User blog comment:TheDipDap1234/Justin - a Good or a Bad Character?/@comment-31556666-20150821124716

I love Justin.

Plenty don't like him for being a bad antagonist and also accusing Courtney and Alejandro as being replacements for him. But I couldn't disagree more with these claims. Yes, Justin was intended to be an antagonist at the beginning of TDA. But he was intentionally bad. The show establishes he's dumb and only uses looks for antagonism. I wouldn't even call him villainous, bearing in mind that he's fairly sociable with others. Full Metal Drama also acknowledged that he is not smart with the game. I'd call him a bad strategist more than a bad antagonist. The next complaints were that Courtney replaced him as an antagonist, and Alejandro replaced him as a villain. As I said before, Justin isn't really an antagonist for me and even so, him and Courtney had completely different strategic methods. Justin was calm and easy to get along with around most people, while Courtney is completely aggressive. What frustrates me more though is when people say Alejandro was a replacement for Justin. I really don't see it at all. All the two have in common is that they use looks to their advantage, and other contestants love their looks. Besides that, the two are polar opposites. Alejandro has a high IQ, Justin is dumb. Alejandro is calculating, whereas Justin doesn't think too often. Alejandro's friendliness is usually fake, while Justin genuinely gets along with a few people. Alejandro doesn't often lash out at others for angering him, whereas Justin has a small fuse. Alejandro is very confident of himself, whereas Justin has really low self-esteem. With that said, what makes me love Justin?

Normally I'd just say what other Justin fans say and call Justin a really hilarious character. But for me to explain why, I'd have to bring up his personality, as it coincides well with his humor. As his personality section says:

''Justin is a supermodel of incredible beauty. He is so handsome that he can make everyone around, whether they are female, male, or animal, stop dead in his or her tracks at the mere sight of him. The second he is introduced as a contestant, Chris admits to everyone that the only reason Justin was selected to be on Total Drama was because of his looks, a fact which he is perfectly fine with. Justin is extremely vain and often can be found looking at himself in his mirror. He is manipulative, occasionally using his looks to get something he wants or to get out of something he doesn't want to do. He is also a bit lazy and consistently finds excuses to get out of doing challenges, believing them to be bad for his looks. Deep down, however, it appears Justin is insecure and not as confident as he often acts. Because of his vanity, he often overreacts to even the smallest injury to his face, instantly believing himself to be hideous. Justin is also perfectly aware of how much he relies on his looks and isn't anything without them, knowing he lacks both the intelligence and the talent to make it in the world. Despite his faults, Justin isn't necessarily always mean-spirited and tends to be friendly and social towards most of the other contestants.''

This is on his character page. And all these factors culminate into what makes him a funny character. One reason I love Justin is because of how insanely high and ridiculous his ego is. He always uses looks to get what he wants and is in love with himself. However, this doesn't make him an annoying character in my eyes as he's balanced with how self-conscious he is. Underneath his surface, he panics at any slight injury to himself. This is one reason that I thought he was completely balanced in pros and cons and despite high arrogance, he could be relatable to a lot of people. Not only does this balance make Justin interesting, but it's also why I love his humor. He's so exaggerated about how good or bad he looks that it's actually pretty realistic for the kind of person who works too hard on their looks. So he worked well with the stereotype he had and was really interesting underneath his surface.

The personality section also brings up about how Justin knows he isn't anything without his looks. Don't forget his whole brain talking moments in Dial M for Merger. He flat out admits this trait that he has. It would explain why Justin gets so panicky with injury to himself. Everything about Justin, in my eyes, is connected to all his other traits. In fact, I found him one of the most complex of the whole season.

Not only do I feel Justin is very realistic and complex to the point that his humor works, he also has a great progression. Before Courtney came along, he could get out of whatever challenge he wants using looks and of course that novelty would eventually wear off in Full Metal Drama. Justin using his looks to get out of things doesn't really make him a bad person in my opinion though. If your blessed with something, anyone would just repeatedly do what gives them an advantage. When Justin realizes it doesn't works, he becomes more human-like, and eliminating Izzy for slightly insulting his looks shows just how insecure he is. But once Courtney came along, Justin just became much better. He knew his looks weren't as good as he panicked about them at least every one or two episodes, so I think it was a natural progression. As a comic relief, he worked well for me. TDI gave a blank slate so you could really do anything with him from there. From the direction they went with, I thought it worked.

Justin is up there with Harold and Lindsay for being one of the funniest characters of the season. His humor isn't predictable or anything. Justin has a really unique brand of humor. Here's one quote for instance.

''(Trying to calm Beth) Just focus on my calming beauty and soothing complexion. (Beth looks at him blankly, then bursts into tears) Oh no! I'm hideous!''

This works because it brings out his lovable insecurities while still making him funny. He brought a unique style for me with his humor that not much other characters really had. His self-loathingness is used to benefit the humor he has. He's basically a schadenfreude character.

Justin was a perfect choice for TDA. It's primarily a comedy based season with diverse humor so I think Justin was right where he belonged and the season brought out the best in him.

And I'm not saying Justin has to be some kind of melodramatic insecure character or anything. He has insecurities but he still manages to be entertaining regardless due to the arrogance he masks himself with. Overall he was completely unpredictable in what came out of his mouth. He could be doing anything and it makes me smile. He could be grabbing Heather's wig and slam dunking it with a basketball. He could be crushed by Owen and blankly says "I can't breathe."

His elimination episode was perfect. It sort of proved that Justin isn't a bad person like people say he is. While he was very violent towards Duncan and Harold, he sort of had a point about Duncan not belonging with Courtney. The episode kind of shown that Justin is a passionate person, and him sacrificing himself for Courtney proved that winning really wasn't his top priority. He began the series as being loved by all, but he ends his second run being ignored and losing his looks. He's one of the only complex characters to not be rewarded in the end. It's really well-written, yet the season still managed to tap into how funny Justin still is. "With me, this show just got 80% less beautiful. *bangs head* Alright, 79!"

Justin pretty much fulfilled everything that he was established as. His humor was diverse and had some thought into it,and his personality became much more detailed. I absolutely love Justin and I believe he works fantastically in everything on the show and is one of the funniest characters I've ever seen. No character is really similar at all to him, and he has really impressed me overall.