"Flyer's Ed" is the second segment of the 4th episode of the fourth season of Trolls: TrollsTopia, and the 59th overall episode in the series. It premiered in September 2, 2021.
Synopsis[]
Lownote Jones teaches a class on how to fly the funk spaceship, but Val cuts corners to do as little work as possible to pass the class.
Plot[]
The episode begins with Val daydreaming of fighting aliens in space while being captain of the Vibe Town Spaceship. The aliens challenge her to a rock-off and she wins. In reality, Holly and Poppy catch her daydream mouth guitar moment, and Holly is wondering what's up. Poppy explains the situation; Val has been in a Hard Rock-driven sci-fi fantasy ever since Lownote Jones' big announcement: he's giving flying lessons to any Troll who wants to learn to pilot Vibe Town. Unknown to Val, Poppy says that all they have to do is take a week-long flying course; Val is shocked to hear this.
At his class, Lownote takes a long time just to write "Mr. Lownote Jones - baby" on the board and introduce himself. Val asks if she can skip the class as sitting at a desk is not her jam. Lownote says space piloting is very, very difficult and while he will be there while they fly to ensure they fly safely, no one can fly Vibe Town without taking the class and passing the final exam. She tries rephrasing the question with a more obvious approach, and Lownote hands her a textbook. Val says "urgh" as she really hates the idea.
Poppy and Holly talk about how the class is brain-whacking ,and they ask Val if she wants to join their study buddy group. Val doesn't want to, as it conflicts with her plans to not study and just goof off. Poppy reminds her she won't fly if she doesn't pass the test, but Val is convinced she will pass the test using a method called "the Val Method".
Val explains that it involves a few things:
- Every teacher has a "tell"- Lownote raises an eyebrow every time he coughs and talks about a test item, allowing her to sleep between important information.
- There's always a risk the teacher will call on you when you least expect it; to combat this, Val simply throws the question back at the teacher by rephrasing it. It is shown that Val gets praises whenever she does that.
- If you really need some R&R from the teach talking, get him talking about the stuff he really cares about. Val does this by asking Lownote to talk about his Funky riffs.
While Lownote plays his riff, Poppy notes Val won't get to fly Vibe Town by making the bare minimum effort, and she expects Val to react when he gives her back her test. However, Lownote gives Val got a perfect score, followed by Poppy in second place. Since Poppy and Val got the two highest scores, they get to go first, with Val going before Poppy.
Val flies the ship with Poppy alarmed, while Lownote relaxes as she drives all over space. After her flight is over, she notes her flight was epic thanks to the Val method. The alarms go off as the head into a glitteroid shower. Lownote wants to handle this, and has two cups of drink; he asks Val to activate the cup holders, but instead she teleports him away, leaving them on the Vibe Town spaceship without an experienced pilot to save them. While trying to get him back, they accidentally beam Cooper on board. Cooper sees the danger and teleports out as a Glitteroid heads straight for them. Val and Poppy are left unable to save themselves and scream in terror, realizing the Val method doomed them both.
They wake up from a simulation Jones ran without the pair realizing it. It turns out that Lownote knew about Val's short cuts since Poppy raised the concern with him. Val runs off to study and Lownote puts his handling of students down to the "Lownote Method".
Cast[]
- Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
- Guy Diamond (non-speaking)
- DJ Suki (non-speaking)
Songs[]
Trivia[]
- Holly mentions her mother in this episode.
- The front row desks change who sits at them. For example, Guy disappears and DJ Suki appears at different points in the episode.
- Val's habit of cutting corners was a trait previously noted in "The Fabyrinth".
- The alien spaceship is based on "Lord Badguy"'s ship seen in the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "Trolly Tales 2". This is why it resembles Branch.
- Val's vision of her piloting the ship is loosely based on sci-fi franchises like Star Trek.
- The flying lesson is based on a high school setting with a teacher and textbooks at a desk.
- Val in turn is acting like a bad student. She isn't paying attention in class to anything the teacher says except on things she thinks will be in the test. She doesn't answer questions when asked, and she distracts the teacher from doing his job by getting him to talking about irrelevant subjects. In addition, she's getting admiration from her classmates while doing this, worsening the learning for the rest of the class. Val ended up being able to do the test results and had the best score, but she didn't know enough of the non-test relevant subjects.
- Meanwhile, Poppy is taking a role of a top student. She's taking note of everything in case it's useful, not just the test-related things; just because something isn't on a test doesn't mean that it won't be useful after all.
- The things Poppy, Val and Lownote turn into while going throughout he wormhole are, in order:
- Lownote: Nose, Poppy: mouth, Val: Eye.
- Lownote: Lobster, Poppy: Octopus, Val: Fish.
- Lownote: Classical Troll, Poppy: Techno Troll, Val: Funk Troll.
- All cats.
- All dogs.
- Lownote: Tree, Poppy: Flower, Val: Cactus.
- All other Trolls; since Poppy transformed into her father King Peppy, Lownote and Val likely resemble their parents too.
- Lownote: banana, Poppy: apple, Val: pineapple.
- All 1980/90s Troll Dolls.
- All children.
- All badly-drawn crayon drawings.
- Lownote: Cloud Guy, Poppy: Val, Val: Poppy.