Well, it's over. Thank you all so much for your support, your constructive criticism (especially early on), and your kind words. I honestly had no faith in myself before Nations happened, and now look. It's done. So, before anything else, let's discuss why Nations is the way it is…

The biggest factor and complaint about Nations is, of course, the tone of the story. AKA, how dark it is. Some have found this charming and refreshing, some have found it off-putting and cynical, and some have even been scared by it. But, I consider it more along the lines of realism through a cynic's eyes. The overall message of Nations is basically: "No matter who you are, where you're from, what you believe in, ect., life is going to suck. Most human beings, regardless of location and beliefs, are inherently awful and flawed. And, sometimes, in this dark world, the villains do in fact win." That was the message I was attempting to portray with TDN and I believe it caught on fairly quickly.

Now that that depressingness is out of the way, let's talk about the characters!

24th place- Eun Hyong (South Korea): Eun's entire intention was simply to be a goofy first boot. A cute positive force that was also sort of meant to forshadow things to come. Since the first boot was a positive character. She was also somewhat of a tool to display Abdi's power over the votes with his cheating. I wasn't too big on writing her at first. But from the losers episode onward, she was fun.

23rd place- Yotam Davihan (Israel): Yotam was filler, at first. A character archetype I loathe that was meant to leave early and nothing else. But, from the losers episode onward, I decided to play more into his eccentric side. And oh boy, was he a blast to write, then. He was always going to leave early, but I never imagined he'd be as fun to write.

22nd place- Abdi Mehraja (India): The whole purpose of Abdi was to be a fakeout. With so many strategic and large-presenced villains in Nations, it was unclear at first who the main villain would be. Abdi was meant to be everyone's first guess. Given how his cheating managed to cause the first elimination to go his way, then grant his team immunity in the next challenge. But, his cheating was found out and he was eliminated, faking quite a few people out. Post-elimination, Abdi was kinda fun. He was more of a joke about how bitter some people get when they're voted off in these types of games (myself included).

21st place- Gloria Da Costa (Portugal): Going into this story, in the beta, Gloria was the character I had the least plans with. I had no idea what to do with her. I wasn't sure how long her character could stick around before it became dry. So I decided to have her leave early. But, now that I know how to make it work, maybe I'll try Gloria again…

20th place- Débora Santivos (Brazil): Débora was another filler character. A catty, UTRN filler character that just wanted to fuck and nothing else. The whole idiot savant about sex and sexuality thing came last minute, believe it or not. But, beyond that, she was just kind of a flat joke character who's purpose was to boost Jacob's ego even further and be cannon-fodder.

19th place- Khalid Amini (Saudi Arabia): Khalid, like Abdi, was another fakeout character and, like Débora or Eun, was more fodder and to show the main villain's power over those around him. I've seen characters similar to Khalid in stories like this and it goes one of two ways. Either they leave super early, or they develop. But, ultimately, their temper always gets the better of them. Khalid was more in the middle. There were signs that he'd develop, but he was preyed on by the alliance that was running the team, his anger was triggered, and he was sent home.

18th place- Mustafa Demir (Turkey): Similar to Gloria, I had no clue how long Mustafa would last without me running out of ideas. Mustafa was, believe it or not, actually gonna make the final 6 at first. He was sort of just the positive love interest guy, akin to Trent or Mike, but with a really cool gimmick, weapons. People rag on Nations for being so negative and not having any positivity. And, while just about everyone in Nations is some shade of grey in morality. Mustafa is the only purely white moralled character. Plus, him leaving early allowed for more of a twist on the shoehorned romance trope in every single Total Drama story.

17th place- Da Li (China): I actually really hated writing Da. And he was actually gonna leave even later than he did. He was going to be the double boot with Makoto as the merge began. But I found that stupid later on. His overplaying was more or less an indication of his development happening all at once. I wasn't crazy about it. Da was more of another tool. To show how the villains can win, with Makoto, the one who mercilessly bullied Da, outlasting him. And to show, given Hans' pre-merge domination, that Hans fucked up at times, since Da was blindsided from him.

