Unlike most writers on here, I didn't put an author's not after each chapter. Instead, I've decided to put it all out here at the end. First, I want to thank everyone for reading! I know it took me over a year to actually finish this. I honestly didn't put a lot of planning into the elimination order, and beyond that, life just got in the way. I hope it was all worth the wait! I suppose I should start by explaining that finale.

You may be wondering why there were two endings, and who the actual winner was. The winner was Dawn, but it was also Max. As with the real series, I wanted two endings. In the end, the outcome is the same, except one player has the money and one has a crappy car. In the end, which winner you want to consider the real winner is up to you. Personally, I'd give it to Dawn.

Now for the rest of the cast. With the theme being redemption, I wanted to pick contestants who were eliminated early or unfairly. Naturally, all finalists were out, but in a show like this one, just about everyone else qualified. I could sit here and list everyone, but I'll just focus on the 20 that were picked.

Beardo: Honestly, I wasn't a big Beardo fan. I included him only because I needed more boys, and more from Pahkitew Island. Also, being voted out first, it seemed fitting. He was eliminated because I had no interest in writing him and no plans for him. I brought him back at the merge to give him a little bit of development after I realized his potential later on, but of course I had to get rid of him again.

Sam: I like Sam. I can definitely see a lot of myself in this guy. He had a lot to prove in season 4, but unfortunately, I didn't feel like I was writing him as well as I'd have liked, so I had to eliminate him early. Additionally, it did open up some room to develop Dakota's character.

Katie & Sadie: These two, along with Eva, are the only contestants from season one who never got a second chance in a later season. Sadly, there wasn't much I could do for these two aside from their cute "helping each other on another team" story. Sadie was eliminated before Katie only because the opposite happened in season one. I thought about having Katie react differently than Sadie, becoming aggressive and competitive to the point where her team votes her out, but I wanted to use her for the arc between Staci and Dawn because I knew I'd use that later on.

Rodney: Rodney was another "eliminated early/needed more boys/needed more from later casts" selection. I kind of wish I picked Topher instead (having him bent on revenge, determined to buy his own island with the money and start his own show to take out Chris) but something told me to pick Rodney. Having him crush on Eva and Anne Maria did help me build a friendship between the two, as well as being fun, but I felt like I wasn't writing him well either, so I had to get rid of him.

Anne Maria: Anne Maria was picked because she accidentally quit the competition, which sucks! She has a cool character and I feel like she could have a really unique character with Mike (or Vito) not around. Pairing her with Eva was odd, but still really fun! I feel like they could be unlikely friends. Sadly, I couldn't keep her around forever, and I had to eliminate her.

Leonard: Leonard's return on the Ridonculous Race proved one thing: He sucks at this. He is just awful in every possible way. Why did I pick him? He was eliminated early. He was also a guy and gave more representation to the PI cast (I hadn't had the idea for Topher until it was too late.) Aside from his position on the Weakfish, and his weird interest in Dawn, I didn't have much else planned for him, so he was eliminated.

Scott: I loved the revenge of the island cast. During my selection, I needed guys and I needed RotI and PI characters. So who was left? I already settled on Brick and Sam. So that just leaves Cameron and Lightning, who were ineligible due to being finalists, B, who I initially did not want to write a silent character, and Mike, who was also a finalist and had his internal conflict resolved. That just leaves Scott, who I initially didn't want to include due to his relationship with Courtney. I'll discuss that more later on. Scott did not make it very far only because he made it far the other two times he played.

Ezekiel: This poor guy. He got treated like absolute crap during season 3. He went from being a loser to being a really bad running joke. I actually almost wrote Zeke as the unlikely winner, but in the end, I felt like restoring him to normal (and not getting rid of him first) would be enough.

Eva: Eva was a great character! She, like Katie and Sadie, hasn't gotten the second chance the rest of the original cast had gotten. She was given another chance in season one, but for almost no reason besides the aborted arc about Izzy. She really just wasted everyone's time. I wanted her to get farther than 3rd voted out by being useful to her team, but having her lose an athletic match to Tyler of all people was just too funny to pass up, and I didn't want to eliminate four guys in a row.

Staci: I originally had nothing planned for Staci. I had only picked her because she was voted out first in season 4 (and went bald, which sucks.) In the end, I gave her a more in-depth (although still static) character and had her interacting with the other contestants. It was fun, but she had exhausted her use and I had to eliminate someone.

Dakota: Dakota, in addition to being voted out second, could have had a lot more than they gave her in the show. Okay, she wasn't a good person, but she was far from a bad one! She really did nothing wrong and got arguably the worst "karma" in the show. The main antagonists like Heather got almost nothing compared to Dakota. Heather's hair grew back, Scott and Alejandro obviously recovered, and Dakota? If I kept her as a mutant like the show did, her life would basically be over. Sure, Sam still loved her, but they're only teenagers. I had to give her a happier ending. Though I wrote that her show was cancelled early, she recovered, kept the boy, and became mildly famous.

Noah: Noah is surprisingly a popular character. Not sure why. I had kept him a bit too quiet during his time in the season, and honestly couldn't think of a reason to get rid of him for a while. Sadly, he fell victim to "I'm not writing him correctly" and was eliminated.

Brick: Brick is an awesome guy and without a doubt deserved another chance. Personally, I'd have put him in All Stars over Sam. He was voted out for doing the right thing in the end, which really sucks. Sadly, I was running low on characters and had to eliminate him.

