Four: Let's play a game!
Bracelety: I love games! ...What's wrong?
Four: Don't you wanna battle to win a prize?
Eraser: (beat) But, what is the prize?!
Four: A BFDI.
(everyone excitedly reacts)
X: I love that prize!
Four: (screeches X) Now, form 8 teams of 8!
— "Getting Teardrop to Talk"
Battle for BFDI — BFB for short — is the Denser and Wackier Soft Reboot and fourth season of Battle for Dream Island, an animated web series of what you called an object show by The Huang Twins, Michael and Cary, aka jacknjellify or htwins. It ran from November 3, 2017 to April 9, 2021. Sixty-four anthropomorphic objects go about their daily lives. After a black hole sucks up the world to open a jar of cyanide for his fellow contestant, Four and X (characters from a previous animation called "X Finds Out His Value") appear and propose a game in which the prize is a "BFDI".
But what is a BFDI? Is it replacing Dream Island as the most important big deal in BFDI history? Well, it doesn't matter because all the contestants are very excited to win it. Thus the contest begins.
On March 25, 2020, the series was split into two shows with the release of its 16th episode, "The Escape From Four". The episode acted as a double Backdoor Pilot for both a new show named The Power of Two (abbreviated "TPOT"), which has a new host, Two, and took most of the contestants, and Battle for BFB, a direct continuation still featuring Four as the host, which takes the remainder. While the voting system for BFB was largely the same as previous seasons, it changed from "vote to eliminate" to "vote to save" after the split.
The series can be found in the same playlist as previous seasons, starting at the 39th video.
This show provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc:
- While the drama between Firey and Leafy is carried over post-split from the finale up to BFDIA 5a, on the other hand, the story arc of Leafy becoming a sociopath intent on murdering anyone who dare tried to kill her in the finale is dropped as soon as BFB 1 begins, with Leafy on good terms with the Season 1 veterans save Firey, and she's no longer coated in Yoyle metal.
- Loser has 2 of these, people stopped hating him for lying, and his plot about his methods being doubted also was aborted.
- Adorable Abomination:
- How Four works, looks, and acts suggest this:
- He can absorb eliminated contestants into its body.
- He revives dead contestants by shooting them out of its hand, with a drum roll.
- He can teleport, seemingly regenerate himself, and start the intro to the episode.
- He also straight up assimilates into the Earth just to stay on the show after losing control to the Announcer.
- He can also move the minds of characters around and give out happy memories.
- X leans more on the adorable and less on the abomination, but both factors are still there.
- How Four works, looks, and acts suggest this:
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: Episode 28, "B.F.B.: Back From Beginning," being the final challenge completed by the characters, with the Announcer even returning.
- And I Must Scream: At the end of BFB 2, Taco is still trapped inside one of the jawbreakers with no one being able to hear or free her. The worst part is it seems that she has been in there for days and no one even remembers her to the point that she eats part of herself to survive.
- Angrish: Book tries to convince her team that Taco abandoned them for the umpteenth time. When nobody listens, this happens.
- Animation Bump: As of BFB 13, the animation is more fluid, thanks to a higher budget.
- Anthropomorphic Typography: Four, X and Two as Game Show Hosts in seasons 4 and 5 while numbers Five through Nine appear in non-canon shorts separate from the main show.
- Apocalypse How: In BFB 14, Team Ice Cube end up breaking open a magma vein, causing it to spill out. This ends up flooding the entire area of North Goiky in lava. It isn't until BFB 15 that the lava clears up thanks to a garbage shoot in Golf Ball's underground lab. This leaves behind a barren wasteland. It's rather intriguing to watch.
- Arc Number:
- 8. There are eight teams of eight members, freeing the eight recovered contestants from the jawbreakers was the second challenge, and there's 8-ball who denies having a favorite number, and was also eliminated on episode 8 and gave Saw the fumes that made her randomly say "eight". He was also in 8th place for the rejoining in episode 11.
- 2763, oddly enough. It's the distance between Goiky and Yoyleland, and the number of deaths Death P.A.C.T. prevented as of episode 5. It's also the speed in miles per hour at which X can move, and the last part of the treasure's coordinates in BFB 13.
