(When I love a character a lot, I either coddle them with cute headcanons, or torment them with embarrassing headcanons and Idk why lol. You’ll know what I mean…)

(Edited two more things in between)

• Clay had naturally curly hair, they’re big and poofed up that it literally looks like a tree. The reason why it’s so frizzy now is because of heat damage. —He straightens his hair for their band’s uniform look.

• Speaking of uniform look: though Clay got the worst hairdo outcome after disbanding, it was his idea to have a uniform look. (He wanted to prove he was serious so he’s always pitching in ideas.)

• Every brother’s hair is ironed out to be a pointed paintbrush tip, but their natural hair is close to their current/adult hairstyle.

• Apart from the “going around the house in just his underwear” phase John Dory remembers Clay being ‘a funny baby’ because he always looked so done whenever Floyd was being loud (it’s like those ‘how you tell your twins apart’ compilations, where one twin is wailing while the other is just “🫩😒*” —Only Floyd and Clay aren’t twins, he’s just a year* older).

(These ones are a little over the top but):

• John Dory and Branch are the only ones that came from the same father; the other three are half brothers but they never really care to remember that detail. They all barely remember their parents anyway;

• Their mom split up with her first boyfriend while she was pregnant with JD —met someone new and had Spruce/Bruce when JD was around 4. JD offered to learn how to take care of him, but she unfortunately took advantage of that offer and constantly left him with the baby to go out and party. Then came 2 years later with her dropping off Clay, a year later with Floyd;

• Before she circled back to her first boyfriend-now husband after some reconciliation and handed JD a premature Branch years later even after he moved to new place with the other three.

• Branch was the only brother JD was given that hasn’t hatched from his egg which freaked him out. That’s when he decided to dig through the phone book and call Grandma Rosiepuff for help.

….

• He struggled the most with Floyd, because by that time he was working already (he was just a freelance entertainer until a music producer saw potential in him) —He got too busy and ended up doing the “give him what he wants so he can behave” reward system. Results were not pretty;

• He had to pay Bruce and Clay to drag Floyd out of a shop because he was too ‘adult-looking’ now, that making a scene was inappropriate; it was less ‘sketchy’ for kids to drag another kid out by the vest while they’re kicking and screaming about getting kidnapped.

• Bruce wasn’t good with kids (at that time). In fact, he’d always get up really early so he can surf in peace, until JD yells at him to come back home and help Grandma babysit the other two.

• Floyd was 12 by the time Branch finally hatched and his jealousy got worse.

• He’d always ignore Branch whenever he was toddling towards him but Branch never left him alone because… baby’s have the natural urge to tail people that avoid them. Making Floyd the one he follows around the most.

• The other three would sit around and laugh, whenever Floyd would deliberately run away from Branch.

• But the jealousy and avoidance died down when Branch started leaving gifts in front of his bedroom door. From flowers with the roots still hanging on, to random toys in his room that he really likes and gave as a ‘peace offering’.

• And he’d even do the ‘sorry’ sign language (that Clay taught him from reading a sign language book. He thought teaching Branch to some hand signs would help him ask for things that he can’t pronounce properly yet).

• That’s when Floyd started feeling guilty and became a lot calmer, and he and Branch became the closest.

• Floyd loved when Branch looked up to him, so he tries to be more levelheaded to set an example. But, well, because of his ‘past reputation’ the other three don’t take his ‘mediator’ personality seriously.

• Floyd had an emo, and I mean “emo-emo” phase. Attitude and everything. He quit it after Branch got a hold of his makeup and tried copying him (cringe-attack awakening). —He went back to the e-boy style after the disbanding because he thought it suited him better.

• Branch is the favorite brother to all his brothers.

• JD has dated a lot of girls in the past, but none of them stayed and it’s always because they find out he’s handling four younger brothers —one of them, during a home date, ran out of his pod screaming because an impressionable Baby Branch had called him “Dada”. (It took Branch by age 2 to grow out of that, and understand JD was his brother).

….

• The first of the brothers to come back to the Trolls Tree was Clay, but it was right on the same day of the big escape. Viva ran into him in the middle of his travel when she was leading the other separated trolls to safety, and took him with her without question.

• She filled him while they were on their way to a safe place (which was the golf course obvi) —But wasn’t able to leave because a week of adapting to their new home she refused to let anyone leave.

