Tear Jerker / Hilda

"Our house is gone. The mountains are gone. Our life here's gone! And now... now, Twig's gone, too."

The life of an adventurer ain't always what it's cracked up to be.

Contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!

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• Hilda and the Mountain King

General

• On November 22, 2021, Silvergate Media announced that season 3 will be the final season of the show. Cue the waterworks from the fans. It's gonna be real tough to see a young fearless adventurer go. But all good things must come to an end. Right?

Season One

Chapter 1: The Hidden People

• Despite her best efforts, Hilda is unable to reason with the Prime Minister. It's here where the likelihood of having to leave the woods she's lived in her whole life gets to her, and she sheds a Single Tear. Doubles as Heartwarming when Twig goes to comfort her and Alfur decides to go against protocols to help her.

Chapter 2: The Midnight Giant

• Not even a second after Hilda joyously exclaims to Johanna that they won't have to move, an unaware Jorgen and Valfreyja step on their cabin, destroying it beyond repair.

Chapter 5: The Troll Rock

• After learning of Ms. Hallgrim's gripes with her, Hilda fears that Johanna will be disappointed in her, especially since she seemed to be adapting to civilization pretty well.
• Hilda is brought to Hallgrim's office following an attempt to retrieve David's runaway Troll rock. With the events of the night validating her less-than-stellar perceptions of Hilda, Hallgrim tells Johanna that it would be for the best if Hilda was transferred to a different class. Understanding of the trouble she's stirred, Hilda apologizes to Johanna for misleading her.
  Hilda: I'm sorry, Mum. I guess I haven't adapted as well as you thought.
• Hilda's situation in the episode is eerily similar to people who are expected to get the hang of something right off the bat and get scolded or degraded for failing to do so, even when it's evident that they have more trouble with it than others or have symptoms such as autism and ADHD that make it more complicated for them.

Chapter 8: The Tide Mice

• With Hilda being gone during school hours and Sparrow Scout activities, and Johanna occupied working at a hardware store, Twig is left alone at home for much of the day, which earn him Hilda's pity.
• After making a bad first impression with Trevor's group and Ms. Hallgrim, it's clear that Hilda no longer wants anyone else to think poorly of her, as she is visibly concerned that she will have to shout the dispelling incantation during the Warblers' concert. Though she tries whispering it, she is forced to shout it during the concert, in front of the audience.

Chapter 9: The Ghost

• Hilda and David's fall out with Frida, with this exchange towards the end in particular:
  Hilda: Sorry I ever tried to help.
  Frida: I'm sorry you ever moved here!
  • The cherry on top? This look on Hilda’s after said exchange.
• Frida crawling onto her bed after having driven both of her friends away. This is the note the episode ends on, bar the Early-Bird Cameo.

Chapter 10: The Storm

• Hilda's downcast state at the beginning. The implication that it's been some time since the events of the last episode doesn't help.
  Johanna: You up to anything today?
  Hilda: Not today.
  Johanna: You haven't been out with Frida and David for a while. Is everything okay?
  Hilda: Yeah. Everything's fine...
• David berating himself up over his self-perceived uselessness.
  David: Hilda's right. Frida would know what to do, but I'm no use at all. Why did I think I would be?
• One can only imagine how betrayed Hilda felt after learning Victoria had captured a baby Weather Spirit to use it as bait, indirectly endangering the city in the process.
• While it's not much of an argument that it was for the greater good, Victoria's Big "NO!" over the loss of her life's work can invoke a tinge of pity.
• Raven confronts Victoria, demanding to know where Hilda is... only to find the remains of the weather station that she was in ahead. Predictable Hilda's actual fate may be, it does not make his expression,◊ let alone his Little "No", any less gut-wrenching.

