Reviews

Release Date: 06/01/2024 (American Release)

Date of Review: 08/31/2024

Rating:

-Disclaimer-

This show has been out since last April when it was first aired in Italy and there was the English dub that was leaked from on the Italian version of Discovery+, which then went to the pirating sites. Because of that, most of the fandom has already seen both this and Part 2 of Total Drama Island (2023). However, it wasn't until this summer when Cartoon Network FINALLY aired season 7 (or 6a as it's actually a full 26 episode, 6th season; but the season is split into 2 parts) in America and just last week, aired the season finale!

At first, I tried to wait for the new episodes when it aired…but after seeing the 1st episode live, I couldn’t wait any longer! So I end up sailing the seven seas and watched the rest of the season (and Part 2) from there! Despite that, I still end up watching it live when I can so that I can legally support the show. So this review is for those who decided to wait and watch the show legally AND (at the same time) avoid getting spoiled on the Internet (God bless your souls!) in the past year since it’s been out!

So major spoilers for those who HAVEN’T seen this show as I’ll mention stuff from both this and the past seasons of Total Drama! And that this review might be a bit longer than the previous one on this page (Sorry…).

So for those who visited my website from June 1st up to now, noticed that it haven’t been getting major updates lately. That’s because this show came on AND brought back my Total Drama special interest after an 8 YEAR HIATUS (which I mention in one of my blogs)!!! Thanks to the new season, my mind has been thinking nonstop about this show and the characters, which kept me from doing things I want to do here! Now that the show is finally over, I can (hopefully) resume making updates for this site, which include making a review for this show!

As I mention in the blog above, Total Drama has been my special interest since I was 12 years old and it got me through my teen years and the first half of university before it got cancelled in 2015 and I had to move on to another fandom. When the show was greenlight for a 6th season in early 2021, I was surprised that Cartoon Network and HBO Max would bring the show back! Of course I was happy it was coming back but at the same time, I was cautious since reboots and revivals tend to be a mixed bag and I fear that it was going to be as bad like the last 2 seasons (aka season 5a and 5b), which basically got the show cancelled in the first place!

But when the show was leaked last year, many who saw Part 1 said that it was one of the best seasons since SEASON 1 (Total Drama Island [2007]), which is a big deal! After hearing that, I wasn’t worried about the new season being terrible anymore, but I decided to wait until it officially air in America, thinking it won’t be that long.

It didn’t and I had to wait a YEAR thanks to scheduling conflicts on Cartoon Network’s side! So now, we’re the last country to see the new season (which wasn’t the first time this happened…)!

But anyways, the main theme of season 7/6a is that Camp Wawanakwa and the infamous island has somehow came back after getting sunk at the end of season 5/5a (All Stars) and that it’s been 15 years since the 1st season aired. Now there 16 new contestants, who come to the island to compete for a million dollars. Where there will be alliances, rivals, romances, backstabbing, shenanigans and of course, drama!

When I saw the first episode, I had mixed reactions due to it having a slow start, had ton of immature jokes (as the show’s main target audiences are preteens) and that some of the contestants were saying slang and terms that I don’t understand (I’m in my late 20s’). Thankfully, it was around episode 2 is where I think the show started to pick up the pace.

Overall, I think the season was mostly good (expect for episode 5 that is…) and the finale didn’t suck for once! Like the writing was better, the voting is more strategic and the cast (aka the 4th generation) was more grounded compared to the 2nd and 3rd generation. It’s like the writers’ fixed most of the problems that the last 2 seasons (All Stars and Pahkitew Island) had!

One of the unique things about the 4th generation that I noticed is that they’re more diverse. Like the show had plenty of POC (people of color) since season 1; it’s just this group has more of them. And as a half black woman, that’s not a bad thing to have!

Another thing about this generation is that they have a gay couple! Yes, prior to the new season, Total Drama wasn’t allow to have gay couples in the show! It was probably to not anger the conservatives when Fresh TV (the show’s studio) tried to ship the show outside of Canada (their home country) in the late 2000s’. Despite that, it didn’t stop fans from shipping same-sex couples. So when the fans heard that the new season will have an actual gay couple, they freaked out and start making predictions on who might be that couple!

Of course, there’s a chance that the new couple might be poorly written, which will anger the fandom. But thankfully, they didn’t and instead we have one of the best romantic relationships that this show had in a long time.

