Chris Mclean
The host of the show, and frequent butt of the joke.
- Big "NO!": At the end of Brains VS Brawns when four extra robots are added to the show.
- Butt-Monkey: If something bad happens, there is a good chance it will affect Chris in some way.
- Even Evil Has Standards: A Jerkass more times than not, but the actions of certain campers leave a bad taste in his mouth.
- Large Ham: He has his moments.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Him VS SARA.
SARA
An assistant that was sent to Chris to help out on the show once things began to get a little out of control. She (though technically genderless) is actually a sentient tablet similar to an iPad.
- Deadpan Snarker: Very much so.
- Do-Anything Robot: Built with helicopter rotors, a net gun, a radar, sound effects, video playback and presumably more.
- Fun with Acronyms: SARA is an acronym for Smart-Assed Robot Assistant.
- Jerkass: Can be a bit excessive in her quips against Chris, to the point where it almost comes off as bullying.
- The Load: Aside from showcasing challenge statistics on her screen, she doesn't contribute very much to the game. Though via her net gun she did stop Sarge from violently attacking Rai after his elimination. She also was the centre of the hide and seek challenge.
- Non-Human Sidekick: To Chris.
- Put on a Bus: Midway through the merge when The Cloaked Shadow destroys her via computer virus transmission. She returns in time for the F5 challenge.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: She is trashed by the Cloaked Shadow halfway through the Merge, when the really dramatic stuff truly set in.
BARA, DARA, FARA and JARA
Four other robots like SARA, though in less prominent roles.
- Big Eater: FARA
- The Ditz: DARA
- Fun with Acronyms: Just like with SARA, their names spell something.
- Bad Ass Robot Assistant
- Dumb Ass Robot Assistant
- Fat Ass Robot Assistant
- Jerk Ass Robot Assistant
- Jerkass: JARA
Topher
The executive producer of the show!
- Chair Reveal: How he reveals himself in the Brains VS Brawns epilogue.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Very much not impressed that two rapists got onto Brains VS Brawns.
- Noodle Incident: Just how did he go from a contestant who didn't even make the merge to the producer of the show? The author says all will be explained over time.
- Troll: The four extra robot assistants he bought in were just as much to mess with Chris as they were to keep order.
- Walking Spoiler: After all, they are only revealed in the final scene of Brains VS Brawns and raise many more questions than they answer.
Brains VS Brawns Characters
Bianca Hunter- The Short Height and Tall Personality
- Covert Pervert: She once says that "The Brains are the doms and the Brawns are the subs" during one challenge, earning her a lot of strange looks. She becomes less covert as the story goes on.
- Decoy Protagonist: Zig-Zagged. She ended up being the fourth person voted out, but then she gained a considerable amount of plot and development on Phoenix Island and later returns to the game and manages to be a major protagonist, netting herself 6th place.
- Expy: The author states she's meant to be one of Bernadette.
- Family Theme Naming: Her full name is Bianca Elora Hunter, and she has an aunt named Ember. Quite appropriate that she named her kid Spyro during the Baby Challenge.
- Morality Chain: For Patsy, and later, Trey.
- The Napoleon: She's the shortest person of the cast and has been noted by some to be quite tiny for a 16 year old.
- Ship Tease: With Trey. They are now an Official Couple.
Cy Beavistar- The 'Creepy Guy'
- Affably Evil: Strategic, cutthroat and a schemer ... but also polite, level headed, funny and respectful to women.
- All Men Are Perverts: He'll be the first to admit he is a pervert.
- Embarrassing First Name: It turns out Cy is actually short for Cyril, which he doesn't like.
- Expy: Shares a number of similarities with Butthead of all people, though Cy himself is much deeper.
- Signature Laugh: Huhuhuhuh. He uses it just about every time he opens his mouth.
- Verbal Tic: Has a tendency to emphasize certain words or phrases.
Diamond Wendall- The 'Cowardly Convict'
- Anime Hair: Just look at her picture on the author's deviantART page. How does she do that?
- Extreme Doormat: She has her moments.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: She tries to put one up in order to last longer, and despite how laughably thin it is, nobody besides Patsy and Cy seems to notice it's a facade at all. She does end up dropping it after a while.
