The Farmer and the Hound

"The Farmer and the Hound" is the first segment of the 6th episode of the seventh season of Trolls: TrollsTopia, and the 100th overall episode in the series. It premiered in August 11, 2022.
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When Biggie starts reading the saddest scrapbook in Country Western history, Poppy and Holly do everything they can to prevent him from making it to the super sad ending.
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The Troll Village Library at Pop Village is going through a grand reopening, now containing a book section for each Tribe. Synth picks up a Funk Tribe sci-fi book and is scanned by it, making him know all maths. Meanwhile, Biggie is reading a book from the Country Tribe, titled "The Farmer and the Hound", and finds it riveting. The book is an all-time favorite of the Tribe, to the point that Gust Tumbleweed has a book club that discusses about it every week for the last 10 years. There is a cutaway gag to the book club where one of the Country Trolls attending asks if they want to read another book, only for that Troll to be glared at for asking; the Troll states he doesn't want to read another book anyway. Biggie tells Poppy the book is about a kindly old farmer who spends his life working the fields with his loyal cuddle pup hound. During a Hairicane, the loyal hound is lost so the farmer sets out to find her. Biggie wants to know where it goes and bookmarks the page so he can come back.
Poppy is happy for Biggie, but Holly is concerned and yells that they cannot let Biggie finish the book. As she leaves the library, Poppy asks why they cannot let him read the ending, to which Holly explains the book is the saddest book ever. Poppy doesn't understand and Holly explains that the Country Tribe has sad songs and sad scrapbooks, with the book being the same. She tells Poppy that the book ends with the farmer never finding the hound, which Poppy is alarmed over and faints. A sad ending like that would be too much for any Pop Troll, but Biggie is especially sensitive.
Poppy brings up the time Smidge dropped her ice cream and Biggie picked up and held her while he cried over her loss. This extended to the time they had ice cream for dessert, and Biggie told Poppy and Holly it was "too soon". He ended up painting a memorial to Smidge's ice cream on a wall, as well as a benefit concert to a puzzled Smidge, who responded with "Oh my guh".
Holly and Poppy realize they can't tell Biggie to not read the ending as by mentioning it is sad. He'll figure out the farmer never finds the hound and is sad anyway. They decide to instead tell him the ending is bad. Holly points out that a Troll saying the ending is bad isn't going to work unless they find someone with a well-established sense of negative. At that moment, Branch walks by.
So Branch tries to tell Biggie that the book is a stinker of an ending to try and put him off reading it. Biggie asks Branch about if he identified with the farmer in the story spending all of the years in isolation. He also comments that Branch should have related to the farmer's situation of having no one to talk to except that one friend who lacked the ability to talk back. There was also a passage that the farmer's tough exterior was just a mask to cover his desperate need to be loved. The result is that Branch runs off crying to find and read the book about himself. With Branch failing to stop Biggie from reading the ending, they have to change plans.
Their next plot is to have Poppy scrap a new ending using her skills, then swap Biggie's copy with another featuring sad ending. The next day they ask him if he got to the ending, which Biggie notes was incredibly happy even by Troll standards. Biggie states he hated the ending because it made no sense, such as the hound suddenly being able to talk and a rollercoaster appearing out of nowhere. Holly grits her teeth and looks at Poppy, stating the writer must have got carried away as Poppy laughs nervously. Biggie says he was going to go to Gust's book club to find the hidden meaning of the ending.
At the book club, Holly and Poppy attend and distract the attendees, preventing Biggie talking about the ending of the book until Gust closes the club for the night leaving Biggie annoyed and disappointed. Biggie decides it wasn't meant to be and begins to walk away. As Poppy and Holly sigh a relief, Branch turns up to talk about the ending. Branch just finished the book so is extremely late and he has to discuss the ending. Holly and Poppy wave to him trying to stop him from talking but this fails. Branch reveals the true ending, and Biggie takes the book off of him to read his copy. Holly and Poppy confess they didn't want him to find out. Biggie simply says he has to go now.
At his pod, Biggie reads the true ending with tears in his eyes. Biggie ends up really sad, but otherwise appears to be fine. Poppy and Holly apologize that they couldn't stop him from reading that ending. Biggie, however, isn't sad he did read the ending. He says no one wants to be sad, but he is grateful for it. Being an especially sensitive Troll does make these things hard for him, as he gets hurt over minor things. He explains sadness helps him build connections with his friends by allowing himself to feel it and others to acknowledge how he feels over minor things. Holly says this is what the Country Western Trolls also feel about things and why they do it. Biggie thanks them for looking out for him, but he will be just fine.
At that moment, Branch comes in, and he and Biggie hug-cry together over the book. Holly and Poppy also hug Branch, and the four of them sing as the episode ends.
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;Pop Trolls
*Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
*Skylar Astin as Branch
*David Fynn as Biggie
*Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge
;Country Trolls
*Megan Hilty as Holly Darlin'
*Eric Lopez as Gust Tumbleweed
;Classical Trolls
*Dante Crescendo (non-speaking)
;Techno Trolls
*Vladimir Caamaño as Synth
*Laguna Tidepool (non-speaking)
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*"One In A Million"
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*The title is a play on "The Farmer and the Viper", a similarly sad tale about a farmer who was willing to help an injured viper, only to get betrayed and bitten in the end.
**It is also a play on the Fox and the Hound, another sad story about a fox and a hound that ends with the death of both animals.
*Biggie's bio in Trolls stated he was a cry baby, but it was rarely depicted in any of the 2D series. This episode is one of the few references to Biggie's original bio, speaking about just how sensitive his emotions are.
*This is one of the very few times Smidge said her catchphrase ("Oh my guh") in Trolls: TrollsTopia; as of the series, she had rarely said that, since it had been retired from 3D media due to the producers wanting to make new jokes and retiring some of the old ones.
*The episode makes a couple nods to Trolls World Tour:
**The book's sad story as a work from the Country Tribe is a reference to Branch stating that "life is sometimes sad" when he comments on Delta Dawn's performance of "Born To Die".
*The Pop Trolls' ancestors had rewritten history to hide their involvement with the Strings leading to the separation of the Tribes. However, Poppy mentions in the episode that Pop Trolls do not write sad endings. While the 2D series aren't considered canon to the films and are their own separate canon entities, the history of the Strings can arguably be considered sad, but Poppy's comment is in line with the ancestors changing the history to make it appear "less sad".
Category:Episodes
Category:Trolls: TrollsTopia episodes
Category:TT Season 7 episodes
Category:Country Trolls Story Arc Episodes
Category:2D animation