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[sanders sides] splitting al's thread because i don't want to hijack it for crazy theory times.
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anyway spoilers for like... no one because just me and
sAlty
on my friends list really watch this series.
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BUT ANYWAY HOLY SHIT
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HOLY SHIT
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so anyway about a month ago I was thinking about various theory nonsense and made a chart to try and figure out patterns. Because I'm that asshole, i guess 
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guide: little white dots in the corners of the squares indicate sides that have appeared (at the time of the chart) and the orange/purple dots are the ones that are indicated in the sanders sides logo on merch (mainly posters).
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lines in the middle indicate relationships with each other. Green is friendly, yellow indicates mild conflict or disagreement, orange is major disagreement or conflict, and red is like. when you keep getting minuses during a conversation in the sims.
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aka "holy balls please find some common ground, PLEASE"
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little glow means "light" side, and little drop shadow means "dark" side.
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Virgil gets both because EVERYBODY KNEW, BUDDY
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because deep down Virgil is just like this 22/7 
Why Bother?
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(he gets two hours to have non-stressed feelings. patton penned them in with permanent markers and he can't get them out)
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BUT ANYWAY THIS. mostly sets up the ideas for the (at the time) unrevealed sides I'd thought we'd see.
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some common traits:
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-affiliated with an animal in some way. Virgil wth cats, Deceit with danger noodles, and Remus... gets nautical themes, but we'll get to that
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- A trait that can be positive, but more often is incredibly destructive. (i mean, natch. That's sort of the whole point)
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- actively being unheard. Mostly because listening to their worldview can be dangerous, but those int he limelight are unintentionally creating a feedback loop of a two-class system by doing so.
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- more importantly, being deeply affected by being unheard, and going to extremes to be heard. even if it might distort the nuance needed to convey their ideas in a way that's non-harmful.
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- acts of concealing or repressing weakness, and a generally negative worldview.
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- little to no indication that they act positively with the more "light" sides. so none of a "well it's his job and I hate it, but off the clock he's okay". so we got us an Us situation here.
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- this means, in regard to socialization, the "dark" sides, at best, are probably learning their social cues from each other.
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- in that same vein, each of the forefront sides seems to have a counterpart to a darker aspect and vice versa. this doesn't have to be a antagonistic relationship, quite the contrary, each counterpart could supply something the other lacks. just. they'd have to get over each other's baggage first.
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so summing it up, the sides that thomas interact with (and thomas himself) are creating a system that, while made with good intentions, actively serve to help stifle the growth of the "dark sides" into better people.
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but! again, the reason why they do so is because those sides are destructive. and the way out for those sides (and thomas) would be to do a ton of self-reflection. so. "good motive, still murder"
sAlty
holy shit there HAS to be a side desiring with ire that Thomas represses, 100%
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pretty much the forefront sides would need to adopt a "do no harm (but take no shit)" policy with the other sides. any side would be welcome at the table, but they'd be held responsible for their words and actions.
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sAlty
: yeah that's another thing I noticed, each dark side is something that exists in every other side, but isn't concentrated in one specific side. every side is prone to terrible anxiety and even paranoia. every side lies both to themselves and others.
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and every side? has an anger problem in some way
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...my phone corrected that to "in some gay" and. you're not wrong, phone.
sAlty
I mean yes but we're not talking about that phone
sAlty
BUT YEAH that's fair but I mean like. I was looking at your graphic and just realized Thomas is never angry? ever??? he has totally pushed that to the side with deceit and the Duke
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exactly. they're never like. in touch with their anger. oh they get angry, but they try to tamp it down or act like they don't care
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Virgil's low snarls of violence or lowkey threats that he wants to fight people ("you look like the man... i fight the man, i want to fight you")
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Logan's outbursts of anger or violence, followed by him being surprised at himself and then trying to get himself under control.
sAlty
this is getting so deep lol
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Roman's kneejerk reactions of bringing up his weapon "jeez there patton, i almost like. took your face clean off", his general combative nature (look at all his social links there, even more conflict than even deceit), and his go-to grand gestures involving combat
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and then like. patton
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holy shit patton
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patton is never openly angry
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save, once.
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and it was so brief and kinda... terrifying a little?
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it's all joking like "I will fight you! no one harms my dark strange son!" in a joking way as presented by the script. but like. remember when Virgil gives out his name, and roman is all like "it's okay, you don't have to."
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Patton, in a Quiet, calm, dead serious tone goes "Roman? Shut your ever-flippin gobstopper."
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He shunts off his anger, which means that if I had to take a guess? If Anger got a hold of him? the way he'd express it is cold rage. and damn if that's not darker than this last episode.
