As always there are spoilers in this review! Watch the episode first. | | | | | V Before I dive into this episode, I need to set the stage. BFDIA 6 came out, and it's a pretty decent episode for what it is. At the time I thought it was just a cute little homage to BFDIA, until BFDIA 7 released and showed how this was a full on revival of BFDIA. I wasn't (and still aren't) a big fan of the idea of reviving BFDIA, because a revival of IDFB makes a lot more sense. I'm going off track, the point is that BFDIA 7 isn't a very good episode, and neither is BFDIA 8. BFDIA 9 is slightly better, but still nothing great, let alone decent. BFDIA 10 was my least favorite episode in the season yet, and BFDIA 11 somehow managed to top it. So when I went into this episode, my expectations were through the floor. And after watching it I gotta say, this is my favorite post revival episode yet! Yeah I said it, this episode is better than BFDIA 6. The writing isn't as good sure, but way more of the jokes landed than the ones in episode 6, so I say this one is on top! And now it is time to dig into why BFDIA 12 is an unexpected good episode. Lets get the obvious out of the way, Kevin MacLeod is in this episode and that is cool as hell. The character he voices is a little bit dumb, but it wasn't to an infuriating degree like the Cookie and Vegemite guys from episode 11. It is extremely cool to see that they got the big guy himself to be in the episode, especially because his work has been a crux of BFDI since the first episode ever in 2010! But hey that's not the only thing I liked! Like I said, a lot of the jokes were really funny and actually got a laugh out of me. For example, when Flower uses some goofy ritual to revive the Swap Token it gave me battle for Grandma nostalgia and that makes me happy. Most of the other jokes included Fries, but that is the status quo for this season at this point. Again, this episode is WAYY funnier than "Keep those neck muscles extended!" or friggin "Open mouth yeah yeah yeah". The Challenge! A fight to the death using bugs is an extremely fun idea! I have always liked the object show trope where the goal is to be the last alive, and this episode goes full TROC on us! The one thing I am not a fan of is how if you get revived you are back in the challenge, that kind of kills the entire point of the challenge but whatever I still like it. The elimination and finally my pick for who should go goes! Ice Cube was the worst character in BFDIA 11, so seeing her go is a relief. Also I would like to point out how they just change the stupid LRLD name back to Freesmart. I definitely didn't cause that to happen, but I think it is funny that the useless and somewhat annoying changes episode 11 did are getting reverted. On that note, lets talk about the teams. And I'll be honest, this is the best they have ever been! The one saving grace about BFDIA 10 was everything with Fries, and now that he is back on his own team he takes center stage while still being an extremely likable character! Frankly I think he is better off. GB and TB are a fun duo, way better than their current state in TPOT. Freesmart, now with Needle is a really fun dynamic too! The intresting thing is that Needle knows something about Freesmart in IDFB, and we know she isn't a Freesmart member then, so this is a perfect setup for interesting character development! And WOAH bunch is just okay this episode. Pin has gotten enough borderline torture, it wasn't even funny this time. Speaking of which, I think it is fair to go over my criticisms for the episode. These are more nitpicky then actual problems I have. Ruby's sisters are so shoehorned in for no reason. Your telling me they have been here the entire time, but haven't done anything? Like..if they wanted to take Ruby's place, why didn't they do it sooner? There is like 34 of them you could easily beat her lmao. The scene where Bomby is like "Throw Pin or else we'll lose Fries!" Why not throw a bug? It gets the job done better and it doesn't sacrifice Pin. Also you end up losing Fries anyway so there isn't a point lmao. And how was Coiny talking to Pin? He was alive and actively competing the entire time so I was just extremely confused. Again, these are tiny nit-picks and don't drastically drag down the episode for me. And yeah that's kind of it. Overall, I really liked this episode. If Fries gets out I will never forgive the BFDIA voters. Speaking of which, I actually voted this time! Take a wild guess who I liked, and I disliked Nickel for being boring and out of character. This episode gets a 7.5/10! Not bad for modern BFDIA. Anyways, now that this is over with I can finally get back to replaying Super Paper Mario! A very long and opinionated rant about it will come out in the next week, because I do want to start reviewing the games in my favorite game franchise. Anyways, see ya!
J&J
