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And this is just the first season.

Total Drama Do Over is a 2012-2017 Total Drama Alternate Universe Fic and Fix Fic created by CoGreen20 (and a later expanded writing team) on DeviantArt. The episode structure is essentially the same as that of the original Total Drama, but with different outcomes.

The series has every challenge in the show's canon, give or take a few, but the first season includes every character up to Total Drama Revenge of the Island and seven Original Characters, with Total World Tour Do Over adding two more Original Characters submitted by audience members. This leads to different interactions and eliminations. With the fifth seasonnote  Total Drama Revenge Do Over, sixteen other original characters, made by DeviantArt users, were added to the roster, as well as the canon characters from Total Drama Pahkitew Island.

The final season was Total Drama Ridonculous Race Do Over, consisting of characters from the canon Spin-Off Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, including the new characters from the canon spinoff, canon characters that did not appear in the canon spinoff, and some OCs including one new one, Michael. CoGreen20 would later pen the Pokémon fanfiction Region Trotters, heavily inspired by Total Drama.

The fanfiction was removed from DeviantArt in 2022 due to CoGreen20 purging their account, but an archive is accessible from its fan wiki.

This fanfiction includes examples of:

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    A-L 
  • Adaptation Expansion: Due to the increased cast size, most seasons have more episodes than their canon counterparts, with original challenges written for the series. For example, Action Do Over adds challenges based on the musical, adventure, and romance movie genres, while World Tour Do Over adds several new locations (Loch Ness, Transylvania, Walt Disney World, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, NASA headquarters, and the Pacific Ocean). On top of extra episodes, Pahkitew also stretches out the climactic malfunctioning island plot.
  • Adaptational Jerkass:
    • Dakota, not being presented the same opportunities for Character Development as canon (where she became more friendly and less selfish), definitely qualifies. In World Tour, she forges a breakup letter from Abigail to cause drama, rigs Noah out of the competition, and is generally a fame-obsessed, unpleasant person. She gets better in the Ridonculous Race.
    • From what little we see of him in canon, Beth's boyfriend Brady seems to be an altruistic, friendly guy who genuinely cares about Beth. When he appears in the fic, he's a jerk who meets Beth via a dating service, then robs her entire family.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • Courtney, while maintaining many of her negative traits from canon, doesn't become as rude and abrasive as she did in canon after Island.
    • Zig Zagging with Duncan. While largely maintaining his canon characterization, has the decency to break things off with Courtney on his own rather than cheat on her. However, his time on the Ridonculous Race paints him as little more than a sleazy, unlikable criminal.
  • Adaptation Title Change: Some of the originally episode names are changed, particularly those punning off the name of a cast member, since the season casts are different here.
    • In Action Do Over:
      • "Masters of Disaster" is renamed "Buns of Steel."
      • "Oceans Eight... or Nine" is renamed "Oceans 13... Now 14" to account for the increased cast number.
      • "Crouching Courtney, Hidden Owen" is renamed "Crouching Moron, Hidden Champ."
      • "2008: A Space Owen" was renamed "2013: A Space Idiocy" to account for the actual release year.
      • "Super Hero-ld" is renamed "Super Zeroes."
    • In All Stars Do Over, "Zeke and Ye Shall Find" is renamed "Seek and Ye Shall Lie" since feral Ezekiel isn't present in this series and the use of "lie" hints at the episode's real villain, Staci.
    • The Revenge finale "Brain Vs Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown" is simply "The Ultimate Showdown," since the Revenge Do Over finalists (Scarlett and Jack) don't fit the "brain versus brawn" motif of the canon finalists.
    • In Pahkitew Do Over:
      • "Twinning Isn't Everything" is renamed "Winning Isn't Every Fling," since Amy and Sammy aren't in Pahkitew Do Over. The new title works as a Double-Meaning Title, since it deals with potential romantic "flings" as well as the contestants flinging balloons at each other.
      • "Scarlett Fever" is renamed "Malfunction Junction" since Scarlett isn't in Pahkitew Do Over (and already had her reveal in Revenge Do Over).
      • "Sky Fall" is given its invokedproduction title of "Break Back Mountain."
  • Adaptational Villainy: Staci may not have much more screen time or depth than in canon, but in Do Over, she resents her placement so much that she kidnaps Chris in an effort to cancel the fifth season.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Three canon Ridonculous Race characters, Brody, Mary, and Miles, do not appear. Ellody and Laurie instead partner up with Scarlett and Dawn, respectively, while Geoff does not compete. However, Miles makes a cameo in the second Celebrity Manhunt episode.
    • "Newf Kids on the Rock," the Newfoundland challenge in World Tour, does not appear here. It is replaced with "Loch Where You're Going," a Scotland challenge.
    • Most of the songs in World Tour are kept in World Tour Do Over, albeit with rewrites to fit the context. However, some songs are not repurposed: "Baby," "Save This Show," and "Greek Mix." The latter is replaced with "I Won't Say I'm In Love."
