User blog:CheeseBurgerGuy/My Thoughts On Total Drama Action

I want to shoutout to TDZekiel for giving me a reason for writing this blog. Earlier today, they messaged me the following question:

''I have always been curious as to why you love it so much. I too love it, but it comes second to TDI. I want to know what you think on:'' ''One more thing. Honestly, Owen returning would not be bad at all, if he got eliminated in Masters of Disasters. His jaw would have healed by then and by right he would have to go back into the game. And if Owen was not a mole and did not take up screen time, I would not mind him returning at all. What do you think of my idea?''
 * Owen's return
 * Courtney's return
 * Both of the final two
 * What is your preffered TDA finale: you don't have to pick Harold vs Lindsay XD
 * Your opinion on Harold and Lindsay's elimination
 * How better was the first part of the season compared to the second part.

There are a lot of questions to unpack here, so I decided it made sense to do it in blog form. Let's go over each of these questions one by one.

Owen's Return
When I first watched TDA, I thought Owen's return was justified due to how he went home, though I didn't enjoy it very much. Nowadays, I have two major problems with Owen's return that work in tadem with one another.

Problem #1: The fact Owen was a mole.

Besides the fact that I didn't like this plot line very much for the big guy, I don't think they needed that to justify Owen coming back. Even coming back at the final 6 because he recovered wouldn't bother me too much because he was such an enjoyable character in the beginning of the season and he would actually be playing to win. Maybe if they had just eliminated him in Masters of Disaster and made Ocean's Eight - Or Nine an elimination episode, then it would have been great.

Problem #2: Owen returning at the final 6.

Since Duncan was kind of the protagonist of the season (I know other might not agree with me but the protagonist has always made the finale), we lacked a secondary antagonst going into the final 6. Owen was brought back there to fullfill this role due to being a fan favorite. Personally, I think his delayed return after the aftermath felt a little off. It also was a little unfair.

To create a real life example, I will never rewatch Survivor: Edge of Extinction due to a player returning at the final 6. I just think it's inherentaly unfair (espcially since said player was out of the game for so long). Owen's return reminds me of that.

Final Thoughts:

Despite having problems with it, I still did enjoy Owen's return at the time. I honestly think if they had revised the TDA script just a little bit, it could've generally worked for a lot more people. I probably won't have this if I do a TDA My Way season though as there are better plot's to focus on.

Courtney's Return
I know a lot of people aren't going to agree with this, but I love this return. While the show was still funny, it was clear that the season was losing steam and it was losing it fast. Courtney was a much better antagonist than Justin, plain and simple. Just becuase I liked it though doesn't mean I don't have problems with it.

Problem #1: Courtney Debuted Half Way Into the Season

Personally, I think Courtney could've made a great surprise contestant who debuted either at the end of episode one or part way into the second. We would've had our antagonist straight from the get-go and that could've done a lot for the season. For example, she could've taken Leshawna's whole plotline over the Spa Day or been a team captain alongside Duncan instead of Trent and Gwen. We also would've had the actual antagoinst earlier to make the two halfs of the season not so jarring.

Problem #2: Courtney AND Owen make the final 4

Let's be honest here guys: This is the actual reason hate TDA. From the moment Harold left the game, we knew who are final two were. It made the end of the season drag. If Courtney had been in the season from the begining, then there still would have been some suspense going into Top Dog.

Final Thoughts:

I think Courtney was a solid additon to the season, though I think the writers really shouldn't have put both her and Owen in the final 4 and that there were better ways to make her a memoriable antagonist. Honestly, Courtney was probably added half-way into the season because they ran out of room with Justin as the antagonist but were too rushed to rewrite the previous episodes.

The Gwent Breakup
I know that TDZekiel didn't mention this in his question, but I think it's important to talk about. Even after going back to rewatch Island, I never liked Gwent as a couple. While I think Fresh could've done a better job with the break-up and clearly rushed into it to get CN off their backs, I think the reasons themselves made sense.

I know this is not super related to the topic, but I would bet that a large number of the Gwuncan shippers started with Action as their first season like me due to how miserable Duncan and Gwen were with their partners.

Personally, I wish they took more time to more organically end the relationship, but that's what we got.

Lindsay's Elimination
I'm going to get into this one more when I adress Beth as a finlaist, but I wasn't a fan. I think it was poorly handled and it was forced by the writers due to Lindsay's voice actress having other obligations. I don't think my opinions on this are that different than many others so I'll keep this short.

Harold's Elimination
This elimination was weird because, and here's an opinion I know I'm going to get hate for, i actually really like it. From the moment that Courtney returned to the game, I knew Harold wasn't going to win. And I didn't want him to. I forgot if it was directly mentioned in the season or if a friend of mine told me, but I learned about Harold's rigging of Courtney's elimination as I was watching Action. While I didn't like Courtney, I felt it wouldn't be fair if Harold got to outrank Courtney again. It felt like justice. I also felt that the elimination made sense.More importantly, Harold sealed his fate when he booted Leshawna over Duncan. That was his choice. So I wasn't salty.

My only problem with Harold getting booted is the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, we knew who the final 2 were going into the final 4 (I would also know that I had my bets on Duncan and Beth going into the final 5, though there was still a chance for Harold to make it).

