Trolls: one of the most popular family franchises of Dreamworks based on the Good
Luck Trolls created by Thomas Dam. The story centers on a Troll named Poppy, who
navigates leadership as the queen of the Pop Trolls with help from her friends along the
way. With so many colorful characters in a world of song and dance, we ask ourselves:
who is the most good? And who is the most evil? That’s what we’re taking a
crack at today.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge, and this is Trolls: Good to Evil.
As usual, we’ll be starting with the most noble character and then work our way
down. These characters are The Good. The gold medal for most good
goes to Queen Poppy. Poppy is the happy-go-lucky
leader of Pop Village who cares for the well-being of all Trolls. Her optimism of
everything being “cupcakes and rainbows” resulted from her growing up in a carefree
environment with almost all of the Trolls around her being happy all the time and living
to enjoy life. When her friends get kidnapped by Chef, she is determined to go and save
them. Even after getting the Trolls to escape the Bergens, Poppy was willing to go back
there anyway to save Bridget from execution and to convince the Bergens that
happiness is already inside them. However, Poppy does tend to value her own
judgements over the opinion of others due to stubborn persistence. When going on the
journey to find the other Trolls Tribes and stop Barb from stealing the six strings, she
wanted to prove herself to be a good queen that she didn’t listen to the concerns of her
dad, Biggie, King Quincy, and Branch. But in the end, she finally realizes her mistake
and that being a good queen means listening to others in order to make better choices.
The silver medal of Good goes to Branch. Branch was the biggest outcast of all the
trolls due to his complex emotions. He outwardly appeared to be a grump who only
looked out for himself. However, on the inside, he truly does care for other trolls.
Especially Poppy. He just tends to hide his true feelings by being sarcastic. As it turns
out, the reason behind Branch’s pessimistic nature is that he felt responsible for his
grandmother’s death. When he was little, Branch was singing “Total Eclipse of the
Heart,” unawarably attracting attention from Chef. He was saved by his grandma, only
for her to be taken instead. Due to the incident, Branch’s sorrows made it impossible for
him to enjoy being a troll for 20 years. As the events of the first film progress, he slowly
learns that he can be happy. In the sequel, he was more than willing to aid Poppy on
her journey to find the other Troll Tribes. Then in an act of self sacrifice, Branch throws
himself in front of Poppy so that she doesn’t get hit by Barb’s electric zap.
The bronze medal of Good goes to Bridget. Unlike most bergens who appear to be
cruel and mean-spirited, Bridget is sweet and kind. She initially lacked confidence
because of her title as a scullery maid to King Gristle Jr. and was afraid that he wouldn’t
return the romantic feelings she has for him. But after befriending the Trolls and briefly
disguising as her alter persona, Lady Glittersparkles,
to try to win over King Gristle, she later admits her feelings for him and
stands up to Chef to protect the Trolls. She was even willing to sacrifice her own life by letting
the Trolls escape so that they wouldn’t get eaten by the Bergens. That shows
how selfless she truly is. Behind Branch is his late grandma:
Rosiepuff. There is absolutely nothing bad to say about Rosiepuff. Despite her small appearance
in Branch’s flashback during the first film, it is shown that she was a very kind
and selfless woman. She loved Branch so much that she was willing to sacrifice
her own life to save him from getting taken by Chef.
Next we have Cooper. Cooper is one of Poppy’s many close friends in her entourage
known as The Snack Pack. When the home of his birth family, the Funk Trolls, is
threatened by the Rock Trolls, Cooper is shown to love his family that he chooses to
stay and help them. He is also shown to care for his friends that he sends Poppy,
Branch and Hickory away for their own safety. Which shows how much he cares about
his family and friends that he wants to protect them from any harm as much as possible.
Let’s move onto Biggie. Another one of Poppy’s closest friends, Biggie is generally shy,
timid, and gets easily frightened. But a few of the best qualities about him is that he has
a big heart and is honest about things. While relying on others at times, he has value in
the simple promises that people make to others. Especially when Poppy pinky promised
him that she will protect him no matter what. When she breaks the pinky promise,
Biggie is upfront to her about it and goes back home due to the danger they face on
their journey together. But when he realizes that he shouldn’t have left Poppy, he
rounds up the Snack Pack to go to the Rock Trolls territory and save her.
