History TotalDrama / TropesAToG

** In ''Island (2023)'', Priya and Raj are Indian (though Raj does speak with [[CanadaEh a heavy Canadian accent]]), Zee is Hispanic, Axel is Latina, Chase has Southeastern Asian features, and Nichelle seems to at least be part-Italian, as her last name is "Ladonna" ([[BilingualBonus Italian for "the woman"]]).

** It's repeatedly mentioned that every contestant had to sign a contract to enter the show, and Chris occasionally brings up when they question or refuse to do something. However, because the contestants are below the age of majority[[note]]In Canada, the age of majority is either 18 or 19, depending on the province or territory[[/note]], their parents/guardians would have to cosign the contract. Most parents in the series either didn't ReadTheFinePrint, or in some cases, they ''did'' read it but allowed their child to go on the show anyway.

* ArchEnemy:
** Heather is this to several campers, especially Gwen and Leshawna. In ''World Tour'', she acquires a new one with the introduction of Alejandro, who is labelled "The Arch-Villain". Theirs is a [[BelligerentSexualTension love-hate relationship]].
** Lightning and Jo in ''Revenge of the Island'' uneasily enter arch-enemy territory after Jo betrays him. For instance, as much as there's bad blood between them, Jo is the only one to root for Lightning during the finale.
** The "Friendship Finale Trio" (Cameron, Mike and Zoey) and Scott during "Revenge of the Island".
** Ella and Sugar (one-sided on Sugar's side).
** In a case of EvilVsEvil, Bowie and Julia, who are the BigBadEnsemble of ''Island (2023)'' and spend a good chunk of the season trying to eliminate each other in addition to other contestants.

* AbortedArc:
** In "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", Courtney found out that the island isn't actually an island. It seemed like this discovery was going to lead up to something, but it wound up just being a bizarre random fact. [[{{Retcon}} Then the events of seasons four and five make it pretty explicit that it's its own island.]]
** Justin's role as the main antagonist of ''Action'' was dropped midway through the season because the writers came to the realization that he was too self-absorbed to pose any actual threat.
** Harold's attraction to Heather and his potential alliance with her in ''Action''. While the two work together during challenges at times, an alliance is never officially formed, even though it was the only alliance Heather could afford to make in that season. Meanwhile, his attraction is only mentioned by him a few times throughout the season and completely forgotten by the time of the next season.
** ''Pahkitew Island'' has two involving Samey. The first being her friendship with Jasmine (which is dropped completely after she is eliminated to the point where it feels like she never even existed) as well as trying to be her own person (dropped due to spending her last two episodes [[spoiler:pretending to be Amy after she's tricked being eliminated in Samey's place]]).
** Both of Ella's sub-plots (trying to become friends with Sugar and falling in love with Dave) in ''Pahkitew Island'' are cut short by her early elimination. She never realizes that Sugar hated her at any point and Dave never finds out about Ella's feelings for him.

** In "Masters of Disasters", Chris frets that if the teens drown in the locked submarines, his show will be cancelled, but is relieved when they manage to escape. However, in reality, the show would've been cancelled anyway due to the near-death of nine kids (not that anything else they have to do on the show is much better). The only difference being that if they did happen to drown, Chris would have been arrested rather than simply fired.
** As an ArsonMurderAndJaywalking example, real-life broadcasting standards and practices would have likely prevented Amy and Samey from competing in the same season, as many real-life reality and game shows in which contestants compete individually generally only allow one person per family or household to audition or appear on a show within a given season. While some ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' seasons have relatives or significant others compete as part of the season's twist, the contestants are usually separated during the team phase in a "Blood vs. Water" format.

** It's repeatedly mentioned that every contestant had to sign a contract to enter the show, and Chris occasionally brings up when they question or refuse to do something. However, because the contestants are below the age of majority, their parents/guardians would have to cosign the contract. However, most parents in the series didn't ReadTheFinePrint, or in some cases, they ''did'' read it and allowed their child to go on the show anyway.

** [[spoiler:Dave not only [[DidNotGetTheGirl doesn’t get together with Sky due to him learning she had a boyfriend back home but he’s left stranded on Pahkitew Island and is last seen with the implication he’ll be mauled by Scuba-Bear.]]

