User blog comment:ArtDraw12/Say something positive about/@comment-31556666-20161218235114

TLDR WARNING RIGHT HERE AND NOW

Skave was an amazing plot line and one of the most fantabulous ones of all time, which is so rare for a 13 episode season. Now some people argue that Skave was too extreme, that it was too unhealthy to enjoy. And to all those people I say... true. Skave is some pretty sick stuff, ngl. But I'd argue that it is in fact, the realistic kind of sick. The kind of sick you don't want to exist but it actually is so plausible to.

Prior to Skave becoming a thing, I massively could not stand Dave or Sky. Sky because she was really boring and didn't even have the vulnerability factor that another boring athletic character like Zoey would have. So I would've thought Sky was a complete non-benefactor and I was annoyed a character like her would likely be in the season for a long time. And I really couldn't stand Dave which is weird because most people like him BEFORE Dave. But I just found him to be a massive party popper do**he with no fun whatsoever and kind of brings down the joy and heartfelt action I watch with Leonard. But I can say with confidence that Skave completely destroyed any negative pre conceived notion I had on either of these characters, and I was astounded by it. Gone was me thinking Sky was a boring wench. Gone was me wanting Dave to get zapped by Leonard's wand or suffocate on a spicy Sugar fart.

So I guess the only way I can really talk about the amazingness of Skave is by going into each character individually. I think it's most suitable to start with the less crazier and finalist member of this toxic duo; Sky.

Sky
Sky tried motivating her team in the first two episodes into being more functional and working harder. Dave then gets really freaked out by being covered in grease and it takes Sky calming him down for him to get a better impression of her. She suspects he has a crush on her but she's all like "I didn't come for boys I came here to win!" and stuff. Her attraction develops the episode after but sticks with her mindset.

The next episode she has to kiss Dave as part of that truth or dare challenge thing. Sky then ~roasts~ Dave's breath by BURPING all over his shook face. We learn this hilarious belching is because of Sky being nervous around things like boys she likes. She stutters as she hinted about Dave, her attraction going stronger.

Before too long he decides to get his feelings known to her. Upon burping like an iconic hyper-spontaneous demon, she then replies "I like you too but", but is interrupted by Chris over an intercom. Not too long later, ELLA of all people develops a crush on Dave, which gets Sky a little jelly and wonders what will happen.

It's at this point that Sky's mind wanders away from being competitive and a team player, looking for advice from SUGAR of all people. Ugh Sky your situations are too hot to handle. Sugar then lies like the intentional mess she likes to be that Dave is a heartless womaniser who told her her right eye was bigger than her left. Sky has now really felt unnerved but it takes the tears of poor vulnerable Ella to get Sky happy at last. Guilty sadist Sky<3

With Ella out of the picture, Sky thinks it's perfectly okay to be open about her feelings, though is still hesitant on being in a relationship. She becomes the kind of girl to dream of a muscular Dave, which sounds like a vomit I'd have that I enjoy. She seems okay to kiss Dave too but this positive reinforcement development is once again interrupted by the almighty Sugar. Sky swaps with Max and moves to Kinosewak, the ultra female + gay guy team. Unlike Dave, Sky is quick to move on and doesn't mind at all and just accepts there's no chance of them.

The following episode was a huge one for Sky, even though her and Dave are on separate teams. Jasmine pushes Sky's more competitive drive, and though Sky saves Dave from a snake, she then has no choice but to have Jasmine's words plus her own cautiousness for Sky to then suddenly ~SABOTAGE~ Dave by letting him get bazooka slayed by Chef Hatchet's mighty meatballs. Even though Dave is all like "Skyyyy! How could you DU that?!" Sky pushes her mind to think that he'll understand for the best. Oh how wrong <3

The next episode pushes Sky to breaking point. Though she's committed what she admittedly thinks have been poor acts but ones he understands, the next episode changes eeeeeverything.

With Dave being pushed by Shawn to be more confident, he becomes this arrogant piece of sh** jerk, thinking this will really impress Sky. But once he challenges how ~sporty~ she is, she completely tears him up with her speech "You are NOT my boyfriend! You will never BE my boyfriend! And you have no shot at being with OR dating me!" It felt AMAZING. Her emotions have been tested for the past 8 episodes and after all these things of her falling for Dave and getting jealous with Ella, she's just reached the conclusion now that Dave is a complete insufferable jerkwad who needs to stop crushing competitive dreams.

