Twirling Around Cause It's Just So Good

Particularly ii and bfdi, because there are many moments where characters are isolated or locked away against their will

Examples are trophy tissues etc in the closet, paper and others in idiotic island, the exitors in well- the exit, leafy in the forest, the tlc, AND HONESTLY EVERY ELIMINATION AREA EVER

My point is some of these, like idiotic island and the exit are treated with a lot of severity and importance (idiotic island might be a stretch, because it mainly effects paper, but I’m going to take his experience as a serious trauma in canon for the sake of this analysis)

While some others like the hotel closet and the tlc are simply gags, and funny, and don’t come up except for some one off comments and are treated as unserious

Especially bfdi with the exit, (leafys isolation respectively), and the tlc… so many of them were locked in the tlc for a long time and have not brought it up at all

And this could possibly be addressed in idfb but until then I’m going to assume what we’ve seen is how they feel about the tlc, not really anything.

(before we begin, i would like to add a disclaimer that i'm actually not good at analyzing book or leafy as i do with ice cube. so if there is anything off with my analysis with book or leafy, please let me know what i can fix! thank you!)

| leafy

before diving into the differences of icy's relaftionship with book and leafy, we need to compare what makes book and leafy similar and different.

leafy's kindness comes with her ego as she genuinely believes she is the nicest person out all of the contestants. therefore, leafy strives to prove that she is the nicest person by perform acts of kindness for others. i think that because she believes that she is the nicest person in the world, it helps her easily connect with others and form friendships. despite this, leafy is very genuine with her acts of kindness and is a selfless and friendly character overall.

however, this ego also interferes with her true intentions. whenever contestants reject her acts of kindness, it's usually because they're overwhelmed by her enthusiam. this rejection confuses and upsets leafy because she genuinely goes out of her way to help others and this is how she is treated? because she is too nice? was she not good enough for them? how dare they reject her after everything she puts herself for them?

her frustration with being rejected for her acts of kindness can lead to rather volatile friendships. one moment she is showering them with her kindness, the next she gets upset at them for rejecting her kindness. a most prominent example is her relationship with bubble. when bubble rejects her kindness, it is because bubble believes that being too kind is no fun if leafy just lets her win. unfortunately, leafy takes this as a sign that bubble is being ungrateful for her friendship.

it's also worth noting that leafy lacks self-awareness of her actions. she genuinely believes that the things she does are the right thing.

it may not seem like it but leafy's ego is heavily dependent on what others think of her, therefore connected to her self-esteem. it's why she's so insistent on being so nice to everyone. as long as everyone thinks of her as a nice person, she knows that her acts of kindness are genuinely paying off. she has to be a nice person because if everybody doesn't believe that, then what is she?

her self-esteem worsens and the ending of bfdi where she stole dream island. because she stole dream island, everybody hated and despised her, even wanting her to die for it. she isolates herself, not only out of shame and humiliation from others, but also on herself. she is no longer the nice and friendly person she worked so hard to be. not to anyone anymore. now she is branded as a wanted criminal that should die for her consequences.

this incident would haunt leafy for the rest of her life. the things that she experienced would end up bringing out the worst and the most ugliest parts of her later on in the series as demonstrated later when we get to icy and leafy's relationship.

| book

book is in many ways similar to leafy. if there is one thing that makes their kindness similar, it is that their kindness to others is a desire to prove themselves that they are genuinely good people. what i'm trying to say is that like leafy, book's self-esteem is connected to others around her.

being well, a book, it's in her nature to help others around her because of the useful contents she has within her. book helps others by spreading useful information that could help in challenges. it's why book is proud of the many identities she has, because she's filled with so much different kinds of knowledge that can help other people around her.

but book also defines herself as "nice friend," similar to what leafy does. it's quite literally in her definition. therefore she views herself as friendly, eager to help others around her.

however, there are some notable differences between book and leafy. for one, book lacks the confidence in herself that leafy has. you see, leafy has always been positive that she is a nice person. even when others find it overwhelming, leafy never backs down and refuses to let her kindness being taken for granted. she knows she is a good person and proves it as confidently as she could.

