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The
Nightmare Spirit
To me, animation, a medium where anything can be drawn out,
goes well with dreams or pictures in one’s head where anything goes. This concept works in this episode’s favor,
and through developing characters in the process, it all works well.
By now, it’s clear that Hilda’s relationships
are the heart of the show, and bond with David and Frida is at its most
endearing here. David, who’s easily
frightened, has a problem of dealing with nightmares every single night. The opening features one of a crazy adventure
of getting lost in a sewer and attacked by rats. This is a big reasons he blame Hilda for his
nightmares. This may be harsh judgement,
but given how much of an outlier Hilda is to the group, it makes sense that her
adventurousness can be problematic.
Still, that part of Hilda helps her plan to cure David’s nightmares. She leads David and Frida to where an
all-knowing being called the rat king is spotted. Following an eerily familiar incident with
sewer tunnels, the rat king is revealed to be made of innumerable rats talking
in unison. This imaginative being is
productive in Hilda’s cause as she exchanges one of her secrets for a reveal of
who’s been giving David nightmares. The
answer validates Hilda’s constant concerns about a teenage girl she was
suspicious of. When she and Frida catch
her near David’s while he has another nightmare, they follow her to a campsite.
There, she tells other girls about his nightmares, giving a strange green glow
in the process.
The next day, with the
help of a mysterious caped librarian who somehow knows what book they need, the
kids learn that girl is a marra. That
is, a creature who haunts rooms every night to continuously give people bad
dreams. All the pieces picked up in the
episode build up to a huge climax where Hilda sets out to stop the marra’s
torment over David. Through switching
bedrooms with him behind the adults’ backs and applying what she knows about
marras, Hilda successfully catches the main one. A deal is made to have the marra try to give
Hilda, a usually brave child, a nightmare, and if Hilda doesn’t wake up, David
will be spared.
The ensuing nightmare
brings an interesting idea to light.
Hilda’s nightmares start out frightening with spiders, giants, and other
supernatural creatures, but given her knack for adventures, she’s unmoved by
all this. Then you consider earlier
scenes like being quick to brush off bike-riding, and her uneasiness while
riding Frida’s bike as well as what the secret she gave the rat king was. Not to mention the marra knows the rat king.
Hilda’s biggest fear turns out to be something
as simple as being unable to ride a bike. She suffers through a nightmare where
she loses her friends and the earth crumbles because of this. It says a lot that her biggest fear is
something so seemingly insignificant.
That’s so true to life. Eventually
when the room switch is discovered, David returns and feels bad for Hilda’s
cries of agony over the nightmare.
Deciding it’s not fair for her to suffer for him, David wakes Hilda out
of her horrors, claiming he can deal with his own nightmares if she can. With this bold move from a timid character,
we get closure with David is no longer affected by the marra, and he and Frida
better accept Hilda as she is.
It goes
without saying that the episode really makes the bond of these friends feel
like something special. Through
unfolding in a story of impressive growth, imaginative plot points, and going
all out with dreams, it’s easily one of the series’ grandest experiences.
A+
The Ranking
- The Nightmare Spirit
- The Bird Parade
- The Midnight Giant
- The Hidden People
- The Troll Rock
- The Sparrow Scouts
The next Hilda review centers around the elves' business with legal paperwork-related matters as Hilda and Frida have to settle a land matter with a lost clan of them to save David.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Season 3 premiere of Star vs the Forces of Evil.
If you would like to check out other Hilda reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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