#that's probably why they're really playing up the angle of everyone thinking the mc is this other woman everyone is looking for

[darkpoisonouslove]

This scene is emotionally touching but narratively it's absolutely atrocious.

[hyperfixated-homo]

HI I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS

So first of all, how dare you ask me to pick a favorite part or side, everything about this is too interesting for me to decide one specific aspect that I'm interested in >:(

But also the brotherly relationship between Virgil and Logan make me tear up

Anyways THEORIES. I HAVE MANY IDEAS AND DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WRITE DOWN ALL OF THEM CONCIEVABLY. Buckle up because this is about to be a LONG post.

Okay. First of all, my overall theory is that this is reality. Patton isn't dreaming, and he hasn't been transported to another universe or dimension, he's still right where he was in Thomas' head, still functioning as his moral side.

I believe that this entire "suburban family" schtick they've got going on is a play. It's a performance they're all participating in, not by choice but not entirely by force either. They've all been given their roles and we're watching from the eyes of the main character, our happy pappy Patton.

Not only that, but I believe the story we are in is a fable. A story with meaning, a musical with morals, if you will. Something that teach the audience a lesson about why you should or shouldn't do what the MC is doing.

What's the plot? No fucking clue! Maybe we would know the story a little better if it was an actual on stage production, but right now? Some of the sides aren't playing characters in this story, they are the characters. They don't know any different than their players in the game that is this life. And the ones that do know are being silent about it, because they are the ones writing the story.

But since I can't figure out the plot (aka I can't predict where the fuck this shit is going, every new plot point has made me want to scream) I'm going to try to figure out the lesson. \

But first, CHARACTER ANALYSIS. I WANT TO RANT ABOUT MY BLORBOS. There is SO MUCH to say about them istg

Our story centers around Patton. He is our protagonist, main character and hero (?). Patton plays the single suburban dad, who devotes all his time to taking care of his rowdy kids. He's a picture perfect father, caring, compassionate, friendly while also capable of being stern, all that good stuff. He's probably well known as the nicest guy in the neighborhood (if there is even anyone else there to compete with him for that title).

Patton as a side has ZERO CLUE what is going on or what he's doing. He was dumped into this new world, featuring everything he could ever have wanted, and as of right now has no clue what to do with it. Obviously he should want to know what's going on, but at the moment? Everything here is so nice, and it finally makes him happy. Every wrong moment brings to his attention the fact that he should be figuring out what this world is, and yet he's not doing anything about it.

Patton is what I'm going to call a Clueless Character. He's part of the story (the MAIN part of the story) but unlike some of the other actors, he hasn't been informed that he's playing a role. He's been pushed into a new body completely out of nowhere, and is improving his part as hard as he can to keep this play afloat.

I think Patton is the main character for a reason. Out of everyone, he's kinda the side that needs to learn to listen and understand the others more (ironic, considering he's the dad side. both because parents are meant to be understanding, and yet also have a reputation for being unable to listen to their kids when it matters). The reason I think Patton has been placed in the MC role is because he needs to learn the lesson that will inevitably be the moral of the story. He needs to learn about how gray his world really is, and how the angle of the light can change it so easily. He needs to learn how to observe and listen better, and right now? He's losing. HORRIBLY. MY GUY, YOU SAW UR OWN FECKING CHILD GET BEAMED IN THE CHEST WITH A SPOON AND DIDN'T DO SHIT WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM OH MY GO-

Anyways. One thing I want to talk about with Patton is how much of an unreliable narrator he is. The entire story is in his perspective, which is great, but it also makes me a little anxious about what is happening in the story, because I can't tell how much of it is actually working the way that it is and how much of it is Patton perceiving things weirdly.

The time skips, for example. Blanking entire hours, days going by in blurs, being unable to account for if you've been taking care of your finger wound. My initial thoughts when I heard about this was that this weird, alternate reality is passing time that it doesn't deem necessary. My second thoughts were that this weird play is changing acts (just so you know, at this point I am confusing myself. originally the play thing was a metaphor but now I'm starting to integrate it into actual plot points and I don't know what's real anymore help-) and the time he missed is the time that that was missed in-between. My final thoughts were holy shit, how much of this is the world being weird and how much of it is Patton just dissociating??