for book, although there have been several instances that she can assert and defend herself in bfdia, she sometimes lacks the ability to do so. an example is in bfdia 5c, when she suggests to recover tennis ball, golf ball, and rocky, match and pencil just flat out reject her request. she is very susceptible to manipulation and being pushed over around in freesmart. because she is susceptible manipulation, she can be prone to having her kindness being taken advantage of especially when it comes to match and pencil.

i believe that book doesn't have a hard time standing up to others, rather she has a hard time standing up to friends. she thinks of others before herself. she prioritizes others' needs rather than her own. like leafy, book values the deep connections and friendships. that's why when she joined freesmart from the beginning, she doesn't question their authority. because her friends come first before her own needs. she values her friends more than her own self. while leafy is capable of selfless acts, her ego is what keeps her from showing her true compassionate side, letting others to believe that she is only committing these kind acts for herself and not for others. overall, book's kindness is her biggest weakness and her biggest strength.

after bfdia, book finally grew the courage to leave freesmart. i can imagine that the reason she was able to leave freesmart is not only to protect herself, but also to protect ice cube from mistreatment to. this lead to her forming team bleh, where she wanted to create an environment where everybody could be included.

she never meant to create a harmful environment for her team. she just wanted to be an ideal role model for others, striving to be better than what match and pencil did when they mistreated her and ice cube. she wants to create an environment free from toxicity and a place where everyone shouldn't be ashamed of their mistakes. it's why she was frustrated by taco's "abandonment" because she took it as a sign that her team failed taco's expectations. this is especially because book did not want to appeal to anybody's needy expectations just like how pencil treated her. in the end, book was just trying to defend her team from someone who exhibited the negative traits of freesmart to prevent from others and herself from being hurt again.

| icy and leafy

to level with you straight, icy and leafy were meant to be doomed from the start. although icy may have left leafy due to how flawed she was, that doesn't mean ice cube didn't have flaws of her own. in fact, both of their flaws is what caused the downfall of their relationship.

this scene with bfdia 20 blows the water off of ice cube and leafy's relationship.

in the scene, leafy desperately tries to get ice cube to be her friend again. ice cube rejects her friendship, stating that everyone hates her, that she doesn't want to be with an "island stealer", and that leafy wouldn't be stuck alone if she stopped expecting something back from her kindness or did a single act of selflessness.

let's discuss leafy first. as i've said before, leafy's behavior only worsens after bfdia. she's become more erratic, obsessive, pushy, and downright desperate to prove that she can become a better person than before and to reconnect with her old friends again. she wants to prove that she's not a criminal, that she can learn from her past mistakes, that she can be a better friend.

leafy tries to convince ice cube that just because she made one big mistake doesn't mean it should get in the way of their friendship. however that's the problem. she underestimated everyone's hatred towards her. not only does she not fully recognize the consequences of her actions, she also cannot recognize why people still hate her. but it's understandable why. leafy believes that her past mistakes do not define her as a person which is why she's practically begging ice cube for a second chance at friendship. she wants to prove she's not that criminal that stole dream island; she just wants to be ice cube's friend again.

but what leafy failed most of all was that she couldn't recognize how much she hurt her friends after stealing dream island, especially ice cube.

although leafy was a good friend to ice cube in bfdi, she wasn't the most careful with her. she has repeatedly gotten ice cube killed by accident due to her recklessness. this deeply hurts her friendship with ice cube as icy has faced mistreatment from being everybody's punching bag, even if leafy didn't mean to. stealing dream island was the final straw and what completely broke any trust ice cube have left in her.

and yet, ice cube isn't completely innocent either. ice cube is known for holding grudges to those she hates and refuses to even talk or speak about it. she refuses understand leafy's point of view, despite leafy suffering from mistreatment from other contestants and unbearable isolation from the rest of the world. she just can't sympathize with leafy because she hates her so much. i also believe this is due to mob mentality since every contestant who realized that leafy stole dream island has collectively agreed that she should die for her consequences.

these contrasting flaws is what ultimately dooms ice cube's and leafy's relationship. their inability to understand one another is what causes their entire relationship to eventually fall apart.

| icy and book

but where ice cube and leafy's relationship failed, her relationship with book has prevailed. (hey i rhymed!)

you see the reason why ice cube's friendship with book would always be so irreplaceable to her is because book's kindness and affection for ice cube was genuinely pure. that's not to say leafy didn't have any genuine moments of friendship with ice cube but there's a major difference between the two friendships.

