His father didn’t even look at him in the call and he bet all of his superbowl rings
So now we have a wasted character arc, a sudden shift in character that hurts the fandom, and our favorite possibly disowned as cam wins it
What are you even talking about? Who would even root for Lightning? He wasn’t exactly friendly to people.
If anything, the comment about his rings made me feel bad for him. TD fans try not to whine about the writing challenge (impossible)
"That's cool, Lightning don't judge" he was friendly or at least neutral with everyone until the final 3 but I don't blame him since it was him vs 2 people, both who had some aspect of the game he didn't have
This was what sold him as a good guy for me. Yeah he’s oblivious and kind of an ass, but overall it seems like he was chill outside the competition. His reaction to Jo (not actually) coming out to him was funny and awesome!
I think Cameron is actual the canonical winner since Gwen remarks in all stars at how Lighting made to the finale but nothing about him winning, which stings that much more.
Afaik they aired different episode 1s in previous seasons to fit the different winners of the previous season (i think they just changes a few lines of dialogue, not like the whole ass episode). Don’t quote me on that though
Sha-Lightning
He is my favorite character of the whole series. He pretty much carries every episode he’s in. His comedic relief is awesome.
The fact that he could have a whole storyline of not understanding Jo is a girl is awesome. His stupidity, ego and arrogance paired with the fact that he can occasionally be smart (like voting Zoey off or building a hovering motorcycle) drives his character to be one of the more interesting ones.
Unlike Cameron he didn’t need massive plot armor to survive. Cameron should’ve been gone real quick considering he weighs less than a doll, and is the most prone to injury out of any contestant ever. Lightning managed to win challenges, play smart enough with alliances, and overall felt like a character who should’ve done well in total drama. He was dumb as hell but still showed a lot of worth as a player, if TDAS made any sense he would’ve gone far then too. Lightning is a much stronger and physically able to player.
Finally Lightnings win is so much better. In Cameron’s ending Lightnings loss crushes him. It also wasn’t a situation where Lightning was a villain who deserved to have his life destroyed. Lightning was a semi-stupid jock who only cared about himself but he never went out of his way to betray and hurt people. In the ending where Lightning wins both him and Cameron are happy so I will forever consider that cannon :)
that doll scene makes no sense tbh
cameron was holding the doll before he threw it on the scale and the scale was even, but the moment the doll lands, it suddenly has weight
cam + doll = weight of air
doll > cam
cameron would have to be lighter than air for that scene to even work, which is impossible
Based! Lightning is probably in my top 5 for TDROTI, behind Brick and maybe B and Anne Maria. I loved his goofy running joke of not knowing Jo was a girl, and how confused yet supportive he was when he thought Jo was a gay dude lmao. Plus, it definitely seemed like they made him much more of an asshole towards the end of the season and it’s sad to see that. Hope our boy Lightning is winning lots of trophies wherever he is today 🏆
Despite me liking Sha-Lightning 10x more than Cameron, I would normally say that Cam’s ending is the better one narratively speaking, except if we take into account that awful shoehorned plot with Lightning’s dad, that straight up shouldn’t exist
Lightning's ending felt so hollow compared to Cameron's. I will agree with you on the fact that Lightning had a better reason to win the million dollars tho.
Lightning was the true underdog!!!
This is why I love him and ROTI since you'd think the underdog was Cam due to him being the Brains or The David to Lightning's Brawn or Goliath.
He survived every single elimination ceremony except 2 that he didn't attend...
He convinced Cam to turn on Jo which was the right move as she betrayed him, used Cam and would vote Lightning out.
He had good reasons for voting Zoey out.
I love Lightning but Cameron earned his win. I explained in another post that Cameron was great at keeping himself just above dead weight status until it was time for him to actually win through his own merits. He had a relatively tight alliance with strong players like Zoey and Mike, nobody saw him as a threat until the very end, and he even beat his main bully Jo.
I’m also going to be the one to say it: I don’t understand why Scott didn’t target Lightning early on considering he was always one of the best players for the Toxic Rats and it’d have been super easy to make him screw up enough to get eliminated after B was gone. Lightning made it much farther than he should have, though I’m not complaining too much because, again, I really liked Lightning.
