#skave

She was often complimented on her youthful looks. Her eyes in particular held the vitality of a vibrant woman who was young at heart.

"I'm so sorry to say this, but I will break your heart right now."

Skave! I should really rewatch PI

For Day 06 of my Halloween Countdown fanart: DaShawn (Total Drama Pahkitew Island's Dave x Shawn) dressed as zombies. (I know Shawn doesn't take kindly to zombies but it's all I can do)

Yeah, it's actually been nearly a week since i watched the finale. Took me that long to scrounge up the motivation to write this post lol

I watched episodes 9-13 with my buddy @rockin-it-rusty again, and i have. thoughts.

Honestly, Hurl and Go Seek and Scarlett Fever were probably the highlights of the season. They're pretty funny episodes, where both Jasmine and Shawn's conflict is solved and Sky and Dave's relationship hits a brick fucking wall due to Dave's own character flaws. The set-up for the challenge is also pretty unique for an eating challenge and i like the comedy! Also Scarlett Fever having an actual antagonistic force is fun.

But i'll be real: I barely even remember anything from episode 11. And i don't remember much from episode 12, either. Doesn't help i wasn't the most concentrated on the episodes themselves, but the challenges and the character relationships weren't the most compelling/interesting to me. I'll say this though, Sugar and Sky's weird little alliance was fun while it lasted.

As for Lies, Cries and One Big Prize... God, the finale's mid. Im already not invested in Jasmine and Shawn's conflict, and im not gonna be invested in this either! But i think Skave's conflict is actually interesting here! Sky kissing Dave while having a boyfriend back home she wanted to break up with but forgetting to is interesting, and even Dave reacting very very badly to being rejected in episode 9 was fun to see. It's like. Oh my god. A relationship this season having some depth??? That i don't need to extrapolate myself?? There's three things that kill it for me though.

If you've been following this blog for a while, or hell have talked to me on Discord, you KNOW i am not a fan of straight, basic romance, and that's basically all that skave is for like half the season. Granted they have a better start than jashawn, who just blush at eachother once and then the plot happens, but that doesn't mean it's any less boring to me! The misscommunications are frustating because they feel completely artificial, and they only get compelling by Hurl and Go Seek. The episode Dave gets eliminated in.

The second thing that bothers me is that Sky leading Dave on in the finale (and that is what she's doing during the final challenge since she doesn't want to date him afterwards) is out of character for her. Her whole thing is winning honestly; she literally tells Sugar two episodes earlier that she can't cheat during the challenges or else they won't have an alliance because Sky's uncomfortable with that. Why would she be comfortable leading anyone on, even if it's for a victory then? It's still cheating! You could argue it's to push a contrast between her sportsmanship and her apparently being a disaster in relationships in that regard but i seriously doubt that's what the writers were going for!

The final nail in the coffin for me though is Dave's entire reaction. It's pretty funny how pathetic he is about it in episode 9, but his attempted murder of Sky is going just a bit too far? Especially since the worst he did earlier on this season was being a little bitch and being insistent. Would i belive he'd probably not react well? Absolutely. Would he try getting back at Sky? Oh, definitely, that guy's not well adjusted. Would he try killing her? I don't think so. I don't know, Total Drama makes you do crazy shit.

But yeah, those last couple of episodes have made me realise exactly why i belive Pahkitew Island seems so hated (and by extension why World Tour is so well liked) and i think it's because of it's ending episodes. The season's peak is reached at Scarlett Fever, to the point every episode afterwards just felt way worse, both in terms of entertainment and writing. Coupled with challenges i wasn't very into, relationship conflict that wasn't very compelling to me and eliminations that weren't very convincing (episode 12 would've been so much more interesting if Sugar had gotten voted out an episode earlier. Even if i love her character!).

Frankly the attempted drama in the finale just reinforces that impression of it all being... Artificial. Not in a "The Island Is Mecanical" kind of way, in a "The Writers Are Just Forcing This Conflict" way. Like it doesn't feel like a thing the story needed, or a conflict that arose naturally from the characters' dynamics with eachother. idk.

Endings both have a huge impact on how people perceive media, as well as a lasting impression on it; it's the reason TV shows can go from dominating Pop Culture to being hated and subsequently forgotten about in a matter of weeks or months if they're lucky. Pahkitew Island is at it's funniest and most entertaining during the middle of the season and it's end arguably contains the weakest episodes out of the entire season. Contrast that with World Tour, which outside of G1 bias has it's better drama and episodes later on since all the characters it flanderized and assassinated aren't there anymore but shush As well as having good moments earlier on. Hell, if you ignore the final two minutes, World Tour can be argued to have one of the best finales and im only not saying it's the best one because both TDI and ROTI exist and have a better one. While Pahkitew Island probably has one of the worst ones. The show kinda just... Ends. Dave probably gets mauled by a robot bear and Sky, Shawn and Jasmine are off the Island and that's that.