first, you have to understand that after leafy, no matter how much ice cube hates her, leafy left a hole in her heart that couldn't be filled. sure, she had her friends in freesmart, but match and pencil would always kick her out of the way. she could've made friends with bracelety but even that friendship was taken away from her in an instant.

then came book. book who defends her from pencil's mistreatment. book who showers unconditional love and care for her. book who is always considerate of her safety. book who protects her from harm. book who was there when no one else was. book who was the sweet side of hell that is freesmart. for the first time in forever, ice cube had friend that genuinely loved and cared for her. book filled the leafy shaped hole that was in ice cube's heart.

even after book accidentally betrayed ice cube for not letting her think for herself, the betrayal did not come from malicious intent as leafy was when she stole dream island. book betrayed ice cube because she was just trying to protect her from the harassment and mistreatment they both experienced in freesmart. deep down, icy knows that too. she understood that book was just trying to protect her. she just hated that book started talking for her.

book also took the time to reflect on herself. even though she struggled communicating about it with ice cube, she still tries to prove that she can become a better person without pressuring her. she never forced ice cube to follow her ideals or even stay on the team with her. she doesn't see ice cube leaving her as abandonment, only a fault in her part. if ice cube wanted to leave them team, so be it. book will always put ice cube's safety and happiness over hers. book recognizes her own faults and sees how much she hurt ice cube, which all the more reason why she strives to become better for her and for herself.

and yet even after they were on separate teams, ice cube longs for book's friendship. even though she felt uncomfortable talking to her again when they were paired together with their new team, icy has continually shown her care for book when she protected her from pencil and hugged her when the world was ending.

although book and ice cube were separated from each other, both of them took the time and distance to understand one another. this leads to ice cube thanking book for letting her take her time to think. in the end she forgives book, thus mending their relationship.

overall, the reason why ice cube and book's relationship succeeded where ice cube and leafy's relationship failed was because despite their separation, ice cube and book still had a mutual understanding of one another. whereas, due to the lack of understanding between both leafy and ice cube, their relationship was doomed to fall apart. but ice cube and book's separation allowed them to calm down and think about the others' actions before mending their relationship. in the end, they managed to get through and work it out together, thus forming a stronger understanding than before. this is how book and ice cube's relationship prevailed where ice cube and leafy's friendship has fallen.

We’ve been led to believe that One is practically omniscient. She knows the past of every character, she understands their motivations, and she uses her knowledge to manipulate and threaten them. This episode shows her research process, and for the most part, it’s very sound. She observes the characters in the present, but then she learns about the show.

In addition to episode 1, we see One watching episode 5 and a few clips from episode 19. From these scenes it’s definitely implied she watched the whole show; and the framing of the shots suggests to me that One thought could use Leafy in a similar vein to how she used Pencil.

One’s line here is so, SO important, because it reveals how little she actually knows. If you’re new here, there are full story arcs on Leafy being alone and friendless, and how this is symptomatic of her larger obsession with “niceness.” The first of these arcs started in the finale of the first season, and continued through most of season 2 and season 4 both pre and post split. I’d argue Leafy’s loneliness is a critical cornerstone of her character, and has been explored loads in fanwork and touched upon in the actual show. One missed this. And Leafy’s line is an acknowledgement of that. It’s just a little to pointer to ‘well, you’re not as all powerful as I thought.’

While the scene shifts to a comedic tone, I do think there’s a lot we can gather here. Namely, the parallels between One and Leafy. One’s arc is essentially Leafy’s with asterisks. 

Both of them want to belong to a group, had people who were meaningful to them (Firey, Three), and who experienced some kind of “betrayal” from them (Firey not letting Leafy onto Dream Island, Three sharing the meteor), who retaliated with much more force than the situation deemed necessary (Leafy stealing Dream Island, One killing Three), who had the people who they wanted to belong to turn on them, and those being the people responsible for isolating them for years (Season 1 characters chasing Leafy at the beginning of season 2, the other algebrarians sealing One in the moon), [interestingly, both Firey and Three were not directly responsible for their isolations but played a major role in it]. Their past actions haunt their present ones, and they spend significant portions of time trying to “rectify” what they did (Leafy attempting to talk to Firey, make new friends in the beginning of season 4, and One trying to restore Three, tracking down and stealing the power of all the other algebrarians). 

