Total Drama Island/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Abandon Shipping: Courtney's Jerkass behavior in Action has caused many once die hard fans of Courtney/Duncan to jump ship to Gwen/Duncan or Alejandro/Courtney. Ironically, she got better in World Tour...and the Courtney/Duncan ship was then canonically sunk.
  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Sierra is severely injured and loses all her hair in the explosion that results in her elimination, and the destruction of the Total Drama Jumbo Jet, immediately after winning invincibility, which was only caused by her making a birthday cake for Cody, who was completely ignored on his last birthday.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Some people felt very sorry for Alejandro after what happened to him in the finale, and Heather fans didn't like it when she lost her hair at the end of Island, especially seeing as she hadn't lately really done much to deserve that.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation - Every character on the show, even One Scene Wonders.
  • Badass Decay: Duncan's status as a Badass is inconsistent, but he sure gets his butt kicked a lot for a such a supposedly tough guy. Not only has he been beaten up by Courtney more times than you can count, but he has also been punched out in single blows by Harold and Cody. And whenever he tries taking on animals, he almost always loses. Mother Nature seems to hate him more than it does DJ.
  • Base Breaker:
    • Arguably the whole cast, due to the myriad of shipping wars and alternate character interpretations. Courtney, Sierra, Gwen, Owen, Izzy, Cody and Duncan are some of the most notorious cases.
    • The entire cast of Revenge of the Island has been this before the season even aired.
      • The biggest base breaker of the season seems to be Zoey. The main criticism of her seems to be that her fanbase only exists because of her attractive design and that the actual character herself is a bland Satellite Character without much of a personality.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: The 6teen Parody Sequence in Total Drama Action.
    • The Mind Screw scene after Duncan's elimination in season 1, which makes no sense, doesn't fit in with the show's usual style and is never mentioned again.
  • Cargo Ship: Ezekiel/his scarecrow (no, really), Beth/Bridgette's pole and Alejandro/Pineapple.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Owen makes a cameo in the first episode of the 4th season to lament the fact he won't be participating and complains to Chris; he responds by placing a C-4 charge at his face and blowing him up (he just flew away instead of becoming a pool of limbs).
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: It's got its own page full of 'em.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: Deserved its own page.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Guess what?
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: While practically all of the songs the cast sings qualify, one Cartoon Network commercial features a chorus of kids dressed as pilots singing a little number about the season. It's short, but just awesome.
  • Designated Hero: "You mean I'm the good guy?!"
    • Trent was this in the TDA aftermath. But he himself stops it.
    • In the special clip at the end of the 24th episode of TDWT have some fans believing Gwen and Duncan are this.
  • Designated Villain
    • Heather, to an extent, and Justin in Season 2.
    • Gwen is made this in-universe in Action (Aftermath 2), and played with in World Tour by Courtney.
    • Then the special Hawaii clip may put Courtney in this. The writers ended the love triangle in a de facto deleted scene with Courtney knocked out by a sandal while Gwen and Duncan happily kiss.
  • Die for Our Ship: Oh boy, where to start?
    • Gwen for Duncan/Courtney, Courtney and Trent for Duncan/Gwen, Duncan for Trent/Gwen and Gwen/Cody, Trent for Gwen/Cody.
    • Alejandro for Duncan/Courtney, Harold/Leshawna Geoff/Bridgette, Tyler/Lindsay and Anyone Else/Heather.
    • Sierra for Gwen/Cody Cody/Anyone else.
    • Beth made a lot of enemies for kissing Cody in Paintball Deer Hunter. With their lack of interaction in Action and World Tour, as well as the introduction of Sierra, this has completely gone away by now.
    • Leshawna for Harold/Heather.
    • Owen for Izzy/Anyone else.
    • Geoff for Bridgette/Anyone else.
    • Anne Maria for Mike/Zoey. Granted, it's one of Mike's other personalities she's in love with, but that doesn't help very much.
  • Double Standard: Ezekiel was eliminated in TDI for making sexist remarks about women although several other male characters, such as Chris and Duncan (both of whom, by the way, originally condemned Zeke for his comments), have and continue to make sexist remarks throughout the series and no one so much as bats an eyelash at this.
    • Courtney did once in The Sucky Outdoors though.

Duncan: What's for dinner, woman? I'm starving.
Courtney: I hope I'm not supposed to dignify that with a response.

