Roman Sanders (previously known as Prince or Princey) is Thomas Sanders' second Side. He represents Thomas' creativity and passion, and also his fantasy and dreams. His fellow Sides are Logan, Patton and Virgil.
Roman represents Thomas' creativity and fanciful side. He is Thomas' ego, his hopes and dreams and his aspirations, romantic and passionate feelings. He also embodies Thomas' femininity, as Thomas comments in a Q&A given. As such, Roman loves a lot of things traditionally considered to be feminine such as musical theatre, singing, and romance. Roman is also shown to somewhat embody Thomas' masculinity, as he plays the classic prince role.
Etymology
Roman's name came from Romanticism, which was also linked with the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the spontaneous and the fanciful.
Characteristics
Roman is almost always cheerful, encouraging and rarely depressed. As a very energetic character, he cannot seem to sit still for a long time as he needs to be physically doing something. He, much like Logan, is very hotheaded, though his outbursts tend to last in more varied lengths, often going on for a few short seconds to entire videos. He seems to be the more impulsive side of Thomas's feelings, but unlike Patton, who seems to hide his negative feelings and acts politely despite how he feels, Roman is much more open about his dislikes and opinions. It is shown in the newer episodes, specifically "Crofters - THE MUSICAL!" and "Learning New Things About Ourselves", that Roman may be insecure. He also draws parallels with Logan that are worth mentioning, like his narcissism, though he is more vain and appearance based than anything. Despite his obsession with appearances and seemingly material things, he has shown that he is more intelligent and learned about things such as art and media history, languages, and performance arts.
Roman's personality is dramatic and flamboyant. He's vain and easily swayed with compliments, especially towards his appearance, and often mentions his sexuality (gay). He is afraid of letting down Thomas and the other Sides and has a deathly fear of rejection. He seems to have a never-ending supply of creative nicknames, often directed at Virgil, but he also applies them to the others sometimes, including Thomas. Roman is particularly passionate and is fond of aiming for personal beauty. He is also rather naively idealistic when it comes to relationships, thinking of scenarios that could only exist in fairy tales. As seen in "MOVING ON, Part 1/2: Exploring Nostalgia" and "MOVING ON, Part 2/2: Dealing With a Breakup", he's setting himself up for disappointment when reality fails to live up to his fantasies.
Relationships
Virgil
It is no secret that Roman and Virgil don't get along - their given elements during "Sanders Sides Q&A" were even given as fire and water, respectively. They are often pitted against eachother, an example being "The Dark Side of Disney!", arguing and have been called out directly by Logan in "ACCEPTING ANXIETY, Part 1/2: Excepting Anxiety!" and "My NEGATIVE Thinking". Roman and Virgil have always been at odds with each other, however after the events of "ACCEPTING ANXIETY, Part 2/2: Can Anxiety Be Good?" Roman has put a visible effort into being more understanding and not insulting Virgil as much, trying to co-operate and work with him better. There have been times where they have gotten along, for instance, at the end of "The Dark Side of Disney!" when they ended up agreeing at the about certain messages that could be learned from Disney films, as well as "Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses!)", when Roman made a visible effort to refrain from insulting Virgil.
Patton
Roman and Patton get along well and interact friendly most of the time. Roman has referenced to Patton in kind ways before, calling him smart and witty, giving him nicknames and allowing him to take care for him when he was 'injured' in "My NEGATIVE Thinking". However, Roman has used Patton before, usually to prove a point to the others. Some examples are "Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses!)", when he called Patton smart only to annoy Logan and "MOVING ON, Part 1/2: Exploring Nostalgia" and "MOVING ON, Part 2/2: Dealing With a Breakup", when he acted impulsively, affecting both Virgil and Patton negatively, thinking only of the fantasies he had for ideal romance.
Logan
Roman and Logan don't always get along. Roman often taunts Logan and teases him with very colorful nicknames (Logan returns this only once). Despite their differences, Logan and Roman do seem to get along somewhat, with them working together on several occasions, most notably "Making Some Changes!". And though they underestimate each other, these two get along pretty well from time to time.
Janus
Janus uses Roman in order to get Thomas to lie. He directs the play, probably as a method of control over the situation. He praises Thomas in order to get him to believe that he is Patton. When Janus is revealed, Roman expresses disgust about him, despite him being kind. Janus lies to Roman and sarcastically tells him that he loves his new outfit, but Roman can't pick up on the sarcasm, which explains why he falsely believes Janus to be nice. Roman also says that [he] feel[s] so used after Janus leaves the scene.
