Characters / Sanders Sides

WARNING: Untagged spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.

---

Vine/Sanders Shorts tropes involving the Dad Guy, the Prince Guy, the Teacher Guy and the Anxiety Guy appear in the Sanders Shorts section from Thomas Sanders' page as, as noted by Thomas Sanders himself, these characters are independent from the Sanders Sides and are part of a different universe. This includes YouTube special "Dad's Big Game Day Tips", which features the Dad Guy from the Sanders Shorts, and not Morality. On the other hand, the Snapchat and Twitter special video "My Personalities All Had Little Adventures Yesterday" is canonical to "Sanders Sides" due to the title explicitly calling them "Personalities",^note This special was first released in the first age of the series, in January 2017, way before characters started being developed and the word "personalities" was officially replaced by "aspects", "Sides" or "personality" as a group name. therefore tropes seen in that special can be found here. Since the Sanders Asides episodes are canon in the Sanders Sides universe, tropes seen there can be found here. Also, as the Sanders Sides characters have started appearing sporadically in the Shorts, character tropes seen in these appearances can be found here.^note They're distinguisable from the original Shorts characters in that the Sides wear the newer outfits with the emblems and the Shorts characters wear the older outfits that the Sides dropped off at the beginning of season 2.

SPECIAL WARNING: Bear in mind that, when a new episode is released, all of the folders are updated with the new information provided by the episode, so spoilers are to be expected in all of the folders, not just in the new ones if any. Also, the tropes are presented alphabetically, not in chronological order from older to recent, and as stated at the beginning of the page, spoilers here are not hidden, all of them, so people that haven't watched these recent episodes must be warned that these spoilers could come out at any moment of the reading, even on the folder titles.

---

General Thomas and his Sides Tropes

"Wow! Is there four people in here or is it just me?"

This folder contains tropes shared by multiple characters in general, including Thomas, the main Sanders Sides and the Dark Sides and excluding any other human character.^note Multiple means sometimes two, generally three or more characters, not necessarily all of them at the same time. Tropes present only in single characters and those that, even if they're shared by multiple characters, have a special meaning for one particular character, are in these individual character folders. Tropes that belong to the Dark Sides as a group are not here but in the Dark Sides folder below. Any other human characters have only each their own folder for themselves.

---

• Achilles' Heel: Each Side has a weak point that totally breaks him out of character and makes him act like the opposite of what they usually are.
  • Thomas: His Synchronization with the Sides can be both a strong and a weak point, depending on which emotion he gets synchronized with and if it's positive or negative. For instance, if Patton gets too overwhelmed with sadness, he can drag Thomas to the same state of sadness, and neither Patton nor Thomas will be able to do anything about it until Patton himself gets out of that sad state for real. Also, the total absence or inaction of any of the Sides can affect Thomas in the most unexpected ways, radically changing his personality depending on which of the Sides is missing. For instance, if Virgil is missing, Thomas loses his common sense, his survival instinct and his fight or flight reflexes, endangering his life.
  • Janus: Thomas himself is both his strong and his weak point, as he is the source of Janus' power to silence the other Sides. If Thomas, consciously or not, wants to, Janus can silence the other Sides at will, and when Thomas makes up his mind otherwise, Janus will become powerless and the Sides will be free to speak. Another weak point is that sometimes he can be caught off-guard for some reason, and when that happens, he may stop lying and start saying truths he didn't want to say.
  • Logan: The sight of a jar of Crofter's jam makes Logan break out of character dramatically, or rather, comically, as he drops his serious facade and becomes a living Hurricane of Puns. In this state, he can even sing with a melodious voice when the very few times he sings otherwise, he does it out of tune or sticks with rapping.
  • Patton: Sudden changes in Thomas' life can make him break out of his silliness and feel sad. Losing someone Thomas loves romantically, which is a type of sudden change, can make him act way more seriously and smartly than on average while he's in that sad mood. Furtgermore, his impulsive nature can lead him to quickly making decisions others might not agree with, leading to him not seeing why they disagree.
  • Remus: He loves being mistreated, both verbally and physically, which means nothing the others do against him affects him or his twisted-playful behavior... except one single thing: being called "unintimidating". He literally feels as if some invisible fist punches him in the face when Logan does that, and it's the only kind of attack that makes him honestly angry. When Thomas puts this remark in practice and starts literally ignoring him, he loses all the intimidating features he had and becomes nothing more than a harmless manchild clowning around him.
  • Roman: The sole thought of the possibility of letting Thomas down makes his ego and his narcissism fall apart and he starts feeling insecure and somehow worthless.
  • Virgil: His weak point is his worrying about Thomas' relationship with his friends. The thought or fact of losing Thomas' loved ones can break his chill demeanor and even cause a panic attack for him.
• Anthropomorphized Anatomy: Logan and Roman are Thomas's left and right brain respectively. Being so, they each control an arm.
  Logan: I am the director of activities for Thomas's right arm.
  Deceit: Just the right?
  Logan: The left arm is managed by... Roman.
  Roman: (Forces Thomas to give Logan the bird.)
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Each Side is a literal embodiment of one facet of Thomas' personality. Each simultaneously causes and intensely feels it: for instance, Virgil is both Thomas' anxiety and a very anxious person.
• Ascended Extra: Logan, Roman and Patton are all based off of characters from Thomas' Vines (Teacher Guy, Dad Guy, and Prince Guy respectively). Averted with Virgil, who didn't appear until the YouTube videos, even though an Anxiety Guy did appear once on Vine after Virgil's debut, and now makes occasional appearances in Thomas' Snapchats and Instagram videos. It should be noted that the Vine/Instagram universe and the Sanders Sides universe are independent of each other and don't share canonicity, therefore the Vine characters and their Sanders Sides counterparts are different characters that only share physical appearance and nothing more.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The first three Sides introduced. Logan is obviously Brains, Roman is Brawn and Patton is Beauty.
• Berserk Button
  • Logan gets upset over harmless insults, especially those revolving around Thomas's career.
  • Roman being compared to Remus.
  • Patton, while not easily angered, has a strong reaction to the implication of Thomas being a bad person.
  • Virgil has an unexplained hatred of Janus's presence, he also blows the topic of Inside Out's new anxiety character out of proportion.
  • Janus has a meltdown over the other Sides being too stupid to understand his blindfold metaphor.
    • Janus: In order to get that stuff you want, you must attack the piñata! But you're wearing a blindfold right now. You can keep playing with the blindfold on if you like the game better that way... But if you take it off, it's easier to get that stuff you want!
    • Thomas: ...Attack the piñata?
    • Roman: I believe he's suggesting that you beat someone up and rob their unconscious body, right?
    • Janus: ...NO!
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Characters tend to do this, especially Thomas, when talking directly to the camera and the viewers, but all of the Sides do it from time to time.
• Cast Full of Gay: Thomas is gay and all of his Sides are gay too.
• Cast of Personifications: The cast, excluding Thomas, are personifications of different parts of the personality.
• Classical Elements Ensemble: Established in the Q&A, originally in the Avatar: The Last Airbender context, but their personalities match up with the astrology ones as well. Roman is Fire (Large Ham fiery passion), Logan is Earth (rational and has Spock Speak), Patton is Air (a literal airhead), and Virgil is Water (deep and mysterious). A fan on Tumblr did a particularly profound analysis on the matter.
• Clothing Reflects Personality: Each of the Sanders Sides reflect exactly who they are:
  • Logan, as he is Thomas' acquired knowledge, appears with the outfit of a teacher, necktie included, as "serious people wear neckties".
  • Patton, who represents the capacity of Thomas to distinguish from right and wrong that he learned "from (his) own parental unit", is portrayed as an average American family man.
  • Roman, who also represents his hopes and fantasy dreams, is portrayed as a Disney prince.
  • Virgil, who represents Thomas' self-deprecating feelings and fears, is portrayed as an emo teenager with dark clothes.
  • Janus, who represents Thomas' lies, is portrayed with a 19th century outfit that reminds of Mr. Hyde.
  • Remus is Roman's twin brother and, like him, he encompasses creativity, but the forbidden part of creativity, so he also wears a royal outfit that mimics Roman's, only that his is colored in green and black and features gruesome details like teeth and an eye globe.
• Color-Coded Emotions: In season two, each Side was given a specific key color from the rainbow that represents him.
  • Thomas: Though he wears casual clothing, he's represented with the full rainbow in official Sanders Sides posters, and he's explicitly said "I'm full rainbow all the time."
    • In the rhythm game sequence of "Selfishness vs. Selflessness Redux," Thomas' button is white—which is of course the combination of all visible light frequencies.
  • Roman: His key color is red, so he wears a natural Prince Outfit in white with a big red sash over the chest. The white in the outfit was specifically chosen to represent welcome creativity, in contrast with Remus who represents forbidden creativity and wears an almost black outfit.
  • Janus: His key color is yellow, so he wears bright yellow gloves, a black and dark gray outfit with yellow edges and a capelet that is made of black fabric on the outside and yellow fabric on the inside.
  • Remus: His key color is green, so he wears a green lace sash to match Roman's red one, while his pauldrons and the ends of his sleeves have a glittery green trim and the mesh of fabric on his upper arms have a dark green tint to them. His costume was chosen to be almost black to represent forbidden creativity, in contrast with Roman who represents welcome creativity and wears a white outfit.
  • Patton: His key color is blue, so he wears a light blue polo shirt with a gray cat hoodie wrapped around his shoulders. Previously, he had a gray cardigan on his shoulders.
  • Logan: His key color is indigo, so he wears a black shirt with an indigo necktie. Before the establishment of key colors, his necktie was light blue.
  • Virgil: His key color is purple, so he wears a purple shirt with a black hoodie with purple patches. Before the establishment of key colors, he wore all black and dark gray.
• Comically Missing the Point: Can sometimes skirt with Literal-Minded. Logan and Patton have moments misinterpreting certain words or phrases.
• Comical Overreacting: Oh, yes. Even level-headed Thomas, manipulative Deceit and stoic Logan are prone to having extremely outlandish reactions to things that happen around them.
• The Corruption: A variation happens when Roman, Patton, and Logan are stuck in Virgil's room for too long. They develop the same dark smudges under their eyes that Virgil has and start becoming loud and anxious.
• Costume Evolution: All four of the Sides had their costumes upgraded at the end of "Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses!)", with Virgil and Roman arguably having the largest changes.
  • At the end of the "Moving On" two-parter, Patton trades in his cardigan for a cat hoodie given to him by Logan.
• Curse Cut Short: All of the Sides and Thomas have done this at one point or another. Virgil, in particular, does it frequently enough that he manages to avoid getting cut off in "Moving On".
• Determinator: The Sides will do everything they can to make an impact on Thomas' life, whether it be positive or negative.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Patton is a dad nicknamed Dad, and Roman is a prince nicknamed Princey.
• Expy: Discussed:
  Patton: [Roman]'s such a big Disney fan, I would've thought he'd see how similar we are to the concept of Inside Out.
  Roman: [off-screen] WHAT?! Oh my—
  Patton: ...You think he heard me?
  Roman: My life is a LIE!
• First-Name Basis: Justified. The Sides are imaginary and all parts of Thomas, therefore they have no last names and either go by a first name or a title/function. (ex. Duke, Morality, etc.) The acception is Thomas, whom the Sides have addressed by last name for comedic effect or as disrespect.
• Freudian Trio: The first three Sides introduced. Patton is the Id, Logan is the Superego and Roman is (obviously) the Ego. However, these three characters are a special case, since they all act as parts of Thomas.
• Given Name Reveal: At the end of "Losing My Motivation", Patton says Logan's name, thus revealing that the others have names. Roman and Patton's names were later revealed in "Am I Original?" and "Growing Up", respectively, while Virgil's name was revealed in the second part of "Accepting Anxiety". To remark that Remus never hides anything from Thomas (even the most bizarre stuff) he revealed his name right of the bat, just minutes after being introduced in "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts". Deceit saves his for a while, but in "Putting Others First," as a sign of good faith (even removing a glove to swear sincerely) he reveals his name as Janus.
• Hidden Depths: Everyone.
  • Thomas can and does lie, conscious or unconsciously, and despite his usual pureness and avoidance of bad language, he does curse (conveniently bleeped) when suddenly scared or in pain, or simply when in an extremely angry mood, just like anybody else. He also has bizarre intrusive thoughts. The mere existence of the Dark Sides foreshadows more hidden depths to be uncovered soon.
  • Logan can rap and is prone to being just as silly as the other Sides. Also, despite the hundreds of times he's denied to have any kind of emotions, he has shown occasional signs of happiness, anger, guilt, even hurt. Deceit, who seems to know everyone inside out even more than they know themselves, has implied, in his habitual inverted language, that Logan has feelings whether he recognizes it or not.
  • Roman, for all his boasting and self-aggrandizing, can sometimes feel nervous or insecure, and will admit when he makes a major mistake.
  • Patton has a habit of masking his negative feelings with jokes and a cheerful demeanor. He's also much more astute than the others give him credit for. And even though he is nice and friendly with almost everybody, he is capable of hating and rejecting Deceit and Remus. He has also shown signs of being as manipulative as Deceit at times to make other Sides side with his views of right and wrong.
  • Virgil is a strong example of a Stepford Snarker, in earlier episodes hiding his desire to befriend the others behind biting remarks and harsh mannerisms. He's grown out of this over time, and everyone is better for it.
  • Janus, despite his malicious and manipulative methods, seems to have Thomas' best interests in mind like all the other Sides. It is also implied that he likes Scooby-Doo, a series whose main premise is to unmask villains who pretend to be someone else.
  • Remus scares Thomas and he has ended recognizing and ultimately enjoying it, at least on the surface. However, there are hints that, ultimately, he doesn't like to be regarded as scary, as the first time Thomas called him like that, he was clearly hurt and answered with: "Me!? Scary!? No-no-no-no-no...!
• Ink-Suit Actor: Thomas and the Sides become cartoon characters for a minute thanks to Butch Hartman.
• Leitmotif: Each Side has one, they're usually played when they first appear in an episode.
  • Logan's is an arrangement of systemized sounds.
  • Roman's is the beginning of the "Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss, which sounds like background music in a Disney movie.
  • Patton's is "Jazz Cafe" by Music Trove, which is bouncy and innocent, it generally wouldn't sound out of place in a children's show.
  • Virgil's is a low, "mysterious" sounding tune, played by an eerie music box, perfectly reflecting his "edgy" personality.
  • Janus' is "Mysterious Paths" by Marco Belloni, which sounds like the intro of a horror show.
  • Remus is usually accompanied by out-of-tune trumpets whenever he moves frantically. Otherwise, it's an instrumental version of his Villain Song, "Forbidden Fruit".
• Like Is, Like, a Comma: Thomas uses the word "like" in his speech, like, a lot, so it is no surprise that the rest of the Sides, like, use it too.
• Lead In: Usually how each of the Sanders Sides videos start, with the Light Sides "rising" in from the bottom of the screen to begin their part in the video and the Dark Sides instead popping up out of nowhere.
• Leitmotif/Establishing Character Music: All the Sides have one that benefits their personality, usually playing when they first emerge or when the camera focuses on them.
• Memetic Mutation: In-Universe. Thomas and many of the Sides seem to show an appeal to memes.
  Virgil: Can't be a bad video if you never make one.
  Thomas: You're right, I'm an adult. Me Me Big Boy.
  Virgil: Is no one going to acknowledge that [Logan] just dabbed?
  Deceit: Who's she? Never heard of her!
• Meaningful Name: They each have a given name derived from the aspect they represent, as discussed in this behind-the-scenes Q&A.
  • Logan's name is based on logic, obviously, but more specifically logos, one of Aristotle's ingredients for persuasion. That leads to...
  • Patton's name comes from pathos, the appeal to emotion. It also ties in with "paternity", as he's the fatherly character.
  • Roman's name comes because he is a romantic in that he loves love, but is also a Romantic like the literary movement, which involves fantasy, imagination, and spontaneity, and has tales of knights and princes as one of its main topics.
  • Virgil's name is derived from "vigil" or "vigilant", and also named for the guide through the underworld in Dante's Inferno.
  • Remus, as Roman's twin, is named after the twin of Romulus in the legend of the Roman Empire's founding. The name Remus also literally means "twin".
  • Janus is named for the Roman god of doorways and passage, signifying how he was introduced to show Thomas alternative paths to the stringent limits set upon him. The god Janus was also consistently depicted with two faces ("two-faced" being a euphemism for "liar").
• Medium Awareness: All the Sides and especially Thomas are aware that they're in a YouTube series with viewers watching them. Aside from the beginnings and ends of episodes, however, they usually don't mention it.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: All of the Sides were only known by their nicknames at the start of the series; however, this trope has been completely defied by the end of season one. Among the Dark Sides, Remus was only known by his nickname for barely a few minutes, as he revealed his name in his introductory episode, while Deceit was called such for an extended period before revealing his name as Janus to prove his sincerity to Thomas.
• People Puppets: Thomas is this for Roman and Logan. Roman controls Thomas' left arm and leg, while Logan controls Thomas' right arm and leg.^note In the show, we have only seen them control Thomas' arms, but Thomas Sanders said in the member-only livestream after the episode that they also control the respective legs.
• Puppet Permutation: The Sides, at Patton's suggestion, using their shape-shifting power, transform into puppets to help Thomas work out an issue.
  • Patton transforms into a paper-bag puppet because he wanted to do something "simple and fun".
  • Roman transforms into a detailed, extra-chinned puppet that reminds of The Muppets or Sesame Street.
  • Virgil transforms into a sock puppet that reminds a bit of Coraline, as Roman points out.
  • Logan initially rejects the idea of transforming into a puppet and refuses to do so, but in the end, when he's convinced by the others that it can be an effective and useful way of working out issues, he transforms into a metallic robot-like puppet with bulbs as eyes and hooks as hands.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Patton (cheerful, enthusiastic, friendly, emotional) vs. Logan (intellectual, pompous, irate, pragmatic)
  • Roman (creative, hammy, adventurous, daring) vs. Virgil (sarcastic, cynical, antisocial, cautious)
  • Roman and Patton are the Red Oni's, and Logan and Virgil are the Blue Oni's. Who also make up the right brain and the left brain, respectively.
• Rubber Men: The Sides have the ability to stretch their limbs as if they were made of rubber. This unsettles Thomas every time he sees it, sometimes making him scream out of horror, and other times getting him sick up to the verge of vomiting.
  • Roman was the first one to show this ability in "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?". He stretches his elbow beyond human capacities up to reaching Logan in the other edge of the living room, scaring the heck out of Logan (apparently unaware at this point he had the same ability too) and Thomas, who screams upon seeing it. This happens off-screen though, and only the edge of the elbow is seen on Logan's chest.^note Roman's stretched elbow in this instance was provided by Talyn, for the record.
  • The second time, both Patton and Virgil use this ability several times to give each other a high five, and Thomas almost throws up upon seeing it. Logan didn't use this ability until he got in the shape of a robot puppet, resulting in a more pleasant visual for Thomas.
  • Janus takes this ability to the extreme, as he can summon extra limbs when stretching them.
• Shared Family Quirks: Roman and Remus, despite how different they apparently are, can't deny they're brothers, as they share several quirks:
  • They both do the princely pose, albeit Roman looking at the right of the screen and Remus at the left.
  • They're both nicknamers and even create the same nickname for Logan, Nerdy Wolverine.
  • In Remus' first appearance, they both sink down with the same affected "Byeee!".
  • They both love to burst into song on the slightest chance. Roman is usually stopped, but Remus cannot be.
  • They both desperately want to be the center of attention. They only differ in the ways they try to gain it.
• A Sinister Clue: Surprisingly and foreshadowingly played straight with Roman and Remus. In 12 Days of Christmas, Roman appears writing with his right hand, and later he draws the Mona Lista using his left hand in Learning New Things About Ourselves. This foreshadows that he was the good of the two twins, being Remus the bad twin (he holds the fork with the sausage with his left hand during the song sequence). To confirm it, Remus looks at the left of the screen while doing the royal pose and Roman looks at the right of the screen. As the whole cast except Roman is full of lefties, this also foreshadows that none of the Sides are completely good, being Roman, the split good part of creativity, the closest to pure goodness.
• Spiders Are Scary: Thomas, Roman and especially Patton have shown an intense fear against spiders in different instances.
  • In the first episode, Thomas talks about his biggest fears and Patton immediately mentions "Spiders!", with an unsettled reaction from Thomas.
  • In "Losing My Motivation", Logan makes Roman jump scared and run away when he says he's seen a spider behind him.
  • In the second part of "Accepting Anxiety", Patton's afraid of a curtain that appears to have spiders on it, even after being told (repeatedly) that they are not real.
  • In "Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses!)", Patton goes on a hilariously serious and solemn rant about Aragog, the giant spider from Harry Potter.
  • And then in "Embarrassing Phases: The Nightmare Instead of Christmas," Patton works himself into a fit of terror at the thought of Spider-Man, with the tipping point being his acknowledgment of the spider logo on his suit.
  • Inverted with Virgil, who decorates his room with spider imagery and actual cobwebs spun by a pet spider.
• True Companions: The may have their arguments every once in a while, but if there's something to know about them, it is that they'll always have each other whenever they need each other and that there's no closer bond than the one they all share. It's like they're all one person. In fact, they literally are, and no other bond can equal that.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: They really do care about each other, and especially Thomas. But you'd never guess that from all the time they spend arguing and fighting with each other. Virgil, in particular, seems to enjoy stirring up conflict, but by the Christmas Episode for 2017, the other Sides acknowledge him as their best friend.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Sides have the power of changing their form at will. Not only they can change into another human likeness, but they can even change into any non-human form. The first time they did it, their clothes remained the same, but in later instances of using this power, it was seen that they can change clothes too if they want to.
  • In "Making Some Changes", they transform into Thomas' friends, Joan, Terrence, Valerie, and Talyn. Hilarity Ensues as they then switch back and forth between them throughout the rest of the video. Virgil especially has a rough time, as he is transformed by Thomas and the other Sides against his will again and again.
    Logan: It was almost as if this whole video was an excuse to show us portrayed by your friends.
  • In "Learning New Things About Ourselves," the Sides shapeshift into puppets in order to provide a Sesame Street-like introspective environment for Thomas.
  • In "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts," Remus shapeshifts into Joan for a moment.

