REFERENCES:
- Imposter syndrome refers to a real psychological condition where a person feels anxiety and self-doubt because they basically believe themselves to be frauds and worry about being exposed as such, even though their skills, success, relationships, etc are genuine. I thought it was a fitting title.
GENERAL:
- If you've watched Trollhunters then you'll know why TK reacted so strongly to Otto calling Patamon a cat. XD
- Trollhunters is one of those things that has some cool ideas, but gets bogged down by a lot of goofy writing and cringe/or childish humor, among other issues. I'm actually glad I didn't get any further into the Tales Of Arcadia spinoffs, because it sounds like the whole thing drops even further in quality (IE: the one show with the two aliens and the infamous finale movie).
The Changelings are one of the most interesting elements in the series. I do think they're... well, stupid in terms of their capacity for self-preservation though. They seem perfectly content in following a leader who cares nothing for or respects them, and is openly blatant with his disregard for them, to the point of following him to their own literal destruction in the end.
Better the devil you know, I guess. I feel this is the sort of environment Changeling!T.K. would look at, then look over at the Chosen Children, and decide he'd much rather give his loyalty to the latter. Also, if you're a Changeling and you fail some sort of mission you're given, the boss will literally eat you. Strickler was the only Changeling who was not okay with any of this (something I think should've been explored further), and even he did a lot of stupid things (though that was more tied to his antics as a villain).
Actually, upon further reflection, I feel like the Changelings both as characters and concepts were wasted. Many of them get killed off the end of the first season.
- I do like that air of mystery that the Changelings still have about them to this day. All we really know about them is that they are trolls the Gumm-Gumms and Morgana La Fay took and altered somehow (it's never stated exactly how). They're linked to a human infant who's been abducted, and they take on that human's form and proceed to live their life. I know troll!Enrique wasn't a character that we the audience were meant to really take seriously, but his presence just raises more questions. I assume the Changeling would have grown in size as he grew up as Enrique, but do trolls not have an infant stage, or the infants already able to speak and have adult cognizance? Or is that just something limited to Changelings? Were the trolls that were experimented on young ones, or adults?
But yeah, I admit to enjoying having some mystery about certain canon elements in a work of fiction. It is cool to see canon explore some things (Godfather II delving into Vito Corleone's backstory, for example), but not so much when it feels like they're just shoveling mounds of crap at viewers. Like I think Ixis Naugus's backstory in the original Archie Sonic comics is hella goofy and just kinda lame. It added nothing to his character and he might as well have just retained his mysterious past.
- The idea of doing a Trollhunters crossover where some good guy actually turns out to be a Changeling in disguise has always floated around in my mind after reading this story. ETA: My bad, I didn't actually share the link. Initially I was going to do a Disney/Trollhunters crossover, but none of the Disney properties I looked at really worked for me. Then one day, Digimon just popped into my head as a good candidate for the other fandom. It just came down to picking which season to use. My top two choices were either the Adventure continuity or Frontier (which is flawed, yeah, but I still really like it. Might be a nostalgia thing).
- I'm going to hold off on doing a character analysis for T.K. for now. I haven't really seen the entirety of Adventure or Adventure 02 in
years. I did rewatch some of both seasons on Hulu recently (more Adventure then 02 though). I will say that I quite enjoy the character as he is in Adventure, but in 02 the now older T.K. often radiates this smug golden boy vibe that kind of
puts me off him. And the show just kind of leans into it too. When it came to IS, my thought
process went to "wouldn't it be funny if somebody that perfect was
hiding something?" Looking at both seasons of Digimon through the lens of "what if TK
was a Changeling the entire time?" adds a interesting element to things.
The story isn't really about Patamon per se, but looks at both his and T.K.'s relationship, so I don't know if I should do an analysis on him as well, or if I do, just combine his with TK's.
- I would love to see the Gumm-Gumms' reactions to the partner Digimon (especially Gatomon) and seeing them digivolve. Actually, I'd like to see how Jim and co would react as well.
FUN FACTS:
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I think the title for the story was perfect too! It has a great double meaning to it and gives more weight to the one-shot.
ReplyDeleteI heard that the Trollhunters movie was pretty wonky too, and I haven't even caught up with the series! But wait... there was a spin-off featuring aliens?
All excellent questions to think about the Changlings and their biologies as they age! I'm not sure about it myself, but it is good that they have that little mystery to them to make them seem more, for a lack of a better word, mystical. And Changlings in general fiction are a magnet for investigating and writing established lore for anyway due to their, well, ability to shift.
Right there with you about the Godfather II film! That film does an excellent job of establishing the past with Vito Corleone, the present at the time with Michael, and sets up the future for the dark road Michael's going down. I loved that we learned more about Vito's backstory and why he did what he did in the first film.
And it is true that sometimes - when it's done very well - exploring the mysteries of a canon can lead to incredibly unique and fascinating lore about a character, especially when a character has established themselves as notable personalities or a person with a goal. And other times... well, sometimes it's best to leave some mysteries be and let the person imagine for themselves why a person turned out the way they are. Like for me, I don't want to find out why Christine the car is the way she is - it makes her that much more scary!
I haven't seen Digimon in years, but yeah, I do recall some moments where T.K. is a little bit smug. I would chalk that up to his brother's former bad boy influence, and possibly him just going through preteen changes.
Hmm... maybe writing in an analysis on T.K. and Patamon together would work? They both are very much in tune with one another and it would be interesting to read on how their relationship impacts one another, from the time they met to where they stand now in their partnership. And since T.K. did have to grow up in some ways, I see Patamon as perhaps someone who keeps him from going over the edge, and also someone who provides laughs to deal with whatever turmoil the guy goes through. But whatever you decide, I know you'll make it rock!
//But wait... there was a spin-off featuring aliens?//
DeleteYeah, 3 Below. It looks very silly to me and is supposed to be a more humorous then the other two series, but I know that means they were just going to double down on the fart jokes. Thanks, but I'm good. ^^;
//And Changlings in general fiction are a magnet for investigating and writing established lore for anyway due to their, well, ability to shift.//
Yeah, it's always fun playing around with stuff like that. :D
//And it is true that sometimes - when it's done very well - exploring the mysteries of a canon can lead to incredibly unique and fascinating lore about a character, especially when a character has established themselves as notable personalities or a person with a goal. And other times... well, sometimes it's best to leave some mysteries be and let the person imagine for themselves why a person turned out the way they are. Like for me, I don't want to find out why Christine the car is the way she is - it makes her that much more scary!//
I think the book is more explicit about what Christine's deal is then the movie is? But yeah, I think revealing a mystery about an aspect of canon just depends on exactly how well canon is expanded on in the first place, like you said.
//I haven't seen Digimon in years, but yeah, I do recall some moments where T.K. is a little bit smug. I would chalk that up to his brother's former bad boy influence, and possibly him just going through preteen changes.//
You should rewatch it, It still holds up! I mean, that's always a possibility. And FTR to any stranger who happens to be passing through and reads this, I'm all for characters being flawed, but it's much less fun when the narrative won't acknowledge it.
On a T.K./or Patamon analysis: Thanks! That's one good reason for just letting them share an analysis together. Also, Patamon is pretty flat in 02 compared to Adventure, where he had a whole story arc in the first half of the show.