#trollhunters unbecoming

[talesofsonicasura]

What If: Trollhunters Unbecoming

I mentioned in the post here about the potential of Trollhunters S2 episode Unbecoming. What if it was actually a bad ending universe where Jim participates in his other self's shoes before he does? An idea we are gonna further explore here.

Let's start with the episode itself. All the events Jim experiences aren't exactly correct in this respective universe. This is darker version never had him as a Trollhunter as Draal gotten that role. It means the Jim there was unaware of the growing danger under his feet.

He never discovers his teacher is a Changeling, find himself in Trollmarket, nor meet Blinky and AAARRRGGHH. Jim's essentially a normal kid whose greatest challenge at the moment was highschool. Very bad as his whole world is gonna shatter soon.

Everything else in the episode does play out. Draal dies, Gunmar is unleashed and Arcadia is torn asunder. This Jim's actual fate remains a mystery since the who confronts the Gumm-Gumm King is the Trollhunter alternate.

How much worse can things get?

A whole lot with the inclusion of 3Below and Wizards. Multiple forces who will no doubt fight over world domination. Gunmar, Morando, and the Arcade Order are gonna clash. Continents around the globe will get involved in this supernatural war.

It's only when things spread outside Arcadia's reach does it really worsen. We also have to add the Eternal Night. Gunmar and Morgana don't realize this tactical advantage ruins everyone's chance at survival.

Plants need sunlight in order to grow. A good chunk of pollinators such as bees only appear during daytime. Without them, plants will begin to wither and die. This leads to the decline in animal population as herbivores are steadily deprived of their food source.

Even if someone uses magic, there isn't enough to sustain an entire ecosystem. Lack of resources will lead to more unsavory survival tactics such as cannibalism. The world slowly becomes a cold uninhabitable wasteland without the sun.

Well, if none of the nations decide to unload their nukes. Magic, alien technology and nuclear warfare. I rather be dead thanks. Basically it becomes a situation where no one really wins.

The place is either devastated or heavily radiated. Every bystander has to live in a painful apocalyptic world that approaches utter oblivion with each minute. Gunmar's release was the flare signal for damnation.

And Merlin barely did anything to stop it. He put his complete faith in the idea of the Trollhunter. A idiotic idea when the battlefield is essentially a warzone. Jim exceeded all his predecessors cause he did the one thing Merlin wouldn't do. The young seeks help.

You don't fight a war with a single soldier. No, an army is needed to turn the tides especially if the consequences for failure are WORLD ENDING. This universe never had a chance as it was too little to late.

You may never know when the sky will one day. Quite a terrifying thought.

[ilovewaltstrickler]

My boy! They are traumatizing my boy!

[toa-archive]

Memory is back to it's bad but mostly functional self again so Unbecoming Monday it is! There's a couple of tidbits that didn't make it to the final because of time constraints. Now you can enjoy what did get in (The Jumanji reference particularly) and these :)

Source

Since the gif is in screenshot form and tumblr doesn't have it for some reason, it's from Troll 2:

The following tweet is in response to Silvermender pre her account getting hacked by cryptobros so her original comment has since been lost. Likely why many missed this one since it's effectively "detached" now.

Source

This is in fact not the only bit of cut content from Unbecoming we know about and while posted previously, doing so again to keep it together. This sequence is by Tom Sales and if it looks oddly familiar, it's a sort of mirror to the Bular chase in Becoming!

[wickedwitchofthesouth]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT I WAS GOING SO WELL UNTOL THE END WHAT THE HELL WHAT DO YOU MEAN JIM TIME TRAVELS BACK TO EPISODE ONE?!?!?!?! WHAT ABOUT UNBECOMING THIS DEFEATS THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE PROFECY THIS IS WORSE THAN "AND IT WAS ALL A DREAM" WHO FUCKING WROTE THIS SHIT BRO?!?! COME OUT SIDE BRO IM GONNA JUMP YOU

[queen-morgana91]

The way ROTT ending completely negates the best episode of the series sigh

I will never stop complaining about this movie, sorry.

