Western Animation / Trolls: The Beat Goes On!

Celebrating who we are
Yeah, we made it through the dark
Harmony is everywhere
Put your hair up in the air!

— The show's theme song

Trolls: The Beat Goes On! is a Netflix animated series produced by DreamWorks Animation, based on their 2016 film Trolls.

The show takes place after the film (and Trolls Holiday) and follows the Denser and Wackier, Slice of Life adventures of Queen Poppy, her boyfriend Branch, the Snack Pack, Bridget, King Gristle, and their fellow trolls and Bergens as they keep the music going in brand-new adventures.

The series premiered on Netflix on January 19, 2018, with six episodes making up the first season. Seven more episodes, comprising the second season, premiered on March 9. After 52 episodes, the show's final season aired November 22, 2019, in time for the movie sequel Trolls World Tour. There have been two web series of promotional shorts for the series titled ASK POPPY and Trolls: Pump Up the Party!.

A second Trolls series taking place after the events of the second film, exclusive to Hulu and Peacock, followed in November 19, 2020, titled Trolls: TrollsTopia.

The series later showed up in Universal Kids, which celebrated its inclusion with a four-day marathon through the 2020 Thanksgiving weekend.

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Trolls: The Beat Goes On! provides examples of:

#-E

• Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • The Korean dub uses a different version of "Hair In The Air" that is sung at a lower octave and adds several rap verses.
  • Both the Korean and Japanese dubs use "Best Day Ever" from "The Royal Review" as the ending theme.
• Ambiguous Ending: The show's final episode revolves around Branch deciding to move out of his bunker, then deciding that it's too big a step too soon...but then the self-destruct button goes off. This may have been to prevent continuity errors with Trolls World Tour.
• Ambiguous Situation: The series dances around the exact nature of Poppy and Branch’s relationship. The movie more or less treats them as the Official Couple. The series overall treats them as close friends. However, they are ship teased every now and then. Whether or not this is just troll courtship is unknown. Then comes the sequel movie, approaching their relationship even more by addressing their feelings for each other.
• Apology Gift: Cooper gives the Bergen the pie he stole in episode 3.
• April Fools' Plot: "Prank Day", involving Poppy and Branch in a pranking competition to earn the title of "Prank Master".
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Occurs no matter how odd their world is with only one lampshade hanging. In Whimsy Wasps Smidge points out the biological impossibility of both a species that feeds on whimsy and one that feeds on boringness. Both times she's countered by Cooper pooping cupcakes on the spot, which she concedes to. Another episode has Branch point out the evolutionary nonsense of a plant on a remote island that swallows trolls whole to spit them out with a makeover, yet the plot of another episode was about them hunting for swag by tickling a species of deer until they puked it up. Not to mention all the apparently natural instances of Fantasy Counterpart Appliance the trolls use like giant beetles that are turntable sound systems or the small bug-like critters they use as boomboxes.
• Art Shift: The scrapbook sequences, which are still in its choppy animation.
• Art-Shifted Sequel
• Ascended Extra: The Snack Pack. Being a television series, each is given more screen time, and some of them have gotten a chance to shine. Well, not Fuzzbert...
  • It looked like Fuzzbert was about to shine in "Freeze Tag", with Poppy preparing to tell the kids a story about him, until Smidge cuts her off to focus on the actual plot.
• Ask a Stupid Question...:
  Bergen: Did your mama teach you to be lame, or were you born that way?
  Biggie: Uh...is there a third option?
• Audience Surrogate: Due to being a grumpy shut-in most of his life, Poppy usually has to explain the current holiday or festivity to Branch and the audience.
  • Lampshaded in "Funsgiving" with the Snack Pack explaining the holiday to Branch, even though he already knows about it. Then they start explaining food to him.
• Babysitting Episode: Petsitting to be better said, but this is the plot of "Adventures in Dinkles-Sitting".
• Bad Hair Day:
  • The ASK POPPY short "Bad Hair Day" has Guy Diamond losing control over his Prehensile Hair, and is worried that he won't be able to go to Biggie's oncoming glowstick party like that. Poppy gets Biggie to allow hats in his party so that Guy's hair can be kept controlled.
  • In "Trolly Tales 3", Poppy, Guy and DJ Suki have to fill in Gia Grooves' role at the Troll Village child daycare center due to her hair undergoing the same condition as Guy's in the previous case above, which is claimed that it will last her the entire day.
• Bait-and-Switch Accusation: Branch wasn't invited to play Glitterball with the Snack Pack.
• Balloon-Bursting Bird: Exaggerated in "CJ's Wooferbug", which features a flock of "Cactus Birds" who literally have cactus skin.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: in "Branch Bum", Poppy wishes for once that Branch would stop thinking about danger. This goes too well, when they ended up on a relaxed Island free of danger, and Branch suddenly becomes a more relaxed version of himself called "Frond". But when a storm appears and the boat is cracking under pressure, Poopy eventually regrets her wish.
  Poppy: Look, I'm sorry, Ok? Yes, the old Branch drives me crazy sometimes, But I've never should've wished him away. We need you, we need Branch.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: A lot of Branch and Poppy's ship tease moments come from them becoming easily competitive with each other.
