#pok��mon fan sander

[romanasanders]

Intronalysis part 1

Hello Medespelers! I’m Hazel, and this is a new series (of three parts) where I analyse the intro’s of the Sanders Sides videos. To catch all references and forshadowing that are easily overlooked.

I didn’t have a name for this yet, so I’ll just call it Intronalysis. It’s essentially a sub section of my lore talk series anyway. In this first part, I will discuss all episode intros of season 0, aka the first seven episodes of the series. Enjoy!

Episode 1 My True Identity

The very first Sanders Sides video, which came out back in 2016. For a fan of the series, this episode feels messy and maybe little off. That’s because Thomas had never expected this video to become so popular, so treated this like a one time thing where he talks to his Logic, Morality and Creativity. Only those three: Anxiety gets introduced in the third video.

So where does this humble beginning start? In bed. Yeah. Thomas is surrounded by stuffed animals and asks the audience for a couple more seconds, as he presses snooze on his phone alarm. Relatable, not very deep, and it didn’t have to be.

Episode 2 Way Too Adult

This is a video concerning a subject everyone has to face: becoming a responsible adult. Thomas fustratingly aknowledges that he’s worn the same shirt a lot. The ‘circle shirt’ had been an inside joke for early fans, because Thomas wore it a lot both in his vines and youtube videos.

Episode 3 Taking On Anxiety

Anxiety joins the cast in this video as the series’ first antagonist. In the intro, Thomas exclaims he doesn’t give a fork. It is bleeped however, giving the impression of swearing. This is a reference to his reputation as someone who doesn’t swear, but has been making jokes about it. For example, in his vines Thomas sometimes used the loop to his advantage, bleeped a swear (while saying something else, like this intro) or cutting it off.

Episode 4 Lying To Myself

The first musical episode, and the first one with all four main sides present. At the start, Thomas holds up a pokéball and says 2016 has evolved in 2017. Or devolved. This is a reference to the new year, (this video came out on the second of January) and the cartoonseries Pokémon. Thomas has made a lot of references to this series, most notably in his vine series Pokémon Pranks with Friends.

Episode 5 Dark Side of Disney

This was a wonderful episode which gave us prinxiety content, and even bonding over their shared passion: Disney. This intro was the first one for which I had to do some real research. The phrase “And now, our featured presentation.” was part of a company bummer (a short video clip on every VHS tape, to see who it was released by. Later also on DVDs). In this case, Touchstone Pictures. That might not sound familiar, but the name Disney probably does.

Touchstone Pictures is a film distribution label through which the Walt Disney Studios release films which have mature themes, darker tones and are aimed more at adults. Contrary to the own label, which has a fantastical and often kid-friendly marketing.

Thomas, being in his late twenties, has probably seen this message on several films as a kid since Touchstone Pictures released films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Good Morning Vietnam and suprisingly, the first release of The Nightmare Before Chrismas.

As someone who is both Gen Z and raised in a non-english speaking country, I actually didn’t know what this was a reference to. So this was fun to research!

Episode 6 I’m In A Disney Show

The video opens with Thomas being dressed in a robe and round glasses, snickering to himself about the Harry Potter book in his hand. He also holds a wand. He then realises he’s being watched and tries, then fails to cover up and accidentily reveals he does this all the time.

Why such an obvious reference to the Harry Potter franchise, while the rest of the video doesn’t mention it or seemingly has nothing in common with it? Well, my theory about this intro is that it isn’t about Harry Potter at all, but it’s about Thomas dressing up as something he enjoyed as a child, and still does. Which relates to the point of the video, which is that Thomas got to play aka, “dress up and pretend” in a show for Disney (Something he enjoyed as a kid, and still does). Does that make sense? I think it does.

Episode 7 Mind vs Heart

If Dark Side Of Disney was the prinxiety episode, this was the logicality one. With a lot of relatable cut-away scenes and onesies?!! How or Why are not important, the sides have onesies.

Thomas starts the intro with a seemingly boastful sentence about how this is his vlog and all other vlogs are just as good in their own right and need to be respected as such. Then he strikes a ‘cool’ pose and airhorns toot.

Once again, I think we should focus on the symbolism rather than the actions. Thomas pretends to say something pretentious that would probably stir up conflict, and then replaces that with mutual respect. In the same way, Logic and Morality in this video start off with fustration and disagreements. Then Thomas helps them to compromise and resolve the conflict.

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