| 1 | ->''That evening, after they had dined and Brett had attended to his homework, Brett asked his mother to tell him more about her experience on ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island''. Brett sat in his favorite chair, and his mother sat on the sofa. She took a few moments to collect her thoughts, and then she began to speak.'' |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9489162/1/The-Legend-of-Total-Drama-Island The Legend of Total Drama Island]]'' (commonly abbreviated LTDI) is a reimagining of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama''[='=]s first season, written by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4657306/Gideoncrawle Gideoncrawle]]. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | The main story is wrapped in a [[FramingDevice frame story]] in which [[NoNameGiven an unidentified former contestant]] describes the events of the [[FandomSpecificPlot competition]] to her teenaged son in the style of ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The Book of the Thousand and One Nights]]''. This means that instead of the usual structure of chapters ending with an elimination ceremony where applicable, every chapter except the last ends with a cliffhanger. Elimination ceremonies usually fall somewhere in the middle of a chapter, but occasionally take place near the beginning. [[GreekChorus Commentary between]] {{the Storyteller}} (as she is identified in the [[DramatisPersonae cast listing]]) and [[AudienceSurrogate her son, Brett]], delineate the “episodes”. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | The premise of the main story could reasonably be described as, “{{What if}} ''Total Drama [[NewSeasonNewName Island]]'' had been {{played for drama}} instead of [[PlayedForLaughs laughs]]?” The resulting reimagining is [[DarkFic far darker]] in tone than its source material. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | The teams are initially the same as in the original, but during the first challenge Sadie switches teams instead of Katie. This [[ForWantOfANail minor change has a major impact]]. Numerous characters who [[ContinuityCameo debuted in later canon seasons]] make appearances, mostly repurposed as college-age [[RedShirt interns]]. Of these, [[MauveShirt Alejandro]], [[SpotlightStealingSquad Dawn and Ella]] are the most prominent. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | '''JustForFun/SumThisUpInOneTrope:''' HowWeGotHere |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The story previously updated [[ScheduleSlip more or less bimonthly]], although the author intends to complete the story it has not been updated [[DeadFic since April 2019]] and it is unknown when the next chapter will be published. It is currently about 60 percent complete, with an estimated finished length of [[{{Doorstopper}} nearly 500,000 words]]. In addition to the fanfiction.net version linked above, the author also maintains [[https://totaldramaislandfanfiction.fandom.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Total_Drama_Island a Fandom (nee Wikia)-based version]] which offers better support for the multimedia enhancements but does not permit reviewing without an account. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Not to be confused with a [[DeadFic long-dead]] ''Total Drama Island'' / ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' crossover of the same name. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Other troped works by this author include: |
| 19 | * ''Fanfic/CourtneyAndTheViolinOfDespair'' |
| 20 | * ''[[Fanfic/LegacyTotalDrama Legacy]]'' |
| 21 | * ''Fanfic/TotalDramaIslandByGilbertAndSullivan'' |
| 22 | |
| 23 | '''Because this story is full of twists, you [[LateArrivalSpoiler may encounter unmarked spoilers]]. You have been warned.''' |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | |
| 26 | !!!See the [[Characters/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland Characters page]] for Characterization tropes |
| 27 | |
| 28 | !!In addition to tropes inherited from [[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama the parent work]], this story provides examples of the following tropes: |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[folder: Structure/Style Tropes]] |
| 33 | * AdaptationExpansion: The reimagining is not constrained to 20-minute segments like the original, and exploits this freedom by including much more personal byplay and additional ancillary scenes. The result is a more character-driven story than the original. |
| 34 | * AllThereInTheManual: The Notes (aka trivia) section is extensive, and mainly explains the more obscure allusions. The Wikia-based version also includes hyperlinks to supplemental information on ancillary topics, mostly things alluded to in the story, and the story itself also includes embedded music videos for most of the compositions mentioned. [[note]]The Website/FanFictionDotNet version does not have these links, because that site does not support external links in story pages, so the video links appear on the author’s profile page instead.[[/note]] |
| 35 | * AlternateUniverseFic: The story is a reimagining of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama's'' first season, so perforce none of the show's canon events are directly acknowledged. |
| 36 | * AnotherStoryForAnotherTime: The Storyteller uses the phrase, "but that is another story for another time" as a {{foreshadowing}} device, signaling that the details of the incident in question will be part of a later Tale. [[note]]The story arc covers a full season of an elimination game show, with each [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming Tale]] covering one episode and portions of 2-5 chapters.[[/note]] The delays between the mention and the telling range from a few chapters to three quarters of the story arc. |
| 37 | * AntiquatedLinguistics: A [[DownplayedTrope mild form]] of this is the author's natural writing style. It is more prominent in certain incidents, most notably rendering the date of the camp's rediscovery as "The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Six". |
| 38 | * AsideComment: The Storyteller occasionally makes comments during a tale that are ostensibly directed at her son, but are in fact also directed at the reader. |
| 39 | * AuthorCatchphrase: Beginning sentences with "So it was", usually in the form, "So it was that X", is a [[SignatureStyle standard narrative flourish]] of the author’s. |
| 40 | * CharacterCatchphrase: The Storyteller uses three notable catch phrases as narrative devices/flourishes: |
| 41 | ** The phrase, "but that is {{another story for another time}}" foreshadows later (sometimes much later) subplots and plot points. Taken from ''[[Literature/TheSwordOfShannaraTrilogy The Sword of Shannara]]'', wherein the Druid Allanon used this phrase whenever he mentioned anything touching on the origin of the elves. |
| 42 | ** The phrase, "but nothing would be gained by repeating it here" is a narrative flourish for [[ExpositionCut skipping over repetitive content]]. Taken from the Mardrus & Mathers translation of ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The Book of the Thousand and One Nights]]''. |
| 43 | ** The phrase, "as has been told of before" lampshades {{Call Back}}s. This catch phrase is not drawn from a specific source, but is merely part of the Storyteller's [[LemonyNarrator somewhat archaic narration style]]. |
| 44 | * CharacterExaggeration: Inverted in-universe. TheStoryteller tends to depict the contestants more realistically and multidimensionally than the canon does, due to her insider perspective. She also makes references suggesting that the finished episodes mentioned in the reimagining don't depict the contestants any more multidimensionally than the canon episodes do. |
| 45 | * {{Cliffhanger}}: Every chapter except for the last and the epilogue ends or is scheduled to end with a cliffhanger, because the story is patterned after ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The 1,001 Nights]]''. These cliffhangers include that rare type that cuts back just to watch the hanger fall. |
| 46 | * DarkFic: One of the fandom's darkest [[FandomSpecificPlot competition stories]] that doesn't [[DeadlyGame make the contestants fight to the death]] or simply [[TenLittleMurderVictims murder them]]--and mostly just because it plays for drama incidents the original played for laughs. |
| 47 | * DarkerAndEdgier: The author achieves this by several methods, most notably by playing for drama certain incidents that the original played for laughs, and by replacing certain cartoonish elements of the original with some [[{{Deconstruction}} pretty stark realism]]. |
| 48 | * DelayedNarratorIntroduction: For most of the story, the narrator is identified only as "Brett's mother". The prologue reveals that she was a contestant who (presumably) got deep into the game, but her identity is not revealed until near the end. |
| 49 | * DescriptionPorn: Description-rich narrative is a major element of the author's writing style. This excerpt from the [[MeaningfulFuneral funeral scene]] is illustrative: |
| 50 | --> Grasping the [memorial] marker assembly by the makeshift handle that linked the two ends of the chain, Eva twirled it around a few times to build enough momentum so the crosspiece wouldn’t scrape the ground. Then, after the elaborate windup characteristic of competitive hammer throwing, she cast the marker out over the lake, toward the descending sun whose afternoon gold was now showing the first touches of sunset orange.\ |
| 51 | \ |
| 52 | The marker hit the water somewhat farther out than the spot where [the deceased] had been last seen, but reasonably close. Within a few moments, the weight of the chain pulled the bottom of the cross down, and the cross now bobbed upright on the water. Satisfied with her handiwork, Eva rejoined the others. |
| 53 | * {{Doorstopper}}: Estimated finished length is 400,000 words or more. The author has a [[DescriptionPorn richly descriptive]] style, and a high word count is the price of that. |
| 54 | * DramaticEllipsis: These appear with some regularity, usually to indicate a pause in dialogue and always with the regulation three dots. |
| 55 | * EveryEpisodeEnding: Except for the prologue, every chapter posted to date ends thusly: "The hour was growing late, so Brett's mother left off her tale and suggested that he prepare for bed." |
| 56 | * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Many of the episode titles are self-explanatory: "The Tale of the Dodgeball Match", The Tale of the Talent Show", etc. |
| 57 | * ExpositionCut: The Storyteller regularly skips over repetitive content with the line, "But nothing would be gained by repeating it here." Taken from the Mardrus & Mathers translation of ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The 1,001 Nights]]''. |
| 58 | * ExternalRetcon: The reimagining has elements of this, as is perhaps the nature of reimaginings. TheStoryteller tends to depict the contestants more realistically and multidimensionally than the canon does, justified in-universe by her insider perspective. She also makes references to [[ManipulativeEditing manipulative editing]] by the in-universe producers, who wanted the finished episodes to suggest that the teams don't get along as well as they do. |
| 59 | * FootnoteFever: Each chapter has an extensive Notes section, with over 30 entries in some cases, most of which explain obscure and/or highbrow allusions. |
| 60 | * FramingDevice: When Brett learns that he will be a contestant on the the newly revived ''Total Drama Island: The Next Generation'', and learns that his mother was a contestant on the first season of the original ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'', he asks her to tell him all about her experience. Her tales comprise the inner story, with the [[GreekChorus byplay between Brett and his mother]] comprising the frame story. |
| 61 | * GreekChorus: At the end of each "episode", Brett and his mother discuss it, usually briefly, sometime less so. |
| 62 | * {{Homage}}: |
| 63 | ** The entire work is homage to ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The 1,001 Nights]]'', which is [[{{Pastiche}} the story's structural model]]. |
| 64 | ** The dodgeball match is largely homage to ''Literature/TheIliad'', but Noah's {{rousing speech}} in [[GratuitousIambicPentameter blank verse]] during the match is based on the "St. Crispin's Day” speech from ''Theatre/HenryV''. |
| 65 | ** Dawn enchanting the necklace is homage to the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan operetta, ''Theatre/TheSorcerer''. Dawn essentially acts out the titular sorcerer's part of the [[RitualMagic Incantation Scene]]. |
| 66 | * IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Episode titles take the form, "The Tale of X"; and chapter titles take the form, "Nth Night". |
| 67 | * InMediasRes: The prologue and most of the GreekChorus dialogue between Brett and his mother are the "middle", and the inner story is the "beginning". |
| 68 | * InTheStyleOf: This is the tale of a modern elimination game show told in the style of ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The 1,001 Nights]]'', specifically the Mardrus & Mathers translation. |
| 69 | * InfallibleNarrator: The Storyteller recalls long-past events with inhuman precision, although it is implied that she does [[UnreliableNarrator embellish certain details]]. |
| 70 | * TheLegendOfX: The story is called a legend because it is told in the style of a legend, which in turn stems from the story's HowWeGotHere nature. |
| 71 | * LemonyNarrator: The Storyteller narrates in a somewhat archaic style, as befits the story's [[Literature/ArabianNights structural model]]. Her narration is peppered with catchphrases that serves as both narrative flourishes and narrative devices. |
| 72 | * TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: The Storyteller is Canadian, so she mainly uses metric units of measure. The few in-story references to imperial units appear in dialogue, as opposed to narrative. |
| 73 | * NarrativeFiligree: Numerous ancillary scenes have far more detail than is strictly necessary to advance the story. |
| 74 | * NextSundayAD: Written in 2010-1?, the frame story is set in the year 2023 with no mention of intervening progress or events. |
| 75 | * OpeningNarration: Every chapter except for the prologue and the first chapter of the [[FramingDevice inner story]] begins with stock narration based on that in ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The 1,001 Nights]]'': "The next morning… and then she began to speak." There is some variation, most notably between weekday and weekend. |
| 76 | * {{Pastiche}}: Although ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The 1,001 Nights]]'' is a prose work, some of the component stories have a good deal of poetry. LTDI [[DownplayedTrope somewhat]] duplicates this feel by insertion of (mostly famous) poems at various points where they fit or enhance the scene's mood. These poems are usually part of the narrative, but characters occasionally recite them in-universe. |
| 77 | * PointOfView: True omniscient, befitting the story's "legendary" quality. Unspoken thoughts largely replace the confessional spots usually seen in ''Total Drama'' competition stories. |
| 78 | * PrepositionalPhraseEqualsCoolness: Knowing that the story is a legend is all very well, but the coolness-adding prepositional phrase reveals what the legend pertains to. |
| 79 | * PunctuatedForEmphasis: Ellipses normally serve when this effect is called for. |
| 80 | -->'''Bridgette:''' I am going to make you eat… every… word. |
| 81 | * {{Reconstruction}}: Although LTDI is neither intended nor billed as a reconstruction, it does a fair amount of recon work. This stems largely from the author's fondness for [[ShownTheirWork explaining things]], a generally higher level of realism than in the original, and a tone change from comedy to drama. |
| 82 | * SignatureStyle: [[DescriptionPorn Description-rich]] and dialogue-light, with a flavor that readers have described as "19th Century", "elegant", "nearly poetic", and so on. The author is also inclined to [[ShownTheirWork explain things in detail]], whether in the story or [[AllThereInTheManual in notes]], and to use "death and renewal" themes. |
| 83 | * SophisticatedAsHell: The narrative tends to be flowery and faintly [[AntiquatedLinguistics antiquated]], but the dialogue is modern teenspeak or middle-of-the-road colloquial English. |
| 84 | * TheStationsOfTheCanon: A central conceit of this reimagining is to play familiar scenes for drama instead of laughs, creating major changes in tone from sometimes minor changes in events, so it tends to track the canon’s major incidents relatively closely. |
| 85 | * ThinkInText: Unspoken thoughts in italicized text largely replace the [[ConfessionCam confessional]] spots seen in [[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama the original]] and in most [[FandomSpecificPlot competition stories]]. |
| 86 | * TitleDrop: The [[OpeningNarration chapter-opening boilerplate]] drops the title of the canonical ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' season (Season 1, ''Total Drama [[NewSeasonNewName Island]]'') that the story is reimagining. |
| 87 | -->That evening, after they had dined and Brett had attended to his homework, Brett asked his mother to tell him more about her experience on ''Total Drama Island''. |
| 88 | * UnreliableNarrator: Although [[TheStoryteller Brett's mother]] recounts long-past events with [[InfallibleNarrator inhuman precision]], she also embellishes some details, fills in gaps with informed guesswork, and lets her biases influence some characterizations. Indeed, those cartoonish elements in [[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama the original]] that are retained in the reimagining could well be chalked up to her embellishments. It’s called a “legend” for a reason. |
| 89 | * WebcomicTime: Chapters are published bimonthly, but some chapters covers only a few hours' worth of events. |
| 90 | * WhatIf: The story is a reimagining of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama's'' first season, but can be reasonably described as, "What if ''Total Drama Island'' had been played for drama instead of laughs?" The result is one of the [[DarkFic darkest]] Season 1 remakes in the fandom. |
| 91 | * TheXOfY: The fic title follows this convention, as do [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming all its episode titles]]. The latter take the form, "The Tale of X". |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder: Plot/event Tropes (Main Tropes Listing) A-L]] |
| 95 | * AccidentalAimingSkills: The dodgeball match has a couple of examples: |
| 96 | ** Played for drama when Lindsay scores the first kill of the match, hitting Bridgette despite aiming for the nearby D.J. |
| 97 | ** Played for laughs when the last ball of Tyler's wild fusillade comes hurtling straight for Leshawna’s head. Tyler was actually trying to hit Cody, who was halfway across the court. |
| 98 | * ActorAllusion: Lindsay's chronic name butchery sets up an example. [[AllThereInTheManual According to the story's notes]], her occasional rendering of "Gwen" as "Jen" is a reference to the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}} 6Teen]]'' character, Jen Masterson, who has the same voice actress as Gwen. |
| 99 | * AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The Storyteller shows some fondness for alliteration (which is, after all, a basic poetic device) in the narrative. The dialogue includes a full-fledged alliteration "duel" between Noah and Izzy (full text on the Quotes page), with Chris even getting into the act as he interrupts it. |
| 100 | * {{Ahem}}: [[TheHost Chris]] theatrically clears his throat during the orientation tour when two contestants are talking about something unrelated instead of paying attention. It's one of the first signs of Chris' [[LargeHam hammy]] side. |
| 101 | * AliceAllusion: |
| 102 | ** When Heather positions herself as her team's leader during the first challenge, Gwen compares her to the Queen of Hearts, implying that Gwen does not expect Heather to be a wise or benevolent leader. |
| 103 | ** During the Awake-a-thon, the Storyteller samples the poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from ''[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]''. |
| 104 | * AllMenArePerverts: Cody lampshades this when Heather flirts with him. |
| 105 | -->'''Cody:''' ''[makes a sexual innuendo]'' |
| 106 | -->'''Heather:''' Down, boy! I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves, you little horndog. |
| 107 | -->'''Cody:''' Hey, I’m a dude. It comes with the territory. |
| 108 | -->'''Heather:''' You do have a point. |
