Steve Palchuk/Relationships

A list of Steve Palchuk's relationships with certain characters throughout the franchise.

Romances

Aja Tarron

“My lumbering oaf...”

―Aja to Steve before their first kiss

Aja is Steve's girlfriend. At first, there was no interaction between the two, until their class went to the Observatory and Aja pretended that she needed help lifting a heavy moon rock (in reality, however, Aja was really just distracting Steve so Krel could read Eli’s mind and find out if he knew about their identities). Steve attempted to look cool and come to her rescue, but was unable to lift the rock and was left flabbergasted when Aja lifted it effortlessly (due to her Akiridion abilities). Later, Steve fell in love with Aja the moment she kicked him after he threatened Krel. 

Steve often feels awkward when he's around Aja, mostly because he's too shy to admit that he has a crush on her, but tries to act cool when he sees her. In "D'aja Vu", he looks worried when everyone else takes note of Aja and Krel's Akiridion identities, and clearly wanted to help them, although he didn't know all that much about either of them at that time. He later asked her out to a bonfire party, which she accepted. During the party, Aja begins to return Steve’s crush. While sitting in a tree with Aja, they share a tender moment as Steve points out what the stars as called, according to him. Just as the two were about to kiss, Aja's alien form begun to emerge and she quickly ran off to keep him from knowing her true form. After she dropped her serrator, Steve went on a crazy mission to get it back, although he failed to find it. Unknown to him, Stuart found it after he discovered Gnome Chompsky with it, and left it at the Tarrons’ door while signing a note that said ‘Love S,’ leaving Aja to believe that Steve was the one who found it for her just when he arrived at her house to apologize for losing it, although he left confused by her thanks. 

Aja then felt like it was time for her to tell Steve the truth about her Akiridion heritage, as a goodbye. When Steve kept making bigoted remarks about aliens, Aja became more than determined to keep him from knowing the truth. However, when Aja finally reveals her true form to Steve after they escaped the Zeron Brotherhood, he is taken away by her beauty and accepts her for whom she really is, much to Aja's delight. He makes a pinkie promise with her to keep their secret and commends Aja and her brother on how brave they are. During the Eternal Night War, Steve and Aja share their first kiss (with Aja in her human form) and says that he's the best boyfriend in the universe. 

Throughout Part Two of 3Below, their romantic relationship further intensifies to a level where Krel gets really annoyed and disgusted with their romantic interactions (like how he rather wants to die than being tied up to stare at Steve and Aja expressing love to each other in "Ill Gotten Gains"), and that they constantly need physical contact of each other to comfort themselves. 

However, in "There's Something About Gwen (of Gorbon)", the two had a brief quarrel when Steve discusses that during all of their recent "dates", Aja has been more focused on completing her missions rather than wanting to spend more time with him alone like she promised many times, much to his frustration and impatience. He was even led to believe that she has been treating him more like a sidekick than a boyfriend lately. Aja, however, was angry because she thought that Steve just wanted to her to act normal, to his denial. Luckily, they quickly make amends when Gwendolyn attacks Stuart and they both help subdue the meat-eating Gorbonian. In the end, they go on an actual date together alone, apologizing for their behaviors and taking each other for granted. 

When Aja offers Steve a chance to join her on Akiridion-5 as its first Earth ambassador, Steve respectfully rejects because he wants to stay and reconnect with his family, but they both promise to keep a long-distance relationship and visit each other often. Steve briefly mentions Aja at the Battle of Killahead (during their adventures in Camelot), trying to send a goodbye text to her just in case he did not make it through the battle. The text mainly consisted of his goodbye speech and a sad emoji face. It is unclear if Aja ever got this text.

Claire Nuñez (formerly)

Throughout the first half of Part One, Steve gave off the early impression that he could be a potential love rival to Jim. However, Steve was probably just trying to get revenge on Jim for humiliating him, not out of actual romantic feelings. He kept trying to flirt with Claire and get close to her by becoming Jim's understudy in the play, although he was still bit rude to her, as shown in "Win Lose or Draal". Claire didn’t really like him or his antics, nor did she approve of his bullying ways, yet tolerated him for the sake of the play.

