Does anybody else feel as though the new hullabaloo lore in story mode has made people forget that Mike was also mistreated at hullabaloo?
Like have we just forgotten about Mikes relationship with Bernard? Him calling his supposed father darling? Viewing being shouted at as a positive thing? Everything?
Everything about his deductions SCREAMS that he was groomed by Bernard to believe what he said was happening in the circus, he was raised there BY Bernard and knew nothing outside of the circus, YES he knew about the others suffering, but he was also suffering, he just hadn’t been given the resources to process that and why the others aren’t coping with it the same way he is.
He very clearly cares deeply about the others, he is not perfect in any way, and I am not excusing how he disregards the others pain because he loves hullabaloo, but I think it’s important to remember WHY he feels he’s in the right for ignoring their suffering, because it makes his actions make a lot more sense when you consider that he doesn’t actually know any different.
Mike Morton Deductions (short analysis on his dynamic with Bernard)
I feel like this deduction isn’t talked about enough? I know I touched on this in a previous post, but Mike and Bernard’s dynamic is WEIRD. I’d love to know what other people’s opinion on this is because I’ve seen a couple of different takes, I think it can be fairly confidently stated that Mike was groomed by Bernard to some degree, at the very least emotionally.
“How people call each other often reflects the degree to which the relationship has developed” I don’t know about anybody else, but calling your adoptive father ‘darling’ isn’t a common thing.
Maybe if it were just that you could excuse it as theatrics or just the nature he was raised in, but the second comment about wanting to be told off by him, and on top of that having him specifically say that he wants to put his hands down his collar? Now I am totally aware that that is a common joke, but alongside the other things that are clear in their dynamic, and the things Bernard was not only allowing to happen, but actively encouraging and participating in? I don’t know.
The extent of Mikes codependency on Bernard and Bernard’s reaction to Mike supposedly taking harsh chemicals regularly (nitre, which is known to limit oxygen in the blood and in turn cause neurological issues eg balance, critical for an acrobat) seems very unconcerned? If not as a boss with an employee being put at risk, as the at employees adoptive father?? Again, incredibly strange and clearly not healthy.
Again, on the point of Mikes adoption, as far as I’m aware we’re never told how Mike came into Bernard’s custody, just that there’s a picture of him with a young Mike in front of the circus (and of course the clip in hullabaloo’s intro video), was he legally adopted? Did Bernard know Mike’s parents? Are his parents still alive? Was he even an orphan in the first place? We have no idea, and considering how young Mike was when it happened, he likely has no real idea either, what motives does Bernard have in adopting a child when he was clearly so uninterested in his own blood nephews life?
Im not making any claims here as I have not even in the fandom for a very long time, but I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on this, and I’d love for Bernard to be added to the game as a Hunter, I hate his guts so much but there’s so many gaps in Mike specifically’s story that could only really be filled from Murro or Bernard’s perspective.
Mike and Bernard’s relationship just seems to be too complicated for the fandom to grasp, yes Mike loves Bernard, no that does not make what happened okay. Mike loves Bernard as a father, he’s never had another parental figure that we know of and doesn’t know how that relationship would function, he loves Bernard because that’s what Bernard manipulated him to do, that’s a major part of mikes character. Calling your father figure darling is not normal, understanding being told off/being shouted at as praise is not normal. He met Bernard when he was a child and Bernard took advantage of that, in my opinion from the evidence given it’s likely that Bernard gr00med him, Bernard was not a good father figure, Mike was popular in the circus and made him money, any care he had for Mike was shearly for his own gain.
I know this is out of usual for my content but I’m frustrated lmao
