Why So Many People Are Wrong About Book (And Taco Too)
(an in-depth analysis of/appreciation post for one of the most overlooked, underutilized, and misunderstood characters in BFB)
This is an essay about my favorite BFB character, how she was horribly mistreated by the writers, how and why the community is wrong about her, and how she could've been improved.
Book's writing in BFB is often seen as one of the lowest points of the show, and for good reason. She is consistently presented as an irrational, aggressive jerk who hates Taco for absolutely no reason and doesn't care about her teammates. Emphasis on the word "presented", because this simply isn't who Book is – she is a far more interesting character than what a first glance would suggest.
The main problems stem from the way the storyline is structured. Bleh's story arc is often called the Taco-Book arc, but this is a misnomer because it implies that the two characters shared equal roles. In reality, Taco dominated the storyline, and Book's side of the story was never even considered, let alone taken seriously. This style of writing was detrimental to the quality of the show, and it prevented jacknjellify from fully realizing Book's potential as a character.
Book was treated incredibly unfairly, both by her teammates in-universe and by the writers out-of-universe. Throughout the course of the show, jacknjellify consistently failed to consider Book's perspective in her feud with Taco, and her thoughts and feelings are routinely ignored, resulting in her appearing to be a far different character than she actually is.
(Quick heads up: I'm going to be talking about Taco a lot in this essay. I wanted to mention her as infrequently as possible, but given the way Book's character is written, it's impossible to talk about her without talking about Taco as well.)
A common complaints about the way Book was written is that her personality in BFB is not representative of how she acted in previous seasons. However, a close analysis of her early appearances reveals that this isn't quite the case.
Book was never a particularly stable person, and this behavior can be seen even in her competitive debut. She can be very quick to anger, as Lollipop and Fries found out in BFDIA 1, as well as Firey, Tennis Ball, and Gelatin in BFDIA 4. Book often has trouble expressing her emotions in a healthy way, which is one of the two traits that would be her downfall in BFB. Additionally, she showed signs of abandonment issues very early on – she jumped at the opportunity to join Pencil's alliance in BFDIA 3, and she was quick to accept her position as an alternate, despite being less than pleased with not being a full member.
Despite her occasional outbursts, Book was not a mean character by any stretch of the imagination. When Coiny and Pin attempted to steal Teardrop from Team No-Name, Book was the only person to try and stop them. However, this scene also reveals another core part of her personality – one that is essential to understanding Book as a character, as it is her other main flaw. When Coiny stood his ground after Book told him to stop, she backed down without a fight.
Although she is more than willing to stand up for other people when they need help, Book is entirely incapable of standing up for herself when she needs help. Making people mad is her worst nightmare. When faced with conflict, her first instinct is to placate the opposing party, even if she knows that what they're doing is wrong. This is a trait she carries throughout the show – it can be seen in BFDIA 5c and 5e, as well as IDFB 1 and BFB 1. While she seems to be far less of a pushover when leaving the alliance at the start of BFB, this is negated by the fact that she immediately asks Ice Cube to back her up. Keep this in mind - this will come back later.
To summarize, Book has a very short temper and can be tipped off at the slightest provocation, but she also has a heart of gold and a genuine concern for the people around her. She has a strong sense of justice, but her inability to defend herself often prevents her from making meaningful change in the world around her. It's important to note this because despite the way her character is presented in BFB, and despite the fact that she may seem like an entirely different person, her personality never actually changes.
To understand Book's attitude toward Bleh, it's important to first understand her attitude toward Freesmart.
The alliance was never a particularly healthy environment for Book, not even in BFDIA. Pencil was visibly stressed out by the team at multiple points and often took her anger out on her teammates, while Match was simply cruel and careless. Neither of them showed any regard for the lives of their teammates or competitors – both refused to rescue the remaining No-Namers in BFDIA 5c, Match killed Ice Cube without a hint of remorse at the end of the same episode, Pencil directly caused her teammates to die tens of thousands of times in BFDIA 5d, and she drop-kicked Rocky to his death in BFDIA 5e. Book was rarely given time to react to their actions, and when she was, she was usually shut down.
Book may have been a member of Freesmart, but she never felt like a part of the alliance. Not helping her situation was the fact that she was never a "full" member of the team – she was an alternate, a back-up friend. She was excluded from Match's dance party in BFDIA 5a, and she was kicked out of the Clubhouse again in BFDIA 6's deleted scenes (while the incident may not be canon, the sentiment certainly is). She seemed like an outsider for much of the time Freesmart spent together – Bubble and Ice Cube had more time to bond with Pencil, Match, and each other, and while Ruby was always one of Book's close friends, the fact that she was a full member and Book wasn't also gave her more time with the rest of the alliance, not to mention that she had far more in common with Bubble.
