When it comes to reality shows, it’s not uncommon for the directors and producers to
make some players seem more unlikable than others using deceptive camera shots and editing. But,
in the case of the animated Total Drama series, some characters don’t need editing and are
just unlikable all on their own. But which characters stand out as the absolute worst?
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this is The Worst Total Drama Characters (and why they suck).
With how many Total Drama seasons and characters there are, we have plenty to choose from. As such,
we aren’t going to be including any original characters from TDI’s spin-off show, “The
Ridonculous Race”. We’d also like to mention that just because a character was a ‘villain’ doesn’t
guarantee them a spot on this list. Sometimes, the worst sins to a fan aren’t when characters are
evil, but when they’re boring, annoying or just plain aggravating. Alright, let’s get started!
First up on our list, we’re going to talk about Sierra. During “Total Drama:
World Tour”, two new characters were added to the original cast, these being Alejandro
and Sierra. While Alejandro seemed to become a favorite from the start thanks to his evilness,
skills and chemistry with Heather, it took audiences a bit longer to warm up to Sierra.
Being the “crazy fangirl” archetype, many saw her obsessive nature with the Total
Drama franchise (and with Cody specifically) to be annoying at best and absolutely creepy at worst.
Many also see her as being particularly one-note, as practically all of her dialogue seems to
revolve around either Cody or Total Drama in general. She’s also pretty manipulative when
it comes to her advances towards Cody, to the point where she even tries to trick him into
getting married for real during the Niagara Falls wedding challenge. We’re putting her
towards the bottom however because, for all her flaws, she does have some more likable
moments - like when she was the only one to remember Cody’s birthday, or when she
did all she could to help him when he got into the Final 3 of World Tour. She’s not a BAD character,
per say, we just wish she wasn’t so one-note most of the time. And speaking of one note…
Following her is the briefly seen Staci. If you look up ‘unmemorable’ in the dictionary,
you’ll probably find a photo of this girl - and for those who DO actually remember her, it’s
probably not for a good reason. Being the first character voted off in “Revenge of the Island”,
many see her as elimination fodder due to her really not having much of a character at all.
Even when compared to other elimination fodder contestants, Staci feels like the absolute bottom
of the barrel. She only has one real gimmick, that being how she’s always talking and always
bringing up stories of her many MANY relatives who allegedly did amazing things. It’s hardly a
funny gimmick, and we can’t imagine many people
who would want to deal with it - or with Staci in general - beyond one episode.
Next, we have the controversial Ezekiel. The original Black Sheep of the OG Total Drama cast,
in a sense. Being seen as a fairly slow-witted boy, Ezekiel was the first to be voted off the
island for being sexist, claiming that boys were stronger and better than girls. For whatever
reason, he was brought back in “Total Drama: World Tour”, only to be voted off first AGAIN
after screwing up the challenges in Egypt. Except this time, he didn’t just disappear and instead
ended up going feral, becoming a sort of parody of Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”. There’s a nice
mix of reasons why people don’t really like this kid. Some see him as annoying and a waste of time,
taking a spot in the third season that could’ve been given to another character. Others see him as
a waste of potential, believing that he could’ve been an interesting character addition in the
third season if actually given the chance to grow and compete. And others, well… they just see him
as one of the biggest signs that Total Drama had truly “jumped the shark” as it were, with
his transformation into a monster coming off more as ridiculous than funny. Still, for those who saw
his potential, there are some people who actually didn’t mind Ezekiel too much, and many more
who just feel sorry for the poor kid who, we’ll admit, didn’t really deserve all the pain he got.
Bringing in some so-called ‘wizard’s magic’, next is Leonard. Like Ezekiel and Staci,
many fans see Leonard as elimination fodder that never should’ve been brought back for “Ridonculous
Race”, with some even believing that he should’ve never been on Total Drama at all. While having a
cosplayer on the show would have been cool, it’s pretty obvious that Leonard is meant to make fun
of cosplayers and live action roleplayers. He’s so lost in his ‘wizardry’ that he ends up being more
of a hindrance to or annoyance for all the other characters he interacts with. Again, it just comes
down to him being extremely one-note, acting as more of a joke than as an actual character.
