#BlinkAAARRRGGHH

[the-c41n-instinct]

I'm bored nd wanna know

[hungarianmudkip69]

blinky and aaarrrgghh!!! are husbands. thank u for coming to my ted talk

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

On ships and potential ships

I am emotionally invested in Blinky/AAARRRGGHH being confirmed as a canon ship, but I’m also pretty sure I can be cool about it if that doesn’t happen. There is, after all, always fanfiction. 

However. 

If either (or both) of them ends up in a canon ship with somebody else, this other character had better be fully developed and they had better be ADORABLE together with AMAZING chemistry, (also, the other character had better be willing and able to step up as an additional parental figure for Jim or Toby, depending on which Troll Dad they’re dating,) otherwise it could end up feeling like the new ship was introduced for the sole purpose of denying BlinkAAARRRGGHH status as a canon ship.

[moonlitwing]

I fixed and finished it!

This scene does not actually appear in @gold-kobold’s fanfic How To Fight A Shadow (there’s no particular indication in that fic that Blinky and AAARRRGGHH are a couple there), but the art is inspired by how it’s only a matter of time before Angor and Dictatious figure out they’re interested in each other in that story.

If it’s not visible, Angor and AAARRRGGHH are in the Domzalski’s living room. Angor is standing in a corner by the doorway, paused while carving something to ask a possible-rhetorical question. AAARRRGGHH is curled up on the floor, napping, but with one eye partially open and an amused expression as he answers. Angor’s body has a lot of cracks, indicating this is post-resurrection.

Angor Rot: “Is it strange that I find Dictatious attractive?”

AAARRRGGHH: “Wrong troll to ask. Dictatious looks like Blinky; very handsome.”

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

The version you sent through Messenger moves on my screen! 

Also, interestingly, in the emails I got to notify me I had been tagged in a post, the gifs were shown moving there ... just not when I looked at the posts themselves.

Weird.

@magic-and-moonlit-wings How about now?

[eurydykakaput]

If you're still looking for story prompts, how about Blinky and AAARRRGGHH on a date night? What kinds of things do you imagine them doing together in their leisure time?

I’m so, so sorry for how long it took me. Anyway… Here it is. I used your theory about changelings having their own “Trollmarket” in New Jerseys. ( https://magic-and-moonlit-wings.tumblr.com/post/179541238448/but-imagine )

Aaarrrgghh! relaxed as Blinky leaned on his side while reading out loud. Gray troll lied on his stomach. Six-eyed troll’s voice brought life into the words. Blue troll was reading stories of fallen Trollhunters and despite hearing them a lot, Aaarrrgghh! always liked Blinky’s version most.

They have not seen each other in a long time. Blinky was busy was busy as troll’s leader and a co-leader of Jerseys’ Devils’ Cave. Yes, a co-leader. All trolls were shocked when they discovered that the cave Merlin led them to was by no means empty.

Changelings, who deserted over the years, lived there. They had no need for a heartstone like other troll but they found it pretty and shiny when they found this place. They had to chase away stalkings to claim that cave as their own and they were not going to give it up easily.

They did not have to. Blinky and changelings’ leader worked out a compromise. One that involved Merlin staying out by all means.

Aaarrrgghh! was busy himself. Not long after trolls left for New Jerseys Toby got tangled into a new mystery. This time one involving aliens.

Barbara and Walt organized a whole group dealing with familiars. They looked hard for families interested in adoption. They decided to adopt one or two familiars themselves but first they needed some time to figure out their relationship, which was by no means easy when one looked at how it begun and continued for some time.

Aaarrrgghh! missed it really. He missed Blinky’s voice when he read books. He missed his conspiracy theories. He missed his smile and how his eyes lightened up. He missed Blinky.

He moved his head to look at six-eyed troll. Blinky was just getting to the “interesting part” and started gesticulating passionately with his two free hands. Gray troll really loved when Blinky did that. He loved his passion.

Gray troll could not help but smile. He would give anything to just listen to his love forever.

Blinky was talkative and Aaarrrgghh! was quiet. They were perfect together.Blue troll stopped reading and looked at his mate ‘Are you sure you want me to keep reading? You haven’t seen the whole Jerseys’ Devils’ Cave yet. I can believe changelings actually called it that. Though despite an unfortunate name it’s still worth seeing.’

‘Missed your voice.’ Aaarrrgghh! smiled and brought his nose close to Blinky’s.

‘I missed my listener.’

‘Love you.’

‘Love you too.’

Maybe they were disturbed few minutes later when Toby touched wrong phial containing one of Claire’s potions and accidentally blew up a whole in the wall reveling abounded nest of stalking eggs, which caused agitation in the market. Maybe Blinky has to rush to help decide what to do with said eggs after checking if fetuses were still alive.

But then it was only them.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

👀

Endless Sleepless Nights

Blinky is researching something. AAARRRGGHH finds Blinky-in-research-mode very sexy, and so decides to seduce Blinky the next time Blinky takes a break.

AAARRRGGHH sets up a romantic dinner. Blinky turns down the suggestion that he pause for food. (They are an established couple, but AAARRRGGHH wants to surprise Blinky with how romantic the dinner is, so all he says is that Blinky should take a break and eat.) AAARRRGGHH knows how Blinky doesn’t like to stop when he’s deep in research mode, so he settles in to wait for a good moment to interrupt.

Whenever Blinky seems to be slowing down, AAARRRGGHH suggests taking a break. This goes on for two or three days. AAARRRGGHH grows less aroused and more concerned the longer Blinky goes without eating or sleeping.

Finally, when Blinky puts down all the books he’s currently holding to reach for a different set, AAARRRGGHH physically picks Blinky up and carries him to where AAARRRGGHH set up the romantic dinner earlier – although AAARRRGGHH has currently shelved the seduction plan in favour of making sure Blinky gets food and rest.

It takes Blinky a moment to see through his irritation at having his research interrupted and realize (a) how hungry he is and (b) the way the meal has been set up. (Need to decide some trollish romantic cues, but AAARRRGGHH also borrowed some human ones like having candles and flowers because he knows Blinky likes human stuff.)

Blinky finally eats dinner with AAARRRGGHH, and then agrees to take a nap. After he wakes up, they have sex, and then Blinky gets back to his research project.

~

Blinky was practically nesting in the pile of books he’d set down in ‘easy reach’. His eyes moved rapidly down each page. There was a soft skritch-skritch noise as he took notes with his lower set of hands. His mouth quirked and he muttered unselfconsciously as he reacted to what he was reading.

AAARRRGGHH watched appreciatively from the other side of the library. He wasn’t sure what exactly Blinky was researching – the larger troll had come back from running errands to find his partner already deep in the project – but he loved the way Blinky always threw himself whole-heartedly into anything he did.

He looked so handsome, folded over his book with an expression of rapt concentration. AAARRRGGHH wanted to go over and nuzzle him, have Blinky focus that look on AAARRRGGHH himself …

He didn’t, of course. Blinky wouldn’t like having his work interrupted; AAARRRGGHH would be faced with a pouty look at best.

But Blinky had to take a break eventually.

~

AAARRRGGHH wasn’t sure what exactly humans did with candles or flowers, so he just piled some of each on the table and figured they could eat them. He understood how candles worked, but he wasn’t inclined to start a fire near Blinky’s books.

