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Total Pokemon Island, also referred to as TPI, is a genre of crossover Fan Fic between Pokémon and Total Drama. While with exceptions, nearly every story across this genre is based around a Gameshow Host obviously hosting a new reality TV series, where a group of contestants of varying ages, genders, personalities, backgrounds, and more compete for a reward at the end, along with fame and fortune.

Today, this genre is known for being the most frequent type of Total Drama crossover stories, and is among the most for Pokemon. And to the surprise of many, what originally started as a small community full of people who rarely interacted, has now evolved into what can only be described as one gigantic, completely dysfunctional family. Writers are known for being close through use of Discord, and today, it's basically considered canon that all TPI stories connect story-wise in one way or another.

While a guilty pleasure for many, the stories have surprisingly maintained a surprising streak of quality, with most of the ones people actually read being seen as pretty decent for fanfiction, if not outright surprisingly good.

Who knew something as odd as this could become one of the most recognized and closely knit communities on Fanfiction.Net?


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Tropes of TPI include :

    General Tropes 
  • All or Nothing: The only reward you'll get for competing on the show is the money you get after you win. Didn't win? Well too bad, you get nothing!
  • Attention Whore: You're bound to find at least one of these in every story.
  • Beach Episode: Expect one of these if the story takes place on an island. Hell, probably just expect one of these anyways.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: As time went on, writers began adapting this into their stories more and more.
    • Basically every story Fuzzboy is involved in has this.
  • Blessed with Suck: Assuming they make the merge, players who are considered unimpressive or unpopular are likely to be brought to the end, either because they're easy targets, or it makes for a good underdog story.
  • Butt-Monkey: EVERY story has one, no matter how hard the author tries to avoid it.
  • Captain Obvious: The hosts often come across as this.
  • Confession Cam: Though it's often hard to figure out when they're actually filmed.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Players considered to have strong athletic, social, or strategic prowess are likely to get voted out before making it to the finale.
  • Deadpan Snarker: There will at least be one in every story. Hell, sometimes the hosts count as one.
  • Deadly Game: Following how Total Drama handled them, basically nearly every challenge is life-threatening or dangerous in some way.
  • Deserted Island: The usual setting for seasons set on islands.
  • Due to the Dead: Finales usually give finalists the opportunity to look back on the contestants who fell before them.
  • Every Episode Ending: Basically every chapter of every story will end with one of the contestants eliminated off the show.
  • Gameshow Host: Expect these in every story.
  • Hope Spot: Every season will have one at some point.
  • I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Quoted word for word on more than one occasion. Ironically, the social aspects - especially alliances - mean players actually have to make friends (or at least not make enemies) in order to win, and those who do make lots of friends are considered huge threats.
  • Jerkass: Almost every contestant, especially when you consider alternate perspectives.
  • Jerk Justifications: Expect this to show up in a villain redemption storyline.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Given the bipolar nature of many contestants, this trope can be applied broadly.
  • Large Ham: These are usually the more popular characters.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Most contestants try to be one. The successful ones get pretty far, or even become the Big Bad.
  • Nice Guy: Depending on the season, these guys are usually eliminated for being threats (as everyone likes them and would preference them) or manage to make their way far into the game.
  • Non-Gameplay Elimination: Expect these to happen at least once per story, though there are exceptions.
  • Nothing Personal: Most of the eliminations that take place are strictly due to gameplay or strategic purposes.
  • Obstacle Exposition: Happens at the beginning of every challenge.
  • Once a Season: Episodes where we see what happened to the losers after they got eliminated are basically tradition throughout the community.
  • One-Steve Limit: Authors usually avoid having two characters with the same name in the same story.
  • Out of Focus: In most stories, some characters get left out of the camera's focus due to a) keeping quiet and not causing trouble, or b) being boring and unable to attract attention that would warrant screen time on the show. Though it has improved over the years.
  • Playing Both Sides: An effective, but tricky, strategy. It's a rarer trope though compared to most of these, usually reserved for anti-heroes.
  • Plot Tumor: Immunity Idols. In some seasons, the influence of the idol becomes so important that it's hard to imagine the boot order occurring even remotely like it actually did if the idol wasn't in place.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Basically every team will come across this way.
  • Reality Show Genre Blindness: Very few people coming on the show seem to have an idea how these things tend to work.
  • Reunion Show: Expect most stories to have a losers episode focusing exclusively on eliminated contestants after the game, and if they don't show up, you will be guaranteed to see everyone in the finale.
  • Shocking Elimination: Be ready, because they happen a LOT.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: At least one person every season, especially if they're the Big Bad.
  • Sore Loser: Most of the more antagonistic contestants come across as this after getting eliminated.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While writers have gotten better at this over time, usually expect at least a handful of contestants to get more screentime more often than most of the cast.
  • There Can Be Only One: In the end, only one person will be the winner after all.
  • Too Cool to Live: The strong, cool and outstanding players are usually the first ones to be targeted for elimination(post-merge) by their fellow castaways because they see him/her as a great threat in the game. Usually leads to a Shocking Elimination.
  • Voted Off the Island: Happens at least once an episode in almost every story.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: Any and all alliances and pre-merge teams.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: We usually don't get to know early boots that well, or at the very least the first boot.
  • Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Sadly, most of the early winners suffered from this.

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