Sandbox / Total Drama: Mike

Mike, The Multiple Personality Disorder

"I can be agile and graceful, but also tough and scrappy, with the keen sense of a wilderness survivor, I'm ready to win this season! I don't care what my doctor says! Um, d-did I say doctor? I meant psychiatrist! AH, no! I mean, oh, do over!"

Voiced by: Cory Doran

Teams: Mutant Maggots, Heroic Hamsters

A cheerful and friendly boy with Split Personalities that cause him to turn into a totally different person under certain situations. Mike's disorder makes it difficult for him to make friends, so he tries to keep it a secret by claiming he's just an overly dedicated actor.

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Tropes applying to his normal personality

• Added Alliterative Appeal: The name "Mike" was most likely chosen because it begins with the letter "M," making his label "Mike, the Multiple Personality Disorder." He also gets called "Multiple Mike" in the show twice and certain advertisements have referred to him as "Multiple Personality Mike."
• All Your Powers Combined: His good personalities perform a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Mal once and for all in the All-Stars finale, and he gains access to all their abilities in the process.
• Alternate Identity Amnesia: Whenever one of his personalities take over, he cannot remember what happened during that time.
• Alternate Personality Punishment: Mike is always the one to take the blame whenever one of his personalities messes things up.
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: He has no memory of whatever he does, good or bad, when one of his personalities is in control.
• Ambiguously Brown: His skin is quite dark, but Vito referring to it as his "tanned body" means he might be a deeply tanned Caucasian, like Katie. Word of God confirms he’s Italian.
• Anime Hair: It's almost as long as his head.

• Barrier Warrior: He projected a shield to knock Mal out before the latter faded away from existence.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Even a nice guy like Mike has his limits, especially if Zoey is involved.
• Be Yourself: Ultimately learns this when he reveals his MPD to Zoey, and she accepts him for who he is.
• Big "NO!": Gets one when Mal takes over.
• Birds of a Feather: He and his girlfriend Zoey share a common background of loneliness; in his case, for his disorder. The two of them also similar tastes in movies and food.
• Butt-Monkey: He becomes this for Scott in "Grand Chef Auto", where he gets the worst treatment there.
• Character Tic: Taking a deep breath and bulging out his eyes as one of his personalities take control.
• Character Development: When he's first introduced, Mike has zero control over his disorder, and is so ashamed by it he refuses to tell anyone the truth. By the time All-Stars starts, he and his personalities have learned to work together as a team, and isn't even hesitant to announce when he plans on switching.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Has one, which highlights his cheerful and friendly attitude and how his multiple personalities make him quite shy and secretive around others most of the time.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Notably averted. Not only is it made clear Mike is not crazy for having multiple personalities, but that calling him such is insulting. Mike himself acts somewhat down-to-earth and just wants to be treated like everyone else.
• Cursed with Awesome: His disorder brings many social issues plus he's not in control of his own actions most of the time, and he doesn't always remember what he did when another personality was in control (in fact, he usually only finds out because of other people telling him, or by some personal guessing and deduction). On the bright side, he gains some cool and useful abilities from his alternative personalities, like Svetlana's athleticism, Vito's toughness, Chester's rambling about his youth, and Manitoba's wilderness skills.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Mike has been to juvie thanks to Mal, showing just how serious a problem Mal has been for him. Even without Mal it can be assumed, given that in real life DID is a coping mechanism for severe abuse
• Death of Personality: Happens for real in "The Final Wreck-ening", with his main personalities all willingly sacrificing themselves to reset Mike's mind, thus clearing Mal out of it, giving Mike control back, and integrating all of them (except Mal) into Mike.
• Decoy Protagonist: His multiple personalities, him being the main focus of his team, him having a close friendship with the other Decoy Protagonist Zoey? Sounds like he’s a finalist of Revenge of the Island right? Thanks to Scott that’s not the case. Subverted in All Stars where he is the main protagonist of the season alongside Zoey and a finalist.
• Disability Superpower: His personalities occasionally help in the challenges. Downplayed with the fact that they still cause many social problems for Mike.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Depending on the ending, he wins All-Stars after spending most of it trapped in his own head by Mal. He's now got the million dollars and Zoey, and is free of his MPD but retains all the skills of his other personalities, including Svetlana's athleticism, Vito's toughness, and Manitoba's wilderness survival skills.

