With all the characters that Total Drama has, there are characters you can love, and characters you can hate. But even more than that, there are characters you can't help but feel sorry for.
The Ridonculous Race has its own page.
Jerkass Woobie
- Courtney, her boyfriend cheated on her with Gwen, whom she was starting to become friends with and then she falls for Alejandro, even helping him win the final challenge, only to discover that he loved Heather instead and had just been using her to get ahead. Then in All Stars, she was put through a Humiliation Conga, that quite a few fans thought went too far with her. Some fans even found that her punishment was uncalled for. Even as far back as Action, where she's at her worst, she's clearly a Broken Ace who's put so much of her identity into being the best and whose legitimately unfair elimination in the first season has contributed to some serious Sanity Slippage. While she's unpleasant and occasionally downright homicidal, seeing her try so hard only to fail continuously due to a combination of Chris's trolling and her castmates' disdain can be quite pitiable.
- Duncan, seeing how much abuse he took from Courtney. Sure, he cheated on her, but she still was not that nice towards him to begin, especially with the constant fighting their relationship experienced.
- Alejandro is a complete and utter bastard, but it's been revealed that his behaviour is due to have been bullied by his older brother who outdoes him in everything. Furthermore, he suffered multiple horrific burn wounds in the World Tour finale at the hands of a volcanic eruption, with many believing his punishment was excessively brutal.
- Heather. While she is a major jerkass, it is heavily implied that she hates being disliked by everyone and that she genuinely wants to be forgiven for her actions in Season 1, but even after her character arc in World Tour, everyone still hates her.
- Blaineley is just a female Chris in personality, but there were those who who felt bad for her after she ended up in a full body cast by the end of World Tour.
- Scott's comeuppance dipped him right into Jerkass Woobie territory, as many felt his punishment was excessively cruel, especially with everybody ridiculing at his catatonic state.
- Chef in his more humane moments, as those scenes suggest he actually hates his job and Chris, feels that his talent is being wasted on a two-bit reality show (he is shown to be a legitimately good cook), and desires to be sincerely respected by Chris (who torments him quite a bit).
- Despite most fans believing his actions in Pahkitew Island's finale weren't justified, Dave's fate of being mauled by Scuba Bear 3.0 was seen as too harsh. Also, even though Dave way overreacted to the fact Sky already had a boyfriend, his pain of learning the girl he liked was already taken is all too relatable.
- Eva in the first season, at least in The Big Sleep, where Heather takes advantage of her anger management issues to alienate her from her team, and Eva shows genuine remorse and embarrassment over her freak out. Though she loses a bit of it in No Pain, No Gain with her antagonism towards Bridgette.
- Ripper from the 2023 reboot is not well-liked for good reason, but he does show he's actually capable of being quite competent if he just applied himself. It's hinted at throughout the season that he had a toxic and abusive upbringing with incompetent parents that severely warped his outlook on life, citing that his mother regrets giving birth to him and that his father dropped him and his siblings when they were very young. He's utterly clueless about both his potential and how messed up his upbringing was, which makes him more sympathetic, as obnoxious as he is.
- Emma is hopelessly clinging to a toxic relationship with Chase, one of the worst boyfriends a person could ask for. Making matters worse, it is implied that Chase put her in massive debt after he pulled a prank on her that almost got her killed, and that he also crippled her mother for life. She copes with it by obsessing over wanting revenge, and blaming those around her for agreeing with her with all the bad things she said about Chase, which is all revealed to be a cover for her desperate belief that their relationship can work. Despite never getting a proper apology for anything, Emma's obsession with Chase makes her take him back, while also driving away Bowie as her friend, with no indication that Chase will ever be more than a self-absorbed Narcissist who will keep mistreating her. Even after learning that Chase never intended to throw a challenge for her and dumping him once more, Emma never gets the chance to reconcile with Bowie due to them being on different teams and being voted out very early in the game.
- Julia is about as much of an Alpha Bitch as Heather in the first season. However, her relationship with her parents is permanently strained after they made her work at a bakery, with child labor being at play. Depending on the person, it might also be easy to feel sorry for her when she cries after receiving a Traumatic Haircut in the finale.
