Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)/Western Animation/Total Drama Island

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Even as a Cartoon Network show, you can expect several unsatisfactory moments from this Canadian import.

Keep in mind:

  • Moments only, no "just everything he said," "The entire show," or "This entire season," entries.
  • No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
  • No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
  • Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment of Suck.
  • No ASSCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.

  • I think the finale of Total Drama Island in America and Canada is a DMoS cause they let Owen beat Gwen. And the only reason Owen won is because everyone helped him win so they have a party. And seriously Gwen was more deserving of winning; she won more challenges, went through love and loss, and took down Heather the antagonist, while Owen farted, ate, lost his pants, and got beat up a lot. I just want to say I am a fan of Owen as well, and that I'm fat and lazy like him and I am okay that Owen proved fat guys can be winners, but that would've worked better if he was competing against Heather or a Butt Monkey, but not Gwen. It's because the comedic relief who just wanted a party beat a person who went from a recluse to the most developed character on the show and wanted to used the money to help her go to college and make her mom's life easier that makes it a DMoS. And if you've seen the alternate ending you'll realize that it's better, Gwen and Owen split the money, everyone minus Heather still would've have had a wild party, and Trent encouraging Gwen to win was a much better way for the two to get hook up. This troper would also like to admit that he wrote the TDI alternate ending as one of the show's CMoA.
  • For Total Drama World Tour-esque DMOS, look no further than Sierra revealing she had been manipulating Cody's emotions in order to get close to him at the end of the episode in Paris. Now, for the most part, the episode is decent enough. However, throughout the episode Sierra is acting all wangsty after finding out that Cody doesn't like her. And Sierra sings quite an Ear Worm of a song about this as well. So, Cody pretty much works his ass off trying to cheer Sierra up until he finally snaps and admits that he finds her creepy stalker behavior more tolerable than her constant weeping. Sounds like an attempt to develop Sierra's relationship with Cody and save her from her "Scrappy" status right? Nope. Turns out she was "playing hard to get" so that Cody would start "liking" (or "tolerating", in this case) her. It pretty much cemented Sierra's "Scrappy" status for me right there. Not to mention that, earlier, Chris yelled at Cody to make Sierra stop crying. Um, Chris, you find Sierra to be unbelievably annoying as well, remember? Or did you forget she wouldn't stop talking about your most embarrassing secrets (like being in a "boy band")? If anything, it just made the aforementioned reveal of Sierra playing "manipulative bitch" to Cody all the more unbearable...and I'm not even that big of a Cody fan to begin with.
  • For this troper action had Beth and Duncan being the final two. Beth and Duncan. The Delinquent Jerkass who's only slightly better than his girlfriend and the slightly creepy nice wannabe girl who shouldn't even have gotten this far. But the real suck comes from the fact that the winner was chosen by an audience vote that basically said "fuck you viewers, the ending means nothing to us!" At least with Gwen and Owen, it was strictly an alternate ending and Owen was indeed the intended and the Special just completely ignored it. Despite World Tour's Gainax Ending at least it was planned out.
    • I would've been ok with this one if they actually tried to make any minuscule semblance what so ever of explaining who voted for whom, hell I would have been happy just to know who the swing vote was - there must have been one person on the fence else the alternate ending would not exist. But no, they just announce the winner and we're supposed to accept that. Also, it's very strongly implied that Harold voted for Duncan. What? The guy bullies him, physically and mentally for two entire seasons, and then Harold not only forgives him, but votes for him over Beth to win the million? If it walks like a Writers Pet...
  • The aforementioned Gainax Ending in World Tour. Even for a show tilting towards Cerebus Syndrome, seeing Al and Zeke get engulfed in lava and horribly disfigured (the latter on fire and screaming in pain) is pretty heavy stuff. The Dethroning Moment sinks in when you realize they created all that Nightmare Fuel just for the sake a couple of asinine, poorly-written, cliched, and entirely predictable homages to Return of the King and Revenge of the Sith, complete with a Big No contrivedly shoehorned in. In fact, that brings up another problem with the season finales- the writers' insistence on having "alternate endings so not even the actors know who wins." I'm sorry, but that's the close to the stupidest thing I've ever heard. They already know the entire plot, all the eliminations up to the final 2, and the circumstances of the win that are pretty much the same regardless of the victor. The only secret left is 30 seconds of footage and three or four lines of dialogue. Do they seriously think that it's worth diluting the impact of the finale just for that? Also the aforementioned Big No makes no sense in the version where Heather wins, why would Al be sad to learn that the person who kicked him in the kiwis and embarrassed him on national television just lost a million dollars? I don't know why the director has such a hard-on for alternate endings, but I pray that the crew shake-up prior to "Revenge of the Island" knocks some sense into someone.
