Fortunate Ben

"Fortunate Ben" is the fifth episode of Battle for BFDI and the thirty-sixth episode overall of the Battle for Dream Island series. It was released on January 12, 2018.

It was going to be released on January 5, 2018, but since the script took two weeks to write, Thomas Chick announced on HTwins Central that he had just gotten the script on it's supposed to release date, meaning the episode was delayed.

Team Beep lost again.

Liy was eliminated with 7553 votes, Pie was the runner up with 3995 votes, and Pen got the least votes at 1093.

Before the intro
Match and Ruby are seen playing a hand clapping version of Spongy Cake with new lyrics. Flower then asks Ruby to do her a favor as she pulls her out of the game. Ruby says that the favor should be important and complains that she was in the middle of her favorite game. Flower supposes that game was Flower Power, but Ruby says she hates that game because she always wins. Flower points out that her opponents in her game don't grow enough petals to win. Flower then cuts to the favor in which Ruby needs to convince her "ignorant" friends that she's pretty. Ruby says something is a bit off even though that she recognized her beauty two months ago. Flower questions that Ruby says she's not pretty and threatens Ruby to crush her. Ruby finds out Flower's more pretty when she curls up her left arm, and she experiments with many factors, such as leg placement, pose, petal placement, younger and eye stretch.

Ruby then asks Match if they can play Spongy-Cake again, but Match plays the game with Spongy and refers the game as "name-calling, Spongy-bashing, verbal-bullying." Spongy raises his leg in a similar fashion to Four's intro pose, which, just like in the last episode, consequently makes the intro play.

Cake at Stake
When it was time for Death P.A.C.T's elimination, Four said they must assemble or they will tremble. Pie says she would rather tremble. Four is mad, so he tries to come up with something even more threatening, in which X gives him the perfect idea by saying another threatening word that rhymes with the previous statement. So Four threatened to "dismemble" them but that was a fail due to Black Hole's lack of limbs. Now four is truly enraged, and threatens to screech. However, X points out it doesn't rhyme, but they think that's okay, so the contestants assemble nonetheless. And when the seat lifted up, Ice Cube was flung into the air.

At Cake at Stake, Four said that Pen's drawing led them to their elimination, Pen gets mad at Four for saying that his drawing was bad, after that, Four screeched Pen. Later then, X said that Death P.A.C.T.'s drawing was a disgrace to the art community and asked to never touch a piece of paper ever again. Pen says he'd rather get screeched at, so Four screeched at him again, causing Pen to fall in a daze.

Later on, Pillow asked how many votes they got, Four later responded that they got 20,389 votes, then Four says the 7 safe contestants will each get a fortune cookie while the most voted contestant will be eliminated. Bottle says that they hope they don't get killed, then, later on, Bubble got popped by someone. Bottle then says that Bubble is dead.

Later, Four said Pen got the least votes (1093 votes), then X says that Pen was the first fewest voted character that doesn't start with a B. Then, Pen says his legal name is "🅱️en". Pie was talking to Pen about what his fortune cookie says, he opens it and it says that one should always hope that life will be full of happiness.. brought by...Ice Cube? Then, Pie says that that is a weird fortune. Later on, Four says that Pillow can sleep easily tonight. Pillow grabs the fortune cookie, and reads the fortune cookie then she says that it is odd and then Four later says that she is odd. Four says Tree and Remote are safe. They both read their fortune cookies aloud and after reading his, Tree asks says where Four got these fortune cookies from. Four said they got them from the dumpster.

Later on, the next scene shows Gelatin and Team Ice Cube! proudly patting Gelatin on the top of his head. Then the next scene shows Liy, Pie, Black Hole and Bottle who were not safe yet. Then Four says the remaining contestants with holes are safe. Then Bottle said she was ticklish because of the fortune cookie. Later on, Liy and Pie remain, Liy said they were the bottom 2, and stated that she said a pun at Getting Teardrop to Talk and says that the viewers would understand Liy as a positive light, then Pie says that it was fine.

Then later, Four shows the votes then X later interrupted Four that Pie stays and Liy goes home. Then Four said that he wanted to say that and then X said that Four can just screech him but then Four later says that he will do something way worse than screeching at X. Then Four gives a fortune cookie to Pie, saying that they needed to listen to Liy.

