User blog:Epic~00/Character Appreciation - Week 43: Scott



Welcome back to Character Appreciation, a blog series that will run for the whole year alongside Project 10. Each week we'll take a look at one Total Drama character, what we like and dislike about them, how they've grown, and what we hope to see from them in the future. I'm Epic~00 and this week, we're looking at The Devious, Scott!

Overview
Beginning his tenure in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, Scott is a fed-up not-so-nice guy who resents the meaning of the word "help." Quite early on he reveals himself as the antagonist of the season, having the over-elaborate plan of costing challenges for his team at any opportunity possible in order to give his opponents a "false sense of security", also planning to find the McLean-Brand Chris Head in order to get immunity in the possibility his plans backfire. Using his skill of removing all skill out there, he talks his team into voting the likes of Dakota and B off, while pinning blame for challenges against his two B|intellectual members. His general schemes are to lose lose lose as many challenges as he can, although meanwhile has to work off against Fang, a brutal creature he accidentally stole a tooth off of while under his wrath. He eventually joins the Maggots and tries to get Zoey on his good side. Tensions begin to simmer between him and Mike after his friend accidentally blurts out his multiple personality disorder to Scott, giving Scott the opportunity in the merge to use this to his advantage in making Mike help him win. Once he ends up winning the challenge he has the power to eliminate anyone he wants, eliminating Mike due to their conflict. This drives Zoey to near-insanity, vowing vengeance on Scott. In his concluding episodes, she completely destroys all dignity he had as a human being with repeated aggressive insults and winding him up in a body cast before he's finally hurled away alongside his arch-enemy Fang and ends up in a robot suit.

In Total Drama All-Stars though his villainous antics are still an aspect, they're hoisted to the sidelines to show a more comically incompetent side to Scott, though still has traumatic fears of sharks since the previous season. After Courtney joins his team, Scott drums up a romance with her because he "likes bossy girls" and she "cleans up real nice." Reluctantly Courtney begins to feel a similar way, and the two accidentally share their first kiss in the 100th episode, and form a relationship. However, they break up after Mal schemes for Cameron to kiss her. Due to Cameron's cowardly and selfish ways, he lies that Courtney kissed him, resulting in Scott's relationship with her breaking up after two hours only to reform the next episode. He cuts ties with her once he finds out about her cutthroat qualities getting the better of her, and for insulting his looks with a drawing and votes her off. Eventually, he's taken out after Mal slows him down in the penultimate episode while Zoey chooses to bring him to the finale over Scott.

Opinions
The gap between Scott's two seasons is ginormous in the opinion of mine and many others. I absolutely HATED him in Revenge of the Island! He was a bland, one-note, one-trick pony antagonist with a stupid strategy that made no discernible sense and should have given him early comeuppance in the form of being an early boot, which would've made me rate him far higher. Sadly, he lingered within the season like a bad dirt clod odor, repeatedly awarded for his cowardly ways of deception, showing very little personality other than "i'm nasty and i'm gonna sabotage people hee-hee-hee!" He was also largely repetitive in the role he had as an awful antagonist meant to be taken seriously. How often did I have to watch his team do well for a brief instance in a challenge followed by hearing him say "No way we can WIN. Winning will ruin my plan/strategy", occasionaly followed by poorly executed slapstick. He was just pure scum, and there was nothing endearing or entertaining about it because he came off so paper-ish in his portrayal. My one positive point with him is his conflict with Zoey, though that's moreso because of the shared resentment of him I had with her(<3)

All-Stars is usually seen as his best season and I'm still astounded how massive the gap in quality is. Don't get me wrong. He's by no means perfect. His newfound role of comic relief could get a little hit or miss at times, I had various problems with his relationship with Courtney (mostly on his side), and I really don't think he was consequential enough of a character to last all the way to the Final 3, mostly relying on Courtney to be relevant. Nevertheless I found him a slightly bright charm in an otherwise dreary season and considering the nature of said season, it was nice to see at least one person who both a) lasted really long and b) stuck with their designated personality for all their episodes. Some argue he was "out of character" but 1) he still had antagonistic qualities pop up now and again, 2) it's not like the comic relief or bad with romance side to him contradicts anything in RoTI, especially considering you never seen him in romance before and he still had some comical moments in the previous season (albeit poor), and 3) who honestly cares when he was complete garbage in his first season and should never be mentioned again.

Best Season: Total Drama All-Stars

Best Episode: Zeek and Ye Shall Find

Best Moment: "I can't believe Courtney's gone. Now who's gonna yell at me and make me do stuff I don't wanna do?"

Comments
What about you? Despite the title, this blog is open to all opinions! Share your thoughts about Scott in the comments below and use the // userboxes too. Don't forget to share your Best Moment, Best Season, and Best Episode of Scott! Next week, Cody will be analyzing and giving his opinions on The Zombie Conspiracy Nut, Shawn!