It also just completely negates what we learned in For the Glory of Merlin episode as well as just them meeting Merlin who goes "Oh, yeah, hi James... wait, why you so young?"

Merlin is established to have chosen Jim as the final Trollhunter from the fucking start.

The amulet didn’t “call to Toby”. Toby just went there because Jim told him to. This is not destiny, it’s bad writing.

We also learned in Unbecoming that when Jim tried to get the amulet after school, it wasn't there. Draal had already got it somehow. So Toby getting it after school doesn't make sense, it would already be with Draal.

Even Trollhunters books confirmed that Jim is THE Trollhunter of the series.

In Age of the Amulet book Jim helped and inspired Gogun the Gentle to become a Trollhunter, resulting in him becoming one of the bravest Trollhunters to ever wield the Amulet (Kanjigar looked up to Gogun’s noble example btw). He was taught by Jim how to fight. He restored order and he was the only known Trollhunter to die from old age. In the book Gogun said that Jim  brought light to another dark age. 

And in Wizards timeline he’s able to befriend Deya and push her into the right direction, resulting in her becoming the first Trollhunter.

Most of Jim’s actions in the past are what result in Trollhunters even happening, and if he hadn’t been there, they would’ve ended up ruining the future. 

He’s literally “The Once and Future Trollhunter”.

And now i hate ROTT movie even more because it was stated over and over again (in the books and in Wizards) that YOU CAN'T CHANGE HISTORY.

btw the books writers are smarter than the movie writers.

[owlfacenightkit]

It’s just. How did they mess up ROTT that badly??

Like. The plot of the movie was basically already covered in Unbecoming. We’ve already seen it play out

How is an almost two hour movie worse than a 23-minute long episode??

[pinkytoothlesso11]

Hi Pinky! What do you think made Jim fall in love with Claire before and after he became the Trollhunter?

Before Jim became the Trollhunter he fell in love with Claire because she was smart, confident and self assured and of course she was pretty too. But that was always a secondary thing for him.

After Jim became the Trollhunter: Jim especially began to fall in love with Claire after he saw how good she was at fighting, how naturally she flourished in the magical world and her clever ways of solving problems just made Jim more infatuated with her.

But this by no means is to say the initial crush wasn't mutual.

@bluheaven-adw Jlaire HC's that might cheer you up, feel free to add on!

[dreamcrow]

not the tomb merlin "YoU mUsTn't MeDdLe WiTh ThE fOrCeS oF tImE" ambrosius built for himself inherently relying on time magic 🙈

[lifblogs]

I’m doomed. I’m on “Unbecoming.”

[trollamulet]

verse tags - main universe / alternate timelines for toa.

[toa-archive]

The twitter side of the Archive will be back on normal schedule from tomorrow so with that in miiiind.

Would anybody be interested in an extended cut sequence from Unbecoming that's a blatant throwback to Becoming by Tom Sales?

Rest assured Bular is having a GREAT time.

Strickler perhaps not so much.

His website was updated yesterday (!) and I may have caused surprise by finding a Jim hidden on the site within a few hours of this happening. Whoops. Twitter had the blogspot versions of these a ways back, this is the fancy Speaker Deck version of a favourite.

Anyway enjoy!

[sonicranger1]

I'm still pissed at ROTT so since I'm not a YouTube reviewer you get this text wall of me explaining why while the ending of the movie does indeed suck it isn't just the ending that sucks

Why didn't Jim put on any armor till the very end? you pretentious child why should I care if you got injured when you're running around armorless just because you can't have your magical amulet armor anymore

Why was Jim questioning if he was still the Trollhunter when all the way back in S2 E11 'Unbecoming' of Trollhunters he himself said "I know I'm the Trollhunter. I'm the Trollhunter, Amulet or not"

Why did Jim suddenly start caring about his father in the movie? Aside from the fact the conversation leads to nothing and you could've easily cut it out and it wouldn't have changed anything it was established all the way back in S1 that Jim never cared about his father so why retcon that?

