Sanders Sides / Fridge

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

Fridge Brilliance

Contrary to what the main part of the fandom seems to believe, green is not the opposite color of red. Anyone who has worked with HEX codes can confirm that. Green is, however, the shadow color of red, meaning that something red is usually shaded using green. This fits into the interpretation of Remus being everything Roman wishes to avoid.
Roman is using his right hand to write, although Thomas is a leftie. This is because Roman is from the right side of the brain.
- If seen from Thomas' perspective, Patton and Roman are at his left side, while Logan and Virgil have their usual residence at his right side. The right side of the brain is in charge of controlling your left side, and in reverse.
- Also, its said that the left side of the brain manages your critical thinking and deductive reasoning, while the right side manages your emotional responses and creative desires. It makes sense that Logan (Thomas' logic and analytical skills) and Virgil (Thomas's anxieties and survival instinct) are on the left side of the viewer's perspective, while the Patton (Thomas's emotional responses) and Roman (Thomas's creativity) are on the right.
Roman does not only embody Thomas' creativity, but also his courage and bravoure. Why? Well, as Henry Matisse said, "Courage is needed for creativity".
Patton's cardigan, onesie and hoodie are grey because in morality, there are no absolutes like white and black.
There are a couple of points in Sanders Sides where Patton sings lyrics from Rihanna and Katy Perry. They're odd choices for a Shout-Out, until you realize that he's singing lyrics from pop music.
A bit Harsher in Hindsight, but in "The Dark Side of Disney!", when talking about the hidden meaning in "Cinderella", Virgil says "Sure, just literally wait around your entire life, subjecting yourself to the cruelty of your ungrateful, ignorant family members, until some magical fairy comes along to save you". Was he only talking about Cinderella, or also thinking of himself always being ignored and unappreciated by the other Sides?
During "Am I ORIGINAL?", When Logan roasts Roman with his poetry skills, there is this line that he raps: "You're through. Go home, Princey. Pack it up." In a certain song that plays during "Mulan", a similar lyric is sung: "So pack up, go home, you're through." That's right; Logan used lyrics from Disney as his weapon. Against the Side that represents Thomas' love of Disney songs.
In "My NEGATIVE thinking", Virgil accuses Logan of taking Roman's side, to which Logan and Thomas object, confused. However, the reason Virgil accuses him is not because of the conflict regarding the audition, but the events of the previous video, "Am I ORIGINAL?".
In "Becoming a CARTOON!", When Thomas interrupts Virgil's words, he replies with "Can I- Can I finish my thought? Can I- Can I continue?" to Thomas, who quickly lets him proceed. In one of the previous episodes, "My NEGATIVE thinking", when Virgil interrupts Logan's words he replied with "Can I- Can I finish? Can I finish my statement, I was making a statement if you let me finish-". Virgil learned from Logan on how to resume talking about his opinion to the others after being interrupted without being (too) antagonistic... Even before his reformation.
- Furthermore, this is right after Logan presses Virgil to continue speaking his thoughts, after he gets interrupted by both Roman and Thomas.
At the end of "Am I ORIGINAL?", Roman says "Thanks, everyone. Well, almost everyone.", referring to Virgil being the only one who was unhelpful to him. Virgil quietly sinks out, downhearted. At the climax of "ACCEPTING ANXIETY, Part 2", when Thomas and the other Sides except Roman try to convince Virgil to come back, Virgil answers "I mean, it's cool to see you all trying to be helpful. Well, most of you, but-", referring to the creative side being the only one who doesn't care, before Roman cuts him off to finally apologize to him. It could be that Roman realized he had been unhelpful to Virgil as well, and they hadn't been so different after all.
- Also Fridge Heartwarming- Virgil had started his next words with a "but-", before Roman cut him off. He was about to refuse going back, had Roman not apologized to him and changed his mind.
In "ACCEPTING ANXIETY, Part 2", Thomas compares to Anxiety as an important alarm clock, and mentions that the noise can be sudden and a little unpleasant sometimes. When Thomas and the other Sides try to convince him about how important Anxiety is to them afterwards, Patton, in the middle of corruption, suddenly shouts out his opinion, unpleasantly scaring Logan. Patton quickly apologises, explaining that "[he] was worried that [he] would not get another chance to speak and [he] wanted to share [his] thoughts before [he] forgot it". It could be possible that that explains Anxiety's actions being 'sudden and a bit unpleasant'. He had been worrying about the same thing, probably during every decision making, since the other Sides had been regarding his thoughts as unimportant up until this point.
A bit of Fridge Horror, but in "Can Lying Be Good?", it makes sense that Patton (really Deceit) would want to be the director so badly. He wants to ensure that everyone stays on track with what he wants to achieve, as well as alter anything in order to achieve the lies being perfect. Note how ecstatic and satisfied he is after a scene/act is done perfectly, as well as his prompting for Logan to explain every type of lie.
