Gwen

Gwen (Joëlle in French), also known as the The Goth was a camper on Total Drama Island on the Screaming Gophers team. She was a cast member on Total Drama Action and is the former team captain on the Screaming Gaffers.

Total Drama Island
Gwen joined Total Drama Island because her younger brother dared her to; she thought that it would humor him, so she signed up. Gwen is aggressively defensive. People think that she is a pessimist, which she isn't, but steadfastly refuses to be cheerful. Truly, Gwen is not a bitter person, but rather guarded and cautious about whom she lets in. When she was tethered to Geoff in Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon, she wound up revealing that she was never invited to a party and sometimes wishes that she could be a party girl (something that Geoff sensed and wished to help with). Her Father died when she was little. Gwen seems to give off the impression that she wants to join the crowd, but she is too cautious about who to let in and she could never fit right in, so she became a lone wolf who spends most of her time in solitude. Gwen is extremely smart, independent, level-headed, and is able to soar through challenges without much hesitation. This ability allows her to become Total Drama Island's runner-up.

Her experience on Total Drama Island seems to change her personality as she becomes a more outgoing person. In fact, for a so-called goth, she has befriended the majority of the campers on the show, moreso than most others have. She learns that there are people on the island who care about her, namely Trent (a fellow camper who seems to connect with Gwen and even wrote her a song). It is noted that he also has a crush on her. She has also received unwanted attention from Cody, but after he helped hook her up with Trent, she started to consider him a close friend. Geoff (who actually invited her to her first party) showed her friendliness by talking with her and listening to her problems. She also develops solid friendships with Bridgette and LeShawna. While Gwen treats her harshly at first, she grows to respect Lindsay, especially in I Triple Dog Dare You! where her dare ultimately resulted in her enemy, Heather, finally getting eliminated from the contest. Off-screen, it seems she has befriended Eva despite thinking she was a freak previously, as she is seen conversing with Eva casually during promos for the TDI special (not to mention Eva is one of the few who sided with Gwen in The Very Last Episode, Really!, even after Owen promised everyone a party if he were to win). She seems to be friendly with Harold (in Not Quite Famous, he helps her play a prank on Heather by loaning his red ant farm, and when he is voted off in X-treme Torture she is with the campers who wave goodbye to him), despite the fact that in The Big Sleep she tells him not to walk beside her (though this was very early on in the series). Gwen considers DJ, Bridgette, Trent, LeShawna, Owen, and Cody to be the few sane people on the island. She developed a friendly rivalry with Owen in the finals, admitting she would be happy to lose to him if she had to lose to anyone. And though they have had their differences, Gwen and Duncan share many common interests and have similar personalities. When Duncan was eliminated from the competition, they parted on good terms, admitting Duncan played the game well. By the next season, they have become close friends. She is sometimes mistaken for being snobbish. She shuns the camera and rolls her eyes to the antics of other guys, usually resolving her irritation issues by simply walking away from the situation. Gwen has a strong rivalry with Heather, a fellow camper who read her diary out loud during a talent contest. Since then, they both try to get under each other's skin numerous times. Unlike the rest of the campers, Gwen doesn't really care about winning the money. She actually wants nothing more than to get off the island (though she decides to at least try to win since she is here). Gwen has said that she hates Camp Wawanakwa more than she would love winning a large sum of money, and mentions she would use the prize money to buy Total Drama Island and turn it into a graveyard at one point. She does, however, eventually decide to keep going because she refuses to let Heather win the money after all she had done (to herself and to others), and promised Trent that she would remain strong and fight hard until the end. Her endurance and resolve to prevail has won her several challenges (and sometimes invincibility), even early on in The Big Sleep. In the Confessional stall, when pushed to her limit, she has often challenged the producers (or Chris/Chef) to hit her with their best shot. She is one of the most mature campers; in Hook, Line, and Screamer, she even shows leadership aspects (though no one listens to her). Gwen’s greatest fear is being buried alive, but was willing to endure it for the sake of her team. In Total Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama Island!, she teams up with Trent and LeShawna to win one million dollars, but fails to win and is forced to compete for the money again in Total Drama Action due to failing to read the fine print on the contract: something Gwen expresses her absolute hatred for.

