#patton defense

Yeah, haha. I do love Roman (and Virgil) but he gets basically zero criticism. Not just in fanon, but in canon, too. I don't think he'd be half as annoying if he got called out/suffered consequences for his actions. The only time Roman's made a meaningful sacrifice is SvS, and it was basically turned into a bad thing in SvSr. (Which is mostly c!Thomas' fault, and I will always stand by this. I should start posting c!Thomas crit, there's not nearly enough of it, haha)

Roman in SvS: I think we should go to the wedding, and that's my decision, because I don't want to be deceitful.

Roman in SvSr: I made a bad choice to go to the wedding, except no, I didn't, it was Patton's fault, actually. In fact, I'm going to blame Patton more than Janus, and then get mad when Patton (somewhat rightfully) won't defend me against him.

H U H

The fandom: Roman is right.

H U H

I could bitch about SvSr for a while, and I probably will, but that's for another time.

But, yeah, Patton. He gets way too much hate, and I think that's in part, because of his stans. All the sides have toxic stans, but I think Patton's might be the most vocal. I'm not 100% sure, though, Virgil stans might be louder. I know annoying/aggressive stans can ruin a character for people. Not to say that's the only valid reason to dislike him, there are plenty of valid reasons. However, I think those reasons are overblown sometimes. Patton can be pushy, but so can the other sides. I'd say the others are pushier, actually.

When Patton doesn't want to do something, the others (including c!Thomas) will push and push until he gives in, because they know he'll give in.

They know Patton is soft in the heart. They know Patton wants to make Thomas and others happy. They know Patton is holding back, because he's the peace-keeper and has "real" thoughts on things that he's not saying. And, yet, Patton is seen as the pushy one in the fandom (and canon), because he *checks notes* has strong opinions about his role/function and stands up for them passionately. Gee, that doesn't sound like the other sides at all. The other sides totally don't fight for their opinion to an almost annoying and overbearing degree. Only Patton does that. Yep. (sarcasm)

I think Virgil might be the worst with pushiness, actually, but he's the fandom baby, so he's never called out for it.

If I had to guess, Patton gets more heat for pushiness, because he's often not aligned with what the audience wants. In SvS, Thomas and Roman wanted to go to the callback, so the audience also wanted that. And Patton wanted to go to the wedding, so, the audience was against him. At least, that's what I think based on fandom reception to SvS, SvSr, and other episodes. I actually think the audience was originally supposed to side with Patton, but when they didn't, Thomas acted like the intention was for us to side with him and Roman.

I digress.

The fandom is 100% biased, haha. Which, is understandable, to a degree. The fandom is pretty queer, and a lot of queer people have religious trauma. So, I understand being uncomfortable with a character tied to religion. The problem is the hypocrisy. All of Thomas characters are tied to religion, because Thomas (the character and the real man) is tied to religion. Thomas was raised Catholic, and that comes up in certain episodes. And, the funny thing is, most of the time, it's not Patton bringing it up.

It's usually someone using religion against him or using it to reason with him. But, Patton's not forcing it on anyone. To be fair, religion is part of why Patton's being too strict in DWIT, but it's not the main driving force. Patton might be the most religious side, but his actual philosophy seems closer to "do no harm, take no shit", or at least it used to be, before he was convinced he was the bad guy. There's so much to say about how much and the way Patton's character has changed, but most of it is heartbreaking. I might write that someday, but not today, haha.

But, I'd also like to add that the bias against Patton probably also comes from him being straight passing and him being the Dad Character™.

Patton isn't all that visibly queer, so I think that makes it harder for visibly queer fanders to relate to him. Unlike Virgil and Roman, who are not only more visibly queer, but much more vocally queer.

I wouldn't say Patton is shy with his way of showing queerness or anything, but I don't think it's as inviting or digestible to young queers watching the show as the other sides' are. Logan was also a victim of this for a while, until the orange side stuff started happening, then he was woobified to the moon and back. But, that should also be its own post. My main point being, it's a lot harder for people to sympathize with someone they relate very little to. In fact, the harder it is to relate to someone, the easier it is to villainize them.

Then there's the thing that Patton might remind fanders of their Dad From Real Life and hold that against him. Which is understandable. Emotions are valid, and there's nothing wrong with using characters to vent/cope. But, it becomes a problem when people are blind to how the characters actually act. When people act like their emotions are canon characterization and hate on anyone who knows canon. That's unfair to the character and, more importantly, the real people just trying to talk about the character.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to have a discussion about a character, that ended up fruitless, because the person I was talking to was mad at Someone From Real Life. It's exhausting. And, again, emotions are valid, but sometimes we have to put our emotions to the side and look at the character's actual actions. Easier said than done, I know. Ironic to say that when talking about the character that is technically in charge of Thomas' feelings, haha. Which, again, should be its own post, because I kind of hate that.

It's not fair that one side is in charge of Thomas' feelings, especially, since the sides have their own feelings. Feelings that Patton is supposed to take care off, too, apparently. Patton has way too much weight put on him, and the others basically outright refuse to alleviate any of that weight.