• Berserk Button: Smidge really doesn't like it when you prank her. What happens if you do so?
  Smidge: If nobody's gonna fess up, I'm just gonna have to prank *twists head* all. Of. YOU. (laughs evilly)
  • Let's not even bring up Prank Day in front of her. At all. It's actually a ruse Poppy sets up to prank Branch once and for all; this can be noted in that Smidge is present for pranks and even called over for Poppy's big prank idea before the story about Smidge's Berserk Button is told.
• Big Eater: Cooper eats an entire pie made for a Bergen in "Funishment".
  • He also eats many pies set up by Smidge in "Prank Day".
• Big "NO!": At the end of "Two-Party System", this is Poppy's reaction to being told that she threw Branch's birthday party a day early.
• Birthday Episode: That same episode has Poppy knowing that Bridget and Branch share the same birthday, although in the end Branch's birthday is until tomorrow.
• Blatant Lies:
  Chenille: It was Satin. Happy Prank Day!
• Broken Aesop: Spoofed in "Mr. Glittercakes." After Branch meets several other trolls who, like him, enjoy alone time, they end up creating a system to serve as new friends they made up as an excuse to get out of events with their usual group of friends. When Branch has had enough he delivers the Aesop of "your friends will understand if you just want to be alone from time to time." And then it's revealed that Poppy arranged the entire thing for Branch to learn the lesson. Branch angrily points out that Poppy could have just talked to him instead of setting up an elaborate plot.
  Poppy: Huh... Fair point, Branch!
  (banner reading "Fair Point" drops down)
• Call-Back:
  • There are plenty of call-backs to the movie, especially in earlier episodes.
    • Branch snapping a stick to Cloud Guy's face that causes him to "cry" in "Laugh-Out Cloud" is a reference to the movie's scene where he did the same out of frustration over Cloud Guy messing with him.
    • In "Bad News Bergens", Poppy says this line to Branch while training to play Bergenball as a suggestion of "trash talk", referencing the movie's major premise:
      Poppy: "You're nothin', Branch! I eat trolls like you for breakfast. Blammo! Now you try."
    • Branch interrupting the musical number at the beginning of "Prank Day" is similar to how he sarcastically applauds to the Snack Pack when he was first introduced in the beginning of the film.
    • Gristle and Bridget recall how they were first in love in "Sorry Not Sorry".
    • In "Big Poppy", the song "Get Back Up Again" from the movie is referenced by Master Controll in his compliment rap battle against Poppy with the line:
      "Cause if I knock knock you over you get back up again"
    • The anniversary party's description of "The Biggest, The Loudest, The Craziest Party Ever!" from the movie is referenced in "Rainbowmaggedon".
  • Within the series itself, later episodes call back to earlier ones.
    • When Poppy correctly guesses what Branch will change his bunker's password to (after having already guessed his original password in one try), Poppy repeats the "I'm in your head, Branch!" line in the same way she does in "Prank Day".
    • The terrible joke Branch told in "Giggleyum" returns in "To Catch a Critter", which is used to lure out one of the missing creatures.
• Calvinball: Glitterball for the trolls, Bergenball for the Bergens.
• Canon Discontinuity: The show isn't considered part of the films' canon by neither fans nor the show's staff, instead existing as mere "secondary canon" that is entirely optional to include in one's interpretation of the franchise's timeline. The show had ignored certain plot elements from the first movie at times, which is especially evident in Branch's childhood flashbacks.
  • This is particularly true in regards to Branch's movie backstory. He is always depicted as a child featured with his adult colouration, as it is seen in the show. However, Branch was grey for over 20 years prior to both the movies storyline and the shows start; he should be grey in all of the appearences as most event take place within the 20 years since the Trolls broke out of Bergen Town. When his childhood is brought up, the show only talks about the last 10 years since he supposdly started his "Bunker Days".
  • Speaking of which, life in the Troll Tree is never mentioned at all in the show and as a result the imprisonment of the Trolls in Troll town is never acknowledged. King Peppy is mentioned to have had a number of adventures in his youth - none of which were hindered by the presence of the Bergens at all.
• The Chew Toy: Branch takes a lot of comedic abuse in the series, especially in earlier episodes.
• Cliffhanger: For a mostly episodic show, a good number of seasons end on a cliffhanger of some sort:
  • Season 2's "Pillow War": The gang stumble upon evidence that there is an imposter Troll in the village.
  • Season 3's "Lost in the Woods": After making a Heel–Face Turn, Archer reveals he wasn't the only imposter Troll and that the Party Crashers are on their way.
  • Season 4's "Branch Bum": With the Wormhole they had used at the beginning of the episode unstable, the gang jumps through without any assurance that it will take them back where they came from.
  • Season 5's "Bringing Up Birdy": Branch and Poppy return to Troll Village after rescuing Branch's birds to find everyone in a state of petrification. It was just a game of freeze tag.
  • Season 8's "Bye Bye Bunker": Thanks to Cloud Guy, Branch's bunker is about to explode in ten seconds. This was later confirmed to be a parodied example, since the staff didn't intend it to be an actual cliffhanger.
  • Season 6 and 7 are notable for not ending on a cliffhanger.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Any of the trolls sans Branch, mainly Cooper, who's also the Plucky Comic Relief.
