Bittersweet Candy Bowl/Headscratchers

• Why are people completely against Mike? I'll admit, he could be handling the situation better, but think about it. He has basically been abused by his best friend/former crush for most of the time they've known each other. Almost all of the bitching and hitting she's done in the past has been unjustified, and he has every right to not want to put up with her anymore. Granted, I do hope that they can work out their problems and eventually be friends again, but Mike's anger isn't unjustified.
  • Do remember that she had minimized the abuse long before this point. His actions would be more acceptable had that not been the case.
  • Really. On the very day Mike was beginning to show signs of being sick of her abuse, Lucy throttled him and called him jerkface for betting that he could not look down the longest.
    • On that page, Mike was making sure that Lucy didn't look down at the water and might accidentally fall off the cliff.
    • That doesn't matter, Lucy didn't know that was his intention. She heard him say he could do something better, and reacted violently.
  • How new is Lucy trying to outdo Mike in challenges? And minimized means less than the past, not stopped completely.
  • In this troper's opinion, I don't hate Mike at all. It's the whole leaving Lucy to drown in her misery alone is where it's concerned.
  • Getting kicked and punched by some over-competitive girl because you're better than her at stuff doesn't really qualify as "abuse". Some people hate Mike because he fails to realize he's dealing with the bane of all relationships, the Type-A Tsundere. Others probably hate him because they'd like to be in his place.
    • How does that not qualify as abuse? In fact, I think that's the definition of abuse right there, getting periodically hurt by someone for no valid reason.
• The whole Lucy hitting people in general. Not so much that it's played for comedy, but that Lucy seems to be the only one who gets a free pass. If anyone hits someone, it's major drama/horrible, but with Lucy it's always praised by the fans.
  • If you'll review the situation, she is considerably less violent than you specify. Jessica was messing with one of her close friends and, later, slapped her for calling her out on messing with Tessa. Namely, how she hurt Paulo to attack Tessa.
  • I'm not even talking about just that situation, this is something that happens for nearly the entirety of the series. Take this page from the new first chapter. While I can see being irritated at someone grabbing her tail, kicking them in the face without even seeing who it was or why they were doing it is an overreaction. And no one in the comments seems to think so. If anyone else were in Lucy's place, lots of commentors would've freaked about it. And on this page, when Lucy beats on Tess for daring to give Mike the chance to spend time with Sandy and away from her.
  • Similar to that page in the first chapter, Lucy surprised with a different reaction; she's working on it as time passes. There is hope she can kick the habit completely, but I dunno if she will without therapy.
    • I'm wondering why Lucy would need therapy. I'm just curious.
    • May I count the ways?

1. Her tendency to react to every unpleasant thing with violence. Recent example (at the time of this post): When she was talking with Augustus and he said something she didn't like (which wasn't insulting and could've been taken several ways), her first reaction is to stomp on/kick his head. I will grant you that she's gotten better with her violence, but I will also remind you that doing a bad thing less than before is still doing it. That's why Mike looked at her during Abbey's Presidential speech, because of all the stuff she put him through over the years after he used to be so nice to her. Speaking of Abbey, he is going to therapy for more or less the same thing (issues that lead to violence, though his aren't a casual occurrence).
2. Her dependency issue. This is another one that I wish fans would realize is a big issue. We already saw what Lucy did when she thought Mike died, completely breaking down and searching for a substitute to cling to. When Mike rejected her, she went for Paulo, throwing herself at him in her despair because she wanted him to stay with her. At no point did she say she was doing it because she actually wanted it; the closest she came was saying "I need you", but given everything else she said, that just furthers her dependency. And after Paulo got a girlfriend, she went through a period where she acted like he had cheated on/broken up with her before continuing to pine for Mike. And now she might be moving toward Augustus to repeat the cycle. Between this and the violence, she has no idea how to maintain a healthy relationship, and needs serious mental and emotional help before she pursues one.