~

(After Blinky gets grumpy about AAARRRGGHH repeatedly ‘interrupting’ him, and AAARRRGGHH’s motivation shifts to concern)

Blinky had to take a break eventually, right?

~

“Had I known your intentions were amorous in nature, I might have been more amenable to persuasion.”

“Food first.”

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, how did you feel about Kanjigar as a character and his death? Were there any Trollhunters' pairings that felt forced and rushed, or ones you like, but either became bland or felt tacked-on? And finally, how would Trollhunter Claire's relationships go with Blinky, AAARRRGGHH and Draal?

Kanjigar’s death:

Kanjigar’s death is a necessary aspect of the show’s premise, since there can be only one Trollhunter at a time, chosen by the Amulet. (Unlike in the original novel, where there could potentially be many, and Jim Sturges and Claire Fontaine were both revealed to have genetic predisposition to be paladins - another name for Trollhunters, which I think Netflix chose not to use in order to avoid conflation with Voltron - and the amulet was just a translator device.)

Kanjigar’s death not only sets up the Amulet choosing a new Trollhunter, but also provides a bunch of exposition within the first few minutes of the show - that Bular is dangerous (Kanjigar clearly concluded he wasn’t getting out of that fight alive); that sunlight doesn’t just hurt trolls, but can outright kill them; and that this is a show where characters can and will die.

The fact it was a suicide which led to the selection of a new Trollhunter might be a deliberate parallel to how Jim’s use of the transformation potion in Season Three was filmed like a suicide, ‘killing’ Human!Jim to replace him as Trollhunter with supposedly-hybrid Troll!Jim.

Setting aside Doylist analysis and switching to Watsonian, Kanjigar was shortsighted.

Based solely on evidence in the show, we don’t know if Blinky was watching the fight and Kanjigar knew it and just didn’t call attention to him in order to protect Blinky from Bular, or if Blinky went looking for Kanjigar later and just happened to arrive in that drainpipe at the right moment to see Jim get the Amulet. (Supplementary books say Blinky and AAARRRGGHH were both witnesses but Kanjigar didn’t know they’d followed him.)

From what is shown on camera of Kanjigar’s knowledge at that moment, as far as Kanjigar knew, Bular could have climbed down from the bridge and stolen the Amulet immediately at sunset, before anyone from Trollmarket even knew Kanjigar was dead.

Supplementary comics justify this to some degree by showing the Amulet fly to Kanjigar following the death of his predecessor; but again, from evidence presented on camera in the show, there was no reason to expect that to happen … unless you count the Amulet vanishing by mid-afternoon when Jim tries to go back for it in Unbecoming, which I interpreted on my first watch to mean the Changelings had stolen it - which could well be the case, since they didn’t know yet that they needed the Amulet and the Trollhunter, and they might have let Draal find it after they did learn as much; Nomura’s dialogue with Strickler regarding the Trollhunter in that episode is basically, “he’s someone I know well enough to easily manipulate.”

So, Kanjigar’s ‘heroic sacrifice’ was narratively necessary but a dumb move on his part. Having a well-meaning hero create problems by trying to protect everyone and solve things alone seems to be a theme in this show.

Kanjigar personally:

Kanjigar is … what Jim could become. I don’t mean that as a compliment. I mean an admired and well-meaning figure, who nonetheless causes serious emotional harm to himself and those close to him by pushing away their attempts to support him and feeling like he shouldn’t bond emotionally with anyone, in an attempt to “keep them safe”.

Jim is good(ish) at teamwork when he starts out as Trollhunter, but as the series goes on he tries more and more to contain any fallout by cutting out the rest of his team, most notably when he goes into Darklands (just after Kanjigar ‘reminds’ Jim that “a day will come when you must finish the fight alone”) and uses Merlin’s potion (after being left alone with the wizard strongly implied to have created, not just the Amulet, but the Trollhunter job in the first place).

Likewise, the supplementary materials imply Kanjigar used to bring Draal, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH along on missions, but it’s repeatedly stated in the show that Kanjigar had created distance between himself and Draal by the time of Kanjigar’s death, and Blinky and AAARRRGGHH never share any personal memories of interacting with him.

My opinions on various ships:

Jlaire was developed about as much as any straight relationship between teenagers in an animated series ever is. My reflexive response when Jim’s crush on Claire was introduced was “Oh No, Another Obligatory Unnecessary Hetero Romance Subplot To Prove The Protagonist Is Straight”, so its presentation actually exceeded my expectations by a lot. I could enjoy Trollhunters just as well without Jlaire being a thing - I’ve actually got a short essay on how I think that ship has a negative impact on my perception of Claire’s character, because it feels like she’s only there to be the love interest, even though I recognize she actually is plot-significant in her own right - but it’s fine. It has its roots in the original novel and there was no real reason to cut it from the script.

Darby was very much a background relationship. Something I noticed during my full-series rewatch was that Darci doesn’t get a lot of screen time or definitive characterization; I was trying to take notes on her so I could better write her in my fic, because I feel like I haven’t developed her character much, but I didn’t actually learn anything new about her. She and Toby are cute, and they have at least one ‘off-camera’ date (stated by Toby in the double-date episode) as well as their on-camera date. Definitely hoping to see more scenes between the two of them in the next season of 3Below - we know Toby’s going to feature because of the trailer where Eli is recruiting Toby to help him investigate extraterrestrial presence in Arcadia.

Stricklake starts out really intriguing, but gets fumbled with how clumsily Strickler’s redemption arc is written. What I would’ve preferred would be if he actually says the words “I’m sorry” during the doorway scene, mentions when Morgana tries ‘tempting’ him that Barbara would never forgive him if he lets her son be trapped in the Shadow Realm forever, and the next time they meet is because Barbara contacts him. We have no idea how or why he shows up in Parental Guidance, but a scene of Barbara calling him, as another adult who the Nuñezes and Nana are likely to listen to, to back up her story, would cover that base and give Barbara more agency in their interactions that season. So, yes, getting them together by the end of Season 3 feels rushed.

BlinkAAARRRGGHH was heavily implied but technically left to the audience imagination. I personally would not call it ‘baiting’, because to my knowledge the show was not marketing itself as “hey there’s a canon gay relationship” and then leaving it in subtext, but it is disappointing.

Dromua, meanwhile, happened entirely off-camera, casually referenced and hinted at by Draal and Nomura both, but never shown other than an ambiguously flirty moment between them after the escape from the Darklands. Again, I would have liked to have seen more.

Trollhunter Claire’s dynamics with Blinky, AAARRRGGHH, and Draal:

Claire wouldn’t see Blinky as a father figure. She has a dad already and seems to have a mostly-positive relationship with him. (Less ‘under pressure’ than her dynamic with her mom, at least, with some cute moments.)

Blinky would approve of Claire’s academic inclinations. Her interest in Shakespeare could be used as a framing device to explore troll literature, poetry, and theatre. For example, a scene could begin with Claire and Blinky discussing some troll playwright, and then somebody (probably Bagdwella, maybe Vendel) comes in looking for the Trollhunter.

Her dynamic with AAARRRGGHH probably wouldn’t change much. In canon, he’s about equally affectionate with all the kids (until Toby becomes his favourite, but even then, he stays affectionate with all of them.)