| 109 | * AndThatsTerrible: The Storyteller usually describes [[AlphaBitch Heather]] in neutral terms ("the queen bee", "the [[DragonLady dragon girl]]", etc.), but describes her in negative terms ("the Dark Queen", "the Princess of Darkness", etc.) when Heather is planning or doing something underhanded. |
| 110 | * AnimalsNotToScale: The lake is allegedly infested with giant man-eating lampreys, implied to reach a maximum length of 50 feet or more.[[note]]The largest real world lamprey, the Sea Lamprey, tops out at 3-4 feet long.[[/note]] These become the unlikely subject of a {{running gag}}. Some of the sharks are improbably large as well, big enough to “down a fully loaded canoe [[SwallowedWhole at a gulp]]”. |
| 111 | * AnimeHair: When the vain Chris refuses once too often to let Katie and Sadie be on the same team, they physically assault him and, among other indignities, forcibly restyle his hair to “an irregular, spiky mane, the likes of which is rarely seen outside of anime.” |
| 112 | * AnywhereButTheirLips: |
| 113 | ** Two girls kiss boys on the cheek to convey gratitude, as opposed to romantic interest: |
| 114 | *** Lindsay kisses Harold on his cheek [[SmoochOfVictory after he "rescues" her]] from harmless but dangerous-looking local wildlife. |
| 115 | *** Katie gives Ezekiel a peck on the cheek when he releases her from an unsolicited promise she didn't want to make but felt she had to. |
| 116 | ** At the Awake-a-thon, Lindsay kisses her love interest on the cheek because they haven't actually hooked up yet. |
| 117 | * ArcWords: The chapter-opening boilerplate periodically mentions in passing that Brett’s mother has “neither spouse nor partner”. For most of the story, this appears to be merely a narrative flourish. ''Appears'' to be. |
| 118 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: After a challenge marked by the loss of [[RedShirt an intern]] and a contestant in separate incidents, the normally self-effacing Beth defuses an impending NoHoldsBarredBeatdown when she asks, "Hasn't there been enough blood today?" |
| 119 | * ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: Used to provide a plausible(ish) explanation for the detonation of Izzy's firestarter. [[note]]The canon counterpart of this scene was merely a sight gag that viewers [[RuleOfFunny weren't expected to dwell on]], but the fanfic author is fond of [[ShownTheirWork explaining things]].[[/note]] According to [[AllThereInTheManual the story's notes]], the story accepts as true the exaggerated claim, from a 1961 ''Popular Science'' article, that a californium bomb with a 10-ton yield could be the size of a pistol bullet. |
| 120 | * AsianHookerStereotype: Noah invokes this trope when he calls the Asian or half-Asian Heather "the [[UnusualEuphemism Fu King master]]". It's not clear whether Noah thinks Heather actually fits the stereotype or whether he's just being [[FloweryInsults creatively insulting]]. |
| 121 | * AsianSpeekeeEngrish: When the Asian or half-Asian Heather tries to sit with Duncan and Ezekiel during the Awake-a-thon, Duncan invokes this trope by saying, "[[AsianHookerStereotype She so horny, love us long time]]" with a stereotypical Far Eastern accent and a bad imitation of Heather's voice. |
| 122 | * AsTheGoodBookSays: During the first challenge, the devoutly religious Ezekiel prepares for his dangerous cliff dive by reciting Psalms 23:4 to himself: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." |
| 123 | * AsYouKnow: |
| 124 | ** Chris invokes this trope during the orientation, when he grants the contestants amnesty to surrender forbidden electronic gadgets. |
| 125 | ** When two contestants are in urgent need of medical attention, Chef Hatchet reminds a couple of interns that the infirmary can only handle one patient at a time. |
| 126 | ** At a certain elimination ceremony, Chris reminds the contestants and the audience that there is no set procedure for breaking tie votes. |
| 127 | * AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: After a giant lamprey attacks Leshawna, Chris refers to the incident as "the [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Attack of the Fifty-Foot Lamprey]]". [[note]]It was really “only” about 10 feet long, as Cody points out, but a subsequent comment by Chef suggests that fifty-footers do exist.[[/note]] |
| 128 | * AttackPatternAlpha: During the dodgeball match, when the Muskies adopt the tactic of having everyone throw simultaneously at the same player, Courtney devises organized patterns with names like "Coffin" and "Die Five". |
| 129 | * AwfulTruth: When one contestant suffers [[ResurrectionSickness brain damage]] after she [[OnlyMostlyDead "dies"]] and has to be resuscitated, the other contestants reach an unspoken agreement to keep the victim ignorant of her condition because her symptoms are [[DownplayedTrope mild enough]] to allow this. |
| 130 | * BaddieFlattery: Heather butters up Cody in an attempt to gain his cooperation for her underhanded scheme without having to meet his price of [[spoiler: protecting Gwen]]. |
| 131 | * BarelyThereSwimwear: |
| 132 | ** Lindsay's costume for her talent show act (a ballroom dance with Justin) is a repurposed "barely legal" bikini converted to a dance costume by adding sequins. |
| 133 | ** During the trust-building challenge, Lindsay shows off a new bikini with a reasonably modest top but a "barely legal" bottom. |
| 134 | * BatmanGambit: Heather wants to hurt an enemy by taking away her new boyfriend. Her gambit is to approach the [[HopelessSuitor third leg of the triangle]] and [[MurderTheHypotenuse appeal to his jealousy]]. |
| 135 | * BawdySong: During the camping challenge, the Muskies sing several such songs after dinner, including "Barnacle Bill the Sailor". They would even have sung "The Good Ship Venus" if enough of them had known the words. |
| 136 | * BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: The Eagles copy the Muskies' mass barrage tactics in the dodgeball match. It doesn't work especially well, thereby subverting the trope, because the Eagles don’t realize that the Muskies are throwing [[AttackPatternAlpha organized patterns]]. |
| 137 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: |
| 138 | ** During the dodgeball match, after the hard-throwing but very wild Tyler hits the referee with his first throw, Eva says, "Not bad. Now let's see if you can hit an actual player." When Tyler, throwing from the back line, hits a teammate with his next throw, Eva invokes this trope. |
| 139 | --->'''Eva:''' I should have been more specific. |
| 140 | ** D.J. invokes this trope by name after Ezekiel, against whom D.J. bears a grudge, has [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat apparently fallen to his death]]. |
| 141 | --->'''D.J.:''' ''[[ThinkInText Be careful what you wish for. I swore he’d go down for what he did to Bunny. I should have been more specific.]]'' |
| 142 | * BedmateReveal: Played for laughs, with Duncan as the butt of the joke. His "bedmate" is actually a standee of Izzy's (presumably) {{imaginary friend}}, whom [[InJoke Izzy claims]] is [[PerverseSexualLust hot for Duncan]]. Duncan reacts as strongly as he does because standees of attractive women are his phobia object. |
| 143 | * BerserkButton: When Sadie tries to guilt Chris into letting her switch teams by accusing him of discriminating against her because she's fat, Chris gets genuinely angry—something he rarely does. |
| 144 | -->'''Chris:''' If you play the ‘oppressed minority’ card on me again, you’ll be out of here so fast it’ll make your head spin. ''Capisce''?” |
| 145 | * BerserkerTears: The normally mild-mannered Bridgette sheds tears of rage whilst denouncing Chris for his treatment of the interns. |
| 146 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: The scene where Lindsay is "cornered" replaces the canon cockroach with a large stag beetle - "harmless, but looking like something straight out of Hell." When Lindsay speaks of the incident a few days later, she [[InnocentInaccurate innocently]] makes her "rescue" sound like "a pitched battle against a thousand-kilo, armor plated killing machine". |
| 147 | * TheBigDamnKiss: Justin and Lindsay go over the top with their NowOrNeverKiss. |
| 148 | --> In a trice, the show’s [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Royal Couple of Beauty]] clinched, kissing with unexampled fire. The other girls—yes, even Heather, who no longer had anything to gain by trying to keep Lindsay and her beau apart—found the scene unspeakably adorable. |
| 149 | * BigOMG: People say variations (“Oh gosh” and so on) as well as stronger things in various situations; but when somebody says the exact words, "Oh my God", it means the speaker thinks someone's life is in grave and usually immediate danger. |
| 150 | * BigWhat: Courtney reacts thusly when Chris awards a certain challenge to the Eagles after it appeared that he was going to disqualify them and should have disqualified them. |
| 151 | * BigYes: Lindsay has been tasked with giving her friend Sadie a bad haircut during the phobia challenge, and cuts loose with a Big YES when she realizes that she can use extensions to do a reversible job. |
| 152 | * BileFascination: Cody encounters an in-universe example whilst watching his crush girl Gwen and rival Trent trying to decide whether to take their relationship to the [[RelationshipUpgrade next level]]. |
| 153 | -->Cody, meanwhile, was certain that he would rather tear his eyes from their sockets than see that kiss if it did come to pass; yet he couldn’t look away. |
| 154 | * BirdsOfAFeather: Two examples in the early chapters: |
| 155 | ** The driving force behind Lindsay and Justin' relationship is that both were astounded at finding someone else as hot/gorgeous as themselves. |
| 156 | ** After the Awake-a-thon, it comes to light that the obese and outgoing Sadie has been making eyes at the obese and outgoing Owen. |
| 157 | * BloodIsSquickerInWater: Defied to set up a HopeSpot when a certain contestant dives into shark-infested waters and misses the safe zone. The {{cliffhanger}} arrives with him still submerged, but the narrative explicitly states that there was no visible blood. |
| 158 | * BloodlessCarnage: Uses the variant of describing a game like a real battle. Much of the game action in the dodgeball match, especially in the first game, is written [[{{Pastiche}} in the style]] of a battle scene from ''Literature/TheIliad'', which is probably one of the most blood-drenched epics of all time. There is a minor subversion in that Lindsay does bleed after being hit in the mouth. |
| 159 | * BluntYes: |
| 160 | ** During a challenge, Geoff describes Courtney's attitude as "harshness". Courtney replies, "Yes, it is. What's your point?" |
| 161 | ** During another challenge, Beth thinks that Chris has killed [[spoiler:Courtney]]. When the (seemingly) offended Chris asks whether Beth really thinks he would do something like that, the contestants reply, "yes" [[SpeakInUnison in unison]]. |
| 162 | * BrainBleach: the following invocations (from separate incidents) are typical: |
| 163 | -->'''Bridgette:''' [H]ow about keeping us in suspense on that, okay? That’s a mental image I so don’t need right now. |
| 164 | -->'''Leshawna:''' If I even see one, I feel like I need a shower. |
| 165 | * BreastAttack: When a challenge pits the alpha females against each other in [[GladiatorGames gladiatorial combat]], the winner shows her vicious streak by "[[FinishHim finishing]]" the loser with a sustained shock to each breast from cattle prods. |
| 166 | * BringMyBrownPants: During the phobia challenge, Izzy soils herself in her terror. |
| 167 | * BunniesForCuteness: The gentle and inoffensive [[GentleGiant D.J.]] finds and adopts a bunny during the camping challenge, as per canon; but where the original played the trope more or less straight, the reimagining subverts the trope when the bunny's grisly demise [[DueToTheDead triggers a conflict storyline]]. |
| 168 | * TheBusCameBack: An eliminated contestant makes a guest appearance to help with a later challenge. |
| 169 | * CallBack: The Storyteller tends to [[LemonyNarrator lampshade her references]] to earlier plot points with the narrative flourish, "as has been told of before". When Lindsay is first revealed to be a gymnast, for example, the Storyteller describes in considerable detail Lindsay's achievements in that field. Many chapters later, when this secondary character trait becomes relevant again, the Storyteller says in pertinent part, "Lindsay was an accomplished gymnast, as has been told of before..." |
| 170 | * {{Calvinball}}: When Chris briefs the teams before the dodgeball match, he warns them that the rules might not remain constant throughout the match. When he later decides that a game is going too quickly, he springs a new rule on the players and tells them he can restore the teams to full strength whenever he wants. He later changes the number of balls on the court, without bothering to call time out, to counter hoarding. The match is largely described [[BloodlessCarnage in the style of a battle scene]] from ''Literature/TheIliad'', and Chris’ fluid rules parallel ''The Iliad''’s divine interventions. |
| 171 | * CannonFodder: In a confessional spot during the first challenge, Chris uses this term for the contestants whom he had expected to be early outs. He specifically identifies Ezekiel, Katie, Sadie, Gwen and Lindsay as presumed "cannon fodder". Subverted when Chris notes with mixed feelings that the "cannon fodder" is turning out to be more capable than he expected, for which he blames the profilers for not doing their jobs. |
| 172 | * CapitalLettersAreMagic: During a challenge, Cody gets no mere wedgie, but "The Mother Of All Wedgies". |
| 173 | * CaptiveAudience: In a downplayed example using the business definition, the first-day orientation includes a stop at the Tuck Shoppe, essentially an on-site convenience store. Chris informs the contestants that the Tuck Shoppe can provide various things to make their lives a little easier, but warns that they'll have to pay captive audience prices for those luxuries. In other words, everything will be expensive. |
| 174 | * CatGirl: Several contestants discuss the topic at the amphitheater whilst they wait for Chris to brief them on the Talent Show challenge. |
| 175 | -->'''Lindsay:''' I just love musicals! Maybe they’ll show ‘Cats’. |
| 176 | -->'''Sadie:''' I don’t think so, Linds. Today should be a challenge day— |
| 177 | -->'''Katie:''' [[FinishingEachOthersSentences —so if anyone]] has to dress up as cats today, it would probably be us. |
| 178 | -->''[Duncan leers and opens his mouth to speak]'' |
| 179 | -->'''Eva:''' Don’t say it, Duncan. We don’t need to hear about your ‘cat girl’ fantasies. |
| 180 | * CatharticScream: |
| 181 | ** In the phobia confession scene, the contestants have cause to suspect that Courtney is afraid of green Jell-O as per canon.[[note]]In [[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama the original]], her fear was to green jelly in general, as opposed to the Jell-O brand specifically.[[/note]] This leads to a running gag wherein various people refer to this suspected phobia in passing and Courtney vehemently denies it. The alleged phobia is finally mentioned once too often, and "[t]he camp rang with Courtney's scream of frustration." |
| 182 | ** Various people are occasionally described as looking like they are ready to scream due to tension or exasperation. The first such incident comes when Chris, who is losing patience with the dimwitted Lindsay, addresses her by saying, “look, bra”, and she responds by [[LiteralMinded looking down]] and inspecting her [[TheissTitillationTheory straining halter top]]. Chris looks ready to scream. |
| 183 | * CelibateHero: Heather forbids her lackeys to get romantically involved during the competition because she views romance as a distraction and fears its potential to create divided loyalties. Unlike most of the alliance rules she sets, this is one where she doesn't demand preferential treatment for herself. |
| 184 | * CharacterWitness: Team leader Courtney is nominated for elimination and can’t defend herself because she’s in the infirmary. Ezekiel, whom Courtney has been re-educating to be acceptable to polite society, stands up for her. Ezekiel’s sexist attitudes are well known, so his “testimony” carries a lot of weight. |
| 185 | -->'''Izzy:''' Guys, you know what Zeke thinks of girls, and we can just imagine what he thinks of girls being in charge. And yet he was the first one to stick up for Courtney. That should tell you something. |
| 186 | * ChariotRace: During a canoe race, Courtney and Heather get into a paddle battle that parodies a chariot racing scene from ''Literature/BenHur'', wherein the racers took to whipping each other instead of their horses. Ezekiel and Lindsay are the obedient "horses" who continue to paddle whilst the alpha cats have their fight. |
| 187 | * ChekhovsGun: Lindsay's bandana. When Lindsay arrives on the island, the Storyteller notes that her bandana would serve her well, but leaves the details as "another story for another time". Sure enough, several chapter later, the presence of that bandana mitigates the damage when [[spoiler: Lindsay's hair is burned]]. |
| 188 | * ChewingTheScenery: When the normally deadpan Noah gives a flowery blank verse speech based on the “[[Theatre/HenryV St. Crispin’s Day]]” speech during the dodgeball match, he's oblivious to the fact that he's hamming up the delivery. The Storyteller also notes that “a swell of dramatic music” accompanied Noah's speech in the finished episode. |
| 189 | * ClothingDamage: When a contestant must treat a campmate for severe hypothermia and has no heat source except her own body, she rips open her and the patient's pullover dresses [[note]]hers in the front, and the patient’s in the back[[/note]] to allow effective [[IntimateHealing skin-to-skin heat transfer]]. |
| 190 | * CollectiveGroan: The contestants [[LamePunReaction groan as one at]] Chris' {{visual pun}} when Noah identifies the Music/CelineDion standee's faerie-like "backup singer" standees as "the [[Music/DixieChicks Pixie Chicks]]". Chris is pleased. |
| 191 | -->'''Chris:''' The greatness of a pun is measured [[LamePunReaction not by the laughs, but by the groans]]. |
| 192 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: |
| 193 | ** During the [[PaintballEpisode paintball deer hunt]], the contestants playing the deer wear tails and antlers in their team colors. The hunters likewise have paintballs in their team colors, with each hunter having a different shade so the scorekeeper can tell at the end who hit whom. |
| 194 | ** For the marksmanship training in the boot camp challenge, which also uses paintball guns, every player has a different color of paint to show in a viewer-friendly manner who hits what. |
| 195 | * CombatByChampion: Eva exploits a momentary lull in the dodgeball match to step forward and challenge any comer to single combat. Subverted when Leshawna accepts the challenge and her trash talk leads to an offer of friendship, so the duel does not take place.[[note]]Based on a scene in ''Literature/TheIliad'' where Diomedes and Glaucus meet for single combat, only to discover that [[SacredHospitality old ties of friendship]] between their houses prevent them from fighting.[[/note]] |
| 196 | * ComfortingTheWidow: |
| 197 | ** Cody tries to "comfort" Gwen after [[spoiler: her boyfriend is eliminated]]. This is worsened by the fact that [[MurderTheHypotenuse Cody was instrumental in the events that led to Gwen needing comfort in the first place]]. The trope is subverted when Gwen reacts poorly. |
| 198 | ** A half-platonic variant arises during the camping challenge. Katie and Sadie go missing, which has a distinct possibility of costing their team the challenge, so Cody and Noah see it as a potential opportunity to get Sadie out of the way so Noah can "comfort" Katie. [[spoiler: When Sadie is eliminated in a later episode for unrelated reasons, Noah does indeed "comfort" Katie, with reasonable success.]] |
| 199 | * CompensatingForSomething: :During the camping challenge, Izzy pounces on an innocent remark by Ezekiel to suggest that Duncan's swagger might be his way of compensating for an inadequacy. |
| 200 | -->'''Ezekiel:''' Duncan, can I borrow your knife? |
| 201 | -->''[Duncan obliges. Ezekiel inspects it.]'' |
| 202 | -->'''Ezekiel:''' It’s kind of small, but I guess it’ll do. |
| 203 | -->'''Izzy:''' [[ThatsWhatSheSaid That’s what I said]]. |
| 204 | * ContinuityCameo: Several characters who debuted in the canon Season 4 or later cameo as interns with few or no lines. The only apparent reason the Storyteller bothers to mention them at all is to make a subtle [[BreakingTheFourthWall nod to the fans]]. The expectation is that the reader will recognize those interns from the descriptions. |
| 205 | * ConverseWithTheUnconscious: In a pivotal scene, one contestant talks to an unconscious, dying friend. She does this in part because she needs to stay awake, but also in the hope that her friend will somehow hear and draw strength from it. |