- 31 also could qualify. The first three seasons have 31 contestants and 31 episodes in total and a new episode is released each month, roughly 31 days. And due to the fact that TPOT 1 came out in between BFB 27 and 28, there were also 31 episodes in total to come out during BFB's run.
- Ascended Extra:
- X usually plays second fiddle to Four during their hosting stints. Once Four is multiplied by zero, however, he starts hosting himself. He proves himself woefully under-prepared and out of his element during his stint as host, so he steps back comfortably into being Four's sidekick again.
- In addition, most of the new contestants in BFB were only extras until then, appearing in a few scenes before their official debut as contestants.
- Purple Face, a character that briefly appeared in an advertisement all the way back in season one, ends up returning starting in episode 23, and becomes a recurring side character. He even becomes the co-co-host of the show starting in episode 27.
- Ascended Meme: Many voters jokingly voted for Four and X, the hosts, using [4] and [X]. Come BFB 13, and since no team has been put up for elimination by the end of the episode, the voting segment was turned into a popularity contest, where Four and X can be voted using [4] and [X].
- Badass Fingersnap: Donut uses one during BFB 8 to turn the gravity back on, using the moon to crush 8-ball as part of his elimination and subsequent death. Another one is used by Four to begin the challenge in BFB 12.
- In the episodes after the show split, Four and X use this to eliminate contestants.
- Bait-and-Switch: During the 4th challenge, when Team BEEP presents a cake in the shape of Four. Once asked how they made it, a flashback leads the viewers to think that it’s Rocky vomiting onto a plate. But it’s really Woody spreading frosting onto that said plate and David groaning in disgust. And then the frosting is revealed to be Rocky’s barf.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Subverted in BFB 20, "A Taste of Space". The Have Cots immediately begin to suffocate after Gelatin breaks the plastic wrap windows. Luckily, Four gives them air for the Cake and Stake and this trope is Played Straight due to the fact that the Have Cots were able to stand on the surface of the sun itself! Although Lollipop does begin to melt.
- Beyond the Impossible: Black Hole states that he can't be crushed to a smaller size, yet Four does just that anyways.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Black comedy becomes more prominent as the show goes on, most likely due to the creators' aging.
- Book Ends: Invoked. Leafy wants to make BFB end with the same word that it started with, just like the first season. After several failed attempts, Leafy and Firey succeed when X steals the propellers from their boat.
- Flower was the first to be eliminated (in season 1) and was the last to win (season 4).
- Bowdlerise: The official character guide for the show, released by Scholastic, does not contain any direct mentions of characters killing other characters. The closest they get is a mention of Woody being "pricked" by Naily.
- Breather Episode: BFB 12 only has major consequences for a few teams. Right after this is the intense two-parter that is BFB 13 and 14, and BFB 15 is filled with revelations about several key relationships, as well as the chaotic aftermath of North Goiky being flooded with lava. Right after that is BFB 16, which introduces Two, as well as splitting the show apart into two different shows. BFB 25 is this after a lot of long episodes we have a short 11 minutes.
- The Bus Came Back: Leafy, Loser, and Spongy all rejoined the game after being eliminated. The Announcer himself comes back to host the final two episodes of BFB, taking control back from Four.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Many of the contestants dislike Four because of his aggressive behavior, and A Better Name Than That actually succeeds in temporarily getting rid of him by multiplying him with Donut. However, neither Donut nor X is able to recover any of the dead contestants, and everyone eventually realizes that they need Four to be present in order for everyone to stay alive.
- Cardboard Prison: The jail in which Four is trapped in BFB 23, whose bars are easily moveable by Gelatin, who rescues them.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The jawbreakers, while seemingly just a challenge gimmick, are actually important for multiple characters. At the end of BFB 2, Taco is still trapped in one and doesn't break out until the end of the next episode, which kickstarts her huge conflict with her team. In BFB 7, Loser gets eliminated and is trapped in one, albeit an inside-out one, and spends a majority of his screentime trapped in it reading Donut's diary.
