Returning to the original Survivor-style format after nearly a decade, Total Drama brings
a whole new cast to take on a new season of challenges. Where do a fresh batch of
teenagers fall on the morality spectrum in comparison to the long time host and chef?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this Total Drama (2023) Characters: Good to Evil.
Before we begin, we
are issuing a major spoiler warning as the show’s English dub hasn’t officially been released.
GOOD
Our gold medal for the most good goes to Hezekiah aka Zee.
Zee is your stereotypical laid-back and casual teen; almost always positive and usually clueless.
Throughout his time on the island, he doesn’t make any enemies and provides support to all the teens,
regardless of whether or not they’re on his team. During the naval battle challenge,
he attempts to force a tie by smashing his team’s boat into the others so that no one has to lose.
Zee also goes out of his way to perform some heroic acts for his fellow teens;
he helps Chase to control his gas, going even as far to hold his butt in order for
them to remain silent during their challenge. Zee rescues both Chase and Emma when they’re
being attacked by bears and he saves both Bowie and Julia from sinking in a honey pit.
Despite caring for all the campers, Zee is not without his faults; he misinterprets Priya’s
attempts to form an alliance with Scary Girl and ends up getting her in trouble instead.
Zee also is manipulated by Ripper on a few occasions, and his desire to play the groups
after the merge in order to completely unite them ultimately results in him getting voted off.
Zee earns the Sloth Medal for his general laid-back and care-free attitude.
Zee may have wanted good for everyone in the camp,
but Raj and Wayne prioritized making sure each one of them was doing well.
These two hockey players showed their team player attitude, making good with most everyone
and respecting Chris for the most part. They do take jabs at and bully Ripper in the beginning,
but only to prove a point that the tough teen isn’t as macho as he thinks.
Wayne ends up being a strong captain in the naval battle challenge, making the choice to
take out the opposing team’s players so that sinking their ship will be easier.
However, he does become obsessive with his desire to have Raj come out to him
and tries on multiple occasions to coerce him to say it, but phrasing it in a way
for Raj to do it as he feels comfortable enough. Raj does eventually reveal things
with his kiss with Bowie to his fellow hockey teammate, and Wayne is there to support him.
Though he got the least amount of screentime, Caleb got a chance to show his good side.
Caleb ended up being this season’s version of Justin from the original series; a nice face
that everyone loves. His looks end up causing the boat driver to crash on his arrival to the island,
to which he shrugs it off as he’s used to being in those kinds of situations. The only good we
really get to see Caleb do is recommending that the team move faster when they end up falling
behind in the first challenge. Unfortunately, Caleb ended up being the first eliminated due
to Bowie’s influence, so we won’t ever get to know how much more good he could have done.
Someone who does show off a little more good in the show is Damien.
Damien is the first contestant we’ve seen who had no prior knowledge of the show; he only took the
opportunity as he was dared to by his friends and came in expecting to just be handed the money.
He shows his gentleman side and returns Millie’s notebook to her, after Ripper steals it and
attempts to convince him to join in the bullying. During his time on the island, Damien makes the
realization that he doesn’t want to compete anymore and tries to convince his teammates
to vote him off. Unlike Scott in previous seasons, he doesn’t intentionally sabotage his team to make
that happen sooner for himself; he’d rather just be eliminated the next time the team happens to
lose. However, after he ends up saving his team from a velociraptor attack in the mess hall,
Damien changes his mind and wants to stay after all, but ends up getting voted off instead.
Though Damien didn’t make it far,
Millie stayed on long enough to really get some insight into who she was as a person.
Millie ultimately comes to Total Drama Island in order to do research on her generation;
she cites how her parents’ generation had to do something very proactive and notable to
become famous, whereas people her age were becoming famous for the dumbest reasons.
She recognized that teens competing on an international game show was the best
opportunity to gather material. Millie primarily takes advantage of Ripper’s stupidity for her
own research gain as well as takes down notes about Priya’s previous training for the show.
She stands up for Emma when Chase decides to bully her, doesn’t appreciate Ripper’s
constant attempts to bully her, and becomes friends with Priya when she stands up for
Millie against Chase. Millie decides to take on Priya’s training in order to last as long as she
can in the competition, but eventually becomes wary and tired of it due to Priya’s intensity.
Millie eventually decides to quit her research project to prevent her friendship with Priya
being ruined, but it’s tested when Priya finds out what Millie previously wrote due
to Bowie’s influence. Their friendship is tested and rocky during the finale,
but Millie is able to bring Priya back on her side by letting her know the project was abandoned and
says that she has true adoration and admiration for the young challenger.
She earns the Envy Medal as she’s upset that her generation doesn’t
work as hard to become famous like her parents’ generation.
Having her own tumultuous relationship problems on the show alongside Millie is Emma.
