User blog comment:Stryzzar/Character Appreciation - Week 44: Shawn/@comment-30567301-20171105030635

okay ladies

what all of you (aka epic~00) have been waiting for.

out of all my controversial hot takes, i think my shawn hatred is the one that makes most people taken aback. as one of the most revered contestants from pahkitew island, considered the protagonist to save total drama after the misfortunate disasters of cameron and zoey, it was shawn, the savior of total drama in all of it's entirety! but. no. he really didn't lol. in fact, i think that shawn is easily the most undeservingly popular total drama contestant of all time.

let's go through shawn's biggest flaw, which is the fact that his humor is so dire and one note. hey; i'm not saying being one note is a bad thing, but when you're supposed to be the object of the audience's affection, and also the main focus of the season, it's increasingly draining. i mean, he's on par with characters like amy when it comes to how one-note he is. do i think this is the fault of the character? well, to be fair, i think that it's their fault he always felt so constrainted and forced. i mean, when you're gonna limit your own character into the box of one type of humor, it's pretty obvious it isn't gonna turn out well. i mean, really, you can go to town and tell me all you want how "shawn was a DEVELOPED character" "shawsmine is the CUTEST couple to come out of the newer total drama seasons!!" but you can't deny to me that his humor is very flat. characters like amy, leonard, and ella (whom i don't care about but is a valid example) who are very over the top work well because they stay one note meanwhile with shawn, they tried to make him not just a over the top character but also a intricate one which was a recipe for disaster. it's pretty obvious that the thought process for this was "the kids will love him, he's a zombie obsessed goof!" which yes, that's correct, but when i see shawn on screen, he immediately stirs annoyance and agitation in me simply for his inability to be a entertaining character.

it's so damn odd to me that, not only does the audience, but the cast ignore how his actions are so erased from the continuity. like, look back at dave's behavior against the likes of sugar, ella, leonard, and beardo-- they're the "weird" ones, yet shawn's flaws are immediately taken away because he's supposed to be the rootable one. did no one think shawn was weird? literally the only time we see them freaked out by his antics is in episode 5 and is pretty much never brought up again. if you're gonna do a protagonist who is weird then you don't have to erase their flaws for the hell of it. it would've actually been really entertaining to SEE his character work off the others, maybe he figures out (WITHOUT GETTING IN A RELATIONSHIP) that maybe his obsession is wrong or whatever, it'd be a lot easier to sympathize with and digest instead of "I NEED TO MAKE SURE I DON'T GET EATEN BY ZOMBIES!!! OH NO WHAT ABOUT JASMINE!!!" which slowly transformed into him consistently messing up jasmine's character and getting no repercautions for it. seriously?

the fact that he lasts the whole season; he's considered the winner is so... freaking weird to me. like, for sky, i can get it. she had a driving plot and was the relatable girl next door; we SAW her insight to things, and despite being pretty dry, she was circumstantially a likable character that provided some drama. meanwhile, we don't even get most of shawn's motives or why he does his actions. his role is so sloppily done it's pretty sickening. like, there's so many more options of main protagonists who are out there. why not beardo be the main protagonist? why not give leonard depth and make him an important character? shawn's incessant inabilty of holding a entertaining storyline really dampers total drama pahkitew island for me.

shawsmine is recognized as one of the best total drama ships, which is so... odd to me. cause it pretty much started on the same levels of immediate as nemma or zoke. they suddenly dig eachother cause they think they're hot and like survivalism or whatever, so then there's some drama because shawn hit her with a stick or whatever. but it's just like, it's so hard to care about either side of the story because a) it's not entertaining, they haven't even gotten together, all they've been doing is eye flirting pretty much b) me, as the viewer, can't sympathize with either. shawn's lack of intelligence to comprehend basic common sense and jasmine's pettiness, like, how am i supposed to find their fighting intense or fun if it's so blatant? honestly, even though i didn't care about it, i felt like it brought out the best in jasmine and made her a lot more enjoyable. seeing maybe shawn move on and realize he screwed up a relationship and come to the realization he needs to stop with his paranoia, would've been a good character move for shawn if that was the direction they wanted to go, but no, instead they immediately wash over it with a shotty episode make up because shawn saves her or whatever, how is that a satisfying conclusion for something the writers were trying to build up as climatic? it's not. what makes it worse is that following this, shawn becomes increasingly more aggravating with his unlikable point of view and jasmine's carelessness of this. from jasmine you'd expect her to still be badass and fun, but she pretty much reverts to a supporting character of shawn, to be his cheerleader, and seeing females being consistently put in this "love bird" role is just annoying. with zoey, i didn't really mind because it made sense for her character. jasmine being so leniant on shawn and forgiving him super easily just makes no sense to me. i just don't like their relationship and i felt like it got so much focus in the end half of the season and made it super hard to watch for me cause i just didn't want to see the constant "AHH ZOMBIES *kills* also hey jasmine" and "WOOH SHAWN GOOooO MAteY (CONF) A GIRL JUST HAS TO ACCEPT HER ODD TASTE IN MEN!!" repetitiveness that we were supposed to take seriously and care about. cause i didn't! i really could not care less what happened in there relationship.

he always felt like a paradox in the sense of, he appears to be a huge jerk yet he's the one we're supposed to sympathize with. i mean, yes, being selfish is an absolutely valid character flaw, pretty much the only main flaw of shawn we're introduced to. but when he gets barely any karma for his actions, it's annoying. remember how passive aggressive he was to sugar? i hate the trend of protagonists being allowed to be jerks to the antagonists cause they are the "big bads". so what? that doesn't make the protagonist likable or rootable for and makes them look super tryhardy and agitating. "THAT'S YOUR FIRST LESSON IN SURVIVAL PRINCESS" like shut up shawn we all know samey sucks but you don't?? even?? know?? her?? like, i love mean, hypocrtical characters even if it's not deep, but we're not supposed to see shawn as mean. he's supposed to be that character we *GET* which is why i find him so unlikable. if he was held responsible for his actions and wasn't some narrator, i'd find him sort of charming, but still not that much, because unlike the likes of beardo, ella, leonard, and other weirdos, no one calls him out on being a psychotic gremlin.

i don't want to waste more time on this, or make this a pain to read, or keep repeating the same things, so the most i can say about shawn is that i think that he was the poorest choice of a main protagonist, not just of the season, but probably the whole series. shawn would've worked very well as a early boot who no one liked (kind of tdi noah esque) but instead he was such a flat humored character who has no variety, no complexity, or anything in his comedy. he has no variety, he's dry, boring, undeservingly painted as a hero, and most of all annoying. i can sort of get some people's appreciation of him if they're INTO this sort of thing, but i don't think anyone can deny that he was poorly written-- or could've at least been better written.

best season: wow i guess he just doesn't have one! Sad.

best episode: none lmfao literally he feels annoying in every single one

best moment: getting bitten in the head by the pig so that topher could learn from filthy shawn's stupid mistakes (<3)

most likely to: return once again with a either predictable or inconsequential storyline that drags on for way too long for the sake of fanservice

how i'd fix this character: first of all, he should be more of a gag character, he could still make it far, but make him funny and have interesting interactions with the others, i mean, he was friends with dave and jasmine and sky i guess or whatever but then he has no interactions where he has an enemy because he's gross or something. he shouldn't just be afraid of zombies, he should be paranoid about EVERYTHING. his one note humor is on par with staci- who at least had the generousity to leave early. however, coming off of pahkitew island, i think it'd be best to make him a flop premerge boot in a lolhilarious blaze of embarassment.