Branch likely forgave Floyd bc he was subconsciously viewing the whole 'nearly dying from pop obsessed succubi draining him of his talent' as penance. To be fair i don't think he ever actively had the thought 'well this is his punishment for abandoning me' but i think its a very natural reaction to see a sibling you care about go through something terrible and kind of mentally go 'you know what i cant really be angry at them right now.' I've been mad at my brothers sometimes but that goes out the window when they get sick or hurt.
Maybe he is still mad at Floyd idk how any future installments are going to handle this. But depending on how someone has hurt you if you still care about them it's very difficult to know how to feel if they end up suffering. I know people have issues with it bc they think Floyd got off easy compared to the others. But idk it makes sense to me that Branch would react like that. Branch would forgive him because that's just who he is.
Branch as shown through the entire franchise is very forgiving and very optimistic. He tries to hid it ofc, and is careful to not let it get the best of him. But at his core he thinks best of people when they give him reason too. I know people tend to read him as a pessimist but idk he's to overall hopeful for me to think it's that simple.
He Forgave the entire village for their treatment of him for 20 years. I will always argue that there is a nuance to the fact that the village cant be held responsible for all the shit Branch went through. They were not trying to be rude, they were not trying to ignore him, they had to literally rebuild after becoming refugees. But they were not good to him. They were kind but kind is not the same as good.
Idc if it was warranted or not, him forgiving them illustrates to me that he is extremely forgiving at his core. He dropped the years of dismissal and accidental callousness bc he is understanding. Branch understands that until they were slapped in the face with it the other Trolls were literally incapable of understanding where he came from
It probably still hurts him, there's a lot of evidence that he doesn't really know how to feel about how the other trolls treat him now. But him becoming poppy's right hand man through the second film and throwing himself into helping her run the kingdom shows that he still cares about them. He cares about the outcome of the other pop trolls so much. Regardless of what they might have done to him, all through World Tour he's begging Poppy to go home and protect the others.
Think about that, we don't really know in depth how the village treated him over those twenty years. The details are vague but at the very least he was an outcast. Trolls didn't see the point in inviting him to parties or being cordial to him outside of Poppy. The reason Creek exists isn't because he's inherently evil or anything but because he was the natural outcome of their society pushed to it's extreme. Yet despite that history one of his primary goals all World Tour was to protect them. He kept saying to Poppy that they needed to go back and protect them. He was ready to throw everyone in the bunker for safety again. The bunker is his safe space. He built that place for his brothers even though they left him. He hated having the village there in the first movie. Yet there he was early in movie two, offering the space without question bc he still cares about them. He didn't even deliberate about it he just suggested it first chance he got.
I think to him seeing everyone turn grey in that pot was similar to seeing Floyd turn crystal. He thought he wanted people to understand and experience his pain. That's a large part of the tension in the first movie. He told Poppy that he couldn't wait for her to realize the world wasn't cupcakes and rainbows.
But when everyone did see the world like him he hated it. He was horrified that everyone was suffering. It wasn't what he wanted at all. Bc he cares about the other trolls he cares about his brothers. seeing everyone miserable wasn't worthwhile, it didn't make him feel better.
Floyd temporarily dying was basically the same thing. Branch might be mad at his brothers but he holds them being happy and healthy in higher regard than holding that against them. It's a really interesting insight to his character and the fact that he is first and foremost someone who loves deeply and completely.
Branch didn't have to forgive Floyd, we still don't know what he was up to for 20+ years. But Branch did forgive him and i think him choosing to do that is more interesting as an insight to who he is than the question of if he should.
