Riff is Queen Barb's accomplice, and the secondary antagonist of Trolls World Tour.
Appearance[]
Riff is a violet-grey Rock Troll with long black hair, a pink nose, and a rocker outfit consisting of a black beanie hat, jean vest, white shirt, torn black pants, fingerless leather gloves, and a red handkerchief with a skull print. He has an oddly large nose compared to most Rock Trolls. His eyes are covered by his beanie most of the time, but they appear to be blue in the brief time the right one is visible. Sometimes, he also appears with large silver drumsticks in his hands, twirling them about.
Personality[]
Being Barb's right-hand, Riff is a laid-back, but also ready to hop to Barb's aid and does what he's told. He does display a mischievous side, laughing after cutting off the Funk trolls' power. According to Trolls World Tour: The Junior Novelization, Riff is mellow except when he's rocking.
Though he supports and is loyal to his queen, Riff finally gained the courage to question Barb's plans in response to Poppy's words that a world where everyone looks and sounds the same isn't harmony, asking Barb how anyone would truly appreciate their music if they lacked differences and diversity.
He also has a habit of adding the pleonasm "or something" to his sentences.
Story[]
At some point, Riff went to college. Riff was also hired some time before the start of Queen Barb's Rock World Tour by her as a "yes man". He agree for college credit purposes rather than money. He's present when Barb hires the Bounty Hunters to go after Queen Poppy who angers Barb by sending a glitter bomb card that exploded in her face.
Riff was present throughout the tour acting as Barb's main drummer as he provided the beat that her songs played to. He even sneaks ahead of the other Rock Trolls to unplug the lights in Vibe City and thus plunge the Funk Trolls into darkness.
Riff continues to go along with Barb's plan at Volcano Rock City when Barb hosts her victory concert. When Branch bravely throw himself in the way of Barb's power cord and protects Queen Poppy from being turned into a Rock Zombie, Riff is shown to be shocked by this. Barb continues and converts the other Troll tribe leaders into Rock Zombies until she turns her attention back to Queen Poppy. Barb appears to have converted her as she tries to escape, but Poppy managed to block out the Rock Strings effects with gumdrops.
As Poppy confronts Barb on her behavior, Riff finally speaks up and states if everyone looks the same, how will anyone know their cool. This causes Poppy to mention the issue of how a good queen listens to her subjects, Poppy having had recent issues listening to others herself, thus putting Barb in a position where she herself must choose to either listen or ignore Riff.
Poppy smashes the Guitar to stop Barb but destroys all music in the process. The Trolls turn grey as they loose their music. This does not last long as the Trolls realize they can make music without the Strings now. Riff is seen playing along to the Classical Trolls in harmony with them as they use him as their percussionist section.
Concept Art[]
Trivia[]
- Riff's hairstyle resembles one of the hairstyles that Poppy proposed to Branch in the Troll 2 Troll episode "Mousse or Gel".
- Riff was one of Timothy Lamb's favorite characters to design.[1]
- Riff is based on the "dumb drummer" stereotype. This comes from the idea that because drumming requires minimum understanding, it's sometimes considered barely an instrument by other musicians. Other instruments involve learning harmony or melody, and require a higher level of skill to learn, while a drummer's job is mostly to set the tempo of the song to which the other instruments play, so their skill is just centered more around maintaining consistent tempo and not skipping beats.