When Claire learns about Jim's secret life, Steve no longer hits on Claire and actually seemed to be annoyed by her, proving that he never did like Claire, while Claire returns the same exact feelings.

It's presumed that after he and Eli find out about Jim's double life, Steve and Claire most likely now treat each other mutually. In Wizards, they treat each other much better now, but there are times where they still get on each other's nerves.

Family

Coach Lawrence

Coach Lawrence is Steve's stepfather. He has been dating Steve's mom for months until they eventually married, much to Steve's discomfort and dismay. The coach tries to be a be a good father figure for Steve, who pushes him away, due to his bad history with his real father. In "Bad Coffee", when Lawrence gets spiked with Gravesand, Steve begins to open up and admits that Lawrence is not his father, but his friend. They finally hug it out (but then they awkwardly released each other). They are presumed to have a better relationship.

In Part Two of 3Below, Coach and Steve appear to have grown closer, and Coach was even proud of Steve when he learns that he's a Creepslayer. He also showed proudness when he saw Aja (his star athlete) tightly hugging Steve for saving her and her brother's lives, though at the displeasure of Steve and exposing everything about his relationship with Coach to Aja. Steve was also proud of Coach when he confronted Kubritz and demanded her to back off with all the lies and confounded accusations of the Tarrons, gaining much more respect from Steve.

Mrs. Palchuk-Lawrence

Due to his father's hostility, Steve's relationship with his own mother was rifted. When his mother starts dating Coach Lawrence (and eventually marrying him), it only strained even more.

However, after finding a change of heart in himself, it is most likely he made amends with his mother and wished to rebuild his love for her, as evident when he chooses to stay in Arcadia because he didn't want to leave his family.

Mr. Palchuk

Steve hated his biological father, because he was apparently a very neglectful and verbally abusive man. His father's hostility is most likely the reason for Steve's [former] harsh behavior which strained his social interactions with his peers and made him enjoy dominating other kids he considers weaker than himself.

Friends/Allies

Eli Pepperjack

“If it's creepy, then it's time for some Creepslaying.”

―Eli to Steve

Of all the relationships evolved throughout the course of the series, Steve's most evolved has to be his with Eli. Initially, Steve always made Eli's life a living nightmare and forced him to do things for him such as doing his math homework, putting money in Steve's bank account, and shoving him into a locker for no reason.

Eventually, Steve discovered a goblin in his garage and went to Eli for help. Eli explained to him about the strange supernatural occurrences in Arcadia and that he has been studying how they must be connected to one person. They then decided to investigate the strange activities together and started to see each other eye-to-eye for the first time and become friends. This friendship develops to the point where they generally ask each other for advice first when they have a problem.

However, Steve maintains a skeptic attitude towards Eli's conspiracy theories (until he shows truth-worthy evidence), especially when he tells him about aliens in Arcadia. Even after he finds out Eli was right about Aja and Krel being aliens, he begs his best friend not to expose them to Arcadia because he's dating Aja and knows that she nor Krel mean any harm to Arcadia, since they are exiled from their home planet. Unfortunately, Eli's overeagerness of exposing the supernatural lead to him taking pics of Aja and Krel in their true forms, completely ignoring Steve's (his own close friend's) pleas.

After Eli learns that Steve has known about Aja and Krel being aliens before him, he was a little hurt that he never told him, but understood his reason. At the end of 3Below, Steve was happy yet sad that Eli decides to join Aja on Akiridion-5 for the summer.

Toby Domzalski

Like with Jim and Eli, Steve loves to bully Toby as well, often making fun of his fat physique and braces. Despite being more calm about Steve's bullying, he still wishes he could punch his smug little face, but he still uses all of his willpower to not let Steve get under his skin. However, his frustration and anger towards Steve almost reached a boiling point around "Skullcrusher", when Steve sadistically says that Jim was gone and now he had no one. Toby then gives him a a bit of karma by out himself as the king now.

