User blog:Corbierr/Character Analysis- Patricia

'''Welcome to the first blog of my new character analysis series, which for now on will be posted every Thursday. To start off with, I thought, "Who better than my favorite character?" so, time to go deep and discuss...Patricia. Freaking. Williamson. (It's a Quizzy thing. Deal with it.)'''

'''Also, in the end of this blog (and the others in this series), I'll have a "Consensus/What I would have done" section, detailing what I feel of the character overall, an explaination of why I feel that way, and finally, an explaination of what I personally would have done for the character. '''

Enjoy!

Season 1- The story of a true Heroine... and this one American girl
Patricia in season one was a surprisingly complex character. In the very beginning, what most people think of is just how she was terrorizing Nina due to her own delusions. The show painted her in a negative light...or did they? While it is true that she did give Nina a very, very hard time, and her actions clearly weren't meant to be portrayed as anything else but wrong, she was also, in many ways, the most human character. Because face it- Nina wasn't the one who was alone at the time, Patricia was. Nina may have been the newbie with only one or two friends, but Patricia's only support came from Mara, who was probably only there to keep her from going completely insane, and Jelfie, who only wanted to get some laughs out of it. For all intents and purposes, the House was against her and her cause. One could argue that it was her attitude that drove them away, which might be partially true, but if Nina weren't there- but Joy was still gone- it's still pretty unlikely anyone would have sided with her out of simply finding the "Where's Joy?!" thing to be stupid. '''What I'm trying to say is, Patricia was more alone than Nina was- mentally, emotionally AND physically, because at least Nina had Fabian, and at least everyone else was attempting to be civil to her, while basically looking at Patricia and saying, "She's lost her mind." '''

No, this is not me trying to claim my favorite character was some sort of perfect hero who did nothing wrong. I'll admit it, her actions at the time were pretty disgusting. However, I'm not trying to look at the actions themselves, but the context, and her mental state during these things. There is no denying that Patricia was, if nothing else, terrified and desperate and, in the wrong, yes, but she was trying her hardest to do the right thing in her own messed up style. So, mean and wrong? Sure. But with heroic and sympathetic goals despite this? You betcha.

Fast forward, and we reach that odd time where Patricia was firmly in the gray area of the morality scale. Not targetting Nina anymore (and even basically staying out of her way for most of the time) but becoming more desperate, lonely and confused. She was joining with Rufus, freaking out about ghosts, and getting angry at everybody for very small reasons. Of course, it's also during this that we saw her at a genuinely weak point. She didn't know who to trust, what to think or even if Joy was alive or not. And it's around this time that the started to become my favorite character. I maintain that she was the only one on the show to suffer completely mentally and still do her best to power through, which really made her, to me, very heroic- after all, bravery, loyalty and determination are all virtues of really great heroes, and sure, she was an anti-hero, but a hero nonetheless. It was during these episodes that really solidified her personality. '''The sheer fact that she was going to do whatever it took was refreshing to see, and since Nina was (mostly) no longer on her mind, we really got to see her more heroic qualities, emotions and actions happen. '''

By the time she had joined Sibuna, she had developed into a very light Anti-hero. Now, for many characters, this development would have taken the entire season and she would have been like Jerome in joining the team last-minute. But for her, it was a chain of both struggles and mistakes (one that occured incredibly rapidly) that forced her to start changing her ways early. Plus, becoming a Sibuna member meant she was no longer alone, and we could see the Patricia that had been hiding the entire time- the one that was an honestly good best friend. But this warming up didn't make her any less of a determinator! She still was focused on Joy first and the cup second. And I liked it. '''This is the version of Patricia I think we all prefer- determined and independant, and still struggling a bit on the moral side, but overall, just a very strong, courageous and extremely loyal girl who was implusive as hell but knew exactly what she wanted to do and how to do it. '''

In general, Patricia in the first season was arguably one of the most human characters. Jerome may have had his hidden depths and backstory, and Nina was the hero, but Patricia pretty much went through as much shit as the writers could throw at her this season- loss of best friend, sanity loss, being betrayed by both Jason and Rufus, getting kidnapped, nightmares (and no romance)- but always managed to ''bounce back. ''And that, I think made her character stand out. Nobody else ever managed to deal with their bad situations simply by being able to overcome them with sheer willpower and determination to continue their mission no matter what except for her. She may have made a lot of mistakes, but in bad times, who doesn't make mistakes? What was so great about her character this season is that unlike other characters who do bad things in other seasons (Hello, Joy and Mara), she didn't let these things define her- what defined her was her desire to do what was right and save Joy at any cost, even personal.''' It's these reasons Patricia is my favorite character on the show, and it's these reasons that I rarely pay attention to her season 2/season 3 personality when I think of her as a character. Not only does it stand out more, it really, really makes her a character that I kind of ''admire. '

Of course, she still had her flaws this season. I don't want to just gush about her (I need to keep these blogs fair). I guess, one big thing is that she was so focused on Joy that it left little room to let us know her otherwise- as a person. I mean, we knew she was determined, loyal and strong...but all these traits come back to her search for Joy. What I'm saying is, her personality was kind of defined by a different character (this is a theme with her, as you'll see later). She never did these things for herself, but Joy and Joy alone. That's loyalty at it's finest, but it's also frustrating when you are trying to examine her full character but only know what she's like when her friend is in trouble.

