Please read the previous chapter, "Input Cheat Code" before reading this. It will make more sense that way and explain what's happened.
Level 7, Metal Gear Stupid: An episode based on the stealth genre that wouldn't have been very plot heavy since the previous chapter had a fair amount of character stuff. The challenge took place inside of a prison, with the objective being for everyone to sneak their way out of it without being caught by guards. This was made extra challenging by the guest guard TD Vet cameo, Duncan. Duncan proves to be especially troublesome for Lance and Jacques as he sees them as the biggest challenge, while they would otherwise steamroll the challenge without an even more experienced criminal working against them. It appears that this will cost their team the win, but during the last stretch of the challenge Kyle fucks something up that makes him and Zane fall behind. Blue Bomber win, while Lance and Jacques edge it out for the Ghosts, sending the Mushrooms to elimination. The bottom two is Kyle and Zane, but the curse is finally broken as Kyle is voted off.
24th: Kyle
So funny story about Kyle. He was originally going to be the second person voted off. I had even started the platforming chapter while still under the impression he would be voted off in it. What changed? Well, Kyle's creator became a very enthusiastic reviewer and even PMed me about his excitement for Kyle's role in the story. I felt bad, because the guy seemed so nice and I was about to boot his character immediately. So I decided to let him stick around longer and made the curse storyline as a result. But even still, I knew he wouldn't be a believable merger so this was where he was destined to go. Had I not done the switch, all of the mushroom boots would have been moved up one, so this is instead where Lee Lee would have gone.
Level 8, TDLU Jam: This was going to be the sports genre episode with a rather fun twist. The three teams would compete in a variety of challenges and each had their own coach. The Ghosts had Jo, the Bombers had Lightning, and the Mushrooms? They had Tyler. But in a funny, if predictable twist, Tyler leads the Mushrooms to victory. It's also at this point where we begin to see that Zane and Alice may be interested in each other while Lincoln is trying to get Lukas and Xilier to hookup. Over with the Bombers Aden is beginning to connect well with Riley, which is making Lexi jealous. She wants to vote off Riley as a result, but Trevor is really getting fed up with Rowan's attitude and her false sense of security in her alliance. Meanwhile with the Ghosts, not much happens for them plot-wise but Morella has really grated on people with her hyperness. It's also found that when people try to confront her and get serious talking to her, she becomes oddly distant and runs away from the drama. This is just her personality, but Lance and Jacques see it as a good enough excuse as any to vote her off. Meanwhile for the Bombers it seems Trevor won out and in a surprise, Rowan gets the boot which crumbles the Beautiful People's Alliance.
23rd: Morella
22nd: Rowan
I don't have much to say about Morella, she was always a sort of hyper Pinkie Pie-type in my mind and her trait of not doing well with serious confrontations would come into play for her elimination episode. Meanwhile Rowan obviously seemed potentially a bigger player, but when I decided I wanted a major villain on each team she just barely didn't make the cut over the others. I had her alliance clash with Trevor's and he was going to win out since he was more of a threat.
Level 9, Gaglaxian: Bit of an odder genre theme idea, this one is based on space shoot em ups which were really popular back in the day. Dakotazoid was planned for the cameo as some sort of space queen. Didn't have a whole lot planned for this one other than respective couples becoming closer together, with Lexi now more actively trying to sway Aden to her side. Also Lance tries to finally get Deborah on board as an ally, but she seems uninterested which causes problems. The Mushrooms ultimately win the challenge, but the Bombers lose worse and face elimination. Once again Lexi wants Riley out, but after a desperate and paranoid Ryan is caught eavesdropping on a meeting, it's the narcissist that faces the music.
21st: Ryan
Not much to say about Ryan. He was mostly there to be a number for Rowan's alliance. Character-wise he was very similar to Justin so I never got too original with him, he was going to be bros with Garrett but never much more.