16th place- Olivia Wilson (Australia): Olivia was a character I regretted putting in from day 1. I honestly hate characters like Olivia. Zippy, loud, positive characters with nothing else to them but that. I mean, one could argue that Eun is also that, but Eun also has her shipping obsession. But, what I am proud of, is how she was unintentionally (at first) a subversion of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope. Basically, it's where a stoic guy meets an eccentric girl and falls for her. But, with Dmitri/Olivia. The girl falls for the guy...and it fails. That was more or less the point of Olivia. To have a love story crash and burn.

15th place- Jacob Smith (United States): Straight up. Jacob was no doubt my favorite character to write in this entire story. Unfortunately, his place in the game was comedy and a shock boot, which would lead further into everyone's hatred of Carmen and her build up to her big fall. Jacob was a lot of fun, though. And, honestly, in terms of comedy, I believe he carried the entire pre-merge. Jacob is the only one I'm confirming 100%. But he's a lock for All-Stars.

14th place- Emma Kauffman (Canada): If there's any character that I'm the most proud of the outcome of, it's Emma. Believe it or not, Emma was originally going to just be a jab at dull CPP supporting characters, whilst being one herself. But, as time progressed, what she is now just kinda…happened. But frankly, I'm not regretful in the slightest. There are too many situations in these TD stories where someone is a complete anti-evil hypocrite and yet they're still seen as a hero. No. Emma was how those people should be seen. Just as, if not more evil than those she's against. But, ultimately in the end, she failed. While it's still a loss for evil, it's also a victory for evil, given her enemies. I believe Emma was a villain that really drove the point and message of Nations to the fullest. Humans are flawed. Humans are awful. Just varying levels of awful. I absolutely loved writing Emma and, to be honest, I'm really proud of how she turned out.

13th place- Carmen Fernández (Spain): Like Emma, Carmen was meant to be a lot more different that how she turned out. She was originally going to be a jab at dull as hell CP toneless stratbots. But, again, like Emma, her sanity slippage just kinda...happened. She was also going to make it even farther than she did. But, with everyone on her team hating her, it would've felt forced.

12th place- Makoto Jaakuno (Japan): Makoto was a ton of fun to write and I don't care about all the hate he gets in the slightest. Makoto was definitely a character I knew I'd love doing as soon as I began and, as a friend of mine said, I feel like those that don't like Nations turn to Makoto to see what Nations is about. Which is false. Lol. He was always going to be in the merge double boot. But who he was with kept changing. First it was Da, then it was Emma. Then I finally settled on Clara.

11th place- Clara Fontaine (France): I felt like Clara was the hardest to write for, in my opinion. I didn't really know what to do 100% and I kinda just went with my gut. Like Thema, she also got a development story. But it was more of going from a full on bitch, to channeling her bitchiness. I don't know. I like her as a character. But I didn't really like writing her.

10th place- Jafari Hajjar (Egypt): Jafari originally was gonna be booted a lot earlier. My original intention was just to be a kindhearted dork that worked with Carmen and was booted pre-merge because of that. But lol that didn't work. So I figured that he could be the one that drives Thema's development forward and vice versa. As Thema grew less cold and hateful, Jafari grew more cynical. And I figured the only way he could possibly and logically lose was something like the auto-boot challenge. Which Andres was originally going to lose in.

9th place- Anna Johannsson (Sweden): Anna was actually a lot of fun to write. Amongst all of the doom, gloom, and intelligence in Nations, stood a naive, adorable ray of sunshine. She also actually wasn't planned to be Hans' love interest at first. Just his closest ally that he'd cut off right before the merge to further challenge himself. But, like a lot of my beta ideas, I found that dumb. However, she was another example of how Hans doesn't always get his away. Her elimination was Sadaf's upper hand for a tad. But, all in all, Anna was always going to be a lovable sweetheart that made it halfway through the game.

8th place- Lacey Greensept (England): I really didn't enjoy writing Lacey. I knew going into it I wouldn't like writing Lacey. And I'm not happy with how she turned out. Yeah, she's the standard Lawful Good character a dark season like Nations needs. But I felt like her presence was forced. I just didn't care for writing her. Although. She was actually never going to align with Sadaf. That was a last minute decision.