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Courtney, again, hints at this by crushing on Duncan. Mel does as well, although it seems to be for more physical reasons.
  • Alpha Bitch: Heather and Vanessa are notorious for their vanity, coldness, and belittling of others. This causes the two to feud.
  • Always Someone Better: While Alejandro has this problem with his brother Jose as in canon, Will also has this as a Freudian Excuse for his emo personality- his parents pay more attention to his brother Jack than him, as Jack is a very talented jock and bullies Will for being lesser than him.
  • An Aesop: Every episode of All Stars features at least one moral listed in the description, usually pertaining to the eliminated contestant, but occasionally involving other major characters of the episode as well. Some of these fall into Spoof Aesop, such as "Food Fright" claiming Robert's lesson was, ""Pancakes taste better with butter."
  • And This Is for...:
    • In "I Triple Dog Dare You," after every humiliating dare Alejandro does, Zoey or DJ says, "That's for [one of the contestants Alejandro eliminated]!"
    • In "Post-Plunkers Paradise," everybody eliminating Mike/Mal for the game says why they're eliminating him, i.e. Zoey saying "That's for hurting me," Shin saying, "That's for setting me on fire," and Courtney saying, "That's for giving my boyfriend a concussion." Duncan caps it off with, "That's for EVERYTHING, Mal."
  • As You Know: In "Curse of the Black Hurl," Alice lampshades how unnecessary it is for Hank to explain the situation with Wawanakwa to her, unless someone else needs to know:
    Hank: We have to stop him.
    Alice: … I know-
    Hank: -We can’t let him continue to destroy the environment.
    Alice: I’m well aware, Han-
    Hank: -If we let him get away, he’ll force Wawanakwa and all of its inhabitants into a toxic quarantine.
    Alice: I KNOW, Hank. I’m very well informed on the subjec-
    Hank: -Which is why we have to cleanse the island before it’s too late.
    Alice: Hank, why are you telling ME this? I know. You know. Is there some kind of third party present in this room that needs to know all of this? (Both look directly at the camera. They resume their chat)
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Chris is arrested at the end of All Stars, his crimes include endangering the lives of teenagers on public television, exploiting a mental illness of entertainment, exposing teenagers to radiation, child abuse, landing the plane in no landing zones several times, and illegal exportation of hair products.
  • Ascended Extra: Most one-shot pre-mergers from canon get a second season, to the point, it'd be easier to list the exceptions - Staci and Beardo. Most even make it to merge, at least once.
    • In-Universe, Justin, Robert, and Randy get much more screen time on their second appearance than their debut.
  • Author Appeal:
  • Author Avatar: While neither a contestant or a host, CoGreen occasionally make brief appearances as himself, usually for a gag, but occasionally addressing characters or the audience. The most blatant is in "Error! Sanity Not Found," which has them possess Sierra and actually speak to the contestants, revealing to them that they're in a fanfiction.
  • Batman Gambit: In the ninth inning of World Tour, Scott, after being tipped off by Beth that Courtney insisted on blindsiding Mel, correctly called that she would swap out the dummies in the final challenge. As a result, he switched them back to prevent losing on a technicality.
  • Battle Rapping: The climax of "Seek and Ye Shall Lie" has Staci and Robert engage in a deliberately cringey rap battle.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Discussed by Heather in TDWTDO: she thinks Nathaniel's naievity is a ploy to fool the others while he makes alliances.
  • Big Bad: Each season (Minus Pahkitew) has one: Alejandro in Island, Vanessa and Heather in Action, Mel in World Tour, Mal in All Stars, Scarlett in Revenge, and Heather and Alejandro in Ridonculous Race.
  • Blame the Paramour: Trent becomes convinced that Charlotte is cheating on him and scouts out potential "man-mistresses," eventually narrowing it down to Geoff. Trent is no more than condescending and passive aggressive towards Charlotte, believing that she'll come back to him as soon as the other man is off the island. However, he is incredibly angry with Geoff, even punching him after Charlotte dumps him. When Trent learns that Charlotte got with Mel after she dumped him, he lashes out at Mel, but is more concerned for Charlotte due to Mel's history of being a Serial Homewrecker, and assumes Charlotte's new relationship is just a phase she needs to overcome. Eventually, Charlotte snaps at Trent for not trusting her word or respecting her agency in the whole ordeal.
  • Break-Up Song:
    • In "Jamaica Me Sweat," Noah sings "Oh My Abby," a new version of "Oh My Izzy" lamenting Abigail seemingly breaking up with him on the fly. (In reality, it's just Dakota stirring up drama with a fake breakup note.)
    • In "Pitching Pahkipella," Charlotte sings an original song chastising Trent for his emotional abuse and dumping him for good. This sends the recipient into a vicious rage.
