Y tu Luna también: Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)

*Premise spoilers, which spoil the ending of Wizards.*

Oh boy.

Not to get too dire, but this epic feature-length culmination movie had a lot of Tales of Arcadia fans metaphorically quoting that T.S. Eliot line about the way the world ends. Pound for pound, I don’t think it’s a full-on abomination, but the bad parts of it are very glaring, and what’s worse, it can take away from some of the enjoyment of the previous series. Other than Aja and Krel, I’m not super invested in the franchise as a whole, so I don’t take the film as a betrayal, but it’s certainly the most dubious of the Tales of Arcadia properties and a pretty unsatisfying finale. Here we go!

At the end of the Wizards, two-thirds of the ancient Arcane Order, Bellroc and Skrael, gain possession of the all-important Genesis Seals. They can be used to end the world, but for that, they need their now-unwilling third cohort, Nari. Douxie is determined to protect her from the others, but as the world is facing its greatest danger, all the heroes of Arcadia Oaks (and Akiridion-5!) must come together, led by a Trollhunter who’s doubting his abilities.

Our final character of the week is Nari of the Eternal Forest, voiced by Angel Lin. Perhaps because she is the creator and guardian of natural life, she’s not down with her siblings’ plan to destroy everything and throws her lot in with the heroes. She often comes across like a cryptic little sprite, but she has a lot of strength, and that’s one thing that is displayed well in the film.

The other main thing you need to know from the end of Wizards is that the Trollhunter amulet was destroyed. Without it, Jim has no magical armor/sword, and although he’s still determined to fight with everything he has, he’s not sure whether he’s even still the Trollhunter anymore. This is an understandable character journey for Jim in the film, but it’s frustrating to see him throwing himself ill-equipped into danger for the sake of proving himself—it gets him and his friends into trouble, since his friends are then distracted trying to keep him safe. I think of the first Thor movie, where Thor has similarly been stripped of his powers. When the Destroyer attacks Earth, Thor urges Sif and the Warriors Three to face it without him, acknowledging that, with his mortal body, he would only get in their way. I get that Jim is still a teenager, so it might be tough for him to make a mature decision like that, but he doesn’t really recognize that there are other ways to lead.

Another thing this plot does is make it clear that, rather than being the Avengers: Endgame of Tales of Arcadia, the film is, first and foremost, a Trollhunters story. Jim is the protagonist, and while Aja, Krel, and Douxie are all protagonists in their own series, they make contributions here but are ultimately secondary to Jim. Which is aggravating, especially as someone who likes 3Below best. The film includes major players from all three properties but doesn’t really use them well. The story doesn’t take much advantage of fun combinations of characters we haven’t really seen together before, and favorites get sidelined or underused.

On the other hand, being underused might not be the worst thing, since a few of the more prominent characters are served poorly by the story, forced to act out-of-character for the sake of the greater plot. Toby and Steve, two characters who normally bring a lot of comedy, are almost purely comic relief here, with Toby getting saddled with the Clueless Sidekick bit too often and Steve getting stuck in a truly dumb side plot. Aja, though, is the hardest hit. She’s also out-of-character, but in ways that specifically frame her as wrong, not just as trivially comical. She’s given the task of being pretty much the only character to openly question whether Jim is still the Trollhunter, and because we’ve already established that Jim is the One True Protagonist here, that makes everyone else clutch their pearls over how she could say such a thing. But the thing is, her points are valid. The world is close to ending, so maybe they ought to put a pin in coddling Jim’s ego and recognize that they may need something stronger than The Power of Believing in Yourself. Essentially, the film goes the “Lucas from season 1 of Stranger Things” route with Aja—her arguments do make sense and shouldn’t be ignored, but because they place her in opposition to a character we’ve already been told to love, it automatically places her in the wrong. It’s an unfortunate position to put Aja in.

I don’t want to be entirely down on the movie, because it does have some genuine good stuff in it. I like the fun arrest montage when a subset of the gang gets brought in for doing blatant magic in public. Douxie shows off an impressive display of power, and he later has some excellent stuff with Nari. The eponymous Titans, when they show up, are coolly designed—they’re like giant mech golems, gargantuan creatures built of the natural elements and piloted by members of the Arcane Order. We get a brief appearance from the always-welcome James Hong, Varvatos gets a few good moments in, and Claire proves herself to be a total boss witch. The action in the final battle is pretty cool-looking.

When it comes to Diego Luna/Krel, he falls into the underused category. Which, again, considering what the movie does with Aja, might not be the worst thing. Even though we see frustratingly little of him, the film does establish that he’s fully integrated into the crew now. He stays more on the tech side of things, away from the front lines, but he designs some sweet stuff for the team. Not to mention, he irritates the more analog members of the gang by filling their base of operations with dance music. “It helps me concentrate!” he explains, without apology.

