Total Drama: Brains VS Brawns
is a 2014 fanfic written by CragmiteBlaster, known for writing other Total Drama fanfictions such as Total Drama Letterz.
The premise is self explanatory; twenty new campers come to an all new Island (named Chris Island by the host due to it lacking an official name) and compete to be the last camper standing and win the grand prize of one million dollars. They are split into two teams, the Brilliant Brains and the Brutal Brawns, based on if they are strong or smart. But things get a little more complicated when some campers seem to be on the wrong team, and some campers don't excel at either category...
The VS series continued with Cliques VS Cliques, which takes place at an abandoned school, known as the 'Maclean Academy and has 20 brand new contestants, sorted into four teams/cliques of five (Jocks, Nerds, Oddballs and Preps). It is said to be Lighter and Softer than the previous story, most of the time.
Word of God says the main themes of the story are Gray-and-Grey Morality, people being more than they seem and a balance of strategy and Character Development.
Tropes appearing in Brains VS Brawns:
- The Ace: John is a sports star at his school and has a number of off-show victories to his name. Sarge gives off this impression as well at times.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: The setting for the fight against Harmony and Sarge on Phoenix Island.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Trey, Patsy and Earl all think themselves to be masters at the game who will control everything to the end but in reality, Trey prioritizes being "evil" over actually doing anything, Patsy has shit taste in allies, and Earl believes he can control Sarge, who is incredibly unstable.
- Big Brother Instinct: While not related to any of the other players, Boris always looks out for those he feels need help, whether they want it or not.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The vast majority of the characters are either complete dicks or partial dicks.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Trey thinks being the main villain will make fate keep him around no matter what due to random coincidences saving him.
- Deserted Island: The island is so remote it doesn't even have an official name.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Readers and characters alike found the Cloaked Shadow's motives to be weak and stupid. note
- Escalating War: Tyrian vs Wittney. It all started because Tyrian didn't care for Wittney's attitude, so he made a few minor insults at her weight. She responded by trying to get him eliminated, and it all went downhill from there.
- Evil vs. Evil: Patsy vs The Cloaked Shadow. The former is an arrogant brat who actively planned to cheat throughout the game and the latter frequently sabotages the Brains' campsite and threatens her in particular.
- Questionable Consent: Sarge molests Ruth, knowing she will not refuse his advances because she sees him as the Head Bully.
- Shoo Out the Clowns:
- Bianca is voted off early, just as the Cloaked Shadow and the Psychopath plot start. Although she returned, she did so with her Silliness Switch turned off.
- Moe is voted off just before the Cloaked Shadow kills SARA. The story doesn't lighten back up until the epilogue.
Tropes appearing in Cliques VS Cliques
- Cluster F-Bomb: Several campers have very filthy mouths. The title of the first chapter lampshades this.
- Lighter and Softer: Much more lighter than its prequel.
- Pretty Boy: Dale, labelled as the 'gang leading bishie'.
-
Self-Imposed Challenge: Due to his case of a Small Name, Big Ego, Wood plays the game with three rules:- Swear once every sentence.
- Vote in the minority.
- Punch the first person he sees every day.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Finneas, Lola and Patrick, on the Nerds team.
