#thomas sanders criticism

[moldy-lemons]

sigh. can’t believe i ever liked this man, honestly.

#ts criticism #thomas sanders critical #ts critical #thomas sanders crit #tss salt #tss crit #tss slander #thomas sanders criticism

[casey-complains]

sanders sides....

#kc.txt #ts critical #ts criticism #thomas sanders critical #thomas sanders criticism #ts crit

[prodigal-explorer]

y’all: the sanders sides fandom isn’t aro/aphobic! 🥺

also y’all:

-“you know, the sides are probably all aroace because they’re not really human so they don’t really understand attraction on a human level and are incapable of feeling it because they’re not human.”

-“guys i’m writing an asexual/aromantic side and he’s so sad and tragic and lonely and he just wants a lover so bad but it was just written in the stars that he’ll never have one and it’s so angsty!”

-“patton is asexual because he’s so pure he would never have sex!”

-“remus is aromantic because all he cares about is sex and he doesn’t want to deal with real feelings.”

-“obviously logan is aroace because he doesn’t have feelings!”

(just to clarify i do NOT agree with any of these quotations these are examples of things i’ve seen that i heavily heavily DISAGREE with and if you agree with any of them you and me are not going to get along whatsoever.)

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #tss #sanders sides fandom #ts sides #sanders sides fandom critical #tss fandom crit #prodigal tss #arophobia #aphobia #asexual #aromantic #aroace

[dapg-otmebytheballs]

There are SIX SONGS in the season finale?? Let's goooo

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #i had figured that it must have gotten overwhelming with a series that has such a massive and vocal audience #I've been there too honestly #and i thought few recent episodes being a bit stale was fair criticism but the 'we have to wait too long for more content' stuff... #idk always hit me the wrong way I cannot stand by those #also like when i say i support creators taking time with their projects and prioritising their mental health I MEAN it #i mean it even if it's someone more famous. I don't think I'm owed explanations and details to decide if I'll 'allow' it #i would have been happy enough to wait on the finale already tbh. and now I'm so stoked!! also idc the latest asides was great #someone come talk with me about sanders sides!!

[let-roman-bite-someone]

one teeny tiny criticism i have about sanders sides is

the way

roman's emotional moments

are always played off as bathos.

“bathos is a term used for sudden change in fiction from a serious or important subject to a ridiculous or very ordinary one.”

i've noticed this happens way too much in sanders sides, especially when it concerns roman. he has been showing signs of insecurity and feeling ignored for a while now. it was hinted at from the Am I Original episode. and it's very rarely taken seriously.

even in scenes where it's not played off as a joke, his feelings are very rarely given the narrative weight it deserves. the other sides are allowed to feel sad or angry, without it being turned into a "haha funny" moment or brushed off as unimportant. even when patton tries to play his feelings off as a joke in the Moving On episodes, the others made it clear that he shouldn't feel the need to do that.

the only episode roman is allowed to be really upset and sink down without forcing himself to act silly again is, as you may know, at the end of SvS Redux.

since this was the most recent official sanders sides video, i hope that his issues will actually be addressed in the future episodes. i know he's one of the comic relief characters, but if patton is allowed to feel depressed and emotional, then roman should be too. patton's whole arc in the Moving On duology was about expressing his feelings instead of bottling it up. the same moral should be applied to roman.

#everyone is talking about logan angst #roman deserves to express his feelings too #sanders sides #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #thomas sanders #patton sanders #sasi #tss #janus sanders #sanders sides critical #kinda? #not really a huge problem for me honestly #considering how well-written everything else is

[vividaway]

i would say 'the #sanders sides to #ts crit pipeline needs to be studied' but it really doesn't because i think we ALL know what the problem is here..

#ts crit #ts criticism #ts critical #thomas sanders #alyssa posts

[beauty-and-passion]

sooooo, latest video

Well... it seems like there is a video XD

Jokes aside, thanks anon for letting me know Mr. Sanders posted a video that was Sanders Sides related. Kudos for that <3

Then... I have some thoughts about this video. Thoughts I will divide into pros and cons, to make everything easier to explain.