Leafy recognizes herself in One, consciously or not is up to debate, and is probably why she does the following:

It can be argued how Leafy was “punished” and had a constant reminder of her misdeeds (I would argue the constant reminding of her past, her inability to have a social life outside of new players, who she then lost after old players told them about what happened), but Leafy is trying to do to One what happened to her. Leafy had a constant reminder of her misdeeds, and maybe it was the thing that motivated her to keep trying to escape her past.

(Inspired by a similar analysis of Yin-Yang by @photosys .)

Teardrop is the first and most iconic disabled OSC character. Despite this, a bunch of people (who are ableists, let’s be honest) seem to have this belief that she really isn’t. Including… the JNJ crew themselves?! Because they have said that she can talk in multiple meetups and made several jokes throughout the series of her ALMOST saying a word. Well I’m here to prove them all wrong through my very first character analysis.

Before we start, just know I won’t go over every episode, just the important ones/ones I have the energy for.

BFDI 1: Take The Plunge

Surprisingly, Teardrop does have a few moments worthy of analysis in the first episode. From the first time she’s on screen, we can see the main theme of her character: feeling unseen and unheard. Here’s her first scene:

I’m unsure if you can see this GIF moving, so here’s what’s going on.

Woody has a crush on her and is being awfully creepy about it. This is making Teardrop progressively more uncomfortable and irritated, but Woody can’t pick up how she feels. She finally has enough and kicks him to the curb-literally.

Tennis Ball: Teardrop, be careful! Woody could get seriously hurt. He is balsa.

And look how Tennis Ball reacts! He won’t listen to her either. Instead of taking two seconds to understand the situation, he immediately makes assumptions because he doesn’t know how to communicate with her.

Later on, this happens:

Leafy: I’ll choose Teardrop! The silent type, right?

(Teardrop appears angry)

Leafy: What? You are.

Teardrop is clearly irritated by being called that. Leafy doesn’t know, but she feels as though she’s being reduced to a simple stereotype, that Leafy thinks her mutism is her only characteristic. And it’s important to her character, hence the reason for the analysis, but it’s not the only part.

BFDIA 2: Get Digging

Jumping ahead, here’s another important part for Teardrop, being her forced switch to WOAH Bunch. Just look at how Coiny and Pin go about it!

Coiny: Well, let’s take her and get out of here.

Book: Wait! Teardrop will only switch if she wants to switch!

Coiny: Fine. Teardrop, if you refuse, we’ll let you go back. Otherwise, YOU’RE MINE!

(Coiny and Pin drag Teardrop away while she looks scared and sad)

Book: I can’t believe they just did that!

Fries: Whatever. Teardrop wasn’t much of a leader anyway.

Teardrop’s facials show she doesn’t want to go, but she’s clearly trapped. Coiny’s ableism here is just sick. He’s not just thinking less of her, he’s ACTIVELY USING HER DISABILITY TO HIS ADVANTAGE. And Fries is just ignoring this because “she’s not a leader”?! WHY? (Also shout out to my goat Book for being an advocate)

Unfortunately, for the rest of the episode it doesn’t get much better.

(Pin prepares Yoyle stew)

Pin: Voila! Done!

Coiny: Yes! High five!

(Teardrop attempts to join in to Coiny and Pin’s high-five)

Coiny: Teardrop, that High five wasn’t for you.

Pin: Yeah, TD! Everyone knows you’re not a real contestant!

ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?!

Send this analysis to any Coiny and Pin fans that you hate and watch them try to justify this.

BFDIA 4: Zeeky Boogy Doog

Let’s cut to the chase. Everyone knows this episode for one thing and one thing only.

Puffball Speaker Box: You must choose between immunity into the final 15, or a Hand-powered Recovery Center!

Pin: Teardrop, you don’t need immunity! Everyone loves you!

(Teardrop chooses the recovery center)

*Fasting forward*

(The TV shows that Teardrop has the most dislikes. She’s eliminated.)

Coiny: OMM, that was close. Any first words, Teardrop?