A few minutes into the second challenge, Sky and Dave have another blown up argument though smile at each other this time. But once Dave acts like a stupid chicken sh** again and asks to be her boyfriend she groans no.

In the end, Dave and Sky are tied 3-3 votes since they're both new deranged. As Dave sacrifices himself with the vote for himself and leaves in a cannon, she misses out on him trying to impress him again again he's fired into the sun and dies or something.

Come the finale and Sky has to pick a random partner to help her. Knowing he's terrible at challenges and after getting him 2 times, she groans "Aaaaauwwwgh. Are youuu kidding me?" After Chris spills Sky's tea on Dave, she has no choice at this point but to commit emotional manipulation, and kisses Dave, because it's the only way she has a chance of winning. This was amazing as a plot point because she's gotten herself in such dark sh** for this entire season and now has no choice but to make it even darker and deeper. It's heavy stuff watching a protagonist have no choice but to commit a terrible act of manipulation but it completely makes sense given her circumstances and her character archetype.

It all looks like rainbows and sunshine for Skave, or par with Jashawn at the challenge. But Chris throws an incredulous spanner in the works by showing Sky's AUDITION TAPE. And then we get "My boyfriend, Keith!" This of course led to Dave being interested in committing murder but I'll get to that train wreck in a sec <3

Sky then must try to win the finale for herself. Both endings kind of ruin everything for her. In Shawn's ending she goes through all these irrational yet understandable actions that seem like they'll reward her, only for her to lose after all that work, but then in her ending she's rewarded for her terrible acts and knows for a fact she's completely ruined Dave's life.

Now a big issue people had with Sky on her end of this relationship was that she didn't just tell Dave she had a boyfriend. But the thing is, after reading this, you'll know that she actually just went through multiple emotional phases with him, thus overclouding any idea she had of telling him the truth. And anytime she did try and come clean, she was interrupted by some kind of force. She was essentially just doomed to fail. It's a lesson that even positive emotions can bring out horribly negative stations. That's a sharp but great lesson.

Overall, Sky went from your typical sporty teenage chick, to a life ruiner who doesn't know how to handle any control of her life whatsoever and commits horrible manipulation that cannot be respected. But I compleeeetely get it and she was written with so much detail with this.

Now onto the guy with sexy pants and the old man toupee, it's Dave!

Dave
From the beginning Dave for whatever reason wanted to look cool in front of Sky. His interest heightens however in that pig episode where Sky has a ~calming effect~ on him. The next episode he admits his crush on her and wants to get closer. He tries flirting but fails miserably, only getting sympathy from his many allergies he has. What a womaniser.

Dave fails to kiss Sky when he wants to in the I love you nots, I love you episode, feeling a little glum when she runs away from him making his Dave moves with those pants of his.

The next episode after Sky opens up about how her sister was almost on the rhythmic gymnastic team for Canada and talks about all her goals of being an olympian, Dave HILARIOUSLY thinks it's a good idea to then insult the entire sport of gymnastics and get her fumy. So irrational yet again makes sense. Upon opening his feelings to Sky at last, all he manages to hear is that Sky likes him, not knowing or caring what her but means.

The next episode he's completely infatuated with her, wanting a picnic. Shawn tries to get Dave to his senses but then Dave is all like "I don't caaaaaare about the money". After Sugar gets involved in making Dave look like a womanising scum who preys on vulnerable people, Ella also gets things crazy through gaining an attraction to Dave. But because Dave is too distracted with Sky, he makes Ella feel self-conscious and over emotional about herself and have her heart "full of sorrow". Dave is so worked up that he agrees with a plan Sky comes up with to bring the bear that ate a monkey they needed for the challenge to Chris. He's become spineless as normally he'd hate this idea.

Dave thinks him and Sky's life is going to be peachy and is determined to kiss her. With Sugar's interruptions however, his dreams get shattered, worsened more by Max and Sky swapping teams. An amazing contrast here is that although Sky moves on fairly quick, Dave is in emotional turmoil. He truly thought he was going to achieve something, that him and Sky would be a thing. An environment like Total Drama really strains the emotional vulnerabilities of a germaphobe too. For Dave, he really doesn't know what to do now because in this environment Sky has been what has defined him as a human being, unlike the more cynical approach he had in the first two episodes.