Level 10, Rhythm Heathen Fever: A pretty fun one, this would have been based on Rhythm games. So the teams were tasked with putting together a musical performance that would be judged by a vet cameo panel of Trent, Sugar, and Beardo. Sugar, obviously, would have been the hardest judge to please. Didn't plan much for the challenge portion, I just know the Mushrooms would have done a sort of rock/metal rendition that got them the win. Ticked off from being turned down by Deborah but still viewing her as a potential ally to scoop up, Lance wants to target John as he's become her closest ally. Meanwhile lone wolf Garrett is given a choice on which side to hang with on his team. He ultimately sides with Riley and Iris as he doesn't trust Trevor. John is voted out with ease, but for the Bombers it's actually a tie vote between Garrett and Trevor. They compete in a tie breaker and Garrett is actually about to win. This forces Trevor to act, and he reveals that he has found the immunity idol. Chris stops the tie breaker as Garrett was moments for victory, and declares Trevor safe and that Garrett is out. Ticked seeing the idol used so early, Chris has it hidden again to be used once more sometime in the season.
20th: John
19th: Garrett
I actually quite liked both of these characters so it would have been a shame eliminating them both at once. John was funny and made for some good references, while Garrett was a bit more fleshed out and had fun interactions with others. Plus his rivalry with Lukas was one of the few storylines with people from different teams. But John gets screwed over for being quirky and attached to Deborah while Garrett is screwed by the idol. I considered making Deborah and John a ship over their shared interest of anime, but I didn't want to force too many relationships so I decided to keep them just friendly.
Bonus Level, Aftermath 2. Rise and Fall of the Beautiful People's Alliance: Another aftermath, where the focus is on the BPA and how they went from helping decide the eliminations for Rowley and Billy to all getting kicked off. Trevor is the villain most focused on throughout. We also see Kyle face the music when confronted by the Mushroom teammates he outlasted.
Level 11, Plants vs Riley: In this tower defense based challenge, teams have to fortify their defense to protect against waves of enemy robots designed and controlled by B. Despite what the title may make you think, the Bombers lose the worst while the Ghosts win the challenge. Deborah suspects Lance was behind John's elimination, so she now refuses to acknowledge him and won't work together. This gives Lance the idea to turn his attention to someone new, while Jacques and Ellie seem to be hitting it off too well. As for the Mushrooms, Lukas is beginning to reluctantly accept that he's digging Xilier, while Zane and Alice bond. At an anti-climactic elimination ceremony, a helpless Iris faces the slingshot since despite Lexi's best wishes, Iris is seen as more expendable than Riley.
18th: Iris
Another one without much to say. Her and Ellie had similar personalities so only one was able to go farther than the other. With her friendship with Riley she was going to become a bit more assertive but overall she was doomed to be a pre-merge boot.
Level 12, Trev-ris: A challenge based on puzzle games, with puzzles designed by none other than Harold. The Bombers are finally able to break their suck streak here thanks to Aden and Riley working wonderfully together and they win. At this point both Zane/Alice and Lukas/Xilier have been established, so that's going to come to a head. Meanwhile, Lance has decided on Clara as his new potential ally and to do that Caleb needs to go. Caleb is voted out rather easily, finally figuring out that Clara wanted to date him as he's sent away in the slingshot. But for the Mushrooms we have a tie where Andrea and Xilier must face off. It's close, but Andrea ultimately wins and Xilier says her goodbyes to Lukas and Lincoln.
17th: Caleb
16th: Xilier
Caleb was a more low key character despite placing fairly well. He was going to interact more with people like Deborah and Kusa in the lead up to this elimination, but for the most part it was about him being oblivious to Clara's advances. He was originally going to be eliminated where John was, but once Caleb's submitter became one of my most consistent reviewers I decided to maximize how long he stuck around. As for Xilier, I didn't think much of her. She would have good energy and a likable attitude, but outside of her role with Lukas and Lincoln I didn't have much planned.
