🢐 Next Post | Back | Previous Post 🢒

07/08/2024: So, One of My Special Interest Came Back. Here’s How That Been Going

(Warning: This blog is very, very long as it mentions me raving about my love, my history and spoilers from the various seasons of Total Drama. It also gets sad at the end where I mention current events, Trump, politics, swearing and depression. Please take care before reading on.)

As some might say said, hobbies and interests come and go when we grow up. There are good reasons they tend to leave us. But even then, it sometimes come back to you when you least expect it. That was me when I found out that one of my favorite show/special interest (since I’m autistic) Total Drama, (a Canadian animated parody of Survivor and various teen stereotypes) was coming back for a full 26 episode, 6th season (or a 7th & 8th season for some countries, which I’ll call the latter by for make things simple on this blog) in January 2021. I was living in Germany with my mom at the time when I saw an article on Twitter (before it went downward) that Cartoon Network and HBO Max greenlighted the show.

When I found out it was coming back, I got real excited as this show got me through most of middle school, all of high school and the first 2 years of university and that it’s finally coming back after years of demand from the online fanbase (which surprisingly remained active after the series got cancelled in 2015)!

That I kind of “called it” that it was coming back as this is the 2020s and everything from 20 years ago (aka the 2000s’) is now cool and hip again as Hollywood started rebooting movies, TV shows and reality shows from that era. Total Drama first aired in 2007, back when reality shows were at their high peak. So, it made sense to bring the show that was a parody of reality shows back.

And that I was nervous. Nervous that the new season might suck as that what led to the downfall of the show when All Stars aired in fall of 2013; while Pahkietw Island (which aired 7 months later) was an improvement of All Stars, but not by much.

Not even the highly praised spinoff show that aired a year later, The Ridonculous Race, can save the franchise from dying. At that time, many said that it came too little too late as the show’s target audiences (preteens) rather watch various streaming sites such as YouTube and Netflix instead watching cable TV (as this was around the time people start cancelling cable in order to save money thanks to said streaming).

Then there was Teen Titans Go! (the show that older viewers despite), who was hogging airtime due to being the one of the few shows to get good ratings on the channel during this time. So any show that wasn’t Teen Titans Go!, was canned for failing to please both the rating gods and the higher ups of Cartoon Network. It was thanks to that, Total Drama became one of the many that got canned and I think the older fanbase (who stuck out to the very end) never forgive the former for taking out their show.

I know it took me a few months after the end of The Ridonculous Race to accept that the series wasn’t coming back and that I need to move on. And that what I did in early 2016 as I got into the Ace Attorney series. But it wasn’t until the end of that year when I got hooked into the Danagronpa series as I noticed a few similarities between that and Total Drama, which is ironic as the series never aired in Japan for some reason. It was Danagronpa that got me thought the last 3 years of university and the first year of my post-grad life before getting into the Danagronpa Another series and eventually my Everlasting series (which I still haven’t resume posting pages due to burnout).

Even if I ditched the Total Drama series, I still think fondly of the show even though the later seasons has ruined the show’s reputation and how I end up stumbling on the show in the first place.

…

It was May 2008. I was staying at my former baby sitter’s house for a weekend sleepover when I was watching Cartoon Network in her master bedroom. The channel just enter in its’ first Dark Age due to the Writer’s Strike, the Recession and dealing with the fallout from a failed adverting stunt for one of Adult Swim’s show, that result a lawsuit and the CEO of Cartoon Network to resign. Because of those 3 things, the channel had to cancel a lot of their shows and limit making new ones which made 2009, one of the few years where no new original series premiered on the channel.

This was also around the same time where the channel thought it was a GREAT idea to make and air live action shows. On a channel that is called CARTOON NETWORK! You can see why many older viewers fled the channel at the time. For me, I knew that the channel was making questionable things, but still end up watching them anyways as I was a CN fan growing up and loved some of their shows that they aired. At least I wasn’t on the forums when all this happened, as it was for the best of my mental health.

