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YMMV / Sanders Sides

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

  • Abandon Shipping:
    • Roceit/Princeit used to be a relatively popular Foe Yay Shipping, as Deceit made comments towards Roman that came across as flirtatious, with Roman seeming outright flattered. However, it mostly died out after "Putting Others First", where Roman laughs at Deceit's given name "Janus", in an act of vulnerability, that Deceit/Janus indicated in an effort to help Thomas. Not helping matters is that Roman makes it clear how he hates Janus' guts and still sees him as a bad guy even though he was just trying to help. Most Fanders were disgusted by Roman's actions, viewing a potential relationship between them as mutually unhealthy and abusive, at least for now. Others, while disapproving of Roman's behavior, saw Janus' response, comparing him to Remus as the worst of the twins, as disproportionate. Janus attacking Roman right in the weakest possible link of Roman's biggest fears and insecurities, knowing very well how much it would hurt him, had the result of Roman, almost immediately, ducking out to his room, completely devastated. In either way, esentially, the ship has sunk down for the time being, no matter which side people decide to take.
    • Some also feel this way about Moxiety after "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts" showed Virgil acting unusually cold towards Patton, even though the latter was the one who reached out to him and treated him like part of the team. This behavior got especially notable in the Sanders Asides episode, "Are There Healthy Distractions?", where Virgil spits several bitter remarks against Patton. Some speculate that Virgil blames Patton for the current situation with the Dark Sides. However, the ship isn't outright dead yet, it's merely "on the backburner" as people want to see if they fix their relationship or not.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Patton: Is he a patronizing moralist or carefree, happy jokester? Blindly optimistic or trying to convince himself just as much as everyone else that things can be good? Corny dad treating everyone around him like his children, or irresponsible Manchild? Comic relief or Hidden Depths?
    • Logan: Enthusiastic geek simply excited to share his knowledge, or snobbish, elitist smartass ready to lecture anyone on their stupidity? Unable to read social cues because of a reclusive lifestyle, or because of psychological reasons? Emotionally cold and unavailable out of cruelty, or because he just doesn't function that way? Does he have no emotional intelligence or does he pretend to so he can be hurtful to people and get away with it?
    • Roman: Yearning to express himself and spark inspiration, or vain, self-obsessed attention seeker in love with the stage? Drama queen or genuinely emotionally impulsive? Hopeless romantic looking for love or for someone to be his fan and worship him?
    • Virgil: Trying to cover up his pain and damage by playing up an emo aesthetic, or pretending to be more troubled than he is to seem more edgy and dangerous? Does he view the dark sides as friend or foe? Still a dangerous and manipulative force, or a friend who needs to be accepted and taken care of, despite the problems he causes?
    • Deceit: Trying to steer Thomas onto a path that he deems right, or just trying to wreak havoc and stir up confusion and guilt? Cold-hearted, careless sociopath playing with the others for his own personal amusement, or misunderstood, brilliant philosopher just trying to make his point? Does he care or does he just pretend to? Does he actually have a moral code, or is he amoral? Compulsive liar or calculated manipulator? Magnificent Bastard or just a bastard?
    • Remus: Evil or just Chaotic Neutral? Purposefully trying to provoke, or just not understanding boundaries and societal norms? Actually contributing something of worth, Should his form of creativity be accepted and expressed? Should he be amplified? Are Roman and Patton actually the evil one for trying to supress him? Should the end goal be for Roman and Remus to unite to achieve one fulfilled creativity?
    • Thomas: Emotionally sensible and examining his feelings in a productive way, or just waiting for his sides to step in to deal with his problems for him? Kind-hearted and optimistic, or naive and immature?
  • Alternate Self Shipping: All of the ships, since the characters are different aspects of Thomas' personality. Quite a few people in the fandom ship all of the Sides together, the ship name being LAMP/CALM, from each first alphabet of the Sides' names.
  • Angel/Devil Shipping: The basis for Light Sides/Dark Sides ships. Especially when it's Roman or Patton with Deceit.