- Nichelle Ladonna is a PrimaDonna who antagonizes people sporadically, but she did not deserve to lose her career for what happened in Season 1. She comes back, fully ready to redeem herself, only to be tricked by Julia into quitting. While she still has a healthy nest egg to live off of, you still can't help but feel like she went through way more than she deserved.
The Woobie
- Gwen is a very pitiable character, what with Heather reading her diary in front of everyone, ripping her skirt and kissing her boyfriend in Island; breaking her relationship with Trent due to him throwing challenges for her, getting thrown up on, and getting thoroughly misblamed for Trent's actions in Action; becoming the In-Universe "New Heather" in World Tour when Duncan (Courtney's boyfriend) kisses her; being put in a box with Sam and his farts and then being thrown by a giant mutant in Revenge of the Island; and, in All-Stars, trying to make up with Courtney just to find out she was going to betray her. Considering all the punishment and hardship she goes through, it’s very hard not to feel sorry for the poor girl.
- Heather herself became a Jerkass Woobie after Island, most notably after losing her wig early in Action. Despite being less evil in World Tour, the rest of the cast again hate her; she also gets slapped by Leshawna and loses her tooth (and Leshwana is proud of this even after discovering that she was manipulated by Alejandro and Heather was right). When Heather is in the final three, she has literally zero cast-mates rooting for her, while Alejandro, who has been more actively villainous in this season than Heather ever was, has five. At the end she loses her million dollars no matter which ending you watch in World Tour. Furthermore, All There in the Manual material reveals she's only as mean as she is because of her upbringing. She used to be fat and with bad acne, tacky clothes, and braces, and often got bullied nonstop both at school by other kids, and at home by her brother. Now that she's more attractive, she is mean to others to ensure she can't be picked on. We also learn that she genuinely loves her mother, yet in her parents' video, they are both shown celebrating that she's gone and having movers throw out her stuff. She gets tormented by her brother and her parents don't like her.
- Sadie is this in Island. Despite her and Katie's cluelessness, constantly squeeing, and fawning over eye candy, it's hard not to feel bad for her when the two of them are split apart due to Katie being eliminated. It's made worse when Courtney makes a personal vendetta to get Sadie eliminated over accidentally shooting apples at her head after the challenge ended. The poor girl could REALLY use a hug.
- Ezekiel could be considered a woobie as well. Considering his home-schooled background, his social ineptitude, and his naiveté of the outside world, the boy clearly did not have a chance. Combined with the fact that not only was he the first Total Drama contestant in history to ever be eliminated, as well as being eliminated over a small-minded sexist comment, it has forever scarred his reputation with the other contestants. Things would get worse for Ezekiel in World Tour (the one time he would get a second chance to compete again), where not only is he the first eliminated again, but he devolves into a feral state and becomes just another creature of the wild.
- Courtney becomes a Jerkass Woobie after the World Tour episode "Greece's Pieces", where she finds out that Duncan kissed Gwen. Plus, the writers treated her like the villain of the situation despite her being a victim. It becomes much worse for her in All-Stars, where her Jerkass tendencies land her on the Villainous Vultures despite her protests, and often falling victim to accidents caused by an apologetic Gwen. Just when it seems all is panning out for her and her friendship mended, the revelation of her plan to eliminate everyone else and win the game in "Sundae Muddy Sundae" turns the entire cast against her, including Gwen who attempts to force her to vote herself off to prove her remorse. Ultimately she loses due to a last-minute change by Chris simply to exploit the drama, and when she is eliminated while attempting to finish her sundae nobody seems to miss her, aside from Scott; with Gwen in particular seeming to think little of their busted-up friendship. In perhaps the most humiliating elimination of the season, she resurfaces to find herself cornered by two sharks, and tries to ward them off with her sundae only to have them vomit on her, which finally proves too much for her and leaves her crying pitifully.
- The interns. They get starved and literally beaten to pulps. It doesn't help that Chris enjoys tormenting them.
- Dakota in Revenge of the Island is constantly mistreated by Chris during her internship. At the end she gets radiation overexposure and ends up mutating into a gigantic monster with spiky green hair, orange skin, red eyes, a tail, and Hulk Speak.