Thomas

"It's a little weird to be talking to myself so much..."

My personality is very weird, I'm sorry about that...

Thomas is a young actor, singer and YouTuber who has the ability to project all the different aspects of his personality into several "metaphysical human beings" he calls the Sanders Sides, with whom he regularly sustains conversations to find solutions to his dilemmas.

First appearance: "My True Identity", October 19, 2016

---

• An Aesop: Thomas always ends each episode with a monologue that summarizes the main topic of the episode and gives advice to viewers about how to improve themselves in relation to the topic.
• Author Avatar: Thomas as a character is an avatar of the real-life Thomas Sanders, even sharing name, but the real-life Thomas Sanders always talks about Thomas in the third person, making clear they're two independent entities.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Under the influence of Patton, until Logan and Roman managed to rein him in, Thomas used to eat all kinds of bizarre mixtures of things, like ramen noodles, chocolate syrup, M&M's, marshmallows, sprinkles... among other stuff, all mixed together in a single bowl... And against all common sense, he found it delicious!
• Distracted by the Sexy: He's sometimes sidetracked by cute guys... including when he was supposed to go to a performance Joan was giving.
• Does Not Like Spam: He despises carrots.
• Endearingly Dorky: He struggles a lot interacting with Nico, always getting nervous and awkward in his presence, and often saying or doing things around him others would find cringey, like tripping on a trash can and then hiding inside while Nico is looking, talk to Nico and speak in Captain Obvious ("I like... songs...") or accidentally saying something that would have offended Nico under other circumstances ("Yeah, [you're] super nosy, what's wrong with you, man?"). Nico, however, seems to find this trait of Thomas funny and attractive, as it seems the more awkward Thomas looks in front of him, the more time Nico wants to spend close to him.
• Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Thomas is prone to have panic attacks when in extreme situations.
  • When Deceit tells him that he's been Patton all along and that Thomas has no morality, despite the other Sides try to tell Thomas that Deceit is lying, Thomas starts whining, looking in all directions, not knowing what to do.
  • He has the same kind of response when his ex-boyfriend calls him back on the phone. At first, he doesn't know what to do, then he blasts the phone to the ground, yelling, and admits he panicked.
  • When Nico first speaks to Thomas, he just freezes in panic, unable to react at all, while Roman and Virgil speak in chaos behind him.
  • Has a mild one when he discovers he left the porch door open all night long and realizes anyone could have entered the house in the middle of the night. His first reaction is to start yelling horrified and cover his mouth in a fit of heavy anxiety.
• Ghost in the Machine: While Thomas does have the ability to ignore his Sides's input, they are responsible for the majority of his choices and brain functions.
• Heroes Love Dogs: In short, Thomas simply adores dogs.
• Imaginary Friend: The Sanders Sides would be this for Thomas.
• The Leader: Thomas acts as the leader of the team in many of the debates, moderating some conversations, cutting off fights between Sides when they appear and reining them in if they get out of control. Furthermore, Thomas is able to command the Sides to do or say something and the Sides ^note with the exceptions noted in the Magic A Is Magic A trope below must obey, whether they like it or not, although Thomas will rarely use this ability. Subverted sometimes, when for some reason the roles are switched and one, some or all of the Sides get in charge while Thomas follows them.
  Virgil: You're the boss, Thomas. Any information you want to know, you can know.
• Lead You Can Relate To: Thomas is portrayed as an average human being with his own personal and existential issues to which the audience is meant to relate to.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Even though Thomas has the power to make the Sides do or say whatever he wants them to, there are limitations to this ability, in the sense that if Thomas asks the Sides to do something that goes against their own nature or capacity, the Sides will not do it. For instance, Logan cannot tell Thomas that he did a good audition as Thomas asked him to do, if objectively and rationally Thomas failed, and Thomas cannot command Virgil to leave him if Thomas is anxious, as Virgil cannot leave, even if he wanted to, until Thomas gets honestly relaxed. Deceit, if Thomas grants him power enough by not wanting to know certain things related to the Sides, can bypass this limitation and force the Sides to hide things to Thomas even when doing so would go against their nature. Also, Remus is totally immune to Thomas' ability and cannot be stopped by anyone, not even Thomas, to do or say whatever he wants whenever it pleases him.
• Medium Awareness: Thomas starts and ends each episode talking directly to the viewers, even though when he starts his conversations with the Sides, he seems to forget this until the end.
• Morality Pet: Along with Patton, he serves as this to Roman, Logan, and even Virgil. They can all be jerks in their own ways, but everything they do is for the sake of Thomas' wellbeing.
• Mr. Imagination: While for himself and for the viewers, he sustains long conversations with the Sanders Sides, for other viewers watching him in-universe, he's just talking to himself.
  Joan: I just hope you didn't do that thing that you do sometimes, where you freak out and stand in the middle of your living room and talk to yourself for twenty minutes.
• Nice Guy: He always tries to be kind and supportive of everyone, but especially of his friends, and gets filled with anxiety when he thinks he might have let Joan down.
• Proud to Be a Geek: And this was made clear already in the first scene from episode one, where he appears sleepy, surrounded by toys and dolls of many things he loves, like a teddy bear wearing a Steven Universe shirt, a pizza stuffed doll and a Stitch stuffed doll.
• Synchronization: Whatever affects Thomas, affects the rest of the Sides, and whatever affects any of the Sides has some sort of effect on Thomas too. This is logical, since the Sides are in Thomas' mind, or rather, they literally are Thomas' mind.
• Token Human: He is surrounded by people with powers like shapeshifting, making things appear or disappear, teleportation... and he is the only one that lacks any of these special abilities and requires the others' help in this matter. This crops up every once in a while, such as when the Sides conjure Christmas sweaters for themselves, but can't for Thomas because he's not imaginary, or when the Sides warp their bodies unnaturally to Thomas' horrified disgust.
  • As of "Embarrassing Phases: The Nightmare Instead of Christmas," he at least seems to have mastered the art of insta-changing his clothes.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Zigzagged. Not counting the aloofness he has when Virgil is missing, sometimes he starts acting a little bit goofily compared with other episodes as if being slightly less smart than before. This only happens at certain moments with comedy purposes, though. For example, he is easily the silliest character in "My Negative Thinking" and "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?". However, there are episodes where he is The Only Sane Man, such as "Losing My Motivation", "Accepting Anxiety: Part 2", (where every Side except Virgil is slowly succumbing to the effects of his room) and "Moving On: Part 2".
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Some stories Thomas goes through are inspired by true events in Thomas Sanders' real life, while others are in whole or in part fictitious.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Subverted. Thomas would like to believe this is the case, but he's only human, and is just as capable of being dishonest as anyone else.
  Thomas: Why didn't I know about [Deceit] until now?
  Virgil: He had you convinced you're an honest person.
  Thomas: But... I'm an honest person!
  Logan: Nobody is a completely honest person.
  Thomas: I try to be...
  Logan: That's a more honest statement.