* ExecutiveMeddling: An InUniverse example is the increasingly blatant attempts to keep Heather from being voted off in both ''Island'' and ''World Tour''.

** The Gemmie awards are a parody of the Canadian TV awards, the Geminis, as well as the well-known [[UsefulNotes/EmmyAward Emmy Awards]].

** ''Pahkitew Island'' also averts this. [[spoiler:Shawn]] and [[spoiler:Sky]] get to take their cash home without facing any complications. Meanwhile Part 1 of ''Island (2023)'' downplays this: [[spoiler:Priya wins the million-dollar prize money, but on Part 2 she reveals that her father convinced her to put all of it away until she is 40]].

* [[BreakingOldTrends/TotalDrama BreakingOldTrends]]

* BreakingOldTrends:
** ''Action'' was the first season to feature no team switches and have someone debut to the competition in the middle of it.
** ''World Tour'' was the first season to introduce new contestants: Sierra, Alejandro, and Blaineley, as well as the first one to not include all contestants in the opening, as Blaineley and those who failed to qualify for the season don't appear. It's also the only season to be a musical, feature three smaller teams as opposed to two, the only time that [[spoiler:Izzy doesn't return after her elimination as well as the first time when the main antagonist of the season made it to the finale.]]
** ''Revenge of the Island'' was the first season to feature a new cast and have half of the 26 episodes of that of the first three seasons. It's also the first time that the red-colored team is the superior one and [[spoiler:the final two isn't a boy vs. girl.]]
** At the end of ''All-Stars'', Camp Wawanakwa is destroyed. The next season takes place on Pahkitew Island, which is an island without any facilities (except the outhouse) and an underground secret that makes it distinct from Wawanakwa. Both seasons also don't have anyone return to the competition after their elimination, don't have all of the eliminated contestants BackForTheFinale, and start the trend of newer seasons having shorter opening themes.
*** ''All-Stars'' is also the first time when one team doesn't win first two challenges, only winning the very first one before the pattern is broken.
*** ''Pahkitew Island'' is also the first time where the team which won the first two challenges ends up being the inferior one as well as the first time when the highest-ranking member of one team is someone who switched teams.
** While ''All-Stars'' came close to achieving that, Part 1 of ''Island (2023)'' is the first time when both teams are truly equal to each other. Both teams lost/won the exact same number of times before the merge (3 out of 6 each, exactly half).
*** ''Island (2023)'' also: is the first season ever to have only one winner as a result of having only one ending, features Chef as an outright co-host, doesn't give everyone individual moment prior to the final shot in the opening, changes the name of elimination method from "... of Shame" to "(Drone) of Despair", has no non-elimination episodes at all, has neither of the teams gain any additional members, either through returns and debuts or through team switches, and features parts of contestants' audition tapes upon their introduction to establish their characters rather than as an exclusive clips after the episode they were eliminated in.

** Both ''Pahkitew Island'' and ''Island (2023)'' also avert this. The winner gets to take their cash home without facing any complications.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: ''Island'' is the only season to take place in the year it originally aired in: 2007. ''Action'' takes place during the second half of the summer of 2007,[[note]]"Masters of Disasters" states that there are two days between the seasons.[[/note]] even though it was released in 2009. ''World Tour'' and ''Revenge of the Island'' take place in 2008,[[note]]"Walk Like an Egyptian - Part 1" and "Awwwwww, Drumheller" jointly state that ''World Tour'' ends in April, meaning it would take place half a year after ''Island''. ''Revenge of the Island'' is then a logical fit for the summer season.[[/note]] despite being released in 2010 and 2012, respectively. ''All-Stars'' and ''Pahkitew Island'' take place in 2009,[[note]]Several episodes, among which "Heroes vs. Villains", state that ''All-Stars'' takes place at least a year after ''World Tour'' and ''Revenge of the Island''. ''Pahkitew Island'' is a logical fit for later that summer, since the seasons are also in-universe shorter than before.[[/note]] while the actual seasons were released in 2013 and 2014. ''The Ridonculous Race'' was released in 2015, but it takes place in 2010.[[note]]The intended ages of the contestants have been released online. The three who were 16 in ''Island'' are now 19, while Leonard from ''Pahkitew Island'' is still 16.[[/note]] The 2023 revival of ''Island'', however, tries to rectify this — mentioned to be taking place "fifteen years" after the original, which would place it around 2022.