If you don’t like long posts or reading criticism of any kind, please save yourself (and myself) some time and ignore this post. I won’t get offended, I promise.

__________________________________

PROS

A real Aside

It looks like Thomas finally learned the difference between Asides and main episodes. It took him three years, but he finally realized that the Asides should be simple, no plot-related stuff. Good to see he finally got it.

(Still don’t understand why ATHD is a main episode, tho. It’s not plot-related and it’s very clearly more low-effort than FWSA and DWIT. Maybe Thomas didn’t want to leave it all by itself?)

-------------------

Some hopes for the characters

I was very relieved to see that the characters’ personalities are not completely butchered. There are a few things I will talk about in the cons section, but the overall vibe has stayed more or less the same. I’m especially relieved Virgil isn’t the fratboy he was in Thomas’ latest Instagram post, in which he talked all fratboy-esque and I almost expected him to bully me and steal my lunch.

The most in characters are Janus and Remus, which is nice to see too. Remus in particular, is still a chaotic rat man and I love him so much.

-------------------

Remus is my chaotic child

I personally think the best part of the whole video is Remus saying the others told him he could kill Bing Bong. I laughed so hard, I had to stop the video. That wonderful, chaotic rat man deserves to kill everything, as a treat <3

But actually, everything Remus says is great and that proves he’s the best, in this essay I will-

__________________________________

CONS

A weird start

Let me recap my experience while watching the video for the first time.

So, the video starts and I’m welcomed by this guy with an orange shirt and blue hat, all happy and excited. For a split second, I think he’s Patton… but then, a Patton-esque guy with a sweater appears.

Okay, now I’m confused because I have no idea what’s happening here and don’t know who these guys are - I mean, if sweater guy is Patton, who is the orange guy? The orange side was introduced and I missed it? What’s happening here? Who are they? Are those the Inside Out characters as seen by Thomas? Will these guys meet their Sanders Sides “counterparts”?

But then another guy appears and he looks like Janus, so now I’m really lost because, seriously, who are these people? They call each other by name so they should be the Sides, but they also call the orange guy “Joy”, so who is this guy? Who are they? Are they the Inside Out characters cosplaying the Sides? Or vice-versa? What’s happening here?

I got my answer, only when Virgil appeared and clarified this was all a weird roleplay.

I have several questions:

Was it really necessary?

Why?

No, seriously, why? The Sides are the first to admit they aren’t an exact match to the Inside Out characters, so why doing this? Why flatten their multifaceted roles and personalities to do this? Because Mr. Sanders isn’t able to handle them?

Okay, fine, I know why Mr. Sanders wanted to do this weird roleplay and it could’ve been fun to see the Sides acting as the Inside Out characters… if only the Sides’ personalities stayed the same. But since their personalities are not the same anymore, all the viewers feel are confusion and a weird sense of “something’s wrong here”, which they can’t exactly pinpoint.

-------------------

Wrong aesthetics and confused personalities

In order to explain this point, I will bring two examples: Janus and Roman.

First of all, Janus. I know, he’s our beloved sassy queen and we all love him… but his aesthetic in this episode was completely wrong.

Janus is a character who wears layers upon layers of clothing. That’s the first thing you get, the first thing that characterizes him. But in this episode, he wears nothing but a gilet and a scarf. He shows with bare arms, bare shoulders, a deep V-neck and doesn't wear his gloves: for his standard, he’s basically naked.

You can tell me: “It was to match Disgust’s dress”. But since Remus put his own color on the costume, why couldn’t Janus put his own twist too? He’s not doing a perfect cosplay after all. So why not wear a sheer shirt underneath the gilet, to mimic the “nakedness” without showing his skin? Or a greenish/yellow shirt to match both his and Disgust’s aesthetic? I know Mr. Sanders loves to show his skin, but since he created a character whose aesthetic is to not show skin, why “strip” him just to show some more skin? Did Mr. Sanders forgot this aspect of Janus’ character?

