#listen i love noah but he doesn't deserve a win

[total-drama-brainrot]

out of the three (four? if you wanna include ridonculous race) noah appeared in, which one do you think noah could have won if he cared about the competition

hot take; none of them.

he did care about the competition (at least somewhat) in the first season and it was objectively his worst. in island, he was too blinded by his own hubris to consider the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, isolating himself in a socially driven competition. he was standoffish and rude, which would've been fine if he hadn't outright directed negative attention to himself with his comments AND refusal to participate in the dodgeball challenge, and he offered little in terms of both teamwork and team utility anyway. so being voted out early was a given, and a much needed wake-up call for him.

he didn't compete in season 2, but if he did i doubt he'd make it to the finale. i'd like to say he'd make it pretty far into action- both because action has a lot more technology and media references, which noah could play to his advantage as both an established nerd and a canonical hacker (though these aspects of him are mostly delegated to his biographies/interviews outsode of the show itself), and because we know he does learn from his mistakes in season 1 so he'd try to be a better teammate (like he does in season 3). but i truly and honestly don't think he'd stand a chance against powerhouses like courtney and duncan, or have even a smidge of beth and owen's in-competiton social game/likability, so he'd eventually be voted out.

and in season 3, as much as i disagree with the amazons winning the challenge, getting rid of noah there and then was the right play from a narrative standpoint. because, at the end of the day, he's a filler character. he doesn't have any engaging plotlines of his own to warrant keeping him around, and his only real use from a writing standpoint is to make snide comments and witty one-liners; when the remaining cast all have at least one subplot going for them, and you need to 'thin the herd', you get rid of the deadweight characters first.

by world tour, i believe he's only competing for the sake of it, and he doesn't really care about winning or losing; if anything i'd say he only went along with the celebrity manhunt bus chase because he was supposed to stay with chris/the total drama crew, and since he was fired from being chris' assistant he didn't have anything better to do (he's always been a passive character, so going along with the crowd for curiosities sake is very much something he would do).

but if he did care?

i think he'd make it to early merge. a noah who cares about the competition would try to take down alejandro for the sake of his own survivability (after all, how long is it going to be until team victory is gone and alejandro turns on his own teammates as his next targets?) thus making himself plot relevant enough to keep around- maybe even allying himself with heather to do so. but alejandro, whilst not as smart as noah, is far more savvy and capable than him, and their 'rivalry' would end in noah being voted out.

or maybe he'd embrace his villain-coding (watch island again and tell me he isn't villain-coded. he does a "mwu-ha-ha" laugh and says "excellent." he's so campy bond antagonist coded in island) and ally himself with alejandro to garuntee his survivability, helping him weed out the competition as a right-hand man. eventually, alejandro would discard noah- either because noah would refuse to help him eliminate owen, or because they'd make their way far enough into the competition that noah becomes less of an ally and more of a threat and have him eliminated accordingly. because noah might be the villain, but alejandro's the archvillain.

that, and i think the finalists of each season are already the best picks from their rosters. i wouldn't change any of them to give one sarcastic twink the chance of winning.

(i haven't seen ridonculous race but i'm fairly certain caring about the competition is part of his character arc in it? he comes in guns blasing and then gets sidetracked by being smitten with emma, at least that's my understanding of it. so nothing would change there.)

[fountainpenguin]

Who were you rooting for to win in each finale of Total Drama (including Ridonculous Race)?

?? It has literally never occurred to me to root for someone while I watch. TIL.

[Disclaimer - I do like Total Drama but this post involves me talking about ships and characters I don't like; I don't like putting that kind of stuff in the tags. I'm not disabling reblogs but please only reblog if you like this post and not because you want to fight; I'm just answering an Ask]

R-Race was the only one that left me truly "Aw man" about it. The characters who are my favorites to watch vs. those who I would expect and/or desire the narrative to reward with my author eyes are absolutely different, ha ha.

So for those who don't know, in the first 3 seasons (maybe more?), the two finalists each have an ending, and different endings air in different countries (I believe they were determined by voting on the Total Drama website during the final week).

All my TD 'fics take place in the same universe and the canon winners in my storyline were Owen, Duncan (who felt guilt-ridden about it, which was the plot of my one-shot "Chris Missed"), Heather, Cameron, Zoey, Shawn... I didn't post any R-Race 'fics beyond the opening bits of Lions Under Palm Trees, but I remember being disappointed by the winners. But that's more because I dislike Geoff with a fiery passion than anything else.