  • Butt-Monkey: DJ, especially in "That's Off The Chain!," when he is constantly slapped and just plain hit and this trope is named.
  • Calvinball: In "Celebrity Manhunt Returns," Mel, Geoff, and B play a version of "Go Fish" where they make up a ridiculous new rule every turn. In Geoff's words, "It only gets funner as you play because if you forget a rule, you’re doomed, dude."
  • Cassandra Truth:
    • After the events of "Brunch of Disgustingness," Noah correctly suspects Alejandro of poisoning Owen's food, which is rejected by most the cast.
    • In "Saving Private Leechball," Zoey reporting on Mike/Mal hitting her leads to her elimination, with other contestants (most noticeably Courtney) getting angry that she'd "lie" about such a serious matter.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: While a few characters appear similar at first, such as Heather and Vanessa, Character Development either shows or reveals underlying differences between the two.
  • Cats Are Mean: Discussed in "Food Fright." Cody says that it's raining cats and dogs, and Abigail remarks that cats belong on the Heroes' team. Cody retorts, "But Abigail, cats are known for being villainous." Cue a disgusted look from cat lover Abigail as she moves away from Cody.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
    • Izzy, like her canon counterpart, does crazy stuff seemingly just for the sake of it.
    • Sierra, also like canon, is often so obsessed with her crush (or some other interest) that it blinds her to reality.
    • Abigail, an OC, has this as her defining character trait. She is an avid daydreamer, gets sidetracked easily, and likes activities such as chasing squirrels.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: "Geeky Love" has Nathaniel and Beth curse up a storm at their enemies, particularly Mel, which is ironic considering they're the two most innocent contestants in the season.
  • Creator Cameo: At least a couple regarding main author CoGreen20 and occasional writer MightyMewtron, the latter of whom appears in "Tale as New As York" as one of the last locals.
  • Character Development: one of the most lauded aspects, giving filler characters their time in the limelight
  • Creator In-Joke: Inside jokes and self-indulgent memes often appear in the fanfiction, especially in the extra episode where Vanessa, Anne Maria and Mama DJ go to the mall and in the alternate ending for Island, both of which feature references to the author's friends.
  • Cue the Flying Pigs: In "After the Dock of Shame," Noah says he'll believe that Jo and Harold can get together "when gingers fly." Cue Scott hurtling in from the sky and falling into the pool due to a jet ski accident, and a Flat "What" from Noah.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Team Maskwak gets ridiculously obliterated throughout "Blast From the Past" to the point Chris forces a last-minute rigged tiebreaker so Team Kinosewak can lose. Team Maskwak loses nevertheless.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    • In "Not So Happy Campers Part 2," during a Two Scenes, One Dialogue confessional montage, Vanessa compares her team to a "pile of..." and it cuts to Jo finishing with "...dirty laundry," lampshading that she can't swear on television.
    • A Running Gag in the fic's version of the "Changing Guard Mix" song is that the characters keep getting cut off before they drop a swear or sexual innuendo... at least until the end, where Chris drops a censored Precision F-Strike.
    Nathaniel: ♪ ♫How could Chris make us do this? This is so wrong! I don't want to see his bum, especially his d-♪ ♫
    Mel: ♪ ♫This is right up my alley....our team is in luuuuck...Could stand to be a lot hotter, but not like we would f-♪ ♫
    Izzy: -♪ ♫Oh YEAH! Strippin guards down, that stuff takes guts!♪ ♫ (she starts ripping off the guard's shirt)
    Brick: ♪ ♫I love serving my noble teaam... but I don't like n-♪ ♫(cut off by next singer as he takes off the guard's pants)
  • Cute Kitten:
    • Abigail has a kitten on her shirt to emphasize her perkiness and cuteness.
    • In "Walk Like an Egyptian Part 1", Team Gloom N Doom gets a cat as their reward, which Abigail gushes over.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • All Stars, due to Mal and his dark backstory and acts as the antagonist, as well as his actions towards Bridgette and Zoey.
    • Scarlett is arguably the most terrifying villain, to the degree Nicole was on the show just to track her down.
  • Dating Service Disaster: Katie and Sadie run a dating website in "Celebrity Manhunt," and Beth meets Brady while using it. After a few dates, however, not only did Brady dump Beth, he robbed her house and stole all her family's savings. This prompts Beth to sue the dating site, but she loses so badly she ends up in jail.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • Noah, like in canon, spends many of his lines emotionlessly snarking at his teammates.
    • Tanner is a smartass who spends much of his time snarking about his teammates' idiocy.
  • "Dear John" Letter: In "Jamaica Me Sweat," Dakota feigns a breakup note from Abigail to Noah to break Noah's heart and create drama.
  • Demoted to Extra: The Adversity Twins, while not main characters in canon, go home much sooner in Do-Over.