Total Drama Action
Gwen returns to compete for one million dollars. Gwen is not sharing a bunk bed with anyone at the moment, due to Bridgette being voted off. She starts out being as close as ever to Trent, her now-official boyfriend, but things quickly get tense in Alien Resur-eggtion when Trent becomes jealous of Gwen and Duncan's friendship. Gwen notices Trent going out of his way to fit into their conversations and failing miserably, which makes her feel awkward. Despite the tension, Trent proves his worth when he saves Gwen's lucky necklace from falling in the sewers, sacrificing his potential win for the challenge. Gwen is so awed by his devotion that she gives Trent her necklace as a gift, saying it looks good on him. She and Trent win the challenge, but in a shocking twist, the two winners are now forced to become founders of the two new teams for the season, meaning Trent and Gwen have to compete against each other, much to their displeasure.

In Riot On Set, Gwen becomes the founder of the Screaming Gaffers team. She picks Duncan, LeShawna, Harold, DJ, and Heather to form her team. Because Duncan was her first pick, Trent is once again jealous of Gwen, who retaliates by picking "the beautiful" Lindsay for his team first. Gwen's comparatively casual choice of Duncan made her realize that Trent was now trying to make her jealous of him, which leaves her shocked. Trent's behavior in this episode continues to surprise Gwen as he outright calls her and Duncan "Punk Wannabes" when Duncan catches Gwen when she falls from the steep hill, having the other Killer Grips gasp in shock as Gwen and Duncan become gravely annoyed. Gwen tries to keep her cool and focus on defeating the whole opposing team rather than just Trent. Through this, Gwen's team wins the first challenge. Gwen later assures Trent that she has no romantic feelings for Duncan, who she says keeps a secret photo of Courtney under his pillow.

However, in Beach Blanket Bogus, Trent begins to act strangely as he becomes oddly particular about the strangest things, such as how many eggs he has on his plate. Duncan has now resorted to pranking him (similarly how he did to Harold last season), but seems to have no real animosity towards him and is just poking fun at him for his obsession over Gwen. When Gwen's team wins their first challenge, she hugs Duncan, convincing Trent that Gwen would eventually betray him. When the cast return to Total Drama Island for the remainder of their beach-themed challenge, Trent's obsession for Gwen reaches new levels (now interfering with the challenge and weirding out his teammates) in wanting to name the Killer Grips' sand castle after her, as well as doing absolutely everything nine times. Gwen realizes the significance of the number when Duncan points out that the number of letters in her name combined with the number of letters in Trent make up nine. Harold adds that the obsession with the number started when Trent first took an interest in Gwen. This causes her to freak out when Trent tries to strike up a conversation with her and she discovers him carrying nine branches. Later, Trent throws a dance-off challenge against LeShawna, believing that Gwen would be saddened if her team lost. Gwen feels responsible for causing his mental distress. The two have a private chat in the forest where they iron out their problems. As they are about to kiss, Owen reveals himself in wanting to see them make out. They respond by throwing branches at him.

Despite Gwen's attempts to keep the relationship together, she officially breaks it off with Trent in 3:10 to Crazytown as he continues to throw challenges for her sake while she simply wants to win the competition fair and square. Seeing that the obsession for her was changing Trent for the worse, Gwen gently ended their relationship. However, Justin overheard this and called Gwen out on cheating to win. He exposed the situation to the entire Killer Grips team, whom initially did not believe that Gwen would resort to such measures, but Gwen shamefully admits to her being in the wrong by not resolving the situation sooner. Justin and the others found it hard to trust Gwen until she told them specifically to vote off Trent in order to prove that she honestly wanted to win the right way. The team did as Gwen instructed, thus eliminating Trent from the competition without even having a chance to say goodbye to Gwen. Gwen, however, is shown a video of Trent being escorted out via Chris Mclean, who simply did it just to make Gwen feel even worse about what she had done. It remains to be seen when or if the relationship will be touched upon or resolved in the future. Due to Gwen allowing things to get out of hand this far in the competition, she now apparently "owes" the Killer Grips (at the insistence of Justin) even after following her advice to vote Trent off. How she will repay them exactly is currently unknown.