• Fighting from the Inside: Anytime his alternate personalities take over, though he later learns to control them. Until Mal shows up and imprison him in his own mind, where he then ends up struggling for control from within.
• Fish Eyes: He'd always get them right before one of his multiple personalities activates.
• Flat Character: On his own, he doesn't have many personality traits beyond being a Nice Guy with a mental disorder.
• Foil: To Mal, his cheery, sensitive and friendly attitude is a stark contrast of Mal's cold-hearted, snarky and ruthless nature.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: During Revenge of the Island he is a nice guy trying to keep his four alternate personalities from ruining his chances with Zoey. In All-Stars Mal re-awakens and he is FAR worse than any of the personalities before him.
• Geek Physiques: Subverted. Although his character design is based on Harold, as Vito he shown with defined abs.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: When Mal has control, he has noticeable bags under his eyes.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: When Mike is in control it sticks up; however, when Mal takes over, his hair turns into bangs.
• Good Is Not Soft: Mike may be one of the most friendly guys in the competition, but threaten Zoey or Cameron, and you will not have a good day.
• G-Rated Mental Illness: Mike's Multiple Personality Disorder, which, in real life, is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder and is caused exclusively by severe early childhood trauma, has its symptoms incredibly exaggerated to make it more entertaining and understandable for kids.
• Hair Color Dissonance: His hair is usually black, but it has brownish tints.
• He's Back!: The first thing Mike does after securing his body back from Mal is uppercutting Fang, rescuing Zoey in the process.
• Hiding the Handicap: For fear of being ridiculed, Mike tells everyone that his Multiple Personality Disorder is actually just overly-dedicated method acting.
• Hidden Depths: Mal's existence in All-Stars.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: At the end of the day, Mike is a normal teenage kid, and wants to be treated that way.
• Insecure Love Interest: He's convinced that, if Zoey were to learn the truth about his disorder, she'd be too weirded out to want to be with him.
• Ironic Hell: While trapped in his own mind, he's chained to a rock, the same object that he'd just tried to get control of himself again with. This rock also has a noticeable resemblance to Mal's head.
• Jekyll & Hyde: The Jekyll to Mal's Hyde.
• Keet: In "A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste", he becomes overly excited when Cameron offered to help him with his condition, even giving him a tight hug and vigorously thanking him.
• Limited Wardrobe: Implied. His shirt is repeatedly torn apart to manifest Vito, yet Mike always has an identical spare to replace it with.
• Love at First Sight; Fell head-over-heels for Zoey literally the second he laid eyes on her. Heck, his crush on her is established even before his disorder.
• Love Triangle: He and Zoey both seem to like each other, but Anne Maria is attracted to his alternate personality Vito, who likes her back. Sort of like a Three-Person Love Quadrilateral, but involving a Split Personality instead of a Secret Identity.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Up until the All-Stars finale, he was this considering his disorder.
• Nice Guy: As his normal self, Mike is a cheerful, friendly and optimistic boy who does his best to make friends and get along with others despite his mental disorder.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mike is so terrified of Mal that he resorts to bludgeoning himself on the head in an attempt to suppress him... which only results in locking Mike away, allowing Mal to have full control.
• Noodle People: Mike has incredibly thin limbs, but he does have a set of abs. If you look closely, Zoey's arms seem to be thicker than his. However Vito, Manitoba, and Mal indicate he is actually quite strong.
• One-Man Army: He manages to defeat all of his personalities in his Battle in the Center of the Mind, thanks to Zoey's encouragement.
• Only Sane Man: Mike's the only personality that isn't an over the top caricature.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: With Zoey, even though she wears red instead of pink.
• The Power of Friendship: Mike could not have overcome Mal without the help of his other personas. It is through their friendship and sacrifice that Mike manages to regain control of himself for good.
• The Power of Love:
  • Mike's trigger for resuming control over his body is hearing Zoey in danger.
  • It's what allowed him to defeat all his alternate personalities when they were beating him together.
  • Zoey tries to endanger herself as a Secret Test of Character to check if Mike is really Mike. Mike does indeed resurface, but only briefly, where Mal promptly takes back control.
• Putting the Band Back Together: Mike needs to regain all of his personas after Mal seals them all away.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Mike's regular self is the blue to his alternate personalities' red, with the possible exception of Chester, who's on both sides of the fence.
• Reluctant Psycho: Mike hates how often his disorder interferes with his life, and is afraid of being perceived as weird or crazy.
• Reused Character Design: He's got Harold's body and head shape with the only differences being darker hair and skin as well as no glasses and being voiced by a different actor (i.e. Corey Doran)
• Sanity Strengthening: In the All-Stars finale.
• Sealed Good in a Can: As of "No Egg-spects The Spanish Opposition". Specifically invoked by Izzy who says he "tasted toxic on the outside and sweet on the inside".
• Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: Since he's trapped in his own mind.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Mike is both; among his personalities, his normal personality is the Sensitive Guy with Vito & Manitoba Smith as the Manly Men.
• Ship Tease: With Zoey, which later upgrades to Official Couple.
• Sleepwalking: In Mike's sleep, his personalities can take control of him without a trigger. At one point Svetlana does a flip from the top bunk in their slumber.
• Split Personality: He suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder leading to an assortment of personalities to take over at various times.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: The way to bring Mike back after a switch is to either remove the trigger or to hear Zoey in peril.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: His conflict with his split personalities, friendship with Cameron, and relationship with Zoey are focused on heavily in Revenge of the Island and All-Stars.
• Talking in Your Sleep: His personalities can do this along with Sleepwalking. Mike tries to calm them down.
• Took a Level in Badass: During his journey inside his own mind, going from a rather gentle and lovable Nice Guy, to a guy who's still really nice, but also willingly stands up to a horrible sociopath. Comes to a head in the finale, where he not only easily dismisses Mal, but gains all of his other personalities abilities and wins the million dollars.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Really, Mike does care for his alters. He just dislikes how often their wild antics get him into trouble.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He is afraid of the giant mutant gophers, as shown by his reaction the Season 4 finale, and lampshaded by Cameron in "Suckers Punched".

Mike's Alternate Personalities

L-R: Vito, Chester, Mike, Manitoba Smith, Svetlana (not pictured:Mal)

Mike: "Okay, okay, I admit it, I...I have Multiple Personality Disorder. I try to control them! But they never listen to me."

Voiced by: Cory Doran

Mike's five alternate personalities, who vary greatly in characterization and behavior. They each have their own issues with Mike being in charge, and will take control in specific situations. Their wild antics cause many social problems for Mike, which initially lead to them having a strained and dysfunctional relationship. When not in control of the body, they reside in the subconscious.