Draal, I don’t know. Claire’s certainly got enough of a temper to challenge him to a fight, so that would probably happen. It’d be more difficult to sneak him into her basement since her house is more populated. If he moves in before Enrique is kidnapped, I could see that creating tension when Claire discovers Not Enrique - “you said you were going to protect my family!” - and maybe she’d even throw him back out, forcing him to find alternate lodgings since he still can’t show his face in Trollmarket? Also I feel like Claire would introduce Draal to punk rock at some point.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, why did Jim not like Strickler dating Barbara? With Trollhunter!Claire how would things play out in Unbecoming? If the show had kept AAARRRGGHH female, how would this affect it, both in the show and meta? And finally, you mentioned the gay subtext with Blinky and AAARRRGGHH, why didn't they make them a couple? I mean, ever since Korra and Steven Universe, LBGT representation has skyrocketed, I don't want to come across as a SJW, but I just wish that the show took more chances with itself.

Okay, well, I should preface my analysis of Jim’s reaction to Stricklake by saying my biological parents are happily married to each other, so I have never personally been in the position of ‘child whose single parent has started dating again’; and I only knew two kids in high school whose parents I knew were divorced, and they didn’t talk to me about their parents’ love lives; so I can only infer based primarily on media stereotypes.

There are a few reasons portrayed in media as to why the child of a single parent reacts negatively to that parent getting a new love interest.

We can rule out Jim hoping his biological parents will get back together, because James Senior is a complete nonentity in their lives. Jim only mentions him four times, all in the first season - twice to Barbara (“You remember when I was old enough to ask about Dad? Remember what you told me? You said, we just have to take care of each other. And that’s all I’m doing, Mom.”) (“Shrimp cakes? Gosh, I haven’t had those since … since …” “Dad made them for us?” “I didn’t think you were old enough to remember.” ”Oh, I remember enough. I remember how his beard used to scratch my face when he hugged me. How he used to make you laugh. But most of all how much he hurt you when he left.”), once to Bular (“You wanna see Dad. I get it, trust me. But we don’t always get what we want.”), and once to Blinky (“You know I don’t care about my father!”)

There is, popularly shown in media and I’m sure it comes up in real life too, a dissonance in a kid’s mind between their school and home lives, which makes it uncomfortable to have their parents and teachers interacting, exacerbated if the student is having some kind of difficulty at school. Jim reacts negatively to Barbara’s interest in Strickler before he even knows Strickler is a Changeling. (“So. Mr Strickler. He seems very nice. Is he single?” “What?! I don’t know!”) (“Did you seriously just ask my teacher out on a date?!”)

Jim assumes something like a caregiver role at home, taking care of food prep and household maintenance. The introduction of a new person into their lives could set off a reflexive response of, “No, we don’t need you, we’ve been managing just fine on our own.”

Jim’s also very protective. The precedent of Barbara having a relationship that ended badly means Jim might be worrying from the start that a new relationship will also end in her getting hurt.

Any change, positive or negative, creates a stress response while a person readjusts. Having his mother start dating again would be a big change for Jim. (We see no indication she’s done so in the past ten years, although it’s possible she did and the relationships just never got serious enough for her to introduce the person to her son, and it’s also possible that it just never came up because Barbara’s past relationships weren’t relevant in a show focusing primarily on Jim being the Trollhunter.)

And then, of course, Jim finds out Strickler is a Changeling, and thereafter views all of Strickler’s interactions with Barbara through the lens of “he’s trying to get to me and using my mom as both a weapon and a shield”, which is accurate for quite some time, and of course is going to make Jim angry and scared, and not going to warm him to the idea of them being together. 

An Unbecoming with Trollhunter!Claire raises the question of whether Not Enrique would still take Enrique’s place.

In canon, Enrique getting swapped was indirectly Jim and Toby’s fault. Because they followed the goblins to the museum, they saw Nomura in troll form, and she revealed the Fetch and suggested bringing in a new Changeling to convince Bular not to kill her after her identity was compromised.

Therefore, a solid argument can be made that in the show’s version of Unbecoming, Enrique was never kidnapped. We never do find out for sure.

If the swap happens because of something Claire did as Trollhunter, Enrique would probably never get switched in the Unbecoming episode, which would be one of the reasons Claire thought at first that it was a better world. (Though she might eventually realize she misses Not Enrique.)

On the other hand, if the initial Trollhunter!Claire timeline was one in which Not Enrique were already planted in the Nuñez house before Claire became the Trollhunter, then Claire’s dynamic with Not Enrique just got a lot more complicated. She has memories of growing to see Not Enrique as an adopted sibling, which he no longer shares, and she has memories of saving Original Enrique from the Darklands, which she is no longer in a position to be able to do.

I figure the ‘failed attempt to thwart the reopening of Killahead Bridge’ thing would happen, because I interpret Unbecoming as a worst-case-scenario vision crafted by Merlin to make the Trollhunter off-kilter and desperate enough to do what the wizard wants without question, but I see this backfiring when he reveals himself because Claire would be furious.

Either way, time reverts itself to how it was before at the end of the episode.

Honestly I don’t see it affecting the overall plot of the show much if AAARRRGGHH had remained Johanna, especially if the writers still went with the show backstory of “raised by Gumm-Gumms and then deserted” rather than the book backstory of “one of the leaders of the armies against Gunmar”.

She would probably have stayed a pacifist for the first half of Season One, to force Jim to have to learn how to fight instead of just hiding behind his big scary troll friend.

We might’ve actually seen cats in the Domzalski house, if the gag was kept that they are drawn to Johanna and love sleeping on her fur, to their peril; but all the cats-being-eaten scenes were just barely off-camera in the show, so maybe not.

I personally would’ve had a less negative reaction to Jlaire, because Claire wouldn’t be the only girl in the core cast, although I might still feel like it was an “Obligatory Het Romance So The Main Character Looks Straight (Or If He’s Bi It Never Comes Up In The Show)”.

BlinkAAARRRGGHH would probably be just as popular as it is now, but if the ship still wasn’t canon (or even if it was), there would also be a number of people defending keeping Blinky and Johanna ‘just friends’ because of the under-representation of close male-female friendships in popular media.

The fandom would probably also create the sapphic ship of Johanna/Nomura, based on how they’re both kickass fighter ladies who used to serve Gunmar and then deserted. (Johannomura? Nomuranna, despite the different number of ‘N’s, sounds like it refers to Nomura/Morgana, though I think that would called Nomurgana, and Jomura could be misinterpreted as the ‘J’ being for Jim, which … no. Johannomura is clearest. Maybe Johmura if that’s too long.)

I don’t know why BlinkAAARRRGGHH was never made official, but I can make some guesses.

Option 1: they didn’t know how popular the show would be and didn’t want to lose potential popularity due to censors not allowing it to air in certain countries or conservative parents not letting their kids watch it.

Option 2: because Blinky and Johanna genuinely did seem to be Not Romantically Involved in the novel, the writers didn’t realize that the adjustments and expansions made to the characters and their interactions made them look like they were together, and so the romantic subtext was unintentional.

Option 3: it was presumed that it went without saying, like how no one in the show goes out of their way to point out Claire’s parents are married to each other. (Okay, except Jim does address Claire’s parents as “Mr and Mrs Nuñez” twice, so that comparison doesn’t quite work.) This is probably the interpretation that will ‘age best’ as LGBT+ rep in children’s-marketed media becomes more prevalent and accepted.

