User blog:Epic~00/Season 2 Review

Season 3 is starting today, and I would just like to say...

HOW CAN IT RAISE THE BAR ANY MORE?!
Season 2 was a real major improvement over Season 1. Many reasons attribute to this.

1: It Was Generally A More Interesting Season Than Its Predecessor
Not that Season 1 was particularly bad or anything, but the main problem with it was that it just wasn't fully like a Total Drama season. There wasn't too much drama, twists, or even too much memorable moments. Did it have its moments? Of course. But Season 2 accounts for all of these elements that a Total Drama season needs, which we'll get to later.

In Season 1, to my knowledge, at least the majority of us were just beginners at this. We were just grasping the hang of things. Season 2 shows our improvement at roleplaying, making us be much more interesting roleplayers. We also got to know each other a bit more, making us acutely aware of each other's diverse personalities. So that's the general reason Season 2 is better. What about the specifics?

2: Drama and Twists
These can pretty much both count as one. If you were a casual viewer and Season 2 was an actual season, it would seem like a normal Total Drama season. It's dramatic, with twists a lot of the time, making you sympathize with characters who are a victim of this, just like the real season. A majority of episodes have at least some kind of twist to them. This is 7 of the 15 episodes. That only left 8 that didn't have twists. But I may have even missed some twists because so much happens. These kinds of episodes really leave you wanting more, and most of these twists were pretty much improvised.
 * Dancing With Cowboys had the shocking early Courtney elimination.
 * 3:10 to the Horse of Losers featured Scott having a temporary redemption arc about feeling a little dissapointed that Courtney is eliminated.
 * Western Tough for the Polocrossie had the Samey that we've all learned to either love or hate be an actual evil imposter known as Samey-Bot! In addition, we had the real Samey show up to the competition. And to end it off, Tyler was eliminated and betrayed by his former friend Noah.
 * The Wild Bunch of Losers featured Ezekiel and Scott forming an alliance, but despite their help in numbers, Ezekiel is still eliminated.
 * This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Nine of Us! had Heather read Sky's diary publicly. And following this off at the elimination, even though they formed an alliance beforehand, Heather and Katie's friendship is demolished when the betrayer herself gets betrayed by somewhat of an underdog, making Heather ultimately bested.
 * The Magnificent 8 Cowboys shown Duncan and Scott's skills at sabotage, with Scott throwing a rock at Sky, swearing it was Samey, causing them to lash out at each other. Also at the elimination, it seems like Scott will be voted off because of his guys alliance being outclassed by the girls alliance, but Sky shockingly quits the competition, rekindling their friendship.
 * Three Enemigos had Sky, Sugar, and Tyler return as helpers, but were surprisingly switched to different allies.

3: Character Development
This was lacking a little in Season 1, with the only exceptions of characters changing in that season at some point being Scott, Lindsay, Courtney, Cody, Noah, Cameron, and Sky. That's only close to half of the contestants in that season.

Season 2 is a whole other story. I could say something about the changing of a lot of characters. And I will.

Dave
The one time I saw his meaner side for once is when he fights against Jo, which was at least a little interesting.

Courtney
Even though she was eliminated early, Courtney had a bit of a redemption arc, what with trying to make Scott forgive her, and making herself feel vulnerable and all.

Ezekiel
Grew from barely contributing to the challenges to actually being an alright asset. He patched things up with Scott and proved he was at least a little worthwhile.

Tyler
His friendship with Noah was iconic, before devolving into an iconic conflict.

Noah
Betrayed Tyler and became a semi-antagonist, with excellent strategy, and a decent personality to go along with it.

Sky
Grew to become attracted to Duncan, and sacrificed herself just to keep Scott safe.

Samey
Completely different personality from Samey-Bot. In fact, she became her own fluid character, worth supporting, with funny moments, a likable personality, and a decent strategist.

Katie
Initially dismissed as being just one of the twins, Katie played the game decently, betraying people such as Heather and Scott.