But if Janus had at least his face and personality to remind us who he is, Roman had nothing. Seriously, look me in the eye and tell me that, when you saw that guy in orange, you immediately thought: “Ah yes, here is Roman”. There was no way to recognize him, because he had nothing of Roman.

First of all, not a single drop of red anywhere. And I know, roleplay and whatever… but Mr. Sanders is a theater man. He knows the importance of colors. He created seven characters by associating a color to each of them. And yet, Roman appeared without a drop of red, while Remus had no problem turning Fear’s sweater into green.

That doesn't mean Roman had to turn full red, but he could wear a red accessory at least: a bracelet, a necklace, a pin on his hat, whatever. Logan’s tie was blue after all. Or wasn’t Roman allowed to put a twist on his cosplay? This weird roleplay session gives me more questions than answers :/

Second (and most important), Roman’s personality was nowhere to be found. This guy is a more obnoxious, forced version of Roman. When he talked, I didn’t see a person talking: I saw Mr. Sanders reading a script. Or better, screaming a script. Seriously, why was he so loud? Why was he screaming this much, during the roleplay session? I almost got a headache and I don’t get headaches so easily. Seriously, if I needed to hear him louder, I could’ve turned up the volume of my computer, no need to scream this much.

-------------------

The makeup and the importance of details

The dark sides’ makeup has been butchered.

Remus’ eyeshadow used to be of a deep dark black/blue/purple. So why is it so light? Because of the roleplay? But it’s still light after the roleplay. What happened, did Thomas finish the eyeshadow? It’s not too expensive, can’t he buy some more?

Same goes for Virgil: his eyeshadow is basically non-existent. And that’s even weirder, considering that in the Christmas episode, he said he wanted darker makeup to match the darkness of his soul. Does that mean his soul isn’t dark anymore?

And then, Janus. My poor, beloved Janus. His makeup used to be impressive, with scales of a deep green/yellow/brown hue: now they look more like a weird, yellow-y rash, with a thin black line crossing them (probably made with an eye pencil?).

I know Thomas doesn’t have the same makeup artist, but experts exist. And if the one he has isn’t doing their job well, then I’m sorry, but he should hire another one. That’s not being mean, that’s being real.

And before any of you says: “That’s just a detail, you’re being nitpicky”... sure, you can see it like that. But let’s say someone gives you a cake and when you see it, there are missing decorations, the fondant doesn’t fully cover the cake and the phrase “Happy birthday” is wonky. And when you eat it, it has a weird aftertaste too. Sure, it was a gift, but would you think “That was the best ever!” or would you think “Thanks, but you could’ve spent a little more time making it better”?

Heck, you can apply the same concept with this post too! If I posted something with incorrect grammar and misspelled words, would you be happy? Or would you think “man, you could’ve spent a couple more minutes to correct it”?

Skipping details doesn’t make me think you care about your work: it makes me think that either you’re lazy or don’t really care. And if you’re okay with something with missing details, good for you. But from someone with a certain degree of expertise/professionalism like Mr. Sanders, I expect something professional too.

-------------------

Subtle vs thrown in your face

I enjoy the “Janus being a wine mom” thing: it’s funny, it makes me smile, poor boy dealing with the little shits he has around, please give him wine.

But you know what’s really funny about this? That it’s subtle. It happens once in a while. It’s not thrown in the face. And it’s not thrown in the face like that, with Sides luring Janus with wine, almost as if he’s an alcoholic and you can use wine to make him do anything.

Also because the whole “Janus loves wine” thing doesn’t work too well with the functions he embodies. I mean, this guy is responsible for lies. Do you really think lies and alcohol work well together? You need to be extremely lucid and focused to be a good liar. And I don’t think I have to explain to you why alcohol and self-preservation don’t work well together either.

So seeing him with a glass once in a while is funny, but seeing him being all like “you promised me wine” as if wine is his drug… that’s not funny.

Speaking of things that are funny when not thrown in the face, let’s talk about “falsehood” too.

Just like the wine, falsehood was funny when it came once in a while. It wasn’t a switch you could press and bam, Logan says “Falsehood!”. It was a momentarily outburst because Logan’s main reaction isn’t to yell: Logan’s main reaction is to explain things by using cold logic. Because that’s who he is: logic.

