Honestly, I’m sick of all the double standards bullshit in this fandom.
This post is gonna be long, so as a tl;dr: All of the sides, including and especially Patton, are flawed and have a balance of flaws and positive traits, and people are allowed to bring up these faults without “hating” the character. And people are allowed to be uncomfortable with any character, but we don’t need to have separate trigger tags when character tags exist.
Okay, starting this off, I’m going to list all of the things that I personally can’t control that a few select people in the fandom would blast me for:
I relate to both Deceit and Remus and I think they aren’t really “evil” and honestly aren’t even as manipulative as people make them out to be
I’m wildly uncomfortable with Patton, to the point that I block his character tags and avoid him a lot
I believe that sympathetic tags for Deceit and Remus are bullshit because they’re not abusive or anything like that
I think we should tag unsympathetic interpretations of all characters in the series
I don’t like the woobified uwu soft babey boi Virgil. He’s a fully grown adult who’s mean as shit in the actual series and I love that.
That’s all I can think of right now, and personally I don’t think these opinions should mean that much. But to people in the fandom, this stuff (particularly me being uncomfortable with and triggered by Patton) is absolutely appalling and unrealistic to be open to.
Let me now explain to you why I think there’s a double standard not only for people in the fandom, but the characters too.
All of the characters in this series are flawed, and the best way I can think to explain it is the Yerkes Dodson Curve:
-Too much anxiety would make Thomas paranoid to the point of being delusional, while too little anxiety makes him uncaring and completely unhinged
-Too much creativity (this goes for both Roman and Remus) would make Thomas overworked and constantly drowning in his own ideas, while too little would leave him damn near empty
-Too much logic would make Thomas’ life boring and repetitive, while too little would make him wreckless and stupid
-Too much of deceit would make Thomas a manipulative impulsive liar (much like how people interpret Deceit to be, no matter how inaccurate), while too little of him would leave Thomas with no filter whatsoever (much like Remus)
-Too much morality would make Thomas entirely too selfless to actually feel like a complete person (think Steven Universe, how Steven always thinks he has to help people to be worth something), while too little would make him a shitty friend altogether
Thomas, as of now in the series, is in the area of having too much morality. We know for a fact that Patton is too strict, and that he will do anything to prove that Thomas holds his morals above all else, when he really shouldn’t. Saying this isn’t “Patton hate” or “Patton negativity” because I’m simply pointing out the analysis of Thomas’ problems in the series canon. As much as I’m uncomfortable with Patton, I am not saying I hate him. If someone says they’re uncomfortable with Remus, it’s not assumed that they hate him, it’s just assumed that he makes them uncomfortable. This shouldn’t be any fucking different for other characters, I don’t give a fuck if “”more people”” are uncomfortable with Deceit and Remus than Patton, that doesn’t make me any less valid.
The fact that I have to explain this, and the fact that it has taken so long for me to be able to admit all this on my main blog, is fucking bullshit. It shouldn’t take this much effort for an equal amount of respect to be demonstrated in the fandom.
Let me be clear: I’m not saying I want new trigger tags for all of the characters. Trigger tags for Deceit and Remus make me uncomfortable, I wouldn’t push that on anyone else. We have character tags that are blockable. Use them. I’m okay just blocking the character tag for Patton. I’m saying that having trigger tags for characters (and ships, I’m also triggered by prinxiety but I don’t ask people to put trigger warnings added on to the ship tag) is ridiculous and makes people who like those characters/ships feel like they’re bad people for that.
I’m so fucking sick of this shit. I would’ve left this fandom if I didn’t still love the series. But whatever. I guess I’m just a Patton hater :)
Thank you sooo much! I am not super active in the fandom, mostly I lurk, but the trigger tags for Remus and Janus are weird and actively make me uncomfortable. I can understand wanting to block a character you don't like for whatever reason, but like you said, character tags exist? I try to hold the benefit of the doubt because I know so many people in the fandom are kids, and they are thinking about things differently. But I think child or not, just use the preexisting tags, it really isn't hard. On a more personal note... I relate to them, also. A lot. I am... basically the both of them smushed together, personality-wise, and that's something that I have dealt with a lot of negativity about in my life. A lot of hurts that add up, and I understand completely why some people may want to filter them out but damn if it doesn't hurt all over? I know I am projecting but it still bugs me. My life reflects Sanders Sides in a lot of ways, not all of which are nice. That's my own issue, however. It just factors into why the trigger tagging makes me uncomfortable.