Main Sides

Logic/Logan/Teacher

"I don't believe I'm smarter than anyone else... I KNOW I'm smarter than anyone else."

Feelings. The bane of my existence.

Logic, whose real name is Logan, and is also sporadically called Teacher or "Teach" as a nickname, is Thomas' analytical mind, as well as his acquired knowledge over the years. He handles facts and points out fallacies, and he is the source of data and information in every conversation with the other Sides.

First appearance: "My True Identity", October 19, 2016

---

• Awesomeness by Analysis: His whole shtick is that he's smart, analytic, and, well, logical, so he responds to every problem by examining it objectively and rationally, often reaching a sensible conclusion that way. While he's not always right — some decisions just can't be made by logic alone — when he does manage to "out-logic" a problem, it's truly a sight to behold. He manages to outdo Deceit in a Battle of Wits, and manages to get the Duke to shut up and leave.
• Berserk Button: The thing Logan fears most is not being taken seriously, and he hates to be ignored when he wants to communicate something important for Thomas or the group. If someone makes fun of him or tries to put him as the butt of the joke, Logan will react violently against them in an explosion of wrath, even if he'll quickly regret it afterward.
• Big Word Shout: FALSEHOOD!
• Brutal Honesty: He's marginally less rude about it than Virgil, but he's still quite straightforward with his thoughts.
• The Comically Serious: His straight-faced Sarcasm Blindness makes watching him interact with the others much funnier.
• Character Tic: Adjusting his glasses.
• Companion Cube: He loves Crofter's jam so much that he even talks to jars as if they were close friends... before devouring them, that is.
  Logan: Crofter's... you're the only one that understands me.
• Cool Teacher: Logan is a perfect look-alike of the Teacher Guy from the "Sanders Shorts".
  Logan: Hello, class!
  Thomas: There's no class in here.
  Logan: Yes, there is.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first episode of the series, he was much more jovial and his area was in front of the stairs as opposed to being beside it.
• Elemental Personalities: Earth. He makes sure that all his arguments have some kind of backing to them, remains calm in tense situations (or at least tries his best to) and he isn't easily swayed by outside factors. However, he can also be rather stubborn at times or stuck in a rut, even though he wants to grow and improve himself the best he can.
• Emotion Suppression: Logan has repeated again and again that he doesn't have feelings. However, he has shown occasional stints of anger, happiness, hurt and regret, among others, though he quickly represses them when he has them. His trademark shouting, "FALSEHOOD!", is an example of these abrupt surges of emotions from him. Deceit, on the other hand, has implied, in his usual inverted talk, that Logan is lying about "not feeling anything".
• Exposition Fairy / Mr. Exposition: Will be the one to explain the obscure concepts the video focuses on or references. These have included: cognitive distortions, different types of lies, the Yerkes–Dodson curve and various other subjects. It's justified, since, among other things, he's the Side that holds all of Thomas' acquired knowledge.
  • Lampshaded in "Accepting Anxiety: Part 1".
• Gratuitous Latin: Latin is the language of science. It's no surprise that Logan knows it and uses it, sometimes in place of the words we common mortals would use.
  Logan: Fun, fascinating... Tomato, solanum lycopersicum...
• Guilty Pleasures: Logan loves wearing his unicorn onesie. However, he's extremely ashamed of wearing it in front of the others and only wears it when he's alone. When he was caught with the onesie on, a scared and stuttering I Can Explain was the only response he could come up with.
• Hidden Depths: He can rap, and loves cosplaying, poetry, and onesies. He's also more emotional than he lets on, but his stoic facade is hard to break.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Downplayed, Logan is not a jerk by any means, rather he hides a caring and compassionate heart under a facade of coldness and lack of feelings. But when Thomas is haunted by intrusive thoughts, Logan throws schedules aside and focuses on Thomas' mental health and wellbeing, and in his room he has a plushie of each of the Sides and Thomas on his bedside table and he loves to look at them before sleeping because he loves his friends, even when he hides it. Janus is the only one who has seen through this facade and seems to know Logan's true feelings.
  Logan: I don't feel anything.
  Janus: [sarcastic] Oh, of course you don't.
• Ignored Expert: He usually knows what he's talking about, but that doesn't mean the others will listen to him. In some cases, like in "Moving On," it's because they don't like the unpleasant truths he's laying down. In others, like "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts," they're all freaking out so much that they don't realize he is telling the truth. In both cases, they come around and listen to him eventually. Logan himself is usually irritated when this happens, but tries to be patient and explain it to them so they'll realize he's right.
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: He tends to do this when other Sides interrupt him by lashing out against him. He simply remarks he's ignoring them and goes on talking.
• Immune to Slapstick: He tries to be serious all the time. He hates the goofiness and eccentricities that surround him and refuses to participate in them. Only by "Learning New Thing About Ourselves" has he started seeing that this silliness can also be helpful and useful in dealing with issues.
• Infodump: Logan tends to be extremely wordy when he wants to explain something to Thomas or the others, something that Roman in particular has always found annoying.
  Logan: Now, I don't want to overload anyone with information...
  Roman: Since when?
  
  Roman: I was going for regal sofistication, but Mr. Infodump over here wasn't cooperating!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be blunt, and can be so pragmatic it comes off as a bit coldhearted, but Logan is, at his core, only looking out for Thomas in his own way, and really is a good guy.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Downplayed. While he can quite snarky and cynical, he always has Thomas' best interests in mind.
• Lame Pun Reaction: It's his usual reaction to Patton's dad jokes. From sighing to screeching, we've seen a lot of the spectrum from him reaction-wise.
  Logan: I might scream.
  Patton: But you can't, because your volume is too low—
  Logan: Don't you dare!
  Patton: —gan!
  Logan: You're dead to me.
• Literal-Minded: Jokes, puns, and metaphors made by the others frequently fly over his head.
• Mr. Exposition: As Thomas's logic and stored knowledge, he is frequently the writers' top choice for lengthy exposition that may or may not annoy the other sides. This also ties into his role as the group's teacher.
• Nerdgasm: The feeling Logan recognizes he has every time deadlines are met when doing a project.
• No-Sell: The Dark Sides can try, but they are simply no match for him. Not even Remus punching his two front teeth out and stuffing them into his nose fazes him.
• Not So Above It All: While Logan is the resident rational man among the Sides, he does have his moments.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Logan used the word infinitesimal incorrectly in "Losing My Motivation", and Patton has made fun of him for it in later videos, much to his dismay.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: When he gets really stressed over making clear one particular point, he claps furiously between syllables emphasizing each one of them.
  Logan: We! Get! It! You're! A! Do! Ra! Ble!
  
  Logan: That! Is! Why! I! Say! It!
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shares Blue Oni with Virgil.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: The most rational member of the group, and he wears thick-framed specs.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He tends to get rather... specific and long-winded when a simple sentence would've sufficed.
• Speaking Simlish: He manages to literally speak Simlish in "Alone On Valentine's Day" without prompting.
• The Spock: He tries to always take the logical route.
• Spock Speak: He rarely uses slang, though he's trying to learn so he can keep up with the others.
• The Stoic: He tries to be this.
• Tin Man: Logan claims again and again that he doesn't have feelings, that he's never felt anything, even claiming that feelings are the bane of his existence because he doesn't understand them. And yet, we've seen him showing feelings of anger ("FALSEHOOD!"), guilt (after he hit Roman in the eye with a paperball), pride (both in the bad sense feeling too much pride for himself, and in the good sense feeling proud for the others), even hurt (when no one listens to him). Janus himself has hinted, in his usual inverted talk, that Logan is either lying to the others or, most probably, to himself when he claims he doesn't have feelings.
  Logan: I don't feel anything.
  Janus: [ironic] Oh, of course you don't.
• Too Clever by Half: He's the smartest person in the cast, he knows it and doesn't miss a chance to show off.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Crofter's brand jam. To the point where he faints upon learning of the new blend named after him.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: He gets frustrated whenever Patton giddily points out if he makes a pun or a dad joke.

Morality/Patton/Dad

"Independence is a celebration! It's got "dance" right in the word."

Life is short. Might as well make it short and fantastic! ^note  "Like Danny Devito!"

Morality, whose real name is Patton but is also known as "Dad", represents Thomas' emotions and sense of right and wrong... as well as his love for dad jokes. He also represents Thomas' inner child.

First appearance: "My True Identity", October 19, 2016

---

• Absurd Phobia: Patton is afraid of spiders, like Thomas and Roman. However, he's also afraid of fake cartoon spiders, whether they're on Virgil's curtains or on Thomas' Spider-Man costume.
• Accidental Pervert: After writing out a way to ask Valerie out on Valentine's day ended in failure, he decided that talking isn't the solution and goes to hug Valerie instead. The others quickly stop him.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Patton seems to be the guy to really love alliteration.
• Armor-Piercing Response: "Falsehood," one of Logan's stock phrases, when coming from Thomas, especially after Patton was talking about always being happy, hiding his true feelings in the process.
  Thomas: It's okay to be sad sometimes.
  Patton: Haha, I'm never sad! I'm your happy pappy Patton! Just a fun-loving father figure figment!
  Thomas: Falsehood.
• Big Brother Worship: While he is not literally his brother, Patton has this type of relationship with Logan from time to time.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Patton doesn't deal with moral gray area very well, which is probably his biggest character flaw. Add in the fact that he has some pretty strict ideas for what constitutes "good," and has real difficulty being flexible on them — even when he's genuinely trying to go easier on Thomas — and you've got a major problem.
• The Body Parts That Must Not Be Named: Patton has a difficult time with Remus using vulgar anatomical terms.
• Brick Joke: If Patton has what seems to be a throwaway joke in a video, there is a good chance it'll make a sudden reappearance a few minutes later.
• Bumbling Dad: As Thomas' morality he tends to consciously slip into this role, calling the others as his "kiddos".
• Characterization Marches On: In "A New Year of Lying to Myself in Song", Patton shows a true face of concern when Virgil appears, and in "The Mind vs. The Heart", Patton makes a negative comment against Virgil. A far cry from the father-son bond that would be created between them in later episodes.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He's quite spontaneous, and will often give an "odd" answer if asked a question. He always means well, though.
• Declaration of Protection: Patton will do anything it takes to protect Virgil, even if Virgil is being self-deprecating.
• Elemental Personalities: Air. Just as flighty as the element itself, he is also rather transparent (doesn't hide his opinions much), takes life as it comes and is very talkative, vivacious and always tries the most peaceful way.
• Guile Hero: He will not hesitate to use any manipulative techniques of persuasion, bribing or emotional blackmail with friends and enemies alike so that Thomas ends up doing what he thinks it's good for Thomas. Even Janus, the biggest manipulator, complained that when he tried to do the same Patton does on a regular basis, he was called out for doing so.
  Janus: Objection! I'm sorry, but that (throwing a piece of candy to Logan) is bribing the witness.
  Logan: ...and harmful for your teeth.
  Patton: Oh, no, I wasn't trying to do that, I was just trying to... sweeten the deal?
  Janus: Wow, Thomas, it seems these days your moral compass is pointing South... towards HELL! [...] He's clearly manipulating the witness into doing what he thinks it's best. Wait a minute... who was it that was called a Scooby Doo villain for doing the exact same thing? Oh, yeah! It was me, disguised as Patton.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Often acts as the gleeful to Virgil's, and sometimes Logan's, grumpy.
• The Heart: Explicitly his function, hence his logo (a Valentine heart with glasses).
• Iconic Item: His cardigan sweater wrapped over his shoulders.
  • Was finally able to wear it during "Losing My Motivation".
  • It was swapped out for a now equally iconic cat hoodie given to him by Logan in "Moving On: Part 2".
• Insistent Terminology: He refers to adulthood as "adultery" and Thomas is not happy about it.
• Innocent Innuendo: Very often. From the Insistent Terminology above to the Virgin joke, whenever Patton is around, awkward phrasing seems to follow.
• Innocently Insensitive: He genuinely means well, but his attempts at helping Thomas be a good person can often result in Thomas feeling like crap.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He loves cats and wears a cat hoodie wrapped around his shoulders. However, as he is also allergic to cats, he can't get close to them, to his dismay.
• Like a Son to Me: Feels this way towards all the Sides and Thomas, (which can be seen in his addressing them all as "kiddos") though Thomas will periodically remind him that he is not literally his son. Patton's strongest paternal bond, though, is with Virgil, for whom he's ready to fight to protect him, even from himself.
  Patton: [to Virgil] I love my dark strange son.
• Manchild: Significantly more playful and innocent than the other Sides. Ironic, considering he's the dad of the group...
• Morality Pet: To Thomas and the main Sides. Roman's ego, Logan's coldness, and Virgil's sarcasm will all curb themselves for the sake of not hurting Patton's feelings. Even before befriending the others, Virgil admitted to genuinely care about him. And even Janus, who was very critical of his behavior and antagonistic of him to the point of making him go over the edge in SvS Redux, eventually showed to care about Patton's feelings too, toning down a harsh remark he made when he realized that Patton was taking it personally and self-deprecating over it. Only Remus averts this as he doesn't care about Patton's feelings, although it is to be taken in mind that Remus doesn't care about anything or anyone at all as he says anything to anyone whenever he wants with no filter.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In order to relax after a rough day, he eats a cookie. And when he's feeling dangerous... he eats a second cookie.
• Nice Guy: He's every bit as kind and friendly as he is naive and hyperactive.
• Odd Friendship: This dude — the sweet, affectionate, overly-cheerful Nice Guy — genuinely gets along with Virgil. Yes, that Virgil.
• One-Winged Angel: Unusual for sympathetic character, but after completely losing control of the situation in "Putting Others First", Patton has a mental breakdown which transforms him into a giant frog called "Lilypadton". This is done in an Art Shift into a 16-bit video game, as an allusion to Patton's earlier example with Thomas conflicting over wanting to buy the new Frogger instead of feeding the homeless.
• Perpetual Smiler: The times when Patton is not smiling are really rare. And if he ever shows a pouty face, you know something is extremely wrong with him.
• Ping Pong Naïveté: Patton shows signs of this throughout the series. Usually, he acts like a silly, childlike, goofy person, but sometimes he shows signs of a great maturity that usually shocks the others, to go back later to his goofiness, and so on.
• The Pollyanna: In the first season, he was always optimistic and cheerful, or at least he showed himself as such. In the second season he still is most of the time, but since "Moving On" he has started averting it and showing his sad feelings at times.
• Profanity Police: As Thomas's morality, Patton frequently scolds the other Sides for being too harsh or inappropriate with their language, foiled by Remus, who couldn't care less about speaking improperly.
• Pungeon Master: He sure loves his dad jokes! (So much so that he tolerates Logan's insults if they are in pun form.)
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shares Red Oni with Roman.
• Stepford Smiler: While most of the time he is genuinely happy, he occasionally falls into this. Especially in both of the "Moving On" videos. He's said he's going to try to get better at admitting when he's feeling down.
• Squee: He actually does this quite often. Whether in response to puppies, Thomas suggesting he "tells his loved ones he loves them more," or being told he's cute, Patton isn't afraid to let off a little Fangirl.
  • Some notable examples are when Logan does something that seems unusual for his character, like when Logan accidentally makes a dad joke related to catnaps or when he defeated Roman in a rap battle.
  • When Virgil shows off his new look at the end of "Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses!)", he squees so hard that he chokes on his spit.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He likes to eat cookies, and when he's feeling dangerous, he eats "a second cookie".
• Two Decades Behind: Just like most parents, Patton is kind of out of touch with current events and what young people like. Made clear in "Putting Others First", when he describes a hypothetical scenario in which Thomas goes out to buy the new Frogger, both Thomas and Roman point out that Frogger is very much forgotten, so a new Frogger game would be very unlikely to happen.

