"I remind myself when I'm in the darkness..." - Pascal Pinon, When I Can't Sleep
Being arguably the most traumatic and dangerous adventure yet, it essentially serves as a massive emotional gut-punch for our girl.
Contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
- Dear God... EVERYTHING that happens to Hilda throughout the movie is downright agonizing and makes us want to give poor girl a comfort hug:
- First, the movie's Cold Opening: it starts with Hilda running throughout the Stone Forest in panic, still hasn't understood what has just happened to her, yet knowing she was kidnapped. Refusing to listen to Trylla, she's eventually petrified in sunlight, with implication it was a painful process.
- Next, after spending entire day in essential And I Must Scream state, she unfreezes... only to learn why trolls don't like the sound of bells: because they hear it hundred times louder than humans, it causes physical pain to them. She screams out in agony from a small bell tied to her nose, and later gets into the range of Trolberg's bell towers. As revealed in season 3, hearing or seeing any bell will remind the poor girl of this from now on.Hilda: The sound of them... that little one was one thing; the ones on the wall are going to kill me...
- The picture above has Hilda enter Trundle's cave and see her reflection as troll, breaking down in tears of horror.
- Despite getting to see the upsides of being a Troll and liking being in the wilderness again, Hilda still wants home. But once Trylla reveals she doesn't know how to undo the Changeling Spell, Hilda once again breaks down in bitter tears.
- Baba accidentally breaking the snow globe Hilda gave to Johanna at the end of "The Yule Lads", enraging Johanna to the point where she drives Baba to tears. However, Johanna very quickly realizes her error and comforts her, but begins tearing up herself shortly afterwards.
- The reason why Trylla swapped Hilda and Baba places in the first place is because she wanted to give the latter a normal life in Trolberg under Johanna's care, because of how she cared for Hilda. Given that the Trolls are highly aggressive to one another, while at same time the Safety Patrol actively antagonizes them, it's hard not to feel sorry for her, even if that doesn't excuse her kidnapping.
- This is even worse when you realize she's pretty much like Johanna — both are the single parents, who struggle to protect their children from the outside world's cruelty.
- Upon seeing his mother in a Safety Patrol uniform, David panics and becomes visibly scared of what she might think about him protesting against the Safety Patrol, something Frida sympathizes with.
- Shortly after spotting Trylla, Johanna tries to enter the Stone Forest and search for Hilda, only for the entrance to seal off, leaving Johanna to slam her fists against the entrance before collapsing in tears. And worse, she soon gets attacked by aggressive trolls. Although she made it out with Twig and Alfur, the encounter made her even more devastated.
- Note: we said "Johanna, Twig, and Alfur". Not Cedric, Alfur's pigeon mount. During the said attack, Alfur flies Cedric into a Troll's face to allow Johanna to escape. However, another of the Trolls knocks him off Cedric as the two try to escape and eats the poor bird alive as the falling Alfur watches helplessly.
- As Johanna returns home, she looks bitterly at the mountain, where Hilda and Trylla are currently roaring. Meanwhile, Baba hears this as well and gazes at mountain, likely missing her real mom.
- When Trylla tells Hilda that she doesn't have a troll dad as well (because trolls aren't born like humans), Hilda has a sombered look on her face, indicating an abandonement issues regarding her real father.
- Despite sending her way, Trylla clearly misses Baba, something that does not go unnoticed by Hilda.
- The entirety of the situation taking its toll on everyone:
- Frida spending entire night to fruitlessly search for a way to change Hilda back to human.
- David continues to be uncomfortable with his mom joining the Safety Patrol.
- Baba having trouble sleeping as Tontu can only comfort the child.
- Despite not being a major character, Cedric's death visibly affected Alfur, as he was shown holding onto one of the pigeon's feathers, mourning the poor bird. Sure, Cedric gets better, but no one knew that would happen at the time.
- Johanna being unable to sleep the entire night, fearing she might never see her daughter again. By the morning, she has Exhausted Eye Bags.
- Twig sleeping near Hilda's boots, lamenting his missing owner.
- And all of it is set to the song "When I Can't Sleep" by Pascal Pinon
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- When Hilda and the Bearded Troll fall into a ravine, Johanna quickly rushes to the ravine in tears, thinking she just saw her own daughter pulling a Heroic Sacrifice for her. While Hilda's superhuman strenght as a troll allowed her to survive such, Johanna's panic is nothing but understandable.
- Hilda's reaction, when Trundle reveals himself as the Mountain King, who tried to attack Trolberg, and that he was using her all along.
- Upon getting back to Trolberg, Hilda pleads with both sides not to fight when she realizes that's what Trundle wants. For a moment, a Troll seems to consider her words only to attack her, while Erik outright ignores her pleas and kills Trundle, only to nearly awaken Amma and destroy Trolberg.
- The reason why Amma, the mother of all trolls, is separated from her children is because humans unknowingly built their town on her, and while the trolls could still hear her, the humans soon fearfully drove them away, with Amma being torn apart with either reunitng with her children or not disturbing humans.
- After everything is over, the Bearded Troll goes to Trundle's remains, puts his staff on them and knees in respect, showing that despite their very opposite views and what Trundle tried to do, he still loved his brother.
- In time, the Night of the Trolls is likely to put an end to the Fantastic Racism between humans and Trolls, but it hasn't quite yet; as Hilda acknowledged, something that lasted for hundreds of years won't go away that quickly. It's proven when a lady scolds her son for trying to watch the event and closes the blind, all with a bigoted look of disgust on her face.
