the only reason this confrontation is happening is becuase Augustus decided it was his fault

Ok but his actions haven’t said he is sorry tho. He still has been going back on his word every single time. That probably doesn’t make Lucy feel any better. If I was her he would seem very two faced for that. Thats just my opinion. I hurt for both of them but Mike is not owning up to his words and making his actions match. He has gone back on every single thing he has ever said to her. And Lucy never asked for this I agree. It’s Auggies fault this is even happening but he is mad for her. He is a damn good friend! He is trying to stand up for her when NO ONE has! (During the time of this whole debacle) he hasn’t said a genuine apology. Lucy tried to and he didn’t let her have a chance to and tore into her and ever since has been playing with her mind. I understand how it feels to have someone two face and play with my emotions constantly. It’s really nothing you can just “overlook” it hurts. She has been giving him his space. She even was adult enough with the arcade and said it was fine that they were both there. But Mike’s mentality over everything right now isn’t the best and he isn’t exactly choosing the best decisions during all of this. I don’t hate him. They are both victems but Mike isn’t making good decisions right now and it’s really coming to a head because of it. They just need to actually make up and talk about it rather than best around the bush. They are both suffering but Mike needs to take genuine accountability for anything to actually be resolved.

That’s what I’m saying, Mike says he’s sorry, but doesn’t back up the words with actions. His actions say all he cares about is making himself feel better without considering anyone else.

Thank you!!

Thank you!!! This entire section has weirdly just made me so aware of how *isolated* Lucy must have felt in earlier years of the comic; girl didn’t have any real friends who would stand up for her! Augustus may be messy right now, but, man, this warms my heart to know she’s got a person in her corner willing to be messy for her.

Dude hes hanging out with friends outside i think its crazy to say hes being selfish for hanging outside hes not even near the girl hes just in the same vicinity in a normal school setting there’d be kids in between them its not like hes looking or thinking about her I dont get why everyone keeps trying to hang him up for something hes apologized for over and over again he was clearly apologetic

@Fang, Augustus and Lucy fans will do anything but actually accept the fact they’re in the wrong sometimes. It’s always every other characters fault for being selfish and annoying and EXISTING!!!! LMAO. So glad we’re actually getting backbone Mike.

Apologized for which?

Stringing along Lucy and then getting back with Sandy despite what he said? She asked him, told him, to stay away.

Lucy asked him to stay away and instead of respecting her boundaries repeatedly kept trying to get her to talk and even tried to villainize her after she told him she was done with him??

I didn’t see a real apology for that.

And the biggest part: All of his apologies before the kiss are now meaningless just by him kissing her and breaking her heart.

Mike is still a selfish kid who thinks he shouldn’t have to face consequences because he’s a “good guy”

Also remember he lashed out at Lucy when she didn’t want to talk to him again and claimed it was because she was mad he didn’t want to date her.

Yeah real quality

Lucy has literally never apologized for anything she’s done she just moves on and thats fine but they shouldn’t act like she’s tight for doing it Mike is a person who made a TERRIBLE mistake but it was an emotional mistake that’s haunting him forever it really sucks to see

Again she kissed him, he apologized before tho and he was trying to distance himself like Augustus asked

He apologized after that too

Like I said alot of stuff he does he apoligizes after lucy has literally never apologized and she’s made mistakes too alot of hers are emotional too and even now at his lowest he still feels bad for an action he didnt mean to happen and didnt facilitate he just happens to be outside with his track friends he didnt exactly villify her or Augustus and even when Augustus was intentionally provoking him to break hes only now getting upset idk dude hes being alot more patient than other people would’ve been and its partially becuase he already thinks he deserves it

Oh right, after he came to school with his head in his phone AGAIN and told people

He was back with Sandy before even uttering word to her. Is that what you meant?

And so are you saying that him driving someone to suicide by calling them a parasite is a forgivable offense? Or did you forget that he kept what he did a secret from everyone because he knew they would hate him.

People didn’t start hating Mike until it became clear (Halloween Chapter) that he only cared about making Sandy happy.

After Paulo calls her and leaves a message calling her out on ignoring him instead of setting boundaries with her there what does he do??

He lies and claims he has no idea why he’s acting like that leaving out the part where he yelled at his whole friend group, was at that point harassing Lucy because she wasn’t engaging with him. And yes she was trolling everyone else by wearing the dress but still she kept her distance.

But no Lucy telling Augustus to stay away from Daisy because she genuinely cares about her safety and wants Augustus to get in more trouble.

