#firepin

happy trans awareness week :-D 🎉 🏳️‍⚧️ here’s the branches

(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.