Liy then says that she heard the message and that the viewers and contestants didn't need Liy. Then it shows a scene of Liy with Pie & Black Hole, Liy all alone, Liy rescuing Blocky, then Fanny and then Firey Jr. Then Liy comes down to the ground and says that they thought they would support her but then Tree says to not feel sad/mad for herself. Then Liy switches her light then she switches to the light from BFDI APPISIOTE 225555555!!!!!. Tree is horrified and begs Four to suck her up. Four then agrees with Tree and sucks Liy up.

After Cake at Stake
After Cake at Stake, Foldy is about to smile, but Stapy and Foldy decide to do it bigger. Later on, Pie questions what Liy was a switch form then Black Hole responds that he thought she was a light switch, then Pillow says that she does more than that, and after that, Pie said "Whatever.".

After that, Flower and Gaty were seen as Flower is currently deformed due to following Ruby's fashion tips, then Gaty says what Flower was doing was idiotic. Lollipop agrees with Gaty's statement and tells Four to screech Flower to get her to stop,but Lollipop forgot that Four screeches anyone who talks to him,and Four screeched Lollipop instead of Flower. After that, Book was questioning Four where X was. Four said that X was in the 'limb reattachment center'.

Contest
Four revealed that the contest was to fly in a paper airplane and not touch the ground. Stapy figures out that the planes are made of paper, and is worried since paper can't support his weight.

Then, the contestants get on their paper planes, then Ice Cube lands on her plane from being flung by the Cake at Stake seats. Later on, contestants fly their paper airplane with no steering in it. Lightning attempts to fly his team's plane up, which leads to Four obliterating him and Black Hole, due to flying not being allowed in the challenge. Fries requests that Puffball is disabled instead of obliterated, and Four obliges, also disabling Cloudy instead of obliterating him. David pilots Beep's airplane with the loose part ofhis outline, but the ride is bumpy and Cloudy is injured. Balloony gets mad that no one feels bad for Cloudy, which Nickel mistakes as a normal quote despite being sarcasm.

David then gets sleepy and supposedly does fall asleep, which seems to have caused Beep's plane to fall. Free Food's team falls because of their poor weight distribution throughout the plane (everyone was on one side, and when the plane starts flipping rapidly, Stapy accidentally stapled the team's plane together, later apologizing and saying that his stapler instincts got a hold of him. As Free Food and Beep fall rapidly towards the ground, Four comments that it looks like the two teams misunderstood the challenge and believe that it is a race to reach the bottom, rather than staying in the air.

Marker suggests that his team's plane should slow down, which makes Stapy spit staples out of him in an effort to slow the descent. The ground breaks apart slightly when a line of staples hit, as Free Food continues falling. Meanwhile, Beep is trying to steer away from the cliff, and they desperately try to steer from the cliff by dabbing, which seems to somewhat work and slows their fall due to the increased air resistance. Rocky vomits on David, causing him to wake up and start steering again.

Unfortunately, The staples epicly split the ground in two, causing Free Food to fall between the parts and not hit the ground as quick. Even though the team was going to make it past the cliff, the cliff somehow lurched forward (the ground split did it) and caught Beep before they passed,and X pats the ground thanking it for saving Beep from hitting the ground, so Beep hits the ground first, putting them up for elimination. X then tells the rest of the teams in the air to do whatever they want since he doesn't know what to do with them, which results in a very positive reaction from the teams still in the air.

Stinger
X is lying in a field waving his arms about while an amazing song plays, sung by both a low-pitched voice and an vibrato voice at the same time. The lyrics of the song are:

Glad to have 2 legs again!

Glad to be an X again!

The song is followed by an applause.