  • Destination Defenestration: In "The Chefshank Redemption," when the trailers get locked, the girls throw Anne Maria out the trailer window. Her hair is so hard that it breaks through the glass, leaving her unfazed and giving the other girls a way out.
  • The Diss Track:
    • In "NASA Nots," Beth and Nathaniel sing a song dedicated to cussing Mel out for bullying them the whole season. It's particularly a shock as these two usually have very clean mouths.
    • "Pitching Pahkitella" invokes this, as the challenge has other characters write mean songs to try and make other characters either cry or get violent. Ella grapples with the idea that songs could ever be used for cruelty.
  • Domestic Abuse:
    • Played With in All-Stars Do Over. In "Saving Private Leechball," Zoey believes that her boyfriend Mike smacked her across the face with a paintball gun. Technically, it was Mal masquerading as Mike who did this, but it's serious enough for Zoey to break off her relationship with Mike as she doesn't know the truth.
    • Pahkitew Do Over reveals that Trent has become emotionally abusive towards Charlotte following the Area 51 incident, not being able to leave her alone out of fears that she'll get hurt and covertly insulting her when she rebukes this behavior.
  • Double Entendre:
  • Robert asks DJ how much he costs followed by DJ backing away slowly.
  • To fit in with her flirtatious personality, a lot of Mel's dialogue contains dirty puns. In the World Tour premiere alone, she gives the line, "I've been in worse positions," in regards to seating arrangements, and "HURRY UP and get out...unless you want company," with the latter being said seductively.
  • Dysfunction Junction: As the series takes on a Darker and Edgier tone in All Stars, large swaths of the cast have some kind of dark backstory. To name a few, Jack got into superheroes because his father is a shady businessman, Abagail is ambiguously a child by rape, and Mal developed disassociative identities thanks to Absuive Parents.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two seasons use more inside jokes and references and are much less dramatic and adult than the later seasons.
  • Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: In "If You Can't Take the Heat..." the Bass decide to make a citrus cake for their dessert. Courtney confuses it with fruit cake and is glad to hear that they're different, as she thinks fruit cake is only useful to anger your distant relatives on holidays.
  • Everyone Meets Everyone: In the first episode, the whole cast is introduced to one another.
  • Everyone Is Related: Many characters turn out to be related to each other, especially when it comes to relating original characters to canon characters.
    • Nathaniel is Josh's nephew.
    • Coby's biography states that he's Duncan's cousin.
    • Pahkitew makes the claim that Charlotte is related to Sanders.
    • Alice adopted Scarlett an unknown time before Revenge, making her and Chris adopted siblings.
    • One of the locks to the mainframe of Pahkitew Island requires a DNA test, which claims that Colton and Abigail are related.
    • Scott learns in Ridonculous Race that Crimson is his Long Lost Sister, Albertha
  • Expy:
    • Abigail is based off Mabel from Gravity Falls, with her perky attitude and her bright pink sweater.
    • The orange-clad Southerner Felicity is one of Applejack. Lampshaded in Celebrity Manhunt 2 when she turns into Applejack and returns back to Equestria.
  • Faint in Shock: in "Mo Monkeys Mo Problems, Nathaniel passes out from shock when he sees Charlotte and Mel kiss.
  • Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Many of the aftermath episodes allowed fans to submit their own video guests.
  • Funny Photo Phrase: In "Walk Like An Egyptian — Part 1," Dakota makes Mel take a photo of her with the mummified animals. Mel complies, asking Dakota to say, "R Rated Movie." Dakota says it, but trails off as she falls onto the mummified dog.
  • Gainax Ending: The alternate ending to Total Drama Island Do Over. It's apparently canon, but very...odd.
  • The Good Guys Always Win: The villains are usually eliminated just before the final two or three.
  • Graceful Loser: Many. A few notable examples include:
    • In Action, Tyler, the final premerger, appears upset at first, but is actually really happy to have improved on their performance in Island.
    • The first boots of Ridonculous Race, Katie and Sadie, enjoyed their brief run, and tell the other teams to enjoy the rest of the race.
  • G-Rated Drug: In "Walk Like An Egpytian Part 1", Mel spikes the punch with "a buttload of sugar." Subverted in the rewritten version, where Mel notes that it isn't actually sugar after all.
  • Gratuitous Japanese:
    • In the Japan episode of World Tour, Shin speaks Japanese in the Athens commercial.
    • Giselle, being a Lolita/weeaboo, sprinkles some Japanese into her otherwise English vocabulary.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Happens often with the villains, though some examples take longer than others
    • The first villain to go through this was Vanessa after being locked up for several episodes in a warehouse
    • She was followed by Scott in Total Drama World Tour, most of the villains in Total Drama All Stars, Scarlett and Tanner
    • The last villain to go through this was Alejandro who took losing not only Ridonculous Race Do Over but also losing Heather's heart as a result of her own heel face turn
  • Hey, That's My Line!: Abigail says "Booyah" in "Post Plunkers' Paradise," prompting Harold to remark that that's his catchphrase.
