#pat rollins

[nova-asker]

watching Raising Dion again, so here’s Pat Rollins

[celestialsonata7]

I can buy Pat being the crooked man and the energy corrupting him, but I don’t like how they treated the actually development that led up to it, does that makes sense? He is entitled, has boundary and anger/ jealousy issues. I can buy that, but his arc I’m not sure if it needed more time or if it was because of how sudden his change was or because you grew to like his character through the series.

I didn’t like how they handled the whole “he is always been evil and is impossible for him to change and any attempts to change are useless or another form of manipulation” I think the series does a very good job at showing his perspective and making you feel sorry for him at tikes and even empathize with what he is going through to just be like “oh, he is just evil and has always been like that and when everyone thought he was dead nobody cared and resented him for still being alive”

(I acknowledge that what he did was 100% wrong, he did terrible things Nicole was in her right to hate him and be distrustful of him. He is a very scary person because guys like him actually exist in real life)

Is weird because I’ve seen other shows do similar arcs to this one where the villain that turned evil due to their own personal flaws, shortcomings and issues and somehow still being unredeemable and dying at the end, but still the narrative being able to show them some kind of sympathy or acknowledgement/understanding towards their issues and still having them be unredeemable and die in the end. Sadly I don’t think Pat’s character arc had rbis.

How do you feel about the way his character was handled? Am I the only one who feels this way?

Hello Anon! Thank you for asking this! I could launch into a whole essay about what I think about this. XD So I think I will. Strap in, folks!

For those confused, this is pertaining to the Netflix series, 'Raising Dion', and contains MAJOR spoilers, so be forwarned if you plan on watching it.

(I'd like to premise this by saying it's been a hot minute since I watched the show, so I'm sorry if my recollection of its events is a little fuzzy.

I would also like to state that I freaking looooove Jason Ritter, and his perfomance in this show is amazing as always, and the reason that the character arc of Pat vexes me so is that I felt they did Jason dirty.)

So, I absolutely agree that it felt like his whole reveal was definitely rushed through, which is really poor writing on their part considering they knew where they were gonna take the character from the beginning. They had all that time to work out how they wanted to present the character and he still didn’t feel fleshed out enough. They just wanted to make the twist so surprising for the audience for shock value that they made sure we would never suspect him until the reveal. I can buy that people lie about themselves, they hide certain traits and motivations, sure, but for him to do a complete 180 of his character was just too ridiculous, especially when you consider how irrevocably determined and devoted he was to his goals once the reveal happened. Either he’s a hurting and desperate man who’s only doing what he needs to survive, OR he’s an evil being bent on making others suffer, you can’t have it both ways.

I think the main reason Pat is so unbelieveable as a character is that they kept flip-flopping him. He would CONSTANTLY contradict himself; "Dion, always listen to your Mom, BUT also let's have pizza even though she said 'no'", "Dion, only use your powers for good, BUT also let’s cheat at this basketball game", "Dion, good guys are always true, BUT definitely lie about using your powers in public", "Dion, I'm happy you got superpowers and can fight evil, BUT it definitely should have been me instead because I was there and everyone else got powers so I should have too", "Nicole, I like you, however if you don't feel the same way, I'm okay with that, BUT how dare you kiss other guys when you should be with me", like, it's not even bipolar, it's just bad writing. His motivations and desires are constantly changing that it just feels random and disorganized and done on a whim. It felt rushed and random simply because you never know what he wants. He wants to be a good godfather and friend to Dion and Nicole but no actually he just wants to kill them, but no actually he'd never hurt them, but no actually he'd do anything for power. It just doesn't make any sense.

People can have major flaws and still be good people, and people can have good traits and still be bad people, but these traits usually line up with a person's motivations, i.e. "I need to survive but I'll try not to kill if I don't have to, and if I do have to it will upset me because I still value human life. If there was another way, I'd take it but there isn't and that sucks", or "I value YOUR life because I'm attached to you but everything and everyone else is meaningless to me and I have no qualms with ending them for my own gain". You can't have, "I wish I was a better person except just kidding no I don't", it doesn't work that way.

