Battle for BFS

Battle for BFB, also known as BFB, previously known as Battle for BFS, and by its full name Battle for Battle for Sodor, is the fourth season of the Battle for Sodor series and the successor to SFB. It aired on November 3, 2017, with the release of "Getting Lei to Talk".

A fifth season, called Battle for Sodor: The Power of Two, will premiere some time after "X Marks the Spot", and will air simultaneously.

The prize used to be a BFS, but to keep contestants competing, it was upgraded to a BFB. In "X Marks the Spot", the original reprise, a BFS, was added to the prize pool in addition to a BFB. This is the first season to have two prizes.

Overview
Unlike SFB, Battle for BFS goes back to the traditional format of challenges and eliminations, similar to the first and second seasons. The elimination style changed to a choice of saving rather than eliminating in BFB 17.

The art style is more simplified and animated more loosely, which in turn allowed the running time of the first episode to be nearly half an hour long, and later episodes to be able to be made within a shorter time frame.

Many unexplained plot changes have happened to let new characters join the cast and for old characters to return.

The premiere episode, "Getting Raul to Talk", introduces the fourth season's cast as well as the new hosts, Four and X from the 2008 TylerTheMan201 video, "X Finds Out His Value".

Although the release of SFB confirmed the end of BFSA, the release of BFB does not confirm the end of SFB. Since all the characters are present (except for Diesel 10 and Molly), including the ones that were originally trapped in the Locker of Losers, this might mean that SFB is not canceled and BFB takes place sometime in the future. However, it is highly possible, as stated by Cary in his BFB 1 reaction video.

Episodes

 * Episode 1: "Getting Raul to Talk" (released November 3, 2017)
 * Episode 2: "Lick Your Way to Freedom" (released November 17, 2017)
 * Episode 3: "Why Would You Do This on a Swingset" (released December 8, 2017)
 * Episode 4: "Today's Very Special Episode" (released December 22, 2017)
 * Episode 5: "Fortunate Ben" (released January 12, 2018)
 * Episode 6: "Four Goes Too Far" (released February 3, 2018)
 * Episode 7: "The Liar Ball You Don't Want" (released February 17, 2018)
 * Episode 8: "Questions Answered" (released March 10, 2018)
 * Episode 9: "This Episode is About Fernando" (released April 6, 2018)
 * Episode 10: "Enter the Exit" (released April 28, 2018)
 * Episode 11: "Get to the Top in 500 Steps" (released May 27, 2018)
 * Episode 12: "What Do You Think of Roleplay?" (released July 10, 2018)
 * Episode 13: "Return of the Rocket Ship" (released July 11, 2019)
 * Episode 14: "Don't Dig Straight Down" (released on August 24, 2019)
 * Episode 15: "The Four is Lava" (released December 14, 2019)
 * Episode 16: "The Escape from Four" (released March 24, 2020)
 * Episode 17: "X Marks the Spot" (released April 17, 2020)

Remaining contestants

 * Mia
 * The Indian Actor
 * Fernando
 * Noor Jehan
 * Ester
 * Shane
 * Aubrey
 * Ranger Jill
 * Gustavo
 * Gabriela
 * Gordon
 * Rebecca
 * Rajiv
 * Yin-Long
 * Gina
 * Tamika
 * Charubala
 * Percy
 * The Grumpy Indian Stationmaster
 * Beau
 * Carter
 * James
 * The Chinese Breakdown Crane
 * The Brazilian Tank Engine
 * Rally Car
 * Brenda
 * Emerson
 * Lei
 * Lorenzo
 * Madeleine
 * Emily
 * Jenny Packard
 * Thomas
 * Rally Car
 * Dexter
 * The Crown Thieves
 * Ashima
 * Aiden
 * The Indian Director
 * Stefano
 * Darcy
 * Natalie
 * Kwaku
 * The Friendly Indian Stationmaster
 * Ace
 * Hong-Mei
 * The American Diesel
 * The Chinese Diesel
 * Raul
 * Flying Scotsman
 * Angelique
 * Isla
 * Yong Bao
 * The Indian Fashion Designer

Hosts

 * Four
 * X
 * Gina (temporarily while Four was missing, and X was hiding)

Eliminated contestants

 * The Tiger Hunters (Lick Your Way to Freedom: 4,595 votes)
 * Dame Bella (Today's Very Special Episode: 9,168 votes)
 * Cassia (Fortunate Ben: 7,553 votes)
 * Kobe (Four Goes Too Far: 8,254 votes)
 * Beppe (The Liar Ball You Don't Want: 12,062 votes)
 * An An (Questions Answered: 4,814 Votes)
 * Nia (This Episode Is About Fernando: 9,028 votes)
 * Sodor Rangers (Enter the Exit: 11,292 votes)
 * Shankar (What Do You Think of Roleplay?: 12,758 votes)
 * Tony (Return of the Rocket Ship: 10,000 votes)

Contestants that were eliminated but rejoined

 * Lorenzo (eliminated in Why Would You Do This on a Swingset: 6,926 votes; rejoined in Get to the Top in 500 Steps: 13,835 votes)

Teams
The 64 contestants are divided into 8 teams of 8.