- Donut's second diary. Loser steals it in BFB 16, and it is not mentioned again until BFB 22, where Four puts it out to serve as the prize for the Cake at Stake. However, it is stolen, which leads to the challenge to find out who stole it. It turns out that Firey stole it. And when Leafy confronts him about how he had been ignoring her lately, he reveals why he stole it. This makes Leafy apologize for stealing Dream Island, and it restores their friendship as a result. Leafy then takes the blame to save Firey from getting hated by his teamates.
- In BFB 28, the Announcer gives Flower $50,000 for her fashion business. Come BFB 29, where the show is slowly losing money and on the verge of being cancelled, Flower's money that was intended for her fashion line ends up being the only thing that can save the show and get the budget back.
- Cloudcuckoolander: While every contestant and their mother qualifies, the hosts are much more exaggerated examples. It's on another level with 4, who is almost an Eldritch Abomination in their own right.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the teams are color-coded.
- Death P.A.C.T.: Black/Navy
- A Better Name Than That: Blue
- Team Ice Cube!: White
- Free Food: Red
- The Losers!: Yellow
- iance: Pink
- BEEP: Green
- Bleh: Gray/Purple
- Additionally, the new teams created after the show split are based around Four and X's colours (blue and yellow), and the team members (minus Ruby for Have Cots) were chosen based on whether their colour was closer to Four or X's.
- Color-Coded Armies: All Beep members are colored orange after their second Cake at Stake. However, dead contestants get recovered with their original coloring.
- Continuity Creep: While most post-split BFB episodes are standalones, the events in the plot of BFB 23 rely on previous episodes:
- The episode's contest is to bring Four back from jail, since he illegally used the courthouse in BFB 22.
- The Have Cots visit the warehouse from BFB 21, where they find the "Don't Purple Open Inside" box, which reveals Purple Face, who first appeared in BFDI 24, who ends up eating the Have Cots.
- When the Have Cots try to use the fast express train to get to the aforementioned warehouse, they have to use the steam train instead because Firey burned it because he was punished by Four for stealing Donut's Diary in the stinger of BFB 22. This also gives Flower enough time to chase after them.
- Conveniently Interrupted Document: When Book looks up her definition of herself, the pages for Battle For Dream Island Again and Battle For BFDI can be also seen. BFDIA's page is cut by formatting before it can be revealed who won and BFB's description is heavily distorted.
- Couch Gag: Every episode begins with a different character raising their arm before the intro starts.
- Courtroom Episode: In BFB 22, appropriately dubbed "Who Stole Donut's Diary".
- Cover Identity Anomaly: Most of the impostors in BFB 12 get caught because of this. Taco (as Tree) kills someone, which is against Tree's team policy, Basketball speaks as Rocky, Lightning (as Pin) doesn't remember the incident she is supposed to have witnessed, and so on.
- Covers Always Lie:
- In BFB 25’s thumbnail, Firey is seen reaching for a totem, which the contest is about (bringing a totem back to Four.) However, Firey was eliminated before the contest. Justified, since the thumbnail wouldn’t spoil the elimination.
- BFB 28’s thumbnail has Leafy reaching for a totem, as the contest was to complete all the previous challenges from the show, (The totems were from BFB 25.) even though she was eliminated before the contest. She also does not compete in that contest, and is one of the contestants trapped in the jawbreakers in this episode.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Beep was assembled by Leafy as a group of people who needed assistance. Obviously, they suck at challenges,noteespecially without Leafy.
- Darker and Edgier: While BFB is Denser and Wackier than the previous seasons, it also has significantly much darker moments, even when compared to the above examples.
- The eliminations can be more than a little unsettling. If a contestant is eliminated, Four will suck them into his body. The standouts so far are Leafy and Bracelety.
- While Liy gets sucked up faster than the other eliminated contestants, their behavior once eliminated more than makes up for it. She accuses her teammates of being ungrateful and biased towards her, as she just wanted to overcome her past and save lives, even pointing out that she saved the most lives out of everyone in her team. Liy eventually loses it and flips into her previous design, to the horror of her teammates. It’s also heavily implied she used to be a serial killer.
- 8-Ball’s elimination actually kills him. To elaborate, Donut traps him in between the moon and the earth, then undoes the zero-gravity effect to crush him to death.