Chapter 11: The House in the Woods

• Johanna spends much of the episode unreservedly worried sick about the whereabouts of her daughter. She gets some relief in the form of a letter confirming that she's okay, but it's this line that really makes you glad Hilda's Disney Death in the previous episode was just that.
  Johanna: Twig, what if she's... what if she's...
• If Frida's portrait in the house is anything to go by, Hilda not only still considers her a friend, but also still blames herself for things going to hell between them. She even seems to look over it worriedly for a brief moment.◊
  • Upon further inspection, you'll notice that in comparison to the portraits of the other's, Frida's is the one that takes up the most size, going as far as to take center stage.◊ That's how severely the crashing and burning of their friendship has impacted Hilda, and how important it is to her that she fixes it, if she can at all.
• Doubles as Nightmare Fuel, given that Johanna called their parents asking them if they had seen Hilda, it's safe to assume David and Frida learned that she had gone missing. With that in mind... just how did they react? Frida in particular, especially after "The Ghost"? Did learning about this make her vulnerable to Kelly?
• After escaping the House in the Woods, Hilda is pleased to not only return to her home in Trolberg safe and sound, but to also have a replacement copy of Frida's book. And then the book is reclaimed by the house, along with everything else everyone asked for.

Chapter 12: The Nisse

• Hilda and David's attempt to patch things up with Frida in time for the camping trip doesn't go anywhere. They find that in their absence, she's been spending time with an older girl named Kelly, and the latter two leave shortly afterwards to hang out. Hilda is left alone when an evidently dejected David decides to head home.
• After Hilda's attempt to help Tontu ends in disaster - both figuratively and literally - Johanna drives Hilda to the camp grounds. Though it's quickly dropped, Johanna takes what time she has to scold Hilda for her actions. Aside from Chapter 8, it's the only other time in the season where we get to see her truly upset with her daughter.
  Hilda: Mum, I'm really sorry. I just wanted to help him. I thought—
  Johanna: We'll talk about it when you're back, okay? Maybe I'll have been able to rebuild our kitchen by then.
  • If you consider Hilda's first attempt at helping Tontu to be a way of distracting herself from Frida, it's made even worse — once again, Hilda's efforts to do something nice for someone else have blown up in both her and the person she was trying to help's faces in the worst way possible. The mood does get lightened to a degree when she's dropped off at camp, but still.

Chapter 13: The Black Hound

• Frida being pushed to the Black Hound by Kelly, who did this to save herself and her Marra friends. It may helped the former realize that she was never her friend to begin with, but you can see how devastated she looked upon being abandoned like that. It can be incredibly painful to anyone who has endured having false friends in their lifetime.
• Frida's My God, What Have I Done? face after being saved from the Black Hound.

Season Two

General

• At the end of season’s intro, Hilda slips and falls right in front of Johanna, who's helpless to do anything about it, showcasing deterioration of their relationship during the season’s events.

Chapter 1: The Troll Circle

• Hilda has started lying to Johanna about her adventures, as seen when she's coming home after chasing down a runaway elf. She's even shown to look quite guilty as she tells Johanna that she was at David's house.
• Hilda was shown at the beginning of the episode to be looking forward to her day with the Trolberg Safety Patrol, and she was relating at first with Ahlberg over the years of being an adventurer. But she then sees how incompetent he is while piloting the zeppelin, how much of a Glory Hound he is while on duty, and his It's All About Me attitude. This makes Hilda become disillusioned with not only him, but with Trolberg Safety Patrol in general.

Chapter 3: The Witch

• Kaisa is revealed to be deeply ashamed of her difficulty memorizing spells, and she has trouble facing her old teacher because she feels that she's failed her.

Chapter 4: The Eternal Warriors

• Though Hilda and Frida don't mind it, David's fearful nature and his love of lite rock are some things that David himself are rather ashamed of, such that he feels guilty enough to seek out the Medallion of Sigurd along with the Knudsen Clan.
• After David touches the medallion, the girls are visibly worried about his newfound courage rather than fond of it, to the point where they admit that they like him better as his old fearful self, plead him not to charge into battle and risk getting himself killed. Thankfully, though he does die, they are able to reverse it. But imagine if they didn't...

Chapter 5: The Windmill

• Frida mentioning of having no interest in her own Nisse after learning the truth of its theft with her favorite book. If only we saw her last interaction with the creature.
• Despite the fact that Victoria van Gale is the villain once again, Hilda still tries to save her and is visibly distraught when she is unable to.

