Hello folks!

This chapter is a long time coming.

Okay, so, there's been a lot of ship/character hate that's been surfacing in this fandom as of late. Really, since DWIT... but especially now. So the last year or so. Even more so since the new video, I've seen a huge surge in this negativity towards a couple of characters in particular. Roman has been receiving some hate (again) lately, but I've also seen a lot of people defend him. Roman's one of, if not my actual favourite character in the series, so believe me I love seeing people stand up for him.

But I haven't seen anyone really address the hate that Patton's receiving.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I don't think we should be hating on any of these characters period. I'm not saying you can't dislike them, heck even hate them. But don't hate ON them. Many people project themselves into these characters, and since this series does have a generally younger audience (young adult mostly), it's so important to be wary of how attacking one of these characters could harm people who connect with and see themselves in one or more of the sides.

But, I've seen a lot towards Patton in particular and it makes me so sad so I'm here in defence of our puffball padre.

Patton is morally grey. He is, that's just the truth. But that's important! All of the sides are morally grey, even Character!Thomas, and that's a good thing. If they didn't have flaws, or room to improve, there'd be no need for the series to exist. There'd be no plot. You can't fault a character for having room to grow and develop into a better person. Also, if any side actually needs to be morally grey, it's Patton! As Morality, and knowing that Thomas is human, and humans aren't perfect and make bad decisions all the time, it's so so important that Patton be faulted and flawed like he is! He's the one who decides what's "good" and "bad", so of course he isn't an angel all the time.

But what's important to note about Patton is that he's trying his best to be as good of a moral compass and person as he can. Everything he does is out of motivation to be a good person, to do the right thing. Even if he ends up in the wrong, which he does, his motivations are at their core, goodhearted and well-spirited.

I just feel really sad whenever I see people hate on him. Which is often. It's actually frustrating to see how often he gets attacked for his moral misconceptions in comparison to someone like Remus, who (while a great dynamic character) literally condones the behaviour of Jeffrey Dahmer.

All of the sides are morally grey. All of them have flaws, and that's how it should be! It's so disheartening to see one character get singled out for their mistakes when other characters don't.

Now I'm not saying that Patton's perfect. He isn't, by any stretch of the imagination. That last episode illustrates that perfectly (must I bring up lilypadton?) But he's not the only one with flaws, and he still has redeeming qualities!  When we talk about these sides, it's important to remember that they're layered and dense characters, and deserve to be treated as such. It's okay to be angry with Patton. The stunts he pulled in the last video were harmful, and it's okay to be angry with him for those things. But we have to remember that that isn't all of who he is!

Patton is the one who wanted Thomas to learn how to cook in order to sustain himself, who hid away his feelings because he wanted to be there for his friends. He's the side who made Roman a Tupperware of spaghetti for his Christmas gift. He's the one who, the first chance he got, gave Thomas a huge hug.

He's the one who calls Logan his hero, and tells Roman he loves him, and makes Virgil a card to remind him that he's part of their famILY, he's the only one who has started calling Janus by his real name (Except when Roman made fun of Janus' name but I don't count that)

Patton's the one who, when Virgil told him that nicknames made him uncomfortable, stopped immediately, without a word of protest, despite how much it obviously hurt his feelings, because he cares about Virgil and respects his boundaries. He's also the only of the sides to ever respond that way in regards to the nicknames, which are a reoccurring topic throughout the series.

Yes, he is the one who tried to suppress Remus, and who pushes too hard to keep Thomas up to his moral standard. But... He's also the one who accepted both Virgil and Janus before any of the other sides.

What I'm trying to get at here, is that Patton is a complex character who has a lot of good in him and a lot of love to give. It's important to remember that, and to be respectful of him and his character, and the arc that he has to complete to become a better person, just as all of the sides have to, including Thomas himself.

But all of this really doesn't matter much, because I'm going to call back to my initial statement. People see themselves in these characters. I myself have invested so much in them over the last three/four years. Your words resound, and they can hurt real people. Please please treat all of the sides with respect and kindness. You are welcome to love or hate any and all of them, including Patton, but it's important to be careful when discussing your opinions of the characters to ensure you're being kind and respectful. We don't need to argue about these sorts of things. None of these characters are comparable to Severus Snape in his need for debates about his ethics.

This goes for all of the sides. I only made this chapter because I wanted to counterbalance a lot of the negativity I've seen directed towards Patton lately. But this applies to all of them. It's okay to love/hate Patton, or Virgil, or Logan, or Roman, or Janus, or Remus. But it's imperative that you are kind, and recognize that all of these characters have room to grow as people, which is what makes them so unique and interesting and special.

We all love them. That's why we're here. We don't need to fight each other.

That's really all I have to say about this matter, so thank you all who read this far. I know that this is a bit ranty and incoherent, because it's 1:30 AM but I just felt the need to address this directly, so thank you for letting me get this off my chest. I'm not going to talk about ships right now because I don't even want to touch that mess. But seriously thanks for sticking around, and I'm sending wishes of warm hugs, happy smiles, and healthy households your way.

Take care <3

xoxo,
Tana