Once the main action starts, though, he’s literally nowhere to be found. Krel’s offscreen entirely for more than half an hour. Like, we don’t even get Guy in the Chair moments from him? He could’ve come in handy as the team divides and conquers, helping the different groups coordinate across distance. While he’s back for the third act, it’s wild that we just plain don’t see one of the Tales of Arcadia protagonists for such a big chunk of the film.

But despite his limited screentime, Luna still makes the most of it. Krel has a great role to play during the arrest sequence—Luna’s triumphant delivery of, “…And your mom!” gives me life. He also has some good deadpan reactions and some endearing moments during the final battle.

So that’s it! The end of all the Tales of Arcadia projects. Final thoughts:

Recommend?

In General – Eh. It’s not all bad, but it’s not very good. A disappointing ending that many fans of the franchise actively hate.

Diego Luna – Argh, I might! I can’t help it. Luna is just so much fun as Krel. There is a very solid chance that this character will end up in my eventual Top Five/Ten post for Luna. Even when he doesn’t get much to do, his performance never misses.

Y tu Luna también: Trollhunters: Season 3, Episode 12 – “The Eternal Knight, Part 1” (2017)

*Season 3 arc spoilers.*

While “In Good Hands” is a showcase episode designed to introduce Aja and Krel, the 3Below protagonists have little more than cameos here, just enough to ensure that audiences remember them before they go on to have their own show. This episode is part 1 of the Trollhunters series finale, so there’s a lot of culminating events going on.

The Trollhunter crew has been unable to prevent Morgana from breaking free, and she’s preparing to cast the Eternal Knight, a spell that will create a permanent eclipse. Because trolls can’t survive in the daylight, everlasting darkness means a free-for-all for them. While Merlin is obsessed with confronting Morgana, Jim and his friends are concerned about protecting the folks of Arcadia Oaks once the Eternal Knight hits.

Everything here is pretty much in line with a big genre show finale. There’s a huge multi-pronged crisis about to break, and our heroes disagree over which aspects to prioritize. All the major guys on Team Good Guy has a job to do, with a few different parties splitting up to fight the coming evil. Civilians are running around in danger, and there’s a feeling in the air that not everyone might make it out this time.

If you’re a Trollhunters fan, I’d say this is probably pretty satisfying for the first half of the finale. Things are intense and there’s some good action, while also keeping a few jokes. Everyone gets at least one or two badass moments when the big fight starts.

For today’s character of the week, I’ll go with Jim. He guests on 3Below more infrequently than some of the other Trollhunters characters, but he does remain a presence in the franchise, so now is as good a time as any to highlight him. As the eponymous Trollhunter, Jim has big Chosen One energy, a good-hearted kid who appears unremarkable on the surface but digs deep over the course of three seasons to find the hero inside him. He makes a lot of mistakes along the way, and he struggles to balance his secret identity with regular teenage life, but he never stops trying to do what’s right. For most of the series, Jim is voiced by Anton Yelchin, but after his unexpected death, Emile Hirsch took over the role. He’s the one playing Jim throughout season 3, and in addition to Hirsch just being A Problem, the character definitely loses something without Yelchin’s performance.

Like I said, there’s very little of Krel/Diego Luna in this episode. With school out for the summer, everyone in town is congregating for the Battle of the Bands—which Team Trollhunter realizes will make them all sitting targets—and Krel is one of the performers. He DJs while Aja dances, and the crowd is not feeling his style, which seems to mainly feature dolphin sounds.

Again, just enough to go, “Hey, remember these two? Remember how weird they are? Keep them in mind!” Krel does get a line that alludes to the secret that will be revealed at the start of 3Below, but that’s about it. Once the Eternal Knight descends and the fight begins, we don’t see him or his sister at all.

Y tu Luna también: Trollhunters: Season 3, Episode 9 – “In Good Hands” (2017)

*Season 3 premise spoilers.*

*Note: Diego Luna’s character in this franchise has so much autism. I did my Tales of Arcadia rewatch and wrote these reviews a while back, before I knew that I was autistic and got better at recognizing coded characters. So I never call the character autistic in these write-ups, but it’s obvious that so much of my love for him is related to his autistic-coded traits. When I get through posting all my Tales of Arcadia reviews, there will be an epic Unhatched Observations post coming!*

I wasn’t sure what I was getting into as I started Guillermo del Toro’s sprawling Tales of Arcadia animated franchise on Netflix. I knew that all of the shows featured the voices of some great actors, and I knew I was most excited for 3Below, which starred Diego Luna and Tatiana Maslany. After nearly three full seasons of Trollhunters, this backdoor pilot/teaser for what’s to come offered up our introduction to the protagonists of the franchise’s second series.

Quickly, the overall premise of Trollhunters: for centuries, a magical amulet has chosen the Trollhunter, the Chosen One “good troll” to do battle against bad trolls and other evil creatures, protecting their society from assorted magical threats. In the pilot of the show, a new Trollhunter is chosen, but entirely unprecedented, this time it’s a human. Enter Jim Lake, Jr., a teenager from Arcadia Oaks. The amulet gives him a magical sword and armor, and with the help of his new troll buddies Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!!, his best friend Toby, and his crush/eventual girlfriend Claire, he fights to keep both Arcadia Oaks and the underground Troll Market safe from the forces of evil.

