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Steven Q. "Steve" Palchuk is a supporting protagonist of the Tales of Arcadia franchise. He is at first enemies with Jim Lake Jr. and his friends and bullies Eli Pepperjack before becoming best friends with each other and forming the Creepslayerz (play on of Trollhunters). The two befriend Team Trollhunters and help them in their fight against Morgana and later, the Arcane Order.
In the sequel spin-off series, 3Below, he begins a romantic relationship with Aja Tarron, and he doesn't mind she is an alien, proving he loves her for who she is.
History
Trollhunters
Steve is seen locking Eli in a locker after he tells him about the trolls, he saw the last night. Thinking he's making this up, Steve taunts him, until Jim comes to Eli's defense and asks Steve to release him. Steve threatens Jim and is about to punch him, but is stopped by Coach Lawrence, so Steve decides to leave the feud for another time.
The day of the fight arrives, Steve is ready to hit Jim, but luckily for him, he manages to fight back thanks to his lucky charm, hitting Steve in the chin, causing him to lose a tooth. Since then, Steve has thought about getting back on Jim. In an attempted at revenge, Steve seeks to replace his rival in the Romeo and Juliet play, which pays off when Steve is promoted to the role of Romeo and Jim becomes the understudy after his repeated absences due to his assignment as Trollhunter. However, Steve is unable to play Romeo when he suffers a concussion from crashing his motorcycle into a bush while challenging Jim to a race.
Later, Steve competes against Jim and Eli for the position of prom king, however, his arrogance and overconfidence cause him to lose to Jim, much to his dismay. Despite this, Steve ultimately wins (unfairly) the position of king, and celebrates his victory, rubbing it in the faces of Jim and Eli. After, Steve begins to suspect Jim's unusual behavior, as he hasn't shown up at school. Believing that Jim is hiding for not to admit his failure, Steve secretly follows Toby and Claire, who search for Jim in the Dark Lands. However, when he demands information from Toby (who has taken on Jim's appearance using Glamor Masks) about the latter, a piece of the bridge knocks him unconscious. Also, he tries to explain to a policer officer what he saw, but the cop doesn't believe him and takes him away
One night, Steve starts taking out the trash at his house after a family argument. There, he hears a noise near the garage, and when he enters, he finds a green goblin, which scares him. The next day, at school, Steve is forced to work with Eli on a baby project. He tells him about the goblin he saw last night and goes to Eli's house for explanations. After learning that in Arcadia is supernatural activity, the goblin convinces them that Jim is a danger to Arcadia Oaks, making them to think that he is responsible for freeing the creatures. Believing this, Steve and Eli create a plan to stop him, and the two form the team named The "Creepslayerz." They follow him to the Arcadia Museum, with both trying to stop Jim's "evil" plan. However, upon hiding out, Steve hears Jim talk with Claire, realizing that Jim is good and that he and Eli committed a mistake. Learning of the misunderstanding, the two agree to secretly protect Arcadia from supernatural creatures. After defeating the gruesome with a sack of flour (which turned out to be their baby from the school project), the two meet face-to-face for the first time, realizing that they make a good team together. That is when Steve and Eli form an alliance, though Steve decides to keep his friendship with Eli a secret for the sake of his reputation.
When going through a Saturday suspension with his classmates, Steve sees Jim's fight with Draal, something Jim picks up on. Later, Jim calls Steve and Eli to help the Trollmarket survivors. Steve and Eli collaborate by bringing the Trolls umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun as they leave the Troll Market. Their help is enough, and finally Jim thanks them. After which, Steve and Eli become official allies of Team Trollhunters.
A time later, Steve feels uncomfortable after his mother and Coach Lawrence got married and asks his stepfather not to say anything. The attempts of Lawrence to connect with Steve only get more difficult. During a meeting in the teachers' lounge with Mrs. Janeth and Mr. Uhl, Lawrence drinks (unknowingly) the troll ashes stuffed into his tea. Succumbing to the ashes, the teachers go crazy. In gym class, a possessed Lawrence embarrasses Steve in front of all the students and makes fun of his fatherly troubles. A humiliated Steve walks away, and while in the locker room, he hears Jim and Toby discussing the situation. He demands that Jim solve this, before going to Principal Strickler for help. He informs the boys that the teachers will only return to normality if their students connect with them.