As for what I saw on her TV took me by surprised. It was during a commercial break when I saw the trailer for the 1st season of Total Drama (which was called Total Drama Island [2007]) as it came out of the blue for no reason. But what the thing I saw on the trailer was not the show itself, but the rating. It was PG-DSV, something that only movies on the channel have (minus the S that is…)! This got me scared as Cartoon Network never aired something like this before as I thought this was their attempt to win back the older viewers by airing edgy shows. And because of this, it won’t long until they start airing reruns of Family Guy on the channel!

Uh…they already air reruns of Family Guy. On ADULT SWIM (the night block for adults that shares the channel with Cartoon Network)!

Oh.

You can see I was an anxious child back then thanks to having autism as I don’t like big changes and seeing that the channel that I grew up with, was starting air PG rated stuff that wasn’t movies, made me scared. Of course, sometimes changes are good and you need to expect that. Then there a fact that in order to comfort your fears, you have to step out of your comfort bubble to make it work.

And that what I did a few weeks later as it summer break just started. I was in the computer room at my childhood home in Ohio. The show recently aired the first two episodes and Cartoon Network was airing reruns as it sounds like the show did well in ratings. I missed out the series premiere as it aired during my bedtime as the next day was the last day of school and I didn’t want to get in trouble for not going to bed on time.

So I watched the first two episodes and I didn’t like it. It was “eh” to me as there were too many characters to follow and some of them rubbed me the wrong way. There was one scene in the 1st episode looked like it was poorly edited (it was as I found out a few years later). Then there was the first contestant who was eliminated in the 2nd episode for being sexist (which was actually foreshadowed, which I didn’t see at the time). I wasn’t feeling it and thought about giving it one more chance with the 3rd episode, which I can watch since I have no bedtime during summer break.

Thankfully, it was the 3rd episode is when I got hooked to the series. It made want to see more of the show. Get the effort to remember the contestants’ names and wondered how long they’re going to last, etc. While the episode helped me get over the “weirded out” phase whenever you get into something new; but at the same time, I didn’t want my mom to know about me watching this as she think this might be a bit “too mature” for me, even though the show’s target audience was preteens, (which was me since I was 12 years old). Once again, I blame autism and anxiety for thinking that. So for the next 3 weeks, I had to watch the new episodes in the computer room since it was the only place I can watch it without fear (and that it has a lock).

Then my mom sends me and my oldest niece to stay with one of my aunts (who I never met before) in Texas for the rest of summer break as she wanted to use this time to complete her chemotherapy for thyroid cancer (which she thankfully beat) and go on vacation in the Bahamas. It was where I watched the next 4 episodes while having to deal with my aunt who never cooked and then later forced me to go to a day school after not liking me do nothing around the house and sleeping in all day! While all that is going on, the 9th episode became my favorite as I remember that episode for how messed up one of the contestants was at the end (and that I feel bad for him after he was eliminated because of said incident).

Thankfully after the 11th episode aired, mom finally came back and took me and my niece home for the last week of summer break. Then school started and I have to go back to bed at 9pm again. So I have to rely on the reruns that aired on the weekend. This was at that time the 13th episode aired, where that very infamous scene aired.

You know that scene.

The scene that got praised on the Internet to show that Cartoon Network wasn’t just for kids, it was for everyone! It was that scene, which became one of the show’s main highlights! And that was one of the few times that female nudity was shown on a children’s show! Something that nobody (not even the show themselves) would ever did again, for obvious reasons. When I saw that episode, I got scared as this would be the thing that would anger parent groups as this was the type of stuff that they don’t want their children to see! Of course, I didn’t hear anything about that in the news. So, this was my anxiety playing games with my brain once more.

Even then, I continued to watch reruns of the show on the weekends up until the very end of the season, where the show’s “mascot”, won the 1st season. What I didn’t know at the time is that you can actually vote to see who wins in the finale. Something I didn’t do as I haven’t been on Cartoon Network’s website since 2006/07-ish.