The characters I would argue are the narrative's main characters of their season... I would say Gwen for Island, Duncan for Action, Cody for World Tour, Mike for Revenge, Zoey for All-Stars, Jasmine for Pahkitew, and the cops for Race. Those aren't necessarily the people I personally want to be winners; just saying I think that's who the writers liked a lot and it showed.

World Tour was my first season; I was exposed to it by a sibling listening to it in the same room as me (which also means Aleheather came out of NOWHERE for me because it was purely audio exposure and missed all the small visual cues and I thought they just hated each other... I mean, I've rewatched the series several times since then and I still dislike this ship because I feel like it came out of nowhere and I don't feel any love between them, but idk how much of that was influenced by my first non-visual exposure to their relationship. And just because it's a NOTP for me, that doesn't mean I consider it non-canon... but that's how I write all my 'fics when my NOTPs are canon, so).

I was definitely exposed to the World Tour versions of Courtney's, Heather's, Cody's, Ezekiel's, and Noah's personalities before their Island selves, which I think influences my interest in them as characters in the prequels. Hands down TDWT favorite season, absolutely no contest for me. Pahkitew is close second, though.

I think Cody's the only character I would consider myself to be "rooting for" during a season. The concept of a character who got mauled by a bear in his first season, had to sit out the second season, then finally comes back and gets a fangirl who is obsessed with him to the point that he can barely participate in half the challenges because she is In The Way is SO funny. I also feel like Cody suffered more than most characters on the show due to the combo of bear mauling and having his boundaries consistently violated... He deserved a win. I know he's already a rich kid but I don't care.

In no particular order, my favorite characters in the series are Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Leonard, Topher, Max, Dwayne Junior, and the Adversity Twins, but I wouldn't describe myself as rooting for them... they got as much screen time as they needed to. Leonard and Topher are some of the best characters I've ever seen in media though, I love them so much <3 To this day, I've never loved writing a character as much as I've loved writing Leonard. He's SO funny and he's a goofy little angel. I have so many unfinished Leonard drafts... I'd love to finish those 'fics someday, but I just don't have time to do everything.

I don't know what current fandom opinions on Topher are, but back when Pahkitew was airing, my quip to my siblings was that "Topher is so manipulative, he even fooled the fandom into thinking he's not as bad as he is." That kid played up the manipulative angle to look shallow on purpose... to hide the fact that he legitimately was super manipulative. He's fantastic. I haven't seen Pahkitew in about 7 years so a fresh watch might affect me differently, but... man. Topher, my absolute beloved.

(In my 'verse Topher is the son of Don (the R-Race host) which means he was just chilling around the elimination area in my R-Race elimination 'fic Lions Under Palm Trees, and man... my love for "character who lives in a hotel, doesn't have either of his parents around, who has mostly been left to care for himself, and he looks up to his dad with stars in his eyes despite also being the most manipulative slimeball in the world..." He's horrific, wants you to think he's a cinnamon roll but can and will absolutely destroy you just because he's bored... I love that 'fic draft so much.)

One of my favorite R-Race teams was also the couple who was super mushy at the start and then started fighting all the time (I think their names were Ryan and Stephanie, but it's been years so I might be wrong). I didn't feel attached to them as characters but I loved how they were portrayed, if that makes sense. My family were big fans of Amazing Race for years (used to watch it weekly) and we watched the second half of R-Race together as a family. We were crying laughing about how accurate their fighting was to the couples who actually participate in Amazing Race. Absolutely 10/10 characterization. No notes.

I don't know if any of that answers your original question, but that's kind of all I have to say. I liked characters who did neat things, but if they weren't competitive enough to fight for victory then they did not deserve to and I would have been mad if they ended up in the finals despite not being a good player. If you're weak then you deserve to go home like the weak links you are <3

I root for "being fun to watch" I guess. And Cody in World Tour.

(Zeke deserved better but also I wouldn't change his World Tour arc for a second. Becoming blinded with obsession to the point that you literally become a twisted, feral version of yourself and start hunting the other characters down and that's it, that's your character arc is the best thing I've ever seen. That moment of quietly cold, calculated, absolutely suppressed fury on Zeke's face after he kidnaps Chris in "All Stars" and Chris is monologuing about every horrible thing he's ever done to Zeke is my everything. That moment when you see what a broken human he's become. That moment he realizes Chris doesn't care he's hurting and doesn't want to help him because feral Zeke is "good content." I need everyone to understand.)