(Teardrop appears saddened as she’s flung away)

The first part of the elimination isn’t much to write home about since Pin had no way of knowing that she’d be eliminated (Although if she had, she’d have said the same thing, let’s be honest). But the second part…

Coiny somehow has the nerve, THE NERVE, to make an ableist joke just before she’s flung off. He could have apologized, or heck, not said anything at all, but he just HAD to.

For the rest of BFDIA, not much happens with Teardrop. So let’s jump to early BFB, where things get a little better.

BFB 1: Getting Teardrop To Talk

The title and image say all you need to know about what TD does this episode, but I’ll break it down anyway.

The basic rundown is that Liy, curious about what goes on in Teardrop’s mind, ropes Ice Cube into helping her try to get a voice out of her by doing whatever this is. Eventually…

(Fork stabs Teardrop in the head, causing her to flinch and bite down on Icy’s legs as a reflex. Ice Cube screams in pain)

Fanny: I hate you!

Liy: Huh, maybe it’s time we put a rest to this whole Teardrop thing, Icy.

Bracelety: Yeah! Icy! Let’s hear you cheer! I can’t hear you! Louder!

Clock: Teardrop! How could you chomp so viciously on poor, innocent Ice Cube!? You should feel ashamed.

(Teardrop slaps Clock and Liy, then runs off)

Liy: Well, I think we both wronged Teardrop today.

As Icy is screaming, it suddenly dawns on Liy that this was a bad idea, while Clock lectures Teardrop when he JUST got onto Liy and Ice Cube for hurting her. Pick a side, man. This moment is important because Teardrop FINALLY stands up for herself. She hasn’t done this since BFDI 1A when Tennis Ball got onto her similarly to how Clock does here. It shows she’s had quite enough of this treatment. And doing this makes a change, because they realize the wrong in what they were doing and even make a truce. And neither character ever does anything like it again.

But it doesn’t fix everything. Later, we get this scene.

(Teardrop stomps to the edge of a cliff and sits on the edge)

Eggy: Gosh, those people sure want to get you to talk, huh? They just don't understand the appeal of silence. You know, there was a time when I never spoke, so I understand.

(Teardrop looks interested)

Eggy: I said, there was a time when I never spoke, so I understand!

(Teardrop flaps her arms)

Eggy: Well, you clearly aren't egging me on. I thought you'd be curious, but I guess not.

Eggy wants to understand her, but it’s clear she’s got some work to do. She thinks Teardrop isn’t interested when she actually is. There’s some progress made here, but at this point the bar is at the center of the earth, as shown here:

Lollipop: Eggy! What was that about?

Eggy: Eh, I tried to get Teardrop interested in one of my personal life stories, but she obviously wasn't interested.

Lollipop: TD's hard to impress? Tell me about it. Earlier today I tried to sell her my fork repellent, but she didn't even care enough to utter a word. She did do this weird arm fluttery thing though.

Pillow: Oh, you mean this gesture?

(Pillow flaps her arms)

Lollipop: Yes, exactly that gesture.

Pillow: I've done some research, and I believe it means the person cares so little that the last droplets of care spirit are being sucked out of their body, through their arms, and out of the tips of their fingers, and into the outer reaches of interstellar space to be lost forever.

Pillow is wrong here. That should be obvious. While, like Leafy, she almost certainly didn’t mean anything by it, this actually does lasting damage. Now Teardrop’s means of communication are even fewer than ever before. But a change for the better is made this season.

BFB 4: Today’s Very Special Episode

Not me forgetting that this analysis is not about Eggy

The development here happens in the post-credits scene. Have a read:

Eggy: Hi, Teardrop. Even though my story might not be super interesting to you, I decided I'll tell it anyway.

(They sit down to listen)

Eggy: So it all began when I was a baby egg. You know, an egg inside of an egg? Eggception, if you will. It was very cozy, and at that moment, I realized I was pretty content! I had everything I needed! I didn't need to complain for more. So I thought, "Why shout? Why even say anything?" As you see, that's how I, as a small egg, never really spoke much, and blah blah blah...

Although Eggy still struggles to understand her, she’s done something no other object has done. She sits down and has a conversation with her. This is the first time anyone has interacted with her when they didn’t have to or weren’t talking down to her. Things aren’t perfect, but they’re much better.