Then right before the finale, I had dream about the “2nd season” where there were new contestants and it took place in an abandoned frontier town in the desert (even though the show is Canadian...). Funny thing about that dream that the 2nd season did have one episode that was Western themed…that’s because season 2, (Action) was a movie based on as it brought back 14 (later 15) contestants. Of course you have to watch the “true” finale where, now the contestants fought to get a million dollars, instead of $100,000 that was given in the first season and somehow lost said million dollars in the lake at the end.

I know people has mixed feelings over that hour long finale, where they thought the original ending was a good way to wrap up the show and thinks that the true finale threw it all away for no reason. I think the reason why that episode exists is because of the show’s popularity back in its home country (when it first aired in 2007, mind you) and that the channel that it aired, Teletoon (aka the Canadian version of Cartoon Network), renewed the show for a 2nd season as the show made them money, ratings and want more of it.

Of course, the show made Cartoon Network money and ratings too, so they allowed the 2nd season to air on their channel in June 2009. Sadly, two weeks before the season premiere of Action, my family moved to Germany and the show never aired there (well I think it didn’t). So I was forced to miss the both season 2 AND later season 3 (World Tour). And for those who asked, I didn’t know about pirating the show at the time and still relay on what’s being aired on TV.

While living in Germany at the time, my family watched the British version of Sky satellite as mom doesn’t want me and my oldest niece to be tortured by watching the terrible ads that AFN cable was infamously known for. But I later found out, the British Sky did aired Total Drama! Too bad it was a heavily censored version of the show where they skipped a few episodes in order to not offend their viewers. I found that ironic as the United Kingdom is home for some of the biggest reality shows and they couldn’t stomach a parody version of it! Well, it doesn’t help that said parody was targeted for children and preteens and that they don’t like toilet humor (which the show is notorious for). And it aired Disney XD for some reason too.

But it didn’t stop me from watching the episodes as much as I can when they aired them. Then in May 2011, my patience has been rewarded by finally airing the 2nd season…just for them to censor and skip some of the episodes, once more! I was livid over seeing that! But that wasn’t one of the only problems that I had with that.

It turns out the 2nd season wasn’t that good due to the pacing and the writing. And that the season 2 finale was very boring and one of the more “alright” contestants (in my mind) won that season. But some of the good things that came out of that the season was the strong characterization of some of the contestants and that some of them who were eliminated early in the 1st season, made it a bit farther in the 2nd season. As the results, Action basically suffered from a sophomore slump after having a good 1st season. But it didn’t stop the network from renewing it for a 3rd season since it gave them good ratings and money from the ads.

Knowing that season 3 won’t be airing in the British version of Disney XD anytime soon (they actually cancelled it instead!), I decided to not only watch the 3rd season on YouTube during summer break, but also watched the skipped episodes as well. This was around the time copyrights weren’t strict on the site and there used to be 11 minute limits on each video. So in order to watch just one episode, you had to watch 3 videos of said episode and hope to God that you don’t watch the wrong video where you might accidently spoiled on who was eliminated in the previous episode or the plot itself!

However thanks to my autism and anxiety, I only allowed myself to watch 15 videos (which is 3 episodes) per day, on a weekday as it was the only time I was alone at home as my old bedroom in Germany didn’t have a lock and I was worried that my niece might walk in on me and tell on me for watching a pirated content from the Internet! Thanks to all that, it took me at least 3 weeks to watch the 3rd season and boy, I have some words about that season!

The theme of World Tour was there were 17 (later 18) contestants, who most competed in the previous season and the rest of didn’t, was now there. Now there were three new contestants that joined the show and one of them was the big bad of the season that was actually a threat and well written too! The season has the group go around the world and do challenges. So basically it was a parody of Amazing Race, right? Well… not really as there was one catch: somewhere in the episode, they had to sing! Yup, they had to stop what they doing a sing a song that is related to what they’re doing or risk getting kicked off by the host, just because he can.

When I saw the first episode, I wondered why they would do that. Was it because they want to compete against Glee, the musical teen dramedy that was a huge hit at the time? Nah, I doubt that as Glee is WAY different than Total Drama and instead, this was me thinking weird things again because of my autism. Well, at least the songs they sang were catchy and at one point, did an ABBA tribute as the episode took place in Sweden and some wore the colorful jumpsuits that the group was known for! Now, that was funny!