| 206 | * CoolClearWater: Lampshaded during the first meal, where one of the beverage options is "lake water that still tasted of the disinfecting chemicals". This helps to set the tone for the camp food as safe to eat and reasonably nutritious, but generally unappetizing. |
| 207 | * CreatorThumbprint: Chris introducing Trent as the troupe's "[[Theatre/TheMikado wandering minstrel]]" is the first of several Creator/GilbertAndSullivan references. |
| 208 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: The Muskies find the partially eaten body of an intern killed by the (canonical) [[RodentsOfUnusualSize giant carnivorous beavers]] that inhabit Boney Island. |
| 209 | * CruelMercy: When Chris holds the injured Gwen out of a team challenge, Gwen describes it as "a mercy worse than none" because the winning team's reward is to be something Gwen and the other girls would give their eye teeth for. Heather suggests that Chris fully understands the ramifications of what he is doing. |
| 210 | * CurbStompBattle: One team scores a "[[Franchise/MortalKombat flawless victory]]" in the paintball deer hunt challenge, thanks largely to the stratagem of "borrowing" Chef Hatchet's plane and hunting from the air. |
| 211 | * DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Katie and Sadie get lost and find themselves in mortal peril on what turns out to be the night before Sadie's 16th birthday. The morning of Sadie’s birthday doesn’t bode well for them, either. |
| 212 | * DateRape: "Discussed" via {{inner monologue}}. The morning after the boot camp party, the semiconscious Duncan realizes that he's not alone in his bed, and one thought he has on the matter is to wonder if someone had [[ButLiquorIsQuicker spiked the soda with a "date rape" drug]]. He dismisses the idea because he can't think of anyone who would have access to such drugs, let alone the inclination to use them. |
| 213 | * DaydreamSurprise: Inverted during the boot camp challenge's tree hanging test when a contestant enters the trance-like state typical of daydreaming as she contemplates real events in her past, and is thus occupied for far longer than the reader has been led to believe. The challenge supervisor has to strike her to get her attention, lest she continue to daydream indefinitely. |
| 214 | * ADayInTheLimelight: Dawn, an intern, dominates the [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming 17th Night]] chapter. She (presumably) [[NonProtagonistResolver resolves a subplot]] in the process, and then goes back to being a supporting character. Not coincidentally, this chapter is the story's first ParanormalEpisode. |
| 215 | * DeadHandShot: During the Boney Island portage, Cody spots a human hand sticking up from the rubble of a recent rockslide. On closer inspection, Sadie finds a burn scar which enables her to [[TheDeadHaveNames identify the dead intern]]. |
| 216 | * TheDeadHaveNames: When the Muskies find the body of an intern who had apparently made a heroic {{last stand}}, Ezekiel pulls her dog tag out from under her shirt in order to learn her name. |
| 217 | * DeathFromAbove: During the paintball deer hunt challenge, Duncan and the Muskies hunters invoke this trope (and the corresponding catchpharase) when they decide to hotwire Chef's plane in order to hunt from the air. |
| 218 | * DeathGlare: This expression of displeasure gets a lot of mileage, especially among the girls. Chris and Duncan are the most common targets. |
| 219 | * DeathSong: One episode has a scene based on Tony's death scene in ''Theatre/WestSideStory''. As a certain girl grieves on the dock for her departing [[HeterosexualLifePartners joined-at-the-hip friend]], the boy who's been crushing on her tries to [[ComfortingTheWidow comfort her]] by singing the Pie Jesu section of Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's ''Requiem''. The girl briefly joins him in duet before their teammates join in chorus. This marks the official adoption of the Pie Jesu by both teams as a regular part of the elimination ceremony, as the other team had begun singing it several episodes before. |
| 220 | * DeclarationOfProtection: Dawn pledges to do everything in her considerable power to protect Katie from [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent a malevolent spirit]]. Katie is, after all, far too sweet and innocent to simply leave to her fate, and Dawn is the only person on the island competent to deal with threats from the {{spirit world}}. |
| 221 | -->'''Dawn:''' Believe me, I’ll do anything I can to help you, and I do know ways to help you. You’ve had such [[TraumaCongaLine terrible ordeals]]. |
| 222 | * DefensiveWhat: A couple of examples: |
| 223 | ** Tyler plays dumb when his teammates confront him for nearly getting them all killed during a challenge. “What?” is all he says. |
| 224 | ** When the contestants are angry with Chris, who has just revealed that he [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink laced the buffet with sedatives]] to speed up the Awake-a-thon, Chris defensively says, “What? We’re on a schedule.” |
| 225 | * DevilsAdvocate: Although Courtney is as offended as the other girls by Ezekiel's sexist remarks during the first challenge, she later argues that he doesn't deserve to be eliminated for them because he bore [[InnocentBigot no ill will]] did his part in the challenge. |
| 226 | * DiesWideOpen: During the first trip to Boney Island, the Muskies find an intern's body in this condition. Ezekiel closes her eyes when he prays for her soul. |
| 227 | * DinnerAndAShow: During the phobia challenge, Duncan invokes this trope when Courtney starts stripping off her "contaminated" clothes. He and the other boys are disappointed to find out that Courtney's wearing a wetsuit underneath. |
| 228 | * DirtyBusiness: Heather appears to take this attitude when she resorts to outright cheating in a challenge. |
| 229 | -->'''Heather:''' I know, I know, I’d rather play a clean game, too, but not at the cost of giving away challenges…Without the edge that my plan can give us, we don’t stand a chance. |
| 230 | * DismissingACompliment: When Noah arrives on the island and promptly gives several girls over-the-top compliments likening them to Olympian goddesses, Bridgette calls him a "silver-tongued devil". Heather observes, "Nerdling knows how to spin a compliment." |
| 231 | * DisposableIntern: This canonical element is played for drama, as opposed to being played for laughs in the original. When Bridgette condemns Chris in a confessional spot, Chris' callous attitude toward the interns is at the center of Bridgette's indictment. |
| 232 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Leshawna and Heather’s argument on the diving cliff ends with Leshawna nearly killing Heather (albeit accidentally), whereupon the Storyteller invokes the trope. |
| 233 | -->Atop the cliff, the mortified Leshawna breathed an immense sigh of relief, for she understood only too well how close she had come to exacting a terribly disproportionate price for Heather’s vanity. |
| 234 | * {{Dissimile}}: |
| 235 | ** The Storyteller lampshades this in regard to Cody's idle "sleeping with the enemy" fantasy during the 20K run. |
| 236 | --->Granted, there would be no sleeping and Courtney wasn’t really an enemy, but that’s the way it is with figures of speech. |
| 237 | ** Katie and Sadie invert the trope when they scoff at how people supposedly can't tell them apart. One of them says, in pertinent part, "Like, hello, we're totally different." It’s not made clear which one says this because they are treated as being utterly interchangeable in this conversation. |
| 238 | * DissonantSerenity: When Heather's phobia challenge drives her beyond the limit of her ability to feel fear, she speaks calmly and appears composed. The Storyteller likens Heather's demeanor to the serenity “which comes with ceasing to fear death when about to die." Heather faints moments later. |
| 239 | * DistractedByTheSexy: When the contestants assemble in their swimwear for the first challenge, Justin appears wearing only bikini briefs. This leaves the female contestants, interns and camera crews unable to function, so Chris orders Justin to change into something less revealing. |
| 240 | * DogFoodDiet: Played with during the first meal. The sloppy joe meat looks suspiciously like dog food. |
| 241 | * DoubleEntendre: Duncan serves up a fair number of these, in keeping with his tendency to view girls as objects. |
| 242 | * DoubleTake: During the first meal, Gwen does a double take when it seems to her that her food has moved. On the second part of the take, she eyes her food warily, trying to convince herself that the seeming movement was just a trick of the light. |
| 243 | * DownerBeginning: The first two “episodes” begin this way: |
| 244 | ** Played straight in Episode 1, which begins with an account of how the abandoned summer camp came to be abandoned in the first place. |
| 245 | ** Exaggerated and played for laughs in Episode 2, which begins thusly: "The next morning, their first at Camp Wawanakwa, the campers awoke to the end of the world." The wakeup call is the [[StandardSnippet “Dies Irae” from Verdi's]] ''[[StandardSnippet Requiem]]'', which Chris plays over the PA system at “[[LoudOfWar cabin-shaking volume]]". |
| 246 | * DramaBomb: Through the first several chapters, Katie and Sadie are almost exclusively comic relief. Then, during the camping challenge, instead of a reimagined version of the childish quarrel they had in canon after getting lost, they are caught in a nighttime storm without adequate shelter or clothing and develop severe hypothermia, facing a very real possibility of decidedly uncomic deaths. |
| 247 | * DramaticReading: Noah's audition for the talent show challenge is a dramatic reading from ''Literature/TheCallOfTheWild''. |
| 248 | * DreamingOfThingsToCome: On the morning of the second challenge, Bridgette sees numerous parallels between the day's events and her previous night's dream of finding a presumably dead contestant alive. The trope is subverted when she comes to the place where she dreamed of finding said contestant—a spot she had never been to before—only to find no sign of human presence. |
| 249 | * DueToTheDead: |
| 250 | ** Chris can’t be bothered to conduct a funeral for a [[NeverFoundTheBody presumably dead contestant]], but Chef agrees to do so, thereby demonstating Chris' callousness and Chef's decency. |
| 251 | ** The Elimination song is a metaphorical example. As the Boat of Losers (metaphorically, a funeral barge of sorts) departs with the most recently eliminated contestant, the remaining players sing the "Pie Jesu" from Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's ''Requiem''. |
| 252 | * EarlyBirdCameo: |
| 253 | ** All the interns identified in this Season 1 reimagining debuted canonically as contestants in Season 3 or later. |
| 254 | ** The first time Cameron appears as an intern, he is identified only by description and has no lines. When he appears again a few chapters later, he gets a proper introduction and dramatically important dialogue. |
| 255 | * EatenAlive: A contestant [[FirstEpisodeTwist meets this fate]] during a challenge that entails diving into shark-infested waters. |
| 256 | * EliminationCatchphrase: Expands on the canon version (“walk the Dock of Shame, board the Boat of Losers”) by adding, "and make the Voyage of the Damned". |
| 257 | * EmptyShell: For a couple of days after a traumatic challenge accident, Lindsay is only dimly aware of her surroundings. She doesn’t even have enough self-awareness to eat or use the toilet without assistance. |
| 258 | * {{Epigraph}}: The main story uses the opening verses of ''Literature/TheKalevala'' as an invocation. The verses are slightly altered in that ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' character and place names replace the original mythic Finnish names. |
| 259 | * EtTuBrute: |
| 260 | ** Courtney invokes this as a stock phrase when Izzy "betrays" her and the other girls during the camping challenge. The boys want to sing bawdy songs at the campfire, and Izzy offers to sing the "fair young maiden" lines in "Barnacle Bill the Sailor", which doesn’t sit well with the strait-laced Courtney. |
| 261 | ** After Heather has a falling out with Katie and Sadie, who are both her allies, Heather schemes to get Katie voted off without the formaility of kicking her out of the alliance first. |
| 262 | * EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy: After Izzy rides a shark and vaults to safety during the cliff diving challenge, she playfully curtsies for the camera to send the message that it's all for show. |
| 263 | * EvilLawyerJoke: The sharks won't harm Courtney out of "professional courtesy" because she plans to be a lawyer when she grows up. |
| 264 | * ExpectingSomeoneTaller: During the contestant introductions, Beth reacts to Chris thusly in the canon. The reimagining expands it to a [[RuleOfThree three-point running gag]], with Lindsay and Izzy also commenting on Chris’ height or lack thereof. |
| 265 | * EyeAmWatchingYou: |
| 266 | ** Several girls make the "I'm watching you" sign to Ezekiel as a warning to think before he speaks after Eva owns him for certain sexist remarks. |
| 267 | ** Heather uses the "I'm watching you" sign from time to time as a veiled threat to [[GirlPosse her henchchicks]] when they are not obedient enough for her liking. |
| 268 | * EyeTake: The Storyteller often notes the widening of characters’ eyes in surprise or alarm, frequently accompanied by {{jaw drop}}s, in keeping with the heavy use of {{facial dialogue}}. |
| 269 | * FacePalm: |
| 270 | ** Chris and Noah react thusly when Lindsay takes a ForbiddenFruit metaphor [[LiteralMinded literally]]. |
| 271 | ** During the dodgeball match, team coach Heather tells herself, “[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Must… not… facepalm]]” at a certain point when the match is going poorly for her team. |
| 272 | * FacialDialogue: The Storyteller often remarks on the contestants' facial expressions, especially [[EyeTake their eyes]]. |
| 273 | * {{Fainting}}: With the horrors the contestants encounter during the course of the game, it's not terribly unusual for one teen or another to faint dead away. |
| 274 | ** Sadie faints when she sees the damage to Lindsay's hair. It later comes to light that the sight evoked Sadie's phobia object. |
| 275 | ** D.J. faints when the Muskies find an intern's partially eaten body. |
| 276 | * FamedInStory: |
| 277 | ** When the Eagles are messing with Beth's mind on the diving cliff, implying that she will die if she dives, Trent promises to write a song in her memory. |
| 278 | ** In the course of Noah’s blank verse speech during the dodgeball match, he suggests that if the Eagles just do their best, they will be remembered fondly regardless of whether they win or lose. |
| 279 | * FanDisservice: The obese Sadie has a brief scene where she's in the woods wearing nothing but shoes and panties. Even if you’re [[ChubbyChaser into that sort of thing]], the situation is decidedly unsexy. |
| 280 | * {{Fanservice}}: This is one of the reasons why the reimagining carries a stricter rating than the original. |
| 281 | ** At the first challenge briefing, Chris notes that the fledgling show needs to do something to grab the audience’s attention, and that one of the ways he intends to do this is to put the contestants in their swimwear so the viewing audience can ogle female curves. |
| 282 | ** When Justin and Lindsay dance during the talent show, Justin is shirtless and Lindsay's dance costume is a converted [[BarelyThereSwimwear micro-bikini]], and the dance itself is [[MatingDance highly erotic]]. |
| 283 | * {{Fartillery}}: Owen gasses Gwen and Trent during the Awake-a-thon, causing them to briefly fall unconscious. |
| 284 | * FingerMuzzle: |
| 285 | ** Justin inverts the usual purpose in his [[MillsAndBoonProse “romance novel” scene]] with Katie, putting his finger to her lips to prevent intimacy instead of promoting it. |
| 286 | ** Heather employs a deadly serious variant. After warning Lindsay to not tell anyone what she is about to reveal, Heather puts a finger on Lindsay’s lips for emphasis before [[WhamLine dropping a bombshell]]. |
| 287 | * FingerWag: After Izzy fixes up [[ImaginaryFriend Sunshine]] with Duncan [[ItMakesSenseInContext (sort of)]] because [[PerverseSexualLust Sunshine is supposedly hot for him]], Izzy records a confessional spot in which she waggles her finger as part of a playful admonishment. |
| 288 | -->'''Izzy:''' ''[wagging finger]'' Naughty, naughty, Sunshine. I didn’t think you were that kind of girl. |
| 289 | * {{Fingore}}: One contestant loses a finger in a challenge accident. The severed digit is too badly mangled to reattach with any realistic chance of success. Leaving this particular character with nine fingers is a MythologyGag explained in the story's Notes. |
| 290 | * FinishHim: When the extreme sports challenge pits alpha females Courtney and Heather against each other in [[GladiatorGames gladiatorial combat]], Chris gives the "thumbs down" signal at the end of their bout, instructing/permitting the winner to "finish off" the loser. |
| 291 | * FireAndBrimstoneHell: Ezekiel believes that Hell is like this, but to Bridgette it's "people having to do what Chris [=McLean=] tells them to do." |
| 292 | * TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest: Leshawna counsels Gwen on this matter after Gwen’s new boyfriend [[spoiler:is eliminated without warning]]. |
| 293 | -->'''Leshawna:''' Losing your first is always hard. You think there’ll never be anyone else. But it’ll pass. Take it from a sister who’s been there. |
| 294 | * FirstEpisodeTwist: Not actually in the first episode, but in the first challenge (2nd episode), which is close enough. Seeing the sharks get one of the contestants during the cliff diving challenge has a lasting impact on the surviving contestants, and is repeatedly referenced in later chapters. The schemers still scheme and the backstabbers still backstab because there's still a game to be won; but because of that one early incident, they're all in it together when someone gets into serious trouble. |
| 295 | * FiveFingerFillet: Whilst the contestants who have completed the 20K run are waiting for the stragglers to finish, Duncan teaches teammates D.J. and Ezekiel how to play this knife game. The three boys then play for a time. |
| 296 | * {{Flashback}}: A brief flashback in italic text explains how a certain contestant survived a challenge accident which everyone [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat had assumed meant certain death]]. |
| 297 | * FlippingTheBird: When [[TheStationsOfTheCanon an RCMP helicopter team comes for Izzy]], she combines this trope with GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger by pointing her middle finger at the helicopter as she shouts her defiance. |
| 298 | * FloweryElizabethanEnglish: During the dodgeball match, Noah gives a rousing [[GratuitousIambicPentameter blank verse]] speech based on the famous "[[RousingSpeech St. Crispin's Day]]" speech from ''Theatre/HenryV''. |
| 299 | * FloweryInsults: |
| 300 | ** When Heather and Leshawna argue atop the diving cliff, they trade insults such as “call girl in training”, “morbidly obese cow” and “eating disorder poster child”. The battle continues with [[InformedConversation no further details]] beyond the fact that the girls cast aspersions on each other’s “tastes, attractiveness, sexual proclivities, intelligence, ancestry, social standing and probable place of residence in the afterlife.” |
| 301 | ** Noah calls Heather's [[AsianHookerStereotype sexual proclivities]] into question by calling her "the Fu King Master". |
| 302 | ** [[TheStoryteller Brett’s mother]] says at one point that Lindsay's brain "would make a blueberry seem vast and majestic." |
| 303 | * FoodAndAnimalAttraction: The attraction of certain insects to sweets led to an incident that is the cause of Beth's phobia. |
| 304 | * ForcedToWatch: Sadie and Lindsay share a (canonical) phobia toward bad haircuts, so Sadie must watch Lindsay give her a bad haircut during the phobia challenge. |
| 305 | * ForDoomTheBellTolls: Invoked in the elimination ceremony. As the ousted player walks down the Dock of Shame, Chef Hatchet slowly rings the Loser Boat's bell in imitation of a funeral bell. |
| 306 | * ForegoneConclusion: In a few episodes, the elimination ceremony is treated as a ''fait accompli''. In these cases, the real drama is in lining up the votes. |
| 307 | * ForeignCussWord: The francophonic Leshawna occasionally swears in the Quebecois fashion of using the names of religious objects as cuss words. She later teaches Noah how to swear in this idiom. |
| 308 | * ForgivenButNotForgotten: |
| 309 | ** When Katie and Sadie force Chris to let them be on the same team, he forgives them easily enough but does not forget. This is partly why Chris does what he can to protect Heather when Heather backstabs one of the clones for her own purposes. |
