#selfishness vs. selflessness

[paytonthefrog]

I’m finally finished!! This took roughly 14-15 hours of my life I honestly don’t regret

Thank you to the 6 people who reblogged the original wip with nice comments - you guys are a big reason for why I got around to finishing this

And here are the tags for who requested them: @5am-the-foxing-hour @iamthedestroyer-grr-argh

[let-roman-bite-someone]

the funniest part of svs is that thomas decided to hear janus out because, and i quote, "sounds like he's against nazis" like THOMAS. HE IS A PART OF YOU. YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT HE'S AGAINST NAZIS.

[witchinatree]

whenever i get stressed i start rewatching sanders sides but then i get more stressed when i see the "5 years ago" on videos i remember watching the DAY THEY RELEASED 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

[loganslowdown4]

I’m sorry, trying to restrain Logan’s input but not fully stopping him from yelling facts from the back of the courtroom is one of the funniest things Deceit did in this episode 😂😂😂

[batwingedcherub]

as much as I love the "Virgil used to be paranoia" theory I've thought of something else. instead of it being like past tense, how about future tense?? like yk how tempest tongue exsists when anxiety gets heightened? yeah what if there was like something after that... like what if hypothetically C!Thomas gets so bad in anxiety, Virgil changes forms (like how Patton did in SVS redux) and his role turns from Anxiety to Paranoia. and that's why every side is scared to say "paranoid" when Virgil's around cus they've seen paranoia before and Virgil's afraid of becoming that again

i like to think each side has this too

like Morality turns to Catholic guilt (SvS Redux) and Anxiety turns to Paranoia, etc etc and so fourth

[the-very-existent-entity]

in SvS Janus spelt Roman's name as "Wroammin" and I thought that was very funny so here's how the other sides' names would be spelt in the same way.

Logan: Loagginn

Patton: Paghttaun

Virgil: Verrjjill(that's a lot of double letters)

Remus: Wreammus(to match with wroammin)

i can't think of one for janus

[ruleroftheforest05]

Rewatching sanders sides and noticed something, tell me if it’s already been talked about before because I find it interesting and want to read post analyzing this scene

Janus makes them swear on different things that represents each side.

Patton has a Catholic book, hinting to what’s revealed in the next episode that Character Thomas is Ex-catholic

I couldn’t find what book Virgil was sworn in on

Roman was given a VHS copy of Pinocchio which is famously about lying (among other things idk)

And Logan is sworn in on a book from a famous scientist, Stephan Hawking. I don’t know what the book’s about, it would be interesting if someone did a post analyzing this scene though

[not-sure-what-im-feeling]

“Kill them with kindness” WRONG giant frog man

[erinravenseeker]

there's this really fun dialogue that paranatural has with itself about parental/adult responsibility and to what extent we should shield children from the harsher realities of the world. or, as Zack puts it, Everybody's Beef With Their Weird Dad.

This is a sort of half-baked analysis that should really just be taken as my own personal observations and opinions. Also Big Spoilers.

From the get-go we can see that Grandpa Guerra's approach to training Isabel has strained their relationship immensely, because he focuses so much on making her strong enough to survive what's coming but refuses to actually tell her the risks involved. Whatever it is, is dangerous enough to convert every Consortium spy that comes into town to his side, and yes maybe he's right to think she's too young for whatever is that serious, but it also means she's also walking into this blindly.

Gwen Burger's sentiment in the dream sounds great. "Yes, let us adults clean up our mess," is exactly the sort of thing we want from our elders, that they don't destroy their homes and leave us with the wreckage. But there's another side to the coin here. She and the rest of the adults insist on shielding the kids from the truth, but withholding information means there's no backup plan if they DO fail, just that everyone's back at square one. She avoids taking responsibility for her mistakes by insisting that it's fine, she still has time to fix them, so you don't have to worry about it. We can't fix the mistakes of our elders, or avoid them in the first place, if we don't know what those mistakes are.

In this way she's also denying the autonomy of the kids. Spender & Zarei are already involved with whatever happened, so this is a burden they will have to carry later. Isn't it better to make sure they understand and are better prepared now? (Cody's section of the story has some similar or parallel ideas about autonomy and overprotectiveness but I'm not going to go into it too much, mostly because I haven't really collected my thoughts on it.) To Gwen's credit, she does realise this upon Mina's insistence moments later, which leads BL to tell them the bare minimum of what a wight actually is:

Which brings us to the main gang. Spender insists to himself that he is going to do his best to protect them, and train them to protect themselves, and he'll go off and do what needs to be done without them when the time it right, but let's face it. They're all at risk by simply associating with him. So he also tries his best to make them into a team that can protect themselves, while keeping things lighthearted and never letting them get too close to the darkness. Over the past few chapters the tone isn't really any less irreverent, but the stakes have massively shifted from overdramatic-teenage-middle-school-bullshit to oh-god-this-is-actually-serious. And part of why everything is still pretty upbeat is that none of the kids really have the full picture of all the dark corners, nor should they have to be exposed to that. But it also means that they're under-equipped for danger they're already stuck in the middle of.

And especially Dimitri. Dimitri is fantastic because he is the PERFECT encapsulation of all of these themes.

In his home life, his parents don't openly talk about their struggles, so he doesn't get to share in any of the responsibility. Instead he privately takes on all the guilt, because nobody bothers to properly absolve him of it. He takes on this same philosophy of "sacrifice [was] best honored when its cost remained concealed", sacrificing himself almost entirely for other people without complaint, which then later creates the same problem for Isaac that Dimitri's parents did for him.

