Total Drama: World Tour Express is a Total Drama Spanish fanfiction written by Vychissoise
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The story is a sequel of the third season of the show, Total Drama: World Tour, taking place a few months after the events of said season. This time, Chris McLean takes 18 former contestants and 3 new faces all around the globe on a train, visiting locations already visited during the events of the third season, as well as new locales such as Transylvania, Rome and Pamplona, among others. Among the 18 contestants that return we find a few with regained protagonism, such as Lindsay, Courtney, Noah, Harold, Tyler and Cody. The three new faces are Fiora, a kind-hearted and adventurous Total Drama fan; Hugo, a rich kid that eventually takes over Chris’ position; and Tiana, a beautiful and mysterious girl that ends up being a dangerous rival that sabotages the other contestants’ chance for the million. The story was finished in March 2013 with the publication of its final chapter and the alternative ending.
In October 2013, its own sequel, Total Drama: Back to School!, was published. This time, the cast is composed of 22 contestants, with 18 returning from the original seasons, 2 returning from World Tour Express, and 2 new faces. This season brings back a lot of unusual contestants, such as Geoff and Brigette (who are replaced by Sierra as the Aftermath hosts), Katie and Sadie (who this time are placed in different teams), and Trent. The two new contestants are Leon, a quiet boy with an attitude that seems to have some business with Gwen, and Emma, a French air-headed girl with a very kind personality. The story is unfinished as of December 2020, but it was updated recently and seems to be close to an ending.
A third and last season, Total Drama: Legends of the Island, was confirmed by the author in January 2021, and started in September 2021, a few months after Total Drama: Back to School! finished its run. This season serves as the sixth Total Drama season overall and sees the cast going back to Wawanakwa Island two years after the events of the previous season, and has the villains of all five previous seasons face off against the more heroic contestants.
This story provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: As revealed by the author, Bridgette was supposed to make it further in the season in Back to School!, probably developing her conflict with Alejandro and further exploring the problems of her relationship with Geoff. In order to avoid
Arc Fatigue, she was kicked out earlier than initially planned. - Accidental Misnaming: This becomes one of Lindsay’s main character traits, reaching to absurd levels by the end of WTE.
- All Love Is Unrequited: In Back to School!, Beth has a one-sided crush on Tyler, although Alejandro manipulates her into thinking that Tyler is actually also interested in her. To make things worse, Tyler is Beth’s best friend’s boyfriend.
- All There in the Manual: Some character traits about the newcomers were revealed in their elimination episodes, with a small character card at the end describing various things about them. The newcomers from Back to School! haven't got one so far, though.
- Amazon Brigade: After DJ leaves the show, the Fire Fists team was composed of three girls and one boy (Eva, Izzy, Fiora and Noah).
- Trent was the only boy in the Killer Jocks after Noah’s elimination in Back to School! (the other members being Courtney, Emma, Blaineley and Katie). On the opposite side of things, Gwen is the only girl from the Screaming Students left in the top 10, as Izzy was placed in the Killer Jocks after coming back in episode 9.
- Amicable Exes: Izzy and Owen, even if other contestants try to make Owen feel bad because of Izzy starting to date Noah.
- Amusing Injuries: Played straight in certain occasions, such as the windmill-war challenge in Holland in World Tour Express. Subverted in World Tour Express when Tiana is disqualified due to her injuries being too serious for her to continue after being run over by the McLean Express; Back to School! has another instance of this when Noah is disqualified after having a tower built with school stuff fall on him.
- Arch-Enemy: Tiana becomes this in World Tour Express for a lot of the other competitors (especially Fiora and Noah), while the mole is this for every single contestant in Back to School!.
- Arc Villain: World Tour Express has just one, in the shape of Tiana. Back to School! mixes things up with a main villain (the mole), and smaller ensembles of villains among the cast (for example, Alejandro, Blaineley and Heather). This means that, when the mole is abruptly eliminated in the 21st episode, the rest of the episodes are still left with some villains. Legends of the Island breaks the trend by featuring no main villains.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Some of Emma’s French seems a bit broken at times. Not surprisingly, as she is revealed to not be French at all.
- Back for the Dead: Ezekiel is reintroduced in episode 14 of World Tour Express just to be quickly eliminated in the same episode. This is only done to introduce his off-the-record alliance with Tiana, helping her in the shadows during the challenges to get revenge on Noah and Chris for eliminating him.