Creativity/Prince Roman/Princey

"I get what you're saying, and I do care about that, but here's the thing: I don't really care about that."

You can't have a ball without a prince.

Creativity, whose real name is Prince Roman but is also known as "Princey" or simply Roman, is the embodiment of Thomas' fanciful Side: his hopes, dreams and ideals, as well as his imagination and light creativity. He is also Thomas' ego and his femininity.

First appearance: "My True Identity", October 19, 2016

---

• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Roman behaves like doesn't care about anything other than himself, even being quite a narcissist and a jerk sometimes, but eventually we are shown that he would sacrifice even his own purpose in life in order to do what he thinks would be best for Thomas and his friends.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Roman bitterly complains about how he thinks the years where people praised princes and his acts of bravery are long gone.
• Camp: He's always over-the-top and theatrical, and not just in fashion sense.
• Can't Take Criticism: He doesn't take well when Thomas or the other Sides tell him a bad opinion about his work, no matter if it is harsh or constructive. His reactions go from getting annoyed, to feeling crushed and insecure. Sometimes, both at the same time.
• Chivalric Romance: He's currently on a quest to find and save his own Prince Charming.
• Dark Secret: Literally. Roman kept secret for Thomas, not only that he had a brother, but that his brother is a Dark Side. And he showed himself quite embarrassed when Thomas asked Roman about Remus after he made his entrance.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first episode of the series, Roman sported a thick foreign accent that disappeared in following episodes.
• Elemental Personalities: Fire. As detailed below in Jerk with a Heart of Gold, he's energetic, loyal, a tad egoistic but also incredibly determined and unwilling to give up.
• Ermine Cape Effect: Roman is wearing his royal outfit... all the time, every moment, even when he's standing in a humble living room with no trace of nobility or official protocolary tasks nearby.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Before his name was revealed, he was much more often referred to as Prince or Princey than Creativity. And even after his name reveal, Thomas still calls him Princey from time to time.
• Evil Me Scares Me: After "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts", he tries as hard as he can not to be like Remus, as he noticed they were becoming the same, with both of them giving mocking nicknames to the others (especially Logan and Virgil), loving wordplay and big musical numbers, general mean behaviour, and Roman sometimes saying very Remus-like stuff (like the "naked Aunt Patty" visualisation he gave Thomas).
• Fanboy: Thomas stated he was going to appear on a Disney show. You can most likely guess what happens next:
  Roman: DISNEY, THOMAS!
  Thomas: I know.
  Roman: [squeeing] IMEAN,IT'SJUSTSOAMAZING!
  Thomas: Are you gonna be okay?
  Roman: [incoherent Squeeing]
  Thomas: Okay, I'm gonna move on, while you work this out.
  Roman: [squeeing] OKAY!
• Effeminate Voice: Roman is Thomas' feminine Side, so he sometimes shows a slightly effeminate voice, and when he screams he uses a fully female voice.
• Flashback: It seems that Roman is in charge of reminding viewers and the other Sides of relevant things that happened in earlier episodes, and he usually does so by conjuring flashbacks.
  • Roman uses one in the second part of "Moving On" in order to catch the viewers who didn't watch the first part up, confusing Thomas in the process.
  • In "Crofter's: The Musical", he tries to use a flashback to remind that he deserves a flavor of Crofter's too because he also said he loves Crofter's, but this time it backfires as the flashback shown catches him, supposedly in an outtake, saying he's "not a jelly fan".
  • Subverted in "Accepting Anxiety: Part 2" when the episode starts as a parody of Lost with Thomas saying "Previously on Sanders Sides..." but then he realizes he didn't prepare anything, so Roman does the review himself saying in a matter of seconds, speaking ultra-fast, everything that had happened in the previous episode.
• Glory Seeker: He's always on the hunt for a new quest to bring himself glory.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Roman reveals by surprise that he knows Spanish and keeps up speaking certain words and phrases in Spanish, even when none of the other Sides or Thomas himself know this language.
  Valerie: ¡Ay, te he esperado tanto, Thomas! ¿De verdad que me amas? (Oh, I've been waiting for you for so long, Thomas! Do you really love me?)
  Roman: ¡Te lo afirmo! ¡Te amo con todo mi corazón! (I confirm it! I love you with all my heart!)
  Valerie: [sighs] Ay...
  Logan: How do you know Spanish?
  Thomas: I don't even know Spanish!
  
  [The following exchange is faintly heard in the background in the actual series but it was revealed in a special montage of the shot in a behind the scenes video]
  Roman: You know how our arguments should always go, Logan? [rising a fist, then the other] Mano a mano! (Hand to hand!) Unless you're not... man-o enough to hand-le it!
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Roman plays the ham to Logan or Virgil's deadpan. Especially prominent in "Flirting with Anxiety", where he and Virgil fully embrace it.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: It fits that the most heroic of the Sanders Sides is the only canonically ambidextrous character: he writes with his right hand in Sanders Sides 12 Days of Christmas, draws with his left hand in Learning New Things About Ourselves and holds his samurai sword usually with both hands.
• Hot-Blooded: Easily the most impulsive and irritable of the Sides. (Virgil and Logan can also be quite irate, but they tend to be... quieter about it.)
• Incoming Ham: He tends to enter videos singing and/or shouting.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: More than any of the other Sides, Roman appears very confident, but it's just a facade to hide how insecure he really is. There are many reasons for Roman feeling this way: Logan critizing harshly his work; Janus manipulating him and lying him to make him believe his compliments were true, then Roman realizing they weren't; his relation with his twin brother Remus and his fear he could be remotely similar to him, his thought that Thomas doesn't really value him and he told him he was his hero only to make him feel better, like Janus did... but most of all because, no matter how many times the others tried to assure him that's not true and tried to tell him they love him, he's started to believe that, ultimately, everybody hates him.
• In-Series Nickname: Princey's nickname comes from him dressing like a stereotypical Prince Charming-type character.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: As well as being Thomas' romantic/creative Side, he also encompasses the traditionally "feminine" parts of Thomas. This is reflected in his slightly effeminate voice tone at times (or how he literally screams with the voice of a woman when suddenly scared by Virgil) and the fact that he likes things that society usually assigns to women.
  Patton: Whoa, when did you apply eyeshadow?
  Roman: I didn't! But does it look okay? Because a prince has got to slay.
• It's All About Me: If we know anything about Roman, it's that he's got a bit of an ego. Which makes sense, given that he is Thomas' ego. This also extends to his feelings about the Sides in general, as when Thomas suggested doing non-Sides related things in What Is Coming Up Everybody?, he looks downright terrified.
  Patton: Look, the main point I wanted to get to is that you should try to make them feel special. Don't talk about yourself so much and make sure they feel heard.
  Roman: [horrified expression, mumbling with a trembling voice] Not... talk about... me...?
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's self-centered, egotistical, insensitive, and hotheaded... but he's also chivalrous, noble, and incredibly loyal, which is also a textbook example of a Fire personality in astrology.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Well, he wants to be one. But seeing as how Thomas lives in modern, suburban Florida...
• Large Ham: You will know when he's near.
• Living Lie Detector: Inverted. He's unable to identify the lies that Deceit tells him, and takes them at face value, no matter how obvious they are for the others.
  Roman: I hate this guy and his creepy snake face! However, he is very kind.
  Deceit: [sarcastic] Love the new outfit, Roman...
  Roman: [not getting the irony, flattered] Thank you!
  [Logan starts making a gesture of warning Roman, but decides to let it go.]
• Motor Mouth: He starts talking like that from time to time, like when doing his recap of the first part of "Accepting Anxiety" or when he asks viewers to buy Logan's Berry in "Crofter's: The Musical" after Thomas tells him if they sell well Roman might get his own flavor too.
• The Nicknamer: Roman's really fond of referring to the others with nicknames, coming up with new ones in almost every episode.
• Out of Focus: Whenever an episode gives more attention to any other character that is not Roman, he's definitely going to loudly lampshade that by verbally complaining about it.
• Primal Fear: Roman is terribly afraid of the dark. If he's suddenly taken to a very dark place, he'll start screaming with a woman's voice.
• Prince Charming: A parody of them.
• The Prima Donna: He's always had quite an ego, but when he gets on stage, Virgil suffers the consequences of his hysterical demands.
  Roman: I wasn't feeling in character anyway, because I don't have my SIPPY CUP!
  Virgil: [to Logan, worried] I don't know where it is!
  Roman: WHERE IS MY SIPPY CUP, TECH!?
  Virgil: It was... it was on the prop table! Did you move it?
  Roman: NO, I DID NOT MOVE IT, I HAVE BEEN ACTING THIS WHOLE TIME! WHEN WOULD I HAVE HAD TIME TO MOVE IT!?
  Logan: Virge, hurry!
  Virgil: [running away anxiously to look for the cup] Stall for time!
  Patton: What is happening back there!?
  Virgil: [back with the sippy cup in his hand] It was in the green-room! What was it doing in there?
  Roman: [suddenly smiling] Oh, that's right! I did move it. [unconcerned] I'm so silly, I'm so silly...
  [Virgil looks at Roman with a murderous face and groans while giving him the cup]
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shares Red Oni with Patton.
• Royal Brat: Subverted with Thomas. Roman begs Thomas to enter Daydream Mode only to try and help him think of a creative and new idea, but he will usually put himself first before his Sanders Sides brethren.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: When Virgil appears in "Accepting Anxiety: Part 2", he shrieks like someone in a horror movie. The Behind The Scenes Q&A shows that Talyn provided the scream. He does the same scream when he's immersed in the dark by Virgil in "Embarrassing Phases: The Nightmare Instead of Christmas".
• Selfie Fiend: Roman doesn't need excuses to take photos of himself with his phone.
• Sensitive Artist: Roman, Thomas's creative side, is the most emotional and dramatic next to Patton (the side that literally represents Thomas's feelings). He struggles with criticism and validation of self-worth, especially from Thomas.
• Stern Old Judge: Completely Inverted. In "Selfishness v. Selflessness" Roman doesn't take his role as Judge very seriously at all, breaking his gavel within two minutes of having it, making up charges, making objections, being shamelessly won over with flattery, and even declaring Thomas guilty despite the trial barely beginning and it being the Jury's (Virgil's) decision.
• Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: His entire purpose in life is to help Thomas achieve his hopes and dreams. When, for one reason or another, he fails to do so again and again, that takes a toll on his self-esteem.
  Janus: Is it not one of your main duties to help Thomas achieve his hopes and dreams?
  Roman: Yes! It is my sworn duty!
  Janus: And how has that been going for you?
  Roman: Like doodie... It feels like no matter how hard I fight or how much progress I make, something more important always comes around to knock us back to where we started.
• Warrior Poet: As Creativity, he is skilled in various fine arts. He also wields a sword.
• Warrior Prince: He's always ready to pull out his katana and get into battle when it's needed. He doesn't have many chances to engage in combat, though.
• Whole Costume Reference: Roman is dressed as a prince, that's obvious, but not any prince. His outfit is really similar to the outfit of the prince from Cinderella, with minor changes.^note Logical, bearing in mind that Roman's original outfit was used by Thomas Sanders when he portrayed Cinderella's prince in a stage production of Into the Woods. The costume was given to him as a present when the show ended its tenure.