You can say that Pat's motivation from the beginning, to the very end, was power; all he wanted was power, that was his end goal, that was what he always strived for, but then his actions should back that up. If all he wanted was power, why did he waste his time raising Dion, teaching him how to use his powers, helping Nicole, being a good friend to her, working at his job, hoping for promotions? Why not just go out and collect all the powered people at once, keep absorbing people, keep gaining power? You'll say, "well he wanted to wait for Dion to get stronger so he could absorb more power, he needed to be close to Nicole to be close to Dion, he needed the resources of his company to find more powered people", okay, yes, that all makes sense. If that was what he was planning the whole time, then that shows that he's smart and conniving. So everything he did was in service to that main goal; he helps Dion become more powerful so he can take all that power for himself. But he inadvertently creates his downfall, he "dies", all his power is gone, over and done with. Then WHY come back to "warn" everyone of another rising threat? You could say, "he wanted to get his power back", okay, but how? He no longer had the power to absorb people and he didn't even know he COULD get it back, he just knew it was still out there killing, and if he DID know he could get it back, why not go to where the power is in the first place? Why bother with going back to the city and the job and the people that would never help him in a million years? He KNEW he would be shunned and arrested and locked up forever if he showed his face there, and without any power he had no way of escaping, so why go back? He also knew they didn't understand that power either anyways; a superpowered eight-year-old beat him, not the highly educated and technologically advanced company, so what did he think he could gain from going back there? We already know he's smarter than that, if the above is true. By all accounts it doesn't make sense.

You could say the desire for power solely came from the crooked energy, and season one was all just Crooked Man-Pat, and once that was gone the true Pat came back, and he really DID just want to help and redeem himself, fine. But then he should not have been capable of reverting back to Crooked!Pat at the end, before the energy was even back in him. If all he wanted to do was help, then the concept of being powerful would mean nothing to him. The desire for power, the deceitful nature, the entitlement and selfishness should not have been there while he was "trying to help". You can't be selfless and selfish at the same time. You can't be forthcoming and deceitful, you can't be humble and entitled. All those things contradict each other. Again, it doesn't make sense.

Another thing that really really irked me while watching the series was that, from the very beginning, it seemed like Nicole never really liked Pat anyway. She was ALWAYS cold and distant with him, as if she already knew he was bad news even when he was "trying" to be kind and thoughtful. I don't know if that was a directorial problem or an acting choice but it felt so unfounded and random, and it made all the "nice" scenes feel forced. Not to mention Nicole was far too quick to just accept that Pat was evil all along, it just pulled away from their relationship so much so that it felt like they didn't even have one, like the only thing connecting them was Dion. Again, I don't know it that was intentional, or even if anyone else felt that way, but that's how it came across to me and it made it really hard to connect to either of them. Honestly, it felt like Pat had more chemistry with Dion than with her.

The only reason I fell in love with Pat at the beginning, and continued to route for his redemption until the end, was because, as stated at the top, I love Jason Ritter. I've seen many of his roles and applauded all his performances and so yes, I'm biased, but as I'm sure everyone else can agree, he has a kind face, and plays enduring really really well. He gets cast as kind people quite a lot, so anyone that has seen him before will already feel a sense of comfort when he's on screen. I think that is really only reason that Pat is so likeable at the start, and possibly feels redeemable at the beginning of season two; because people see this kind face and can see him being capable of kindness. But it's all for naught because of the way that the show and character is written; there's only so much you can do with what you're given. The script of 'Raising Dion' was basically a mess of tangled Christmas lights that are impossible to untangle, and the more they tried, the more tangled it got.

tl;dr Pat's character was really poorly handled from a writing standpoint; nothing he did made sense and his motivations were all over the place and his character was never consistent. All that is an absolute, crying shame because Jason Ritter was amazing in it anyways and I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

I hope that answered your question, and if not I'm sorry. I've never really written my thoughts on anything like this before and again, it's been so long since I saw the show so I may have gotten some things wrong or misremembered some things. But I had fun writing this, it's been a while since I've written ANYTHING and I really really appreciate you wanting to know my opinions, no one ever wants that. XD Hope you have a lovely day, Anon!

[angelfireeast]

Folks calling Pat a fake comicbook nerd cause he became a villain & gave up being good real quick cause it was hard & he missed the message of superheroes. Nah he a real comic fan. There are fans like him & you see them every day who miss the message but are fans reading comics.

They are fans who bang on about 'SJW' if black or brown characters are introduced, who flip out if character is revealed as queer, who love superman but don't get he's immigrant REALLY & hate immigrants, who don't want comics to deal with racism, fascism or sexism when they built on fighting them.

These fans love the idea of superpowers, of being powerful, of being moral authorities, that if they had powers they would be good, the ultimate good guy, respected, beloved, & worshipped. But hard work that goes with that? Nope. Being a good person? Nah. They can't be decent normal people on the street or online.

