Broken Base / Battle for Dream Island

The show's fanbase is split on many things, and with such a large cast it's inevitable to find characters with polarizing reception.

In General

• IDFB has split fans down the middle. Is it a great, funny re-tooling of the show, or is the new sit-com format a disappointment after the challenges of before?
• The redesigns of the recommended characters have also drawn the ire of some fans, who believe that the originals were fine.
• Fireafy. You either ship it or you hate it.
  • After BFB 30, Shipping in General became a massive hot button topic in the fandom
• To say that the decision to split BFB into two different shows with a separate cast and hosts is controversial is an understatement. The controversy has somewhat died down since then as new episodes aired.
• For those who have been fans of BFDI since the 2016 hiatus or earlier, is BFB a good showcase of character development, or does it rely too much on assassinating the characterization of veteran contestants to make the newer characters work?
  • Key examples include Pencil & Match fleshing out Fanny, Book with Taco, Spongy with Barf Bag, Leafy with Balloony, and so on. The former were beloved characters in their heyday, but became Hate Sinks out of nowhere to give more character to the latter.
• The direction Season 6 would take is up for debate, some want a return to form, some want a more IDFB like season, some want a completely new style, a different debate is over the cast, some wanting an entirely new cast while others want a mix like BFB. Some people don't even want Season 6 to happen at all.