Behind Poppy is her dad and retired king of the Pop Trolls: Peppy. During his reign,
Peppy was the heroic king who vowed to save his people by escaping from the
Bergens. Because of Peppy, he was able to protect the Pop Trolls from harm’s way for
20 years. However, when the Snack Pack gets kidnapped, Peppy tends to fall back on
his tactic. He even admits to his daughter that he is not the same Troll he used to be.
He also does the same thing when Poppy finds out about the other Trolls and gets an
invitation from Barb. Peppy doesn’t always tell Poppy everything, believing that she
should learn things when she’s ready. However, Barb’s conquest of the Tribes forced
him to reveal that secret to her. Despite this, Peppy loves his daughter very much and
just wants to protect her like many dads do with their daughters.
Wrapping up the Good characters are the rest of The Snack Pack, Guy Diamond, DJ
Suki, Smidge, and Satin and Chenille. Like Cooper and Biggie, each of these Trolls
normally spend most of their time attending parties with Poppy and are generally there
to support her. They help Poppy get Bridget a date with King Gristle, save her from
execution, and make costumes to disguise themselves in an attempt to save Poppy
from Barb. That right there is friendship goals. Now that we’ve wrapped up the Good characters,
let’s move onto the Grey Area. Let’s start the Grey character list
with Cloud Guy. Cloud Guy gets easily bored hanging
around in the sky all day so he looks for random mischief to cause. When Cloud Guy
messes with Branch by trying to get him to high five and hug him, he gets chased
around and leads Branch and Poppy to Bergen Town. Despite the annoyance of Cloud
Guy’s antics, he can actually be very helpful for better or worse.
Then we have King of Bergen Town: King Gristle Jr. Gristle was initially a long-term
seeker of happiness due to the traditional mindset of the Bergen society that eating a
Troll will bring true happiness. He’s somewhat spoiled and usually gets what he wants
due to his royal privilege as king. However, upon realizing his romantic feelings for
Bridget, he found happiness. But he didn’t realize it himself until Poppy explained to him
that it is what happiness is truly supposed to feel. Due to this discovery, he abolishes
Trollstice for good. Now we have the Bounty Hunters:
the Reggaeton Trolls, the K-Pop Gang, the Yodeling Trolls, and Chaz,
in that order. Each of these subculture Trolls were hired by
Barb to capture Poppy. Depending on which of these Trolls can get to her first, Barb
promised to give them a piece of the territory in exchange for her capture. The
Reggaeton and K-Pop Trolls encounter Branch and corner him to the point where the
two Tribes end up in a dance battle. However, they end up having a change of heart
when Branch tells them that they shouldn’t have to fight for their music genre to exist.
Especially when all types of music should have a home. Because of that, they come to
a truce with Branch and ride together in an air balloon to save Poppy from the Rock
Trolls. The Yodellers, Hickory and Dickory, deceive Poppy, Branch and Biggie to get the
Pop String with Hickory pretending to be a Country Troll. Despite Hickory saving the trio
twice and his sympathy and guilt of betraying his new friends, the deception ultimately
led to Poppy’s capture. As for Chaz, the only known Smooth Jazz Troll, he uses his
music to hypnotize the trio to where they are defenseless. However, his tactics fail due
to Hickory saving them since he was the only one that was immune to Chaz’s powers.
Let’s move onto the Ancient Pop Trolls. The Ancient Pop Trolls are listed very low on
the list due to their intentions of fabricating the real history of the strings. According to
Peppy, it was initially believed that the reason all of the Troll Tribes were divided was
because the Tribes argued over their differences to the point where the elders decided
that it was best each Tribe took a string and went their separate ways. However,
according to Cooper’s twin brother Prince D, the real reason that the Tribes divided was
because the Pop Trolls took all six strings to play only remixes of all the other music.