  • Cody resolving to take advantage of Sierra's devotion to him in order to get the money, in "Rapa Phooey". The very moment he slapped on that incredibly Smug Snake expression and Jerkass-ey smirk, winked at the camera, and said, "if she insists on handing me a million dollars, who am I to stop her? Heh, heh.", his entire "Nice Guy" image crumbled into dust. So when he became the "good guy" of the final three, it gave everything a rather bitter taste.
  • The biggest deal breaker of the third season for me was the episode "Greece's Pieces". The episode opens up with Courtney and Gwen talking about Duncan's return. Gwen, who kissed Courtney's boyfriend yesterday after she finally befriends her, shows a grand total of ten seconds worth of guilt in the confessional and then contradicts herself by saying she won't tell Courtney about the kiss until it happens again and following it up by saying that she is looking forward to kissing him again and asking into the camera if this makes her a bad person. Meaning she is still going to see him behind Courtney's back and won't do a thing about it until they kiss again. So much for the "As long as you're up front, nothing can bite you in the butt" girl from the previous season, right, Gwen?. Meanwhile Duncan, whom cheated on his girlfriend literally behind her back, is busy threatening Tyler to keep quiet about the kiss and then he is seen in the next scene mutually "eye-flirting" with Gwen with Courtney standing right next to her and Gwen lies to her face about it. At this point in time it's safe to say that Duncan's Jerk with a Heart of Gold status he has is pretty much an Informed Ability from this point on, as is Gwen's supposed "guilt". The next scenes leading up to the ending is just Courtney being suspicious about Duncan and Gwen, Gwen pitifully trying to change the subject whenever Duncan is brought up, and Duncan being forced to sing (and one of his songs included saying that he does not regret kissing Gwen behind Courtney's back). When Tyler is forcibly told to spill the beans about Duncan and Gwen, Courtney gets understandably pissed, but what does Gwen do? Does she make any kind of attempt to apologize or accept any kind of responsibilty for her actions? No! Instead she cowers when Courtney gets mad, cries when they want to vote her off, and starts cheering when Cody wins the challenge for her so that she can't get voted off. The scene that took the DMOS award goes to the ending. The episode's Crowning Moment of Disgusting for me was when Courtney, the show's Jerkass Tsundere Small Name, Big Ego is seen crying uncontrollably while being comforted by Heather of all people, while Gwen is doing what? Starting a confessional at the end of the episode by talking about how great the kiss was while smiling and topping that off by saying that her sole regret was that she (Gwen) and her "new boyfriend" are going to be eliminated now...except he wasn't. How you ask? At the elimination, when it was unanimous decision to vote off Duncan, Chris, in all of his jerkass glory, announces that he is going to outright ignore the votes and keep Duncan on the show despite the votes because Duncan is bringing the drama right now. Then the episode officially ends with Gwen cheering when Duncan doesn't leave and Courtney tearfully shouting 'I HATE YOU!' at Gwen and Duncan. Duncan and Gwen in this episode were so derailed here, it was disgusting. They had no remorse for what they did, both were incredibly selfish, Duncan's Jerk with a Heart of Gold trait is officially an informed attribute from this point on, and Gwen went from being the Only Sane Man to being just as bad as Duncan, Courtney, and especially Heather. This episode marked the beginning of everyone's character derailment and the last episode of this season (and maybe the series) that I ever watch.
  • The ending of I See London. A mostly good episode died with a one-two-three punch of Noah getting kicked off, Ezekiel, who had always got cut short of a plot, becoming a Gollum Expy, and most importantly, Gwen and Duncan kissing. Yeah, that last one would lead to a lot more unpleasant moments.
    • I concur on this episode. Noah was one of my favorite characters during World Tour, and him getting booted was grade-A bullshit. Even though his team won the challenge, they basically say, "Get rid of an interesting character, and lets reboot a tired love subplot". Bull. Shit.
  • For me, it was in TDA when Trent is going "crazy" over Gwen. He was obviously suffering from OCD, but the intent was obviously for us to laugh at his antics. People having to do rituals over and over is not at all funny.
  • Animeking1108: I forget the episode, but it was when Duncan, Geoff, and DJ started tormenting Harold just because he left his underwear on the floor. Duncan, I can understand, but why get DJ and Geoff into it? Especially considering DJ was the only character who didn't suffer Season 2's Character Derailment, it seems immensely out of character for him.