Sanders Sides Headcanons: on their names and the origins of side-projecting
Buckle up, folks, this is gonna be a long one.
I had always thought his name would follow Dark Side conventions and be from Roman culture. Virgil is a Roman philosopher. Remus is a Roman pseudohistorical figure. And now, Janus: the Roman two-faced god, who looks into the future (foresight, self-preservation) and also the past (using past experiences as fuel for insecurities).
However, I also noticed that both Remus and Janus end on an -us, but Virgil's still the odd name out. I thought that Deceit's name would be Roman, but not similar to the other Dark Sides', to reflect how the Others are supposed to twisted mirror versions of Light Sides.
But upon the revelation of Janus, I now posit a new theory:
The reason Virgil is the odd name out is because he's not meant to fit in with either the Light or Dark Sides.
Virgil is a Neutral Side. And even though Thomas probably won't reveal any other Sides after Orange (which I headcanon as Wrath or Revenge), any other Side who is based on pure emotions or primal instincts will be too.
Just think about it. Both the Light and Dark Sides we know so far are based on higher cognitive functions: analysing data and drawing conclusions (Logic), distinguishing right from wrong and nostalgia (Morality), creating and fantasizing, as well as appreciation of beauty (Creativity), the ability to lie and manipulate your circumnstances (Deceit). The only possible exception could be Dark Creativity, mostly because intrusive thoughts do have a more impulsive, violent, primal nature; but they're still constructed scenarios based on morality and (violent) processed knowledge of the outside world, so as annoying and yucky as they might be, they're still part of a high cognitive process.
Not the case of Anxiety. He explains his function as fight-or-flight and vigilance. They're all tied to fear, one of the most primal emotions all living beings have, tied directly with survival. Fear is often irrational and distracting (challenges Logic), muddles your perspective (unables Morality), blocks your creative flow and hijacks your fantasies (blocks Creativity). Virgil couldn't feel at ease around the Light Sides because he thought he would always hinder them in some way.
But extreme fear and overvigilance also hinders your ability to lie and only fuels intrusive thoughts, so Virgil wouldn't feel at ease with the Dark Sides either. Therefore, even if Virgil can align with the Light Sides, he himself is neutral in nature: he's the most primal, and arguably the most powerful. He belongs to a separate group, if indeed he isn't the only one of his kind because Thomas's anxiety was strong enough to manifest itself into a humanoid persona while all other 'primals' were absorbed into other Sides.
For all of these reasons, Virgil has a different name than any other Sides. Because he considered himself a Dark Side at first, his name is from Roman culture like the others'. But because he wasn't exactly like Janus or Remus, his name still differed from theirs.
Now, on to my other theory:
While the jury is still out on whether the Sides are figments of Thomas's imagination or if they're really manifested into the real world, they're rounded enough to be considered people of their own, so either Thomas has a really good imagination, or the Sides do exist. We don't know if others can see a person's Sides,
But based on world culture and mythology, Thomas is probably not the only one in the planet who can project Sides.
Anthropomorphic personifications of concepts and feelings have always existed. In Greek mythology, many daemones represented something: Morpheus was dreams, Niké was victory, etc. In the present day, these personifications keep popping up: the Charas from Shugo Chara! are pretty much chibified Sides, for example.
But why does the form of Sides differ so much from story to story? Why are there personifications who work on their own, like daemones, while others advise humans, like Charas?
Because Side-projecting is not just a way to make the abstract accesible; in the Sanders Sides universe, it's an actual superpower that varies on the person.
Let's go to Nordic mythology. Odin had two ravens, called Huginn and Munnin. They were his watchers over the nine worlds, who reported back to him about everything that happenned outside. They were, in a way, his assistants.
Huginn and Munnin means Thought and Memory.
These ravens were probably Odin's Sides, manifested as birds.
There're probably even earlier examples of Side-projection in world mythology, but my hypothesis is:
Could it be that, in the Sanders Sides universe, the stories of gods manifesting abstract concept were true, or at least based on true events?
And if so, does this mean Sanders Sides's Thomas has this power?
@thatsthat24 sorry if this is a bunch of hooey to you, but I'd like your opinion. To everyone else, what do you think? Am I just overthinking, or is this valid?
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