#;;trolls au InklyQueen

[inklyqueen]

Things I Noticed About Velvet and Veneer Specifically

And a small thought I had about Crimp

Because I'm on the Trolls 3 Brainrot. Some headcanons might be in here too. Idk I heard that cover of Fame/Remember My Name and the Freshman theatre kid in me started crying tears of joy because I was in the high school version

Disclaimer that I am not an attorney or licensed anything. I grew up watching Game Theory, so I've learned a lot of MatPat's research methods. That being said, information I've found could be incorrect because, after all, it's the Internet. This is all in regards to a work of fiction, though do consult an actual attorney or legal team if you see a need to.

Content warning for topics in this including torture, kidnapping, and murder. Also Long Post warning.

- As time went on with their songs, I noticed that Velvet was beginning to overpower Veneer. Idk if it was an intentional detail on the director's/music dept's part, but if you go through all of songs in the order they're sung (including Sweet Dreams in John Dory's flashback) you'd notice the following:

- There's an even audio/equal turns in their duet during Sweet Dreams. Velvet has her riff moments but she's not overpowering Veneer. The song itself is also mildly ironic because of the lyrics in context:

...Some of them want to use you/Some of them want to be used by you/Some of them want to abuse you/Some of them want to be abused...

I'm sure the context is obvious, what with Floyd and the rest of the boys being outright abused by the both of them. Though my thought on it goes mildly deeper because when you listen to Watch Me Work, the arrangement is like this (I recommend listening to the song with headphones on/both earbuds in btw):

Purple for Velvet, Green for Veneer, Blue for Both

Never gets old no matter how much I'm told, I'm amazing, You're amazing

Hard to get tired when I'm always on fire, I'm blazin', ooh, you're blazin'

All my greatest, It doesn't come for free (yeah)

All my talent, It doesn't grow on trees

Take a breather (ooh), Then take it all away

If the top is where you wanna stay

You gotta work hard (uh-huh) To make it look it easy

You gotta live fast to keep makin' that money (ooh)

If you want to be as famous as me

You gotta work, gotta work, gotta work

Watch me work...

... Go ahead and watch me work

Haters wanna be me or be with me

Yeah, they're f-f-freakin', Ooh, they're freakin', yeah

I just keep on workin', lurkin', smirkin'

When they think that I'm peakin', never peakin', yeah

Velvet is starting to overpower her brother, not in a social or public image sense, but he's heard less in the music now. On top of that, the song seems to be specifically about Velvet (and the fact that this entire performance is a lie). Veneer is singing to Velvet in agreement of her claims. It's not, "They think that we're peakin'," it's "I'm peakin'," and "All my talent." The only time Veneer sings is to riff/add under it with flair, or to agree that Velvet is blazing on the charts. I'm 99% sure that the idea alone to use Floyd for personal gain was her idea. I still want context as to how they learned that the diamond perfume bottle works that way, and how they ended up grabbing him in the first place okay it's KIND OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION DREAMWORKS

And again in Mount Rageous and the use of Fame/Remember My Name:

Same colour code applies, anything in black are the background/back-up vocals, or a combination of Velvet, Veneer, and Back-Up Vocals together

(Fame!) I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly

(High!) I feel it comin' together (oh, yeah)

People will see me and cry (Fame!)

I'm gonna make it to Heaven (Heaven), Light up the sky like a flame (Hah!)

I'm gonna live forever, Baby, remember my name...

... All my greatness, It doesn't come for free

All my talent, It doesn't grow on trees

Take a breather, then take it all the way

If the top is where you wanna stay...

...You gotta work hard

I'm gonna live forever, (keep makin' that money) Learn how to fly

If you want to be as famous as me, You gotta work, you gotta work, you gotta work

You gotta work hard...

...If you want to be as famous as me, Famous as my name

Notice how Veneer didn't get a chance to sing alone once in this number, not even for a riff or extra flair. The end of the song when she sings Name she's riffing the highest she ever has alone. Though I do believe that Veneer had had enough at this point and stopped singing, as he didn't want to do the encore. He knew they already won; all they had to do was take the award, finish the night out and go home. PR would most likely be the ones to handle the media with questions regarding why three little Trolls rolled up claiming they kidnapped four other Trolls, and then immediately began jumping at them repeatedly at a specific part of their outfits that they'd covered from the cameras in the first place. (Unless of course, the police got involved. Love how Bruce was the only one that thought to say "Call the authorities," and even if they had the authorities could've at least retrieved Floyd for them maybe so the abuse would stop? I'm sure there's an AU Fanfic in that somewhere—)

- Continuing on this in regards to Veneer, he is the definition of a morally grey character to an extent. There's some minor issues here and there, but I haven't seen a good grey character in animation in a while, so props to the Trolls III team on his development.

But instead of calling it there, Velvet, high on the adrenaline and the fame now lodged into her core, demands he sings again. She refuses to let the Trolls walk away with what they want, even though she's already won and made it to the top, and even if she'd stop there, she wouldn't let any of those Trolls leave if she had anything to say or do about it. So, looking to make more history, she screws herself over in the process. One part on Crimp's "betrayal," (more on that in a minute), but also in one part that Floyd would not have made it through that first song in her encore, and she would have croaked and embarrassed them both. Veneer outright told her he wouldn't make it and she did it anyway (or attempted). Hell Floyd barely made it through the ending chorus with his brothers by the the tip of his black eyeliner pencil.