• Companion Cube / I Call It "Vera": Branch talks to a remote he calls "Gary". He even treats it like his son! In "Remote Out of Control", Cooper, Biggie, Guy and Smidge borrow the remote for a day, and they too treat it as one of their own.
• Continuity Cavalcade: One of the skits in "What Did I Miss?" involves Poppy finding out from a picture board at Biggie's pod that Mr. Dinkles continued to do photobombs despite having promised Biggie to stop doing so before. Said picture board is full of screenshots from previous episodes, most of which have Mr. Dinkles adding himself in one way or another.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "Dinkles Dinkles Little Star", after mocking Mr. Dinkles In front of Biggie, Groth comes back for a second to clarify that they are laughing at him, not with him. In "Bad News Bergens", Biggie did not initially understand that the bergens' team were laughing at the troll’s team to mock them, and started laughing along until Poppy pointed out that they were being laughed at.
  • In "The Party Games", when Guy Diamond is shocked that the new guy Archer Pastry is just as good as he is at the party games dispite never having participated before, Smidge sees his expression, and after trying to get his attention, says: "Uh-oh. That's the "I feel threatened by a young upstart" stare. I know it well". And she should know it well — she had the same reaction to Guy opening his glitterade stand across from her stoutberry juice stand in "Unhealthy Competition".
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: The "funishments", from the episode of the same name, in which trolls have lots of fun when punished, because actually punishing a troll is void in Troll Village.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: A large part of the plot of "Mr. Glittercakes" is based around this trope.
• Counting to Potato: Cloud Guy does a variant of this in "Laugh-Out Cloud" when coming up with a list of rules for best friends to do.
  Cloud Guy: Best friends rule número uno: Best buds always think alike.
  Rule B: Best buds always need a best buds photo album.
  Arbitrary rule number three: Best buds never miss their target.
  Rule number cuatro: Best buds boogie, baby.
• Courtroom Episode: "Tall Tail", where Branch tries to prove Creek committed a "Party Foul" (forgetting to bring fondue, rather than having to give it to a strange creature like he claimed). He ends up winning the trial, but learns the hard way that Creek was right.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Early on, Branch still connects with this trope because he continues to assume that some of the Bergens will try to eat the Trolls even after becoming allies. His fear of birds comes up as a further reason for this.
  • Smidge already set up traps for DJ and Cooper in a flash.
• Creepy Child: Keith.
• Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: When offered a troll-sized cup of punch in the first episode, Groth picks up and drinks the whole bowl instead.
• Cute Is Evil: While baby Cuddlepups are pretty much harmless, the adult ones are a threat to the Trolls.
• Dance Party Ending: Happened in Creek Week after Branch apologizes to Creek with a song.
• Date Peepers: Subverted. Branch sees Cloud Guy and Poppy together, and must prevent him from hugging her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Branch, still attached to this trope.
• Demoted to Extra: Fuzzbert. Compared to the other Snack Pack members, he has very little screen time and is the only member not to get a focus episode.
  • This may happen to members of the Snack Pack at times, such as Biggie and Smidge appearing without being focused on in "Fun Branch".
• Denser and Wackier: More than Trolls did.
• Disappeared Dad: Averted with King Peppy, who's still in Poppy's life as a recurring character.
• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Smidge on occasion - she inadvertently breaks every bone in Harper's body by giving her a celebratory high-five. She does it twice more in the same episode.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The theme was performed by Poppy and Branch.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Surprisingly Branch has this problem.
• DreamWorks Face: Branch, at some times.
• Easily Forgiven: When Creek returns in "Creek Week", he is immediately forgiven for betraying the Trolls by just about everyone except Branch. Poppy admits she doesn't fully forgive Creek either, but she is willing to give him a second chance. Near the end, Branch must apologize to Creek by singing a song.
• Ending Theme: Changes Once an Episode.
• Escalating War:
  • "Prank Day" has Poppy and Branch pranking each other. Gone too far with Smidge taking over when Branch accidentally pushes her Berserk Button, but the episode ends with everything being okay.
  • "Pillow War," where was it supposed to be a pillow fight between Branch and Poppy turns into an all-out battle with shades of Braveheart involving most of the village, complete with Gristle whacking everyone with a Bergen-sized pillow in a weird metaphor for the atomic bomb.
• Everyone Has a Special Move: Branch, who can't be pranked in tribute of Prank Day. He especially follows Poppy's every move.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The title of the series suggests that the music keeps on going for the Trolls and the Bergens.
• Exact Words: As seen in "The Giver", when Cooper is told to tell someone everything, he will literally recount his entire life story up to the point where he was told to tell everything (and it's suggested he'll hit a recursive loop where he'll just repeat it all until interrupted).
• Exorcist Head: Done by Smidge and lampshaded by Branch in "Prank Day".