Option 4: the writers have a different love interest planned for one or both of the characters, to be introduced in Wizards, and the romantic subtext between AAARRRGGHH and Blinky was either unintentional or meant to be one-sided.

Option 5: they aren’t together yet, and the script is building up to them becoming an official couple in Wizards.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, Sapphire One here, were there any pairings in TH that you feel could've had more time to blossom? Which design do you prefer for Blinky, his book one, or show? Speaking of which, I think you mentioned that Blinky and AAARRRGGHH were coded as gay, but I never picked up on it, are they gay or am I looking for subtext where there isn't any? Also, I recently finished the Watership Down miniseries, it was brilliant, heartfelt, funny, sad, charming, well-acted, and I got choked up at the ending!

I feel like we’ve had the shipping conversation before, but here are my thoughts again:

Jlaire was cute and about as well-done as any ‘kids dating’ ship ever is but felt unnecessary because protagonists in straight ships are SO common that, combined with Claire being the only girl in the main cast, it felt like the writers didn’t know how to initiate her involvement in the story without making her Jim’s love interest.

Darby was also cute but could’ve used some more development time. We don’t really get to know Darcy as a person before the relationship starts and still don’t know much about her by the end of the series.

Stricklake needs at least another season to really work because Walt’s redemption arc felt clumsy and rushed and incomplete and it stretches my suspension of disbelief that he and Barbara can build a healthy relationship with things as they stand now.

BlinkAAARRRGGHH was good but ambiguous. They spend a lot of time together, demonstrate mutual respect and affection, and are clearly very emotionally close, which I (and a number of others) interpret as a romantic bond, but because it is never directly stated as such in canon, there are also fans who interpret them as having a platonic relationship.

[Edit] A few reasons I interpret Blinky and AAARRRGGHH as a couple rather than friends: Blinky mentioning AAARRRGGHH has been ‘distant’ since Blinky was transformed into a human comes across, to me, as him worrying AAARRRGGHH isn’t attracted to him anymore now that Blinky’s been shapeshifted; Blinky was not able to provide “the tears of one untouched by love’s first kiss” when brewing the antidote for Creeper’s Sun, meaning he’s kissed somebody for whom he felt romantic feelings, confirming Blinky has or has had a love interest, although not confirming that said love interest is/was AAARRRGGHH; and, when interrogating Dictatious in the Season Two finale, Blinky says Vendel was the only troll he would call his brother, which was meant as a disownment of Dictatious but also indicates Blinky does not see AAARRRGGHH as a brother. [/Edit]

I do like the tentacles and eyestalks of Blinky’s book design. The eyestalks in particular remind me a bit of the Andalite design in Animorphs. That said, his show design feels more approachable. I think the writer’s gave book-Blinky’s encroaching blindness to Dictatious in the show.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Blinky gets jealous

One of the many things AAARRRGGHH finds attractive about Blinky is his intelligence. Blinky knows this and is thrilled by it. Blinky likes showing off his intelligence, which comes through most obviously in his vocabulary. 

Those moments, when AAARRRGGHH asks what a word means and Blinky explains it, began purely as compensation for AAARRRGGHH’s delayed start in linguistic development. But over time, those short asides have become an established part of Blinky and AAARRRGGHH’s dynamic, a facet of their relationship, and the exchange has become a very subtle form of flirting. 

Enter Walter Strickler, who also has an extensive vocabulary, and is by vocation a teacher. He starts adding on to Blinky’s definitions, or sometimes beating Blinky to the punch in explaining the word AAARRRGGHH asked about. He particularly likes sharing little nuggets of historical or cultural context on the use of certain human phrases. 

Blinky knows it (probably) doesn’t mean anything. Even if it did mean something, Blinky trusts AAARRRGGHH and knows AAARRRGGHH isn’t going to just up and leave him for Strickler. 

But there is a part of Blinky that wants to scream at Strickler to stop flirting with AAARRRGGHH already! 

AAARRRGGHH, for his part, notices how Blinky tenses up when Strickler does this. He starts trying to remember, when both of them are present, to preface his question with Blinky’s name, to clarify that he’s asking Blinky what the new word means. Strickler’s information is interesting but Blinky’s comfort is important.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Chapter 25: Vendel Is Not Amused

Becoming The Mask

Content warnings for this chapter: some swearing, a fight scene, and one death.

Text in bold italics is trollish.

~Text between tildes~ is goblin.

Mornings were often a relatively calm time in Trollmarket. Trolls who frequented the surface were back home and settling in to sleep; their families and neighbours often found themselves doing the same, pulled along by social instincts and the forces of inertia; and trolls who didn't bother following the cycle of day and night kept their volume down to a dull roar as a courtesy.

It should have been the perfect time for Trollmarket's Elder to unwind with a quiet drink.

"Vendel, there's a new human in Trollmarket!"

"Vendel? Vendel! The Trollhunter brought another human down here!"

"Vendel, did you hear yet? The Trollhunter says he fought Bular this morning!"

"Vendel, the Trollhunter's here with a human he says he saved from Bular!"

"Vendel! The Trollhunter has a human with him he says fought Bular!"

"Vendel, is it true? Did the Trollhunter face Bular last night?"

At least Jim had waited until Vendel got most of the way through his mug before setting off the latest uproar. There had been little enough left that Vendel was able to toss it back – rushing what should be savoured, but at least getting to finish his drink this time – before setting off for the library.

"Vendel –"

"I have heard the rumours and am on my way to verify them."

"About the Trollhunter threatening a civilian with his sword?"

"He did what?!"

"That's not what happened; he just used it to block a gnome somebody threw at him."

Vendel sighed and stopped walking. He gathered a disjointed account of the Trollhunter either threating a resident of the market for daring to be upset at an additional human intruder, or protecting himself and a companion from unwarranted assault. He promised the now-bickering pair that he would question the Trollhunter on the matter, and walked on. They were too deep in their argument to notice.

He paused again at the library doorway.

"But you promised!" Jim was pleading inside.

"I'm sorry, Master Jim, but this situation has officially gotten out of hand. We have to tell Vendel."

An excellent cue for his entrance.

"Tell me what?"

There were actually two new humans in the library. One of them seemed to have fainted, and was lying on a table. The other, Jim made a spirited but fruitless attempt to hide behind his back.

"Jim, please." The human put a hand on the boy's shoulder. Jim made a small, disappointed noise and settled.

"Well, Blinkous?"

Blinkous wrung all four of his hands together. "How much have you already heard?"

"The Trollhunter fought Bular, escaped, and brought a new human to Trollmarket. Which does not explain the other one."

"Draal brought Mom. So Bular couldn't track my scent to my house and use her as a hostage against me."

Vendel doubted Bular would have thought to do that. Hostage taking was more of a Changeling tactic than a Gumm-Gumm one. Killing her and leaving the body for her son to find might be more Bular's style, if he could hold himself back from eating the fleshbag once he killed her.

Either way, what was done was done, and having his mother safe in Trollmarket would probably grant the Trollhunter some peace of mind.

"There's only one new human in Trollmarket right now," said Draal. "The other one's an Imp– a Changeling."

Jim tried once again to block Vendel's line of sight to the conscious human. "He really did save me from Bular, though."

Vendel used his staff to ease the Trollhunter aside. AAARRRGGHH helpfully pushed the Changeling forward.