Since I don’t feel like doing the rest of BFB, let’s jump to…

TPOT 2: The Worst Day Of Black Hole’s Life

This episode should be titled “The Worst Day Of Teardrop’s hater’s life”, because goodness gracious, if you don’t like her you’ll hate this. My phone is running out of battery, so I’ll make this brief.

I like to think of Teardrop this season as her “revenge” arc, because goodness gracious she needed it after BFDIA. It’s her against the world, so she has to work triple time just to keep up. However, with her cleverness, determination, and a little trickery, she safely makes it past each challenge. That is, until…

TPOT 9: Outbreak At Stake

This episode was the first TPOT episode of the “apocalypse” genre (yes that’s a genre in BFDI) and let me just say: this was off to a good start.

After all this time of getting revenge, Teardrop now has to save her enemies from the literal zombie apocalypse. So she does something nobody had ever done in BFDI up to this point.

She sacrifices herself-and her position in the game to save the lives of people she hates. Think of how powerful that is.

By throwing herself into Barf Bag, she creates enough barf to slather onto steaks and feed to zombies to cure them (yes that is how it works in this universe), at the cost of her life.

Being a fan of both Tennis Ball and Needle and having to see their fanbases at each other's throats is heartbreaking.

I understand Needle fans want her to the finale and therefore need TB out, and viceversa, but I have to admit the sheer vitriol I see for these characters... and sometimes their fans... makes me plainly uncomfortable.

Both Needle and TB are flawed but wonderfully written characters who got to shine this season and had a lot of development. I elaborate more under the cut, take this as a rushed attempt at a character analysis of both Needle and Tennis Ball.

I’m breaking my silence lol. I saw a Fireafy take on TikTok yesterday that was so off it sent me into a spiral. It felt like a total mischaracterization, painting the situation as a black-and-white 'Good vs. Evil' story when it’s actually one of the most complex grey area in the series. I wanted to sit down and actually analyze the Ferris Wheel and the fallout of Dream Island objectively. I spend a lot of time deconstructing Firey’s side because I think he’s often the most misinterpreted, but this is a love letter to both characters. Let’s get into the tragedy of errors that is Fireafy. Warning, there are typos but they don't affect the overall message of what I'm saying.

(an analysis on the firey-leafy + coiny-pin arcs and why the main parallels of the arcs are actually firey-pin and coiny-leafy rather than leafy-pin and coiny-firey.)

hi everyone! my last analysis on firey and his dissociative tendencies was pretty well received, so i figured i’d rewrite another analysis i wrote 2 weeks ago about two very popular arcs that have had a lasting impact in the story of bfdi.

it is undeniable that firey, leafy, coiny, and pin are some of the most popular bfdi characters. all of them have reached the merge at least once and are so beloved that they even have their own fangame called bfdi: branches, which still receives updates. furthermore, the dynamics of “fireafy” and “coinpin” (i will use “ship names” for the sake of simplification, but know that i am doing it in a neutral light) are very strongly appreciated by fans, as shown through fics and fanart that come out on a near daily basis.

however, when it comes to examining the “branches dynamics” outside of the two key pairs, analysis and discussion becomes far more finicky. although fireoiny and leafpin do receive a steady stream of content, there are sometimes misconceptions about the duos. most notably, people seem to act like they are the primary intended parallels towards each other in the narrative. there are reasons for fans to think this, (which i’ll elaborate on later,) but my opening statement is that the real parallels in the arcs are firepin and coinleaf.

let’s start with firey and pin’s similarities. their shared main source of turmoil is the trauma they’ve endured from freesmart. firey with his imprisonment in idfb and pin with the repeated body modification and teasing from freesmart.

while some might wanna scale trauma and argue one is “worse” than the other, they have the same end result throughout pre-split bfb and post-revival bfdia respectively about how this trauma is clouding their judgement. both of them are shown to have a hard time trusting others. firey does this by emotionally shutting down, while pin instead chooses to be an aggressor.

coiny and leafy, on the other hand, have a noticeably different way of dealing with things. while i would never necessarily argue that their own coping mechanisms are healthy, (rotting in a lighthouse for 2 months or trying to stab people with knives is NOT properly healing!) they tend to bounce back rather quickly, especially if other people are currently perceiving them. consequently, this makes both of them baffled by their respective partners and confused as to why they can’t calm down and face their fears.

