Paige + Disrespecting Mike ( Part ½ )
DISCLAIMER/RANT ABOUT THIS POST: I do not, under any circumstances, think Mike to be faultless. When it comes to ANYTHING that had to do with Sulla, Sid, and Carlito, he had his problems. Major ones. No one is excusing him, or considering Paige to be the only one at fault.
However, I am calling Paige out to be selfish, disrespectful and abusive. Many people have come out and done this already, but having a visual allows it to sink in even more. This isn’t even all the scenes in which Paige is disrespectful to Mike – not even close. These are just some of the more major instances.
Scene 1) ‘How is this disrespectful?’, you may ask. Because Paige blatantly disrespected the fact that Mike just wanted to hang around the house. Instead, she goes to the pretty girl whom she pointed out and tells her that ‘Mike is real’. Which is a nice sentiment, IF MIKE WAS INTERESTED IN FLIRTING THAT NIGHT. Which he made painfully clear that he wasn’t. This may be subtler – but it’s not excusable. Right here did Paige show her total lack of disregard for Mike’s personal feelings, pushing Paige’s own agenda onto Mike. Instead of just leaving Mike alone to hang out with his new friends like he nicely asked.
Scene 2/3 ) These are a bit more obvious in terms of abuse. If you look up signs of abuse, you find a few things that Paige displayed. Scene 2 shows a weird variation of a FORCE OF SEX. Why? Because Paige is telling Mike to have sex with Jessica in order to convince Jessica to get what PAIGE wanted. Paige asked Mike, and expected Mike to go through, to commit to sexual abuse and manipulation. Scene 3 shows a very obvious sign of threats of violence. Telling Mike that she’s going to HURT HIM if he doesn’t fill out this paperwork? This goes above and beyond that Paige never respected Mike as her boss ( which he was at the time ) and just shows how little respect she has for him as a person.
Scene 4 ) Just a pure disregard about Mike’s feelings. She asked how HE felt, and basically gets insulted that Mike talked about him being the fox rather than her. Of course he’s the fox. OF COURSE. This had to be abridged for the sake of the gif set, so not included is when she asks: “Am I the leg?”; and I GET that she felt defensive over that idea. Because it felt like Mike didn’t care about her. However, as Paige had been selfish and disrespectful the entire time, she really doesn’t have a right as that makes her hypocritical. And then, she says that she wants him “back in the trap”, which CAN be read as another threat of violence, and it would later come into light in Scene 5.
Scene 5 ) Forget the idea that Paige isn’t a murder. That she’s an ‘attempted murderer’. For-freaking-get it. She asked Sid to murder Mike, and he did exactly that. Mike was DEAD for six minutes. Even if Sid HADN’T succeeded in killing Mike, you cannot pretend that an attempted murderer is not as bad as a murderer. Because IT IS. An attempt on someone’s life is NO BETTER than succeeding and killing someone off. And earlier she used Sid – MIKE’S MAIN ENEMY – to get what she wanted. Went behind Mike’s back so that SHE could get what she wanted.
PAIGE ARKIN IS NO SAINT. But here’s the thing. She doesn’t have to be. THE BEAUTY in Paige’s character is that she’s real. She’s horribly flawed, has some good qualities here and there, and she’s REAL.
IT IS OKAY TO LIKE PAIGE ARKIN. It is OKAY. You’re allowed to like characters like this. I DO. I LIKE PAIGE A LOT. What’s not okay is pretending that she’s an angel who can do no wrong and that she can’t show abuse. Because she can. And she has.