    Abigail: I thought yours was "Gosh".
    Harold: ...Gosh, you're right. (they smile)
  • Homoerotic Subtext: From Revenge onwards, Chris and Chef are written as if they're in romantic relationship, but the narrative always insists they're just friends. In "The Enchanted Franken-Forest," they enjoy a candlelit dinner together and confess that they both dated their respective girlfriends to make each other jealous. They agree to be "friends" again, with the narration lampshading the ambiguity.
    (An intern shuts down the camera. Chef and Chris have made up and are totally dati-FRIENDS again.... hehe... leave that up to interpretation)
  • I Just Like Saying the Word: In "Not So Happy Campers Part 2," Charlotte suggests the Bass add balsa to the sides of the hot tub simply because she likes the sound of the word "balsa."
  • Important Haircut: Will cutting his bangs in the Christmas special, indicating his moving past being a loner.
  • Insult Backfire: In "Uh Oh Inferno," Jo teases Charlotte by calling her "heteroflexible," referencing Charlotte's unexlected relationship with a girl. A confessional follows where Charlotte seems to actually like the term for herself.
  • Ironic Death: Discussed in "Brunch of Disgustingness." When annoyed at Owen, Alejandro thinks of ironic ways to kill him, such as having him eat himself to death or being crushed by something as heavy as he is.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Both Alejandro and Heather undergo a lot of pain in their respective elimination episodes.
    • In Action, Heather still gets her hair shaved off!
    • Vanessa gets one during Action when Heather locks her away and takes her place on the show.
    • Mel received a huge "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Beth in "Drumheller", and is subsequently eliminated by her later on, the bonus being she's punched by Courtney.
      • In All Stars, she receives her karma for cheating on Duncan with Alejandro, then on Alejandro with Jose when she is eliminated and dumped by all three.
    • Chris gets these in several of the season finales. In Island he gets thrown into the water like in canon, in Action he gets trampled by the contestants, in All Stars he's arrested, and in Pahkitew he's attacked by a robotic bear.
  • Least Rhymable Word: During the rap battle in "Seek and Ye Shall Lie," Staci gives up on rhyming because the last word she used was "selfie," which she claims isn't rhymable. Robert points out that she could have used the word "wealthy" to diss him. This wins Robert the battle.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Vanessa and Sammy. The former's primary interest is fashion and beauty, while the latter is a feminine cheerleader.
  • Long-Lost Relative:
    • Subverted with Abigail and Colton, as Chris rigged the door panel to tell them they were related.
    • Before a rewrite where Shin came out as gay, this was the original reason for Shin and Bridgette's breakup, as neither felt comfortable as Kissing Cousins.
  • Loophole Abuse: In "Post-Plunker's Paradise," Chris gives each camper one phone call, but instructs them to not call 911. During B's turn, he dials 112... the number for the police in Finland.
  • Lost the TV Remote: Some of the characters occasionally watch "Honey, Where Is The Remote?" - a One-Joke Fake Show which solely consists of a husband and wife asking where the remote is.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Mel is notorious for her flirtation and high sex drive. In Pahkitew, she maintains these traits, but also opens herself up more around Charlotte and generally Takes A Level In Kindness.
  • Love Dodecahedron: The entirety of the TDDO series results in a messy one. For instance, Geoff had feelings for Bridgette, before becoming Gwen's boyfriend in a later season. Prior to dating Geoff, Gwen had feelings for Trent, who was a couple with Charlotte. Mel goes on to date Charlotte after her breakup with Trent, but not before catching feelings for Harrison. Meanwhile, Shin, partner of Harrison, closes the loop as he used Bridgette as a beard before coming out.
  • Love Triangle:
    • Courtney and Duncan become a couple in Island, and remain together as of World Tour. However, while Courtney is still happy with Duncan, Duncan becomes interested in Mel, ultimately breaking up with Courtney to be with Mel.
    • In Island, Charlotte and Gwen both develop crushes on Trent, who himself likes Charlotte.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Parodied in the Island finale. Chef claims that he's DJ's father as a Shout-Out to The Empire Strikes Back, then laughs it off as a joke. He is dating DJ's mother, though.
    M-Z 
  • Make-Out Kids: Mel and Duncan spend at least half of their screen time together making out after they get together (and it's implied they do much more than that off-screen). This annoys the other characters.
    Leshawna: That's enough! Do something else besides making out! (Mel looks at Duncan and smiles) AND WHATEVER ELSE you're thinking of. Don't do it.
    Duncan: What ELSE are we supposed to do? Socialize? (Mel and Duncan stand up and laugh)
  • Marilyn Maneuver: In "French is an Eiffel Language," Topher's drawing of Dakota has her dress flying up in the style of Marilyn Monroe, alluding to Dakota's obsession with fame. Dakota wants to frame it.
