Total Drama Controversy Meme

I haven't posted anything in, like, FOREVER (I've been busy with big projects; I've actually been WRITING and that's a huge deal for me! Plus, I am a really lazy zog-head); feeling a tad guilty, I happened across this meme. I've seen it a fair bit, and given an oppertunity to post something and offer some of my opinions on Total Drama, I up and did it.

Favorite Character - Sierra: Is anyone familiar with me surprised by this? Sierra was the sole reason I watched World Tour, which is incidentally the only season I watched beginning to end, and she remains an interesting character. She's the tallest girl on the show, totally crazy-awesome in an amusing fashion, an utter Action Girl, sweet, oblivious to a ton of stuff for Rule Of Funny, and various other traits than have turned me into a total fanboy. (Also, she's adorable.) What's not to like? All replies on that note can be met with the Rule Of Funny, which is what EVERYTHING in this show falls under. The at times vicious hatedom for her depresses me sometimes; on the other hand, she seems to have a growing and equally outspoken fandom, so that evens stuff out.

I personally believe that Sierra's had a history of lousy relationships; thus explaining why she reacted so badly to Duncan and Gwen kissing behind Courtney's back; in my theory, it struck too close to home for her to reconcile it with her shipping fantasies.

Furthermore, I believe that Sierra behaves the way she does because she doesn't know it's not generally appropiate behavior to stalk a guy the way she does Cody; her mother, from all evidence, is even WORSE than Sierra, and since no mention has been made of a father or any other close family members (her grand parents possibly count?), it's probable that Sierra learned all the wrong things from her mother. Overall, she's really a sweet girl, she simply doesn't grasp social things very much. (And she's a tad unhinged, but not frighteningly so.) Also, really cute. It needs to be said.

Despised Character - Duncan: 'Despised' is a bit of a strong word here. I don't dislike Duncan (or any other character on the show, really), but I do seriously dislike how much of a jerk he is all the time. He's a bully to Harold, he's more ruthless than I'm comfortable with and, most importantly, his soft side isn't given nearly enough focus. If they showed it more often, he'd be way more likeable.

Favorite Season - World Tour: This is the only season I seriously watched, and as such, the only one I can really comment on. I thought it was funny and good, and I feel that the end was more of a Gainax Ending than something that was supposed to be disheartening. (Seriously, why do people think anyone died? Ezekiel survived being dunked in lava, applying science or logic to the circumstances isn't that productive.) However, the Gwen-Duncan-Courtney triangle kind of bugs me because of all the edit wars over it; that, and it distracted from the funny. My favorite episode arc was 'Sweden Sour' to the end of the season, because of the greater emphasis on comedy instead of the Gwuncan/Duncney love triangle (and also the increasing Coderra quotient at the very end).

Despised Season - Total Drama Action: Again, I don't really 'despise' Action, I just like it the least of the seasons. Then again, I never actually SAW more than a few episodes and I didn't think it was too bad; possibly because I was too unfamiliar with the characters to really grasp the Wallbanger-ness I've heard about.

Most Overrated Character - Ezekiel: One hears a lot about Ezekiel from the fandom dispite not doing much in-show, and I'm not altogether certain why he has such a large fanbase that's even acknowledged in-show through the medium of fanblogs. (Then again, it could be the Kobold Necromancer's doing. He's an awesome writer!) Additionally, the absence of success actually creates a positive vaccum that fanfics can explore; to that extent, both Ezekiel's lack of accomplishment and the show not focusing on the character's home-lives leaves a LOT of room for people to make interesting stuff up.

Most Underrated Character - Eva: She doesn't get a whole lot of stuff to do in the show, and that seems a bit of a shame; she gets her fair share of off-screen character develoupment (in much the same vein as Noah; coincidence? Totally. But still cool.) when she learns to control her anger and psychotic tendencies. And her actions in the first Aftermath of World Tour are pretty darn funny. (In retrospect, perhaps that's why she didn't show up on World Tour; she can't sing.)

Favorite Couple - Sierra and Cody: I'm sure you all saw this coming. (I'm a Sierra fan more than a Coderra fan, but the two are closely linked unless you prefer to scruntize her thoroughly.) I loved these two since I first saw her show up; my thoughts of the first minutes of World Tour were basically "wouldn't it be cute if the tall girl went for the shortest guy on the show? Wait, she went RIGHT FOR HIM! Awesome." I got mildly annoyed when they didn't really synch up until near the very end, I felt offended when they had him retch when she kissed him, and I went totally "d'awww!" at pretty much every moment they had from 'Aww, Drumheller' and onwards. (An intentional plan of the writers, them throwing the Coderra fans a bone or just dogs chasing cars and getting the bumper? The world may never know...) The last three episodes are good to me because of how close they get; notably, Cody focuses almost exclusively on Sierra and her well-being during these episodes, and that's really cool.

