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[objecttalks]

Battle For Dream Island - The OSC's Roots

RANK: S Tier

REVIEW WRITTEN ON: 1/1/2022

BFDI is really the fundamental object show. The start of it all. From two little 12 year olds in love with the show Total Drama Island messing around on flash, to a nearly 12 year old show with merchandise and millions of views on YouTube. I love this series so much and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

Below is a brief overview of the show, and my thoughts on each of the seasons

If you haven't seen the show already, the show as a whole is an enjoyable surrealist serialized comedy about several characters competing with eachother in a survivor-type contest. Each episode centers around a different challenge, the characters interacting and having interpersonal drama with eachother. Most of the show's appeal comes from the character's interactions and the show's humor, and, of course, the unique quality of audience participation by way of viewer voting to eliminate the contestants from the game. Each season has different merits but every season is, at least in my opinion, enjoyable.

THE SEASONS

Battle For Dream Island

The rocky but charming begining to BFDI is surprisingly good at what it does. Despite being written and nearly single handedly produced by two 12 year olds in 2010, it steers clear of overly edgy humor, only occasionally having crude jokes such as "pen island" or "pin? Wrong finger...". This season for me is proof that kids have a real knack for surreal humor.

While the show starts off on a foot that may be unappealing to a lot of people, seeming too kiddish and unprofessional, that's definitely part of the charm and lends to an appreciation of the improvement the creators make throughout the series.

The characters are strong, none of them feeling too stereotyped or one dimensional, and the limited amount of voice actors leads to some pretty unique and charmingly awkward voices for the cast. One of my favorite things in this season is the focus on established friendships and rivalries between all the characters right off the bat. The characters aren't nobodies who existed in a vacuum before the start of the show, they already had lives. This makes interactions feel natural, despite the admittedly stilted way the characters talk throughout the season; which, to me, adds to the charm, but it can be off putting and a bit difficult to get through especially for new or older watchers.

The character arcs and drama, especially near the end of the season, are genuinely intriguing and enjoyable. By now you care about the characters and are excited to see who will win, and I can only imagine what it would've been like to be voting at this time, since I only joined the OSC around the time BFDIA episode 5 wrapped up.

Surprisingly, the show feels very natural in the way characters are eliminated. A feeling of character arcs being "nerfed" is a pretty glaring problem in other series and even seasons of this show going forward.

Battle For Dream Island Again

BFDIA is my personal favorite season of BFDI. The surreal nature of the show is taken up a notch in this season, since a lot of the plot has little to no direction. In fact, there's a whole episode about them realizing they're battling for nothing in this season. The care free yet inexplicably competitive attitude all the characters have this season really rubs me the right way.

This season also shows a lot of improvement in both writing and animation. There are moments where things are amazingly fluid, there are more voice actors, the jokes hit a lot harder, and yet the charm from the first season stays. The surreal humor is more surreal than ever, random and weird facts are dropped multiple times every episode (such as pins sweating ooze instead or water, or snow and gasoline mixing to create glue) which is another reason this show has some of the best "random" humor. It's not just characters screaming things. It's creating its own special logic that makes no sense, and yet you go along with it because the characters just go like, "okay" at it. It's so funny.

I personally think character arcs take a bit of a back seat this season, but what is done with the characters development wise is fun, interesting, and genuinely gripping at moments. The development of freesmart/the alliance with the introduction of new characters this season is one of the major highlights.

Something of note about this season is that it doesn't have a proper ending, getting put on hiatus and abruptly canceled by the release of IDFB. However, I don't think this is to its detriment. I feel like episode 5 was the perfect way for this season to end. It has the great cliff hanger but ultimately contains itself in a way I find very satisfying. The "go with the flow" energy of the season definitely helps, making it easier to accept that episode 5 is the final episode. However, this may be seen as disappointing to some.

IDFB

This "season" is only one episode long and is never being continued. This, unlike BFDIA, is actually a shame. This season had so much potential but was released at the wrong place and time for the creators and it made continuing it nearly impossible.

The general idea for this season is that there's NO competition, and instead it's ALL just characters messing around and living their lives. The audience participation this season was going to be that the audience could pick someone who had been eliminated or recommended from the prior seasons to join the current cast. This set up was so intriguing and endearing, letting the characters stand on their own without a competition creating conflict. It would've been so interesting!