- Mike. He's such a nice, sweet kid who always has the best intentions, but his life is dictated by the fact that he isn't in control of his own body half of the time. He's constantly in trouble and held responsible for things that he himself did not even do, and even got put in juvie for it once. He lies to everyone about his multiple personalities, as he's convinced that he is unworthy of love because of it and that everyone will ostracize him as a freak if they were to learn the truth about him. When he gets his crush on Zoey, his automatic assumption is that this will just be another thing his disorder will ruin. And, from what we've heard of his past, Mike has felt this way for years.
- Scott in All-Stars. After his "run-in" with Fang in season 4, he's developed a massive phobia of sharks. Most of the cast doesn't even care about his condition, forcing him to do challenges involving Fang and complaining when he's unsuccessful due to his fear. It also doesn't help that he's the pain-magnet for the season, regardless of whether or not Fang is involved. The worst part is that in this season, he doesn't throw challenges, he's friendlier to others, they even give him a relationship with Courtney (which is later destroyed through no fault of his own), yet the writers always find ways to torture him, even going as far as using his phobia for laughs. After being back to normal after being mauled by a mutant shark, you would think things would get better for him. They get worse.
- Samey, whose twin sister abused her to being her personal slave for most of their lives. Even when she eliminated Amy, Samey's reputation was damaged because of Amy's Crocodile Tears, and Amy came back and ultimately knocked both twins out of the competition.
- Ella, who gets constantly abused by Sugar when all she wanted to do was be her friend, experiences heartbreak upon finding out that Dave didn't reciprocate her affections for him, and gets unfairly disqualified by Chris due to breaking her "no singing" rule. Somehow, even despite all of this, she was still able to maintain her sunny disposition with a farewell musical number, and even reflects back on her experience on Total Drama positively, as well as express how glad she is that she can return to singing freely again.
- Beardo. As his audition tape reveals, he only makes sound effects because he's shy and he only joined Total Drama because he wanted to make new friends and warm up to people. Unfortunately, this ends up being All for Nothing as he annoys his teammates with his sound effects and he is the first one to get eliminated. It doesn't help that he isn't seen or shown in any future episodes after that.
- Millie has a Friendless Background and copes with it by blaming her generation. While this could be seen as a case of Never My Fault, she is shown to be a genuinely nice person who puts her all into everything. This severely stunted her social skills, so she often comes off as more abrasive than she really is. Over the course of the season, she finds a genuine friend in Priya but nearly ruins it after Priya finds out she was using her and the other contestants for a tell-all book. Making matters worse, Priya starts believing Millie was taking advantage of her the whole time when her lack of contribution to the alliance was mostly due to a lack of skill. Thankfully, it's resolved in the end, but everything she went through came very close to being All for Nothing.
- Damien is a Naïve Newcomer who was not prepared for how hostile this show is. He also appears to be Scary Girl's favorite target of her Ax-Crazy antics. Once he has enough of risking his life, he attempts to quit, only to find out that new contracts prevent contestants from doing so by making them owe the show one million dollars if they were to quit. As a result, his only option left is to get eliminated through a regular voting process, but any attempt to convince his teammates to vote him out fails. Of course, it's only after he changes his mind about competing after coming through in a challenge by saving his teammates' lives that he succeeds in getting eliminated.
- Caleb is a genuine Nice Guy and along with Zee is probably the least malicious member of his team(s) in the first two seasons of the reboot. Unfortunately, this is not welcome in Total Drama and his teammates are ready to Kick the Dog more and more aggressively as time goes on. He clearly has self-esteem issues and believes he is useful mainly because he is attractive and strong, which unfortunately makes him the first person eliminated from the reboot for being "too intimidating". In the second season he tries to be a little less passive but it doesn't work either, as communication problems always keep him further and further away from the group, being manipulated by both Julia and Priya, learning that no one, not even the team that chose to help him in the finale particularly likes him, and feeling pressured between being a good boyfriend or a good person. If anyone from the reboot deserves a hug, it's definitely Caleb.