Like, I was kind of surprised that it was one of the hockey dudebros Raj, who fell for the outgoing and flamboyant Bowie. That’s because I saw the promotional materials and some of the leaked images of the 1st episode in late 2022, where Bowie was crushing hard on the handsome Caleb along with some of the girls. It was probably why he became the first contestant voted off the island because Bowie knew that he would be both a threat AND a distraction to him (and that he hoped to gain an alliance with Emma, who was in the bottom 2 with Caleb after performing poorly in the first challenge)!

But they did and it was beautiful. I liked their interactions in episode 3 that kicked off their relationship. When Bowie saved Raj from a rolling boulder (and landed on top of him) in episode 4, it was that moment Raj started questioning his orientation in the confessional booth (which is the infamous outhouse), which was thoughtful of them to show that. Then when Raj blushed at Bowie in towards the end of episode 5, my heart feels warm and fuzzy inside, hoping that they’ll become a couple.

But when Bowie saved Raj again, this time from the tapioca shark (just trust me on this one) in episode 6, it was where the two had their first kiss! When I saw it, I squeal and start stimming like crazy, as I was happy to see that not only history was made on the show, but that they actually got together! I remember how far along this show has come where Noah accidently kissing Cody’s ear in his sleep in season 1, episode 3, was the closest same-sex kiss that the show would allow at the time (and made a bunch of young fans, gay fans overnight)! And funny thing is prior to this season; I didn’t care for gay shippings (male x male that is) in any media form! But after that episode, I do now and hope that they remain a couple when they come back in the future seasons!

Then another thing I like about all this is that Raj’s best friend, Wayne (the other hockey dudebro on this show) was 100% supportive of their relationship! And he rather wait for Raj to come out the closet, while at the same time give him hints that Raj could tell him whenever he wanted! I found that sweet and caring of Wayne to do that and it’s one of the reasons why he and Raj are my favorite characters this season. Oh and yes, Wayne saw Raj and Bowie kissed in episode 6, which got him excited for them! Raj eventually come out to Wayne in episode 7…as the two fell off a cliff during a dangerous challenge (and had to be medically evacuated as they were too injured to continue because of it)!

The other thing about this generation is that one of them is an amputee! When I first heard about this, I joked to myself that this was the show’s way of apologizing for what they did to Mike and his Dissociative identity disorder (or Multiple personality disorder as everyone [and the show] used to called it back then) at the end of All Stars (it was really bad). Just like with the gay shippings, it’s not too common for fans to have head canons and write fanfics of contestants losing limbs for several reasons in order to make them sympathetic. Also like with the gay shipping, people start making predictions on who might be the amputee, this time is based on the clothes they’re wearing (I’ll give you hint, long sleeve shirts and pants)!

So everyone was shocked to see that it was the laidback, soda loving Zee, who was the series’ amputee! Now this one I remember getting spoiled because I was browsing on the TV Tropes forum page for the show when the leaks came out last year (big mistake…) and saw someone mentioning him being one there! Man, I got to stop doing that! But what I didn’t get spoiled is on how we found out that he’s the amputee.

It was towards the end of episode 2 when Zee was swimming to shore after he caused his team to lose their first challenge (He sunk the ship instead of ramming it to the other team’s ship.), when a shark came behind him and attack him! Now it’s common for the animals on this show to be dangerous and deadly. But when Zee made back to shore and tried to shoo the shark away, it instead tore off his lower left leg OFF!!! That was when his teammates start to freak the fuck out of what happened (expect for the host, who knows about his condition beforehand and know this would give the show ratings)! I was shocked too as it was one of the most graphic thing I saw on Total Drama and I‘ve been watching this show since day 1!

Then everyone found out that Zee was taking this…pretty calmly as the only thing he’s upset is that the shark took his favorite leg and it’s never coming back. Then the shark realized that he couldn’t eat Zee’s leg because it was a removable, metal prosthesis leg! So it ends up spitting it out. Afterwards, he puts it back on as there’s no problem at all! Well, that’s one way of telling the world that you have one leg.

But if anyone wonders what happened to Zee’s left leg, it turns out that he was actually born WITHOUT one (aww…..)! Later on in the confessional booth, Zee explains that he thinks he won’t be voted off just yet because he believes that his team wants to know what happen to his leg. He got spared, thankfully. But now he’s now wearing shorts that show off his prosthetic leg, mainly because he brought the only pair of pants on the show and it now got ruined by that shark.

It was thanks to the shark scene, which not only got me interested in the new season but it also brought BACK my Total Drama special interest (how cruel am I)! Funny thing is that prior to that episode, I was kind of "meh" on the new season and the new cast thanks to the first episode. Good thing I decided to not ditch the show just yet. And yes it was because of that scene (along with Zee being pretty funny and friendly); he later became one of my favorite characters along with Raj and Wayne for this season!