• It lead to him having slightly suppressed hate for her, but at the same time understanding her and choosing to put sympathy first. Which is how he ended up co-leading, still hoping his other brothers were safe.

…….

• Branch is a guy who likes the job but not the title. (Yes, related to the ‘hasn’t considered marrying Poppy because of the King thing’ headcanon) —To be associated with the job title doesn’t make the work fun for him anymore.

• A lot of trolls had or have a crush on Branch at some point. (Be it genuine attraction, or just finding him appealing in a non-romantic way)

• King Peppy genuinely likes Branch as Poppy’s boyfriend since the peacemaking with the Bergens. Poppy would often joke that he probably loves Branch more than her;

• One time, Branch was coming over to her pod and Poppy was waiting right outside to give him a hug. As she was slowly walking over to him, her dad excitedly ran towards them and knocked her and himself over. (He still ended up being the one to hug Branch first).

• Viva had no idea Poppy and Branch were dating until that moment they kissed in Mount Rageous. She approved right away (mostly because it’s not like she has any idea what to look for in a ‘suitor’. Plus he was nice and Clay’s brother. And Clay has always been cool, so that means he’s cool too.)

• Poppy was worried when she remembered Viva is older than her, therefore should have been the first to be queen, and asked her if she wants a chance at it. Viva said she was excited for that day, but she doesn’t think she’s capable of it anymore on the count of being… isolated, paranoid, and dealing with some serious issues.

(I think I wanted to add a few more… but I ended up forgetting? Meh. I’ll just make another post when I remember).

Branch loves the idea of proposing to Poppy, but he chooses not to because, marrying her means he might be given the position of king or some other royal title. He knows Poppy would absolutely love to give him the title king.

He’s not against the idea of helping Poppy with the responsibility in the village, since he’s practically doing all that already.

But he’s just not the kind of guy who’d like to go by royal titles, knowing it’ll probably be a big change. (Friends, family, and other places possibly referring to him as “King Branch or King of Pop” feels weird to him) —And he’d rather let Poppy feel special as the Queen without a “royal partner”.

And so currently, he’s just satisfied with being “the Queen’s boyfriend”.

….

Bonus headcanon: Poppy somehow finds out about that reason and understands where Branch is coming from (she even finds it cute). And so she decides to take the liberty of being the one to propose to Branch instead and let him know he doesn’t need to inherit any titles he doesn’t want.

But it’s a lot harder than she thought because popping the question wasn’t the problem, it was how she was going to deliver the follow up; “Branch, will you marry me? Oh! But don’t worry. You don’t have to become king if you don’t want to, I just want us to get married no matter how you want it.” —sounds terrible and pushy. Like she was negotiating with how they were going to proceed with their relationship.

• They all exaggerated their archetypes. It was assigned based on the latest phase JD remembered them in.

• Bruce is the only one who is closest to his archetype, as he actually likes being the heartthrob. But it was getting too old for him, when he realized he had the personality of a rock from focusing on his outer performance for so long.

• Clay is pure middle child through and through. He only got labeled the fun one, because he had the phase of running around the house in his underwear to make his brothers laugh. Everything else JD remembered about him was boring.

….

• JD is actually good at making practical choices, but only for himself. Before turning into a band he was satisfied and complacent following what the industry wanted for him

• He wanted to solo, but when he was ready to go on tour, family members tagging along is not allowed. So since his brothers know how to sing and dance from his example he decided to temporarily form that boy band (because boy bands were trending).

• He’s not that good at compromising for 4 other individual opinions, so he’d always go with what he can work with. And that’s why the others don’t like him much, and always make it clear that he’s not a good “leader”.

• He’s always striving for them to be perfect, because disbanding BroZone was his plan from the start. He wants his brothers to have a chance in the music industry on their own because keeping a band together is hard. But because of that one show he threw that 5+ years plan out the window (and, you know, went out the same window…)

….

• Floyd is only above-average-nice. JD only labeled him as the “sensitive one”, because he knows how to fake cry.

• It was a skill he developed when he was younger to guilt trip JD and Bruce into getting what he wants. Clay was the only one who didn’t fall for it because they were only one year apart.

• He’s actually the most affectionately spoiled of his brothers, because he stayed the youngest for 12 years. The puppy dog eyes stopped working when Branch was born.