So, when I see him dropping a “falsehood” like this, I don’t enjoy it. I feel it old and stale. And it saddens me too, because it looks like Thomas is using the easiest bait to get his fans’ attention. A bit like a bunch of dangling keys: see? Your favorite character says his catchphrase! Now laugh!

-------------------

Apollo gave me the gift of prophecy (or maybe it was just too obvious this would happen)

Right after Roman stops screaming, Virgil starts screaming. And he does it in the most out-of-character way, for the most out-of-character reason.

Since the Q&A episode from season one, Virgil was the first one to tell Thomas that Anxiety looks different for anyone and that he specifically chose the dark persona to keep “everyone’s guard up”.

So why is he complaining so much about a movie representation of Anxiety now? And why should everyone remind him that hey, Anxiety looks different for everyone? He should already know that. He was the first to tell that.

Do you know what this is? No, not a pathetic excuse to talk about a trending topic (i.e. Inside Out). It’s proof I was fucking right and of course I was, because I experienced it too.

What did I say in my old post about the problem with this series? That SaSi doesn’t have an outline. And what happens when you don’t have an outline and, instead of focusing on that project/writing an outline, you do 20 other different things instead? That more time will pass. And the more time will pass, the more you will forget things you already talked about.

Like, you know, a topic from season 1 that was clarified, over and done by the same character who now forgot it.

-------------------

The golden goose will never die

Call me a conspiracy theorist or just an old hag with a heart of stone. But I really would like to know the real reason why, deep down, Thomas made this video.

I doubt it was because he missed the Sides and wanted to do something with them. He doesn’t miss them the slightest, it’s quite clear. He doesn’t even care enough to remember what their personalities are supposed to be, how can he "miss" them?

But oh look, there was new merch to advertise. And Inside Out is a trending topic and the fandom knows about the association between SaSi and the movie. So if Mr. Sanders makes the right video at the right time, he can get a lot of views with minimal effort.

But he should advertise a shirt with all Sides in, so he can’t just make a video about Virgil reacting to a trailer: he needs all of the Sides to be there. So, let’s rush a video with the first idea that popped into his mind: that Virgil doesn’t like the Inside Out take on Anxiety.

Maybe that’s not what truly happened in his mind and behind the scenes. Maybe Mr. Sanders really just wanted to make a video with the Sides and I’m a cynical, heartless person. Personally, I would be way happier to know I was wrong and there weren’t ulterior motives behind this video.

But without any actual proof, I won’t believe this video was made just for passion. Passion doesn’t make you skip details. Passion doesn’t make you put on a sloppy video, without taking two more minutes to check if your characters are IC or the topic you want to talk about makes sense.

Believe me, I’m very sad to say this. I don’t want to think all of this. I always try to be optimistic and think good of people. But if this is what I get, how can I believe this video was made with good intentions and no ulterior motives? Especially since it’s coming from a guy who can be accurate, detail-oriented, and very subtle while acting? He did all of this in the past: now it looks like he forgot everything.

If you want to still watch this Aside, do it. If you enjoy it, even better. For me, that was just a tiny waste of time and it left me nothing except a momentary smile. At the end of the day, I don’t even care enough to watch it twice. And for me, that's a failure, coming from a series I used to watch on repeat.

#sanders sides #ask #ts criticism #I guess #thomas sanders #roman sanders #remus sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #at this point I'm just sad

[dustylogicalityrat]

hello, hello! I have sort of an idea/rant/question.