- Lovable Coward: Timid, nervous and easy to frighten, but popular among the readers.
- Shrinking Violet: What she really is. Her Uncle thought dressing her up as a convict would have people take her seriously.
- Verbal Tic: When she's especially nervous, she'll add "and stuff" to the end of sentences. This is especially apparent when she uses her Jerkass Facade.
Fosley Powers- The 'Quiet Douche'
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: If some of his very few confessionals are any indication.
- It's All About Me: His reasoning for being the Cloaked Shadow was because he wasn't being worshipped.
- Jerkass: Some of his lines and confessionals are quite, well, douchey.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Seems It's All About Me above.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Not only does he come in second, but his actions as the Cloaked Shadow cause the education board to put him on the college blacklist.
- Near-Villain Victory: He was mere inches from winning the game, only to be brought down by some bad luck.
- Only in It for the Money: His main goal in playing the game is to get rich by winning the cash prize.
- Out of Focus: Exploits this trope to get further into the game.
- Smug Snake: Almost all of his dialogue early on is him bragging about how easy the game is for him.
Liv Christmas- The 'Anti-Social Butterfly'
- A-Cup Angst: Briefly shows dissatisfaction with her flat chest.
- Dumb Blonde: Averted; she's pretty level headed and analytical.
- Functional Addict: Though she does need Ollie's help when the withdrawal gets really bad, her addiction to magic mushrooms doesn't hinder her very much.
- The Mentor: Gives Ollie some general game advice in episode 1 and sometimes has a word of wisdom here and there.
- Only Sane Man: Of the Brains, now and then.
- Ship Tease: With Ollie.
Ollie Volraw- The 'Standalone Twin'
- Ascended Fanboy: Over time he becomes happy and excited to be playing the game.
- Jack of All Stats: At least, when it comes to the season's theme. He neither excels nor lacks in Brain or Brawn.
- The Hero Dies: Loses the F5 auto-elimination challenge against Fosley, aka the Cloaked Shadow.
- Shrinking Violet: A bit of a nervous guy, especially compared to the other guys on his team.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the Brains.
- Took a Level in Badass: He starts the game not talking to anyone but Liv and relying on her to help him through the game. He ends the game being friends with most of the contestants, revealing the identity of the Cloaked Shadow, and winning a crucial individual immunity against several stronger contestants.
Patsy Kisses- The 'Hacker'
- Ambiguously Brown: Until John mentions that she's Ukrainian.
- Anti-Hero: Nominal Hero, bordering on Villain Protagonist.
- Hypocrite: Has no problems with cheating to get ahead, but raises a fuss when someone else decides to.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Though "sympathetic" might be a strong word.
- It's All About Me: Seems unable to grasp the concept that anyone other than her has problems or feelings.
- Jerkass: More often than not.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As shown in the epilogue, she is certainly capable of easing up.
- Lonely at the Top: She feels her high intelligence makes it almost impossible to interact with other teens.
- Magical Computer: Her modus operandi. Until she gets threats causing her to stop.
- Odd Friendship: With Bianca.
Trey Itoi- The 'Final Boss'
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Allies with Harmony on Phoenix Island and backstabs her in the next chapter to be 'evil'.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His parents constantly argue and physically harm one another, which has caused him to act as crazy as he does.
- Karma Houdini: Averted, despite his claims to the contrary, as he is the first one eliminated on his team.
- Meta Guy: He often mentions common canon villain trends, and how he will work them to his advantage. He was created as a shot to these trends.
Tyrian Grass- The 'Mushroom Maniac'
- Anime Hair: A huge mushroom hairdo with white spots.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: When he bothers to be, he's a very competent strategist.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Surprisingly skilled at challenges.
- Jerkass: Notably snide with his words.
- Pride: Highly arrogant in his intelligence and sees others as beneath him.
- The Quiet One: He's not much for conversation.
Wittney Black- The 'Artistic Ego'
- Art Attacker: Squirts some paint on the floor during her part of the challenge in Episode 3 to cause her opponent to slip and fall off the edge, earning her a victory.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Even the most minor of snarks directed at her will set her off.
- Hidden Depths: She seems concerned about her weight and fears being hated.