• He finally got karma for abusing his baby-of-the-family card, because Baby Branch was too cute for him to upset. And he wasn’t even doing it on purpose. He was a lot sweeter among them for some reason, that Clay often teases Floyd (affectionately) about it.

Clay: “Aww, Baby Branch is such an angel being able to understand the word ‘no’. Where was all these good genes when you were little, Floyd?”

Floyd: 😒

….

• They never got to hire a real band manager, because they had to find some way to smuggle Grandma Rosiepuff on tour with them.

• They didn’t want to leave her behind, partially because she has a gambling problem and all their money goes to her account. (JD was still settling his account). —She’s over all still a sweet woman, though. The other reason they wanted to bring her, was was because Baby Branch can’t stay away from her for too long.

….

• Branch only got to perform small shows with Kismet when they were all still kids pretending to be a band. They made a pact to form a real band when they were of age, but Branch turned them down believing BroZone would come back at that time.

• After the Rock Apocalypse incident, dancing with the K-Pop trolls and the Reggaeton trolls made him miss Kismet. So he reached out to them, and met up again for some gigs.

• He literally has no idea how he managed to hide that side hustle from Poppy for so long, while also co-leading the village with her.

• Kismet thought of distributing their own archetypes too, but they were all too in sync with each other (hahaha I’m so clever) —that they couldn’t hold individual images.

• Branch, due to adapting his brother’s cheaper versions of the boy band archetypes, he ended up filling in all the categories; becoming the most popular amongst Kismet. (Not that any of the members held anything against him for it.)

A Creek Redemption Arc (but Branch plays the big role in it).

Basically a small inverse of the TV show’s concept. Instead of everyone choosing to be casual with Creek while Branch is still wary him, it’s more of the other way around. (But not in a way where Branch is ‘forgiving him’. Hear me out here):

—————————

Since Trolls TBGO isn’t canon, we can imagine Creek coming back after the trilogy.

And imo that might be better, with some of the characters developing in the previous movies already.

(Let’s say he survived because he used his hair to escape the monster’s mouth in time. RIP Chef.)

Then after (however long the time was with all three movies) He decides to return to the village.

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The reason for why he could be crawling back to the village is because: for the same reason he gave in the series —he was lonely. (Mostly because, I do believe the guy was lonely. There was no ‘where do I go next?’ plan after selling the village out. So that’s not off. Guilty on the other hand? I think that needs to work its way up in his conscience first. In this context, he just wants to go back to having a secure home and familiar place.)

He gives the same apology too. The whole “I’d sacrifice myself the next time we went through something deadly” schtick.

But this time, no one forgives him right away or believes the sacrificial speech. Poppy says upfront to him, that as queen, she wants to set a good example and let everyone have a chance to live in harmony just like how she let other past enemies do.

Branch is skeptical, but all he says to him is something like “Fine. Have your second chance. But don’t go making empty promises. We all know if you were willing to take a chance with death, you wouldn’t be coming back here for protection.” (His brothers are living with him, in this version).

….

And then maybe like a few days of letting Creek back into the village, they discuss the big elephant in the room: “Wait. Where the heck is he sleeping?”

Because (for sad-comedy reasons) his house completely disappeared after the umpteenth demolition of their Pop Village. (Like… who would rebuild a ‘dead’ person’s house, expecting them to turn out to be alive all along? Lmao) —So he’s just been camping behind somewhere for the past few nights.

To everyone’s surprise, Branch is the one that offers him a home, because his bunker’s big enough.

“You can come live with me and my brothers, Creek.”

And everyone (even Creek) is just shocked because… out of all the trolls, Branch was who they least expected to offer a home to Creek. But somehow he agrees to staying with Branch.

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That’s where Poppy gets worried, and asks Branch if he’s doing this for any “angry reasons”.

And Branch tells her he’s not planning on doing anything to Creek. He just wants to follow the example she wants to set and let him have a second chance.

(Poppy still starts planning on building Creek a little space though. Because she didn’t like the idea of her boyfriend keeping a menace under the same roof he had let 4 of his major traumas live in.)

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As for Branch in the whole “Creek returns” situation: I prefer that he’s a little passive aggressive for this version, because in this timeline where he reunites with his brothers, this guy has enough trauma as it is, and I think it’d be cooler if Creek was the last of his problems.

