User blog:Epic~00/Total Drama Amazonian Nightmare Contestants First Impressions - Week 3

It's last pre-merge week! And what a way to end things. Another few #blindsides have occured and they'll probably be a trend for the entire season. We had our very own double elimination, there was a team swap, and Unidade turned out to be the inferior team of the season!!!!!!!!

This will sadly be the last time that I analyze the characters in "Team" format. I'll show next week what I'll do with the merge contestants, but for now, I'll take a gander at who's left.

Fortaleza
Amy

Amy was great this week. As much as I liked her, her getting CPP 6 episodes in a row was getting repetitive. This time, she was much more spiced up. Her bickering with Jo is the main thing that makes Fortaleza such a great hot mess, she was showing that she wasn't afraid to be acting sneakily strategic, her friendship with Courtney develops both of them fantastically, and what she's done this week was very much a "twisto twist." I look forward to what she brings in future.

Rating: 8.5/10

Courtney

Courtney was just fantastic. Out of all the characters I subbed, I had the most fun playing her. She finally got what most Courtney fans have wanted from her, she's a funny hippo-crite who pretends that she's the saving grace of her team, her interactions with her three teammates are all diverse and none seem similar, she was the first character this season to have an extremely negative breakdown, and she remained spontaneous all the way.

Rating: 9.5/10

Jo

Jo is just a pleasure. I don't really need to say much more else about her at this stage because it's clear why she's such a loved contestant this season. Her lines always energize her entire team, she remains her canon self which I'm a fan of, and she never seems like she's going to get any flawed moment.

Rating: 9.5/10

Rodney

Rodney was a mixed bag this week. On the one hand, I like his more assertive approach towards others, he's probably the only heroic person left on Fortaleza, and he seems like he's going somewhere. On the other hand, he doesn't usually stand-out as much as the rest of his team and usually just blends into what they're doing. He's exactly middle-of-the-road and while that's acceptable, it gets grating when that turns out consistent.

Rating: 7/10 Final Team Rating: 34.5/40

Unidade
Leonard

Leonard has improved so much ever since he joined Unidade. He made the team not boring in the slightest and his actions are so over-the-top that I always enjoy seeing what he pulls out next. He could be randomly running into a forest or doing pretend spells, but he's also well-rounded in likability to coincide with him probably being the funniest contestant left. Leonard didn't stand for Dave's comments and it was nice to see a more realistic approach taken with Leonard and his feelings. We were all thinking "RIP Leo" at his eliminations, but he pulled through much to all of our happiness. As the merge is coming, it's basically confirmed that Leonard is going to shine much more and who knows where he'll go next?

Rating: 10/10

Sky

I don't really know how to properly sum up Sky. She's certainly a lot more interesting recently, but this time it looks like all likability from her was gone in this week... and it is glorious. While she should balance snideness & niceness, she still came across as a very explosive member of her team. She voted out Dave twice which was surprising to see, and she shown independence when it came to the team blaming Leonard for a loss they encountered. She's not fantastic since she is a screenhogger at this stage who is starting to dwindle on me, but for her last few episodes, she's giving herself a good send-off. Even if she only stands out occasionaly and was sort of over-strategic a few times.

Rating: 7.5/10

Zoey

Zoey was great at motivating her team and her positivity was welcoming. She had a rough start with having a low visibility but made up for it afterwards. No matter what's going on, Zoey still tries to keep her team intact. However, Zoey doesn't really have any conflicts and isn't showing any signs of any future breaking point because of that. It's a bit too late for it too since she had a long to build up to breaking down. She needs to do something insane soon. Otherwise, she could leave being forgettable.

Rating: 7/10 Final Team Rating: 24.5/30

Vontande
Dawn

Dawn had her ups and downs along the way. She began being the most negative person on her team in Episode 7 with not being grateful for Lightning's hard work, but her friendship with him afterwards somewhat made up for this. There's not much to really say about Dawn because of how straightforward she is in her optimism. That said, I hope she goes soon because TF is a lazy ass who shouldn't be permanantly subbed like this. I would much rather if Amy lasted longer than Dawn.

Rating: 7/10

Harold

Now I have said that Harold this season deserves a bit more appreciation and isn't that bad. This week, similar to Dawn, Harold had some up and downs to him. For one, Lightning joining the team benefitted Harold's personality a lot as he bounces off of Lightning really well. One major problem with Harold throughout the last few weeks though is that he isn't really having many jokes. He is a semi comic relief and I wish I could see that more often with him. He also was a bit too dumbed down when he did things like mistaking Dave for Noah. Overall it's hard to judge what he'll do next.

Rating: 7/10

Lightning

Lightning was the comic relief that I think made Vontande funnier. He went from being a switch they all hated, to proving he was a powerful member, then proving his depth that the canon show kind of pushes under the rug, THEN got dumbed down by eating raw fish and not having a full enough stomach, then doing random and dumb crazy things. He was sort of losing relevance but I think he got it back this time. That said, he's in a similar boat to Sky for me. Lightning is great but he's sort of said and done it all. He's turning into a bigger screenhog with every episode.

