TS crit blogs are literally the only way I learn what Thomas is up to anymore so thank you for your service. I started what I thought would be a small vent, but then it turned into a whole thing that would be its own post if I wanted to deal with the notes, but I don't. So I'm throwing it at you! Enjoy and sorry in advance:
We all know about the Flanderization of SaSi, there's not that much to say that hasn't already been said. But. If Thomas was GOING to steal allow fanon to influence his canon, you'd think he could have at least stolen used fanon that made sense for the characters? There's a host of incredible, thoughtful, caring fanfiction and analysis and discussion out there about every character, exploring their vulnerabilities, their fatal flaws, their underappreciated strengths. To ignore all of that to latch on to the most one-dimensional and vapid interpretations of these previously impressive, interesting characters is just... confusing and disappointing. Even when he attempts/pretends to care about that depth these days, it's so clearly bait that it doesn't compel anyone who isn't already forgiving a LOT.
I was wondering what changed, and... well. I'm really not trying to do the thing where people forcibly divorce a creator from the quality of their work, as though to insist they could never have loved any of their work now that Things Are Different. But for Thomas and co, I think the only real change that heralded the decline of SaSi (that affected them instead of just fans) was that Joan left the team.
So here's my kind of mean take. It honestly feels to me like, since Joan left, Thomas may or may not have realised that he's not qualified enough himself atp to understand/respect the depth of these characters, or at least what they became under Joan? I remember even back when I was a fan, years ago, I went through season 1 again and could just about see a visible line where Joan joined the team and started contributing, because the writing quality SOARED. Without Joan, I feel like Thomas doesn't care half as much about these new well-rounded characters, kind of wants his one-dimensional archetype joke characters back, and still wants to keep making money off his biggest property. I imagine that that might be why he's happier to engage with discussions like "Patton is an innocent widdle baby who doesn't know what sex is. Janus is a wine mom now. Look how much Logan loves jam!" than discussions like "Roman has had an arc written and waiting and scheduled since Moving On Part 2, and it was shelved to make room for Deceit and then it was shelved again to make room for Remus and then it was shelved again to make room for Janus' redemption and nothing was even written in between those to un-shelve it, and he's also been shaped by all of That and now has even more arcs of depth and exploration and understanding of his character locked and loaded and ready to fire, SVS-R set the stage for it yet again and the next mainline episode has to tackle it, we have a perfect opportunity to get a closer look into Roman's motivations and what makes him act the way he does, let's talk about it, let's go!".
Because he doesn't KNOW how to handle discussions like that. Those were discussions that Joan could probably have taken so far, because Joan is actually a good writer (cough), but Thomas doesn't really seem to know what to do with them. And, more to the point, it feels like he wasn't prepared for people to take the series seriously, and now he isn't willing to put in an earnest effort to meet his fans in a heartfelt place - to at least make some sort of effort to recognise and respect that seriousness and genuine care for his characters. That's what makes this feel more like a 'betrayal' by a creator than I would normally allow it to feel. I think it's because he IS engaging with the fandom - in fact, lifting heavily from fanon to the point of laziness - but he's only taking the parts that feel generic and tropeish enough to make into funnies, and the parts that allow him to dress up and do glamour shots. Without any regard for the actual development of the series over the years, or for the fans begging for it to be treated seriously.
If I'm being fully honest, I think the SaSi we loved has long been Joan's SaSi, and the characters have for a long time been Joan's characters, just acted by Thomas. Without Joan, whether the finale comes out this year, or in 2037, the reason it'll be bad won't be because we all grew up and got tired or whatever, like I used to think, or because Thomas suddenly got worse at his job. The reason it'll be bad will be because it's Thomas trying to write an ending for Joan's story and Joan's characters, pretending they're still his story and characters, but refusing to take either seriously. Or at best, attempting to take them seriously, but failing, because it hasn't been Thomas' story for a long time even if the characters all wear his face.
I don't know the details of why Joan left the team. I hope it was amicable, although at this point I don't trust that there wasn't anything under the surface. But what I do genuinely think, no joke, is that SaSi needed Joan more than it needs Thomas. I mean that. Recast the character of 'Thomas Sanders' with a different actor if you must, rename him if you must and rebrand it all if you must, but that's the only timeline in which SaSi actually gets the finale it deserves. Thomas is the face, and a good actor for it, and he undeniably created the framework for the characters. But the SaSi that took off, and made people so happy for so long, is Joan's SaSi. Thomas is just kind of dragging around its corpse.
I know it's not as cut and dry as giving one person all the credit for the thing. And I know Joan probably couldn't feasibly have done the whole thing themself, or succeeded in popularity, since Thomas was too embedded in the face and the origins and the publicity of the whole thing to remove comfortably. And I don't think people were ready for it at the time. I definitely wasn't. It's not a "should have happened and it WOULD have been better" as much as it's an "Imagine if we could have had this instead. Shame it could never have been."
In a perfect world Joan got the rights, rebranded and finished the story, or if nothing else, stayed long enough to write a suitable ending before leaving.
In the world we live in, SaSi was doomed the minute Joan left.
No need to apologize. I'm really glad you shared it here. It's not just that Thomas pulled from fanon, it's which parts he pulled. There’s so much rich, insightful fan content out there, and instead he went for the shallowest interpretations - Logan loves jam, Janus is a wine mom, Patton is UwU baby, etc. - like he wanted the aesthetic without the substance.
And Joan... I think you nailed it. They brought a level of emotional depth and narrative intention that Thomas just hasn’t matched since. It really does feel like he's trying to finish someone else’s story without understanding what made it special, and instead of stepping up, he's leaned into surface-level cosplay and vibes.
You're not alone in feeling like something important got lost. A lot of us are mourning the version of SaSi that could’ve been.