(about the whole Patton casting the "Dark Sides" out thing.)

so, like, did he?

because obviously, it'd make sense if Thomas' Morality disapproved of Deceit and Dark Creativity, but,,,

in Can Lying Be Good?, it's explained that Janus kept everyone's "mouths shut" about himself and Remus.

and in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts, Remus sings about how Janus basically sent him off to fuck with everyone.

and Patton was VERY clearly offset by Remus' appearance. (i mean, come on.)

but in Can Lying Be Good?, the very episode that introduced the concept of the "Dark Sides", Patton seems super unaware of what's going on. and when he sees Janus (who's in his spot), he really isn't surprised to see him at all. just sorta oblivious but confused? but i'm guessing Patton understood that it was Deceit, because when Thomas worried about Janus calling him a good person, Patton realized that meant Janus tried telling him that he wasn't.

still, though, Patton didn't really hate that Janus kept appearing. he was just always the one to be challenged. and he definitely aimed that anger from his own actions at himself. (i mean, it led to him turning into a buff video game frog, so..)

and if Patton was the one to have hidden the "Dark Sides", how?

and how come Virgil was able to appear?

i dunno, something about Janus controlling when the Sides can talk about them sorta throws a wrench into this.

#please please add on to this if you have any thoughts! #open to all criticism! #i'm just a tad confused #but that's just the norm #sanders sides #patton sanders #ts patton #janus sanders #ts janus #remus sanders #ts remus #virgil sanders #ts virgil #thomas sanders #c!thomas

[dyke-remy]

went back to check the credits. yep. im sorry but im kinda starting to hate the patreon influence. i already know what the fandom thinks the sides would give each other. i wanna know what thomas thinks they would give each other. if he still cares

#i am becoming a cynic #sorry #like yeah thomas did agree with the patreons but its not the same as him organically coming up with the ideas #sanders sides #ts critical

[i-write-you-songs]

I just wanna mention to the fanders that as much as we all love the series, Thomas doesn't owe us anything

he does have a life outside of YouTube and tagging every one of your post with "he make me so mad>:(" isn't gonna make ANYONE wanna do anything for you

I get why you're tired. We all are. But taking it out by getting pissed that a stranger isn't catering to you EXACTLY like how you want them to is kind of trashy

also I've seen people say that Thomas is 'butchering' the characters that HE MADE and HE WROTE let writers and directors make their own creative decisions first of all and second of all leave him tf alone

#phobia speaks #sanders sides #Thomas Sanders #i just think you guys are being really disrespectful and it's just really uncalled for #He's not doing it bc he hates us or something he's literally working on it #Thomas sanders critical #ts critical

[spoofy-drawings]

IM AT SUCH A CROSSROADS-

Thomas is such a talented individual, to the point he can just sound slightly different and we as fans can recognize that he’s acting as different characters.

I KNOW he’s talented enough to pull off badass works of art, especially when it comes to Sanders Sides.

Now all of a sudden, after making MASTERPIECES like the Into The Unknown cover, and SVS (part 1 and 2) AND WTIT, he can’t make a decent Sides vid?

I love the new vid, don’t get me wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I will love Thomas’ work regardless of what it is.

However, the HUGE downgrade NEEDS to be talked about.

So let’s discuss my thoughts on the uproar of anger at this new episode.

First and foremost, the makeup. It TANKED. Just look at this- How did Janus and Virgil go from this -

TO THIS???

Like, Thomas what happened. I can 100% understand that Janus’ scales are far from easy to do, so his is more understandable, especially bc he has a new makeup artist. It just looks like it’s the artists first attempt?? If that makes sense??

On the other hand, I have NO experience in makeup, absolutely zero. Yet, I still think I could manage to do Virgil’s makeup- it’s one step.

The writing was so off this whole episode too. Roman was almost unrecognizable until the other sides appeared- like why was he so out of character-

Janus’ whole character was so complex, and I loved it, and then this asides episode came out and he’s suddenly just a sassy wine aunt. What did they do to my boy?

THE BIGGEST THING THAT TRIPPED ME UP THO.

Why does this episode exist?

We already talked about how anxiety will look different to other people. YEARS AGO actually. VIRGIL WAS THE FIRST TO SAY THAT. And yet we are here. Why?

GRGRGGRGR IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY- I JUST WANT SANDERS SIDES CONTENT, BUT NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE QUALITY DROPPING. I will gladly wait these nearly four years for an episode, but if the quality looks like THIS, I don’t want it. I don’t want the season finale that badly. Quality over quantity, Thomas.