- It's All About Me: Due to having Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
- Jerkass: Though not as big an example as other contestants listed with this trope. By her elimination, it's more of Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Everyone sees her as either an extra vote, a nuisance or both.
Boris Shieldly- The 'Bodyguard'
- Beleaguered Assistant: To Trey when he first arrives on Phoenix Island.
- The Big Guy: Even by the Brutal Brawns' standards, he's pretty muscular.
- Out of Focus: Both in-game and on Phoenix Island, he has a tendency to keep to himself, resulting in this.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Downplayed, but it's clear he sees his female teammates as weaker than his male teammates.
Earl Funkay- The 'Disco Stu'
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Puts on a façade of being a harmless goofball, while actually being a ruthless and snide strategist.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Did Earl deserve to be ostracized by his teammates, get his hair damaged, and get voted off? Absolutely. Did he deserve to have his hair plucked out by birds? Not at all.
- Hammerspace Hair: He smuggled a lot of things into his huge afro, just in case he needed them for negotiations, such as chocolate, soda and presumably more besides.
- Hypocrite: For all of his complaining about John's constant strategizing, he seems to do a lot of strategizing himself.
- Large Ham: One of the hammiest players in the story.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Actually acted dumber in order to be put on a Brawns team, so he could get a leg up on his teammates intellectually.
- Smarter Than You Look: Managed to form two final two deals within his alliance.
- Verbal Tic: Tends to use the "funk" in place of the F-bomb. He drops it once he's voted out.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Plans on using this face to get head in the game.
Eliza Fluffberry- The 'Adventurer'
- Action Girl: If the fact she managed to knock out Fang the land shark via nerve pinching in episode 1 is any indication.
- Epic Fail: Her challenge performance in Episode 3 in a nutshell.
- The Generic Guy: Notably, she's the only character not to go with the "people are more than they seem" theme.
- Genki Girl: Outgoing and quite perky.
- Outdoorsy Gal: She's proud to admit how much she loves the great outdoors.
Harmony Williams- The 'Sexy Librarian'
- Deadpan Snarker: When she gets moody.
- Fiery Redhead: She has her moments.
- Friendless Background: Implied.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Wants to Subvert the Trope.
- The Millstone: Directly responsible for the Brawns losing the first challenge, and is promptly eliminated for it.
- Ms. Fanservice: Deconstructed. She actually hates being seen as such and wishes people would focus more on her intellect than her appearance.
- One Degreeof Separation: It is revealed that she is the cousin of Izzy from canon.
- Took a Level in Badass: Compare the Harmony in Episode 1 who refused to participate in challenges to the Harmony later on who goes dungeon-crawling, as well as saving her girlfriend from a Psychopath.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: To the point where one must wonder how smart she really is.
John Tracker- The 'Brain over Brawn'
- Benevolent Boss: Plays with hard strategy, but clearly cares about his allies as people.
- Good All Along: Seems like a CPN villain, but he is actually a decent guy.
- Jerk Jock: Zigzagged and then averted. he's generally quite polite and reasonable, but he has his villainous moments. Due to character development, he ends up becoming a lot nicer.
- Nothing Personal: Made this clear when he engineered Harmony's elimination.
- Ship Tease: Played With. He and Ruth have no romantic feelings for each other, but several of their team mates ship them together and think they have a thing. Later on, the two are hinted to have feelings towards one another, though nothing ever happens. As of the epilogue, they are now an Official Couple.
Moe Deathspank- The 'Scatterbrain'
- Hidden Depths: Very interested in psychology and the metaphysical.
- Ship Tease: A bit of it with Wishami and Rai.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Earl, after learning he was secretly allied with Sarge.
Rai Wu- The 'Naughty Gymnast'
- Asian Airhead: A deconstruction of this due to being aware of and insecure about her airheadedness.
- The Ditz: Can be slow on the uptake at times, and states her IQ is 80. Deconstructed in that she seems to be a bit insecure about her low IQ.
- Hidden Depths: She wants to be a science teacher of all things.
- Hypocrite: Demonizes Sarge for his social disorder, but expects sympathy for hers. Moe snaps her out of it eventually.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When she's off her meds.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's quite the flirt, but also wants to be seen as something more.
- Stepford Smiler: Takes strong depression medication and admits she often feels 'dead inside'.