  • Awesome Music:
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Half the fandom regards Deceit as someone genuinely good, and the other half holds him as a Manipulative Bastard and jerk. And while one part of the fandom considers him a well-done antagonist with an interesting characterization, others consider him to be kind of weak, thinking that the concept wasn't used to it's full potential or generally preferring other antagonists, like Virgil or Remus.
    • Similar splitting has also come in regards to Patton after Selfishness v. Selflessness and Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts. Half started to see Pat as a puritanical, manipulative tyrant while others (the majority of whom were already massive Patton stans) held onto their view that Patton could do no wrong and was simply an innocent cinnamon roll. The remainder see Patton as having a tendency towards rigid moral stances and so a character that does have flaws, but are willing to wait and see if he will learn from his mistakes before decrying him as utterly toxic.
  • Cargo Ship:
    • Logan/Crofters. Hey, it's technically canon. And from the Sanders Asides series, there is Logan/Unicorn Onesie.
    • Some ship Roman/his sword.
  • Common Crossover: With the Sanders Shorts characters, since they had the same origin. Thomas himself stated that he doesn't plan to include any of them into the Sides canon at the moment, leading to many fanders just inserting various other Sanders characters into the context of this series. Especially Sleep Guy.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: The Dark Sides get a lot of this, despite not having many redeeming qualities in-canon. The fact that Virgil managed to do a Heel–Face Turn is usually seen as "proof" that the Dark Sides aren't inherently evil, however, Deceit still manipulates Thomas into thinking that he's a bad person for minor selfish actions and Remus is sadistic, and physically violent towards the others.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Remus then beat all records by how quickly he became the beloved trash baby of the fandom.
    • Thomas' friends, despite not appearing all that often in the Sides videos in person, are very popular in the fandom for being fun, supportive people one could only dream to hang out with. Them playing the Sides continues to be a very popular moment.
      • Valerie is especially loved for appearing less often than anyone else, as well as having a brief but memorable encounter with a "Dragon Witch".
    • The Dragon Witch herself counts, for being an Offscreen Moment of Awesome. She garnered fanart and even cosplay, the latter surprised Thomas himself.
    • Leslie Odom Jr appearing As Himself in "Putting Others First" was very well-received, even with the contents of the episode.
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • Deceit's given name. Some speculate it's "Dolion" (greek for "deceitful"), others dislike him conforming to the "-on"/"-an" standard, thinking his name is going to be something entirely different, much like Virgil and Remus. The latter were actually in the right, since his name is revealed to be Janus.
    • Who is the yet to be revealed Dark Side? Content creators generally agreed that he has an orange color scheme, but they can't really agree on anything else. Many speculate that he's Logan's Evil Counterpart, since Deceit is seen as Patton's counterpart (lying goes against the very ideals of morality) and Roman and Remus are confirmed to be each other's counterpart. Such speculation has only had more fuel added to the fire given one event from the "Working THROUGH Intrusive Thoughts" video.
    • After "Putting Others First", and even long before that, people started speculating that each Side represents both negative and positive character traits, after it's revealed that Janus represents both Deceit and Self-care. What the other Sides represent beyond their introduced trait is still speculated, however, Virgil is generally agreed to represent both healthy Anxiety and Paranoia.
    • Also, many think that Roman will end up pulling a Face–Heel Turn after he realizes that everyone but Virgil ended up siding with Janus.
  • Evil Is Cool: Deceit. Yeah, he's a bad dude, but he's also funny, has some excellent makeup effects, and is a genuine threat, which makes him much more intimidating than Virgil ever was.
  • Fan Fic Fuel: Just like Inside Out, any character or real person can have Sides. Some fans even created Sides based on their own personality.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • After Patton coined it, it's common to hear Virgil being referred to as "Dark strange son".
    • It's also common to affectionately shorten Deceit's name to "Dee". "Slimy boi" is also common after Thomas insulted him that way.
    • Remus is officially known as "Trash baby".
    • Roman and Remus are often called the "Creativitwins".
