Discover Top Posts Tagged with #spongy bfb

Spongy is really cool.

Oh wow, look, Gizmo got emotionally attached to a joke character again, shocker. But like, hear me out, because I'm right, and no one is thinking about spongy enough except for @squ1rrel-punk (hi squirrel im still not normal about your fic) so im gonna talk about him.

1. All of Spongy's hobbies are "be in the air or possibly on the water" and that's pretty neat.

When Spongy was listing his hobbies, I realized they were all pretty similar. He likes being in the air, he likes the feeling of wind, he likes being in a big expansive place all alone. If he was a TMA avatar he'd serve the Vast. Most characters with canonical hobbies dont really have a theme/similarity to them, so it's kind of cool that Spongy's do, and it kinda makes sense with how he's treated when on the ground. When criticized by someone who doesn't participate in them, he decides to defend his hobbies and prove that sailing airplanes is a thing, rather than conceding and letting Barf Bag win. In fact, he likes being in large distant areas so much, that...

2. Spongy is a huge nerd and is 100% one of the OSC Engineers (TM).

Spongy has an entire lovingly maintained private jet. Of course he didn't give the jet to anyone else. Even aside from the fact that he was standing up for himself for basically the first time ever, imagine if you had like, an antique car that you love to death and maintain by hand. You buy and install any replacement parts, it costs a fortune, sometimes you have to get custom parts lasered or printed, but it's fine because its Your Car. Of course you aren't gonna loan it to your extremely destructive semi-friend group that somehow caused a volcano to erupt. That car is your baby and you're not gonna let it come to harm, certainly not while in someone else's hands. This is Crowley's Bentley. That is Spongy's Plane, and the idea that someone would give their private plane to a group that is well known for causing major natural disasters is honestly hilarious. Maybe earlier in the show he would have, but by season four he's done with sacrificing things for others. At least he can keep his plane.

3. Spongy has a high pain tolerance and is disturbingly self sacrificial.

You'll notice in the first two points that I describe Spongy defending things other than himself - his hobbies and his plane. This also extends to people. In seasons 1 and 2, Spongy gets put through the ringer, and it's honestly really incredible he's as put-together as he is, given uh. all that. At first it seems to be out of a reluctance to push back against mistreatment, but over time you can see his priorities shift. He's a protector by nature, though over time he becomes more selective with what he protects. Rarely himself, though. Even by the end of BFDIA we see this. He knows his pain tolerance (terrifyingly high) and appreciates that Book actually acknowledged him by completing his challenge. So, Spongy decides to help Book. (Yes I know TB is also there but he kinda leaves immediately so Spongy doesn't really help him all that much.) He's been through a lot, and while that sucks, it also means that he knows his limits and is kind of overpowered. Pain tolerance? Can get hit with 10+ cars going at highway speeds and not even flinch. Grossness tolerance? Literally ate a ball of bugs. Going into the firey depths of hell (or whatever that is)? Oh cool there's a house. (Also I think he got excited by the slide, see 1: spongy likes going fast and the feeling of wind.) He's unflappable and resourceful, and he will do pretty much anything for people who aren't actively mean to him. I mean, that friendship bracelet in bfb can't have been all that comfortable, it was squeezing him! But he still wore it because someone extended an olive branch to him and he was gonna hold onto it for as long as possible, even if it was uncomfortable. He's died so many times, getting squeezed probably barely registers to him anymore...

4. Spongy is a sassy little shit and incredibly funny.

My favorite. I love him. He's genuinely such a funny character. After the writers got over their "he only says bwuh because he's fat and stupid" writing era (i don't really fault them, they were kids after all, and im so glad they gave him more attention in later seasons) they gave him so much sass. He knows he's not the winner of the beauty contest but he says he is because he's a sassy guy and the fake inflated ego is funny. He knows that the other competitors don't think of him as much of an asset but he still tells Book that he's the most coveted prize in bfdia 23 (and honestly with how skilled and resilient he is, he's absolutely right, though he's definitely joking/being sarcastic here). He learned how to shoot back insults when necessary, and defends himself with verbal spines because he knows that physically he is very squishy and killable. He has a fairly dark but all around great sense of humour. Kind of like a Douglas Adams book in a way I can't quite define.

(Sort of an aside, but I also like that the writers kept his "bwuh?" response to things, but made it more of a "processing the current situation" noise than a "haha stupid" noise. Mans is thinking but once he reaches his conclusion it's over for whoever surprised him. Assuming they haven't already thrown him into a propeller or something. Jesus christ the bfdi contestants are brutal. This guy literally spends most of his time either dead or being killed, at least give him a chance to process that he exists again!)

Anyway, I love spongy. And it's so frustrating to see how many fans don't really care about him, both from the very empty tumblr and ao3 tags (yes, spongy appears in fanworks, but rarely as a focus, usually only tagged in the background of group things or because he dies as a joke in chapter 3). I think it's runover fatphobia from when he had worse writing that people just can't get over. He's the fat joke character to so many people, and therefore he doesn't get added to object show scientist drawings (please let him talk about machinery with gb or basketball or ii test tube he's such a nerd and he never gets to be one in fanworks) and he doesn't get votes to save, because no one cares about him. This guy won the first rejoin challenge! He's really cool and skilled! He cares about people as long as they care about him back! And it's so clear that JnJ keeps trying to re-add him (the failed elimination in bfb, his return in bfdia 23, his appearance in tpot 18/bfb 31) but he keeps getting eliminated off the bat before he has a chance to get any character development (or wasn't in that season to begin with so they have no reason to have him continue to be there for more than an episode, in the case of tpot 18/bfb 31). Even so, they've crafted a really interesting character with what little screentime the voters have given them to work with, and people need to appreciate him more.

And I'm really hyped that he's going to be in idfb. please give him some more screentime he deserves it he is an icon and a legend and i dont think he is aware of this fact