F-N

• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables:
  • Stoutberries, which grow as hoops on the vine. True to their name, they're so sturdy that Smidge is the only troll that can juice them, until Guy Diamond figures out how to do so by slapping a zipper onto them.
  • Marshtatos, the trolls most favorite dessert treat. They think they only sprout annually, under the auspices of a shy fairy, but really they grow all the time and are hoarded by a greedy fairy-like being except for the one day it's too foggy for her to find them.
  • On Funsgiving a popular main treat is Diced Fruit. That is, a large fruit that grows in the shape of a die.
  • One episode revolves around the gigglefruit, which can only be acquired by making their trees laugh.
• Fantastic Light Source: The fact that trolls can make their hair glow is demonstrated a lot. At one point a concert crowd does a Raised Lighter Tribute using their hair.
• Feathered Fiend: Branch is revealed to have a fear of birds, which at one point Cloud Guy scares him by morphing his head into a bird.
• Feet-First Introduction: Groth in "Bad News Bergens," Cloud Guy in "Wormhole," and the fondue creature in "Tall Tail" get a camera pan up from their feet to their face, despite the first two already seen in their prior scenes.
• Feud Episode: "Unhealthy Competition" and "Prank Day".
• Fictional Holiday: As already mentioned in Trolls Holiday, the Trolls appear to have a holiday for almost every day!
  • Bellow Bug Day in the episode of the same name. The titular Bellow Bug only comes out every five years, and as queen, Poppy must ensure that everything's in good shape. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
  • Creek Week, also from a same-name episode. A week-long event involving yoga in tribute to Creek.
  • Harvest Moon in "The Giver", where an unknown individual nicknamed "The Giver" leaves presents on that night every year. That so-called "Giver" was revealed to be Branch.
  • Hug Day in "Cloudy With A Changes Of Hugs", where Trolls can only hug together in singe pairs, as a way to show the importance of hugs.
  • Prank Day in the same-name episode. This is Branch's favorite holiday, which he first mentioned in "Bellow Bug Day", which involves a day full of pranks. Branch did mention that he will prank Poppy first, foreshadowing the episode.
  • Royal Review Day from "Royal Review", where a poll about the current Queen/King's performance is hosted to all Trolls, who either mark a smiley face or a frowny face. Those who have marked frowny faces must have "room for improvement" (eaten by sharks, for one example).
• Fictional Sport: Bergenball
• Fireball Eyeballs: Happened everytime someone recalls the incident in "Prank Day". Branch once lampshaded this trope.
• Five Stages of Grief: When Sky Toronto isolates himself after Branch "kills" his tie, Sky Jr., Branch tries to reconcile with him and Sky goes through all five stages within 15 seconds, something that he refers to as "power-grieving".
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Creek. He’s been let back into Troll Village, but it is telling that any direct appearances he has are few and far between. In addition, in "Creek Week" Poppy and the Snack Pack admit that they now know he's a coward.
• Friendly Rivalry: Averted in "Unhealthy Competition", but in the end, Smidge and Guy Diamond decide to make juice together, only to find it ridiculous.
• Friend to All Living Things: Trolls live in harmony with nature and the series really shows how much critters are used in their daily lives. At one point when Peppy is warned of a swamp monster, but also told that it's lonely, he rallies a friendly mob with intent to befriend it.
• Freudian Slip: In "Meet the Peppy", Branch can't stop calling Peppy as "King Poopy".
• Fun with Acronyms: A variant in that rather than being abbreviated names for a group, an event or physical entity, the acronyms are more often used as terms in conversations. For instance, "FOMO-OPUP" has two examples:
  • The titular FOMO-OPUP term stands for "fear of missing out on Pop-Up Parties."
  • Near the end of the episode, Guy tells Poppy that he's going to "FLITM", or "fully live in the moment."
• Glowing Gem: As seen in the episode "Gem Day", the first strand of hair a Troll gets is cut and then planted. Over the course of their life, as the Troll gains happiness, the hair will develop into a flower with a gemstone, known as a "Troll Gem", in its bloom. This gemstone glows in response to the sound of its Troll's singing.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Occurs a little over a dozen times throughout the series. One example of this occurs after Smidge's "hair balloon" deflates and she and Branch rise up to the sky. They stop and float in midair with Smidge commenting on Branch's eyes before gravity takes over.
• Grows on Trees:
  • In "Pillow War" it's shown that the trolls use pillows that grow on trees from a grove that they harvest annually.
  • "Hair-Jitsu" has trees that grow black headbands...that move and are capable of fighting.
• Gum In Hair: Near the end of "Doc Doc, Who's There?", Gia Grooves gets gum stuck in her hair from unknown circumstances. Due to the nature of the Trolls' hair, she needs an emergency medical treatment for it, though she doesn't get a proper one until Dr. Moonbloom comes for her (following a couple unsuccessful attempts from Poppy while she was taking Moonbloom's place).
• Hairy Hammerspace: Trolls regularly store things in their hair.
• Happy Birthday to You!: Sung in "Two-Party System" when the trolls celebrate Bridget and Branch’s birthday. Done mainly in Slo Mo.
• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • Branch learns several times that even if someone has wronged you or made you justifiably angry, if your response is seen as disproportionate then you become the bad guy in the eyes of everyone else.
  • "Creek Week" teaches that one can forgive their friends for things other people might find unforgivable, and dwelling on the fact that someone was Easily Forgiven when you don't think they deserved it makes them see you in a poor light.