In general

• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Mike wages one against his other personalities in "Grand Chef Auto" and wins. He later has another one with Mal in "The Final Wreck-ening".
• The Big Guy: Vito, the Dumb Muscle who is physically the strongest of the personalities and also the one least likely to use his head.
• Chewing the Scenery: Cory Doran makes it so that all of Mike's personalities are over-the-top in emotion.
• Five-Man Band: When all of them (barring Mal) team-up, they form this dynamic.
• The Heart: Svetlana is the personality with the most sympathy for Mike (and also the only girl).
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: In All-Stars Mike is forced to travel through his own subconscious after Mal traps him there.
• The Lancer: Manitoba. Aside from Mike, Manitoba is the most authoritative of the personalities and the one most likely to challenge Mike's decisions. He's also taken charge in Mike's absence for both his real life friends and the personalities.
• Large Ham: As said before, Cory Doran acts Mike's personalities out to be very exaggerated and pretentious in their dialogue and emotion.
• The Leader: Mike, being The Hero who made it his goal to take down Mal and recruited the personalities along the way.
• Split Personality: He has several personalities that are each triggered by a certain event or situation.
  • Normal Mike. Reverts back to this if Zoey is in danger or someone yells out his name.
  • Chester. Appears whenever Mike is frustrated about something.
  • Svetlana. Appears whenever Mike is in an acrobatically-challenging situation, whenever someone gives her an introduction, mentions the Olympics, or gives her a pep talk.
  • Manitoba Smith. Appears whenever Mike puts on a hat.
  • Vito. Appears whenever Mike's chest is bare.
  • Mal, Mike's hidden sixth personality. Triggered after Scott got frightened by bees and accidentally hits Mike in the back of the head with his shovel in "Evil Dread". He renders all of Mike's other personalities useless.
• Split-Personality Makeover: Whenever he changes into one of his personalities, his appearance also changes.
• Split-Personality Merge: At the end of All-Stars, all of Mike's personalities sans Mal, sacrifice themselves to break free of Mal's control, returning to Mike to give him all of their skills.
• Split-Personality Takeover: After Mike hits himself on the head with a boulder in an attempt to re-awaken his other personalities.
• The Smart Guy: Chester, being mostly the Non-Action Guy who uses his experience from his age to complain and warn others.
• Super-Powered Alter Ego: All of the personalities grant Mike a special ability, especially Mal.

Chester

"Back in my day, we didn't need fancy saws and axes to cut rope. We did just fine with stone!"

Chester is your stereotypical crabby old coot who complains about nearly everything, especially kids these days. He appears whenever Mike is frustrated. Chester's distinguishing traits are his hunched back and scrunched face.

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• Brutal Honesty: Chester has no filter in what he says and will complain about anything.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "You Regatta be Kidding Me" he's seen selling skateboards - a fitting punishment, given his hatred of young people and new things.
• Grumpy Old Man: Being an extremely old man and all, he's easily annoyed especially when it comes to complaining about the youth of today.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Willingly surrenders his existence so that Mike can defeat Mal.
• The Load: Generally speaking, Chester is the least useful personality in the face of a challenge or emergency. Evident by him being the only active personality Mike doesn't allude to in his audition.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: He always has a hunched back, giving him a shorter posture than the other personalities.
• Motor Mouth: Justified, given his frail exterior that's all he'd got left.
• Older Alter Ego: Despite being in Mike's teenage body, Chester is an old man likely in his 80s.
• Perpetual Frowner: Chester's default expression is a grumpy scowl.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's both.
  • The red to Mike's blue.
  • The blue to the other personalities' red.
• The Smart Guy: His common sense is his main (and only) draw. As a result, he comes off mostly as a complainer.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Chester's entire gimmick is that he's an old man who complains about everything.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: Mike getting frustrated. In the series, most of these moments were caused by worriment or physical pain.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: While they all have close bond, Chester's grumpiness makes him become easily fed up with the other personalities.

Svetlana

"WRONG! Only one person can do this! SVETLANA! The Olympic queen of gymnastics!"

Svetlana is an Olympic gymnast from Russia whose grace and agility is unmatched. She appears whenever Mike finds himself in a situation where he must be agile. Notable for being Mike's only female personality, her distinguishing traits are her thick eyelashes, lipstick, double pupils, and supposedly Russian accent.

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• Action Girl: She's the most athletic of Mike's personalities, and the only one that's a girl.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "The Obsta-Kill Course" she's seen carving butter to make fish, she even says she has to or else she'd "cease to exist".
• Funny Foreigner: Svetlana considers herself to be Russian. She speaks English, but mispronounces some words with her accent and occasionally speaks with awkward grammar.
• Genki Girl: Her default emotion is being excessively cheerful.
• Girly Bruiser: She's a Girly Girl, but based on Alejandro's reaction to Mal using her abilities, she could easily mess you up if she really wanted to.
• Girly Girl: She has makeup, a high pitched voice, and is obsessed with the female dominated sport gymnastics. There's pretty much no Viewer Gender Confusion surrounding her due to how feminine she acts.
• The Heart: Easily the kindest member of the group, to the extent that when the personalities begin arguing over who deserved to be main host, she votes for Mike instead of herself.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Willingly surrenders her existence so that Mike can defeat Mal.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Physically, she looks like Mike with longer eyelashes and lipstick on.
• Multi-Gendered Split Personalities: She's the only female personality of the male Mike.
• Nice Girl: Besides Mike, she seems to be the friendliest out of all the other personalities.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Her supposedly Russian accent is vaguely European at best. Justified as she's not actually from Russia and is speaking with a Canadian's vocal cords.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Self-described as the Olympic queen of gymnastics, there isn't any athletic feat that Svetlana can't handle.
• Plucky Girl: She usually remains cheerful and optimistic, even in grave times.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to both Mike and Chester's blue.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only female personality.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: Acrobatic situations. It helps if someone makes an announcement of some sort.
• Stock Foreign Name: Svetlana is a common, and rather stereotypical, Russian girls' name.
• Third-Person Person: Often refers to herself in the third person, especially when announcing something she's going to do.
  "Hoorah! Svetlana helps you now!"
• Verbal Tic:
  • She often exclaims "Hyah!" whenever she performs a gymnastic move.
  • She apparently says "Da" enough that it's what Mike used to impersonate her.

Vito

"Where's the freakin' sun? How's a guy supposed to get a freakin' tan out here?"

Vito is a stereotypical New Jerseyan Italian-American, complete with the cocky tough-guy attitude. He appears whenever Mike's shirt is removed. Besides the bare chest, Vito's distinguishing traits are his slicked back hair, Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes, and Joisey accent.