- BFB 2’s post-credits scene reveals that Taco is the only contestant still trapped in a jawbreaker, and when David tries to free her, a dejected Nickel tells him to leave it alone. Poor Taco is unable to be heard by the other contestants and remains trapped inside for several days, eating her fish to prevent herself from starving. During the third challenge, she tries to call for help again, but her teammates still can’t hear her and come to the conclusion that she either died or abandoned them.
- Death Is Cheap: While recovery centers are no longer around in BFB, Four has the ability to revive any dead contestant. After he got killed off for a period of time, any contestants who die remain dead indefinitely. In BFB 10, he comes back, though, and every dead contestant during his absence gets recovered.
- Decided by One Vote: In Episode 22, all the contestants received over ten thousand votes, yet the eliminated contestant is only a single vote behind the next contestant.
- Denser and Wackier: This season is more fast-paced with more impulsive humor, now that episodes are shorter and released biweekly, and a host whose actions make the Announcer look tame.
- Deus ex Machina:
- In BFB 8, Saw is the one answering questions for BLEH and she won't stop screaming "EIGHT!", but then one of the questions is "What is the past tense of 'eat'?". The answer is of course "ate", which sounds like "eight", so BLEH is safe.
- In BFB 17, the Have Cots are about to win when they realize they forgot Teardrop, so X goes flying into the Have Nots, giving them the win.
- In BFB 23, Teardrop kills Gelatin and Four happens to hear Gelatin screaming to death and recovers him, and the bars happen to be made of cardboard so the Have Cots win.
- Didn't Think This Through: In BFB 22, Firey and Leafy finally make peace, and hug it out. Of course, Firey is made of, well, fire, and Leafy is a leaf, so Leafy ends up burning to ash, much to Firey's horror. Later in The Stinger, they hug again with the exact same results, and Firey tells himself to stop.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Any character who interrupts Four or tries to criticize him, Clock, in particular, is this. It's usually a very poor idea, though.
- The Dog Bites Back: Episode 6 has this. After spending the entire season up to that point at the short end of Four's torment, the team "A Better Name Than That" attempts to get rid of him by "multiplying him by 0," using Donut as their 0. It works, and Donut is then made the host for that episode. Four episodes later, however, Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them kicks in.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted, it does not come into play here when Bell scorns Taco for using her in the sixth challenge and refuses to accept her apologies no matter what she says.
- Despite Match's Freudian Excuse and relatively sincere apology, Bubble does not immediately forgive her as well for verbally pressuring and demoting her in the eighth challenge.
- Eject the Loser: Four absorbs the eliminated contestants. After the split, eliminated contestants are sent to the Big Rotating Building (BRB), where they are spun around in cages high above the ground.
- Done again by The Announcer in BFB 28, ejecting Purple Face from the show while he tries to Piss-Take Rap about him.
- Eldritch Transformation: Four, already Eldritchy to begin with, merges with Earth after his show is overtaken for a second time.
- Enter Eponymous: BFB 10, Enter the Exit, in which the location of the eliminated contestants is revealed as the EXIT
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Heavily implied by the end of episode 14. Only 29 out of 54 contestants are confirmed to be alive. BFB 27's contest ends with everyone but 4, X, and Teardrop dead.
- Fake-Out Opening: BFB episode 10 features an "opening" with all eliminated and dead characters missing, alive characters appearing in their state in the show (like Tree being stuck inside Bottle), Four being missing from the ending, X being sad about it, and the title being "Battle for Nothing". The regular opening is played later in the episode when Four comes back.
- Ferris Wheel of Doom: As a prank, Woody detaches Firey's Ferris Wheel from the fulcrum while Firey and Leafy are riding it in BFB 24.
- Flat "What": Happens twice in BFB 23 and 24 respectively.
- In BFB 23, after Gelatin saves Four and wins the challenge, Four thanks him in a very over the top manner and flies away, leaving the latter confused.
- In BFB 24, Lollipop intentionally makes a bad party for the challenge just to annoy Four. Despite this, Four ends up loving it, granting her first place, and leaving Lollipop shocked.
- Foreshadowing: In BFB 1, the voting music is used outside of its context - in a scene with iance, who went up for elimination in that episode.