"Don't hurt him!" Jim cried.

The Changeling's human form was unremarkable. Grey hair, in a puffy style like a rooster's comb. Pinkish hide, the colour of a plucked chicken, similar to Jim and his friend Tobias. Green eyes like Tobias, as well. Taller than the Trollhunter or his friends; perhaps an adult.

"Who are you?"

"He's my history teacher, Mr Strick–"

"Waltolomew Stricklander." With what had to be sarcasm, the Changeling added, "My friends call me Walt."

"I knew him," said AAARRRGGHH. "Before. Clever. Could help us."

It was rare for AAARRRGGHH to speak about his time as a Gumm-Gumm.

Jim's judgement was obviously compromised. If the Changeling had been passing as the boy's teacher, he was probably interpreting any actions performed to maintain a human cover as evidence that Changelings weren't really so bad.

But, Vendel supposed, AAARRRGGHH's assessment would have to be taken into account in deciding what to do about this.

"You believe a Changeling could be trustworthy?"

"Master Jim has been. For the most part."

The Trollhunter gasped as though struck. Vendel almost hit the Changeling in the face with his horn turning to look at Blinkous.

"What are you talking about?"

Blinkous was still wringing his hands. He looked everywhere except at Vendel or Jim.

"It has – very recently, I ought to emphasize – come to light, that the Amulet did not, in fact, choose a human to be Trollhunter."

There was a moment of silence while Trollmarket's Elder processed these implications. If Blinkous had come to him alone with these words, Vendel could've dismissed it as the latest in a long list of conspiracy theories, but –

"Blinky, you promised!"

"And you promised us full disclosure! Would you have even mentioned the Bridge again if not for what happened this morning?"

"I had it handled! It can't open with a piece missing, so there was no reason to upset anybody!"

"You almost died!"

"A life of almost is a life of never!"

An angular woman in a purple dress was snickering beside Draal. As the smallest troll in the library, she hadn't drawn Vendel's notice earlier. "I might end up collateral damage, but I am so glad I got to see this train wreck."

"Surely Merlin would have included a safeguard to keep the Amulet from selecting a Changeling." Vendel frantically ran through every memory he had of Jim. Had there been any sign at all of an imposter, an infiltrator –?

"Unless it's true that Merlin can see the future." Stricklander was outwardly resigned to whatever fate awaited him. He hadn't turned his back on AAARRRGGHH or Vendel but he had begun to browse the library shelves. "If he foresaw the rebuilding of Killahead Bridge, he might have foreseen the advantage of a Champion with inside access to the project."

Why had Blinkous and AAARRRGGHH and Draal let a Changeling Trollhunter live? Draal especially. They could have blamed Jim's death on Bular if Blinkous worried that revealing Jim as a Changeling would cast aspersions against past bearers of the Amulet.

"Or, the Amulet's partially self-aware, right?" Jim pulled his upper lip behind his teeth. "Maybe it looks at whatever killed the last Trollhunter and picks the new one based on who's least likely to die that way? From where Kanjigar's body was and how he was posed when you guys … rebuilt him, I think Bular threw him into sunlight and he tried to tuck and roll back to the shadows but wasn't fast enough."

"Or possibly," Vendel mused aloud, "the Amulet truly did intend to select a human." Jim could clearly use it – he was wearing the armour right now – but maybe it only worked while he wore his human shape? "Did it call your name, or the fleshbag name you stole?"

Stricklander and the pink woman – who she was and how she was involved were still a mystery – both flinched. Jim's eyes went red.

"No. No, you don't get to do that. You never gave a damn about a human in your life before you thought one had been chosen as the Trollhunter." Jim stabbed a finger at Vendel. "You do not get to stand there and act like you care more about Jay-Jay than I do."

"Jay-Jay?" said AAARRRGGHH.

"Besides, if it had meant to choose him, you should be grateful it ended up with me instead. Pulling an actual human child with no combat experience or awareness of trolls into this job would've been unfathomably irresponsible."

Jim took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His eyes settled back into their usual blue colour.

"You nicknamed your Familiar?"

"What, you didn't?"

At least that exchange almost explained the troll woman's presence, Vendel thought sourly. A third Changeling. Ugh. He'd already been getting too old for this when the last war ended.

"To return to the more salient points," said Blinkous, "Killahead Bridge is nearly rebuilt, and Bular is out for blood."

AAARRRGGHH cringed. Blinkous rubbed one of his arms comfortingly. AAARRRGGHH wrapped that arm around Blinkous and pulled him close. Blinkous nuzzled AAARRRGGHH's cheek and reclined against his chest. AAARRRGGHH relaxed, slightly.

"Bular is a simple problem to resolve." Stricklander drew something from his jacket – a knife? No, a pen – and toyed with it as he spoke. "We just have to kill him. The Bridge is of greater concern, despite the missing piece." He looked at Jim. "The missing piece is largely unknown. The necessity of the Amulet is not."

"Steal rest of it?" AAARRRGGHH suggested. "Trollmarket has vault now. Keep pieces there?"

It wasn't a terrible idea. Except for the detail of Changelings now having access to Trollmarket.

"How do you propose to kill Bular?" Draal growled. "Every Trollhunter to face him –"

"Fought him alone," said Stricklander. "There's something to be said for outnumbering your opponent … Draal, is it? I presume you'd be willing to help Jim, in the interests of avenging your father. Between the three of us, we ought to stand a chance."

"Four." The Changeling woman drew a hooked sword from behind her back. It turned from blue to orange in her hand. Jim and Stricklander exchanged a look too quick for Vendel to read.

"Wouldn't you rather stay here and claim a place on the winning side no matter who wins?" said Jim.

"But in the fight, I can be the deciding factor." She sheathed her blade. "… Besides, I still owe you for those Helheetis."

"Aw, Nomura …"

"Don't get sappy."

"It's just nice you remembered. In case you ever needed an excuse to help me."

"What did I just say?"

"Any other volunteers?" Stricklander was looking at AAARRRGGHH. The Krubera's head and ears drooped.

"AAARRRGGHH's a pacifist; Vendel is … necessary, for the day-to-day running of Trollmarket, and so probably shouldn't get dragged into fights willy-nilly," which was probably the most polite way Vendel had ever been dismissed as 'old'; "and Blinky, um, should stay here, because … he'd be the best one to explain things to my mom if she wakes up while we're gone."

Everyone looked at Jim. Blinkous was the one to say it.

"You don't intend to wait for her to wake up and tell her yourself, before going into battle?"

"Of course not. Ideally, she sleeps through this, Draal and I take her home after it's all resolved, we set her up on the couch with the TV on, Mom assumes she dozed off, and we don't have to tell her anything."

"Such lengthy somnolence wouldn't concern you?"

"She's never had a bad reaction to spindle gloss before."

"How often do you dose her with it?" Vendel wasn't an expert on human emotional expression, and he wouldn't trust a Changeling's expressions anyway, but Stricklander almost appeared concerned.

"Every couple of weeks, no more than twice a week. Her nights off don't always overlap with my nights out. It's been over four days since last time unless she's been brewing it for herself."

Stricklander nodded.

Jim started rummaging through Blinkous' overstocked shelves.

