Thread:Corbierr/@comment-25576856-20150221010401/@comment-4816103-20150226020328

THE BIG CLIMAX IS WHEN THEY SHOULD SHINE! Okay, season 1, only three characters shined in the actual climax, but they still had a purpose for being there. We got to see unique, character fitting reactions, we got to see the characters as what they really were- vulnerable teenagers who can't survive without each other- and we got to at least get hints of character development. Everyone was together and nobody was scrambling, which made it easier to focus on the characters themselves. The "spotlight moments" at the end were just to tie up plots that weren't important enough to be tied up in other places and to make everything end on a clean, happy note. It was all pretty much about relationships and it all happened so fast that they weren't really spotlight moments, just moments. What I mean by a spotlight is that the character has a moment that is about them- not about their relationship, or their plot, or their chosen one awesomeness. Just about them as a person, their feelings, their actions, their dialogue, their development. They don't need to shine like stars, they just need to be shone as the character they are, one final moment to see that character at a lowest or highest point, a moment of depth and importance. It's a spotlight because it's THEIR moment. Not their relationship's moment, not their team's moment, THEIR moment, even if it's just dialogue. It should make you feel something for the character, understand them more, see them at the end of development, etc. Season 1 managed to do that for most of the characters and they also made it subtle and mostly realistic- showing the character as a person, overcoming or failing, dealing with a situation, etc. You get it? Season 2 didn't do that because the moments at the end didn't reveal anything about the character, they didn't finalize any development, they didn't make you think about a character differently or see them struggle or succeed, they didn't make you think and they didn't matter for the characters as much as the romances and the family arcs. Those are important, yeah, but pushing it all into the end just makes it feel rushed when you could have had a lot of emotions and great scenes from having them all happen at a better pace throughout the episode.

Amber was quite proactive. She had Alfie do a lot I admit, but Nina had Fabian do everything, so there you go. Amber still participated more because she and Alfie often worked together to do missions, she was the one who insisted on getting Palfie to join, she helped save Trudy, she's the reason we had the dollhouse, etc. Alfie was more proactive but Amber still did a lot in Sibuna and was VERY focused. Back to Patricia. Well, yeah, she helped out, but she was almost just space-filler. They made her do stuff every so often but she was still the least important member. She just sort of let everyone else do the work which is not the Patricia we know because she should have been the one who was determined to power through, the one who could call out Nina, the one who pushed her friends to keep going rather than let depression get to them. If she did that, if she played that role, she wouldn't have needed to do a lot of missions or come up with ideas, because she would have had an actual place on the team. But no, she was Siuna space-filler, there because she had to be. IK that Patricia the character was not focused on Eddie above all else, and I admit it was Eddie who kept showing up around her, not the other way around. But they just kept tying everything back to Peddie. With Fabina's plot they didn't find every excuse to re-route things to Fabina, did they? They had moments that were purely mystery based. But most of the things Patricia actually went through were used for Peddie drama. Not so we could learn more about her character, not so she could develop, not for her mystery plot, not to give her moments in the spotlight, but for Peddie drama. It's not just Sibuna stuff. Piper being there, like you said, was more for love drama, and her existance didn't reveal much about the Williamson family when she could have brought up all this backstory. Patricia was also on the Jackal and contributed absolutely nothing while being part of it because let's face it she was there to bicker with Eddie and nothing more. Even Joytricia was all about romance development, leaving nothing for the character herself.

I must say, one of the biggest problems with Season 2 Patricia is her lack of development and personal struggle. Everyone else seemed to have something to overcome and some small scale development- even Victor! In fact, I'll list it all. Nina had to deal with, well, the curse and all her friends relying on her, as well as the problems of every day life. Fabian had to grow a spine. Amber learned how to truly love another person, rather than just based off of superfacial stuff. Alfie himself had to grow REAL feelings for Amber as well and learned to respect himself as well. Eddie had his father situation, same as Jerome, who was also learning to really be a goodguy. Mara had to figure out her feelings between Mick and Jerome. Mick's plot was a tragedy where he goes through really unfair heartbreak as he's working to be a good boyfriend. Joy deals with her love for Fabian and having to readjust to life at Anubis. Even Victor developed and struggled with his secret good side and his need to finish his quest. Patricia's arc was technically her learning about relationships, but the issue is, she didn't learn or struggle at all. Mostly she was just told she should do different things to be a good girlfriend and failed comedically or she pushed Eddie away. It's true that she didn't know much about relationships, she just never actually learned how to be in one, they just sort of pretended Peddie's problems were fixed which they obviously weren't because Season 3 hates us. She didn't grow or learn or change, and that's probably the real reason Patricia was wasted and the real reason she came off as more of a plot device than a character with feelings and emotions and desires and stuff. I'd have even been okay with her inacticity in Sibuna had she at the very least gone through developement and overcame a personal struggle.