Can I just vent for a second?
I find it interesting that the people who demonize Patton, uncharacteristically so, are big fans of Logan, Janus, Remus, or all three. What ticks me off is that not only do they portray Patton in an evil way, so much so that the version of this 'evil' Patton is nothing like canon Patton (also makes it feel like Patton can't have the chance to grow and make mistakes as a character), but they also go all uwu on their faves. Like Logan? Suddenly he's super understanding and soft (except in canon he's prideful and headstrong, not open to compromise, and not very apologetic, which is fine bc that's his character, Logic). Janus? Suddenly he's not a caricature of an over the top villain and also uwu soft (when, again, in canon he's more morally grey and quite intimidating). Remus? Suddenly he's just a misunderstood quirky character and he loves to cuddle uwu (as if his CANON ROLE isn't literally a mental disorder). It's so annoying!!
Tldr ppl demonize Patton and completely disregard his character and his growth, and go all uwu on their faves (most notably Logan Janus and Remus), so much so that the characterizations (for all of those mentioned) are almost insulting to canon.
Of course, this is my opinion on the fandom and certain fans. Everyone can have their own take on the character (esp those they take comfort in) but I just feel like some of it is hypocritical and so incredibly inaccurate that the established characterizations are replaced with characterizations that don't match the original character at all.
It really all just come backs to it's because Remus, Janus and Logan are the favourites of this fandom, therefore the people in this fandom tolerates their worst actions more than Patton. The people that calls out the black and white attitude of the characters thinks the most black and white in this fandom as i have seen.
I hate the Remus part especially. He is intrusive thoughts, I don't care if you want him to be good or what, he is still intrusive thoughts. A part that Thomas needs to accept about himself but is irredeemable.
Janus is manipulative and has a lot of tendencies to be malicious. Just because Thomas accepted him doesn't mean he's not going to do some thing shitty. He is.
And Logan....
Oh god Logan, this fandom loves that you have a shitty attitude, let me tell you–
Anger issues? God, they love that.
Okay. I have a lot I wanna say so bear with me. If Patton being dehumanized in fan work makes you uncomfortable, that’s fine. Everyone has things they like and things they don’t like. You’re allowed to dislike something! You’re allowed to hate it and find it gross. But if it’s not trying to do harm and not actively causing harm then just leave it alone. You may project onto Patton, and when people dehumanize him you feel like it’s a personal attack or offense, but the people who dehumanize him aren’t trying to attack anyone. They’re just trying to create content for other people who like reading Patton as dehumanized. People who change the personality of canon characters to fit their fan works aren’t doing it of malicious intent. They want to contribute to the fandom in some form, and that’s how they do it. Creating content where Patton (the dad figure) is abusive might be comforting to people who have abusive fathers. It’s a way of coping with trauma. And hey, you don’t need trauma to write a canon character different, you can just do it! Hell, some interpretations of canon characters bother me, but I don’t say anything. And until Thomas, the creator of these fictional characters, outright says that people interpreting his characters different from canon bothers him, I don’t think we have the right or authority to ask content creators to stop just because something makes us uncomfortable, you just come across as entitled. Again you’re allowed to be uncomfortable with stuff but please stop expecting the fandom to curate everything. You’re not entitled enough to ask an entire community to quit producing content that makes you uncomfortable because you think a fandom space should be curated entirely for your enjoyment. The only person with that power is Thomas because they’re HIS characters. He’s the only one with the authority to ask people to stop. Just like how you might feel partial to Patton, other people might feel partial towards Janus or Logan. And all the characters are flawed. But just like how people ignore Patton’s flaws they also ignore Janus and Logan’s flaws. They’re allowed to ignore flaws, just like how they’re allowed to accentuate those same flaws. Sometimes people just want to write Janus as soft, just like how some people want to write Patton as demonized. It’s not in line with the character. Hell, the people dehumanizing Patton are AWARE they aren’t writing him as his character. There’s a whole tag for that: unsympathetic Patton. And not just Patton, all the characters can use that tag, like unsympathetic Roman. Likewise people who write Janus as ‘uwu soft’ often tag it as sympathetic Janus/Deceit. Even the TVtropes page has a whole section dedicated to alternative character interpretation. I’ll include pictures if you don’t wanna go find it yourself. Besides, no matter how ‘canon’ you write a character, no matter how hard you try and perfectly replicate that characters personality you can never write them perfectly because you’re not Thomas and these aren’t our characters. Everything anyone ever creates for a fandom is an alternative universe. The only person who can create something that’s not in an alternative universe is Thomas. The essence of alternate universes is they’re ALTERNATE. And no matter how many fics there are of Patton cutting out Janus’s tongue it doesn’t change the fact that it never happened in canon, unless Thomas decides to go down a dark route for his work and include that. It’s their own AU and they get to decide what aspects of canon influence it. If you’re bothered by that? Good! By all means block things tagged as unsympathetic Patton, block content creators, curate your online space to what makes you comfortable! But please don’t ask content creators to stop creating something just because it makes you uncomfortable. It makes you look like an entitled asshole. tl;dr you’re allowed to be uncomfortable but don’t ask people to stop.
