*Premise spoilers.*
Before I get into the review, there’s something I forgot to mention last week. Did someone say, “Kiss of the Spider Woman trailer”??? ‘Cause we’ve got a Kiss of the Spider Woman trailer! It looks beautiful; shut up and take my money! I’m so down for Diego Luna in a live-action movie musical.
All right. Onto our regularly schedule Y tu Luna también review:
And we’re off! The first part of 3Below’s two-part premiere isn’t one of my favorite episodes, given that it’s mostly exposition and action, but it sets up the story effectively and ends on a nice springboard that will launch us into the rest of the series.
You know how, on Trollhunters, Aja and Krel are perplexing and loveable but shifty? Like they’re hiding something but really badly? Well, they’re aliens! Alien royals, in fact. On their home world of Akiridion-5, the siblings’ coronation is thrown into chaos when the treacherous General Morando stages a coup. With the help of two of their family’s trusted soldiers, Krel and Aja are forced to flee.
I went into Trollhunters already knowing about 3Below and the fact that Aja and Krel are aliens, so I’m not sure how someone who went in blind might have reacted to such a major story shift for this new series. Akiridion-5 is drawn lightly but well as a technologically advanced society peopled by diverse energy-based life forms. The monarchs, Krel and Aja’s parents, value tradition and legacy but are patient when their kids don’t always measure up to that. When Morando makes his attack, their first concern is getting the kids to safety.
The character of the week is one Varvatos Vex, one of the soldiers protecting Aja and Krel during the coup and the one who actually accompanies them off the planet. Amusingly voiced by Nick Offerman, Varvatos takes a rather Sontaran view of battle and honor. When he’s supposed to duel with Krel at the coronation ceremony, he promises the newly appointed king-in-waiting “the honor of a glorious death!” (The king drawls, “Vex, always with the death.”) He’s rough and hulking and refers to himself in the third person. “Macho soldier obsessed with a glorious death” isn’t the most original character type out there, but Offerman makes it fun while still giving the role a bit of heart.
The opening episode also gives us a firmer foundation on Aja and Krel as characters. Aja is most definitely a free spirit, the sort of princess who runs away from her own coronation because she doesn’t want a life that’s been prescribed for her. She’s tough, athletic, and has strong heroic instincts—when the coup kicks off, she’s separated from the rest of the family, and she immediately goes to work trying to protect civilians from getting hurt in the fray. Aja’s very independent-minded, which means she can be a little selfish when she gets myopic over what she wants, but when the chips are down, she has a good heart and wants to be a good person.
If Aja chafes at the idea of being queen one day, Krel balks at the idea of being king. Unlike his sister, he doesn’t try to reject his mantle or run away from it—Aja’s stunt means he’s left to face the coronation on his own—but doubts eat at him, and he asks his father, “What if I’m not ready to be a king?”
One thing I like about Krel is that he’s simultaneously self-assured and insecure. When it comes to anything tech-related, he’s the man and he knows it, and it thrills him when something he’s tinkering with comes together. But he also knows what his weak spots are and worries over them. He doesn’t have Aja’s athleticism, and even in (what’s supposed to be) a ceremonial combat demonstration, he knows he has to rely on his inventions to try and give him an edge.
I’d say episode 1 sets up Aja a little more so than Krel, but Diego Luna still gets some nice moments here. I like his conversation with his father before the coronation, and he has a lovely heart-to-heart with Aja after they escape. As scared as he is, he tries to reassure his sister that it’ll be all right, even as he admits he doesn’t know how. And we get a bit of levity from Krel too. When their ship is damaged during their getaway, he gets to work trying to fix it—Luna’s timing is fantastic on, “Okay, not so bad! …Oh, no, no, it’s bad.” And at the end, as the Akiridions ponder how to blend into their new surroundings, I love the metaness of Krel asking, “I do not understand. What is a LAT-ino?”
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