7th place- Isaiah Williams (Jamaica): I'm all over the place with Isaiah. I really should've had him do more leading in the pre-merge. I'm proud of the end result with his merge plot. But I didn't like writing it. Sadaf's entire alliance was kind of a trainwreck imo.

6th place- Rosa De Lucca (Italy): I'm actually surprised Rosa got the positive reception she got. Her entire story was going to be development into being less apathetic. But, like a shit ton of the decisions made in Nations, everything else happened last minute. Her romance with Andres, her reality TV interest, her strategic skill. The only things that really were planned for her from the start were her making the merge, developing, and winning immunity in the monster fight challenge.

5th place- Dmitri Stofski (Russia): Dmitri is another character I'm really proud of in all honesty. I took a common stereotype that's in every cartoon ever and gave it depth. Rather than being just a big dumb wall of muscle, like most Husky Russkie characters are, Dmitri was wise. He was the voice of reason. He wasn't the smartest with books or strategy. But he knew how the world worked and what should be done to not fuck up. But, his lack of alliancemates and his supreme challenge skill was always going to bite him hard in the ass late into the merge.

4th place- Andres Garcia (Mexico): Like I said, Andres was actually going to leave earlier in the story. First in the auto-boot challenge, then in the final 8. But I felt like, out of every positive character, Nations needed him the most. A semi-awkward, goofy comic relief character that would also have the darkness of the story get to him. Which is what happened in the situation where all of his friends hated each other and he had to choose a side. I think Andres worked well as the positive force the endgame sorely needed.

3rd place- Sadaf Najafi (Iran): Sadaf was actually going to be my first choice for the winner. Actually, everyone in the final 3 was going to be the winner at one point or another. Sadaf actually was the winner of Nations until about episode 3, where it flip flopped between Hans and Thema until the late pre-merge. And I'm actually kinda glad I didn't have her as the winner. Her story was a large uphill battle that she just couldn't win because her last two opponents hated her guts. Sadaf was fun for what she was worth, though. And I think, along with Yotam, Khalid, Mustafa, and Jafari, I've made some of the first Middle Eastern characters (descent or otherwise) in Total Drama anything. So that's pretty neat.

2nd place- Thema Ayensu (Ghana): Thema was basically my contribution to the ever popular "angry bitch develops" story. And I think Nations was a good season to utilize it. Like I said with Sadaf, Thema was considered to be the winner for quite some time. But I decided against it. 1. Because of the Duncan Idol (Which, surprise, was also a last minute decision) and 2. Which will be explained when I talk about...

1st place- Hans von Böse (Germany): Ah, Hans. The story's main villain. No matter what happened in the story, Hans was always going to finish with at least 2nd. I think his story actually changed the least out of anyone else's. He took the game by force, played hard, and earned his win. All while adding to the fact that the main villain of the story actually won in the end. However, it wasn't supposed to be a complete letdown. Sure Hans was the villain. But he's also by far not the most evil villain. Yes he was rude, yes he was smug, and yes he was an arrogant douchebag. But, on average, that's the worst he got, especially compared to such characters like Carmen and Makoto. The bare bones point of Hans as a winner was to give another victory to the villains. Which the fan section of Total Drama is sorely lacking. And I stand by in saying that I believe he was a good winner as far as the season's tone goes. Dominating, but never always getting his way. Evil, but certainly not the worst.

I've been nodding at it a lot. So here's the first draft of the Total Drama Nations elimination order:

Pre-Merge:

Eun

Yotam

Abdi

Gloria

Débora

Khalid

Jafari

Emma

Olivia

Jacob

Clara

Anna

Merge:

Da

Makoto

Andres

Lacey

Carmen

Rosa

Mustafa

Dmitri

Isaiah

Thema

Hans

Sadaf

Overall, I had serious doubts as the season began. Hell, early on, I wanted to quit. But as I kept going, I realized that people liked this story. That alone gave me the confidence to finish it and continue doing many more of these stories. Yes Nations was dark. Yes it was somber. But I believe it adds a splash of cruel reality that these stories ever so desperately need. And I think it was accomplished and executed well. Expect more from me in the future. And expect the message of humanity's disgusting nature to be carried on in future installments of the Total Drama Nations section of my stories.