Character Actions: Mike, the good, the bad, the debatable (SP!)
I just decided I'd make lists of some characters' decisions and actions in The Walking Dead Game series during the zombie apocalypse and share my perspective on how they are good, bad or debatable.
Fifth is Mike (S2E3-S2E5)
Determinantly convincing Kenny to escape the Walker herd (good) - Although Mike rushed Kenny's sorrowful goodbye to a zombified Sarita, Mike convinces Kenny to leave what may have been his demise. Mike convinces Kenny to leave a zombified Sarita behind as she may have been the death of him, if Clementine doesn't convince Kenny and if Mike wasn't with them at the time, Kenny may have met his fate to his newfound lover. Mike owed little to nothing to Kenny and yet he risked his own life to save Kenny's.
Saving Clementine/Bonnie at the museum (good) - Mike has joined the group and has taken up commitments which he didn't have to follow. When Clementine or Bonnie is attacked when trying to get the water on the other side of the ticket booth, Mike comes to their aid, not only risking his own death as he could only pin the Walker down but also risking the chance that he could've drawn Walker to himself, yes this would have endangered Bonnie and Clementine, however, Mike's heroic action saves Bonnie or Clementine.
Determinantly helping Kenny fight Walkers off (good) - Mike's act to help Kenny may have been influenced by what Clementine says, but again Mike risks his own life for the group's possible escape, not only does he help reduce the number of Walkers chasing the group but he also convinces Kenny to flee the scene before they both get the chomp.
Determinantly getting the water during the Walker attack (good) - Mike's act to rescue the clean water, one of the major resources in an apocalypse, may have, again, been influenced by what Clementine tells him to do, however, Mike takes the water away which may have helped the group allot, while carrying the water, Mike is practically defenceless and therefore somewhat risks his protection from the Walkers, might I also add that Mike is the only one that can save the water, something the group has been searching for.
Determinantly convincing Sarah to move (good) - Although the way Mike tells Sarah to move is rather forceful, it was for her own well-being and the group's. He didn't have to take a few precious seconds to convince Sarah to leave with the others and yet he did. Although this act can also be driven by Clementine's selection of words, however, Mike still helps save a life at the end of the day, even though that person dies anyway.
Leaving AJ in the middle of the shootout (debatable) - The whole group is responsible for the well-being of AJ, they all played a part in the birth of AJ so they are kind of responsible for AJ's well-being. Mike seems to run past AJ, but you can't really blame him when he just got shot and is injured, however, after that he just sits behind a tree with Bonnie watching the shootout continue. He may have not seen AJ, but the thought that only Clementine and Luke can notice AJ and rescue him despite the possibility of a fatal injury shows what a character's main priority can be. After getting shot, Mike doesn't really seem to do anything else and his injury seems to have healed quickly moments after getting injured.
Sticking up for Arvo (debatable) - You can see this in two ways. Either Mark sticks up for Arvo, the person who endangered the group, got his own group killed, stirred up trouble for the group no matter what Clementine's choice in stealing his medicine is, didn't listen to Kenny and blamed Clementine for his sister, Natasha's, death, or, Mike sticks up for Arvo, a kid whose side of the story has not been told, a kid who was bullied for the actions of his comrades, a kid who just lost his sister who could've babied him through the apocalypse, a kid who has a disability and determinantly got his medicine stolen from the group.
Leaving the group with Arvo and determinantly Bonnie with the supplies (debatable) - Mike decides to leave the group with everything they had to stay alive and keep AJ, a newly born baby alive, the night before the group would've struck an agreement on their choice of location, along with Arvo who has caused the group some grief and troubles and determinantly Bonnie who tries to convince Clementine to risk her own life to try and save Luke despite Luke siding against her idea and determinantly getting Luke killed by siding against his choice of being left alone to get out of the ice by himself. Mike practically abandons the group to escape with Miss "I'm So Sorry Clementine" and a kid who debatably deserved his punishment, their destination of travel? We don't even know. This decision leans more on the side of bad as it practically endangers the majority, not to mention it help to cause the fallout between Jane and Kenny, however, Mike had his own reason for escaping, he completely disagreed with how Kenny chose to treat Arvo and how he wasn't or couldn't really do anything about it. Mike has good reasons, he didn't want to stick around to possibly be Kenny's second victim, especially after their first greeting when Kenny pinned Mike up to the window, it's understandable that Mike didn't want to stick with a group whose 'leader' was running on anger and whose anger was directed at someone who was rather innocent in Mike's eyes.