and so, coiny and leafy first try to confront pin and firey through direct confrontation. i would also argue that there is some sort of physical hostility here. in fireafy’s case, firey is trapped in a position where he has to help leafy, while in coinpin’s case, there is the literal aggression of coiny slamming a spaceship into pin. unsurprisingly, neither confrontation goes well because to firey and pin, it only affirms that their fears of being attacked are right and that people will continue to hurt them no matter how they act.

coiny and leafy also have that nice little parallel of them being the ones who are “giving” in their perspective dynamics rather than receiving. coiny outright says it in bfdia 20 when he’s arguing with pin, while leafy repeatedly tries to help firey in challenges during bfdi and later bfb 22 despite it being at her detriment. this leaves firey and pin as the “receivers.” although pin certainly questions it more than firey and outright challenges coiny about it, firey seems to have his own misgivings due to his loneliness and hesitance.

this all comes to a head during the inevitable reconciliation of the pairs. in bfdia 21, coiny and pin reconcile when coiny realizes through his chat with needle that he made pin feel worse and that she might avoid him forever if things continue this way, so he marches back to where he is and tries to take full accountability for the situation despite not exactly being in the wrong. he screwed them both over, but he has a valid reason to be upset, especially since he too gets hurt in bfdia frequently (suffocating in space sucks!) but undermines his own feelings to help pin. this helps pin feel safe and secure around coiny again, allowing her to let down her guard and confess her own true feelings.

as needle pointed out, it would have been far more advantageous to abandon pin and form tight bonds with the rest of the final 5 instead, but coiny sacrifices that to affirm to pin that he is someone who she can let in and feel safe with.

as for firey and leafy.. much like how pin is too paralyzed by hurt and indecision to make the first move, firey too refuses to do the same. he refuses to act and frequently avoids confrontation with leafy. when she does press the matter further, he too reacts with hostility like pin did to coiny. throughout bfdia and bfb, leafy has repeatedly tried to make firey acknowledge her and be accountable, but in bfb 22, she finally realizes that this isn’t the way. firey’s thoughts in this episode are clearly scatterbrained and panicked. he’s not thinking right at all and it visibly alarms leafy. here, she instead decides to calm firey down and convince him that he can trust her.

again, it is easy for leafy to be “in the right” here. she did not force firey to do what he did in this episode, nor is she incorrect for calling him out as she did in bfb 15. however, offering herself up as a scapegoat is what makes firey finally feel as if he can trust somebody in his life again.

in both cases, coiny and leafy have the “easy out.” many viewers who watch these arcs even believe that they should take this and instead find solace in each other’s “correctness.” however, pin and firey would therefore never face the trust and understanding that they need to start healing.

as i said before, it is easy to see why people get the idea that fireoiny and leafpin are the key parallels, especially since throughout bfdia 21, leafy repeatedly talks about how similar she is to pin, but.. the point is that they’re actually not. the ending of the episode reveals this by showing the differences between them. pin is able to reconcile with coiny because coiny took the first step and offered to handle all responsibility for it while leafy is the one who had to do that for firey but abstained because she thought the issue with their friendship lay somewhere else. (first with leafy thinking that firey just genuinely didn’t recognize her, and then with leafy thinking cornering him was the solution.)

in short, pin and firey are the receivers of their relationships while coiny and leafy are the gifters. there are exceptions to these labels, (pin repeatedly sticking up for coiny in bfdia 9 and firey making leafy the new ferris wheel in bfb 24) but at the end of it all, coiny and leafy are the ones who put their struggles to the side because of their desire to have unconditional faith in pin and firey. firepin have to develop trust in both their PARTNERS again as well as THEMSELVES because they don’t know who they are after what HAPPENED TO THEM.

I went, "What. no. she/her."

"How does that work? With she/her/hers and they/them?"

I stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Well you came out as-" and I said, "I'm asexual."

She replied, "Like an amoeba, I know."

"Oh. My god. No. Mom. It doesn't- it's not the asexual you learned about in biology. I didn't come out as a single celled organism."

With heavy relief, she said "Oh, it has a different meaning?"

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