IDFB only had one episode, and Book only had a few lines of dialogue, but those lines shed a lot of light on her position in Freesmart. It's implied that Book had a part in Firey's punishment (i.e. locking him in a cage hanging off the Yoyle Needy), but it's also implied that it was against her will. The way she brings up Match afterwards suggests that rescuing Match from the LOL was her top priority and that the main reason she agreed to punish Firey was because she didn't wanted to anger Pencil. (I'm probably reading between the lines a lot here, and there may be many different interpretations of this, but this is a really interesting exchange that doesn't get brought up a lot and deserves at least some recognition. Same for the rest of IDFB – Pencil's comment about Match, for instance, is also ignored, which is a shame because it suggested some kind of schism between the two that never came to fruition. Or maybe Pencil knew something about the LOL that Book didn't.)
In short, Book's tenure at Freesmart saw her being consistently ignored and shut down by Pencil and Match, and she was never particularly close to her other teammates. As a result, Book joined Bleh in search of a healthier environment, but the team would turn out to be even worse for her.
Book's very first interaction with Taco was watching her lead Ice Cube to her death and showing zero sympathy for her pain. Taco's hubris led to her killing six of her team members – including Book and herself – and would've resulted in her team being put up for elimination if Lightning remembered that he could fly. This is the only time Taco would interact with Book for two and a half years.
This incident goes completely unmentioned for the rest of the series, and it sets the tone for what's to come. Taco is the embodiment of all of the worst traits of Freesmart with none of the redeeming qualities. She doesn't care about how her teammates feel, she is brutal to her fellow competitors, she ditches challenges whenever possible, she backstabs her friends for personal gain, she is bossy, she is arrogant, and she has a complete lack of self-awareness. She is a horrible person who's going to do a lot of horrible things, most of them aren't going to come back to bite her in any meaningful way, and she's never going to learn from (or even acknowledge) her mistakes. Everything she does is going to be brushed aside to deny Book validation for her feelings.
Something that's often forgotten about BFB 3 – and that isn't mentioned until TPOT 2 – is that Book wasn't aware that Taco died in BFB 1; Book herself died before Taco did. From her perspective, it made far more sense for the jawbreaker to be on the swing as dead weight put on the swing by Four and nothing more. (Dora and Saw were aware that Taco was dead, but given that Dora can't communicate with the rest of her team and Saw has a habit of concealing vital information from Book as shown in BFB 13, it's safe to assume that Book never got the memo.)
When Book came to the conclusion that Taco abandoned her, she was visibly hurt by the realization. She felt like she failed Taco in some way – the first thing she does is blame herself for Taco abandoning the team. Unfortunately, in a pattern that will repeat itself many times over the course of the show, her reaction was dwarfed by Taco, who dominated the episode. (Also, isn't it funny how Taco showed zero remorse when she led Book to her death in BFB 1, but now that she wants her help, she's suddenly pleading for her?)
And then Taco gets out of the jawbreaker. The same reckless, headstrong Taco who led almost all her teammates to their deaths despite their protests was supposedly trapped for three weeks, yet she got out under her own power with minimal effort. She didn't even make an attempt to escape the jawbreaker during that period – she didn't try licking, she didn't try rolling around to get someone's attention, and she didn't try using brute force. If iance was able to lick their way into a jawbreaker fast enough to earn second place, Taco was more than capable of licking her way out of one over the course of three weeks. She could've done anything to get out of the jawbreaker faster, but she just... didn't. Her absence left her team lacking manpower (not to mention a pretty big weight to negotiate), which could've also led to her team being put up for elimination if it wasn't for Team Ice Cube! screwing up. The only possible explanation I have for her behavior is that Taco never actually cared about giving her teammates company – she only cared about whether her teammates were on her side or not.
Another fact that's important to bring up is that Taco being in the jawbreaker in the first place is a direct consequence of her actions in BFB 1. At the end of that episode, nine contestants were dead, and in order for the jawbreaker challenge to be done, seven contestants would have to be dead. Taco was responsible for six of those deaths, including her own. Had she spared just one of her teammates, after one of the eight dead contestants was revived, there would've been seven contestants in jawbreakers, enough for each of the seven safe teams, which means that nobody would've been left behind. This wasn't a stroke of bad luck – this, along with everything bad that ever happened to her, was her own fault, and she could've avoided it if she'd tried to be better.
