#tldr he's just a fucked up creepy person who yeah is projecting a lot of weird shit onto her

[edoro]

Curious if you have any thoughts on what is underlying Belos' fixation on Luz. I feel like he might be projecting some of his experience with his brother and his brother's perceived betrayal onto her - from his perspective she slots neatly into a similar role of human who assimilated to the isles. But I also feel like there's a desire maybe to try to "get through to" the only other human he's interacted with in centuries. Interested to hear your thoughts based on what we know so far!

so i kind of have two answers for you here. one of them is that i'm going to dig into, yeah, what his textually stated or implied motivations seem to be and what things about his own life/feelings/past he might be projecting onto her.

the other is that, frankly, i think the man is a predator and that his obsession with her is at least partially sexual.

(this, also, is something i think i can textually justify as a reading but not necessarily something i think was intended, so, we're drawing a division between "things i think are solidly supported by canon evidence" and "things i believe very strongly based ON canon evidence but are not imo intentional aspects of the story")

so anyway! (this is cut for length, i'm not really getting much into the 'i think he wants to assault her' idea here, but in the interest of honesty i did want to mention it as very much an idea that underpins my understanding of his fixation on her)

first of all, yeah, we do have the part where he says in Hollow Mind that it feels good to finally hear another human say his name. he does seem to feel an intense sense of connection to her based on the fact that they're both human.

it makes sense - he doesn't see witches or demons as being people. they're infernal, evil creatures that need to be purged in order to protect humanity. humans are Good, everything else is Bad, and Luz is a human, so she's Good like him and this is something they have in common. he expects her to share his opinions and is taken aback and disappointed when she doesn't.

the fact that he keeps saying they were destined to meet is interesting, too. he really does clearly feel such a sense of connection to her. she was meant to come into his life. from Philip, that was just manipulation, and when he repeats it in his mindscape while he's taunting her it's also partially just to hurt her, but i think there's a core of truth there as well - after all, she was pretty instrumental in helping him realize his plans, wasn't she?

she taught him the final glyph (which he did just fine on his own without it, but that allowed him to complete his arsenal of glyph magic and fully realize all possible combinations.) she and Lilith helped him get the mirror which allowed him to contact the Collector and set him on this path in the first place.

so i can see him genuinely feeling like she was sent to him by God. her coming to the Isles when she did, her going back in time when she did, all of it had to happen in order for him to get where he is and be able to carry out his plan. it's a sign, to him, that he's on the right track - she is that sign.

i can definitely also see him projecting a lot onto her about his experience with his brother. we don't know much about Wittebro's actual personality, but what we can infer from those memory portraits is a kind, compassionate, caring, fun, creative person who enjoyed playing games, had a keen sense of curiosity and exploration, and who was open-minded to others - someone who approached the Isles with interest and eagerness compared to Philip's nervous skulking, someone who fell in love with them, who grew past the way they'd been raised to view these people and forged strong, loving relationships.

which is very much like Luz! Luz has all of those traits as well, and i can for sure see him perceiving her as a trusting innocent who's been led astray by wicked witches, seduced to the side of evil because she doesn't understand how dire the situation is. so he wants to save her!

and he really does try to bring her over to his side. he's very gentle and even playful with her, even when he's also fucking with her on purpose in order to upset her and clearly taking pleasure in her pain and fear. he seems genuinely surprised and disappointed that she doesn't agree with him! he's so much more patient with her than he is with virtually anyone else, and it comes across like he really wants her to see things from his perspective.

i think he really craves that validation from another human, that what he's doing is right, that someone else sees it. of course, her not giving him that just further strengthens his sense of himself as a martyr, nobly suffering for the good of humanity even if it goes unrecognized. either way, he can spin it into reinforcing his conviction that what he's doing is right and justified.

and with her similarities to Caleb, i can also see like - part of it just being that he wants to try to 'fix' what happened with Caleb. the same urge that leads him to making the grimwalkers. he's trying to find or create a version of Caleb who turns out 'right', and maybe Luz can represent that as well.

also, he just seems very lonely. we see that again with the grimwalkers. he wants a friend, a playmate. this whole Emperor business is just him recreating his childhood games on a grand scale. that's also where his playfulness towards Luz becomes significant, i think - he wants to play with her. he wants her to keep him company.

so yeah, there's a lot of stuff wrapped up in there. she represents a lot of different things to him, i think. ultimately of course, like with Hunter, like with the other grimwalkers, like with Caleb originally, she's just a symbol to him. she's not a person, she's not Luz Noceda, she's a mirror reflecting whatever he wants her to reflect and a toy he wants to play with, and when the toy won't work right, he throws it away.

