DriftogenEverything (Engel)

First, just a brief explanation for those who aren't aware; Hilda has three different canons. The series began with Luke Pearson's graphic novels, or comics, and these got adapted into the TV show. The TV show was then in-turn adapted again into a series of regular novels written by Stephen Davies; each book combines a few episodes into one story (changing the order of events and moving things around as necessary), and they're in a separate canon to the show.

I'll be honest; I didn't go into these expecting to enjoy them. @remked has been uploading snippets for a while, and the general sense I got from those were that the novels were a bit stranger than the show, and that the novel version of Johanna was a lot worse of a parent compared to her show and even graphic novel counterparts.

I'll come back to the second point, but I was right about the first. The books seem to be based on very early show scripts, which would make sense, but that leads to a lot of weird moments. A good example is that the prime minister of the elves lives in a magical cave hidden by a riddle and three trials, despite the fact he's a middling bureaucrat and his staff presumably have to get there every day; another is that the forest giant Woodman loses Hilda to tries to rap, which is just bizarre and comes out of nowhere.

The illustrations are strange, too. I have nothing against whoever the artist is, but honestly their attempt to capture the show's style really doesn't work all that well, everything just looks a bit off, and they aren't always very consistent with the text. It's a little hard to describe the effect, so I'll just show you Trevor's gang throwing rocks because that's probably my least favourite illustration:

But I could stomach that. I can look past janky artwork; it's still better than I could do, and strange doesn't necessarily mean bad. What I really didn't like about this canon is that the everything just seems more mean-spirited. It really feels like the entire world is against Hilda at times, a lot more than in the show. The main difference I noticed with Hilda herself is that she cries a lot more in this, and it's understandable why.

The first adventure Hilda shares with her friends is the Lost Clan in this timeline; it follows the events of the show pretty much exactly, but it ends with Frida and David both cutting Hilda out of their lives (even getting their parents to talk to Miss Hallgrim so she'll separate them in class) because they don't want to get dragged into adventures. They do make up, of course, but only when Hilda apologises as if she's entirely in the wrong, and Frida is cold with Hilda throughout the entire rest of the second and third book anyway. David gets one good moment, during the marra incident, but is otherwise similar.

And they're the ones who are supposed to be sympathetic. Nearly everyone else is affected, too; Trevor is established as the class bully, and deliberately tries to drown Raven out of pure spite. Raven Leader is just an exasperated authority figure who dislikes Hilda, and Miss Hallgrim is even worse. She's not just a reasonably strict teacher who doesn't understand Hilda; her introduction is her sending Hilda out of class for not paying attention, while Hilda is fighting back tears because the entire class is openly mocking her. At no point does Miss Hallgrim try and stop them, and unlike in canon she doesn't get a redemption arc; she just continues like this and then faints after the troll mother shows up. There's even a moment where the parents start mocking Hilda, and she still only drops the hammer on this hurt and embarassed child.

But the elephant in the room, and the one thing that really ruined all of this for me, was Johanna. I went into these books with some idea of what she was like; I'd seen one snippet (from Hilda and the Nowhere Space, courtesy of @remked again) and @trolbergoraclecolumnist (who has also read these things) told me that he could make the case she's emotionally abusive. It didn't hit me just how serious that was until I actually read the things, and even then it took a while of me just feeling like things were wrong for it to fully set in, but he's absolutely right. I absolutely don't think it was Davies' intention, but the only way I can read it is that the version of Johanna we get in this AU is an abuser.

In the show, Johanna is clearly conflicted about moving away from the valley. She doesn't want to live in fear of the elves, and she thinks that Hilda needs to learn to socialise, but she also knows that it's going to hurt her daughter, at least in the short term. She's willing to let Hilda try with the elves (if Jorgen hadn't stepped on their house, I don't think they would have moved at all) and listens to her concerns. She's transparent about her decision; when she takes Hilda into town she doesn't commit to anything, telling her daughter this is where they could live, and tries to reassure Hilda that the city can be an adventure too and that she won't have to give up everything she loves.

In Hilda and the Hidden People, the novel version of Johanna not only doesn't do that, she does the opposite. It comes out that she's been planning this move for a while, and is already committed to it (whether this idea came to her before the elves started attacking is unclear); she knows Hilda won't like it, but she makes no attempt to reassure her, instead she straight-up resorts to lying. She tells Hilda that they're just going to look around in town in a horribly insincere way, when it's clear that she's already planning the move and is using this to finalise her plans, and when Hilda is inevitably upset by having her whole life ripped out from under her Johanna doesn't try and be understanding. She makes it about herself and how hard Hilda's making things for her. The line, specifically, is "please don't be difficult today".

Later on Hilda actually calls her out for lying, but she just bluntly tells Hilda not to argue with her. She plans and executes this entire move without ever thinking about how it's going to hurt Hilda, and then tells Hilda she's not allowed to be upset and that makes her in the wrong. And Hilda accepts it; when she falls off of Illus (Jorgen's girlfriend) she genuinely thinks she's about to die, and her main regret is "how mean she had been to Mum these past few days". This isn't a situation like The Beast of Cauldron Island/The Fifty Year Night where it's debatable who was in the wrong and I can see why people sympathise with Johanna; she's lied and manipulated her own child into believing it's all her fault.

In Hilda and the Great Parade, Johanna doesn't really do much either way. She makes no attempt to help Hilda adjust to the city, and laughs at her when Hilda is upset about it (it's fond, and Hilda is being overdramatic in that scene, but considering the circumstances it still rankled me). She has no concerns or remorse about giving the Raven to Trevor (which she is tricked into doing) and the most Hilda is able to convince her to do to help is give a note to Frida, which Johanna is reluctant to do. They do have a bonding moment at the end, watching the parade from the wall, but it's not nearly as earned or sweet.

In Hilda and the Nowhere Space, things continue. In this canon it's made clear that Hilda only joined the Sparrow Scouts because Johanna "loved the idea of Hilda following in her footsteps", and that since then, every time Hilda gets back from scouts, all Johanna asks her is if she's got any badges yet. Not how she's doing or how her adventures are, but if she's living up to the expectations her mum has set for her. Johanna seems fixated on this point, and Hilda's not just worried about disappointing her; it's shown more than once that she has genuinely started tying her sense of self-worth to getting badges and talking about how Johanna will "see how useless she is" at the badge ceremony.

Like in the show, this comes to pass; Hilda doesn't get any badges, and her mum is upset. But in this version Johanna doesn't just give her a concerned look; she goes over to Hilda and berates her to the point of tears:

(Once again thanks to @remked for this). Johanna does ultimately apologise for this, but it's a single sentence where she makes no apologies for pressuring Hilda in the first place. She's spent the entire book trying to make Hilda just like her, pushing her around, and honestly it only feels like she apologises because she wants to assauge her own guilt. Especially after the whole move thing, it reeks to me of more of the same, of Johanna trivialising her own actions.