Cody
Reluctantly tried to play the game by joining forces with two of his worst enemies: Duncan and Scott.

Lindsay
Made herself a more independent character because of Tyler's elimination.

Scott
Had redemption in feeling bad for being mean to Sky, was guilty after she sacrificed herself for him, developed a one-sided attraction towards Sugar, shown a backbone in standing up to Courtney, and worked alongside two people who previously betrayed him: Duncan and Scott. He also had a shockingly tragic childhood which wasn't fully expanded, saved for a future season.

Duncan
Was meaner, more fun to watch, and part of an intriguing love triangle. He had a temporary conflict with Tyler.

That's 12 out of 18. I think the change was easier this time around because we had gotten to learn so much about these characters in the previous season, that they managed to pull off some impressive feats with character development.

4: The Season Theme
What was the Season 1 theme? Oh, it's an island. Great. Whatever. But Season 2 had much more opportunities. It was a western theme. Challenges had their own little tweak to make them more diverse. It succeeded very much with this. Getting challenge supplies, singing a country song, getting snake poison, doing a western performance etc.

5: It Was Funnier Than Season 1
A good thing about the merged contestants is that they all had their neat little traits. You had the antagonists, protagonists, anti-heroes, but also, the comic relief. There were some great sources of humor in this season. Those include Lindssay, Scott, and Sugar, and to some extent, the menacing Samey-Bot

Usually though, as we all know, the most important thing in a Total Drama season isn't normally humor. But in my opinion, in the case of a RP, it's a key aspect. We all come into the chat to have fun with episodes and characters, and our moods can always be brightened. When you see things like "Is trivia a breed of shark?" or the esteemed "Hey Lindsay", it can make someone just think to themselves "Wow, this is an okay place to be."

6: No-One Could've Seen The Elimination Coming
A majority of Season 1's eliminations were pretty predictable, except for Scott, Lindsay, and Tyler.

Dave: Betrays many people, forming alliances with many people, and also not to be trusted as he had previously attempted homicide on Sky, and to some extent, Shawn.

Samey-Bot: Least contributing member of the Vipers

Leshawna: Least contributing member of the Beavers

Dawn: In her elimination episode, takes pleasure in seeing certain murders, making her not to be trusted.

Scarlett: Second least contributing member of the Vipers

Gwen: Doesn't interact with too many people

Courtney: Mean to Cameron and others

Cody: Seen as a threat during the challenge due to being pretty good at it, making him the immediate target of an elimination when he handed his invincibility over

Noah: Gigantic threat from practically the start of the merge, constantly winning immunity

Duncan: Kind of an obvious elimination due to him coming last in the challenge

Cameron and Sky: Obvious finalists due to doing key things throughout the season.

Season 2 takes this in a whole different direction.

Expected Elimination:
 18th Place

Expected Elimination:
 17th Place

Expected Elimination:
 16th Place

Expected Elimination


12th Place 

Expected Elimination
 9th Place

Expected Elimination
 8th Place

Expected Elimination
 6th Place

Expected Elimination
 5th Place <p style="text-align: center;">

From there it was just the aftermath, and the finale. Did some of these expected eliminations happen? Of course. But 7 of the expected eliminations didn't actually happen in the end (Samey-Bot, Ezekiel, Samey-Bot again, Katie, Lindsay, Scott, and Scott again). That's half of the eliminations in the elimination ceremony.

"Why is this important?" you ask. Basically, what it means is that our assumptions may not always be true. This elimination order is one that no-one even saw coming, and I was pretty pleased by it. It even caused a very strange coincidence.

Ah, Season 2. It gave me warmth about what's to come in the future. Whether or not Season 3 will be better is all based on if it has these kinds of great factors. And with that, that's my opinion on Season 2. Might as well include the rankings.



Character Opinions
18: Sierra. Did pretty much nothing for her five floating episodes. She could've had a good storyline since she was on a different team to Cody, seperated from her crush and arguably her best friend, but that just didn't happen. Her elimination was very predictable overall.