[vampirequeenoffan]

yes hello im feeling your trollhunters opinion!! do u also feel like Merlin is super shady? I don't think he did a single thing since he showed up that can be considered 'good', he doesn't seem to care about anyone but himself, and after what he did to get Jim to turn into a troll (cutting him off from his entire support network, playing on his insecurities) I thought he'd turn out to be the Ultimate Villain of the show right up until the end, when he wasn't.

HOOOBOY do I ever have FEELINGS about this (which will once again be under the cut because SCREAMING)

First off, holy fuck, THANK you. Your message means a lot to me (as do the other nice messages and comments I got on my post! It feels great to know I’m not the only one who felt like there was something wrong with this ending).

Second.

Yeah, what in the fuck is up with Merlin? I liked him for a good thirty seconds after he was introduced– I’m a bit of a sucker for the ‘ancient and powerful being of legend is actually Not At All What Anyone Thought trope’ tbh. But the novelty quickly wore off and you’re absolutely right– I totally thought he was going to be the show’s Ultimate Villain. I usually love asshole characters, so the fact that Merlin is so much of an asshole that I hated him is… impressive, in a weird way. And the list of characters I’m crazy about contains several serial killers, so the bar is real low.

Let’s break this down.

Merlin, upon reentering the picture, does the following:

–Gets passive-aggressively mad at the Trollhunters for not getting him his staff

Which, y’know, could’ve been avoided if he’d just asked to have the staff in the same room with him when he’d been buried. He also had no reason to be mad, considering his plan was to release Morgana all along, and had the Trollhunters actually taken back the staff they then would’ve had to fight their way into Trollmarket in order to free Morgana, which… would have been difficult. That, or they’d have had to turn the staff over to Gunmar anyway, so again, no reason for Merlin to be mad.

Personally I totally agree that they should’ve left Morgana in there, or at least had some semi-automatic weapons ready when they did release her (because if the USA is going to have shitty gun control laws we might as well use them to destroy evil witches, amiright?), but this is about Merlin’s reaction, not mine.

Also, if this was his plan all along, he could’ve left instructions about that. So that, y’know, Drall didn’t die trying to stop Gunmar from taking the staff. You know. That little detail.

–Repairs Jim’s amulet

On the surface this is good, except that, again, he wouldn’t have had to do this if he’d written the directions to his tomb on anything else. He could’ve even had the instructions in like, the spirit room that the dead trollhunters live in, if he was really that determined to make sure it was trollhunter-specific. 

–Threatens to eat Toby

????????¿¿¿¿¿¿¿???????

What even happened here. What. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, it really added to the ‘what the fuck even is going on with him’ vibe that Merlin has, but why? Did he just… hang out with trolls too much? But only the evil trolls did that. What even was happening here. And why Toby? Was it process of elimination because he though Claire was hot (which, uh, creepy) and he needed Jim, or was this a… fat joke? I honestly have no idea.

–Gives them a laundry list of complicated as fuck items to collect

Merlin is an asshole who should’ve gotten his groceries himself. Nuff said. Oh wait, not enough said, because one of those things was literally lightning in a goddamn bottle, which they needed the help of actual goddamn aliens to get, so Merlin, with no knowledge of modern technology, really should have known he needed to at least get that one by himself.

What a guy.

–Destroys Jim’s vespa

Okay, this probably seems petty. ‘Merlin literally kickstarted the apocalypse, why do you care about the vespa?’ Well, because it wasn’t just any piece of machinery. Jim had been wanting a vespa for a very, very long time– for him, it was a dream, then a symbol of normalcy, and then it became even more than that when he finally got one– by building it with Blinky. It was a project he undertook alongside his father figure, likely took weeks of work, and was a physical reminder of how much Blinky cared about him.

Merlin destroys it and uses it to make armor.

