I love how Strickler and Dictatious both react more to Merlin’s awakening than they do Gunmar getting the Staff of Avalon.
Like, literally everyone is wary of this guy.
I just want to go off a little:
Blinky lauded Jim’s humanity constantly, and I agree that being brought up as human gives Jim a different perspective that no other Trollhunters have had, but it’s Jim himself, his heart and his personality, that makes him the Trollhunter that he is, not the fact that he’s human. Unfortunately, Merlin understood this a little better than Blinky. In order to shape Jim into what Merlin needed him to be, he not only had to change his shape, but change his heart.
More than anything, he needed to vanquish what made Jim Jim. He needed to destroy the compassionate, open heart that Blinky called his greatest strength. And he did this not only by changing his body, but by ostracizing him from his family and friends, by not allowing him to help his mom when she was in trouble, and by making him feel helpless to see any way but Merlin’s. A lot of Jim’s personality has to do specifically with these points.
1. His network of supportive family and friends is his rock, his pillar, and the source of strength that he draws from.
2. One of his greatest motivations is in keeping his mother safe and happy.
3. He is flexible and often looks for alternate ways of doing things, instead of simply following orders or doing things the usual way.
Merlin deliberately took these from him in his effort to change Jim’s heart. Most especially the first point, when Merlin deliberately targeted everyone in Jim’s support system. He threatened Toby, was a lech toward Claire, dismissed Strickler on sight, and zeroed in on Blinky’s paternal support like there was no tomorrow, taking special care to try and destroy the relationship between Blinky and Jim.
Barbara is part of Jim’s support group, too, but she’s not part of Jim’s Trollhunting support group. She would rather her son not be involved in all this, thank you very much, and so Merlin felt no need to drive her away. Instead, he didn’t allow Jim to help Barbara. Their relationship is different from anyone else’s because Jim sees it as him supporting her, not the other way around. A whole section of his personality and motivation revolves around taking care of his mom and making sure she’s okay.
This is the part that Merlin did not allow Jim. Jim needs to care for his mother, and Merlin did not let him. He knew that Barbara was captured and was willing to risk her life to get his magic back. He twisted it as Jim being incapable of doing so, driving yet another wedge of despair and helplessness into Jim so that he would have no choice but to try things Merlin’s way.
The third point is Jim’s open mind and his ability to find alternate paths when it comes to reaching his goals. He doesn’t kill Chompsky, but befriends him instead. He defeats Draal and then has unprecedented mercy on him. He befriends Nomura instead of fighting her. He uses Strickler as support, instead of driving him away. Jim is a boss at finding a different and often better way of dealing with problems, and he often does this by literally just ignoring whatever the authority figure of the day is trying to get him to do and doing it his own way. Merlin does not like this, and Merlin does not need this. He needs Jim to see things and do things his way and his way alone, and he uses points one and two to achieve this, until Jim is so alone and helpless that he can’t find another way, and Merlin is free to snatch him up. He even specifically states that he needs Jim because of his heart, and that his heart must be changed forever.