  • Draco in Leather Pants: All the antagonistic characters, Duncan and Alejandro especially. Courtney and Gwen both have become both this trope and Ron the Death Eater, with Fan Dumb on both sides of the love triangle with Duncan, refusing to accept the flaws of their preferred character, while demonizing the opposing character as a Complete Monster.
  • Dude, Not Funny:
    • In season 2 we see Trent developing a pretty serious case of OCD due to the stress he's under, and we're supposed to take it as "Haha, look at the weirdo."
    • Scott's fate in TDRI. It could've still been funny like Alejandro's fate in TDWT, but the way Scott couldn't move or speak while everyone laughed at what had become of him was just sad and somewhat disturbing.
  • Ear Worm: All the songs in World Tour.

Heather: It's a sea shanty, and it's darn catchy!

    • DJ, who was actually trying to get eliminated by not singing, even couldn't resist singing to it.
  • Elimination Houdini: Happens all the time.
    • The most extreme example would be Izzy, who is actually brought back into the competition after being eliminated, twice in two different seasons.
    • Courtney has pulled this trope off more than anyone else, especially in TDA, where she would have been immediately voted out if she wasn't using her lawyers to cheat the show and getting to win every challenge. Ironically, her first elimination in Island was one of the most unfair in the entire series and thus an inversion of this trope.
    • Heather also does this numerous times in the first season, often avoiding elimination by either winning invincibility or somehow manipulating someone else into being sent home. Some of this is due to her magnificent bitchiness, other times she just gets ridiculously lucky.
    • Owen is often seen as this, staying on the show simply for not having any enemies, despite often contributing nothing to his team.
    • In World Tour, Chris starts acting as if every episode is an elimination, and only revealing that it is not after the votes have been counted at the fake elimination ceremony. This happens way too many times, and causes one of these each time. The one that stands out in particular is Heather, who would have been eliminated at the end of the Am-AH-zon Race, but a reward challenge was declared after the vote happened. She won.
    • Duncan in World Tour. For example: in Greece's Pieces, when he got the most votes against him, Chris votes off an intern, stating that he is keeping Duncan around for the drama.
    • Cody lampshades his Elimination Houdini status in two songs by claiming he would never have made it this far without Sierra's help.
    • Despite deliberately sabotaging his own team, Scott manages to outwit and outplay everyone up until "Eat, Puke, and Be Wary".
    • However, thanks to Chris gleefully indulging in Screw the Rules, I Make Them, this is the only reality show that will openly admit to keeping characters on for drama through the most ridiculous plot conveniences and only sending characters home when Chris wants them to go.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Noah
      • He is incredibly popular with the fandom despite being an extremely minor character (he was booted off third in the first season and wasn't even a contestant in the second).
      • Played with a bit in the Action special where Noah is the only one to not actively seek fame in-universe after the show is over, and still remains popular among the in-universe fans.
      • Noah's Ensemble Darkhorse status is even lampshaded in World Tour by Chris, who refers to him and Cody as "returning favorites".
    • Cody also counts as one during the first two seasons. Not as much as Noah, but still.
    • Bridgette, Geoff and DJ for being nice people.
    • Also, among the fanbase there is "Billy" the intern, a blonde-haired character who appears frequently in Aftermath episodes, speaks only once, and doesn't even have a confirmed name.
    • "Emily," the flight attendant from the fourth aftermath of Action is quite popular.
    • Mr. Coconut.
    • Scruffy, Duncan's pet tarantula, also has this going for him.
    • The alien Cody from the Nevada episode, he even gained a nickname: Evil Alien Cody Clone, EACC for short.
    • Dawn became popular before the fourth season even started.
    • Mike has also gained a lot of fans recently. Considering the fact that he's as Adorkable (if not more so than) as Cody but with a Split Personality, this probably isn't surprising.
  • Evil Is Cool: Duncan is popular because of his blatant stereotype. Heather and Alejandro qualify for this too.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Heather, Duncan and Alejandro. Justin also technically qualifies, but isn't really an example since he was originally conceived as just "sexy" and only ever became "evil" much later on.
  • Fan Dumb: One of the most prominent subjects ever, including on this very site.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Lots.
  • Foe Yay: Between Heather and Alejandro
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the first episode of Season 1, Trent is introduced as contestant number 9. Most notably, he was actually the tenth camper to arrive!
  • Ho Yay: It now has its own page.
  • Hollywood Homely: In a cutaway about Jo's nude workout, a bird vomits but in general she's not that ugly, she has Hartman Hips and a good figure.
