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multinom() residual deviance

The two models you fit are quite different.  The first is a binomial model equivalent to

fm <- glm(I(y == "a") ~ x, binomial, df)

which you can check leads to the same result.  I.e. this model amalgamates classes "b" and "c" into one.

The second is a multivariate logistic model that considers all three classes defined by your factor y, (and has twice the number of parameters, among other things).  The three clases, "a", "b" and "c" remain separate in the model.

Hence the two models are not directly comparable, so why should the deviance be?

Bill Venables.