That's Pat Rollins. A Nice Guy TM. He didn't get a quick reward for being good so he gives up. He thought being a superhero would be easy. He didn't understand that being good isn't easy. He didn't want to do the hard work. He's selfish and lazy. He took the easy way out. Quick rewards

[songsofwaterandnight]

Saw that some people watching season 2 feel bad for pat and it's like how do you miss the point so badly?? He's bad. He always been bad. We had the boy who could literally read minds confirm that he's bad! Yeah the crooked energy(sidenote: I find it funny that this is what it's officially called) may have encouraged his behaviour but it was still his behavior. He wasn't under the crooked influence when he injected himself with the powered DNA or when he chose to kill those two guards and break out of Biona. He didn't truly care about the weight of his actions because, if he did, he would've understood that some people will never forgive him for the things he did. He killed multiple people but is mad that people won't forgive him because he tried(AND FAILED) to help them fix a problem THAT HE CAUSED??? He's the same entitled guy from season 1 who's somehow become even more entitled! This was not an attempt at a redemption arc. This was a confirmation arc. Lots of people had their doubts about whether pat was really evil and season 2 confirmed it: crooked energy or not, pat was not a good guy.

[a-very-tired-raven]

Me,watching Raising Dion again after the 100th time: Oh my god Pat and Dion's relationship is so adorable *smile so big my face hurts seeing them interact

Me after seeing Pat be the evil guy even tho I've seen this show 100 times

OH MY GOD PAT WHY I LOVED AND TRUSTED YOU WHYYY DO YOU GOTTA BE EVIL *cries*

I love Jason Ritter so it made it so much worse to find out he wa ps the evil character

[jabs5299]

Eye of the Storm Part 1

A/N: I am not a Pat Rollins Sympathizer, the main character (you lol) will not know the truth for a while. Just like in the Show. Not revealing spoilers :)

When you walked into his apartment that day you were more nervous than ever. You had an unpreventable rush of unwelcome and cruel thoughts taking over your mind; you almost turned around and went back home many times during the drive over.

“(Y/N)!” Pat exclaimed, opening the door shortly after your sequence of knocks. “Come in, come in,” He stepped to the side, allowing enough space for you to cruise into the hallway that led to the living room.

He'd not expected you at his door that morning, did he miss a plan? With a quick mental check of what today was, he came to the conclusion that this was just a surprise visit.

You’d been experiencing… odd things lately and you really didn’t want to have this talk with Pat, but it was necessary.

“Uhm, I needed to talk to you,” You managed to say without stuttering.

“I- You do?” Pat tone of voice put you on edge a bit; he’s not going to be able to accept what you said. That thought alone made you hesitate with your next sentence.

“I’ve been going through some things, and I really just want to tell you. It’s been a lot to deal with and-”

“-You want to break up?” Pat cut you off, making your eyes go wide with shock. That’s what he thought you were going to say.

“No! What?” You squeezed the words out of your lips without realizing, your brain taking a second to sync up with your body. You could feel your heart trying to escape your chest at the terrifying accusation. It felt like an ache you couldn’t get rid of. “Pat, no. You’re the only person I trust to tell.”

The pure depressive way you spoke shook Pat to his core, you weren’t breaking up with him.

Zipping in front of him, you wrapped your arms around your startled boyfriend. You could hear his heartbeat pounding as he wrapped his arms around your shoulders- pulling you close. A spark of electricity shoots through your elbow after a while of Pat pushing his face into your hair.

“Ow!” You exclaim, pulling back to cradle the arm that hurt for just a second. “You have abilities too?” Wow, what a coincidence. A wonderful, amazing coincidence. “Show me? Please,” You begged, dragging out the middle of ‘please’ as you tugged on Pat’s arm. He chuckled softly at you, flicking his hand- which was just a theatric -to turn on the tv.

“Woah,” You whispered, looking at the news channel now playing. While your attention was taken away, Pat stared at you with adoration. He was really scared just a minute ago, seconds away from doing what he did last time. “Electricity, very impressive.”

“What about you? Moving like the Flash!” This reference made you giggle, it was one of the few comics you actually grew up reading. Although recently, you’ve been learning about more and more new ones. No obvious reasons for that, of course. :)

Part 2

Part 3

[yaoilightyagami]

raising dion season1 spoilers?

NAUR NOT OUR PAT ROLLINS FICTIVE FINDING OUT HES THE LIGHTNING MAN AND STANDING THERE LIKE. O_O. I FEEL SO BAD OMFG

[traditionallymodern]

𝗥𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀

𝗣𝗮𝘁: I’m kidnapping you

𝗗𝗶𝗼𝗻: Let me ask my mom

𝗣𝗮𝘁: Wha- it wasn’t a choice

𝗗𝗶𝗼𝗻: She said no