Sugar: It was a real toss up between Sugar, Ella and Jasmine for this spot. I didn't want to write a singer in because the music wouldn't translate well into writing. While I love Jasmine's character and would've loved developing her without Shawn, Sugar ended up taking the spot because she'd be easier and more fun to write. I'm not sure how well I did here, trying to balance her need for attention, gross habits, and manipulation, but I like to think I did a good job. She was eliminated in 7th place because I wanted to focus more on the other characters, all of whom I like more (except maybe Beardo but I had plans for him.)

Courtney: Courtney could have easily won any season before. I have very mixed feelings about her, but I wanted to include her for a couple reasons. Not only was she cheated out, not allowed to compete in a tie breaker, and then suffering the monstrosity that was "Sundae Muddy Sundae" in season five, she needed a chance to get a fair elimination and her own, personal redemption.

Tyler: Tyler was a lot of fun to write! His whole life on the show was just a big joke to everyone. I brought him back for that reason alone (Plus in season three, my least favourite character, Duncan, got him eliminated.) I do have a bit of a connection with the name Tyler in real life, which I'll admit is part of the reason I didn't get rid of him for a while, but I started really liking his character. Plus, I doubt anyone expected him to make it that far. Sadly, by this point I had settled on a final two and just liked Leshawna more, so she made the top three over him.

Leshawna: Leshawna was my absolute favourite from the second episode, where she threw Heather off a cliff. Besides my personal bias, she was selected for a few reasons. Her infuriatingly unfair elimination in TDI (I swear the writers couldn't find any reason to get rid of her.) Her derailment in Season 2, and her poor performance in Season 3. Then she wasn't even an All Star. She was also a great inclusion due to her being a more sane contestant among the wacky cast. I knew by this point I wouldn't have her win, but I had to make sure she got a happy ending (especially after Chris blew up her damn trailer in TDI.) As strange as it seemed, she got a good prize and was able to prove herself as a player once again.

Max: I didn't know what I'd do with Max. The whole arc he had in the finale was originally planned for the season but I ended up cutting Scarlett (and regretting it later on.) His elimination in Pahkitew Island was extremely unfair to him. Sure, he was saved before by pure luck, but after helping outsmart Scarlett, Chris just gets rid of him because he's "done with evil." I'm sure they could have done better than that. Most of the cast hated him so a regular elimination would have made sense. In the end, I brought him in as the unlikely finalist, mostly as the evil to counter Dawn's good, while half-resolving their conflict after it had reached it's climax before (with Dawn finally giving up on him.)

Dawn: Let's be real: everyone loves Dawn. EVERYONE! Myself included. She provides a unique way to give characters depth, she's widely popular, and she didn't get nearly enough screen time on the show. I didn't have the heart to eliminate her, and unlike Leshawna, she wouldn't really enjoy a jet ski, would she? I had a lot of fun writing her and I can't imagine too many people being disappointed in her victory.

Now about those helpers. B and Scarlett were initially planned for the season but ended up being cut. B I had no real interest in writing. Scarlett having a long, drawn out version of her arc in the finale would have been fun. With Scarlett, I came very close to having her actually want to repair her friendship with Max, but I didn't want too many happy endings. Scarlett hasn't changed and probably never will, unfortunately for her.

So about that shiptease at the end...Courtney and Scott. Personally, I don't care who Courtney dates. I'm sure it was clear that romance was scarce in this fanfic. Not even much interaction between Sam and Dakota after his early elimination. No NoahxEva, no ZekexAnneMaria, nothing. So why did I include the interactions between Courtney and Scott? Because their relationship was an absolute mess! And I hadn't touched on it enough. Scott angrily votes out Courtney in season five, then regrets it right away? What is the deal between them anyway? In the end, I wanted to leave it open. Courtney and Scott might get back together, but as she stated, she has friendships to repair first. It's all part of the redemption theme. Also I like CourtneyxScott much better than CourtneyxDuncan. Duncan never once seemed totally happy with her, while Scott was head over heels for her! It was kinda cute, given the way he behaved in RotI. Whether they work things out after the show, which would probably be the best for them, is open to the reader to decide.

Now for those teams...I certainly regret four teams of five. Big mistake. It limited interaction and challenges. I also had no real plans for it. I knew I wanted Katie and Sadie to be split up, and I wanted Courtney to be on a team of generally weak players (hence the name, Western Weakfish,) while somehow managing to be the strongest team of the four, only losing one member before the four became two.

Final thoughts:

I do have to say I loved the friendships I forged within the season. Specifically Eva/Anne Maria, Dakota/Leshawna, Courtney/Leshawna, and Tyler/Brick. I do wish I had more rivalries and enemies though.

I absolutely regret writing in the present tense. Never again. Why did I even do that?

I hope at least one person caught my subtle Pokemon reference in Episode 9. I was kinda proud of it.

You may have noticed a few minor style changes in the earlier episodes. As I mentioned before, poor planning.

Special thanks to those of you who stuck with this the whole time and posted reviews regularly. It was a great motivator!

Future Plans:

This is definitely NOT my last Total Drama fanfic. I do have some ideas floating around for a completely original cast, but I'm hoping it'll have more planning. Keep an eye out for it. I may focus on other shows (cartoons mostly) first. I currently have ideas in mine for Phineas and Ferb, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Also, I share this account with a friend. Check out his work on our page too!

I know this and the finale is a lot of reading. I want to thank everyone who took the time to read and enjoy it with me! Hope to see some reviews from you guys on my future works! My writing can only get better! Thank you! ~Jake Cooper