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• Beauty Is Bad: He's supposed to be drop-dead gorgeous, and causes the most trouble for Mike (barring Mal's not in the picture, of course.)
• The Big Guy: Vito is the physically strongest personality (possibly rivaled by Mal), and has a tendency to use his muscles before his head.
• Brainless Beauty: He's considered to be very attractive. He's also extremely stupid and gullible.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Vito is chained to a boulder by Mal and forced to put on a puppet show routine with a Mal dummy.
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Has these to establish how much more of a promiscuous Jerkass he is than Mike.
• Dumb Muscle: He can sock a shark like it's no problem, yet doesn't know what a clue is, or understand the concept of nighttime.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: His hairstyle gels back when in control.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: He was never exactly evil, but he is quite a bit more of a Jerkass than Mike and has the eyes to match.
• Hates Being Touched: If you wanna touch the Vito, you gotta make an appointment!
• Heroic Sacrifice: Willingly surrenders his existence so that Mike can defeat Mal.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In spite of all the trouble he causes for Mike, he's never shown doing any of it with ill intent. He's mostly just a guy who wants to have some fun.
• Joisey: This might be why he and Anne Maria click so well.
• Leitmotif: A rendition of Bad to the Bone which is also used for Duncan.
• Make-Out Kids: With Anne Maria in "Finders Creepers". Cameron eventually has to yell at them to stop.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: While Anne Maria is based off Snooki, Vito takes after The Situation.
• Real Men Eat Meat: The most masculine of the personalities and, according to Mike, is a total carnivore.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to both Mike and Chester's blue.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He thinks he's quite a pretty boy, but truth be told the only girl who's interested in him is Anne Maria.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: Mike's shirt coming off. Putting it back on is a way to subdue him.
• Verbal Tic: "Eh Yo!" at the start of each sentence.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Having Mike's shirt torn off will easily conjure up Vito.

Manitoba Smith

"G'day, sheila! Name's Manitoba Smith!"

Manitoba Smith is a fearless thrill-seeking archaeologist and explorer, as well as a major flirt around women. He appears whenever Mike puts on a hat. Asides from the said hat, Manitoba's distinguishing trait is his Australian accent.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: Called a Treasure Hunter, but otherwise pretty much fits the trope perfectly.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: The flap on his slouch hat.
• All There in the Manual: According to Mike's bio, Manitoba is married, although it doesn't mention who he's married to.
• Awesome Aussie: He's Mike's Australian personality, and he's the best when it comes to hunting and digging out things, at least until Jasmine showed up.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He's evidently the most intelligent of all the personalities, with the possible exception of Mal. He is shown carefully taking note of the surroundings and planning out the best course of action.
• Casanova Wannabe: He's been known to flirt with women, particularly Zoey.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • He makes two misogynistic remarks in his debut, which he never does afterward.
  • He also shows no interest in the women. Compare this to his later appearances, where he's constantly hitting on them.
• Character Tic: He has a habit of squinting when he talks.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: He's forced by Mal to wrangle Mike's old, happy dreams and set them on fire.
• Expy:
  • He's one to Indiana Jones, both being Adventurer Archaeologists who wear fedoras. His name is also a clear indication, with their first names being locations, while "Smith" was the original surname Indiana was intended to have.
  • The Awesome Aussie schtick takes after "Crocodile" Dundee and the late Steve Irwin.
• Fast Tunnelling: As part of his treasure hunting schtick, Manitoba is an extremely efficient digger.
• Genius Bruiser: A wilderness hardened Awesome Aussie who is a survival expert.
• The Hat Makes the Man: A fairly literal example, as he's easily invoked so long as he has access to a slouch hat.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Willingly surrenders his existence so that Mike can defeat Mal.
• The Lancer: He is the most resourceful of all the personalities, and acts as Mike's Number Two. Everyone looks to him for leadership in Mike's absence, with him taking charge of the team on several occasions. He is also the only personality who is willing to challenge Mike's leadership in All-Stars (although he later complies), as well as the only one to see through Mal's illusion.
• Leitmotif: Tribal music featuring the sound of a didgeridoo playing, which is also used for Jasmine.
• Non-Indicative Name: The world's most stereotypical Australian shares his name with a Canadian province. Lampshaded by Zoey.
  They talk like that in Manitoba?
• Number Two: If the personalities had to have one, he'd be Mike's number two, being the most authoritative while also the most controllable.
• Older Alter Ego: While it's never directly stated, he is most likely older than Mike, as he has a wife and his Expys (Indiana Jones and Steve Irwin) are both adults.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to both Mike and Chester's blue Oni.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: Mike putting on a hat. Taking it off is a way to subdue him.
• Treasure Hunter: His primary characterization is his superb treasure hunting skill.

Mal, The Malevolent One

"Cameron doesn't know what he's in for. None of them do. If I have my way - and I will - everybody loses."

The polar opposite of Mike, Mal is a heartless sociopath who revels in chaos and destruction. After being released from juvie, he laid dormant for years, to the point where Mike thought he was gone forever. In reality, Mal was conserving his energy and waiting for the perfect time to strike. Mal's distinguishing traits are his flipped down hair which covers one of his eyes, eye bags, and deep voice.