For the season in general, the first half was good as many were happy that some of the fan favorite characters who didn’t compete in season 2, did this season. But then episode 13 happens. One of the fan favorite contestants was eliminated and after that, one of the most notorious love triangles in the entire series took place when one contestant (who was dating someone else) kissed another contestant in the confession booth (which was actually the lavatory as they were on an airplane when it happens). This then started a 3 year shipping war between the two couples to see which one was better.

I remembered hating the new couple as I prefer the original couple for numerous reasons. I even remember making Sims espy version of the original couple in my Sims 3 file and everything! But as I got older, I realized that the original couple wasn’t as good I thought they would be as their ship was kind of toxic due to how abusive the person who got cheated on was to the cheater. Then at one point in the show, she even wanted to change the cheater’s personality and appearances, which he refused. So, some said it was justified on why he decided to cheat on her. I feel like this was the show’s poor way in telling the young viewers that teen romance won’t last forever, even if means cheating on your lover!

After the shocking ending, I think this was when World Tour went downward thanks to the love triangle that took over most the plot for the rest of the season. Then the finale came and it was the big bad of season 3 against the former big bad of season 1 and in the American version, we have our first female winner! Then the season ended with the volcano exploding (since it took place in Hawaii), which burned the million dollars (oops), caused everyone to flee to the ocean and to swim away before the host announced that the contestants “15 minutes of fame” are up and is thinking about replacing them in the next season.

When I saw that, I was “Cool, we finally get new contestants at long last!” Now while I hold the 1st generation dear to my heart just like the rest of the fandom, I feel like it’s nice to shake things up once in a while. Thankfully both Cartoon Network and Teletoon renewed the show for the 4th season and I thought to myself, I finished season 3 at a perfect timing (since the 3rd season aired the last episode in late 2010) and that it won’t be for long until the season 4 premiere as it’ll air in July 2011, right?

Nope. I actually had to wait until 2012 for the 4th season (Revenge of the Island) to aired! Why? That’s because while it took place back on the island, it’s now full of toxic waste as the host sold the place to a toxic waste company and decided that he wants it back. Thanks to chemical waste, all the flora & fauna on the island became dangerous and scary for anyone who stepped on the island!

But a few months before the 4th season was supposed to premiere, there was an earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which then caused a nuclear disaster to happen and forced hundreds of thousands of residents to be evacuated for safety reasons.

While the show never aired in Japan, the creators know that some of their fans might know someone who does live there and worried that they might offend them because of the theme of season 4! As the result, they had to rewrite most of the season out of respect for the victims and their families by get rid of the more offending parts. Sadly, I didn’t know that at the time, but I decided that I was good with seeing the first 3 seasons for now and decided go to other things for the rest of summer break before I went back to school in August.

Then when season 4 finally come out, it end up airing in Canada…6 months before it aired in America (as it aired in June 2012), which made me mad! But I got over it real quickly and instead watch the pirated bootlegs on YouTube, like I did before. However, the copyrights were starting to get strict this time around and started deleting videos of the new episodes. Because of that, some of the newer episodes that I saw on YouTube was either in black and white, mirrored, high pitched or even speed up in to keep the copyrights off their backs! Well, at least it’s better than nothing.

As for the 4th season, the episodes were reduced from 26 to 13 episodes for some reason. I think budget cuts are the main reason. As the result, the show had to rush the plot in order to get to the end, which was everyone’s biggest complain about that season. And that the new 13 contestants (aka the 2nd generation) were weaker than the 1st generation.

But despite that, I liked the 2nd generation as much I did with the 1st generation. Don’t know why thought. I think because some of them have good chemistry with each other. It was that season where I have my first non-canon ship. And it was around the same time, I discovered fanfics and remembered staying up all night reading fanfics on my favor ship and the rest on Fanfiction.net on my iPhone 4, which I mention on one of my blogs!

