#Not saying he can't like Joan I'm actually very interested to see how they interact but there's a reason ppl think he's at least achillean

[carsontumbleweed]

Im convinced everyone misinterpreted the point of the Topher being gay headcanon

[realhankmccoy]

Getting a huge kick out of babies unwilling to even wear a dress in public acting like they're somehow a step beyond 'gay' in genderqueer / queering / putting a wrench in anything. Silly Bruce with his wolf pics and pics of Zelensky as a pole-dancing whore and his anti-gay posts (cuz he himself believes himself to be some sort of divine Hindu god of an anti-Covid, anti-leftie, anti-everybody (except Musk he loves that shit) freedom fighter). Like oh ho ho I am a Godlike creation of the American right a hole is a hole just like the closet case folks say.

It's kind of like your parents handed you Park Place but you think you've played Monopoly, when you haven't even been sent to jail in a dress or had to buy Baltic Avenue with a loan. And then 'hahaha silly plain Jane gays, I have done.... my self-space masc-er than thou apron strings version -- of the hundreds of interesting ways gays can be -- but i deny your identity and am thus godlike (yeah ok daddy's boy, cuz I rejected my daddy and God cuz I'm not a coward ya know)

Well, in many senses you are a closet case, as are so many cock-cravers, hardly capable of putting on most personas -- especially the more interesting ones -- in public... you're as performatively male as The Man has long demanded. I outprance these dumb dumbs and out-man them in the sense that they're babies tied to a ridiculous amount of apron strings, most of which they can't see, and the ones they can see they deny as they front that they're more permanently homeward bound than they are.

I was thinking today about how I have such a surplus of good friends and more-quality-than tho dick-on-tap if I want it, and how I interact with how many dozen plus people a day in a satisfactory manner and how I've long been underestimating myself. My social skills are darned near flawless and I've got the bounty of well-accomplished, healthy, generous and very mentally healthy friends to prove it... people who aren't afraid of hard work, that's for sure.

If I have a problem with somebody, odds are strikingly high that they're a spoiled brat. That's my only real problem with anyone: spoiled brats. Like anyone who grew up spending a lot of time in the trailer court, I just don't like spoiled brats. Pretty simple. In fact, when 'privilege' arose as a term, I really didn't care for it at first because we already had the term 'spoiled brat' and I felt like these people were all thinking they had invented a new form of conciousness that we already had. But... there are some differences. For example, I am ok with the privileged if they can act decently... a lot of these kids born into more than me can't help that they were born with more, and I would never be so apish as to claw it out from them like a Trump or a con man or a Jerry Springer type etc. would . But I'm never ok with the spoiled brats.

What I wouldn't give, just once, to see all these hateful people who think they're more clever than me actually score a point or two. A 49 to 0 match with the babies isn't any fun. Of course, like Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest, I don't let little Christina win. But if these kids were actually not in 30something bodies or late 20somethin bodies and actually my biological children, yes of course I'd like them win. In fact, when they're being nice to me, I usually hand them all sorts of unearned victories just cuz I'm a nice guy and they're spoiled enough to expect some of that. They say they don't like being patronised, but that's the biggest lie of all. They love it, they just insist that the patronising fool them convincingly is all.

[littlefoxwithbighat]

The sides denying aspects of themselves

I could write 50 essays on this topic but you'd all get bored and it would be incoherent. So let me talk about some of the parts of the sides that they deny. You probably all already know these but I think it's interesting to talk about and look at the examples--so here we go!

Logan "I don't feel anything" Sanders

OK, right out of the gate this is so untrue. Its so, so, so untrue. You know it, I know it, we all know it.

We've seen him happy:

Angry:

Scared:

Frustrated:

And empathetic/ remorseful:

We've also seen him passionate (Crofters musical), defeated (SvSr) and childish (Losing my motivation)

And all of this requires feeling.