By this episode, late in season 3, we’re elbow-deep in a whole series worth of plot arcs. The Trollhunter crew has just revived Merlin from some sort of magical cryostasis in the hopes that he can help them stop Morgana, the sorceress aligned with the Big Bad trolls. Merlin gives our heroes a laundry list of items he needs for a crucial spell, but collecting the items becomes more difficult when the principal recruits Jim to help out a pair of new students, the oddball siblings Aja and Krel. Jim, Claire, and Toby frantically try to keep the increasingly odd new kids distracted as they search for everything Merlin needs.

Since I knew there was overlap between the different Tales of Arcadia shows and again, all the series have a strong voice cast, I decided to watch the whole thing from start to finish. I’ll be honest, I find Trollhunters on the whole to be enjoyable but kind of unremarkable. It certainly has its moments, and if I was a tween, I’d probably like it more. But generally, I wasn’t wowed. As I made it to season 3, I started to get antsy waiting for this episode.

Cue “In Good Hands,” instantly my favorite episode of Trollhunters and a story that got me really excited for 3Below. Because Jim has missed so many days of school due to Trollhunter-related absences, the principal points out he’s in danger of having to repeat 10^th grade. He offers a bargain: because Aja and Krel, who are both “a little strange,” are having “difficulty fitting in,” the principal will smooth over Jim’s absences if he takes the new kids under his wing.

And what new kids they are! Aja and Krel are an immediate delight, bursting onto the scene with enthusiastic confusion and fascination. Tatiana Maslany voices bubbly, off-kilter Aja, while Luna voices her standoffish but brilliant little brother Krel. As soon as they’re entrusted to Jim, they run off to examine a bicycle and exclaim over Toby’s “robot teeth” (a.k.a. braces,) with Krel prying his mouth open so Aja can take pictures of them.

Side note: for the sake of spoilers, I won’t get into Aja and Krel’s “deal” until I start reviewing 3Below, but it’s blatantly obvious that something is up with these kids and it’s ridiculous that the Trollhunter trio writes off all their weirdness as them being “European.” Like, at this point in the series, they’ve met changelings, encountered situations of body possession, have used a mask that allows someone to essentially shapeshift into someone else, and dealt with their teachers accidentally getting dosed with this troll dust that made them act all feral. They know their way around the strange and unusual, is what I’m saying.  So to look at Aja and Krel’s bizarre behavior and simply say, “I think they’re foreign exchange students”??? Holy xenophobia, Batman!

That weirdness aside, I absolutely love Aja and Krel in all their cracked wildcard glory. Since we’ll be spending so much time on this franchise, I’ll do a character-of-the-week thing to go along with my Y tu Luna también reviews, and who better to start with than Aja? Krel’s sister has a definite quirky-girl thing going on, though I’d say she doesn’t quite so full Manic Pixie Dream Girl, just because she does have a bit of an edge to her. In this episode, it’s fun to watch her ask Claire if she’s a “council princess” (since her mom is a city councilwoman) and later hack into the town’s electrical grid. Maslany’s voice performance is instantly endearing and funny.

Krel presents a major contrast to his sunshiny sister. While their introductory scene portrays him to be relaxed and eager when he’s alone with Aja, putting him with the trio causes him to go stiff, standoffish, and a little suspicious. With a posture that brings to mind Brainy from Supergirl and an aloofness reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, he examines the world around him with a guarded interest. Neither he nor Aja have much of a social filter, but while she expresses that largely through her exuberance, Krel comes across as more superior. When Aja enthuses over riding in an elevator, Krel drawls, “I am so bored.” He admits to being fascinated by Claire’s refrigerator—“How do you know the light goes off when you close the door?”—but also asserts, “I do not trust it.”

But despite not being as immediately cuddly as his sister, I still love Krel from minute one. Luna’s performance is terrific, hitting all the right notes of intelligent, wary, a bit morbid, and kind of arrogant. And again, funny. When the trio realizes they need Aja and Krel’s help to complete Merlin’s list, I love Luna’s matter-of-fact delivery as Krel explains what he’s built for them: “Capacitor—I made it from the microwave.” And when he needs extra metal for his contraption, he demands, “Toby, I need your robot teeth.”

For my first/last impressions, I’m going to do Tales of Arcadia as a whole, with additional notes as I finish each series. Here we go!

Recommend?

In General – At this point in the franchise, I would’ve said “maybe,” but this episode is a breath of fresh air that feels like a promise of really fun things to come. So it’s a definite “yes” to this episode, with an eagerness for the upcoming 3Below.

Diego Luna – Absolutely. Krel is fantastic, and a lot of that is down to Luna’s performance. This is a different sort of character for him, and he plays it so well.

Warnings

Gross-out humor, scary moments for kids, dark imagery, and some “don’t try this at home.”