Remus
Remus is referred to as being Roman's "twin", as explained by Logan in the episode "Dealing with INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS". During this episode, the two are portrayed as two sides of the same coin. During this exchange between Logan, Remus, and Thomas, Logan explains the relationship between Remus and Roman as being similar to that of a split ovum. During Thomas' development, he subconsciously separated his "good" and "bad" creativity, causing a rupture that split Thomas' creativity in two. While Roman is compared to as "Netflix: Kids and Family", Remus brings up the question of why Thomas wants to stifle [his] own creativity.
When Janus compared him to Remus in "Putting Others First - Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux", Roman looked hurt, implying Roman highly dislikes being compared to his brother.
Physical Appearance
Former
Roman was first seen wearing a plain white prince suit with a simple red sash, along with a golden tassel dropping down from his left shoulder. His hair was brown at the time and worn swept to the right side.
Current
Roman's new outfit has golden tassels on his shoulders, shirt front and sleeves. He has a new emblem that also serves as his sigil on his shoulders. As the standard demands, his hair was dyed purple when Thomas dyed his. He also has a katana that he occasionally brings out.
Other Outfits
On occasion, Roman has worn various other outfits.
Christmas Sweater
In "The Sanders Sides 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS!", Roman wore a Christmas sweater. It was red and white, his logo featured on the left slide and both of the sleeves. Logan has commented on it saying that it looks like your regular outfit, except that this is... knitted. The "sash" is decorated with white snowflakes, and so are the sleeves.
Puppet
Roman's puppet in "Learning New Things About Ourselves" was based off the classic puppet design, looking much like something you would see in Sesame Street or The Muppets. There are not many changes to him in terms of his actual appearance, except that his chin is extremely exaggerated.
Halloween Costume
Roman dressed as a mummy for Halloween in "EMBARRASSING PHASES: The Nightmare Instead of Christmas!" He was wrapped in something that looked like gauze. He wore a large red crown and the parts of his skin that were showing (around his eyes and mouth) were face-painted black. He also painted his nails black. Later, when Virgil brings up the vine phase, the gauze(?) he is wrapped in is darkened and he is covered in plants, or "vines". People have theorized that this costume relates to Roman's insecurity, since it's not like him to cover his face.
Court Outfit
In "Selfishness v. Selflessness", the sides are placed in a courtroom scene. Roman takes the role of the judge (Oh, I can do judgey). He wears a white judge robe, but still retains his red sash.
Gallery
List of nicknames
Note: These quotes may be wrongly attributed. If you see one that is wrongly attributed, please make note of it at the talk page.
- Mean Spleen Stabbin' Machine
- Prince Underarm stink
- Meta Knight
- Slugger
- Sir-Sing-A-Lot
- Romano
- Jim Handsome
- Doctor Do-the-Most
- Little Bratty Baby
- The One and Lonely
- Really Obviously Muscular And Nice
- Wroammin
Trivia
- Roman's theme comes from the opening of The Blue Danube by Johann Stauss II.
- In "The Sanders Sides 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS!", Roman conjures a pen in his right hand and writes with it, even though Thomas is known to be left-handed. According to Thomas, this was done on purpose, because Roman represents Thomas' creative right-brain.
- In a Facebook live video, Thomas answered a question about the sort of items Roman can conjure. In response, he said that Roman can conjure just about anything.
- Roman, along with Logan, enjoys a particular fruit preserve known as Crofter's.
- When in "Crofters - THE MUSICAL!" it is announced that Logan has his own jam flavor called Logan's Berry, Roman is upset and hurt that he was not recognized for his love of Crofter's.
- He would eventually get his own flavor of Crofter's named Royal Raspberry Cherriot which is a raspberry and cherry mix.
- In "My Personality Q&A", it was established Roman would wield fire. In fact, he shares a lot of things with the physical element of fire, as well as its astrological personality (loyal, active, impulsive, creative, slightly egotistical). Fire represents energy, power, passion, action, sexuality, creativity, authority, consumption and the untamed.
- Although the exact machinations of birthdays pertaining to the Sides are unknown since they are not human and cannot be literally born, Thomas confirmed Roman's as being June 4th, as it is the date that Thomas's 'prince' character (where Roman is inspired from) firstly appeared on Vine.
- In EMBARRASSING PHASES: The Nightmare Instead of Christmas! when Virgil turns off the lights, it is revealed that Roman is afraid of the dark.
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