Trollhunters : Rise of the Titans
Not gonna lie guys, kind of bummed out right now. I loved Trollhunters and 3BELOW. Wizards felt a bit rushed, and the pacing felt breathless at times, but it still built off the others well and left me wanting more of the series. Now that I got the chance to watch Rise of the Titans, I felt like the entire series has been tainted. Don't get me wrong, about 90% of the movie is pretty great, even though they do a bit too much leaning on Jim's insecurities about not having his powers, which was something he already got over in Trollhunters, but I digress, it takes a single mistake to ruin a franchise and the ending of this movie absolutely gutted me. Gonna talk about it now, so beware some huge spoilers.
Sorry if this all is a bit bleak on my part, it just really makes me angry that out of all the things they could have pulled, it was that one.
Not gonna lie guys, kind of bummed out right now. I loved Trollhunters and 3BELOW. Wizards felt a bit rushed, and the pacing felt breathless at times, but it still built off the others well and left me wanting more of the series. Now that I got the chance to watch Rise of the Titans, I felt like the entire series has been tainted. Don't get me wrong, about 90% of the movie is pretty great, even though they do a bit too much leaning on Jim's insecurities about not having his powers, which was something he already got over in Trollhunters, but I digress, it takes a single mistake to ruin a franchise and the ending of this movie absolutely gutted me. Gonna talk about it now, so beware some huge spoilers.
We spent 6 total seasons; 3 Trollhunters, 2 3BELOW, and 1 Wizards, to get to know these characters and experience their growth and care manifest, all for the movie to throw it away on the standard time loop cope out. It's not even that they "lost" the battle and thus going back was the only option, they actually won, but in the process Toby gets killed, and so Jim decides to use a deus ex machina time stone to go back and redo everything. At first I figured it would loop to the start of the movie, and Jim would use his reclaimed powers to defeat the Arcane Order and thus only stop the events and deaths of the movie, but no, it goes back to Trollhunters E1, the same day he picked up the amulet, in which he instead pushes Toby to pick up the amulet and become the Trollhunter, before going to credits. I can't tell you how much this ending pisses me off. Why?
1) Only Jim remembers anything. Blinky? Aarg? Claire? They were all "reset" by Jim going back in time. All that development? POOF.
2) Most of Jim's arc and growth was coming to terms with being the Trollhunter and whether he was worthy of it, and that it was his destiny. The amulet choosing Toby because Toby stumbles on it first due to Jim's nudge basically means Jim was only lucky to be there first, not destined to wield it.
3) Not only have villains been restricted, characters that saw redemption thrown back into being villains (Strickler, Morgana, etc.), but some characters were even erased, like Aja and Steve's kids, who were a running gag of the movie. All that is gone.
Worst of all, this taints all the past seasons. Nothing matters now. Why go back and watch Jim struggle, or Aja and Krell's issues, or anything, when they are all erased because of Jim going back to the start of the series for a do-over? It's retroactively fucked it up and made all of it pointless.
1) Only Jim remembers anything. Blinky? Aarg? Claire? They were all "reset" by Jim going back in time. All that development? POOF.
2) Most of Jim's arc and growth was coming to terms with being the Trollhunter and whether he was worthy of it, and that it was his destiny. The amulet choosing Toby because Toby stumbles on it first due to Jim's nudge basically means Jim was only lucky to be there first, not destined to wield it.
3) Not only have villains been restricted, characters that saw redemption thrown back into being villains (Strickler, Morgana, etc.), but some characters were even erased, like Aja and Steve's kids, who were a running gag of the movie. All that is gone.
Worst of all, this taints all the past seasons. Nothing matters now. Why go back and watch Jim struggle, or Aja and Krell's issues, or anything, when they are all erased because of Jim going back to the start of the series for a do-over? It's retroactively fucked it up and made all of it pointless.