- BFB 27's stinger has a UFO sound, and then in BFB 28, Announcer returns
- In BFB 30, the disappearance of Teardrop after the finale foreshadows her joining TPOT starting with episode 2, implying she had left to join the other show by that point.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: The entire premise of BFB 12’s challenge. A contestant from each team has their minds placed into the body of another contestant, and the others must rule out the imposter in order to secure immunity for their team.
- Friendly Address Privileges: Profily revokes Leafy's friendly address privileges and tells her to call them "Profile Picture" after she takes the first action to eliminate them.
- Fun with Acronyms: There are a few more acronyms in addition to the classic "BFDI".
- The team “Death Prevention and Creating Trust” ends up being shortened to “Death P.A.C.T.”
- Parodied with the former location of eliminated contestants, the EXIT, which stands for, Eternal Xalgebra Iclass Twithfour
- After the split, eliminated contestants are sent to the BRB, also known as the "Big Rotating Building"
- Gilligan Cut: Happens in episode 1.
Fries: I'll throw you as high as I can and you'll try to grab the basket, okay?
Foldy: I'm a bit nervous about thaaaaaa- - Heroic Sacrifice: While these occur throughout the series, BFB 14 is full of them with several contestants dying to save others from the lava. Since Death Is Cheap, these don't result in the death of contestants for good but can change relationships pretty quickly. Especially when Book, who hated Taco for nearly the entire season up to this point, saves Taco in BFB 14.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Hostile Show Takeover almost succeeds due to the show's budget running out, but the money that the Announcer gave to Flower from the previous episode saves the show from being cancelled after the cast's plan to raise money backfires.
- Hostile Show Takeover: When the Announcer comes back, he decides to run the finale of BFB, taking both control and the contestants from Four.
- Imagined Innuendo: In BFB episode 6, A Better Name Than That successfully gets rid of Four by multiplying him by zero (Donut). Tennis Ball and Golf Ball wiggle their eyebrows at the word "factor", much to Donut's annoyance.
Tennis Ball: Well, Four became a... factor of zero... if you know what I mean.
[Tennis Ball and Golf Ball wiggle their eyebrows intensively]
Donut: Stop that! There's not even a second meaning there! - Irony: The fact that Death P.A.C.T., a death-preventing team, includes Black Hole and Remote, who both have killed in BFDI, and are the only recommended characters in Season 1 aside from Bomby to get that distinction.
- Jump Scare: Played for Laughs in BFB 13. Eraser and Fries are waiting for the next contest because Four and X have a blank look on their faces, something they apparently do before X floats up and start the challenge. Then X suddenly drills through the ground, leaving the two shocked speechless.
- Killed Off for Real: Inverted when all contestants are brought back to life, including Woody, who had been dead since the finale of BFDI, as they can be revived by Four and X.
- Match Cut: Every episode has a character doing the same pose as 4 in the intro (raising their left hand up), and then cutting to 4 in the intro.
- Name One: X asks the Announcer to name one thing he and Four did badly in the show. He receives a whole list of things, which he ignores because he only asked for one.
- Nice Mean And In Between: For the Newbie Alliance, Gelatin is nice, Lollipop is mean and Teardrop is in-between.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Exaggerated; Eggy remembers when she was an egg inside of an egg.
- Non-Indicative Name: Ice Cube is not on Team Ice Cube, which is lampshaded multiple times.
- One-Letter Pun: In the episode Enter the Exit, in an effort to bring back Four, Bottle dresses as a golfer, hits Golf Ball with a club, and shouts "FOUR!!!"note
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In BFB 7, when the teams on the moon are in turmoil, Blocky orders Golf Ball to watch the communicator dish. Golf Ball, being the informal leader of the team, protests, but eventually gives in.
- Order vs. Chaos:
- The conflict between Black Hole (preventing deaths) and Remote (winning challenges) qualifies as this.
- Four vs. The Announcer. Four is an eldritch entity from beyond the stars who retaliates against anything he dislikes with superpowered tantrums, while Announcer is an emotionless machine who keeps things professional. However, Four loved BFDI and started his show to live in his favorite thing, while Announcer is more preoccupied with getting the last archive of the first two seasons back to the point of tanking the show's budget.