  • Idiot Plot: Much of World Tour, especially the Courtney-Gwen conflict. Courtney generates nothing but blind hatred for Gwen, who never tries to apologize to her throughout all this despite clearly feeling guilty, and takes most of the abuse sitting down rather than defending herself. Cody is barely involved in all this, and all of his anger is taken out on Duncan, for "stealing" his beloved Gwen, rather than Courtney, who is the one hurting her. Even after Gwen's humiliating elimination Cody never really hates Courtney or does anything to get back.
  • Iron Woobie: Owen, who borders on being The Pollyanna.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Courtney, her boyfriend cheated on her in "World Tour" with Gwen, whom she was starting to become friends with. Then falls for Alejandro, but he was just using her.
    • Duncan, seeing how much abuse he took from Courtney. Sure, he cheated on her, but she still was not that nice to begin with.
    • Alejandro, when it was revealed that he's been frequently abused by his own brother and later got horribly burned.
    • Heather in "World Tour". No one seemed to be treating her fairly, despite her occasional Pet the Dog moments.
    • Blainely, when she ended up in a full body cast.
    • Scott, his comeuppance was too cruel for him to deserve.
    • Chef Hatchet can qualify on occasion, especially in "Revenge of the Island", when Chris has the contestants ride his go-karts, being fully aware that that would upset him.
  • Jerk Sue:
    • Courtney in Total Drama Action. I mean, all of a sudden, she wins her lawsuit and reveals that she can sing like an angel (to be fair, her VA is a vocalist in Real Life), cook poisonous fish, do mixed martial arts, wrestle a shark, play the guitar, handle a bunch of lawyers, put a go-kart together, figure out a clue that no one else was able to, make up a cool cheer on the spot, wrestle Duncan and win, win almost every single challenge after her Action debut, manipulate everybody so everything turns out in her favor, keep herself from being voted off and make Justin and Duncan fall in love with her?
    • Some people view Duncan as this too, especially by World Tour.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Almost everyone. Duncan, Gwen, Cody, Noah, and Bridgette would be the most prominent examples though.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Heather has her moments of being this, masterfully subverting the Asian Airhead trope by being a gifted strategic mastermind.
    • The more straightforward example is Alejandro. He even seems aware of this fact, as his Villain Song "This Is How We Will End it" depicts him in a role he's quite fitting for, a puppetmaster controlling wooden puppets of several of the other characters he's manipulated and eliminated.
  • Mary Sue: Fans who dislike or hate Zoey accuse her of being this.
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Memetic Sex Goddess: Gwen.
  • Moe: Bridgette, Lindsay, Dawn, and Zoey.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • While Noah became famous for this in Season one, Duncan and Gwen were hearing all about their less-than-brilliant kiss for almost the rest of Season three. They were a bit more stoic about it, though.
    • Ezekiel's sexism that was only present in the second episode.
    • Two seasons after her run as the primary competing antagonist ended, Heather still isn't trusted by anyone else on the cast, and has no willing supporters in the last Aftermath of the season where as Alejandro, who played dirtier and caused even more eliminations than Heather, has five (including Tyler and Courtney, who were directly and indirectly eliminated by him, no less).
  • Nightmare Fuel: Now has its own page!
  • Parody Sue: Sierra, just look at the Common Mary Sue Traits page and see how many of those fit her.
  • Possession Sue: Ezekiel and to a lesser extent Harold and Cody for the male part of the fandom and Gwen for the female part.
  • Purity Sue:
    • Some people emphasize Bridgette's supposed Incorruptible Pure Pureness too much, believing she can do no wrong even though she has done wrong several times in the past.
    • Gwen and Courtney also have this problem. Some fans on different sides of the CxDxG conflict believe the girl they support is entirely blameless.
  • Replacement Scrappy:
    • Courtney to Heather as the Alpha Bitch in Action.
    • Some say Sierra is "the poor man's Izzy". Of course, Izzy fans were not happy about this comparison.
    • Possibly inverted/parodied with Mike, he describes himself in his audition tape as "scrappy" (though he means in stature, not the other type), whereas currently he seems to be one of the most popular newcomers amongst fans.
    • The entire new cast of Season 4. However...
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Most of the new cast except for Staci.
    • World Tour has Owen being turned into Alejandro's pawn and his losing Izzy has made him much more of a Woobie for good measure. Making him the Foil to Ensemble Darkhorse Noah also seems to have also helped.
    • Many fans started liking Sierra better around "Awww, Drumheller" or "Planes, Trains, Hot Air Mobiles," when she finally accepted Cody's Better as Friends proposal.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Courtney, Duncan, Gwen, Trent, Cody and Sierra. Trent is by far the most extreme case in many works, especially in Cody/Gwen fanfiction.
