a quaint little review

In the five years special, Patton saying about Virgil, 'I hope he knows how much we love him,' is Patton's way of trying to communicate that love and care without talking to Virgil directly.

And then in 'Can plushies improve our health?', Virgil asks 'Did you guys get that one?' (the relax-idermy pun) instead of directly looking for Patton's reaction. Plus, while we get an amused response from Thomas, it's interesting to note that we don't see a quick look at Patton smiling etc when he'd usually be jumping on any pun. Like I think his route right now is complete avoidance to try and avoid (ha) upsetting Virgil any more.

i think i'll forever associate the series with autumn & winter, and part of that's date-related: especially the moving on episodes; the first christmas special

but even that aside, there's just something so innately cosy about it

Like he comes up with the courtroom scenario on the spot and it’s clear that he’s revelling in it—he’s enjoying himself, having fun with giving everyone their roles, showing off… And it’s precisely through being in a courtroom environment, plus his role as the ‘Honourable Justice Roman’, that inspires Roman to ‘do the honourable thing’ and give his sentence.

And Janus is completely caught unawares by this—but that’s not the only time!

When Logan talks about effective altruism in SVS Redux, Janus looks surprised by the fact that Logan’s points align with his own… it’s a cruel irony ‘cause you could look at it like: Janus. You didn’t even need to forcibly remove Logan from the conversation, he would have agreed with you lmao*

*That being said, obviously everything needed to happen as it did so that the whole conflict in the episodes was even possible. Plus, I love part of the pain being the idea that such things while technically preventable in hindsight, if they were avoided it would probably just delay the inevitable conflict. There’s also the angle of Janus evoking his Roman God namesake as “presiding over the beginning and ending of conflict,” (x) so in that sense he brings out things that might’ve otherwise remained buried.

i love them for many reasons, one being that i see them as The Blueprint* for the rest of the series.

(well actually, that’s a title partly shared with the accepting anxiety eps in my opinion—where the concepts in accepting anxiety are the ‘bridge’ in order to reach what’s explored in moving on.)

so accepting anxiety introduces the idea of ‘rooms’ and the effects they can have: virgil’s room accordingly heightens anxiety, and we see that in a visual representation with the increasing black eyeshadow. so, the audience is now on the lookout for what the effects in other rooms might look like.

except crucially the effect in patton’s room is not shown visually. yes, we’ve got the nostalgia haze throughout, but there isn’t a notable increase to clue us in on what’s happening the longer everyone stays in the room. this delays our realisation; we’re figuring it out roughly at the same time as logan does.

and the effect not being immediately obvious says so much! the theme of things being more than what their first appearances or impressions might suggest! and on a related note, these episodes are where we also have strong references to the idea of the characters embodying more than one aspect  “So I might not have had Roman create half as many as the stories and worlds as he did without Virgil giving me reason to,” Thomas observes, and then the camera later cuts right to virgil when he says there are “new things to write”, linking both roman and virgil to the creative process.

and of course, speaking of someone being more than what they first appear… patton. oh patton. oh god. this is where we see more of his complex characterisation—i’m still not over the cardigan weighing him down= a heavy heart metaphor—and it’s just so, so gutwrenching to see him trying to keep up the façade after the despondent “can they?” slip up. like there’s just multiple frames of heartbreak, and the way the smile doesn’t reach his eyes… :(