All things considered, Book's reaction is relatively subdued. Taco killed her and four of her teammates, neglected her for a good three weeks, and showed zero signs of remorse, and all she got for it was a declaration of her anger. However, the show acts as if Taco being in the jawbreaker somehow exonerates her from her misdeeds in and of itself.
Come BFB 4, Book is still visibly hurt by Taco's actions, and Taco, after two whole weeks, has not apologized for either killing her or being gone for weeks. Instead, she completely dismisses Book's feelings and acts like she did nothing wrong. If she really cared about how her teammates felt, she would've tried to comfort them or make it up to them or at the very least explain what happened to her, but she never said a word to any of her teammates until her personality was completely rewritten in BFB 15. Since her team is upset with her because of something she did, the onus is on her to resolve it, but she never even tries.
A common theme throughout the show is that Taco is treated as if she never has to explain herself. She doesn't have to apologize for killing her teammates and bossing them around in BFB 1 (despite that fact that Pencil and Leafy were eliminated for doing far less and despite BEEP being allowed to hold a grudge against Leafy for the same amount of time that everyone on Bleh but Book held a grudge against Taco), she doesn't have to explain where she was in BFB 3, she doesn't have to tell her team her plans in BFB 6, and she's allowed to not interact with them at all until BFB 15. Her teammates' feelings aren't even considered – Taco's perspective is the only one that's shown, and it's the only one that matters. According to the writers, if someone feels hurt by what Taco does, they're simply wrong. No explanation given, no explanation needed. I can't bring myself to call Taco a Mary Sue, but a lot of the defining characteristics are present.
There might be other ways to explain Taco's absence from her team in BFB 2 that don't involve her not caring about them (although all the explanations that come to mind are very contrived), but the point is that Book isn't allowed to have an argument. The way the scene is supposed to be interpreted is “wow I can't believe it Book is such a drama queen Taco was stuck in the jawbreaker ong ong” without even considering what Book actually thinks about the situation beyond what Taco sees.
This is the biggest problem with Bleh's story arc: Book is never taken seriously. Her feelings don't matter. She isn't allowed to have her side of the story heard as anything other than “Taco abandoned us”. She isn't allowed to defend herself, and nobody is allowed to defend her. She isn't allowed to feel hurt when Taco kills Ice Cube in front of her (and then kills her moments later). She isn't allowed to feel betrayed when Taco reappears after three weeks of unnecessary and unexplained absence. She isn't allowed to feel bitter after months of radio silence from Taco, and she isn't allowed to not forgive her even as she continues to show how little she cares about her. When her feelings aren't ignored, they're always turned against her. Book isn't just being portrayed as if she's in the wrong because of her feelings – her feelings themselves are wrong. She is routinely ignored and mocked by the people around her, and they're allowed to do that because the writers are doing the exact same thing. This is true of everyone Taco hurt over the course of the competition, but it's especially true of Book, whom Taco hurt the most.
BFB 6 is a perfect example of just how biased the narrative is toward Taco. Her team is still bitter about her abandoning and neglecting them, but instead of doing anything to set things right, Taco chooses to abandon them again. Even if Taco was actually in the jawbreaker against her will, the actions she takes after her team accused her of abandonment show what an awful person she is. Whether her plan ends up working or not is irrelevant. Her teammates (especially Book) were hurt by what she did, but Taco doesn't care. She doesn't understand that she hurt them, and she isn't sorry for anything.