17: Ella. Also silent with wasted potential. You could've went in any direction with her resumed one-sided conflict with Sugar but that didn't happen. As a big Ella fan, I wish she could've been more active.

16: Dave. Same problems as Season 1, although this time he was the slightest bit more in-character. Just please stop with the Heather crush, I beg you!

15: Dakota. Doesn't talk too much. I heard that during my week of absence when Berryleaf subbed as Scott, that Dakota was a more interesting character. Maybe she was in those episodes, but from there, I didn't see her talk too much. There was also little explanation on how she turned back into being a human. That could've been a good storyline. Oh well. At least she was in character whenever she spoke,

14: Ezekiel. Pretty irritating at first, but shown his worth when he returned, and was part of a shocking elimination. I don't know much more about him when RiMiEg shown up, but he's a skilled roleplayer, so I'm guessing he did an okay job.

13: Courtney. Even though she was eliminated early, Courtney had her moments. She's still going through redemption with Scott, especially after that incident with him when he was unconscious. And she's still kept in character. She's held back mostly for not being in the competition longer.

12: Jo. Was her conflict with Scott interesting? Of course. But that was all to Jo. She was also a little too angry. But those random anger outbursts and dialogue with Scott was pretty enjoyable to watch.

11: Cody. Was he a floater? Eh, a little. But ironically, before his elimination was when he improved. He was in an alliance with enemies, and had to give in to doing scheming work because of this. Although it takes a while before this plot point occurs with Cody.

10: Noah. A shortlived semi-antagonist, Noah played the game, but honestly what was his motivation? Was it a good twist that he betrayed Tyler? Sure, maybe. But where was the motive. It was also a little OOC for Noah to try and do vengeance on people like Duncan and Sky just because he was eliminated. The real Noah wouldn't be one for revenge. His future as a character depends on how he does when he possibly competes for this RP's All-Stars.

9: Tyler. Eliminated early, but brought back to judge a few episodes, and even compete in one. Conflict with Noah is okay and all, but the main problem I have with Tyler at this point is that his character hasn't really changed beyond having a conflict with Noah. I want to see more of the klutzy Tyler for instance, or the rumored villainous role he may have in Season 5.

8: Sugar. Funny at first, but once Derpy took the role of Samey, Sugar was a little more silent. She had great interactions with people like Scott and Sky, but other than that, she became a little more minor. Still a good character with moments like misunderstanding words that Scott tells her, or eating things like snakes and horses. Hopefully I can see more of her the next time she's in a season.

7: Katie. Practically a mascot for the twists of the season. Her actual character on the other hand was a little silent however, and it took a while before she did strategic game choices.

6: Lindsay. As good as she always is

5: Heather. Very well roleplayed, amazing conflict with Sky including reading her diary, part of a twist of being betrayed, a solid alliance with Scott, and even had some funny moments in the aftermath.

4: Sky. Even though she won, Sky still had plenty of story left. A love triangle, a conflict/friendship with Scott, a relationship with Duncan, an empathy moment when her diary is read, and even quits.

3: Samey. 4 episodes was too long to wait for the real and better Samey to show up. Samey was good at the game, an entertaining and occasionaly funny character, had plenty of great interactions, and led on a girls alliance that was almost successful. Excellent character.

2: Scott. Number 2 two seasons in a row. I would've made Scott Number 1, but like last season, there were one or two things missing. If Courtney was in the game longer, I would've given Scott a lot more to do, but other than that, I'm glad that I developed Scott more, making him have a crush on Sugar, standing up to Courtney, making things up with Sky, having an even bigger friendship with Duncan, forming a guys alliance and more.

1: Duncan. Deserved to win. Nate greatly improved him, making Duncan meaner, but still shown that he has a heart, like how he treats people like Scott, Sky, and Tyler. He had amazing development and there was always something going on with his character. If I wanted to lose against anyone, Nate would be one of those people. Congratulations on the win, Nate. You did great.

And that's the Season 2 Review. Hopefully Season 3 can live up to the quality that this fantastic season brought with it.