Determinantly telling Bonnie to leave Clementine (bad) - He helped Arvo escape and convinced Bonnie to escape with them. He stole everything the group had. He was going to steal their only way of transport. He endangered the group. He gave Arvo the gun which was used to put a bullet through Clementine... and while Bonnie kneels beside her saying sorry... again... Mike tries to convince Bonnie to just leave Clementine for dead and he just runs to the forest. Everything that happened that night was more or less because of Mike actions.
Have anything to add to Mike's actions?
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Comments
I don't think that's debatable, it was a complete dick move.
100% agree, you can say that you wanted to escape from Kenny. But that doesn't justify taking all the supplies especially if there's two children who are in dire in of them.
Also taking the car that Kenny had gotten working.
Stealing for your own personal gain is not debatable, at all.
Stealing all the supplies was shitty thing to do, but he was doing it to ensure their survival. Whats wrong with that?
Nothing wrong with ensuring your survival. But taking from others is wrong, if they wanted to leave the group they could have just asked instead sneaking out and taking things from the group. And with AJ around, the only way the baby was going to live is if he had those but they knew they needed them but took it anyway.
I just see it as morally wrong thing to do, stealing from others. And putting others in other possible danger by doing so. Like starving to death, etc.
Their group took the supplies from Arvo. Is it wrong to take back whats yours?
There wasnt any food for AJ, so no point to use that as argument.
They couldnt have taken the car, so they had to be sneaky.
Kenny was putting them all in danger with his plan to search for Wellington, so they really didnt have any choice but to steal the car & supplies and leave
I agree with most of points, about they are Arvo's supplies and I kinda get sneaking away from Kenny. But all I'm trying to say is that just the overall situation was entirely screwed up from the start. I realize that their survival is their top priority. But the fact that they were able to go through with it just disturbs me, but that's me.
Lets not go into this, and lets agree that we see the situation differently than each other, and I'm not gonna lie your points do make sense. But from standpoint I just see the situation differently than you.
Well im just looking at the situation from their perspective (Mike, Bonnie, Arvo), since people usually just look at the situation from Clementine's perspective and that of course is different.
This lays it out
Its kind of sad in a way despite the fact he does nothing but good for three episodes is completely forgotten by everyone over one moment as its his last onscreen, its kind of like the opposite of Kenny who's every action is forgiven over one heroic action at the end
if Bonnie is dead , Mike will only take one bag
Yeah, but for some reason Clem can still accuse Mike of taking all the supplies, which is kind of weird.
At the end, he will only take his friend Arvo.
i always had a question
Why Mike didn´t ask Jane to go with him?
Probably because Jane's the wild card of the group, she might accept, or she might turn them in the moment she knows. Or she might insist on bringing everyone but Kenny. He just doesn't know how she'll react.
i understand the Mike leaving the group ( even if it was a dick move) the problem there is Kenny who created this situation by not listening others opinions and when other have diferent opinions about a certain situation he treats them like shit , and this created the mike/bonnie situation , and this time they have no other choice but leave . (i know it was a dick move )
I dont think Mike is a bad man, he got two choices leave or live with the group and kenny's abussive behavior , the man made his choice and i dont blame him
Yeah, even his debatable actions all seem to hint at his good intentions.
I can't really blame Mike for leaving. What would you do in his situation? There's this crazy ass dude who has gotten in your face every time you tried to reason with him. Sure, there is a nice girl there, but there is no way that you're going to be able to convince her to go. As you're letting some poor kid who just lost everything and has been beaten on all day, he asks you if you want to get away from the crazy guy. What reason is there not to go? Kenny was trying to force Mike to go places with no input from Mike. He didn't owe Kenny anything. Why wouldn't he go with a guy who was just trying to survive, same as him?
I'm just imagining them having their own TV show.
"One of the world's strongest black men and a crippled teenage Russian join together to create 'The Walking Diversity'."
To be honest, I'd watch it.
I never put to much thought into Mike, Bonnie, and Arvo. But I can see why they want to leave, but my main issue is just them taking the bags. I think everything would have worked out better if they just told the group they were leaving, but you never know what could have happened. The entire situation is messed up and feels out of character for them.