When Patton disturbs Deceit, the latter says "Ow, that hurt!" and then quickly corrects it with "No, that didn't hurt, at all!". It's likely Patton's appearance diluted him a bit.
Virgil and Logan are in the Classical Elements Ensemble established as Water and Earth, respectively, which are both 'negative' elements in astrology. The video featuring both of them (and only those two) is called "My Negative Thinking".
- Not only that, but most videos featuring only two of them have a title that refers to them.
  - Roman and Virgil have "The Dark Side of Disney!" - with the "Disney" part referring to Roman and the "Dark Side" referring to Virgil.
  - Logan and Virgil in "My Negative Thinking" mentioned above - with the "Negative" part referring to Virgil and the "Thinking" part referring to Logan.
  - Logan and Patton's collaboration is very clear about it, being named "The Mind VS The Heart!".
- Virgil being associated with the element of water is not only fitting because he displays traits from a Water personality, but also reflects that he was "rejected" first and gained their trust later.
In "Moving On", everyone, especially Virgil, is genuinely shocked and concerned when Logan 'leaves' them, but when he tells him not to do [that stunt] again afterwards Logan smugly asks him if "[they] honestly thought [he] was fully out of the conversation". Of course they may as well have, since there was only an episode gap between "Moving On" and "Accepting Anxiety", when Virgil truly had left them, 'removing himself from the equation'.
In "The Sanders Sides 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS!", Logan gives Virgil a gift card for audiobooks that he could listen to calm himself down in moments of 'excessive alarm'. The two episodes before the Christmas special were "Moving On" part one and two, of which during most part only Logan had been able to realize how much Virgil's panic was kicking in. Moreover, during Part 1, he had unintentionally abandoned Virgil to deal with his situation alone, earning a What The Hell, Hero? reaction from him later. Logan may have been trying to make up to him by giving him the gift card as his Christmas present.
- Also, Virgil's gift to Patton in the Christmas special is a card... Just like what Patton had given to Virgil at the end of "ACCEPTING Anxiety" part two.
Deceit wears black and yellow, which is a common combination in warning signs, and is frequently seen on venomous animals such as wasps... and snakes.
Some Heartwarming in Hindsight: When Deceit stated that he was and always has been Patton, Roman and Logan don't believe him, but Thomas is anxious about it. This implies Virgil was also fooled, so his relief at seeing the real Patton is made all the more powerful.
- Virgil being (however briefly) fooled but Logan knowing better also makes perfect sense, once you think about it. If you have ever had an anxiety attack, then you know how badly it can warp your perception of what's going on — even if, on a logical and objective level, you realize you're being irrational. How many times have you worked yourself into a panic over a situation that the logical side of your brain knows is probably not that big a deal?
Obviously Deceit would have had trouble disguising himself as Logan in Selfishness v. Selflessness. He's well, Deceit, and Logan's the personification of Thomas' logic and knowledge.
In Selfishness v. Selflessness, Thomas says the date of the callback is April, 'lucky number,' 13th. He lies about how 'lucky' the number is from the beginning, this may be an implication that first of all, Deceit would appear later in the episode, and second- Thomas may be lying to himself about... other things related to the callback and the wedding day...
- Also, at the beginning of the episode Patton tells Thomas about all the reasons why he should skip the callback and go to his friends' wedding instead, and Thomas agrees to every single one of them except when Patton says he really wanted to go to the wedding. At that one moment, Thomas hesitates, and Deceit (impersonating Logan) appears.
The Duke/Dark Creativity reveals his name is "Remus". "Remus", as in the brother of Romulus, who the city of Rome was named after. A perfect name for Roman's brother. Also, as Joan pointed out in the 4th of July public livestream, "Remus" literally means "twin".
In "Selfishness v. Selflessness," Deceit makes everyone swear to tell the truth in his courtroom scenario. What everyone swears on is an insight to their character:
- Thomas swears on the Bible, as is the norm in America. Not only does this fit his status as the Token Human, it also makes sense when the next episode reveals Thomas was raised Catholic, and based his first sense of morality on his religious upbringing.
- Patton, the personification of said morality, also swears on the Bible — specifically, the youth edition. This fits with Patton's childish personality, as well as the fact that Thomas' moral code — which includes "lying is wrong" — began in his childhood. Youth editions of the Bible also tend to be rather simplistic and pare down the confusing, gory, or seemingly contradictory parts, in favor of much more straightforward stories and lessons. Given that Black-and-White Insanity is arguably Patton's biggest character flaw...
- Logan swears on A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. As Thomas' logic, and a believer that everything should be based on cold, hard facts, of course he'd swear on something that is indisputably true.