Because according to the next season, unless there's trouble happening to a friend...she's pretty passive otherwise...apparently.

Season 2- Slap me if I ever get this way over a boy! Oh, hi, Eddie...
When season two started she was mostly herself. Sarcastic, always seen with Joy, and independant. The difference being, now she had nothing to fight for. Joy was back, things seemed fine, so she was really just...there, being herself yet not being the Patricia we knew in season one. Perhaps this is just how she naturally is, and only because super determined when she has to be. I can live with that, because she was still a fine character at the time, just not very exciting.

But Eddie changed all of that. Patricia's scenes became about him and whatever he was doing. It was love/hate right off the bat, and while the sarcasm combat between the two of them was glorious, it was...weird, to put it lightly, seeing Patricia's character now having a purpose in the show, but this purpose being about a boy and not the mystery. You guys might think I'm being a bit too harsh. Surely she wasn't a bad character at the time? Well, no, not bad exactly. Just not nearly as entertaining or compelling. With her character's focus being now on the new romance plot, Patricia was...mostly only reacting to whatever he did. She herself started almost zero of what happened between them and it was Eddie who really furthered things along at this time, and her interactions with anyone else were far and in between. Keep in mind we have not yet gotten to Sibuna yet, which means yes, all she did was react to whatever Eddie did. You guys may be saying by now, "But Izzy! She wasn't used to these things and prefered being alone. Of course she wasn't going to be making most of the moves yet!" Well okay you have a point, a small one. Maybe. '''But is anyone really comfortable with just taking Patricia, who had been the most proactive character in the first season and who pretty much set the story itself in motion, putting her into a romance plot and having her suddenly be passive? At the very least, she'd have been gleefully trying to antagonize him like she did to Nina. But nope, she was just sort of there to get mad at Eddie all the time. So yeah.'''

Okay, and then she joined Sibuna. At this point I was thinking-" We're going to get our badass Trixie back! YES!" But the writers defied my expectations by making her do almost nothing for the mystery. Okay, she tried to walk across the beam. And walked through the tunnels blinded. Fascinating stuff. Half of the time she wasn't even involved in the meetings! What was she doing? Love/hating it up with Eddie of course! So this was around the time she started fighting back and it became less of Eddie annoying her and more of both of them bugging each-other. We also got to learn about her fear of opening up romantically, and while at the time I accepted that as deepening her character, I now see that as...kind of false. Because yeah, it did make sense, but she never, exactly...overcame this. It's a flaw that went away pretty fast and I'm starting to feel like it was mostly to serve as romantic tension  and cause her breakup with Eddie for season three but that's a different story. What I'm trying to say is, I still think she was more human in the first season because yes, we saw her deal with real human emotions and struggles... a whole lot. This time the only real struggle she had was over her newness to romance, which...okay, admittedly realistic, but except for the jealousy here and there, that was all she had to handle emotionally, which was weak compared to her season one plot  and she didn't even overcome it in the end because it apparently came back over the summer. She went blind and mute, but those were physical challenges, not mental, and compared to the other sibuna members, Patricia got off pretty tame this year.

Towards the end of the season, we began to see shades of the first Patricia come back for a small time. She was determined to get Nina back, which I enjoyed, but that only lasted for the first few minutes of the episode because PEDDIE. I was very disappointed when she did not get to interact with Rufus, do any genuine actions that furthered Sibuna or have much at all do to in general outside of Peddie. BUT, there was one other thing I should discuss. Her fallout with Joy. In all honesty, it was relieveing to see her not taking Joy's shit even if Joy was her best friend- something she certainly would have done in the first season as well- and it was also great to see that, despite knowing her friend was in the wrong and being honest about that, she didn't want to abandon her. Season one Patricia honestly came out a lot more in her interactions with Joy during this time than during any other part of the show. She cared about her friend and wanted to help her, but was not about to just let her keep doing what she was doing without some raw honesty. THAT is the Patricia I like, not the one that is only focused on Eddie and nothing else.

Overall? A weaker character this season, but that doesn't mean she was bad, exactly. She had moments of being realistic, in the way that her emotions and reactions made sense and she was still, at her core, the same character we knew and loved. But yet she was still focused on another character the entire season- this time, Eddie- but instead of using this focus to kick ass, she used it to get involved in romance and ignore Sibuna, which is...blah.

Season 3- No time for a creative title, too busy being jealous!
Urgh.