- Out of Focus: Due to the ridiculously large cast in BFB, characters tend to fall in and out of focus depending on the episode. Some characters, however, seem to get the short end of the stick no matter what.
- Painful Rhyme: In Episode 5, when Death P.A.C.T. was called for Cake at Stake, Four told them to assemble or be "dismembled", mangling the word for dismemberment.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In BFB 18, Flower's merch is used as this for the Have Cots to disguise as Flower and it surprisingly works.
- Parting-Words Regret: Bubble's last words to Match are lengthy and harsh. In the following episode, she resolves to forgive everyone else to prevent this from happening again.
Bubble: What if... what if this happened because I didn't forgive her? I can't let that happen to anyone else.
- Plot Hole: One of the most confusing in BFB 14. Ice Cube has been walking with iance the entire episode. When they get out of the hole with their emerald, they are all exhausted. But Ice Cube is not with them. Later on, she's shown with Taco watching the lava, even though she should be exhausted like iance.
- Power Trio: The show reprises the trios of Pencil/Match/Bubble and Blocky/Eraser/Pen in which alas the former dissolves very quickly after Pencil's elimination, and the latter also splits when Blocky opts to stay with BFB while Pen and Eraser go to TPOT. It also gave way to a new trio of Lollipop/Gelatin/Teardrop post-split due to the formation of their newbie alliance.
- Promoted Fanboy: An In-Universe example. In the finale, Four is revealed to have been such a devoted fan of BFDI, that he memorized every single pattern of every single episode, and swore to become the new host one day. Jump back to series premiere, and Four does indeed become the host, albeit by force.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Bubble gives Match a very deserved speech in "Get To The Top In 500 Steps":
Bubble: Nnnngh! Match, what's gotten into you lately?
Match: Bubble! You're finally ready to talk to me! I'm, like, sorry for lying. None of us knew those quiz answers.
Bubble: Then why did you demote me?!
Match: I, like, just had to set an example, so our teammates knew to, like, not mess up. Pencil's not around, so someone, like, had to fill in. You, like, understand, right?
Bubble: Why did you keep thinking that would help?
Match: Bubble, we need a strong leader, or—
Bubble: Or what, we'll lose? Why haven't you noticed that this kind of leadership HURTS PEOPLE EVERY TIME? Last time we had Pencil was EPISODE ONE! When we hurt Fanny, and lost the challenge. And in episode eight, when you took her spot! We only survived because Stapy cheated... and... you hurt me.
Match: I can promote you back to mem—
Bubble: That's meaningless! When I struggle, I don't need a stern leader! I don't need Pencil! I needed you. - Four gives one to the remaining contestants when they try and throw a party for Profily.
Four: You're- you'll throw them a party?! I tried to get seven of you to throw me a party, and only two of you did! And yes, Lollipop's party was the best of all time.
Lollipop: Wasn't on purpose.
Four: You're not helping! None of you have any respect for me! And I'm fed up with all of it! 40 of my contestants left for someone they knew for like, five minutes. And the ones that stayed steal Donut's diary, and you don't even help me out of jail until I make it a challenge! And now - UGH - you're gonna throw a party for Profily immediately? You never do these things for me, so we're going to make this simple - Profily is out of the game, but this isn't how they're leaving. - The Announcer gives one to X for how badly he and Four run the show.
X: Oh yeah? Name one thing that we did badly.
The Announcer: Okay X. You quit hosting a round. 40 contestants quit the game. There's a purple nuisance that you can't get rid of. People keep interfering with the show. You even let one of them join the game. You've lost all control.
X: I ask for only one thing, so technically, we came out on top there. - Gelatin gives a rather harsh one to Four during the final episode:
Four: Please, why won't you all just leave me alone?! You don't want me as your host, I get it, whatever! I moved on, so why won't you?!
Gelatin: Because we're mad, okay?! We're mad at you Four! You come in, and make us compete for these prizes, and you hurt us! And you're mean to us! And then we all choose to still compete for your prize, and you continue to hurt us and...I don't know, pulling your fingers so we feel pain for your own benefit, or like, killing us or doing that weird thing where you spin us into weird shapes? And you put all of us in cages for months?! We like you Four, that's why we stayed. But you can't expect us to remain fully committed when you don't even treat us nicely!
