For Want of A Mohawk

Once this used to be a a blog about a World Tour rewrite. Now I crawl out of the void and emerge from hibernation to bring you something else. A reimagining of the first season, where one little change cascades into dramatically different outcomes. Nothing will be the same again. Banner art by Kika Ila on DA.

[forwantofamohawk]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Ever wonder how much would be different if just one thing changed early in TDI? What if that change was Duncan not helping the Killer Bass win the Dodgeball challenge? One of the most important canon characters failing to make one of the most important of his choices in the canon timeline. The possible outcomes are endless, and in this story we look at one such outcome in meticulous detail, all the way from the first decision to the inevitable conclusion in the finale.

One challenge at a time of course, we don’t want to blow all the surprises at once do we? Check in weekly for updates, there’s already eight chapters to dig into and plenty more written and on the way. 

For those of you who followed this blog back a year or two ago wondering what this is, it’s the cause of my long dormancy. My deeply autistic brain was grabbed by this idea and it wouldn’t let go until I’d written it out to its conclusion, so here’s the result of nearly a year of unhealthy levels of hyperfixation. Hope it was worth the wait. 

Fanfiction.net link for those who prefer that site. 

[forwantofamohawk]

Do you have any plans to continue your world tour rewrite? If not, could you tell us what you initially had planned?

Yes actually. I've been very busy with cooking something else, but ever since I saw World Tour I've been gripped by the desire to rewrite it. Rest assured, it remains on my bucket list, and recently I've even returned to serious planning and outlining of it.

Currently it exists under the provisional name of "Total Drama Blue Yonder: Mark 2 mod 2". The TDBY outline has gradually been reworked bit by bit, like a literary Ship of Theseus, and will probably receive a different title whenever it finally does come out.

And this time I'll only release it if I finish the whole thing. I don't want to leave my audience hanging like last time.

[forwantofamohawk]

Hi! I agree a lot about the fandom etiquette issue in the Total Drama community in the present. It is awful and genuinely exhausting to not be able to even engage in most fan media without encountering something associated with that kind of behavior. It’s honestly miserable and I am baffled by how much hate these (often) children spew out over characters and perceptions of morality…

I recognize that it’s an issue in most modern fandom spaces but I cannot emphasize enough that it is significantly worse in the Total Drama community compared to any other I belong to, at least from my personal experience of course.

Being someone who cares about Coderra, and genuinely loves both Cody and Sierra, is like a death sentence lol.

As silly as it is, Cody as a character is so important to me as an autistic person with a special interest in TD and Cody himself! I see him as a good, though flawed of course, person. The amount of discourse I’ve seen surrounding him recently rarely seems productive and is excessively negative and has hindered my ability to enjoy a character I love, which I hate to say. It’s like I view everything he does through a filtered lens of negativity, including scenes that used to bring me joy. It shouldn’t get to me! I’m trying to give myself grace instead of beating myself up over this wearing down on me because of being autistic lol. Feeling like Sierra <3, haha.

If you’d like to share, what are a few headcanons you have for Cody and Sierra (alone and / or together)?

I’m sorry for the long ask! It feels less judgmental here :). It’s all good if you can’t / don’t want to reply. It’s refreshing to read your posts!

Thanks for giving such a passionate and sincere response anon, don't apologize for getting a bit rambly with it. It's really heartening to see I'm not the only one who has noticed how rapidly the fandom has gone downhill since Covid.

You're absolutely right about the hand-wringing, pearl-clutching morality discourse and how it's absolute poison to having any fun discourse. Instead of discussing the positives about the characters and all the unexplored nuance you have people spewing vitriol over what often amounts to slapstick comedy taken deathly seriously. Like, you see multiple active posters on the TD reddit saying that comedy scenes were "murder attempts." It's madness I tell you!

If it helps at all get you some of your enjoyment back, remember that the show isn't that serious. It helps me to remember that these people are the ones tweaking out over silly cartoon characters getting up to wacky hijinks. That doesn't mean you can't take them seriously, but that doing so is an opt-in experience and these people are choosing to opt-in to all the negatives without any of the positives. If you're going to take something this frivolous this seriously, then why not have fun? Be joyful and whimsical, let the characters be their best selves!

