By [ad_1]
In Netflix’s Hilda’s first arc, the titular character learns to deal with the unintended consequences of her actions.
Throughout the first two seasons of Netflix’s Hilda, adapted from Luke Pearson’s graphic novels for younger readers, the titular heroine adapts to life in the city after moving away from her home. While the series focuses on open-mindedness and empathy throughout Hilda’s encounters with the people and the creatures she meets as she explores the world, another strong theme throughout the series is facing the unintended consequences of your choices and actions and taking responsibility for them.
The opening arc of the series emphasizes this theme. In “The Hidden People” and “The Midnight Giant,” Hilda and her mother, Johanna, receive multiple letters asking them to move, or they will be forcibly evicted by the hidden people, tiny elves who live near Hilda’s home. At first, Hilda cannot see where the elves are coming from, both literally and figuratively. She literally cannot see them because the elves have a highly bureaucratic society, and they cannot be seen by humans unless the human in question fills out the requisite paperwork and signs a contract.
Figuratively, Hilda cannot emphasize with the elves and see their points because she views them as the aggressors. She writes her own strongly worded letter in response, explaining that “we are nice people, so please stop being mean.” She miscategorizes their complaints as meanness, though, and to be fair to Hilda, there have been few attempts by the elves to fully explain their position. After the elves launch an actual attack, wrecking the first floor of Hilda’s home, Hilda shoos the invisible elves out, but Johanna is set on moving away to Trolberg, which she seems to have been considering for a while. In desperation, Hilda writes another letter asking for a reason why the elves are suddenly so against her family’s presence.
Hilda’s attempt to bridge her gap in understanding does meet with some success; Alfur Alric, an elf, takes on her case and gives her the paperwork to see the elves. Hilda tries to negotiate with the elves to allow her family to remain living in the woods. But when the elves point out how Hilda and her mom’s presence disrupts their lives, Hilda is dismissive of their complaints, stating that she and her mother did not intend to cause any problems. However, while she does suggest reasonable compromises to many of their complaints. as she talks to the mayor and then the prime minister, they each say that the matter can only be resolved by someone higher in the chain of command — the king, who Alfur agrees to take Hilda to see.
Throughout the episode, Hilda also has been seeing a giant appear at midnight, in a subplot that eventually dovetails with her main conflict with the elves. Due to her insatiable curiosity, Hilda resolves to meet the giant. In a parallel to her conversations with Alfur, she communicates with the giant by sitting in his ear, but she doesn’t note the parallels between the two situations until later. The giant, Jorgen, confides in Hilda that the rest of the giants of old seem to have disappeared, but he has been waiting to meet a “friend,” later revealed to be his love. Hilda later learns that Jorgen has been watching over the earth for thousands of years, and the rest of the giants all jumped as high as they could into space to find a new home because humans and other small societies sprung up and viewed them as creatures to fear.
Hilda reunites Jorgen and his love, who accidentally became a mountain while waiting for him. The mountain she became is the same mountain where the elven king lives, and Hilda saves him after she accidentally wakes the sleeping giant up. This act of bravery encourages the king to declare Hilda and her family no longer enemies of the elves, and Hilda excitedly tells her mother the news.
However, in the shadow of this victory, the episode hammers the message about unintended consequences home. On his way with his love to reunite with the rest of the giants in space, Jorgen accidentally crushes Hilda’s home as they run off, completely oblivious to the damage that he has caused. Johanna says, sadly, “They haven’t even noticed what they’ve done.” Hilda looks down and sees that Johanna is standing with her foot in an elven home. While this act will cause no permanent damage because Johanna has not filled out the paperwork, Hilda knows that it still is a traumatic experience for the elves to go through and recognizes that, though the giants didn’t intend harm, their actions still had disastrous consequences for her family.
Finally truly understanding the elves’ complaints against Hilda and her family and the unintended havoc they have caused, Hilda agrees to move with her mom to Trolberg, though she maintains her friendship with the elves in the woods, including Alfur, who accompanies her on her move. This opening arc perfectly starts the series’ exploration of the unintended consequences of people’s actions and how they deal with the results. While Hilda still is not thrilled with the move and longs to return to the woods, she has made some peace with the move. The theme of dealing with unintended consequences continues throughout the series as Hilda continues to grow and engage with her new home and the friends she makes along the way.
About The Author
[ad_2]