They shouldn't have killed Nomura off so early when we've barely been able to see her dynamic with the Trollhunter cast outside of being an antagonist and let alone see her dynamic with the cast of 3below and Wizards

Following up on the last one why did you send Trolls to the only Titen in broad daylight, you can't tell me there weren't better picks then Nomura and Arrrgh

And on that point, here's my little fan reassignment of the teams

(I put way to much effort in this literally sobbing, pls click 4 better quality :'()

Anyways time to explain my reasonings

Team Sword: the OG was fine I have almost no problems with this one but Krel could've been utilized way better imo, also Arrrgh is perfect for lifting up a giant rock with a sword embedded in it, he's literally always described as a hulking brute by other characters so ??

Team Orb: same thing with Team Sword I have nothing against it and it's probably the best one out of all of the originals but man Nomura interacting with Blinky is just... such an amusing thought to me, it is partly fueled by the short kinda interaction they had when Krel was playing music earlier in the movie but anyways more serious reasoning is I think she's the best alternative to Claire since it's not like her shadow magic was- or could've been used at any point during the mission乁(ツ)∫

Team Sunshine: once again what the hell was Jim thinking with this one? The only one that made sense to be there was Douxie, anyways reasonings with this one is that 1. Toby would actually be utilized lmao 2. Toby and Krel interactions fuel my soul 3. With Toby's hammer and Krels tech they'd probably have a way easier time getting up the Earth Titen

Team Icy: Claire Shadow magic = no rope snapping and lesser chance of Strickler dying aka less unnecessary deaths yay :DDDD

The mission assigning was such a good opportunity to have characters interact who haven't interacted prior/flesh out previously established relationships that didn't get alot of screentime and ROTT blew it, truly so much missed potential but I suppose you can say that for the entire movie

Why did they just casually mention there was a heartstone on Akiridion-5 like we knew that information prior to the movie? no one commented on it and it made me feel insane while watching

GET. RID. OF THE. MPREG. SIDE PLOT‼️‼️‼️ you're not Fairly OddParents it doesn't work and doesn't make sense, Aja and Steve have entirely different biology

(These next ones are more personal/general nitpicks but whatever)

Call me a hater but the whole "Arcadia is the center of the universe" is so dumb, I remember first hearing that little bit of info from a fancomic and i thought it was just having Blinky be egotistical but no, apparently that's a fact of life now

Idk I think it's cooler and funnier if all these guys came to Arcadia out of pure coincidence yknow?

what/where was Dictatious, Chompsky, Nancy/Nana and anyone else I'm forgetting doing during all this especially when Arcadia was being destroyed at the end, just feel like they should've atleast done a quick cut away shot to what they were doing during all this chaos (translation: I miss Dictatious)

Why doesn't Blinky use Dwärkstones anymore, I thought that was gonna be his signature weapon after The Eternal Knight but apparently not I guess, seeing him chuck explosives at Gods definitely wouldn't have been cool anyways...

Blinky sure has alot of time on his hands for being the supposed Head of New Jersey Trollmarket

Btw does that place even exist cuz for all intents and purposes it doesn't, so serious why didn't we ever get to see it dude 😭

Before I get to pointing out the obvious with the ending I'd like to highlight scenes that I actually liked and were actually good!

