#ts criticism

[cosettepontmercys]

“In light of everything that’s happened in the past three months alone, here’s some incredibly valid reasons to be pissed off at Taylor Swift, or simply not like her — as someone who loved her, and loved her music. First and foremost, Taylor Swift is personally burning a hole through the ozone with the amount of CO2 she uses. That’s not even the main point of this video; but this is a graph from 2022 of how much CO2 she produced of her 170 private jet flights, versus the average person. She has spent 70 grand on jet fuel alone. Taylor Swift, alone has used 170 tons of CO2 in the past 3 months. The average person only burns like, 16 tons. That’s not even the main part of this video. The main point of the video is the fact that she has not spoken up about Palestine. And the reason that is so fundamentally frustrating is that Taylor Swift has influence. Quote Brittany Broski, when she also didn’t speak up about Palestine — “if you have a platform, and you have people listening, you have to use it.” It’s criminal to not use it, and Taylor Swift uses it. This is from September 2023. Record-breaking registration numbers from one Instagram post. Literally stating, saying “I’ve been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my US shows recently. I’ve heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are. Make sure you’re ready to use them in our elections this year!” They had a 72(%) increase in 18-year-old registrations. When it comes to Palestine, she’s completely silent. And now that it’s somewhat more socially acceptable to attend Pro-Palestine events, she’s been quietly going with Selena Gomez, but I for one, think that your Instagram is perhaps the best asset you have. If not, money. And I’m sure in a couple months, we’ll learn about how Taylor Swift was quietly setting up foundations for pro-Palestine, and that she was always for the cause and she’s always supported them, but all it takes is one fucking Instagram post. Especially when Israel Palestine is fundamentally a war of narratives. It’s whose story do you believe, despite the mounting evidence that proves that Israel has continuously been doing ethnic cleansing and genocide. They are still maintaining this narrative that they are not doing that. And all Taylor Swift has to do is say “hey, 22 thousand deaths in 3 months? The most in any modern war? This doesn’t seem right.” I don’t even want her to be that leftist or radical, but literally just to ask the question to her largely American audience, when US has bypassed Congress twice to sell millions in arms aid to Israel.  Just for her to be like “Should that many kids be dying, perhaps?” The bar is on the floor, but she still refuses to do it. And the reason why Taylor Swift in particular, not because of the influence that she has and not because of the platform that she has, but why her in particular, is because the IDF continues to use her songs. I know it was a public trend, but the fact that so many occupation forces felt comfortable and confident  to make like, dance edits to Taylor Swift’s music. I think it’s so important how an artist’s music is used because when the republicans wanted to use Eminem’s 8 mile track, he was like “absolutely fucking not, I do not give you consent to do that, and I do not associate with your politics. Don’t do that.” I feel like she should know that her music is being used as the anthem of the occupation forces as they go and bomb civilians. Her, and other artists like her, like Beyonce, who showed her film in Israel, and they’re all like dancing and singing, and saying “you’re not going to break my soul”, whilst they continue to bomb the shit out of civilians have said nothing. And I hope, as I’ve demonstrated in the video, for the people who are going to be like “What’s Taylor swift going to do? She’s not a politician.” Be serious. Be serious. She has a fucking chokehold on at least a billion people. She could’ve said and done way more than what she’s done, and also the CO2 levels." (from: this tiktok*)

* i tried to transcribe the tiktok since tiktok wasn't showing the captions for me but if i misheard anything please let me know!

#post: music #m: taylor swift #( i'm pretty sure i misheard a word or two but i listened like three times and tried to get this as accurate as i could ) #( also her going to a pro-palestine event with selena gomez after selena's ... stuff ... to support a mutual friend ... was interesting ... #ts critical #taylor swift critical #ts criticism #anti taylor swift #(??????)