Rating: 8/10

Sierra

It goes without saying that Sierra is and always was Vontande's most entertaining member. She's just so quirky and did so many fun things this week that could get anyone hooked. I know that since Russel was subbing Shawn, she didn't stand-out as much, but when she did, she was fantastic. I think the reason she has less lines though is also because Russel actually thinks before saying a line as her which is a clever thing for him to do. I liked how she interacted with other teams too such as her interaction with Courtney, and this shown that Sierra is more than just a stalker. She's a comforting stalker who cares about others. Individual immunity challenges also mean that Sierra will likely do more crazy things.

Rating: 9/10 Final Team Rating: 31/40

Fortaleza
Oh what a beautiful turd this team turned out to be. I absolutely loved Fortaleza and they're a team I'm going to miss once the merge comes around. All of the members offer something that differs from each other. Jo is the leader who takes no prisoners and makes everyone follow her orders no matter what. Courtney is a hypocrite who has a delusion that she holds the team together but also has a redemption arc. Amy is the member involved with either the biggest feuds or friendships and is never afraid to speak her mind. Rodney is an outsider who the whole team gets along with, and he also become the most mixed between positivity and negativitiy on the team and is the perfect middle ground.

Unidade
Unidaddy surprised me this time. They were losing substance to even be worth watching. But once an interesting sh**starter like Leonard came around, they got much better. There was finally a realistic conflict between Dave and Sky that wasn't peachy rainbows and sunshine crap, Unidade's eliminations were actually unpredictable for once, and the right people left. It's a shame they redeemed theirselves in the week beforehand because had they done it sooner, they would probably be a team I would call good but I'm now just neutral on.

Vontande
Vontande weren't as good this week. Most of them were silent in the 8th episode, and most of the members have taken a clear massive change. That said, Lightning joining their team was a great idea as it brings out their personalities more. They pulled through challenges despite their low numbers too. Overall with them not being as good this week however, I would consider them similar in quality to Unidade.

Eliminated Contestants
Brick

It's a shame Brick was unfairly evacuated from the competition. For what he and Jasmine had, I think it was a great friendship even if he was hooked on drugs that made him an actually interesting RP character for once. He had a few funny jokes while eliminated though, such as screaming at painful surgery, and at least he got to pee his plants one last time. If he competed in RI this week, I wouldn't be giving him such a low rating.

Rating: 5/10

Dave

Dave was hilarious at RI. He was whiny and moany about being eliminated which is always a guilty pleasure for me, he was reacting to the smallest germs, and when he fell down and hurt his head during him and Shawn's acting performance, it lead to his weird brainless moment. I still don't think he should've returned despite that as he left at the right time and had a terrific RI send-off. As for the three episodes this week, he was pretty good and was a memorable Unidade member. I liked the feud between him and Sky and he is the reason for the beginning of Leonard's arc. What Dave's actions are have set the foundation for the merge to come.

Rating: 8.5/10

Jasmine

It's sad that I got 14th and JUST missed the merge mark but I actually don't even mind at all. The reason I loved RI so much was because it finishes unfinished characters properly and it's done that for ALL of the RI contestants. Jasmine is no exception and me getting to the final with her was good enough for me. Her shortlived friendship with Beardo has begun his development well, she was welcoming to all of RI, and she left with her head held high knowing that she helped others out.

Rating: 9/10

Sam

Sam is not a very popular AN contestant. I've sort of said all reasons why he is not very good. Nearly 100% of his lines are him whining about his game guy, he had no storyline, he had no conflicts to make you root for him, he didn't interact with Dakota for nine straight episodes, he was constantly positive which got boring after a while, and he was generally uninteresting and annoying. In BIA he was much more fleshed out for many reasons and while I wouldn't call him "terrible" this season, he was definitely the biggest dissapointment for me as I had high expectations for him.

Rating: 4/10

Shawn

Russel gave Shawn a fantastic send-off. Shawn turned into a crazy and senile pure OTT goddess and he had crazy remarks like Unidaddy and Hippocrite. He literally "broke a leg" on stage when Jasmine wished him luck and he was partly a comic relief replacement for Brick. That said, I think he was a bit "too crazy". There is a human quality Shawn displays now and again in the canon series and it was lacking her. But for the craziness Shawn shown, he at least proved that he would not be forgettable this season.

Rating: 7/10

Returned Contestants
Beardo ]

Beardo got a completely out of nowhere RI return and robbed poor Brick of his chances. It's still extremely unfitting that Beardo constantly talks in English when he established in his audition tape that he's shy, but on the up side, the redemption he's set up for himself still makes me look forward to him. He just needs to tone down the uh, speaking.

Rating: 7/10

Dakota

While Lego is one of the people I'm closest to and massively enjoy, Dakota wasn't really a fitting return in my opinion. She never had any storyline and was just kind of there. It was refreshing to see her interact with Sam, but by then, it was too late. Unless Dakota actually gets some sort of storyline where her personality shows, she will be an unmemorable returnee.

Rating: 6.5/10

And that's it for me. Join me next week for the very large merge and most likely a mix of amazing people and terrible people in a big merge with no middle ground.