Fanfic / TPReboot

TPReboot is an ongoing, SYOC Total Drama and Pokémon crossover fanfiction, created and written by Reboot.

Acting as an attempted continuity reboot for the Total Drama/Pokémon crossover community as a whole, TPReboot is a "back to basics" attempt at the TPI formula, following contestants (each representing a different Pokémon type), who sign up for the new hottest reality show on television, and are promptly sailed off to an isolated location. The campers are divided into teams, and are then forced to compete against each other in challenges. If a team wins the challenge, they're treated to rewards that'll make their stay a little better. If they lose, they're sent to the elimination ceremony, where they vote one of their members off the show. When the cast is eventually whittled down, the teams are merged, with the remaining contestants competing from there on out in free-for-all format. The last contestant standing wins a huge sum of cash!

Originally releasing on September 26th, 2021, the original draft of the story experienced a series of drawbacks and slow periods regarding updates, including chapters being edited and revised multiple times after release, with minimal progress being made in said time all the way through its final update on March 3rd, 2023. However, rather notoriously it'd be revealed that following April the story would, rather ironically considering the name, undergo a complete Continuity Reboot as a result of a falling out between the writer and someone closely associated with the story, though details have been kept vague from public perception regarding exact reasoning. Not long after this announcement, the original draft of the fic would be purged from the internet (though was properly saved by Internet Archive, and can be viewed here).

The second draft of the story would begin publishing on April 26th, 2023. While a prologue and first episode were finished, it was swiftly canceled due to the author's discontent with it, as they felt their problems/emotions surrounding that falling out were being projected into the story's plot. This second draft was also criticized for its substantially worse pacing and more serious story, but was praised for its strong cast.

The third & current draft of the story is TPReboot : Total Drama Island. Taking place on Camp Ivy, an abandoned campground located on a small, uninhabited island in the Orange Archipelago, it focuses on a new upstart reality series, Total Drama Island. Themed around Summer camp life, wilderness survival, and the unexplored, it'd begin publishing sometime in late November of 2023.

You can read the full story starting here.

TPReboot contains examples of:

• All or Nothing: No matter what in the end, there can only be one winner, meaning that no matter how long you're in the game or how well you did in it, unless you're the last person standing, it didn't mean anything.
• Alternate Universe: Of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, where the world is populated solely by Pokémon. Only here, the world is far closer to the modern version we all know, and the characters deal with far more human problems/situations.
  • Also one to the original Total Drama, where instead of a cast of human teenagers competing, it's a cast of Pokémon of varying ages.
• Anyone Can Die: Downplayed in the fact that nobody actually dies...Hopefully. But in the competition proper, anyone can get eliminated no matter how safe they seem.
• Big Eater: Both Dubwool and Scolipede prove themselves to have monstrous appetites, digging in at the first dinner without complaint despite the low quality of the food (even if Dubwool almost gags from it).
• Bitch Alert: The moment Salazzle arrives at camp, she's shown off immediately to be condescending and intimidating, before then immediately insulting the other contestants. Her audition and label revealing her as the Mean Girl are just icing on the cake at that point.
• Cast Full of Crazy: As some of the saner contestants come to realize, those cast for Total Drama Island prove to be a bit...Unhinged. Between simple social obliviousness, to unstable rage, to outright delusional, a vast majority of the contestants are more than a little strange.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Both teams are given their own designated team colors; the Screaming Archeops have yellow, while the Killer Carracosta have blue.
• Confession Cam: A staple of reality TV, contestants will very occasionally interject during scenes to give personal commentary. When these are actually filmed In-Universe is left ambiguous at best.
• Deadly Game: The challenges that contestants are faced with are absolutely ridiculous in terms of just how dangerous they actually are.
• Deserted Island: The setting of Total Drama Island, being a currently (believed) uninhabited island that sentient Pokémon have no interest in exploring further.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Just like its source material, Gliscor finds himself nearly on the wrong side of a knife when he accidentally pisses off Zorua by insulting her cooking.