In addition… I think it’d be funnier if Poppy was the one who was more angry at Creek than Branch.

She’s who I picture to be the most hurt by him, and the one who hurt her the most. Because…. betrayal comes from a friend… which hurts more?

She does notice Branch is surprisingly passive with Creek. And then she asks why, and Branch is like…

Branch: “Poppy, I found happiness little by little, I saved people by your side, and you became my girlfriend after stopping a whole music apocalypse… And I also got reunited with my brothers 20 years later… and while it’s hard to just forgive and forget what they left me to go through alone, I really want to be a family with them again…. Honestly, Creek is at the bottomest of bottoms on my list of things to prioritize —The Bergens are our friends now, none of the other Troll countries are fighting over music anymore, the most recent threat we had were two teenagers who are already locked up in jail… I don’t see Creek selling us out to anyone, any time soon.“

(Reasons why I’m going with this, is because some portrayals, Creek is seen as this major villain because of how smug he was in the first movie. But I think it would be hilarious if everyone just mostly forgot about him because of bigger issues. And that’s worse for him, because instead of constant attention from being a traitor, he’s being sidelined.)

—And while that kinda makes Poppy happy that her boyfriend isn’t so miserable or antagonistic anymore, that makes HER worried; because usually when BRANCH of all trolls drops his guard or she makes him drop his guard for her… something bad happens.

Danger always happens the second Branch isn’t on guard… It was her cute little logic. When Poppy sees her usually over-prepared boyfriend isn’t over-preparing… then she needs to do it for him!

So she becomes the protective-aggressive one for Branch towards Creek. (Picture how Katara acted around Zuko, even after Aang accepted him into the team. That’s sort of what it’s like.)

……..

Alright so, some of these were from a tumblr post I made before. But I tweaked it, and decided to leave out the Fleek parts that I wanted to incorporate in this.

Because after some thinking, my view in Floyd changed a bit, and so I’m reimagining how a close-to-canon dynamic he and Creek could have.

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Edited: I’d also like to add that Creek would eventually be asking Branch to teach him self-defense.

And I don’t mean the kind in Age Swap AUs.

As an oldest myself, I won’t disregard whatever responsibilities JD might’ve carried, since such expectations do fall upon the eldest the most.

Plus… they’re parents are never mentioned (and tbh I wish they were just dead in canon bc that would be a whole new can of worms)

But I think half the “taking care of them” crash outs was just their band gig and having to manage his brothers. I mean… Grandma Rosiepuff was there, you can’t tell me she didn’t do the raising part of the brothers (otherwise she’s just an unspoken jerk.)

Branch definitely experienced a much bigger parentification. He raised himself, built himself a home, prepared himself for the worse —I assume he taught himself self-defense and weapon crafting— and forced himself to grow up mentally.

He’s also the one carrying the group (or tries to, even when no one’s taking him seriously) whenever they’re going on a ‘mission’.

Calling it now! If they ever make a Trolls tv series of events taking place after Band Together: All the brothers are living in Branch’s bunker (Bruce not really, bc he has a family), and Branch is the one taking care of them. They’d occasionally help out, but also mess up because Branch has a whole system he works with, in his home. (Floyd being the one who frequently offers help).

I love the joke that he’s the literal “baby” of the boy band. But since he’s been trying to point out to his brothers that he’s no longer a baby, what would you think his new trope would be, if they still wanted to play along with it?

Personally, I think he’d be the “bad boy” or insist to be the bad boy, because he the toughest amongst his brothers imo (because… you know? Trauma forced him to steel himself)

….

But, a second —more for funnies— option would be that he can do and be all of his brother’s tropes:

• He’s pretty good at leading

• He can be silly and fun

• The guy is pretty much canonically attractive (I think… the series isn’t canon, but I like to think some elements of it were if it doesn’t retcon much)

• And while the topic was never touched again after the first movie, he’s surprisingly good with poetry, so there’s elements of the ‘sensitive one’ in there.

….

Imagine a mini-sequel with BroZone entertaining fans, but majority of their fans are there for Branch because the guy is the full package of all their tropes 🤣

Fiona will be the very first to discover (and believe) Anya’s a telepath.

If not. Then it’s Donovan.

That’s all, I’ll get back to all of you once I’m inevitably wrong.