* AccidentalMisnaming: After Tyler is eliminated in ''Island'', Lindsay goes around asking people if they are Tyler. This persists through ''Action''. Both are back in the competition in ''World Tour'', where she keeps calling Tyler names that start with "T" except for his actual name until the episode where she gets eliminated.

** In ''Island (2023)'', Priya and Raj are Indian (though Raj does speak with [[CanadaEh a heavy Canadian accent]]), while Millie is also most likely Indian, but is a bit more ambiguous in her case. Axel and Zee are implied to be Hispanic, Chase has Southeastern Asian features, and Ripper and Nichelle seem to at least be part-Italian, supported by the fact that Ripper mentions eating large amounts of pasta at his Nonna's house and that Nichelle's last name is "Ladonna" ([[BilingualBonus Italian for "the woman"]]).

* ArcVillain: Each season except for ''Pahkitew Island'' has one contestant who takes the role of the main antagonist: Heather in ''Island'', Courtney in ''Action'', Alejandro in ''World Tour'', Scott in ''Revenge of the Island'', Mal in ''All-Stars'', and Julia in ''Island (2023)''.

** During ''Island'', Eva, Justin, Katie, and Sadie didn't get to do much and their specific archetypes and skills have been transferred to Courtney and Sierra, Alejandro, and Beth and Lindsay. They still show up in everything the full generation cast is involved in, but only to dress up the sidelines.

** Episode #22 of ''Island'' was originally called "Haute Camp-ture", a play on "haute couture", and featured a fashion photo shoot challenge. This idea was scrapped in favor of a "look in on the losers" story called "After the Dock of Shame". Some networks aired the episode with the original title, even thoughh the final plot line has nothing to do with fashion.

** Eva returns in the ''Island'' episode, "No Pain, No Gain", only to be eliminated in the same episode.

* BadassBiker: Trent, according to his biography for ''Island'', as he would buy a new chopper if he wins the money.

** ''Island'' has three pairings that get together with some amount of drama -- [[TheSnarkKnight Gwen]]/[[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Trent]], [[TroubledButCute Duncan]]/[[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]] and [[SurferDude Geoff]]/[[GranolaGirl Bridgette]] -- while [[LovableJock Tyler]]/[[DumbBlonde Lindsay]], [[{{Geek}} Harold]]/[[SassyBlackWoman Leshawna]] and [[BigFun Owen]]/[[CloudCuckooLander Izzy]] all manage to hook up with relatively little interaction.

** [[spoiler:Priya's]] ending for ''Island (2023)'' [[spoiler:has Bowie lose to her, but he at least gets to start a relationship with Raj]].

** While ''All-Stars'' came close to achieving that, ''Island (2023)'' is the first time when both teams are truly equal to each other. Both teams lost/won the exact same number of times before the merge (3 out of 6 each, exactly half).

* CareerEndingInjury: If a competitor becomes severely injured to the point of it being impossible for them to continue the challenges, they will be permanently disqualified. This is how Cody, Cameron and Wayne & Raj met their eliminations in ''Island'', ''All Stars'' and ''Island (2023)'', with the four of them being put in full body casts.

** Heather and Alejandro switched between this and EvilerThanThou throughout ''World Tour'' depending on how much they needed an ally at any given moment.

** ''Island (2023)'' has [[TheBully Ripper]], [[NightmareFetishist Scary Girl]], [[{{Schemer}} MK]], [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Bowie]], and [[spoiler:[[AlphaBitch Julia]]]].

*** ''Island (2023)'' also: features Chef as an outright co-host, doesn't give everyone individual moment prior to the final shot in the opening, changes the name of elimination method from "... of Shame" to "(Drone) of Despair", has no non-elimination episodes at all, has neither of the teams gain any additional members, either through returns and debuts or through team switches, and features parts of contestants' audition tapes upon their introduction to establish their characters rather than as an exclusive clips after the episode they were eliminated in.