Chapter 7: The Beast of Cauldron Island

• Hilda has to ditch a picnic with her mother to save the Lindworm from Erik Ahlberg. She apologizes and makes up a lie about going to a Sparrow Scout meeting, while David and Frida back her up. Johanna is confused because she was sure there is no meeting.
• It's not mentioned, but the Lindworm is forced to abandon her garden and jump from the island when she learns it's on top of a mother Kraken. She is gracious about it, carrying David to safety. One can hope she was able to return to it since her flowers were her greatest treasure.
• Hilda and Johanna's deteriorating relationship reaches its boiling point when Johanna finds out that Hilda lied to her and snuck off. Johanna does give Hilda a chance to come clean, but Hilda maintains the act. You can feel the disappointment in Johanna's voice once she finally puts her foot down:
  Johanna: [sighs] I told myself that she comes in here and she just tells the truth...
  • The fact that the episode ends on that note, with Hilda grounded for the first time in her life, is heartbreaking. And the last bit of dialogue for this episode is hard to hear. And by the time the credits started to roll, it's official: Hilda and Johanna's relationship is severely strained. Props to Daisy Haggard for this delivery, especially since Johanna was close to tears in her last bit of dialogue. Also if you looked closely, Johanna turns her face away near the end so Hilda wouldn't see her cry.
  Johanna: [crestfallen] You don't have to do anything, you are grounded. [hides her face by looking away as she says this]
  Hilda: [shocked] WHAT?!
  Johanna: [still crestfallen and close to tears] And you are not leaving this house without me until I say so. [as she says this, Hilda looks infuriated and storms off while angrily muttering, then a door slam is heard as Johanna's face turns from anger to sorrow and concern]
• And then there's the look on Johanna's face immediately after her fallout with Hilda◊. Ouch.
  • Also, fans of the show were understandably very upset with Johanna and Hilda for not communicating properly, and many thought they should have talked it out first. Hilda would still be grounded, but at least the two would have an understanding. Heck, many took a break from watching the show afterwards to take a breather.
• A particular set of lyrics in "The Life of Hilda", which is already quite the sad song on its own, stand out:
  "It's usually my fault"
  "But I try to make it right"
  "And I do"
  "Most of the time"

Chapter 8: The Fifty-Year Night

• While on the run from the Time Worm, Hilda and Alfur find themselves back earlier in the day, right before Johanna left. But before they can get to her, Hilda notices that something's off, which leads into a scene of Johanna temporarily breaking down over the dismal state of her and Hilda's relationship:
  Johanna: Am I doing the right thing...? This isn't the sort of mum I wanted to be, but what am I supposed to do, I... [chokes up] Oh, Johanna just get a grip.
• When Hilda recognizes Mr. Ostenfeld's mystery woman as Tildy and tells him she lives right around the corner to their building. The man looks utterly heartbroken as he realizes he's been pining for fifty years over a woman who lived just around the corner.
• After creating a timeline where Mr. Ostenfeld and Tildy did got married after all and lived a whole life together, Hilda finds them in Tildy's house. Problem is, the Time Worm is trying to erase the original timeline now that a new one has been created, unless the original enchanted copy of the magazine is destroyed. The new timeline versions of Ostenfeld and Tildy's decision to sacrifice themselves to set things right is a perfect mix of heartwarming and utterly heartbreaking. Hilda can only watch horrified and distraught as the Time Worm finishes it job and devours them.
  Mr. Ostenfeld: I am glad we got to live this life together. Even if it has to be erased.
  Tildy: We lived it. That can't be erased.
• Tildy tells Hilda there's no point in going after Mr. Ostenfeld; she feels she meddled enough. She also reassures Hilda that life has regrets, and you do better by moving forward rather than reliving them.