Trivia

 * Pie has the second-highest number of votes. This is possibly due to her lack of appearances and contributions in the past few episodes. The majority voted Pie because she didn't have an appearance in Today's Very Special Episode, other than an appearance in the intro.
 * This is the first BFB episode to have a team up for elimination for the second time. (Beep lost in Lick Your Way to Freedom and lost again this episode.)
 * This is the first BFB episode to be made by the newest animator, Caedmon Johnson.
 * SuperScratchkat is his Youtube channel, as the animation in BFB 5 and the channel's BFB fan animation have the same art form.
 * When Roboty spoke, he actually said "HIDDEN" in morse code.
 * This is the first time in BFB that a contestant whose name doesn't start with "B" gets the least votes (Bubble, Balloony, Bomby).
 * This was pointed out in the episode, although Pen had an excuse that this fact was incorrect.
 * Pen revealed that his legal name was "🅱️en" although this was most likely just a joke.
 * This is most likely why the episode was named Fortunate Ben, as Pen was the first to get a fortune cookie.
 * Pen's legal name, 🅱️en, is a reference to the 🅱️ meme, which involves replacing a letter (usually the first letter) in a word with the 🅱️ emoji. The meme was also referenced in Getting Teardrop to Talk when Pencil demoted Bubble from member to "🅱️ember"
 * In Cary's reaction video, he jokingly stated that it's pronounced 'Bwwwen'.
 * This is the fourth time in a row that the record of votes has increased and the votes entirely of the episode.
 * Considering how Ice Cube, Taco, Barf Bag, Cake, Bell, Needle, Eggy, and Naily don't speak in the episode, it is possible their respective voice actresses Kenzie Bryant and Katherine Sun weren't available to record any lines. Though it is also possible that the scripts simply didn't require them to talk.
 * Along with them, Saw, Firey Jr., Basketball, Clock, Fanny, Pin, 8-Ball, Grassy, Eraser, Firey, Yellow Face, Coiny, Blocky, Robot Flower, Puffball, and Loser don't speak in the episode.
 * This is the first time somebody that is not a team captain is eliminated, stopping the streak/row.
 * This is the second episode that featured no recommended characters.
 * If Why Would You Do This on a Swingset wasn't delayed, then the episode would've been released on December 29th, 2017.
 * In Cary's reaction to Today's Very Special Episode, he said that this episode and future episodes of BFB would have more locations.
 * That was indeed the case, for the challenge's setting took place in an area with a cliff and multiple plants around.
 * This is the first episode where all contestants up for elimination have received at least 1000 votes each.
 * The vote count is 134 more votes than in Today's Very Special Episode.
 * Despite the episode being a week late, the voting period still ends in 48 hours.
 * Cake was promised to have more spotlight, but this was not the case in the official episode most likely due to the information being leaked and being postponed a week later in order to write a new script.
 * Beep is the first team to be up for elimination twice in BFB, having previously lost in Lick Your Way to Freedom.
 * This may be so another female doesn't get eliminated.
 * This is the second time a BFB episode came out without a thumbnail.
 * Flower is seen to be on the first, yet unofficial thumbnail.
 * This is the second BFB episode to not have a description. (though this episode will most likely come out with one, since this same situation happened with BFB 4, and the description was later written). And this was apperantly the case.
 * Pin and Blocky were seen for a split second during the elimination (When Pillow received her fortune cookie).
 * Just after Pillow opened the cookie, Blocky is seen fallen over.
 * Ruby has developed and has mixed feelings on Flower's beauty. In her view, it depends on Flower’s position.
 * Liy's previous design (how she looked like in real life (from BFDI APPISIOTE 225555555!!!!!) was shown to be inside Liy.
 * Liy has shown that she has the ability to switch between switches.
 * David has shown that he has the ability to manipulate his unconnected outline on his head.
 * David uses the advantage to steer his team to victory, although failing due to Free Food's unintentional sabotage, led by Stapy.
 * This is the third episode named after a contestant.
 * It is also the third time that the intro plays without Four raising his hand.
 * Again, a contestant substitutes for Four, being Spongy.
 * This is the first time an armless contestant triggers the intro.
 * The number of deaths that have been prevented by Death P.A.C.T. (2,763) may reference the number of miles it took from the original location in BFDIA to Yoyle Mountain.
 * This was also the first episode named after a contestant's legal name.
 * Liy is responsible for most preventions of deaths on her team (2,753), although this may be a gag.
 * The rest of her team has provided 10 preventions of deaths altogether.
 * It is the second time Lightning doesn't ask "So, to clarify..." when the challenge starts, the first time being in Today's Very Special Episode.
 * It's the first time A Better Name Than That didn't place 6th, because all teams won, except Beep.
 * However, Free Food might be 7th, as they are shown falling with Beep, in danger of suffering elimination.
 * The sarcasm scene is a reference to Inanimate Insanity, where Nickel is known for his sarcasm.
 * Ironically, Nickel stated that he forgets that it is sarcasm.
 * No characters outside of Death P.A.C.T. have a visible walk animation.
 * This episode reveals that Match and Spongy might be friends now.
 * In the stinger with the "Glad To Be An X Again" song, there are bandages wrapped around the bottom-right part of X, meaning that part of his body was removed and turned into a lower-case Y.
 * It was revealed that Cary Huang was the voice behind the strange voice singing in the backround of the stinger.
 * This is the first time that a “don't” challenge is done in BFB.
 * In BFB 1, X did not like screeching (saying "No more screechy please!" in the episode) but in BFB 5 he said "Well, if you don't like it, just screech me!" Wanting to be screeched.
 * There's a unused line when Match and Ruby are playing Spongy Cake, the line can be heard as "5 6 7 8". It can be seen here.
 * Ice Cube falls from quite a height in this episode, yet curiously doesn't shatter.