Do you really want a bunch of Ipad babies who can't handle even a tiny bit of discomfort in their media get the better of you?

Stay strong soldier.

As a reward for listening to my rambles, if you've made it this far, then a few Cody and Sierra takes off the top of my head:

-Cody is a huge mecha anime weeb. Definitely insists that Evangelion is the greatest anime of all time and describes it as a life changing experience. He's a huge simp for Rei Ayanami, of course. (he has arguments about this with Harold and Noah, who are Misato and Asuka stans respectively.)

-Sierra's plan for the prize money is to throw the world's first DramaCon- a convention by total drama fans, for total drama fans. She'd like to meet other fans IRL, but unfortunately all the people she knows are online. Having a place to meet up would help that, though with her disastrous organization skills its for the best that she didn't get the money after all...

-Maybe it's a bit too obvious, but Sierra is absolutely the type to tell the cashier that Cody ordered no pickles when they get his order wrong. In fact, I think she'd probably unwrap the burger at the counter when they get their food and inspect it, so that he doesn't accidentally bite into a burger with pickles on it. She's very concerned like that.

[forwantofamohawk]

what was the fandom's 'former self', or the height of it? I only really joined the fandom 2020-21ish but I've mainly stuck to just a corner of it. i know a lot of things in the fandom go all the way back to when the first seasons were airing

In my humble opinion I'd say the entire period between the release of the original Island and All-Stars. After All-Stars I feel like while much of the culture remained the same as during the peak period but the activity was on a downward slide, up to the release of Ridonculous Race after which things really go quiet until Reunion gets a lot of attention.

The current fandom really became what it was during COVID and the subsequent announcement and release of the Reboot. It wasn't for the better IMO. It's a completely different culture. A lot more children and people unfamiliar with fandom etiquette dogpiled into TD spaces, and it's become increasingly hard to maintain a decent conversation around the show.

Not everyone who joined late is like that, but it's been a trend that I can't ignore. There are some great new people, fanartists and fanfic authors doing wonderful things, but I wish they could have been there for when their efforts would have been truly more appreciated.

[forwantofamohawk]

What were your predictions for the reboot characters before the 1st season dropped?

I didn't have a lot tbh, you can't tell much about the cast just by looking at their designs. That's not to say the designs are boring or bland, it's just that the reason the designs are fantastic for each character only become apparent once you see them on the screen and get an idea of their personality and writing.

I knew from the beginning that MK was going to be a gremlin and one of my favorites. That turned out spot on.

Less spot on was my prediction that Chase was going to be a generic love interest guy and that him and Priya were going to be a couple. RIP Chiya, you never had a chance.

[forwantofamohawk]

Would you say Cody has something of a savior/hero complex or "I can fix them" mentality?

Absolutely not. So far as I can tell, he likes Gwen exactly the way she is because of the way she is. In his interactions with Sierra, he has no interest in fixing all the things blatantly wrong with her, and only changes his attitude towards her when she stops being like that. Bro knows what he wants, or at least what he thinks he wants.

There's something to be said for how what Cody wants isn't always what's best for him, but that's its own whole can of worms

[fishingboatproceedwithcaution]

how it feels meeting people who always talk about how much they hate and despise sierra, yet act exactly like her (especially those cody stans):

people hate mirrors. guys she literally represents the maniacs of the TD fandom. why is it so hard for people to accept how accurate she is in representing us??? the amount of times i've left comments on cody freaks' videos making silly little remarks like 'pack it up sierra' and then them literally cussing me out over 'being nothing like that freak' is insane. if yr like that please do not interact with me. (coming from someone who loves sierra because, believe it or not... i see myself in her! crazy concept!)

[forwantofamohawk]

Say it louder for the people in the back! God this fandom has some of the worst self-awareness and critical thinking skills I've seen anywhere. Swear to god.

[froznwater]

Gwen, Sadie, and Katie being friends canonically kinda ate

outfit/style swap

[forwantofamohawk]

holy shit no way its TDI's best girls

and Gwen is there too ig /lh

[jingycakes]

It’s after the fact, but idc here’s the other thing I worked on for Mipper Week.