Despite that, the episode doesn't even mention how Book might feel and instead focuses entirely on Taco and her antics on Earth. This is going to be a pretty long diatribe, and you can skip this if you want, but this needs to be said. So many factors had to fall into place here that it's ridiculous that Taco's plan didn't end up backfiring. 43 contestants were present on Earth, 34 of which had an unobstructed view of the Moon. In order for Taco's plan to have worked, none of those 34 contestants could've looked at the Moon (and a full moon, at that!) over the course of an hour. Even if they did all know where the Twinkle was, all it would've taken was a momentary lapse in attention – a lapse that could've just as easily came from Taco herself on her hour-long journey. If the Twinkle was being passed between the Earth and Moon, it wouldn't help much – judging from BFB 7, the Lunarians would be more coordinated than the Earthlings, so the Twinkle probably wouldn't spend much time on the Moon. The possibility that Taco could've gotten the Twinkle from someone on Earth also isn't considered. Assuming a direct line of sight to the competition grounds and that Taco would be looking dead ahead (why wouldn't she?), the Twinkle would've transferred to her the moment the Earthlings came over her horizon – which, assuming that the objects are human sized and the Earth is Earth-sized, would've happened as far out as 6.2 miles, or 10 kilometers (even further if a flyer got the Twinkle). Even if she did make it to the competition grounds without contracting the Twinkle, she'd have to open her eyes to seek out a target, risking infection from both the Earth and Moon. Then there's the possibility of Taco mistakenly infecting herself by accidentally looking at Bell. Furthermore, there's no guarantee that Taco would've even made it back to the competition grounds – she didn't even know where she was when she landed on Earth, let alone where the grounds were relative to her. Not only that, but in order for Taco's plan to even have a chance of working, Golf Ball would've had to land on the near side of the Moon, which, because the Earth (and therefore the Twinkle) would've been easily visible, would be a monumental blunder for someone of her acumen. How often do you get to see the Earth from outer space? From just about every possible standpoint, this plan might be the worst call she could've made, but because this is Taco, it went off without a hitch. In the eyes of the writers, Taco is incapable of making bad decisions.
I'm skipping most of the episodes from BFB 5 to BFB 9, but it's important to discuss them because people tend to forget about how Book was characterized here.
When Taco isn't on screen with her, Book is actually presented as her true character. She is the same kind, thoughtful, caring person she was in BFDIA. She was visibly worried about X in BFB 5 and 9, and she can be seen comforting Saw about her fume issues in BFB 8. Again, she isn't a “mean” character by any stretch of the imagination, and she never was.
Another thing that deserves mention is Book's relationship with Dora. The first episode seemed to promise a relationship between the two given Book's desire to learn about how Dora communicates. She genuinely saw something in Dora that nobody else did. However, that would be the last time they'd interact – their relationship would only be brought up twice, and one of those times was after Dora was eliminated. Book was snubbed of yet another opportunity to actually show off her true character, and Dora was snubbed of her only opportunity for character development.
BFB 10 is arguably the biggest missed opportunity in the story arc.
After neglecting her team yet again, Taco approaches Bell and tries to strike a conversation with her. Bell, just like Book, is clearly upset by what Taco did in BFB 6 (and she has every right to be – it's pretty clear that the only reason Taco is apologizing to her is because she wants to talk to her, not because she actually cares about her), and she refuses to trust Taco and accept her "apology". Meanwhile, Lollipop sees all of this – not caring about how Bell feels, she immediately takes Taco's side, since all she sees is someone who won a challenge for her.
Ignoring everything that happens after it, this is probably one of the best scenes in the show. After months of running away from the consequences of her actions and hurting people without an iota of concern for them, Taco is finally forced to confront her mistakes. Unlike the situation with her teammates, she can't pretend she isn't hurting anyone and act like nothing's wrong – unlike Book, Bell isn't pulling any punches. Just like Match in the next episode, she has to deal with not being forgiven immediately so she can actually learn from her mistakes. She broke their trust, and now she has to put in the work to regain it. Taco's expression after the exchange even suggests that she's aware that she did something wrong (even if it would later be disproven).
However, notably absent from this scene is Book.
Many of Book's teammates (namely Lollipop, Teardrop, possibly Gaty and Dora, and, of course, Taco) care deeply about victory regardless of whether they have to hurt people to achieve it. Pencil and Match also acted like that very often (and, at this point, still are), which is something Book hated about Freesmart. She has, in the past, been willing to protect her opponents from harm even if it means giving up ground in a challenge. Bell was visibly hurt by Taco's actions, everyone else on Book's team flipped to Taco's side because of this incident, and Book has always stood up for those who have nobody to defend themselves, which is why Teardrop is on the team.
Why couldn't Book have defended Bell? Nobody else was there for her, and Book was presumably standing within earshot of her and Taco, so why couldn't she help her? There could've been some genuine conflict in the team. Taco could've been held accountable for her actions. She could've actually learned from her mistakes and grown into a somewhat decent person. Instead, nothing comes of this, and Bell, much like Book, is portrayed as being in the wrong for not wanting to forgive Taco (despite the fact that Taco has done nothing to deserve being forgiven by either of them – as Bell said, “sorry” isn't enough, let alone an insincere one, and she hasn't even given that to Book).