"Have you got a map of Arcadia's tunnels and sewers down here? Oh, you'll want to read this." He handed Stricklander a hefty tome. "It's one of Blinky's; an account of the first hundred years of the development of Trollmarket, both in physical construction and politically amongst troll communities. I haven't gotten around to it yet but it sounds like your kind of thing."

Sticklander's eyes shot wide. He clutched the book close to his chest. He glanced at Vendel, who stood closest, then at AAARRRGGHH and Blinkous, then at Draal.

Evidently deciding they weren't going to attack him the instant he looked away, Stricklander opened the book, holding it so he could easily peek at them over the top of it, and started to read greedily.

The Changeling woman, Nomura, rolled her eyes but smiled slightly.

"Okay, here we go." Jim partially unrolled a scroll. "Draal, could you move a table, not the one Mom's resting on, to the middle of the room?"

Several books fell off it with loud thumps and thunks. Blinkous left AAARRRGGHH's embrace to pick them up, but settled comfortably against his side again when AAARRRGGHH came up to the table as well. Jim opened the map and used books to weigh down the corners.

Stricklander closed the book he held and pointed to it. "I'm borrowing this later."

The two Changelings moved to roughly flank the Trollhunter. Blinkous and AAARRRGGHH were on the other side of the table. Vendel and Draal were at either end, Draal beside Nomura. Vendel kept his staff between himself and Sticklander. He didn't like blocking the Changeling from his line of sight, but on the other hand he wanted to be able to block or trip up any sudden attacks.

"The museum is here," Nomura pointed with her long, clawed finger, "and Bular might still be there. If you want to steal the whole Bridge, we'll have to lure him away from it."

"If he expects the fight to stay underground, he won't bring Otto with him," said Stricklander, "but then Otto and the goblins will most likely be standing guard over the Bridge. Unless Otto is still out hunting for us."

"Do we all want to come from the same direction or should we try flanking him?" said Jim. "The goblins will probably let him know where I am, but I could see them opening manhole covers to cut Draal off from joining the fight."

Jim left a note at the library for Barbara, just in case she woke up before he got back.

Mom, we're both safe, was the opening lie. She was; Jim wasn't. Trolls are real. Magic is real. I found a magical artifact which is now tied to me. I have to sort some stuff out with the trolls because of it. Please stay in the library! The librarian, Blinky (the blue one with six eyes), can tell you more. AAARRRGGHH (the big one with green hair) doesn't talk as much, but he's very nice. I'll come back as soon as I can. Love, Jim

"Don't tell her about Changelings, try to downplay the 'until death' part about Trollhunting, and for the love of everything do not tell her there are other human kids involved, because she will insist on telling their families and then we'll have, like, triple the number of humans knowing about trolls," he said to Blinky.

"You would truly prefer to fight Bular, rather than tell Barbara Lake that you're a Changeling?"

"There are a lot of things I would rather do than hurt my mother."

He slipped the folded note between the lenses and arms of Barbara's glasses, so she'd see it right away when she reached for them. Jim brushed aside a lock of his mother's red hair. He kissed her forehead, and went to join Stricklander, Nomura, and Draal by the library entrance.

Jim couldn't blame Nomura for being afraid to be left alone in Trollmarket. If it got out that she was a Changeling … well. Jim had considered inciting a mob to kill Bular. He was pretty sure fifty or more trolls could take down Nomura.

He still half-expected her to turn on them once the fight started, though.

Draal led them through Trollmarket, to one of the side entrances. Nobody threw any gnomes at them this time.

Once they were outside the market and the portal had closed, Stricklander switched to his troll form. Jim hesitated, looking sideways at Draal, and then did the same.

Draal growled softly. Jim's ears drooped and his tail curled down. Nomura swatted one of Draal's shoulder spikes.

"Let's go," said Stricklander, ignoring this little byplay.

Per the plan, Jim went with Draal, so it would be harder to create a sunlight barrier and keep Draal out of the fight. Open manhole covers could still let in the light and pen him in, but that would trap Bular as well.

Stricklander and Nomura snuck along parallel pathways, to circle around and attack Bular from behind or both sides.

If Nomura betrayed them early, Stricklander would kill her, and if she managed to kill him first, Jim would still have Draal backing him up.

They hadn't actually discussed that part during the planning session, of course, but Jim took it as a given.

They weren't far from Trollmarket when Jim's long ears caught the sound of goblin chatter. It was too soft, and the tunnel too echo-y, to make out exactly what they were saying, but he caught Bular's name, and "~angry~".

"~Hello?~" he called softly.

A pair of them peeked around the corner, screeched in alarm, and bolted.

"Don't chase them," he told Draal. "Goblins use tunnels too narrow for a troll to fit. They'll lead Bular to us."

Jim turned and started walking down the pipe where the goblins had been.

Arcadia Oaks had amazingly spacious sewer maintenance tunnels. Trollmarket's residents had expanded the tunnel system for their own purposes, but the human-accessible part was enlarged to troll-accommodating dimensions thanks to the Changelings. They'd been in town since it first sprang up, and influenced its development for their convenience.

Jim hadn't gone far before he heard a distinctive metal-on-cement scraping sound. Bular must have been scouring the tunnels for Jim and Sticklander, for the goblins to find him so quickly.

Bular loomed into the tunnel. He dragged one of his swords along the wall beside him. Some distant part of Jim's brain worried about sparks and methane and explosions.

Bular savoured his approach for maximum intimidation. He moved slowly, letting his intended victim see and hear and smell death coming.

At least, that was probably his plan before Draal roared, tucked and rolled, and ploughed into him.

Bular crossed his swords between them, holding Draal at bay but being pushed backwards by the force of Draal's charge. There were definitely sparks now.

Jim climbed the tunnel wall and magically adjusted his gauntlets and sabatons to substitute for his claws. The Armour of Daylight was wonderfully responsive. He scurried along the ceiling while Bular was focused on keeping Draal back.

Jim conjured his sword. His intent was to drive it into the back of Bular's neck from above, using gravity and all his weight to force the blade in.

But Bular saw the flash of light and dodged, sending Draal ricocheting down the tunnel like a giant spiky pinball and causing Jim to crash to the ground. The sword disappeared.

"Did you think it would be that easy? Trollhunter?"

Jim threw a knife at him – one of the Amulet's knives, not one of his own. Bular knocked it away in midair with one of his swords. Jim resummoned the knife and did it again. This one missed because Draal rolled over Bular from behind, before careening out of sight once again.

Bular spat out something that had gotten into his mouth. Or maybe the spitting was an insult. He used one sword to guard himself and the other as a prop to stand.

One of Stricklander's knives hit Bular's shoulder. That was the arm the troll had been using to get up, and so he staggered. More blades, a quick flurry of them, stabbed into the troll's arm and side. Bular shook them off, leaving him with tiny pockmark injuries.

He swung at Jim. There was a blaze of orange. Nomura deflected Bular's swords with hers.

"All of you will die today," said Bular. "You will be reduced to gravel and washed from this sewer by the next rainstorm."

"You first," Nomura sneered. At the same time, Stricklander threw his Creeper's Sun knife, and sliced Bular's arm.

The Gumm-Gumm roared. Nomura was flung into the wall. One of Bular's swords clattered to the tunnel floor.

Jim was grabbed by the throat and lifted into the air. He pulled out his Creeper's Sun knife and sliced the back of Bular's hand. It only made a small cut, but the injury went grey and purple. Bular dropped Jim with another roar.

