User blog:Epic~00/Why Total Drama All Stars Was Such An Abysmal Season (PART 1)

Total Drama All Stars isn't a very popular season of the Total Drama franchise. In fact, its actually probably the least popular of all. It screws up '''everything. '''Talking about why this season sucks is like writing an essay. So prepare for me to moan about the most dissapointing installment in the franchise, and one that almost ruined the series.

1: Dissapointment
The most glaring issue with Total Drama All Stars is the complete dissapointment of it all. Let's keep in mind that this is the first All Star season. It's a season about some of the most prominent characters in this franchise. Not only that, but it combines seven veterans and seven newcomers in one season. And not only that, but its a Heroes vs Villains season. Its Good vs Evil. It's the most interesting team concept on this show because the teams are complete polar opposites.

This is good on paper. But how are all of these ruined? This is supposed to be a season about the most prominent characters, right? So which veterans do they get? Heather, Duncan, Gwen, Courtney, and maybe Alejandro make sense. But Lindsay and Sierra? Lindsay merges twice out of the three seasons she's been in, and Sierra merges in the only season she's been in. And unlike Alejandro, Sierra hasn't done too many interesting things that didn't involve Cody. Why was she even in this season? What it just an excuse to give two World Tour newcomers a chance to be in All Stars? Ignoring that excuse, Lindsay doesn't belong in this type of season. Do you know who merged more than Lindsay? Owen. Why wasn't the person who merged three times in this season? It didn't even matter in the long run whether Lindsay competed or not because they eliminated her first for no reason.

And how about the newcomers? They also had one contestant as the odd one out: Sam. Brick, Anne Maria, and even Dakota would've been much better choices. Brick and Anne Maria last slightly longer than Sam and have done more interesting things, and Dakota returned and had more appearances than any of the three aforementioned characters. Similar to Lindsay, Sam also didn't matter. He was one of four fodder characters. When I found out he was competing, I thought it was an excuse for Sam to merge. Instead, he's just eliminated for cheating reasons that some out of nowhere. So needless to say I thought this choice of a cast was pretty dissapointing.

2: Missed Opportunities
This is a season combining the different types of All Stars. So there'd be bound to be some things you could do, even a storyline between Veteran and Veteran or Newcomer and Newcomer. Did we get this? Yes. Did it deliver? No. And trust me, there's A LOT of missed opportunities in this season.



Jocan

Anyone remember this? Probably not. This was in Heroes vs. Villains. Not even a friendship between the two was formed after this episode. It was just a random moment of Duncan thinking Jo's jokes are funny, followed by them high-fiving each other when their team won. They go nowhere with this because Jo was eliminated in Saving Private Leechball. So this interaction was, completely pointless.



Alegwen

This isn't really as much of a pair worth supporting as Jocan, but Gwen could've easily have been Alejandro bait. Again, this is another moment people seem to forget about. In Evil Dread, while working in the challenge, Gwen falls to the ground. While getting up, she sees Alejandro. He seems to be the only team member besides Duncan who's supporting Gwen. And Gwen, despite being in a relationship with Duncan, is swooned by Alejandro. My reaction to this was that I was predicting that Gwen would end up betraying someone else through no fault of her own, similar to what happened with Bridgette and Alejandro. This made me believe that Gwen would be eliminated before the merge. Alejandro votes due to him trying to get rid of her. Heather votes because Aleheather is love, Aleheather is life. Duncan votes because Gwen betrayed him. I thought that this would happen a few episodes later........ this is never brought up again. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This would've been a perfect storyline. You can't just give this to us and not fully deliver! It could've even given Alejandro more to do besides WALKING ON HIS HANDS FOR NO REASON! He could've still been a useful antagonist, and it could've made Gwen come to terms with being on the Villains team because she did something villainous! This is more painful than Jocan because this actually had potential for drama to actually happen. I hate this. I hate this more than the invalid Lightning elimination. The only time this is ever brought up again is in Saving Private Leechball. And for what? To just show us a three-way alliance of getting Gwen even though that was never touched upon again either?