That, coupled with the lack of character interactions is probably why people don't tend to talk about this season, which is a SHAME because it's a really fun season, with really fun characters and actually good ideas! It deserves to be explored more, appreciated more!

And with no transition at all, let's talk about my character opinions!

Dave is. Yeah, it's a whole thing. Him being more insistent in episode 9 on charming Sky at the start feels a bit forced? but it's probably because i thought the "bet you still wish i was your boyfriend" line came a little bit out of nowhere for me? Feels like it came from an earlier draft, or the writters of the episodes before it didn't keep track of where his relationship/opinion on Sky was. I do think him taking the rejection awfully and being really pathetic all episode is really funny however, and it makes skave more interesting by default to me, so it helps!

...Ok, fine, i'll talk about the finale. I'll elaborate on this in Sky's section, but it doesn't do Dave's character much favors. He feels a bit more pathetic in that episode before the existence of Sky's boyfriend is revealed, and then the whole reveal happens and... yeah. Dude seems happy by Sky possibly dying. Just feel like that's a little too far? Compared to how he was before? Idk.

I'll talk about Max first over Scarlett because i have way more to say about her than him. He's still funny. My earlier post on him is still right. His elimination is hot garbage btw, dude should've gotten kicked instead of Ella

Now, Scarlett's actually interesting, since we've gotten to the twist; i really like her in concept as a villain that is antagonistic out of a lack of morality and not just. Being a piece of shit. Then again, the whole evil vilain twist in Scarlett Fever kinda sorta entirely goes against this. Genuinely think that Max just made her fucking snap and she tried to blackmail Chris into getting the million herself because she couldn't fucking handle being around this guy. She hates him

Jasmine's fine. It's nice to see her get actual screentime, but wow she spends 90% of it glued to Shawn and it kinda sucks since i don't think i have a great grasp on her personality due to this. When i'll rewatch the season to take more precise notes i'll try to pay way more attention to her character i guess? Her clear trust issues should've been explored, just saying.

Sugar's GREAT. Seriously, she's my favorite part of the show post Scarlett Fever and it's not even close. She's genuinely funny! I love seeing her do her own thing and be a menace, it's great. The show's super mean to her about it? For some reason? I think the writters were trying to treat her like the main antagonist but she really doesn't read like one to me. Girlie deserved that spin off she mentions in episode 9. Or i guess she technically got it since she appears in Dramarama. Maybe i should watch the episodes she's in...

Shawn, like Jasmine, is kinda there for me. I do think creating conflict between these two is a good idea, but the writters just lean wayyyy too hard into the Zombie Apocalypse Nutjob aspect of his personality in episode 11 especially, it just flattens him and it's pretty sad since he's got some interesting things about him, and the way he tries to make it up to Jasmine both time they're in conflict is cute. Wish they actually communicated more tho

Finally, Sky. Oh Sky, how i wish they treated you better. Listen. In theory? I don't hate the idea of Sky having a boyfriend back home she wanted to break up with. Perfect way of adding drama to a character that didn't seem to have any. The problem is the everything with the finale. The writters make her seemingly lead Dave on during the final challenge and while she was probably going to come clean before Dave interrupts her again (which is actually a good way of showing they wouldn't work out due to him not putting in the effort of listening to her), i don't think her doing that at all would be in character. Her whole thing of good sportsmanship and winning without cheating feels off when contrasted with this. Also, girl should've really just said to Dave that she was planning to break up with her boyfriend and not to the confessional camera. Doubt that would've stopped Dave from freaking out, but at least she'll have tried i guess.

SO. I'LL ASK AGAIN: DOES PAHKITEW ISLAND DESERVE THE HATE?

NO. No it doesn't.

I'd even consider it the most underrated season of Total Drama! It just... really got fucked over by circomstances and things out of it's control. This season was written at the same time as All Stars, by like 4 writers, with a whole new cast to flesh out and only 13 episodes to do so and seemingly less ideas. You can tell that by the end, the writers really didn't care and just wanted this shit to end - the final three episodes feel like first drafts, even moreso than the earlier episodes did. And it sucks! It sucks because this season had a whole lot of potential, and it either got wasted or crapped on by the fandom at large!

I just... I wish this season got treated better, is all.