Lucy apologizing to Sue and even Paulo for how things happened even helping Daisy talk to him even if it made her uncomfortable.

She let Mike talk he just tried to move past and act like what he did wasn’t that bad. Something that everyone else around them recognize. Sue calls him out on the fact that he was stalking her in the freaking bushes.

Lucy all but told him verbally to go fuck himself

But you’re right asking for space once again because being around him and anyone else is mentally tiring is too much. Even though the request was only at lunch time and did not include after school, or even before school. Just. lunch.time

Yeah that’s too much because he apologized ONCE after messing with her again and lying again. And he’s absolutely isn’t lying to his girlfriend about kissing his childhood friends and the fact that he told another girl (the girl she didn’t have to worry about) that he was in love with her even while with Sandy. 👍🏾

That was literal SECONDS after a mental breakdown he was not in his right mind you can’t say in that moment where he felt extremely vulnerable he was intentionally trying to seduce her and if youre going to go that angle LUCY HAS DONE THAT TOO to Paula and to Augustus Augustus just tells her no so again if youre going to attack him for it it’d be fair to attack her for it but I say dont attack either both were vulnerable and made mistakes

Yeah he said it awkwardly and immediately was aware of the circumstances and even looked at lucy sad when he explained the situation to someone who wasn’t her I mean like I said its rough he makes mistakes this mistake was REALLY dumb but its not like he was intentionally trying to hurt her

Hes apologized multiple times you listed ONE apology from lucy and thats not her apologizing for anything really its clear she didnt actually cause that situation she’s just sorry it happened she never apologized for things she ACTUALLY did. On a side note the things youre listing imply I’m acting like lucy doesn’t care for her friends or something I know she does just like I know Mike does but these are the two most dysfunctional people with clear flaws and to hold one up and vilify the other when both have been in similar scenarios (ignoring the INCIDENT which was a year ago now in this story roughly and hes done everything in his power at this point to keep his distance and respect her wishes) I think its silly to act like there’s more he needs to do now he can’t even go outside for lunch cause hes gonna share the same air as lucy god forbid he has outside friends. This isnt even the only time they’ve interacted or have been closer they have a whole class together but thats never been an issue or atleast as big as this why can that one be a functional area they can tolerate even though theyre like a couple seats down from one another but being across the yard is too close. I’d rather they wrote mike out of the story than constantly listen to how this one character has to play the role of worm for everyone’s amusement

I listed out 4 apologies. She made her amends with people and fully admitted how she wronged. She didn’t make excuses she didn’t say her BOYFRIEND or AUGUSTUS OR JORDAN made her do what she did to them. Mike got one and that was her admitting she wasn’t a good friend and he shouldn’t just brush off how she treated him.

But when Mike is confronted what does he do?

“Oh i didn’t actually mean what i said”

“Okay what did you mean?”

He didn’t even have a response and couldn’t even just say sorry.

But yeah you’re right Mike being able to apologize after he got cheated on is legit.

Because it’s not like he’s letting his relationship with his long distance neglectful girlfriend make his choices for him.

Right? One of them is going to therapy and trying to actually do better the other one is trying to flirt with a guy who is clearly interested in someone else. You know after he said he wasnt interested 😀

Never change

LOL

FUCKING THANK YOU!!!!

Absolutely! I’m tired of Mike being treated as the scum of the earth for wanting something as simple as a place to jog, or having some actual friends! It’s not like Lucy had any repercussions for hurting Mike all those years or saying that she only got intimate with Paulo because she felt bad for him, or even hitting him!

I don’t hate Mike and he isn’t a bad person but he hasn’t apologised for December when he played with her mind, he has apologised to others for how he treated Lucy but never gave a true genuine apology to her. He has NEVER tried to fix what happened between them. He even admitted that to himself a few pages back when he said he messed up. It’s not ok to play with people’s feelings. She use to not be a great person at all but she has changed and she lived up to her words of changing and being better when she told Mike that night. He might be struggling with his own personal stuff but he keeps running away from his actions! It’s only going to get worse for him if he keeps ignoring what he caused Lucy. Lucy apologised and proved she was going to change. He bullied her so bad she felt like she had nothing left. Thats not ok. Just because someone bullied you doesn’t mean it’s ok to be a bully yourself especially if the person who was the bully changed for the better and apologised for everything on their part. He hasn’t made his apology clear to her. Maybe he has but not to her face. Especially not for December. He is still having a potty party for himself and not truely realising how messed up he was for rebounding to Lucy and making her think everything was fine and then crushing her a SECOND time. They are both victims in their own situations but right now it’s Mike’s turn to try and fix things- not Lucy. Lucy tried and he belittled her for it. Even though she was trying her best to fix things. Your just as bad as the bully if you do the same thing they did back to them. In no way am I saying Mike is a bad person but he needs to do his part like she has! She has left him alone. Lucy isn’t the one who started this confrontation. It was Augustus because he is tired of seeing her suffer from the trauma and having absolutely no closure. Mike owes that closure to her at least but he also does need mental health help.

