Smidge in the Saddle

"Smidge in the Saddle" is the second segment of the 11th episode of the first season of Trolls: TrollsTopia, and the 21st overall episode in the series. It premiered on November 19, 2020.
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Back in Lonesome Flats, Gust Tumbleweed was the Fun Sheriff, serving and protecting fun wherever he went. When he offers his services to TrollsTopia, Smidge decides to tag along, determined to be the perfect partner.
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Holly Darlin', Val Thundershock and Poppy are playing a spin game when the pointer lands in between slots. They don't know what to do and if they can't decide what to do, they're going to have to leave the game unfinished. Val tells Poppy to take her words back and Holly says that if the game doesn't finish, it'll be like they never played or they had fun or were friends. She has the idea to call for Gust Tumbleweed, the "Fun Sheriff". Gust appears, and explains a Fun Sheriff serves justice by sorting all game-related things. Upon closer examination, the dial is just slightly to the right, meaning it landed on green.
Having witnessed his skills in action, Poppy and the Tribal Council appoint him the Fun Sheriff of TrollsTopia. Due to the size of TrollsTopia, he believes he needs a deputy. Smidge rushes from nowhere to accept that job, claiming it was her lifelong dream (which she had about 2 seconds ago). Poppy supports Smidge as she's really good at keeping Trolls in-line, which Smidge demonstrates by telling two Trolls outside that them drinking from the same ice cream is a beautiful display of friendship and to keep it up. Gust says he wants to pin the badge on her and she says he should do it now. Gust says he can't, as he pulls out a giant book that she must spend two months studying. She reads a page about integrating players in "Simon says" and says she doesn't need this, as she already knows now. Gust says she'll be surprised, as it's not actually that easy and she needs to be prepared. Smidge begs him to let her ride with him and prove herself, he agrees.
They come across DJ Suki, who's playing hide and seek. She's caught not giving enough time between counts, thus not fairly giving her opponents enough time to hide. DJ agrees to slow it down and restarts the count. Branch is pulled up for not playing a piñata correctly; they blindfold him and spin him as it turns out he wasn't dizzy enough. Gust congratulates Smidge, and says she's just getting warmed up. A montage follows, where Smidge helps various Trolls with their games.
Back at the office, Gust congratulates Smidge and tells Poppy she's a natural; he says she deserves something he should have given her a long time ago. Smidge thinks she'll get her badge, but he lumps the second volume of his guide on her instead. She points out he just said she was a natural, but Gust notes she still has a lot to learn. He points out that when she found a missing piece to a chess game, she almost stepped on another game; the force was still enough to shake a piece, which would have fallen over if not for Gust throw his hat to knock it back. If she had scattered the pieces, the game would have had to be left unfinished. This makes Poppy sick, who goes outside to throw up glitter. Gust says the rule for being aware of her surroundings is all in the book. While he agrees she'll be a great deputy, she needs to learn the material. Gust then leaves to check on Poppy.
Dante Crescendo enters after Gust leaves, needing his help. Dante's game night is in jeopardy. Smidge takes the badge out of the drawer Gust put it in and offers up her help. Demo and Biggie are stick in a game with Demo asking Biggie questions, as they cannot end their turn until the sand timer is up; they're stuck and getting tired. Dante explains the sand timer is stuck. Holly begs her to fix it as the pair can't keep this up much longer. She goes to give it a flip, Dante is tense as too hard or too soft will either not budge it or shatter it. She flicks it and it seems fine, but while celebrating she accidently knocks the timer, shattering it, resulting Holly saying that they may have to abandon the game. Smidge tries to fix the timer, but she doesn't manage to do so and thus no one can play at all. She apologizes and confesses she isn't really a fun deputy; they need Gust.
Gust appears and says the game isn't over yet. He replaces the timer with an exact replica and lets the new timer run out, thus ending the turn. Demo and Biggie fall asleep and he covers. Gust pulls out the book and says it's in the book. She says there's still a lot she doesn't know, Gust still wants her as her deputy, but she needs to study about the book. The book has one thing missing though: a heart, which Smidge has plenty of.
As Gust acts in another emergency, Smidge stays behind to read the book.
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;Pop Trolls
*Amanda Leighton as Poppy
*Skylar Astin as Branch
*Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge
*Fryda Wolff as DJ Suki, Satin & Chenille (non-speaking)
*David Fynn as Biggie
;Country Trolls
*Eric Lopez as Gust Tumbleweed
*Megan Hilty as Holly Darlin'
;Rock Trolls
*Lauren Mayhew as Val Thundershock
*Charles DeWayne as Demo
;Classical Trolls
*JP Karliak as Dante Crescendo
;Funk Trolls
*Michael-Leon Wooley as Lownote Jones (non-speaking)
*Kat Graham as Rhythm & Blues (non-speaking)
;Techno Trolls
*Vladimir Caamaño as Synth (non-speaking)
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*"Fun This Town"
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*The episode is a reference back to Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, where Smidge usually worked as Poppy's helper.
*The episode references the term "back in the saddle", which means to return to duty of something. It refers to horse riders often having to take a break due to how uncomfortable long periods of time in a saddle are, but horse riding is normally considered enjoyable and most riders are glad to be back riding.
**Such term is also the title of a song by the band Aerosmith.
*A lot of spin-dials have pins, which prevent a pointer getting stuck in between two sections. Holly, Poppy and Val's game does not. The pins catch the pointer as the dial spins, causing friction and slowing it down until it stops and catches the dial. The end of the point cannot land between two sections; it can only ever land on either side of the pin.
*This episode acts as Gust's introduction episode, even though he has already been seen in other episodes. It's possible this episode has ended up out of order, as all previous introductory episodes were also their respective characters' first appearances. Another note is that he was also introduced in "The Ballad of Holly Darlin'".
*Gust rides on a Saddle Spider, which was previously seen in the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "DJ's Got Talent".
*Gust's scene where he approaches the game board is a reference to old westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 
*Saying "one Mississippi, two Mississippi" while counting is supposed to slow a speaker down, due to the difficulty in pronouncing "Mississippi", since the word is full of long sounds. Due to how tongue-tied the wording can be, it takes approximately a second for an average person to say the word plus a number.
*Branch is pulled up and is walking in a straight line. This is a reference to a common test done to see if a person's drunk, normally police getting someone who they've pulled over in a vehicle to walk in a straight line; if they're over the alcohol limit, they should have balancing issues due to the brain miscalculating while under the influence. In this case, they were testing to see if Branch was dizzy enough to play.
*Smidge's song is likely a nod to Cops and its theme song Bad Boys, since part of the song mimics the "bad boys, bad boys" tune.
*One of the games that Smidge helps resolve is based on Twister.
Category:Episodes
Category:Trolls: TrollsTopia episodes
Category:Country Trolls Story Arc Episodes
Category:TT Season 1 episodes
Category:2D animation