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sAlty
: sob i have many feelings and ideas about this show and potential characters, and i fully expect to be jossed hard.
sAlty
we may get jossed mostly because I don't think Thomas has a strict plan lol
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pfft, i think that somewhere between Thomas and Joan, there's a Plan. but also this is meant to be on the lighter spectrum of psychodramas, so who knows how much of that plan goes deep.
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(i love the best friends thing they did, because it shows that Thomas tends to go fluff, and Joan tends to go a bit darker)
sAlty
I think there's like, vague plan but it changes as they go because they are adaptable but I could be wrong tbh
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also also can we call back to when the gang invaded Virgil's room and thomas goes "yeaaaah, it doesn't get that dark in here" CUT TO AN EPISODE WHERE THOMAS KEEPS HAVING NIGHTMARES ABOUT KILLING A LOVED ONE
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somewhere Deciet is going "mm-hmm darling, sure it isn't."
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oh yeah, i'm sure that at least 50% of the "holy shit this was hinted at" were them going "oh hey! remember this? what about-" because lbr that's what all of us do
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"was this planned all along?" looks at notes that basically go 'lol they gonna cry'. "YEP, ALL ALONG"
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BUT YEAH like. so all this is a setup on how the duke is terrible and terrifying and we actually don't know shit about him
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okay so. because I love one snake child and all his awful ways, Most of the theorizing was about Deceit. and. in four appearances he's given us a ton about himself.
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He's right, he doesn't talk in lies, in fact he can be blunt as hell. He's just a shady bitch and we (I) love him. He has two modes: terrible at lying, or being really good at lying.
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When he's bad at it, or doing the obvious inversion thing, it's either because he's trying to be sarcastic, or he's trying to cover up for an embarrassment/weakness. In particular he doesn't like to let slip that he's got a part of him that's kind of a dork. In other cases he's really dang good at it, but something is off, or he gives a minor tell.
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In other OTHER cases, he packs like. 2-3 layers of meanings in his words, and it's up to you to try and figure out how many of them he holds true or wants you to think.
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(best case? look over the "is lying good ?" video when he's acting as patton, acting as the director. when he "compliments" the acting even though Thomas is awful at lying and Roman is hammy. When he smiles at what he's seeing- and what he's making the others do. And it's only in brief micro-expressions that you can see him wince at how bad thomas is at it)
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(and then there's the obvious tells of reminding the gang of traits that the person he's impersonating has, and how that's totally something he's doing right then.)
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But so we get two episodes of real screentime, and two short cameos, and yet we know so much about his personality, and what he does, and what he believes in. There's a great moment in the courtroom scene when Patton has him on the stand and he just said his piece about his purpose. Virgil gives him shit, but Patton just. handwaves it.
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And in like. 10 frames or less, there's this bit where you see him whip his head towards Patton, and his expression is pure rage. And then right after that he stops answering questions, and switches their place so he can give Patton his lecture.
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it's all very "Fuck you. I told you my truth and you didn't listen, you didn't even entertain the thought. No, you don't get to speak, You don't get to answer questions, you. will. hear. me"
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annnnnnd BOY does that say a whole lot
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In fact, that whole episode is notable because nearly every cut, every expression by about everyone has multiple meanings or hidden aspects, this is part of why the episode feels so dense and long. Contrast the most recent episode, which is about as long, but feels way, way shorter.
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Now i figure that Remus is going to be fleshed out a hell of a lot more in future episodes, because as is he's almost all negative, little positive. The balance is heavily skewed towards him being more like... hateful beliefs or addiction- ideas that have a logical reason for coming into existence, but ultimately can't be redeemed, only purged or coped with.
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but part of that mystery is intentional, I think. We know his name, we know a bunch of vague ideas about what he is, but we don't know his core idea.
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Patton is Feelings and Morality, Virgil is (formerly) paranoia/survival, now anxiety /survival, Logan is Knowledge and Curiosity, Roman is Creativity and Dreams. Deceit is... well, Deceit, but possible also desires a bit as well.
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there we go, fixed that
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But Remus? Yeah "intrusive thoughts" and "dark creativity", but even with a deep dive, we get a surprisingly shallow haul.
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The watchwords for him that we have right now seem more like dull reflections of the others, which feels off. Mainly because through the narrative we've been told time and time again that yes, the sides aren't as "complete" as say, any of Thomas's friends, but they also have distinct personalities and purposes, ones which the others can't do.
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Roman even calls him a funhouse mirror
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And that level of not-belonging is something that he plays up, revels in. Forces on the others. He makes them confront something that none of them want to deal with. That they utterly reject.