| 310 | ** After a [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] boy [[MurderTheHypotenuse blindsides a romantic rival]], the third leg of the triangle forgives him--for a price--but occasionally reminds him that she has not forgotten. |
| 311 | * {{Forgiveness}}: Cody asks Gwen for forgiveness when confronted with his role in [[spoiler:eliminating Gwen's boyfriend (and Cody's rival)]]. Later, Katie comes to Gwen for forgiveness for her role in [[spoiler:helping Heather find Gwen's diary]]. Gwen forgives them both--[[MustMakeAmends for a price]]. |
| 312 | * FourLinesAllWaiting: Episode 11 is the first to span portions of four chapters because it has three fairly elaborate subplots instead of the usual [[TwoLinesNoWaiting one]] or two. |
| 313 | * FreakOut: Lindsay is so shocked when [[spoiler:her hair is burned]] that she becomes a gibbering wreck at first, then [[EmptyShell nearly mindless]] for a time. |
| 314 | * AFriendInNeed: When the severely hypothermic [[spoiler:Katie]] loses consciousness and appears likely to die, [[spoiler:Sadie]] resorts to dangerous IntimateHealing. |
| 315 | * FriendlyTickleTorture: Katie and Sadie reveal that the reason they're so good at TickleTorture is because they often had tickling duels when they were younger. |
| 316 | * FunbagAirbag: During the trapeze catch challenge, Tyler ends up with his face in Eva's ample chest after mistiming the jump command to his blindfolded partner. |
| 317 | * FunctionalMagic: When Gwen comments on the Vikingesque runes Dawn is writing in preparation for a magic ritual intended to shield Katie from a malevolent spirit, Dawn explains that her family's sorcery techniques have a strong Norse influence. The ritual proper is mainly theurgy, as in the theatrical scene on which it's based.[[note]]The Incantion Scene from the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan operetta, ''Theatre/TheSorcerer''.[[/note]] |
| 318 | * FutileHandReach: Leshawna instinctively reaches for Heather and calls her name after accidentally driving Heather off the diving cliff during the first challenge. |
| 319 | * GameBreakingInjury: Noah is attacked by hornets and suffers enough stings to be dangerous even without his allergies. Although he survives, he is [[VotedOffTheIsland eliminated from the game]] because he is not expected to recover before the teams merge and his teammates aren't willing to risk trying to carry [[TheLoad a nonperformer]]. Noah is not happy about this, but [[FaceDeathWithDignity understands and accepts]] the team's reasoning. |
| 320 | * GenerationXerox: The host for the upcoming ''Total Drama Island: the Next Generation'' is Christin [=McLean=], a niece of Chris [=McLean=], who hosted the original ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island''. Christin is essentially a nicer, less experienced version of Chris. |
| 321 | * GeometricMagic: When Dawn enchants the necklace, she draws a thaumaturgic triangle as part of her preparations. |
| 322 | * GiveMeASword: During the paintball challenge, Heather is in a point blank firefight with her rebellious allies Katie and Sadie when everyone pauses to reload. Heather, who has no extra ammunition, demands Lindsay's extra clips. Lindsay is still loyal, albeit not taking part because Heather has her gun, so she complies. The shooters then go right back to it. |
| 323 | * GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: When an RCMP helicopter team comes for Izzy [[TheStationsOfTheCanon as per canon]], she combines this trope with FlippingTheBird by pointing her middle finger at the helicopter as she shouts her defiance. |
| 324 | * GladiatorGames: The first part of the Extreme Sports challenge is gladiatorial combat, which Chris describes as "the original extreme sport". Each of the five battles features a different weapon type. |
| 325 | * GloveSlap: When Ezekiel makes certain sexist remarks and Bridgette responds by vowing to make him eat every word, Gwen asks Bridgette if she wants a glove to slap him with. |
| 326 | * GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: When Heather positions herself as her team's leader during the first challenge, Gwen compares her to [[AliceAllusion the Queen of Hearts]], implying that Gwen does not expect Heather to be a wise or benevolent leader. |
| 327 | * GoodAngelBadAngel: In a real-person variant, Courtney, who is trying to re-educate Ezekiel to be acceptable to polite society, is Ezekiel's "good" angel. Duncan, who is arguably a bigger sexist than Ezekiel and tends to view girls as objects, is his "bad" angel. Both are Ezekiel's friends and try to pull him in opposite directions, sometimes with Ezekiel actually sitting between them. |
| 328 | * GratuitousIambicPentameter: During the dodgeball match, Noah rallies his team and usurps Heather's place as coach with a rousing speech in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), based on the famous "St. Crispin's Day" speech from ''Theatre/HenryV''. |
| 329 | * GratuitousLatin: The story has two notable examples of proper Latin use: |
| 330 | ** The story quotes several verses from the Latin poem "Dies Irae", in both Latin and English, when Chris plays the [[StandardSnippet "Dies Irae" section of Verdi's Requiem]] "at [[LoudOfWar cabin-shaking volume]]" for the first wake-up call. |
| 331 | ** Ezekiel sings Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's setting of the "Pie Jesu" (also a standard part of a requiem) when a certain contestant leaves the island, and his team later makes it a [[GriefSong regular part of the elimination ceremony]]. |
| 332 | * GrayRainOfDepression: The rainstorm during the camping challenge is a steady drizzle during the period when [[spoiler:Sadie]] believes that [[spoiler:Katie]] is dead. The rain later stops long enough for [[spoiler:Sadie]] to determine that [[spoiler:Katie]] is still alive, if only just. |
| 333 | * GreenEyedMonster: After Gwen and Trent hook up, Heather appeals to Cody's jealousy to gain his help in [[spoiler: blindsiding Trent]]. |
| 334 | * GriefSong: Ezekiel sings Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's setting of the “Pie Jesu” when a girl he likes is eliminated. His team later makes it a regular part of the elimination ceremony. |
| 335 | * GroinAttack: During the dodgeball match, Eva routinely throws at the groins of both male and female opponents--not because she's trying to hurt them, but merely because it's a difficult spot to defend well under dodgeball rules. Katie also does this for the same reason, but lacks the intimidation factor because she's not as strong. |
| 336 | * GroundPound: During the hot tub building challenge, the players are forbidden to use their hands to open their crates, so the ridiculously huge Owen cannonballs onto his team's crates from a height to pop them open. |
| 337 | * TheGrovel: After jealousy over Gwen drives Cody to [[spoiler:help get his rival voted off]], Cody sees that Gwen was hurt [[TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest much more deeply]] than he expected. Cody subsequently apologizes and offers to do anything to [[MustMakeAmends make amends]]. Gwen then imposes terms that Cody considers harsh but accepts without question. |
| 338 | * GunshipRescue: The Muskies’ hunters, who are hunting from the air during the paintball deer hunt challenge, use a mass barrage to drive off a bear that has cornered a campmate. |
| 339 | * HandGagging: During the phobia challenge, D.J. suddenly puts his hand over Heather’s mouth to silence her, fearing she was about to say something that would give Chris ideas for making the phobia challenge even worse than it already is. It was loose lips, after all, that set up the phobia challenge in the first place. |
| 340 | * HandSignals: During the first challenge, when Sadie demands to be on the same team with Katie and Chris refuses, Sadie surreptitiously gives Katie a hand signal that Chris “didn't see and wouldn't have known how to interpret". This is the signal for Katie and Sadie to [[BewareTheNiceOnes physically assault]] Chris. |
| 341 | * HatDamage: During the contestants' first meal, Chef Hatchet responds to Geoff's request for different food with a (seemingly) no-look knife throw that strikes Geoff's ten gallon hat off of his head and transfixes it to the wall. |
| 342 | * HaveIMentionedIAmSexuallyActiveToday: The story has a fair amount of sexual innuendo--reportedly enough to put off some readers--but it's mostly just kids talking big. |
| 343 | * HealingMagicIsTheHardest: Dawn has a variety of magical powers, but the ability to heal physical injury is explicitly not one of them. She describes magical healing as a specialist discipline that takes years of training to do competently. When Ella subsequently cures multiple cases of radiation poisoning--something Dawn was not even sure magic could do--without even realizing it, the power of Ella's [[WildMagic wild talent]] is amply illustrated. |
| 344 | * HeDidntMakeIt: During the cliff diving challenge, Courtney uses a silent variant after she [[NeverFoundTheBody fails to locate]] a missing contestant. Shortly thereafter, when Alejandro is escorting Beth, he uses the standard phrase to describe the fate of [[RedShirt a fellow intern]] who was killed whilst testing the challenge. |
| 345 | * HeelRealization: When first Katie and Sadie, and then Cody accuse Heather of bullying Gwen, Heather realizes that her behavior toward Gwen has indeed crossed the line between "mean girl" and bully. This leads Heather to make a good faith effort to leave Gwen alone, which not coincidentally was Cody's price for helping with one of Heather's schemes. |
| 346 | * HereThereWereDragons: In the setting of this story, educated people generally believe in real magic but regard the ability to use it as a lost art--yet another skill of preindustrial life rendered superfluous by modern technology. The contestants and staff eventually learn that magic isn't as dead as they thought, although Dawn wistfully admits that it's heading in that direction. |
| 347 | * HeroicBSOD: |
| 348 | ** Tyler has one when Courtney fails to find a missing contestant, leaving said contestant presumed dead. |
| 349 | ** Lindsay has a more severe one when [[spoiler: her hair is burned]]. |
| 350 | * HeroicSafeMode: When [[spoiler:Lindsay]] is injured during the dodgeball match, her boyfriend enters a berserker fury worthy of [[Myth/CelticMythology Cu Chulainn]] and mows down the other team "faster than you could say 'Camp Wawanakwa'". |
| 351 | * HeroicSecondWind: [[spoiler:Sadie]] has a figurative variant. When [[spoiler:Katie]] is dying, [[spoiler:Sadie]] does everything humanly possible to save her. After falling [[DarkestHour briefly into despair]] when she thinks that [[spoiler:Katie]] has died anyway, [[spoiler:Sadie]] realizes that she can't actually [[HesDeadJim make that determination]] with any certainty. That hope, however faint, gives her the strength to carry [[spoiler:Katie]] and try to find help. |
| 352 | * HeWhoMustNotBeHeard : The interns are an [[EnforcedTrope enforced example]]. They do not normally appear on camera in the finished episodes and have instructions to not speak on camera except in emergencies. This doesn’t stop some of them being prominent in the story, though, due to the [[FramingDevice inner story's]] "behind the scenes" conceit. |
| 353 | * HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: The interns are an enforced example. Although a few interns are fairly prominent in the "behind the scenes" inner story, they do not normally appear on camera in the finished episodes which the Storyteller occasionally mentions. This has the effect of discouraging the contestants from fraternizing with the interns because, with all such interactions likely to end up on the cutting room floor, the contestants know that socializing with the interns will mean less screen time for themselves. |
| 354 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Storyteller invokes the phrase in the dodgeball match, with Tyler's "petard" being his inflated and unrealistic assessment of his athletic prowess. |
| 355 | * HormoneAddledTeenager: |
| 356 | ** When Heather reads Gwen's diary to the world, she embellishes her reading to paint Gwen in this light, depicting Gwen’s schoolgirl crush on Trent as nigh-pornographic sexual fantasies. |
| 357 | ** When Duncan contemplates the fact that he likes Courtney more than he really wants to, he attributes this to “[s]tupid hormones”. |
| 358 | ** {{Exaggerated|trope}} at the boot camp party. Encouraged by the [[LoveIsInTheAir disinhibiting effect of Ella singing love songs]] for slow dancing, [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy most of the possible boy/girl pairings kiss]], and most of those more than once. Everyone eventually figures out or is told what is happening, but most embrace the possibilities instead of fearing them. |
| 359 | * HorribleCampingTrip: Played for drama, as opposed to being played for laughs in the original. The teams don't fare too badly, but it's another story for [[spoiler:Katie and Sadie]]... |
| 360 | * HumanPincushion: Played for laughs. When Tyler tries to kill a porcupine for his team's dinner during the camping challenge, he ends up with “so many quills in him that he resembled a porcupine himself.” |
| 361 | * ICantBelieveImSayingThis: |
| 362 | ** When Bridgette accepts that Duncan has a point during a group discussion, she says in pertinent part, "I hate to side with the walking rap sheet". |
| 363 | ** When Lindsay wants to take time in a time-critical situation to do her makeup, Heather tells her that some things are more important than looking hot. A {{beat}} later, Heather adds, "I can't believe I just said that, but it's true." |
| 364 | * IHaveThisFriend: Heather and Cody play with the trope, referring to Heather as a nebulous "someone", when Heather tries to gain Cody's cooperation with a veiled offer of a {{showmance}}.[[note]]Heather is trying to bargain Cody down because she needs his help but finds his price--being nice to an enemy of Heather's--unpalatable.[[/note]] |
| 365 | * IKissYourHand: When [[EvenTheGuysWantHim uberhunk]] Justin leaves the island, he acknowledges each of his female teammates in various ways. He gives Leshawna a kiss on her hand, which leaves her ready to faint. |
| 366 | * ImAHumanitarian: When Duncan suggests that Chef Hatchet is feeding the contestants remains of the interns [[NoOshaCompliance killed on the job]], he (Duncan) claims that the producers are much too cheap to let that much fresh meat go to waste. |
| 367 | * ImColdSoCold: Katie inverts this trope when she becomes dangerously hypothermic. When her body weakens to the point where it can no longer keep blood away from her skin, she complains of feeling hot. She loses consciousness not long after. |
| 368 | * IMeantToDoThat: When Izzy arrives at the island, she trips and takes a header off the boat, but recovers in time to land on her feet, albeit in a deep crouch. She straightens up with a look on her face that says, "Of course, I planned that." |
| 369 | * ImmoralRealityShow: When new interns arrive to replace those who have been killed in the line of duty, Bridgette tearfully accuses Chris of running such a show. |
| 370 | -->'''Bridgette:''' I think the real reason he doesn’t want us getting chummy with the interns is because he doesn’t want it to bother us when they ''die''. It seems pretty clear that he doesn’t care about them at all. He doesn’t even seem to care if ''we'' die, as long as we do it with ‘drama’. |
| 371 | * ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: When Heather, Katie and Sadie get makeovers to show solidarity for the stricken Lindsay, who needs an emergency makeover after a challenge accident, vain fashionista Heather goes much fancier than her allies, channeling Creator/AudreyHepburn's iconic ''Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys'' look[[labelnote:details]]black dress, matching UsefulNotes/{{opera gloves}}, tiara, etc.)[[/labelnote]] in hope of upstaging them. Because Heather's new look is impractical for camp life, she goes back to her usual outfit the next day. Lindsay, Katie and Sadie, having chosen more practical makeovers, stick with their new looks for the rest of the summer. |
| 372 | * ImStandingRightHere: Owen makes this protest before the first challenge, when Chris casually disses his endurance or lack thereof. |
| 373 | * IndianBurialGround: Before the campers make their first trip to Boney Island, Chris informs them in the challenge briefing that Boney Island (now a wildlife sanctuary) was once a First Nations burial ground due to having a large natural feature that resembles a human skull. This gave rise to folkloric beliefs that (a) Boney Island attracts restless spirits from the surrounding area; and (b) people who die there will never be able to rest in peace. These legends [[TheLegendOfChekhov later become plot points]]. |
| 374 | * InfoDump: The early episodes have a couple of in-universe examples: |
| 375 | ** Deconstructed when Harold's dense exposition merely confuses the [[DumbBlonde none-too-bright]] Lindsay. |
| 376 | ** Played straight when Alejandro counsels Beth on elimination game strategy and describes Chris’ treatment of the interns, both at considerable length. |
| 377 | * InformedConversation: |
| 378 | ** Repetitive conversations are usually handled this way, usually with just one clause of description followed by the catchphrase, "but nothing would be gained by repeating it here." |
| 379 | ** Conversations involving interns are more likely to be informed than are conversations between more important characters. |
| 380 | * InJoke: |
| 381 | ** An in-universe example is the contestants saying "Sunshine told me" in the same way that an angry mother might say to her misbehaving child, "a little bird told me", the joke being that Sunshine is Izzy's {{imaginary friend}}. |
| 382 | ** A meta example is the significance of the pixie standee [[BedmateReveal in Duncan's bed]]. Readers who don't know Sunshine's creator, a self-avowed Duncan fangirl for whom Sunshine is essentially an expy of herself, probably won't get the joke without having it explained. |
| 383 | * InnerMonologue: Characters’ thoughts are frequently contrasted to their speech. The unspoken thought is invariably less diplomatic, expressing things ranging from exasperation to uncertainty to sexual arousal. |
| 384 | * InnocentInaccurate: Inverted with Lindsay's description of Harold "rescuing" her from a large stag beetle. When Lindsay later tries to describe the incident, she makes Harold's dispatching of the beetle sound like "a pitched battle against a thousand-kilo, armor-plated killing machine." |
| 385 | * InSeriesNickname: The Screaming Eagles and the Killer Muskies like to call each other "the Birdies" and "the Fishies", respectively. |
| 386 | * InSpiteOfANail: After Sadie switches teams (with Beth) instead of Katie, Heather recruits Katie and Sadie (instead of Beth) into an alliance during the Awake-a-thon. The dynamics of Heather's alliance remain much the same as in the canon, except that (1) the larger bloc is perforce more powerful; and (2) Heather finds Katie and Sadie harder to control than Beth was in the original. |
| 387 | * InsultBackfire |
| 388 | ** Played straight when Duncan calls Chris "sick" during the phobia challenge. Chris replies, "Should I try for 'depraved'?" and then speculates that being known as a "depraved reality show host" might be good for ratings. |
| 389 | ** Defied by Heather during the same challenge, when she tells Chris that the test he has set for Sadie is "low", even for him. Before Chris can respond, Heather adds, "And no, that's not a compliment, so don't try to twist it into one." |
| 390 | * IntimateHealing: After [[spoiler:Katie]] falls unconscious from hypothermia, [[spoiler:Sadie]] warms and shelters her with her own body as best she can, having nothing else available. |
| 391 | * IOweYouMyLife: This point comes up during a MoreExpendableThanYou argument, when the saver has been voted off and the saved volunteers to go in her place. |
| 392 | * {{Irony}}: The elimination following the dodgeball match serves up a generous helping of dramatic irony. This elimination is shocking in-universe (to the victim, anyway) but not to the reader, because all the real drama is in lining up the votes, with the ceremony itself being treated as a ''fait accompli''. |
| 393 | * ISeeThemToo: Dawn can see and converse with Izzy's {{imaginary friend}}s, although it's ambiguous whether Dawn perceives them as distinct entities or merely as unusual features in Izzy's aura. |
| 394 | * ItDoesntMeanAnything: When Tyler and Lindsay realize, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone however belatedly]], that they cheated on their significant others by kissing everyone in sight at the boot camp party, Courtney invokes this trope. |