He’s done it before he apologized in eternal flame which is the reason its over sighted. He keeps messing up

Literally what are you talking about? Mike is the one who kissed Lucy. She was trying to leave and he went and said he missed her and gave her bedroom eyes, and he’s the one who closed the distance.

“He didn’t go to kiss her” Mike was holding onto her the whole time. First she tries to walk away and he grabs her arm. She says “Don’t touch me” and he pulls her into a hug, she pulls him away and starts apologizing to him about her past behavior. Mike then starts bawling and hugs her AGAIN where Lucy remarks about him maybe trying to kick the tree to feel better and that he should lose Sandy’s number. Lucy begins to walk home and he catches up to her and begins talking about the scarf always being about her eye color while she’s stood in shock and Mike goes into kiss her. Does she reciprocate? Yes, for a moment, and then pushes him away and says he needs to sort himself out and take a cold shower.

He’s wishy washy because he constantly does stuff in the moment that he doesn’t mean. Like kissing Lucy and then instantly getting back together with Sandy and forgetting Lucy even exists until she walked through the door the next morning.

He tells Augustus that he feels so horrible and that’d he’d “Do anything” so Augustus says “bet, don’t hang outside during lunch”, and Mike immediately goes out first chance he gets. He calls Sandy a cheater (when we really don’t know the actual situation) and then goes to makeout with Daisy. He’s on the phone with Sandy and vying for Jame’s affection. Mike can have a happy time in highschool once he dumps Sandy, flirts freely with whoever he wants to, leaves his ex alone.

Or go back to the school she was at previously if it’s genuinely SUCH a problem. Wasn’t she the one who said she’s not afraid of him, or something? Why does she need an entire area of the school to herself.

I mean Augustus has never been in a fight right he was just a creeper. Meanwhile mike has been in multiple fights that we’ve seen and has taken martial arts. Like im not even trying to glaze the dude he should realistically win if they both fought seriously but I doubt that’d happen

That’s what I’m saying you need the entire outside area??? DONT THEY LIVE NEARBY AND HANGOUT IN THE SAME AREAS why is this the hell she must die on

Lol thats so sad I really hope it doesn’t get to that point

I genuinely wish the rest of the fan base thought as fairly as you I think fundamentally these two should not hang out with each other or look for reasons they need to argue with each other they have strong emotional ties to one another thats hindering their ability to grow and the fan base seems like they’d rather one just disappeared in a brutal accident to make it easier on the other

So do I. I strongly agree with this. It’s alright to have opinions on certain characters (don’t attack others for statements they disagree with. These are FICTIONAL characters). I’ve seen some are still divided on fictional characters who’ve done questionable or unacceptable acts, like Severus Snape for his harsh attitude towards Harry Potter.

Wishy washy how so? Are you talking about the kiss? I mean i get that he said alot of stuff in an emotional that he REALLY shouldn’t have said but he didnt kiss her

……I’m sorry when??

Sure, but there’s not any bullying happening in these comments…?

In my opinion making someone feel like they cant share their opinion due to fear of harassment is bullying.

No one is being told they can’t share their opinion disagreements aren’t silencing

There is disagreeing and there is harassing, they are two completely different things.

this is directed at mike and auggy and also this comment section lmao 💀

Said the same guy who outed someone’s private medical history to other strangers, IN PUBLIC

Yeah, it’s frustrating. Yes, Lucy was a bad friend, but so was Mike and Lucy has actually tried to make it right and Mike just says sorry and then keeps doing the same things.

Her behavior was wrong it was her first apology to him and she did it becuase she could see he was emotionally weak it was a moment of growth for her that was important the problem eternal flame is he apologized to her and then let his break up cloud his judgements, he said just terrible things to say in the moment and it lead to what it is now they really should not talk to each other

That’s not true hes on the train team hes trying to pick up hobbies and new friend groups hes literally changing too hes going through an emotional wreck currently just like lucy and they are on the surface independent of one another

Track

He’s chasing James around because he wants to be wanted and ignoring all the other people on the track team. This isn’t growth or change. He’s using James to make himself feel better about Sandy. Just like he did with Lucy.

