#greed!deceit

Sloth!Virgil

Anxiety (Paranoia) / Reaction to adversity is to Give up

Virgil is often seen promoting activities that would be considered lazy, i.e. going back to bed in the middle of the day, staying home when they could go out, doing less work, trying fewer new things.  His makeup is a dramatized symbol for lack of sleep.  There are multiple instances showing him reluctant to spend more time even just in the presence of the other Sides; “Now I’m gonna go be cool, somewhere else.”  Ducking out is the pinnacle of sloth.

But sloth as a behavior is just a symptom of the actual condition: social anxiety and mild paranoia. Check out my short paranoia theory here.  Virgil resorts to inaction as a defense against feeling insecure about something. Wanted to go to that party, but you’re too nervous to talk to new people?  Well, actually, just stay in.  It’s safer and you need your rest.  

That’s why Virgil’s arc is not about finding the motivation to do things; that would only work if laziness was the true problem.  Instead, his arc is about learning to think through fears and overcome them, so C!Thomas can do what he actually wants, which is to be more social.  

Gluttony!Patton

Morality / Flower: Blue Forget-me-not / Craves Community / Reaction to Adversity is to Fake-it-til-you-make-it

Patton is about cravings. Food, pets, friends; he wants it all. He’s about enjoying everything life has to offer, gosh-darn the consequences.  He wants friends so badly he’s consistently willing to sacrifice his own well-being to put them first.  The concept of morality often focuses on giving instead of receiving.  It’s a way to prove to them that he’s a good friend, and therefore worth keeping around.  What seems like sacrifice is actually a careful prioritization of his favorite thing to indulge in: acceptance.  Being happy all the time is not just a show for the other Sides, it’s for C!Thomas’ friends as well.  People don’t want to be around someone who’s sad, right?  Gotta be happy, so they stick around.  

Forget-me-nots are about happy memories and we already know Patton is a sucker for nostalgia.  One of his favorite things are memories, so he goes to extreme lengths to make lots of good memories with his friends.  Patton’s arc will ultimately be Not about diminishing his craving for friendship but realizing that he can be his most authentic self without losing them.  He can loosen the rules that he internalized.  Real friendship does not require perfection.  

Greed!Deceit

Self-Preservation / Flower: Yellow Sunflower / Reaction to adversity is Sowing Discord

Deceit, like Logan, is also focused on C!Thomas’ success.  The difference is, he could not care less what that success looks like, only that C!Thomas gets it.  Where Logan is all about careful planning and preparedness, Deceit is about taking risks and seizing opportunities.  How can C!Thomas get the most out of life?  No, don’t worry about other people.  There is only C!Thomas.  

Deceit’s objective is to eliminate the consequences of C!Thomas’ mistakes and increase the rewards for his effort.  He will do whatever it takes, whether that’s coaching C!Thomas to lie to others, or to be more honest with himself.  His stance is that since our society is built on lies, we should be willing to use lies to navigate it.  Deceit believes that if C!Thomas is honest to himself about what he wants, he’ll pursue it even at the risk of losing people along the way.  Simply put, Deceit must learn that no one makes it alone.  The sunflower symbolizes false riches, and this explains why Deceit’s assumption is wrong.  We all depend on others to reach our full potential, and a world where C!Thomas has gained everything by discarding or disadvantaging others is one C!Thomas wouldn’t want to live in.  It’s more difficult, but it’s worth it in the end to work with other people instead of around them.  

Lust!Roman

Creativity / Flower: Red Rose / Reaction to adversity is Denial

It’s easy to see that Roman is all about finding that special someone.  Red roses symbolize love.  He’s dashing, brave, and often combats mythical creatures, not for fun (although it is fun), but to prove his manliness to a potential mate!  But this Side is actually one of the most complicated. He believes himself to be the most handsome Side, and he better be, because it is his duty to secure the end-all-be-all of C!Thomas’ life: romantic love.  Someone to spend your life with, grow old with.  The initial conflict between Roman and Anxiety is entirely because having Anxiety around would theoretically lower his chances of securing a relationship.  Once he saw that Anxiety could do what needed to be done in “Accepting Anxiety”, he was able to let go of that worry.