Let's start from the beginning. At first, we learned that Peddie had broken up (as well as that hundreds of shippers cried themselves to sleep and then stopped watching the show). Jade confirmed it was because she was scared of things moving too fast... so realistic as it may be, it was also a cheap excuse for cheap drama. I myself was not focused on the Peddie break up, but how she seemingly reverted back to her season one personality. Reading diaries, looking through people's things, and helping Fabian when he was all "Where's Nina?!". I was stoked when this happened. I was thinking, "This is the Patricia I had been missing!" And thankfully, it stuck for a while. Sure, she was also jealous when this was happening, but she was also being proactive in the mystery again. And I loved it! Even after Eddie joined the team, her scenes in the gatehouse were classic Patricia, and it was glorious!

Too bad everything else she did when not dealing with the mystery, (and after the ceremony) were pretty much her being jealous over Eddie, or at one point getting over her jealousy to flirt (or something) with Benji, or TRYING to make Eddie jealous, or etc. etc. etc. Basically the majority of the time she was the jealous ex and it got tiring very, very fast. What else can I say? All she did was be on the sidelines, being passively jealous, or making HIM jealous (intentionally or not)! She wasn't really doing much else unless THE PLOT said so. "Izzy, does this make her a bad character at this time?"

...Yes, my very curious reader. It does. I know she was always a jealous person, but it didn't consume her before, it only added fuel to her anger. Now she degressed into being able to feel nothing else BUT jealousy 75% of the time! It's very, very upsetting!

Sinner time, okay. So first she became a Sinner because of Denby making her think Eddie was cheating on her. Now, while I am completely against Miss Denby forever because of that, and it was extremely heartbreaking to watch, I also must ask...would a girl who faced her kidnapping with sarcasm and faced death time and time again really be pushed to crying like that for the first time by Eddie cheating on her?...It's certainly possible, and I won't say it's unrealistic. Emotionally, Patricia was never fully powerful and let little things get to her, so I guess it makes sense that, mentally, she'd be able to face things like Rufus and being cursed, but emotionally, she'd snap at being cheated on (especially with how jealous she was).''' So...yeah, it actually was pretty realistic for her character. Forget I said anything. '''

And as a Sinner, it was...glorious. She was no longer held back by anything and could once again be a badass, and she rocked it. I swear she was one of the only subtle villains on the show (except maybe Sinner Fabian...) and yeah okay I love Sinner Patricia a lot. But she was acting pretty OOC and really didn't end up doing that much outside of torment KT. So super fun to watch? YES. Still not having much to do? ...Unfortunately, yes.

In general? Season three could have been a great season for her if the writers cut back on the jealousy, made her less focused on Eddie, let her do more in the mystery and DEVELOPED HER! That's the big thing. She didn't DEVELOP. Jealous on the first episode, jealous on the finale. There was no change, and that's why I was disappointed with her this season.

And the less we say about her character in TOR, the better.

My Consensus / What I'd have done
So overall, what can I say about Patricia?

Well, it seemed like the writers weren't sure what to do with her. I'm pretty sure they followed her characterization from HHA in season 1, but IDK how her personality matched up with her counterpart in the following seasons. Fan of HHA, please let me know. For now, I'm just going to assume her character diverged in the second season away from the HHA version of herself, and the writers weren't sure what to have her do. They probably just said, "They want romance for her, so let's give her a romance plot," without really thinking it through. In season three, they seemed to try to make her balanced with mystery and romance but ultimately failed to do so. She was never a poor character, just poorly written. She's still my favorite, but you have to thank the first season for that. Development wise, she got almost all of it in the first season at a very rapid pace; Season 2, she did develop into the romance- at least we THOUGHT she did. She didn't, apparently, according to the break up before season 3, which proved she pretty much did not learn anything about romance or anything else. And in season 3? Development never happened for her.

If I were in charge of Patricia as a character, I'd have kept her basically the same in the first season, but I've had added scenes where we saw her focused on herself as well, you know, like a normal person would focus on themself? Maybe by acknoweldging everything she had been going through, or something? Just a little to round her out and add to her character. In the second season, I'd have preferably have had her date........................nobody. Not Eddie, not Jerome, nobody. I'd have let her maybe go out with Eddie in the beginning, but they'd break up and she'd be fine, having learned more about herself and how she's just not ready for a relationship. If there absolutely had to be a pairing for her to take to the end, I'd have made it a subplot, NOT her main focus. Season 3? Get rid of the jealousy, make her try and take care of herself for once and have her try and get over Eddie, if she had been dating him at the end of season 2 in this version. If Peddie absolutely had to be endgame, I'd have her develop into taking charge of the relationship and getting him back by fighting for him, not by just passively hoping things will get better. If Peddie did not have to be endgame, then I'd have not had Peddie. Maybe Patrome. If this was just to play out my fantasies. But I honestly think that what would have been best for her character is to not date at all in the very end.

'''Thanks for reading, everyone! What are your thoughts on Patricia? What would you have done differently from the writers? '''

'''Also, who do you want me to discuss next time? Tell me! I'll do whoever YOU guys choose, so choose wisely! ;)'''

'''Stay tuned for more of the TOR rewrite tomorrow as well as the next two chapters of SSSOS. On Tuesday, I'll post my first episode analysis video/blog! I hope you're all ready, because I know I am!'''