[annlillyjose]

Let’s Be Suns Tonight - WIP Intro

[Image Description: A silhouette of two boys walking on the road projected against a car's beam at night. The path is aligned by lights on both sides. In the center, in a creme and white serif font reads let's be suns tonight and ann lilly jose./ End ID]

Hey y'all! I have a new book. I know I have way too many WIPs but, I can't help it. So basically, here's what happened:

I was doing camp nanowrimo for dairy whiskey, my liftic novella

I wrote 1.2k of it in a day and realized that literally everything was going wrong (pov, tense, story opening, etc.)

I put off writing for two whole weeks and kept telling myself I'll write dairy whiskey when I feel like it (was still pretty sure I'd somehow win camp with my 10k goal, like no honey you need to stop being stupid)

Random thought at 2 am: Noah Anderson deserves a better story

Levi Shires. Girl. He needs a story of his own.

You're gay. Write gay.

Tries to put the project off for later and not write gay

Writes gay anyway

Let's talk about the specifics before rambling about the process. I promise, there's a lot (a LOT by my standards) of it.

Disclaimer: This is my original work. Please do not plagiarize in any way.

Genre: YA Contemporary

Setting: Not really sure, but it's an average small town

POV and Tense: First person present tense, dual POV. Possible ghost narratives.

Structure: Vignettes

Stage: Drafting

Playlist: Let's Be Suns Tonight (Updating)

Logline: Two boys who want to live life differently meet at a cafe and end up discovering secrets about each other, and about themselves too. (I'm pantsing this so things can change. I have no idea what's in store for the boys)

Characters

Levi Shires

18

Is questioning his sexuality

His full name is Levi John Antonio Shires

Is a pop singer

Just came home from his first ever world tour

Struggling with everything

Feels like something is wrong with him but doesn't know what

Face Claim: Troye Sivan

Aesthetics: music, guitars, posters, live shows, interviews, journalling at 3 am, obsessing over poetry even when you don't understand a thing except that it's beautiful, crying about being a crybaby, late night walks, questioning sexuality

Noah Anderson

20

Bisexual in denial

Father's boy

Is traumatized

Had tons of friends but is scared of it now

Wants to buy shirts with flower patterns but doesn't

Obsessed with Levi's music

Aesthetics: house parties, plaid shirts, trying to cry but cannot, laying on the floor, listening to the same song on repeat for hours, late night drives, night clubs

If you didn't already know who Noah and Levi are, here's the story. Noah is a character I created when I was in ninth grade (so that's like over three years back what) during a very angsty conversation with @jenetmoses. I drafted around 16k of his story in tenth grade and it was so much fun, but I never completed it. I then tried to fit him into so many stories but none seemed to work. Finally I decided to put him in Intersecting Parallels (another one of my WIPs I'm not sure if I'll ever even start writing) as a side character. Levi Shires is a character I created for the same project. But I fell in love with him instantly and now he's one of my favourite characters. It's almost like his existence gave Noah a story that he deserved.

Process

A few days back I felt like I should write a story for my darlings and now here we are. This is officially Ann stepping into gay waters (I'm biro ace btw) with her stories and honestly, this is so much fun. It took me a few days to actually make an intro post because I was scared that maybe this, like many of my other projects, will have a WIP intro and no updates because I. Just. Don't. Write. Anything. So I waited until I had sufficient content to share and had a feeling that this thing can work. Well, guess what. It definitely can and it definitely will.

I'm currently at about 1.2k words and writing this has been such a delight? I hope it stays the same for a long time because I haven't felt like this in over two years and now it feels heavenly. I had to go to a relative's house last week and I wrote a vignette before going. All the time I was there, I just wanted to get home and edit it (I edit as I write because it works best for me). When I came home, I spent an hour and a half editing it and it was for the first time in so long that I was longing to work on a project? Allow me to be emotional over this please thank you.

I have completed three vignettes now. None of them have titles yet, and I'm not sure if I'll title them. I know there'll be so many and I'm not sure if it's possible to come up with titles for so many vignettes, so for now it's just vignette 1, vignette 2, and vignette 3 (not fun at all i know). I'm also so happy that I can share a lot of stuff here because this, my loves, is a practice project. So here we go!