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• Ascended Glitch: See Early-Bird Cameo.
• All Your Powers Combined: In "The Obsta-Kill Kourse", it's revealed he can access the abilities of Mike's other personalities.
• Arch-Enemy: Of Mike, being an Enemy Within who stands for everything that Mike opposes. He was responsible for Mike being incarcerated in juvvie many years ago, and upon his final release he seals Mike inside his own mind along with hurting all of Mike's close friends like Zoey and Cameron.
• Ax-Crazy: He just loves inflicting pain on others. Is delighted when he trips up Cameron to leave him to die to the Harvest Moon-infected animals, ruthlessly beats down on Izzy during the boxing challenge even though he was only suppose to defeat her and throws her out of the ring, and he's more than enthusiastic while beating on Alejandro using Svetlana's athletic skills which also causing Svetlana to wither and fade out in pain. Not to mention the many, many times he tries to sneak up on the other contestants, usually with a blunt object or other to hit them over the head (fortunately, he's always interrupted).
• Bad Liar: Although good at acting, he is noticeably terrible at coming up with lies on the spot. Granted it still takes a good while for the people he's lying to, to tell that something's amiss due to his acting skills.
• Bad Samaritan: In "You Regatta Be Kidding Me", he saves Zoey from getting eaten by piranhas. But he makes it very clear in the confessional, he only did so as to not appear suspicious, and not out of the kindness of his own heart.
• Big Bad: Of All-Stars. In a season full of returning villains, Mal is the biggest and baddest of them all, being the primary source of the season's problems.
• Big Bad Friend: When he finally decides to opt for the more subtle manipulation game, he gets on the good side of several characters, all the while plotting their downfall, most notably Mike's friends Zoey and Cameron.
• Bilingual Bonus: His name means "Evil" or "Bad" in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's able to imitate Mike's Nice Guy persona; however, his true self slips through on occasion. Being able to imitate Mike is undoubtedly the best tool in his arsenal, as it causes the other contestants to underestimate him.
• Blood Knight: He claims in "Saving Private Leechball" that he loves when things get scary.
• Camera Abuse: While in a bad mood, he punches the confessional camera and shatters it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Even while he pretends to be Mike for a while, he makes it fully clear to the audience that he's an evil bastard with no low he won't stoop to in order to get what he wants.
• Catchphrase: "Perfect."
• Chaos Is Evil: The first villain who is completely chaotic and impulsive in his actions, without much thought put into consequences.
• Characterization Marches On: The first half of All Stars portrays him as merely a petty Jerkass, breaking the contestants' belongings For the Evulz. Around the merge, however, he's shown to be The Chessmaster using manipulation, deceit and sabotage; it is also shown that he does care about the money despite many of his earlier actions implying otherwise.
• Character Tics: Whistling Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King". Apparently did so in the past too, as Duncan is the first to recognize him, from both of them being in juvie.
• The Chessmaster: After Mal is set free, he takes over the game and everyone (especially Cameron and to an extent, Zoey) get played like a fiddle.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Has a nasty habit of backstabbing anyone he allies himself with. He made several attempts to eliminate and/or kill Cameron while manipulating him. He makes an alliance with Alejandro at the end of "You Regatta Be Kidding Me", only to try to frame him for rigging the votes at the beginning of the very next episode. In the "Bold and the Booty-ful" he cuts a deal with Scott to help him in the challenge in exchange of bringing him to the finale with him. Mal immediately backstab Scott and leaves him to be pummeled by Fang.
• Chronic Villainy: Even when he tries to pretend to be Mike and remain undetected, he just can't help but let his sadistic side show. He cannot resist attempting to attack someone from behind if they are vulnerable, and he can't help but laugh at the Chris' malnourished interns.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He subjects Svetlana to agonizing pain while forcing her to beat up Alejandro.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The biggest contrast from any Big Bad before him. At the time of his introduction, Mal was the darkest villain to ever appear on Total Drama, being a sociopathic Split Personality, who does evil deeds for the fun of it. He's also the first villain to be truly evil, and not a Punch-Clock Villain like his predecessors who were being villainous as part of the reality show strategy.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: He sports these when he assumes control of Mike's body. They are also the main visual difference between him and Mike, when he starts slicking his hair up like Mike's in order to pretend to be him.
• Dark Is Evil: A dark motif is constantly associated with him, from his habit of sneaking around in shadows, to his black silhouette that keeps popping up.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's shown to have shades of this as seen in "Moon Madness".
• Death Glare: Does these very frequently.
• Demonic Dummy: The puppet version of himself he materializes for Vito in "Sundae Muddy Sundae".
• Devil in Plain Sight: Subverted, as it is mainly towards Zoey. With Duncan and Alejandro both realizing the truth and giving her repeated warnings.
• The Dreaded: As close as you can get to it in this show.
  • All the other personalities fear him, especially Svetlana.
  • He has also succeeded in terrifying Zoey, Cameron, and even a tough guy as Duncan. He even manages to make Chris flee in terror.
  • This also seems to extend to the animals. When on Boney Island instead of fleeing in terror from the mutant animals like most of the other contestants, the animals flee in terror from him, even stampeding over Chef. And when a snapping turtle bites him, he just shoots it a Death Glare and causes it to flee like a whimpering dog.
  • Duncan (admittedly suffering Badass Decay) was absolutely terrified when he realized who he was.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Makes an appearance for a split second in "Grand Chef Auto" in Revenge of the Island after Mike defeats his other personalities. Although according to Word of God this is actually a visual glitch.
• Enemy Within: To Mike, being an evil Split Personality who manages to steal control from Mike.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: His eyes were brown like Mike's in his first few appearances, but then changed to plain black.
• Establishing Character Moment: His reveal in "Evil Dread" with the portrait of Mike burning up and changing to Mal, as well as his Pre-Mortem One-Liner listed below.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's unable to understand Zoey's dedication to Mike, and asks her what it is she sees in him.