Level 13, Star Faux: Rail shooters time, this time with a cameo I didn't really plan out by Jasmine. This one is won by the Ghosts, while the Mushrooms lose. You would think this is the end of the line for Lukas, but in a twist it's discovered by Andrea that Alice was a cutter. Due to her warped sense of what is good and bad for the viewing audience, this turns Andrea against her own ally. Despite Zane's best efforts to reason with Andrea, he's unable to budge her and Alice is blindsided by her elimination. Meanwhile for the Ghosts, Lance has successfully exploited Clara's desire for a relationship to rope her in as an ally, while the Aden/Lexi/Riley triangle is getting heated.
15th: Alice
Alice was pretty cool and had a slow burn to relevance by becoming on of the allies to Zane and Andrea, with a ship planned for her and Zane specifically. This was going to lead to her background of cutting herself coming up to turn Andrea against her, due to Andrea's warped mindset. I debated on how much I'd have Zane go along with Andrea. He wouldn't blame Alice for what she used to do, but Andrea was going to throw his relationship with her in his face as a potential weakness and I pondered on having him also betray her or not. In the end it wouldn't really matter as between Lukas and Lincoln's votes, Andrea would have her voted out regardless.
Level 14, Relative Evil: My long awaited horror challenge, begun by Shawn who escorts the team through a horde of zombies to their respective challenges. Each team has a unique challenge like in the Arcade one. The Mushrooms are tasked with surviving in a single room in a Five Nights at Freddy's reference. The Bombers have to go about a more stealthy trek through an asylum, referencing Outlast. And finally the Ghosts have a bit more of an arsenal to defend themselves against specific horrors in a Silent Hill themed challenge. In the end, Lukas wins for his team after initially brushing off the challenge as no big deal but nearly getting freaked out in the end. Jacques, who is quite annoyed at Lance securing another ally behind his back, ponders if he can trust Lance and thinks over how to keep him in line. As for the Bombers, it's time for the love triangle to finally end, while Trevor watches on in amusement. In a shock twist, it's Kusa who is voted off for the Ghosts, as Jacques voted alongside Deborah to try and keep Lance in line. Meanwhile we get yet another tie breaker between Lexi and Riley, with Aden now defecting to the later's side. It seems Lexi is going to win, but Riley digs deep and overcomes her.
14th: Kusa
13th: Lexi
Kusa was always going far just by virtue of being submitted by my oldest friend on the website. He was originally a merger, but when I overhauled the elimination order after losing it once, I couldn't figure out HOW he fit into the merge and ultimately figured he had to go here. I liked him, he was going to become a much more active part of the team leading up to this boot, but he was never a huge name from the competitors. As for Lexi, she was another one of my favorite to write thanks to her potential accent and more assholeish personality. I couldn't see letting her merge, so I let her go as far as I could.
Level 15, Call of Booty: Unlike the rail variety from earlier, here is the straight up shooter genre episode. Complete with a war theme, it's hosted by Brick. Despite rising tensions between Zane and Andrea after the Alice fallout, they're able to manage a win alongside Lukas and Lincoln. It's hard fought between the now extra small Bombers vs the Ghost, but the Bombers cinch the win. Jacques believes he's hashed things out with Lance, explaining that booting Kusa was necessary. But Lance secretly is out for revenge since he now views Jacques as too big a threat. Alongside Clara, he unfolds a series of shenanigans that divide up the votes. Jacques votes Deborah, Deborah votes Lance, Ellie votes Clara. But Lance and Clara? They vote out Jacques. A blindsided and furious Jacques implores Ellie to avenge him as he eats the final elimination before the merge.
12th: Jacques
Jacques was always locked in as the final pre-merge elimination and that never changed. His partnership with Lance was to be a formidable one, but it couldn't last into the merge. Between Lance bringing in Clara and Jacques getting too comfy with Ellie, the two would grow to distrust each other more and more with this being the climax. Both are fairly similar in character types, but I had the impression that Lance was more sleazy and cocky with his criminal ways while Jacques was more serious and a bit more empathetic. Thus Lance was more villainous and the one that would do the ultimate betrayal.
Bonus Level, Aftermath 3. Not So Thick as Thieves: Since the first aftermath highlighted Andrea and the second focused on Trevor, this one puts Lance in the spotlight. Jacques has to answer to his former team about his role in their eliminations, while others such as Lexi and Alice think over their fates and how things turned out between them and their respective storylines.