But remember, Roman is also about Self-Love.  The creativity that he pumps out isn’t art for art’s sake; it’s to bring himself joy and to fill that hole in his heart with some kind of excitement.  If he can’t throw all his passion at a person, he’ll throw it onto the stage.  That’s why each time his work is criticized, he’s confronted with the fear that it’s all just a distraction anyway.  Yes, he is objectively good at acting and enjoys it, but part of C!Thomas uses all these creative projects to feel something he isn’t getting anywhere else.

The Roman angst dates aaaall the way back to the Valentine’s Day Episode, wherein C!Thomas decided that platonic love was important to acknowledge, too.  Roman had already stated in the first episode that he would focus on loving himself.  But maybe on that particular Valentine’s day, C!Thomas stopped trying so hard to find romance.  Maybe he fell back on what he already had, the love of his friends, and thought to himself, this could be enough.  And each time an opportunity to feel true passion comes up again, C!Thomas rejects it. First when trying to rekindle things with the ex-boyfriend, then with the big call-back.  C!Thomas is putting his love life on hold to deal with other things right now, and it’s wearing on Roman.  

The worst part is that it’s entirely possible, maybe even likely, that Roman (and therefore C!Thomas) isn’t sure what will happen once he’s found someone.  RE: Episode #1 – his greatest fear is rejection.  

In “Am I Original?” C!Thomas states that if he only ever listened to Roman, he would be setting himself up for heartbreak.  That’s why Roman makes the final ruling in the court room.  That’s why he quietly accepts it every time they make a decision away from love (with impromptu exceptions – “PICK IT UP!”).  He both wants and fears love at the same time.  Roman’s arc isn’t really about what he needs to do differently, but about what C!Thomas needs to let him do for himself.  His stories aren’t about him getting his way and then finding out he took it too far. They’re about him not getting anything at all.  Once he gets the green light from C!Thomas, he will do what he’s always done; Throw caution to the wind in the pursuit of love.  

Envy!Remus

Creativity / Flower: Green Dahlia / Reaction to adversity is Acting out for Attention

All the “Dark” Sides were pushed away for one reason or another, but it seems to hit Remus particularly hard.  It’s not fair that his brother should be chosen over him.  He considers himself not even just as good as Roman, but in many ways better at being creative!  His range is limitless, and he is confident in his abilities, unlike his brother.  He should be the main Creativity, not that crybaby!  

Remus tries over and over again to make C!Thomas notice him.  He gives everything he’s got into each new idea, hoping that this one will be ‘the one’ to earn him C!Thomas’ recognition, but it never does.  Remus embodies envy.  It is his driving force; ALL he wants is consideration for his ideas.  

Since Remus feels envious, C!Thomas does too.  If Remus wants to reach new heights of fame, so must C!Thomas!  From Remus’ standpoint, Roman isn’t getting the job done, so he’ll just have to keep throwing idea-after-horrifying-idea at C!Thomas until he gets through to the man.  

Wrath!X?

Now for the hard part: figuring out what’s missing.  (You can check out my earlier Anger Theory here.)

Let’s summarize how the other Sides use their traits real quick:

Logan is proud of his intelligence that he uses to gain financial security.

Virgil is slothful as a result of his desire to feel safe.

Patton is gluttonous as the result of his goal to make C!Thomas feel happiness and enjoy life in the moment.

Deceit is greedy as a result of his goal to help C!Thomas navigate this world and come out on top.

Roman is lustful as a result of his goal to secure a loving, stable relationship for C!Thomas.

Remus is envious as a result of his goal to get C!Thomas to make a lasting mark on the world like so many have before.

For most of the Sides, the sin is directly related to the Sides’ function.  It’s their method of achieving their goals.  But there appears to be an outlier.  Logan seems different.  He doesn’t need to be proud in order to be intelligent, at least on the surface.  But, maybe that’s not true.  Maybe if he didn’t feel proud when he learned new things, he would have no motivation to seek out information in the first place.  Therefore, pride is essential to Logan’s function.  

