User blog:VeryUnknownFan/Jayden-G's review of Total Drama: Pahkitew Island

Well, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island is over, and if you have read ym review of all 13 episodes, you would know that I think the characters mostly used as gimmicks. I think that this season’s biggest issue is that so many of them seem like one season wonders, and the small minor details in storyline building holds it back from being more than good or decent. Yall know that I am gonna cover the fodders first.

Beardo: Well, I was slightly annoyed with Beardo. He made unnecessary sound noises, and did not really help his team that much, and he SCREAMS fodder. I am glad he was the first eliminated, but I do not view as a character, so I do not think much of him, and he is………bleh.

: Leonard is delusional; I am not even kidding. He seriously thinks he has magic, he seriously thinks that he lives in the land of Disney, where you believe, and magic will appear. His voice sounds like he has a bunch of mothballs stuck in his throat, and his nostrils are very small. Not only is his design ugly and pathetic, but he is irritating, not funny, and just plain grating to watch.

: Holy f**k, I never imagined to hate someone in such a short amount of time than I did before being introduced to lamey Amy. There is literally nothing to like about her. She literally has no purpose other than to bother her sister. She does not help in challenges because she is an untalented waste of scum, and puts herself above everyone else. It would be okay if she had DEPTH to her, to make her bi**ha**ness and sociopath-ness more deal able, but she does not. And I don’t f with someone who is so willing to literally encourage at the moment for their family to die. She literally interacts with no one but Samey. Pathetic and lame all the way. Congratulations Fresh, you wanted a mean, flat as a pancake b**ch, you delivered.

: Rodney is unlikable in the way that he is a painful gimmick, and a painful gimmick only. I already got tired of his gigantic self and his gigantic gimmick from the moment I saw his audition. He needs to learn to speak properly, and to not be delusional. He is another contestant that is seriously delusional, and it is very scary that he thinks that he is officially dating someone. Anyways, he was useless for the entire season, and was an annoying mess to watch. Glad this gimmick was gone in the quarter way mark.

I decided not to put Samey in the “fodder” category, because she actually had a plot going for her, and grew. I like how she was a bit weak at first, and her growing friendship with Jasmine, which was a nice aspect for the earlier episodes of the season, but her plot revolved entirely around her sister. When she finally snapped in Episode 3, I was cheering for her, but…….the entire “Twin Switcheroo” plot is executed horribly. How is it that when Amy was eliminated, they looked like their normal selves (and NO ONE told the other apart when they have been around them for a few episodes) but no one could tell that Samey was lying when she pretended to be Amy. This is a bigger issue because she DISGUISES HERSELF as Amy by putting a blueberry on her face. I already described it into detail in my episode reviews, but they took out so much logic to make this plot work, and it really ended up going nowhere anyways. Her and her sister are dependent on one another, and everything they do revolve around that issue (even her friendship with Jasmine is about her conflict with Amy).

While I would love to put Topher in the “fodder” category, he lasted 8 episodes, and did have a plot going for him. His stereotype is literally “Chris Wanabee”. How in the hell is that even as stereotype? Just from that I know that his entire existence will revolve around Chris. My issue with Topher is that he is completely irrelevant to the game. He literally did nothing in half of his episodes (in the LEAST), and did not interact with a single person (other than Jasmine, to compete in a challenge, but it was still minor). How is it that someone that spoke to virtually no one and did virtually nothing make it past the half way point? Is he putting up in the production room? Anyways, his “replace Chris as host” plot was not interesting or engaging to me, because we all know that it won’t happen, and the result from it way before the plot fully starts.

I feel like it is appropriate to lump Ella and Sugar together. Ella and Sugar had this intense one sided conflict (on Sugar’s side), because she feels like Ella is trying to get more attention, and is more pageant like than she is. At first I did not mind it, but then Sugar started to go way over the top, and it was not funny in any way. Ella did literally nothing to warrant her wanting her to die, but Ella is voted off before things got overly brutal and ridiculous. I will get into Sugar’s performance after Ella’s departure after, but move onto Ella. I have said this from the beginning, and I will say it now. Why would I want Ella, when there is the REAL Snow White? I am not saying that Ella is bad, and I do not really mind her, but she is a knock off and a gimmick. Her singing does get annoying at times, but is also very pleasant at other moments as well. She sung with animals, and basically did everything Snow White did but cook. Ella also had this minor attraction to Dave in Episode 5 and 6, and I am glad they did not engage into it too much, as she fell in love with him from the Cinderella moment, but Dave putting her shoe on him. She soon finds out in the next episode that he does not like her like that. She is soon disqualified, and her elimination is great. Now onto Sugar’s performance in the second half of her duration (her last 6 episodes) where I will summarize her as overly gross, overly grating, overly dumb, and overly unentertaining. She was a bunch of fart, poop, and food jokes, but also trying to be an antagonist. She was ridiculous, and got even more painful as each episode went. She is like an icon for TDPI, and is the new Owen, so I would be expecting her to return again. Her elimination was great for her though.