| 395 | -->'''Courtney:''' We’ll vouch for anyone who needs it in the confessional. If we all tell the same story, they’re bound to accept it. |
| 396 | -->'''Tyler:''' What “story” do we tell? |
| 397 | -->'''Courtney:''' Nothing but the truth. It was [[LoveIsInTheAir a unique situation]] and didn’t mean anything. It ''didn’t'' mean anything, right? |
| 398 | * ItOnlyWorksOnce: |
| 399 | ** Katie and Sadie's assault on Chris only works because they have surprise on their side. Nothing in their profiles suggested that they would respond with physical aggression to anything. |
| 400 | ** Eva's climactic maneuver in the dodgeball match works largely because she had been hiding [[spoiler: her ambidexterity]] for just such a need. |
| 401 | * ItsALongStory: |
| 402 | ** Invoked in the prologue. Brett's mother warns him that the story is much too long to tell in one night, Brett is undeterred and wants to hear it all, and it turns out to be a very long story indeed. |
| 403 | ** Played straight during the trust challenge, when Lindsay senses that she's on the outside of an inside reference and asks Katie to explain. Katie demurs on the grounds that it's a long story, and it is indeed too long to tell in the time she has available. |
| 404 | * ItsAlwaysSunnyAtFunerals: The memorial service (not technically a funeral because there's no body to lay to rest) is held on a sunny or partly cloudy afternoon, after which the contestants watch the sun set. |
| 405 | * IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: "Discussed" via {{inner monologue}} when Cody is watching Gwen on a date with Trent. Cody's attitude is, "Of course I want her to be happy. But darn it, why can't she be happy with me?" Then Heather happens by and offers Cody a way to [[MurderTheHypotenuse get his rival out of the picture…]] |
| 406 | * IWasHavingSuchANiceDream: Bridgette dreams that she has found a previously eulogized campmate alive. She is awakened just before learning how he supposedly survived. Bridgette later comes to suspect that it was, in fact, a [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dream]] when she sees certain parallels between the day’s events and the events of her dream. |
| 407 | * IWillShowYouX: Chris and Sadie have this exchange when Sadie demands to be on the same team with Katie: |
| 408 | -->'''Chris:''' You and Katie won't generate enough drama if you're on the same team. |
| 409 | -->'''Sadie:''' You want drama? I'll give you drama! Don't say I didn't warn you! |
| 410 | -->''[Katie and Sadie [[BewareTheNiceOnes physically assault]] Chris and [[TickleTorture ruthlessly bend him to their will]]]''. |
| 411 | * IWillWaitForYou: Played with when the {{love letter}} recipient leaves the island after accepting her no-longer-secret admirer. She warns her new beau, "[[BackForTheFinale Don't let me see you before the finale]]!" implying that she will be disappointed if he does not reach the finals. |
| 412 | * JerkassRealization: After seeing a contestant apparently die during a challenge, the Eagles mess with Beth's mind (Beth being the last Muskie to face the challenge), trying to get her to forfeit the point by suggesting that she will also die if she does what the challenge requires. The Storyteller notes that this was terribly callous of the Eagles, and that most of them would be mortified later when they realized what they had done. |
| 413 | * JustInTime: Lightning and Alejandro find [[spoiler:Katie and Sadie]] just in time for Chef Hatchet to resuscitate the [[OnlyMostlyDead mostly dead]] [[spoiler:Katie]]. |
| 414 | * {{Kevlard}}: |
| 415 | ** When Katie and Sadie are lost in the woods overnight and develop hypothermia, the obese Sadie's natural insulation keeps her (barely) functional hours after her skinny companion is down for the count. |
| 416 | ** In a later incident, Katie "[[DiscussedTrope discusses]]" the protective properties of fat in an {{inner monologue}}, suggesting that Sadie's abundant body fat may have at least partially shielded her from a radiation pulse that sickened certain other contestants. |
| 417 | * KissingUnderTheInfluence: At the boot camp party, most of the possible boy/girl pairs kiss under the [[MagicMusic uncanny influence of Ella's singing]]. [[LoveIsInTheAir Everyone--even Ella herself--is affected to greater or lesser degree]], although a few people retain [[AboveTheInfluence enough self-control to refrain]] from kisses that would be especially problematic. |
| 418 | * KissOfDistraction: Not actually a kiss, but it’s the same effect and the same purpose, with a hint of IntimateHealing into the bargain. When Katie is about to barf during the Awake-a-thon, which would have disqualified her, Justin distracts her with sensual caresses until her stomach calms down. |
| 419 | * LamePunReaction: The contestants [[CollectiveGroan groan as one]] when Noah figures out the "Pixie Chicks" {{visual pun}}. Chris is pleased, and states that "the greatness of a pun is measured not by the laughs, but by the groans." |
| 420 | * LampshadedDoubleEntendre: |
| 421 | ** Alejandro has one during his conversation with Beth. |
| 422 | --->'''Alejandro:''' It didn’t hurt that I was also strong and athletic and able to charm the… ''[catches himself, bursts into laughter]'' |
| 423 | --->'''Beth:''' What’s so funny? |
| 424 | --->'''Alejandro:''' I was about to say, “I was able to charm the pants off the ladies”, but that would have been the mother of all epic fails. |
| 425 | ** Cody references the Monty Python sketch during the phobia confession scene, wherein Noah explains his phobia toward outhouses.[[note]]He was using one once when a black widow spider bit him on his penis.[[/note]] |
| 426 | --->'''Izzy:''' So you got your [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal pecker pickled with a pinch of potent poison]]. Does it still work? |
| 427 | --->'''Noah:''' ''[shrugs]'' As far as I know. It’s not like I’ve ever had a chance to “field test” it— |
| 428 | --->'''Cody:''' —[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more]]. |
| 429 | * LampshadedTheObscureReference: D.J. quotes a line from the spoken dialogue of ''Theatre/{{Iolanthe}}'', but he admits he can't remember what the line came from or where he heard it. |
| 430 | * LastStand: |
| 431 | ** Lindsay has a (nonlethal, obviously) last stand in the dodgeball match. Alone against three opponents, she manages to frustrate them for quite some time. |
| 432 | ** An intern has a last stand against Boney Island's (canonical) giant carnivorous beavers, managing to slay two with a makeshift polearm. The Muskies find her partially eaten body. |
| 433 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Ezekiel does this during the dodgeball match when he makes a statement that could be construed as a reference to fanfic pairings involving him. |
| 434 | -->'''Ezekiel:''' You’d be surprised who I get fixed up with. |
| 435 | * LetMeGetThisStraight: When Chris reveals that he laced everything in the buffet with a mild sedative to make the Awake-a-thon end sooner, Bridgette is indignant, to put it mildly. |
| 436 | -->'''Bridgette:''' Let me get this straight. You’re saying that you ''drugged'' us? |
| 437 | * LetsGetDangerous: In the first three episodes, Katie and Sadie are almost exclusively comic relief. Then, in the dodgeball match, the first time they're on the court together they go through the other team like a scythe. |
| 438 | * LimitedWardrobe: Enforced, as opposed to being played straight in the original. The Storyteller notes that the fashionistae Heather and Lindsay get few opportunities to show off their huge wardrobes, because the producers want the contestants to wear the same clothes most of the time for the sake of making it easier to splice in stock footage as needed. |
| 439 | * LiteralCliffhanger: A contestant who goes over a cliff during a vehicle race leaps from his doomed ride soon enough to avoid sharing its fate but not soon enough to gain complete safety. When the searchers find him, he is out of immediate danger but [[StandardBleedingSpots injured]] and stranded on the cliff face. |
| 440 | * LiteraryAllusionTitle: Several of the subchapter titles refer to other works, with or without any relation to the content of said works: (“[[Theatre/ALittleNightMusic Send in the Clones]]", "Film/WhereEaglesDare", "[[Film/FieldOfDreams Build It and He Will Come]]", etc.) |
| 441 | * LittleBlackDress: Heather's makeover after the talent show features one of these as she channels Creator/AudreyHepburn. |
| 442 | * LoudGulp: In a downplayed example, Courtney “swallow[s] hard” when she gets a good, close look at the ramshackle light plane that she and her teammates are planning to commandeer. Courtney’s gulp would unquestionably have been audible if the story had been in an audio-visual medium instead of print. |
| 443 | * LoudOfWar: For the first morning's wakeup call, Chris plays the [[StandardSnippet "Dies Irae" from Verdi's]] ''[[StandardSnippet Requiem]]'' "at cabin-shaking volume". |
| 444 | * LoveAtFirstSight: Justin and Lindsay have a shallow variant (i.e. mostly lust at first sight) justified by the fact that they are both preternaturally beautiful and never expected to meet anyone as beautiful as themselves. When they meet, Justin’s reactions and [[ThinkInText unspoken thoughts]] match Lindsay’s almost exactly. |
| 445 | * LoveConfession: Cody confesses his love for Gwen after she confronts him with his role in [[spoiler: eliminating Trent]]. Cody's confession is missing the actual word, "love", but the sentiment is clear enough. |
| 446 | * LoveIsAWeakness: Heather forbids her allies to have any romantic attachments because she considers it a distraction and fears its potential to cause divided loyalties. She’s serious, too—she [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness doesn’t even exempt herself]] from this rule. |
| 447 | * LoveIsInTheAir: When Ella sings slow dance numbers at the boot camp party, it has a pronounced aphrodisiac effect on the dancers. When the partygoers realize what is happening, being the [[HormoneAddledTeenager hormonal teenagers]] they are, they embrace the effect and decide it's a good night to play the field. By the end of the night, kisses pass between [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy most of the possible boy/girl pairings]]. |
| 448 | * LoveLetter: The canonical love notes subplot was introduced and resolved in a single episode, with Gwen and Bridgette discovering a single note. The fanfic expands this to three notes discovered over the course of five “episodes” and nine chapters. Gwen and Courtney find the third note together and are moved to investigate upon discovering that each had previously found separate notes. |
| 449 | * LoveMakesYouEvil: Discussed by Cody and Heather when Cody speculates that the producers will probably give him a "villain" edit because of what he's done for the sake of being with Gwen. Heather, who is comfortable with being portrayed as a villain, assures Cody that what he did was a good gamble that just didn't happen to pay off. |
| 450 | * LuminescentBlush: Gwen blushes visibly when dancing with Cody, as she begins to feel the [[LoveIsInTheAir aphrodisiac effect]] of Ella's [[MagicMusic slow dance singing]]. |
| 451 | [[/folder]] |
| 452 | |
| 453 | [[folder: Plot/event Tropes (Main Tropes Listing) M-Z]] |
| 454 | * MagicalIncantation: When Dawn enchants the necklace, her incantation is quoted verbatim from the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan operetta, ''Theatre/TheSorcerer''.[[note]]Dawn claims to be descended from the titular sorcerer, John Wellington Wells.[[/note]] |
| 455 | * MagicByAnyOtherName: Dawn inverts this trope when she implies that her canonical psychic powers are actually magical in nature. |
| 456 | * MagicFromTechnology: Dawn laments that magic is becoming [[HereThereWereDragons the lost art that most people think it has already become]], because modern technology can reproduce more and more of the effects with much less work. |
| 457 | * MagicKiss: [[MagicalGirl Ella]] is implied to be capable of downplayed examples. At the boot camp party, where kisses pass between [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy most of the possible boy/girl pairings]] and are frequently [[TheBigDamnKiss delivered with great enthusiasm]], Ella's kisses stand out. Although her kisses are not especially florid, the two boys she kisses experience weakness born of ecstasy. |
| 458 | -->'''Cody:''' Do you always kiss like that? Tyler looks about ready to pass out, and I think I know how he feels. |
| 459 | * MagicMusic: |
| 460 | ** When Dawn enchants the necklace, she speaks the incantation in a tuneful chant.[[note]]The text comes from the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan operetta, ''Theatre/TheSorcerer'', and Dawn is implied to use the same tune as in the opera.[[/note]] |
| 461 | ** Ella's singing has explicitly magical effects in addition to the canonical effect of taming animals.[[note]]Ella's canon counterpart is a Franchise/DisneyPrincess parody.[[/note]] It can even make Heather and Leshawna behave cordially toward each other. |
| 462 | * TheMakeover: Lindsay gets a new hairdo after [[spoiler: her hair is burned]]. Her allies also get makeovers to show support for her. |
| 463 | * MaleGaze: A close race sets up an in-universe example. When the race leaves the well-endowed Heather and the superabundantly endowed Lindsay lying on their backs panting for breath, an alert cameraman records the scene, with particular emphasis on the girls' heaving chests. When Chris finds out, he warmly commends the cameraman on his viewer appeal instincts. |
| 464 | * MaliciousMisnaming: Heather routinely calls the turnip-brained Lindsay "Lindsiot", something Heather did only once (onscreen, anyway) in the original. There is no sign that Lindsay has caught on. |
| 465 | * ManipulativeEditing: The Storyteller mentions several incidents, such as Eva getting a "villain" edit and Bridgette getting a "hero" edit. During the Awake-a-thon, Chris all but admits that the finished episodes depict the teams as not getting along as well as they do. This revelation is partly what leads Eva to reconsider Leshawna's earlier offer of friendship. |
| 466 | * MatingDance: Justin and Lindsay perform a highly erotic dance for the talent show. |
| 467 | * MeaningfulEcho: When Katie is dying, her last words to Sadie are, "Best friends forever." When Sadie thinks of a way to possibly save Katie but must risk her own life to try it, Sadie says to her [[ConverseWithTheUnconscious unhearing]] friend, "Best friends forever. Double or nothing." |
| 468 | * MeaningfulFuneral: The contestants hold a dignified funeral the day after the first elimination ceremony. Although they barely know the (presumed) deceased, they mourn him "not so much because he had been [who he had been], but because he had been one of their own." Chris reveals his callousness by refusing to officiate at the funeral, whereas Chef Hatchet shows that he's actually a pretty decent guy by agreeing to do so after Chris refuses. |
| 469 | * MeanwhileScene: Episode 10 [[note]]not to be confused with Chapter 10[[/note]] inverts the usual sequence when Dawn's arrival cuts to Katie's bout of {{survivor guilt}}. The plot-important ancillary character has her scene first, then the scene cuts to the main characters. |
| 470 | * MegaNeko: Ezekiel invokes this trope when he and Bridgette see a lynx at the camp. Although there's no evidence that the lynx is unusually large for its species, it’s certainly much bigger than the housecats that it superficially resembles. |
| 471 | -->'''Ezekiel:''' That is one big pussycat. |
| 472 | * MentalAffair: During the boot camp dance party, the aphrodisiac effect of Ella's singing is implied to give dance partners something akin to psychic sex. |
| 473 | --> There could be no doubt that Ella’s love songs reduced inhibitions … [E]ven dance partners who had no intention of going to first base with each other, much less beyond, nevertheless gained in the mind’s eye visions which were exceedingly pleasant to contemplate. |
| 474 | * MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: When the Asian or half-Asian Heather tells Chris during the Awake-a-thon that she wants to talk to Duncan and Ezekiel ("these manly dudes" in Heather's words) Duncan invokes this trope by saying, "She so horny, love us long time". |
| 475 | * MileHighClub: When Chris calls Justin and Izzy away during the phobia challenge, the other contestants speculate on what their tests might be. Justin's phobia is kissing an "ungorgeous" girl, and Izzy's phobia is flying, so Tyler suggests that perhaps Chris will make them join the Mile High Club. |
| 476 | * MillsAndBoonProse: Parodied in the Katie/Justin scene during the Awake-a-thon. The scene is written in the style of a romance novel (although the pregnancy imagery at the end is probably not a romance novel standard), but the situation is decidedly unromantic--Katie has overindulged at the buffet and is about to barf, which would disqualify her from the challenge. Her teammate Justin distracts her with sensual caresses until her stomach calms down. |
| 477 | * AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Dawn wastes no time lampshading this trope when she sets up a low-grade psychic link with Katie to make the latter's aura easier to read. |
| 478 | -->'''Dawn:''' And before you ask, no, it’s not mind reading. That’s too invasive and dangerous for the benefit we’d get from it, and I don’t even know the technique. |
| 479 | * MoodWhiplash: Happens with some regularity. A particularly notable example comes during the camping challenge. Most of the Muskies are singing {{bawdy song}}s around the campfire and having a rollicking good time. A few scenes later, [[spoiler: Katie and Sadie]] are fighting for their lives, with the fight going poorly. |
| 480 | * MoralityKitchenSink: Most of the cast are varying shades of gray, but the following are notable and/or representative: |
| 481 | ** Black: Chris, {{the host}}. He shows a callous disregard for human life. |
| 482 | ** Near-black: Heather, the {{alpha bitch}}. She seems to enjoy her antagonist role a little too much to be a “gray”; but unlike Chris, she draws the line at the prospect of bloodshed. |
| 483 | ** Dark gray: Duncan, the juvenile {{delinquent}}. He’s an experienced knife fighter and tends to view girls as objects, but he has too many PetTheDog moments to be a “black”. |
| 484 | ** Neutral gray: Chef Hatchet, Chris' aide. He’s a textbook PunchClockVillain. He understands and accepts the role of hardship in separating the game's contenders from the pretenders, but when approached with proper deference [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure he can sometimes be persuaded]] to give the petitioners more help than his duties require [[TheStarscream or even technically allow]], although he won't do anything that would affect the course of the game. |
| 485 | ** Light gray: Katie and Sadie, the [[HeterosexualLifePartners co-dependent clones]]. They’re friendly, loyal and supportive, but are also [[BewareTheNiceOnes willing to get their hands dirty to get what they want]]. |
| 486 | ** Near-white: Courtney, the [[GoGetterGirl Muskies’ nominal leader]]. She is well-meaning and compassionate, but is also willing to do [[IDidWhatIHadToDo what she thinks she must]]. |
| 487 | ** White: Bridgette. She’s almost incorruptibly pure and is the only contestant known to have mourned the [[RedShirt dead interns]] from the beginning. |
| 488 | * MoreDakka: When one team's hunters take to the air during the paintball deer hunt challenge, they have the foresight to exploit their connections to obtain extra ammo. This allows the airborne hunters to unleash mass barrages without concern that the well might run dry, and also allows them to [[GunshipRescue rescue a campmate]] who gets cornered by a bear. |
| 489 | * MoreExpendableThanYou: Katie and Sadie play it straight when Sadie is voted off. Katie offers to go in her place, Sadie is unwilling to allow that, and an argument ensues. |
| 490 | * MundaneFantastic: Although most people in this story’s setting have never seen a ghost or real magic, such are generally accepted to exist. Perhaps less so with ghosts, for Heather doesn't believe in them; but when she pretends to have seen the ghost of a dead campmate, the other contestants express little skepticism. |
| 491 | * MurderTheHypotenuse: |
| 492 | ** When Heather plots to hurt an enemy by [[spoiler: voting off]] said enemy’s new boyfriend, she recruits the third leg of the triangle by appealing to his jealousy. |
| 493 | ** In a half-platonic variant, Noah joins a scheme to vote [[spoiler:Sadie]] off so he can be with her [[HeterosexualLifePartners joined-at-the-hip buddy]]. |
| 494 | * MustMakeAmends: [[spoiler:Cody]] agrees to [[spoiler:Gwen]]'s harsh forgiveness terms after seeing how badly his [[MurderTheHypotenuse hypotenuse murdering]] hurt her. |