• Evil Genius: It may not seem like this at first, but he's somehow able to outsmart and outwit everyone. Even Alejandro, who's a genius in his own right, couldn't come close to defeating him.
• Evil Gloating: He engages in some to Mike during "Suckers Punched".
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Done quite a bit with him, as he's frequently accompanied by a sinister, fire-themed silhouette. He also mentions that if he wins the prize money, he would buy an evil lair overlooking a volcano.
• Evil Is Petty: He spends the first few episodes after his debut breaking the belongings of his team mates. Although, as petty as breaking a phone may seem it did cause Sierra to suffer Sanity Slippage from Cody withdrawal.
• Evil Laugh: The scariest one to appear in Total Drama so far.
• Evil Plan: He wants everyone to lose, whether it be by elimination or attempted murder.
• Evil Sounds Deep: When not pretending to be Mike, he has a low, demonic-sounding voice.
• Evil Versus Evil: Has one with former Big Bad Alejandro in "The Obsta-Kill Kourse".
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: He made one inside Mike's mind. He also mentions that when he wins the money he would buy himself a tower, preferably overlooking a volcano. Seriously, what is with this guy's obsession with towers? Symbolically, the one inside Mike's mind looks like a guard tower you might find in a prison (or perhaps in juvenile hall?).
• Eviler than Thou: Specifically lampshaded by former Big Bad Alejandro, when he realizes Mal is even more evil than he is:
  Alejandro: But I am not the true villain, a greater evil is lurking.
  • Duncan knew him in juvy and was apparently terrified of him, he freaks out when he realizes who he is.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Of a Good Hair, Evil Hair variety. His hairstyle normally changes to emo-style bangs when in control.
• Expy:
  • Mal has a huge number of similarities with Yami Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh!, as both are evil split personalities who reside within a person and eventually take over their host, as well as undergoing a change in hairstyle and voice when assuming control.
  • Mal may have also been inspired by Mal Cobb from Inception, in terms of name and personality.
• Face Framed in Shadow: Done quite a lot with him, so that only his eyes (or often only one eye) and a creepy grinning mouth stand out.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: While he poses as Mike, who is known to be a quirky and sweet-natured person. However once he drops the act, his features immediately distort to something more sinister.
• Faux Affably Evil: He sure does a good job pretending to be Mike. He is also frequently seen whistling while he's doing something horrible or just plain petty like attempting murder or breaking phones and video games.
• Final Boss: After a whole season of villains finally being disposed of, he is the only one that's left in the All-Stars finale.
• Foil:
  • To Mike. While Mike is a Nice Guy who wants makes many friends and goes out of his way to help people, Mal is a cruel and cold-hearted sadist who delights in spreading terror and inflicting pain upon others. In addition, Mike is cheery, polite, and friendly, while Mal is snarky, manipulative, and rude (although he's able to feign kindness while pretending to be Mike). More subtly, Mike is a Bad Liar who comes up with lame excuses to justify his odd behavior, while Mal is a Master Actor able to near-perfectly mimic Mike and mostly remains undetected even to those closest to him like Zoey and Cameron.
  • To Alejandro. Both end up being the most vile of the villains to date, usurping their predecessors in how cruel and sadistic they are. Both also like to play the Big Bad Friend, pretending to be an ally while secretly plotting the downfall of others, and both are very skilled Manipulative Bastards. However their antagonistic approaches are very different. Alejandro charms his fellow contestants and often helps them out in order to win their support or to lull them into a false sense of security. Whereas Mal is often impulsively evil and will commit many acts solely For the Evulz (especially early in the season where he hadn't gained full control of Mike's body). Alejandro pulls many others into alliances to safeguard himself, while Mal mostly stuck to an alliance with Zoey and Cameron (and a one-off with Alejandro that didn't amount to anything). While Alejandro has the highest elimination count for any villain in the series, Mal has one of the lowest (being only directly responsible for Alejandro and Courtney) and most of his evil actions towards others involve directly physically harming or ruining their life in some way. Finally, Alejandro is The Chessmaster who comes up with elaborate plans to achieve his goals, while Mal tends to act on impulse with little regard for the consequences.
  • To Scott. Both are villains who resort to sabotaging their own teammates, but their reasonings are completely different. Scott's choice of strategy was to make his team lose so that he could keep voting off his competition, while Mal had a complete lack of strategy when screwing over his own team and pretty much was doing it For the Evulz. Both also choose to primarily manipulate Zoey, though while Scott simply took advantage of Zoey's naivety, Mal exploited her trust in Mike due his Hyde Plays Jekyll act. On a similar note, both villains are among the few who do not rely on alliances, though Scott didn't choose to form any alliances by preference, while Mal did attempt to form a few alliances but was simply too evil to make them work for long and betrays most of them before he get any benefit from said alliance.
• For the Evulz:
  • The reason why he destroys Sam's game guy, crushes Sierra's cell phone, rigged the salad obstacle, breaks Cameron's glasses, and Duncan's knife, and gives Izzy a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. His murder attempts also aren't justifiable.
  • His assignments for Chester, Svetlana, and Vito seem to offer him zero benefits, implying they're just there to make them suffer.
• From Bad to Worse: Mike's attempt to reclaim control by hitting himself in the head with a boulder, reasoning that's how Mal got released in the first place, only succeeds in giving Mal total control of him while he himself is chained to a Mal-shaped boulder inside his own mind.
• Gambit Roulette: Arguably a lot of his successes are due to luck of the moment opportunities, or because everyone else got hit by the Idiot Ball this season. A particularly notable example is him being able to conveniently find the chart Courtney made to frame her, with no explanation as to how he was able to acquire it.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: His eyes are almost always half-lidded, while Mike's are usually wide open.
• Hated by All: In-Universe he might just be the most universally despised character. Absolutely no one has felt a shred of sympathy for him upon finding out his true nature. Even Alejandro, Heather, and Chris have managed to score an occasional friend along the way.