Anxiety/Virgil

"I'm not always the bad guy..."

What are you doing different? What are you doing wrong? What are you forgetting to do?!

Anxiety, whose real name is Virgil, is the soft-voiced, but not necessarily soft-spoken aspect of Thomas' mind. He gives voice not only to Thomas' doubts and fears, but also his negativity. He also represents Thomas' fight or flight reflexes and his survival instinct. In the past, he was one of the Others, or as Roman calls them, the Dark Sides, something he doesn't seem to be proud of, as he hid it from Thomas for a very long time, even after Thomas released him from Deceit's block to reveal this secret.

First appearance: "Taking On Anxiety with Lilly Singh", December 19, 2016

---

• Because You Were Nice to Me: Part of the reason he gets along with Patton as well as he does is that Patton is genuinely friendly and welcoming towards him, something the others were not at first. He also opens up more to Thomas and the others once they accept him and acknowledge that they do need him.
• Being Evil Sucks: In season 1, Virgil was only acting evil all the time. By season 2, he makes clear that he didn't enjoy any single moment of that, as it made him feel bad, both in the sense of not feeling well and in the sense of feeling that he was mean, making him feel "lost", but he did it only because he thought that he had to.
• Blaming "The Man": In "Growing Up", when Thomas trades his graphic t-shirt for a respectable button-down and tie, Virgil claims he looks like "The Man". Virgil, as an Emo Teen Conspiracy Theorist, says that he fights The Man, and that he now wants to fight Thomas.
• Breakout Character: Virgil was originally created as a one-off character for a special collaboration with Lilly Singh. However, he was so well received by viewers that he ended up as a permanent addition to the cast.
• Brutal Honesty: Played straight when talking about Thomas or the other Sides (except Patton). He always says what's on his mind, no matter how rude he comes off because of it. Averted when talking about himself or about Patton. About himself, he remains extremely reluctant to open up about his own feelings, even after integrating into the group. About Patton, unlike with Thomas and the other Sides, due to the closer bond of friendship he has with him, Virgil is always afraid to hurt Patton's feelings and tries to avoid that as much as he can. That included hiding for a long time, and then telling him in the most tactful way he could get, his opinions on how the way Patton treats him as an innocent angelic child makes him feel weird.
• Character Check: When Virgil's development had already started, and he had started showing signs of softening up, he suddenly reverts to his old malicious self, if only for a couple of episodes.
  Thomas: Why are you being like this? You were so chill in the last couple of videos!
  Virgil: Sometimes, I just gotta be me...an.
  • The entirety of "Embarrassing Phases: The Nightmare Instead of Christmas" is one of these for Virgil, as he forcibly changes the others' costumes to reflect past periods of Thomas' life, proving that he can still be scary and angst-inducing when he wants.
• Character Development: In his earliest appearances, he was much more malicious, even actively enjoying his job. A far cry from the Punch-Clock Villain Stepford Snarker with a heart of gold we know today...
• Character Tic: Though not commented on, Virgil seems to have a habit of listing and numbering things. He even knows the exact number of times Thomas has chosen to half-commit to something and panic until he can't change his mind. It's somewhere around 7430.
  Logan: Virgil, how's he doing?
  Virgil: He recently realized he's a bigger liar than he thought he was, he doesn't understand himself, he's committed to skipping a big callback, and he's sleep deprived.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Sometimes invoked this trope, but surprisingly not to an extreme. Or, perhaps not so surprisingly, given that the idea of the character was to teach that it's okay to sometimes be anxious. If he was always wrong, that would send the opposite message.
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Virgil is implied to carry some of Thomas's rebellious teenage phase inside of him, claiming to fight The Man, and becoming frequently upset when Sides assume positions of power during their social experiments. He complains about him and Logan's debate being rigged due to the moderator rooting against him, and embodies the anti-authority teenager persona in his jam commercial segment, calling Patton an 'tired old man'. He also seems to be educated on practices like blood diamonds and the ethics of weddings.
  Janus: (Holding a book in front of each Side): Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth under pains and penalties of perjury? I know I do.
  Logan: I do?
  Roman: I do.
  Patton: I do.
  Virgil: (Not even touching the book) Whatever.
• Creepy Good: Though his skills and intentions lie in scaring Thomas, he does it out of a desire to keep him safe.
• Creepy Monotone: Speaks quietly in a dull, gravelly voice, highly contrasting with his Brutal Honesty.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Sports these. His room seems to invoke this to any Side who enters it.
• Cryptic Conversation: He's not always immediately specific about what's bothering him.
  Virgil: When you're in these new settings and situations, you know something is off.
  Logan: What?
  Virgil: Something.
  Logan: You can't even give an example?
  Virgil: Something is off.
  Thomas: I hate it when you're just vague!
• Dark and Troubled Past: The more time goes on, the more hints are dropped that there are things in Virgil's past that may be catching up to him.
• Dark Secret: After Virgil's conversation with Deceit in his room, it is heavily implied by Virgil's reactions that he's hiding something about his real identity and his relation with the Dark Sides, something he doesn't want Thomas and the other Sides to know about. This is made more clear at the courtroom when Deceit questions Virgil in front of the others about if he's hiding anything and an unsettled Virgil demands him to stop.
  • He finally admits that he used to be a Dark Side at the end of "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts". Notably, he doesn't stick around long enough to let Thomas do anything more than look shocked and disappointed.
• Deadpan Snarker: The snidest and most sarcastic of the Sides.
• Declaration of Protection: Virgil claims his goal in life is to protect Thomas from the world, however his Heel Realization that his overbearing nature is hurting Thomas instead of helping him leads him to start drawing the line between vigilance and overbearing.
  • Virgil has sworn to Thomas that a drink he left for ten seconds was poisoned and that Thomas would die if he drank it.
• Defrosting Ice King: In the middle of season 1, he starts trying much harder to be nice to his fellow Sides and his mean demeanor slowly falls away, to be replaced by a pessimistic attitude. Patton is the one who most easily breaks him of his coldness and gets him to smile, whether from the joy of seeing him or simply from his jokes.
• The Dreaded: At first, Thomas, Roman, and Logan hate it when he shows up, and try to avoid him. Over time, though, they get to know him and he becomes part of the gang.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In his first couple of appearances, he inflicts Thomas with anxiety (and revels in it) but doesn't seem to actually suffer from it himself. Over time he goes from being the part of Thomas that makes him anxious, to the part of Thomas that is anxious.
• Elemental Personalities: Water. While known as somber and moody, he's also willing to adapt when push comes to stove, and, fitting with the deep ends of the sea, also rather intuitive and mysterious.
• Embarrassing First Name: Virgil's name reveal is something he sees as embarrassing, with Roman even bursting out laughing when Patton points out the similarity to "Virgin", although Thomas quickly puts a stop to it. Word of God revealed in a Behind the Scenes Q&A video where Thomas says he likes that the name has a 'nerdy' aspect and that he might be a bit embarrassed of it. Virgil seems to tolerate the nicknames he's given and even offers one up himself.
  Roman: It took a lot to trust us with that information... Virgil.
  Virgil: Eh... You can call me Virge.
• Emo Teen: He's portrayed as one, as he dresses in dark clothes and wears a black hoodie, has messy hair and smudgy black makeup under his eyes, and always speaks in a sullen deadpan voice.
• Emotion Suppression: Virgil never lets himself be completely emotionally vulnerable, but occasionally he's let it slip that he really loves his friends.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Virgil plays the soft-spoken to either Patton or Roman.
• Even Darkness Has Standards: In "Losing My Motivation", after Logan goes on a Heroic BSoD rant upon realizing he's the cause of Thomas' procrastination.
  Logan: I'm the cause of this. But I'm also the solution to a problem I have caused and will inevitably resolve. Am I in a paradoxical loop where I endlessly generate a problem and try to solve it like a snake devouring its own tail to satiate its HUNGER?!?
  Thomas: Okay! Calm down time! It's a lot simpler than... whatever you're trying to say.
  Virgil: [horrified expression] That was dark, even for me...
  • Interestingly enough, of all the Sides he is the most overtly suspicious of and hostile to Deceit.
• Eye Colour Change: Not exactly his eye color, more like his eyeshadow color. It changes to bright purple when he's feeling happily excited and reverts to black when he's feeling his normal anxious self.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: In his first appearances, when he was a clear antagonist for Thomas, his voice sounded a little raspier. As he softened up and left this evilness behind, his raspiness faded away too and his voice tone became more like a constant whispering instead.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His second costume includes a black jacket with haphazardly arranged purple plaid patches.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: At first, none of the other Sides are exactly thrilled when Virgil shows up. To be fair, he's not too fond of them, either. However, from the end of season 1, this is an averted trope.
  • The only exception to this is Patton, who cheerfully greets Virgil when he shows up and who Virgil admits to liking more than the other Sides.
• The Gadfly: Even after befriending the others, he can't resist getting a rise out of them, especially Roman.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Often acts as the grumpy one to Patton's gleeful.
• The Grinch: Virgil doesn't enjoy Christmas. At all.
  • In "12 Days of Christmas", he asks to go back to his room after they give him the ugly sweater (even though he likes it), refuses to sing his line of the Christmas song up until the very end, and then he delivers this line after the song properly ends:
    Virgil: Great, I feel the spirit of Christmas welling up inside me... or maybe that's vomit.
  • In "Nightmare Instead of Christmas", when Thomas says it's time to talk about Christmas, Virgil immediately appears and yells "No!"
    Thomas: No? You're a mean one...
• Guyliner: During "Losing My Motivation", it was revealed that he puts on eyeshadow for the dark bag look.
• Heel–Face Turn: Started out as an antagonistic force, but by "Accepting Anxiety" he's become accepted as part of the group.
• Hidden Depths: Genuinely enjoys Disney movies, laughs at Patton's dad jokes, and also likes shitposts and memes.
• Hyper-Awareness: He is Thomas' anxiety, so it's natural that he's more aware than anybody else to everything that surrounds him, which explains how he was the first to notice that something was wrong in "Patton's" behavior.
  Logan: Wow, Patton. Referencing famous philosophers? I'm impressed.
  Deceit: [disguised as Patton] Well, I'm Morality, I have to know my stuff.
  Virgil: [suspicious look] "Impressed" isn't the word I'd use.
• The "I Love You" Stigma: Virgil tries to avoid using the word "love" when referring to his friends.
  Virgil: But when you lo... care for someone...
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Antagonist: In pre-"Accepting Anxiety" videos Virgil usually failed to completely sway Thomas to his view on a situation or to get him to take actions he suggested, such as crawling into bed and never coming out again.
• In the Hood: Even though the hood of his jacket is normally kept down, he does put it up when he's heightened. Specifically, when he hears Logan's part of the "Aggressive Bouts of Beat Poetry", when he starts having a panic attack in Patton's room, when Logan and Roman make him cringe over the "Rain Forest Rap", when Deceit makes him go through the roof with his remarks during the court scene and when Nico first talks to Thomas and he freaks out.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The "Accepting Anxiety" videos solidify this. He's sarcastic, grouchy, rude, and cynical, but he does care about Thomas, and is genuinely upset when he thinks he's made Thomas too anxious to do anything. He also genuinely likes Patton.
• Kindness Button: Virgil remains reluctant to return to his job as Thomas' anxiety, no matter how hard Thomas, Logan, and Patton try to convince him until Roman gives him a speech about how he's so important to the team and how he thinks Virgil makes them all better. This speech fills Virgil's eyes with tears and makes him sport a tender grateful smile to Roman.
• Nervous Wreck: Even though he used to hide them at the beginning, Virgil is the literal personification of them, and lately he has shown them more openly.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In season 1, Virgil occasionally says something helpful by accident, much to his frustration. Averted in season 2 when he genuinely starts trying to help.
• Nightmare Fetishist: He loves spooky, gory things. When discussing A Christmas Carol, he gives a genuine grin at the idea of playing the Ghost of Christmas Future.
• Nightmare Retardant: In-Universe. After "Accepting Anxiety", the other main Sides have accepted him so much as a friend that they stop being scared of him, no matter if he intentionally tries to do so.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: He's honestly trying to help Thomas, and anxiety and fear do have their purpose. (They're an inherent part of the human experience for a reason, after all.) But his dark, gloomy personality, antisocial and sarcastic nature, and the fact that no one likes feeling anxious, even when it's needed, makes the others view him as the bad guy, at least at first. And on some level, he agrees with them.
  Virgil: [to Thomas] I've always aimed to protect you! [...] But all this reflecting and working on your issues with us has gotten me to think that... I overdo it.
• Not So Above It All: Even before becoming friends with the others, he can be seen laughing or playing along with some of their antics from time to time. After becoming friends with them, he's much more open about joining in the fun.
• Odd Friendship: With... pretty much everybody, but especially Patton. Patton is cheerful, cuddly, and naive, while Virgil is none of those things. Despite this, Virgil genuinely likes and is protective of him, and, if his Christmas card for him is any indication, considers Patton to be his best friend.
• Odd Name Out: The first Side whose name doesn't end in -an or -on. Lampshaded by Patton.
• Ominous Music Box Tune: Like all of the other Sides, Virgil has his own music theme, and his is a creepy music box that sounds when he appears and whenever he's doing his job of instilling anxiety into Thomas.
• Only Sane Man: Well, he tries to be. However, he's so morose and cynical that he often does more harm than good.
• Out-of-Character Moment: And he regrets every single time this happens.
• Perpetual Frowner: In season one, he rarely smiled. This was averted by season two when seeing him genuinely smile became a much more common occurrence.
• Pet the Dog: In season 1, though he's against Thomas, he'll ocassionally give him a break, or even be sort of nice to the other Sides. Not often, but still. Averted in season 2, when the situation will become the opposite, being chill with Thomas as much as he can except when Thomas truly needs a small dose of anxiety for some reason.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • He was the first Side who swore without getting cut off.
    Thomas: ...I've been thinking...
    Virgil: Thinking? About what?
    Thomas: [sighs] Guys...
    Virgil: What else is new?
    Thomas: ...and Dolls.
    Virgil: OH SH**, I thought we were over this!!
  • He also managed to say "bastard" at one point, and he wasn't even bleeped.
    Remus: Uh-oh! I'm here with the main characters from Just Like Heaven! David Abbott and Elizabeth Masterson! And I can do with them as I please...
    Thomas: NOOOO! Not David Abbott and Elizabeth Masterson!
    Virgil: [to Remus] You bastard!
• Properly Paranoid: When he's functioning at the optimum level, he keeps Thomas alert to genuine potential pitfalls in life.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Throughout season one, he makes several comments that imply he doesn't do what he does for the fun or it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shares Blue Oni with Logan.
• The Reliable One: There's one thing you can say about him; the guy isn't fickle.
• Remember the New Guy?: When Virgil is first introduced, Thomas introduces him only for the audience, but it is implied that he had been around for sometime before his official introduction and that he already was well known at least for Thomas and Roman.
• The Reveal: At the end of "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts", after tons of hints scattered since "Accepting Anxiety", Virgil finally confirms to Thomas that he was a Dark Side.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: All the Sides upgraded their outfits at the beginning of season 2, in "Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses!)". However, Virgil's upgrade was especially significant, as it was a visual symbol of how he left behind his bitterness from the previous season and started fitting in in the team. To make this clear, Virgil changed his key color from black to purple.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: When talking to Deceit:
  Janus: And Virgil, I adore the more intense eyeshadow, it totally doesn't make you look like a raccoon.
  Virgil: Nice gloves. Did you just finish washing some dishes?
  