I liked the scene in the somewhat beginning with Blinky and Arrrgh talking about if the other dies they were glad they got to know the other that was sweet, loved it, 10/10

Like I mentioned earlier the brief scene with Krel playing music and Blinky and Nomura being annoyed by it was great, got a chuckle out of me and I wish we got to see more of that

Blinky being electrocuted was pretty good 👍 the pilot unnecessarily pointing out his multiple eyes and arms was funny to me

near the end where Blinky went to comfort arrrgh when Toby died was another 10/10 I love them ur honor

Okay being nice over, time to dig into this movie again

Toby being the Trollhunter is such a terrible idea for multiple reasons

For 1. It just makes Jim's job harder now cuz changing something as fundamental as who's the Trollhunter is gonna drastically change so many things which inturn makes things far less predictable and unless Jim has the new amulet still (which is unlikely since he's never shown with it after going back) he can't just Undertale-style reset if something goes wrong

2. Toby has never shown interest in being in any leader-type role (unless you count him directing his short film in 3below) and considering part of being the Trollhunter is basically leading an entire race...

3. Sorta following up on point 2 The role of being Trollhunter holds so much responsibility and burden and it just... dare I say, doesn't make sense for Jim as a character to put that burden onto Toby, his best friend

Guys this is the same kid who went into the darklands alone to take on Gunmar because he didn't want to see anymore of his friends/family getting hurt and you expect me to believe he'd then put that all onto Toby?

4. Toby even getting the amulet doesn't make sense considering in 'Unbecoming' the amulet was already taken by Draal by the time school ended

5. Speaking of 'Unbecoming' that episode also established that if anyone but Jim got the amulet Arcadia- and in extension the world- would be doomed and the eternal knight would happen so I guess he wants everyone to die ! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyways I'm done (hopefully) TLDR: the movies awful, makes dumb decisions, completely ignores or retcons things established earlier in the franchise and didn't utilize it's extensive cast at all

And if you've read this far, thank you I appreciate it and I'll use this time to recommend the original Trollhunters book, it's awesome and has an ending 10x better then this slop please go read it (IHaveATotallyLegalWayForYouToReadItEasily)

[queen-morgana91]

I've watched this episode so many times (my favorite episode!), yet this part confuses me everytime. The King chess

I have some headcanons about it:

-Strickler realizes if he continues to be on Jim’s bad side he will also fall and be killed by the blade of a true “king".

-He realizes what Jim’s saying is true, there are 3 chess pieces. Two are standing (Jim and Walter), while Gunmar, the "king", has fallen.

-Jim symbolizing the king piece. He saw the king fall over pointing his cross at the pawn at the same time Jim fell over. Strickler realized that if he didn't help, all would die in the mass destruction.

-The king chess is Strickler. He realized the future he will happen to him. He knew that he shouldn’t kill Jim.

I'm probably wrong lol

[missus-andrist]

A Rant about Tales of Arcadia/TrollHunter Toby backlash/Fatphobia

As of recent I’ve been seeing posts about how much of a disappointment the ROTT ending, Which I wholeheartedly agree, it was bad. However, the Fatphobia I’ve seen against Toby has been at an all time high.

Unless you’ve watched the show with your eyes closed, you’d know that Jim was absolutely not chosen for his physical attributes, as we can see with the past trollhunters being all different shapes and sizes. Jim was no different than any other kid his age physically, realistically, a skinny and scrawny boy like himself battling against giant beings made of stone, he would’ve been squashed like a pancake. He was chosen because of his WILLPOWER

As we can see in Unbecoming, we see that Draal was the alternative TrollHunter, although he was physically a match for Bular and Gunmar, he still failed nonetheless. Physical fitness is not a requirement to be chosen, if so, Jim would’ve never been chosen in the first place. Jim got to where he is now due to his willpower, training, and cleverness.The entire point of Jim’s character is that he himself is not special or better than anyone by any means, he is a normal kid with a big heart and determination.