I genuinely can't tell if his memory is being tampered with, or if he's just losing it himself. It's so easy to assume that something else is making him act this way that I almost overlooked the very real possibility that some of the stuff happening could be a product of Patton's own mind.

The stuff happening with Remus is another thing that made me think about this. What is happening there? Is Patton having a panic attack because of Remus' words? Is the world breaking because Remus played his role wrong? Is Remus bending Patton's perception of their encounters intentionally? So many questions, and I have NO answers.

Another thing about Patton that I want to bring up is that even thought he is a Clueless Character, he still controls what is happening in the story. It's like somehow he's playing director without knowing that he's doing it. Every part of the story is being tailored to HIS perceptions. The reason the world is this way is because of HIM.

I don't know what it means. Like I could say some bs about it being symbolism for the fact that even though he isn't aware of it, Patton is one of the more powerful and influential sides in Thomas' mind, and therefore he is unwillingly impacting everyone with his idea of morals and choices. Maybe the story has intentionally been made this way to make the lesson more impactful. Maybe the sides who are more in charge did on purpose to show him why his way of thinking is incorrect. Maybe Janus is being a petty bitch and making everything work like this to show Patton how much he contradicts himself on the regular, even when in his "ideal" life (see: the “You wouldn’t change a thing?” moment). All I know is that it is interesting, and I am keeping it in mind for later.

The next person I wanna talk about is Virgil. Mostly about how strange his character is.

Now I don't mean strange in the way that he isn't acting like himself. He fits into the role of the eldest brother incredibly well, and his snarky but caring attitude makes him a very lovable angsty teenager.

What confused me about him is how seamlessly he fits into the world.

Out of everyone, I sort of expected Virgil to be the one causes problems. He's the kind of side that doesn't fit into a box, as established multiple times in the Sanders sides series. He also threw me for a loop for a hot minute because I tried to figure out if he would be the kind of person that would want to break out of this fake reality because he would hate to be anywhere other than the real world or attempt to stay because this fake reality is more comforting that his actual reality.

Point is; Virgil shouldn't be so casual in this universe. And yet, he has been involved in (almost) zero of the strange things that has happened so far? That's REALLY suspicious.

Most of the reasons above is why I consider him to probably be another Clueless Character. I don't think Virgil would EVER be this calm about a situation like this unless he didn't know he was in it. I think Virgil is also playing the role of this character without knowing he's acting. The difference between him and Patton is that he seems to not know of any other life than this one.

Virgil seems to have gotten all of his memories of ever being a side erased. He acts too normal for him to know what's going on.

There could be a couple reasons for this, but what the one I believe in the most is that whoever runs this shit believes that out of everyone, if Virgil was the one that told Patton something was up? He would believe it immediately. At this point in Sanders Sides, Patton and Virgil's friendship is so shattered that I think if Patton saw any version of Virgil tell him "This is fucked. Get us out" he would do that shit ASAP.

I mean, there clearly hasn't been that much effort to make the other sides shut up about it. Logan and Remus have told Patton more than once now that something is VERY WRONG, and he has done nothing about it. I mean, in the last chapter, they literally TEAMED UP on him to get him to do something about it, and Patton still listened to Roman over them.

So yeah. Virgil is clueless. Although, I don't think he's completely unaware. Whatever little thing caused Roman to "put him to sleep"? I think it was because Virgil was starting to figure it out. He's observant, and some part of me really doubts that he actually believes that Patton was acting weird because of his allergy meds.

Moving on to Remus. The little fucked up gremlin boy himself.

Can I just prefix this by saying I fucking adore the way you write him in general? You wrote him in a similar, "I know what's happening but I can't/won't tell you >:)" manner in Low Battery, and I love him in both stories.