  • Fanon:
    • Patton is said to be the master of the Squee.
    • A number of people like to think Deceit had notes written on his hands in "Can Lying Be Good?" which helped him stay in character. Not that it did him much good in the end.
    • It's also generally agreed that Deceit has to lie, whether it'd actually be beneficial for him or not. This has already been jossed in canon, but still a lot of Fanders have taken the idea and run with it in fanwork, mainly for all the potential comedy.
    • Most agree that Deceit was probably at his strongest when Thomas was still closeted.
    • Related to the above, a very widespread idea that Deceit and Roman have some messy history.
    • Deceit being the mom or dad friend of the “Dark Sides.” The former is especially popular, both to further emphasis his contrast with Patton and to joke about Deceit being a “wine mom.”
    • Picani and Sleep from the Thomas' other projects are usually headcanoned to be the children of Logan/Patton and Roman/Virgil respectively.
    • Some fanart portrays Patton with freckles, partly to distinguish him from Logan and partly because he simply looks even cuter with freckles. Also, Patton is usually portrayed with round glasses, even though Logan and him wear the same square glasses.
    • Roman and Remus are generally considered to have once been the same Side known as "The King", often called "Romulus" (continuing the themed naming of Roman and Remus), until Thomas valuing the good side of creativity let to a split turning them into separate individuals.
    • Roman is usually featured in fan-art wearing a crown, so much so that it's become an iconic garment associated with him, even though canonically he never wore a crown on screen (in April 2023, because of a real-life physical skin sickness of Thomas that made him lose hair temporarily, to cover this, Roman would finally be featured wearing a crown in the non-canonical "Sanders Sides Incorrect Quotes vol. 2").
      • Remus, as Roman's brother, is also often portrayed on fan-art with a crown, even though canonically he's a duke, not a prince, and like his brother, he was never canonically featured wearing a crown. Unlike Roman's gold crown, Remus's crown is generally depicted silver (to go with his color scheme) and often has a crack in it to represent his insanity.
    • Remus is sometimes depicted as being able to grow tentacles from his back, in similar fashion to Doc Ock or the Operator. Playing with his octopus motif and giving him a more sinister, inhuman edge.
    • Some fanartists put Remus in poofy shorts despite there being shots of him wearing black pants. Joan admits that they prefer them too.
    • If the Dark Sides were also transformed into puppets, Deceit would've been a marionette, while Remus would've been an animatronic. Thomas outright confirmed that they considered turning Deceit into a marionette, but couldn't find a way to work him into the episode.
    • With the main Dark Sides having Animal Motifs, some think that the main sides also have animals associated with them. Logan is usually a crow, Roman is a cat, Patton is a dog (usually a beagle), and Virgil is either also a (different breed of) cat or a raccoon. After "Putting Others First", Patton being a frog became pretty popular, too.
    • The Sides at different heights, even though they share the same traits as Thomas, sometimes utilized in humanization or stylization. Logan is usually taller than Patton in Logicality fanart, with Patton being taller than Virgil. This was given credit in "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts" as Remus was shown to be slightly taller than Deceit, which many haven't interpreted as Deceit being short, Roman and Remus are just freakishly tall.
    • There is widely accepted fanon about how the Mindscape, or the inside of Thomas' mind, is structured. This includes each of the Sides' "rooms" opening up into a shared living space, including a living room and kitchen. The Dark Sides typically have a separate living space, usually lower down in the Subconscious. It also includes the Imagination, a separate realm within the Mindscape which is shaped and governed by Roman and Remus, and usually takes the form of a fantasy-land in which they can have adventures. The Dragon Witch is almost always a major "npc" in the Imagination, though the level of antagonism varies.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: "Becoming a Cartoon" gets this treatment sometimes, largely due to the involvement of Butch Hartman, whose later stunts made his appearance a lot Harsher in Hindsight. The cartoony versions of Thomas and his Sides are also mostly rejected by fanartists, since they look nothing like Thomas.