Emma joined the show after having broken up with her previous boyfriend Chase, only to find out
that she would be competing against him. She was furious with him for cutting the brakes on
her car for a prank and not telling her, causing her to crash into a pet store. Because of this,
she promises to donate some of her winnings to an animal shelter. She unfortunately allows her
rage to get in the way of the team winning the very first challenge, but is able to
keep herself somewhat composed going forward. Emma provides motivation to Nichelle during
the obstacle course as she begins to doubt herself and her abilities,
and manages to save Julia from drowning in the water tank trap in just the nick of time.
Despite her anger at Chase, she ends up thinking about him a bunch and ends up falling back in
love with him when he apologizes to her, thinking it’s in relation to the prank incident. However,
when she learns that he wasn’t apologizing for the prank and won’t ever apologize,
her rage is immediately reignited. For some time, she was willing to cause him harm and get revenge
for her own amusement, but did ultimately end up resisting Bowie’s influence to manipulate
him. Though, due to a misunderstanding, Emma falls for Chase and they begin dating again.
Rounding out our good category is Priya.
Being that her parents were huge fans of the Total Drama series, Priya was trained from
birth to eventually compete on the show. However, it’s later revealed that Priya
actually wants to go to med school, and she’ll only be allowed to if she wins Total Drama,
according to her parents. She doesn’t let the show get to her, standing up to Axel’s aggression and
Chase’s bullying of Mille. Priya even offers to take Millie under her wing and train her in order
to survive as long as possible in the competition. However, the training ends up testing the
relationship; Priya takes it more seriously than she should and constantly puts Millie down out of
earshot for her weakness. She saves Millie on multiple occasions from various threats
in the challenges, but their friendship is ultimately rocked when she learns what Millie
had been writing about her from Bowie. Priya’s initially not willing to hear Millie out about
how she had changed, but does eventually come around and rekindles the friendship.
GREY
Tipping the morality scales to be a little more even, we start with Nichelle.
Nichelle is your classic teen celebrity that everyone knows and only cares about
her looks and popularity. She considers Julia for being delusional about her fame as she’s
just a social media influencer, whereas Nichelle is a full-blown celebrity. She
worries about the states she could be in for challenges, but does eventually push through
in order to make sure her team succeeds. Nichelle comes to be in her lowest state
during the obstacle course challenge where it’s revealed that she’s not athletic at all,
despite being an action star. She admits that all her stunts are done by a male double,
but does attempt to finish the challenge with a motivational push from Emma. However, when she’s
eliminated for her poor performance, she chooses to blame it on her stunt double and not herself.
She earns the Pride Medal for choosing to blame her faults
on someone else and not live up to her failures.
Though Nichelle wasn’t very athletic, Axel showed everyone how capable she really was.
Seeming to cross the aggression of Eva and the zombie survivalism of Shawn, Axel was no-nonsense
and wasn’t willing to back down from a fight. She was willing to take on Ripper’s challenges
upon arrival, only to coerce him to back off. She chose to go foraging for food despite meals
being provided by Chef Hatchet and got upset when her teammates refused to eat the food she found.
During the naval battle challenge, she fights against Ripper for the role of captain and
ends up kicking him in the face, causing him to fall off the boat and be eliminated before the
challenge even begins. After Axel’s eliminated because of her intensity, she bites Ripper,
pushes Chris to the ground, and ungraciously claims that all her teammates were beneath her.
Showing her capabilities in a different way is MK.
This kleptomaniac not only has a pension for taking what’s not hers, but she’s very savvy
with technology as well. She manages to hijack one of Julia’s many phones she snuck onto the island
in order to hack into the confessional camera and find out what everyone’s been saying in order to
play some mind games with the other competitors. She takes advantage of this handiwork and manages
to recover video footage of Julia absolutely ripping into a velociraptor and uploads it to
the internet for the world to see just how fake Julia’s influencer persona is. Julia
attempts to play a mind game to get MK voted off, but she’s able to dish it right back.
Finishing this section with a familiar face, we have Chef Hatchet.
In classic Chef fashion, he is the co-host/assistant to Chris and does
pretty much everything he’s told in order to make the show more exciting. He throws a box of Julia’s
phones into the ocean at Chris’ request, creates disgusting food for the teens to eat during
a challenge, and decides to take some of the teens’ disturbing ideas for future challenges.
However, he seemingly has a lot more compassion for the kids this time around. On multiple
occasions, he questions Chris’ choices made for challenges and wonders if they’re safe enough.
He manages to influence production to make some of the challenges less harmful,
much to Chris’ dismay. Chef Hatchet even shows concern for Damien’s lack of knowledge of the
show, knowing that the challenges will wreck him. This chef has come a long way from his
days of enjoying the torture of the teens, but there are inklings that still lurk inside him.
BAD TO EVIL
The best of the bad is Ripper.