Draal roared back. He wasn't in a ball anymore, but running on all fours. He nearly hit Jim while charging Bular a third time.

The tunnel shook from the forceful collision. Stricklander's next knife-throw went wild. He must not have had enough time to stop entirely before Draal threw himself in the way.

The two trolls began grappling. Draal forced Bular to drop his second sword. Bular forced Draal to the ground. Draal's long horns nearly let him head-butt Bular even from that position.

"The Son of Kanjigar would follow an Impure?" said Bular to Draal. "You must be desperate for the Amulet's approval … now that you can never have your father's."

Draal punched Bular in the mouth.

Bular punched Draal in the mouth.

Draal kicked Bular in the gronk-nuks.

Bular reached for his fallen swords – which Jim had already stolen and pulled out of reach, bringing them to where Nomura was extracting herself from a new crater in the wall.

With the option of stabbing taken from him, Bular instead grabbed Draal's horns, pulled his head up, and slammed it back down. Jim and Draal both cried out.

Jim picked up one of Stricklander's knives, now littering the tunnel, and threw it into Bular's side. Stricklander had the skill to throw three at once. Bular was starting to weaken under the barrage and slow down as Creeper's Sun toxin worked through his body … but not fast enough.

Bular struck Draal again, and left him groaning on the floor as he got up to retrieve his swords and finish the job. Jim stood between Bular and the weapons.

"Give up, Impure."

Was that a smile on Bular's face? Was this fight entertaining, amusing to him?

"Every Impure who thought they were strong enough to challenge me has been crushed beneath my feet."

Stricklander's cape frill was starting to run out of knives. He was holding very still, watching Bular for an opening without drawing attention, ready to make his last few blades count.

"Every Trollhunter before you has died at my hands."

Behind Bular, Draal was starting to turn over. If he could get onto his stomach he might be able to push himself up.

"Yield, and I will forgive your treason enough to grant you a quick death."

Jim couldn't see Nomura, behind him, but he could hear her breath. Steady and deep, with no audible sign of an internal injury. She was always good at covering those, though, until after they got out of the Crucible and no Gumm-Gumms could hear.

"You've never endured the Darklands," said Jim. "I've fought Nyarlagroths. They're bigger than you."

Bular grabbed Jim by the back of the neck and held him in the air. Jim's scruff was protected by the armour but the dismissive message still came through clearly. Jim snarled.

Bular laughed when the scrawny Changeling threw a punch at him.

Jim didn't have the strength to damage a large troll by punching, even in his own trollish form. But he did have the power to conjure a magical sword. With Jim's fist nearly to Bular's chest, Daylight manifested, forming inside the Gumm-Gumm and making the impaled troll howl with agony as he began petrifying from inside out.

"DRAAL!" Jim screamed.

And Draal was there, delivering the punch that Jim could not, breaking Bular to pieces.

It was suddenly very, very quiet.

"My father's death … has been avenged." Draal was panting. He dropped to stand on all fours. When he met Jim's eyes, he seemed at peace. "Thank you, Trollhunter."

"We – we just killed Bular," said Jim, stunned. He used his sword to push himself to his feet, shaking off Bular's claws and letting them crumble. He dissipated the sword and whooped. "We killed Bular!" He went pale and summoned a knife. "We killed Bular. Gunmar is going to – oh god, we killed Bular!"

"Perhaps you'd feel less unnerved if you stopped shouting confessions," said Stricklander.

Jim took hold of one of Bular's horns. The Changeling began to chisel at the Gumm-Gumm's neck.

"We should take his head back to Trollmarket as proof he's dead. The rest of him … What do you think? Grave Sand?"

"Grave Sand," Nomura agreed.

"It will be laced with Creeper's Sun," Stricklander pointed out without actually objecting. "Probably best not to mix that in with the general supply." He started gathering up his knives and preening, arranging them around the neck of his cape.

"Draal, do you want the swords?" Jim offered. "I mean, I get if you don't want to use them, but, like a trophy?"

"I'll take them if you don't," said Nomura. She sheathed her swords on her back and, with a grunt, hefted one of Bular's. She needed both hands on the hilt to keep it steady.

Draal didn't look directly at any of the Changelings. "We should take care of Killahead Bridge."

Previous Chapter (Jim and Strickler interrupt Blinky and AAARRRGGHH) 

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Barbara wakes up)

Contrary to what Blinky says in the first part of the chapter, Jim did not, in fact, promise full disclosure. "I can promise not to lie to you, but I can't promise not to keep secrets from you." Blinky, like many people, is prone to errors when upset, and also interpreted this as an implied promise that Jim would disclose anything really important, such as, oh, let's say as a random non-specific example, the reconstruction of Killahead Bridge being near completion.

Jim does not know Kanjigar pulled a 'heroic sacrifice', and instead assumes Bular won the fight unambiguously. Blinky was watching the fight, but from an angle where he also couldn't tell if Kanjigar fell, jumped, or was pushed.

The incident with the Helheetis, fire cats, happened decades or centuries ago in the Darklands, before Jim or Nomura had Familiars. Gunmar ordered some Changelings to fight a pack of Helheetis in the Crucible for his entertainment. Jim saved Nomura's life.

Jim's letter starting with an "opening lie" is not a typo of "opening line". It is deliberate wordplay on the fact he is lying in that first sentence. Likewise, "Blinky, you promised!" and "Don't get sappy" are not typographical errors meant to be said in trollish; both are said in English, just fully italicized for emphasis.

Bular apparently doesn't know about Angor Rot. He canonically claims in the first episode to have killed "every single one" of the Trollhunters, which we later learn cannot be true. Possibly Bular thinks Angor Rot is a myth, or maybe he just exaggerates when boasting. 

On a side note, if you prefer your Changeling Jim fics to have a side of Bular Redemption rather than Bular Death, you might want to go over to AO3 and read hodgepodge (no, the title is not capitalized) by Eurydyka_Kaput.

Walt has infinite knives in the show so that the animators didn't have to create multiple models for his cape collar. Possibly the cape was a magical artifact which, like the Amulet, can regenerate lost weaponry? But I decided it would create more tension if he could run out of knives.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

It’s too bad Blinky and Dictatious aren’t lady trolls.

Because if they were, the Galadrigal siblings could be referred to as the GaladriGals. We missed out on an excellent pun.

AAARRRGGHH could’ve been a lady troll too, like in the book (Johanna M. Arrrgh), so we’d still have a same-sex troll couple acting as parental figures for the human protagonists. 

On the other hand, Jim and Toby would miss out on father figures if the Troll Dads were the Troll Moms.

But on the third hand, it would push the male-female ratio of the show closer to 50-50. 

But on the fourth hand, we might’ve missed out on the Trans AAARRRGGHH speculation and headcanons.

But back on the first hand, THE PUN.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Trollhunters Shipping

Okay, so I ship BlinkAAARRRGGHH (which I’ve also seen called Blaaarrrgghh, Blarrrghy, or just ‘Troll Dads’, though the last one’s not always ship-related) pretty hard ... 

But Galadrilake (or ‘Eye Doctor’) is also really cute? 

So I think new my favourite non-canon Trollhunters ship would be them in an OT3. The ship name could be Blarrrghara, with the spelling varying depending on how the shipper spells AAARRRGGHH!!!

