firey character analysis:
lowkey in a yapping mood but i don’t wanna use twitter so hey guys! i’m gonna talk about firey bfdi and how repression is such a strong part of his character and how it’s ignored by the fandom..
a lot of people reduce firey to just “some guy” or “bland” but he’s not the straight man of the group or even really an everyman. he’s not ordinary or mellow, nor does he really try to curb the other contestants zaniness. he’s brash, stubborn, impulsive, and easily one of the most dangerous contestants with how he can burn almost anything he wants.
note how in the second example, firey wasn’t even trying to burn the train on purpose. as he tells lollipop, all he did was get too close to it and it suddenly started burning on its own. yet, despite this, one immediately dismisses him as ever being a threat to her. how come?
well, because his first instinct when something troubling happens is to bury his feelings and pretend that it’s not bothering him. here, he looks lost in thought and uncertain, yet oddly detached.
indeed, firey’s disconnection from the world is not a new trait found in tpot. this is something that’s been around since bfdi. here, nobody really views him as a friend or likes him until leafy comes around. arguably, the most notable scene is when nobody realizes firey can run fast despite them all knowing each other for at least 2 years.
his speed is one of his most defining traits, yet nobody is even aware of it? despite the common belief of the fandom, firey is no popular jock. in fact, he’s initially quite a moody loner, pulling stunts that certainly would not be accomplished by him today due to how lonely he was.
with leafy, he finally finds a connection, but (from his perspective! i am not trying to say he is right!) leafy rejects him and shuns him for spending who knows how long building a FERRIS WHEEL for her. he tries to keep it cool, but his feelings get increasingly close to spilling over. so, what does he do? he buries his feelings about her.
however, note once again that in the alternate timeline that plays out during tpot 15, firey immediately drops the act and lets leafy onto dream island the moment he sees that she’s in danger. he never wanted to hurt her. he just wanted to protect his own feelings even if it was deemed incredibly selfish by others.
bfdia begins to explore this more by showing how adamant he is about repressing his memories of leafy and pretending that he never knew her, lying twice to her and acting as if they never met even when leafy changes the variables of their meetings with each other to be different.
but, obviously, we still see that firey cares enough about leafy enough to recover her after she dies. he thinks about her enough that it constantly causes him to zone out and be detached from what’s going on around him.
from what we have so far in bfdia, though, firey is clearly repressing his feelings, but it’s not necessarily dangerous. outside of a few scenes, it’s clearly not distracting him from what’s happening or causing him to be “outed” from any group he’s in.
starting in the pre-split half of bfb, though, something.. immediately is different about him. firey is detached, uninvolved, and almost never talks to coiny, pin, or needle despite knowing them for years and having them as trusty teammates. even in his introduction, he forms a team with them and then unexpectedly shoves the leadership onto loser.
but it doesn’t end here. throughout the season, firey is constantly seeing sporting a blank expression and not paying attention to anything going on. although you could argue similar things happen to other characters, the difference is that the narrative constantly and repeatedly addresses how something isn’t right with him.
while it’s easy to chalk it up to being related to leafy, there is nevertheless that underlying sense of dread in regards to how firey is actively dissociating to the point where he is uninvolved in half of the challenges and facing concern from coiny. he’s not okay, but he has an unhealthy coping mechanism that’s suddenly worsening.
as of right now, the explanation has never been outright said. however, bfb writer pokeysoda made a bfb mv around this time called “the light and the glass” that explores how coiny and leafy both feel some sort of distress over hurting firey in some way that has caused him to clearly change as a person.
again, it’s kept ambiguous even in this mv, but if i had to take a guess, i could probably say idfb. here, firey is locked up by freesmart in a cage high in the sky, stuck with his worst fears of dealing with heights and being shunned and mistreated by everyone.
this is also implied in bfb 15 and bfb 22 when both leafy and gelatin mention how firey recovered leafy during bfdia but then suddenly refuse to elaborate on the matter. speaking of post-split, it doesn’t end there. more scenes address firey’s dissociation and repression, either through him constantly sporting a blank look or the narrative itself choosing to address it in ways that show its unsettling.
and as of tpot, the problem still exists. he’s friends with leafy again here, but that was never the real problem. the issue that firey struggled with was the loneliness that consumed his heart and the way he was unable to properly cope with it. therefore, when leafy is suddenly snatched away by one, he panics at first, but then when he’s certain that leafy is lost, he goes back to his old ways. staring off and trying to not really think about it.
sure, things get better when he meets 8-ball, but it’s clear firey is only really putting up an act of cheerfulness around him. he smiles and acts warm when he’s facing 8-ball, but the second he’s looking away, he lets his true feelings that he’s hiding spill out.
so, technically speaking, one is completely right when she says that firey isn’t a threat at all. he’s passive, lets himself get hurt, and either puts on a blank expression or buries memories when the going gets tough. but in the process, he’s only stunting himself. fire can represent passion and destruction, but for most of his life, he’s felt the need to stifle himself both from the trauma of idfb as well as the expectations of the show. it’s easy to misinterpret this as him being uninteresting, but if you do that, you only fall for the facade.
but maybe that’s ok. after all, the show wants you to think that way too.