Base-Breaking Characters

• Profily's appearance has caused a lot of debate among the fanbase. Their detractors claim they are annoying, have no point in the plot, and some even called them a Token Minority due to being the only non-binary character in the cast at the time. Alot of people were also mad they became an official contestant. Their fans claim they are misunderstood and their appearance isn't doing anything wrong.
• Teardrop is possibly the best example of this in BFDIA. Despite getting the most likes out of everyone in her team, she also got the most dislikes, and was eliminated. The vote was rigged by the YouTube user Derpy Hooves, though. She also got a lot of hate in BFB for her Jerkass behavior towards Flower. This got worse after her random debut in TPOT after her own series ended in her placing third AND getting her own team on top of it, with many people questioning the logistics of such a character decision and if she even deserved to debut in the first place.
• The final 3 of season 1 has become a target of this. Firey, who's often criticized for being bland ever since season 1 and his treatment of Leafy until it was revealed to be a ruse, Bubble, who many complain has become too submissive and whiny until BFB 11 and Leafy who's reverted back to her season 1 self which is a stark contrast from the dark characterization she had in BFDIA which people liked.
• Book has become a controversial character after taking a level in jerkass in BFB. Some people like that she's more assertive now, but others hate that she bullies Taco more than any other member of Bleh does. She has redeemed herself in BFB 14 saving Taco and Ice Cube from dying, though.
• Lollipop is probably the biggest example amongst the BFB cast. There's a portion of the fanbase who praises her for being one of the most well-developed characters in the franchise, and a large crowd that insists she is a racist Flat Character with an out-of-place Redemption Quest.
• Yellow Face is either a genuinely funny comic relief, or an annoying Ascended Extra who fills no role in the story.
• Purple Face is either liked for being a funny Hammy character, or just is plain annoying for others.
• Although Taco is universally loved by the younger part of the fanbase, a lot of older fans dispute whether she is caught under unjust scorn by her team and Bell, or a Designated Hero who uses underhanded methods and is surprised when called out on it. She also got a lot of hate for her interactions with Blocky.
• Woody, after becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse, has been talked about during the post-split episodes, with people starting to dislike him for being irrelevant, not helping out, and getting a lot of votes to be saved despite not being deserving. He still has a fanbase who support him and want him to be bolder, it seems to have ended in BFB 23 but him becoming basically a clone of Blocky made fans angry, BFB 29 tried fixing this, with Woody failing to force himself to enjoy pranking people and instead seeking to help those in distress like he once was.
• Nickel is hated for being inconsistent by acting serious one minute and being goofy the next. The other half love him for his Large Ham moments and being based off Inanimate Insanity.
• Silly characters like Bottle, Grassy, Marker and Rocky are either adored for bringing a positive tone to the series, or hated for being annoying and useless.
  • Grassy has become more divisive in TPOT. While he still has his fans, many people have begun to cry out on how irrelevant and flat he's become and how he doesn't contribute much to the plot. And like Woody from post-split BFB, him getting a lot of votes to be safe whether he helps out or not has been seen as repetitive and annoying.
• Cute characters like Grassy, Ice Cube, and Rocky are either loved for being endearing or loathed for not doing much to affect the story. TPOT didn't help their case, as the majority of the viewers would choose to save them over other characters, causing the fanbase to complain about the more developed characters being robbed in favor of them.
• Two. Granted, when you split the entire season in half, you're bound to split the fanbase in half as well, but the vast majority of the fanbase went at odds with one another over if they were a good host, if the season split was a good idea, if it was executed well, and much more we'd really not like to get into. Splitting up the once-inseparable duo of Four and X didn't help matters. Four and X were reunited in BFB 17, however, but that alone didn't stop a portion of the fandom's still burning hatred for them. The hatred has since died down as more episodes of TPOT have aired.
• The entirety of FreeSmart has become this in hindsight after BFB. While most fans initially loved them in the days of BFDIA and IDFB, many have expressed contempt as of recent for how much screen time they hold over the course of 5 episodes, and their behavior in BFB has not been received kindly, either. Most hate how hard Pencil, Match, and Book have held onto the Jerkass Ball seemingly out of nowhere and with no behind the scenes reason as to why, Ice Cube has been critiqued for being a very Out of Focus character on Bleh, even more so than the likes of Dora, Bubble's characterization, especially post-split, has been a heavy case of Depending on the Writer, and while Ruby lacks any significant hatebase like the former five, her elimination war with Gelatin was pretty contentious, to say the least.
• Gelatin. In earlier BFB, many thought he was quite funny and gave humor to the show, while some saw him as a character who used others to win challenges for his team. In later BFB, many love him for being funny, while others hate him for causing some peril for the other members in his team.
• Fanny as of the split. At first, while her insistence on hating everything was a bit divisive, she gained a cult following for being a bit of a mentor figure towards Bubble, serving as a straight woman to all the logical fallacies plaguing iance. However, once the split happened, people have accused Fanny of being flanderized, citing that she seems to call out rather minuscule discrepancies instead of actual problems. Notably, she leaves Four because he upgrades the BFDI into a BFB, which she sees as being denied the BFDI despite seemingly nobody wanting it anymore, and when she notices that Four adds back the BFDI as a contest incentive, she claims that Four went back on his word, thereby breaking their trust again. Her inclusion on Death P.A.C.T. Again doesn't help matters, as some feel like the team doesn't feel the same anymore without Pillow, Bottle, and especially Pen. Though some have liked the changes to her character starting from TPOT, as she has more to do other than hating everything.
• Flower was unpopular enough to be the first contestant voted off BFDI, but on the other hand managed to garner enough votes in the season's final rejoining (subsequently making it to fourth place) and win BFB by a landslide over Gelatin. An easily-aggravated, unhelpful and self-absorbed fashionista before BFB, developing a friendship with Ruby helped mellow her out for better or worse depending on who you ask. She has been accused of being a Creator's Pet and that she really didn't redeem herself, however her fans love her redemption and find her hilarious.
• Basketball is this, some fans find her to be a very adorable character due to how shy she is, while others find her to be a bland character with little to no thing to do during the plot.
• Bracelety is this in hindsight, some people want to see more of her and her antics while others found her incredibly annoying and do not wish to see her return.
• Cake is this to some extent. Some fans find his blushing & shy personality endearing & also find him to be the biggest Moe on the show, while others find him to be a Flat Character outside of his relationship with Loser. Some do say that he got better in TPOT thanks to his character being able to shine without Loser.
• Eraser has gotten this status as of TPOT. Some find his new characteristic of messing with the other teams during challenges to be obnoxious and makes him a clone of Blocky. The fact that he's acting more like a Jerk Jock towards everyone adds more to the fire. Some enjoy this characteristic as it adds more to his character and gives him more focus after being Out of Focus for most of the previous seasons.
• After being recovered in BFB 15, fans of Clock still praise him for being The Comically Serious and how he's able to call out Four. He has gotten more hate as of TPOT due to his obsession with Winner, causing him to act more like Cake. Him causing his own team to be up for voting because of how he selfishly wanted Winner to perform despite protests has either caused people to save him in hopes of an arc or people to not save him after costing his team the challenge.
• Tennis Ball has gotten more controversial after BFDI due to his over reliance on Golf Ball and not adding much to the story other than that. He still has his fans for being Adorkable and The Smart Guy.
• Despite not existing, Nonexisty has managed to obtain one of the most broken bases in the entire series. There are some fans that see him as a funny gag character that might have some potential if he could ever debut, while other fans see him as a joke that stopped being funny ages ago and consider him to be the biggest vote fodder in the entire series. The base got even more broken when he was disqualified in TPOT for not solving the prime number issue, which caused an argument over whether he should have gotten in. One side argues that he got enough votes to join and therefore should have gotten in over Price Tag, and the other side argues that he would have been a waste of a character slot and it was better to pass him up.

Base-Breaking Episodes

• On top of the split and announcing "The Power of Two", BFB 16 brought back the unpopular Loser and negated the elimination of the now-hated Spongy. While it meant that episodes could go back to being released every 3-5 weeks with the smaller cast and allowed for a fair amount of screentime for everyone, the cast themselves were of heavy debate. There were good synergies like Firey and Leafy which allowed them to make amends and would eventually let joke characters like Woody and Teardrop to make some major development, but Balloony and Blocky were contentious additions because it prevented their dynamics with Cloudy and Pen/Eraser to come back into play.
• BFB 20, is heavily subject to this, some hate it for being a massive mockery of contests and finding everyone acting out of character incredibly painful to watch, while others love it for the funny moments and unquiet style of comedy.