Level 16, Defaced Attorney: It's the merge! To celebrate, Chris brings back all the eliminated contestants with our mergers for a very awkward party catered by DJ. But then Chris is suddenly murdered! Not really, it's the setup for our visual novel themed murder mystery challenge. One of the eliminated contestants killed Chris, and the mergers are getting offed one by one as they try to solve the case. It comes down to Trevor and Zane, and when all seems lost Zane cracks it. For some reason explaining how it went down in the form of making a comic book, Zane reveals that the culprit was none other than Nathan! The case solved, he earns immunity and someone has to go. A LOT of bullshit happened leading up to the merge, with three major villains being responsible in the forms of Lance, Andrea, and Trevor. But one of them sticks out like a sore thumb and is unwillingly subject to much of the blame being placed on him and his edgyness. As a result, he takes the fall and is eliminated.
11th: Trevor
Despite filling the role of the Blue Bomber's main villain, compared to Andrea and Lance I always knew Trevor would be the major villain leaving first. Out of all the OCs I took on, he was by far the strangest. In his application he's literally described as a sociopath that feels remorse for his actions. That... doesn't make sense, as that goes against what a sociopath is. In general he also struck me as the most edgy villain, not only due to being described as a sociopath but also in appearance. In the end, I think he worked fine as a big pre-merge villain but once that merge hit he was gonzo.
Level 17, Need for Greed: The racing challenge, and our first auto elimination as the loser of the race would get eliminated. There would be use of Mario Kart-like items in the challenge, something I've done for the most recent BOTG chapter, so this was anyone's game. Also we had Rodney on Lakitu duty, fishing out any racers that go off track. But ultimately, with Andrea and Lance forming a partnership, they decide to target big threat Lukas and force him to lose. Meanwhile Aden and Riley have established themselves as the main couple of the season, Deborah and Ellie begin to work together with their mutual dislike for Lance, Zane ponders how much longer he can put up with Andrea, and Clara is none the wiser to Lance's manipulation. Lincoln is just vibing, but he's really sad to see Lukas leave, and Lukas admits before leaving that he considers Lincoln to be a friend.
10th: Lukas
In my first draft elimination order, Lukas was one of my original finalists. Between his unique design and personality that left itself open for good development I thought he'd be an easy pick for a sort of anti hero esque finalist like a Duncan or Heather. But in the end I think I pretty sloppily handled the pacing of Lukas' development and soon enough I figured it would be better to let Lincoln go farther.
Level 18, Yeets of Rage: It's a beat em up chapter. Eva is encountered as a particularly viscous enemy. The contestants are allowed to progress through the challenge by any means necessary, with Andrea ultimately winning immunity. With her safe, Zane decides to try and get former teammate Lincoln on board for the vote. It's close, but Lance and Andrea successfully vote off Ellie, who laments that she wasn't able to get her revenge on Lance. However, she ensures the remaining outsiders are made aware of his villainous ways before going.
9th: Ellie
Fittingly enough, alongside Lukas she was the original first draft finalist. While Lukas filled a sort of anti hero role, Ellie made for a more straightforward meek underdog that develops into a competent threat protag role, and she would have had a direct rivalry with the main villain after Jacques gets eliminated. She stayed a finalist longer than Lukas, but was ultimately bumped down since it seemed a bit too obvious.
Level 19, Immoral Kombat: Another one I had been long looking forward to, the fighting game challenge. Everyone is given the chance to customize a fight suit created by Cameron. They're then pit together in an 8 person tournament, dudes fighting on one side of the bracket and girls on the other. Andrea and Lance are now top targets, and only one immunity is up for grabs. In round 1, Lance beats Lincoln with ease, while Zane is able to outmaneuver Aden. For the girls, Andrea easily bests Clara, while Riley reluctantly defeats Deborah. In the semi finals while it's close, Andrea takes out Riley. People expect Lance to crush it as well, but Zane is more savvy with the fight suit and wins. Feeling safe, Andrea talks down to Zane and tells him to throw the fight. Finally fed up with her, Zane instead defeats her and takes immunity for himself. He exposes just how insane her ideologies have been, specifically citing the Alice elimination. Both villains are seemingly prone, but it's Andrea that's voted off.
