Robyn's Establishing Character Moment when she shoots a wolf poster square on the nose from 20 feet across the room.
When Robyn sneaks out of town, she notices Padraig and his gang bullying a young boy. She uses her crossbow to shoot a flag over their heads, causing it to fall on the street children and allow the boy to escape, which also proves to be a successful distraction for the guards when the street children start running around with the flag and lets her slip out without anyone noticing. The kids themselves get a pretty good moment as well, as their first thought on an English flag landing on them is to steal it in petty rebellion while in clear sight of the guards.
Mebh's first speaking lines to Robyn lets us know she's far more wolf than human...
Mebh:[sing-song voice] You can come out now... [With fierce eagerness, as she rides atop a wolf] We can smell ya! Yeah! Ya stink! I knew you were here. Come out of your hidey-hole. Let's see ya!
Robyn running with Mebh and her pack and learning how to be a wolf, fittingly accompanied by AURORA's "Running with the Wolves". You could mistake the song for having been made for this scene.note In a sense, it was; "Running With the Wolves" originally came out in 2015 and is more of an electropop song, but this version uses traditional Irish instruments and the lyrics are changed slightly to better fit the tone of the movie.
In wake of seeing her mother in a cage, Mebh breaks out of the cage the local children put her in, the very force sending them flying!
While in wolf form, Moll angrily biting Bill to keep him from putting a metal collar on Mebh. Just moments ago, she was cowering before the Lord Protector and his torch, unable to fight back while she was chained and muzzled. But when she sees Bill about to put a collar on her baby girl, she finds the might to break open her muzzle with sheer jaw strength alone. Heck, the foot soldiers practically struggle to return her to her cage.
Before she runs back to the woods, Mebh furiously declares to the crowd of townsfolk that she's a Wolfwalker who will bring her wolves and eat them all! This silences them into fright at realizing they just mocked a powerful young Wolfwalker and what just transpired on stage was not a comedy. The Lord Protector is left with a massive egg on his face as his ace in the hole to win over the townsfolk got foiled by a little girl.
There's something to be said that rather than write Mebh off as a crazy girl, they take her word for it when she finishes her speech by howling, which is followed by the howls of dozens (if not hundreds) of the wolves living in the forest.
Robyn finally learning to stand up for herself after realizing that trying to reason with her father will not stop him from killing Moll. When Bill yells at her after another feeble attempt to dissuade him, Robyn breaks down crying and leaves the stand. All seems to be lost for Robyn, with the Lord Protector on the march, Mebh declaring war on the town, and Bill preparing to execute Moll. But then, she gathers herself, lets her hair down, and quickly comes back to the stand after her short breakdown, putting herself in front of Bill's crossbow, signaling that she will not stand for this and is now willing to protect what she feels is right, even if it costs her, rather than live as a bystander in fear of being punished.
The scene is made even more awesome that when you realize that Robyn basically transformed into the alternate version of herself (with straight, free-flowing hair) that she envisioned in her dreams before turning into a wolf for the first time. It represents how Robyn on the inside wants to live free and be at peace with herself, and by turning into the Robyn in her dreams, Robyn is also accepting her true nature, willing to rely on it if it means doing the right thing. As the song said, Robyn isn't letting her dreams go incomplete.
The whole scene is visualized as if Robyn herself is stuck inside the borders of the screen itself, which gradually shrink and become more claustrophobic with every cut, but then, as Robyn lets her hair loose, her hair escapes the borders—and in turn, her dreams become reality, and she escapes her emotional barriers.
During the scene, look carefully at the face expressions Bill uses while he argues with Robyn. Because of Robyn standing up to him, he slowly starts to break as Robyn questions his decisions. He knows that what he's doing might be wrong, but he's too scared to admit to it as it could land him and Robyn into serious trouble. But all it shows him is that he needs to escape from the emotional barrier (or, well, cage) that he has put himself and his daughter in.
Hell, Bill admitting to his daughter that he's afraid is this, showing emotional vulnerability in a time where men weren't supposed to. It takes some ballsy writing for a kid's movie to explore the very idea that parents can feel something as human as fear.
Robyn frees Moll in the few seconds her father's back is turned and climbs on her back, riding Moll out of town like something out of Princess Mononoke. For the first time in the movie, we get to see the true prowess and strength of an adult Wolfwalker as Moll effortlessly dodges and outruns everything the soldiers can throw at her. She then jumps on top of the town wall and onto the rising drawbridge, breaking it with her weight amid a shower of falling Mooks.
It's a smaller moment, but whilst she rides Wolf Moll out of town, the two of them unwittingly scare Padraig out of his wits. Given he's spent most of the movie being a nasty brat, it's satisfying to see him get some form of comeuppance.
Another awesome (and heartwarming) moment from Sean Og: When Robyn escapes with Moll, he hollers and cheers as he sees them pass by, acknowledging how amazing the Wolfwalkers are.