- Back for the Finale: Every single contestant (peanut gallery ones included) comes back for the finale in World Tour Express.
- The same happens in the finale of Total Drama: Back to School!, with every single contestant (including Ezekiel) coming back and assisting the finalists in the final challenge.
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Ezekiel betrays Tiana after realizing that she was just merely using him to get further in the competition, getting her eliminated just before the final two.
- Also, Heather’s alliance ends up betraying her and kicking her out of the show early into Back to School!.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In a way, Tiana wins the prize and gets to fulfill her purpose (saving her little brother with the prize money) thanks to Lindsay’s (or Harold’s in his ending) kind heart even if she just managed her way in the competition by betraying and manipulating everybody else.
- Also true for Blaineley's ending in Back to School!, although it's not canon.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Alejandro and Blaineley become one in Back to School!, especially after the mole’s elimination.
- Breather Episode: Back to School!’s episode 22 is this after the plot-heavy episodes before it, with a very light-hearted challenge, a cameo from Dawn (accompanied by a sudden grudge between her and Blaineley) and a final elimination that was probably expected by most readers.
- Breakout Character: Noah is one of the biggest focus in World Tour Express, being supported almost universally and gaining both a girlfriend in Izzy and a new friendship with newcomer Fiora. Back to School! has a more balanced cast, but both Gwen and Leon proved to be very popular among fans, their relationship being one of the highlights of the season. Emma, being a McLean, also turned out to be very popular among readers, with a lot of them considering she left at the right point of the season without overstaying her welcome.
- Cast Herd: Both seasons have over 20 contestants (with Back to School starting with 22 and eventually adding Courtney to the cast as well). This really makes the contestants eliminated early (such as DJ and Owen) have no time to shine, as the story is busy at the beginning establishing the more lasting characters’ future conflicts.
- Legends of the Island is the only one out of the three seasons to feature less than 20 contestants, with only 18, which is arguably still a pretty big number.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Emma mentions briefly Chris’s brother, saying how much more successful he is than Chris. Turns out she was actually talking about her own dad!
- Confession Cam: The train’s bathroom in World Tour Express and, as it takes place in an abandoned school, the janitor’s closet in Back to School!.
- Demoted to Extra: The focus shifts among groups of characters between the two seasons, but some cases are more evident than others. Justin, for example, plays an important role at the beginning of World Tour Express, but barely ever speaks in his few appearances in Back to School!. Tiana, as well, is one of the biggest focus of the first season, and like Justin she only appears in a few episodes in Back to School!.
- Despair Event Horizon: Tiana goes through one when she gets disqualified from the show for her injuries, losing her chance to win the money and save her little brother.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Some characters maintain their main character traits from the canon seasons, but acquire new traits that were not present or not as prominent:
- Noah is the most clear example, as his main traits (sarcastic, witty and a bit lazy) are kept, but his intelligence becomes much more focused on and he excels mostly in challenges that have to do with general and scientific knowledge. He loves to read (something he only did occasionally in the canon seasons) and in one challenge Chris even has to bring a special guest (Cameron) to compensate the fact that the other team didn’t have a contestant as intelligent as Noah.
- Sadie is another clear example, as she is still the same airhead that she was in the canon seasons but she becomes more belligerent and possessive after her friendship with Katie breaks because of Sadie’s jealousy.
- Blaineley shows also traits of this, as in the canon seasons she is just portrayed as a fame-monger obsessed with money that wants to give a good image of herself but is actually really nasty. She maintains all of those traits (minus the physical humor that put her canon personality close to Owen’s) but also becomes an excellent manipulator and strategist that manages to stay in the season just by manipulating her teammates and revealing truths she knows about them.
- Drama Bomb: Both fanfics have several moments, such as Fiora’s second elimination in World Tour Express, Tiana’s disqualification after being run over by the McLean Express, and the mole’s sabotage of Noah in the second season, disqualifying him as well from the competition.
- Easily Forgiven: After learning of her reasons for her behavior on the show, no contestant seems to have any hard feeling towards Tiana in the second season’s Aftermaths.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Izzy quits after guessing (probably correctly) that the other contestants had voted Noah off in World Tour Express, taking his place in the elimination ceremony. Bridgette does the same for Geoff in Back to School!, after making up with him after a rough patch in their relationship, although in this case Geoff actually was voted off before her quitting.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Leon's approach at the beginning of Back to School!, only getting close to Gwen. By the end of the story, he also establishes good friendships with Trent and especially Courtney.