• I Know Kung-Faux: The eponymous "Hair-Jitsu" is a martial art for trolls that naturally focuses on using their hair, which Poppy is revealed to be a master in. Its most advanced technique is the Hairball-doken.
• I Am Not Weasel: Cooper mistakens Poppy for a cake. Poppy is not amused.
• Impact Silhouette: In "Fun Branch", Cooper makes these in several troll houses, requiring their occupants to bunk with Branch while they're repaired.
• Is It Something You Eat?: In "Sorry Not Sorry," when Gristle is told that Bridget wants an apology, he replies, "Sounds familiar. That's a cake, right?"
• Jar Potty: "Laugh Out Cloud" reveals that Branch keeps his urine in jars, grossing out Poppy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Creek, as opposed to his Jerk with a Heart of Jerk side of things.
• Joke of the Butt: Although Guy was subject to a few light butt jokes in the movie, he's more commonly prone to them here.
• Lampshade Hanging: Commonly, some of the more cartoony aspects of the show will be commented on by the other characters, like Branch wondering how everyone else could do Fireball Eyeballs in "Prank Day," or Smidge wondering just how Branch could build half of a boat in seconds under their feet in "Branch Bum."
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Comes up several times in "Wormhole," when Smidge, DJ Suki, and Guy Diamond emerge from different wormholes all Covered in Gunge, and all three want to forget whatever just happened.
• Little Miss Badass: Smidge. It's shown repeatedly that she’s the strongest of the Snack Pack despite her size, and is often the first to resort to violence. She ended up breaking every bone in Harper's body just by high-fiving her. Because of this Smidge believes her crush, the kind, gentle Milton Moss wouldn’t be interested in her. She's wrong.
• Lost Food Grievance: Cooper steals Groth's pie by eating it in "Funishment".
• Love at First Punch: Fistbump, actually. When Smidge drops the charade and gives Milton Moss a fistbump so hard it knocks him off his feet, he’s clearly smitten.
• Meet the In-Laws: Despite the Ambiguous Situation noted above about the exact nature of their relationship in the show, "Meet The Peppy" plays out like one of these, with Branch desperately trying to earn Peppy's approval. To Poppy's consternation, the two end up bonding over noting her flaws.
• Memento MacGuffin: A bullseye given to Branch in "Fun Branch".
• Mini-Golf Episode: "Peril Patch", where the trolls come across a mini-golf course which is actually a trap designed to lure them in.
• Mining for Cookies: A throwaway detail in an episode shows that trolls mine for sprinkles.
• Mutual Envy: In "Unhealthy Competition".
• My Beloved Smother: Cloud Guy's parents are incredibly overbearing, which Branch discovers after inviting them over in an attempt to drive him away. They only leave when left with nothing to do because they want to dote on someone so much.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Branch's reaction in "Fun Branch" when he bothers the Snack Pack too much.
  • Also Branch's reaction when he pulls out the equivalent of a nuclear option during the pillow war: King Gristle, laying waste on the trolls with a Bergen-sized pillow.
• Never My Fault: Twice, Poppy has blamed Branch for something that was her fault (throwing the disastrous party in the first episode), and made Branch take part of the blame for giving Gristle the wrong idea by saying "we've messed up".
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In "Royal Review", Poppy and Smidge lead a mother Cuddlepup to the village by bringing in her puppies.
  • In "Creek Week" Branch tricks Creek into thinking he's brave. The Snack Pack are not amused at his jealousy.
  • In "Prank Day", Branch accidentally pranks Smidge via a water balloon, causing her to go on a "revenge streak".
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: Smidge's concern about her crush, Milton Moss in "Crushin' It". Turns out he might actually be an Amazon Chaser.
• No Object Permanence: Did Poppy mention that Hug Time is all the time at the end of the movie? Heck, the Hug Time bracelets. They weren't abandoned. They were still on the trolls' wrists, and can only be seen when they're lit up, to imply that it's hug time. Completely averted for Creek's.
• No Prison Segregation: The Fun Dungeon, a building originally established in "Funishment", was meant to be used to punish both male and female Trolls, and it overloads with them in the episode's climax before finally being left unused. In "Party Crashed", the Party Crashers also kept Poppy (female) and Branch (male) together in the dungeon upon capturing them.
• No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: Branch is the only one that holds it against Creek for selling out their entire village to the Bergens to save himself, and is baffled that he's Easily Forgiven by everyone else. After proving again that he's a Dirty Coward that would sell out anyone around him to save himself, Poppy admonishes him for it because Everybody Knew Already, and for some reason, Branch is in the wrong for not making peace with it.
• Not a Date: At the end of "Cloudy with a Chance of Hugs". Turns out that Cloud Guy set up a fake date with Poppy to fool Branch. He was Comically Missing the Point over the fact that trolls can only hug one troll.
  Cloud Guy: Hello? I'm a Cloud Guy.
• The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Happens several times in "Prank Day":
  • Poppy (and at the very end, Branch) is splattered in frosting.
  • Branch spits bubblegum on Poppy.
  • Smidge (though accidental) is covered in water by Branch.
  • Satin, Chenille, and Guy are caught by Smidge.
  • DJ Suki is caught in a comfortable bed.
  • Cooper eats too many pies.
• Nutritional Nightmare: The "Snuggler" in "Hug Fest"; a hot dog in a cupcake, which is then covered in three types of cheese, put into a brownie, and the whole thing surrounded in a ball of deep-fried batter. Branch orders it to stall for time but loses his appetite upon receiving it.