  • Friendly Fandoms:
  • Gotta Ship 'Em All: As the story went on and the Sides interacted with each other, some ships started flourishing among Fanders. Now we're at a point where there's a ship for everyone, and each of them has got a name.
    • Prinxiety: Anxiety usually gets shipped with Princey, the ship being dubbed Prinxiety by fans. Probably has something to do with the fact that Virgil seems to favor picking on Roman more than the others, and Roman's monologue to Virgil in "Accepting Anxiety: Part 2" was a huge load of fuel for the ship.
    • Logicality: There are also those who ship Logic and Morality, especially after the ending of "Moving On: Part 2".
    • Analogical: The ship between Anxiety and Logic started picking up steam after "My Negative Thinking".
    • Moxiety: Some ship Morality and Anxiety, but their relation is more father-son-like in-universe, even if they're not canonically father and son.
    • Logince: The ship between Logic and Prince Roman got some fuel after "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?".
    • Royality: Shipping between Roman (Royal) and Morality is probably the less popular, as there hasn't been an episode focused on them both yet, but still it's got its defenders.
    • LAMP: Also known as CALM, Polyasanders, and Polyamsanders, is the ship between Logic, Anxiety, Morality, and Princey. It has a small but growing fanbase (especially on Tumblr).
    • Now that Deceit is joining the party, we have Loceit (Logic and Deceit), Roceit/Princeit (Roman and Deceit), Anceit/Anxeit (Anxiety and Deceit), Moceit (Morality and Deceit), and DLAMP (Deceit and LAMP). Deceit-included Side ships in the fandom are generally considered as toxic ships to some fans and just as sweet as the other ships to others though, just like the character himself.
    • Demus/Receit: Two alternate names for the ship between Remus and Deceit. Even though they haven't truly shared a single scene together yet, the ship has already been extensively featured in fanart and fanfics. Some people also write it as "Dukeceit", given that for Roman, his title is used instead of the part of the personality he represents.
    • Ships with Remus are written as "Intrulogical" (Remus/Logan), "Intruxiety" (Remus/Virgil) and "Intrurality" (Remus/Patton). Roman/Remus also exists as "RemRom" and it has a certain amount of followers, while others, the ones against Incest Yay Shipping go from ignoring it to being strongly against it. Its family/platonic counterpart is generally much more accepted, though, to differentiate it from RemRom, it receives the name Creativitwins.
  • Growing the Beard: There are several points along the series that fill up this trope.
    • Some think that "Alone on Valentine's Day!", where Joan first joined in as co-writer, is the beginning of an evolution in "Sanders Sides", where characters and stories started being developed to a new level of detail.
    • Others add "Can Lying Be Good" as another point of huge change in the series, as Deceit was the first truly dark and sinister character to be introduced in the series.
    • Others point out that "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts" signals a new change in the dynamics of the series, not only because it starts discussing more mature content with the introduction of Remus, but also because it adds a whole new level of technical detail in the production of the series, specially in the song sequence that was highly praised for its editing and visual effects.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: In 2017's "Moving On, Part 2/2", Roman gets excited for all the roles they (he and Thomas) haven't yet played, including Sweeney Todd. In 2023, the real Thomas finally got to star as Sweeney, fulfilling one of his dreams.
  • He Really Can Act: While nobody can deny that Thomas is a good actor, he usually only plays one character at a time. This series really demonstates just how good of an actor he really is, you'd swear that the Sides are actually different people talking to each other.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • At the end of the very first episode, "My True Identity!", Roman suggests that the three Sides and Thomas perform songs in four-part harmony in the style of Jon Cozart, with mixed reactions from the rest. More than a year later, we get the 2017 Christmas Episode, which has Roman, Logan, Patton and Virgil doing exactly that with "The 12 Days of Christmas".
    • After his debate with Virgil in "My Negative Thinking", Logan talks about Patton and Roman bringing in a lot of sunshine, and that he couldn't imagine having a debate with either one of them. Fast forward to "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?", which is essentially a lengthy debate between Logan and Roman.
