What Is Deceit Really After?
In light of the latest Sanders Sides video, Dealing with INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS, a part of the video that came in early on and lasted only a few seconds really stuck with me.
The moment I’m talking about is during Remus’s introductory song when Remus suddenly pulls attention away from himself and his role to tell Thomas about a conversation he had with Deceit prior to the video:
Remus: Speaking of honesty, recently a snake offered me a morsel from the tree of knowledge. He [Deceit] said, “You’re wanting to be more honest and be direct dealing with your issues. No longer will you deceive yourself about the ugliness within you.”
While I find it strange that Remus took a little detour to mention this conversation, I found it even stranger that Deceit, someone who appears to be very selfish with his own agenda, would spend time offering Remus a chance to get what it was he wanted.
As it was said before back in Can LYING Be Good??, Deceit has the ability to hide and keep away anything that Thomas doesn’t want to know or denies about himself. Throughout the video, Thomas was trying to tell the others, and himself, that the thoughts Remus was giving him wasn’t him [Thomas] and that he didn’t want them. So, in accordance with one of Deceit’s cannon responsibilities, Remus shouldn’t even be there and should still be tucked away where Thomas would be unaware of him. But Deceit deliberately set him free.
Well first let’s look to the next, and final, time Deceit is brought up (indirectly) in the episode:
Logan: I can’t imagine how someone would fake not doing something, other than by doing something and hiding that they’re doing it.
Remus: Ooh, how fun! You know who can help us with that? *Deceit’s music plays in the background* *suggesting that Deceit has to do with the topic of conversation*
Here it is practically confirmed by Remus that Deceit is doing something secretly behind the scenes. Deceit seems to have an agenda, as said by Patton in Selfishness v. Selflessness.
Patton: You always seem to have some bigger plan, some agenda.
Deceit: Doesn’t everyone?
Patton: Well not everyone is so secretive about theirs.
Deceit: Everything has a purpose, and sometimes fulfilling your purpose requires keeping things close to the chest.
Notice Deceit’s wording here: “fulfilling your purpose.” What is Deceit’s purpose as a functioning side again? Well, let’s revisit his first episode again to how Patton described him after he was first found out and left:
Patton: Kiddo, simply put, Deceit is an inner coach that acts with the one intention of self-preservation.
By desiring the preservation of Thomas, similar to say Logan and/or Virgil with less moral construct, Deceit’s agenda could very well be his way of trying to take control of Thomas’s life in an attempt to steer it in a way that he deems is in Thomas’s best interest. He’s already done this when he tried to convince Thomas to ditch Lee and Marily (Mary Lee?)’s wedding in favor of attending a call back for a movie under a famous director that could exponentially increase Thomas’s status in life, better his future path, and create numerous opportunities in which to sustain and secure himself.
What Deceit is after is security.
Again, during Deceit’s interrogation in SvS, after he went on a whole spiel about the dangers of an authoritative society, he said that his main concern for Thomas in regards to that society was/is:
Deceit: I don’t want Thomas to be disadvantaged in a world where you can die for not following the laws made in the name of a lie.
Deceit states his goal of protecting Thomas from getting hurt from the dangers of a society that is loosely kept in order by a fragile mutual agreement that could easily be broken by anyone. But do you know what would keep Thomas safe if that society were to suddenly break?
Climbing up the social ladder.
But what does any of this have to do with why Deceit suddenly decided to unleash the gremlin bastard child that is Remus?
Well first off Remus’s whole goal was to get Thomas to realize that he isn’t as innocent and pure as he thought and get him to realize that he, and his creative content, is capable of so much more. Similar to how Deceit tried to get Thomas to realize that he was more capable of selfish acts and had more of a tendency for lying then he let himself believe.
Thomas’s goodie goodie attitude of altruism severely limits Thomas in Deceit’s eyes. His over the top concern to care for others before himself keeps him from taking opportunities that would benefit him (at the expense of another) or do things that he’d in enjoy (but would mean putting himself before a friend). In Deceit’s mind, Thomas is never going to be well secured and safe if he won’t take care of his own needs before the needs of another.
So, in order to combat the issue, Deceit is trying to tip the scale of power in Thomas’s mind by using three different methods.