Moving on, we have Eva next. This girl takes being ‘aggro’ to the next level,
as that’s pretty much her anger issues are pretty much her entire personality. You do feel just a
bit bad for her, getting eliminated twice in the first season - the second time happening right
after she’s brought back to the island - and never getting the chance to compete again. Buuuut at the
same time, you can’t necessarily blame the other characters for not liking her much, given her
tendency to accuse others of trying to sabotage her and her unnecessary bullying of Bridgette
after she was brought back to the island. Maybe she could have had a nice arc where she learned
to control her temper, but unfortunately for Eva, it doesn’t look like she’ll ever get that chance.
Next, let’s talk about Zoey. Bland, helpless, useless… These are just a few of the ways that
Zoey’s haters choose to describe her. Meant to be one of the nicer characters of the (at the
time) brand new cast, she began to get on a lot of people’s nerves when they saw how clueless
she could be regarding things like Mike and his identity disorder or when characters like Scott
tried to trick her. Some see her as a sort of damsel-in-distress due to how often she tends
to rely on her close friends Mike and Cameron for help, completely ignoring the times where
she’s actually able to fight for herself fairly well. In cases like her “commando” persona, some
see it as just a one-time gimmick that doesn't erase her character’s biggest flaws - those
being her dependency on other characters and her boring ‘nice girl’ personality.
Let’s take a trip to the Jersey Shore with our next character, Anne Maria. Hey, you guys like
“Jersey Shore” references and jokes? …Oh, you don’t? Well, that’s too bad, because that’s
pretty much all that Anne Maria is. Despite how long she was on the island for, her only real
achievement was briefly getting in-between Mike and Zoey’s relationship after falling for one
of Mike’s alters. She’s extremely selfish, only caring about her hair, and is just a huge jerk to
anyone who crosses her. Now, if she was actually a threat in the competition, maybe she could’ve
become more than just a stereotype joke and would instead be comparable to characters like Jo and
even Heather. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t in the cards for Anne Maria, leaving her to be little
more than a shallow character and an extremely dated reference in the eyes of many fans.
Following her is the one and only Courtney. Out of all the characters on this list,
Courtney’s may just be the most tragic, given how likable she was at first. Throughout season one,
there was plenty to enjoy about her - from how competitive and determined she was, to her
chemistry with Duncan, to her fun character arc from being a rules-following princess to someone a
bit more willing to cut loose. Unfortunately, all of that started going out the window in season 2
and beyond, where the writers took her competitive nature to the extreme. It got to the point where
she was willing to backstab and threaten other competitors - including her own boyfriend - with
either her access to lawyers or her own fists just to get her hands on the million. She was whiny,
self-centered, prideful, hypocritical and incredibly arrogant. Fans also hated how
toxic she became when she started dating Duncan, wanting to change and ‘fix’ everything about him,
and then getting angry when he understandably didn’t want to date her anymore. Her dumpster
fire of a relationship with Gwen didn’t fare much better, and the less we say about her
portrayal in “Total Drama All-Stars”, the better. If not for many still remembering
how good of a character she was in season 1, it’s doubtful that she’d have any actual fans.
Entering our bottom five is the pretty unlikable wannabe celeb, Blaineley. Being the only Total
Drama competitor who wasn’t a teenager, you would think that Blaineley would’ve been just a bit
more mature. But of course, she turned out to be just as drama-hungry as some of the show’s worst
antagonists. She was loud, rude, nosy and - like many other people who are obsessed with spreading
rumors or becoming popular - very irritating. While she may have only been a competing cast
member for only a couple episodes in World Tour, it’s pretty well agreed upon that her time on the
show was easily one of the low points of that season. Her impact on the Aftermath episodes
was pretty negative too, and it’s hard to really find any sort of redeeming qualities with her. If
anything, her short time on the show is probably the quote-unquote ‘best’ aspect about her.