- Adding to this, I noticed that Veneer never had Floyd in his shoulder pad slot things. In fact he wasn't ever truly the one that had ahold of Floyd's diamond cage for longer than a few minutes at a time. Velvet always spritzed herself first. Velvet almost always had the diamond in her hands. The only time Veneer has the diamond is when he spritz himself, and the two-to-three minute conversations between him and Floyd. When Veneer catches Floyd, he's immediately prompted to hand him back to Velvet. Velvet is almost always in full control over Floyd. Even during "What's with your vibe and your face?" She moved the diamond away from Veneer as if she were defending the bottle. (If I remember correctly. I need to watch the movie in full again and not a bunch of snips and clips.) She doesn't even trust her own brother to be alone with the bottle for longer than a few minutes.

The issues I noticed was how, despite going back and forth about how what they were doing to Floyd was right or wrong, he leaned more towards his sister's viewpoint when reminded of small things, i.e. the illegal pet monkey, but then leaned away from his sister when he stopped and saw what his actions were doing to a little guy like Floyd, who probably only wanted to visit Mount Rageous like a tourist or something. AGAIN I NEED ANSWERS DREAMWORKS

Veneer suggested ways to ease off using the perfume bottle, but didn't push the boundary when Velvet shot him down, and he's outright blunt that she kind of has no excuse to continue the charade. "We grew up in the suburbs, our parents were dentists." (You know they were rich kids if BOTH parents were dentists.) And with the cash they were making off their careers, they could hire a vocal coach AND require a signed NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). (Also how do you tax evade when purchasing a yacht??? You literally have to like— Do a credit check or something- Unless they paid with cash in full—) It wasn't until he realized that he'd almost killed Floyd (for real at the end) that he said enough was enough. His mini-panic attack upon Floyd's fake out shows that he has morals, but is ignoring them. He stops to listen to what Floyd has to say and is open to the conversation, rather than shutting him down. ("Just because she's your sister doesn't mean you should let her treat you like garbage." "Doesn't it?") I would not be surprised if Velvet ended up outright leaving him behind in her further climb in fame and the charts if they'd continued beyond the movie without intervention.

As for Crimp:

My biggest question with Crimp is how the hell she managed to get away with her involvement in the kidnapping and torture of a Troll.

Hear me out: I'm assuming now Trolls have more protections after the liberation and total turn around and revival of Bergen Town and the Rock Apocalypse, since she explicitly states "Troll-napping, Troll Torture," rather than just Kidnapping and Torture in general.

Upon her hire-on as an assistant to the twins, I assume she'd have to sign a NDA with their record label to protect their livelihoods and whatever music and songs she sees them working on, but a NDA does not protect a company or person from the law. (Noting that I'm going off USA Law here since these are about the same across most of the fifty states, and I honestly could compare Mount Rageous to Hollywood or Los Angeles, CA at this point?)

NDAs give a company the right to file a cease and desist against an employee if it's found they're giving out private corporate or internal information. This isn't the same as a HIPPA or other kind of protection law that prevents an employee's personal information from being aired out or an HR case being put in the open (think when a customer wants to complain about a retail worker and asks for their last name, you're not allowed to give that information. Or if someone comes to customer service asking if a specific person is working at the moment, you're not allowed to answer that. (At least the store I work at has those rules.)) In the USA with most states, you are usually required by law to report a crime if you know of it. Failing to do so is called a Misprision of a Felony. So if you know your boss has murdered someone and covered it up (*cough cough* Sing 2 *cough*), you are required to report it. If you know your assigned pop stars are holding a protected citizen (or species? I guess?) hostage and are exploiting their powers through means of ESSENTIALLY torture, you'd be legally required to report it. Otherwise you'd be at risk of being held accountable of aiding and abetting. Which technically she could be held accountable anyway because she made that "fruit extractor" for them on Velvet's lie that it's for smoothies on stage. Hell she was LITERALLY getting ukulele lessons from Floyd.

A NDA does not exempt you or your employers from the law or reporting illegal activity. A judge is likely to take that NDA and throw it away when it comes to information regarding the case. The excuse that the NDA prevented Crimp from reporting the crime doesn't hold. Hell I didn't even see a hint of blackmail or threat of harm to herself in this case, unlike Jimmy Crystal in Sing 2, where he outright threatened to kill Buster Moon multiple times and then attempted to commit the murder in front of thousands of people. The only real thing Crimp could ride on with a defense attorney is the fact that Velvet lied and told her that it was for smoothies. She also had a whole cell phone and could have called the authorities when they locked her in the closet. (Internet cell service is not the same as mobile phone service. Phones, even ones that don't have a SIM card or unlocked phones, are required by law to allow phone calls to 911 or numbers that are required emergency services in the USA. It's why your hidden phone from your parents say SOS where the reception bars would be, and also why that hidden phone still got that emergency alert system text.)

I actually did a detailed research post on Jimmy Crystal's offences and what he could face for prison time here if you wanna read over it :3

Anywho, I love them a lot, I hope this post was helpful or gave you some new thoughts and insights :3

Bonus Floyd Gif bc I love him