Chapter 9: The Deerfox

• It's obvious from her dialogue this episode that as much as Hilda had adapted to living in a city, her heart is still in the wilderness and still considers it her true home.
• Near the end of the episode, Hilda has a severe massive breakdown over everything that changed in her former home. The last thing she says before breaking down crying is remarking that Twig is gone. Doubles as heartwarming when Twig decides to stay with Hilda for good. Hilda then tearfully reunites with Twig and stated that she thought she lost him.
  • Apparently, while recording their lines, Bella Ramsey was actually in tears.
  Hilda: But that's all it is! Memories. Our house is gone. The mountains are gone. Our life here's gone. And now... [tears up] Now, Twig's gone too.
  • And if it wasn't enough, pictured above, hearing and seeing Hilda cry is hard to watch if you're the type of person with sensitive heartstrings. By the time you finish the episode, you might want to get some tissues or hug someone you love.
• Twig's reunion with Hilda is certainly a joyous one... but that also makes it easy to forget that Twig lost out on what was likely a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be amongst his own kind.
• And to top it off, the episode plays the full version of "Hilda's Theme" to wrap it up. This can extremely tug the heartstrings of fans who have stuck with Hilda since the beginning of the series.

Chapter 12: The Replacement

• Though it thankfully doesn't go through, Hilda and Twig are heartbroken when they are forced to be separated from Alfur and Alfur clearly feels the same way.

Chapter 13: The Stone Forest

• When coming back home, Johanna wants to play a new board game with her daughter. Hilda, on the other hand, has other plans. Their argument leads to this hurtful conversation:
  Johanna: Come on! [places a tender hand on Hilda's cheek] Am I really such bad company?
  Hilda: [jerks away from her mother's touch] No! You're just - you're just a mum!
  Johanna: [surprised at her daughter] Hilda...
  Hilda: Why do I have to keep you company, anyway? It's not MY fault you sit around on your own all day, and don't have anyone else to talk to!
  Johanna: [gasps, now downright shocked] HILDA, JUST GO TO YOUR ROOM!
  Hilda: [growls at her mother, and storms off. Johanna, clearly hurt, tosses the dice she was playing with on the board and slumps back to the kitchen to prepare dinner.]
• Johanna's Heroic BSoD after losing the guide, thinking that they may never find their way out of the Stone Forest.
• The Sudden Downer Ending in the pre-credit scene. Everyone's home safe and Hilda and Johanna finally mend their deteriorating relationship for good... and then Hilda simultaneously gets turned into a troll and teleported into troll territory.
• The very last line of season 2 in the stinger was delivered by Johanna. And it's very hard to hear.
  Johanna: Where's my daughter?
• And to top it all off, here's the episode's big finish.
• The end credits for this episode originally was going to have Hilda tearfully crying for help echoing in the background, while "The End" by Frankie Cosmos plays. If it made the cut, Hilda's tearful screams are extremely hard to hear, especially since no one can imagine what Hilda looks like as she breaks down crying.
  Hilda: [tearfully] I want my mum... help me.

Season Three

Chapter 2: The Fairy Mound

• The Downer Ending of Johanna taking everyone from Tofoten after discovering that Astrid has lied about fairy mounds still existing in Tofoten, with Hilda, Frida and David nearly getting lost at the borderlands of Fairy Country.

Chapter 3: The Giantslayer

• The entire conflict between humans and giants, with both sides having understandable motives. Hilda may be right that war is not the solution, but we can’t ignore that humans’ lives constantly threatened by giants accidentally stepping on them, while giants reluctantly depart for space now that the world has become too small for them.
  • According to Halvor the Giantslayer, he lost everything when a giant stepped on his house, implying he might have lost something more, like… his family, who was inside the house.
• The Faratok Tree being burned to crisp after Hilda's second time-travelling journey, something she's sad about. Fortunately, a branch Wood Man has will give birth to another tree.

Chapter 4: The Laughing Merman

• The fact that Hilda, Frida and David constantly getting into freaky adventures has earned them a bad reputation within the Sparrow Scouts, with the "Freaky Friends" being avoided at best and bullied at worst.
• Eugene's backstory of being an entertainer for sea creatures, who was captured by a fisherman, believing him to be a wish-granting fish. Once he realized he made a mistake, the fisherman refused to let Eugene go and eventually dumped him in the river, with no way of returning to the sea and his audience being emotionless fishes.