- Bubble gives Match a very deserved speech in "Get To The Top In 500 Steps":
- Recursive Acronym: Starting in episode 17, the show's title is Battle For BFB. Excluding the infinite loops that could be caused by "BFB", the full expansion of the acronym is "Battle For Battle For Battle For Dream Island".
- Remember the New Guy?: Episode 26 introduces Profily, short for Profile Picture, who insists they have been on the show since the very beginning. While the contestants don't buy it, they support Profily's status as a new contestant until Four makes the challenge to eliminate them. It leads to not only the show moving out of the valley they were kicked into the first place, but makes the remaining contestants realize how Off the Rails the show is becoming, which causes them to welcome back the Announcer with open arms.
- Retraux Flashback: The flashbacks in the 22nd, 26th and 29th episodes are animated in the style of the original BFDI.
- The Reveal:
- The Announcer returns close to the finale and is welcomed with open arms but behaves very suspiciously by abusing the budget Four barely touched this season. The next episode, the Announcer reveals that he wanted the BFDI, saw the show splitting thanks to Two as the perfect opportunity to retake his show without any pushback, and wasted the show's budget to make sure that it could never be taken from him. He also reveals that he was the one who started Battle For Dream Island Again and ran it behind the scenes, only canceling it due to everyone dying. The finale would later go on to reveal that the reason he wanted the BFDI was because it was the only physical of the first two seasons left.
- What is a BFDI? In the final episode, it's revealed to be the only physical copy of Battle for Dream Island, made because Four loved the show so much. It's also the reason why the Announcer went through so much trouble to cancel Battle For BFDI/BFB, as it was his life's work.
- Riding into the Sunset: Just like the final episode of the first season, Firey and Leafy ride off into the sunset, this time on a boat, and on much better terms with each other and the main cast.
- Running Gag: In the last few episodes, newly (re)introduced characters refer back to the final 14 screen and state that they were there the whole time, simply offscreen. First with Profily, who claims to have been in the final 15, then Announcer when explaining how they were running things from behind the scenes, and finally Purple Face when trying to offer an excuse for stealing the BFDI.
- Ship Sinking: BFB 6 teases Taco and Bell (who never interacted until then), with Taco pretending to flirt with Bell and flustering her. In reality, however, she was baiting her to look at the Twinkle-infected moon so she could spare Bleh from elimination. Fast forward to BFB 10, in which Bell refuses to talk to Taco and accept her apologies for what happened.
- Shoehorned First Letter: The EXIT stands for Eternal Xalgebra Iclass Twithfour.
- Shout-Out:
- "What Do You Think of Roleplay" (episode 12) has a plot similar to the video game Among Us. The episode was released a month after the game, although it could be coincidental since it wasn't very popular at the time
- The climax of BFB 29 where the animation begins to degrade due to the budget being spent up, could be one to the climax of the The Amazing World of Gumball episode, "The Money".
- Shown Their Work: In BFB 12, the impostor on Team Ice Cube, the losing team, was on iance, the second-to-worst team, meaning you didn't know who the impostor was until the very end of the challenge.
- Snap Back: Pin has her color and limbs once again, and Leafy is no longer covered in Yoyle Metal.
- Springtime for Hitler: Lollipop attempts to make a terrible party for Four in BFB 24, complete with a terrible song from Purple Face. She wins immunity as a result, and chooses Gelatin to be immune alongside her.
- Stylistic Suck: Four and X are very crudely animated in the beginning of BFB, but they are later more smoothly animated.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: For a show with anthropomorphic objects and screwy logic, this trope comes to play surprisingly more often in BFB.
- After Four gets absorbed into him, Donut ends up taking over as the show’s temporary host. However, since he's only a contestant with little experience in the competition (as he was eliminated first in BFDIA), things become noticeably more disorganized. Under his control, two teams are trapped on the moon and several contestants are (temporarily) killed off. While Four can reassemble and recover the contestants with ease, Donut cannot immediately undo any damage caused, and accidentally mutilates Naily when he tries to recover her. Even if you end up gaining reality-bending powers like Four, you don't immediately master them. Also, while he punishes Free Food for cheating in the challenge, he has no problem giving his own team questions that only they would know the answer to.
