User blog comment:CheeseBurgerGuy/Total Drama Finale: A 26 Episode Fan Season/@comment-32999728-20190921114645/@comment-35606925-20190921165518

I know that a lot of these characters are more cruel than they were in the past, but they actually line up with their canon counterparts.

Gwen: I'd actually argue that her characterization is basically the same as Island. The only cruel actions she has really taken was ignoring Duncan. IRL, that's how a lot of people deal with their exes. Additionally, this is important because of the parallel it establishes with All-Stars (Gwen has seen this get under Duncan's skin before, and from her perspective, Duncan was only using her to make Courtney jealous).

Lindsay: Ahe might be meaner than she was, but I want you to take a look at the context. All-Stars clearly shows that Lindsay was done with Total Drama. The only reason she came back was because of Beth, who forced her to. Then Lindsay arrives and Beth seems more focused on building relationships with others than spending time with her? That would suck to be on the receiving end of. Additionally, there's one more reason Lindsay is acting this way that will be revealed later.

Leshawna: There are a few reasons I took this direction with Leshawna. On a meta level, it was to further separate her from Jasmine. Yet in the context of the TD Universe, it all still works well. What did being kind to people get Leshawna? In TDI, it arguably cost her the game. In TDA, she put in all that effort to fix her relationships only for her to be voted out by her BEST FRIEND. In TDWT, she was manipulated for the first time. A lot of people (look at Big Brother) get really bitter when they know they got played. Lastly, think of the context. Harold has been after Leshawna for years at this point. Combine her desire to win, the betrayal of friends and love interests in the past, and getting sick of saying no, it's almost no wonder that Leshawna is more aggressive towards Harold.

I hope my explanations explained a lot of my reasons for doing this. If you are curious for more insight, I'm happy to provide it.