But I didn’t like the finale though, that idiot jock won that season and America was one of the few countries to vote for his version! Even if Revenge of the Island got mixed-to-positive reviews from fans and the critics, the show got renewed for a 5th season, which it aired in the fall of 2013.

And this is where the problems started.

The 5th season (or season 5a as the season was a 26 episode order from the network), was known as All Stars. The theme of that season is 13 contestants from the first 2 generations, head back to the island to compete for a million dollars. So it’s basically the all-stars season that competitive reality shows like to do every few years for both the ratings and for the hype seeing past contestants work with each other. I remember writing my thoughts on the season on another blog of mine here.

It was bad. Really BAD!

Like the writing was bad, they got rid of funnier contestants early on, some of the characters became derailed (which is a meme in the fandom) to the point we couldn’t recognize them from their debut season. And the overall tone of the season was dark. TOO DARK!!! Then there was the controversial finale that left a nasty taste in fans’ mouth due to how unrealistic and ABLEST (yes, ablest) it was! So yeah, All Stars was pretty bad.

Then to see the show that has been my special interest for the past 5 years, betrayed me like that, hurts!!! It was bad to the point that the season was one of the few reasons why I had my mental breakdown in my last year of high school!

Now that sound a bit too extreme, but I really did have a stressful year and All Stars being bad didn’t help. I remember the fanfics on Fanfiction.net being depressed and angry over that season. Same thing with the forums as people were disgusted over the show’s poor writing and end up abandoning because of it. Reading the forum comments and the fanfics didn’t help as it made feel guilty for liking the show as I was one of the few who watched it until the end. It just made my anxiety spike up thanks to my autism.

I agree that the season was bad and wondered what were the writers were thinking on some of the plot, but seeing people bash the show just for being terrible in general, doesn’t help my anxiety. I blame autism for my nervous mindset and there’s the fact that autistic people tend to be very protective towards their special interests whenever people said bad things about them, doesn't help. Because of that, I tend to get pretty nervous whenever I see people saying bad things about my favorite show. Bad to the point that I'll even defend it if I had to! But All Stars will be the only season I won’t DEFEND due to giving me bad memories because of how BAD it was! Like it’ll hurt whenever I hear someone saying that they hate Total Drama, but I’ll get why.

Even if the 5th season did poorly, I stuck around the show as the 6th season (or season 5b), known as Pahkitew Island, aired 7 months after All Stars. The theme of the season is it’s a survival-focused based as the contestants has to now find shelter and food in order to survive on a new island after the last island from season 5 SANK (just trust me on this one)! And oh, the host got 14 new contestants (aka the 3rd generation) time around, since he feel like the first two generations over welcome their stay thanks to the last season.

Too bad the fandom didn’t like both the season and the 3rd generation that much. So it turns out season 6 was written around the same time as All Stars, so questionable writing from that season, continued into this season as well. And most of the contestants were too gimmicky and one-noted to the point that according to an Italian trailer, it said that the contestants were selected at random when the host was picking who was going to compete that season!

Then there was a relationship that infamously ended poorly thanks to the finale where the host showed an audition tape to the couple in question, where one of them (who was one of the finalist for the season) was relieved that they were ALREADY in a relationship with someone else back at home! It was that moment the ship sunk like the fucking Titanic and cost fans to lost support for the finalist themselves (don’t worry, they didn’t win in the American version thought)!

But one of the few good things about Pahkitew Island was that one of the most quiet contestants, was secretly evil where in one episode, they almost took control of island (as it turns out was mechanical) and nearly killed the remaining contestants! It was not only the biggest plot twist in the show’s history and one of the better episode in that season too! And that there was another couple that managed to stay together, even though in the finale, the host showed a confession tape to the other couple, where one of them (whose another finalist) relive that they won’t share the price money with them! At least the finalist quickly realized their mistake and apologized after winning the 6th season.