8th: Andrea
Probably the most interesting of the 3 main villains, Andrea was a character that believed she was a hero fighting for the audience's best interest. That's what made her appealing to me, in her own warped mind she was the good guy. She could have easily been the final 3 villain if I wanted, but I think Zane beating her here makes for a good fate for her.
Level 20, Carlavania: Originally Adventure games was it's own episode (titled "The Legend of Zane, Duh"), but at some point I cut the episode and combined it with the Metroidvania one to just make a general Action Adventure games episode. Though it leans mostly on the Metroidvania angle, putting everyone in a huge maze they must fight their way out of. I had Alejandro written down as the cameo, but I don't remember what he was going to do. While Lance fights hard for the immunity, Deborah beats him and takes it instead. Oddly calm, Lance tries to rope Zane into voting with him. But Zane is savvy, and after comparing notes with Deborah they hatch a plan. Before the elimination ceremony it's revealed to be a double elimination. The first one out is Aden, who received votes from Lance and Clara as he wanted to break up the showmance. Anticipating that he's the second boot of the night, Lance reveals that he has the immunity idol that was hidden again and uses it to nullify votes against him. This would be major... if he was the one with the most votes. Only Aden voted for him, anticipating that he was going to be the other boot. Everyone else voted for Clara, as they had a feeling Lance had the idol and wanted to make him waste it. Furious at now being down the idol and his ally, when Clara tries to leave on an affectionate note Lance angrily reveals he had no feelings for her and just wanted to use her for a vote. Aden tries to console her as they're eliminated, and now Lance finds himself on the bad end of a 1 vs 4 situation.
7th/6th: Clara and Aden
I briefly considered Aden as a potential finalist but dropped it as I figured it would be shades of Cameron as one. He sort of accidently found himself in my planned love triangle storyline. Due to the nature of her submission, Lexi would most naturally be drawn to Aden. And then the idea of him hitting it off with Riley happened from there. Character-wise he ain't bad, he was the obligatory smart boi, nothing crazy. As for Clara she was something of a dark horse. You wouldn't expect her character to make it to the final 7 but it just sorta happened. She would have gradually got more quirky and comedic to justify her high placement, but the fallout with Lance would have been rough.
Bonus Level, Aftermath 4. The Roast of Trevor and Andrea: While every booted merger gets their chance to shine, this one focuses primarily on Trevor and Andrea facing everyone they've wronged throughout the season. At the end people support which of the final five they want to win. Lance only gets the support of the other villains, while everyone else spreads their votes among Zane, Deborah, Lincoln, and Riley.
Level 21, Whinecraft: Here we have a creative survival challenge based primarily on Minecraft as you could tell from the title. Everyone starts out rather secluded and has to defend against potential threats like Scarlett, Max, and Mike channeling some of Mal's quirks. Using plenty of sabotage and underhanded tactics, Lance just barely cinches immunity. Votes are divided with the main target immune, but since Zane and Deborah vote together, it's Lincoln who it ultimately voted off.
5th: Lincoln
After I bumped Lukas from his finale position I at first replaced him with Lincoln. After all, who would expect a character submitted by a guest to be a finalist? But while I liked him and planned to really up his comedy going forward since he was more a shipper than anything at first, I eventually decided he wasn't really finale material. He was then replaced by Zane.
Level 22, Mayhem-o Party: Almost done! So here's a party games episode, and the last true normal genre episode. It's basically a TD version of a Mario Party game, where the loser at the end is auto eliminated. Hosted by Geoff and Bridgette. Once again it's 3 vs 1 and Lance is pretty much screwed but due to the nature of Mario Party he's at the last minute able to switch points with someone else. This is the game savvy Riley, screwing her out of a win and officially knocking the Blue Bombers out of the contest.