• Hate Sink: Mal is made as despicable as possible by Total Drama standards. Nearly all villains have some redeeming factor and a shred of humanity that can be uncovered, but not Mal. He's a sociopath who has made several murder attempts on other contestants. He goes out of his way to ruin the lives of others and break their spirits for no reason other than For the Evulz. He's so heinous that even other villains are appalled by or terrified of him, including Chris, and ultimately no character has even the slightest sympathy towards him.
• Hellish Pupils: His eyes become small and black when in control.
• Hidden Evil: No one knows of his existence except all of his other personalities, Duncan, and Mike himself. Presumably, Chris knows as well, but he doesn't say anything for the sake of more drama and ratings. He steps out of this in the finale of All-Stars, once Zoey lets him know she's onto him.
• Hyde Plays Jekyll: In "Moon Madness", he pretends to be Mike while causing chaos (while under the influence of the Blue Harvest Moon). Later, in "No One Eggspects The Spanish Opposition", he gets to trap Mike inside his own mind and continue pretending to be him.
• Irony: In a season where the members of the Heroes and Villains teams flip-flop like pancakes, Mal is the most evil of the villains, and yet he (by pretending to be Mike) remains on the Heroes team for the entire season.
• Jekyll & Hyde: The Hyde to Mike's Jekyll.
• Jerkass: From breaking people's phones to dumping his own allies in a pool of toxic waste. There is no line he isn't willing to cross just to be a sadistic asshole.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He saves Zoey from being eaten by piranhas in "You've Regatta Be Kidding Me", but makes it clear he did so only to keep his cover from being blown.
• Just Between You and Me: Mal reveals his identity to Cameron, but only after the latter had been horribly maimed and was about to be sent home.
• Karmic Death: He is the only antagonist whose karma was permanent.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Mal didn't really have a reason to break the possessions of his teammates other than to be a dick.
  • A fairly literal example: When he sees a severely battered Alejandro, whose latest injury is having several leeches latched onto him, he pretends to offer help, before kicking him hard in the stomach and saying, "See you in the toilet, Al."
• Killed Off for Real: Ceases to exist at the end of All-Stars, due to Mike pressing a literal Reset Button in his head, leaving Mike as the only one in his head.
• King in the Mountain: Literally, when he whistles "In The Hall Of The Mountain King".
• Knight of Cerebus: Mal is easily the darkest villain to-date, not only completely devoid of any redeeming qualities, but has several accounts of attempted murder.
• Kubrick Stare: Does several of these. His first one being when he's let out off the portrait he was sealed in.
• Lack of Empathy: He tries to hide this when pretending to be Mike, but he just cannot stop himself from laughing when he sees the severely malnourished interns.
• Laughing Mad: He's very fond of giving Evil Laughs, which are noticeably more psychotic than all previous antagonists.
• Leitmotif: "In the Hall of the Mountain King," which he also likes to whistle.
• Lean and Mean: Shares Mike's Noodle People design, which is probably one of the reasons why everyone keeps underestimating him and are taken by surprise when he reveals his Super-Strength.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Spends most of the season trying to kill contestants in this fashion.
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: In "Suckers Punched", he temporarily materializes a mirror in Mike's mind for this purpose.
• Manipulative Bastard: Begins to show signs of this in the second half of All-Stars, especially towards Zoey and Cameron, where he pretends to be Mike to secure their loyalty, whilst also planting seeds of doubt towards other contestants.
• Master Actor: Mal is exceptional at impersonating Mike, to the point where he can remain undetected to those closest to Mike like Zoey and Cameron. The irony is Mike pretended to be an actor to explain away his Split Personalities while Mal is the real deal.
• Meaningful Name: Mal, while being short for "The Malevolent One", is also French/Spanish/Portuguese for "bad", "evil" or "wrong".
• The Mentally Disturbed: If Mike's MPD wasn't enough, the inclusion of a sociopathic Split Personality takes this up to eleven.
• Mind Rape: Torments Mike inside his mind a few times, especially in "The Bold and the Booty-ful" where he deceives Mike into thinking he is the original personality.
• Muscles Are Meaningless:
  • Despite having Mike's relatively scrawny build, Mal manages to lift a boulder over his head, intending to kill Cameron in "Zeek and Ye Shall Find".
  • He also overpowers Alejandro, bringing him to his knees in "The Obsta-Kill Kourse".
• Mysterious Past: Duncan has provided some insight, but there's still a lot we don't know. For starters, what exactly was it that Mal did to end up in juvie?
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Does "The Malevolent One" sound like a hero's name to you? Also, "Mal" is French for "bad" and "evil".
• Near-Villain Victory: The only Big Bad aside from Alejandro to make it to the final two in the season they were the villain.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • The objects he gave to punish Chester and Vito were used to break their chains.
  • Mal gives Mike a wallet to make him think he is the original personality. When Mike realized it was a trick, he forms it into a key to free Manitoba.
  • Mal attempts to further deceive Zoey into believing his act by mentioning memories only Mike would have. Unfortunately, he recalls one memory incorrectly, confirming Zoey's suspicions that Mike is not in control.
• Nightmare Fetishist: In "Saving Private Leechball", he stated in the confessional that he loves it "when things get scary."
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers one to Izzy of all people when he has to fight her in a boxing match. It's the only time her injuries aren't Played for Laughs.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: In "The Obsta-Kill Kourse". Alejandro exposes Mal and tries to blackmail him with the existence of a disk full of incriminating footage. Mal wastes no time in trying to defend himself or going along with Alejandro's threats, quickly grabbing Alejandro's wrist and crushing it, forcing him to kneel on the ground. The usually composed, confident Alejandro is reduced to promising compliance for the time being.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever he did to land himself in juvenile hall was so bad that it made Duncan afraid of him.
• Number of the Beast: The sixth and final personality to emerge.
• Obviously Evil: This guy practically drips evil. He has a deep demonic voice, Creepy Shadowed Undereyes, hair changing to bangs, and an unsettling Evil Laugh. There's also the fact his title is "The Malevolent One" and he's always accompanied by a Scare Chord whenever he appears. Also, his name means “bad” or “evil” in numerous languages.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Mal is very good at impersonating Mike, but sometimes his true, sadistic personality leaks through.