I say this with no intent of being rude, but I think you missed the point of my rant. I have nothing against Unsympathetic!Patton and other variations--I enjoy such content myself. My original point was that people who dehumanize Patton treat their view on the character as canon; They disregard the positive traits and exaggerate the flaws and don’t allow the character to learn and grow from their mistakes (by being insistent that they are still abusive/unsymp and not able to redeem themselves in any way).
In fanworks, I get it. People have all the right to portray Patton as abusive, unsympathetic, either due to trauma, as a way to cope, or because they enjoy said content. People have all the right to portray Logan/Janus/Remus as soft as they want. After all, as you said, alternate universes are alternate.
But my argument wasn’t towards fanworks, at least not explicitly, but rather against people who believe Patton and his character to be legitimately abusive and/or unsympathetic, and who also believe characters such as Logan, Janus, and Remus to be kind and soft. They legitimately believe Patton is bad. They legitimately believe Logan/Janus/Remus to be misunderstood (which they are, to some extent, but not to the extent fans insist them to be). But the fact is!! That isn’t canon!! Patton makes mistakes just like all the other sides. Logan/Janus/Remus have GLARING flaws just like the other sides. It’s flat out disrespectful to all the work Thomas + the crew have put into the CANON characterizations of the Sides for fans to believe that Patton is CANONLY Unsymp or that Logan/Janus/Remus as CANONLY super supportive and soft, and THAT’S what I’m arguing.
I want to clarify that I wasn’t telling anyone to stop making content. Fans can do what they please. It’s upsetting to me that my original post sounded entitled, that wasn’t my intention. All I was saying was that, the way some fans (particularly those who hate Patton and love Logan/Janus/Remus, believe their personal view of a character is CANON, and that this kind of attitude ticks me off!!
Also one last little thing, I really don’t want this to get messy but I DO believe some people hate on a character, ESPECIALLY Patton, with some sort of intent to rile up people who DO like Patton. I’m not going to name names but I have at least one person in mind.
Gonna respond to this real quick.
I think that In your original post when you said people portray Patton in a certain way my mind assumed you meant portrayed in things like fanworks. While I stand by my original response I do realize I misunderstood your original post, so I apologize. You make a lot of good points and I’m actually in agreement with you here: portraying a character a certain way and actually BELIEVING a character is a certain way are two different things. That bothers me as well when people think Patton is some judgemental, evil force because that’s like the opposite of what he represents. While the sides do have flaws they all have good parts to them as well. I don’t think you were telling people to stop making content, nor do I think your original (or second) post sounded entitled. I was less speaking to you and more towards people who actually tell content creators to stop making fanwork portraying a character a certain way. You weren’t doing that, you were just sharing your opinion. Sorry if my post sounded judgemental or hateful towards you, but after reading through some of the responses I assumed you were arguing against changing characters for the sake of content. I was just a little thrown off by some of the wording. Thank you for clarifying your original post!