By BFB 11, jacknjellify has completely given up on Book.
At this point, they're no longer treating her like a character; they're treating her like a punching bag. She exists solely so other characters (read: Lollipop) can make fun of her and get away with it. Her feelings and perspective somehow matter less than they did in the previous episodes. The fact that Taco never shows up in the episode and never even volunteered to do the challenge is ignored. She learned absolutely nothing from her exchange with Bell, and she's back to doing what she's always done.
BFB 12 somehow gets worse for Book. The only reason she's given a speaking role here is so Lollipop can mock and degrade her. Lollipop doesn't even say anything useful – she doesn't provide a shred of evidence to back up her claim that Taco saved them in BFB 6. (Also, isn't it funny how Taco single-handedly almost losing the challenge in BFB 1 and being the first to be found out in BFB 12 both go unmentioned, but her actions in BFB 6 are front and center? Taco's one saving grace is supposed to be that she's good at challenges, but not even that is true.)
If Book's teammates think she's wrong, what they should be doing is understanding her perspective, acknowledging her feelings, and explaining their arguments, but they never do any of that. Understanding how someone else feels is hard, and it's much easier to silence them and pretend they have nothing to say. They are so confident that Book is wrong that they don't feel the need to hear her side of the story. Book's arguments aren't given a modicum of attention because her purpose is to be wrong. Her feelings and perspective being dismissed here is not an accident – it's the point of her character. (The fact that Taco – and the rest of the team – completely ignored Book's outburst also show just how little they care about her.)
And yet, despite how much the writers rail on Book, despite the fact that the sole point of her character is to be laughed at, her claim that Taco abandoned them in the challenge isn't as outlandish as it's presented. After all, it's awfully convenient that the person who has never spoken to her teammates since BFB 1 and has avoided them every chance she got just so happened to be the impostor, isn't it? Four never explained how they chose whose bodies would be swapped. It's entirely possible that Taco volunteered to be swapped when nobody was looking, and given how she'd acted up to that point, it's hard to argue that she wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity. It may be a bit of a farfetched argument, but it's an argument nonetheless, and it would've provided an insight into Book's thought process – two things that she has been denied for the entirety of the season.
There's also the fact that Taco killed Bottle for no reason and didn't show any signs of remorse. Once again, this is quickly brushed aside – if Book found out about it, she would've had every reason to go ballistic. She has several very legitimate reasons to be mad at Taco – the show just pretends she doesn't. Taco's style of gameplay hurts people every single time, and it always ends up with her team being worse off than if she did nothing at all, sometimes on the brink of elimination (and the one time her plans helped her team was so unbelievably contrived that it's not even funny). I swear I've seen this situation before, just... elsewhere. Can't think of where, though.
BFB 13 is where the Book-bashing gets turned up to 11.
First, Book, with Lollipop in tow, finds out that not only has Taco been actively avoiding the team, but she isn't even trying to patch things up with them, instead opting to pester Barf Bag while she's hanging out with Spongy. (Remember: Since Taco is the aggressor in this situation, she should be the one apologizing to Book, not the other way around.) This is pretty convincing evidence in Book's favor, but Lollipop completely ignores her. She outright refuses to acknowledge her perspective. At this point, Book is clearly desperate to get people to start taking her seriously, so Lollipop dismissing her is only exacerbating the problem.
And then Saw comes back. This is the first time anyone has seen Saw in over a year. She didn't even consider telling Book where she was, and Lollipop and Taco didn't either. Book was left completely in the dark, and to further compound her issues, Saw has an unbelievably flimsy excuse. She really couldn't have gotten off her scent cleanse any sooner than she did? Why did she have to leave the competition grounds to go on her scent cleanse in the first place? Her scent cleanse did almost nothing at all!
And yet, when Book rightfully vents her frustration toward Saw, everyone on her team completely ignores her. They don't even make an attempt to take her argument seriously. The only way they could've been more direct about not caring about her is if they said it directly to her face.
It's honestly impressive how the writers were able to take a situation that objectively shows Book in the right and her team in the wrong and somehow turn it against Book. Even if she was wrong about Taco, her teammates still treated her like garbage – far worse than they ever treated Taco (granted, that's not saying much; all things considered, Taco was treated exceptionally well) – and she's still letting it happen.
However, she isn't letting it happen for any longer.