Now onto Max and Scarlett’s duo plot. Now that I really think about it, they are really the only people they have a significant interaction with. Anyways, Max went around saying he is overly evil as soon as we see him, and tries to come up with evil inventions, which ultimately fails. Scarlett assists him, and makes many of his machines work, and spends a lot of time talking to him. They get along great for the first few episodes, but there is an issue; Max sees Scarlett as his assistant, whereas Scarlett is the real brains behind the duo. Scarlett eventually gets mad at him referring to her as an assistant, and letting her think of their plans, that in Episode 6, she orchestrates his elimination. I really wish Max went with Ella in this episode, but I will dive into that a bit later and my small issue with them. People on the island think they are a couple, which came out of nowhere, but still a bit funny. Max and Scarlett’s dup continues to fall apart in Episodes 7-9, but things take a turn for the worst in their final episode, as Scarlett reveals that she really is evil, and was about to blow up the island and kill everyone, just to get the million dollars. I never found Max funny or engaging, as his gimmick got old fast, and while I do like Scarlett, I really wish they gave her more episodes to do something evil and antagonistic. With it all taking place in one episode makes it a bit cluttered. They are eliminated together, because Chris does not want evil on his island.

Now it is time for the extremely major plot points of the season; the two attractions in this season, but I will start with Sky and Dave. Dave quickly falls for Sky in about Episode 1 or 2, and considers her to be the only other normal person on his team. His attraction to her becomes known when she calms him down form having grease all over him. Sky soon realizes that he has a crush on her, but she is not on the island to meet boys, but to win the money. In the next episode, she is gawking about his hair, eyes, and smile, and he is gawking about her eyes, and…pretty much everything. They do speak to one another, and she does tell him why she wants to be an Olympian, and their interactions in the first 5 episodes or so are really cute. Sky tells him that they cannot go out because she is there for the competition, and something else, but here is the problem. Dave almost NEVER listens to her and takes in what she is saying. He always cuts her off, leave things out, or throws an insult (accidental or not). This will come to bite him in the ass because not only does it frustrate Sky, but he LOSES IT when he finds out that she has a boyfriend (revealed in the finale). Dave is actually pretty selfish, and always thinks he is entitled and better than everyone else, whether it is his teammates or Sky. I liked him in the beginning, but he went downhill with how he handled everything, and his obsession with Sky. I get it when you have a crush, but he is too creepy, too obsessed, and does not focus on ANYTHING else, like the game. He even goes onto say that nothing is important but Sky and her NEEDING to go out with him. His germ phobia is pretty damn funny at times, and it does give him an extra something to his character. Now onto Sky. She wants to be an Olympian, and is all about teamwork and being a good leader, and winning fairly. This is an honorable trait, and she does honor this most of the time, with the no foul play thing, with the exception of Three Zones and a Baby, where she does it to not be distracted by Dave. Even after Dave is gone, she is really focused on Dave and what happened to him. Because she is in this mind state, she is pretty much a non-factor or irrelevant in the next few episodes after his elimination, with only her last minute conflict with Sugar bringing focus to her. She KNEW she has a boyfriend, but went in the confessional to gawk over ANOTHER MAN, flirt incessantly with the other man, and attempts to kiss the other man, to only kiss him in the finale. Yes, she tried to tell Dave, but she slapped her boyfriend (who she KNEW he would be watching) in the face with all of this. Disgusting. Their non-relationship did give the show drama though.

Lastly are the main (and only) couple of the season; Jasmine and Shawn. I was honestly a bit worried with how this was going to go, but when I saw their interactions in the woods in the second and third episode, I was pleasantly surprised. They are adventurists, like the forest and the outdoors, both have great survival skills, and both sleep on trees. I really like their interactions, and I was a total shipper. Shawn suddenly does not want to like her, because it will distract his focus to get rid of zombies, and he might turn into a zombie -_-. I get it that there are zombie conspires out there, but Shawn takes it to a WHOLE nother level, a scary and delusional level, and this is throughout the entire season, and it is not even funny to watch. So Jasmine is shown to overly care about Shawn getting eliminated in Episode 5, but when he is shown to have not been missing, he yells at her, calling her a zombie as he hits her off the platform. This small event causes her to hate him for 4 EPISODES. They really dragged this out, and it did get a bit annoying. She was going to throw the challenge for him anyways. I get it that for some reason she thinks that he was an opportunist and only built up her feelings so he can take her down, but it does come off as really contrived. They make up in Episode 9, as he saves her from the other “zombies” and sacrifices himself for her, and it is a cute moment. In Episode 10 and 11, their relationship is in a really good place, as they share their first kiss, and work together through the challenges. When Jasmine tells him about her dream about a half flower and half cage fighting shop, and that they should split the money for whoever wins, he bashes her dream in the confessional many times, and says that he is not splitting his money with her because he wants it to build an area to escape zombies. This causes a bit of drama for the last episode, but they make up. Jasmine is a really good character. She is very kicka**, and nice, but she is also unintentionally intimidating, is claustrophobic, and has notable flaws. Shawn’s zombie thing gets really annoying at times but otherwise, he is a good character as well.

I have said before, I like this season. I really do. The storylines were handled decently (though there are a few small mistakes that could have been avoided that makes some of them crash and burn), the characters had many more interactions amongst the cast, creating an interesting dynamic, the challenges were pretty good, there is a lot of effort put into the season, and it is fun at times. What I will say I that It is hard for me to like most of these characters, as with the way they are written, they are written like on season wonders (though many will be in future seasons), and are too gimmicky for my liking. The little things caused big issues (to me) in the season. Not one of my favourites, but not one of my least favs either.