• Establishing Character Moment: "Who's That Pokémon?" features 28 of them in a row, even more if you count the staff.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: The first half of "Who's That Pokémon?" focuses on introducing the main cast of the story, with a majority of the cast meeting each other for the first time on the island's dock. The only exceptions among the contestants are Bronzong and Mismagius, and Druddigon and Gloom.
  • Averted in the case of the show's staff; Armarouge and Ceruledge are sisters while the other members of the crew are implied to have met prior to the episode taking place.
• Foreshadowing: Cyclizar is the only member of the staff outside the hosts to be introduced in the "Prologue", hinting at possibly having more narrative importance than the rest of the secondary staff. Sure enough, his role in the story turns out to be as an extra contestant.
• Introdump: As is tradition with reality shows, "Who's That Pokémon?" primarily serves just to introduce the staff and competing contestants of Total Drama Island.
• It Came from the Fridge: When the cast are fed sloppy joes on their first night at camp, Absol's food mysteriously starts moving. Whatever sentience it has is left unanswered before Gloom puts it out of its misery.
• Last-Second Photo Failure: All the contestants are told to move to the end of the dock for a photo shoot. What happens next is that when the picture was taken, the dock crumbles and everyone is dropped into the water.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Cyclizar becomes a contestant at the end of "Who's That Pokémon?" after being introduced as staff the in "Prologue".
• The Mole: Honchkrow, who is revealed to be a cop on the show investigating something for an unknown client.
• Naïve Newcomer: Downplayed in the case of Cyclizar. While getting introduced to the game the same day as everyone else, the rest of the cast had time to prep for the game and with strategies, while Cyclizar was originally just staff and had no means of doing the same, leaving him feeling isolated from everyone and out of place, which carries into the following episode, "Making a Splash".
• Not What I Signed on For: After realizing during "Who's That Pokémon?" that they were all lied to about where exactly the show would be taking place, the cast is left understandably upset about it for the rest of the introductions.
• Only Sane Man: Both teams have two, one for each gender. Specifically, Druddigon/Luxray for the Killer Carracosta, and Honchkrow/Mienshao for the Screaming Archeops.
• Put on a Bus: Once you're eliminated from Total Drama Island, you're escorted off the island, meaning anyone who gets voted out is essentially removed from the story indefinitely.
• Reality Show: Total Drama Island itself is this, revolving around a group of strangers being marooned in the middle of nowhere to eliminate each other one by one. As is expected, it's a rather blunt parody of the idea taken to its Logical Extreme, just like the original series.
  • Outlaster is Total Drama Island's biggest competition, revolving around...The exact same premise, though its actually Total Drama's predecessor! It released one year prior to TDI and was even created by the exact same people.
• Shout-Out:
  • Total Drama Island's biggest competition is a show called Outlaster, a reality show released prior to TDI which is based around a group of complete strangers being marooned in a tropical location, forced to fend for themselves and compete in challenges in order to avoid getting eliminated. Now doesn't that sound familiar?
    • To an even greater degree, Outlaster's origins could very well be from a Roblox game of the same name, which itself is also a parody of Survivor!
  • Outlaster's host, a Bidoof (based off Canada's national animal, the beaver) with an huge ego, is a fairly obvious stand-in for the Canadian host of Total Drama, Chris McLean .
    • He was also the host of the original draft of TPReboot : Total Drama Island, replaced by Armarouge and Ceruledge in the current version.
  • As something of an In-Joke within the TDI/Pokémon crossover fandom, who are the final three of Outlaster? An Oddish, a Skorupi, and an Umbreon; references to the three most popular writers in the community (Dark Ampithere, Dark Arcanine 33, and Shuckle Master)'s first winners respectively! Their stories can be read themselves here, here, and here respectively.
  • The name of the first episode, "Who's That Pokémon?", is a clear reference to the recurring commercial segway of the Pokémon anime.
  • During Samurott's audition, we meet a pair investigating the woods looking for sasquatch, a largely mythologized creature, made up of one firm believer and one skeptic, who are named Ryan and Shane. Now where have we heard that before?
  • Many early readers quickly picked up on how much of Gliscor's personality, body language, and even lines feel heavily reminiscent of a certain Bostonian athlete with an ego.
• Sole Survivor: The contestant's final goal is to be this at the end of the game, at least if they want to actually win.
• Split-Screen Reaction: Downplayed due to the written medium, but many confessionals are written to be presented in this way; specifically many of Bronzong and Mismagius' paired up confessionals.
• Tempting Fate: Gliscor complains about the quality of the food in ear distance of the cook, who nearly impales him with a knife for talking smack.
• There Can Be Only One: After all, only one player can win the game.
• Title Drop: Courtesy of Armarouge at the very end of "Prologue".
• Troll: Drifblim quickly makes a habit of trying to get on everyone's nerves in whatever way he can, completely apathetic to how others view him in the process.
• Very False Advertising: The cast were initially told the competition would be taking place at the Nani Loa Resort during the audition process. The reality is they'll be roughing it out on a deserted island, which is largely isolated from the outside world with none of the usual modern luxuries.
• Voted Off the Island: The fate of anyone who's unfortunate enough to receive the plurality vote at an elimination ceremony, being escorted off the island to never return.