4th: Riley
After Ellie was knocked from her finale spot Riley was the first replacement. She had a good personality and was part of the season's main couple so it felt like a natural fit. But the gamer girl making it to the finale of the video game season? Eh, too obvious. Thus she was replaced by Deborah.
Level 23, Gotta Go Fast: Not based on an actual genre, this chapter references speedrunning. The final three are tasked with completing a challenge from all 22 of the previous challenges. And because they're speedrunning they have to watch out for glitches, being played by Ezekiel. Everyone's luck runs out eventually, and this is the end of the line for Lance. With Zane and Deborah working together to ensure his loss, he's unable to overcome the odds. Deborah wins the final immunity, and Lance is sent into the Sling of shame with Ezekiel, who is sure to rough him up well for a villains punishment.
3rd: Lance
Ah yes, the cliche villain gets 3rd place treatment. So as I've already sort of alluded to, Lance was always sized up to be the longest lasting villain of the cast. He wasn't necessarily my favorite of the villains, that was probably Andrea, however I felt he was the most real. Rowan was pretty nonthreatening and thus went out pre merge. Trevor was too confusing and edgy. And even Andrea had her warped sense of morality that came back to bite her. With Lance he keeps it simple. He's a sleazy criminal. He's the one that would have the most cunning while keeping it cool and learning to adapt when things go wrong. And he'd be willing to play dirty. Over time he would have seemed all the more scummy, especially his manipulation of Clara. But in the end he was doomed to eat 3rd place.
Final Level, Game Over: And finally we come to the end. Zane vs Deborah. Mushroom vs Ghost. The eliminated players divvy up to support a finalist. Zane isn't thrilled about all the villains being on his team, but some cool people are on there too. But overall, Deborah has a few more supporters. The final challenge is, what else, a boss battle. Chris plays the role of the final boss, piloting a giant mech and challenging the finalists to defeat him. It's a long hard battle, and both contestants have an ending. But if you twisted my arm and asked me to predict who I'd call the canon winner, it's probably Zane.
2nd/Alt Winner: Deborah
Winner/Alt Runner up: Zane
Aight look, I get it. It's suspect that this particular final 3 was what I had planned. But to be fair only Lance always made it this far. Granted, Zane and Deborah were always main players, Zane was originally out at 4th and Deborah at 6th, but still. Is it a coincidence that my revised final three included the characters from two fellow authors I consider friends via Knifez and Karts, alongside one of my longest running most consistent and detailed reviewers with NNS? No, probably not. I'll admit, favoritism would have played a role there. But I still think they made for a good final 3.
As for the characters themselves both had something of a slow start but I think they were starting to get going. Zane obviously already had some bigger moments and Deborah especially would become a main player with her Lance rivalry. For Deb specifically I don't think I was really utilizing her stereotype properly, but I was beginning to try and fix that. I think by the time we got there, I would have hopefully made both finalists seem deserving.
And that's it. I didn't plan epilogues since they could potentially clash with how people view their OC's future. But your final tally is Zane wins with Deborah as the runner up. Couples at the end of the season included Riley/Aden, Lukas/Xilier, and Jacques/Ellie. The potential teases were also there for Clara/Caleb and Zane/Alice to become things post season. I hope this rundown offered some sort of closure for everything. If you have any questions for anything in the rundown let me know in a review or something and I'll try to answer it the best I can.
Final Standings:
33rd: Nathan
32nd: Piper
31st: Liam
30th: Mandy
29th: Taylor
28th: Rowley
27th: Lee Lee
26th: Annara
25th: Billy
24th: Kyle
23rd: Morella
22nd: Rowan
21st: Ryan
20th: John
19th: Garrett
18th: Iris
17th: Caleb
16th: Xilier
15th: Alice
14th: Kusa
13th: Lexi
12th: Jacques
*Merge*
11th: Trevor
10th: Lukas
9th: Ellie
8th: Andrea
6th/7th: Aden and Clara
5th: Lincoln
4th: Riley
3rd: Lance
Runner Up/Alt Winner: Deborah
Winner/Alt Runner Up: Zane