All the Sides rely on their sin to accomplish their goals.  They first have a goal, a job that they are supposed to complete for C!Thomas.  Then, the sin is their method of executing that job.  The function of the Side comes before the sin.  

So, if wrath is the means, what is the goal?  What does C!Thomas need to be angry about in order to accomplish it?

What are all the instances where we see C!Thomas (not the individual Sides) get mad, even a little?

TOAwLS - C!Thomas gets frustrated with Anxiety popping up even when nothing’s wrong.

TMvTH - C!Thomas gets mad at Logan and Patton for pelting him with conflicting goals.

GU - C!Thomas acts mad at Patton for dreaming too much, but really, he’s lashing out at Patton because the others are pushing him too far in the other direction.  

MOP2 - C!Thomas rudely disregards Logan for disrupting nostalgia-time.

SVS - C!Thomas gets mad at himself for considering lying to his friends.

If we’re being honest, this is a short list, and some of these don’t even really qualify as anger.  He’s more just kind of experiencing frustration as he works through things.  The most angry he gets is when it affects real people in his life; Lee and Mary Lee’s wedding.  He feels terrible about it, but he’s angry for two reasons here.  First, that the scheduling conflict even exists, because it’s denying him an important opportunity.  Second, because the situation caused him to confront a truth about himself that he’s never been comfortable with.

But we have one more example to work with; the Aside.  In ATHD? - C!Thomas got mad at Rico for past feelings that weren’t even specifically against C!Thomas.  We don’t see it, but we see the effects.  C!Thomas is so angry with himself for lashing out, and it tells us that he’s had a lot of anger before that he never released.  Anger about being in the closet when he was younger.  There are plenty of hints in the episode on this theme:

Roman calls C!Thomas a snowflake.

This shot from the movie: “You must learn to control it.  Fear will be your enemy.”

And most importantly, the lines “Don’t let them in, don’t let them see”.  Patton did purposely sing those lines of the Frozen song “Let it go”, which has often been correlated to coming out of the closet, because that was directly tied to the theme of the premier Aside.  

C!Thomas had so conditioned himself to defend his sexuality that even the mention of past prejudice was enough to set him off, causing him to overreact in the situation with Rico. He was transported back to a time when he was still closeted, afraid to come out because of people like Rico’s younger self.  Now that he’s older, he feels anger toward the people he knew back then, and he took that anger out on Rico.  

Let’s take a step back for a second.  What is C!Thomas’ ultimate goal for himself?  Balance. And what is C!Thomas’ ultimate goal for others?  Love and understanding.

C!Thomas got as angry as he did because this isn’t just about him anymore.  The prejudice that he remembered and was reacting to is something that people continue to face all the time.  As much as he struggled, he’s empathetic enough to know that others must be struggling, too, and his anger at Rico was actually anger at prejudice.  

When the last Side is revealed, it will signal that the arc is closing and the series will eventually be coming to an end.  Will the series have made its mark?  Way back in IIADS!!, Anxiety unintentionally suggested, “using your platform to positively affect your audience the same way Disney did with you”  It’s not just about C!Thomas anymore.  It’s about you.  Us.  

The biggest effect C!Thomas could have on his audience is self-actualization; becoming the most he can be and doing the most good for others that he possibly can.  Prejudice is an issue that has personally affected him and clearly affects his audience.  Fighting prejudice is a cause worth getting angry about, WORTH showing a little wrath.

Logan and Virgil have affected how C!Thomas takes in information.  Deceit and Patton affect how he moves through that world.  Roman and Remus affect how he wants his work to be seen on a personal level.  But Wrath will be how C!Thomas affects the world at large.  Wrath will lead the charge for affecting real change.  Wrath will close out the series and launch a generation of inspired viewers to go out into their own worlds and fight for their freedoms.  Wrath will be our hero.

~

Thanks so much for reading! This has gone on long enough, so I’m adding some bonus theories in the links below tomorrow with other things I noticed during the research for this post.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Bonus Theory now here!