But this won’t be the last time we see Zee do some cool tricks with his prosthetic leg. In episode 5, he had to give up his leg to a dinosaur (just trust me on this, once again); had to hop to the finish line with one leg and was kind of cool about it (which I kind of find it funny)! At least he brought a spare with him in case of emergencies.

Then in episode 6, he and Julia were flying towards the 10,000 point target, but they were falling down. So what they did is drop extra weight on them (Zee drank his last soda can and Julia dropped her multiple smartphones). But it wasn’t enough, so Zee decided to do the unthinkable: he took off his prosthetic leg! Doing that actually causes him to ascend HIGHER, goes a hallucinogenic trip after getting struck by lightning and successfully landed at the 10,000 point target, which help his team win the challenge! Now that was cool!

Now I can’t mention this season without talking about…

…Yup, Scary Girl.

When the character sheet for the 4th generation cast was published online in late 2022, she immediately became a fan favorite due to her design! There were ton of fan arts of her and it was all before the new season even aired! It also helped that she reminded fans of Harley Quinn and the other crazy fan favorite character from the 1st generation of Total Drama: Izzy!

Her personality is that she’s a sadistic and psychotic girl who likes death, makes people suffer with glee and horror and loves the sound of screaming from others. Examples of this include in episode 2, where Scary Girl laughed when the host mention the word “blood”, which manage to freak out the contestants. Then in episode 3, she sang a song about hiding a dead body in the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” (I found that funny) and in episode 4, she chased the opposing team (and one of her own teammates) with a jackhammer that was accidently left behind!

But there’s a catch: she’s a gimmick character, who thought that they were in anything other than a reality show. And if anyone saw Pahkitew Island, know there were full of them! I think her appearance serve as a deconstructed character archetype of that season. Because of that, Scary Girl was quickly voted off the island at the end of episode 4 because she stopped being useful in the challenges (She nearly killed one of her teammates with the jackhammer!) and due to her disturbing behavior.

Then I saw that some fans on the Internet were actually UPSET that Scary Girl was eliminated over the Alpha Male wannabe Ripper in that episode; compared to 10 years ago, where they’ll been HAPPY that one of the gimmick characters is gone! Welp, you can’t win them all. At least she brought some comedic relief on this show when she was around!

However, one of my biggest complaints I have with this season is the immature jokes. Anyone who watches this show before knows this is common as the show's main target audiences are kids and preteens. And everyone knows how much they love toilet humor! /s It was one of the reasons why I didn't like the first episode that much. Then episode 5 came around, which many said it was the worst due to how much toilet humor is there!

Like the episode was nothing but farts and dinosaurs! No joke. That's mainly because the challenge of the episode is that the contestants must make it to the other side of the island, while getting chased by dinosaurs (that somehow came back). And while they were farting because they ate baked beans for breakfast beforehand. You can see why many older viewers found that episode annoying and lame.

But the one of the few things that came from that episode (beside Zee giving up his leg and having to hop on one leg to the finish line and Raj blushing at Bowie near the end) is that one of the big bad of this season, Julia reveal her true nature after acting nice for most up to this episode. And it was because someone (the sneaky and scheming MK) recorded her yelling at one of the dinosaurs and posted it on one of her social media account, which then cause her to lose followers! Not surprisingly, Julia got mad when she found out about the recoding and by the end of the episode, she swore on for revenge on who posted it!

Then there’s another thing I didn’t like about this season is that it got a bit too real with the failed relationship of Chase and Emma. They were the parody of the toxic e-celebrity couples that nobody likes and the drama that came with it (which was one of the main reasons why the show's production picked them!). Seeing that while Emma is still mad over how they broke up (he cut her breaks on her car and made her crash into a pet store) and wanted payback for what he did to her; but at the same time, she wants him back by changing him for the better (when in reality, he won't), distrubs me. Because of her mixed feelings of wanting to go back with Chase, everyone in the show tells her that he's a lost cost and she needs to move on.

But their warnings failed Emma as she end up back with her ex, which made many in the show (which include the HOST of all things) lose respect for her! Even her former friend, Bowie ditched her after she got back with Chase! To make matter worst, she's the one who told him about her failed relationship with her ex in the first episode! Then in episode 2 onwards, she and Bowie formed an alliance where they end up trying to hurt her ex as much as they can during the challenge. But by episode 11, Emma ended their alliance after finding out that Bowie voted her boyfriend off (from the last episode), behind her back and it wasn't for the game either! It was because she got back with Chase, knowing how terrible he is to her and it disguised him!