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, how would Trollhunter Claire beat Bular? To force Claire to open the Bridge, would Blinky be captured, or someone else, since he isn't as much of a father figure? And finally, how do you feel about Fem!AAARRRGGHH in the book, compared to her male counterpart, and why did they change her gender for the show?

As with the Draal fight, if I were to write a Trollhunter!Claire fic (which I am not), I’d probably just lift the scene from the show and change the Trollhunter’s name and pronouns, because I like that fight the way it is. The line where Bular tries to tempt the Trollhunter into giving up by claiming he could give Enrique back would have more emotional impact on Claire than it did on Jim, but she wouldn’t trust him enough to take him up on it.

Even if Blinky isn’t Claire’s father figure, he’s still her mentor and important to her, so Claire would still come and rescue him if he were taken hostage.

It would be an interesting twist if NotEnrique were used as the hostage, but I’m not sure Claire would be close enough to him by that point in the story. Maybe if the Bridge opening was pushed back a few months, or if he were swapped and discovered sooner.

Johanna was interesting. I liked how she was a magnet for cats (poor kitties!) and how Toby made her ‘braces’ since she found his so interesting.

Her being the one to have torn out Gunmar’s eye was ghoulishly cool. (In the show, Gunmarl loses his eye to the previous Gumm-Gumm warlord instead, rather than AAARRRGGHH ripping it out while deserting, possibly to justify why Trollmarket didn’t have the eye.)

Johanna is also a fighter the entire time, so the subplot of AAARRRGGHH’s pacifism at the start of the show was nearly as big a shift as the gender swap. Because AAARRRGGHH rescinds his oath of nonviolence in the second half of the first season, I think the pacifism may have been introduced in the first place to ‘justify’ to the audience why Jim had to learn to fight. (”What about him? He’s big!” “Pacifist.”)

I think she was made male in the show primarily due to Meddling Executives:

”We can’t have too many girls in the show or boys won’t watch it!” (Like how Nomura was temporarily written out of the show when Claire became more important, or how Barbara is never seen talking to another woman* until Season Three.) (*Having tea with Nomura in Season One doesn’t count because any conversation between them was off camera - while on screen, they don’t say a word to each other, only to Jim, and Nomura doesn’t even start talking until Barbara is unconscious.)

“Everyone’s going to want a toy of AAARRRGGHH, but we can’t make action figures of a female character; that would be madness!” (This is an established thing that toy collectors complain about merchandise departments doing.)

“Okay, if you’re not going to feminize this character’s visual design, the character can’t be a girl anymore.” (Johanna is feminine by troll standards but humans need to be told in order to tell, which could make a marketing team for a kid-or-teen oriented show nervous about parental reactions.)

It may have also been an attempt to curb audience inclination to see AAARRRGGHH and Blinky as a couple, which did not work, since BlinkAAARRRGGHH is still popular fanon.

I don’t know how widespread this theory is but I’ve seen it posited, and I like the idea, that AAARRRGGHH in the show is transgender, and that detail of his past is never brought up to avoid dead-naming him. I’ve also seen people headcanoning that Johanna was his mother’s name. [Someone wrote a fic where Johanna is his mother and started attacking Gumm-Gumms trying to get her baby back and Deya the Deliverer thinks this is very hot.]

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, my favourite Disney sequels are Bambi 2, for it's sweet, passionate and touching story about Bambi bonding with his dad, and 101 Dalmations 2: Patch's London Advendure, it's charming, funny and heartfelt. For HBB, I'm very torn on making Claire and Toby a couple, could you help me? Also, what would Trollhunter!Claire's relationship with Vendal be like? What do you like the most about the Spider-Gang in Spiderverse? And why was season 3 disappointing?

I haven’t seen the second 101 Dalmatians movie but I’ve been meaning to get around to it so that’s nice to hear.

I … don’t really understand this question? You want help writing their dynamic (which I don’t know if I’m qualified to help with because I’m not a writing coach), or you want help deciding whether to ship them (which I don’t feel it’s my place to help with because I consider story ships a personal choice by the writer)?

Either way, no, I don’t think I can help. But I can link you to a Springhole article, “How Can/Should I Do This Thing With My Story/Setting/Character?” How Figure It Out For Yourself! This website has really helped me a lot in my characterizing and worldbuilding and thinking critically about what and how I write.

Vendel in canon specifically describes Claire as “an intelligent and delightful fleshbag” after she speaks trollish to him in their first introduction, and expresses a wish that the Amulet had chosen her instead, so his role as Team Grandpa would probably come about earlier in a Trollhunter!Claire story.

The Spider-Gang was a ragtag team of accustomed-to-working-solo heroes having to learn teamwork while stuck in a dimension where, at least in some cases, the very laws of physics were different. That was fun.

Here is a list of things I was hoping to see in Season Three of Trollhunters which did not happen:

The Trollmarket refugees hiding out in the old Janus Order base, a massive underground structure where the Gumm-Gumms would never think to look for them.

Strickler and/or Nomura expressing a desire to avenge the Changelings Gunmar murdered.

Changeling survivors other than Strickler, Nomura, and Not Enrique, who either join the Trollhunters to seek revenge against Gunmar for betraying them, or set up their own faction to establish that the Janus Order is still going to be a factor in the Tales of Arcadia spinoff series 3Below or Wizards.

Brainwashed!Draal attacks Jim outside his house and Nomura fights him off, in poetic reversal of the fight in Season One that led to Draal moving in to Jim’s basement; possibly Barbara sees the fight and this is how she remembers about trolls.

Draal is rescued/frees himself, and does not die.

The main cast learns Angor’s backstory (we never see them learn it, Jim just somehow mysteriously knows it) and we see their emotional responses to that.

Angor joins the Trollhunter team and now he and Strickler have to play nice with each other, and also Angor does not die.

An epic final confrontation showing us just how a human Trollhunter is able to take down Gunmar, presumably involving Jim not fighting Gunmar alone.

Jim makes contact with the Void somehow and we finally meet Deya the Deliverer.

Healing the Heartstone and reclaiming Trollmarket.

Blinky’s paranoia, mentioned in Season One and never really addressed again, makes him a good leader for the Trollmarket refugees during wartime, but not so much in the several post-slaying-of-Gunmar episodes that focus on reconstruction; he and Bagdwella in particular clash a lot and she ends up becoming the peacetime leader of Trollmarket but keeping Blinky on hand as an adviser.

Direct canon confirmation of BlinkAAARRRGGHH rather than just heavy hinting.

Nomura and Draal get back together.

Strickler actually says the words “I’m sorry” to Barbara. He gets a gradual and carefully structured redemption arc.

Rescuing the Changelings who don’t have Familiars yet out of the Darklands as well as rescuing the Familiars, setting up a future-series plot line of reintegrating the Changelings into troll society.

Claire interacting with Original Enrique, and the Nuñez parents interacting with Not Enrique. (Sitting beside him on a couch with no indication they know who or what he is does not count.) Claire introducing her parents to her adopted troll brother would have been a great scene.

Claire (and maybe Toby since he and Darci are dating) explaining to Mary and Darci in detail about trolls, either before the final battle (so they can help) or afterwards during the several-episode wrap-up that shows how healing in the aftermath of an epic battle is just as important to the heroes’ stories as the epic battle itself.

A flashback explaining what the heck happened in the Deep.