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Trollhunters: here there be spoilers
I think this show is best watched unspoiled (if you are a person who enjoys watching things unspoiled), because some of the character arcs and plot twists are just so delightful. That being said, I would love to talk about it, so here's a spoilery discussion post.
To be fair, there is just SO MUCH to talk about that I'm not sure where to begin, so I figured I'd simply make a (probably not comprehensive) list of favorite scenes. I'm head over heels for Strickler/Barbara, so they might be featured rather heavily here ...
• The car chase in season one. THAT WAS SO GOOD. You can't have a bad car chase when it involves an immortal undead assassin and the only person who can drive the car being on the verge of passing out because they were stabbed in the neck.
• Claire and Jim dancing in 1x25. See ... THAT is how you do a good romantic scene. I especially love that he picked out Spanish music to dance to. I also love that bit on the scooter where she sighs and rests her head on his shoulder. The entire scene was really sweet, beautifully done, and unique to them as individuals.
• The entirety of "Airheads", at least once Toby starts floating. SO FUNNY. I NEARLY DIED LAUGHING.
• Claire and NotEnrique bonding in the episode where he throws the party in her house. I love that he really wants her to think of him as a brother, and she actually kind of does. Changelings discovering their softer side is totally my jam in this series.
• Strickler writhing in pain in 1x25 while they heal Barbara and break the soulbond. What can I say, I am a simple girl with simple needs.
• That part in season 2 where Nomura lets go of Jim's hand and falls down the cliff, and subsequently Jim & co. picking her up. In fact, literally everything with Nomura in that episode. I loved her redemption arc so, so much. And I spent that whole episode fully expecting things to go wrong and Team Good Guy to be unable to bring her back with them, so having her get a (deserved!) happy ending out of all of that was the cherry topping on the villain-redemption-arc sundae of delight.
• Speaking of redemption arcs, the Creepslayerz episode, and also the previous episode when it is OBVIOUS that there's another storyline going on in the background that we mostly aren't seeing. That was so good.
• Several of Claire's portal-opening scenes, especially the underwater one and the one where she overpowers Morgana to take the staff back in season 3. That whole episode was a delight, in fact, from Strickler holding the portal for them to the ghost!Claire stuff and Jim's two mentors having to work together to help the kids (and absolutely hating it, lol).
• The scene between Jim and Strickler in the rain in 3x05, in particular the fact that Strickler is obviously suicidal at this point and Jim essentially breaks the grave-sand mind control by giving him a reason to want to live. That's heavy stuff for a kids' show, omg.
• The adults putting on a ham-fisted play version of season one. FOREVER DYING AT THAT SCENE. That was some "Ember Island Players" quality stuff right there. Also delightful for having some genuinely heartfelt feels with Barbara and Strickler working out some of their issues.
• The wings reveal/flying under the moon scene. MY OTP LITERALLY FLEW. XD And it was a gorgeous scene. Actually ...
• Just about everything with Strickler and Barbara in that episode and the next one. Barbara in the cage! "My life isn't worth the world."/"It is to me." The part where he grabs her and flings them both into the sunlight and then shifts in midair while you can actually SEE him disintegrating (okay, so you have to basically frame by frame that scene and guess who might have done that, woops). brb dying forever.
• Still not over Draal's death. Draal deserved better.
• The climax episodes! So good! I love teamwork fights, and it was so dramatic and gorgeous and epic. I wanted the Changelings to be more directly involved with defeating Morgana since they were her creations, and I didn't get that, but I did love that this meant the Changelings, who all started out as selfish loners who cared for no one but themselves, were ultimately the ones in that fight protecting civilians and getting everyone to safety. And I love that Claire was the one who actually finished Morgana off. (I wasn't so happy about Claire being effectively depowered, but since it's not The Actual End, I assume there's a good chance of Claire getting her powers back or acquiring new ones.)
• Nomura hugging Toby and "I still don't like you very much" UH HUH SURE
I haven't really mentioned much about Jim in all of this but I really do love him; he's a great protagonist and I loved watching him grow into his role as the savior of the trolls and the mediator between them and the human world. I really wasn't too happy with Jim becoming a troll (half-troll) at the end; I'm still working out how I feel about that. I also had a fairly strong aversion reaction to Merlin and I'm still not entirely sure why - I love certain kinds of asshole mentors but certain other kinds leave me cold (Stick in Daredevil was another one that I basically reacted to the same way).
But mostly, I love this show and I'm so glad I watched it! I'm really looking forward to 3 Below, although I wasn't particularly taken with the alien kids in their introduction episode, but this particular set of TPTB are SO good at making me fall for characters I never dreamed I'd love this much (like NotEnrique and Nomura) that I'm really thrilled at the idea of a whole 'nother series set in Arcadia. And also hoping we see how things are going with Strickler and Barbara and their 1000 babies.
To be fair, there is just SO MUCH to talk about that I'm not sure where to begin, so I figured I'd simply make a (probably not comprehensive) list of favorite scenes. I'm head over heels for Strickler/Barbara, so they might be featured rather heavily here ...
• The car chase in season one. THAT WAS SO GOOD. You can't have a bad car chase when it involves an immortal undead assassin and the only person who can drive the car being on the verge of passing out because they were stabbed in the neck.
• Claire and Jim dancing in 1x25. See ... THAT is how you do a good romantic scene. I especially love that he picked out Spanish music to dance to. I also love that bit on the scooter where she sighs and rests her head on his shoulder. The entire scene was really sweet, beautifully done, and unique to them as individuals.
• The entirety of "Airheads", at least once Toby starts floating. SO FUNNY. I NEARLY DIED LAUGHING.
