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Interestingly, I had seen a number of well-written ''TPOT''-based spin-offs in the form of fanfics ranging from light-hearted to the emotionally heavy (lookin' at you, [https://archiveofourown.org/works/26102995/chapters/63494257 Its_Virgil]). With wild predictions raging in my head, I had to join in the fun somehow. And what better way to do that than to write my own ''TPOT'' season? |
Interestingly, I had seen a number of well-written ''TPOT''-based spin-offs in the form of fanfics ranging from light-hearted to the emotionally heavy (lookin' at you, [https://archiveofourown.org/works/26102995/chapters/63494257 Its_Virgil]). With wild predictions raging in my head, I had to join in the fun somehow. And what better way to do that than to write my own ''TPOT'' season? |
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| − | [[File:TPOT Intro.png|thumb|'''Title card of ''Fake TPOT''''' (later version from when it became a sitcom). Because this is the olden days, the aspect ratio is a bit different.|alt=| |
+ | [[File:TPOT Intro.png|thumb|'''Title card of ''Fake TPOT''''' (later version from when it became a sitcom). Because this is the olden days, the aspect ratio is a bit different.|alt=|175x175px]] |
Well, it wasn't a season at first. "Fake TPOT 2" was more of a pilot episode that I didn't expect to be renewed (read: failed).<ref>It was also released on 21 May, the same day I thought the real episode 2 would be released.</ref> But the only reason for that was that I was working on another project, which meant I barely had time to write. That was finished around 2 July, and after that I could do whatever I wanted. The thing is, I didn't really want to leave this wiki for a second time, so I decided to devote my days to continuing this series, for which only one episode was written. |
Well, it wasn't a season at first. "Fake TPOT 2" was more of a pilot episode that I didn't expect to be renewed (read: failed).<ref>It was also released on 21 May, the same day I thought the real episode 2 would be released.</ref> But the only reason for that was that I was working on another project, which meant I barely had time to write. That was finished around 2 July, and after that I could do whatever I wanted. The thing is, I didn't really want to leave this wiki for a second time, so I decided to devote my days to continuing this series, for which only one episode was written. |
||
Revision as of 20:17, 22 July 2021
Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two (BFDI:TPOT)[2] is the fifth season of the web series Battle for Dream Island. There are in fact two iterations of this series, which are, in order of fame:
- The Power of Two[3] (TPOT) is the official, canon iteration. It is run by Satomi Hinatsu and Kenzie Bryant (also known as Pokey), whose careers in Jacknjellify began in BFB, the previous season. At the time of writing, there is only one episode of this version, because things such as animation, writing etc. take a lot of time and hard work.
- Fake TPOT (no acronym expansion here, suckas) is the unofficial continuation of the series, which is currently being worked on at the same time as the canon version. It is also what this page will mainly focus on, as there is already a comprehensive article on the canon series on the Other Wiki. It is run by Yterbium, who has had no career in Jacknjellify aside from being one of their many supporters.
He is known for being the lead writer for the Before BFDI fanfiction on the Other Other Wiki (2014–2015) and is the executive producer and a writer for the Pencil 2.O series (2015–present). He doesn't like to brag.
Of the two different versions of the series—which should not be seen as competing with each other—The Power of Two is the legitimate one, and it will continue to be so among the BFDI community. For the creator of Fake TPOT, the later episodes are simply headcanon, at least until new canon episodes come out.
Overview and development
The creation process of The Power of Two is probably one of the most contentious moments in BFDI's history. With controversies erupting seemingly every week within the object show community, that's saying something. Anyway, the infamous BFB–TPOT split is not exactly my story to tell (I was in a slump for most of that year, so I barely remember how I felt). But let's just say it was intense.
Nevertheless, all the drama surrounding the split didn't last long. Nearly every complaint under the BFB 16 video dates from late March or a few months after. It became clear that there was still another show going on, namely The All-New BFB. But eventually, TPOT came out just about on time, on 10 January 1973. And it was awesome.
Title card of The Power of Two (1973). By Coal Bones.
On 28 December 1972 and 10 February 1973, I had posted a few speculation posts about the future of TPOT, with the knowledge that I gained from reading some of the comments on the Other Wiki. In the latest post, I had predicted that the second episode of TPOT—the actual one—would be released on 21 May. Not to sound disappointed or anything (I wasn't), but that didn't happen.
I had a blog post here on the subject of Cary's then-latest video, in which he talked about how annoying it is when people complain about how long it takes for an episode to come out.[4] In that post I sympathized with him and also advised the impatient people to write their own fake episodes if they were not satisfied with the long wait.
