ts-critsfander

[ts-critsfander]

Thomas posted another photo of him dressed as a character mid filming I just have to ask fanders:

Are you really ok with him only posting photos and no actual info? Like you see so many similar images with no updates about the release date or how far he is into filming and you're ok with that? You're ok with him essentially jingling keys in your face and saying "Maybe one day!"?

He's been doing this for years. Sanders Sides is almost 10 years old and no canon episodes have been released in almost 5 years. At some point you need to realize this shit is just ridiculous and Thomas thinks nothing of you so stop being quiet and complain.

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Watched Thomas' hear me out cake video with the sides and the new bit of Patton not knowing technology makes me wanna die.

WTF do you mean he doesn't know the difference between a phone and camera? I know he's not the brightest bulb but cameras are a big part of c!Thomas' job and he canonically uses phones a lot.

HE WAS THE ONE WHO SAW THE TIKTOK TREND IN "THE SIDES NEED A NICE DAY"

Him calling everything a computer was funny and in character but now its just every piece of technology which is stupid.

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Saw a post that said along the lines of "It's so funny seeing people mad over Sanders Sides characters being out of character in silly non canon videos. Obviously they're not gonna act completely like themselves." Which I get but that completely misses the point of ALOT of our criticisms.

Yeah of course they're not gonna be in character for non canon videos but we haven't had a canon video IN YEARS. We haven't seen the characters interact with their specific world IN YEARS. Frankly I'm more interested in the Sanders Sides portrayal of the mindscape and whatnot rather than watching them act out quotes in basic ass locations.

Especially since fanders draw out the quotes or even use actual screenshots and edit speech bubbles of the quotes which is basically every single incorrect quote video.

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Thinking about Remus' current characterization and I believe the best outright sentence that confirms he's doomed is in the "My Characters Read Your Tweets" video where Remus says he's not a Florida man because "I'm not THAT out there."

You mean to tell me the guy who ate another person's arm in his introduction episode isn't as out there as a Florida man?

The guy who kills people isn't out there?

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Calling it now all the fans interpretations of orange side are gonna be 100 times more interesting and compelling than Thomas' version.

I've seen it represented as a full character, a virus, and a fucking sock puppet. The hell is Thomas gonna do that actually has meaning and is interesting, we'll be lucky if he can manage one of those.

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I have seen multiple posts from fanders saying "Thomas doesn't deserve all the hate." To which I have to say-GET A GRIP AND ACTUALLY LEARN WHAT HE'S DONE.

Underpaid Brei

Brei was the main person who designed merch yet received no royalties until recently. To quote her "royalties were something I requested for several years while working there and was consistently told no." Thomas tried to cover the whole thing up and just said she wasn't going to be on the team anymore. As of now he hasn't addressed this.

Refuses to Communicate

Thomas has delayed the Sanders Sides finale for years now. He said it would come out in 2023 and the public received 0 updates until December 27th where he said the year just didn't work out for him. Even now the non finale episode has been delayed for months now and only Patreon receives updates that aren't even regular. They just drop at random dates weeks or months apart.

Sent Fans After People

On numerous occasions Thomas has responded to critiques from random accounts. On multiple occasions he's directly responded to people on X just saying they miss Sanders Sides or posts that aren't even critiques. A couple of months ago he posted a private message from a person on Instagram of them asking something along the lines of "When are you gonna make more Sanders Sides?". Since he posted a screenshot of said message and didn't hide their username in any capacity he made it easy for fans to find their account and DM them. Fanders have a history of sending death threats.

These points aren't just mindless hate. Brei deserved to be properly paid, fans deserve transparently ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY PAY FOR UPDATES/CONTENT, and people deserve to speak their mind without fear of being targeted by a large creator and their fanbase. Don't get me wrong I've seen posts that are just hating or meaningless nitpicking but there's genuine things Thomas deserves to be called out for and held accountable for. He's not your innocent white boy content creator, he's an almost 40 year old man who continues to mistreat people around him no matter their proximity.