Dave has become more of a glum bum, now more than ever. Despite Sugar's amazing motivational talks "Smirk up, Sally!" there's nothing that can help unless it's Sky, since she's overtaken his life. Dave's emotions heighten however once Sky saves him from a rattlesnake. For Dave, his emotions have went on a turbulent up and down streak. He's went through numerous confusions with Sky, the island as a whole, and how he should really feel. Then he had this whole but thing that had his curiosity peaked. Then he almost gets with her but a team swap ruins it and makes him think there's no hope. THEN Sky saves his mothafackin life which makes him turn to "We're gonna be together forever and ever! 😁". But THEN she has no choice after influence from outside sources but to betray him and ruin his brain for good. It literally gives him depression and not care about anything in life at all after Sky's actions. The viewer is then left to believe things are solved however once Shawn motivates Dave to be a more hardworking performer. This makes Dave want to do ~all for Sky~ turning him into an even more iconic mess of a man.

Dave has lost his mind and in that vomit episode he wants to prove he's the hottest guy around, bragging to Sky but to no avail. But once he beats her at the chugging challenge he tries making her feel inferior so she'll suddenly be interested. And again I completely get this. He wants to look like hot sh** and this is really common for a guy to do to a girl in real life. But unfortunately for Dave, Sky screams in his face about how he will never have a shot with her. Poor Dave has no clue on why she thinks this unlike the viewers that have seen both their perspectives on this. He weeps like a poor sod and doesn't know what to do.

Predictably, him and Sky argue again. Unpredictably, they smile at each other and do still deep down like each other but Dave ruins it by asking if he can be her boyfriend, which makes her go like "Uggh no." With his emotions repeatedly tested and now destroyed, as a huge twist, the normal guy has become the craziest guy on the island, flinging his shoe in her direction and imitating a lone wolf to empathise his loneliness. Amazing king of life<3

Sugar once again really helps the overtly entertaining Skave storyline by manipulating Dave into hating Sky. Dave now views Sky as a demon wench who deserves no love, ruining the love of simple birds, ordering the male to get away because the female WILL betray him. Best crazy person of PI? I think so. But nevertheless, Sugar's plan fails and Dave still cares too much about Sky. He sacrifices any chance he had of winning by voting for himself instead of rightfully voting off Sky like he probably should've for his own mental being, saving her from being eliminated at the hands of his grasp. And after all his hard work, he can't resist just one last attempt at wooing her, but she inconveniently isn't there, and he just bluntly says "Fire😣" </3

But this was not the end of Dave's amazing journey. He comes back for the finale and is literally delighted to see Sky. This is swiftly and legendarily spoiled by Chris' hilarious Sky impression which makes Dave weep "I'll try not to get in your way!! 😳" Sky then manipulates Dave by kissing him which I've already mentioned, is spicy. Dave now has this hyper boosted confidence like the one he had in Three Zones and a Baby, and as per usual the viewer is expected to think everything will go well. And the likable little dork Dave really puts a lot of work into it... until his life is permanently f**ked over, simply with the sentence "My boyfriend Keith". Without giving Sky any chance, he doesn't let her explain herself at all. This is a great callback to when he didn't give her a chance to speak.

With all this in mind, ANOTHER curveball is put in with having Dave and Jasmine get to win the money after their love interests betray them. And just when it looks like they've won, ANOTHER twist happens and someone else wins. Regardless of which ending, Dave's dreams of burning the money in front of Sky is completely ruined. He leaves the show becoming a worse person, losing all sanity and sense of focus on life.

Overall the Skave storyline was probably THE most intricately woven and one of the best storylines TD has ever come up with. Every single time you think something will happen BOOM! Something else does. Think Sky will finish her but? No. Think they'll become a couple? No, here they are on different teams. Think Sky saving his life will help things? No she betrays him. Think Dave's confidence boost means he'll win Sky's heart? Nope let's eliminate him next. Think Sky is going to get away with things scot free? No way.

Dave and Sky honestly would be amongst my least favourite characters ever had it not been for this entire storyline. It was deeply complex, full of twists, and had me shook episode by episode. And a common complaint is also both are unlikable but that's kiiind of the point. That's what adds to this deep and meaningful storyline that PROVES life isn't a fairytale. Think your rise to sporthood can be achieved by a clean way? No, you might just end up hurting people. Think all your romantic fantasies will come through? No, you very well may make a pratt of yourself. Them being unlikable really adds to this too because we see both of their honestly rational viewpoints yet both are just terrible human beings. Think of really famous shows like Breaking Bad or Dexter for example. They have some sick people, including their own main characters but it works because we completely see their viewpoint. This is the appeal in Skave because like a Walter White or a Dexter they go on a downward spiral to eventually ruining their lives and I'm so proud of a kids show handling such a dark topic that could easily happen in real life.