  • Ho Yay: In this video, Thomas said that Virgil and Roman have an "on and off relationship", which could be taken many ways, but if the comment section is anything to go by then this trope is the most popular interpretation.
  • I Knew It!:
    • This theory predicted "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?" accurately.
    • In "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts," Virgil reveals he's a former Dark Side. Cue 99% of the Fanders screaming "CALLED IT!"
    • This tumblr post predicted Deceit's true name right the same day he was revealed.
  • It Was His Sled: The Side's real names are publicly known to almost the entirety of the fandom. Its wiki even has them on the homepage.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Virgil, sometimes. He's mean and cynical, but he clearly doesn't like how he's always the bad guy, and how no one likes having him around. Especially since, as he's the Anthropomorphic Personification of anxiety itself, he's hated for literally just being himself and doing his job.
    • Janus, while he was a Manipulative Bastard before, he still genuinely tried to help Thomas in "Putting Others First", even going so far as to revealing his name to prove that he isn't just manipulating everyone again. He still gets harshly rejected by Roman, even when there's no denying that he just wanted to help Thomas at that moment.
    • Roman himself, while it was rude and uncalled for to laugh at Janus' name, he realized how he broke his own pedestal in Thomas' eyes and actually thought that he was in the right to do so.
  • LGBT Fanbase: Considering that this series was created by an openly gay actor, with all of the characters being gay, it would've been surprising if this didn't get one. And indeed, the fanbase hands out gay content like candy.
  • Love to Hate: Some Fanders hope that Deceit does not have a redemption arc.
  • Memetic Badass: Logan. Being able to No-Sell anything the Dark Sides throw at him caused this reaction.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Vetal Miking. This is a flub Talyn made when they were acting as Logan in "Making Some Changes!". The original line was "Viking Metal", which Talyn had lots of difficulty saying as quickly as they needed to.
    • *offended Princey noises*
    • logan.exe stopped working or anything that has to do with Logan and computers.
    • FALSEHOOD!!!!
    • Infinitesimal. Logan had made a mistake in the past with the word, thinking that it meant 'really big', when it actually means 'really small'. Patton loves to bring it up to him, much to his irritation.
    • "Bitchmas", the expression used by Roman during his argument with Logan in Learning New Things About Ourselves', could also be counted as a meme now as well.
    • An image of Remus hitting Roman with a mace has begun to spread on tumblr, with people putting captions over each of them
    • Virgil's shoes have gained a following after they were seen for the first time in the DWIT Outtake video.
    • Patton and Janus (Deceit) being the divorced parents of the other Sides, especially in human AU’s. With Putting Others First ending with the two of them seeing eye-to-eye and sharing some surprisingly tender moments, the joke expanded to Patton and Janus getting remarried or not finalizing the divorce.
  • Moe:
  • Most Wonderful Sound: While Thomas already has an amazing singing voice as it is, his singing gains a whole new meaning in the Christmas Episode when Logan, who was simply speaking his lines in rhythm during "The 12 Days of Christmas", suddenly bursts into song for one single line:
    Logan: Fiiiive Croooofter's jaaaaams!
  • Narm: Deceit's Given Name Reveal is a very tense and meaningful moment. Unfortunately, he looks at his hand before he stretches it out to swear that he's telling the truth, but due to the way the scene was framed, some people thought his name was written on his palm, making him look like a Forgetful Jones and thus making the scene more comical than it was intended to be.
  • Never Live It Down: Once anyone brings up Remus, the first thing they mention is usually him eating deodorant. Despite the fact that he only ate deodorant in two scenes (one of them being the endcard) and has done way worse things, like eating a severed bloody arm.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • When Deceit was impersonating Patton, a lot of fans were unnerved, especially when "Patton" starts mocking Thomas and shuts Logan up.
    • While Remus' antics are hammy and hilarious, he can also be scary. Particularly with his jumpscare and the physical abuse he put the Sides into. His introduction is genuinely creepy, when he causes Thomas to zone out and suddenly hear his own voice say, "Have you ever thought about killing your brother?" Then he appears behind Roman with an evil grin... and a huge mace.
