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The
Midnight Giant
A lot of the series’ key elements are solidly expanded upon here. At the same time, it offers its own
interesting fantasy story to further show the scope of Hilda’s world.
At night, she’s often seen a giant roaming
the land. Being so curious about the wilderness, she wants to learn about
him. Like in much of what we’ve already
seen of Hilda, she’s considerate of the giant upon reaching him. All he wants is to meet up with his
girlfriend who had promised to meet him long ago. However, he’s waited for thousands of years
and he’s heard nothing from her. That’s
a simple yet sympathetic backstory for him, and it’s endearing that Hilda sees
the sadness of his plight. This further
shows how at home she feels in the wilderness.
Speaking of that, the possibility of moving to Trolberg despite Hilda
trying to get on good terms with the elves is still a priority. As a matter of fact, Hilda’s mother, Johanna,
insists on moving there for Hilda’s sake.
Moving there truly would be a good way for Hilda to make some friends
and avoid other nuisances like neighbors like the Woodman walking in
uninvited. They explore Trolberg and
find a potential new home, and a schoolyard as all the kids are summoned in by a
bell. While Hilda’s reactions to Trolberg
do make her closed-minded, her feelings are understandable given her attachment
to her old home.
Now regarding the
Woodman, he first appeared in the last episode to establish his habit of walking
into Hilda’s house uninvited. Here,
there’s much more of his character on display.
He just goes about his business no matter how much people call him out
on it. However, he also reads into
people’s personal problems and offers helpful information about them. That’s what he does with Hilda trying to help
the giant by teaching her about their interesting background. They're used to be a lot of them guarding the
Earth, but they went into exile when little people came and they kept
accidentally stepping on their homes.
Not only does it give a good suggestion why the giant Hilda met never
found his girlfriend, it also serves as an interesting parallel to how the
elves view Hilda.
Speaking of the elves,
it isn’t long after this when Hilda and Alfur finally go up to the mountains to
settle matters with the elf king. Although
she’s unable to get a word in due to his dominant fear of her, Hilda does
discover something interesting about the entire mountain. It’s actually the girl giant the other one
was waiting for covered in snow having remained where she was after the other
giants left.
Following an exciting scene
of Hilda nearly falling off her while protecting the elf king’s castle only to
be rescued by the giant from earlier is a nice wholesome reunion of lovers. It's especially a great scene from how genuine the giants' love is just from their single conversation. Anyway, since Hilda saved the king, the moment is
made even happier with the elf people finally at peace with her. However, just as the prospect of Hilda and
her mother stepping on the elf homes remains, the same is true for the giants
regarding Hilda’s home. They
unintentionally yet inevitably step on the house destroying everything, showing
that she and her mother do have to move after all. They
leave with a few reminders of home like the Woodman’s wood and Hilda’s
sketchbook, but it opens up new story potential with Hilda needing to adjust to
normal city life. That said, the last
sight of a giant raven suggests that even in Trolberg, interesting things can
still happen.
This episode is basically
two plots at once, but with good direction, they’re both in good balance making
for charming character moments, imaginative setups, and thoughtful insights.
A+
The Ranking
- The Midnight Giant
- The Hidden People
The next Hilda review looks into development of that big raven as well as Hilda's views on Trolberg.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Uncrashable Hindentanic" from DuckTales.
If you would like to check out other Hilda reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
I just wanted to take a moment to bring up the fact these giants were supposed to protect the planet from any threat from above but what? now they're all gone
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