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Another part of the AI thumbnail debacle I wanna mention is the fact Thomas still didn't just make it himself. His personal videos thumbnails are always very simplistic with just a picture of him and a background maybe a second image like his Chappell Roan video. Point is they're very easy to make proving how lazy he is.

I get he's not an artist but I cannot begin to explain how easy it is to use Canva and the fact that it's free. Thomas was satisfied with the first AI thumbnails he was given which were INCREDIEBLY easy to make without AI.

I know this is an unneeded post but christ this situation is so dumb THAT HE PUT HIMSELF IN that could've been avoided by properly hiring and paying people or just giving an hour of effort.

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AI Thumbnail

Thomas' new YouTube video has a thumbnail that VERY obviously uses an AI background. Has he done worse stuff? ABSOLUTELY. But this is still a low point even for Thomas.

The Sanders Sides fandom thrives off of artists whether it's drawings or fanfic writers aka people who HATE ai with a reasonable passion. Thomas constantly acknowledges those artists so it's just insulting if anything.

I know the description of said video says Lev created it not Thomas but he still posted it and numerous people are calling him out. I'm not saying he needs to make a big deal but he just needs to say something about it. Even if it's just "My bad I should've checked. I'll try and prevent this in the future."

Knowing Thomas he probably won't.

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If I have to see another thing about 'Yours' I'm gonna strangle someone.

I get he's excited about it but all his other series and projects are left in radio silence with ZERO UPDATES.

Not to mention he constantly reposts his followers stuff meaning he has free time to make simple updates but just doesn't.

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Thomas' recent post mentions a greenscreen. I had some hope for the "spoopy" episode but now not so much. They're only acceptable when actual effort is put into the editing but after everything I highly doubt Thomas did.

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Apparently the orange side has an emblem and has a whole bunch of dynamics already planned out which would be cool if I had any capacity left to care.

Genuinely I can't care about how much of a character it is. It feels impossible to care with how much it's being teased but there's no real updates on production or anything.

We wouldn't even know that orange has an emblem without Brei nor would we know anything about it's dynamics without people going to the convention Thomas was at. You had to pay to see Thomas specifically yet Patreon still gets nothing NO MATTER THE TIER.

It's frustrating how genuinely annoying this is.

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Thomas' Patreon

I'm only gonna talk about my brief experience. I know others went through worse but I wanna let everyone know even as recent as a couple months ago Thomas screwed over fans.

I subbed to the Patreon for 3 months to the $50 tier because I wanted the sticker and mug, before I heard about the bs Thomas did. I received them but what I didn't receive was the personalized thank you video.

I checked multiple times that it was only 3 months. I checked my billing to confirm I paid 3 months in a row and I unfortunately did. I checked my messages, I checked my email and there was nothing. Even before I hated Thomas I didn't care about the video but I PAID $150. A SIMPLE VIDEO WOULD'VE BEEN COOL.

ESPECIALLY SINCE THERE WAS LIKE NO NEW CONTENT. THERE WEREN'T PHOTOS, NO UPDATES ABOUT PRODUCTION, THERE WAS NOTHING UP UNTIL THE YOUNGER SIDES BUT WHO CARES WHEN WE DON'T KNOW WHEN THE ACTUAL EPISODE WILL RELEASE.

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Thomas not being a writer is fine because not every actor can write, what's not fine is that he refuses to pay writers to the point he HAS PEOPLE PAY HIM TO HELP WRITE CANON EPISODES VIA PATREON. I'm tired of the fandom not calling it what it is. It's not a perk for fans its a crutch for Thomas because he doesn't know what to do with his own property.

It's so frustrating because what do you mean fans that don't understand the characters can write episodes????

Lets go down the list of how the fandom treats the characters.

Patton: Villainize him for existing

Virgil: UwUify him

Roman: Ignore his problems and see him as an egomaniac

Logan: Orange

Janus: See him as just an alcoholic

Remus: Don't understand him and just think he's randomness

I do not want these people writing episodes. FANS SHOULDN'T BE THIS ENTANGLED IN CANON.