In TDA Aftermath, there seem to be only a few people who agree with Gwen's decision to break up with Trent and get him voted off the show. At the end of the episode, the only people of the non-participating contestants that seem to still agree with her are Cody and possibly Geoff (who was her most vocal supporter). He may or may not have changed his mind after making up with Bridgette (who was an avid Trent supporter from the beginning) and hearing Trent's side of the story. This turn of events indicates that Gwen has become somewhat unpopular amongst the show's contestants, despite proving to be such a competent and honest competitor. It is unknown how the events of Aftermath will affect the opinions of the castmates that are still in the competition (or if they were able to watch what transpired in TDA Aftermath in the first place).

In The Chefshank Redemption, Gwen starts owing the Killer Grips throughout the prison challenge. Heather was suspicious about her and keeps accusing Gwen of trying to make their team lose. As it was down between Gwen and Heather for the final Gilded Chris Award, Heather gets the trophy and heads up to the podium to tell everyone what a loser Gwen was. As she was being handcuffed by Chef in order to head to the Lame-o-sine, Duncan pretends to stop her in order to take Gwen's place, as a way of saying that he really wanted to get out of the competition, and was quicky to say that he was just kidding. Gwen tells Duncan he won't get out of the competition that easily and wishes him lots of luck. In the confessional, it was revealed that the Grips ordered Gwen to vote herself off the show. Gwen is the first contestant from the Screaming Gaffers to get voted off, and the first person to ever vote themself off Total Drama Island or Total Drama Action.

Video log
On Cartoon Network, Gwen's brother and mother send her a video log just like the other campers in the Final Five of how much they miss them. Her mother says that they are alright without her there, even though she is paying a neighborhood girl to pretend to be her. The video shows them (including the Gwen 'look-alike') having dinner. Her mother then asks "Gwen" if she wants meatloaf. "Gwen" responds by saying that she is a vegetarian and asks if she had to wait until after Gwen's mom and brother were done eating to get her twenty dollars. At the end of the video, Gwen's mother says it didn't go so well, and Gwen's brother signals to the camera that Gwen's mom is going crazy.

Camp TV
Gwen was one of the campers to appear in Camp TV, the prototype series. In Camp TV, Gwen was portrayed as simply a loner instead of a goth (similar to Duncan in the current series).

While she has a huge crush on Trent in Total Drama Island, she and Trent were the worst of enemies in Camp TV (as shown in a promotional picture where they are in a canoe trying to strangle each other). It was also shown that Gwen was actually supposed to be the love interest of Geoff (instead of Bridgette) in the prototype series (whereas she originally disliked Geoff in the current series and only recently befriended him).

In terms of design, Gwen generally bears a strong resemblance to her final design; in Camp TV, her hair is red rather than black/teal, her eyes are green instead of black, she wears earrings, her clothing is more simplistic (she also wears jeans instead of a skirt), and wears sandals instead of boots.