I believe that Sierra and Cody, in addition to their other traits, are desperately lonely. Given that Cody's mentions his parents forgetting his birthday like it's a minor thing, it's possible that Cody is used to behavior like that and is almost completely ignored by them, leading him to seek approval and companionship in any way he can; thus, how he'll humiliate himself for a girl he likes and considers them exploiting him to be a good thing for himself.

Sierra, for her part, is strongly suggested to be raised by someone with only a loose grasp on social conduct and doesn't understand that it's not appropiate to do the stuff she does; her mother's example probably made her think that her stalker-ish are things only a good girlfriend is willing to do. (Or she's really paranoid about boyfriends.) As I said, it's possible that she's been hurt in romances before; she seems downright repelled by Alejandro (perhaps seeing right through him), perhaps because she's been in relationships with guys like him and knows how it ends up with them; hence why she goes for the nice 'safe' guys like Cody.

In short, they're both lonely and, from the evidence, kind of messed up. Pair them up, and their respectivep problems mesh up and vanish into the ether, leaving only a stablized contentment behind! (Sort of like Zuko and Mai. Another pairing that gets a lot of flak by opposing shippers!)

For other pairings, I'm pretty fond of Izzy/Noah, Eva/Noah, Owen/Izzy, Noah/Sierra, Courtney/Duncan, Gwen/Duncan...actually, I like just about most of the pairing that make good sense for the people in question. (If the personalities mesh interestingly or make you go 'awww', I like them.)

Despised Couple - Gwen and Duncan: I will be clear here, Duncan and Gwen shippers! This is a misleading entry, as I actually LIKE this pairing. (As can be seen above in the minor bit after the Sierra/Cody rant. Boy, I love Sierra/Cody.) What I don't like is the edit and shipping wars; it's gotten to absolutely INSANE levels of people arguing over who's at fault and demonizing the characters they blame or don't like. They call Courtney a Complete Monster or Gwen a homewrecker and Duncan a chronic womanizer, or else they label (insert side of shipping they support) completely innocent and THE OTHER TWO ARE COMPLETELY AT FAULT BLAH BLAH BLAH. I think that all three of them are at fault in some fashion; Courtney drove her and Duncan apart with her increasingly worse behavior, Gwen succumbed to a moment of weakness, Duncan tried to apologize but Courtney was too hurt to let it go and completely broke apart. It's all pitable on all sides, no one got out unscathed, and there was much unpleasantness. Sort of like the Ishbalan Civil War, but with less genocide and shapeshifting homunculi triggering the whole thing. (Unless Envy was secretly Duncan in disguise.)

Favorite Song - Sea Shanty: I can't help it. I looove how catchy this song is! (Shame I don't know the lyrics; they're THAT fast!) I'm also fond of several of the other songs; the ones from 'Broadway, Baby!', 'Chinese Fake-Out', 'Aw, Drumheller' (it's the muppet. I like Muppets!), and definitely 'Planes, Trains and Hot Airmobiles'. There's few songs I don't like, aside from...

Despised Song - That One From Hawaiian Punch Whose Name Escapes Me: I think the art for this song is pretty epic, but the song itself is both hard for me to hear correctly and not all that good to listen to.

Favorite Episode - Planes, Trains and Hot Air Mobiles: That picture says it all; Cody sitting in Sierra's lap, the two of thing singing happily while riding a kitbashed hot air balloon. (Cody is TOTALLY a mad scientist. Sierra better watch it or she'll become his Beholden.) It's got a pretty rockin' song, bursting with insane coolness (the hot air balloon, Alejandro and Cody's swordfish fight and the ROCKET POWERED WHEELCHAIR), and the relationship-stuff in it is cool. Not just Cody and Sierra finally befriending each other (though I think they should have become gradually closer over the season); Heather and Alejandro's adversarial relationship is interestingly contrasted by Sierra and Cody; during the song, the Schemers are fighting and trying to out-do each other, while the last of the two Nerd-types are helping each other and being happy. Also, Sierra embraces her inner Crazy-Awesome to make a ROCKET-POWERED WHEELCHAIR. (It deserves the emphasis, even if it sounds like it's being yelled by a Khorn Berserker.)

Despised Episode - Sweden Sour: Again, not really 'despised' here. I like all the World Tour episodes: the first two show Sierra interacting with someone outside of Cody and showing glimpses of her personality; 'I See London' shows Noah leading the team, and 'Aw, Drumheller' has Sierra kissing Cody and he smiles at her. 'Nuff said. So I just picked an episode I don't really watch all that much, and I still like it. (Also, note that I picked Owen's most awesome moment as the picture for this one. The 'does not compute'-ness of juxtaposing the epicness of that moment and the supposed nature of this category was TOTALLY intentional.)

...I wonder if anyone had the fortitude to slog through all that ranting...

Meme is by and the background is by

Disclaimer: Total Drama is owned by Teletoon/Fresh TV.