i was going to answer this plainly but then i got nervous i was going to forget a ship i really liked so i sat down and tried to extrapolate Every td ship i feel positively about 😭😭😭
hi!! always a fun question because i've been shipping gwourtney since i was like...9. before i knew i was even gay. and barely understood that gayness was a thing LOL
back then it really was a courtney and gwen were my two favourite total drama characters and ofc as a kid i wanted them to get along, but i think the Moment for me was tda ep 12...gwen's aftermath in tda. i thought to myself "what do they need duncan for?" and after that it was always a soft spot in my heart
and i have so much literally ancient gwourtney art
but as an adult i still adore them and they've remained my favourite total drama ship but i get so frustrated with half the portrayals of them...especially in all stars LOL i consider world tour THE definitive gwourtney season despite that being the center of the love triangle drama.
gwourtney to me is really a ship about growth for either character, both of whom are really guarded and standoffish when it comes to relationships in their own ways. (it gets rather long from here...)
gwen sort of overcomes this by the end of the first season, but she is noticeably very flighty when it comes to her romantic endeavours. courtney barely has any genuine relationships, and the closest thing she has she sabotages because she's so concerned with self image and the role a relationship is meant to play in her life, rather than focusing on the relationship itself. i do think she's a deep deep lover, but she's been made to believe that anything that CAN stand in the way of her success has to be neutralized and heavily compartmentalized.
gwourtney works because they complement each other's flaws naturally, while having an unusual sort of synergy with each other that's not really based on anything obvious about their personalities, which is what happens in world tour when they bond through their mutual dislike of heather. it comes to a peak when they're stuck with each other for most of the episode in i see london, and they both realize that they actually enjoy each other's company quite a lot. and courtney's always had a sort of respect from gwen, even in s1 where they barely interact, you'll notice in haute camp-ture she thinks gwen is smart (even if not as deserving of her final 5 spot as courtney would be lol)
the biggest thing about courtney and relationships is she needs someone who won't take her shit and knows when she's being dramatic and blowing steam. she's highly reactive, but incredibly loyal (fuck you duncan wtf were you even saying) and principled about the relationship she's in. gwen has no problem standing her ground or standing up to courtney, and neither did duncan but unlike duncan, gwen doesn't intentionally rile up courtney either. she doesn't WANT to piss her off. but she respects her tenacity. gwen is a calming force to courtney's fire.
gwen, on the other hand, needs someone that won't just let her run and hide. she probably dates trent for all of a couple weeks before the issues scare her off. she dates duncan for over a year, presumably, but as soon as courtney's presence starts sending duncan off gwen doesn't handle it and breaks up with him. courtney speaks her mind. she's weird about it, but she was abundantly clear with duncan what all her issues with him were. i think courtney's directness would demand gwen to open up and communicate back. and where there are times where gwen won't stand up for herself, as she rarely troubles herself with unnecessary conflict, courtney's more than willing to step in and defend her and advocate on her behalf.
and despite my issues with all stars' portrayal of...everyone...i think they really give gwen a nice arc (in concept). despite her flightiness with other relationships she was persistent with courtney and deeply wanted her to understand her remorse, which is the first time she really does this. at the very least, courtney and courtney's opinion of her matters to her.
i kind of don't like aus where gwourtney is the main ship for these characters in the series because to me them being together is about growing past total drama and past their shared history on the show that exploited their relationship drama for views. it's about both of them maturing beyond the circumstances that forced them to hate each other, and to recognize that their respective relationships with the same guy were important for both of them but was ultimately unfulfilling, and got in the way of their relationship with each other. the canon events through world tour are crucial to their dynamic.
i'm pretty easily attracted to ships where two girls in a canon love triangle with the same guy date each other instead (korrasami, arafef, even tori x jade from victorious LOL) but gwourtney stands out to me because there's an inherent healing nature of their relationships. they have to overcome petty differences for a relationship that is stable and valuable for both of them. they have shared interests, but they also value each others' unshared interests as well and their dynamic when it works is based on trust and mutual respect. it's something that i view as important for both girls for their future. they become better people through each other, even if at one point they brought out the worst in each other. they're one of the only relationships from total drama that has real potential to grow and stabilize beyond canon imo.
anyways this was a ramble, i've definitely left many things out, but i hope that answers your question!! ♥♥
i don't ship it personally but i am amenable to it! i used to HATE it and always did even back in like 2009 up until very recently. one of my friends has always liked them and they started doing a td rewrite and the way they wrote noah and cody's interactions has finally made me Understand what the appeal of them can be.
i never really liked it because i felt like there was no way to put them together that wasn't ooc as hell and just tropey/shipping for the sake of shipping two twinky boys. but i like a version of them where cody just kinda follows noah around while noah pretends he's So Much Smarter and In Charge and cody's totally unphased by this attitude. he just likes to be up in noah's business and it annoys noah but for some reason he tolerates it.
i also think any good version of noco would explore their own heavily closeted feelings about being gay. noah is super embarrassed and VEHEMENTLY denies kissing cody's ear in the big sleep, he's definitely got issues, and cody absolutely has something to reconcile with about feeling emasculated and probably getting called gay for being a small nerdy dude who can't pull.
i'm not invested in them enough to care about them engaging any more than they do in canon, but i can see ways for it to work!
you're welcome to that opinion but i already have trans headcanons in canon. notoriously i hc gwen, lindsay, and harold as transfem and damien as transmasc. among many others, and tons of nonbinary hcs also. all of these i flip in my genderswap hcs as well (gwen would then be transmasc, etc)
i also find it very distasteful to compare a trans person's experience with a cis person's. genderbend aus where i design a character to be from a cis boy to a cis girl are VERY different from me hc'ing a canon cis boy as a trans boy or as a trans girl.
not all characters' gender affects their story or interactions with the world, but plenty of them do. and to lighten the trans experience by equating it to genderswaps is weird as fuck
gwen and courtney are obviously up there and are most definitely characters i draw the most. i also really love drawing justin, sierra, katie, and sadie. for other generations: axel, scary girl, mk, nichelle, priya, and dawn stand out
there are also some characters like millie, harold, dj, and noah where i wouldn't say i have the most fun drawing them, but i'm usually very pleased with how they turn out, so it's like a retroactive thing.
there's characters like leshawna or lindsay where i enjoy drawing them but i'm not sure if i'm quite satisfied with my design for them...but i can't exactly place what's missing.
if it wasn't obvious, i usually love drawing the girls!
Are there any finale twos/threes you wish happened in any season?
forever will be a lindsay v courtney action truther. i also would have liked to see sugar v sky in pahkitew tbh!!
also this is a very cold take but i would have liked damien and mk in the reboot s2 finale. but i would make the case for ripper being the third finalist!
gen 1 > gen 4 > gen 3 > gen 2 to me!!! yes i'm very nostalgia loaded with gen 1 lol but i have a lot to say about Every single character, even my least favourite ones.
i like gen 2 a lot on paper compared to gen 3 but i think pahkitew makes better use of the cast. like, it understood its limits and did something different that worked within the confines of a 13 episode season. gen 2 feels like such a Potential cast