The Final Two: Beth
I didn't know when I saw the finale on Cartoon Network that Beth could've won the season if I was watching in another country. As a runner-up only, Beth is actually not too bad. While she really only played Lindsay's game, Beth won a lot of challenges and kept her BFF grounded. I mean without Beth and DJ, Lindsay would've been gone in the pre-merge. I think Beth is the most realistic finalist we ever got in Total Drama, and due to that I appreciate her,

The moment I learned she was the 'canon' winner though...I was pissed. I'll expand on this more when I talk about Duncan but Beth didn't deserve the million as compared to Duncan. Let's go over why.

Problem #1: Beth was on the worse team.

I know being on the worst team shouldn't mean that you automatically shouldn't win the game, but the Grips were a self-destructing team who should've been completely wiped out in the pre-merge (and would've been if I wasn't for Courtney). Duncan on the other hadn was the MVP of his team. Harold was also a strong performer too, but I'll get into that.

Problem #2: Beth had no plot

Beth had no prupose being in the season. She never had a conflict with Courtney like Lindsay and Duncan did. She had a rushed crushes on Justin and Harold that didn't go anywhere too. in fact, the only over-arching plot that Beth had was being BFFs with Lindsay. She was a side-kick.

Problem #3: Beth was never supposed to be a finalist

I am fully under the beleif that Beth was suppsoed to go home in Rock n Rule. Duncan, Courtney, and Lindsay would've won immunity and Duncan votes out Beth due to his growing respect for Harold. Ether that or Lindsay accidently votes for Beth with the others targetting Beth due to being a under the radar threat and annoying everyone.

Problem #4: Total Drama Alternate Winners didn't used to mean both were just as canon

By this point, Total Drama always had a canon winner (since Owen was already canon and this was season two). They could've made Duncan canon and have that be the end of it.

Final Thoughts:

Beth is one of the worst winners in Total Drama history who clealy only won to keep up with a not fully fleshed out traditon and due to last minute changes due to Lindsay's voice actor not being able to voice the last few episodes. Ironically though, Beth is probably the one of the best runner-ups of Total Drama history. Weird how that works.

The Final Two: Duncan
I've recently been debating if Duncan was better off winnng another season other than Action (ex. All-Stars), but Duncan certianly was the most deserving of the victory in TDA for one reason:

Duncan was the Protagonist of Action

Duncan has interactions with everyone in the cast (I think the exception would be Izzy). Nobody else has this distinction.

Duncan had the most direct conflicts with Courtney and Justin out of the whole cast. Duncan is also framed with being the one to defeat Courtney, the true antagonst.

Some might be confused why I think Duncan is the Hero of the story when he bullies Harold and is generally not the nicest guy. While that might be true, the writers do their best to make Duncan's bullying of Harold appear to be a neutral or heroic act due to Harold cheating and causing Courtney's elimination.

Overall, not even Lindsay comes as close as Duncan does to being the main character.

So why does being the main character of the season matter for why Duncan should make the finale? Because we haven't had a single protagonist not make the finale. Let's go over each of the seasons.

Island: Gwen

World Tour: Heather

Revenge of the Island: Cameron

All-Stars: Mike (though I could see arguments for Zoey)

Pahkitew: Shawn (though Jasmine is real close to being the exception to this rule)

I doubt that Action would be the exception and I don't know if I would want it to be.

My TDA FInal Two: Duncan vs Lindsay
Spoilers for my eventual TDA My Way Series but I think this would've been one of the best finales in Total Drama History. Duncan and Lindsay both played flawed games, but they were the main characters of their respective teams. Duncan would still be my prefered winner though.

They are also my two favoirte characters of the first generation if you check out my profile.

Pre-Courtney vs Post-Courtney
This is a really easy question for me actually: Pre-Courtney. I don't even this it's fair since I usually stop after Courtney returns on my re-watches. No, it's not because I don't like the second half. I just typcially don't have time to wacth something as long as the 26 episode seasons and would rather re-watch Island if I'm going back to any season.

So Why Do I Like TDA Again?
I've spent this whole blog bashing the season. In fact, many would say this is more of a Why Do I Hate TDA blog if anything. There's two important reasons as to why I like it.

Reason #1: Nostalgia 

Total Drama Action was my first Total Drama season. I love it since this is the season that got me into the fandom. I probably wouldn't be here today doing this blog without it. As such, my heart still associates much of my love for the show with this season.

Reason #2: Valuable Lessons

I guess I've been on this wiki long enough to reveal some things about myself: I want to be a screenwriter. Why does that matter? TDA, looking back at me has taught me that you can't rush art. TDA was rushed from it's scripting stages (any serious writer can tell). Another thing I learned from it is how much production interferance can get involved in a script (just look at the Gwent break-up). Laslty, I learned about the three act structure in televison. Courtney was added because of how flawed the first act of the season was and how it railroaded the show as Justin was about to walk out the door. Sometimes you need to rebuild a script from the ground up. The writers of TDA just put a band-aid on the problem and eventually, said band-aid pealed off once we hit the final six and the show went downhill.

Reason #3: I Love this Franchise

Just because I have problems with TDA and it's not one of the better seasons of the show, I love everything about this show. I mean, if I didn't, I wouldn't be dedicating so much of my personal time into it. Action is just a small apart of a franchise which has defined my childhood and my adulthood (Survivior and Big Brother and the Amazing Race fan now too).

With all that out of the way, I think I covered everything in TDZeke's question and more. i hope you enjoyed this and, if you have any questions of your own, I'll try to answer tham down below. Thank you for reading.