Total Drama Returning Players Seasons Discussion

               So, as some of you may or may not know, alongside Total Drama, I’m also something of a Survivor superfan. For those who don’t know, Survivor is the reality show that TD is based off of. Certain TD characters are even direct parodies of Survivor contestants. The reason I bring this up is because I wanted to just…compare the two in this discussion, and thought it’d be a nice intro.

               So the topic today is gimmick seasons. Namely, TD All Stars: Heroes vs Villains. Obviously, this is quite possibly the most infamous season of the entire series. An overexposed cast, shoddy writing, mistreatment of characters, and possibly the worst final two in the shows history have gotten the season tons of rotten critiques from the viewers. But I want to take something of a different approach to the season, and claim that the season’s biggest suffrage was that it was an absolutely wasted concept.

               Ok, so to start off, on Survivor, All Stars and Heroes vs Villains were TWO SEPARATE SEASONS. All Stars was the FIRST season to bring in returning players, and it was season EIGHT. It brought in a cast of EIGHTEEN distinct individuals, ranging from a few past winners to some players who only made it about halfway through their seasons, but were memorable for their gameplay or personalities.

               Let’s compare that to the cast of TD All Stars. In essence, there were only two season rosters to choose from. Season 1, plus Alejandro, Blainley and Sierra, and season 4, seeing as seasons 2 and 3 reused the original cast. This immediately limits their options for a diverse cast, as the characters are guaranteed to have already been on a season with at least HALF of the entire cast, not making room for all that many new interactions.

               On top of that, you have the added label of Heroes vs Villains. Now, in Survivor, this was season TWENTY. The producers had NINETEEN other seasons to go through and select the best representations of heroes or villains for this season and, in stark contrast to Total Drama, most fans agree that HvV was the BEST Survivor season of all time. Why is that? Well for starters, nineteen seasons gave a guarantee of interesting players that can really fit the labels of heroes and villains. Obviously, I’m not claiming that TD should have shot for twenty seasons, I highly doubt they’ll even pass ten, but they should have held off with these concepts until they had several seasons of unique players, instead of limiting their options so much.

               Out of the All Star cast, there are several choices that are, simply put, in a gray zone. Characters like Sam, Lightning or Sierra aren’t remembered for being the heroes or villains of their seasons. Sam and Sierra’s attention was on their own plotlines with Cody and Dakota respectively, whereas Lightning was the purest neutral the show has ever given us, only caring about winning, while never really doing anything to swing him in either direction on the scale. Would the characters fit in an All Star cast? Yeah, but forcing them under a label of either a Hero or a Villain wasn’t all that necessary, and has spun some controversy in the fandom.

               Alongside the questionable choices, the others were simply oversaturated. Duncan, Gwen, Lindsay and Heather had appeared in EVERY SINGLE SEASON thus far, whether as competitors, or as a cameo, while Courtney had competed in the first three. It was time to give them a break. These choices were made simply because the players were memorable and, well, the writers were desperate for a big name season. Now imagine if Heather and Gwen hadn’t seen one another since season one, and suddenly season ten rolls around and you find out these two will be back. All the fans who had been watching Total Drama since season one are more than likely losing their minds that arguably the original hero and villain of the show are back.

               So what is it that could have made the season better? Well, there is the option of separating All Stars and Heroes/Villains ala Survivor, but if Total Drama is shooting for a ten season run, that would have been overkill. Really, what would have been the best option was to have held off on an All Star season until you get to the FINAL planned season of Total Drama. Assuming every season ROTI onwards introduced a new generation of players (perhaps one season might have been a Fans vs Favorites with a split new/returning cast), that would give the producers and writers SEVEN different seasons to pluck past competitors out of. Raise the number of players to 20/22 like in the original season, and book 26 episodes, and suddenly the potential for an All Star season goes through the roof. If the writers wanted a truly comedic twist, they could have even gone on to make three times, Heroes, Villains and Neutrals, to get every potential name they wanted back for that season. Heck, imagine if starting with season three, all we were given were new casts? Push back the development in World Tour for competitors like Cody, Noah and Tyler to Fans vs Favorites (where a character like Sierra could also fit in for an arch with Cody and make A LOT of sense) and you could have built up a really great final season.

               Well, there’s my little rant, so I’m gonna open it up to discussion. What do you think about All Stars/Heroes vs Villains as a concept? Should they have held off on it? Should there have been any returning player seasons? Let me know on the comments!