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Janus' Makeup

Awful. Tragic. Ugly.

I hate Janus' current makeup oh my god. Everyone brings up the mouth line but my issue is his EYE. The pink purple makes it look infected. I've seen a post saying it's supposed to be an injury (according to Joan but I have no proof nor really care) but in it's current state it doesn't convey that or really anything.

Before it blended in and looked natural ,still noticeable but it looked like skin. I don't wanna shame Quill but dude. I get they've only done it for short form videos but at this point we've never seen a high effort version of it and what's funny is during the GRWM Janus video would've been perfect for it. It's a low effort video that is pretty easy to film and takes minimal effort EXCEPT the makeup.

At this point there's no reason to watch any new Sanders Sides videos. Thomas sucks, the writing sucks, the characters don't act like themselves or even look like themselves.

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I've seen other TS critiquers mention how Thomas' current platform is unsustainable which is absolutely true. Tbh I think it'd be more sustainable if Thomas had any communication about Sanders Sides like at all. I know he makes other series but they're even less popular than Sanders Sides currently is so gonna ignore them (like 80% of other fanders)

I follow a ton of other creators who make scripted content who have taken years to develop a new episode of their series who have an even smaller team than Thomas but they actually update fans about the production but not in a baity way. One of them outright said along the lines of "I don't know when a new episode will come out. At this rate it could be never." And honestly I respect that. They were upfront and they didnt make excuses. Is it disappointing they most likely won't finish it? Yeah but at least I'm not being strung along like Thomas keeps doing.

I'm genuinely tired of the Patreon photos of the younger sides with no updates. Genuinely whats the point of the photos and a paragraph of text that gives us nothing?

[ts-critsfander]

I hate how much the Fandom is in control of the current series.

Mainly the dynamics. Mostly Janus and Remus' dynamic.

I see the appeal but at the same time it really shows how weak Thomas' writing is. Remus is treated as an overgrown child and that Janus is his caretaker which is kinda weird. (I'm saying this as someone who is childish and could benefit greatly from having a caretaker who helps me function with basic tasks). Remus has been shown to do well on his own. Could he struggle with simple tasks? Of course but its not written as a genuine thing he struggles with. In the new Christmas episode its very clearly written as a joke as in "Remus forgot where his shoes are like a child and is incompetent while Janus has to parent him lol"

I also dislike Virgil and Patton's dynamic that changed out of nowhere and has Virgil acting like a rude teen towards Patton with how suddenly he hates Patton's nicknames despite being fine with them before and making sarcastic remarks for no reason other than putting Patton down. Could be good writing because Virgil doesn't like how fast everything is changing with Nico and the dark sides being around or more likely Thomas doesn't know how to properly write Virgil. There's evidence of this with how Virgil acts in general. I like Virgil as a character and I like his flaws but in order to feel empathy and understanding for his actions they need to have an explanation. They don't have to be over explained but adding some lines about how Virgil is overwhelmed with everything would be great.

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Something that absolutely annoys me is how so many big TSS creators refuse to acknowledge Thomas' actions.

There's a well known fander who regularly critiques the series current writing. They rewrite the non Canon videos, they edit all of Thomas' series, they interact with the Fandom and even just Thomas' content. My point is they not only like TSS but also Thomas as a person and interact with all the content but outright ignore the bad stuff Thomas has done. And while its possible they just missed the posts due to improper tagging, the post about what Brei went through got a lot of attention.

The fander interacts with posts that have around 5 notes sometimes less so at that point its just willful ignorance and blocking it out completely. I get having hyperfixations or special interests on a peice of media with an awful creator sucks and acknowledging it sucks but when the creator is still creating and profiting not acknowledging their actions only causes the actions to repeat.

IT CAN ALSO HARM THEIR CONTENT WHEN THE CREATOR CONTINUALLY MISTREATS THEIR TEAM SO IF YOU DIDNT CARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE HURT AND ONLY CARE ABOUT THE CONTENT THERES THAT.