Gnome Your Enemy

This article contains canon information corresponding to the Tales of Arcadia franchise. That means all information in this article is true and has appeared/been validated officially on-screen.

“Oh, no, Master Jim. The Trollhunter cannot refuse the call. And what better a call for you to train with than a pint-sized quarry?”

―Blinky to Jim

Gnome Your Enemy
Season: 1
Episode: 4
Information
Air date	December 23, 2016
Written by	Story by: Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman Teleplay by: A.C. Bradley, Chad Quandt & Aaron Waltke
Directed by	Elaine Bogan
Episode Guide
Previous	"Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter?"
Next	"Waka Chaka!"

Gnome Your Enemy is the fourth episode of Part One of Trollhunters.

Official Synopsis

While Jim gets a crash course in troll history, big problems -- and a bully -- await him in the human world. What better time for his first mission?

Summary

Jim undertakes his first Trollhunting mission by starting small—literally. He must shrink down to eight inches tall to apprehend a mischievous gnome. When he captures the gnome, he must get rid of him, but wakes up the next day to find himself still in a shrunken state. With his Spanish project due soon, Jim must find a way to finish and present it without revealing his double life.  

Plot

Blinky begins to tell the story about the history of trollkind and how they came to Arcadia.

Years ago, the human and trolls worlds lived separated in peace, until their worlds came together and vicious trolls called Gumm-Gumms wanted to devour all of mankind and take their world as their own. Led by their leader, Gunmar the Black, the Gumm-Gumms went on a warpath for dominance of the surface world. Other trolls fought against him in the great Battle of Killahead Bridge (the portal to Gunmar's Darklands, led by Trollhunter Deya the Deliverer, who banished Gunmar and his army into the Darklands and sealed the bridge with the Amulet of Daylight. After which, the trolls torn the Killahead Bridge into pieces and hidden them across the globe. Then after, the trolls stowed themselves away on a ship called the Mayflower (along with gnomes for companionship and nourishment). They finally found themselves in the New World. They kept walking until they finally found a Heartstone underneath what would later be called Arcadia Oaks and settled for a new home called Heartstone Trollmarket.

When Blinky finishes his story, he finds Jim sleeping through the entire lecture (to his annoyance). After startling Jim awake, the exhausted Trollhunter explains that he's been up most of the night studying for his Spanish presentation and thought that his training would be more "active" than he expected if he was going to face Draal in a week for a rematch. Blinky explains that before a warrior fights, he must know why he must fight. Jim then complains that his Spanish teacher, Señor Uhl, is quite unforgiving and if he fails his presentation, then he would be grounded and he can't trollhunt, especially since he now has two lives to balance: his normal and trollhunting ones.

Just then, a female troll named Bagdwella hastily rushes into the Forge and exclaims that a rouge gnome was invading her shop.

...

Cast

• Kelsey Grammer as Blinky
• Anton Yelchin as Jim Lake Jr.
• Charlie Saxton as Toby Domzalski
• Lexi Medrano as Claire Nuñez
• Ron Perlman as Bular
• Jonathan Hyde as Mr. Strickler
• Fred Tatasciore as AAARRRGGHH!!!/Bagdwella/Señor Uhl
• Rodrigo Blaas as Gnome Chompsky
• Brook Chalmers as Security Guard
• Laraine Newman as Miss Janeth/Nana
• Cole Sand as Eli Pepperjack
• Lauren Tom as Mary Wang
• Thomas F. Wilson as Coach Lawrence
• Steven Yeun as Steve Palchuk

Trivia

• According to Blinky, the trolls had come over to America on the Mayflower and then snuck off the ship and found the then-unnamed Arcadia.
  • Error: The sequence of the scene implies that the Mayflower docked in present-day New Jersey, when, historically, it settled in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• If you look closely, Guillermo Del Toro's name is written on the chalkboard.
• After Blinky slams his book closed to wake Jim up in the midst of his lecture, Jim yells "¡Lo siento, Sr. Draal! ¡No me mates!" which translates to "I'm sorry, Mr. Draal! Don't kill me!"
• Title: The title refers to the gnome situation Bagdwella wants Jim to fix. Also, it's from the phrase "know your enemy", which is from a quote by Sun Tzu, "Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster." In the end, Jim did finally know his enemy, but realizes that all the little guy wanted was a home and some friends. Toby even decides to keep the gnome and calls him "Gnome Chompsky".
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: At the end of the episode, Bular chastises Strickler for leading a security guard to their location. Strickler retorts that he actually let the guard find them as a "midnight snack" for Bular. The audience never sees the security guard escape successfully.
• Claire mentions to Jim, "I know Steve's a jerk, but there are better ways to finish a fight than punching someone in the face." However, in "Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter?", Claire is seen smiling upon Steve's defeat.

Gallery

Arcadia Oaks-pedia has a collection of images and media related to Gnome Your Enemy which can be found at Gnome Your Enemy/Gallery.