• • Psychologically, it's just her immature way of expressing her own inadequacy. It's played for laughs because, in popular view, girls can't really hurt boys even if they hit them.
  • OP: Again, it's not Lucy hitting people in-story that I'm talking about. It's the fans' treatment of her violence. If anyone else is violent, they tend to be admonished, or at least the people who praise the act of violence are in the minority. With Lucy, it's more often than not "Woot! Go Lucy!" even if the act was uncalled for, over the top, or downright abusive.
• People irrationally hate Sandy so much, even though she has done nothing. She's mostly blamed for "getting in the way of Mike and Lucy", but she did not actively try to separate them. In fact, she was the one who tried to include Lucy when she and Mike played together, and in present day she isn't aware of Lucy's angsting. Hell, the only one she seems to keep in touch with is Mike. And everyone seems to forget, Lucy encouraged him to pursue her in the first place, so it's Lucy's fault if anything.
  • See Fan Dumb on the main page. This has been mentioned. A few times.
  • Yeah, that annoys me a lot. Sandy's not doing anything wrong. People need to read "To the Top" and understand that she is innocent in all of the Mike and Lucy drama. (At least, I think she is.)
• Chapter 12 and Lucy's actions, including telling Daisy to be quiet and leave her so she wouldn't get hurt, seem to popularly be ignored by people who say she's such a bad person. This is especially troubling with MikexSandy shippers, since Lucy may very well be why Mike lived through chapter 12, similar to how Mike saved her shortly thereafter. Alejandro on both counts...
  • Speaking for myself, I don't hate Lucy. I hate the Lucy fanatics who think that she's an angel and anything she does is justified by her Freudian Excuse. It's those fans that irritate me to the point where I wanted it to be acknowledged in the story that, even though Lucy is nice deep down, she had still treated her friends badly and needs a lot of emotional/psychological help before she even considers pursuing a relationship with anyone.
    • You hate the alternative fandumb fans. I can respect that.
  • Yeah, many people just don't read into the chapters enough. Annoys me a lot.
• Mike's behavior towards Lucy in recent chapters. I can understand why he would be mad at her, but to ignore her completely as if she no longer exists in his life and on her birthday, no less? How cold of you, Mike.
  • Cold? Yes. Justified? Absolutely! Let's not forget all the time and effort he devoted to making her happy and safe and to be a good friend, only to be thanked with rude names and the occasional slap. Lucy bullied him like crazy, and Mike got sick of it. Yes, she genuinely loves him. But does she deserve his love? Probably not. Oh, and just so you know, I'm Mike x Lucy.
    • I am aware of his efforts. I understand why he's mad at her. I suppose his anger could be justified, but still, ignoring her existence still seems cold to me. If he at the very least talked to her, regardless of whether he was being mean or not, at least he would still be acknowledging her in his life. Honestly, I feel that Lucy should just move on from Mike, even if it takes time for her to do so. But still, if it works out, I'll be fine. I am Mike x Lucy also, it's just that Mike's behavior towards Lucy lately that kind of kills the ship for me, but it's still one of my ships nonetheless.
  • I think the most recent chapters are simply telling us that although Mike is generally a good guy, he's not perfect and makes mistakes. My interpretation of his actions is that he had probably not been enjoying his relationship with Lucy very much since before the whole Sandy arc, but had stayed friends in the hope that someday she'd open up so they could be together. Now that he has Sandy, he has more or less "let go" of a relationship that required many sacrifices from him but did not bring him much happiness. Also, the fact that he no longer sees Lucy as a potential partner means he can finally express his frustration and anger at Lucy's abuse and non-commitment. It's still a sucky move to ignore a friend's feelings like that, but it's in character and it's hopefully something he can snap out of.
• The fandumb and the hatedumb, especially in the Die for Our Ship conflicts. I understand that people have their own opinions, but come on, it's kind of ridiculous, don't you think?
• Lucy is shown trying (on multiple occasions) to keep Yashy from finding out about Sandy. However, in an earlier chapter, Yashy is clearly aware of Sandy's existence. This may or may not be Ret Conned in the book.
  • Yashy doesn't appear to know anything about Sandy in reality.
• In an early strip, a young Lucy is shown being given a Barbie doll, which she then proceeds to run over with her little toy truck. But the Barbie doll is clearly made in the image of a human! Are there humans in the BCB world that we don't know about or something?
  • When Rachel and Paulo saw Casablanca, it also clearly had humans. Maybe humans are fictional beings in the BCB universe, and are used in toys and movies?
  • I think they see humans like we see anthropomorphic animals.
• Augustus. Is he a Jerkass? He doesn't seem that mean in most cases and he truly loves Daisy, a nice girl. But he's always being called a jerk when mentioned by fans. Why? While we're on the subject, why is it so hard for fans to see Lucy's Jerkass Facade? And what is it about hating Sandy that some fans find so appealing? Lastly, Mike himself yelling at Zach about Lucy not caring about him -- it defies all logic with Confrontation. Mystery in BCB. Pick one.
  • It has to do with many things, not the least of which is his general treatment of people. Regardless of him being in love, he's done many jerkass things, like taunting Abbey about his abusive father and how he's just like him. Also, even though we've seen in the incentive that he would've stopped, him forcing Daisy against a tree and into a kiss is zipping way past jerkass. He also may be plotting some big thing against Lucy and Mike as revenge in collaboration with his brother, but at this point in the comic we're not sure (we do know that he knows him at least). Lastly, OP, it might be easier if you asked these things separately (and some of your questions are already being discussed).
    • Actually, Augustus didn't kiss Daisy. Abbey had his Big Damn Heroes moment right before Gussie could plant one on her. It's actually kind of a shame -- if Augustus had forced a kiss, you could make a case for sexual assault. This would likely have taken the comic in some interesting directions...
      • Alejandro's his brother?
• How did Mike manage to assume Lucy didn't care about him at all when she took quite a beating for him and got her face clawed trying to keep him safe in chapter 12? It would be a serious stretch to think she'd take that for someone she didn't care about. Amnesia or denial? Lucy doesn't even bother him these days, but he treats her like his worse enemy as of 68. Her finally confessing seems like it made him hate her guts. My best guess is that this is the culprit.
  • He's verbally and mentally abused Lucy horribly in thanks for her trying to make up for the things he blames her for. And then, what does he do? He goes right bback to acting all happy, like he didn't just do the most painful emotional thing to her she's experienced yet..
    • I don't know. Exploding and telling someone you hate them and want nothing to do with them after they spent ten years physically and emotionally abusing you doesn't strike me as a textbook case of abuse. It doesn't matter if Lucy has been nicer for the past few months, she's been abusive for ten years to him. This isn't something Mike can reasonably be expected to simply forget and trust her again.
      • So pretty much what we'd expect from a comic that points out that bullying is remembered even if you're no longer a bully. Perhaps the way people treat Tess for her past Jerkassitude was nothing more than trying to point this out.