  • Ruined FOREVER:
    • The fourth season. NEW CHARACTERS? NOOO!
    • Before that, it was the two new characters of the third season being "ripoffs" along with the singing present in every episode. And before that, it was the second season using the same campers.
    • Expect an outcry of this about the remainder of the season every time a fan favorite is eliminated.
  • The Scrappy:
  • Seasonal Rot:
    • Many fans feel that Action was very poor compared to the previous season. Izzy gets grating after a few episodes, fan faves Gwen and Trent are eliminated early, Owen leaves and comes back later despite becoming both The Load and Creator's Pet for many, and much of the rest of the cast is very unlikeable, particularly Chris, whose jerkassery reaches exasperating levels. Also, part of Island's charm was its parody of reality shows, whereas Action abandons this to parody movies.
    • Surprisingly averted for Total Drama World Tour, as the majority consider it to have rekindled the spirit of the series. However, when it came to the writing, it was still poorly received by some. Especially Ezekiel fans.
    • Total Drama Allstars has its haters due to picking Sam to be an allstar despite his lack of screen time on Revenge Of The Island and for replacing Alejandro's voice actor with someone who doesn't sound like him among other things, though it DOES have its fans.
  • Sequelitis: Total Drama Action can be interpreted as a parody of this trope.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat:
    • Duncan/Courtney vs. Duncan/Gwen.
    • Duncan/Gwen vs. Trent/Gwen as well, with Duncan/Courtney fans typically tag-teaming with Trent/Gwen fans.
  • Squick:
    • The scene in an early Action episode where Lindsay threw up on Gwen. Dis-gus-TING.
    • The scene from the Yukon where Owen pees while swimming near Cody, Cody's mortification is completely understandable.
    • Brunch of Disgustingness. Particular scenes of note are Trent vomiting in the confessional after eating the Worm Spaghetti and Leshawna throwing up a still living cockroach following the challenge.
    • What made both Chris and Chef puke was Owen eating dog food.
  • Stoic Woobie: Gwen and Noah.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Cody basically telling Sierra that he was hoping she had drowned, after she saved his life. Ouch.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: Katie and Sadie ("The Sweet Girl" and "The Sweet Girl's Friend" respectively).
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Many fans aren't looking forward to the fourth season because of the new characters.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The series frequently does this a lot, the biggest examples being:
    • Courtney getting revenge on Harold for getting her eliminated
    • Owen trying to get back on Izzy's good side after pushing her into a serial killer to save his own hide.
    • Duncan's alliance with Heather near the end of Island.
    • Harold and Duncan's conflict throughout Action.
    • Justin being the antagonist of Action.
    • An alliance between Heather and Harold in Island and Action.
    • DJ becoming a team of one in World Tour.
    • Izzy being super smart.
    • The possible relationship between Owen and Blaineley.
  • Tough Act to Follow: Inverted. Total Drama is generally more well-known than its predecessor, 6teen.
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • The choice of main antagonists for each season. Heather (Asian) in TDI, Justin (Hawaiian) and Courtney (Hispanic) in TDA, and Alejandro (also Hispanic) in TDWT. However, Season 4's main antagonist, Scott, is Caucasian.
    • The Trent/Gwen/Duncan/Courtney love rhombus could also be read as unintentionally saying that if your partner has a best friend of the opposite sex they'll end up cheating on you.
    • Trent's Super OCD. Apparently if you have OCD then that makes you a complete and utter weirdo, perhaps even bordering on an insane sociopath.
  • Ugly Cute:
    • While Beth is not the most physically attractive female contestant, her kind and endearing personality gives her a certain adorableness.
    • Dakota finds the mutant squirrel to be cute, wanting one as a pet. At least until it tried to kill her with its Eye Beams.
    • And now Dakota herself could be considered this.
  • What an Idiot!: Geoff is lured away by Chef with the sound of an ice cream truck in the slasher episode. They're on a semi-deserted island.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Has caused a huge Periphery Demographic among older teens and adults. Contains truckloads of comic violence, pixellated nudity shots, and constant Getting Crap Past the Radar. For ages 8–12.
  • Why Would Anyone Take Her Back?: Duncan to Courtney at the end of Action.
  • The Woobie: Almost every character has at least one moment.
    • DJ is a prime example. It's easy to feel sorry for him after he got attacked by animals.
    • Within the second generation cast, Dakota may be the biggest one.
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