Luckily, after Steve finds out about Jim's double life, the two began to develop a more decent relationship, though Steve still tends to act tough on him.

Krel Tarron

At first, Krel (unintentionally) provoked Steve to beat him up after he slapped him and mistakenly accused him of being an alien in disguise. However, after he develops a crush on Aja, who is his sister, he tolerates him mutually and often asks him how his sister's doing or if she's dating anybody.

After he learns that Krel is an alien, they have grown a more decent relationship. Krel even decides to stay on Earth to be with Steve, Toby, and the other friends he's made there.

Jim Lake Jr.

Since knocking Steve’s tooth out, Steve had spent a majority of Part One trying to get revenge on Jim, like stealing his part as Romeo for a school play and win Spring Fling King (which he won for no reason).

After Jim entered the Darklands and the other Trollhunters told everyone he had a terminal illness, Steve knew it was a trick and decided to find out about what was going on. When Eli and Steve teamed up to investigate, they assumed that Jim was part of an evil supernatural plot, but eventually found out the truth. Since then, Steve has gained respect for Jim and gotten over his grudge against him.

In Wizards, they have noticeably become very good friends, and Steve didn't even seem bothered nor interested by the fact that Jim transformed himself into a half-troll. While hunting for trolls with the knights, he purposely makes Lancelot miss Jim to warn him of the incoming attack. When Jim's wound by the Green Knight's shard begins to worsen, Steve was clearly distraught and worried for his former rival's well-being, showing how much he's grown to care for Jim. He was just as relieved as everyone else when Jim regains his humanity after being freed from the shard.

Douxie Casperan

Steve and Douxie appear to know each other, even before he learns that Douxie is a 900 year old wizard. While getting stuck in the past, the two become close comrades and valuable allies to restore history.

As revealed by Charlemagne, Douxie sees Steve as a brother he never had (along with Jim).

AAARRRGGHH!!!

Although they don't interact much, Steve and AAARRRGGHH appear to have a good relationship with each other (most likely due to the fact that they both had pasts of being violent before reforming).

In Part Two of 3Below, they are shown to be valuable allies in combat during Kubritz's attack on Arcadia. Steve also cried on AAARRRGGHH's shoulder while he sadly watched Aja head back to her home planet.

Stuart

Although they barely interact, Steve is aware that Stuart is an alien after the events of "Truth Be Told". Steve once found his romance with Gwendolyn a little disturbing, and was even grossed out when he used the snot pot they crafted together. Despite that, they're on good terms through Aja and Krel.

Luug

At first, Steve thought of Aja and Krel's dog to be cute and friendly. However, as seen in "There's Something About Gwen (of Gorbon)", he became annoyed by Luug always attacking and licking him.

Merlin

Although Merlin and Steve have little interactions, Merlin sees Steve as a bumbling oaf, yet they still share a common cause through Douxie.

Lancelot

Lancelot and Steve look physically similar, which can make one assume he might be Steve's ancestor. When Steve gets trapped in the past, he is trained under Lancelot's mentorship in the ways of a valiant knight. While on the hunt for trolls, Lancelot laughs at Steve's incompetence, much to his dismay. Deep down, despite his doubts, Lancelot truly did believe that his new squire has what it takes to become a proper knight.

During the Battle of Killahead Bridge, Lancelot sacrifices himself to save Steve while being crushed by Bular, enraging Steve to fight back stronger.

Enemies

Gwendolyn

Steve barely has any interactions with Gwendolyn, but when she threatens to eat Stuart, he was quick to attack her (though she merely slaps him away).

Colonel Kubritz

Steve barely has any interactions with Colonel Kubritz, but Steve finds her completely deplorable after she kidnaps Aja and threatens to kill her, as well as himself.

King Arthur

Steve seems to respect King Arthur, yet deep down, despises how he treats those who are different (magical creatures more specifically, like Jim).

Also, Steve seemed to fear Arthur, in a way, shown when he attacks his friends as the Green Knight.