Spoiler warning: Pantheon
I genuinely think Pantheon is one of the greatest pieces of media ever created. I think art is an expression, wrt Pantheon is the expression of the creator's idea in an animated medium. Anything can be art (if you think hard enough), but the quality that makes a work of art great is that a great artwork makes you think, in my opinion. Great art makes you think, reflect and question ideas presented; it is especially hard in the age of passive over-consumption of content. Pantheon does not make you ignore or forget it, every little detail can be interpreted about a different thing. The monologues present profound ideas, and each could be an analysis, there is so much to ponder upon once presented - it is magnificent.
One of the core themes is change, the transition of humanity's evolution through technology. The world changes in the show, the lives of characters change and their sense of being alive changes. One thing I particularly like is that the character changes, but instead of they representing particular viewpoints, their own perspectives shift. Maddie and Ellen completely reverse by S2E7, they change. Maddie's arc in the ending is mentioned in my next post instead of here. Caspian's arc is about taking control of his life after learning the truth and dealing with his destiny, the purpose of his creation - which causes him to swing in different directions to do the right thing, even embracing the thing he was running from. Though in the end he proves his identity, he is willing to die for his principles like Yair says. He is not Holstrom for his relationships (mainly Maddie) with other people giving him his sense of self, they change his destiny, another core theme of the show on how other people give us identity. The reason Holstrom couldn't crack integrity is because his abusive environment he grew up detached him from people. He only cared about himself. This is why he couldn't understand, even when presented the solution - other people are important for existing. Holstrom never loved anybody, not Renee or his mother or his friends or his cult. He chose evil instead, not that he lacked compassion for some reason as Caspian is filled with it despite his life, Stephen never wanted compassion in his life. He saw them as the pawns in chess. He wanted to be the saviour of humanity, not for saving humanity but to refrain from his fear of death, and to fulfill his own desires - being the God as he was convinced on his outlook of life is the correct one. He wanted to be the God, for he felt entitled to it. He was willing to die to become god but Caspian was willing to die to save humanity. This is why in S2E7 it feels like we lost, half of humanity is UI as change is inevitable. Technology doesn't disappear only humans adapt. On the surface level it feels like this is the utopia Holstrom wanted - but when you look deeper it is not. The UI don't have any God, they are democratic society. It is not a utopia, conflict still persists, maybe it always will for our existence as life. They can choose to die. And this is the evolution of uploaded globalisation in the world of Pantheon. The themes are fleshed out even in majority of side characters, Chanda goes from a normal enginner to an antagonistic force blinded by anger, then unfolds most of plot by sending the UI technology out of his own loneliness and then decides to establish a UI society and a part of it was probably desires godhood but he wants guide the UI race and from a sense of ego or attempt to make sense of his situation decides to the prophet. But after his villain arc, he starts a redemption arc. He sees Ellen 's interview and realised his actions and blind anger has caused effects and now the realisation hits. The guilt is eating him away. He decides to take action and hence tells everyone about the virus plan and goes against the world he wanted when his humanity kicks in. That is why he dies with a smile, he knows he did the right thing. He is not the main character but a point of the plot device. Even Farhad and Yair, at the end of lives and instead of extension of their nations communicate as people, try to understand the history of hatred and decide to change into a CI for that action transcends everything they knew in pursuit of an attempt for something better than the world they lived in.
Its writing is about pushing limits. The decision to not end the show after the big bad guy dies is what makes it memorable. Evolution doesn't stop with one thing ending, change is inevitable. We see the exponential growth of UI as Ellen references in Moore's law. The ending is beyond what I thought any show could achieve. The experimental concepts it pushes are ground breaking but makes it a show of a lifetime for me. The themes are so well integrated into the plot, it is phenomenal. The most important thing is, it is one of the stories which clearly knows what it is doing. That is the most important thing, the world building is great and the pacing works into the theme and has reason. The first episode is slow as the introduction but it represents how time feels for Maddie and Caspian - slow and painful. The last two episodes feel fast because it is in perspective of Caspian, we (viewers) are in the same place of known information 20 years into the future and hence it is supposed to give you a feeling of confusion like it does for Caspian. The pacing is faster in S2 because the world is moving fast and hence the plot.