The prompts for this one were Historical + Formalwear, assuming 50 years ago counts as historical, I made a cute drawing of Millie and Ripper getting married in the 70’s.

Interracial marriage has a less dicier history in Canada than in the United States, still I imagine it came with stigmatization because the past was the past or something something….

[forwantofamohawk]

Mipper spotted, deploying appreciation.

[lemoonbasement]

Mouthwashing TD AU

ripper desing from trrfan6 on ig and devianart

[forwantofamohawk]

live laugh mipper

[citrusdevill]

cringetober'24 day 19: alt fashion

sierra would've been a killer scene kid and we know it

ik im behind give me a min ☹☹

[forwantofamohawk]

Thoughts on Trent?

In the show? Not a lot. He really has nothing going on, he has the personality of cardboard and the agency of a bag of rocks.

Incidentally that makes him a perfect blank slate to project a bunch of really neat character ideas onto. My take on Trent is like 50% Trent Lane from Daria (who Trent TD is such a blatant rip-off of I am surprised there was no legal action), 40% bio and 10% reading too far into some of his lines and interactions on the show.

I like him as this guy who sees himself as a soulful, profound artist. He thinks he's this generation's John Lennon or Justin Timberlake. But like all teenagers he tends to be melodramatic and take his music way too seriously. And he's surprisingly capable of holding a grudge too!

Trent certainly is the character of all time. He's what you make of him.

[forwantofamohawk]

Would you be down to show a character tierlist?

Ask and ye shall receive.

the list only takes into account S1 of the reboot because I wanted to give gen 4 my most positive takes on them.

[forwantofamohawk]

Okay, I know that I edited Julia out of this (for Aubrey :P), but I have to ask, who from here do you ship with who (you can include Julia or Aubrey or both)

Pretending for a moment that Julia is here, I was really big Julayne shipper when the first season came out. Now I'm not as enthusiastic about them, both as a ship and as individual characters since they were used so poorly in S2, but I try to ignore that and stay positive about it.

Oh yeah and obviously Raj and Bowie deserve each other and everything. It's both a great canon couple and great rep, what more could you ask for? I think Raj was underused in S2 and really lost a chance to shine on his own without Bowie, I think more fanfics should explore him as an individual character while expanding their relationship.

[forwantofamohawk]

Thoughts on the Total Drama subreddit 😬

Oh boy, I have thoughts alright and none of them are particularly good ones. It's one of the worst fandom subreddits I have ever seen. Good fanart that would easily net over a thousand upvotes on most fandom subs struggles to get into the low hundreds at best. Meanwhile, low effort spam and engagement bait thrives and makes the front page on a nearly daily basis.

The moderation is incompetent and lazy, letting the aforementioned spam thrive and doing nothing to remove it or ban the users responsible for it. Posts that have almost nothing to do with TD and are mostly about Pokemon or Ben 10 or some other franchise are left up. Most subs would remove such posts for being off topic, but on the Total Drama subreddit anything goes I guess.

In the comments section you'll find a bunch of people who repeat the same few popular opinions and who hate to have any sort of productive discussion about the show. Never before have I met fans so utterly allergic to creativity or nuance.

And the most nightmarish part about it is that it's one of the better platforms to engage with Total Drama fans on. For all the shit I've talked about the r/TotalDrama, it's the cream of the crop. The youtube scene is a stale wasteland of the same bland opinions as the reddit but with somehow even less variety, and Twitter and TikTok are pure unfiltered brainrot.

The state of the Total Drama fandom has never been great, but speaking as a long time veteran it is a shell of its former self.

[forwantofamohawk]

Overall thoughts for Ezekiel's feral arc?

Terrible, awful, no good arc. I've made posts ranting about it being bad before and I haven't changed my mind since. Easily the worst story to happen to a character in all of TD and it's not even close. Unfunny, mean spirited and spiteful writing that didn't even do a good job at being a Gollum reference.

[forwantofamohawk]

I should start posting about Total Drama again instead of just using this blog as a platform to complain about the staff.

Send asks about literally anything TD related and I will try my best to provide entertaining and insightful answers.