I think what's interesting about this, is that the veil is so thin for this lie. For the pieces I wrote on Roman and Virgil, other characters have had glimpses of the parts they deny but for the most part it's pretty hidden. However Logan having feelings and denying them is common knowledge. Like all the characters know it.

Even Deciet, who yes, is incredibly astute and intuitive, picked it up within knowing the guy for like 10 minutes of canon interaction.

But what is most interesting about all of this to me is that CHARACTER THOMAS KNOWS.

Not only KNOWS but has canonically called him out on it!

C!Thomas [to Logan]: This just serves as testament to the fact that you have a temperament- which is fine, you just haven't accepted it (-LNTAO)

C! Thomas [to Logan]: I've seen you scared. (-Embarrassing Phases)

This is so so fascinating. Firstly, it's worth remembering that Thomas is in control here.

As Virgil said "You're the boss Thomas. Anything you want to know, you can know. You just have to be open to hearing it."

They're his sides. He ultimately has control over them. And Thomas knows that Lo is hiding his emotions, so WHY doesn't he resolve this? Because, let us be clear, it might take time, but if he wanted to, he could.

A) He doesn't think that ultimately, it doesn't matter

B) He doesn't want to

C) He hasn't actually adressed the matter

D) He is concerned about the consequences

Personally I think it's a combination of all four, although perhaps less so D.

We never really get long enough to pause on this topic and see the other sides reactions to this, so it's difficult to draw any firm conclusions. The best we really have is The Puzzle Song in LNTAO, and from that we can conclude Roman is frustrated, and Patton and Virgil are empathetic, but also a bit frustrated and trying to facilitate change.

OK, we've established that he has feelings and looked a little bit at other character reactions. Let's move on to our favourite blue boy himself.

Firstly, motive. WHY does he do this. This is one is easy, and widely canonically established, its his overwhelming need to be taken seriously. Right?

Well sort of.

That what I would have said at first too, but I don't think thats exactly right. It's because he needs to be LISTENED TO, and it's important we make that distinction. I think Crofters is a great example. He made a bit of a fool of himself in that video, and what's more, he didn't care. And I don't think it's becuse of his powerful love of Crofters overtook his sensibilities (lol) it's because he didn't have a point he needed it express in that video. His emotionless, serious personna was created is that the other sides, and Thomas, would listen to him, when he expresses facts and opinions. Because that's all Logan wants.

So it's pretty heartbreaking that it hasn't worked.*

*(Please note I do not think the sides were unjustified in talking over him in some of this points and that some of them are clearly a result of high emotional stress. That said its still clearly getting to Logan)

This is even more distressing when you consider that for Logan listening and learning, going both ways is very much his love language (See Joans explanation of Sunrise from In The Heights on his playlist, and his reaction to Thomas saying he might take an astronomy course). Logan is killing himself trying to be listened to, trying to be loved, and it's not WORKING (Hmm, remind you of another side?)

But this is a progressive development. Maybe it's partly a result of Thomas not having the characters super fleshed out when the series started, but even so, this personna Logan is putting up is coming up more and more often, and he's clearly repressing his feelings more and more. It's kind of difficult to show this, but just watch Logan in early season 1 compared with now, there is a marked difference.

But actually, I think there are two things that illustrate this perfectly.

First, him making himself into a textbox in POF. I mean it goes without saying, but textboxes aren't people. They don't have emotions. Logan feels he can't even show up anymore, because he as a person, is not worth paying attention to. I don't think it's a coincidence that he chose a form that cannot be talked over, and pops up on the front of the screen, impossible to hide, or cut out of shot. Remember, it was Janus who created the skip button.

(That being said I think I'm not saying this is a sign of him having a healthy ego and interfering, if anything it implies the opposite)

Second, the unicorn onesie. The unicorn onesie is something I keep coming back to when I think about Logan because... UNICORNS. They're a fantasy creature, there's not a jot of science or reality about them. Of all of the choices, Logan, fact oriented Logan, doesn't understand figures of speech Logan, doesn't like cartoons because they're not realistic Logan, WHY does he pick a UNICORN!?

