Barb

Barb from Trolls: World Tour

"Queen Barb, of the Hard Rock trolls. And I'm here to take your string, bro."- Barb from Trolls World Tour


Barbara, most commonly referred to by her nickname of Barb, is the queen of the Rock Trolls and Thrash's daughter. She made her first appearance in the DreamWorks Trolls franchise as the main antagonist of Trolls World Tour where she nearly starts The Rockalypse, but reformed by the end of the film. She never appeared in Trolls: TrollsTopia but was mentioned in the episode "TrollsTopia"; she was also seen in the supportive short series Trolls Scrapbook Stories, where not only did she went on another tour, but she now visits Poppy regularly with Debbie. She also appeared in Trolls: Holiday in Harmony as a supporting character. She also appears as a main character in Trolls Remix Rescue.




"Oh, but by the end of my world tour, we're all gonna have the same vibe. We're all gonna be one nation of Trolls... under Rock!"



Normal

Barb is a muddy red-skinned Rock Troll with a bright red mohawk. Her left ear is missing the tip and she has a hoop earring in it; on her other ear are two earrings. She has heavy black makeup around her eyes.

Her red hue and bright hair makes her a lot more distinct from other Rock Trolls, who are mostly colored in greyish tones with either black, white, grey, dark red or blond hair. She's in fact one of the most colorful members of their Tribe. However, her colors seem a bit inconsistent, like Branch's, going between a darker pinkish red/lavender and a muddier red. Similar to Branch as well, her hair is actually short for a Troll of her size.

She has a "rocker" outfit. This includes fishnet stockings with a rip on the right knee, a torn-up white tank top, black leather bottoms, studded bracelets and a silver belt with a skull buckle.

Barb has a fairly large set of eyes compared to most other models of Trolls in the series. This makes her 3D model very expressive, and DreamWorks seems to take advantage of it. She has been showing doing some very expressive facial gestures not even seen in other Trolls thus far. She also claims that she's 1 centimeter taller than Queen Poppy (this would be a lot, since the average height of a Troll is 6 inches). Her body appears to be rather skinny for a Troll, as most are quite plump with visibly large bellies.




Barb is the rebellious leader of hard rock. She’s a fierce-looking Trolls queen, with the strength and grace—as well as the attitude and swagger—of a rock goddess. Barb rides around inside a gigantic leather-and-denim-clad Trolls creature—that doubles as her tour bus—and she surveys her lava domain from an imposing fortress located at the center of an active volcano.

As far as Barb is concerned, pop music is a disease, and she’s the cure. To ensure her domination, Barb is putting together a “hard-rock apocalypse,” in which she will transform all Trolls into leather-and-denim-clad hard-rock zombies. Only then will Barb have what she craves—the power to control all music!


Queen Barb is shown to be a zealous hard rocker at heart, who loves the members of her Tribe and her music. Even though she mostly shields herself with a rough exterior, Barb actually has a softer side that she mostly expresses around the kids in her Tribe (she is seen rocking with Amp during Crazy Train); she also cares deeply for her senile father, and her pet bat Debbie, whom she calls her "hairy little baby". Barb appears to have a more realistic perspective of friendship and believes that one can't just become best friends all of a sudden, but rather friendship takes time with mutual care and respect. But judging by how the other Rock Trolls treated her (as their queen and leader and not as a fellow Troll to befriend), it seemed that she was lonely and wanted real companionship.

Her more realistic approach to the world lets her see how the Tribes were different, which was a stark contrast to Poppy who believed everyone was the same, but she didn't see how this was positive. Instead, she saw the only way to unite the Trolls as being under one music, which she believed should be her own music: Rock. Her plans proved to be far more insidious, as she planned not only to eradicate all other kinds of music except Rock, but to turn the other Troll Tribes into "Rock zombies", using the Rock string to overwrite their true nature and force it to be dedicated to Rock. Although Barb thought her actions were righteous and for the greater good, she casually admitted her goal was basically world domination, and called it fun.

She had no qualms with threatening and attacking the other Tribes, as seen in her confrontation with King Trollex, and appeared to look down upon them and their music (such as mocking the Techno Trolls' music as "bleeps and bloops" and calling the Classical Trolls' music boring because theirs doesn't include lyrics). She especially mocked the Pop Trolls after going on a violent rant of how much she hated Pop music, thus appearing to loathe Pop the most out of all the other tribes. This is likely due to the ancient Pop Trolls being responsible for the Tribes living apart and isolated from each other. Barb didn't seem to realize, or perhaps she just didn't care, that her motives and her methods to destroy all the other Tribes' music so that all are united under Rock is basically the same thing the ancient Pop Trolls did, which made her a hypocrite, if not a worst villain due to converting Trolls into Rock zombies.

Barb displayed a twisted cruelty when she tossed the guitar holding the Strings to Rock-zombified Poppy so she would be the one who converted King Peppy and the Funk Twins. It backfired on her, as Poppy had avoided the brainwashing of the Ultimate Power Chord. Barb's constant victories during the Trolls World Tour made her arrogant and overconfident; she was so sure of her victory that didn't perceive this as a bad idea to begin with when she tossed Poppy the guitar.

Although she threw blame onto Poppy for destroying all music, Barb did show remorse after realizing that the ruining of music was ultimately her fault. During Just Sing, she seemed to resist the urge to sing with the other Trolls, and as a result her heart didn't glow nor did she have her colors return until right at the end of the song, with her late entry starting the songs "Rock" section. Once she realized her mistake, she learned to accept other's company and their differences. When she finally joins into the harmony created by the 6 Tribes, she took her first step of making new friends by accepting Poppy's offer of friendship, therefore gradually becoming a happier person.