- Those Two Girls: With Wishami.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After she loses her meds. She's still shown to be protagonistic, however.
Ruth Hench- The 'Flunky Bully'
- The Bully: Albeit a 'low ranking support bully'.
- Catchphrase: "It shall be done," in response to the Head Bully's orders.
- Hidden Depths: Ruth enjoys cooking, and can make some pretty mean sushi.
- Heroic BSoD: During the visitors challenge.
- Official Couple: With John, as of the epilogue.
- Out of Focus: Tends to just follow Head Bully's lead.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: According to Sarge at least, she looks much better with her hair down.
- Skewed Priorities: Would rather the Head Bully win, instead of winning the game herself.
- Sole Survivor: She wins Total Drama Brains vs Brawns.
- Stalker without a Crush: Can come off as this with her loyalty to the 'Head Bully' at times.
- Stronger Than They Look: She's on the Brawns for a reason, but Word of God states that she's the second strongest contestant in the entire game, behind only Boris, which is hard to see at first glance.
- Undying Loyalty: To whoever she considers the head bully, in this case John and later on Sarge. This is taken up to eleven, and also deconstructed, when she takes her loyalty to somewhat disturbing levels.
Sarge Snowstein- The 'Salty Sailor'
- All Men Are Perverts: His main character trait. He readily admits it, too.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He can be quite the nut every now and then.
- It's Personal: His reason for voting Eliza out after she rejected his advances.
- Large Ham: Has his moments of this.
- The One Guy: Among his 'eye candy alliance'.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His birth name is Slightly Liang. Not that that's any less weird.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: One might expect "Sarge" as a nickname, but not as a real name. It's later revealed that Sarge is not his birth name. See Only Known by Their Nickname.
Wishami Raj- The 'Wide Eyed Heiress'
- Arranged Marriage: Mentions she has one, and she seems to not mind at all.
- Delinquents: She is one off the show and is on her last warning by her parents.
- The Load: The weakest member of the Brawns team physically, and she is all too aware of this.
- One Degree of Separation: Her cousin Sanjay is a competitor in Total Drama: Cliques vs Cliques.
- Out of Focus: Despite her storyline, she's one of the least prominent characters in the Brawns.
- Ship Tease: A little bit of it with Moe. However, she had to turn him down due to her arranged marriage.
A dangerous individual for sure. This boy, or girl, has more than a few screws loose and has no concept of what most would see as right or wrong. They are high functioning, highly adaptable and highly dangerous. But, who is this person?
- Catchphrase: "That isn't nice!" or something to a similar effect.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He makes way for the Cloaked Shadow's plot to take center stage.
- Domestic Abuser: To Ruth, seemingly, since he molested her for fun, and calls her his 'toy.'
- Driving Question: Who IS the psychopath? Sarge.
- Faux Affably Evil: They try to be affable, but with what goes on in their mind, it doesn't come across.
- The Great Outdoors: They are a fan of it.
- Hollywood Atheist: They apparently are not religious.
- Jerkass: Obviously.
- Knight of Cerebus: Clearly one of the darkest, if not THE darkest villain the author has made in his stories.
- Lack of Empathy: Given that he's a sociopath, this comes with the territory, especially considering how he treated groping and molesting Ruth like it was just the most charming thing in the world.
- Rewatch Bonus: Invoked. The point of this character is to encourage rereading in order to find clues as to his or her identity. There are even some lines early on that hint at their status as a rapist.
- The Sociopath: More of a psychopath.
- Walking Spoiler: Due to the nature of the character, this trope is unavoidable.
A mysterious figure, who is tormenting Patsy, and can and will harm ANYONE that dares cross his/her path.
- Cruella to Animals: Impaled a squirrel to prove Moe a point.
- Driving Question: Who IS the Cloaked Shadow? Fosley
- Expy: Of a certain other mystery villain, minus any pretense of being nice, down to having the exact same Freudian Excuse.
- Knight of Cerebus: They are one serious messed up person, who's NOT played for laughs at all. Harming several campers, killing a squirrel to prove a point, and trashing the Co-Host is just some of their misdeeds, and they nearly win the game, too.
Cliques VS Cliques Characters
Asa Kyung, the 'Stoic Sports Fan'
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Name-drops this in reference to her alliance with Taylor. No points for guessing which is which.