Trivia

 * Gwen returns as a competitor in Total Drama Action.
 * Gwen wins in the Norwegian version of Total Drama Island. [1]|undefined
 * Her favorite color is midnight blue.
 * Gwen has an interest in art (shown several times throughout the show, and says she wishes to study art at university in the future) and astronomy (shown in The Big Sleep).
 * Gwen is ambidextrous; being seen drawing with both hands throughout the show.
 * Because Gwen failed to read the fine print on her contract and was unable to destroy all copies of it, she was forced to compete in both Total Drama Island and Total Drama Action against her will.
 * Gwen is one of the four characters to appear in all episodes of Total Drama Island (the others being Owen, Heather, and Duncan).
 * Gwen is the only character (other than Sadie) who selflessly argued that she should be kicked off instead of someone (in this case, Geoff).
 * Gwen is somewhat similar to Nikki Wong from 6teen, a show made by the creators of the Total Drama series (which preceded TDI itself).
 * They both have short hair which is dyed a dark and unnatural color in streaks, usually have their eyes relaxed, they have similar personalities, and have a similar taste in underwear.
 * Despite being more similar to Nikki, Gwen is voiced by Megan Fahlenblock, who is not Nikki's voice actress, but instead Jen Masterson's; another 6teen character. Gwen and Jen's voices are nearly identical due to this.
 * Gwen, along with Owen, are the only two campers that do not seem to have an audition tape. This is because the audition tapes were only shown after their respective campers were voted off; Owen won the contest and Gwen, being a finalist, was never formally eliminated from the tournament that would allow time for her audition tape to be shown.
 * Gwen is one of several characters who have cried in the Total Drama series:
 * She cries three times in Search And Do Not Destroy; once when she runs to the Dock of Shame after seeing Heather kiss Trent, a second time when she retires to her cabin and cries into her pillow, and a third time as she waves goodbye to Trent as he sails away on the Boat of Losers.
 * It also appeared as if Gwen was about to begin to cry as Chris was ending the show while she struggled to leave the studio she was in. This was after watching Trent getting eliminated due to her telling his team that they should eliminate him at the end of 3:10 to Crazytown.
 * She was the only competitor to never leave the island in Total Drama Island (Owen went to a 5-star hotel with the Guys' Alliance at the end of Brunch of Disgustingness).
 * She, along with Heather, Harold and LeShawna, is the only character to win her team or herself two or more challenges (The Big Sleep, Hook, Line, and Screamer, Wawanakwa Gone Wild!, Are We There, Yeti?, Basic Straining, and Alien Resurr-eggtion). Strangely enough, Heather, Harold, Leshawna and herself were the 4 people to vote herself (Gwen) off in Total Drama Action.
 * Although Gwen often mentions that she hates everyone on the show, she befriends several people on the island and easily has more friends than enemies.
 * Gwen and Owen, the two finalists of Total Drama Island, have names that are the same length, both end in "wen", with only a one-letter difference. This is noted by Chris, in the TDI Rundown, who said this may not have been a coincidence.
 * She is one of three characters that Chef Hatchet respects, the others being DJ, and LeShawna.
 * Although she has a relationship with Trent, she calls him a two-timer in The Very Last Episode Really despite understanding that the mishap in Search And Do Not Destroy was completely a result of Heather's manipulative scheming. The relationship is fully mended by the end of the season finale. Gwen says in Total Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama Island! that he and LeShawna are her best friends in the show. Due to Trent's growing obsession over Gwen throughout Total Drama Action, however, Gwen found it necessary to end their relationship in the episode 3:10 to Crazytown.
 * In the special, Gwen shows Trent and LeShawna pictures of her  friends from her hometown. They are (most likely) nicknamed "Pixie Corpse", "Marilyn", and "Reaper". Ironically, Gwen has said before that she did not want friends because she didn't need anyone telling her she was a good person. She possibly meant she didn't need any new friends; in other words, she initially thought it was a waste of time to befriend anyone on the show, especially since when it came right down to it, they were all competitors in the end. On the other hand, she simply may not have been interested in interacting with the others at the beginning, but eventually went along with it.
 * Gwen and Duncan are the only two characters who have dyed their hair an unnatural color. Lindsay has implied that she too dyes her hair, but she is merely dyed blond while Gwen has teal streaks through her black hair, and Duncan has green and black hair.
 * Gwen is one of the three campers who's stomach has growled. The others are Harold and Owen.
 * Gwen is the only female camper to have her underwear seen on two separate non-bed occasions:
 * Cody and Owen handled her bra at the end of Up The Creek, her panties were shown by Heather's scheming in Who Can You Trust?, it is also of note that both of her underwear are different colors.
 * Gwen is the first contestant to ever vote themself off Total Drama Island or Total Drama Action.