Mrs. Jötunheim: What's the one thing you know about giants?
Gumball: ...That they're big?
Mrs. Jötunheim: Yes, and so are their emotions! I wasn't making his life boring, I was making his life calm! You have to keep giants calm!
Gumball and Darwin help Hector the giant be less boring after accepting a friend request from him and visiting his cave — only to learn that Hector needs to be kept boring for the good of Elmore.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: It's okay to be protective of a sensitive child, however, you need to find a good balance of being protective as well as giving it freedom to make it's own decisions.
- Animation Bump: The animation of Hector on the rampage approaches Disney quality.
Ben Bocquelet based most of the animation of that sequence on Shadow of the Colossus and Spirited Away. - Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!:Donut Cop: (to Hector) Freeze, police!
(Hector crushes the cop's squad car)
Donut Cop: Well, uh, I think I'll, uh, call it a day.
(Donut Cop runs off) - Both Sides Have a Point: Gumball is right in that Hector's Mom is extremely protective and suffocating towards her son. However she makes a good point in that Hector is a colossal giant who needs to be kept at a calm state to prevent him from going on a rampage.
- Bowdlerize: An In-Universe example. Hector's mom modifies a comic book to make it less violent.
- Colossus Climb: Gumball has to do this to get to Hector's ear and play a tune that will put him to sleep and stop his rampage. Unfortunately, Gumball weigh the flying broom down, forcing him to start the climb at Hector's butt.
- Continuity Nod: When we see Gumball's Elmore Plus account, the photos and video seen in the corner are the same ones featured on Anais' Flickr account and the ElmoreStream Youtube videos.
- Chekhov's Gun: Hector falls asleep when he's showing Gumball and Darwin his room and hears his music box playing. The box and then the melody are used by Gumball to stop his rampage.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Gumball assumes Hector's mom is a witch when they first meet. He turns out to be right.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Hector and Mrs. Jötunheim.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Darwin says he doesn't think Hector is boring... just much less interesting than anyone else he knows.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Gumball expresses great confusion as to how Hector's mom is so much smaller than he is.
- The Extremist Was Right: Hector's mom seems to be excessively controlling of her son, making him almost devoid of emotion (his diary reads "I must not laugh, I must not get overexcited, I must not shout, I must not sneeze.") But she's actually doing this to protect everyone else because Hector will wreck the town if he has a fit. On the other hand, Gumball has something of a point, even if he only told Hector to confront his mother as a way to get back at her: besides being bad for Hector himself, all this sheltering seems to have made him that much easier to upset.
- Flying Broomstick: Gumball thinks Hector's mom is a witch and that the brooms at the front of the cave let her fly. He picks one up and it turns out to just be a regular broom because she's a cleaning lady... who is also a witch that keeps the flying brooms right behind those.
- Gag Censor: Gumball discovers Hector has a "Captain Punch" comic, then the following scene is a sequence where any and all scenes of violence, crude language, criminal activity, or dangerous stunts are whited out and rewritten/redrawn into something more family-friendly: all the guns are replaced with big, Mickey Mouse hands and flowers or removed entirely, bank robbers in ski masks are "ski enthusiasts", Captain Punch booting a criminal in the crotch is changed to ask if there's something on his shoe (despite the boot-shaped mass of whiteout over the man's groin). For reference, this
is what the comic looks like intact. - Homage:
- As evident by the name, Gumball climbing Hector in is an homage to Shadow of the Colossus including climbing to a giant's weak spot by grabbing their fur and the way Hector falls over when he goes to sleep.
- The design of Hector's mother is an homage to Yubaba from Spirited Away.
- Gumball flails around on his Flying Broomstick at one point, imitating a famous scene in Kiki's Delivery Service
- I Would Say If I Could Say: Hector's mom tells Darwin and Gumball to Get Out! out her door-less cave, adding "In the absence of a door I can slam, I'm gonna do this." before slamming an imaginary door in their face.
- Morton's Fork: At the end, Gumball and Darwin finally get a friend request from Hector. Problem is, they now know that accepting or rejecting it could make him emotional enough to go on another rampage. So Gumball smashes the monitor with a hammer, not wanting to have to deal with any more rampaging colossi.
- No, You:Mrs. Jötunheim: I think you're being a little presumptuous telling me how to raise my son.
Gumball: Well, you know what else is presumptuous?... YOUR FACE! - Please Wake Up: Hector doesn't know his completely still and lifeless hamster is dead. Even Gumball's attempt to tell him about it is shut up by Darwin.