Book has been kicked to the curb for the entire season. Taco has killed her, killed her best friend, abandoned her, and avoided her for over a year – and she is yet to show a shred of remorse. She was neglected and mocked by her old team, but her new team turned out to be even worse. Whenever she shows any kind of frustration, she's immediately labeled the villain. Nobody, not one person, has ever shown any sympathy for her. Nobody has even entertained the idea that her side of the story is worth listening to. Heck, nobody has even acknowledged her feelings. If she wants the basic respect and dignity she's been denied since 2012, her team desperately needs changes – changes that clearly won't come from within.
She's been given the short end of the stick since her debut, and she's had enough. Enough of being silenced. Enough of sacrificing herself so other people can be happy. Enough of waiting for her situation to improve. Enough of waiting for her team to start listening to her. Enough of waiting for someone to stand up for her. For the first time in her life, Book stood up for herself.
Well, she tried to. Book still hadn't gotten around the whole “depends on external validation” thing. When she finally started speaking her mind, she never vented about how she felt; she talked about how she and Ice Cube felt. Everything Book had done up to that point was with the implicit assumption that at least one person felt her pain or would at least listen to her. She's projecting her pain onto Ice Cube so she can convince herself that she has a modicum of support. In reality, Ice Cube understands how Book feels as poorly as the rest of the team, but if Book learned about this, it would break her. She still needs Ice Cube to be on her side. This also explains why she's focused her efforts on convincing her teammates that she's right instead of actually standing up to Taco.
Book needs Ice Cube's support in order to make any lasting change in her team, but despite the fact that she's had a front row seat to Book's neglect and mockery, and despite how close they've been and everything Book's done for her, Ice Cube betrays Book when she needs her the most.
All of Book's teammates are absolutely atrocious friends, but Ice Cube goes above and beyond here. Book has always been there to support Ice Cube. She has consistently protected her and given her a shoulder to cry on, and up to this point, she has asked for almost nothing in return. And yet, the second that Book needs her help, in a situation where it's crystal clear that Book is in the right, Ice Cube immediately backstabs her. She doesn't get a chance to explain herself. She doesn't get a chance to talk about how she feels. Ice Cube just takes off, and it's all presented as Book's fault.
And if that wasn't bad enough, what happens the next time Book appears is – and this isn't a hyperbole – the worst scene in the entire series.
One of my favorite scenes in BFB is when Bubble confronted Match in BFB 11.
iance's story arc had admittedly been rather mediocre up to that point, and for many of the same reasons that I don't like the Bleh arc (namely, Match's motivations are never shown until the last moment). However, the way Bubble confronted Match was the perfect way the writers could've capped it off.
Despite how much Match hurt her, Bubble still respects her. She (somewhat) calmly explains exactly why Match was misguided. She makes it abundantly clear that she still sees her as a friend. She understands how she feels and why she did what she did. She doesn't needlessly berate her; she merely vents her frustrations in a stern but understanding manner. Most importantly, she allows Match to explain her perspective and how she felt.
Gaty does none of that with Book. What she does instead can only be described as emotional abuse.
She has zero respect for Book. She doesn't care about how she feels. Book never gets the chance to explain herself, and she barely gets the chance to explain how she feels – and when she does, Gaty rolls right over her. She, just like Lollipop in BFB 12, doesn't actually provide any evidence for her claims, instead opting for an argumetum ad populum (which is odd, because if everyone but Book – whom nobody cares about – believes that Taco didn't abandon them, how can they still be shunning Taco? Pick one, Gaty). She intentionally provokes a reaction from Book to “prove” how “irrational” she is (which is actual gaslighting). This isn't about trying to help Book or the team or even trying to defend Taco – this is about power. The only thing Gaty wants is to silence Book and put her back in her place.
All of that is happening while Taco is sitting hundreds of feet from the rest of her team, not even trying to interact with them. Gaty is trying to convince Book that Taco didn't abandon them after Taco just abandoned them. Gaty even pulled Book over while she was trying to convince her, so she would've known that had she listened to her for five seconds! Which of these two is supposed to be the irrational one, again?
Even if Book was wrong here, this would still be the worst scene in the entire series by a wide margin. It wouldn't have changed the fact that Gaty still abused her. Even though Bleh is in a crisis, the proper response is not to vilify their allies. Ironically, it wasn't Taco who was vilified by Book – it was Book who was vilified by Bleh.