- In BFB 22, Four uses an actual courtroom as the basis of the challenge involving a trial to determine who stole Donut's diary. In the next episode, Four is arrested and put in jail for trespassing in a courtroom and holding an unauthorized trial, as well as the unauthorized practice of law for acting as a judge when they didn't pass the bar exam.
- Talking the Monster to Death: The Announcer to Four without even trying. After coming back, he immediately retakes control of the show from Four and X, tells them they did a poor job running it and lost all control. Four resorts to sinking into the desert to be "a constant presence".
- Token Evil Teammate: Gelatin & Firey Jr for TIC, Leafy for Beep, and Liy for Death P.A.C.T. respectively.
- Token Good Teammate: Bubble, Lightning, and Ruby for iance, due to them being sweet people who are put on a team with jerks.
- Took a Level in Jerkass:
- Leafy was among the nicer characters in BFDI, but she became less nice and more controlling in BFB. This controlling nature led to her team's loss and her elimination in the second episode, though once she rejoins the game, she’s trying to make up for it.
- Book was the voice of reason among FreeSmart, and was generally kinder and more polite than Pencil and Match. This behavior gets thrown out the window after she develops a deep-rooted belief that Taco abandoned the team and places a firm grip on the Jerkass Ball. As a result, Book regularly badmouths Taco, is much quicker to anger, and jumps to conclusions far more often.
- Foldy, when Stapy is eliminated.
- Toon Physics: Averted. During the first challenge, iance's strategy is to jump repeatedly in order to reach a basket. Unlike most instances where cartoon physics come into play, this doesn’t work, and they end up losing the challenge.
- The Unpronounceable: Bleh, which is all of the member's names said at the same time. It's impossible in real life, and can only be done through editing.
- Unrealistic Black Hole: Black Hole is a living, active contestant in BFB. Also, Four manages to crush him into a smaller size even though that's Beyond the Impossible.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Taco's jawbreaker. It was put in with her team's swing in episode 3, but the team still chose to ignore it. Contrived stupidity comes in when she finally frees herself and loudly declares it with pieces all around her and they still ignore that.
- Verbal Backspace: In BFB 14, Four was about to make a snarky comment about Free Food's cheating, but then scratches that and lets them be safe instead.
Four: Nice emeralds! I love a team that commits forgery!
[All of Free Food scream]
Four: ...commits for Dream Island! You really committed to winning Battle for Dream Island! - Voodoo Doll: Balloony's Earth causes 4 to be crushed when Balloony pokes it during Cake At Stake.
- Wall Jump: When team A Better Name Than That found the emerald after digging deep down underground they grab it and all start to come back to the surface by jumping on their tunnel walls in Don't Dig Straight Down.
- Wham Episode: In Episode 16, the show splits in two, splitting up most of the dramatic and lighthearted elements. A new character named Two shows up and convinces the majority of BFB's cast to switch to their new show, dubbed The Power of Two. In an attempt to salvage the contestants' interest, Four changes the prize to a BFB (thus changing the title to Battle For BFB). The majority of BFB's cast switches to the new show anyway, taking several of the heavy story arcs and character depth with them. When Taco asks Four if the show will be okay, Four shrugs off the dramatic events, indicating that Battle For BFB is once again Revisiting the Roots of the lighthearted first season.
- Wham Line: In BFB 28:
Announcer: Hey guys. I'm back.
- In BFB 29, when the Announcer explains to Taco why he returned to earth:
Announcer: It looked like an end to BFDI, but I wanted it to continue, budget or not. I fixed myself back up and returned to Earth.
Taco: Wait, you were on earth all along?
Announcer: Be quiet, i'm telling my story. I wanted BFDI to continue. I contacted TV to put together the voting for a new season.
- In BFB 30, when X explains why BFB means so much to Four:
X: Oh! Well, back in the day, BFDI was his favorite show.
- Later in the same episode, revealing the purpose of the BFDI:
Purple Face: Oh, why is it so important, Speaker Face? Just get another copy!
Announcer: That's exactly it. This is the only remaining copy of the entire show.
Four: EEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!