BFB may not seem like the most serious show, but it handles serious topics much better than most shows are able to do.
The Free-Smart Alliance has been, from the very beginning of BFB, depicted as a group. At first, there isn’t much arguing, because for the majority of the time they were a team (even from BFDIA or the original BFDI) Pencil and Match make all the decisions while the others go “oh okay I guess we’re doing this now”.
Match and Pencil tend to act a bit entitled, and it can be either because they are genuinely trying to keep order for the team or because they’re just jerks. Either way, they’re the boss, and if they don’t like you, you’re kicked out.
BFDI has always had a physical comedy charm to it, so, for the most part, these things aren’t supposed to be treated seriously. However, some things have stood out to me.
This is an example. The moment is played for laughs, but if you look at the “alternates’” faces (especially Book), they seem genuinely hurt. Although this is supposed to be comical, it shows true insight to Match’s and Pencil’s character - bossy and self-righteous. They feel they are in the place to dictate who can hang out with them and who can’t, even if those people are apart of their group already. This is a hint at what the relationship is within Free-Smart. It isn’t a team but rather a clique.
In BFB, Pencil and Match start to become more and more imperious. Especially Pencil.
These are all examples within the first episode alone in which Pencil was shown to be more domineering and controlling than she was in any of the previous seasons. The last screenshot, where she’s telling Bubble to listen to her (and calling her a “bember”) shows the first time in BFB where she manipulated Bubble into doing what she wanted by hitting her where she’s vulnerable. In this case, it’s Bubble’s stance in the group. This is a big part of emotional abuse - manipulation where the abuser attacks you where they know it hurts you in an effort to get you to do what they want.
Match picks up on this action and continues to do what Pencil did once Pencil is eliminated.
Not only that, Match insults Bubble more than Pencil ever did.
While Pencil did make fun of Bubble, the last time she did so was sometime in the original BFDI. Match acts more ruthless than Pencil ever did, and this is the character Bubble is stuck with, the friend Bubble tried to rely on.
However, BFB does something very remarkable - something I and the rest of the fandom were all surprised but overjoyed to see.
Not answering her greetings, glaring at her when she talks, ignoring at her when she makes conversations... BFB did something extremely important.
INSTEAD OF BUBBLE SYMPATHIZING WITH MATCH, WE SEE HER ACTUALLY HAVE NEGATIVE AFFILIATIONS WITH MATCH AND HOW SHE ACTED.
For a show like BFB, a show targeted towards kids, many of whom probably went through the same thing Bubble went through, this is so, so, so important. You don’t have to be nice to your abuser. You’re allowed to hate them because they hurt you for so long. You don’t always have to be the bigger person and forgive them. To promote such messages enable the abuser to be easily forgiven and for them to be let off without any consequences. Match receives her consequence, having Bubble, the only contestant besides Pencil that she considered a friend, ignore her.
But then, here comes this scene:
THIS. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. Just because your abuser apologizes to you does not mean you should immediately forgive them. They have to earn back your trust. If you do forgive them easily, it’s not “recovering” - hell, you probably feel worse for forgiving them so fast when they didn’t deserve it and haven’t proved that they have changed.
There are a lot of important cues in this scene. Match holding her arm, her resignation at when Bubble said she couldn’t forgive her so fast; Match isn’t by any means a bad person. She made some wrong choices (and I’m not trying to call her a “uwu cinnamon roll who made some mistakes” - she made some VERY wrong and VERY bad choices), but she’s realized that they were wrong and she’s trying to fix them. She certainly wasn’t the kindest, but she’s making progress, and this is very important (but this probably won’t count anyway, since the voting says that she’s the one who will most likely be voted off in episode 12).
What’s very important is Bubble’s tone in this scene. Notice how they didn’t have her goof off and be silly - you can hear how pained she is. The way she talks and the way she confronts Match has so much emotion behind it. This had a lot of people surprised - we certainly didn’t expect such a heartfelt and mature scene from a happy-go-lucky show like BFB. But I think BFB’s reputation adds even more to this.
BFB is known for being happy and silly, but this scene shows it can really hit on mature topics in a very realistic and justified way. I think people don’t give BFB enough credit for what it can do. It’s not just a “XD XD BATTLE FOR A PWIZE!!” because while it does have that overall vibe, scenes like this aren’t out of their reach.
I’m sure many people, myself included, could relate to Bubble and how she felt in this scene. BFB handled this exceptionally, and I greatly look forward to anymore plot-points or scenes like this that they’re willing to do!