As Toby and Eli take Mr. Uhl and Mrs. Janeth away respectively, Steve takes his stepfather. At the gym, Steve tries to reason with Lawrence, but Lawrence just freaks out and tries to whip Steve. However, Steve opens to his coach and expresses his daddy issues and admitted that Lawrence is better than his biological father. The two then hug, and Lawrence returns to normality, (although they then awkwardly let go each other).
At the end of the school year, Steve and Eli attend the Battle of the Bands, in which participate Aja and Krel. Before the show, Claire tries to tell everyone about the Eternal Night, but no one (except Steve and Eli) believes her. Just then, Morgana arrives in the center of the city and the Gumm-Gumms arrive to attack and terrorize Arcadia. Steve and Eli fight the Gumm-Gumms with their weapons, but one of them almost attacks them. Fortunately, they are saved by Nomura, and even Steve is impressed with her beauty. After Morgana and Angor's defeats, Eli and Steve introduce the trolls to the entire school.
3Below
When the class goes on a field trip to the observatory, Steve listens Eli talking about what he saw on Aja and Krel's ship, but is skeptical about it, calling it a "cosplay nerd". At the time, Aja pretended to need help lifting a heavy moon rock (in reality she was distracting Steve to let her brother Krel read Eli's mind to see if he knew of his identities). Steve, trying to look good, came to her aid, but was unable to lift the rock. However, Aja managed to pick it up easily due to her Akiridion abilities, which amazes Steve. At night, while Steve was going to eat at Stuart's food truck, Krel mistook him for an alien impostor (due to him wearing a helmet), leading him to beat him up. Realizing that he made a mistake, Krel tries to apologize, but Steve refuses and is about to punch him in the face before being stopped by Aja. She asks him to leave her brother alone and kicks him onto his vespa, making Steve to fall in love with her instantly.
Wizards
Personality
Initially, Steve was an arrogant bully who made life miserable for fellow classmates Jim Lake Jr. and Eli Pepperjack. He was also very vindictive, as he insisted on getting back at Jim for knocking out his tooth and attempted to replace him in his school play as Romeo. Steve is also very boastful, as he is always gloating about himself or when he thinks he has been better than someone. However, most of the time, the reason Steve was a bully was because his father was abusive towards him and his mother. Coach Lawrence implied this by saying just because Steve's father is gone didn't mean his hostility had to remain in the house.
However, when he learns the truth about the supernatural things that exist in Arcadia, Steve decides to change for the better. After encountering a goblin, Steve teamed up with his bully victim, Eli Pepperjack after being forced to work with him on the baby project. Now believing in the supernatural, the boys were convinced by the goblin that the threat to Arcadia Oaks was Jim Lake Jr.. However, Steve realized this was a mistake when he was in the witnessed Jim changing into his Trollhunter armor and proclaiming to a golem that he was saving Arcadia. This proved what the goblin was saying was wrong. After this experience, Steve and Eli finally befriended each other and became genuine in protecting Arcadia from other threats. However, they had to maintain their status quo at school to avoid suspension. Changing for the better, Steve and Eli would later help Jim, the trolls, and Team Trollhunters after the survivors from Trollmarket when it fell. They provided the trolls with umbrellas so they could walk in the daylight without being burned.
Steve especially saw a different world of perspective after he met Aja Tarron and immediately fell in love with her. After a while, he has come to accept the supernatural. When he learned that Aja was an Akiridion (as in, not from Earth), Steve immediately accepted her. He later showed Krel and Aja sympathy after learning they were refugees on the planet after General Morando overran them. When he met Archie for the first time, Steve was not shocked at seeing a talking cat, rather, a talking one with his glasses.
Initially resentful to having Coach Lawrence as a stepfather, he later came to accepting him as a better father than his biological one.
Trivia
- In the original book, Steve was a changeling. This isn't the case in the TV series adaptation.
- He has the same name that his voice actor, Steven Yeun.
- Steve has one of the biggest character developments in the franchise: Although he started out as an jerk bully who bullied Jim and his classmates, he later became best friends with Eli, leader of the Creepslayerz and protector of Arcadia, the boyfriend of Aja, and finally, a Knight of Camelot.
- Steve and Raphael from TMNT have several things in common.
- They are both hot-tempered
- They bully one of the main characters (Mikey and Eli)
- And they have a vitriolic friendship with Eli, Jim and Casey Jones.