Interestingly, I had seen a number of well-written TPOT-based spin-offs in the form of fanfics ranging from light-hearted to the emotionally heavy (lookin' at you, Its_Virgil). With wild predictions raging in my head, I had to join in the fun somehow. And what better way to do that than to write my own TPOT season?
Title card of Fake TPOT (later version from when it became a sitcom). Because this is the olden days, the aspect ratio is a bit different.
Well, it wasn't a season at first. "Fake TPOT 2" was more of a pilot episode that I didn't expect to be renewed (read: failed).[5] But the only reason for that was that I was working on another project, which meant I barely had time to write. That was finished around 2 July, and after that I could do whatever I wanted. The thing is, I didn't really want to leave this wiki for a second time, so I decided to devote my days to continuing this series, for which only one episode was written.
TPOT 3 came out on 28 June, quickly followed by 4, 5, 6 and so on. And the rest is history.
Episodes
For more information about each episode of Fake TPOT (or if you want to have a quick spoil), please click on the link here: Fake TPOT: Credits and episode summaries.
In my last speculation post, I found that the average number of episodes TPOT would end up with (given the net change in the number of contestants in every episode since 1962) is approximately 52. In hindsight, I think this is something of a silly number, because when I did the calculations again, I ended up with 48, which is one standard deviation less than the average.[6]
So that's the number of episodes there will be of TPOT.[7]
Since 48 is a very high number of episodes for a series with a smaller cast than BFB, it was decided early on to divide the show into eight "acts" of six episodes each, in which certain character arcs could be elaborated. The gaps between the acts didn't serve so much as hiatuses (due to the still large gaps between episodes allowing for more creative freedom among the writers), but the differences between the acts would be so striking in the long run that TPOT 1 and TPOT 48 could be seen as a completely different show.
Out of all the 48 episodes, 38 are single-elimination, 3 are double-elimination, 4 are rejoins, 3 are débuts, in 3 of them nothing happens and 1 of them is the finale.
The Power of Two
| # | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You Know Those Buttons Don't Do Anything, Right? | 10 January 2021 |
Fake TPOT
| Title | Date published | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Horseback Lightswitch | 21 May 2021 |
| 3 | Start Spreading the News | 28 June 2021 |
| 4 | All Boxed In | 8 July 2021 |
| 5.1 | So This Is Life | 11 July 2021 |
| 5.2 | Two Rocks the Elderly | 12 July 2021 |
| 6 | The Seekers Are Inn! | 16 July 2021 |
| 7 | Canned Laughter in the Rain | 20 July 2021 |
| 8 | The Switchgate | TBA |
| 9 | Little Hotel on the Savannah | TBA |
| 10 | Press 2 to Clear | TBA |
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Characters
For more information on the characters, please click on the links on the Other Wiki.
Hosts
For most of the series, Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two is hosted by, quite appropriately, Two, an algebralien from the Equation Playground. The contestants' goal is to snatch this number's powers through a series of fair competitions.
However, Two may not always be there as a host. They were absent as a host in episodes 4 and part of 5, and I assume they'll be go on unexplained "business trips" in future episodes. Such occurrences are not followed by anarchy, as the host becomes the contestant mature enough to handle a bunch of objects—usually Donut (as he had done in the prior season).
Contestants
The series started with forty characters. This was the number that everyone had in mind between the release of BFB 16 and TPOT 1. However, the number was increased by two due to a surprise double debut. The contestants and their most recent ranking are as follows:
Note that this table could be more colourful and contain images of the contestants, but for that you'll have to go to the Other Wiki because the author doesn't know how to do CSS stuff.