O-Z

• Once per Episode: There's at least one song in each episode and not always sung by the trolls and even weaponized as We Need a Distraction a few times. "Adventures in Dinkles-sitting" downplays this, it lacks the glitz and glam and Branch is barely singing. Justified as it's a song from his childhood and he's clearly embarrassed to be singing it in front of Poppy.
• Only One Who Likes Spam:
  • In the episode "Fluffleberry Quest", the Snack Pack go on a mission to restore the lost Fluffleberry cake recipe made by Branch's grandmother. Once the recipe is restored, the Snack Pack decide to try a Fluffleberry cake for themselves, but they think that it has a missing ingredient once they find it to have a bad taste. They go on another trip in order to find the supposed missing ingredient, only to be told by Branch that it was used to make the dish and the cake's recipe was actually correct. He takes a slice of the cake for himself, which gets the rest of the Snack Pack disgusted.
  • Most Trolls are shown to generally dislike Fluffleberry. Aside from Branch, the only other Troll who's known to like it is Nova Swift, who was seen drinking a Fluffleberry latte.
• Overly Long Gag: Cooper telling his life story to Poppy and Smidge in "The Giver". Only a few excerpts are mentioned on screen, though.
• Parental Abandonment: Branch's parents in "Fun Branch", who are somewhat eaten by the Bergens just like Branch's grandma back in the movie. Averted with Poppy, as Peppy was seen in a few episodes, most notably "Royal Review".
• Penny-Pinching Crab: There are crab critters that live in the lake who love to snatch whatever a poor troll has that catches their interest. There's an entire swarm of them and they can join up together into a giant crab which makes fending them off impossible once they set their sights on something.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: The power of Jump Scares, that is, for the trolls, in "The Poppy Horror Picture Show". The story frightened the trolls so much that their hair turned white and ran away. Branch and Poppy weren't that scared.
  • They return to normal by the next day, but this gives Biggie no effect.
• Prank Gone Too Far: Continuing from the movie, Branch remains the target of Cloud Guy for his pranks and jokes, since they annoy him a lot. In the show's later seasons, though, Branch eventually gets used to the pranks, which gives Cloud Guy a problem addressed in "Apple of My Ire".
  • Branch falls victim of this when Smidge accidentally falls subject to his pranks in "Prank Day", making her begin a "revenge streak" on everyone else in the Snack Pack.
• Pranking Montage: "Prank Day" has several short pranking montages between the main plot scenes.
• The Prankster: Mainly Branch; in "Prank Day", Poppy and Branch prank each other in order for either one to earn the title of "Prank Master".
• Pun:
  Branch: Hey, does anyone hear a kitten? Because Poppy just got purr-anked.
  • Later...
  Poppy: (after putting whipped cream on Fake!Branch) You must be a pirate, Branch, 'cause you just walked the prank!
• Quirky Doctor: Dr. Moonbloom is a competent doctor, but she has a tendency to shock her patients by telling overdramatic jokes for mild or inexistent problems (such as telling Smidge that her medical test results are terrible before clarifying her that they're actually great). This is deconstructed in "Doc Doc, Who's There?" (the episode from where the aforementioned instance comes from), wherein she loses a good chunk of her patients because of her sense of humor, although she promises to joke in a way that would make her patients laugh after the episode's events.
• Rapid Hair Growth: In one episode, it’s revealed that the trolls’ hair quickly grows back when cut. Because it's magic.
• Reference Overdosed: While the Trolls movies have made a few references, Trolls: The Beat Goes On! takes it further by including a bunch of them per each season, a decent part of which come from episode titles. See the show's Shout-Out page for a list.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Inverted in "Creek Week". Creek returns, genuinely remorseful, and the Snack Pack forgives him immediately, with the exception of Branch, who spends the episode trying to expose him, and Poppy, who is understandably skeptical, but as queen has to give him the benefit of the doubt.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Guy Diamond’s initial dislike of Archer was just Guy being jealous of Archer’s skill during the Party Games. Turns out Archer’s an imposter and scout for the Party Crashers.
• Role Swap AU: Several of the dimensions seen in "Wormhole" are alternate universe versions of the dimension the Trolls live in. One of such alternate universes swap the places of the Trolls and Bergens in terms of homes, sizes and roles within the original movie.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The series did not forget that Poppy was crowned queen at the end of the movie. A fair amount of Poppy's decisions throughout the show are with people and her position as queen in mind, whether it be keeping the people calm in a crisis or commemorating a new tree sapling.