Chapter 5: The Job

• Despite their loving relationship, Hilda is shown to possess abandonment issues regarding Anders, something that doesn't go unnoticed to him during their trip.
• Twig discovers a belled troll and takes the bell to Hilda, who immediately agrees with his decision to bury it. She knows first-hand what bells do to trolls, and it's clear she hasn't fully recovered from that:
  Anders: It's just a troll bell.
  Hilda: "Just a troll bell"?! When I was a troll, this sound was excruciating! Even now, it makes me anxious.
• When Hilda recalls her lack of a "troll dad", she says "Not even the kind you'd want around", implying she saw Trundle as something of a father figure, at least until he turned out to be the Mountain King.
• Anders disappearing without a trace, leaving Hilda upset that her father once again went on a wild adventure, despite promising to stick around longer this time. While it turns out he was pulled into the Fairy Country by Phinium and Lydia to save him from a troll, Hilda's sadness at that point is pretty understandable.

Chapter 6: The Forgotten Lake

• The episode begins with Hilda chasing a man she mistook for Anders in the rain, before sadly returning to Johanna. It's clear Hilda still devastated over being abandoned by him (not that he disappeared voluntarily).
• Despite numerous attempts to evade it, Hilda and Johanna are about to be swallowed by the Spider-Frog. Realizing it won't let go of Hilda, Johanna allows herself to be swallowed as well, choosing to die with her daughter rather than survive on her own.
  • This exchange is specifically heart-wrenching to hear:
  [Johanna struggles to hold on to the car]
  Johanna: (tearfully) Hilda! I can't hold on!
  Hilda: (tearfully) Don't let go of me, mum!
  [Johanna lets go of the car and hugs Hilda]
  Johanna: Never!
  • After the two get eaten, the Spider-Frog is about to do the same with Twig, who is seen crying over witnessing his owner getting eaten.
  • Imagine everyone's reaction upon learning of Hilda and Johanna being eaten alive if humans weren't upsetting for Spider-Frog's stomach.

Chapter 7: Strange Frequencies

• Hilda and Frida having another fallout in friendship, even if not as bad as in Season 1. Frida worked really hard to have Nisse be nice to each other, and Hilda’s obsessive attempt to find her father ruined it, with the supposed message from her father turning out to be a broadcast from Victoria van Gale (or so she thought).

Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle

• Hilda deciding to return to the Fairy Country, after Frida reveals her mother has entered it to find her, despite Frida being unable to maintain the portal much longer. Once Hilda re-enters the Fairy Country, the portal and the fairy mound collapse, leaving her with no means of returning back.
• Johanna's backstory, that was surrounded in mystery, is finally revealed… and it's a pretty sad one. Not long after being born, she was terribly sick and would likely die. Since no doctor could help, her parents made a deal with the Fairy Entity to cure her. However, the Entity demanded Phinium and Lydia to give it Johanna once she’s ten. And after ten years, Phinium and Lydia chose to give themselves to the Entity instead and forever left the human world. Astrid even erased most of Johanna’s childhood memories in hopes this will ease her pain of being abandoned.
  • This could possibly explain why Johanna was so overprotective towards Hilda in Season 2: because her own parents left her and she didn't want to lose her daughter as well.
  • Extra points goes to the fact Johanna first arrives at the Fairy Isle transformed into a kid and begins searching for her parents instead of Hilda as she intended, having forgotten her original reason for entering the fairy country.
• When Hilda decides to escape from the Fairy Isle, Johanna is torn apart between staying with her long-absent parents or returning to human world with her daughter, even becoming her ten-year old self again, while Hilda tearfully decides to go anyway… and then Johanna soon joins her, realizing she cannot abandon her own daughter like this.
• After escaping from the Fairy Isle, Johanna's childhood sickness returns since her parents' deal is broken. By the time Frida, David and Anders find them, Hilda is seen sitting next to her mother's motionless body, with everyone quickly breaking down. Hilda's received the biggest blow of them, as she thinks she caused the death of the closest person in her life.
  Hilda: I should never have made us leave... I'm so sorry, mum... This is all my fault...
  • Johanna does rise up, once again cured of her sickness, but this makes Hilda realize Astrid has traded her life for Johanna's. The whole gang returns to her house in sadness, encountering an equally-sad Pooka, who also misses his neighbor, even if he was pestering her... and then Astrid shows up, alive and well.

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