#flowerleafy

A topic I’ve wanted to discuss for a while now is the interesting relationship between Flower and Leafy.

Leafy and Flower in early BFDI were polar opposites. Leafy filling the roll of “the nice one” and Flower filling the roll of “the mean one”. Flower was first to be eliminated, while Leafy made it all the way to the final 2. Flower didn’t have a single friend, while Leafy had many. From the start they were very different characters.

But as the show went on the two of them became more and more similar. Eventually getting to BFB 1, where they were both friendless, desperate for approval, and still coping with their previous isolation.

We see them both strive in early BFB to be loved and appreciated. Leafy going through great lengths to befriend as many people as possible, and Flower doing anything to be approved of.

Overtime they both deal with these issues and become better people (interestingly enough, both with help from Ruby). But while their own self image improves, the people around them still seem to be against them due to their past mistakes.

That’s where the idea of the unspoken alliance comes into play.

The first time we really get a good example of this is episode 24: the game has changed. Leafy is shunned by Lollipop, and Firey refuses to stand up for her. Dejected and sad, Leafy walks away. But she’s quickly confronted by Flower who offers to do the challenge with her, (and later attempts to give her immunity) despite the fact that the two of them have never really worked together before.

This gesture is greatly appreciated by Leafy, who gains new confidence with Flower by her side. When Firey approaches the two of them, Leafy (who was previously unable to express her feelings to Firey) snaps at him and tells him how much he hurt her. She then goes off with Flower, and her mind stays off of Firey until she sees him again.

Flower supporting Leafy does not go unnoticed, as she later pays it forward in BFB 27: uprooting everything

This time, it’s Flower’s turn to get left out by people she thought were her friends. Gelatin and Teardrop plan to work together with Leafy to take Flower down. But Leafy, in an action that will eventually lead to her elimination, invites Flower into the team. Giving her support and compassion when Flower was being left out, just as Flower had done for her.

Flower is ecstatic when Leafy invites her onto the team, and gives her a reason to believe that people like her (which she projects onto Teardrop since Leafy leaves with Gelatin)

We see smaller examples of them standing up for each other as well, like in BFB 21: lets raid the warehouse, when Leafy tries to start up a conversation with her fellow contestants and no one will talk to her. They ignore her because no one there likes her. After she realizes no one is going to say anything, Flower is the one who makes the move to engage with her. Which takes Leafy’s full attention.

Even when they’re not standing up for each other, after Flower and Leafy’s first time working together, the two seem to be really close. Flower calls for Leafy when she doesn’t want to talk to Taco, Leafy shows concern when Flower is nervous, Leafy’s the first one to really talk Flower out of letting the show die.

And in a personal favorite gesture of mine, Leafy votes for Flower to win BFB, once again paying it forward for what Flower did for her.