#sanders sides #Thomas sanders #ts crit #ts critical #ts criticism #spoofy rambling

[moldy-lemons]

the worst part about this new ‘anime intro sanders sides’ video or whatever is that i’m already seeing fanders that are older than me act like this is the pinnacle of comedy. like it can get no better than mista sanders ova here.

which, yeah, humor is subjective.

but this shit isn’t funny. it’s barely creative. it’s like i’m watching the downfall of this man’s mind and drive in real time.

also it might be worth noting that the people who are finding this shit HEELAIREEUS just knee-slappingly hee-hawingly funny are the thomas sanders dickriders. a.k.a the people in the fandom thomas always notices. a.k.a the bitchiest little shits you will ever come across. y’all know who i’m talking about.

#ts criticism #thomas sanders critical #ts critical #thomas sanders criticism #thomas sanders crit #tss criticism #tss salt #tss critical #tss slander #sanders sides crit #sanders sides slander #sanders sides criticism

[casey-complains]

to be honest, i really really dont enjoy the idea of the asides in hindsight. it was advertised as smaller episodes between main episodes, and from healthy distraction we could infer its sort of slice-of-life/off camera shenanigans. but it just slowly became more and more complicated. i love nico, but again, he just complicated everything.

if thomas never made the asides, put any focus he wouldve had on the asides onto the finale, and communicated about the wait, im sure the fandom would be fine! theres so many more low-effort ways to give us in-between eps that doesn't include a new series

#let me know if anything doesnt make sense. i woke up 20 minutes ago and am having thoughts #kc.txt #ts critical #ts criticism #thomas sanders critical #thomas sanders criticism

[prodigal-explorer]

RESULTS!!! sanders sides controversial opinions poll

alright guys this is what you were waiting for! i am so grateful that this little poll i made ended up getting over 630 responses? that's insane! thank you all so much for helping me with this project, i loved researching this fandom that i love so much! without further ado, here are the results!!

(also for the interesting opinions, i don't agree with all of them, they're just opinions that i thought brought up something cool that i hadn't considered before!)

the canva link in case the photos aren't working: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFxdNIQW6s/XXMtxyz_icwgEp2cdgGBLQ/edit?utm_content=DAFxdNIQW6s&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

---

part two is being reblogged below!! and i am in the process of tagging people who said they wanted to be.

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #tss #roman sanders #virgil sanders #sanders sides fandom #remus sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #sanders sides poll #opinions #sanders sides opinions #sanders sides headcanons #tss critical #ts critical #ts criticism #ts crit #sanders sides fanfiction

[logically-asexual]

i do believe that thomas is enthusiastically working on sanders sides and i think that the long time it has taken for the video to be made is due to other problems, and i get why people who don’t agree with criticisms of thomas think it’s weird to assume that thomas has given up on sanders sides, since even though his updates are vague as hell and come like thrice a year, they’re still updates.

however. i do think the other side is also understandable. mostly considering what the past couple years have been like.

so if you’re someone who thinks it’s crazy that people think thomas has given up on sanders sides here’s a hopefully helpful explanation. i’m not looking for an argument, i just want to explain this in good faith because i’ve seen people confused.

so in the past couple years the discourse has been a lot of -> people being upset that there’s no videos -> people arguing in defense of the waits with different arguments -> the first group not accepting these arguments and still being upset -> and so on.

first the argument was like “he has a small budget and small team, so it makes sense to take a while to make a good quality video!” and like… fine.. he did put out working through intrusive thoughts which had a bunch of cool effects and props and equipment etc and showed that there was a lot of work going into the video that justified a few months of wait. (it was still annoying because it was supposedly “just an Asides” and it clearly did take time away from working on the next actual episode.)

but then he had the patreon and by this point the budget couldn’t really be an excuse? the idea was that with patreon not only videos like WTIT would exist, but that every video could be like that and they could come out just as often as before, because such a big production shouldn’t get in the way now that they had the money and the people to get it done efficiently. that is, unless thomas has a terrible business model where he still spends more than he earns despite probably earning enough to pay a good enough team if the money was well managed? i don’t know how much he earns but he was able to make putting others first and working through intrusive thoughts with no problem and the patron amount has only increased since then right? so that excuse didn’t really last.