| 495 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: When Izzy kills a porcupine during the camping challenge, the Storyteller mentions that "a man, a woman or an Izzy" can both catch a porcupine on foot and kill it with only a club. |
| 496 | * MythologyGag: |
| 497 | ** Although Lindsay and Tyler are not a couple in the reimagining, there are a couple of nods to their canonical relationship: |
| 498 | *** Tyler gives a seemingly involuntary wolf whistle when Lindsay reveals her new look after an [[SeriousBusiness emergency makeover]]. |
| 499 | *** Tyler and Lindsay are one of the first couples to dance together at the boot camp party. Heather subsequently cutting in on Lindsay likewise refers to the canonical storyline where Heather tries, with mixed results, to keep Lindsay and Tyler apart for gameplay reasons. |
| 500 | ** Gwen losing a finger in a challenge accident refers to a polarizing storyline in the canonical Season 2 (''Total Drama Action'') where her love interest Trent is revealed to have an obsession with the number nine. |
| 501 | * NailedToTheWagon: In three early challenges, peaking during the dodgeball match, Duncan suffers from nicotine withdrawal because he's out of cigarettes and the Tuck Shoppe doesn't carry tobacco products. |
| 502 | * NarrativeProfanityFilter: The LemonyNarrator occasionally filters words and gestures, using all the major techniques: |
| 503 | ** When Heather and Leshawna quarrel on the diving cliff, they cast aspersions on each other's "tastes, attractiveness, sexual proclivities, intelligence, ancestry, social standing and probable place of residence in the afterlife." |
| 504 | ** Heather is "cursing under her breath" after Leshawna nearly gets her killed. |
| 505 | ** During the Awake-a-thon, the Storyteller replaces a swear word of Izzy's with the milder "crap" with the disclaimer, "She actually used a far stronger word, but nothing would be gained by revealing it." |
| 506 | ** When Chris reveals to everyone that Heather and her staff had monopolized the washroom all morning because they were making themselves over, the narrator reports that much grumbling ensues, "mostly along the lines of suggestions for where the Eagles' power alliance could put their makeovers." |
| 507 | ** When the RCMP comes for Izzy, she defiantly [[GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger points a finger]] at them--"not, it bears mention, the finger that most people usually point with". |
| 508 | * NatureIsNotNice: The story has a number of "man vs. nature" themes. Most notably, two contestants getting lost in the woods overnight and facing the prospect of death from hypothermia is a pivotal subplot. At least two interns are killed by wild animals, and more are killed in a natural disaster on Boney Island. |
| 509 | * NeckLift: Eva does this to Cody on the first day, when Cody comes into the girls' cabin uninvited and tries to chat up Gwen. A later example between Eva and Ezekiel is essentially the canon incident time-shifted to take place during the first challenge instead of after it. |
| 510 | * NeverFoundTheBody: When the SacrificialLamb doesn't surface after [[MenAreTheExpendableGender his]] dive into shark-infested waters, Courtney searches for him but fails to locate him. The missing contestant is then presumed dead. |
| 511 | * NeverSayDie: Usually played straight, although the dialogue and the narrative handle it differently. The dialogue usually features colloquial euphemisms such as "gone" or slang terms such as "bought it", whereas the narrative sometimes uses fancier euphemisms such as "found his fate" for poetic effect. |
| 512 | * NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: At a funeral for a contestant who had been on the island less for less than 24 hours, most of the other contestants have little to say about him because [[WeHardlyKnewYe they barely knew him]], although several feel the need to say ''something''. Courtney, an aspiring politician, gives a long-winded speech full of generalities and platitudes that she thinks will fit the occasion. |
| 513 | * NeverTrustATrailer: The author posted several preview scenes (the "trailers") in the year before the story's official launch. Beth, who is a supporting character in the story, was so prominent in these previews that a fair number of readers expected her to be a main character. This disconnect arose because the preview scenes were selected for standalone appeal and lack of spoiler potential, and Beth figures prominently in these scenes precisely because of her relative lack of involvement in the major storylines. |
| 514 | * NewRulesAsThePlotDemands: The dodgeball match has an in-universe example. When Chris decides that the game is going too quickly and the camera crews aren't getting enough good footage, he tells the contestants that he can order the teams back to full strength whenever he wants. He then proceeds to do just that. |
| 515 | * NoDeadBodyPoops: An aversion of this trope crushes a would-be rescuer's HopeSpot. The rescuer thinks she has succeeded against all odds—until she smells the “death dump”. |
| 516 | * NonGameplayElimination: During orientation, Chris warns the contestants that any attempt to contact the outside world during the competition will result in summary elimination, among other penalties. He gives a similar warning to the [[TheBusCameBack previously eliminated contestants brought back at the midpoint]], who are forbidden to reveal anything they learned at the losers' compound by means not available on the island. |
| 517 | * NonMaliciousMonster: The giant man-eating lampreys infesting the lake may be monstrous, fearsome and dangerous, but they're no more sapient or sinister than their smaller, real world counterparts. The one that attacked Leshawna saw her as a food source—nothing more, nothing less. |
| 518 | * NonProtagonistResolver: Dawn, an intern, has ADayInTheLimelight during the [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming 17th Night]] chapter. She (presumably) resolves a subplot in the process, and then goes back to being a supporting character. |
| 519 | * NoodleIncident: D.J. apologizes to Heather for an undescribed prank the previous day. A seriously "compromising position" is mentioned, and sexual undertones to the incident are hinted at. |
| 520 | * NoOneGetsLeftBehind: When Chris can't be bothered to conduct a funeral for a slain contestant, the surviving contestants approach Special Ops veteran Chef Hatchet, hoping to appeal to the "leave no one behind" mentality. Sure enough, Hatchet agrees to preside over the funeral. |
| 521 | * NoPeriodsPeriod: Defied during the diving challenge, when the sharks go into a frenzy after smelling traces of Katie and Sadie's menstrual blood. Given that one diver had already been eaten at that point, Katie and Sadie find it decidedly unpleasant to contemplate what could have happened. |
| 522 | * NoSell: Initially played straight when Chris tries to shoot Duncan at point blank range with a paintball gun during a challenge briefing. Duncan catches the paintball without even breaking it and scornfully presents the intact paintball to Chris, setting up a defiance of the trope. |
| 523 | -->'''Duncan:''' Is that the best you’ve got? |
| 524 | -->''[Chris shoots Duncan thrice more in quick succession, [[MoreDakka overwhelming his defense]]]'' |
| 525 | -->'''Chris:''' Does that answer your question, dude? |
| 526 | * {{NOT}}: Heather invokes this trope as part of a mock farewell to an enemy about to face a challenge that's likely to be painful, but not genuinely dangerous. |
| 527 | -->'''Heather:''' Nice knowing you. Not. |
| 528 | * NothingPersonal: Several characters say this when casting or discussing elimination votes. They're usually being sincere. |
| 529 | * NotWhatItLooksLike: After Cody's momentary panic when he discovers that Noah is spooning him, he quickly realizes that Noah was actually dreaming about an unidentified girl with a common name--a name that happens to match someone in camp. |
| 530 | * NowOrNeverKiss: |
| 531 | ** Moments before [[spoiler:Justin]] leaves the island, he finally gets his long-awaited kiss--indeed, [[ExaggeratedTrope a full-fledged makeout session]]--with his love interest, because Heather, [[ShippingTorpedo who has been trying to keep them apart]] for gameplay reasons, no longer has anything to gain by further interference. |
| 532 | ** As the girl on the receiving end of the {{Love Letter}}s subplot prepares to leave the island, she learns the identity of her secret admirer and shares a kiss with him before departing. |
| 533 | * ObiWanMoment: |
| 534 | ** When [[spoiler:Katie]] senses that she is going to die, she says that she’s not afraid |
| 535 | --->'''[[spoiler:Katie]]:''' I guess it’s true what they say… [t]hat when you’re about to die, you’re not afraid of it any more. |
| 536 | ** During the phobia challenge, the Storyteller describes Heather's calm reaction to her phobia object as "the serenity of one who ceases to fear death when about to die." (Heather faints moments later.) |
| 537 | * OddFriendship: |
| 538 | ** The socially awkward Beth and the manic, arguably psychotic Izzy bond during the talent show challenge when they discover that they share a talent for twirling fire batons and subsequently perform together. ([[PyroManiac “Twice the fire, twice the fun”]] as Izzy puts it.) After that, it’s not long before Izzy offers Beth an alliance. |
| 539 | ** When the [[GoGetterGirl ambitious and driven]] Courtney takes it upon herself to re-educate country bumpkin Ezekiel to be acceptable to polite society, she perforce spends a good deal of time with him and quickly discovers that he has his share of admirable qualities, not least of which is a willingness to learn. During the camping challenge, Courtney all but tells Ezekiel that she has come to consider him a friend. |
| 540 | --->'''Ezekiel:''' I just realized that we’ve been spending most of this game doing favors for each other, [[VerbalTic eh]]? |
| 541 | --->'''Courtney:''' That’s how people get to be friends. That’s how alliances are born. |
| 542 | * OffhandBackhand: The short-tempered Eva fells Duncan thusly when he makes one girl-objectifying comment too many. She just happens to be walking past and overhears, so she drops him without turning toward him or even breaking stride. |
| 543 | * OhCrap: The story's tone makes this a common reaction. Particularly noteworthy examples include: |
| 544 | ** Owen's great "oh, crap" moment comes when Chef Hatchet tells him--in front of most of his teammates--that he probably cost his team the challenge by [[{{Gasshole}} gassing]] two of his teammates. |
| 545 | ** Heather reacts thusly during the camping challenge when she realizes that her team has overslept, thereby putting them in a deep hole for the race back. |
| 546 | ** Izzy has her great "oh, crap" moment when she realizes that she put too much californium in her homemade firestarter, so the "firestarter" she just ignited is actually a nuclear bomb. |
| 547 | ** When Dawn is doing a tarot reading for Katie, Katie's mind is wandering as she admires the artwork on the cards; but when Dawn mutters a rhetorical "oh, crap", she instantly has Katie's undivided attention. |
| 548 | * OminousLatinChanting: |
| 549 | ** The contestants’ very first wakeup call is the "Dies Irae" (“Day of Wrath”, i.e. Judgment Day) section of Verdi’s ''Requiem'', played over the PA system at [[LoudOfWar absurdly high volume]]. |
| 550 | ** When Chris is milking the tension before handing out the final marshmallow during the first elimination ceremony, the finished episode’s soundtrack features a swell of dramatic music that eventually segues to “ominous choral chanting”. The text of this chanting is not specified, but is conceivably another setting of ''Dies Irae''. Indeed, the narrative includes a partial quotation of the poem at this point. |
| 551 | * OnlyMostlyDead: A challenge gone wrong leaves a contestant clinically dead but capable of being resuscitated. |
| 552 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 553 | ** Heather regards beauty as SeriousBusiness. When an accident leaves Lindsay in need of a new hairdo, Heather pronounces it an "emergency" and displays a very OOC level of generosity by offering any of her hair care products and equipment that the project may requires. (Yes, she has ulterior motives, and yes, Lindsay was about to go off the deep end, but still...) |
| 554 | ** The normally sweet-tempered Katie and Sadie shout, "[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch Meet your maker, bitch!]]" when they finally come to blows with their domineering overlord, Heather. |
| 555 | * OrSoIHeard: In a meta example, the author has stated that he wrote the Awake-a-thon's Katie/Justin scene in the style of a romance novel according to how that style was described in an Internet article on the genre. |
| 556 | * OurGhostsAreDifferent: When Heather is pretending to have seen the ghost of a dead campmate, Gwen states that ghosts can cause unnatural fear. Everyone assumes this is why the normally composed Heather looks like a complete basket case, although the truth is that Heather’s merely a good actress. |
| 557 | * OurSpiritsAreDifferent: Several types of spirits, all with different properties, appear or are mentioned: |
| 558 | ** A {{wendigo}} is allegedly trying to possess Katie because a {{near death experience}} has made her more vulnerable to such things. |
| 559 | ** When Dawn performs a [[RitualMagic magic ritual]] to shield Katie, Dawn calls upon certain sprits for assistance. In the process, Izzy implies that her (presumably) {{imaginary friend}}s may [[NotSoImaginaryFriend actually be spirits as well]]. |
| 560 | * OurVampiresAreDifferent: Giant man-eating lampreys. Is that different enough for you? |
| 561 | * OutOfCharacterMoment: During the first challenge, the normally self-effacing but currently distraught Beth cuts loose with an impassioned outburst consisting of a simple question that [[ArmorPiercingQuestion stops everyone in their tracks]]. |
| 562 | -->'''Beth:''' Hasn’t there been enough blood today? |
| 563 | * ParanormalEpisode: The [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming 17th Night]] chapter of this mostly realistic story heavily features supernatural elements. Dawn, who is canonically a psychic with aura reading and ambiguous additional powers, is revealed to be a full-blown sorceress and shows certain contestants that magic [[HereThereWereDragons isn't as dead as they thought]]. Not only that, but Ella [[note]]canonically a Franchise/DisneyPrincess parody[[/note]] is introduced, and her songs have explicitly magical effects beyond the canonical effect of taming animals. Her singing can even make Heather and Leshawna get along! |
| 564 | * APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: When the contestants start dancing to Ella's [[MagicMusic power-laden love ballads]], the boot camp party turns into a family-friendly metaphor for a drunken orgy. There is a great deal of KissingUnderTheInfluence, although it is [[LoveIsInTheAir no ordinary influence]] and frequently [[TheBigDamnKiss no ordinary kissing]]. Nobody sticks with a single partner the whole night, with one boy kissing all the girls and at least one girl kissing all the boys, whom the girls outnumber. The next day, certain people in a position to know explicitly describe that kissing as having been as satisfying as sex. |
| 565 | * PassThePopcorn: Noah and Gwen discuss variants whilst watching Heather and Leshawna argue on the diving cliff. |
| 566 | -->'''Noah:''' And me without my popcorn. |
| 567 | -->'''Gwen:''' The popcorn isn’t the half of it. We should be selling tickets. If push comes to shove, though, my money’s on Leshawna. |
| 568 | -->'''Noah:''' I doubt you’d find many takers. That’s a sucker bet if I ever heard one. |
| 569 | * PigLatin: When Courtney uses an improvised sign language to convey a secret message to the viewing audience during a confessional spot, she transmits her message in Pig Latin for an extra layer of encryption. It works in part because her message is brief and the words short. |
| 570 | * PinkySwear: When Gwen forces Katie to [[spoiler: become a double agent]] as the price of forgiving her for [[spoiler: helping Heather to find Gwen's diary]], Katie offers a pinky swear to show that she accepts Gwen's terms. |
| 571 | * PitbullDatesPuppy: Discussed when Geoff and Harold are sizing up their female teammates. Geoff warns Harold against pursuing Eva despite her "great curves". |
| 572 | -->'''Geoff:''' [T]he first time you got her mad, she'd snap you like a twig. |
| 573 | * PlayingCyrano: Noah takes this role for Tyler by [[spoiler: feeding him love poems]]. The plan actually works as intended, which is why [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee Noah's role is not revealed until after the fact]]. |
| 574 | * PlayingTheVictimCard: When Katie and Sadie are assigned to opposite teams, Sadie accuses Chris of having it in for her because she's fat, in an attempt to guilt him into letting her and Katie be on the same team. Chris calls her out on it. |
| 575 | -->'''Chris:''' If you play the ‘oppressed minority’ card on me again, you’ll be out of here so fast it’ll make your head spin. ''Capisce''? |
| 576 | * PortmanteauCoupleName: In-universe, Courtney suggests that one of the factors against Chris and his ex-girlfriend Millie being happy together was that their couple name of "Chrillie" sounded like a type of crustacean. [[note]]Krill, a tiny shrimplike crustacean common in Antarctic waters.[[/note]] |
| 577 | * PottyEmergency: After the buffet preceding the Awake-a-thon, Izzy and Katie each have the variant where they're about to lose control at the other end. Izzy quickly loses her battle, but Katie manages to maintain control when her teammate Justin [[KissOfDistraction distracts her]] by performing what amounts to a GRatedSex act on her. |
| 578 | * PottyFailure: |
| 579 | ** After the buffet preceding the Awake-a-thon, Izzy experiences the variant of losing control at the other end. |
| 580 | ** In the phobia confession scene, Noah speculates that he would probably end up crapping his pants if an outhouse (his phobia object) was the only alternative. |
| 581 | * PowerGlows: When Dawn enchants a necklace with a warding charm, the necklace briefly glows green--the color of hope--upon completion of the {{ritual|magic}}. |
| 582 | * PrayerIsALastResort: When [[spoiler:Sadie]] resorts to dangerous IntimateHealing in a last-ditch attempt to keep [[spoiler:Katie]] alive, fear prompts [[spoiler:Sadie]] to pray despite the fact that she "was not religious and had no tongue for prayer". Her prayer is not directed to a specific Power, but to any who might be listening. |
| 583 | * PrecisionFStrike: |
| 584 | ** A contestant drops the story's only F-bomb during a "{{how dare you die on me}}" moment. |
| 585 | ** The normally sweet and innocent Katie and Sadie call Heather a "[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]]" at the moment when their argument with Heather becomes a (nonlethal) firefight. |
| 586 | ** Tyler once says, "Oh, shit" instead of the standard "Oh, crap" to underscore the magnitude of his [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone awful realization, however belated]], of what he has done behind his new girlfriend's back. |
| 587 | * ThePromise: Cody is desperate to get back into Gwen's good graces after she figures out that he [[spoiler: helped to blindside her boyfriend]], so he promises that he will never vote against her, nor [[spoiler: against her boyfriend if he should return to the game]]. |
| 588 | * {{Protectorate}}: |
| 589 | ** Cody makes Gwen his unwitting protectorate, exploiting his influence with Heather's power alliance to protect Gwen from being targeted for elimination and even persuading Heather to be nicer to her. Dawn later alludes to this when she speaks of Gwen's "guardian angel". |
| 590 | ** Dawn takes Katie under her protection, despite having just met her, and commits all her mystical resources to delivering Katie from the Boney Island curse. |
| 591 | * PsychicLink: In a downplayed example, Dawn sets up a low-grade, explicitly temporary link with Katie to make the nuances of Katie's aura easier to read. Dawn hastens to assure Katie that the link [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead does not enable mind reading]]. The link has a couple of notable side effects, such as briefly promoting a feeling of familiarity between these strangers and enabling Katie to see (but not interpret) auras. |
| 592 | * PuppyDogEyes: During the camping challenge, Izzy pulls this on Ezekiel to get him to do a minor favor for her. She uses this tactic for no apparent reason except that it amuses her to do so, since her request was perfectly reasonable and Ezekiel was just as likely to agree anyway. |