  • Mugged for Disguise: The big plot twist of Action is that Heather kidnapped Vanessa and disguised herself as her to enter the game discretely. Upon being caught, Chris decides to let her continue playing as herself.
  • Musical Episode:
    • "Musical Blunder Number" in Action, despite only having a few songs, has challenges focused on musical numbers and the contestants singing.
    • "Pitching Pahkipella" in Pahkitew has all the contestants write insulting songs for one another and sing them aloud.
  • Mind Screw:
    • Before a "proper" rewrite was done, the alternate ending of Island gives neither finalist the win, instead opting for random, at time incomprehensible antics.
    • At the final eight of Pahkitew, the bulk of the episode had No Fourth Wall as a way to drive conflict, only to reset near the end.
  • Miscarriage of Justice: In the first "Celebrity Manhunt" special, Beth sues Katie and Sadie because she used their dating service and the boy robbed her entire family. However, Beth and her family end up in prison for no reason, because Katie and Sadie's lawyer is just that smooth... and he's biased towards them as he met his husband on their website. Even Katie and Sadie are shocked Beth gets sentenced to jail.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: In Pahkitew, Trent becomes convinced that Charlotte's apathy towards him is a sign of infidelity and tries to scout out whoever she's seeing on the side. He narrows it down to Geoff, even physically assaulting him. Charlotte's not actually cheating on him, though. However, Mel kisses her backstage in "Pitching Pahkipella," as their relationship has only strengthened due to Trent's paranoia, but Charlotte dumps Trent immediately afterwards.
  • Mistaken for Gay:
    • Many of Topher's teammates mistake his admiration for Chris as something else.
    • Giselle points out the sexual tension between Harrison and Colton multiple times, though this is subverted with Harrison being actually bisexual.
  • Mythology Gag: In Awwww, Drumheller, the remaining contestants, hallucinating from the heat, "interact" with the canon final four, as jokes are made regarding the inconsistency between timelines. This is repeated in Zeke and Ye Shall Find, under the pretense of gas fumes, this time mocking the tendencies of canon to feature scatterbrained plots.
  • Nepotism: Topher tries to invoke this in Ridonculous as he is Don's son. It doesn't work.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bridgette, on the heroic hamsters no less, winds up being the person to accidentally unleash Mal. Subverted when Mal is actually the host of the system and has been repressed over the years to the will of his abusive parents
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Near the end of "Pahk'd With Talent," Jasmine helps Colton and Noah get over their feud by pointing out how similar they are — they're both stubborn and snarky, and they both care a lot about Abigail.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • Krystal's strategy is based off of acting ditzy to lower everyone's expectations about her.
  • Obvious Rule Patch: Jealous of another cast member, Geoff, prompted by Alejandro, rigs the votes in Island to eliminate the target of their jealousy. By the next season, a new rule is made to void any further attempts. However, in All-Stars, another character gets away with it anyway, thanks to the rules being rewritten in haste, ergo excluding the rule patch. Said loophole is patched out by the next voteoff.
  • One-Joke Fake Show: Characters occasionally watch the show "Honey, Where Is The Remote?" which solely consists of a husband and wife asking where the TV remote is.
    Izzy: Season finale is next week. I wonder if they'll finally find that remote.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted with Jack sharing his name with Will's older brother, though the Revenge Jack's real name (only revealed after his season, though) is Jayyid.
    • Also Averted with TDI, TDA, and TDAS competitor Mike (The MPD) with RRDO competitor Michael (One half of the Lawyers with Courtney)
    • Also Averted with TDIDO, TDADO, TDWTDO, TDRRDO competitor DJ; Devon Joseph and one half of team best friends, Devin.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "Brunch of Disgustingness," Owen collapses after only a few slurps of disgusting soup. When DJ points out that he'd never pass out only just one bite, Chris freaks out that this is "out of character Owen" and that he's actually seriously ill.
  • Operation: Jealousy:
    • It's revealed in "The Enchanted Franken-Forest" that Chef only dated Mama DJ to make Chris jealous. Chris reveals he dated Blaineley to do the same to Chef, though it didn't work since he forgot to tell Chef.
    • During Pahkitew, Trent begins dating Ella after breaking up with Charlotte in an attempt to make Charlotte jealous. Ella doesn't realize that Trent is faking their supposed relationship, and does not take the truth well.
  • Orwellian Retcon: Around the time of All Stars Do Over, CoGreen20 rewrote certain scenes in the previous seasons, most drastically changing the Bridgette and Shin breakup subplot from them discovering they're Kissing Cousins to Shin realizing he's gay.
  • Out-Gambitted: During the TDWDO, Courtney decides to secretly switch her dummy with Scott so he'll throw it in the lava instead and she'll be declared the winner. However, Scott manages to switch the dummies back to ensure he'll win.