Trivia

 * This season features the most contestants out of BFS, with 64 of them.
 * Strangely, Diesel 10 and Molly are the only 2 contestants not to appear in this season. This is most likely due to Diesel 10 being the antagonist, and Molly being more of a joke. (However, this doesn't mean that they will not appear later.)
 * Diesel 10 was seen as a recommended character by Diamondcup67 in BFB 6.
 * There is an equal ratio of male to female contestants with 32 of each gender.
 * Assuming one contestant will be eliminated each episode (except the first one) and that there will be at least 2 rejoins, there will be at least 66 BFB episodes.
 * It is possible that Battle for BFS takes place in Yoyleland, as the tower on top of the Yoyle Mountain can be seen in multiple scenes, like seen in the picture on the right.
 * However, it is more likely that the season's location is nearby Yoyleland because the grass isn't purple.
 * The intro is always started by a character using their limb to resemble Four.
 * The intro has been started by Four (BFB 1-3), Hong-Mei (BFB 4), The American Diesel (BFB 5), Emerson (BFB 6), Aubrey (BFB 7), The Indian Actor (BFB 8 and 14), Yin-Long (BFB 9), Nia (BFB 10), Cassia (BFB 11), Percy (BFB 12), and Ace (BFB 13).
 * The Indian Actor is the first male to do Four's intro pose.
 * Nia is the first eliminated contestant to do Four's intro pose.
 * Team Lei! has the most contestants who has done Four's intro pose, at 3.
 * Hong-Mei is the first contestant to do Four's intro pose.
 * The Indian Actor is the first contestant to do Four's intro pose more than once.
 * The intro's song is called "MUSIC OF FOUR'S 3D HAND".
 * Mistakes in the intro:
 * Everyone after Jenny Packard in the lineup has rough finishes to their limbs and facial features out of everyone else in the intro.
 * The American Diesel didn’t have any legs.
 * Madeleine and Aiden didn't have arms when all contestants are showing until the intro in BFB 3.
 * Although it's hard to see, Dame Bella's mouth is blue instead of white, but only when all the contestants are showing.
 * Until BFB 4, Natalie doesn't have any body, but only when all contestants are showing.
 * Angelique is missing in the first part. However, he was added to the intro in BFB 3.
 * Isla was missing her legs until BFB 3.
 * Before the second half starts, a faint voice clip of the engines saying "Switch" over and over can be heard, which is taken from "Yeah, Who? I Wanna Know".
 * The hosts, Four and X, previously appeared in a 2008 TylerTheMan201 animation called "X Finds Out His Value".
 * They are also the second time that there have been two hosts simultaneously, the other being Beau Speaker Box and Carter Speaker Box, if Isla does not count as a host.
 * As of BFB 6, they disappeared through Four's multiplication with Gina.
 * As of BFB 9, X has returned, being found out as a disguised as fries within The Chinese Breakdown Crane.
 * As of BFB 10, Four has been recovered by The Indian Director.
 * This is the first season not to have past episode release dates.
 * However, the creators sometimes announce the release date for the future episode(s) after the voting.
 * The original BFS assets for facial features and limbs aren't used in BFB (except in the air fluttering, most walking and running, other rare occasions, and sometimes even as a joke).
 * Since BFS, BFSA, and SFB use the same animation style, BFB decided to use a new animation style where the mouth, arms, and legs are hand-drawn, and the animation is in frame-by-frame. However, some of the scenes of BFB uses the old animation style sometimes.
 * This is the first season in which previously eliminated contestants aren't held in the TLC. Instead, all of them are being held somewhere inside of EXIT.
 * This is the first season where a female is in last place. (Note that Yong Bao was last place in BFS as Carter rejoined late and finished 4th/21, and Gina was 22nd/22 because Dame Bella, who got the least BFSA join votes, was not an official contestant at the time).
 * This is the first season that Sodor Rangers and Tamika appeared together, however they are in different teams, as Sodor Rangers is on Beep and Tamika is on Bleh.
 * The BFB intro was the first intro to feature the host, unlike the intros of BFS, BFSA, and SFB.
 * The show is animated with Animate CC and saved on this folder.
 * This is the first season of BFS in 6 years to get past five episodes.
 * This is due to BFS reaching 6 episodes on June 1, 2010, BFSA 6 being cancelled, and SFB going on its "best hiatus ever."
 * SFB 2 is having an intentional hiatus, thus getting the name, "BFS's best hiatus ever!"
 * If Carter, The American Diesel, Shane or Raul get eliminated in BFB, they will be the contestant(s) who have been eliminated the highest amount of times at three.
 * Since the first three have been eliminated twice in BFS and the later two were eliminated in BFS and BFSA.
 * Shankar has become the first contestant to be eliminated three times.
 * The scene backgrounds used in this series are from Paper Towel.
 * Just like the previous seasons, BFB Stingers always take place at night.
 * The Tiger Hunters and Lorenzo were the first two contestants eliminated. Coincidentally, they both subtracted some of nearly everyone's points in Bowling, Now with Explosions!.
 * This season marks the first time where Lorenzo was eliminated.
 * This is the second season where a male contestant got eliminated first (The Tiger Hunters) chronologically, the first being Carter in Season 1.
 * The average number of limbs of a BFB contestant is 2.98.
 * The logo with X and Four spell out "bfb", X's feet being the b's and Four in the middle being an f, all in lowercase.
 * However, in the "Battle for Nothing" intro shown in "Enter the Exit", X appears to be frowning. His other foot now forms an "n", and Four is just an outline. The logo spells out "bfn".
 * When someone is walking or running, the running animation for BFS is used.
 * BFB episodes were expected to come out every two weeks despite no official schedule for them ever being made, but many episodes were released in three weeks or more, and one of them was released barely over a year after the one preceding it.
 * During the QnA of the 2019 BFS + TSB Meetup, Cary stated that the host of BFB was originally going to be a giant spider.