They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot / Total Drama

Total Drama

They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot in this series.

---

Island

• Leshawna falling for Heather's fake apology. By the next episode, she's back to hating her and Heather never pretends to get on her good side anymore.
• Sadie becoming her own person after Katie was eliminated. Her budding friendship with Lindsay was also left fairly unexplored as well as her Ship Tease with Harold (which was mainly seen in the background).
• Tyler's relationship with Lindsay and Heather's disapproval of it. It runs for only two episodes, and once Tyler is eliminated, the show completely forgets that he exists, with Lindsay flirting with Trent in the episode immediately afterwards.
• In "Hook, Line and Screamer", Owen pushes Izzy into a supposed serial killer to save his own hide, then spends the rest of the episode trying to get back on her good side. Their feud is completely forgotten after Izzy's second elimination, and Izzy unconditionally supports Owen during the finale.
• The Guys Alliance. After Bridgette gets the boot, it has no impact on the show anymore and is completely forgotten once Lindsay is out.
• At the end of "That's Off the Chain!", Gwen swore that they would get revenge on Heather for how she treated Lindsay by eliminating her the first chance they got. Cut to two episodes later where they have that perfect chance in "Wawanakwa Gone Wild!", instead of Heather being voted off it's Izzy that's booted because... Reasons.
• Gwen's friendships with Bridgette and Leshawna in Island are completely forgotten by the time of World Tour in favour of pushing forth the Love Triangle with Duncan and Courtney (the latter of whom also seems to have completely forgotten about her friendship with Bridgette by the time of Action).
• Duncan's friendship with Geoff and DJ is completely thrown away by the time of Action, as DJ is largely relegated to solo plots and Geoff and Duncan's characterizations increasingly focus on their relationships with Bridgette and Gwen/Courtney respectively.
• Duncan expresses interest in starting an alliance with Heather near the end of the season. However, this goes nowhere, save for a single throw-away line in his elimination episode, when Heather tells him he should have allied with her when he had the chance.
• The revelation in "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" that the island is actually fake and had been close to civilization the entire time. The twist has no impact on the plot and is retconned out of existence by the time All-Stars rolls around.
• In “Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island”, Noah mentions that Justin is “the anti-[Noah]”, but their rivalry is never expended on outside of this line.
• While it could've been a platonic kiss, many were surprised they didn't try making Cody/Beth a real couple due to their shared interests. That plus their love interests (debatable in Cody's case) aren't looked at fondly with Brady being a Generic Guy and Sierra being a Stalker with a Crush.

Action

• The alliance between Heather and Harold that began during "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" is abandoned halfway into this season.
• Justin being the Big Bad. Word of God has confirmed that this was an intentional choice because they realized he wasn't cut out for being a villain. Alejandro more or less exists to be a fulfillment of what a villainous Justin was imagined as being like in the creators' heads before they realized it wasn't working.
• Aside from Full Metal Drama (up until the ending) and not caring about him during his elimination, Beth and Lindsay seem to have taken being manipulated into an alliance by the season's antagonist rather well. Especially when compared to when Beth gets forced into and quickly tired of her alliance with Courtney, the season's second antagonist.
• Speaking of their relationships with Justin, it could've tested their friendship. However, aside from a brief moment where they compete for his affection in "Beach Blanket Bogus" and later in the same episode where Beth basically copies what Lindsay said to him, nothing comes of it and they're both perfectly fine flirting with him at the same time. Lindsay apparently doesn't feel left out when Justin forms an alliance with just Beth at the end of aforementioned episode. Neither of them also tells the other to stop flirting with him because the other already has a boyfriend.
• Heather and Leshawna burying the hatchet in Action was completely thrown away in World Tour in favour of making them bitter enemies again for no explained reason, which ultimately ends up painting Leshawna in a bad light when she beats up Heather for trying to warn her of Alejandro.
• Owen being The Mole for Chris and straining his friendships with many of his castmates as a result. This could have been an interesting development for his dynamics with the rest of the cast in World Tour, but instead, everyone seems to have totally forgotten about it and he's still liked by everybody.
• Lindsay's Character Development into a more capable and independent competitor, which is put on halt with her elimination and never revisited in the seasons afterwards.
• DJ and his mother going bankrupt after some of their recipes end in casualties. The plot becomes is never given any resolution and becomes an Aborted Arc, being never mentioned again. Meanwhile, DJ goes from having a motivation to win the third season in the special to being an elimination seeker throughout the season.

World Tour

• The season having three teams instead of two is an interesting idea that opens up a variety of new challenge possibilities and team dynamics, but it's completely dropped in favor of making Team Victory fodder at the hands of Alejandro—Well, most of the team at least—and having them eliminated before the halfway point, turning the remainder of the season into another standard "two team" game — no season has used the idea since despite the potential it has.
• Many of Team Victory's members had significant plot potential that was wasted in favour of using them solely as early boots. Leshawna and Lindsay's dislike of Heather could be explored a lot better in a season that focused so much on the latter; while Bridgette was saddened in the Action special at the fact Geoff would not be in the season with her and promised to fight hard for him, thus giving her the opportunity to prove herself on her own merit. Instead, all three girls have barely any interactions with the rest of the cast, are easily charmed and manipulated by Alejandro, and pay for it dearly as a result (with Bridgette being hit the worst on top of being the first girl booted out for the second time in a row).
• The show teases Ezekiel's return to the competition multiple times, but this plot point is never fulfilled. In the episode where he is given the chance to come back, it's Duncan who returns instead. Ezekiel instead deteriorates into a feral Gollum parody.
• Tyler was one of the first people to dislike Alejandro due to his flirting with Lindsay. Come next episode where they are getting along just fine and then they are randomly established as having become friends off-screen in I See London..., only for it to never be brought up ever again, and just two episodes later Alejandro votes Tyler over Owen, who he has had a season-long dislike of, for no apparent reason.
• Bridgette being the only girl whose relationship was seriously impacted by Alejandro. Leshawna, Lindsay, and to a lesser extent Izzy were also shown to be very smitten by Alejandro's charms, but this ultimately has no drastic effects on them or their respective relationships with Harold,^note Although Harold is visibly hurt by this during his time on the show, it's not explored properly due to his early elimination Tyler^note who instead befriends Alejandro despite his flirting with Lindsay, and Owen^note who breaks up with Izzy for unrelated reasons. The remorseful Bridgette trying to gain Geoff's forgiveness for what happened between her and Alejandro could have made for a great overarching plot for the season's Aftermaths similar to Geoff's Captain Hollywood phase last season. Instead, it is resolved in only a single episode in favour of focusing more on Geoff's conflict with the largely superfluous Blaineley (with Bridgette's sole role being the victim of their crossfire).
• Gwen never being charmed by Alejandro in the season and Courtney not being charmed until the second half of the season (after Duncan cheated on her). While Heather's case is more complex given her Belligerent Sexual Tension with Alejandro and Sierra has Single-Target Sexuality towards Cody, Gwen and Courtney stand out as unusual, given Alejandro is supposed to have "the ability to charm the pants off most species", which makes it more nonsensical for him to be unable to charm those two than it would be for them to be immune to his manipulative flirtations. Furthermore, the impact that Gwen and Courtney falling in love with Alejandro could have on their Love Triangle with Duncan is certainly food for thought.
• Heather swearing revenge on Team Amazon for their failed attempt to vote her off in "The Am-AH-Zon Race". It is literally never mentioned again after that episode.
• DJ becomes a team of one after "Can't Help Falling in Louvre", and the following two episodes depict him as an extremely strong competitor once he lets go of the belief he has been cursed. However, at the end of "Jamaica Me Sweat", Alejandro's machinations cause DJ to believe he is cursed once more, resetting all his development back to the start of the season, before he is summarily eliminated.
• Izzy becoming Brainzilla in "Jamaica Me Sweat". She was taken in by the army when she was "eliminated" but she's back in the Aftermath studio by next episode where she reverts back to her original personality.
• Owen and Izzy never interacting again after they break up. Considering Izzy wasn't even her usual self when she broke up with Owen, it raises a lot of questions on the current state of their dynamic, such as whether they ever became Just Friends afterwards or whether Izzy is even aware they are broken up.
• Sierra being such an uber-fan of the show that she uses her knowledge of it to her advantage, something she hints at in "Slap Slap Revolution" by sharing competition statistics with Heather. This completely disappears halfway into the season to make her focus purely on her obsession over Cody.
• "Aftermath Aftermayhem" teases the return of one of the previous contestants back into the game. This would make for an incredible twist, given that the members of the Peanut Gallery were familiar with Alejandro's actions and could impact his strategy. However, Blaineley is the one who joins the competition, and she has little to no meaningful interactions with the rest of the cast for the only two episodes she lasts before her elimination.
  • Beth was pretty close to getting back in. It could've resulted in her maybe having a real friendship with Heather, her forgotten rising friendship with Duncan at the end of Action, and even having a rivalry with Sierra over Cody, whether she and Brady had broken up over the time World Tour was happening or Beth simply didn't like how Sierra was treating her, Gwen or Cody.
• The possibility of a friendship between Owen and Blaineley is ultimately unfulfilled by Owen being booted out in Blaineley's competition debut episode and then Blaineley getting kicked out the episode immediately after.
• Cody's ordeal with Sierra's obsession would've been a perfect time for him to have a Heel Realization about his similar (if less extreme) behavior towards Gwen, but he remains obsessed with her even past Gwen's elimination.

Revenge of the Island

• Jo's insecurity about her body and being acknowledged as a woman go nowhere. Depending on one's standards, it ends on her being confirmed as ridiculously ugly in-universe when a bird vomits at the sight of her naked form or it ends with Lightning finally learning that she's a woman right when she's eliminated.
• Brick's and Jo's rivalry (or Belligerent Sexual Tension, depending on who you ask) is completely dropped after Brick is eliminated halfway though the season.
• Anne Maria's and Vito's relationship potential ends without closure when Anne Maria is eliminated. Vito keeps looking for her afterwards at those times he's out, but that too stops when Mike takes control over the alters.
• One of the many reasons why Mike is such a divisive character is that despite getting lots of screen-time, we never get the chance to learn what caused him to develop DID in the first place. It would've been interesting if the writers gave him a Dark and Troubled Past or a backstory that caused him to develop severe mental trauma. But despite this, the closest we get to a backstory is his evil alter-ego, Mal, getting him sent to juvie as a kid.

All-Stars

• The show tries to establish a theme early on where every challenge is themed off a different challenge from a previous season, or a combination of the two. This interesting gimmick was abandoned for at least half of the challenges, not even trying to theme some of them to past seasons.
• In the opening sequence, Lightning is depicted as still being in the berserk state that he was in in the last two episodes of Revenge of the Island, suggesting that he'd have a plot working through that. The first episode furthermore picks up his fragile alliance with Jo and hints at a continuation of his shortlived rivalry with "Commando Zoey" when he criticizes her diving skills and is the only one annoyed by her slingshot skills (notably contrasting his teammate Heather, who is unapologetically impressed). Instead, Lightning is written as an even less intelligent and even more conceited strongman than he was prior, with a habit of kissing his own biceps (which he did only once in Revenge of the Island). He's eliminated in the second episode, so nothing goes nowhere.
• Chris's prank used to fool the Villainous Vultures into thinking Ezekiel would be on their team. It's obvious that Zeke would not be competing, but imagine if he was on the Vultures' side, even if for only one episode. After all, his four hunters from "African Lying Safari" are all present, three of which on the villain team, and villain Lightning kicked Ezekiel back down in "The Enchanted Franken-Forest" after he just freed himself, arguably having a role in Chris's capture of Ezekiel for the finale.
• Sam says he came back only in hopes to become an awesome mutant himself and thereby improve his relation with Dakota. What is a unique (and close-to unrepeatable) motivation to compete that could at any moment lead to conflict with the team interest is promptly thrown out when Chris replies that the island is completely free from toxic waste nowadays. By the time any mutant elements are brought back into the season via the Fun Zone and the underground mine, Sam has already been eliminated.
• At first, Jo's insistence to be the driver of the baby stroller during the first challenge seems to be to have one-on-one time to establish her relation with each of her teammates as she does so with Lightning and Duncan. Then she does it with no one else. Of note is that the only one she wouldn't have been able to talk with is Scott, who due to his fear of sharks refused to jump, and Scott is the one person she already established her standing with before even setting foot in Camp Wawanakwa at the start of Revenge of the Island.
• Heather's and Jo's rivalry, which is never properly developed due to Jo's early elimination. This rivalry also potentially could've included Lindsay, whose dislike of Heather hadn't died down in World Tour. Furthermore, Lindsay already had the potential for a rivalry with Jo from the events in "Runaway Model", which seemed to be referenced by Jo and Lindsay being opponents in the opening sequence and the carriage drivers of their respective teams in the first episode. One of the ads of All-Stars even depicts Heather holding Lindsay while glaring at Jo! There was an opening here for brains/beauty (Heather) vs brains/brawn (Jo) vs brawn/beauty (Lindsay), but the three are all eliminated in the series' first half.
• When Alejandro breaks free from the robot suit, the reactions of seven characters are shown. The three Gen 1 characters all are shocked, while the four Gen 2 characters have non-reactions... all four except Lightning. He is shocked too. This is not followed up on, with the only moment between the two worth mentioning being mutual confessionals about the other's arrogance.
• Alejandro flirting with and charming Gwen (who, aside from Sierra, is the only girl in World Tour to never develop feelings for him), which is forgotten after a mere 2 episodes.
• Courtney's crush on Alejandro, despite still going strong the last time we saw her in World Tour and being hinted at in Revenge of the Island, is nowhere to be seen. Given Alejandro's love confession to Heather at the end of World Tour, it could have lead to some interesting drama.
• Duncan trying to get Courtney's attention again. This is abandoned after Gwen breaks up with him in "Moon Madness".
• Duncan's possible friendships with Jo and Scott get dropped after Jo is eliminated and Duncan is sent to the Heroic Hamsters.
• Duncan's character arc, which reaches its peak when he finds his softer side upon joining the Heroic Hamsters, is thrown out of the window when he becomes so obsessed with proving he is still a bad boy he destroys Chris's cottage, prompting the host to call the cops on him.
• Duncan and Mal being inmates together in juvenile detention. Both of these plots are cut short in favor of him getting arrested after blowing up Chris's mansion. There was a chance to bring the two characters back together in the finale, but instead Mal was teamed up with Alejandro and Heather.
• Mike manages to take control of his body again briefly, even though both he and Mal believed it to be impossible after Mike got trapped inside his head. The potential of Mike being able to take control of his body again even while Mal is in control is never explored, because it never happens again before Mal is defeated.
• Gwen and Courtney finally burying the hatchet and becoming friends, which is completely thrown away in "Sundae Muddy Sundae" to reset their plot and their development back to square one for little reason beyond squeezing some more drama out of them.
• The alliance between Mal and Alejandro. It gets proposed, but is immediately thrown out in the next episode.
• Mal uses Svetlana's abilities once... and that's it. Despite the huge advantage using the other personalities' skills could give him in the challenges, he had never tried this before, and never tries it again. Literally nothing comes out of this interesting concept.
• Chris declaring anyone who reaches the prize could win in the finale as opposed to it only being eligible for the final two. Ultimately, it leads nowhere and still comes down to the true finalists, with the difference between their endings being a two-second clip of the loser happily congratulating the winner.
• In "Moon Madness," the blue harvest moon temporarily makes docile animals act aggressive and vice versa, but it's initially implied that it can affect humans as well, as Mike switches into Mal and Heather suddenly starts acting sweet and kind. However, this turns out to be a ruse on Heather's part, and no other human besides Mike/Mal is affected. Rewrites of the episode often change the mechanics of the blue harvest moon so that humans do get personality-swapped, since this could lead to a lot of character-based comedy.

Pahkitew Island

• Two for Samey:
  • Thanks to "Twinning Isn't Everything" ending with the start of her plot for the next two episodes of pretending to be Amy, her arc of trying to be her own person (arguably the only aspect of her character that had nothing to do with her conflict with her twin) came to an abrupt stop and was never further expanded upon.
  • Her friendship with Jasmine. It's just as quickly dropped as soon as she gets eliminated to the point where it feels like it never even happened thanks to her not being mentioned once afterwards.
• Both of Ella's plotlines are completely dropped after her early elimination:
  • Ella having a crush on Dave, which is forgotten to the point where Dave never actually realizes she had feelings for him to begin with.
  • Despite her attempts to befriend Sugar, Ella never actually realizes Sugar hates her at any point, meaning we don't get to see how she would have reacted to the latter's betrayal in her (Ella's) elimination episode.
• Scarlett being the only one (aside from Jasmine) to know that Samey was pretending to be Amy in her last two episodes before being eliminated.
  • Since this confirms she's very observant, she must have noticed Rodney falling in love with every single of his female teammates, including Scarlett herself. Yet, she never even attempts to manipulate him to form an alliance, even though he could've potentially been an easy additional vote for whoever she wants to eliminate (or at least just for male contestants). One could argue Rodney would make for a much better ally for her than Max due to the former's blind love allowing for Undying Loyalty.
• "This is the Pits!" is a non-elimination round that results in a significant team switch (Sky for Max) that is only in effect for "Three Zones and a Baby" before the merge renders it pointless.
• Scarlett being secretly evil, because the very episode where she takes over is the same one she gets eliminated in (along with Max).
• Scarlett concludes her audition tape by entirely blaming Total Drama for "the troubled behavior of today's youth." She never brings this theory up during the actual competition, and it doesn't even really come up when she threatens Chris to give her the money.
• The fact that the island is actually a machine could have made a really fun season gimmick all on its own and would allow the show to get extremely creative with challenges. Instead, the island's true nature is kept hidden until the back half of the season and only plays a major role in two episodes.

Island (2023) Part 1

• The 15 year Time Skip between the first season and this one (which is about the same amount of time that passed in real life between seasons) comes up once in the very first episode, likely to contextualize the explicit elements of early 2020s culture in the new season. However, Chris and Chef still look the same (barring Chef being in his outfit from DramaRama) and there's little examination of whether the past fifteen years have affected them as hosts, or any mention of the now-adult original-generation contestants. The only cameo of past contestants in the flesh, Rock and Spud, has them look exactly the same as they would have over a decade prior — which only gets more glaring when the second season has an extended contestant cameo where they look and behave exactly the same as their teen self.
• A scene from one of the trailers made it seem as if Julia and Nichelle would have a rivalry regarding their fame, with one being a famous actress and the other being an influencer. However, their interaction from the trailer was actually their only significant one, partly as a result of Nichelle's early elimination. The following season rectifies this by having Julia and Nichelle come into conflict in "Ice To Beat You" and Julia tricking Nichelle into quitting by planting a fake movie deal offer on her bed.
• Damien wanting to stay on the island and start competing for real is nullified since he made the decision before his elimination after convincing his team to vote him off. The following season does rectify this, although it does bring him back to his Nervous Wreck self from the start of the season.
• Bowie keeping Julia's outburst at a raptor a secret ultimately amounts to nothing. He openly mocks Julia for yelling at it when she enters the main lodge in the next episode and she already gives up on her cover, acting like a Jerkass and demanding to know who uploaded the video of her yelling at a raptor to her social media account.
• The Reveal that Nichelle is actually clumsy and incompetent when her stunt double isn't doing her work sets up interesting potential for Character Development in her returning season. While this did come true in Season 2, in which she became the biggest physical asset of her team, all her training happened between seasons, robbing the audience of the hilarity and intrigue of seeing Nichelle actually learning these stunts.

Island (2023) Part 2

• Scary Girl's attempts to rebrand herself as a "normal" girl, complete with a redesign, managed to intrigue fans who wanted to see this desire be expanded upon. Unfortunately, her being the first boot of the season lead to the idea not amounting to much.
• Despite being one of Bowie's closest friends the previous season, Emma doesn't interact with him at any point before she is eliminated early. Considering how the reason for their falling out was due to Emma not realizing Bowie was right about how terrible a boyfriend Chase is and Emma realizing Bowie was right in the Time Skip between seasons, it could have been nice to have the two reconcile and mend their friendship.
  • Speaking of Emma, she could've recieved more development as an individual since Chase was eliminated before her. However, this only lasts for one episode before her early elimination.
• After Millie apologizes for pushing Damien down the four-point tube, they seem to be back in the process of developing a friendship. This is for naught when Millie gets eliminated and Damien is unable to defend her due to his tongue being stuck to a log. Not only does Damien not mention Millie in the next episode, but her best friend Priya barely mentions her either, despite their friendship also being built up again earlier this season.
• Julia and Nichelle's rivalry regarding their fame is once again incredibly minor. The two only exchange some insults at the start of Episode 5 before Julia orchestrates Nichelle's elimination because of it by motivating her to quit with a fake movie contract.
• Damien is the person Nichelle hangs out with most often. However, nothing meaningful comes out of this (whether a friendship, romance or just an alliance), meaning Nichelle continues to have no impactful interactions with the cast aside from Julia (which is also a minor example, as pointed earlier).
• After last season, Damien was determined to genuinely compete, which could’ve allowed for a plethora of arcs and challenges for him this season. Instead, he reverts to his Cowardly Lion persona and does nothing much outside of finding the immunity idol.
• Considering how Priya’s parents forced her to stowaway her winnings from last season until she turned 40 and still compete in the next season, Priya could’ve had an arc where she chose to rebel against her parents, or at the very least, realize how toxic they actually were. Instead, Priya complacently competes and develops a romance arc with Caleb.
• After Chase’s elimination in the second episode, Emma could’ve been fleshed out beyond her relationship with him. She doesn’t make any meaningful connections and is quickly booted two episodes after him.
• In spite of all the build-up of Team Skunk Butt's cheating causing a conflict of interest for Bowie and Raj, the latter easily forgives the former for allowing their team to cheat. The merge starting earlier than in any other season also contributed to cutting this subplot short.
• Owen's guest appearance in Episode 7 basically renders the entire idea of a 15 years Time Skip between the reboot and the first season pointless, as it continues the trend of returning characters not changing their appearance and behavior, which is especially jarring for a character who was a teenager upon his debut; essentially meaning there's no difference whether there was a Time Skip or not to begin with. He misunderstands and thus dodges Chris's question of what he's been up to during his time off the show, preventing any exploration of what Owen's life could've been in a post-Total Drama world, especially when The Ridonculous Race established that he and Noah had become minor celebrities in the reality television world. This only became more of a waste when MacArthur makes her own guest appearance but did get an updated design and revealed that she's become a police sergeant, clearly showing growth.
• The season begins exploring Ripper's kinder side and has Axel work on hers. It also reveals Hidden Depths for her, such as her interest in poetry. However, by the time of the merge, both Ripper and Axel are flanderized into being merely Make-Out Kids. Furthermore, while Axel is mad at both MK and Bowie after learning about Team Skunk Butt's cheating, she never finds out and reacts to Ripper being complicit in it.
  • Similarly, Axel's elimination could have been an opportunity to motivate Ripper to continue and win for her, potentially getting more interaction with Priya (who he still has a conflict with) and Julia & MK (who he helped with their cheating schemes in "Ice to Beat You") among the others to express his kinder side to them also. Instead, he is anticlimactically eliminated by quitting a few seconds after Axel leaves.
• In the sixth episode, Priya and Caleb have a Commonality Connection over both facing pressure from their parents to excel at everything they do. While their romance plot takes a good chunk of screen time, this interesting angle never shows up again, as Priya's backstory fades to the background while Caleb's never really comes up again.
• Despite Priya being the first sole winner of a season and worrying that being a past champion might put a target on her back, not a single contestant targets her for being the winner of the previous season.