Let's just say that what happened to their alliance in episode 11, might've hit a bit too close for some as that how some of their friendships ended in real life. Mainly because their ex-friend got back with their ex, when their friends warns them not to do for good reasons! Of course, there's a chance that this will end badly for nearly everyone involved in this. You might even know someone who did something like that! Then you wonder why I'm too scared to get into a relationship...

And one last thing: this season’s theme song sucks!!! Like they use the word “slay” in the song; even the target audience cringes when someone try to use the word to make them sound cool and hip! Also, 3 contestants were missing from the title sequences for some reason, which was pretty annoying. At least it was "better" than the last two seasons’ theme songs as they basically cut the theme song (that they used for the first 4 season) in HALF and sped it to the end!

On a brighter note, there was the finale, which many can say that it was one of the better finales they seen on Total Drama in a long time. Instead of being the final 2, it's the final 3 because there's more people in the show. So the final 3 is the dashing Bowie (whose actually the big bad!), who used his skills and talents to make it this far and caused several more eliminations. Which include his rival (and the other big bad) Julia, in one of the biggest backstabs in the show's history!

Priya, whose parents were mega Total Drama fans and has been training her for the show from the moment she was BORN! Like no joke. Her audience tape had her bungie jump: from her own umbilical cord!!!

And Millie, who only came to the show to research and write a book about the failure of her generation (which she later cancelled her book plans after becoming good friends with Priya). And that she only made this far because Priya literally carried her. And now Priya hates her because she read her notebook (which was hand wrapped in a gift box by Bowie in order to prevent the two from ganging up on him in the finale), where Millie wrote negative things about the others, Priya's parents and her own life! And now she swears vengeance on Millie and will do anything to take her down! Oops.

But that's not all, for the first time since the season 4 (Revenge of the Island) finale...

...all the eliminated contestants came BACK! This part the fans loved as this was one of the biggest complaints they had with the last 2 seasons as only a few of the eliminated contestants of those seasons, came back in the finale and it sucked! Seeing Raj waving at Bowie when they walked up to the stands at the beginning of the finale, made me smile. While the final 3 had helpers (just like with the finalists had in the last 2 seasons), they only help to the first part only and not have them complete for the million dollars along with them (which also happened in the last 2 seasons), which solved another problem that the later season finales had, as doing that will ruin the flow of the finale.

Then at the end, it was Priya who won the million dollars after reaching the finish line from down the mountain in an inflatable bubble (that was covered in white puke), which caused Bowie to be placed in 2nd. As for Millie, she was placed in 3rd after being the last one to reach the finish line on the raft down on the LAVA! But the plus side is that she and Priya became friends again after apologizing for writing those mean things about her and the others in her notebook as it she’s been using her writing to mask up her own insecurities (aww…..). Thus, they were one of the few friendships that was saved on this show. Especially what happened with Emma and Bowie‘s friendship in episode 11.

Afterwards, there was the final bonfire ceremony, where not only Priya gets the final marshmallow and the money; the host announced that EVERYONE can come back for another season for a rematch, which made everyone happy and they proceed to have a dance party!

I love this scene because this was one of the few Total Drama finales, where everyone leaves the competition happy and not the cruel finales that the last 2 seasons had!

At the end, I’m happy that Total Drama came back and became my special interest again after an 8 year break thanks to the new season. I’m also glad that the show came as sort of a distraction due to current events that has happened in the past two months, which nearly cause me to have a meltdown! But now, the show is done for the rest of the year and I have to go back seeing the world burn and hope to God, that my country doesn’t have a civil war due to the upcoming presidential election!

Even then, the new season manage brought back memories of my teenage years enjoying (most of) the Total Drama series and some of my happier moments of my life. At least this season made my summer, WAY BETTER than it did in the last few years!

Now, it's time for me to wait for Part 2 (or season 8/6b) to legally air on Cartoon Network NEXT YEAR (even thought I have already seen it...)!!!

Release Date: 05/12/2023

Date of Review: 07/27/2024

Rating:

-Disclaimer-

This is a rewritten version of my review that I wrote on my Tumblr page last year. This version here changed a few things from the original post such as fixing spelling and grammar errors, adding actual complaints about the game, getting rid of a few paragrpahs that didn't fit in with review and even combine a few paragraphs. The reason why I decided to post a year old review of this is to test how the review page would work.