This episode should've been the turning point in the arc. This should've been the part of the story where Book finally had her voice heard. This should've been the point where her fortunes finally started to improve as her team started to realize how awfully they'd been treating her. Instead, Book was bullied and manipulated into submission, she was blamed for everything that happened to the team, she was completely drained of what precious little willpower wasn't beaten out of her before this point, and her teammates remained blissfully ignorant of her plight.
Soon after the worst scene in the series comes BFB's second-worst scene. If BFB 13 showed how little the writers care about Book, BFB 14 showed how little they understand her. Just about everything regarding the way she is depicted is wrong.
Despite the fact that Book is (for once) the focal point in this scene, her perspective on Taco is still never heard. The only thing she says about how she felt is her bitterness toward Freesmart, but that's it. Nothing about how her teammates treated her like garbage, nothing about how Taco was never there for her ever, nothing about how hurt she felt, nothing about her alienation from her team, nothing about her struggle to be seen and heard. Even when she finally becomes the focus of the story, her voice and her feelings still doesn't matter.
Book blaming herself for everything wrong with the team is entirely within character (see BFB 3 and TPOT 4), but it's also entirely wrong. Her team was the way it was because her teammates shunned her and refused to take her seriously, and she had too little self-confidence to press on in the face of adversity. She absolutely did not “make the team worse for everyone in it” – they made the team worse for her.
But the worst part of the scene is the final exchange between Book and Pin, because not only is it all wrong, but it's the polar opposite of the truth. First off, Book never hurt anyone, especially not Taco. Her teammates hurt her – they were the ones who wouldn't listen to a word she said, and they were the ones who drove her to further and further desperation just to be taken seriously. Book never forced anyone to do what she wanted – whenever anyone objected to something she wanted, she almost always gave in to their demands no matter how absurd they were, which is one of her primary character flaws. She always sacrificed her happiness and her desires to not anger the people around her (making her teammates mad at her is what she “did wrong”), so the line about Book only caring about making her teammates happy with her is completely unfounded.
Above all else, Book's teammates had more freedom than anyone on any other team. She let Taco lead her team to their deaths and did absolutely nothing to stop her. She let Taco abandon her team multiple times and took no action against her. She let Saw abandon her for over a year and stopped trying to take against her when Ice Cube said no. She let Ice Cube backstab and abandon her and did absolutely nothing. When she finally stood up for herself, she had to ask for Ice Cube's approval before she could make any changes. Bleh's biggest problem was that nobody was there to stop its members from hurting each other or their opponents. Book tried her best to fill that role, but her passiveness, spinelessness, and tendency to avoid conflict rendered it impossible for her to do anything meaningful. She is a paper tiger – although she may appear menacing, she had zero actual power, and her teammates were free to do what they wanted under her “leadership”. What little power she did have came directly from Ice Cube. If freedom is the ability to do as one wishes, then by holding herself to an impossible task, the only person on Bleh who lacked it was Book.
What makes this even more infuriating is the fact that not only does none of Pin's advice apply to Book, all of it applies to Taco. She never made a genuine attempt to reconnect with the people she hurt, she only did what she wanted instead of what her teammates wanted, she only wanted to make people happy with her instead of trying to make them happy, and in the only challenge she participated in with her teammates, she demanded that they follow her orders. She wasn't the sole cause of the turmoil within the team (that was down to everyone shunning Book), but she started it and did nothing but fan the flames. She had the power and the willpower to stop it before it even started, but she never wanted to.
Again, even if Book was wrong about Taco abandoning them in BFB 3, most of what was said in this episode is still incorrect. It wouldn't change the fact that Taco still hurt Book and didn't care about how she felt (and, in fact, kept hurting her). It wouldn't change the fact that Bleh silenced her at every opportunity. It wouldn't change the fact that no one bothered to listen to her side of the story. It wouldn't change the fact that nobody ever made a single valid argument in Taco's favor to her. Book may have been at the center of Bleh's collapse, but none of it was her fault. She was trying her best, and her teammates were doing their worst. Recognizing that the whole group is at fault is hard. It was easier for Bleh to blame everything on one person, it was even easier to blame the one everyone refused to listen to because she was “irrational” and “hysterical”, and it was easier still to blame the one who would sooner blow her brains out than make someone feel bad. What was she going to do about it, anyways? She has no power, she has no willpower, and she has no support.
Overall, the sheer amount of information that was ignored and flat-out made up suggests that this scene was written out of obligation and not because the writers cared about Book.
I don't know where else to put this, but one of the main reasons why I'm writing this is that the way Book is treated seems to have a lot of ableist undertones. I know (think) this is completely unintentional, but there are still some very unfortunate implications here.
