#both jonathan and mike are just traumatised boys trying their best to cope and survive

[uselessnbee]

i feel like Jonathan and Mike are a great representation of the whole "people care about mental health until you're showing your symptoms and they're ugly"

(apparently i'm really pissed so this turned into an angry rant)

the fandom hates them and talks about how their characters are ruined and how they miss the old version etc when they're both just traumatised boys who's been bottling up their emotions for so long and now they have to deal with the consequences

Jonathan has been both physically and mentally abused since he was a child, he had to help to raise his little brother, has to work while going to school because they need the money and then the whole thing with UD happened, he literally had to go casket shopping for his little brother while he thought his mother is slowly losing her mind jesus christ that is so much trauma and he doesn't have anyone he doesn't have any friends he only has Will but he's still the big brother and he won't "burden" his little brother who's dealing with so much shit already himself. and Nancy. he has Nancy. Nancy with whom he's distant now after moving to California. Argyle is literally his first and only friend. he never had anyone who he can vent to. who would listen and comfort him. who would help him deal with all the shit. he's been bottling up and burying his emotions down down and yet some of yall are hating him for the way it makes him act and he tries to cope with them

Mike had been bullied his whole life, he's lost Will so many times already, he's lost El, he's seen people die, he's seen what the UD shit can do to the poeple he loves and add to it all the internalised homophobia and all the shit god he's just a kid and already has so much trauma and his parents don't even know so he can't talk to them about it. he never talks about his own feelings. he just represses them he bottles them up he burries them deep down and won't let himself feel them. the only person he can talk to is Will. Will who he loses over and over again. Will who he's distant with right now and feels like he lost him yet again. Will who makes him feel the way the society tells him is fucking wrong and he can't talk to him about it. his mental health is so fucked up and makes him act like a jerk because that's what fucking depression does to you. the way depression makes you act is ugly. and yet some of yall are hating him for it. for being a kid who is trying to cope and survive while battling his own trauma and the demons it left him with

yes they are just fictional characters but there's a reason why some of us see ourselves in them. it's because they're relatable. the way they handle they're trauma and cope is relatable. and you would see that if you would watch the show with your eyes actually fucking open