• Claire and NotEnrique bonding in the episode where he throws the party in her house. I love that he really wants her to think of him as a brother, and she actually kind of does. Changelings discovering their softer side is totally my jam in this series.
• Strickler writhing in pain in 1x25 while they heal Barbara and break the soulbond. What can I say, I am a simple girl with simple needs.
• That part in season 2 where Nomura lets go of Jim's hand and falls down the cliff, and subsequently Jim & co. picking her up. In fact, literally everything with Nomura in that episode. I loved her redemption arc so, so much. And I spent that whole episode fully expecting things to go wrong and Team Good Guy to be unable to bring her back with them, so having her get a (deserved!) happy ending out of all of that was the cherry topping on the villain-redemption-arc sundae of delight.
• Speaking of redemption arcs, the Creepslayerz episode, and also the previous episode when it is OBVIOUS that there's another storyline going on in the background that we mostly aren't seeing. That was so good.
• Several of Claire's portal-opening scenes, especially the underwater one and the one where she overpowers Morgana to take the staff back in season 3. That whole episode was a delight, in fact, from Strickler holding the portal for them to the ghost!Claire stuff and Jim's two mentors having to work together to help the kids (and absolutely hating it, lol).
• The scene between Jim and Strickler in the rain in 3x05, in particular the fact that Strickler is obviously suicidal at this point and Jim essentially breaks the grave-sand mind control by giving him a reason to want to live. That's heavy stuff for a kids' show, omg.
• The adults putting on a ham-fisted play version of season one. FOREVER DYING AT THAT SCENE. That was some "Ember Island Players" quality stuff right there. Also delightful for having some genuinely heartfelt feels with Barbara and Strickler working out some of their issues.
• The wings reveal/flying under the moon scene. MY OTP LITERALLY FLEW. XD And it was a gorgeous scene. Actually ...
• Just about everything with Strickler and Barbara in that episode and the next one. Barbara in the cage! "My life isn't worth the world."/"It is to me." The part where he grabs her and flings them both into the sunlight and then shifts in midair while you can actually SEE him disintegrating (okay, so you have to basically frame by frame that scene and guess who might have done that, woops). brb dying forever.
• Still not over Draal's death. Draal deserved better.
• The climax episodes! So good! I love teamwork fights, and it was so dramatic and gorgeous and epic. I wanted the Changelings to be more directly involved with defeating Morgana since they were her creations, and I didn't get that, but I did love that this meant the Changelings, who all started out as selfish loners who cared for no one but themselves, were ultimately the ones in that fight protecting civilians and getting everyone to safety. And I love that Claire was the one who actually finished Morgana off. (I wasn't so happy about Claire being effectively depowered, but since it's not The Actual End, I assume there's a good chance of Claire getting her powers back or acquiring new ones.)
• Nomura hugging Toby and "I still don't like you very much" UH HUH SURE
I haven't really mentioned much about Jim in all of this but I really do love him; he's a great protagonist and I loved watching him grow into his role as the savior of the trolls and the mediator between them and the human world. I really wasn't too happy with Jim becoming a troll (half-troll) at the end; I'm still working out how I feel about that. I also had a fairly strong aversion reaction to Merlin and I'm still not entirely sure why - I love certain kinds of asshole mentors but certain other kinds leave me cold (Stick in Daredevil was another one that I basically reacted to the same way).
But mostly, I love this show and I'm so glad I watched it! I'm really looking forward to 3 Below, although I wasn't particularly taken with the alien kids in their introduction episode, but this particular set of TPTB are SO good at making me fall for characters I never dreamed I'd love this much (like NotEnrique and Nomura) that I'm really thrilled at the idea of a whole 'nother series set in Arcadia. And also hoping we see how things are going with Strickler and Barbara and their 1000 babies.
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To be honest I am not that wildly excited about a whole show featuring them, but I know from the way Trollhunters went that I will probably end up loving it, and loving the characters, in spite of myself. XD
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:-)
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We could maybe watch some episodes the next time I come over, if we're not feeling Stargate-ish. It's good background-for-art TV.
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Strickler was naturally my favorite, to the surprise of no one whatsoever. I spent most of s2 slightly sulky that he wasn't around, but he makes up for it in season 3, he hits all of my "villain reluctantly turned good guy and generally just bad at it though he's trying" buttons. After Claire's possession -- "Were you trying to kill me?" Blinky: "No!" Strickler: "Yes, obviously!" (that was a great ep, and I'd have liked more with Blinky and Strickler having it out re: mentoring Jim!)
And he and Barbara are pretty cute together, though they've got a lot still to work out there (especially as he's now troll all the time? --but with wings!!! Ahahahah someone in production has a Gargoyles passion methinks...)I spent most of s1 wondering if they were your OTP, wasn't until s3 that I was sure. I was curious how they first met (maybe I'm wrong but my impression was it was before the show started, given that Strickler's initial interest in Jim seems more because of that, rather than anything to do with trolls...)
I liked Jim getting trollified because the whole show was following the Hero's Journey a la Joseph Campbell like a checklist, but it's rare for a kid's show to follow through on the heroic transformation/apotheosis that completely. And him acting as the bridge between the worlds is a fascinating idea.(I didn't like Merlin, but I thought we weren't supposed to like him, what with how he kept creeping on Claire and talking about eating Toby -- I don't think he was meant to be a mentor figure, what with Jim already having two of those anyway, but rather a representation of power, for good or for evil. A god, basically, one you want on your side, but not to be liked or trusted.)
Am curious what the next show will be like!