• Running Gag:
  • Branch being hit by a sheep in "Fun Branch".
  • Branch dropping frosting on Poppy in "Prank Day".
• Rule of Funny: "Fun Branch" has Branch inviting the Snack Pack into his bunker, in a chance to prove he's fun.
• Scheherezade Gambit: Keith ends up using this in "Trolly Tales 2" to help Archer befriend the Trolls.
• Seasonal Baggage: Happens in part of the scrapbook montage of "Wormhole", though it's only limited to hot and winter seasons.
• Secret Diary: Branch has one in "Cloudy with a Chance of Hugs". To give it back to him, Cloud Guy helps Branch set some rules. He didn't read it, however.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: Cloud Guy to Poppy in "Cloudy with a Chance of Hugs".
• Sequel Episode: Some season finale episodes with a cliffhanger have the premiere episode of the next season as their sequel. Examples include "Wormhole" to "Branch Bum" and "Blank Day" to "Bringing Up Birdy" (the latter's case, however, opens with a Halfway Plot Switch instead of continuing with the previous episode's storyline).
  • The longest series of episodes with adjacent plots are the ones dealing with the Party Crashers, consisting of Season 2's "The Party Games" and "Pillow War"; Season 3's "The Imposter", "The Frenemy", "Trolly Tales 2" and "Lost in the Woods"; and Season 4's "Party Crashed".
• Slice of Life: Compared to the first movie, this series orients more towards storylines involving the day-to-day lifes of the main cast, though there are still some episodes of a similar nature to the movie.
• Slow "NO!": When the Snack Pack warn Smidge about the water balloon in "Prank Day".
• Spoof Aesop: According to Cloud Guy, the moral of "Rainbowmagedon" is that "truth can be whatever you want if you're selective." Poppy lampshades that it's probably not the best lesson to take away from it.
• Still Believes in Santa: Exaggerated. In the episode "Marshtato Fairy", it's shown that, as a standard for Troll society, every Troll believes in their entire life about the existence of a titular Marshtato Fairy character, who is responsible for the supposed annual Marshtato harvest. The only Troll to have known the truth behind the myth thus far was Branch, but he decided to not tell it in order to avoid ruining the Trolls' life.
• Stock "Yuck!": In "Chummy Sparklestone", the Trolls are disgusted when Cooper deduces that the secret ingredient of Peppy's upside-down cake is black jelly beans.
• Sugar Apocalypse: "Rainbowmageddon" is about the crumbling of a rainbow and a meteoric rain of its pieces potentially causing a Class 0 on Troll Village.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Rather than perform a Happy Ending Override, the series looks into the consequences of the movie's ending.
  • While the Bergens are no longer out to eat trolls, and it's clear that they do understand happiness can be found outside of eating one, there are still plenty of tensions between the two groups, along with plenty of cultural misunderstandings that the parties have to actively work to resolve.
  • Yes, Branch did get his colors back and is capable of being happy again. That said, it doesn't erase who he was, and he still has a paranoid and pessimistic streak that he can carry too far. He even does a Lampshade Hanging a few times that his current attitude is still pretty new, and still has issues to work through.
  • Several episodes have Poppy dealing with her newfound responsibilities as queen. Naturally, her happy-go-lucky attitude isn't enough to solve certain problems the village has.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Cooper is seen attending Creek Week, before Creek himself came in.
• Taking You with Me: Branch explicitly invokes this with a self-destruct mechanism built into his bunker.
• Temporary Blindness: Happens to Biggie in "Adventures in Dinkles-Sitting".
• Temporal Paradox: In "Scrap to the Future" Poppy finds a scrapbook that can tell the future. After realizing it's only lead to a series of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies she tosses the book, that lands in a wormhole that spits it out just moments before Poppy first found it at the start of the episode.
• Thanksgiving Episode: The titular holiday of the episode "Funsgiving" is based on Thanksgiving.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Cloud Guy becomes this for Branch in "Two's A Cloud." Branch tries to convince Cloud Guy to leave by inviting the latter's parents to come visit, only for them to move in as well.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Except trolls are too nice to use pitchforks, the torches are the glowing tips of their hair, and they organize into a friendly mob to befriend any targets.