Since it is only one episode I don't have a ton to say about it in a broad sense. I could spend a while analyzing it but what else is there to say beyond it's a shame this didn't continue. However, I am kind of glad it didn't continue, because if it had we probably never would've gotten what we have now.

Battle For BFDI

BFDI's great return set a new precedent for the object show community, and rejuvenated the series in many new and interesting ways. From the extremely large cast of characters to the humor to the art style itself. This season had a lot of great little character arcs and moments, and every character had a little something to bring to the table.

To me this season is internally divided into different sections, since as the show continued, the vibe changed.

Early bfb (episodes 1-5) have a very slap dash but uniquely surreal, almost stilted and awkward quality to it, that gives this section a lot of charm and character quite like the first season, except a little better executed. A lot of the jokes hit me hard, although the weirdness of it was off-putting when the series first came out. I also enjoy how for the most part, this section was the most alien we saw four and x act. I don't know if I necessarily consider the early section better, but the weirdness is something that kinda leaves the other parts of this season, which makes me kinda sad.

Mid bfb (episode 6-10) is a lot of fun because of all the changes with the hosting and the randomness of the challenges. Reminds me a lot of BFDIA which is definitely my style. Although I do think this is a strange period for the show, since it feels like they're starting to take more time and effort on the episodes. Its so entertaining! I feel like a lot of the energy from this section in particular carries on to battle for bfb.

I get why this could possibly be some people's least favorite chunk of episodes since the show feels a little directionless, and there's a lot of things trying to shake up the formula (something very prominent in BFDIA and BFB-B) which may be something might not be into really. This was also when the taco-shunning arc was in it's midpoint, which while the pay off is definitely worth it, it's a bit of a slog since it feels like they just don't seem to grow until the next section. But that definitely doesn't ruin it. This section also flows really well during a binge-session, which is impressive considering the time passage between episodes.

And late bfb (episodes 11-16) is a weird one because I feel like it's the highest quality put out by this season, with some of the best arc writing and some really hard hitting jokes, the return of four, and some of the most impressive animation of the season- however, I do feel like this section of the show wasn't allowed to just be. There were expectations growing and it shows, in both a good and not so good way.

I think the most controversial thing about this season WAS the split for sure, but breaking it down into sections kinda makes it clear- to me at least- why the split tracks. The quality of late bfb verses the weirdness of early bfb. Overall though, wether the decision to split was good or not, this season IS a lot of people's definitive bfdi season.

Battle For BFB

OKAY now, I don't know why so many people seem to dislike this season. I really like this season, personally. I think it's some of the funnest stuff bfdi has made. It's so weird and enjoyable and also some of the BEST character work they've done.

This season reminds me so much of BFDIA in the way the contestants all kinda just, fuck around the whole time? And it also reminds me of late season 1, where it became more like, character relationship focused. The smaller cast really let characters shine and grow, and the switch to "vote to save" was SO smart, at least for bfdi.

I love how like, the characters this season are so open about their feelings. If a character is hurt or feels weird about something, they tend to talk it out. That's how we got things like the firey and leafy conflict resolution, the blocky and woody friendship, the conflict and friendship between gelatin and tear drop, and of COURSE: the flower win.

What rubbed me the wrong way with this season though was the intrusions by Patreon characters or purple face. I'll admit I do think purple face DOES serve an interesting purpose of providing a character who wants to feel wanted and feels as though he never got a chance to be appreciated, but that doesn't mean he didn't annoy the hell out of me.

Even with that, I just care a lot about this season and I definitely think people are a little too hard on it, or a little too quick to decide it's not for them. In my eyes, the end to BFDI is exactly what it needed to be. I really liked how they wrote this season, things felt like they MEANT something. Characters had arcs that the large cast in pre-split BFB just, couldn't give time to.

The Power of Two

Okay so on the rankings, literally the only reason it ranked so low within the bfdi tier ranking (WHICH, to reiterate, is all still s tier) is because it's currently only one episode. But god damn, is it a good episode. This series has almost TOO MUCH potential. From the first episode alone, it takes all of my favorite things about late pre-split BFB. I love all the new dynamics it establishes and I can't wait to see where the series goes. I'll just, sit and watch this episode sometimes when I'm sad and it really does make me perk up every time. Not a *ton* to say since it is only one episode and there's not much to judge, but tpot makes me look forward to the future of BFDI.

To conclude:

I love bfdi and it rules and makes me happy :)

SEASON RANKINGS (best to worst):