Goofs

 * The voting screen lists the end of voting as "Jan 14, 2017", despite the episode being released in 2018. This is corrected in the video description.
 * In the scene where Pie is walking to her podium, she stays in place with her walk cycle for a few frames before the Cake at Stake intro plays.
 * The Cake at Stake Intro stayed black for almost the whole time.
 * This may or may not be intentional, for that we are not sure for now. It probably was because of an editing error.
 * When Flower turns her petals, her head isn't attached to her body.
 * When Beep falls down and loses the challenge, the contestants twitch to the left.
 * Near the end of the intro, Pencil’s face is upside down.
 * At the end of the video, the contestants aren't seen on their planes.
 * However, it could be the planes being viewed underside.
 * X is limbless.
 * When Lightning gets obliterated, Snowball is missing an arm.
 * When Free Food's plane was wobbling, Stapy's facial expression did not change when the plane was flying in and out of view.
 * When Flower asks that she needs Ruby for a sec, she and Match say ’5. 6. 7.’ But It’s not lip synced.
 * When Stapy was talking, Fries' limbs are missing.
 * When Free Food was getting into their plane, Bell did not have a string.Bell has no string!!.png with no string.]]
 * When everyone is about to take flight in their planes, Flower is missing her face.

Continuity references

 * Ruby and Match play Spongy Cake like it is played in BFDIA 5d.
 * Foldy was about to twitch her mouth like Ice Cube and Firey in the previous episodes, but instead, Foldy and Stapy changed their mind and decided to show off huge smiles instead.
 * Stapy's agreement to Foldy saying "Yeah!" is the same one used in Getting Teardrop to Talk when Marker asks him to play Toss The Dirt.
 * For their team to avoid touching the ground, Woody dabs, which is a reference to Lick Your Way to Freedom, where Woody also dabs.
 * Ice Cube being flung away from the Cake at Stake is a reference to how she appears at Cake at Stakes in Sweet Tooth and Power of Three only to be flung away by the Announcer.
 * When Four said X was in the "Limb Reattachment center", it was a reference to when he said X was in "burn center" in Why Would You Do This on a Swingset.
 * It may also be a reference to Pin losing her limbs in Get in the Van.
 * The Emergency Button from Rescission may have been used to obliterate Lightning and Black Hole.
 * Gelatin wanting to use Bomby for the challenge is a reference to Getting Teardrop to Talk.
 * Bubble died after Bottle said "preventing death", which is another reference to Why Would You Do This on a Swingset - A total of 3 deaths overall.
 * At Cake at Stake, Pin can be seen angry at Blocky. A little bit later, Blocky is seen knocked over. This is most likely a reference to Take the Plunge: Part 1, where Pin knocks Blocky over when he was grabbing her.
 * Remote saying that Death P.A.C.T. has prevented 2763 deaths is a reference to the number of miles from Yoyleland.
 * Just before Stapy staples his team's plane closed, all Free Food members except Stapy were in the same poses they are in the intro.

Controversy
After the release of the new episode, some fans were confused or upset about the episode's "changed artstyle" from the new animator Caedmon Johnson, with most of the attention being drawn to Four and X. Some had stated it was terrible, while others defended it and said it was more expressive (which it was not)

Fans have been complaining about Beep being up for elimination again because most people wanted all the teams to actually lose before being put upfe twice and saying that Cake was going to have more of a role, but he did not receive any.

There was also criticism about the "short" challenge, although this issue more likely comes from the pacing of the episode.

Jacknjellify wants to "spark worldwide discussion of the aerodynamics of dabbing" in his tweet. but nobody cared.

Some people also started the voting of Woody because of the fact that he started the dabbing solution. Nevertheless, it is possible that he will be safe with 2,364 votes.

Deaths

 * Total: 3, 4 (possibly)
 * Bubble pops off-screen.
 * Lightning and Black Hole are obliterated by Four.
 * Liy was sucked into Four. (debatable)

Starting characters
These characters show up before the intro/Cake at Stake.

Non-starting characters
These characters show up after the intro/Cake at Stake.