Remus is like that inconceivably old being that gives you a prophecy and then fucks off for the rest of the story. He says some cryptic shit, or proves you wrong, and then acts like nothing ever happened. I love him so much here because, just like in regular Sanders Sides, he breaks ALL THE RULES. No matter how many times Janus or Roman will scold him, you just know he will be unaffected. It's like he found a way to play Minecraft with a chess board, and it's so fascinating.

Remus is what I would like to call an Aware Character. He knows everything about how this stupid little story works, and we KNOW that he knows. He knows all the rules, and he knows how to break them.

I think that out of all of them, Remus is most aware of how this whole thing is affecting Patton (Janus comes close second). I like watching them interact a lot because it's abundantly clear that Remus, while not the antagonist, take a lot of joy in being antagonizing just because. He's just. Like that.

I also want to highlight how Remus and Janus interact. Three times now has Remus fucked up this operation and made Patton freak out, and he has not gotten any punishment for it! Which is weird as FUCK, because everybody else who messes anything up immediately gets reprimanded by Janus. So, what makes Remus so special?

My theory is that Janus only has as much influence on the others as they allow him to. Similarly to Remus in the official series (and all the other sides, but most noticeably those two) I think that he can only impact people as much as they allow him to. Patton or Roman thinking that they are bad people for disobeying him makes him stronger and gives him more power over them.

Remus? Remus doesn't give two shits. He can't do anything here, sure, but they can't do anything to him either. I feel like to some extent, Janus and him have an understanding that neither of them can do jack to each other, and they both find ways to work around it (which is such a fun dynamic idea btw, I love that a lot).

I would also like to mention that out of anyone, I think Remus would be most inline to go against this entire thing. He has no reason to play along other than for his own entertainment, and therefore every now and then he has to fuck things up. What's the point of being here otherwise? It's not like Patton wants him here.

And now, my absolute baby, Logan.

My sweet boy. My little blorbo. He has done nothing wrong, and yet he suffers so much. Anais every scene you write him in makes me want to cry. He didn't deserve this. Why.

Logan is also strange (surprise surprise). At first I was very sure that he was an Aware Character, as the genuine fear that he shows whenever he messes up is too aware for a little kid to show it. The more that I think about it though? The idea that he is another Clueless Character but he's stuck in Patton's situation and can't do anything about it because whatever he does he gets punished??? and he doesn't know why????? MASSIVE angst potential.

I still think he's a Aware Character, I just wanted to get that out there.

I think Logan is fun because I like to think that he does know what is going on, he just isn't capable of doing anything about it. If he steps out of line for more than a second, Janus is ON HIS ASS, ready to beat him the fuck up or whatever he does when he takes Logan off camera.

And in his defense, it seems like he tries. He acts like a child when he can, but Logan isn't meant to be an actor. He's not the kind of person who can play a role for hours, days at a time. He switches between normal and childlike to cold, distant and unfeeling in the blink of an eye because he's not meant to stay in character for so long. It's clearly draining, and with how often he's messed up lately, it gets worse the longer it gets.

I'm not entirely sure what character Logan is supposed to play either, but he seems like the one who stirs up the conflict the most. Out of anyone, he has been the one who has made Patton question his surroundings the most.

In case I haven't made it obvious I find how often Logan messes up very interesting. It's fun because Adult Logan is very similar. He makes mistakes very often, and he makes a big effort to make up for it when he notices. Or, maybe he's the side who's mistakes are most noticeable?

I don't know. I just get sad when I think about him. Logan crying in Patton's bed like an actual four year old makes me want to cry :(( my inner kinnie cries in pain every time Janus drags him off somewhere.

So, Roman. I'll be so honest, I barely thought about Roman until chapter 9. He's so there and yet so not. I was convinced that he was one of the Clueless until that overheard conversation with Janus in the hallway.

Roman is aware of what is going on, and judging by how he was talking to Janus, he's probably helping cause it too. I'm not surprised in the slightest, actually.

Roman is the kind of person who would do ANYTHING to make everyone happy. He would fight tooth and nail to keep his family safe, and that can be dangerous in the right situation. His moral compass is straightforward (more so than even Patton) and his view of what is good and bad is very hard to sway. This makes him very easily manipulated, as demonstrated by how Janus talks to him literally all the time ever (both in Just Out of Reach, and Sanders Sides).