One of the many things that bother in me in this fandom is the completely fanon and false narrative that Patton is some sort of dictator who cast away the Dark Sides (a term coined by ROMAN, even Virgil calls them the "others") like they're evil or something. Nevermind that Janus is responsible for keeping Thomas's secrets and they only appear when THOMAS is ready to see them. Patton has been trying to be open to others since season one. He was the first Side to accept Virgil and try to be nice to him while everyone else either tolerated or hated him. PATTON Was the one to notice that Virgil did not like being the "villain" and was the only one to assure him that he wasn't.

From then Patton only grows more accepting of Virgil (and in turn causes Thomas to be less wary of him as well)

He is the first one to notice and point out that Virgil's absence was the reason Thomas was acting so off. He calls Virgil "one of us" while, let me repeat, everyone still hated him.

Let's not forget that Patton said "kiddo, simply put, Deceit is the inner coach that acts with the one intention of self-preservation." He said that in the same episode Janus IMPERSONATED him and tried to get Thomas to lie (something Patton doesn't agree with.) Patton still acknowledged that Janus had the best intentions for Thomas, even if he himself didn't agree with them. In general, Patton tries his best to listen to them or try to understand their perspective or at least not demonize them (unlike Roman, who seems to have a very fairytale view of morality, where there's a hero and a villain).

Remus is a different case, I'll agree, but again, he is INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS. Intrusive Thoughts are very different from anxiety and deceit/self-preservation. While the other two can be be good for someone, sometimes they're even NEEDED, intrusive thoughts are your brain's way of torturing you with everything you don't stand for, everything that you fear, or hate (I'd know, my intrusive thoughts regularly torture me with graphic images of my cat getting hurt). Unlike anxiety or lies, there's no "good uses" of Intrusive thoughts.

And Patton, like many people, thought that having these thoughts made Thomas (and himself, as he's the Morality) a bad person. DWIT wasn't about accepting Intrusive thoughts as something good, it was about making Thomas and Patton (and Virgil) realize that HAVING them didn't make you immoral. That it's NORMAL to have them, and it's only a problem if these things DON'T bother you. Even throughout out the episode, Patton tried his very best not to say bad things about Remus (and failed but still). Especially considering just how uncomfortable and disturbed he was

(unwanted and DISTURBING, doesn't sound like a good thing to me)

At the end of the video, Patton admits to being too strict and setting an impossible standard, for which he apologizes. He promises to be less strict, and says he can't promise he won't slip up again (as he did in PoF). Patton has been thinking a certain way for 30 years and he can't completely change that just because Logan whipped out some psychology facts.

Even with that, Patton is still allowed to have BOUNDARIES (especially with Remus, consider Remus talks about murdering Thomas's best friend and his family.) And as far as we know in canon, Remus only CAUSES intrusive thoughts, he has shown no sign of "experiencing" them like Virgil does with anxiety.

Patton being uncomfortable with Remus and the things he says is no different from Virgil being uncomfortable Patton's overly cute nicknames.

As for Janus, well, I've already said Patton knew he wasn't evil (and the first to remind Thomas of that.) After PoF, he listened to Janus, made sure to apologise to Thomas, AND let Janus know that he had a seat at the table. He also made sure to use Janus's real name, knowing it took a lot of trust and effort for him to tell them, AND trusted him enough to take care of Thomas.

the reason I haven’t yet is that I enjoy seeing genuine in depth character analysis including criticism, and even (and maybe especially?) with characters that I love

but lots of it is just... idk, not true? 

I made a rant recently about how people criticise him for pretty much not being a mind reader 

and if he was people would probably use that against him too somehow idk

and tbh, most of the criticism I see is very similar to that

You're absolutely right anon but I don't believe Patton "should" apologize to anyone because he hasn't done anything wrong /hj

The only person he should apologize to is C!Thomas and he has done that and Thomas has forgiven him.

It's not Patton's fault that the others are shit at communicating their feelings and give Patton the passive aggressive (or sometimes downright aggressive) treatment for not being a mind reader. It's not Patton's fault that Roman didn't believe him when he said "we love you". It's not Patton's fault for "skipping" Logan when none of them were in the mindset to read a Wikipedia section. Virgil is angry at Patton for being "too controlling"? When he was being too controlling in DWIT himself?

It's not Patton's fault for having a fucking breakdown and not having the energy to "defend" Roman right after. Roman put Patton on a pedestal? That's his fault, he's a grown fucking man who could make him own decisions.

I think all the Sides are hypocrites and they put pressure on Patton because it's easy to neglect their own responsibilities and it's even easier to blame Pat after because they know he's not going to be aggressive in return or defend himself.

Patton is NOT a hypocrite for learning from his mistakes and everyone who blamed him for that and thinks he should apologize for not being a saint can fuck right off. Also, it's not like Patton DIDN'T try to tell them that he didn't have the answers? He did, multiple times, just he also tried to tell them how bad he was feeling. But they straight up ignored him and put more pressure on him so he felt like he HAD to have all the rights.