  • Precision F-Strike: In "This is the Pits!" Colton gets away with saying "shit" uncensored, which is lampshaded.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of the second Celebrity Manhunt special, Felicity returns to Equestria through a portal and transforms into Applejack because the creator simply got bored with her.
  • Queer Colors: When Giselle reveals that Harrison is bisexual, she throws blue, purple, and pink confetti into the air.
  • Questionable Consent: In "Moon Madness," Bridgette undergoes a personality switch due to the effects of the blue harvest moon and becomes evil. During this time, she makes out with Mal, who subsequently pursues her. Bridgette is extremely uncomfortable with this experience because while she did flirt with Mal during that time, she wasn't in her right state of mind.
  • A Rare Sentence: In the TDPDO finale:
    Jasmine: Is dodging all of these robotic rocket trees really worth it for my cage-fighting flower shop? ... (long pause) ... For some reason, that sentence sounded okay.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In "Awwww, Drumheller," Beth brutally shuts down Mel for making fun of her friendships, pointing out that Mel's entire outlook on life is shallow and will leave her alone.
    Beth: We have each other. We will ALWAYS have each other. Our friendships can take us far! Your wild parties and raves may be "sick", Mel, but EVERY party ends. And let me tell you, when your joy ride is over, you're gonna wake up and realize that NOBODY around you is as close as you thought they were. So YEAH... if we're lame for being FRIENDS… then go ahead and keep being COOL for being the loneliest girl in the world! And no amount of boys and relationships can change that, Mel! (Beth steps away. Lightning, Courtney, and Scott applaud. Mel is flabbergasted)
    Mel: ...b-but... you... ...
    Beth: (whips around and yells) WHO CARES if one of us is getting eliminated today!? At least we'll still be friends AFTER the show! There's real life, you know! And NO… your shallow and pointless relationships and boy teasing does NOT COUNT AS EXPERIENCE!!!!
  • Retcon: The original Shin/Bridgette plotline in Island with them being cousins was replaced with Shin being gay a few years later to be more inclusive and more logical. A few other, less noticeable edits to older seasons have taken place since around 2016.
  • Rhetorical Question Blunder: In "Curse of the Black Hurl," Alice bemoans to herself, "What has Christian done?" Hank pops back in to explain that Chris has done massive radioactive damage to Wawanakwa, prompting Alice to shut Hank up because she knows already.
  • Running Gag:
    • In every finale episode, during the tense break right before the winner is revealed, a duck will randomly show up and quack. In the series finale, the duck packs up its bags, wishes the audience well, and leaves.
    • In the episode "Be More Pacific," a seagull keeps flying into characters' faces and interrupting them.
  • Sassy Black Woman:
    • Boisterous black woman LeShawna from the original show maintains this role, but Mama DJ is even more bold and sassy in Action.
    • Mystery Meat parodies this, despite being sentient meat rather than a black woman.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Throughout "Search and Do Not Destroy", Harold is reluctant to go into the girls' bunks where his key is. It was on the front steps of the cabin the whole time.
  • Shout-Out:
    • In the second aftermath, a guest named Trixie who talks in the third person appears. In the first, a peppy, cupcake loving girl named Penny is a guest. They are expies Trixie Lulamoon and Pinkie Pie respectively from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
    • "Total Drama Drama Drama Island" has the "They all collided and crashed!" part. The actual text is a little too long to paste, but it included phrases such as "TwIlIgHtSpArKlE", "JamesXJessie", "PiNkIepIe", "ILIlIkEtUrTLeS", and more.
    • Mama DJ has an "Our Tiny Horses" watch and Harold is part of the fan club.
    • An April Fool's episode that was just the word "mayonnaise" copied and pasted all over again, as a reference to Teen Nick's 2013 April Fool's joke by playing the so-called lost Rocko's Modern Life episode that turned out to be a jar of mayonnaise playing for 30 minutes.
    • The "Bang On or Bogus" challenge in "N.A.S.A. Nots" is taken directly from Skatoony, which has had Total Drama characters compete on its Canadian version. Beth alludes to the reference by noting that the gameplay sounds like a copyright violation.
    • In "Brazillian Pain Forest", MacArthur says she can't trust lawyers, since they interrogate parots and whip judges.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Nicole is eliminated second in Pahkitew, but the finale reveals she played a major role in the Colton and Abigail sibling hoax, with Chris recruiting her to gather research he could use to manipulate the contestants. Leonard lampshades how much impact she had despite her small part in this season.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Sierra still remains this, but by Action, in the aftermath, she acts more like a drama-invoker similar to Geoff in the canon TDA Aftermaths.
  • Straight Gay: Several examples:
    • Shin as revealed in Total Drama World Tour Do Over, shocking due to his previous relationship with Bridgette.
    • Michael in The Ridonculous Race Do Over once he explicitly flirts with Jacques.
  • Take a Third Option: After returning as a mole for Chris, Brick, wanting to maintain his honor while fulfilling his end of the agreement, purposefully gets caught in the act of sabotage, allowing himself to get voted out.
