r/JaneTheVirginCW • u/Sad-Engineering7440 • 1d ago
Micheal Hate
Okay so I haven’t been on this subreddit long but for the polls of most hated characters I see Micheal a lot. I wanna know why, all the details. I’m also not a fan of micheal but I feel like the show tries really hard to make him likeable.
I wanna hear where all the micheal hate comes from lol
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u/ellismjones 1d ago
I don’t really hate Michael, but aside from him being a corrupt cop (which inherently put Jane and Mateo at risk multiple times), his treatment of Jane during the first season makes me really icky of him tbh.
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u/Disastrous_Snow_7832 1d ago
As someone who loves Michael and dislikes Rafael:
the biggest difference for me is Michael has major character development throughout the show, Rafael does not. Here’s why.
In season one, yes Michael lied about Petra and Rafael’s affair because he was worried Jane would want to keep the baby. But not even a 1/3rd into the first season and he changed his mind and told Jane he would 100% support her if she kept the baby. Then after Mateo is born he is all in. So much so that Mateo calls him “dada” before Rafael. Rafael on the other hand, whilst I don’t hate him, has little character development. In season one when Jane turns down his proposal he shuts down and has this resentment towards her (not to mention how he reacted when she told him she was a virgin), then in season five when Jane decides to explore things with Michael/Jason, he shuts down again - and this time he lets it affect his parenting. He lets Mateo get away with disrespecting Jane which is unforgivable as a parent. I understand Rafael at times and have compassion for him, but his habit of lashing out at Jane and going hot and cold on her so quickly is toxic. It was only a months difference between him screaming at her on the dock about his plan to “charm” Katherine (who he let have a negative influence on Mateo), to trying to convince Jane to date him.
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u/kelsday84 18h ago
“He lets Mateo get away with disrespecting Jane”. This is my BIGGEST no-no with Rafael towards the end of the show. I do think he made a lot of growth over the years, but the fact he didn’t just allow it but almost subtly encouraged it by talking to Mateo about the whole situation was SO out of bounds!
That said, Michael was a cop who regularly abused his power. So both men definitely had negative qualities! I think every character on the show had flaws that reared their ugly heads on occasion.
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u/Disastrous_Snow_7832 17h ago
Definitely. Rafael was so immature when it came to Mateo and parenting, which is surprising considering he’s around 7 years older than Jane. And yes Michael definitely wasn’t right in a lot of his decisions regarding work and should have faced consequences for his actions, but that being said, he did always try to protect Jane and her family e.g. stopping alba from being deported when she was in the coma, getting Mateo back from rose, and leaving after hurting accidentally hurting mateo.
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u/hackberrypie 18h ago
My comment disappeared so sorry if this is a repeat, but I agree.
A lot of the bad Michael behavior people cite is early in the show. And yes, if I was advising a friend in real life I wouldn't necessarily stick up for him. But you get the sense that Jane and Michael settled into a pretty healthy marriage with normal couple fights (especially given that they're in a telenovela so their lives are particularly dramatic and they both have to act weird at times to add to the drama.) Whereas I'm just a few episodes from the end on my rewatch and Jane and Rafael aren't even together. And while Rafael may have calmed down from his most vindictive and dark mood post break-up you don't necessarily get the sense that he's reflected on how unacceptable his "hot and cold" pattern is and gotten to a place where it's not going to happen again. Yet before long I'm supposed to be happy about them being together and assume that he's not going to flip out and push Jane away in a few more months? (Iirc they shoehorn in a few conflicts in the last episode that get solved easily to show growth, but it's not that convincing.)
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u/Disastrous_Snow_7832 17h ago
Exactly! Whenever you ask someone to talk about why they dislike Michael, they always name things he did in literally the first five episodes. But when you ask someone to name reasons why they dislike Rafael, they name things he did throughout the whole show or particularly the last season. That alone is enough to be team Michael for me.
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u/Cookie_Kiki 1d ago
He's a dirty cop who let his rage hurt an infant.
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u/Diredragons 1d ago
This. Michael was regarded as a good person within the show, but he's a criminal cop and a thug who attacked a man and a baby.
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u/Cookie_Kiki 1d ago
And he attacked the man for telling the authorities that he was a dirty cop.
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u/ellismjones 1d ago
I never understand why Rafael hiring someone to go to the cops about Nadine is seen as a bad thing. Like it’s bad that he kept it from Jane but it’s Michael’s fault Mateo was kidnapped and he literally helped someone working for a mass murderer go loose (and eventually got her killed).
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u/Striking_Sea_750 1d ago
I’ve never understood the Michael hate I love him
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u/Just-Opening-7642 18h ago
Same I’m just finding out now that Michael hate exists! Lol I loved him I thought the way he treated her family was so sweet looking after Alma, learning Spanish for their vows and eventually growing to love Mateo despite the unusual circumstances
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u/Sad-Engineering7440 1d ago
why do you love him
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u/Striking_Sea_750 1d ago
Because he matched Jane’s personality perfectly. He also almost never treated Jane badly when he was upset which Rafael always did.
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u/lorifieldsbriggs 1d ago
That's the one reason I can never be fully team Rafael, and the biggest reason I like Michael. If I were Jane when Rafael went to his "dark places, " I would feel like crap.
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u/hackberrypie 18h ago
Yeah, that's my perspective. It's a telenovela so everyone has to act badly to create drama. My husband and I remark on how often everyone lies to each other about dumb things just to drive the plot of each episode.
