Tyler is a major sports fan, is constantly wearing a track suit, and is given the title "The Jock". He's also The Klutz and absolutely sucks at sports.
Sadie is given the title "The Sweet Girl's Friend", connecting her to Katie and giving off the implication that Katie is of higher importance than her, but between the two, Sadie ends up lasting the longer.
During the first challenge of Island, Heather argues with Leshawna that "At least I'm popular". Not only does her family not like her and it's implied she had no friends, but by the end of the season, she's become the most hated character among the contestants. On the contrary, Leshawna is one of the most popular contestants in the first generation, with even Courtney being unable to find any bad qualities of hers in Island.
In Island, Ezekiel is the first of the contestants to get eliminated, but in the special episode "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", he ends up as the first contestant to find the million dollar case.
Throughout World Tour, DJ is always the last contestant to be declared safe whenever his team lost, and would have been eliminated in episode 3 had Harold not quit, and yet he ultimately makes it the furthest out of any member of Team Victory.
In World Tour, Cody votes for Sierra every time they’re up for elimination. The one time he doesn’t in “Awwwww, Drumheller”, Sierra gets disqualified anyway.
In Island, Gwen goes into a Heroic BSoD when she thinks that Trent is cheating on her with Heather, and Duncan later states that he thinks that two-timing is "messed up". In World Tour, a major plot point is based around Duncan cheating on Courtney with Gwen.
In All-Stars, when Gwen was put in the villains team, she protested, stating she was nice. In a confessional, she bitterly states that she spent seasons being a nice girl, only to be in the villain team. While Gwen was never as bad as her new teammates, she was not exactly nice, being at best a cold and anti-social Jerk with a Heart of Gold. It was only in this season that she turns into a complete Nice Girl.
In All-Stars, the teams of the season, the Heroic Hamsters and the Villainous Vultures, are respectively made up of the heroic and villainous characters of the previous seasons. The Big Bad of the season, Mal, is on the Heroic Hamsters.
In Pahkitew Island, Scarlett clearly regards Max as an incompetent idiot, and yet he ultimately ends up being the one to foil her plans in the end.
Sugar manages to get Ella eliminated by getting her to sing when she was told she wasn't allowed to, and it ends up being Sugar's own horrible singing that gets her eliminated.
In the spin-off show Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, the Geniuses team claim that their extreme dedication to detail is their greatest strength, and yet it's that same dedication that gets them eliminated. Ellody Lampshades this after the fact.
As pointed out by Chris and Damien himself, Damien just can't get voted out (he can't quit the show either as he'd owe the producers one million dollars) when he wants but is eliminated in the same episode where he finally wants to compete.
Priya had voted for Ripper to be eliminated several times due to him using her as a human shield, yet he was eliminated the one time she didn't.
Damien acts as the biggest Shipper on Deck for Caleb and Priya. Him pointing out Caleb flirting with her to Zee is what triggers the latter's Keeping Secrets Sucks plot, with Zee eventually unable to take the pressure and revealing that Caleb was supposedly merely using Priya to get further in the game, which caused the couple to drift apart and all their shippers to turn against Caleb.
In Part 1 of the reboot, Julia states she doesn't like having friends whereas MK is glad she hasn't made any. Come Part 2, they've formed a Villainous Friendship with each other.