Roman is what I like to call a Director. He, along with Janus, can manipulate the environment to whatever they want it to be. The thing is, I'm pretty sure Roman thinks what he's doing right now is a GOOD thing.

He's had a pretty solid track record of thinking he knows what's best for everyone that I don't really think we talk enough about. Roman has a habit of taking a thought and running with it, so far that it takes a hard hit for him to realize what he's doing and why it's wrong. I think he's doing the same in this universe.

He's being convinced by Janus that what he is doing is the right thing. That manipulating the others is okay as long as they are happy because of it. That no matter what happens, this reality cannot change because then they'd all go back to the horrible lives that they lived before. And to him, this is probably worth it.

And I mean, why wouldn't it be? Roman is an actor at heart, probably used to playing a happy, overconfident character just to make the others happy. He wouldn't understand that the way that they are living right now isn't right, that faking every moment of your life to make everything seem perfect isn't what they want.

I also love that he clearly has distain for Remus, not because he's gross or weird but because he's not playing his part right. In Roman's eyes, he's selfishly ruining the play for everyone else just to cause mischief. Remus being the only one to ever break from the mold probably solidifies in Roman's mind that the world that they live in is the ideal world, because why else would only Remus want to mess with it?

And now. Janus. Where do I even start with Janus.

Janus is very clearly made to be the antagonist of this story, and yet... I have a very hard time believing that he is supposed to be the villain. Janus doesn't think one dimensionally like that, ever. There's no way he would stage this entire thing just for fun. I don't even think he would be capable of doing this to be petty (even though he is a petty little bitch).

Janus, while the antagonist, is also the main Director of this shitshow. Not only that, but he also has the power and control to be the judge, jury and executioner when it comes to the others playing their roles. Whenever anything changes, he's the one to blame, and yet somehow it's incredibly easy to shift that blame to someone else.

He's there when there's trouble, sure, but he's never the one to cause it. He'd punish someone for doing something as much as breathing wrong, while letting another get away with making the main character feel miserable in order to prove a point.

But you know what? I don't think this shit is Janus' story either. As much as he seems to run the show, and as much as he seems to be in charge, I don't believe that he is the one who came up with the idea of making this fake universe to play sandbox in.

I think Janus is following orders, but in the worst possible way. He's doing his job as deceit, taking others words and wishes and twisting them into a world that can show them why they shouldn't be thinking the way that they do, why they need to change. Janus is the director, sure, but I think he's telling the other's stories. More specifically, Patton's.

Yep, that's my big theory right there. Janus is running a show designed for Patton to be the happiest man there is, so that he can finally get it through to him what he's doing wrong. He's showing Patton just how bad his idea of the others are, and why it's so wrong, so that he can finally teach him the lesson he deserves to know.

What is that lesson?

...yeah I'm still working on that one.

There are still so many directions this story could go, so many paths this plot could take that anything could be the answer to this story.

My money's on Patton learning to accept the others as who they are, instead of who he wants them to be.

Patton needs to learn to truely listen, and accept the others, flaws and all. He needs to learn to let Remus be himself, let Logan speak his mind, let Virgil think for himself, let Roman take a break from acting like everything is okay.

Because broken down? That's what their characters are going through right now. Everyone is having a part of them stripped away to fit Patton's happy lifestyle, to make him happy. I think that he needs to learn how to stop caring so much about these things making the others worse, and learning to love their flaws just as much as he loves the rest of them.

He needs to stop trying to be perfect, and stop trying to make them perfect, so that they can all finally talk to each other and accept themselves for who they are.

I think that I'm gonna end my rant there. It's been a couple hours, I'm tired and going to bed lmao. Hope u enjoyed reading what I think Anais :) I might talk a bit more abt why I liked a couple scenes on a later date when i have the energy to write 2k words abt a fic again. if you've read this far, holy shit, thanks for listening to me ramble asdijwoadjowjdoiwj i love this fic a lot goodnight <3

New chapter of Just Out of Reach is nearly complete! Sorry for the wait guys! ;)