24TH: JUSTIN
46 POINTS
TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND // TOTAL DRAMA ACTION
1 NOMINATION
1 FINAL PASS
I never found Justin too interesting of a character. He was generally unlikeable - and someone that was hard to root for. I did t find him more interesting in TDA as he had more of a relevant storyline than 'the hot one everyone's in love with', but still wasn't enough to Mohave me rate him too highly. I think he probably should've been out before the final, but this placement is justified in comparison to everyone remaining.
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I find him pretty much ‘meh’. I can appreciate that they utilised a character who literally said like, one line (or two) before the TDDDDI special.
Who would’ve thought the silent guy who got eliminated fourth in TDI would become one of the major antagonists of the following seasons? Definitely not me. Sadly I just didn’t find him too intriguing as an antagonist. Once Courtney stepped in he took a backseat, especially since his looks and charm, his main tool for manipulation, stopped working on people at that point.
His 'manipulation' was weak, at that, in my opinion. He only really effectively used manipulation to guilt Gwen into throwing the next challenge for her team (which was bull**** if you ask me, Trent chose to throw the challenges, Gwen was fully against it - sure the Grips didn't 'believe' Gwen's version of the story but Gwen was not responsible for Trent's actions) and using Beth and Lindsay for votes, and that strategy stopped when they stopped finding him attractive.
And that's when I realise Justin is not as good as a villain as I remember. He sounded too cocky and arrogant in regards to his abilities and strategy, but his strategy was relying on two team members in an alliance and barely putting effort into challenges. Sure, he organised a "guys' alliance", but Duncan practically took hold of it and orchestrated LeShawna's elimination himself. And after that? Justin was eliminated.
Despite being a bad gameplayer, he was at least interesting, and it was good to see his character be developed in such a way that has barely been replicated when early cuts have returned for other seasons (see: Cody just being Cody in TDWT; Tyler and Noah not doing anything noteworthy or having any growth in TDWT; Sam literally just being... there in TDAS).
Justin is a character I ranked over some characters I arguably like more by virtue of him being more developed and 'interesting' than the others. I certainly like Justin, but I don't hold a high opinion of him.
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the only thing i remember him in TDI for was the painting his eyes during the sleep challenge
and as for TDA Alejandro did the "hot male villain" better
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justin was honestly my least favourite total drama character am not doing a big write up but he was literally the most irrel person in tdi and didn’t say anything then in tda he thought he was t’star sorry luv no, he was way too big for his boots and tried to manipulate lindseh & beth but the legends outlasted him by a good bit, see when you do clownery!
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One of the most underrated characters in the whole show. Justin gets a lot of flack in both of his seasons I feel is very uncalled for. He may not have spoken much in TDI, but I thought his jokes were pretty funny and less bothersome than Ezekiel, Noah, or Katie and Sadie. But in the TDI special, he was one of the best there! People think his jump to a villain was random but 1) we didn't know enough about him for it to not make sense and 2) this special was a way of transitioning him anyways. Watching him mess with pretty much all of the cast was a great subplot to have and a highlight of the episode.
Then in TDA, he got even better. Like I mentioned with Josee and Jacques, to be a good villain you don't necessarily have to be a successful one, just an entertaining one. I'll never get why Justin got so much critique as a villain just because he ended up failing. If he ended up being the main villain and always successful at what he did, he'd not only reduce Alejandro's merit but it also wouldn't make sense for someone of Justin's intelligence. It makes more sense to show that using your looks can only get you so far, and that that novelty can wear off. And another thing I loved is that only did they make him a hilarious, goofy comic relief out of this, but we also learn how self conscious he is. Justin is someone who never had to work for anything in life and thought his looks could get him places, but eventually there reaches points where he has to figure out how to try other means of accomplishing things and it makes him quite the complex character.
On the humour side, I don't get how people can't laugh at moments like Beth thinking they were all being kidnapped and Justin trying to calm her down by asking her to look at his face, her to cry and him to turn scream "OH NOOO! I'M HIDEOUS!" or his elimination, where after being subjected to gory and violent moments of pain for the entire duration of a FAIRY TALE episode, he rants "With me gone this show just got 80% less beautiful!" only to smash his face at the limousine and sobbing "Alright, 79!"<33333333 He had lots of other funny moments too and I encourage you people to watch TDA back to truly realise how fantastic characters like him (and Harold) are. Well deserved of my final pass