  Janus: Thank you, Virgil, I love how you just ruined my dramatic introduction. (exaggerated chef's kiss) So good !
  Virgil: Well, your face ruined my day, so we'll call it even.
• Speak of the Devil: If you mention him, he will appear... whether you want him to or not.
• Socially Awkward Hero: The more he hangs out with the others, the more it becomes clear he doesn't have a clue of what he's doing. He's anxiety personified, what did you expect?
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: As mean as he can be, it's clear he doesn't exactly love his job, and he always sincerely wanted to be the others' friend.
• Stepford Snarker: You barely need to chip at the sour exterior to see that Virgil is not a happy guy.
• The Heavy: He assumed this role in his earliest appearances, the main foe for Thomas and the other Sides. He slowly started averting it as his development went on.
• Third Episode Introduction: Episode one introduced Logan, Roman and Patton. Virgil appeared in episode three and became a regular ever since.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Downplayed, but he kind of slides into this after he becomes more open to character development. He is actually not any younger than the other Sides (as they are all the same person), but he often acts like an Emo Teen and have moments of irrational immaturity. Logan and Patton tend to treat him like a child and Roman tends to treat him like an Annoying Younger Sibling. Patton often makes remarks about Virgil's "cuteness" even in situations where Virgil's trying to be scary and treats him like his son, and Logan is quick to parse through Virgil's pessimism with reason and logic not unlike a strict parent. Still, Virgil isn't babied and is very vocal about his opinions, as he often corrects where he sees the other's going wrong.
• Token Evil Teammate: "Evil" is an overstatement, but Virgil tended to take this role in Season 1, acting as a more harmful or restrictive influence than other parts of Thomas' mind. By Season 2 he's mellowed out considerably, and it's revealed that he was actually the Token Good Teammate to the Dark Sides.
• Villain Decay: That's how the other Sides and Thomas see Virgil after he bonds with the group. They see him in such a friendly way that they're no longer scared of him as they were in the earliest installments, even when he actively tries to be scary. He had to return to being seriously threatening and scary once again, if only for a while, to remind them that he still is Anxiety and that he can still scare them if he really wants to, no matter if they're friends now.
• Voice of the Legion: Virgil has an ability oficially referred to out-of-universe as "Tempest Tongue" which causes his voice to warp and layer over itself. This only happens during periods of high anxiety, whether it's experienced by himself alone or at least three other Sides simultaneously.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Even at his worst, Virgil's main function has always been to keep Thomas safe. These days, he's trying to be less of an extremist — but he admits he can still go a bit over-the-top sometimes.
  Deceit: Is it true that you once said that "weddings are outdated overly expensive pageantry"?
  Virgil: Yeah, well, I also once swore to Thomas that the drink he left alone in the other room for ten seconds was definitely poisoned and, if he drank it, he would die. I'm not exactly a beacon of truth.
• When He Smiles: He looks so sweet and happy!
• Zero-Approval Gambit: His sole purpose is to protect Thomas. To do that, he chose to be a gloomy Jerk to bring his guard up. He was ready to resist Thomas and the others' hate and rejection and never show the pain this caused on him, because Virgil truly loved Thomas and the Sides, even if he never wanted to recognize it.

Dark Sides/The Others

Dark Sides Shared Tropes

I'll always be a part of you...

Do not allow him or any of... his friends to stick around that long ever again!

The Dark Sides, or "The Others", represent all the repressed aspects of Thomas, the ones he didn't want to recognize so badly that went hidden even from him. It is unknown right now how many there are or what each of them represents. For the time being, three of them are known: Virgil (formerly), Janus, and Remus.

---

• Animal Motifs: All of the Dark Sides seem to have some feature related to animals, whether in a garment, their appearance or their behavior.
  • Janus: Snakes. This animal is fitting for his deceitful nature, and Janus has half the face of a snake. In "Selfishness v. Selflessness", he reveals his sigil: a double-headed yellow snake.
  • Remus: Octopuses. There's an octopus on his belt buckle and the title card for his introductory episode features octopus tentacles. Octopuses are slimy, can infiltrate almost any space, and once have hold of something, it's nearly impossible to make them let go. Not to mention all the other disturbing implications of their tentacles.
  • Virgil: His exact animal hasn't been revealed yet, but he has been associated with at least three totally different types of animals: cats, spiders and raccoons. Cat is the first and most common association with Virgil, as it was the first one to be portrayed on the series. Several times he has hissed like a cat, usually when he gets angry and starts reaching his limit. Also, when Patton encouraged him to try and scare them, Virgil roared like a lion, which is another type of feline. When Anxiety's room was introduced, another animal association was introduced with it: spiders. His room is decorated with spider-themed items and literal cobwebs, he has a pet spider, and the stitching on his purple hoodie is comparable to webbing. And for the record, some spiders do hiss too when upset. Another reference, this time lampshaded by Deceit himself, is that his darker eyeshadow makes him look like a raccoon.
• The Dark Side: Doesn't need much explanation. They're Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Enemy Within: They are the closest thing this series has to a Big Bad and they're all literally a part of Thomas.
• In-Series Nickname: The hidden aspects of Thomas' mind have been given two nicknames by Roman and Virgil.
  • "Dark Sides" is a nickname coined by Roman, and he was pretty proud of making up that name himself.
    Thomas: One more question. Are there any other Sides that Deceit has hidden away from me?
    Patton: Yes.
    Roman: The Dark Sides...
    Thomas: That's... not the answer that I wanted, in full honesty...
    Roman: I made up that name. Pretty cool, isn't it?
    Thomas: [ironically] Nice and foreboding, thank you.
  • "The Others" is actually the first name Roman used to refer to them in "Accepting Anxiety Part 2", and in "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts", when Thomas asked Virgil if he meant the Dark Sides, Virgil corrected him saying "The Others", as if that was the name they had given to themselves.
    Roman: Yeah, and you are nothing compared to the Others!
    
    Virgil: I thought that I would be able to protect you from them.
    Thomas: The Dark Sides?
    Virgil: The Others.
• Poke the Poodle: When the others are off making videos, Janus and Remus are able to do something truly devious... sneaking into Patton's room to play DDR.
• Shadow Archetype: After Thomas knows about the existence of the Dark Sides, he makes clear that he doesn't like the existence of these aspects of himself.
• True Companions: Inverted so far, to contrast with the main Sides.
  • Janus is considered a snake by Remus, and Virgil hates him, even more than Remus, who is by far the most evil of the three, and always tries to stop everyone to agree to a single thing he says.
  • Remus is (understandably) considered evil by Janus, and probably made fun of him for his name as well, since his reaction to Roman mocking it is what causes the comparison between the two followed by the aforementioned statement. As for Virgil, he is really scared of him, especially when he starts giving Thomas really disturbing ideas via intrusive thoughts.
  • Virgil is antagonised by Remus and Janus every time they speak, especially by reminding him that he was a Dark Side and is always the bad guys, as they know it was a big insecurity of his.

Deceit/Janus

"The Lord of the Lies... I'm happy to oblige."

I don't want Thomas to be disadvantaged in a world where you can die for not following the rules made in the name of a lie.

Deceit, whose real name is Janus, was the first of the Dark Sides to show up.^note Not counting Virgil, whose Dark Side status wouldn't be known until much, much later after his first appearance. He is literally two-faced and represents Thomas' impulses and desire to lie, whether to himself or the others around him. Paradoxically, though, he hides from Thomas his unpleasant traits and at the same time he also pushes Thomas to recognize these unpleasant traits and take advantage from them. He also detects and uncovers the lies coming from Thomas or others and acts as a mechanism of self-preservation for Thomas from the dangers of society constructs, which he perceives as lies.

First appearance: "Can Lying Be Good?", February 3, 2018

---

• Affably Evil: He's quite the charmer, and knows just what to say to make someone feel good.
• Amoral Attorney: He takes on the role in "Selfishness v. Selflessness", putting Thomas on trial for the opportunity to grill him properly (and mess with the other Sides). Thomas brings up how the whole thing is clearly a Kangaroo Court, starting with the fact that the sole juror (Virgil) openly loathes the prosecution (Deceit), which should make the trial null and void. Deceit responds that since the judge (Roman) is biased in his favor, the various conflicts of interest even everything out and make it fair.
• Annoying Laugh: When Virgil attacks Deceit with a pun, Deceit starts laughing hysterically with a high-pitched voice, up to the point of annoying Virgil, as he clearly notes the sarcasm in Deceit's laughter.
• Bad Samaritan: While impersonating Patton, he shows himself eager to help Thomas with his issue with Joan, pretending that it's all to help him and to avoid breaking Joan's heart with the truth. In reality, he was only trying to lure Thomas into lying to his best friend, not caring at all about the morality of the action or the long-term consequences on Thomas and Joan's friendship.
• Blatant Lies / Consummate Liar: Interestingly, he manages both. While some of his lies are really, scarily easy to buy into, a lot of them are really, really not.
  Virgil: Nice gloves. Did you just finish washing some dishes?
  [Beat.]
  Deceit: [attempting some semblance of dignity] ...Yes.
  