• Perfect Disguise, Terrible Acting: Mal can do a pitch-perfect impression of Mike, but he makes blunders in actually behaving like Mike (such as not being able to keep his facts straight, doing his signature malevolent whistle, and accidentally letting his true sadistic personality slip through), and it was these blunders that influenced him getting caught. Downplayed for the "terrible acting" part, however, as it did take quite a while for Mal to be exposed, and he was able to keep the ruse up even to Mike's closest friends.
• Power Echoes: When not pretending to be Mike, his voice sometimes has a reverb effect.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Coupled with Mal actually having superhuman strength, see Superpowered Evil Side. Whenever he takes control, his hair magically seems to flop down. And in order to keep posing as Mike he needs to put the hair back up with his hand.
• Practically Joker: An Ax-Crazy sociopath who is unpredictably chaotic and enjoys terrorizing others For the Evulz as well as being Laughing Mad. It's also put up to debate whether he or Mike is the original personality. Mal is the closest thing Total Drama has to the Joker.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In "You Regatta Be Kidding Me", he makes it clear the only reason he saves Zoey from being eaten alive by piranhas is so his cover won't be blown.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • His opening line, when he first emerges:
  Mal: One by one they will all fall.
  • He also gives one to Alejandro:
  Mal: See you in the toilet Al.
• Red Baron: He is known among the other personalities as "The Malevolent One".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to all the other personalities' blue.
• Red Right Hand: Mike gains rings around his eyes whenever Mal takes over.
• Remember the New Guy?: Despite us not hearing a word about him before, Mike and all the other personalities regard Mal as an established dreaded force once they realize he's returning.
• Sadist: The suffering of others delights him. As he is unable to stop himself from laughing gleefully upon seeing Chris's starving, emancipated interns. He also stops to make fake boating sounds so he can listen to Zoey's screams for help when she's about to be EATEN ALIVE!
• Satanic Archetype: Not only is Mal the closest thing Total Drama has to The Joker as mentioned above, he's also this answer to the devil. Mal is an evil entity usually surrounded by flames, desires control, and was once sealed away due to his malevolence. He also corrupts Mike and manipulates the other contestants by disguising himself as the innocent looking Mike and makes deals that will screw them over. Alejandro even draws Mal as such.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He was sealed inside Mike's mind until a blow to the head by Scott's shovel freed him.
• Sixth Ranger: Was the only personality introduced in All-Stars, and after it had already been made clear that Mike had five personalities.
• Slasher Smile: He's fond of giving them.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Mal is hands down the worst villain in terms of morality, having attempted outright murder on other contestants, as opposed to most of the other Punch-Clock Villain.
• Smarter Than You Look: Contrary to what his usual, impulsive, chaotic, strategic-less behavior suggests, he can prove to be very intelligent should he chooses to do so, being a Manipulative Bastard in his own right.
• The Sociopath: He seems to get a high from the prospect of being able to maim others. So far he has been shown to target everyone with no remorse. His first major appearance in "Moon Madness" alone has him attempting to kill Cameron by throwing him in the middle of bloodthirsty animals and attempting to hit Zoey off a pretty steep cliff, and in "You Regatta Be Kidding Me" he would have been completely fine with letting Zoey get eaten alive by piranhas if it wouldn't have ruined his cover.
• Something Only They Would Say: Duncan doesn't recognize Mal until he heard him whistle "In the Hall of the Mountain King".
• Spanner in the Works: He messes with the Salad Spinner's controls in "Food Fright", just in time for poor Courtney to get thrown in.
• Split-Personality Takeover: By "No One Eggspects The Spanish Opposition" until the All-Stars finale. Though the way it's done with Mal makes it seem more like Demonic Possession.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The central focus of All-Stars, to the point where he dumbs down several previously prominent characters, like former antagonists Alejandro and Scott, in order to stay in the game.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Usually accompanied by a lightning strike.
• Stepford Smiler: While pretending to be Mike, he hides his true feelings with a fake smile.
• Super-Powered Alter Ego: All of the personalities have their special ability, but Mal in particular is where it verges beyond realism.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Mal gains Super-Strength when he is in control.
• Super-Strength: He uses it to break Sam's Game Guy, in half, and crush Sierra's cell phone, with one hand. Plus, in the boxing challenge, he manages to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Izzy, a girl who can beat up a Scary Black Man regularly, and in "Zeek and Ye Shall Find", he lifts a good sized rock, attempting to kill Cameron with it. Later, in "The Obsta-Kill Kourse", he dominates Alejandro, a more muscular guy, with scary ease.
• Token Evil Teammate: Like Courtney and Duncan (after the switch), he's this to the Heroic Hamsters.
• Too Powerful to Live: With the level of evil that Mal held, there was no way he could have remained on the show without risking the safety of all the other characters. Really the one way to remove the threat he posed was to remove him from existence.
• Unknown Rival: Duncan is the first to know of Mal's existence and he attempts to warn others of him, but only Zoey takes his warning seriously before he is eliminated. Mal on the other hand, doesn't even know Duncan is onto him, spending more time getting Zoey to trust him and messing with the other contestants.
• Villain Team-Up: With Alejandro, though Mal is simply too evil for it to work for long and it turned into an one-upsmanship of who could incriminate whom first. Mal ends up on top and eliminates Alejandro from the show.
• Villain with Good Publicity: As a result of Mike being a Nice Guy, no one ever suspects him of being the one who caused of all the chaos until it is too late. Duncan and Alejandro are among the first to know of Mal, but due to their antagonistic past or in Duncan's case, his exes hating his guts, they all fall on deaf ears.
• Villainous Breakdown: Doesn't take fading from existence well and starts begging Mike to give him control.
• Walking Spoiler: Given that the personality only openly came into effect a season after all the others.
• The Worf Effect: To spite his relatively low elimination count he's the only Total Drama villain with the bragging rights of getting three Ex-Big Bad's eliminated.
• Would Hit a Girl: Mal tried to sneak-attack Zoey, curb-stomped Izzy, and literally dropped a house (or the ruins of it) on Gwen. In the finale, he almost throws Heather into the acid moat, injures Gwen, and tries to kill Zoey by drowning her.
• Your Favorite: Despite failing to find his assigned treasure, Mal is able to avoid otherwise certain elimination in "The Bold and the Booty-ful" by presenting Chris with something else he treasures: an injured competitor.