| 593 | * PurpleProse: During the "alliteration duel" on the diving cliff, Noah refers to dying as "leaving the land of the living" for the sake of having the "L" sound appear 23 times in one sentence instead of only 20. Without missing a beat, Izzy then refers to blood as "scarlet life liquid" and renders "if you're lucky" as "if Lady Luck likes you" for the sake of having the "L" sound appear 27 times in one sentence instead of a mere 23. |
| 594 | * QuipToBlack: After Katie and Sadie ungently "persuade" Chris to let them be on the same team, Noah says, "Hell hath no fury like [=BFFs=] scorned." A break in the filming ensues so Chris can be made camera ready again. |
| 595 | * RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic: Everyone gets their turn in group discussion scenes, which helps stop certain supporting characters (especially [[VotedOffTheIsland early outs]]) becoming too minor. |
| 596 | * RedShirt: Invoked with the interns, who wear uniforms similar to those of Captain Kirk's security personnel and have similar life expectancies. |
| 597 | * RelationshipSabotage: No sooner have Gwen and Trent hooked up than Heather sets out to sabotage it by [[spoiler: getting Trent voted off]]. She does this for no apparent reason except that she wants to hurt Gwen. |
| 598 | * ResignationsNotAccepted: When Beth is voted off after the first challenge, a challenge that left another contestant presumed dead, she pleads with Chris to be allowed to stay since her team is already a player down. When Brett asks why Beth didn't jump at the chance to escape, [[TheStoryteller his mother]] explains that, among other reasons, the contestants were afraid of what Chris might have done to anyone whom he thought was deliberately trying to get voted off. |
| 599 | * ResurrectionSickness: A contestant who [[OnlyMostlyDead "dies"]] and has to be resuscitated suffers mild brain damage as a result, impairing her short term memory. |
| 600 | * {{Revenge}}: When Ezekiel kills a rabbit that D.J. found before D.J. can explain that he meant to keep it as a pet instead of having it for dinner, D.J. vows to get Ezekiel eliminated. |
| 601 | * {{Reveille}}: On the morning of the boot camp challenge, Hatchet plays Reveille as the morning wakeup call. This is the contestants' first clue as to the nature of the challenge. Being ''Total Drama Island'', Reveille is broadcast over the public address system at [[LoudOfWar absurdly loud volume]]. |
| 602 | * RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: Lindsay does this to Courtney during the orientation tour of the camp. The trope is exaggerated in that Lindsay doesn’t even understand the concept of a rhetorical question, so Courtney finally has to explain that she was just thinking aloud. |
| 603 | * RitualMagic: Dawn uses a ritual including a thaumaturgic triangle with runes, Katie's hair, an incantation borrowed from Creator/GilbertAndSullivan, [[AndSomeOtherStuff and more]] to turn a necklace into a warding talisman against the Boney Island {{curse}}. |
| 604 | * RodentsOfUnusualSize: Izzy refers to Boney Island's (canonical) bear-sized carnivorous beavers as "rodents of unusual size". |
| 605 | * RomanceNovel: After Heather reads from Gwen's diary to the world during the talent show challenge, Chris describes the heavily embellished reading as "Heather's impression of a trashy romance novel". |
| 606 | * RoundhouseKick: During the hot tub building challenge, D.J. and Eva use simultaneous roundhouse kicks to pop the lids off of the Muskies' crates because they're not allowed to use their hands. |
| 607 | * RousingSpeech: Before the rubber game of the dodgeball match, Noah starts caring about the outcome and gives the Eagles a speech based on the "St. Crispin's Day" speech from ''Theatre/HenryV''. Courtney counters with a "{{win one for the Gipper}}" speech to the Muskies. |
| 608 | * RuleOfDrama: In the trust challenge briefing, Chris tells the contestants that most of them get along too well, which isn't good for ratings, so the challenge has been designed to show them just how untrustworthy their teammates really are. [[note]]In the original, the "trust building" challenge was designed to exploit existing distrust for laughs.[[/note]] |
| 609 | * RuleOfThree: During the contestant introductions, Beth commented Chris’ height (or lack thereof) in the original, but the reimagining expands it to a three-point running gag. |
| 610 | * RunningGag: There are several, with some running their course in a single episode and others spanning multiple episodes: |
| 611 | ** Chris's height, or lack thereof. See “Rule of Three” above. |
| 612 | ** There’s a multi-episode running gag featuring lampreys, of all things. |
| 613 | ** Another multi-episode gag, as well as an in-universe in-joke among the contestants, is to name Izzy’s {{imaginary friend}} as an informant. Contestants thus say, "Sunshine told me" in the same way that an angry mother might say to her misbehaving child, “a little bird told me”. |
| 614 | ** Courtney's NOT afraid of Jell-O. |
| 615 | * SadisticChoice: During the phobia challenge, one contestant must choose between two fellow contestants who have been placed in a potentially lethal situation. He only has time to save one, and there is no [[TakeAThirdOption third option]]. |
| 616 | * SayMyName: Leshawna instinctively calls to Heather and [[FutileHandReach extends her arm]] when she accidentally drives Heather off the diving cliff during their argument. |
| 617 | * ScheherezadeGambit: Chris and Chef discuss this with tongue in cheek when a contestant thinks that Chris has killed one of their own. |
| 618 | -->'''Chris:''' Why would we kill you when torturing you is so much more fun? |
| 619 | -->'''Chef:''' For ratings? |
| 620 | * ScreamDiscretionShot: During the [[NoOSHACompliance absurdly dangerous]] ATV race, D.J. hears Lindsay's distinctive scream from farther down the slope. The scream is [[SoundOnlyDeath ominously cut short]]. |
| 621 | * TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: When Duncan suggests that Chef Hatchet is feeding the contestants remains of interns killed on the job—or perhaps even [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness eliminated contestants]]—he (Duncan) claims that the "beef" in the previous night's stew seemed suspiciously fresh compared to what the contestants usually get. |
| 622 | * SexSlave: Invoked, discussed and ultimately defied during the phobia challenge. When Ezekiel must choose which of two female campmate to save, with all three players reasonably believing that [[SadisticChoice the girl not chosen will die]], a bidding war ensues. Both girls eventually become so desperate that each pledges to effectively become Ezekiel's love slave for the whole summer if he will save her. When the girl he saves later suggests that she has not forgotten her promise, Ezekiel's AboveTheInfluence moment defies the trope. |
| 623 | -->'''Katie:''' About those ‘favors’ I promised you… |
| 624 | -->'''Ezekiel:''' Neither of you promised me anything. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. |
| 625 | * SexySoakedShirt: When Duncan pulls himself out of the lake after being accidentally pushed off the dock, the Storyteller spares a moment of admiration for the "muscles rippling beneath the soaked shirt that now clung to his wiry frame". Cue (inverted) PerverseSexualLust from Izzy's {{imaginary friend}}. |
| 626 | * {{Sharephrase}}: |
| 627 | ** "There's hope for you yet." Most commonly said by a random girl to Ezekiel. |
| 628 | ** "Sunshine told me." This is an InJoke amongst the contestants. When asked how they came by incriminating information, they name Izzy’s imaginary friend as their informant. |
| 629 | * SheCleansUpNicely: Heather invokes this trope whilst talking about her new allies in the confessional: "I'm hot and fashionable, Lindsay's hot and fashionable, and Katie can be made hot and fashionable." Heather's unsubtle implication is that Sadie, her third ally, is too fat to be salvageable. |
| 630 | * SheIsAllGrownUp: When Katie and Sadie get makeovers after the talent show challenge (replacing their [[GirlishPigtails little girl pigtails]] with [[EightiesHair big hair]], among other things) the Storyteller invokes this trope by noting that Katie and Sadie looked five years older than they had the day before. Also lampshaded by Noah, who says, "the kiddies have grown up." |
| 631 | * SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: When Heather sees Cody hitting on Gwen--again--Heather invokes the trope for the sake of annoying Gwen. |
| 632 | -->'''Heather:''' Gwen, do you mind if I borrow your boyfriend for a minute? |
| 633 | -->'''Gwen ''[visibly irritated]'':''' You know perfectly well that he’s not my boyfriend, and you can have him for as many minutes as you want. |
| 634 | * ShockingElimination: The elimination following the dodgeball match is shocking in-universe, but [[DramaticIrony not to the reader]] because all the real drama is in lining up the votes, with the ceremony itself being treated as a ''fait accompli''. |
| 635 | * ShootTheDog: Cody urges his teammates to vote off his injured friend/ally because the injured party won't recover quickly and the team, soon to be a player down, can't afford to carry a nonperformer. |
| 636 | -->'''Leshawna:''' You’ve been spending too much time around Heather. |
| 637 | -->'''Cody:''' I don’t want to kick Noah off, either, but we’re still in the team phase and the team has to come first. I lost sight of that once, and it bit me in the butt. Learn from my mistake. |
| 638 | * ShoutOut: enough to fill a subpage—coming soon. |
| 639 | ** ShoutOut/ToShakespeare: Noah's rousing speech during the dodgeball match is an original blank verse poem based on the "St. Crispin's Day" speech from ''Theatre/HenryV''. |
| 640 | * ShownTheirWork: Most notably with the effects/treatment of hypothermia. More generally, the notes section is extensive, explaining the more subtle/obscure allusions |
| 641 | * SickEpisode: During the boot camp challenge, half of the contestants come down with radiation poisoning after having been exposed to a small nuclear explosion several episodes before. Effective treatment is quickly arranged, though, and the players are not noticeably impaired in the next episode. |
| 642 | * SickeninglySweet: Heather expresses disgust during the dodgeball match, when Eva and Leshawna meet at center court for single combat but essentially re-enact a scene from ''Literature/TheIliad'' and part as friends without ever facing off. |
| 643 | -->'''Heather:''' I don’t know what kind of trash-class ritual this is, but all this sweetness and light is going to give me diabetes. |
| 644 | * SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Loss of innocence is a recurring theme, driven mainly by the contestants seeing more than they wanted to of the seamier side of reality TV. Some contestants have to grow up before their time just to survive. |
| 645 | * SillyRabbitRomanceIsForKids: A pre-emptive variant. After learning that Sadie has been making eyes at Owen, and knowing that Lindsay is mutually attracted to Justin, Heather forbids her allies from pursing romance. Heather fears the distractive power of romance and its potential to create divided loyalties, so she warns her allies to "keep your eyes on the prize". |
| 646 | * SingleTear: When the [[HeterosexualLifePartners absurdly co-dependent buddies]] are separated, Chris drops a single tear of joy as he contemplates what this touching emotional scene will do for the show's ratings. |
| 647 | * SmashCut: During the boot camp challenge's tree hanging test, a certain contestant has reason to fear for her friend's health, which leads her to contemplate events in their shared past. The narration cuts off mid-sentence when the contemplative contestant is struck a painful blow on her arm. She learns that [[DaydreamSurprise her musings had put her into a trance-like state]] for nearly six hours, and that the challenge supervisor had to strike her to get her attention. |
| 648 | * SmoochOfVictory: Harold gets a [[LipstickMark lipstick-laden kiss]] on the cheek from Lindsay after rescuing her from [[spoiler: a large stag beetle]]. |
| 649 | * SpearCarrier: Several interns, such as Jo and Scott, have this level of prominence. They are described but not identified by name in the scenes where they appear, although those with actual dialogue [[AllThereInTheScript have billing]] in the DramatisPersonae. These interns have at most two lines each, although some have brief {{informed conversation}}s. |
| 650 | * {{Squee}}: Both Katie/Sadie (as per canon) and Lindsay are prone to this. When all three squeal at once, Heather finds it physically painful. In one of these cases, Heather can't suppress a cry of pain and Katie, misinterpreting her reaction, suggests that Heather's squee needs work. |
| 651 | * StandardBleedingSpots: Ezekiel suffers a long cut on his cheek in a challenge accident. The cut bleeds enough that the people searching for him fear the worst when they find the cloth he used to stanch the bleeding. |
| 652 | * StandardFemaleGrabArea: |
| 653 | ** In a downplayed example, Chris grasps Courtney's arm to stop her going with her campmates. His grasp is gentler than in straight examples of this trope because he only wants to restrain Courtney long enough to get her attention. |
| 654 | ** Played straight when Chef Hatchet interrupts an eliminated female contestant's argument with an ex-campmate by grabbing the departing contestant by both arms and bodily placing her on the Loser Boat. Justified because Hatchet is far stronger than the girl and because said female has nothing to gain by resisting. |
| 655 | * StandardSnippet: The author being partial to symphonic music, there are naturally several examples: |
| 656 | ** Chris uses the “Dies Irae” from Verdi's ''Requiem'' for the contestants' first wakeup call, playing it over the PA system at "[[LoudOfWar cabin-shaking volume]]". |
| 657 | ** The [[TimeCompressionMontage funeral montage]] is set to “Siegfried’s Funeral Music” from Wagner’s [[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung “Ring”]] cycle. |
| 658 | ** During the talent show, Beth and Izzy perform their "dueling fire batons" act to Khachaturian’s "Sabre Dance". |
| 659 | ** Also during the talent show, Courtney plays "The Flight of the Bumblebee". On one string. |
| 660 | ** An emerging standard, the “Pie Jesu” section of Creator/AndrewLloydWebber’s ''Requiem'', eventually becomes a regular part of the elimination ceremony. |
| 661 | * TheStarscream: "Discussed" by Heather in an {{inner monologue}}. Being a treacherous sort, Heather naturally fears treachery; so when Sadie proves herself to be a competent lieutenant in their alliance, Heather starts to worry that Sadie might get the idea that she doesn't need Heather. |
| 662 | * StealthInsult: When Chris leads the contestants to believe that one of their own has died in a challenge accident,Duncan accuses Heather of caring only for selfish reasons. The seriously provoked Heather defends herself and, in the process, makes it pretty clear whom she truly despises: |
| 663 | -->'''Heather:''' …but it’s not like I’d want anyone here to actually die! Not even you! Not even Gwen! ''[pause, deep breath]'' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Not… even… Chris]]. |
| 664 | * SuperpowerfulGenetics: Dawn discusses this trope as she prepares a ritual that she hopes will deliver Katie from the Boney Island curse. |
| 665 | -->'''Dawn:''' I come from a long line of commercial sorcerers. You could say it's in my blood, although bloodlines aren't actually a requirement. |
| 666 | * TakeMeInstead: When Sadie is voted off, Katie offers to go in her place. Sadie is unwilling to take advantage of Katie's offer, and a MoreExpendableThanYou argument ensues. |
| 667 | * TakeOurWordForIt: Justin and Lindsay's incredibly hot dance in the talent show is described only in general terms, as are Heather's nigh-pornographic embellishments when reading Gwen's diary to the world. Specifics are avoided in the former case because no detailed description could possibly do the dance justice, and in the latter case to preserve a family-friendly rating. |
| 668 | * TakeThatKiss: When Duncan suggests once too often that Courtney is into him, she responds by turning round and passionately making out with the closest boy at hand, which happens to be D.J. |
| 669 | * TalkingIsAFreeAction: Usually averted, but played straight in the dodgeball match, which is mostly written in the style of a battle scene from ''Literature/TheIliad''. Heather lampshades the trope during the Eva/Leshawna scene, observing that everyone is watching them talk at center court despite the fact that nobody ever called time out. |
| 670 | * TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: When the contestants first meet Chef Hatchet, Courtney asks rhetorically why summer camp chefs always look like escaped serial killers. She takes care to speak softly enough that he can’t hear her because she fears that he might slip "a little something extra" into her tea. |
| 671 | * TarotTroubles: A tarot reading for Katie, combined with examination of Katie's aura and palm, leads Dawn to conclude that Katie has attracted the wrong kind of attention from the {{spirit world}}. No specific cards are identified. |
| 672 | * TastesLikeChicken: This is Izzy's assessment of raw lizard. |
| 673 | * TeenPregnancy: Readers who did the math in the prologue learned that Brett is the right age to have been conceived either during production of the show (when his mother was all of 16 years old) or shortly after. |
| 674 | * TemptingFate: |
| 675 | ** During her argument with Leshawna on the diving cliff, Heather challenges Leshawna to "Make me!" as per canon, and the Storyteller describes that phrase as “Famous Last Words”. |
| 676 | ** During the paintball deer hunt, Courtney describes the phrase, "It seemed like a good idea at the time" as Famous Last Words. |
| 677 | * ThatCameOutWrong: |
| 678 | ** Alejandro narrowly averts this with Beth, then promptly lampshades it. See "Lampshaded Double Entendre" above for text. |
| 679 | ** After completing a challenge test together, Cody and Leshawna engage in a bit of suggestive banter relevant to their situation. When, in this vein, Cody says something that he suspects crossed the line, he hastily clarifies. |
| 680 | --->'''Cody:''' But for now, what’s important is that we scored. ''[{{beat}}]'' You know, the point… for the challenge. ''[affected cringe]'' Please don’t kill me. |
| 681 | * ThatsWhatSheSaid: |
| 682 | ** Izzy inverts this twice during the camping challenge when Ezekiel borrows Duncan’ knife and makes innocent comments on its size, switchblades not being designed for gutting animals: |
| 683 | --->'''Ezekiel:''' It’s kind of small, but I guess it’ll do. |
| 684 | --->'''Izzy:''' That’s what I said. |
| 685 | --->... |
| 686 | --->'''Ezekiel:''' Does anybody have a bigger one? |
| 687 | --->'''Izzy:''' That’s what I said. |
| 688 | ** Cody gives a G-rated version after the paintball deer hunt, in a case where "she" really did say it. |
| 689 | --->'''Heather:''' Gwen does not deserve you. |
| 690 | --->'''Cody:''' That’s what she said. Funny thing, though, it didn’t sound the same when she said it. |
| 691 | * TheissTitillationTheory: In-universe, the Storyteller describes Lindsay's outfit as including "a halter top that seemed ready to fail at any moment beneath its titanic burden". |
| 692 | * ThenLetMeBeEvil: Discussed by Heather and Sadie. When Sadie fears that the producers will give her a villain edit if she goes along with a certain scheme of Heather's, Heather replies in pertinent part that Sadie should "go with the flow" if the producers want to do that, because "There's no such thing as bad publicity." |
| 693 | * TheseHandsHaveKilled: [[spoiler:Bridgette]] mentally accuses herself of this, and desperately tries to deny it, when she thinks that she's accidentally killed a teammate. |
| 694 | * ThinkingOutLoud: Courtney makes the mistake of doing this in Lindsay's presence, and learns that Lindsay [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder doesn't understand the concept of rhetorical questions]]. |
| 695 | * ThirteenIsUnlucky: The show starts with 13 interns, also known in-universe as "redshirts" for the red pullover shirts they wear. As they are [[RedShirt killed off]] in various accidents, replacements are brought in 13 at a time. Lampshaded by Beth, who admits to being superstitious. |
| 696 | * ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: The normally sweet and innocent Katie and Sadie call [[AlphaBitch Heather]] a "bitch" at the moment when their argument with Heather becomes a (nonlethal) firefight. |
| 697 | -->'''Katie [[SpeakInUnison and Sadie]]: '''MEET YOUR MAKER, BITCH! |
| 698 | * ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: In-universe, Owen describes [[RunningGag lampreys]] as "like leeches on steroids". In a later chapter, the Storyteller describes Rodney, in pertinent part, as “looking like Scott on steroids”. |
| 699 | * ThreeWaySex: Several PG-rated references: |