When I first saw the trailer of this game back at the 2019 E3 Nintendo Direct, I immediately fell in love with it. It was back when it used to be called Breath of the Wild 2. I loved the first game, Breath of the Wild when it came out in 2017 and was in everyone's "Game of the Year" lists. It was on mine's too...even though it took me a year to actually beat the first game thanks to school, having a part-time and transferring to another school (long story...)! And I played the WiiU version (yes, there's a WiiU version) of the game that my mom bought me, where it sometimes run slow because of the graphics.

Despite the one year delay, I enjoyed Breath of the Wild even thought there were a few complaints in the game such as the weapon durability, where the weapon break after using it too much. That the rain that kept Link from climbing further before falling to his death. There were no dungeons, which everyone agreed. The story was kinda not there. And the lackluster final boss of Calamity Ganon (is the horse really necessary to beat him?).

So when the trailer of the sequel was announced, I figured it was going to fix some of the problems that the first game and it was going to be great when it comes out next year!

Then after E3 announcement, we never heard about the game from Nintendo ever again. Then it got delayed in 2020. And again. And again, once more in 2021. At that point, people feared it's going to end up like Metroid Prime 4, where it keeps getting delayed for various reasons and that it won't make to the Switch as there will be a new Nintendo console at that point.

Then during Nintendo Direct in September 2022, they finally announced that the game is still alive, which took everyone by surprise! It showed new content such as Link exploring Hyrule both on land and in the sky, which got everyone real excited that the game isn't dead...expect for the Brits.

The poor Brits. The announcement came at a bad time for them as the Direct took a few days after their old Queen finally died and Nintendo didn't want to upset the mourning country. So, they have to wait until after the Queen's funeral for Nintendo Direct to be release there. Then it didn't help that they changed the name to Tears of the Kingdom, which might be too soon for them.

But on the plus side is that Nintendo finally announced the release date of May 12th, 2023, which was enough to keep the fandom happy and busy for a while!

Three months before Tears of the Kingdom came out, the February Nintendo Direct came out and it showed another trailer of the game, which got everyone excited! But then people started complaining that the trailer was too short (it was 10 minutes long) and that the game is going to cost $70, which made some mad as they accuse Nintendo for being greedy.

One month later, there was another 10 minute gameplay of Tears of the Kingdom, where it was Link exploring the staring area in the sky. There were mixed reactions over the video as some were impress, while others complained it didn't show enough and which then led to some to believe that the game is "$70 DLC" that the developers forgot to add in Breath of the Wild.

Then a few weeks later, there was one more trailer for Tears of the Kingdom, where it showed a bunch of things that wasn't seen in the previous trailers. Such as there's now people who will fight alongside Link. That handmade contraption can be used in combat. The story sounds exciting and Ganondorf finally make an appearance as the big bad of the game! It was after that trailer, the people who think that Tears of the Kingdom is a $70 DLC got real quiet and that people are definitely buying the game now!

And wow, the game is an improvement compared to the first game! Characters are now interacting outside of villages. There's mini dungeons that are caves and wells (which fixed one of the biggest issues from the first one). There are now a way to climb on walls when it's raining. You finally found a way to deal with weapon degradation! You can now store recipes, which encourage you to make all the recipes. One of my favorite recipes that they add in this game is a pizza. Yes, there's pizza in Hyrule and its awesome!!

Of course, the game still have issues like weapon durability and graphic performance issues on the 6 year old Switch. Then one of the biggest issue that people have with this game that it reused the map from the first game and it felt empty. The Sky island and depths were stale and boring. Despite everyone liking the story when it first announced, it's not really there. People are getting sick and tired of having Link rescue Zelda for a billionth time and thought she was a playable character in this game. That 2019 E3 trailer had lied to us! Then that it's another open world game, which turned off some people because they're getting sick and tired of it and want to go back to a traditional Legend of Zelda game, where the game is linear.

Because of above and that it's been 3 months since Tears of the Kingdom came out, you can say that the game has been somewhat overhyped to the point that people rather replay Ocarina of Time than play Tears of the Kingdom! That made me sad as I thought it made some improvements on my part. I understand why thought. Oh well.

But at the end of the day, I think it was a good game and I'm sad that I'll never get to play it for the first time again. Even though not many people liked it at the end, I still end up putting it in my "Game of the Year" list for 2023. Maybe it'll stay in the top until Super Mario RPG comes out in November. (Spoiler alert: that game was actually better than Tears of the Kingdom and made it #1 on my "Game of the Year"! It was because the ending made me emotional.)