He has like 3 or 4 different friend groups and won’t hang out with any of them because he’s upset that James isn’t fawning over him anymore… the track team told him he could hang out with them, forget about James being silly with his short-lived obsessions, and he still chose to ignore them… I don’t see how any of that is him “changing.” He also has decided to be completely passive about his relationship with Sandy. He’s with her but is clearly over her now, and he doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it.

Flip the names with lucy tho it still fits the issue is mostly that its mike and I’m beginning to seeing pointless theyre both just like two kids with problems trying to grow SEPARATELY from each other

I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, but I hard disagree on that Mike, to his core, isn’t a kind person. He’s shown plenty of times throughout the comic that he’s done things for people for the sake of empathy.

edit: oops, pressed enter far too soon for this post. I will add examples momentarily lol

Mike has given money to Paulo many times throughout the comic without so much as questioning what he’d do with it, even when in this era Paulo was especially a dickweed to him. When Paulo got into the car accident he visited him at the hospital and told him that he came as fast as he could and told him he cared about him. Even helped him carry around his books when he had crutches. Mike was even the first person Paulo hinted his bisexuality to because he knew Mike wouldnt make a big deal out of it.

He never made fun of Stacy for her poetry or playing video games, he took up looking after Chris when Haley didnt want to be saddled with babysitting their little bro all the time —and— I could honestly make a whole 10 page essay on all the genuinely kind things Mike has done without expecting anything back, but I feel a few examples a good enough to show he is a kind person deep down, its just buried under his dumbassery ESPECIALLY right now so i can see why some readers can easily overlook this trait of his.

Mike absolutely used poor Lucy as a placeholder for Sandy and he is also a jelly spined pissbaby with some major jealousy issues that has caused quite a bit of undue pain. He’s many things! But unkind doesnt make sense to me, that’s all.

He’s shown plenty of times at his core to do whatever he can for his friends and is always self sacrificing literally a couple chapters ago this was literally stated and even now hes partially drained becuase he keeps doing too much for others its like the one gimmick constantly going for him even early in to the comic their friendship all was about how good of a person he was and kind to everyone even lucy (back when she was mean and immature) like you can say you dont like him and I’d understand that but he does try to be kind constantly the only time hes not portrayed as kind is in regards to Lucy and its in regards to the incidents hes had with her but hes distancing himself becuase he DOES feel bad and he DOES want to help how he can but again its not rational to say dont come outside at this time this is my time imagine if someone asked that of you at work becuase they didnt like you its a silly request that he was willing to do at first

I do think Mike is genuinely kind at his core, but that kindness gets completely muddied up by him constantly thinking ‘what would a nice guy do here?’ instead of just acting naturally.

I think Mike has been coddled and treated differently his whole life because he’s the ‘gifted’ perfect child - his mom asks his sister to watch their baby brother instead of him, Sandy was initially drawn to him because of his good grades, everyone expects him to be the responsible one. He’s been trained to perform this role, and it’s become so automatic that his genuine kindness gets buried under all that performance.

You can see his real kindness peek through sometimes - like with Paulo at the hospital, or the way he naturally wants to help people. But it’s always muddied by him bottling up his true feelings and trying to maintain this perfect image instead of just being authentic.

That’s exactly why I think his treatment of Lucy was so awful and why he’s struggling now. He spent years benefiting from Lucy’s attention while performing the ‘nice guy’ role, never being honest about his feelings or boundaries until it all exploded. Now with Sandy, he’s getting what he thought he wanted, but it’s not fulfilling him the way Lucy’s genuine care did, despite her flaws.

If Mike could just relax and stop trying to be the ‘perfect good kid,’ I think his natural kindness would shine through. But right now it’s all tangled up in his people-pleasing and emotional avoidance. That’s my take on it all, at least. I could be wrong lmao

no matter who you agree with you’ve gotta respect Mike’s ability to say the worst thing possible every time

Insanely funny like Mike was literally crying in front of him over how he couldn’t even talk to Lucy or comfort her and then as soon as Augustus comes up to ask something of him that might help improve her mental state, he immediately goes back on his word after agreeing to it 😭

100%

LMAO

All that to say i am Very excited to see how this all plays out!!!