I dont understand the love for Kenny. He's kinda a douche
I don't like how (if Bonnie isn't dead) they try to take all the supplies. I also don't think they had any right to the truck, because it was Kenny who got it working. They should have taken one bag, and left on foot, (...Half of that is fulfilled already if, as previously mentioned, Bonnie is dead.) and Arvo never should have been allowed near a gun considering how emotionally fucked he was at that point. It would have been cool to have the three of them come to Carver's place instead of that family if you have the Jane ending.
As for leaving Clementine to die, he was probably scared of what Kenny would do if they stuck around and figured that Kenny would help her. Which is probably his same reasoning for never inviting her in the first place, she had Kenny who cared a lot for her. The thing with Kenny is that he was pretty much a dick to everybody who wasn't Clementine and the baby, so if anybody would be safe staying behind with him, it'd be the kids. Kenny freaked Mike out on two separate occasions before Arvo was even introduced (Fighting with him at Carver's and yelling at him when Sarita dies.) so I have high doubts about any claims that Arvo used his powers of manipul8tion to trick Mike or whatever. Kenny's unstable behavior was all the reason he needed to take all the people who he believed would be in danger under Kenny away from there.
Honestly, Kenny probably would have killed Mike if they didn't leave. In the original choice they used to have where you could shoot Mike, if you did and ask for him in the truck Kenny will thank you for killing him because of the fact that he tried to leave you with no supplies and then tells you not to feel bad.
...Kenny thanks Clementine for murdering someone? Seriously? I'm not saying it wasn't bad for Mike to try and steal, but I can't believe Kenny actually does that. (I also hear that in some dialogue choices Kenny claims to have 'hunted down' Arvo, have you ever heard a dialogue option with that in it? I keep trying to find it and I have yet to.)
I haven't heard about that "Hunting Down" quote, though I find it impressive Arvo was able to run away from Kenny.
To be honest, abandoning a little girl and baby whom he and Bonnie showed genuine care for doesn't strike me as logical. Especially since he's compassionate enough to protect Arvo. Centering everything around Kenny just shows how ego-centric S2's writers were about their self-insert.
That's the part that confuses me the most about what Bonnie and Mike did. It's like the writers purposely wanted people to hate them for shock value, because apparently that's more important than keeping their characterization consistent. They care enough to defend Arvo, but are ready to leave Clementine with absolutely nothing? Doesn't make sense. At all.
Well, when he was terrified of walkers coming during the lake scene, he was running pretty damn fast on the ice so I don't find it hard to believe. The boy can run, I'll give him that. And I like to think that Kenny would be more concerned about Clementine bleeding out, but then again when she fell in the ice he was too busy beating on Arvo for talking back and 'killing' Luke to make her a fire so...yeah.
True, Arvo can run fast. However Jane was also with Kenny, so it could have been possible for Jane to stay with Clem while Kenny went on his rampage.
Though I think the problem with Kenny ignoring Clem and (determinedly) Bonnie freezing to death is because the scene is determinant. If you cover Luke and don't break the ice, both Luke and Bonnie will drown, but Clem will have never entered the icy waters, so she isn't in danger of freezing. Though that doesn't excuse the behavior even if the scene is determinant.
To be honest, I think the "Hunting Down" line is a rumor, I haven't heard or scene hide nor hair of it, though it could have been unused audio.
That's...very possible. If he ever did catch them...But then again, when Clementine is in the truck she has the option to say 'I can't believe they did that' to which Jane will reply with something about the three of them being scared, if Kenny had actually killed them brutally and that was Jane's opinion beforehand, (Wasn't expecting Jane to sound so lenient about it, Arvo could have literally killed Clementine with that shot. I wasn't expecting her to be bloodthirsty over it but the lack of reaction from pretty much everyone and the fact that it was hardly ever thought of again just goes to show it was mainly put in for shocking the audience, I guess.) surely she would have told Clementine that Kenny killed all of them when trying to prove he was crazy at the rest stop. So I think the chances of them having gotten away are pretty high...
Regardless of him leaving the group, i still love Mike, and he's one of my fave characters. Nobody can convince me otherwise.
I NEVER thought Mike was bad but he was leaving an 11 year old child and a baby without any food... Regardless I think he was going to take Clementine with them if you ask but still that was bad, anyway I really think Kenny was at fault for this but his last actions still kind off piss me off, though by the way you may add that he tries to save Kenny even though Kenny acted like a complete dick towards him throughout the entirety of episode 3 for no real reason.