User blog:Glenn31/Antagonists: Strengths and Flaws

Without a doubt, the antagonists are what make Total Drama. Without them the show would be way more boring, but they're all far from perfect. In this blog I'll be analysing what they do right, and some of the mistakes they've made that cost them big time. So without further ado, let's start at the beginning.

Heather
Heather is probably one of, if not the most popular baddy (and my favorite character). Though a good antagonist, Heather was no mastermind and made quite a few mistakes during TDI.

Strengths

 * Heather's main strategy was manipulation. She managed to manipulate Lindsay into thinking they were friends, as well as manipulating her own team into sparing her whenever they faced elimination.
 * Heather was good at exploiting the weaknesses of those she targeted. Gwen's crush on Trent, Owen's love of food, Eva's short temper and a lot more.
 * Heather was also consistently good at thinking on her feet. Stealing Eva's MP3 player was probably one of her best plans, because she knew Eva's short temper would turn her team against her and lead to them voting off their strongest player. It's also worth mentioning that Heather managed to recognise who the two most gullible people on her team were, and lured them into an alliance all within 3 episodes.

Flaws

 * Heather's biggest flaw is that she's extremely impulsive. Unlike most other antagonists who would try to gain the trust of her fellow competitors by acting nice to them and making them think she was their friend, Heather was awful to everybody from the very start, which is something that could've cost her majorly if not for a lot of luck, and a lot of incompetence from her team.
 * She also acts on her personal feelings instead of a good strategy a lot of the time. Reading Gwen's diary in the talent show challenge was a MAJOR risk, as she managed to turn nearly her entire team against her by doing this, and had she not managed to convince enough people to vote for Justin, she would've been eliminated for sure.
 * Another major flaw for Heather, which contributed directly to her eventual downfall was her vanity. Heather's ultimate downfall was of course the fact that she refused to get her head shaved. Throughout the season, Heather sacrificed her alliance members, the cast's trust in her, and several team members for the sake of winning, but not her hair. Had she swallowed her pride and accepted the dare, she wouldn't have been eliminated and perhaps would've even made the finale.

Justin
Justin becoming a villain was an interesting plot development for TDA. It came off as a little random, how this guy who's had a total of 2 lines until then was suddenly an evil mastermind, but it was actually done quite well.

Strengths

 * Justin knows he's hot. Simple enough. He knew he could use it to his advantage, and he did. Though his charms did eventually wear off, he had Lindsay and Beth wrapped around his fingers for a decent amount of time.
 * Justin was also nice to people, and unlike villains who used that strategy, like Alejandro, Justin was, with most people, completely genuine. The only people Justin seemed to be feigning friendship with were Lindsay and Beth, who he didn't seem to really care for. He treated others, especially the boys, as genuine friends, which in turn helped him form a Guys Alliance in the later half of the season.

Flaws

 * Though he knows that his looks can charm most females, Justin becomes very over-reliant on them and finds himself at a loss for allies when his charm starts fading. This is what leads to him being outdone by Courtney after she debuts to the competition, and ultimately costs him the game.

To be continued...