Walking Paradox

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Okay. So, you watched trollhunters. You watched 3Bellow. Waited for wizards and now Titans. Then Time happens. The time traveling trope, that not everyone knows how to handle. So you end up with Toby being the trollhunter. 

The ending was not for me:

All the character development is gone. Some character arcs were not even finished, in my opinion Jim’s arc never ended, Toby’s arc, hell, Claire could still use some work. The word of Arcadia as we know it is gone. I don’t know if there is going to be another movie that “fixes” everything, but nothing got resolved. Gunmar is still trying to have the Killahead Bridge fixed. Aja and Krel are still going to end up in Arcadia, Douxie will still be called by Merlin because the Order is approaching. In the series that we watched, yes the Order was stopped and beloved characters died, but Jim erased all that.

I would like to point out that Jim didn’t go back in time: he went to another timeline. In our timeline (the one we watched) Merlin always knew that Jim was going to be the trollhunter, so the amulet called to him; it was meant to eventually fall into his hands. So when in our timeline, both Toby and Jim were under the bridge the amulet called to Jim. So further proof that this time jump is in fact a new timeline is that the amulet called to Toby. If it was the same timeline, Toby wouldn’t have heard it. 

There are so many issues with this. Don’t get me wrong, Toby being a Trollhunter is a concept I don’t mind exploring, the problem is Jim. Jim carries in him our timeline, and his knowledge about the “future“ might become a huge problem in Toby’s training. Plus, there is no guaranty that everything will be the same so Jim can mess things up for Toby big time. Hold him back. And while I see the potential in content, this can take the spotlight away from Toby. Toby is now the Trollhunter, so technically he would be the protagonist. 

We saw this in Titans. It felt like most characters were sided so we can see Jim deal with his own issues. Is this also going to happen with Toby being the trollhunter? Assuming there is more content to come.

There are 6 Trollhunter books which I haven’t read, this post is based solely on the animated stories, so I don’t know who the books follow. I understand that since the animated stories started with Jim, Jim would be the main protagonist in Titans, but he wasn’t the protagonist in 3Beloow or Wizards. So it’s not far fetched for me to assume that since Toby is now the trollhunter he would be the protagonist in the new timeline’s Trollhunters. I worry that if there is more content we wont see Toby’s true potential. Movies still haven’t mastered having a lot of characters, that were main characters, being in the same movie.

Now the ending. If there is no more content coming out, the ending is just not right. We sat through everything, only for it to be erased? And is this really the time for an open ending? There is already so much uncertainty going on everywhere, so many people don’t know how their lives are going to be in a few weeks, shouldn’t the words they turn to for comfort give them a sense of closure? Open endings can be awesome, leave so much to the imagination, and have people create so many beautiful things (I will defend fanfiction till the day I die), but, right now, we don’t need an open ending. We need stability in our comfort worlds, we don’t have it in real life. The ending felt tone deaf.

I believe that I would have liked the ending more, if it was in another time. Maybe it is the right ending, just the wrong time. However, I will not let it take away from me any praise I felt towards the artists and the vision and work behind it. I will just, you know, pretend it had another ending. 

As for the style of the show, we knew it was going to be on the “dark and edgy” side, let’s not pretend. But did it have to be teens?? I had a stroke when Bloom said she was born in 2004, you mean to tell me these are kids? If the production had made it a college/uni the plot doesn’t change one bit, and people are more comfortable with fan art, fan fiction, shipping etc. I don’t like shipping kids, and I’m watching kids figure magic in an institution, but they don’t look like kids. And not because they are more “mature” for their age, no, it’s because these people are my age and my brain knows it.

Netflix could have cast the actual age group making the “dark and edgy” trope actually worth something, I would have definitely been more on edge worrying about the characters. Or they could realise that having adults portray kids can be harmful and decide to “lead the change” in media. But nope.