In my opinion, the unicorn onesie is something of a confession. Vulnerability. It kind of represents all of the feelings and fantasy and fun that Logan tries to repress. And that kinda makes sense doesn't it, I mean, feelings, fun and fantasy, that's what unicorns often stand for.

So I think it's telling that throughout the series, we first see him embarrassed, but not too torn up about being seen in his onesie (able to show and engage with his feelings fairly openly, but trying to keep fairly calm and serious) to being unable to wear it around his friends in a relaxed environment, WHEN THEY ARE ALL WEARING ONESIES (Can't show any emotional vulnerability at all and suppressing all his feelings in order to seem serious and be listened to.) Thinking about it this way, Roman saying "no onesie, no vote" could be an interesting parallel to how the sides view this. Because, again this isn't working, and if anything, the deeper Logan goes into this emotionless front, the less he seems to be listened to, which makes him go even deeper, and it's an endless positive feedback loop, which is ironic considering how soul-crushingly negative this is.

What I'm trying to say is that we've seen repeatedly, that the point in the episode where a/the side(s) get emotionally vulnerable is often the point in the episodes where everyone calms down and listens to one another, so this emotional repression is doing nothing but damaging Logan.

That being said, you can understand how he's worried about letting his front it down. Because Logan is right.

There will be times where he needs to be heeded, and ignoring him could lead to disastrous consequences. The biggest example of this is DWIT. If he wasn't there they could not have gotten rid of Remus, everyone else would be panicking, and Thomas' mental state would be in the gutter.

Thomas NEEDS Logan.

So if Logan feels like showing his feelings will stop him from being listened to, then logically, he has to continue to hide and suppress them.

I think in season 3, maybe even the season 2 finale this will be adressed and be a big part of his character arc, and I for one, can't wait.

Anyway I think that about does it for this one. Thanks for reading!

[ec-sanderssides]

I just wanted to stop in and say I think you are absolutely fantastic and I was wondering how you feel about Thomas's new video? I'm kinda torn between excitement and foreboding. Can't wait until Wednesday now. 😁 I think Thomas and Joan and Talyn did a really fantastic job with it though, what about you? (Again you are so fantastic and you don't have to answer any of this, I just think you're really cool and I wanted to hear your opinion on things 😊) -💜🌻

Ok, first of all, this video has killed me and i’m going to be ridiculously jittery until part two comes out. That being said, yes, ti was so goo, and I am super impressed by all the effects.

And second, thank you for the compliments. I’ve been feeling super stressed lately, so seeing your words really means a lot.

But more specific thoughts on the video:

I am really glad we’re seeing Roman begin forced to confront his animosity towards Anxiety. Because I love him, but it needed to happen

We’re going to see Anxiety’s room, which is just yes. Also the clock was cool

Also this was an interesting confirmation that the sides have their own rooms, but that they are seemingly on separate planes of existence, and that possibly until the creation of the mind palace, the only place they could interact was in Thomas’s living room (I might use that in fanfics, but I’m also going to keep with my current set up for a lot of them, since it’s easier to make the sides interact that way)

I love, love that we’re seeing the ways Anxiety affects Thomas beyond just he negative. Because this is something I actually do myself. I go well, yeah anxiety sucks, but at least it’s obsessing over late assignments means I don’t really turn in late assignments.

Also the the laptop, because yes fear does provide reflexes, and the fact that Thomas didn’t check and see f the laptop still worked! I am super paranoid about my laptop breaking, and I think most people would be worried after a fall like that, but there was nothing

Side note: Logically that was probably just an old laptop that isn’t used anymore, but part of me is imagining Talyn lying at Thomas’s feet, going ok I’m ready to catch it when it falls, and that’s just very amusing to me

Also Patton cares about Anxiety awww!