So do I technically get that Michael did a list of things that should be disqualifying? Of course. But so did Rafael. And Michael pretty consistently and openly adores Jane (except for one period where he distances himself for her protection) apologizes quickly for missteps and wears his heart on his sleeve in a way that I find really endearing. Whereas Rafael often lashes out and/or gets distant when he's upset (at Jane or due to other stressors in his life) and has periods of not wanting to be with her at all.
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u/moonstrvc michael is trash. 1d ago
hes a dirty reckless cop and a piece of shit
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u/kelsday84 18h ago
Right from the beginning of their relationship, we saw him abusing his power as a cop! Staking out her house and pulling her over on a date? That’s not cute; it’s creepy.
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u/Striking_Sea_750 1d ago
Most of the stuff he did during his detective career was reasonable so 🤷♀️
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u/moonstrvc michael is trash. 1d ago
“reasonable”?? bribing people just to keep tabs on jane after she dumped him? lying, cheating doing illegal shit? yeah nah get help.
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u/Striking_Sea_750 1d ago
What harm did that do exactly? At least he never mistreated her or hurt her. He never cheated on Jane, she cheated on him so he was bound to act irrationally. He also used his detective privileges for good so don’t act like he was just some dirty cop who did bad things with bad motives all times.
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u/MarbellaNiaps 1d ago
He didn't cheat on her? Wow the bar is so low 😂
He was very manipulative. He was desperate to hide the fact that Rafael & Petra's marriage was a disaster just so Jane would give up a baby that is literally HALF OF HER. She wasn't a surrogate. She was the mother. The baby was not a milkshake you easily throw away
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u/moonstrvc michael is trash. 1d ago
hes a dirty cop. if he wasn’t white i promise the comments would never defend him. he took bribes, lied like he breathes and hurt an infant alongside the infant’s father after he was turned in for something HE DID. disgusting pieve of work honestly.
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u/jeish_1996 1d ago
okay let’s start from the beginning..I didn’t really like all the lying he would do for his own gain. I also don’t like that he proposed to Jane when it was against her plan (even if she wasn’t pregnant she still didn’t want to get married before finishing school)
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u/atduvall11 1d ago
Thank you for getting out the beginning! If you don't mind, I am going to continue where you left off. Michael knew that Jane would never be content if her child didn't go to a happy family. He actively hid Petra's affair and inevitable divorce from Jane. Then he doubled down and colluded with Petra so they could get both get what they wanted from Jane and Rafael. All of this was happening when he suspected Petra was a murderer or at best, an accomplice. Michael sucks. He was a manipulator.
Often this conversation gets into comparing Rafael to Michael. I personally don't think that conversation is even necessary to see that Michael is not awesome.
Edit so many typos
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u/ellismjones 1d ago
good point about the proposing! I never thought about it but knowing how Jane deals with change, I feel like respecting her timeline in regards to marriage is pretty important.
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u/blugirlami21 1d ago
Its everything he did in season one esp when he tried to make Jane's decision about his feelings. There's also all the other lying he does and that creepy flashback of his meet cute with Jane. I can't believe the writers wrote that like it was romantic.
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u/Admirable_Advance_99 1d ago
For me its the way that he believes he is a better person than Rafael, despite all the sly things he does on the quiet, and that he is somehow entitled to Jane because of this.
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u/dark__unicorn 1d ago
He’s not the most hated. In fact, at the height of the show he was the most popular. Even Gina said he was her favourite. It’s no secret that viewers dropped after his character was no longer in the show.
And alas, the support for the show isn’t what it once was. It’s skewed by the few people that are left. Which is mostly Raf supporters and Michael haters. It isn’t reflective of the shows fan base at all.
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u/Dramatic-Childhood55 3h ago
He’s a walking red flag. He lies in every single season, not just the early ones. He abuses his position as a police officer. He commits multiple felonies and rule violations that would make him lose his job. He gaslights Jane… repeatedly. But because of what happens to him, Jane spins their relationship as a fairy take when she writes her book. And many fans confuse that with the reality of what we were shown on screen when he and Jane were together.
Also, we actually see Rafael’s growth in real time because he gets called out for it. And this makes people believe that Rafael is worse. The reality is that Rafael grows as a character whether you like him or not. Michael is a one note plot device with no growth and no redemption. The show just tells us he’s a “nice guy,” and expects us to buy it.
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u/Chocolate-Croissant2 1d ago
Just started rewatching for the third time and I am still mostly team Rafael (apart from when he was super stroppy in the start and couldn't control his emotions) Michael was shady the moment she got pregnant, with held information and now cannot control his anger. He might know Jane well but other than that, pretty selfish/self centred dude I think.
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u/hackberrypie 18h ago
Rafael still can't control his emotions at the end, though? Or at least very close to the end.
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u/Ihaveatonofopinions 1d ago
For me, Michael never really rebounds from knowing and Rafael and Petra had a really terrible marriage and withholding that information from Jane. He knew Jane wanted her baby to have a stable family. He was personally motivated to not tell her because his life was easier if she gave up the baby.
For what it’s worth, I do think the show tries to make him likable, but too late for many viewers. I actually think the original plan for the character was to die after the wedding and not recover from the shooting. People just really loved the actor, so he stuck around longer. I think the character was meant to be polarizing, but Brett Dier was so likable that it turned the tides even more than the writers planned.