Saw a bunch of neat thoughts on these in tags & reblogs and such, so here’s my some of my thoughts behind Patton, Remus, and Deceit!!
Redo Patton, “Help Thomas do what I feel is good and right!”
NAH, BRO! Patton is a part of Thomas and, like the others, reflects part of Thomas himself; he’s not an outside entity! I do think he’s a more intuitive idea of right vs wrong -- “this is the most ethically responsible action” would be the realm of Logan, while Patton is “here’s what makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing.” Sometimes what you feel in your heart isn’t correct -- it’s possible to feel guilty and beat yourself up for things that ultimately aren’t bad, and that’s when Patton can become harmful if he goes too far trying to take control. But just like Deceit in SvS isn’t tempting Thomas, he’s there because Thomas is already lying to himself -- Patton isn’t an outside source either, he’s unhappy because Thomas already feels guilty, and that’s the part of Thomas that he represents.
Also worth noting, Patton also is the one who encourages Thomas to do things that just feel nice (see especially: Growing Up). Eat the food you like and do wild fun (dangerous) things with friends! He’s not all Dad™. He’s Thomas’ heart, a gut-instinct impulse towards the things that feel good and right, who’s often got the right idea but can’t explain himself well and doesn’t employ much careful reasoning.
Pray do tell, how is remus’ helping
LMAO WELL, just because they’re trying to help doesn’t mean they’re actually helping. But Remus’ own explanation is a pretty good summary of how he sees himself, I think! He believes he’s helping Thomas to explore things that others would hold him back from. He believes Thomas’ work would be more realistic and true to life and challenge his audience more if he didn’t silence all of Remus’ ideas as “bad,” rather than only listening to Roman’s idealistic imagination and playing it safe.
Editing yourself based on what you think others want to see isn’t always the best way to go about creative work (we saw that in Am I Original), and Remus doesn’t edit himself at all. He thinks this is a good thing! Don’t shoot any idea down, don’t dismiss any thought, there might be something fun in here! I think it’s pretty apparent that The Duke is not as helpful as he thinks he is, but while he’s short-sighted, he doesn’t think he’s harming Thomas at all; he thinks he’s just being honest.
And I do think it’s worth noting that Remus’ episode is, in fact, an episode where playing it safe and trying not to delve into disturbing content could’ve made the message ring false -- whether you take that as “Remus isn’t completely wrong” or just “even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
You could almost switch Deceit and Virgil's lines here. Sometimes, especially if you're a queer person like Thomas, society is the danger you need protection from.
Y’ain’t wrong (and I’m still vERY INTERESTED in what role Deceit must’ve played while Thomas wasn’t out as gay yet), but I personally wouldn’t switch them because I think it reflects their like, M.O. as well? Like, Logan is also technically trying to protect Thomas from harm by keeping him healthy, but that’s not his focus. Virgil’s purpose is to sound the alarm whenever there might be danger, of any kind -- social danger, actual physical danger, danger of performing poorly, danger of being seen as bad, danger of messing up -- Virgil will alert him to it, for good or ill. Deceit’s purpose, by contrast, is to help Thomas navigate Society -- something that he considers to be a bunch of made up rules, arbitrary ideas of right and wrong that he’s willing to exploit. Ironically, he’s stated his views pretty candidly: he wants to make sure Thomas isn’t disadvantaged. He’s not looking out for danger; he’s looking out for Thomas. What do you want, Thomas? I’ll make sure the Lie of Society doesn’t keep you from it.
I think Deceit also has an element of “Protect Thomas from himself,” hence his self-delusion function.
I do like this a lot, and tbh right after Can Lying Be Good this would absolutely have been my take on Deceit’s purpose. But now that he’s, uh, increasingly not doing that -- participating directly in SvS (with the argument that Thomas is not as innocent as he claims) rather than disappearing as soon as he’s unmasked, sending in Remus (“no longer will you deceive yourself about the ugliness within you”) to join the party, etc, etc -- I’m now thinking that’s less his goal and more a means he’s used to achieve what he wanted. It’s been established that Deceit and Remus look like bad guys because that’s what Thomas thinks of them as; he doesn’t want to see them or know about them, and since part of Deceit’s thing is finding loopholes in an unfair system, he’s willing to play within those rules when it’s easier -- hiding his true appearance and keeping hidden the things Thomas doesn’t want to know makes it easier for him to get Thomas to do what he wants.
Lately, that isn’t working so well -- Thomas has been tipped off to Deceit’s existence, and tends to immediately oppose him as a Bad Guy as soon as he appears. So Deceit’s finally making his case for what he really believes -- urging Thomas to “take the blindfold off” and work with him to get “that stuff you want.” Deceit does embody deception, sometimes to a fault -- we’ve seen him lie on impulse when it doesn’t help him in any way (“You have no morality!” “Red-- I MEAN BLUE!”), and I feel like Deception is just his thing, like Creativity is Roman’s thing, and in both cases it’s a means to an end.
Anyway, all just my takes but THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for thoughtful comments and kind words and general interest & enthusiasm for my quick scribbles and a concept I thought way too hard about xD Sanders Sides is great and u guys are cool!!!
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