- Love Triangle: Duncan ends up (albeit unwillingly) in another love triangle when Sierra loses her memories of Cody and falls in love with him, making Cody jealous.
- In the second season, Beth (incorrectly) thinks Tyler (her best friend’s boyfriend) has become interested in her, thus creating another love triangle (this time, just in her head).
- Kick the Dog: Fiora being eliminated by Tiana (two times!) in World Tour Express, as well as Alejandro eliminating Fiora in Back to School!. Also, the mole sabotaging Noah by getting him kicked out of the show because of serious injuries.
- Make Up or Break Up: Bridgette ends up having to decide if she wants to keep dating Geoff after his jealous outbursts against Alejandro because of the events of the third season of the show.
- Mythology Gag: Even though in this universe World Tour Express is the official fourth season of the show and Revenge of the Island never took place, Chris mentions in Back to School! that he tried to make Wawanakwa Island a radioactive dump, and some of the contestants from Revenge of the Island make small cameos in different roles (such as Dakota being the judge for the ball challenge, or Brick assisting the contestants in the survival challenge), and it’s mentioned that most of them tried to audition for the show but weren’t picked for various reasons.
- World Tour Express keeps the trend of the winner not keeping the money of the prize, although in a less mean-spirited way this time in comparison to the canon seasons. Both Harold and Lindsay in their respective endings decide to give the money to Tiana, who ranked 3rd, so she can pay the treatment to save her little brother.
- Non-Gameplay Elimination: Both Tiana and Noah are disqualified because of the severity of their injuries (albeit in different seasons). Also, several contestants quit at various points (DJ in World Tour Express because of a fake letter from Tiana pretending to be his sick mother, Izzy again in World Tour Express to save Noah from elimination, and Bridgette in Back to School! taking Geoff's place after he was eliminated).
- Fiora is eliminated in Back to School! for being the last to get back from the woods in the survival challenge.
- Emma is disqualified after being revealed as the mole of the season (and Chris’ niece).
- Legends of the Island is the only season to not feature one of these. Cody tries to quit at some point, but Chris tells him that they can't quit anymore. So far, all the players have been eliminated by normal means (that is, being voted off).
- Odd Friendship: Lindsay and Tiana in the Aftermaths of the sequel, after the events of the big finale of World Tour Express.
- Hugo and Bridgette become friends in Legends of the Island after Duncan's elimination.
- One-Steve Limit: Kind of. Emma ended up sharing her name with a canon contestant a few years after her introduction in Back to School!, when Ridonculous Race introduced the Sisters Kitty and Emma. Her personalities, however, are not similar in the slightest.
- Made even funnier after the Total Drama Island reboot introduces yet another Emma, the third one if you're a fan of this series.
- Out of Focus: Apart from the peanut gallery contestants, who only get a few episodes per season to shine, some of the actual contestants end up being Out of Focus because of the huge cast of contestants in both seasons. This includes:
- DJ, Blaineley, Eva, Owen and to a lesser degree Trent (who was in only 2 episodes before getting eliminated, but had a major role in both of them) in World Tour Express. Later in the season, Chef Hatchet is fired by Hugo and is only briefly mentioned once in a while until his comeback a couple episodes before the finale.
- DJ (again), Cody, Harold, Hugo and Izzy are the contestants the least focused on at the beginning of the second season. In Izzy and Hugo’s case, this was fixed when they returned later in the season, the former as a contestant and the latter as an intern. Chef Hatchet is again Out Of Focus later in the season, after quitting his job to pursue a position in a cooking program offered by Blaineley’s mother.
- In Legends of the Island, all the contestants have a similar amount of focus, and even the early outs get at least some focus (Owen's status as the original winner making him Heather's target, Eva and Emma's rivalry after the latter caused the elimination of the former in the previous season, Cody's paranoia about Sierra being in the island...). The former contestants from previous seasons, though, make no appearances at all, as the Aftermaths no longer take place.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Emma is introduced in Back to School! as a comic relief character, with a lot of funny one-liners, completely missing the point of most dialogues and overall compensating the lack of Lindsay in the season. She turns out to have been acting all along and her real personality is much more nasty, but she still fits this role for most of the season.
- Ezekiel is clearly being set out to be this in the first few episodes of Legends of the Island.
- Previously on…: As in the canon seasons, each episode begins with a brief recapitulation of the previous episode’s biggest events.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Courtney gives a lengthy one to Duncan right after he's eliminated in World Tour Express.