Vignette 01, Noah

I sit at a table for two, alone, raindrops bokehing the window I lean my head on. Outside the filmed glass, a litter of dogs fight for leftover meat from a barbecue joint across the street, a street light flickering above them until it dies out. The interior is all about pretence - Pinterest art printed on a large canvas hung up on the creme walls, plastic flowers hanging from fancy plastic pots, baristas speaking in an accent too thick for their age. LED bulbs coated in lime-tinted glass paper light up the cafe. They almost look like incandescent bulbs. Almost.

So, that's the opening. Not much to say about it, but I really wanted to set this story's beginning in a cafe so there it is.

Here's another excerpt from the same vignette. Noah being 1) attached to his father and 2) extremely angsty and pretentious.

The barista slides a ceramic cup towards me, smiling faintly with the corners of his eyes. The kohl on his lower waterline has smudged and darkened his under eyes. My latte stirs itself, the marbling on the froth a bit distorted now, the cream heart melting away, burnt and sacred. Papa told me that the heart is where life is. One evening after our family prayers, he pointed at a portrait of Jesus and said, "It is where love begins, and that's why love is what makes life worthwhile. Do all things with love, Noah."

Tonight, I want to feel capable of having a heart.

Tonight, I shall drink from the grail of life.

I'm sitting here like, boy, it's not that deep. It's just a latte. But then again, is coffee ever just coffee?

Well, let's not get into that because it deserves a whole post for itself. Moving to the next vignette now!

Vignette 02, Levi

Tonight’s weather slips chills into my faux leather jacket, yet my insides burn, like a star at the verge of dying out. That’s what they call me - a star, pop sensation, a child prodigy. Another lucky teenager whose YouTube covers blew up, landing them a record deal with a big label. Another wannabe Gen-Z musician, a clueless kid whose success in the industry is solely because of his social media following. Another wave that will die down faster than it rose, a whirlpool sucking in teenagers from across the world, just another boy who has girls swooning over him for his jawline, his height, his lips. But for my fans - Leviathans - my music is everything. That's what they say when I meet them before shows. That's what they post on their social media. That's what the tell newspapers and magazines and TV shows when they're asked about me.

What is everything? I don't know.

He's just so confused? So affected by what others say about him? Conflicted by varying opinions of media? Also let's ignore the fact that I named his fandom Leviathans. I have no braincells for more. Please leave me alone. Okay? Deal? Great!

And then this is how the vignette ends.

This is my hometown, so nobody squeals. Nobody points their fingers at me. Nobody hides behind trash cans to click my pictures. Because before I went on a hundred day tour, before open stages and live shows and official merch, before albums and debut single and record deal with Quercitron Labels, before YouTube fame and my cover of The Night We Met by Lord Huron, I was just another boy.

Some days, I want to be him.

Yep, so that's what's up with Levi. He craves for some normalcy in his life. I feel so bad for him.

Vignette 03, Noah

This is quite short, so I think I'll add the whole thing here.

A group of teenagers - two boys and three girls, all about sixteen years old - walk into the cafe. The taller boy has a dense voice. He's still going through puberty. He shaves his face every morning hoping he'll grow a beard by the end of term. He wears tight-fitted shirts to school, leaving the top two buttons undone, a silver chain dainty between his collarbones. He wears a cross on it, or an angel. Or maybe just the wings. The short boy is dating the black-haired girl. They're new at it, and it'll last a few months. But before it ends, they'll go on drives around the city wearing matching outfits they'd picked at the mall. She will sneak out with him in the middle of the night to drink wine in the front seat of his car. She'll take her first puff from his lit cigarette and will hate how it chokes her. She'll have a lot more firsts with him. They'll bunk classes and go for movies and neither will remember what happened on screen. They'll wish to dance in the rain and kiss in the pub, but they won't. Instead, they'll fight on sidewalks about college and long-distance and other friends. Eventually, they'll both acknowledge that they aren't working. The girl wearing dramatic makeup has a crush on him. She'll never confess, but the first girl will notice. Eventually. That'll spoil their friendship. The last girl is the third in the trio - the one that tags along, goes unnoticed because she takes up so little space and never talks. She wishes she were home. She's the kind that drinks black coffee and embroiders pillow cases at two a.m. so that she doesn't eat herself up.

They're a group of friends, the kind that thinks they'll last forever, but won't.

Four years back, I was the second boy. I hope four years later, he doesn't become me.

So, that's it for this intro. It's the longest post I've ever made (so far). Wow! I'm clearly so so so excited about this and I'll hopefully be able to share more stuff soon. Huge thanks to @showgirlcurio for pumping me up with this one! Tons of love <3

Thanks for reading so far. Please take care of yourself!

Love, Ann.

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