• Two Shorts: Most of the episodes are divided into two segments that are usually unrelated to each other. The only episode that doesn't follow this format is "Party Crashed", which has a single storyline for its entire length.
• Two-Timer Date: In "Two-Party System", Poppy runs herself ragged trying to run two birthdays for Branch and Bridget. She's keeping their parties a secret between them because she doesn't want them to feel anything less than totally special and important. When they find out Branch and Bridget are both rightfully upset, because Poppy was putting a lot of pressure on herself.
• Unexplained Recovery: Creek, who was eaten alongside Chef at the end of Trolls, survived his fate, and returned in "Creek Week". How he escaped is unknown, but he did survive.
• Unishment: The episode "Funishment" is all about this trope: Cooper eats up a Bergen's pie and the Bergen demands he be punished for this. Poppy decides the most merciful way to do so is put him in jail, which is also the most conventional and common way, but she thinks Cooper will get bored with nothing to do in there so she installs a playground inside for Cooper to enjoy. Things go downhill from there on.
• Uvula Escape Route: In "Finn Cascade", Branch is swallowed by the episode's titular fish after trying to impress him several times so that he would befriend him. With Baha, he eventually finds the way to escape from Finn's mouth by blocking his blowhole and hanging onto his uvula.
• Wax On, Wax Off: In the episode "Hairjitsu", Branch wants to learn the titular martial art and Poppy teaches him this way.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After their story arc ended with "Party Crashed", all of the Party Crashers, including Archer, never appear again for the rest of the series. Guy lampshades this in "Tour Guide of Duty" when he mentions the arc's events without saying the group's name.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Played for Laughs in the Season 3 premiere, "The Imposter". Branch goes on a conspiratorial rant about how the hidden box of disguises belongs to a non-troll infiltrator that needs to be rooted out. Poppy not only dismisses Branch's concerns (comically revealing that every other troll has one), but she has an entire musical number that encourages everyone in the village to ignore Branch. After all the others leave, though, she quickly admits Branch is right and that he needs to help her find the infiltrator. Branch immediately calls Poppy out for the previous song (she justifies it by noting how easily trolls panic, and she "had to really sell it").
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Branch is given a fear of birds in this series. The origin of which remained unexplained until Season 5.
• Zipperiffic: At one point, Guy Diamond uses a zipper to zip out all the stoutberry juice to make his glitterade.

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