      Virgil: Ghosts aren't evil, they just scare people because you never know when they're gonna [spots Remus, and suddenly slips into tempest tongue] show up!
      Roman: [oblivious] Okay, okay, I take back what I said about ghosts!
      [Remus knocks him out. The others gasp and recoil.]
      Patton: [shrieks] You killed him!
      Logan: Ah. It's the Duke.
      Remus: Boo.
    • There’s something deeply unsettling with the way Remus moves at times, particularly during quick shots as he reacts to the other sides.
    • Patton of all people generates this in "Putting Others First". While his breakdown turning him into a giant frog is Played for Laughs, Patton still had a breakdown, which causes him to turn into a monster. And then he hypothetically threatens Leslie Odom Jr and later gives Thomas a Sadistic Choice if he wants to save himself or Lee and Mary Lee from an uncoming trolley. Even Deceit is disturbed by Patton's behaviour.
      • Even before this, the first trolley problem that was brought up by Roman was equally as disturbing. Patton is asked to make a hypothetical choice of letting the trolley either kill Leslie Odom Jr, or his dearest friends. The graphics don’t help much either; Thomas is portrayed standing at the lever while the screen shakes as the trolley quickly approaches. Unable to make a choice, he covers his eyes as the trolley runs full speed into his friends with a Smash to Black on impact.
        Thomas, understandably unnerved: Constructive criticism, y’know, maybe not to pick scenarios where my friends die.
      • Patton's Black-and-White Insanity and unreasonably high standards by themseves are beyond disturbing. He constantly tries to sugar-coat it, but he believes that the only way for Thomas to be a good person is to sacrifice everything for others, without spending more than the bare minimum for himself. Even just feeling good for helping others is too selfish for him. He wants Thomas to essentially become a martyr and states outright that he's not sure if Thomas deserves to have a good life. Coming from a side who is usually nothing but kind, it's incredibly creepy.
    • Logan finally snapping at Remus in "Sanders Asides: Working THROUGH Intrusive Thoughts". His outburst isn’t Played for Laughs like his usual “FALSEHOOD” moments... and his eyes suddenly glow orange.
      Logan: Stop IGNORING ME!!!
  • No Yay:
    • Many content creators within the Sanders Sides fandom have refused to ship Deceit with anyone, as he embodies an inherently dangerous aspect of any relationship (lying).
    • With the appearance of Remus, a significant portion of the fans are against shipping him and Roman as they are established to be brothers.
    • While most of the shipping between Sides is completely accepted by the fandom, shipping any of them with Thomas himself is generally frowned upon, since they are a part of him, so Thomas could just as effectively be making out with his own hand.
  • Paranoia Fuel:
    • Since Deceit's first appearance is to impersonate Patton, a lot of fans fear if another malicious Dark Side will do it again to any of the Core Four or if it happened before.
    • Also, the reveal that Deceit can force the others to keep quiet about things Thomas doesn't want to know about, even things that are important or even harmful. What else has Deceit been keeping a lid on?
    • Remus is the personification of intrusive thoughts. He can strike whenever you're least expecting it and he's only gone when you don't check if he's gone.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Ship names are mainly comprised of these. For example, Princey/Anxiety together is Prinxiety, Logic/Morality is Logicality, and so on.
  • Recurring Fanon Character: As mentioned before, "King Creativity/Romulus" (Roman and Remus before the split) appears sometimes in fanwork either in a flashback or in a fanmade ending showing the twins putting their differences aside for good and becoming one Side again. Note that "The Split" is never really elaborated upon, being only used as an explanation as to why Thomas has two different types of Creativity, as explained by Logan. In Human AUs, the King is often portrayed as Roman's and Remus' father.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Deceit, while never a Scrappy, had a divisive reputation, many people debated if he was a good antagonist or even a good character. "Putting Others First" helped winning most of his detractors over, as he showed real positive personality traits, including being somewhat Adorkable, and makes clear that he actually cares about Thomas's well-being, after previous attempts at winning Thomas over were dismissed as simply hogging sympathy.
