With the trolls hiding out in Arcadia, AAARRRGGHH!!! goes undercover to see what Gunmar is up to. A potential rival brings out Jim’s jealous side.
Tropes:
- Bad to the Last Drop: Blinky tries and fails to brew Jim coffee, having to used an old sock as a filter.
- Evil Mentor: Downplayed. Strickler stands in as Jim’s trainer while Blinky is kept busy, trying to encourage him to fight more like a changeling.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Despite all evidence to the contrary, Usurna does not believe Morgana exists, let alone that she is sending Dictatious visions. Granted she was right about the second thing, but still.
- Foreshadowing: The first shot int the episode is a strange shooting star like object streaking across the horizon, foreshadowing the arrival of the aliens that will feature in 3Below.
- Protective Charm: Blinky placed protective charms on Clair's mother's campaign signs, making it so that Gumm-Gumm troll are forced off of the property to help the gang limit their movement.
- The Mole: AAARRRGGHH!!! volunteers to pretend to be a Gumm-Gumm as a spy in trollmarket.
- Mystical Plague: Claire contracted a nasty cold - coughing, sneezing, Exhausted Eye Bags and all - from overuse of her staff from the Season Two finale.
- The Night That Never Ends: Gunmar’s ultimate goal.
- Pragmatic Villainy: While she does not like Dictatious, Usurna finds it more practical if they work together, saving him from Gunmar's wrath when he loses his temper.
- While Usurna advocates attacking humankind head-on, Gunmar quickly dismisses this as a viable plan, noting his forces could get decimated every time the sun comes up. Which is where the Eternal Night plan comes in.
- Rule of Three: Changelings seem to have their own three rules of battle similar to the Trollhunter's code.
- Science Cannot Comprehend Phlebotinum: Despite her obvious illness, Barbara cannot seem to find a cause to Claire's magic-induced cold, chocking it up to stress from high school.
- Snowball Lie: Gunmar eventually grows tired of Dictatious's "visions", finding them rather unhelpful when he actually needs guidance.
- Wistful Amnesia: After getting some time off from work, Barbara has since started painting dreams she has been having, the contents of the paintings revealing these dreams being her lost memories of Angor Rot, Trollmarket and Strickler.
- Working Through the Cold: In-spite of Jim's pleading, Claire refuses to take a day off - either from school or trollhunting - during her illness.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Strickler does this to Jim during their training, making him vulnerable by appealing to his humanity.
