#rott ending

[arcadiadaydreamer]

Ok, for some reason my brain has decided that Anton’s voice = human Jim and Emile’s voice = troll Jim, which means I’m always a little suprised when Jim turns back into a human in Wizards, because my subconcious has forgotten that Jim’s voice didn’t change when he turned into a troll. (It also makes me sad because I then remember the reason why). But you know, I get used to it pretty quickly, but in the lead up to ROTT, I was terrified they’d do a flashback (not archive footage) to before ‘Bad Coffee’ with Jim, because they smoothly handled the transition between actors and gave an in-world reason for it, and flashing back to before then would not only mess with canon, but would seriously break my suspension of disbelief.

But somehow they did something worse than that. They got rid of Anton’s performance from the timeline. When I first realised Jim wasn’t travelling to the start of the battle, or the film, that he was going to the start, I got mad. They had handled the tragic death of Anton Yelchin wonderfully, his performance was honoured throughout Trollhunters and Emile Hirsch did a fantastic job as Jim. I understand if for some reason this ending was ‘always the plan’ (which I doubt), but even if it was, they really should have reconsidered. It just feels disrespectful to Anton and all of us that loved his performance.

(I would like to point out that at no point do I mean any disrespect to Emile Hirsch. I’m very grateful he agreed to pick up the mantle of Jim and I think he did an amazing job throughout Tales of Arcadia, playing Jim in such a way that it still feels like the same character but not trying to do an impression of Anton.)

Before ROTT aired I made a list of ‘things that would make me go feral’ if they happened in the film. One of them was hearing Anton’s voice. I wondered if they’d repeat what they did at the end of Trollhunters, but honestly didn’t think they’d end another chapter in the series with the same speech. But they did, but it wasn’t Anton’s. I at least thought they’d do some kind of dedication to him, the one who started Jim’s journey. 

[sokoe]

i felt the need to write a bit more about the rott ending. as a disclaimer, i do not hate it, i just.. don’t really like it either. i do like bits of it though and i see the appeal of it. nonetheless i would like to focus on why it doesn’t feel completely right to me. a warning for spoilers and long text!

many people are saying that with ending like this, the entire franchise becomes an au or that its events don’t matter anymore. while the first is definitely true, i wouldn’t say everything that has happened to this point was for nothing. i think it’s still possible to enjoy the whole series as one of possible storylines in this universe, one that makes a doorway to another one.

i think the main problem for me is that.. we don’t really get to see the events afterwards rott. or rather, if we’re resetting everything, how does rott REALLY end? we’re led to believe that this time no one will die and that the arcane order will still be defeated. the problem is, we don’t get to see it. i’m not saying open endings are bad. i just personally believe that open endings work when we see some closure with the events or characters within the story we just watched or read, with open possibilities as for what happens next. but we don’t really get to experience this with rott. the new storyline with Toby as the trollhunter isn’t actually what happens next. it circles back to the past. and we don’t really know what will happen with the arcane order this time around. heck, nothing gets resolved this way! we don’t even know if toby manages to defeat bular, etc, etc. we just have to believe everything will be fine because Jim wants it to and will work towards it.

ok so here goes my biggest gripe with the ending i think.. personally i just don’t like the theme of going back in time to fix what was lost or failed. i mean, i do enjoy the drama of it, like when a character has lost their loved one and desperately wants to save them. but in rott it felt like a logical and thought-out decision, rather than a desperate attempt. the problem is, i don’t see it as a logical decision. there’s so many things that could go wrong this time. like, i feel most of the time we see this type of thing it fails.. we see characters struggling to save their loved ones only to realise it’s impossible to change what has already happened and them accepting the reality of it. or succeeding but altering the universe in some negative way.. alright i think i might getting too serious about it.. but i think many people like to see the reality reflected in fantasy or science fiction. the storylines and characters that feel real even if there are trolls and dragons. and the perfect world where nobody dies because you don’t want them to just feels.. fake. again, we don’t know what happens. maybe it won’t be perfect. but then we’re going back to this whole thing being illogical to begin with.

it also makes me think about Jim turning into a troll permanently at the end of Trollhunters. i think what many people found appealling about this was the gravity of the consequences. it was a decision the protagonist made and he had to deal with it. i remember writing about this when Wizards came out, but as much as i loved this story element of Trollhunters, i didn’t mind Jim turning back into human later on that much, and that’s because he didn’t actively seek to turn himself back. it felt to me more like a salvation, or being rewarded than erasing his sacrifice. still, i can totally see why people don’t like it anyway.

and it still doesn’t compare to the level rott went with. we had the price of being a troll erased and now we have.. everything erased, except Jim’s experience. and while the first can be argued to be a reward of some sort, the second is an active decision made by the protagonist. and the situation wasn’t even that serious, they did manage to save the world.. even if at the cost of lives of some of our beloved characters.

i suppose we could also question, why did Toby in particular became the trollhunter.. or rather, why did the amulet choose him this time? within the logic and lore explained in the show. honestly, i don’t know, but i might be missing something.

well, i think this is it. as i said at the beginning, i can totally see the appeal of this ending. still, it’s just not doing it for me. i don’t hate it, it doesn’t ruin my experience with the series overall, i just feel like it could’ve been better.

thank you for reading this far, and feel free to comment if i made some sort of mistake or if you feel like adding anything! as i write this i only watched the movie once so i could totally be missing something.