| Name | Gender | Team[8] | Status | Voiced by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barf Bag | Female | team8s | TBA | Kenzie Bryant |
| Basketball | Female | TSTOE | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Bell | Female | TSTOE | TBA | Kenzie Bryant |
| Black Hole | Male | DPA | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Book | Female | Just Not | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Bottle | Female | The S! | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Cake | Male | Just Not | TBA | Kenzie Bryant |
| Clock | Male | The S! | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Cloudy | Male | The S! | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Coiny | Male | team8s | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Donut | Male | team8s | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Eggy | Female | TSTOE | TBA | Katherine Sun |
| Eraser | Male | AYO | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Fanny | Female | DPA | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Foldy | Female | TSTOE | TBA | Cindy Jiang |
| Gaty | Female | team8s | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Golf Ball | Female | AYO | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Grassy | Male | TSTOE | TBA | Cary Huang |
| Lightning | Male | DPA | TBA | Elvira C. McCormack[9] |
| Marker | Male | DPA | TBA | Cary Huang |
| Naily | Female | Just Not | TBA | Katherine Sun |
| Nickel | Male | Just Not | TBA | Adam Katz |
| Pen | Male | AYO | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Pillow | Female | Just Not | TBA | Cindy Jiang |
| Pin | Female | team8s | TBA | Cary Huang |
| Price Tag | Non-binary | Just Not | TBA | Ovid "Wolfy" Gwolpé[9] |
| Puffball | Female | AYO | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Remote | Female | DPA | TBA | Female-US Voice |
| Robot Flower | Female | TSTOE | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Saw | Female | team8s | TBA | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Snowball | Male | TSTOE | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Tennis Ball | Male | AYO | TBA | Cary Huang |
| Tree | Male | DPA | TBA | Thomas Chick |
| TV | Male | AYO | TBA | —[10] |
| Winner | Non-binary | The S! | TBA | Schazer |
| Yellow Face | Male | The S! | TBA | Michael Huang |
| Needle | Female | team8s | 37th ("The Switchgate") | Kenzie Bryant |
| Rocky | Male | The S! | 38th ("Canned Laughter in the Rain") | Cary Huang |
| Fries | Male | AYO | 39th ("The Seekers Are Inn!") | Michael Huang |
| Bomby | Male | Just Not | 40th ("So This Is Life") | Satomi Hinatsu |
| Ice Cube | Female | The S! | 41st ("All Boxed In") | Cary Huang |
| Pie | Female | DPA | 42nd ("Horseback Lightswitch") | Sam Lee |
Non-contestants
Like the later episodes of post-split BFB, Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two has its fair share of characters who are neither contestants nor hosts. Sometimes, they may speak the most out of everyone. These non-contestants fall into various categories:
- EXITers: The only non-participants who are required to appear in every episode (with few exceptions like TPOT 5), these contestants are pretty much lost in time in space. Isolated from the outside world, they exist in their own little bubble—really the bosom of Four, the past season's host who makes brief appearances in some episodes—and they have their own adventures in not competing. In alphabetical order, these ten contestants are as follows:
- 8-Ball (voiced by Cary Huang)
- Bracelety (voiced by Cary Huang)
- David (voiced by Michael Huang)
- Dora (voice provided by a repeating "da" sound effect)
- Firey Jr. (voiced by Satomi Hinatsu)
- Liy / Yıldız Xenophonia Māhealanisdóttir (TPOT 6 only) (voiced by Elvira C. McCormack[9], singing by Nonuvya Bissnus)
- Match (voiced by Cary Huang)
- Pencil (voiced by Michael Huang)
- Roboty (voiced provided by a Morse Code emulator before TPOT 11, voiced by Themis Targetopoulos[9] afterwards)
- Stapy (voiced by Sam Lee)
- Hotel denizens: These are the people who have been sent to Two's hotel because they didn't receive enough votes, to join or be saved. They, like all the other extras, are not required to make an appearance, although in every episode where there is an elimination, a contestant becomes part of this category. Until TPOT 6, they were allowed to openly socialize with the contestants without Two's permission. These denizens of the hotel come in two sub-categories:
- Eliminated contestants (e.g. Pie after TPOT 2, Rocky after TPOT 7 etc.)
- Failed debuters (e.g. 9-Ball, Onigiri, VHSy etc.)
- Other extras: Everyone else. Most of the time, they'll make a single or double appearance (such as the Elderly Gang in TPOT 5). There are exceptions, though, such as recurring extras Balloony (who had previously competed in BFB) and Hop Bell (Bell's cousin who works the front desk in Two's hotel).
Reception
The Power of Two was apparently trending on Twitter on the day of its release. For many members of the object show community, the wait between March 1972 and January 1973 took up a large part of their lifetimes, so people would naturally be eager for the fifth season of the most popular object show in existence.
Even after its release on 10 January, TPOT has not lost popularity. The YouTube video, at the time of writing (16 July), has 6,889,989 views, which is much more than when the author last checked about a month ago.
The popularity of Fake TPOT could not be any more different. Since only a few episodes of this series were released, it is impossible to say how successful or not it ultimately was. That doesn't mean it is unpopular, as there at least one person on the planet who is aware of its existence.
Other media
Cultural references
Fake TPOT has had a number of pop culture allusions over the years. There are many such references that could go over the heads of viewers if they are older or younger than the target age (the author is 20, which is like 103 in OSC years). To be fair to everyone, I have included a page listing all the (non-BFDI) cultural references.
I know it's not exactly good form to explain the joke, but hey, we'd better keep our minds sharp.
For more information, please click on the link here: List of cultural references in Fake TPOT.