  Thomas: But... I'm an honest person...
  Deceit: [dangerously sweet voice] Oh, you are, Thomas. You are a good person. Everybody says so.
• Brutal Honesty: On the rare occasions he does decide to drop some truth bombs, he is not gentle about it. At all.
  "Oh, Roman, thank god you don't have a moustache... Otherwise, between you and Remus, I wouldn't know who the evil twin is."
• Camp Gay: Zigzagged with Evil Sounds Deep. During the court scene in "Selfishness v. Selflessness", many times Deceit exhibits traits from the first trope, with a histrionic, over the top effeminacy, while other times he acts like the complete opposite: smooth, cold, and with a deep, suave voice.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Played with. Deceit's power comes from Thomas' desire not to believe something. This is why he took so long to surface; Thomas didn't want to believe he wasn't always an honest person, so Deceit's existence was hidden from him.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Acts as this towards Remus, helping him when his escapades backfire and spraying him with soap when he's about to give out spoilers.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Well, not totally evil. Lying in most situations is against Thomas' moral code, so listening to Deceit isn't ideal. However, he ultimately does act as a means of self-preservation.
• Deadpan Snarker: Considering sarcasm is implying the opposite of what you're saying, it follows that he would be one.
  Janus: And for your sake, you need to start practising a little more selfishness.
  Patton: In moderation.
  Janus: As all things should be. Well, almost all things ...
  Patton: What do you mean by "almost all things" ?
  Janus: You're right, we wouldn't want to plant too many trees. Just think of all the CO2 that might be absorbed.
• The Dreaded: The other Sides are clearly not pleased by his arrival, and even seem a little afraid of him, though they are willing to stand up to him.
• Duality Motif: Deceit has one half of his face of a regular human shape and the other one as a snake, his symbol is a two-headed snake, and his namesake Janus is a two-faced god of duality. This is to reinforce the idea of the inherent duality of lies, attractive and sweet on the surface but dangerous and potentially poisonous on the inside.
• Elemental Personalities: A twisted one of Air. He highly prefers influencing others via talking rather than getting physical like Remus prefers, and has been pulling strings behind the scenes (much like a wind that is not seen but felt). He is hard to trap and can easily slip out of any given grip, like trying to grab air.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Well, he's at least not a Nazi.
  Virgil, and later Logan: That cannot be where the bar is.
  • He stands for Thomas' self-preservation. Occasionally, he needs that.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Every time he shows up in the apartment and shows his true form, the light around him gets significantly dimmer except for a single spotlight illuminating him. When the real owner of the spot rises up next to him, light returns.
• Evil Laugh: He gets in an impressive one when he claims to have been Patton all along.
• Foil: To Virgil. They both act as coaches for Thomas' self-preservation but are problematic when over-indulged: Virgil makes Thomas consider and reconsider actions to avoid bad outcomes but can cause anxiety and panic, while Deceit works to help Thomas get out of or at least feel better about bad scenarios but can put him in morally compromising scenarios. While Virgil is simply bad-tempered and cynical, Janus genuinely enjoys wreaking havoc among the Sides. Where Virgil is socially awkward and messy, Deceit is calm, smooth-talking, and well put together. Virgil practices Brutal Honesty; Deceit is, well... Deceit.
  • To Patton. Both manage Thomas' actions towards others, but while Patton always advocates for the selfless thing to do, since he is Thomas' morality and The Fettered, Deceit has for domain Thomas' self-preservation without regards to morality or social standards, and advocates for selfishness first. Patton is genuinely friendly and honest with everyone, while Deceit antagonises pretty much all the Sides and is Deceit. Even their animal form are Foils to each other: Deceit is a snake, a crawling, sometimes venomous, rough-skinned reptile associated with Satan and punished by God, while Patton's a frog, a jumping, sometimes poisonous, smooth-skinned amphibian and symbolic of the Ten Plagues, God's punishment.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Even more so than Virgil, as even Patton, who has been nice with everyone else, doesn't like him. Roman seems to have a stronger connection with him for some reason, as he takes Deceit's false compliments at face value and sides with him in some of the points Deceit makes, but still Roman doesn't like Deceit.
  • There's evidence to suggest that Deceit isn't fond of being this. He's openly frustrated when Thomas refuses to lie to save face with Joan when he notices Deceit is nearby, and when Thomas openly tells Deceit to leave a video he gives a double Flipping the Bird on his way out.
• Hand Gagging: Before "Can Lying Be Good?" he had the power to make the other Sides do this to themselves whenever they were about to say things that Thomas didn't want to hear.
• Hated by All: No-one likes him. Even Remus, a fellow Dark Side, calls him a "snake". As of "Putting Others First," Thomas and Patton have tentatively extended him some trust, but it remains to be seen how it will work out.
• Hidden Depths: Deceit may initially appear to be a simple sadist who lies about anything and everything. However, he has a very deep grasp on the nuances of law and society, and how easily Thomas could be screwed over by expected societal behaviors. He is far from a pleasant being, and his presence is distressing at best, but he does want what is best for Thomas in his own way.
  Deceit: I don't want Thomas to be disadvantaged in a world where you can die for not following the rules made in the name of a lie.
• It's All About Me: That's what he wants Thomas to be, in a more realistic and brutally pragmatic way than most. He, like the others, exists mostly to benefit Thomas. Deceit specifically wants Thomas to put himself first, regardless of what other people want or need, believing in egoism above all else.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Just because he's a dick who's the personification of lies doesn't mean he isn't capable of laying down some uncomfortable truths — such as when Thomas wants to be selfish, and when it'd benefit him to be dishonest. He also points out that if Thomas were really as selfless and honest as he'd like to believe, Deceit wouldn't even be there. But, here he is.
• Knight of Cerebus: His arrival makes the series take a turn to deeper, more dramatic storylines when he or any of "his friends" is present.
• Language of Truth: Inverted, believe it or not; everything he says is on some level an attempt to deceive or to make Thomas embrace dishonesty. He's also able to mute any of the other Sides who tries to say something that Thomas doesn't want to hear, lie or not, which also includes his own reveal. It takes Thomas' permission before they can speak on the matter. Even though he likes to speak in lies, he can tell the truth whenever he wants, which only makes him more dangerous as the easiest lies to buy are the ones that mix truth and falsehood, which makes more difficult to identify which is which.
• Living Lie Detector: As he says, "it takes a liar to know a liar". He's capable of identifying all the times Thomas or any of the Sides lie, whether if it is a simple lie of commission or a lie of omission where they're hiding something.
• Manipulative Bastard: Spends the majority of "Can Lying Be Good?" trying to convince Thomas and the other Sides that lying is the right course of action to take, all while disguised as Patton, Thomas' morality. He also tries to remind Virgil how anxious losing a friend would make him, and once he's unmasked he flatters Roman with 'compliments' to distract him from his true nature. Roman is the one who is swayed the easiest by his sweet talking, and you can see Logan biting back a 'no'.
• Master of Disguise: Played with. Deceit uses shapeshifting to the extreme, often imitating other Sides well enough that it’s difficult to distinguish him from the real thing, but there’s usually some little mistake in his costumes that can give him away to anyone with a keen enough eye. After taking notes out of Roman’s suggestions, he’s started getting better about this.
• Meaningful Name: His true name is revealed to be Janus, who, in Roman Mythology, is a (literally) two-faced minor god who represents duality, decisions, doorways, and is an overseer in beginnings and ends. Given that Deceit is a (literally and metaphorically) two-faced Side that can be on either side of a debate, AND that his name is revealed in a video that focuses on decisions and foresight, the name "Janus" fits him like a glove.
• Mirror Character: Downplayed with Virgil. They're both Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, cynical, sarcastic, and both act as Thomas self-preservation. They even occasionally engage in the other's preferred view about honesty, such as Virgil trying to hide that his anxiety worsening in Patton's room or his status as a former Dark Side, and Janus denouncing very brutally Thomas' selfishness and Roman being a jerk after he revealed his name to them. However, see Janus' Foil entry.
• More than Mind Control: He can hide parts of Thomas from Thomas, and force the others to keep their mouths shut unless Thomas gives them permission to speak on the matter. This gets a bit complex as Deceit is part of Thomas' mind the way the other Sides are — he only has as much power to hide things as Thomas allows him to have. Ultimately, the one letting him hide things from Thomas is Thomas himself.
• Narcissist: Downplayed. He wants Thomas to put his own well-being before others, because his own mental and physical health is a prerequisite for his ability to help others. He also basically has an orgasm when Thomas tells him he's right about something.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Before "Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux", all the Sides and Thomas considered Deceit as a villain that just wanted to make Thomas lie for the sake of lying. After that, it's become clear for them (at least for Thomas and Patton) that Janus only has Thomas' best interests in mind and truly wants to take care of him the best that he can the only way that he knows, deceiving, which is not the best method, but at least it's not driven out of malice towards Thomas.
  Patton: Janus...
  Janus: [tiny smile of assurance] I'll take care of him.
  Patton: [calm smile while sinking down] Okay.
• Not So Stoic: In "Selfishness v. Selflessness," he's unable to hold back the occasional mad laugh when he thinks he's won, and eventually he hits a wall when the others have (in his mind) totally missed the point of his courtroom exercise, exasperatedly yelling at them as opposed to his usual deadly calm demeanor.
• Out-of-Character Alert: He spends the majority of his debut episode pretending to be Patton. He does a scarily good job for the most part, though he slips up just enough to tip off the other Sides gradually (Pointing out when he does something Patton-like, trying to get Thomas to lie when the real Patton has always said lying is wrong, showing no signs of sadness at the idea of a dead hamster, calling Virgil "friendo" instead of "kiddo", etc.) Later, when he tries to impersonate Logan, he talks in idioms and that sets the alarms on Thomas and Patton who think that the real Logan wouldn't use them as he would take them literally. Ironically, Logan later proves that he does know some idioms too.
• The Philosopher: Deceit loves to quote famous philosophers to support his points of view. Subverted in the sense that he won't hesitate into quoting just the part of their philosophy that fits in with his vision, even if the rest of such philosophy totally contradicts the quoted part.
  Deceit: Stirner was rather... starry-eyed. He believed that no one was more important than anyone else, and if everyone understood everyone else to be equals, then maybe we could have a society where you could either work with others towards a mutual benefit or be left to your own devices if that's what you wanted...
  Virgil: Wait, wait, wait. Did you just say he thought all people were equal? Because... Logan said he was racist.
  Deceit: [punching the stand, angry] And I said we weren't focusing on that today!
• Poor Communication Kills: Implied in "Putting Others First". After Thomas reassures Roman that he is still his hero, Roman turns to Janus, who answers with an approving nod. However, as he is Deceit, Roman gets even more upset, probably because he interprets this as proof that Thomas is lying to him.
• The Prankster: He loves to prank the other Sides to laugh at their expense. These pranks are usually practical jokes based on lies where he's the only one laughing with few exceptions, as his jokes are intended to be hurtful to some degree for his victims.
• Quote Mining: Fitting with his deceptive nature, he's more than willing to pick and choose what parts of someone's philosophy to use for his argument while ignoring the parts that don't help his case. He invokes Max Stirner's theory of egotism as a reason for Thomas to put his own self-interest first, citing Stirner's belief that no one was more important than anybody else, and if everyone accepted that, everyone could truly be treated as equals. The other Sides immediately point out that this argument falls on its face when you remember that Stirner was also extremely racist.
• Red Right Hand: Half of his face looks like a snake, with a scar in his cheek, scales and a slit eye. The trope is subverted, though, in the sense that he looks evil in his first appearances, but later we know he's only trying to protect Thomas from society and push him to take care of himself, even if through deceitful means.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Just because he's revealed to ultimately have Thomas' best interests at heart and genuinely trying to protect him doesn't mean he's not going to suggest shoving someone down the stairs as a solution to a problem...
• Scaled Up: A minor version but half of Janus' face looks like a snake's, from his eye to his mouth and the scales.
• Signature Headgear: Deceit's most iconic piece of garment is a bowler hat that, unless he's assuming another Side's shape, he never takes off, at least when he's on-screen. Once, Roman took the hat away from him and he almost went mad looking for it.
• Smug Snake: Deceit puts on an air of confidence and disdain, but frequently falls out of it when his interactions don’t go according to plan.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Lampshaded by Roman:
  Roman: I hate this guy and his creepy snake face!
• The Snark Knight: He drops Patton's affability and slips into this once it's clear Thomas isn't going to lie to Joan, and considering he speaks opposite of what he means he keeps it up from then on.
• Sssssnaketalk: When Deceit is especially angry he can start hissing like the snake he is.
• Stealth Insult: As most of what he says is a lie, all his compliments to the other Sides are this, to varying degrees of subtlety. Roman doesn't seem to appreciate this, taking the compliments at face value.
• Token Evil Teammate: Oh, yes. Deceit represents Thomas’ self-interest, meaning that he is often the one arguing for the immoral course of action, but is also capable of talking down the other Sides when they’re pushing Thomas to be overly selfless.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Deceit is dedicated to helping solve Thomas’ problems, but his suggestions can often be less than wholesome. He’s also not above pulling mean tricks such as throwing Thomas into a panic by claiming to be Patton all along.
• Troll: Loves laughing evilly? Relishes messing with the other Sides and Thomas? Lies practically every word he says without any remorse? Dang right he's one of these!
• The Unfettered: Deceit is described by Patton as a mechanism of self-preservation for Thomas. At least, that intention is good. However, to reach that goal, Deceit is willing to use any means, most notably lying and manipulating anything and anyone, human (he doesn't care about lying to Joan or to Lee and Mary Lee) or Side (he manipulates the other Sides so that they follow his plan without them even realizing it). This results in his methods being dangerous and harmful for anyone involved, ironically even Thomas himself.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • A very downplayed example. When practicing in the Mind Palace only makes the Sides more reticent to lie instead of less and Virgil and Logan become all but convinced they know who Patton really is, Deceit abandons all attempts at subtle manipulation and just straight up tells Thomas that lying is the right thing to do. After Thomas rejects this, Deceit drops his act entirely.
  • Does so again in "Selfishness v. Selflessness", as he struggles to get the other characters to listen to him and begins to break down, clearly having trouble keeping his chill.
• Villainous Rescue: In "Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux". As the expert on when Thomas is lying to himself — and by extension, when the Sides are deceiving him or contradicting themselves — he's the one to point out that Patton's black and white views on moral issues (and his attempts to ignore the complexity of difficult questions) have been negatively impacting Thomas' overall mental health by making him feel guilty regardless of what he does, and that completely forgoing personal indulgences means losing leisure, a necessary part of self-care.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Villain may be a bit strong, but ultimately the reason Thomas learned about Deceit was because Deceit decided to emerge and engage with Thomas on a dilemma in the form of Patton. In spite of his performance, once he was in he couldn't leave without causing suspicion and ended up being exposed.
• Visionary Villain: Deceit’s main conceit of having Thomas put himself first, without regards for morality or empathy, starts as merely following his function, but quickly starts escalating well beyond that. It’s easy to forget given how much attention the Duke demands in his first episode, but Remus all but states that it was Deceit who pointed him towards revealing himself to Thomas.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Just like all the other Sides he can do this too, and he does an amazing job at impersonating Patton until the very end.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Hinted at in "Selfishness v. Selflessness", where he states that what he wants is to keep Thomas from being taken advantage of or being destroyed in a world where laws and guidelines must be strictly followed.
  Deceit: I don't want Thomas to be disadvantaged in a world where you can die for not following the laws made in the name of a lie.
  • His methods get more extreme when he decides to point the Duke in Thomas’ direction, given that the Duke governs and directs all of Thomas’ uncomfortable, intrusive thoughts. The fact that the Duke appears when Thomas is extremely tired seems rather deliberate when putting into this context, too.
  • Comes to a head in "Putting Others First"; when Patton's confusion reaches a peak, it's Janus who steps in and points out that a little selfishness now and again, in the form of leisure and self-care, is essential to maintaining Thomas' mental health.
• Wicked Cultured: He's dressed in a very stylish outfit, knowledgeable about philosophy and well-spoken with a posh tone. However, it's clear that he's not working with Thomas' best interests in mind and spent most of his introductory episode disguised as Patton.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: While disguised as Patton, he pretends to be nice and affable, to be in Thomas' side (no pun intended), but when he's called out we see how cold and malicious he is and how dangerous he really is for Thomas.
• You Do Not Want To Know: Invoked. He gets his power from Thomas lying to himself, including about things he wishes weren't true. So, Deceit can force the others to keep their mouths shut about the things Thomas doesn't want to know, even if he needs to know.
  Virgil: There are Sides to everyone that they'd prefer not to know about, but you're the boss, Thomas. Any information you want to know, you can know. You just... have to be open to hearing it.
  Roman: In other words, would you like to learn something new about yourself, Thomas?
  Thomas: I don't... know.
  Deceit: [mocking him] Oooh, I don't know either, Thomas! You might not like what you find!

Forbidden Creativity/Remus/The Duke

"Hey, prude! Your art is bad!"

Speaking of suggestions, when are you actually going to jump out of a moving car? I've been bringing it up for years, and still nothing.

The Duke, whose real name is Remus was the second revealed Dark Side. He's Roman's twin brother, and like him, he also embodies creativity, but unlike Roman, his contributions are almost always too disturbing, sexual and/or violent for Thomas' comfort. He also instills his contributions in the form of intrusive thoughts that appear in Thomas' mind uncontrolled.