    • Some argue that the same episode did the same thing for Patton. While he was a popular Side from the beginning, he garnered a divisive response for being overly judgemental and self-righteous, to the point that some people outright slandered him. The episode makes clear that sometimes, even he can't differentiate right from wrong, and that that's an actual character flaw rather than the narrative simply siding with him for no reason. He even strikes up an Odd Friendship with Deceit/Janus, much like he did with Virgil, showcasing that he doesn't blindly hate the Others, at least not anymore.
  • Ron the Death Eater: While this happens to every Side, usually tagged as “Unsympathetic [Side],” it perhaps most frequently occurs with Patton and Janus, see below.
    • Patton has this done to him disturbingly frequently by the fanbase, turning the sweet-as-sugar father figure into a judgemental, prejudiced and sometimes even violent tyrant. Reasons for this vary from simple dislike for his character, thinking his attitude is overly saccharine and trying to go the opposite direction, to making the Dark Sides look good by portraying him as a Jerkass to One who caused their miserable existences. Even though the canon never really put him into an antagonistic position, and even if it did, he usually felt remorse for his actions or was at least called out on it.
    • While Deceit in the show proper is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who ultimately has Thomas' best interests at heart, many fanworks portray him as outright villainous, cruel and abusive.
  • Self-Fanservice: While it's mostly to draw him easier, rather than actually making him more attractive (though there's certainly an overlap), Deceit's scales on his face are frequently downplayed or removed completely in fan work.
  • Ship Mates:
    • Logicality for Prinxiety.
    • Also Logince for Moxiety. And Analogical for Royality.
    • Receit goes well with all of these.
    • Roceit for Intrulogical, and Moxiety is often paired in works with the two aforementioned ships as well, though it’s just as often platonic.
    • After "Putting Others First", Moceit is very commonly paired with Prinxiety, with Virgil and Roman gaining a mutual understanding, usually in a Hurt/Comfort Fic. Rarely, the same scenario could be done with Loceit and Creativitwins respectively (the latter platonically, of course).
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Surprisingly averted for the most part, with the Sanders Sides fandom becoming known for being the most civil with it's ships. However, there is some discussion out there on whether or not it's okay to ship Deceit with anyone or shipping Roman and Remus with each other.
  • Shocking Moments:
    • "Can Lying Be Good?" really ramped up the "WHAT" level with the introduction of Deceit, who not only impersonates Patton, but can hide other Sides from Thomas — and force the main four to keep quiet about it. Add in the fact that he's genuinely malicious, and thus the first Side we've ever seen that's a true threat, and you've got one jaw-dropping episode.
    • "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts" ups the ante again with the character of Remus/the Duke, who is not only threatening but genuinely violent toward other Sides. The episode itself crossed quite a few lines for the first time as well, it being the first in the show to discuss sexual themes, violence and death, as well as showing blood in a violent context.
    • "Sanders Asides: Working THROUGH Intrusive Thoughts" did this with three little words; “Stop IGNORING ME!” This moment made many fans’ jaws drop because Logan’s eyes glowed orange as he yelled this at Remus, especially since orange is assumed to be the color of the much-hyped final Dark Side.
  • Unpopular Popular Character:
    • Virgil used to be this. Thomas was initially scared of him, Roman detested him, Logan argued with him a lot and the only one who geniunely seemed to like him was Patton. The fanbase however loves him for his good Character Development and surprising relatability. Even after the others warmed up to him, he continues to be among the most popular Sides, or even the most popular Side.
    • The Dark Sides in general are hated by the the core five. They are very popular in the fanbase for their unique concept and their effectiveness.
  • Vanilla Protagonist: While Character!Thomas isn't disliked, the series is about the Sides of his personality with him as a character being used as a Framing Device. Many fanwork either has him Demoted to Extra or omitted entirely, usually in AU stories where the Sides are humanized since it wouldn't make much sense to include Thomas in the narrative.

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