Arrested for treason against Trollmarket, Jim finds himself wishing he never answered the amulet's call in the first place, a wish that the spirit of Unkar the Unfortunate is willing to grant...
Tropes:
- Atrocious Alias: When Unkar hears what they are calling him, he certainly isn't happy.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The last we see of the Alternate Timeline before Merlin brings him back is Jim, completely non-powered, raising his sword and charging at Gunmar and his hordes in a suicidal Last Stand. Things do not look bright for him.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Unkar was just a minor Posthumous Character but plays a large role in this episode and segways into Merlin himself.
- Cross-Referenced Titles: With the two-part pilot "Becoming".
- Darkest Hour: Killahead Bridge is opened, Gunmar and his armies are wreaking havoc, Arcadia in flames, everyone dead or dying and the Amulet of Daylight in pieces. How could it get any darker?
- Defiant to the End:
- Strickler buys Jim time by fending off Bular and Gunmar.
- Steve surprisingly, as when Jim sees him he's on a lamppost throwing rocks at Gumm-Gumms and shouting that heroes never die, something he continues to do even after he's carried off by a stalkling.
- Double-Meaning Title:
- "Unbecoming" is both a reference to Jim losing his status as Trollhunter (thus him not becoming the Trollhunter) and as a variation of the pilot episode(s) titled "Becoming: Part 1 and 2" when Jim first became the Trollhunter.
- Triple meaning as "unbecoming" means behavior ill-suited. It is unbecoming of Jim to give into despair and want to abandon his duty as Trollhunter.
- Enemy Mine: Strickler, of all people, is the one to believe Jim about the time-travel plot, and to help him Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Follow the Plotted Line: When he's still figuring out the predicament that he is in, he finds himself saying lines that he originally said in "Becoming: Part 1" absentmindedly.
- For Want Of A Nail: In a mix of self-awareness of the events that play out and the complete change in events that comes from Jim not becoming the Trollhunter, various events play out differently.
- Jim originally found out about Killahead Bridge through Eli's photograph of the crushed goblin, an event which led to Jim and Toby learning about changelings and their plans to build the Killahead Bridge. Because Jim did not tell the people of Trollmarket about the changelings in Arcadia and the construction of the Killahead Bridge, the Janus Order was able to reconstruct the Killahead Bridge without Trollmarket knowing.
- Draal becomes the Trollhunter, only to be killed shortly after the Killahead Bridge is opened because he was unprepared and faced them alone as past Trollhunters have done.
- Because Jim knows about Strickler's secret identity as a changeling, he keeps his distance from him. A mix of keeping his distance from Strickler in school and not possessing the amulet (something Strickler noticed in the first episode) may have kept Strickler from intruding on his life, thus he never knows Barbra to any capacity.
- Jim does not intervene with Steve picking on Eli, thus not sparking the animosity between them.
- Jim stays a distant admirer of Claire. His incredibly causal attitude towards her makes her suspicious and the two never even become friends.
- Jim never tries out for Romeo and Juliet, so Steve ends up in the part of Romeo and Jim and Claire never even become friends.
- Gladys/Gladysgro is still alive and attacks Dr. Muelas during the invasion.
- Bular is still alive and helps lead the invasion with his father.
- Foreshadowing:
- In the beginning of the episode, as Vendel explains to Jim he'll likely face death if convicted by the Tribunal, Usurna is notably seen smirking at the idea.
- When Jim tries to explain to Blinky what has happened, Blinky is incredulous and asserts that no troll, alive or dead, has the power to rewrite time. As it turns out, no troll does. Merlin does.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Jim gets to experience what would have happened if he hadn't become the Trollhunter. It's not pleasant to say the least.
- Leave No Witnesses: When Jim admits to Strickler that he knows he is a changeling, he grabs a dagger and immediately tries to kill him.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: When Jim tries explaining the situation to Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!!, they end up thinking that he is a changeling. In fairness to Blinky, a human somehow knowing so much about trolls is much less likely.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- It was Jim's decision to go without telling anyone in the alternate timeline about what was coming that led to Arcadia falling to ruin.
- If Jim simply waited and allowed Blinky to get a gaggletack to prove that he was not a changeling instead of running for it, then maybe they would have been more likely to listen to him and they could have prevented The End of the World as We Know It.
- The Story That Never Was: When Jim decides to pick up a weapon and go fight the Gumm-Gumm hordes outside of the museum in-spite a lack of the amulet, friends or magic to help him, Merlin brings Jim back to the main timeline where he is ready to stand trial, confident that he will do the right thing in spite of overwhelming odds. Whether or not the other timelines actually happened or if it was some kind of magically-induced dream is unclear.