First appearance: "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts", June 25, 2019

---

• Achilles' Heel: Remus is allergic to soap. It makes him feel pain when exposed to it and can be used to make him stop doing something. Subverted in the sense that he will have no hesitation in drinking soap if he wants to, even if it will cause him a really bad allergic reaction. Additionally, Remus is especially weak to being called 'unintimidating', taking the word as a literal blow. Logan, the only one of the group who isn't scared of Remus, is easily able to overpower him.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Wears a green and black version of Roman's Prince Charming outfit, and has the noble title of Duke.
• Attention Whore: From his random, disturbing comments, to his apparel, to his habit of screaming and singing at the drop of a hat, everything about Remus just screams "PAY ATTENTION TO ME." Just like a schoolyard bully, once Thomas stops giving him the reaction he's after, Remus quickly gets frustrated and leaves.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: He speaks with a lot of these, the best example is when he said Thomas should get out the bird's nest and fly... then fly into a jet turbine and killing the bird and the riders of the plane.
• Berserk Button: Being called scary. It makes him angry to the point that he seems to set aside any of his usual antics, and is enough for him to break character for a moment.
• The Bully: Behaves this way towards Thomas and the other Sides.
• Cain and Abel: He's introduced after he takes a mace to the back of Roman's head, incapacitating him for the rest of the episode. Soon after, he's described as being Roman's twin since he's the other, less favored facet of Thomas' imagination. This trope is even Lampshaded and name-dropped by Remus himself:
  Remus: You made me this way, Thomas. I was the unloved brother from the Genesis! Roman and I are Cain and Abel! ... And that cane up your BUTT makes you unable to explore more mature ideas in your content!
• Card-Carrying Villain: While Deceit is most certainly a manipulative and poisonous Side, his motives for lying are rooted in self-preservation and a desire to protect Thomas that has been taken too far. The Duke, by contrast, has so far shown no redeeming qualities and seems to delight in freaking out Thomas and being as chaotic as possible.
• Chaotic Stupid: Remus is the pure incarnation of this trope, as he's the part of Thomas from which his craziest and most senseless ideas originate from.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: He only has power over Thomas if Thomas gives in to his ideas (which Thomas very much doesn't want to do), or actively tries to suppress him. By worrying that his invasive thoughts make him a bad person and trying to pretend they don't exist, Thomas inadvertently gives Remus the ability to torment him even further. Logan, however, is able to teach Thomas how to rob Remus of all his power: acknowledge the invasive thoughts are there, but understand that they could occur to anybody, and since Thomas has no real desire to act on those thoughts, it's really nothing to worry about.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He's... weird. Justified, as he's the personification of the bizarre, disturbing thoughts that just pop into your head at random. As anyone who deals with intrusive thoughts can tell you, they can get very strange.
• Create Your Own Villain: The Duke is notably a Dark Side of Thomas' own creation, albeit not consciously. Thomas inadvertently created the Duke when he repressed and condemned himself for his intrusive thoughts — the Duke is the negative facet of Thomas' creativity and thinking.
• Dastardly Whiplash: His entire aesthetic seems to invoke this trope. An over-the-top, openly malevolent villain with a pencil thin mustache and vague ties to aristocracy who delights in his wicked acts for little to no obvious reason.
• The Dragon: Though he isn’t working directly for Deceit, Remus all but states in his Villain Song that Deceit was the one who pointed him in the direction of unveiling himself to Thomas in the first place.
• The Dreaded: Seeing as how he's the personification of dark and troubling thoughts and imagery, this is a given.
• Drop-In Character: Appropriate for a Side that personifies random, unwanted thoughts. This is Played for Laughs in his debut video's end card when he randomly appears next to Thomas while eating a stick of deodorant.
• Elemental Personalities: A darker form of Fire. He's hard to ignore, and once he starts it is difficult to let his influence die down. Given too much fuel, he can easily go out of control and dominate Thomas' mind until he stops giving in (i.e giving him fuel).
• Establishing Character Moment: "Have you ever imagined killing your brother?"
• Evil Brit: He speaks with a vaguely British accent.
• Evil Is Hammy: As befitting a Side that acts as Roman's dark mirror, the Duke is flamboyant but to an extremely twisted degree. Heck, literally less than a minute into entering his debut video he breaks out into his Villain Song!
• Evil Twin: He's Roman's, since Thomas, in a desire to see creativity and imagination as a solely good force, split his "bad" thoughts off and shunted them off to a separate, dark part of his brain. The Duke was the result. Roman is Thomas' creative process and love of art and romance... The Duke is the part of Thomas' brain that wonders what would happen if he jumped out of a moving car. (And that's one of the tamer things the Duke spouts off.)
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Sports a purplish gray eyeshadow all around his eyes, befitting his Chaotic Evil behavior.
• Foil: To Roman, obviously, but also to Deceit. Where Deceit is subtle, patient, and cultured, Remus is brazen, impulsive, and lowbrow. Yet they are both Dark Sides, whose influence Thomas rejects, and both can be shut down by Logan's objectivity and pragmatism.
• The Gadfly: Making people uncomfortable is practically his hobby.
• Green and Mean: Green is his theme color and boy is he mean.
• Hated by All: Even Janus eventually gains some trust from Thomas and Patton, at least. Though, funnily enough, Remus's and Janus's actual relationship remain largely ambiguous for now, but it's implied that they do actually get along to some degree.
• Hot-Blooded: A trait he shares with Roman. Remus has no filter, therefore he acts out and describes every taboo thought that comes up. As he himself says "there is no rhyme or reason to what I do, I JUST DO!"
• "I Am" Song: The first thing he does when he shows up, other than hitting his brother on the head with a mace, that is, is bursting into a song introducing himself to Thomas.
• Insult Backfire: Thomas tries to call him "Dookie" to get a rise out of him, but he actually encourages it. He does the same when Logan says he "just reeks", Remus says that's what he was going for.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As with Janus, the fact that Remus is an antagonistic and chaotic character doesn't stop him from being in the right on occasion. In his first appearance, he tells Thomas that trying to repress the intrusive thoughts is very bad. Then, when Patton tries to defend Thomas by saying that these thoughts weren't him, Remus retorts that that's impossible. The fact that The Duke is acknowledged as right these two times by Logan and Virgil, the two most sensible sides out of the bunch, drives this further home.
• Laughably Evil: What prevents him from being an outright Knight of Cerebus. While Remus is both an upsetting and truly frightening figure, his manic Cloud Cuckoolander behavior and darkly comedic antics are amusing to watch.
• Mad Artist: He's half of Thomas' creativity and completely out of his mind.
• The Mad Hatter: Absolutely bananas and aware of it, even at one point calling himself demented.
• Made of Evil: Remus is the real personification of all of Thomas' repressed vices, so he'll repeatedly suggest giving into them just for the sake of it.
• Manipulative Bastard: In "Sanders Asides: Working THROUGH Intrusive Thoughts", it's heavily implied that he wasn't just causing trouble to mess with Thomas, but to get a rise out of Logan, which he ultimately succeeds at when Logan snaps at him.
  Remus: Oooh-wee, Logan... now you're speaking my language. But who do you really want to scream that at?
• Meaningful Name: The Duke's real name is Remus, referencing the twin brother to Romulus, who with said brother founded the city of Rome. Also, as noted by Joan, "Remus" literally means "twin". Remus is explicitly described as a dark twin to Roman in his debut episode.
• Mr. Imagination: The Duke is the personification of Thomas' intrusive thoughts - all the disturbing, perverse and violent ideations that randomly and periodically pop into his head that he would never actually act on.
• Naked Nutter: Proclaiming himself 'demented', Remus has no shame in nudity, even encouraging Thomas to be so on camera.
• The Nicknamer: Shares this trait with his twin brother Roman. They even use the same nickname for the same person sometimes, which shows that, while Remus is a polar opposite of his brother Roman, there are some traits where they are almost identical, which reminds that they're still brothers after all.
  Logan: What's so frightening about something that has no real-world impact?
  Remus: [angry] Oh, shut up, Nerdy Wolverine!
  [later]
  Roman: More than anything, I feel like I was struck by a... realization, like Einstein with the apple.
  Logan: You mean Newton?
  Roman: [angry] Oh, shut up, Nerdy Wolverine!
• Nightmare Fetishist: He loves his disturbing imagery and subject matter. More specifically, he loves grossing everyone else out with it.
• Princeling Rivalry: Remus fights, literally mace in hand, to throw Roman out of his position as Thomas' creativity and take control for himself.
• Puppeter: Remus created a Fake Spooky version of Nico in an attempt to make Thomas filled with Intrusive Thoughts among other things in Working Through Intrusive Thoughts. He conversed through the Spooky Nico saying that Thomas is annoying and embarrassing, like Remus is controlling the Fake Nico. Eventually, through the power of receptive music therapy provided by Logan, Thomas defeats Fake Nico and by an extension Remus by dancing
• Secondary Color Nemesis: His primary colour is green, to contrast with Roman's red.
• Shadow Archetype: All the Dark Sides as a group are this for Thomas, but Remus is a literal shadow archetype for Roman. If Roman wears white and red, Remus wears black and green, their shadow colors. If Roman is chivalrous and noble in a fight, Remus is sneaky and treacherous, attacking from behind. If Roman is a romantic, Remus is a pervert. If Roman is dreams and fantasy, Remus is intrusive thoughts. Roman summarized it all in one phrase when Thomas inquired about him:
  Roman: It's a little like looking into a fun house mirror, but instead of a giant head, long legs and a tiny torso... it shows you... everything you don't wanna be.
  Thomas: That doesn't sound like a very fun house...
  Roman: Yeah...
• Sleeps in the Nude: And loves to announce it too!
• Theme Twin Naming: Downplayed a bit—Roman and Remus rather than the more literal Romulus and Remus.
• Token Evil Teammate: While every Side ultimately has Thomas’ best interests at heart (even Janus who otherwise fills this role is primarily concerned with Thomas’ self-interest) Remus is merely interested in causing as much chaos as possible, even if it means getting Thomas hurt or even killed.
• Too Kinky to Torture: He loves the idea of being insulted, whipped, beaten...the idea seems to turn all his dials.
  Roman: Bro, I'm gonna whip your butt!
  Remus: Do you promise?
• Trademark Favorite Food: Deodorant.
• Villains Never Lie: The reason why Remus shares his true name with Thomas right off the bat. Remus feels no need to deceive or hide who he truly is. In fact, his oversharing of all of Thomas' disturbing thoughts is what causes Thomas and the other Sides so much distress.
  • Played with, in that, while Remus might be brutally honest, it's more of a case of saying whatever's on his mind without regard as to whether or not it's true, such as accusing Logan of being Deceit and calling him a whale penis.
• We Used to Be Friends: In his introductory episode, Remus makes a few comments implying this trope towards or about Virgil, much to the latter’s chagrin. Given that Virgil claims that he had always been “really unsettled” by Remus, though, it’s probable that these comments were either only intended as snide implications of Virgil’s past, or that any past feelings of friendship were entirely one-way.

Human Characters

Joan

"I just hope that you didn't do that thing that you do sometimes, where you freak out and stand in the middle of your living room and talk to yourself for twenty minutes."

I literally said F-word face. Is that serious in your world?

Joan is Thomas' best friend and creative partner. Like Thomas, they're an actor, but also a writer and playwright.

First appearence: "Can Lying Be Good", February 3, 2018 (voice); "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning (in person), April 12, 2018"
Portrayed by: Joan S.

---

• Unseen No More: Joan has frequently been mentioned by Thomas, but so far they have only appeared onscreen in brief flashes - once in flashback in "Growing Up" and once at the beginning of "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning". They have been frequently impersonated, though, usually through the sides shapeshifting.

Lee and Mary Lee

"How are you doing, you beautiful man?"

We love each other, hence the marriage.

Thomas' long-time friends who are married to each other. They have been in Thomas' life at least since high school, maybe even longer. Lee covered Thomas' back when he first came out of the closet and Mary Lee was always ready to lend Thomas a hand in case he needed her help.

First appearance: "Selfishness v Selflessness", March 31, 2019 (mentioned); "Putting Others First: Selfishness V Selflessness Redux", May 1, 2020
Portrayed by: Aleksander Wilde and Diana Truman

---

• Childhood Friends: Lee, at least, goes way back with Thomas.
• Couple Theme Naming: They have very similar names, apparently for the sole reason of having Roman say the line "We get to see Mary Lee marry Lee merrily and their life becomes a dream!"
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Explored through them. Thomas must choose between attending their wedding, or going to a high-profile callback. He chooses the former, and struggles with whether or not it was the right choice. He and the Sides all eventually have to concede that in this case, there was no good option.
• Massively Numbered Siblings: Implied; Thomas wasn't a groomsman because all the spots (which can be anywhere between three and ten, depending on the wedding) were taken by Lee's brothers.
  Patton: It's not Lee's fault that he has so many brothers.
  Thomas: Catholics...
  Patton: Yeah, catholics...
  Roman: Those baby-making catholics...
• Remember the New Guy?: Though the two of them are said to be very good friends of Thomas', they were never mentioned before "Selfishness v Selflessness".
• Sickening Sweethearts: They spend their first appearence, as pixellated video game characters, getting distracted from talking to Thomas by kissing and complimenting each other. Justified, as they're newlyweds. They're still affectionate, but not nearly as cutesy when they appear in live-action at the end of the video.

Nico Flores

"Let's not waste this (opportunity)"

Mr. Flores, very formal of you! You can call me Nico if you like.

A cute guy that Thomas met at the mall. He's a writer and poet and, judging by the pins and stickers in his backpack and laptop, he has a lot of things in common with Thomas, who seemed to fall for him at first sight.

First appearance: "Flirting with Social Anxiety", October 10, 2020
Portrayed by: Manuel Marichal

---

• Birds of a Feather: A creator, like Thomas, though Nico has a tendency towards songwriting and poetry, while Thomas is more of a performer.
• Meaningful Name: Something we've known about Thomas for a long time is that he really likes flowers and wears floral shirts all the time. It was only destiny that he would fall for a guy named Nico Flores. ("Flores" in Spanish means "flowers").