then the main episode still didn’t come so the defense was “the pandemic obviously makes it harder to film.” which. of course it did. but then there were vaccines, restrictions were mostly over and thomas started putting out content where he did film with others, just not the main episode. okay. this excuse is now cancelled and then it must be something else.

then we have “thomas has health or personal issues that make him feel uncomfortable in front of the camera.” very reasonable. if he was in the filming stage and so the production of an already-written video had to be paused while he recovers. however. we later found out he is still in the writing stage, after three years.

and writing doesn’t need in-person meetings, it doesn’t need a huge budget further than what they pay for rent at their office and paying the writing team., it doesn’t need thomas to attend scheduled meetings and show a fake-happy face to thousands of viewers. personal issues could get in the way of thomas feeling motivated to write but he still has an entire team of writers and also it’s been three years… and he did make other scripted content in between and didn’t seem to have a problem with that. if it was an issue that made him sad enough to not want to write then after stretching the writing stage a few months then ,, by that point it would probably have been more productive for him to take a full break (letting the audience know) before coming back ready to work.

so. these excuses, mostly thought by the fans trying to justify the lack of videos, are actually very reasonable on their own. but when compared with the reality that time has shown us they seem to be just. excuses. and not actual reasons for the main episodes to come out. so two different conclusions can be taken from this:

1. there’s another problem* that we haven’t figured out yet (and in this sense it would be nice if thomas told us a bit more so we could at least have an idea of what this mysterious problem is. a lot of people in the ts criticism tag only wish thomas was more honest about whatever is going on).

*i personally believe this and i think the problem is simply that they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, which is something that thomas and joan do have a record with. like with the puppets episode. but they always have solved those problems that come with having ambitions bigger than their abilities and the result is always great so thomas’s team keeps doing it. but without thoughtful planning it might reach a point where this style is no longer sustainable and i think that’s what has happened with the finale. also made worse now by the lack of joan to improve the writing of the show. but that’s my own guess.

or 2. thomas is straight up lying with his updates. and he’s just. not working on the finale or working very slowly because he barely pays any attention to it. this is the conclusion (from what i see in the ts criticism tag) that a lot of people have come to. because they feel like every other reasonable explanation has been proved wrong and thomas’s lack of more explanations and defensiveness when anybody asks about sanders sides makes them think that he’s not willing to admit something, and that that something is that he doesn’t want to do the show anymore, despite still wanting to earn money and sell merch and leave the possibility open in case he does feel like doing the episode later.

again. i personally don’t believe this. but i understand where the idea comes from. i think thomas isn’t responsible for everything fanders assume about him but there is some blame to be placed on him for the distrust these fans now have on him. because he’s let actual years go by without a word about why writing the finale has taken so long, and because he’s so defensive when people ask about it. he can’t control everything fans think but he could have handled it better. he still could. but i don’t think he’s going to change anything and he’s just hoping to put out the video as soon as possible and let it speak for itself, and he’s hoping that with that people will just naturally come back and let the past go once it’s done. not a good idea imo. but that’s how it seems to be.

anyway. again i’m not looking for an argument. but you can comment your opinion if you like.

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #ts criticism #ts critical #ts crit #idk

[ts-crit]

Honestly I'd be happy if Thomas just posted the entire 4 part script of the last ss episode without recording anything. That way we could at least get solid closure for the series, we won't have to see him butcher the characters after not playing them for so long, and he won't have people asking about it any more (because we all know how he feels about that :/) and later if he decides he wants to make a full effort episode for it, then we'd at least be getting a better quality video than one he made just because he felt like he had to

But tbh I don't know if he'll be open to that idea because he probably feels like he owes us that last ep (which, he does, at least to his patreon doners) and will continue to push it off without any clear progress updates

#But maybe that's just me idk I'm sure some people would prefer he makes a full production ep but realistically I think hopes are past that #Plus I think it can only be disappointing after we've waited this long #ts crit #ts criticism #ts critical #thomas sanders crit #thomas sanders critical