In Trolls Scrapbook Stories, it was shown that Barb had grown to regret her actions in Trolls World Tour, and was taking steps to make up for it. In Trolls: Holiday in Harmony, she is shown singing the line "I've done a lot of foolish things, That I really didn't mean" during the song Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours). It is shown she is now on good terms with everyone else and is even excited to partake in Poppy's gift swap.





Other

Barb gives derogatory nicknames to other Trolls, and generally isn't afraid to insult them. In Trolls World Tour, she uses the following:

"Popsqueak/Pipsqueak" - refers to Poppy being 1 centimeter shorter than Barb herself. Poppy didn't like this, and tried to protest that she's not one.

"Popsicle" - another one of her degrading terms to Poppy.
A play on words, she calls Poppy a "sucker", meaning she's gullible.

"Popcorn" - a more general mocking to Poppy.

"Boytoy" - this is her nickname to Rock Zombie Branch. "Boytoy" is a very degrading term, and was her worst nickname for anyone. For girls, this terms means a young girl who's sexually attractive, and thus a "toy" for male sexual desires. When referring to a man, the term refers instead to the man being a "sex toy" for older women.


Friends

Riff

Riff is Barb's right-hand man, who generally does whatever she tells him. She calls him casual nicknames like "dude" and "man" in a typical rocker fashion. Riff is shown to fear her temper, but was also the first Rock Troll to tell her something she didn't want to hear, pointing out that her plan to make everyone look the same and like the same things would render to no one knowing that they're cool.

Tim Heitz confirmed that Barb and Riff are like brother and sister in terms of relationship (or cousins) and there is no attraction between them.

Val Thundershock

In Trolls: TrollsTopia, Val Thundershock and other Rock Trolls accept their Queen's behavior as a changed person, but acknowledge her past actions though they no longer reflect their current situation. Val was also taken on her second tour during the Trolls Scrapbook Stories short "Poppy's Rock Queen Transformation", presumably the pair are on good terms.

After she appeared in Trolls: Holiday in Harmony alongside Barb, Tim Heitz mentioned that Val was one of Barb's "besties".
Other Rock Trolls

Although mostly a callous Troll, Barb does have a soft spot particularly to the kids form her tribe as they admire her as a queen. This unfortunately doesn't change the fact that she has generally little to no friends, despite claiming otherwise and citing Carol as one. The Rock Trolls seem to show little interest in their Queen herself, and are more in supporting her plan to make Rock music the dominant genre. Barb herself notes to Poppy that her people often pretend to be her friends, and only tell her what she wants to hear.



Family

King Thrash

Barb and her father have a good relationship, and she cares about his well-being.

The pair have a good father-daughter relationship, and Thrash apparently supported Barb's conquest of the Strings. She appeared to be quite eager to impress him by her conquest. It was also mentioned in Trolls World Tour: The Junior Novelization that she was under pressure to please her dad. Nevertheless, by the end of Trolls World Tour she accepts his advice to let everyone be what they want to be, including herself. According to DreamWorks' Twitter account, Barb is a "Daddy's Girl".[4]
Pets
Debbie

Debbie is Barb's pet bat, whom she has a strong affection for. She's upset when Debbie has been dressed up by Poppy, losing her temper and throwing a violent tantrum. She moves Debbie away so that she doesn't accidentally harm her.

General

Due to part of her left ear being missing, Barb is the only known Troll to have shown a form of physical mutilation so far.

However, the reason of why her left ear is chipped is never explained so far.
Barb displays traits from past Trolls sources:

Her short hair is very similar to how Branch's hair is shorter than most Trolls. According to supporting Trolls material, Branch's hair is short due to his habit of not showing his full potential. When Trolls show their full potential, their hair grows as was the case with Branch. This means Barb's "standard appearance" is likely not her fullest potential, just as is the same case for Branch.

In later sources for the Rainbow Trolls, it was noted that all Rainbow Trolls had hidden "True Colors" that only showed when they're reflecting their true selves. Because of this, she displays traits of this family, despite being from an entirely different Tribe. "Rainbow Trolls" are currently considered a retired family as of Trolls World Tour.

Barb is not the first Punk Rock-style Troll Doll design; in fact, she's one of several. In the 1980s, Dam Things produced the "Gonk Punk Rock", a Troll based on a British Punk Rocker. Russ Trolls would later produce a Punk Rocker Troll Doll in the 1990s; this particular doll is one of the most well-known dolls of the Russ Trolls era. Hasbro also produced an action Troll Doll called "Punk Troll" as part of their The Original Battle Trolls action figures lineup for Series 2.

Barb's star sign is Aries.

This is likely a nod to Aries being said to be brave or bold, determined and adventurous.
In 2023, however, the DreamWorks Trolls Twitter account stated that Barb's starsign was switched to Taurus and Branch was given the Aries starsign

Discounting Poppy, Barb was the only Troll Leader to be mentioned from Trolls World Tour in Trolls: TrollsTopia until the episode "Troll Exchange Program", which mentions Trollex.

Specific To...

Trolls World Tour

Her red hair matches the color of the Rock string, which is also red.

In the extras video "Tourist Map", Cloud Guy calls Barb "the Queen of Darkness". This is a nod to her father's voice actor, Ozzy Osbourne, who's nicknamed "the Prince of Darkness".

During Just Sing, Barb was the last Troll to re-color and the only Troll whose heart didn't start glowing until right at the end of the song, when she chimes in. Upon doing so, she also not only re-embrace Rock Music but the harmony of the other Tribes' music, thus gaining a rainbow mohawk, this was followed by Poppy herself coloring up afterwards. Poppy and she were the only two Trolls to do so.