Now, there’s some symbolism here. Merlin is destroying the vespa– symbol of Jim’s old life– and using it to forge armor– transforming his old life into something that protects his friends. It’s not unlike what his amulet has done to him, or what Merlin later tries to do by making Jim into a troll. Which, yeah, I’ve covered being a shitty tactical decision and I’m going to go over even more reasons why it’s terrible in a minute.

Point is, dick move. He could’ve used literally any other kind of metal, so the only upside here is symbolism and, let’s be real, it’s a metaphor is not a good reason to do dumb shit.

–Champions releasing Morgana

I was really happy that everyone yelled at him about this one. I was less happy that that was all that happened. Merlin did, clearly, just want his magic back. If he didn’t, he would have just left Morgana in her goddamn crystal like a sensible person, or at the very least agreed to help take out Gunmar before handling Morgana. It’s just common sense to divide and conquer– yes writing a paper is very hard, but it’s a lot easier to do that when your house isn’t on fire. Dealing with problems separately makes them all a lot less taxing, or in this case, a lot less deadly! There are so many people that would still be alive if Merlin, after being asleep for hundreds of years, had just been able to wait a few more goddamn weeks to have his fingersparkles back.

–Emotionally manipulates Jim into becoming a troll

This fucker. This assclown. You’re absolutely right– he cuts him off from everyone he knows and refuses to let him go rescue his mom, does that shitty parent thing where you guilt someone by saying “It’s your choice whether or not to do the right thing…” and spews some shit about destiny and just generally uses his title of Old Guy Who Knows Stuff to tell Jim that he Has To Do This, but it’s Totally Your Choice.

I thought, when Jim’s mom rescued herself (go Barb go!!!) and came running up to the bathroom door, that he would stop. Because that was the whole reason Jim was going to go through with the transformation– it was the only way Merlin would let him go save his mom. The fact that he just kinda… ignored the fact that they were out there yelling for him? Yeah, that was dumb. Even if he wanted to go through with it, he should have talked to his friends and family first. That was, uh, the whole lesson he learned from going into the Darklands alone. We’ve been down this road, Jim, it’s depressing.

And then Merlin’s just… useless. He can’t beat Morgana, his tactics suck ass, and the only thing he does from that point on is try to get other people to die for him– looking at you, Aargh. I’m so glad you’re still alive.

So, to reiterate, Merlin shows up, fucks shit up, and then doesn’t fix any of the fucked up shit. On top of that, he’s an asshole the entire time– the “real battle of Killahead” line was just the tip of the douchebag iceberg (though ‘all you folks who died during this battle didn’t matter’ was a hell of a way to kick that off, I agree). But… why?

You’re right, we don’t know why he and Morgana started this pissing contest. We don’t even know why he took her on as an apprentice in the first place, or what connection the two of them had to trolls at all– presumably a strong one, considering how much they both tried to fuck with the future of the species. Before we met Merlin, none of these things had to be defined– Morgana and Merlin were vague enough as figures that we could imagine any number of things that had led to the current state of being. I, personally, imagined Merlin as being more invested in humans than trolls, which made sense to me because he was on the side of the trolls that didn’t hurt humans and his amulet placed a huge amount of value on Jim’s humanity. But then it’s revealed that Merlin actually doesn’t give a shit about humans at all, as he apparently eats them, doesn’t mind putting the entire town of Arcadia in danger, and tells Jim that his humanity doesn’t matter and he’s better off being a troll.

Same for Morgana. I thought her whole deal was that she wanted trolls to be the dominant species, but then she says Gunmar is disposable and doesn’t seem to give a shit about his conquest of the surface? If she didn’t actually care about trolls conquering humans, why in the hell did she want to bring about the eternal night?

So, again, what was happening and why were they so invested in the future of trollkind? If it wasn’t, like I thought, about whether humanity or trolls should be dominant, what possible reason could they have for interfering? Presumably at one point they got along, because Morgana was Merlin’s apprentice, but the only reason we get for her hating him is that he took her hand to make the amulet. . . except, wait, he did that after she started trying to bring about the eternal night. Forget why she cared about that, if he didn’t care about humans then why did he?

TLDR, Merlin’s an asshole, his decisions make no sense, and when you poke at things he creates plotholes in the entire series that weren’t there prior to his introduction. Also he’s the worst.