- Only Sane Man: Stands out as far and away the most level headed of the Jocks.
- Out of Focus: Due to being The Quiet One.
Dale Lint, the 'Gang Leading Bishie'
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts cutesy and harmless despite being rather condescending and violent.
Juliette Chrome, the 'Dare Devil'
- Ship Tease: With Trevor.
- Token Good Teammate: Given the rest of her team are either jerkass pricks, or neutral.
Taylor Toria, the 'Tough Gal'
- Angrish: When she gets notably pissed off.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It does not take much to set her off.
Woody Son, the 'Cocky Challenge Runner'
- The Big Guy: Notably the tallest and physically strongest of the cast.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: He has decided that the game would be too easy without one, so he punches the first person he sees every day, swears in every sentence, and votes in the minority.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: As a part of his Self-Imposed Challenge challenge.
- Small Name, Big Ego: When he isn't talking about his self-imposed challenge, he's usually talking about how awesome he supposedly is.
Boonie Bopper, the 'Rocket Redneck'
- Gadgeteer Genius: Downplayed. His inventions can and do malfunction or otherwise backfire.
Finneas Fogg, the 'Firm Realist'
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: "People come to this game, expecting to make friends … and it's sad. We are here for cash, nothing more."
- Sorry, I'm Gay: To Lola in chapter 1.
- Spear Counterpart: To Harmony, as the brain-oriented homosexual who is voted off first.
- The Strategist: The most game focused of the nerds.
- Token Minority: As the only black contestant of the season.
Lola Boustani, the 'Sensual Scientist'
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Sharmin.
- For Science!: What she claims is the reason she constantly flirts.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Averted. Lola is seen as creepy and disgusting by several contestants, including her teammates.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Or in this case, drink. Coffee.
Patrick Wolfe, the 'Pissed Off Gaming Nerd'
Yorkie Yi, the 'Adorkable Roleplayer'
Arthur O'Neil, the 'Classy Cannibal'
- Big Eater: Claims to eat a lot of (non-human) meat.
- Dramatic Irony: The readers all know his secret, but none of his teammates, or any characters in general, do.
- Sacrificial Lion: Is set up to be a major character and protagonist, only to be voted out right after revealing his secret.
- The Team Normal: In a sense. As Yazz points out, he's rather normal for someone on the Oddballs team.
Fortune Falls, the 'Gimmick'
- I Just Want to Be Special: Her goal in the game is to come up with a fun gimmick like so many other contestants have.
Kenny Gee, the 'Muscular Metrosexual'
- Camp Straight: He's practically a woman in a big, muscular man's body, but he, in fact, has a girlfriend back home, showing picture evidence.
- Everybody Is Single: Averts this, as he has a girlfriend back home.
- Odd Couple: His girlfriend is known to be wild and shark obsessed. Kenny himself is girly, flamboyant and loves fashion.
- One Degree of Separation: His girlfriend Wendy is a contestant in the upcoming Total Drama: Reds VS Blues.
- Pink Is Feminine: So it only makes sense he would wear a pink shirt.
- The Strategist: He's definitely the most competent of his team.
- Those Two Guys: With Orwell.
Orwell Riley, the 'Gynophobic Pervert'
- Catchphrase: Terror titties! Doubles as a Phrase Catcher, as other contestants start using the term.
- Hidden Depths: Admits to being a long time fan of Total Drama and has been trying to get on since the second season.
- Those Two Guys: With Kenny.
Yasmine 'Yazz' Doom, the 'Cheerfully Resigned Doomsayer'
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: It's outright her surname.
- Everybody Is Single: Averts this, as she has a boyfriend back home.
Goldie Mendez, the 'Casino Girl'
Peach Pye, the 'Filthy Rich Poor Girl'
Roana Rayne, the 'Life of the Party'
- Growing Up Sucks: She considers this game her last chance at goofing off before becoming an adult.
Sanjay Raj, the Cowardly Schemer'
- One Degree of Separation: As mentioned above, he is the cousin of Wishami from Brains VS Brawns.
Trevor George, the 'Badass Butler'
- Only Sane Man: Of the Preps.
- Ship Tease: With Juliette.