Eventually, the other Tribes finally got their strings back. But despite this, the Pop Trolls
caused so much damage and distrust that the Tribes decided to split up anyway.
Then we have Mayor of the Country Trolls: Delta Dawn. While Delta outwardly appears
to be friendly when she is around the community of Country Trolls, she shows another
side of unfriendliness and suspicion when it comes to meeting outsiders. She reacts
harshly to Poppy, Branch and Biggie for playing a different music genre that offended
her and her townsfolk, going as far as arresting them for “committing a crime against
music.” She also chases after them when they escape from jail. Even though everyone
has different tastes in music, that still doesn’t excuse her to act so
unwelcoming to them.
Behind King Gristle Jr. is his late dad and former king of Bergen Town: Gristle Sr.
Gristle Sr. wasn’t exactly a great king during his reign, given that he condoned a
gruesome holiday such as Trollstice. He wasn’t exactly the best father to his son either.
When King Gristle Jr. was a kid, his dad’s primary mission was to get him to eat his first
troll. But when the opportunity is taken away from him after the Pop Trolls escape,
Gristle Sr. doesn’t even try to cheer up his son. He straight up tells him that he will
never be happy unless he eats a troll. Not the best advice for a parent to say to their kid
when they need the most love and support from them, especially in a situation like this.
Wrapping up the Grey Area are the Bergens. The Bergens are very interesting from a
moral standpoint, given that they change over time in the first film. They believed that
eating a Troll would make them happy and that there was no alternative due to Chef’s
influence. This was especially due to the influence that Trollstice had on them for years,
since it was seemingly the only thing that gave them a fulfilled purpose in life. But
thanks to Poppy, she helped them realize that happiness is inside them. Because of this
realization, they became more friendly to the Pop Trolls and moved forward peacefully
with Trollstice no longer dividing them.
Finally, we get to the dark side. These characters are The Bad and the Evil.
Starting out, the Bronze Medal of Evil goes to Creek. When we first meet Creek, he is a
very easygoing troll who had a close relationship with Poppy. However, that changed
after getting held hostage by Chef along with the Snack Pack. He sells everyone out by
giving the location of Pop Village to Chef so he can save his own skin. He excuses his
cowardly actions by claiming that he would have to live with the guilt of his betrayal for
the rest of his life. When in reality, he could care less about what happens to the Trolls
as long as he doesn’t get eaten. Good thing karma bit back in the end.
The Silver Medal of Evil goes to leader of the Rock Trolls: Queen Barb. Having been
the main antagonist in the sequel, Barb schemed to take all power strings from the Troll
tribes of Classical, Pop, Country, Techno, and Funk. Her plan was similar to what the
Pop Trolls did a long time ago. Not only did she plan to eradicate all the other music
genres except rock, but also turn all of the Trolls into rock zombies and use the Rock
string to overwrite their true nature and be dedicated to rock music. To get those strings,
Barb wreaked havoc on all of the Troll tribes and imprisoned everyone. She even hired
and manipulated most of the other subculture Trolls to capture Poppy in exchange for a
piece of the Rock Trolls’ territory that wasn’t even that promising to begin with.
Last but not least, the Gold Medal for Most Evil goes to Chef. During Gristle Sr.’s reign,
Chef was a celebrity who was praised for bringing Trolls to the Bergens every year on
Trollstice. Due to the Trolls’ escape causing her to be banished from Bergen Town,
Chef held a grudge for 20 years and kept looking for the Trolls to regain her status.
Especially because she believed that her position was the keeper of the Bergens’
happiness. When she finally finds the Pop Trolls, she kidnaps the Snack Pack,
manipulates King Gristle into bringing back Trollstice, uses Creek to find their new
location, and attempts to execute Bridget. She also tries to force Gristle to eat Branch
upon realizing that she was losing control over the situation when Poppy finally
convinced the Bergens that they can be happy without eating a Troll.
That wraps up the list! Who do you think are the most good and evil characters in
Trolls? Let us know in the comment section below. Don’t forget to hit that notification
bell and binge our Good-to-Evil playlist -- where we break down the morality of the
characters on your favorite shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!