After Pahkitew Island was done airing, I had a feeling that the show was toasted. It’s not as popular as before thanks to the poor writing that this and All Stars had. The ratings were bad when it aired and Cartoon Network decided for some reason, to air all 13 episodes in a span of 2 WEEKS, which is not a good sign! Even then, the channel decided to give the show one more chance by greenlighting a spinoff series, The Ridonculous Race.

Airing in the fall of 2015, The Ridonculous Race was a true parody of Amazing Race. So no mandatory singing that the contestants were forced to do in World Tour! In this show, there are 18 teams of 2 people, who go around the world and do challenges in hope to win a million dollars. Thankfully, the spinoff series was a huge improvement compared to the last 2 seasons. The writing was better and not rushed since they did a full 26 episodes deal. But one of the biggest complains about this spinoff is the romance plot that some of the teams were engaged in was bad and the finale was a letdown for many (especially if you saw the American version).

And like I mention at the beginning, despite The Ridonculous Race being better than the last 2 seasons, the show aired too little too late in the effort to win back the crowd. The ratings were low and once the show was over, it was cancelled thanks to the bad ratings. Then there was the fact Cartoon Network decided to air all 26 episodes in a span of a month, airing it on a 7:30pm death slot and having Teen Titans Go! doing better in ratings, didn’t help! Welp, at least they tried.

Then 3 years later, Total Drama came back as a…preschool spinoff series? Yeah, the fans didn’t like that spinoff series, Total DramaRama due to being too weird, dumb and childish as the fandom think the creators did this in order to grab the attention of younger audience. By then, I fully got into anime and video games and decided to skip out on the other spinoff series since it’s confirmed to be non-canon to the original series, which is the only good “thing” I can think about that show.

However, that show was responsible for dethroning Teen Titans Go! in ratings, which is something that doesn’t happen too often! It was thanks to the success of Total DramaRama, Cartoon Network decided that they were going to bring back the original series for another season in early 2021. Bring back the original series means the “preschool” spinoff (as it wasn't that educational and it was rated Y7 here in America) had to end, which made many happy since they hated that show. Then that was it for the news for the new season…

Well until Oct. 2022 when the character designs and info about the 16 new contestants (aka the 4th generation) for the new season, was published online. That’s when people start making fan art of the new cast, taking bets on whose going to date who (which is very common in the series), whose the big bad, who’ll win the season, etc. And the show’s TV Tropes page start getting updates after years of nothing! By then, I moved back to the States early that year and was stuck at a crappy job (which I since quit). I got real hyper when I heard the news and stayed like this for days! It was like a part of my teenage years was coming back for me (well, the good parts that is)!

After that, silence…just until April 2023 when the new season (called Total Drama Island [2023]) finally aired…in ITALY!?! I got annoyed since this wasn’t the first time the country aired the new season of Total Drama. They did this with Pahkietw Island back in June 2014! At least I didn’t have to wait too long for the 6th season (or season 5b) to air in the States as it aired a month later.

But not season 7 (or season 6a), however. I have to wait a full YEAR for it to finally air in States! Don’t know why the wait, but I hear scheduling conflicts on Cartoon Network was the main reason. Since last year, Cartoon Network had to give up their primetime slot to Adult Swim, which is ironically SAVING them from going out of business! So now, they have to air the new episodes of their shows on Saturday mornings, since I heard they get good ratings on that time slot. I found this annoying since I’m not a morning person. But if I want Total Drama to do well, then I’ll have to get up early to see it. I’ll even stay up all night if I have to!

But the thing is the season has been out for a year and most of the diehard fans on the Internet have already seen it, so this is old news for them. I can’t rely on YouTube to see the bootlegs like I did in high school anymore. One blip of the episode and Fresh TV (the show’s studio) will get their ninja lawyers to shut it down! So now, I have to go to the pirating sites to see the season. But even with the resources, I got real lazy and didn’t bother watching it when the season first came out. It might because I was suffering from (autistic?) burnout at the time due to just life sucking. I think I mention the burnout and some of the problems I had early this year on one of my blogs. Fortunately, I mostly recovered from my burnout and it came just in time for the official release of the show.

