Yeah, on the surface it seems to be a worthy end to the Tales of Arcadia.
And yeah, the show thunders through tons of plot in ten short episodes.
But in my opinion it really falls flat - even more so than 3Below - in what made Trollhunters so exceptional in the first place: Great, believable characters, with well fleshed out - and often surprising - development.
New characters have half-hearted high-speed arcs with blunted emotional impact (Arthur, Douxie) or don't get much of anything at all (e.g. Nari and the rest of the Arcane Order)
And well-known characters are well...it feels like "going through the motions", like e.g. Claire, but my biggest disappointment would be Steve. We were given a brilliant subversion of the "sports jock bully" trope with *real* growth in the original series. Since then he has regressed to the bumbling comic-relief sidekick. (There *were* a few well-done character arcs, Callista for example: Simple, but believable and effective. And I found Morgana somewhat fine as well.)
And the plot itself...well, some nice ideas there, but when there's such a high pace, it would have been nice if the plot points themselves were crafted a bit more carefully. To give just an example - the ruse to get Jim back from the Arcane order. Going in with a flaky illusion, some sweet talk and no backup/escape plan whatsoever?! Jeez, the world is at stake, it's a big risk to even try it, and *that's* your brilliant plan? From the Wizard Merlin finally trusted as an equal? Honestly, this extremely cheapens Merlin's sacrifice.
And what makes it so grating: so much time is wasted with worn-out antics (and it's not just Steve), even when available running time is so scarce.
But in my opinion it really falls flat - even more so than 3Below - in what made Trollhunters so exceptional in the first place: Great, believable characters, with well fleshed out - and often surprising - development.
New characters have half-hearted high-speed arcs with blunted emotional impact (Arthur, Douxie) or don't get much of anything at all (e.g. Nari and the rest of the Arcane Order)
And well-known characters are well...it feels like "going through the motions", like e.g. Claire, but my biggest disappointment would be Steve. We were given a brilliant subversion of the "sports jock bully" trope with *real* growth in the original series. Since then he has regressed to the bumbling comic-relief sidekick. (There *were* a few well-done character arcs, Callista for example: Simple, but believable and effective. And I found Morgana somewhat fine as well.)
And the plot itself...well, some nice ideas there, but when there's such a high pace, it would have been nice if the plot points themselves were crafted a bit more carefully. To give just an example - the ruse to get Jim back from the Arcane order. Going in with a flaky illusion, some sweet talk and no backup/escape plan whatsoever?! Jeez, the world is at stake, it's a big risk to even try it, and *that's* your brilliant plan? From the Wizard Merlin finally trusted as an equal? Honestly, this extremely cheapens Merlin's sacrifice.
And what makes it so grating: so much time is wasted with worn-out antics (and it's not just Steve), even when available running time is so scarce.