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So when i made the chart my very loose head-canon was that Green would 1) be a counterpart to roman (go me), and that 2) he'd be between Patton and Deceit in personality and purpose.
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So my assumption, based on the ideas in the show, was that he was in inherently self-destructive force, someone who'd do the dirty work where Patton tended to just admonish. Someone who may have been creative once, but Roman took that from him. Someone who may have been memories, but Patton took the good ones. Someone who was only regret and depression.
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BOY WAS I WRONG
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But not totally
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He is the side who asks when thomas/the others are going to just do the darker urges. he is someone who stands in the shadow to Roman.
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His Intrusive aspects miss something very important, yeah some of his comments were more light-hearted, but none of them are like the type I sometimes get
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You know those "oh shit! pick up that duckling. Yeah it's mean but so fluffy?" or "go to the east bay for the good ramen. Yeah there's a place around the corner, but do it anyway"
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the more indulging, softer ones
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It's all violence, disturbing images, morally repugnant things, taboos, messy sexuality, foul parts of the body.
sAlty
I don't know if I'd call those intrusive thoughts tbf
sAlty
when I think intrusive thoughts I do think... well, Duke thoughts lol
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fair. for me there's a range of intrusive thoughts, I just lump them in as ones that stick in your mind and are harmful in some ways.
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But anyway, his is the more extreme side of them, and. totally headcannoning here. I have a guess why. Remember how the series is in part inspired by Inside out? Who have we not really seen represented in the main cast yet?
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Disgust. Remus is literally disgusting.
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which makes sense considering that Roman always ALWAYS harps on Thomas's more gross aspects. Patton keeps trying to reject Bad feelings or questionable morals. Virgil is afraid and disgusted that he isn't strong enough to keep Remus under control. And Remus actively tries to buck any behavior that could be construed as Logical.
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A good example of the good (and bad) aspects of disgust are here. with like. all the content warnings ever, including revolting images and revolting people, like trump: 
How the Feeling of Disgust Went From Life-Saving to ...
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The one (one) uptick of Remus is that he pushes the others to face utterly disgusting ideas. This is actually a pretty important thing to do. WHY do we find the idea of harming others wrong? Because we put our trust and love in others, and harming others/being harmed is a violation of that trust and love.
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WHY are bodily fluids and dirty parts of the body gross? they're a sign of being unwell, or potential illness, or potential danger. Why are strange things unsettling? Because we don't know them or how to react.
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BUT
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This also works against us. Why is being Queer a taboo? No reason other than some social groups deemed it Disgusting. Why is Mental illness viewed as it is? Because we mistakenly have been taught to be Disgusted by it.
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The world is kind of a dark, disgusting place sometimes, but we need to face those aspects and process them (or acknowledge those aspects and let them pass from your mind) to... not end up closing yourself off from the world, really.
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Like the best example I can think of. There's a play called "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade" or Marat/Sade, as nobody has time for that shit. and. it's disgusting, intentionally so.
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Every thing in this play is intended to make you confront something utterly awful. There's very little they show that's disgusting, but the word choice is visceral, the conditions of the institution and people in the institution is inhumane (and. the fact that most casts are generally played by able-bodied actors is another whole can of worms).
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The clashing sets of ideals all have terrible, repugnant aspects to them, the fact that not only is there a in-play audience taking in the play like the mentally ill are a spectacle to be gawked at, but that the actual audience itself is placed in their same position. The "history lesson" they go over is the aftermath of the french revolution.
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It's disorienting and deeply uncomfortable. And it has some of the sharpest, finest dialogue I've ever heard.
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The play uses disgust to make you think and examine the ideas it brings up, which you might not have done in detail if it hadn't used those measures and alienating effects. (because of course it uses the A effect, of course it does. the A effect is like chiptunes and a hand-drawn logo in an indie film)
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And. unlike other films that try to accomplish the same goal, I actually come back to watch it from time to time. It's very much like Spec Ops: the line, in that I am having a terrible, disgusted reaction, but my brain is also interacting with the material so much that I want to have this complex, terrible experience multiple times.
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(that being said. holy shit. do not go into Marat/sade lightly. it's a fucking rough ride and it deserves every trigger warning ever)
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And ultimately I hope that's what Remus's Purpose is. Because otherwise he's kinda one-note right now. It'll be interesting if his personality changes when he's alone with specific sides vs trying to affect everyone.
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ALso I want to see what Deceit is disgusted by, if I'm right. lemme see the snake squirm, Sanders Sides.
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Okay done? mostly done. I could ramble more about what I think the unrevealed sides are like. but that's my thought on the Duke