  • Take That!:
    • In the now-deleted mall special, a boy named Brady is used as bait for Fredwina. Brady was a Wikia user who had drama with CoGreen20.
    • Zoey is the runner-up of Island, but doesn't win in the original alternate ending. Word of God has suggested it is because CoGreen hates her too much to let her win.
    • Tons against the canon Total Drama. TDWTDO and TDASDO take a ton of potshots towards the canon season five especially.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: In "Brunch of Disgustingness," Alejandro poisons Owen's dish out of pure annoyance, knocking him out of the competition.
  • Token Good Teammate:
  • Leshawna is the only true "hero" on the Villainous Vultures team in All Stars, much to her chagrin. However, other members of her team eventually face redemption, partly due to her efforts.
  • Traintop Battle: Similar to Alejandro and Heather in canon, Courtney and Mel end up fighting atop a train in "Planes, Trains, and Hot Air Mobiles" while trying to beat the other to Tijuana. Courtney lampshades how dangerous it is:
    Courtney: I will DESTR-… wait… why did we come up here? This is dangerous!
    Mel: Um... cause it's EPIC! Buzzkill.
  • Unexpectedly Dark Episode: "Brunch of Disgustingness." Primarily due to Owen's severe poisoning and Zoey's emotional backstory. It breaks away from the normal comedic routine of the first season.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Chris has Nicole do research on the contestants for him in preparation for Pahkitew Island, believing that all she was doing was helping him pay off the damage caused to Wawanakwa. She's horrified to learn that Chris used this information to convince Colton and Abigail that they're siblings, exploiting Colton's PTSD about his deceased sister.
  • The Un-Reveal: It's never actually confirmed whether Colton and Abigail are biologically related in Pahkitew. The initial claim that it was true turned out to be a hoax, and when Colton gets the actual DNA results, Abigail rips them up without even looking, saying that Colton is her brother no matter what.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Averted for the contestants. Staci, the only first boot not to compete on another season, had a significant cameo in Seek and Ye Shall Lie.
  • Wham Line:
    • Near the end of "Error! Sanity Not Found", revealing two characters are possibly related and setting off a late-season story arc:
    Door Panel: DNA MATCHED. ABIGAIL MARSHEL. COLTON HERRINGTON.
    • The end of "Hawaiian Honeyruin" completely recontextualizes Don's relationship with the Fame Mongers during their elimination:
    Don: You two think I’m gonna spare you just because Topher’s my son?
  • Wham Episode: At least one per season, but highlights include:
    • World Tour has "Loch Where You're Going". The fan favorite, Abigail, is eliminated and Duncan dumps Courtney for Mel.
    • All Stars gets it MUCH harder in "Defiled". Mal is revealed to be the system host and is eliminated, Chef replaces Chris temporarily, and the final two is revealed to be Bridgette and Jo.
      • Even before that, Word of God considers "Saving Private Leechball" to be one, since Mike as Mal abuses Zoey, who proceeds to break up with him, and her percieved deception means she is eliminated
    • "Pitching Pahkapella" in Pahkitew: Mel kisses Charlotte who then musically breaks up with Trent, who then has a breakdown and hits Geoff, who he thinks took Charlotte from him.
    • "Tisket, Casket, Blow a Gasket" in Ridonculous Race: Vanessa and Anne Maria reveal that they were fired from Giselle's company by a committee member for suupposedly being lesbian together. Alejandro and Heather get slapped by Dwayne after they insult Junior. Stephanie and Ryan break up after Stephanie is too competitive and emotionally drains Ryan.
  • What Did I Do Last Night?: In "Walk Like An Egyptian: Part 1", after the contestants have a wild party on the plane, nobody can remember what happened.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: At one point, DJ crossdresses as Djette, and doesn't find it humilitating at all.
    DJette: They're acting like this is supposed to be humiliating! ...I mean... worse case scenario, my makeup smears!?
  • Writers Cannot Do Math:
    • There's some inconsistencies with ages in later seasons, particularly Pahkitew, which gives canon ages for all the contestants, with each cast member being either 17 or 18 during their respective debuts. However, both previous episodes ("Back to Drama" has Gwen note that they're all high school juniors, and "Suckers Punch" has Cody refer to himself as a junior in a legal context, but both characters should be at least 19 years old by then) and even a later episode (in "Malfunction Junction," Charlotte strongly implies she was sixteen when she met Trent) contradict this information, instead implying that they were 16 at their debut as they were in the canon series.
    • In "Subzero Heroes," Abigail is said to have been born January 1996, while Colton was born December 1997. Noah claims this means that Abigail and Colton can't share a mother since they didn't have nine months between their births, but the math actually means Abigail is almost two years older than Colton, not less than two months. It's possible that the birthdates were supposed to be switched, and Abigail is meant to be born December 1996 while Colton was born January 1997.

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