#iph analysis

Pyrrha. Your name is Pyrrha.

Fire. I’m guessing she’s got fire powers.

And possibly related to her, mayhaps...?

Now, as an avid Homestuck fan devoted sincerely to optimisticduelist's readings of Homestuck, I'm inclined to think that the title is something that is forced upon Jim by Merlin and Trollkind, but one he takes to with incredible gusto and willpower, despite the overwhelming stress of such a responsibility (which fits my reading of him as a Knight in Homestuck title terms, aka one that Serves). And I may be right on that, but then there's to consider the fact that Atlas in Greek mythology is explicitly an antagonistic force, being the leaders of the Titans whom are the enemies of the Greek Gods.

"ATLAS was the Titan god who bore the sky aloft. He personified the quality of endurance (atlaô). Atlas was a leader of the Titanes (Titans) in their war against Zeus and after their defeat he was condemned to carry the heavens upon his shoulders."

(taken from theoi.com)

So why then, does the narrative and Strickler himself treat this as not something to be ashamed of, but something almost heroic?

Because Trollhunters is a story about inverses.

It's an obvious theme in GDT's work. He shows us to love 'monsters' and give them something almost akin to humanity. Perhaps literally (Shape of The Water, amirite?).

Trollhunters gives us two sides of the coin about Trollkind: One that just wants to live their lives out in peace, and the other that wishes to dominate the Earth, a clear good-evil dichotomy. Realistically, we'd fear trolls and see them only as inherently natural forces that want to eat and devour us for sustenance, because oh my god, they're actually demons, wow. Trollhunters doesn't do that. It gives the Trolls a sense of humanity, and a deep sense of cultural variety.

I mean, you can say this about a lot of magical fantasy adventure narratives, and I sure as hell have critiques about Trollhunters, but this isn't about that. I'm getting to my point.

My point is is that Trollhunters inverses the interpretation of the title of Atlas in Jim's life - not as a punishment, but as something heroically inherited. Like all Trollhunters, Jim bears the responsibility of keeping both the mundane and the magical worlds in balance, and safe.

Maybe even to the point that the antagonists in Wizards will force Jim into serving a literal/metaphorical Atlas role, making him endure the pain of keeping the world up and safe from destruction.

Or maybe I'm entirely wrong, and the title of Young Atlas will turn out to be a metatextual plot device in an incredible plot twist where everything we know is revealed to be wrong, leading to Merlin revealing he's actually The True Bad Guy and Jim has a crisis of fate.

But that seems unlikely. Yet, who knows? The writers, that's for sure, but they're not saying anything.

SHE’S SNOW WHITE????

God, now I have to start preparing for the 7 Dwarves to show up. No, wait... does she have 7 colors on that sword?

Snow White. God, she’s Snow White.

You mean like the unrevealed pre-context behind Blake and Adam breaking into that train in the first place, and the fact that what was inside that crate was never shown?

This is going to lead to some shenanigans and be the basis of some plot points, isn't it?

"Why do you have [x]'s weapon?"

"You say you're [x]... but you don't have their symbol on your weapons!"

"That's quite an interesting and familiar icon you have on there. You wouldn't happen to be [x] or associated with [x], would you?"

Let’s get right to it, then!

Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test Black the beast descends from shadows Yellow beauty burns gold 

Let’s see...

Obviously the first line is referring to Ruby and someone in her past who is partly/majorly responsible for her thematic red (and possibly her whole red riding hood thing) color.

The second talks about White (?), who is pressured by - wow, okay, she’s royalty? Makes sense. She looks like she’s gone through a lot of training. She must be desiring for more outside of her royal pressures, but I’m not sure about what exactly. A life outside of it? Friends? There’s a lot to that that I can’t unpack just yet.

Black is... she has a criminal and dubious past, is what this line is saying.

Yellow beauty burns gold? Gold has a lot of possible meanings here - it could refer to riches, to the Literal Rich communist Yang AU, a structural system that’s responsible for some bad things, or an antagonist whose color theme is gold. This might indicate that Yang is, what, fated to destroy whatever gold means?