- Roman swears on a VHS copy of Pinocchio. Roman's a Disney fanboy, so this makes sense — and, of course, Pinocchio has the importance of honesty as a main theme. Bonus: The famous nose-growing scene occurs in the context of Pinocchio having gotten into trouble in pursuit of an acting career.
- Virgil swears on a copy of Grimm's fairy tales. Not only does this fit Virgil's love of spooky things, bear in mind, what's one of the main problems with having excessive anxiety? It can make you worry about things that aren't real — like fairy tales. Fairy tales often have some sort of moral lesson at the end.
- And perhaps most tellingly, Deceit doesn't actually swear on anything at all — apparently, we're just supposed to take him at his word. Given that Deceit is lies personified, him swearing to be 100% truthful might be physically impossible.
  - In a similar vein, a rewatch reveals that Virgil also technically doesn't swear on anything, not even verbally like Deceit did. He refuses to put his hand on the book and just mutters "whatever." Given that anxiety sometimes causes you to see problems where there are none, and can put thoughts in your head that are objectively nonsense, it's possible Virgil can't swear to always be truthful either. Not out of malice, but just because that's not really how he works.
When Patton gets nervous when Logan almost mentions the intrusive thoughts in front of Roman, he starts singing "Hey now, hey now, stop what you are saying..." He sings this covering the 1980's song Don't Dream it's Over by Crowded House (the actual verse of the song goes "Hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over"). It makes sense that Patton, being the dad of the group, enjoys Adult Contemporary music.
One of the lyrics from Remus' Villain Song is "Everybody sins, everybody dies." This may have originated from a bible verse, more specifically one from Romans 5:12 : "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned."
Roman coming back to life. Remember what he is especially passionate about. He experienced a literal Disney Death.
Why the name "Janus" for Deceit? Well, Janus in Roman Mythology was known as the Two-Faced God.
Fridge Heartwarming, but when Deceit appears to counter Patton, he uses his cane to swing Thomas behind him, effectively protecting him from Patton's self-sacrificial suggestions.
Later, when Patton asks if Thomas deserves to focus solely on himself, his words attack (similarly to Tears of Themis) just as Deceit's had done—except this time, it strikes Thomas himself. Fitting for The Reveal that the video-game-style health bars actually reflect Thomas's Mental health.
Why is Roman so dogmatically opposed to Deceit and any acceptance of him in the group? It might be because he's a fairytale hero based on classic "hero's journey"-type stories with clearly discernible heroes and villains. Thus, he thinks in black and white.
When the first trolley scene happens, we see Thomas' HP points. He has 100HP. Later, when Logan pops up too close to Patton, he hits him, and it is seen that Patton loses 2HP. Later, in the second trolley scene after Patton has gone LillyPadton mode, Thomas' HP score is seen again, and he has 98HP, 2 points less than before. It seems that any damage done to any of the Sides is actually damage done to Thomas himself.
In "Can Lying Be Good?", Roman only realizes Deceit is among them when "Patton" waves his hand and forces Logan to Hand Gag himself. In addition to it obviously being OOC for Patton to do such a thing, why else would this tip him off? In "Accepting Anxiety, Part 2," he suddenly silenced himself in the same way after revealing to Thomas that there were other Sides. That wasn't voluntary; Deceit was forcing him to be quiet! Also explains why Roman is so reluctant to trust him later on—one has to imagine that would feel like a pretty big violation.
In "Why Do We Get Out of Bed in the Morning?" Roman references a (fictional) social media app called "Twinster," which shows what you would look like if you had an identical twin, and then proceeds to use it on himself. Over a year later, "Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts" reveals Roman's actual twin.
Remus has been self-described as "stinky," (not surprising in that he eats deodorant instead of putting it on), but in "Working Through Intrusive Thoughts" he reveals that he's allergic to soap. He literally can't wash the stink off of himself even if he wanted to.
A bit of Fridge Humor for "Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux." When discussing how Lee has a ton of brothers, Roman grumbles about "those baby-making Catholics." It may have been unintentional on Thomas' part, but this could be a PG-rated way of saying "those fucking Catholics."
Why does Remus do everything in "Working Through Intrusive Thoughts" by way of a Rube Goldberg Device instead of just directly targeting Thomas? Because Thomas is experiencing cognitive distortions, magnifying his thoughts of disaster. The chain of events that lead into the effects that Remus wants, are visual representations of the literal build-up of Thomas' catastrophizing until they reach a peak. Naturally, it's Logan's logical thinking that dispels these effects by literally turning them back on Remus instead.

Fridge Horror

In "The Sides Need a Nice Day", Janus has encouraged Thomas to lean into his intrusive thoughts in order for Remus to have a pick-a-card adventure day. One of the cards that wasn't chosen reads, "Kill Thomas's Family".

Fridge / Sanders Sides

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