Production music
As in BFB, the soundtrack of The Power of Two is very diverse in genre and electronickety. Many of the background songs were composed by the wonderful music stylings of Michael Huang, one half of the original Jacknjellify. But there are also other musicians who have taken the time to compose music either specifically for the series or for other things (but adopted by the series because it sounds good). For example, the theme song of the intro—used for the whole series up to the finale—is called "Gibberish!!" and it was composed by Coal Bones from YouTube.
Fake TPOT is a little bit different in its approach to its soundtrack. As with Pencil 2.O and the author's fan-made song inserts for the first two seasons of BFDI, most of the songs have been composed by Kevin MacLeod or by composers whose music was featured on the APM Music website and/or SpongeBob SquarePants. Thus it is not surprising to a traditional "object show song" (e.g. "New Friendly") to be followed by a song that's never been heard on either show (e.g. "Selling Scherzo"), followed by a mid-century recording of an Indonesian melody (e.g. "Serenading the Night"). That is not to say that the soundtrack of the first episode doesn't show up, as many Michael-made tracks still feature heavily, especially where music would enhance the emotional aspect of a scene.
Original songs
Don't be fooled; this isn't just the background music. Unlike previous seasons, TPOT features a number of vocal songs. Songs have been tried in many an object show in the past [11], but never in BFDI.
I've wondered why they haven't done it yet. In 1972 and '73, there were a number of random music releases ("Jingle Bell Rock", "Just Push Through It"), and even in the show characters like Purple Face, Gelatin and the Announcer sang some really short songs. But there was no such thing as an ear-invading tune within the series... until TPOT.
In order to get some attention from the music world, a record company (whose name we do not yet know) released eight albums of original and cover songs from the series from 1974 to 1989. These soundtracks were released at the end of each "Act". Note that many of the songs on the records sound different from those on the show, as session musicians and singers were included in the final release.
Other other media
They have plushies of two characters in the series: Pen (a contestant) and Firey Jr. (an EXITer). When the show was really gaining steam around 1982, an entire line of TPOT action figures was released.
Certification
In the United States and Canada, TPOT is rated TV-PG or TV-14, depending on who's applying the rating. While the amount of violence and profanity is consistent with the rest of BFDI (i.e., lots of killing, no swearing), there is a bit of an adult edge to this season (especially Fake TPOT). Non-asexuality is implied in many characters and such actions are sometimes implied through subtle or not-so-subtle innuendo. In the object show community, this is tantamount to TPOT being rated MA or X or whatever they call it these days, but it's fine, as long as the reader is mature enough to understand the context. You people watch Family Guy, don't you?
In the United Kingdom and Brazil, TPOT is rated 12, while in Denmark, it gets a yellow logo. This makes sense, as the people in these countries are not as prudish as the Americans, who make up the bulk of the OSC.
Based on what was described on the Let's Write Sherlock! blog on Tumblr, I believe The Power of Two would be rated General Audiences, and Fake TPOT Teen and Up. On Fanfiction.net, they would be rated K+ and T, respectively.
Credits
See here.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Hey, they said it, not me.
- ↑ A guide to abbreviations: Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two and TPOT will be used when referring to the series (in general). The Power of Two is the canon series, while Fake TPOT is, quite obviously, fake.
- ↑ I didn't know it was just called The Power of Two, no extra punctuation needed. That's why on episode review posts like this there are two exclamation marks after the title.
- ↑ I deleted it because it was obviously written on a whim, and I cringed the hell out the second time my eyes hit those words.
- ↑ It was also released on 21 May, the same day I thought the real episode 2 would be released.
- ↑ In hind-hindsight, that's not such a strange number after all. At the time, episode segments were counted separately (BFB-style: 13 and 14), whereas now I would enter them as parts of the same episode (BFDIA-style: episode 5).
- ↑ I'm happy with this number because of its significance. While BFDI and BFB ended with an episode number that is a multiple of five, TPOT (which I know will try and be different in every way even without the fake series) will end in 4 (2×2) and 8 (2×2×2).
- ↑ In which Are You Okay is abbreviated as "AYO", Death P.A.C.T. Again as "DPA" and The Strongest Team on Earth as "TSTOE".
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Part or all of this name is a pseudonym used to conceal this person's identity, which is understandable over the Internet.
- ↑ This character communicates through the voices of other contestants in series of clips arranged by Pokey.
- ↑ Inanimate Insanity tried it out in the middle of the last decade, Brawl of the Objects and this other show with a lock had a talent competition with singing in it, there was even a show with a pear or something and it had really cute assets (forgot the name), but they did a full-fledged musical episode in 2013!