When I saw the first episode of the new season, I was…ehhhh? It’s weird. I heard really good things about the new season and the first episode wasn’t clicking for me for some reason. Maybe it’s the fact there’s more immature jokes and the newer contestants were saying slang and terms that I don’t understand because I’m old. Well that’s what happened if you’re watching a show that is targeted to preteens and your 28 years old. Or maybe it got the first episode jitters since it’s been 10 (9 if you include The Ridonculous Race) years since they last aired the original series in the States and it probably has a rough start. Despite that, I kept watching the new season in hope it’ll get better.

Thankfully it was the 2nd episode, where the show got good for me. I think it was because towards the end of the episode, there was a particular scene that involves with a shark eating one of the contestants' leg OFF!!! Then we found out the leg was a PROSTHETIC, which completely threw me off! Don’t know why thought, I just like it when something terrible happens to the poor contestants. It was after that scene, I got hooked to the show once more as I was like, “Alright you grabbed my attention! Let’s see how this goes.”

As for the episodes that aired so far, episode 3 and 4 were good. Episode 5 was bad. Like, it was nothing but farts and dinosaurs. Gross. But this was also the episode where the big bad of season 7 reveal their true nature after acting nice for most of the season. So there’s a bright spot to that episode!

Then there was episode 6. I loved that episode because it was the episode where we get our first same-sex KISS! This is a big deal for the fandom as prior to Total Drama coming back, the show wasn’t even allow to have an actual gay couple in the show in order to not “upset” conservative groups; especially when the show first aired in the States back in 2008! But it didn’t stop fans from shipping same-sex couples anyways. But I’m glad that time has changed where we can have actual gay characters and couples in children’s shows without fear of backlash.

…

Overall, I’m glad that Total Drama is back and became my special interest again after an 8 year break. I’m also glad that the show came at a good time as some sort of a distraction for what’s going on in the world.

The Israel-Hamas war is still going on with no end. The right-wing parties are taking over Europe. The Supreme Court made being homeless illegal and allows former presidents to have immunity from the crimes they commit during their time in office. The first presidential debate was a total shit show to the point many want President Biden to WITHDRAW from the presidential race due to how bad he perform in the debate (Update: HE DID!!!!)! There’s a chance Trump might actually WIN the reelection because of all this (Update: This might actually happen because 5 days after I post this, he nearly got ASSINATED at his own campaign rally!!!)! And if Trump does wins, he and the Republicans are going to pass Project 2025, which will criminalize LGBT people like me (as I’m bisexual), turn America into Gilead and pass a bunch of horrible laws that will make Russia look like paradise! /s Thinking about said “project” will cause me to have a meltdown just by thinking about it!

I’m fucking scared for both my future and for my country.

At least my special interest will keep me from thinking (and reading) the terrible news as my mind rather replay scenes from some of the new episodes, think about the contestants and putting them in AUs (alternative universes), where they deal with normal, teenage life (mostly that is…)!

But I’m worried that this might be a temporary thing. Like once Cartoon Network finish airing the last episode in late August, then that distraction is gone. I’ll have to go back seeing the world burn once more, where democracy is in danger and there is nothing I can do other than hope to God that Trump loses in November (if your 18 and over and is an American, then please REGISTER AND VOTE in this year's general election!).

Or there’s a chance it might stick with me for a while like it did back in middle & high school. Even if All Stars was terrible and caused me to have a mental breakdown in the 12th grade, at least most of the series gave me fond memories that got me through my teenage years and the first half of my university years.

Although I’m a year behind the fandom in seeing the show, at least it’s better to see it now than never. But still, I’m happy that the show is back. Now, instead of watching the 1st season of Total Drama on a small TV, in the computer room in my childhood home in Ohio in 2008, I’m watching the 7th season of Total Drama on my laptop, in my current bedroom in Texas in 2024. And I’m stimming like crazy while watching the show as it’s one of the few comforts that will keep me from thinking about how the world sucks right now.

Even if it’s for a brief time, at least I get some control in my life by knowing what’s going to happen next in the show, instead of who might be our next president.