[casey-complains]

i feel as if thomas has dug himself into the deepest hole imaginable when it comes to sanders sides. unfortunately, i dont think ill be fully satisfied with whatever he manages to put out for the finale. as the days drag on, people's standards go up - people expect something high quality when we've waited four fucking years.

i genuinely sympathise with thomas in that regard. he admitted himself that he keeps adding to the finale, and theres no doubt in my mind that hes doing so as compensation for how long the finale is taking. but adding more means longer production time. he's shooting himself in the foot.

i hope he's okay, genuinely. despite all the shit i talk about him, i hope thomas is at least doing okay with a support system and close friends. i just wish he communicated more clearly in the first place, laid out the foundation for our expectations early on instead of insisting everything was okay whilst the building was very clearly collapsing

#kc.txt #ts critical #ts criticism #ts crit #eh? more somber than critical

[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

[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

[softestvirgil]

I really miss being into Sanders Sides. I miss the characters so much. I can’t even watch old episodes without feeling bad about it because I don’t enjoy them how I used to, and it’s like the show’s lost it’s magic for me. I can’t even see the sides as separate from Thomas anymore and I literally used to be one of the people who talked on here about how easy it was to suspend my disbelief and forget that they were all him. Not to mention that in new videos they are all so out of character that it’s as if they’re Walmart versions of their former selves. It’s sad.

#virgil speaks #ts criticism #ts critical #ts crit #sanders sides critical #sanders sides crit #tss crit #sanders sides

[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

[sanderssideswriting]

“Thomas made the sides so they aren’t out of character. An author can’t make their characters ooc because they created them.” Every fandom ever would like to disagree with you actually.

#yall know what flanderization is? #i don’t think you do #ts crit #ts criticism

[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

[fossilizedhysterics]

ummmm i didnt like the new episode but!! i got to make this so it doesnt matter

#shitpost #sanders sides #remus sanders #roman sanders #idk i think im too jaded when it comes to sasi atp #it all feels so hollow #it was FINE objectively but #i just want the finale bro #you dont understand how badly i want to love this series and everything that comes out of it #its just hard #im trying though!! i thought the janus being cold blooded thing was fun #and ummmm the slap was funny #and it was nice to have character interactions beyond just the main 3 ships #ANYWAYS yeah the christmas brothers #merry crimis every1 #i feel like someones already made this #but idc i was the first #ts critical #ts criticism #ts crit #if this looks like shit its cuz i made it in the car while actively trying not to piss my pants

[countdown-til-sanders-take-over]

#sanders sides #ts crit #ts criticism #ts critical #It has been 1336 days since the last sanders sides episode #Remember when the term “episode” had meaning? That was nice

[analoceits]

hmm. ok this is ts crit but also like. lite ts crit yknow? basically some changes i think should be made:

make virgil more anxious and jumpy. its a core trait of his and its weird how.. calm he is in this ep.

the wine aunt vibes are Not working for jan. tone it down a bit and tone up the fancy boy energy. make him less blunt and more shifty, yknow?

make remus.. ok i have no explanation for this but more. just more. like. more rambly more intense yknow?

turn down the silly fun drama just a bit to make the characters more grounded and real.

the patton roman friendship is integral to this series and i am barely joking.

#ts criticism #ts crit #sanders sides #tss #ts sides #sasi

[logically-asexual]

deleted my post earlier but i’m posting it again im just upset.

everyone defended the gaps between videos with the argument that they were getting sooo good in quality and yes they did for a while but in like.. 2019-2020. but now we’re in 2023 and the editing looks like this

and sorry but the makeup sucks and the comedy is repetitive and the writing so far doesn’t look great (but that depends on how they manage to solve all the problems they’ve gotten the characters into) and also sorry but thomas’s acting is also gotten so.. weird, so forced and immature.

literally every aspect of the episodes has gotten worse in the past couple years. everything is so extra and for what. and i know videos in the past two years are all inconsequential short things to pass the time before the finale but i don’t think that’s a valid excuse for them to be like this. if these videos have those problems then so will the big ones. and that sucks.

if they’re taking longer and have more people working and they have a bigger budget it’s only logical to expect the videos to be better. but they’re just. not.

#ts criticism #sorry again i just watched that anime intro video today and those are my thoughts

[casey-complains]

sanders sides....

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

[moldy-lemons]

i just screamed so loud i broke the fucking sound barrier. THERE IS NO DEMAND FOR THIS. THERE IS NONE. You know what there is demand for? The fucking FINALE.

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

[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

[softestvirgil]

Genuinely, I want Thomas to know if he doesn't want to write Sanders Sides e doesn't have to

Whatever this is is much worse then just canceling it

I would have a lot more respect for him if he cancelled it instead of him stringing along his dwindling fan base with empty promises.

#ts critical #ts criticism #ts crit