1. Unleashing more of the dark sides so that their influence away from an altruistic outlook would increase.
2. Seducing the light sides to be in their favor against altruism.
3. Making Virgil a dark side again
We saw Deceit go to Remus and convince him that the time had come that he reveals himself and no longer live in the shadow of his brother Roman and finally take his rightful place as Thomas’s creativity. While it did fail in the end, Deceit had a momentary success by disturbing Patton and Virgil so much that they consistently hounded on Thomas to the point that he couldn’t sleep and started questioning himself and the choices he had recently made.
His other method, which he did previous to his plan with Remus, was trying to gain more control by taking over the light sides. Seducing Patton is literally pointless since he’s the main source of the altruism, so Deceit tried to pull both Roman and Logan to his side. For Roman, he played on his dreams of fame and fortune and his desire to act and be on the “silver screen.” For Logan, he tried to go about it objectively, what would benefit Thomas’s well being and offer them an opportunity. This almost worked with Roman, as Roman, covertly, sided with Deceit throughout SvS, only for him to switch back to siding with the light sides even at the expense of his own dream and goal.
So bada bing bada boom, two failures already and almost no progress made, or has there?
At the end of DwIT, we have the long-awaited reveal that Virgil was a dark side in the past. While for much of the fandom that fact was obvious, but for Thomas, it wasn’t.
For Virgil, his time as a dark side is not something he is proud or fond of, and why would he be? As Virgil stated, he used to be terrified of Remus, and his resentful relationship with Deceit was clearly toxic. The others were not good friends, and he probably wasn’t one to them either, which would explain Virgil’s demeanor in the earlier episodes as cold and cruel to the light sides, because that’s how he was conditioned.
The dark sides are also obviously not the most beneficial or helpful assents to Thomas, so this could cause Virgil to think back about he also used to be, or still is, in his mind, a hindrance to Thomas and would make him loath that time he spent with them even more and want to keep it hidden so that Thomas’s newly improved impression of Virgil, that he worked so hard for, wouldn’t be damaged.
But the dark sides keep on coming, and he isn’t able to control them or deal with them as he thought he could. These sides keep on appearing and poking at him for who he used to be so much that it cornered him to reveal his darkest secret just so Thomas wouldn’t have to hear it from them.
Look at Virgil’s face as he tells Thomas of his true nature:
His eyes are red and his lips are tight and slightly quivering. He’s scared to say anything, but he had to.
And Thomas’s reaction? Exactly what Virgil was afraid of:
He steps away and looks at Virgil with fear.
Again, what does any of this have to do with Deceit’s agenda?
Revealing Virgil was the agenda. Or at least part of it.
Going back to the end credit scene of EMBARRASSING PHASES, when Deceit suddenly dropped in on Virgil it wasn’t just for some casual banter with an old colleague, it was to prove a point. The point that Virgil hasn’t, and can’t, change from who he once was. I discussed this before in my other theories (Virgil’s Hidden Past and Virgil Isn’t What He Seems) but what Deceit is trying to do is to get Virgil to stop denying who he really is and take off the disguise he’s been wearing as a “light” side.
But why does it matter that Virgil stop “faking” being a light side?
It’s as I said before, Deceit is trying to shift the power to the dark sides in the mind, and turning Virgil back to how he was when he was an antagonist may do just that.
Despite once being a dark side, I’ve noticed that Virgil is different than the others. Unlike with Deceit and Remus, Virgil was never kept from Thomas, he’s always been known and able to interact with him and the main sides. And, in comparison to deceitfulness and intrusive thoughts, anxiety has much more impact on the mental, physical, and emotional health. Anxiety can be so intense that it can impede on anyone’s basic well being. And while lying and horrible thoughts can also do this, it’s nothing compared to the scale of damage anxiety is capable of. Virgil’s ability to influence how Thomas thinks and acts has always been powerful, powerful enough to the point that even Deceit couldn’t contain him.
Virgil may not be Deceit’s main or only agenda, but he’s defiantly on it.
If Deceit were to get someone that powerful back on his side, then he could do whatever was necessary to secure Thomas’s safety. And by the looks of how broken Virgil was when he finally revealed himself:
