History Fanfic / ForWantOfAMohawk

* AdaptationAlternateEnding: [[spoiler: Instead of the million dollar hunt taking place, all of the contestants refuse and Courtney pulls some of her lawyer skills when Chris protests. This effectively means TDA and TDWT never take place at all in this universe.]]

The nail that changes the story, as one might guess from the title, occurs during "Dodgebrawl," in which Duncan refuses to wake up, resulting in the Killer Bass losing their third challenge in a row and the punk's elimination. As a result of this single change, the first season of ''Total Drama'' now goes through unexpected twists and changes that will drastically change the contestants' relationships with each other as you know them.

* BrickJoke: In the boot camp challenge, Geoff says that he's voting out Harold because he keeps leaving his dirty laundry all over the cabin. [[spoiler:While telling Courtney what she's been up to since her elimination during "Camp Castaways," Izzy mentions that the group she, Duncan, and Eva formed only physically targeted Harold out of all their fellow eliminatees, and that was because he kept leaving his dirty laundry all over the place]].

** [[spoiler:Blaineley appears as the reporter interviewing the already eliminated contestants in "After the Dock of Shame".]]

* OddFriendship: In addition to his canon friendship with Owen, Noah also forms this sort of relationship with Katie and Sadie with the pair continuing to impress him with the HiddenDepths they display throughout the competition. [[spoiler:This evolves into outright ShipTease with the former following Sadie's elimination and the pair eventually become an OfficialCouple during "Hide and Be Sneaky."]]

* PushedAtTheMonster: [[spoiler:When Heather, Lindsay, and Beth encounter Chef disguised as the psycho killer with a hook and chainsaw during "Hook, Line, and Screamer," Heather grabs Lindsay by the arm and tosses her to Chef. This act ends up being the final straw resulting in Beth finally standing up to Heather and leaving her alliance.]]

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Heather and Courtney have this relationship when Chris has them partnered together in "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon." [[spoiler:Gwen and Ezekiel also have this to a lesser extent when they're teamed together in the same chapter, though by the end, they're able to become, if not friends, then at least on good terms with each other.]]

* TrappedInVillainy: By the merge, Beth feels like she's in this situation, wanting to leave Heather's alliance but unable to due to a combination of fear of Heather's wrath and not wanting to abandon Lindsay. [[spoiler:She finally [[GrewASpine grows a spine]] and stands up to Heather after Heather [[PushedAtTheMonster literally throws Lindsay to Chef disguised as the psycho killer]] during "Hook, Line, and Screamer," leaving her alliance in the process.]]

* WithCatlikeTread: When Owen and Lindsay try to recreate the heist from "Basic Straining", their attempts at stealth go laughably poorly. One such attempt involves sneaking around disguised as bushes, in broad daylight in front of the guards, who are immediately tipped off by the fact that ''bushes don't move''.

* PrehistoricMonster: Averted. While the show portrays the giant beavers as bloodthirsty monsters that chase the campers around Boney Island, here the beavers are more sympathetic. They only attack the contestants after Lindsay and Beth harass the beaver kits, and back off once they're a safe distance away, acting more like their living counterparts do when faced with human intruders.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: At the end of "Camp Castaways," Chis has this to say when [[spoiler:once again removing Izzy from the island]]:

* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler:When the eliminated campers are told they're voting out the next camper in "After the Dock of Shame", Katie and Sadie immediately waste their votes on Beth due to a faux pas, leading the reader to believe it will end up being a repeat of the same wasted votes that ended up screwing Leshawna over in the canon vote. Instead, Trent, immediately realizing how the vote works, gives a RousingSpeech to his fellow eliminatees to convince them to vote out Heather instead.]]
* BrickJoke: In "Basic Straining," Geoff says that he's voting out Harold because he keeps leaving his dirty laundry all over the cabin. [[spoiler:While telling Courtney what she's been up to since her elimination during "Camp Castaways," Izzy mentions that the group she, Duncan, and Eva formed only physically targeted Harold out of all their fellow eliminatees, and that was because he kept leaving his dirty laundry all over the place]].

** [[spoiler:Izzy appears in "Camp Castaways" with it being revealed that she's snuck out of Playa des Losers and onto Boney Island in order to get her mind off her relationship problems with Duncan.]]

** [[spoiler:When Courtney and Ezekiel end up tied for the most elimination votes in "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon," Chris brings up how they were both in the bottom two at the season's first elimination ceremony. The tiebreaker challenge he has prepared for them also calls back to that episode, as rather than building a hot tub, Ezekiel and Courtney need to be the first to destroy a hot tub to avoid elimination.]]
** [[spoiler:The same interns that helped Geoff and Courtney out back in Chapter 12 show up to pick the remaining contestants ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Izzy]]) up from Boney Island towards the end of "Camp Castaways", calling Geoff and Courtney by the same fake names they gave the interns back then.]]

** [[spoiler:Blaineley]] refers to ''Total Drama'' as a "''Series/{{Survivor}}'' knock-off" during their conversation with Chris near the end of "After the Dock of Shame".

** The spa the winning team from "Brunch of Disgustingness" stay at in Chapter 12 is revealed to be owned by the Milton family, referencing Dakota's father.

** [[spoiler:After Courtney's alliance's BatmanGambit in "Hide and Be Sneaky" to frame Owen for sleep-eating Heather's makeup, resulting in her alliance eliminating Owen and having Noah and Katie turn against her works without a hitch, the narration reveals that Scott will use that as the inspiration for his TeamKiller strategy in ''Revenge of the Island'' after watching that episode.]]
** At the end of "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon" it begins pouring rain, hinting at TheReveal in the following chapter that "Camp Castaways" occurs before "After the Dock of Shame" in this adaptation.
** Throughout "After the Dock of Shame", the reporter interviewing the already-eliminated contestants seems to be trying to antagonize them and stir up the most drama between them. [[spoiler:Chris' conversation with the reporter near the end of the chapter confirms she's Blaineley]].
* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The first half of the story that takes place during the premerge follows Courtney as she tries to rally her team, and Gwen's ongoing conflict with Heather. While other characters play supporting roles, these two plotlines dominate the game until "Xtreme Torture," when [[spoiler:[[HeelRealization Beth realizes the truth about Heather]], and the plot takes a rapid turn towards her learning to stand up to Heather after being stuck in the alliance for much longer than in canon.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Katie spends the first half of "Basic Straining" in this state due to Sadie's elimination in the previous chapter.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: When Heather demands that Noah and Katie construct her bike for her in "That's Off the Chain", Katie comes up with the idea of sabotaging Heather's bike to get back at her. [[spoiler:Guess who winds up with Heather's bike and is subsequently eliminated when it falls apart on her near the finish line after Chris reveals the "you have to ride someone else's bike" twist?]]

* {{Irony}}: Harold is eliminated in "Basic Straining", the same episode in which he infamously rigged the votes into getting Courtney eliminated in canon.

** When introducing the Brunch of Disgustingness challenge to the remaining competitors, Chris reveals that he originally wanted to structure the teams as Boys vs Girls, but due there being more female contestants left than males, decided to randomly mix the teams together.
** During "Camp Castaways," after Heather is stung multiple times by a swarm of bees, Beth helps her by giving her the same bat guano-based skin cream Courtney uses to help Gwen with her sunburn in the "I See London" episode of ''World Tour''.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: [[spoiler:Izzy spends her entire time during "Camp Castaways" going topless much to Courtney's frustration.]]

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: When Noah and Geoff encounter Gwen and Beth during "Wawanakwa Gone Wild!", Noah and Gwen engage in SnarkToSnarkCombat over which character in ''Film/{{Heathers}}'' the latter would be. Geoff doesn't get what they're talking about.

* RousingSpeech: [[spoiler:Trent gives one to the other eliminated contestants in "After the Dock of Shame" to convince the rest of them to vote out Heather.]]
* ShipTease: In addition to the canon ships of Geoff x Bridgette and Gwen x Trent, two more ships are teased throughout the fic: [[spoiler:Noah x Katie and Beth x Ezekiel. While the former becomes an OfficialCouple during "Hide and Be Sneaky," Beth and Ezekiel haven't gone anywhere beyond friends yet.]]

* AdaptationExpansion: Chapter 12 has an original chapter detailing what occurred during the winning team's spa trip between "Bruch of Disgustingness" and "No Pain, No Game." Namely, [[spoiler:Courtney and Geoff sneaking off the set and into the city to get a replacement surfboard for Bridgette after Geoff accidentally wrecks it while Lindsay tries to prevent a sleepwalking Owen from causing a breach of contract at the spa]].

* AscendedExtra:
** Since Duncan is now the contestant eliminated in "Dodgebrawl", Noah naturally ends up lasting longer than he did in canon.
** In terms of contestants who were eliminated pre-merge in canon, Noah, Courtney, Beth, and Katie all end up making the merge here.
** [[spoiler:Ezekiel is one of the contestants who are brought back at the merge]].
** Downplayed with [[spoiler:Cody]] and [[spoiler:Lindsay]], both of whom end up eliminated one episode later than they were in canon.

** In terms of contestants who made the merge in canon, Duncan, Trent, Leshawna, and DJ are all eliminated pre-merge here. [[spoiler:While Trent does return at the merge, he's eliminated in the next chapter, which was the same episode he was eliminated in canon, meaning he still has less appearances here than in canon]].