Sean: Go on, girl![cackling]
Robyn turns out to be a very effective leader and strategist, instructing the wolf pack to lure the soldiers into snares and draw their fire and then attack while they're still reloading their guns. As Robyn herself points out, the Lord Protector's forces have guns and a cannon, but Robyn is still able to lead the wolves into taking down a significant portion of them. She fights alongside the pack and even after taking a cannonball hit, she runs towards a firing squad to jump upon a cannon and lower its barrel to the ground, blowing it up by herself and, even after taking that explosion, she's only knocked out.
Screw it, Robyn's Character Development in general is awesome. She starts off at the beginning as a naive girl, both in mindset and personality. Whenever she tries to talk to her father about the Wolfwalkers, she's always shown to be suggestive than upfront, and ends up being on the verge of tears when the situation gets more intense. Also, when she tries to stand up to the Lord Protector, she's threatened with the stocks and is left becoming scared of turning into a wolf, because of what could happen. It's not until later that she learns that she needs to fight for her freedom than just ask for it, even during harsh scrutiny. And it's all done without Robyn (and the audience) needing to be told about it.
Before the fight even engages, there's this small moment where, at hearing the soldiers are at the edge of the wolfwalkers' forest, Robyn readily volunteers to hold them off. Mebh's response is to soberly command the wolves "follow her..." Very quickly since gaining her wolfwalker powers, Robyn has gone from being Mebh's wolfwalker apprentice to being her equal.
Remember that bite Bill got from Moll? And do you remember what happened after Mebh bit Robyn? When seeing the Lord Protector about to kill his wolf daughter, thanks to the bite, Bill embraces his newfound Wolfwalker abilities and becomes a literalPapa Wolf to save her. The fact that his human self was chained up gives it a chilling visual of him unleashing himself.
This transformation takes on an extra level of awesome when one bears in mind that Bill wasn't readily asleep or anything close to it. And yet, he managed to tap into his Wolfwalker powers and practically rip himself free of his human form. Either that, or he strained against the chains so hard he passed out. Either way, his love for his daughter was just that powerful.
Also, points for Merlyn trying to fight off the Lord Protector from killing Wolf Robyn before Bill could, even if he only buys a little time before the Lord Protector swats him away.
What follows is a battle between Wolf Bill and the Lord Protector! After spending over half of the movie living in fear of the Lord Protector at the cost of stifling his daughter's dreams, his relationship with her, and burdening his conscience, it's downright satisfying to see Bill stand up to him in this manner. You know what that means: time for some more adult Wolfwalker action! Not only is Bill surprisingly in his element as a wolf, but when the Lord Protector swings his sword the second time after cutting Bill, Bill bites it, and in the process, destroys his steel sword like he's cracking an eggshell.
It's even more impressive given the fact that this is Bill's first time being in his wolf form.
And to make it even better, being a wolf hunter probably helped Bill in that regard, as he has probably trained himself to act fast like a wolf and using his tactics (like finding an opening) as a hunter.
When the Lord Protector is pinned down by Wolf Bill, he realizes that Bill's unconscious human body is connected to the wolf he's fighting against. He aims his pistol at human Bill's head...but then it's shot out of his hand with an arrow. Cue the reveal that Robyn went back to her human body off-screen and used her skill with the crossbow to disarm him and save her father's life.
The whole way the attempt is conveyed is amazing too, as when the Lord Protector cocks his flintlock pistol at Bill's body, it's set up like a comic panel, and when the panels move, the last part gives off the feeling that the Lord Protector literally has Bill at gunpoint. It really helps heighten the intensity.
The best part is that Robyn and Bill win the fight against the man who threatened their lives under the guise of trying to protect them, to the point of him attempting suicide.
A minor detail: From a perspective shot, when the Lord Protector attempts to free himself from Bill (in his wolf form), he immediately relents when seeing Robyn with her crossbow in her hand, knowing that Robyn can kill him quickly since she disarmed him earlier. Think about it: The Lord Protector was scared of a kid. So, he chooses to fall to a supposedly quick death rather than die a humiliating one by the hands of the Goodfellowes.
Mebh and Robyn combining their strength to heal Moll's arrow wound, which also serves as a Heartwarming Moment. If Mebh being unable to do it herself is any indication, it's no easy feat for even one Wolfwalker to heal a person so close to dying.
Mebh:[sniffs and wipes her nose, now looking more determined] There's two of us now.
Sean Og gets another small moment towards the end. After receiving his Stock Punishment for complaining about the Lord Protector's tyranny, he pushes the guards out of the way and forces the town gates open, prompting the rest of the townsfolk to follow him out onto the bridge. They're all in awe of the wolves' howling and the golden light from Robyn and Mebh's healing magic, but he's the first one to recognize it for the truly awesome moment it is.
Sean: You hear that, huh? 'Tis lovely music altogether.
