Total Drama: Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty
is a Total Drama fanfic by VintageMadame. This season, on Total Drama: Chris McLean brings back twenty-one campers that are ready to compete once again for the million dollars. This time, the campers are divided into three teams based on their intelligence, athleticism, or commitment to beauty. There'll be action! There'll be romance! There'll be embarrassment! And at the end of it all, there'll be one winner.
This story contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Lindsay most of the time. The only name she seems to remember consistently is Leshawna's. This eventually leads to her being taken out of the game when she loses a tiebreaker to Sugar. They have to give the name of the person outside of their team who have received no votes, and although Lindsay guesses Sky before Sugar, she gets Sky's name wrong and Sugar wins simply by giving the same answer with the correct name.
- Lindsay also averts this trope during a challenge where she is required to identify a former contestant via a riddle. Her team is the only team to get the answer right first time.
- Alpha Bitch: Scarlett, especially while on the Brainy Beetles.
- Amazon Brigade: The Beautiful Butterflies after their double elimination.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Said almost word for word by Jasmine when talking about Eva's attitude towards their team.
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Scarlett's plan going into the merge relied heavily on Courtney, and the fact that she could easily convince her alliance members, DJ and Leshawna, to vote with them. However, when it comes time to make the call, Courtney goes with the opposing side, and Scarlett is voted out.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Courtney's dedication to her friendship with DJ is caused by this.
- Courtney helping both Lightning and Sky in back-to-back challenges is why Lightning is so adamant about voting off Leshawna over her.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The concept of the story was that characters each possessing one of these virtues in particular faced off against the others
- Big Bad: As the Evil Genius of the group, Scarlett thinks she will turn out to be this, but like in Pahkitew Island, it actually turns out to be Sugar.
- Birds of a Feather: Lightning and Sky's athleticism draw their attention to each other, almost from the very start. Brick and Jo also become a couple early on.
- The Bus Came Back: All of the contestants are from the original series.
- Eliminated campers that competed in this story make appearances in "All's Fair in Love and Pairs", "Escape and Ditch Mountain", and "Three's Company".
- Some Total Drama contestants that did not compete in this story make a guest appearance in "EX-treme Paintball Deer Hunter".
- The Chessmaster: Jasmine. Every vote that she had a say in went her way. She's the only contestant to achieve this.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Scarlett, who controls the game while they are still in teams, but is betrayed by Courtney soon after the merge.
- Enemy Mine: Despite making it to the Final Three, Dawn, Courtney, and Jasmine never voted together as a unit. Only when Sugar sabotages Lightning do they actively team up and try to get her eliminated.
- False Friend: More like false allies. Scarlett and Courtney form an alliance early on, but both plan to betray each other as they get further into the game. Courtney persuades her friends to vote out Scarlett first.
- For the Evulz: Sugar's reasoning for voting out DJ.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The TDI alliance, with Lindsay as Sanguine, Leshawna as Choleric, Courtney as Melancholic and DJ as Phlegmatic.
- Also the Beautiful Butterflies after their first few losses: Lindsay as Sanguine, Sugar as Choleric, Leshawna as Melancholic and Dawn as Phlegmatic.
- Also the Brawny Beavers after their first few losses: DJ as Phlegmatic, Jasmine as Sanguine, Lightning is Choleric, and Sky as Melancholic.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Lindsay and Leshawna, to the point where their entire team is aware that they will never vote for each other.
- Though a less prominent example, DJ and Lightning. They are the only two males left on the Brawny Beavers after Brick's elimination. Later on, they're the only two males left in the game after both of B's eliminations. Their friendship is examined more closely in the chapter after Sky is eliminated.
- Identically Powered Team: Invoked by Chris, who splits the teams into groups corresponding to their main values and talents - smart people are Brainy Beetles, strong people are Brawny Beavers and beautiful people are Beautiful Butterflies.
- Somewhat subverted as Dawn is on the Beautiful Butterflies, but shows less interest in her looks. However, as her talents are spiritual, neither of the other teams suited her.
- I Owe You My Life: Courtney's reason for throwing Invincibility to Lightning. Also Lightning's reason for convincing those outside the TDI alliance to vote out Leshawna over Courtney.
- Ironic Echo: Scarlett made her Evil All Along reveal in Pahkitew Island by angrily telling Max "I am not your sidekick!" When Courtney double-crosses Scarlett here, she repeats these same words to Scarlett.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sugar convinced Dawn to vote out Lindsay because she was part of a threatening alliance. While it wasn't the popular decision, it is the one that makes the most sense to anyone outside of the alliance.
- Love Is a Weakness: Lightning and Sky both initially see their feelings for each other as this. After Eva's elimination, they not only openly admit their feelings to each other, but also officially form an alliance.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Good news: Brick finally confesses his feelings to Jo. Bad news: he does it at a pivotal moment in a challenge. Their team loses, and the couple is promptly voted off.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: During the Talent Show episode, Sugar attempts to do a repeat of her performance from Pahkitew, but Chris immediately decides to have the Beautiful Butterflies lose so he wouldn't deal with Sugar's singing again.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Dawn, and her decision to vote out Lindsay. She was temporarily public enemy #1 to both Leshawna and Courtney, placed on the Villains Team, and eventually voted out because of it.
- Partially subverted when her and B won the right to return to the game. Still, she had to answer for it again later on.
- Pair the Spares: In a nonromantic sense, this is Lightning and Courtney in the Final Five. It's clear that they have a solid friendship, but the only reason they make a Final Two deal is because their original Final Two partners were eliminated.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Quite a few examples, but most prominently DJ and Courtney.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Scarlett delivers one to the Final Three.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: DJ and Lightning, with DJ as the Sensitive Guy and Lightning as the Manly Man.
- Shoot the Dog: Multiple times, the more likable contestant was voted off over a universally disliked one, due to the former being considered more of a threat.
- Take a Third Option: When Sugar was given the sole vote in the Final Six Campfire Ceremony, it appeared that she would either pick Courtney or Jasmine. She picked DJ.
- Taught by Experience: After four seasons of failure, Courtney finally seems to have learned something from her experiences and recognizes that she needs to take a different approach.
- Sky is also haunted by her failed relationship with Dave in Pahkitew Island. She takes this into account as she gets closer to Lightning, and makes an effort to not repeat the same mistakes with him.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Often the case with the Beautiful Butterflies, who succeed despite their dislike of each other. Averted by the Brawny Beavers, who are usually strong due to their true bond. Subverted by the Brainy Beetles, since only some of them feel this way.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Lightning and Courtney, to the point where a large part of their character arcs revolve around this trope.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Sugar, if it that's even possible. She chose to vote out DJ solely because she knew it would devastate Lightning and Courtney. Her sabotaging Lightning in the Final Five takes the cake.
- Undying Loyalty:
- DJ and Courtney have this with each other, as do Lightning and Sky. Both pairs have this loyalty tested at some point.
- Also Lindsay and Leshawna. Leshawna even votes out B to avenge Lindsay after she is eliminated.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Said word for word by Scarlett after the Brainy Beetles vote out Leonard.