In the world of the supernatural, to everyone (including himself) he can almost be viewed as the most separate from everything going on. He left the Activity Club, he doesn't actively fight ghosts or anything, his family is about to move out of town. He is entirely burdenless in this fateful struggle.

And yet he's actually the closest to the centre of everything, the fulcrum on which the spirit world of MBayview turns. Dimitri has been host to Peekaboo practically since he was born, and that whole time he has had to suppress his own emotions and play to what others want in order to appease what is essentially a toddler with the power of a god, just to keep it from thoughtlessly hurting him.

This is already his burden, the Activity Club's burden. Preserving childlike innocence is a noble pursuit and deserve not to feel burdened by the struggles of their seniors. But if these burdens are going to be thrust upon them nonetheless, is it then cruel or kind, to put them through pain now in order to make sure they have a steady footing in the days to come?

[abigails-interests]

(Deleted scene from the courtroom)

Janus: Think you can answer some questions without the usual level of sarcasm?

Virgil: If you can ask the questions without the usual level of stupid.

[theokusgallery]

(I believe he's suggesting that you beat someone up and rob their unconscious body.)

Character and quote by @thatsthat24 :D

[savesavva]

rights and wrongs; shoulds and shouldn'ts

[let-roman-bite-someone]

wdym this is not how the episode went

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

I have all of these extended thoughts on my head about the amazing way themes and character relationships are handled in Iruma-kun and the inclusion of queerness and the handling of the coming of age narrative in this shonen manga/anime

And every time all that comes out when I'm reccing it is "You should watch/read it"

Do it. Go watch/read Mairimashita! Iruma-kun/Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun

Please.

[loganslowdown4]

‘I thought I was your hero’

‘You are!’

Incoming Long Roman Theory…

❤️🤍❤️🤍❤️🤍

Rewatching POF and Roman’s struggle with questioning what cThomas really believes based on what Janus implied made me realize something about how we look at the word ‘HERO’ in Roman’s vocabulary. I don’t think Roman has ever meant ‘hero’ in the swashbuckling, saving people, fighting villains, heroic sense (even though he acts like it and I’m sure casts himself that way in the imagination). WHAT HE ACTUALLY MEANS when Roman asked if he is a HERO, is if he is still the FACE or embodiment of how Thomas presents himself as a ‘hero’ in real life: aka a morally upstanding person.

In POF, Patton and Roman discuss why we have morals and how we use them to do good in the world. It is important to note that this episode was mainly a discussion between Patton and Roman for a reason: because if Patton is the moral BRAIN behind all Thomas’ decisions, then Roman is the FACE of all the moral decisions Patton makes. He follows Patton’s lead and acts as the ‘hero’ (and this is what the ego really does). So as the ‘FACE’ of Thomas, any actions taken means Roman is the one getting all the praise first hand, but is also taking the brunt of the criticisms too. For example, when Thomas went to that musical audition and forgot the words to the music, Roman hid. He was a ‘bruised ego’, getting the brunt of the criticism (or what he thought was worse than actually was). Roman has called himself a knight, a warrior, and a big reason why is that he faces all ‘battles’ of Thomas’ head on. It’s not just for the charming fairytale fanciful aesthetic (maybe it started that way). But I believe Roman’s character has developed into this complexity.

Roman’s role is to protect Thomas not only from objective criticisms, but also from failures of a moral decision. It explains why it was Roman who ultimately made the call to go to the wedding and not the callback. Even though Patton lost that debate in the courtroom, Roman knew that the morally correct decision was always to go support Thomas’ friends. He stood up and was the hero Patton and Thomas needed, despite any other disagreements or backlash. He knew that there was risk in this decision either way and it took a lot of strength to make that choice.

Here, Roman, saying that it was his fault for making the decision difficult to go to the wedding or callback, shows his willingness to take the brunt of any criticism, ultimately being the hero. He’s a drama king for real, but Thomas knew it wasn’t Roman’s fault for making the decision hard or even making the decision in the first place, and said so. Still, Roman tries because if it helps makes Thomas feel better, he’s willing to do it.

Another thing I need to point out: Roman getting upset when Patton said when doing anything charitable or morally correct, you can’t take ANYTHING away from it, including self-satisfaction or PRIDE. Roman is literally Thomas’ PRIDE and EGO. Denying Roman his pride, when he is constantly working to keep all of them safe from criticism, means he’s not allowed to be at all satified by the GOOD MORAL WORK he does do. It’s no wonder it felt unfair to him.

Finally, when Janus criticized the moral standard that Patton and Roman are trying to have Thomas live up to, Roman was personally offended. He has been doing his best to show the world that Thomas is a good person (which he is).

Here, when Roman is questioning how selfish Thomas will be before he feels ‘satisfied’ he says ‘you’ll have us believe that that time will never come’ which means that doing ANYTHING morally good, even the bare minimum, will deserve a reward, self-satifaction and more selfish time spent. This change in moral trajectory goes against what Roman has worked so hard for, following Patton’s lead and making those sacrifices. At the end, Patton’s main goal was changed to keep Thomas happy, which looked like he basically gave up and switched allegiance to Janus’ new plan. Does this mean Janus is the new ‘face’ of how Thomas presents himself and not Roman? THIS is why Roman left like he did; it felt like a betrayal.

There’s a lot unresolved and a lot that Thomas has to work out with Roman. But ultimately, Roman will always be a hero. He’ll be Thomas’ hero. Because he’s the one that makes Thomas a hero to everyone else. Time will tell and we shall see!

[moondeew]

Shhhhhh they’re sooooo in love