Ranked right below her is another well-disliked blonde, Sugar. Yet another character who was
little more than a dated pop culture reference, this time making fun of Honey Boo-Boo. Being
one of the season’s antagonists, Sugar was pretty hostile and unlikable from the word go,
often targeting Ella for no particular reason. She was annoying, super gross and just all around
unlikable and unfunny. Being a former pageant girl, they really could have done so much
more with her to make her interesting, and that understanding of her missed potential makes her
all the more frustrating to fans. Others just see her as a much less likable “female Owen”, having
all of Owen’s worst jokes without the enjoyable and fun personality. There are a few fans out
there who think she can occasionally be funny or useful, though you’d be hard-pressed to find them,
and there are still some wondering how she managed to make it into the Final 3.
For our third least-liked TDI character, we had to go with Dave. The most ‘normal’ guy on Pahkitew
Island, there’s a lot that could have been done with Dave. He could’ve been the straight guy to
everyone else’s shenanigans, the guy with a ton of secret strengths and skills - hell,
even just making him a slightly blander version of Noah would have been better than what the show
ended up doing with him. And what exactly did the writers do with Dave that was so awful? Simple,
they turned him into a quote-unquote ‘nice guy’ who was consumed by his one-sided crush on Skye
and who could never get over her rejection of him. This whole subplot in itself was pretty
annoying after a while, but seeing him go so far as to try and severely injure Skye
during the finale’s big challenge and wanting to win the money so he could “light it on fire in
front of Skye” easily made him one of the worst characters ever in the eyes of many fans. Add in
the fact that he didn’t really have much to his character beside his awful crush and his slight
judgmental nature towards the other campers, and you’ve got yourself a pretty terrible character.
Getting second place in being the worst, we have Amy. Of all the terrible, one-note,
gimmicky characters in Total Drama’s history, this is perhaps the one that people hate the most,
not being able to give her any redeeming qualities whatsoever. At least with other similar campers,
you could say that they were occasionally funny or that they had potential. But with
Amy? She’s literally just the evil twin trope and that’s it. She doesn’t try to seriously compete,
or make friends or alliances with other campers, or even has any real achievements
of her own to speak of. She just spends the entire time being terrible to her sister for
no apparent reason. At the very least, she does get her comeuppance when Samey takes her place,
but even this is hardly considered a victory when Samey doesn’t get to stay for very
long. There’s nothing wrong with having a mean or even an irredeemable character,
but when they’re only going after one person - one who doesn’t even deserve it and isn’t
really given the chance to fight back - it just becomes tiresome, boring and hard to watch.
Finally, our Gold Medal for Most Hated goes to the infamous Mal. Yep, we’re talking about this
character again. Let’s start off with the things that are terrible about Mal as a character first.
He’s your typical one-dimensional villain, and while that can sometimes be fun or at the
very least entertaining, Mal’s brand of evil is just incredibly dull and not at all impressive,
despite the show wanting us to act like Mal is some evil mastermind who’s on the level
of Satan. Let’s face it, the Total Drama franchise has had much better villains,
and outside of Mal’s villainy he’s just a completely flat character who doesn’t
really have anything memorable about him outside of his gimmick. But let’s get onto
what’s terrible about him in general. Much like Gollum!Ezekiel, the addition of Mal was seen as
a ‘jumped the shark’ moment for the series, and is considered to be one of the reasons why the
All-Stars season was as terrible as it was. Not only is the evil split personality thing a cliche,
but it’s also pretty insensitive to people who actually have identity disorders. Furthermore,
whenever Mal was around, it always felt like the writing took a down-turn. Between Mal’s obvious
plot-armor and how everyone around him seemed to magically become stupider in order for Mal
to continue tricking and manipulating them, it just all felt so lame. In failing to be
intimidating or impressive and in being someone who only detracted from his debut season instead
of adding to it, Mal easily became one of the Worst Total Drama characters of all time.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking or if we missed
any terrible Total Drama characters, and tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit
that notification bell and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!