Disclaimer: You can still be disappointed with the ending, that’s not the issue, but being disappointed due to fatphobia, you’re gonna have to rewatch the series in order to figure out that it’s not a valid reason to be disappointed

The reason why TrollHunter Toby isn’t exactly ideal, is because we have not one, but TWO episodes/explanations as to why it has to be Jim. One being the entire episode of Unbecoming, and the second being the entirety of Wizards explaining how you shouldn’t mess with the past, and that there will be consequences to any future events if interfered

However, these reasons don’t mean that Toby wouldn’t be a great TrollHunter, in fact it would be rather interesting to see, but story wise, not a great decision on the writers part

[pinkytoothlesso11]

Hey, there the same newbie in the Fandom again

I rewatched the show again with my brother and started noticing things I didn't in the first. But for today, only one ask shall I send

Do you think Walter has some guilt feelings about Jim transformation? I mean, the boy wasn't listening to Merlyn till he said similar reasons to the one Strickler said in training and especially in bad coffee, which we saw in it that Jim still cared about Walter opinion or something? (TBH, I like the episode, but half of it was just trash . What do you mean by just "protect her?" he cares for Jim and forbids Bular from attacking him way before starting to start dating Barbara)

Wow, so much rambling sorry anyway back to the guilty feelings because I think he kinda saw himself the reason? He clearly knew or guessed what the potion would do because of his reaction to it

And the "young Atlas you are not alone"

It strikes me as if he realized what he said earlier about Jim not being able to defeat Gunmar by his strength alone (so he got the potion) and his speech was more of hopeless attempt to reach Jim to not accepting the fact he can't win alone but they could find another way together

Oh God, I write all of that, so sorry, but you're the only trollhunters (Strickler) fan I know would be able to understand me

First off, this is a fantastic ask! And it doesn't matter how many times I rewatch Trollhunters, I still find new things. It's probably why I rewatch so much.

I don't think Walt is guilty about Jim's transformation to half-troll. He wanted Jim to survive Gunmar. Because any humanity shown to Gunmar would end with Jim dead. Strickler never said Jim needed to be more than human, not like Merlin did. Strickler was terrified Jim would die, which was why the training in season 3 was so tough. Strickler was angry and scared when he realised what Merlin had done.

Yeah, Jim DOES care about Walt's opinion on him, and I think the same can be said of Walt.

Bad coffee is a bad episode for Strickler and Jim's relationship lol. Right from the start of Trollhunters it was JIM who instilled in Strickler the seeds of his eventual redemption. And RoTT (terrible as it was overall) proved that once and for all. Strickler is willing to DIE for Jim. He didn't die for Barbara. And that's why Jim sets him up with Barbara at the end of the movie.

The whole 'I didn't return to train you, I returned to protect her' can't be taken seriously. Since you know, Strickler was high on gravesand. Nothing he says is particularly nice while on gravesand. None of the teachers are lol. And it was said also because Strickler wanted Jim to kill him. To finish the fight. And needed to say something to wind him up. What better then using his mom? Since obviously he returned for Jim's sake, knowing Barbara would want nothing to do with him at the time. And yes, maybe he returned to train Jim also because it would indirectly protect Barbara, but still. Blatent lie. If that was true, Jim would be dead.

[aaaarsonist]

"I'm the Trollhunter, amulet or not"

Unbecoming >>>>>> the movie

The episode shows exactly why Jim is the Trollhunter, why the amulet chose him and no one else.

This episode is the peak of Jim understanding why this was his destiny, and the fact that the movie forgot about this annoys me so fucking much. Jim always questions himself about his roll as the Trollhunter, and although he was already committed to his responsibility, this is when he finally accepts it 100%. Yeah, he stills has his doubts, but he already sacrificed so much, and he ends up sacrificing his humanity just to finally defeat Gunmar. And I don't think Toby would do this.

I like Toby, I really do, but he being successful at defeating Gunmar would be only thanks to Jim having his memories from his timeline. If Jim had lost his memories when he went back in time, everything would end the same as in the episode, because I don't think Toby would be able to achieve everything that Jim did. He doesn't have the same sense of responsibility, nor the convictions that Jim has.

"(...) Of all creatures in our worlds, I chose you. Now, show them why"