I'm not the first person to suggest this, but throughout the course of the show, Book has shown several signs of borderline personality disorder. She has difficulty controlling her emotions (understatement of the year), she has a favorite person (Ice Cube), she has serious abandonment issues, she may or may not engage in impulsive and self-destructive behavior (BFB 7 shows that she might have an eating disorder), and her relationships are turbulent at best.
However, Book's character is never treated with the same carefulness that characters like her should be. She is never portrayed in a sympathetic light, and she's never allowed to have reasons for how she feels. The mere idea that Taco (or anyone, for that matter) may have hurt her just a little bit is laughed off. Whenever she expresses any kind of “extreme” emotion, it's immediately brushed off as hysteria, even when her reaction is completely appropriate for the situation (see BFB 3 and BFB 6 with Taco, BFB 11 with Lollipop, and BFB 13 with Saw, Lollipop, Gaty, and Ice Cube). In fact, given the fact that she hasn't shown any signs of trauma or mental illness since BFB 13, it honestly feels like the writers are denying that Book ever had emotions.
There's also the fact that she's portrayed as an inherently hurtful person because of her outbursts. The show seems to act as if they're the sole reason her way the team is, which is absolutely untrue. She's not acting out because she doesn't care about how her teammates feel or because she wants to hurt them – she's acting out because nobody is taking her seriously. She isn't yelling – she's projecting. Her complaints are falling on deaf ears, so her only option is to scream louder and louder in the vain hope that someone will finally start listening to her. Nobody did, and nobody will.
In the end, Book never truly got any closure.
Her team never apologized to her for treating her like garbage (and they probably never will), Taco never apologized to her for everything she did to her (and she probably never will), everyone on her team still hates her for something she never actually did, and her new team is paying little attention to her. She's gotten almost zero focus in TPOT, and given the new direction the series has taken (and how many votes she got in TPOT 5), it's incredibly unlikely that Book will get any real development in the future. At this point, the only way her character can be salvaged is in the incredibly unlikely scenario that she realizes that she did nothing wrong to Bleh.
The only person who's gotten any form of retribution for the way they treated Book was Ice Cube. As a direct consequence of her betrayal, Ice Cube landed on The s!, a team which has consistently treated her horribly and likely killed her thousands of times. This never would've happened to her had she stood up for her friend in need and stayed with Book.
In BFB 15 and 16, jacknjellify found a way to slap Book in the face one last time before she and Taco parted ways. After more than two and a half years of ignoring Book and pretending she doesn't exist, Taco, without any formal character development, suddenly acts like she cares about leaving her behind. Taco had never come close to caring about abandoning anyone for over two years, yet when they finally talk (conveniently right after something happens that makes Taco think she might be able to get Book back on her side), she acts like she's always cared. The writers acted like she never hurt anyone, and as such, she never had to redeem herself. Despite never apologizing to them, despite showing no signs of remorse throughout the entire season, Taco was immediately forgiven by Bleh for what she did (not only that, but they apologized to her!). She didn't earn back the trust of her peers – it was handed back to her on a silver platter.
Despite everything Book went through, so many people brush her off as “the person who did a bad thing” without really understanding or even acknowledging how she actually felt. She was never a bully or a jerk, she was never irrational, she was never stupid, and she never imposed her will onto any of her teammates. She was just depicted that way so the writers could pretend that she was the villain and Taco was the hero.
Book in BFB has always been the character that nobody is willing to defend, which is a shame because she's not at all the character the community thinks she is. BFB never showed her point of view, only Taco's. Book was degraded, ignored, and mocked for years, and nobody cared because nobody paid any attention to her. She never had a character arc - she was haphazardly stapled onto Taco's arc as Taco hogged all of the attention. The show likes to act as if she ignored her teammates and denied them freedom, but in reality, she was the one who needed to be freed – from herself and from her teammates. The only thing she ever wanted from her team was a voice, and she never got it.
The community seems to view the Bleh arc as Taco's uphill battle to receive the respect she deserves from a team who tried to put her down at every step of the way and laughed at every misfortune. This is mostly true. The only thing wrong with it is that it isn't a description of Taco. It's a description of Book.
Book deserves better. Book deserves so much better.
tl;dr Taco did abandon Book. So did the writers.
book is the best BFB character, she has done nothing wrong ever in her life, and if you disagree you're wrong (this is only mostly a joke)
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