| 700 | ** Downplayed when Cody meets Katie and Sadie and sizes them up as "[[TwinThreesomeFantasy threesome material]]". |
| 701 | ** Cody occasionally discusses the trope with Noah. These discussions typically take the form of [[CasanovaWannabe Cody]] invoking the trope in reference to Katie and Sadie, and Noah defying it. Noah disdains threesomes because, as he puts it, “any bird worth making out with in the first place would be worth my undivided attention”; so if offered two girls, he would rather make out with them one at a time. |
| 702 | * TickleTorture: This is how Katie and Sadie persuade Chris to let them be on the same team. |
| 703 | * TimeCompressionMontage: When the contestants hold a funeral for one of their own during the competition, the Storyteller notes that the finished episode compressed the service and the preparations for it to a montage, due to time constraints. |
| 704 | * TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Noah invokes this trope when he suggests the Creator/LordByron quote, "God grants his favorites early death" for a fellow contestant's epitaph. |
| 705 | * {{Touche}}: Such acknowledgements appears with some regularity, often with the exact word. The following examples are representative: |
| 706 | ** During the 20K run, Bridgette shows increasing impatience with Geoff's distractibility. When she sees evidence that her dream the previous night may have been [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic]], and wants to investigate, Geoff calls her out on it. |
| 707 | --->'''Geoff:''' Now who’s not keeping her head in the game? |
| 708 | --->'''Bridgette:''' Touché, but this is important to me. I really think we need to check it out. Both of us. |
| 709 | ** During the cooking challenge, the judging panel engages in sometimes biting banter, especially between ex-lovers Chris and Millie. When Millie offers Chris a particularly [[FloweryInsults creative insult]], this exchange ensues: |
| 710 | --->'''Chris:''' What did I ever see in you? |
| 711 | --->'''Chef:''' Two tits and a love box? |
| 712 | --->''[all the contestants laugh]'' |
| 713 | --->'''Chris:''' Touché, Chef. It’s not like she has much else to offer. |
| 714 | * ToxicFriendInfluence: Courtney sees Duncan as a toxic friend to Ezekiel, whom Courtney is trying to re-educate to be acceptable to polite society. This leads to a GoodAngelBadAngel dynamic with Ezekiel caught in the middle. |
| 715 | * TrashTalk: |
| 716 | ** During the dodgeball match, Eva and Leshawna talk trash in preparation for a one-on-one duel. Because the scene is based on a scene in ''Literature/TheIliad'', their trash talking is [[ExaggeratedTrope unusually elaborate]]. |
| 717 | ** Heather and Courtney, as the leaders of their respective teams, occasionally trash talk each other, sometimes with tongue in cheek. A notable example of the latter follows the talent show briefing, where both repeatedly suggest that the other will be the next player eliminated when, in fact, neither expects the other to be going anywhere anytime soon. |
| 718 | * TraumaCongaLine: During roughly the second fifth of the story arc, very little goes right for a certain contestant. The floodgates open when a guilty conscience forces her to abase herself before a badly wronged teammate, who forgives her--for a steep price. In subsequent episodes, she (in no special order) loses her admirer and her best friend in separate incidents; unwittingly brings down an ancient {{curse}} on her team; dies ([[OnlyMostlyDead sort of]]); gets backstabbed by an ally; faces the prospect of becoming a {{sex slave}}; suffers [[ResurrectionSickness lasting brain damage]] that impairs her short term memory; and almost dies again. Nothing less than [[CuteWitch supernatural aid]] offers any prospect of relief. The kicker is that all this wasn't part of any master plan by the author, it's just how the storylines developed. Throughout all these traumas, the victim [[CharacterDevelopment matures somewhat]] and [[JadeColoredGlasses becomes less innocent]], but otherwise behaves normally except for the memory impairment. |
| 719 | * TraumaticHaircut: Lindsay suffers something similar in a challenge accident, and it [[FreakOut drives her off the deep end]] for a time. |
| 720 | * TroubledFetalPosition: Heather, Katie and Sadie find Lindsay curled up thusly after [[spoiler:Lindsay's hair is burned]]. |
| 721 | * {{Tuckerization}}: The Storyteller's son is named after the author's closest friend. |
| 722 | * TwiceShy: Gwen and Trent both want [[RelationshipUpgrade a kiss]], but Gwen is timid because she has no real experience with romance, and Trent is afraid of scaring Gwen off by moving too fast. |
| 723 | * TwoOutOfThreeAintBad: This stock phrase appears during the phobia confession scene, when D.J. is explaining his aversion to snakes. |
| 724 | -->'''D.J.:''' They’re so slimy and scaly and slithery… |
| 725 | -->'''Courtney:''' Two out of three. Worms are slimy. Snakes aren’t. |
| 726 | * VillainSue: Invoked. Whilst Alejandro is escorting Beth off the diving cliff, he tells her about the elimination game he used to be on, and says that he was so dominant that the audience would probably have regarded him as an unrealistic Villain Stu had his show been a scripted story instead of a reality show. This lampshades the fact that Alejandro's canon counterpart was widely regarded as a Villain Stu. |
| 727 | * VirginPower: A downplayed example occurs when Heather forbids her allies to get romantically involved with anyone because she sees romance as a distraction and fears its potential to create divided loyalties. In effect, the girls' alliance is their "power". It's also noteworthy that this is one of the few alliance rules that Heather sets--possibly the only one--where she [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness doesn't demand preferential treatment for herself]]. |
| 728 | * WayPastTheExpirationDate: |
| 729 | ** The Jell-O (powder) used in Courtney's phobia challenge dates from the 1950s. |
| 730 | ** In the paintball deer hunt, the hunters are given Army field rations that allegedly date from World War II. These ancient rations appear again during the boot camp challenge. |
| 731 | * {{Wendigo}}: When Dawn investigates the evil presence that she senses on the island, she comes to suspect that a wendigo is stalking Katie, who is more vulnerable to possession because a {{near death experience}} has weakened the connection between her soul and her body. |
| 732 | * WeWait: |
| 733 | ** When [[spoiler:Katie and Sadie]] are stranded in the woods overnight and [[spoiler:Katie]] is in mortal peril from [[spoiler:hypothermia]], [[spoiler:Sadie]] does what she can to [[spoiler:[[IntimateHealing share her body heat]] with Katie]]. Having made those arrangements, all [[spoiler:Sadie]] can do is wait for morning and hope for the best. |
| 734 | ** After Chef Hatchet resuscitates and stabilizes a [[OnlyMostlyDead clinically dead]] contestant in the infirmary, all he can do is watch and wait to see if the patient will recover. |
| 735 | * WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: In a confessional spot, Bridgette condemns Chris' callous attitude toward the interns, who at that point had suffered four deaths in the first four episodes. |
| 736 | -->'''Bridgette:''' You don’t want us to care what happens to the interns? Well, it’s too late, [=McLean=]! I ''do'' care! I’ll ''always'' care! If the pointless death of one person—and I’m sure they were ''all'' pointless—ever fails to move me, then you can just throw me to the sharks, because I’d be no better than you! |
| 737 | * WhatIsThisX: When Leshawna tastes the Jell-O used for Courtney's phobia test, she asks, "What is this, Overcooked Okra flavor?" [[note]]It's actually a mixture of the various savory flavors that bombed [[WayPastTheExpirationDate in the 1950s]].[[/note]] |
| 738 | * WhatYouAreInTheDark: Gwen has a very literal version after [[spoiler:Trent's elimination]]. The DeadpanSnarker reveals that she is, in fact, more emotional than she lets on. |
| 739 | * WhenItRainsItPours: The rainstorm during the camping challenge begins with a torrential cloudburst before diminishing to a sustainable level. |
| 740 | * WidowsWeeds: Lindsay provides a parody example, lending a bit of humor to an otherwise somber scene, when she wears a "modest black bikini" to a campmate's funeral because she has "bikinis for every conceivable occasion". [[note]]The reference is to Lindsay's canonical audition tape, wherein she claims to have "a bikini for every season, including the ones not listed on the calendar."[[/note]] |
| 741 | * TheWildHunt: The Storyteller explicitly likens the paintball deer hunt challenge to the Wild Hunt by describing the game’s host as "the Master of the Wild Hunt". The relevant episode is also called, "[[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming The Tale of]] the Wild Hunt". |
| 742 | * WildMagic: Ella is a wild talent. She makes magic with her singing, usually affecting the listeners benignly and in ways appropriate to the situation, but she typically cannot evoke these effects deliberately. |
| 743 | -->'''Dawn:''' [Ella] doesn’t sing to make things happen, she sings because she likes to sing. The extraordinary effects just follow naturally. |
| 744 | * WinOneForTheGipper: Courtney invokes the memory of a fallen teammate before the rubber game of the dodgeball match. |
| 745 | * WishfulProjection: Duncan becomes convinced that Courtney is crushing on him, when it's actually he who is crushing on her. |
| 746 | * WomanScorned: A variation occurs when, after Chris refuses once too often to let Katie and Sadie be on the same team, they [[TickleTorture ruthlessly bend him to their will]]. Noah invokes the trope, saying, "Hell hath no fury like [=BFFs=] scorned." |
| 747 | * WorryingForTheWrongReason: During the trust challenge, Eva fears that her enemy Duncan might deliberately try to poison her with the fugu. Duncan assures her that he won't, but does not and cannot assure her that he might not do so by accident. |
| 748 | -->'''Duncan:''' [P]oison is for cowards, and that’s not how I roll. |
| 749 | * XanatosGambit: Chris plays with this when he briefs the contestants before the camping challenge. When he describes the (exaggerated) possibility of a camper dying during the challenge, he declares it a win-win situation because if any contestants do die, the survivors will get to skip the elimination ceremony and Chris will get the night off. |
| 750 | * {{Yellowface}}: The phobia challenge features an in-universe example. When the gargantuan Owen plays a sumo wrestler for Heather's test, he appears in body paint. "A ''lot'' of body paint", according to the Storyteller. |
| 751 | * YouCanSeeThatRight: Katie and Dawn invert the trope when Katie, thanks to a "loan" of Dawn's aura reading power, spots the concealed Izzy by the latter's exceptionally prominent aura. |
| 752 | -->'''Katie:''' What is ''that''? |
| 753 | -->'''Dawn:''' You can see it? |
| 754 | -->'''Katie:''' Well, yeah, it’s kind of hard to miss. |
| 755 | * YouGoGirl: An early challenge has a focus flip, with the focus being on the skeptic rather than the girl. When Eva (an accomplished athlete with nothing to prove) stands as her team's last hope in a winner-take-all one-on-one against Justin, the sexist Ezekiel calls out encouragement to Eva and seems to like her chances. When asked, Ezekiel matter-of-factly points out that he's seen what Eva can do and that he isn't one to deny the evidence of his own eyes. This is the first solid evidence that Ezekiel has begun to re-examine his sexist attitudes. |
| 756 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Hatchet jokingly suggests to Chris that eliminated contestants could be killed for a ratings "blood boost" because they would no longer have any other use. |
| 757 | * YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Geoff inverts the trope, expressing tongue-in-cheek surprise that Lindsay can maintain this level of expertise. |
| 758 | -->'''Geoff:''' She’s crazy hot… but she’s so dumb, I’m surprised she doesn’t forget how to breathe. |
| 759 | * YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost: When Heather pretends to have seen the ghost of a dead campmate, she does a very good job of looking utterly terrified. When Leshawna says that Heather looks like she's seen a ghost, Heather shakily replies, "I think I did." Gwen points out that ghosts can cause unnatural fear, which everyone assumes to be the reason why the normally composed Heather looks like such a basket case. |
| 760 | * YouNeedToGetLaid: During the camping challenge, Duncan suggests that the straitlaced and uptight Courtney needs a good makeout session. |
| 761 | * YoureJustJealous: Gwen snarkily accuses Heather of jealousy during a quarrel. |
| 762 | -->'''Heather:''' You heard him, Gothie. Be there or be square. Oops, too late! |
| 763 | -->'''Gwen:''' Better a square than a stick. You’re just jealous because some of us have profiles that are actually visible to the naked eye. |
| 764 | * YourLittleDismissiveDiminutive: In addition to the standard form, Heather is inclined to use the first person variant (“my little X”) in the same sense, e.g. “I can’t spring my little surprise on Weird Goth Girl if the team needs my score.” |
| 765 | [[/folder]] |
| 766 | |
| 767 | [[folder:Spoiler Tropes -- all spoilers unmarked]] |
| 768 | * AlmostDeadGuy: The dying Katie [[DyingAsYourself snaps out of her delirium]] for long enough to say goodbye to Sadie and to say that she has [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepted her apparent fate]], thereby setting up a major character development scene for Sadie. The trope is downplayed in that Katie merely falls unconscious instead of actually dying, although the situation suggests that she's not likely to ever regain consciousness. |
| 769 | * CantLiveWithoutYou: When Katie is dying of hypothermia, Sadie warms her with her own body because no other heat source is available. What distinguishes this from simple IntimateHealing is that (1) Sadie must keep it up all night; and (2) it doesn't actually heal Katie, it just stabilizes her (sort of). |
| 770 | * DarkestHour: Sadie has one when she thinks that Katie has died, and only just finds the will to go on before crossing the DespairEventHorizon. |
| 771 | * DeathByDespair: Sadie loses the will to live when [[DisneyDeath she thinks]] that Katie has died of hypothermia and Sadie is suffering from severe hypothermia herself, so she just sits there [[TogetherInDeath waiting to die]]. Subverted when Sadie realizes that she can’t [[HesDeadJim conclusively tell]] whether Katie is dead and that Katie wouldn't want her to simply give up in any case, and this realization gives her [[HeroicSecondWind the will to go on]]. |
| 772 | * DeathWail: Sadie wails "piteously" when she thinks that Katie has bought it. |
| 773 | * DisneyDeath: Double-subverted. Sadie thinks that Katie has died of hypothermia despite Sadie's pull-out-all-the-stops effort to save her. HopeSpot ensues, only to be crushed by Katie's "[[NoDeadBodyPoops death dump]]". But lo, the unfortunate victim [[OnlyMostlyDead can be resuscitated]]. |
| 774 | * DyingAsYourself: Katie snaps out of her delirium for one last lucid moment, during which she says goodbye to Sadie. The trope is downplayed in that Katie merely falls unconscious instead of dying, but the situation is such that she fully expects to die. |
| 775 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: Sadie has one that comes at the end of an episode, rather than at the end of the story. Stranded alone in the woods with Katie, who is in critical condition from hypothermia, Sadie resorts to [[IntimateHealing desperate measures]] to keep Katie alive through the night and somehow manages to haul her back to camp the next morning [[TheDeterminator despite not being particularly strong and suffering from severe hypothermia herself]]. Katie survives, Chris awards the challenge to their team when he arguably should have disqualified it, and Katie and Sadie recover in time to celebrate Sadie's [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday 16th birthday]]. |
| 776 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: When Katie and Sadie are stranded in a cold rain overnight and Katie is suffering from severe hypothermia, Katie's last words make it clear that she doesn't expect to survive and has accepted her apparent fate. |
| 777 | * GutPunch: When a cliffhanger leaves a certain contestant whereabouts unknown, most readers naturally assume that the missing person will turn up alive and well, or at least not too much the worse for wear. Nope. This cliffhanger comes back just to watch the hanger fall, and after [[NeverFoundTheBody a futile search]] the missing contestant is presumed dead. It is at this moment that the story switches from a light comedy with some dramatic moments to a dark drama with some comic relief. |
| 778 | * HeroicSacrifice: Sadie's attempt to share her body heat with the severely hypothermic Katie is a downplayed example. Although it won't necessarily kill Sadie, her death is a distinct possibility because Sadie is in none too good a condition herself. Sadie is aware of this, and is willing to die for Katie if that's what it takes. |
| 779 | * HesDeadJim: Played with. After Katie and Sadie are stranded in a cold rain overnight, during which Katie develops critical hypothermia, Sadie examines Katie in the morning and concludes that she is dead. Later defied when Sadie, grasping at anything to give her hope, tells herself that she doesn't have the medical training to make that determination and that the circumstances wouldn't allow her to do so in any case. |
| 780 | * HopeSpot: Against all odds, Sadie succeeds in getting the dying Katie back to camp. Then she smells Katie's "[[NoDeadBodyPoops death dump]]"… |
| 781 | * HowDareYouDieOnMe: Sadie has one of these moments, during which she drops [[PrecisionFStrike the story’s only F-bomb]], when she defies all odds to keep Katie from dying of hypothermia and getting her back to camp, only to discover that Katie has apparently died anyway. |
| 782 | * LastRequest: Just before the dying Katie loses consciousness, she asks Sadie to "[w]in this lame game for me". |
| 783 | * NoOneCouldSurviveThat: When an insanely dangerous vehicle race ends with D.J.'s teammate going over a lethally high cliff, D.J. cannot bring himself to "look down from the cliff and confirm with his eyes what he knew in his heart", partly because [[ILetGwenStacyDie he feels responsible]] and partly because he is [[PrimalFear afraid of heights]]. |
| 784 | * NotSoRemote: During the camping challenge, Katie and Sadie get separated from the group. After a harrowing night lost in the woods, the half-dead pair discovers that they've unintentionally walked in a circle and spent the entire hellish trek only a stone's throw from base camp. |
| 785 | * RedHerring: During the phobia confession scene, Ezekiel's confessed fear is the [[SadisticChoice Sophie's Choice]] scenario. During the ensuing challenge, when the contestants must face their phobias, Chris calls Ezekiel away along with Izzy and Justin. The other contestants naturally fear for Izzy and Justin, assuming that Chris will make Ezekiel choose between them. [[AllThereInTheManual According to the story's notes]], this is a red herring intended to stop Ezekiel and the other contestants (not to mention the reader) automatically guessing whom Ezekiel will really have to choose between. |
| 786 | * SorryThatImDying: When the dying Katie says goodbye to Sadie, she says in pertinent part, "I'm sorry that we won't be able to do stuff together anymore." |
| 787 | * TogetherInDeath: When Katie is dying and Sadie (who is in mortal peril herself) has done everything humanly possible to save her, only to be reduced to [[PrayerIsALastResort seeking supernatural aid]], Sadie invokes this trope. |
| 788 | -->'''Sadie:''' But if it really is her time, then please, let me go with her. |
| 789 | * WhamEpisode: The first two chapters are mostly light and comic. Then, in the [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming Fourth Night]] chapter, the sharks get one of the contestants during the cliff diving challenge. The surviving contestants realize that the game they're playing is potentially deadly, and the story has a much darker tone from that point on. |
| 790 | * WhamLine: |
| 791 | ** Heather reveals to Lindsay that they are going to betray an ally. Cue cliffhanger. |
| 792 | --->'''Heather:''' We're voting off Katie. |
| 793 | ** The resolution of the [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming Third Night]] {{cliffhanger}} is a WhamLine, the GutPunch and the [[FirstEpisodeTwist first major plot twist]] all rolled into one. |
| 794 | --->Finally, Courtney surfaced next to the boat. She said nothing, but [[HeDidntMakeIt slowly shook her head. Her expression was bleak]]. |
| 795 | [[/folder]] |
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