** [[spoiler:Bridgette ends up being eliminated two episodes earlier than in canon.]]
** [[spoiler:Canon finalist Owen is eliminated in "Hide and Be Sneaky" here.]]
** [[spoiler:[[BigBad Heather]] ends up being the camper voted off by the already eliminated contestants at the end of "After the Dock of Shame" instead of making the Final Three here.]]

-->'''Chris:''' Izzy! Get off my island! Eliminated, means eliminated! Not, sneak out of the resort and squat on a nature reserve, stealing all the matches I use to light the grill. And put a shirt on, you're scaring away the family friendly advertisers!

-->'''Beth:''' ''(confessional)'' Today has been... a day. And now I'm flashing back to being on the ground, about to be crushed by a raging moose... when it hits me: Heather would have never done that for me. She's never stuck her neck out for me, she's never sacrificed anything to help me. Everything I've done for her and she was just going to watch... I... I don't want to be like Heather. I want to be someone like DJ.

-->Beth had dealt with guys like Ezekiel before back at home, the sort that blithely repeated the ignorance which had been passed down to them through generations. By those standards, he was a rather tame example. Though it seemed so long ago since they first came to the island, she vividly recalled everything said back then. Sure he believed that girls weren't as strong or as smart as guys, and she wouldn't hear any of that, but he also wanted to protect the girls on the island. That put him a cut above the sorts she met who also believed women to be stupid and weak, and used it to justify all sorts of scummy behavior for their own gain. Beth's parents had done a great deal to keep men like that out of her life, but in a small town full of hicks they were never far.\\
That just made it all the more frustrating to her that he was acting like this. Because if he was malicious and stupid, it would be easy to just ignore him. Instead, she was forced to watch him flounder trying to be something he clearly wasn't. He spouted off hip catch phrases that he had no clue the meaning of, which were used by the sorts of people he'd never even seen before much less interacted with. And behind it all, that desperation for approval was so transparent that even Beth could see it in every move he made.\\

-->'''Chris:''' [[spoiler:Izzy! Get off my island! Eliminated, means eliminated! Not, sneak out of the resort and squat on a nature reserve, stealing all the matches I use to light the grill. And put a shirt on, you're scaring away the family friendly advertisers!]]

-->'''Beth:''' ''(confessional)'' Today has been... a day. And now I'm flashing back to [[spoiler:being on the ground, about to be crushed by a raging moose]]... when it hits me: Heather would have never done that for me. She's never stuck her neck out for me, she's never sacrificed anything to help me. Everything I've done for her and she was just going to watch... I... I don't want to be like Heather. I want to be someone like [[spoiler:DJ]].

-->Beth had dealt with guys like [[spoiler:Ezekiel]] before back at home, the sort that blithely repeated the ignorance which had been passed down to them through generations. By those standards, he was a rather tame example. Though it seemed so long ago since they first came to the island, she vividly recalled everything said back then. [[spoiler:Sure he believed that girls weren't as strong or as smart as guys, and she wouldn't hear any of that, but he also wanted to protect the girls on the island. That put him a cut above the sorts she met who also believed women to be stupid and weak, and used it to justify all sorts of scummy behavior for their own gain]]. Beth's parents had done a great deal to keep men like that out of her life, but in a small town full of hicks they were never far.\\
That just made it all the more frustrating to her that he was acting like this. Because if he was malicious and stupid, it would be easy to just ignore him. Instead, she was forced to watch him flounder trying to be something he clearly wasn't. [[spoiler:He spouted off hip catch phrases that he had no clue the meaning of, which were used by the sorts of people he'd never even seen before much less interacted with]]. And behind it all, that desperation for approval was so transparent that even Beth could see it in every move he made.\\

** [[spoiler:The same interns that helped Geoff and Courtney out back in Chapter 12 show up to pick up the remaining contestants ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Izzy]]) up from Boney Island towards the end of "Camp Castaways", calling Geoff and Courtney by the same fake names they gave the interns back then.]]

* CallBack: [[spoiler:When Courtney and Ezekiel end up tied for the most elimination votes in "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon," Chris brings up how they were both in the bottom two at the season's first elimination ceremony. The tiebreaker challenge he has prepared for them also calls back to that episode, as rather than building a hot tub, Ezekiel and Courtney need to be the first to destroy a hot tub to avoid elimination.]]

* PaperThinDisguise: [[spoiler: When Geoff and Courtney sneak off the Island to go find a replacement for Bridgette's broken surfboard, they dress up as interns, but make no other attempts to conceal their identity beyond wearing the uniform. Later, the interns who helped them out reveal that they could in fact, see through the flimsy disguises the entire time.]]

* WithCatlikeTread: When Owen and Lindsay try to recreate the heist from Basic Straining, their attempts at stealth go laughably poorly. One such attempt involves sneaking around disguised as bushes, in broad daylight in front of the guards, who are immediately tipped off by the fact that ''bushes don't move''.