Heather vs Jo

It's not just pairings. Conflicts, Alliances, and Friendships also had plenty of potential. A prominent example of a wasted conflict is Heather and Jo. Look at this. Think about this. This conflict is perfect. I had already been interested even when Heather pushed Jo out of the way. Evil Dread was also a good example of their conflict. These two are equal when it comes to leadership skills.... it lasted three episodes. Jo got eliminated in Saving Private Leechball for plot convenience. We had to watch Gwen follow up her engagement with teamwork, Aleheather had to try to make it self clearer, Duncan had to try to prove whether I'm a fan of his or if I hate him, and Scott had to be kept so he could even be used properly for the first time ever in Food Fright. These two should've been the double elimination. I hate how nothing more was done with them.







Alejandro/Heather/Jo Alliance With Gwen

So you get a missed opportunity in Heroes vs Villains, Evil Dread, and now Saving Private Leechball. This is another random moment in the season. Alejandro, Heather, and Jo are all trying to form an alliance with Gwen. Gwen realizes this so she thinks that she now has power on this team. The three of them know that Duncan will follow whatever Gwen does. Okay, this alliance is '''REALLY INTERESTING. '''It's the first three-way alliance I've seen on this show. Gwen trying to be in an alliance with all of them, with Duncan following in the near future made me believe that Scott would be eliminated next. Then it would be a difficult team to structure.... Jo is eliminated in this episode. Are you kidding me?! We could've had the Alegwen suggestion I talked about to drive a wedge between most of the team. But this alliance goes nowhere. In Food Fright, I was still expecting Alejandro and Heather to fight over Gwen. But no, this is never brought up again.

 Jo and Lightning Alliance



Another missed opportunity that Jo was involved in. Another forgotten moment is that her and Lightning formed an alliance in this episode. They both agree to keep being in one until the merge. Okay, that's fine. Before the unnecesary Lightning elimination, I expected these two to make the merge. They don't. What was the point of this random moment? In fact, now that I think of it, what if Jo tried being the ringleader of her team? What if she forms an alliance with Gwen and Lightning, and is never part of an Alegwen fiasco? This leaves Jo almost immune from a team vote. Why does Jo convince her team to vote off Lightning in Evil Dread? He was her only ally at this point.

 Duncney vs Gwuncan



Moon Madness was a horrible episode, but one weird thing about it is that Duncan is suddenly obsessed with Courtney. He even asks Gwen if she said anything about him. He also has an eye twitch in jealousy over Courtney's crush on Scott. What was the point of all this? Who do they want us rooting for? Duncney or Scourtney or Gwuncan? It's not only a missed opportunity but incredibly confusing to figure out.



Duncan vs Mal



Wwwow. Now THIS was a missed opportunity. I normally switch between being a fan of Duncan and not liking him, but aside from a few questionable moments from him in Moon Madness, I was really starting to like Duncan. It was even better with the reveal that Mal went to juvie with Duncan. This was a perfect opportunity for Zoey to for once actually fight against Mike. Now I knew it'd be obvious that Mal would last longer than Duncan. Antagonists usually last until at least the Final 4. But I thought Duncan would be eliminated by Mal. Instead, Duncan is disqualified for trying to be villainous. Sure the gag was funny, but there was no point for Duncan to be eliminated like this when he had this need to eliminate Mal. They barely go anywhere with this. With all the potential alliances gone, I was expecting Duncan to get 7th place. I knew Sierra had to be eliminated in Suckers Punched, but I wish the teams merged at 6 like in ROTI. Here's a scenario. Heroes lose in Regatta (the ships are in teams). Duncan votes Mal, and Mal votes Duncan, as Duncan is getting in the way. It comes down to Zoey to make it 2-1. She votes Duncan through Mal playing mind games on her. That would be a more appropriate elimination. Not this lazy excuse of a disqualification.



<p style="text-align: center;">Mal

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Just Mal in general. This villain sucks. I hate Mal. He only gets rid of 3 competitors. This is nothing compared to Heather's seven (eight in her World Tour ending), and Alejandro's eight. Mal only got rid of three people. He breaks more things than he does eliminate people. And I'm still unsure on what exactly that juvie story is.

This concludes Part 1. If I were to put everything here, you'd be here all day. Trust me.