Ripper is annoying at best and a bully at worst. He tries to pass himself off as a tough guy and
makes several attempts to pick fights with other contestants, only to have his butt
handed to him. He constantly bullies Millie and Damien for their scientific knowledge,
calling them nerds at any opportunity he can. He also chose to ignore directions in the first
challenge and almost cost his teammates the win by trying to break the world’s longest fart record
during the silent island travel challenge. Ripper’s not above using people for his own
personal gain either. He ends up using Priya as a shield during the capture the flag challenge,
and ends up using Zee to get ahead in the cassowary challenge. However,
he does redeem himself by recommending a plan to help mend Millie and Prya’s friendship,
albeit with a touch of sabotage thrown in, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Ripper earns the Darwin Medal for his general idiocy that he displays,
and the Gluttony Medal for eating a ton of beans to beat a farting world record.
We aren’t limited to one bully in this reboot, as Chase jumps on this train as well.
This extreme pranks influencer shows his recklessness when it’s revealed
that he was responsible for cutting the brakes on Emma’s car without telling her,
inciting her to break up with him. He also takes a short opportunity to pick on Millie for not having
friends before being told off by Priya. Chase also chose to abandon Zee when he ended up getting
stuck to avoid getting attacked by raptors. Despite being her ex, Chase makes several
attempts to win Emma back so they can date again, even though she’s clearly not interested. Due to
a misunderstanding on Emma’s part, they end up dating again until he admits he’s not sorry about
the prank he pulled. After this second “break up”, Chase tries once again to prove he’s a
hero towards the end of his time on the show and ends up winning Emma’s heart once again.
Chase earns the Lust Medal for consistently pining after Emma despite them being broken up.
Though Chase used the show to win Emma’s heart,
Bowie was determined to win the prize money from the start.
Bowie makes a strong start during his time on the island by creating his first alliance and
managing to convince his team to vote off Caleb. He uses his alliance with Emma to
help her get revenge on Chase and inspires her to attack him every chance she gets. However,
when it’s clear that she’s shifting her feelings back to her ex, Bowie takes the
opportunity to call off their alliance. Towards the end of the series,
Bowie starts developing a rivalry with Julia; getting into a fight with her and intentionally
throwing a challenge in an attempt to dig up dirt on her personality. After working
with her in the cave challenge, he double crosses her and chooses to vote her off.
Julia isn’t Bowie’s only victim on his way to the top; Bowie sabotages Priya and Millie’s friendship
by revealing what Millie had written about Priya in her notebook. He also ripped out the last page
where Millie had written all the nice things about her friend in order to create more drama. Bowie
also makes a brief alliance with Priya in order to get Millie knocked out of the competition.
Bowie earns the Greed Medal for his overwhelming desire to win the competition.
Much more cutthroat and ruthless in the competition, is Julia.
She comes off as your average nature-inspired influencer, talking about her growth as a person
and her connection with the outdoors. Julia starts to show her true colors as she gives backhanded
compliments to Emma, tries to tell Nichelle what to do with her life, and insults the other
contestants in her confessionals. However, she’s consistently concerned for her online
image and spends a lot of time on her snuck-in phones to keep her influencer lifestyle up.
Julia’s true persona is revealed when she rips into a velociraptor with reckless abandon about
its hygiene, appearance, and extinction. When MK leaks the video of the moment on the internet,
Julia vows revenge initially before dropping her influencer lifestyle, glad to finally be herself.
Subsequently, this former influencer does what she can in order to win; she’ll risk wins and
play shady games rather than playing it safe, manipulates the other players in order to create
drama, or risks other players’ well-being so that she can increase her chances of winning. Julia was
way too excited at the prospect of both Millie and Priya being crushed in the cave challenge,
and she abandoned Bowie after agreeing to split the prize money in the finale.
Julia wins the Wrath Medal for truly being a
cold-hearted person under her bubbly influencer exterior.
While Julia may be someone you can choose to avoid,
Lauren aka Scary Girl is someone you would WANT to avoid.
Right from the start, Scary Girl wants nothing more than to witness and cause the pain and
suffering of her fellow teammates. She manages to rescue Damien from being attacked by a shark,
but only for the chance to hear him scream later. Scary Girl was willing to beat up
a bear who got in the way of her goals. When Priya attempts to form an alliance with her,
Scary Girl takes Zee’s misinterpretation of Priya’s intentions too far and is willing to
harm the young girl. Her worst sin is choosing to chase after her own team, especially Damien,
with a jackhammer in order to terrorize them, subsequently throwing the challenge.
Though Scary Girl lives up to her namesake, her record isn’t as extensive as Chris’.
It’s clear that all the time away from the series did nothing to change Chris and his
sadistic ways to create entertainment. He refers to the campers as victims and
calls them terrible names every now and then. Chris also chose to exploit Damien’s
naivete and Chase and Emma’s break up in order to create more drama for the show.
He has Chef toss all of Julia’s phones into the lake instead of just confiscating them.
He also intentionally forgets about the dangers he includes in challenges for his own amusement,
and clearly doesn’t care for the teens’ safety for the sake of entertainment.