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ianenjoyer · 3 years

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here by unpopular demand: why Ian and Mickey are narrative foils

For reference, the definition of a narrative foil is a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) to highlight qualities of the other character.

1. introduction to the show

Mickey is introduced to the show as an antagonist and somebody out to get Ian who, at this point, is the ‘protagonist’. He’s presented as the direct opposite of Ian: dirty, obviously not well taken care of, crass, homophobic, etc. As the show goes on we learn that most, if not all, of these things are a defense mechanism and not actually indicative of who he is but before 1x07 these are the only things we know about him. Basically, he’s introduced as a stereotypical neighborhood thug contrasted against sweet, hardworking, ambitious Ian.

2. family

The Milkoviches and Gallaghers are narrative foils, too, and in better world the show would have explored this even further but I digress. They’re similar in the way that they’re both poor Southside families trying to make money to stay afloat but the comparisons pretty much end there. The biggest difference is that the Gallagher children always had somebody looking out for them, while the Milkovich children didn’t. Talking about Ian and Mickey, it’s not to say that Ian didn’t have his fair share of having to fend for himself or that he had it easy, but at the very least his family really loved and cared about him and it’s shown really early on that Mickey didn’t have that. In fact, he lived in perpetual fear of his father and was loyal to him because of this, as opposed to Ian who hated Frank and avoided even associating with him most of the time. Ian and Mickey in the early seasons explicitly show what difference growing up knowing you’re loved and thinking you have a chance in life makes and how much that affects your personality and general worldview.

3. driving character arcs

This boils down to Mickey’s main obstacles being external and physical while Ian’s are internal and psychological. Neither one is worse or more important than the other but it does mean a lot in terms of who they are as characters and the things they had to overcome.

3a. Mickey’s sexuality

Ian has always been shown to be comfortable in his sexuality and, even though he wasn’t out for all of the early seasons, it was never shown to be a source of contention for him. Mickey on the other hand, doesn’t get comfortable in his sexuality until season 5 (and even then he’s shown to revert to having sex with women when he’s stressed). In this regard, Ian operates as Mickeys foil, serving to highlight how different Mickey’s experience with his sexuality was compared to Ian’s, as shown in 2x08 when you see Mickey terrified of being outed while Ian looks on really not understanding what he’s so afraid of. As Mickey said, they lived in different worlds, and moments like 2x08 or all of season 3b serve as proof of this.

3b. Ian’s bipolar

Ian’s return in season 4 marks a real turning point for his character. Even though his main traits never falter he seems to be, in many ways, a completely different person. As time goes on you learn why this is and, especially after Ian’s diagnosis, you see Ian and Mickey once again living in different worlds. Mickey operates as his foil here because Ian sees the diagnosis as a death sentence and has a hard time coming to terms with it. After what he saw with Monica, it seems impossible that he would see it any other way, which is made worse by the way his family talks about it. Mickey, however, has none of these pre-existing connotations or stigma about it. To him, it just means Ian’s sick and needs help, not that he’s broken or different or that there’s anything wrong with him at all. Once he gets over the initial hurt and confusion it really doesn’t change how he sees Ian at all, which juxtaposes Ian’s warped perception of himself, which goes so deep that he breaks up with Mickey after spending time with Monica and seeing the future he thinks he’s doomed to end up in.

4. relationship

All throughout the show, their storylines are inverses of each other (I’ve made a couple gifsets about that here) and the relationship itself serves to highlight different parts of each character at different points throughout the show.

4a. seasons 1-5

In seasons 1-3, Ian is shown to be the steady one in the relationship, he has the luxury of not being terrified of being outed and having a support system, so he’s able to pursue Mickey in this way. Then, enter seasons 4 and 5, and all the stability and surety that has defined Ian for his whole life is ripped away from him. This completely flips their dynamic on it’s head and forces Mickey to both pursue Ian, and become the stable one in the relationship, in seasons 4 and 5, respectively.

4b. seasons 6-7

In season 6, Mickey is a reminder of Ian’s ‘past life’ and everything he was desperate to move on from. It’s not that Mickey did anything to deserve this, but the fact is Ian associated him with everything from the past year or so that had completely destroyed his life and his perception of himself.

In season 7, Ian had gotten himself to a place where he was able separate Mickey from that and come to terms with his feelings for him. Mickey was his foil here in the sense that he represented love and passion as opposed to the precarious stability Ian had worked really hard to carve out for himself. The situation forced Ian to make a choice between the two and revealed just how much Ian values his mental health and safety, highlighting how much he’d grown from seasons 4 and 5.

4c. season 10

In season 10 their relationship had finally reached a point where they can just be together, which opened the door for the insecurities that they both still harbored to come out of the shadows. Mickey’s feelings of abandonment and his need for Ian to prove that he’s committed go up against Ian’s commitment issues brought on by his bipolar and the connotations that marriage held for him. To Ian, getting married meant Mickey tying himself to him forever, and he couldn’t imagine why he would want to do that; to Mickey, it just meant them committing to being together forever. They were essentially looking at the same picture but seeing different things which highlighted really key parts of their personalities and the way they operate in a relationship.

tldr: Ian and Mickey’s relationship is incredibly complex, but the main thing that remained consistent through it all is that they constantly challenge each other and bring out both the good and the bad in each other and that they fiercely love each other.

#uhhhhh yeah #i literally worked harder on this than i have on school in a long time which is unfortunate but lskdfjlsdjkf #i really wish i could major in overanalyzing shows on tumblr but alas :( we live in a society #i feel like some of this doesn’t make sense lol so feel free to ask me to clarify anything #shameless #meta #t

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