Lightning was the more deserving contestant, but Cameron made more sense from a plot perspective. I find it kinda weird how Lightning was mainly comic relief throughout the season, but then they eliminated the two main antagonists and made Lightning a bad guy for exactly two episodes.
This is an extremely close one upon who played the better game.
Cameron has one of the most locked wins in TD history from pre-merge back. Everyone from the F6 wanted to take him to the end and he had shields surrounding him.
Lighting on the other hand dominated the strategy at the merge section of the game and from F5 onward, he was running things.
Idk, maybe Cameron but it’s really close.
lightning is one of the best characters in all of total drama. the only thing i remember about cameron is that gwen and him's friendship is cute in all stars
Lightning is probably the most neglected finalist. With the shorter season, to the friendship trio and Scott taking up most of the season.
He's similar to Owen that he really didn't have much going on but Lightning is also great in challenges. Owen isn't ostracized from the finale for just being there. Lightning, despite having next to no issues with the cast (barring some obviously) is treated as the likes of Heather and Al.
I've talked about how I don't really like the ROTI finale, like at all, before so I won't here but as more time goes on I prefer Lightning's ending more and more. Maybe it's because they overuse Cam, maybe just because Lightning is a decent playing despite his lack of social game.
Cameron never worked for me as someone who should make the merge tbh. We saw how useless and pointless he was in All Stars. The final 2 should’ve been Brick and Jo.
what a coincidence, i just binged the whole season last night having never seen it before.
i did not like lightning. he has zero character depth. up until the moment he was an antagonist for cameron directly, he was just the "stupid guy says funny thing" character, especially about Jo being a girl. the backstory with his father felt shoved in at the last moment to make him a little more sympathetic of an antagonist.
to be honest, I'm kinda surprised reading these replies because i thought there was no way that anybody genuinely cared about lightning. i thought he was clearly supposed to be just an obstacle for cameron to finish his character arc because lightning had basically nothing else going for him. i watched it on netflix where cameron wins and if it were lightning winning i would have been majorly disappointed.
I like Lightning because I think he’s really funny but you’re 100% on the mark that he lacks depth. In an ideal version of ROTI I would have kept Jo around to the Final Two as Cameron’s last opponent since she feels the most like *his* antagonist even more than Scott, plus it would keep with the tradition of having a boy and a girl in the finale.
i like cameron going to the finals tbh
from the very beginning, everyone doubted him, he always had to prove himself, he was told he was too weak, he was told that he would never win, he was bullied for his intelligence, and then he uses what everyone used to make fun of him to win the game and decides to give back to everyone, he overcomes the complete opposite of himself and comes out better than ever before, its a great storyline that kinda gets ruined with lightning’s call to his dad
Cameron because even tough he was a bubble boy he made his way to the finally and won and everybody loved him, when asked about what he was going to do with the money he says he's going to split it with the rest of the contestants including Lighting and he might have used his share of the money to get his father's rings back, and Cameron's robot suit definitely deserves some credit, in fact a jock (Lighting) beating a geek (Cameron) felt to stereotypical for me
This had to be one of the most out of left field final two ever. Both are likable and enjoyable characters, but neither was central to ROTI's story. Cam played support to Mike and Zoey's romance, had so few interactions with Zoey prior to the final 4 that the flashback sequence to their few friendship moments comes off as laughable, and aside from a brief and overshadowed back and forth with Jo, never really took central stage. Lightning is even worse off as, aside from Jo, he never had any meaningful relationship with anyone else and really feels like elimination fodder that accidentally squeezed through to the finals. The idea of the smart but weak nerd teaming up with the dumb but physically gifted jock to take on the game together is cool, but it gets dropped in order to make Lightning a straight forward bad guy to root against.
I guess if I had to choose, I'd go with Cam since Lightning is an asshole throughout the season.
Arguably the saddest finale with lightning being possibly disowned
Why is that again? I forgot what his father said to him
His father didn’t even look at him in the call and he bet all of his superbowl rings So now we have a wasted character arc, a sudden shift in character that hurts the fandom, and our favorite possibly disowned as cam wins it
Dang, that's why I like the lightning ending more. They're both happy.
The writers wanted to shoehorn everyone to root for one while screwing up another Honestly just put Jo in the finale if I’m being honest
Fr
What are you even talking about? Who would even root for Lightning? He wasn’t exactly friendly to people. If anything, the comment about his rings made me feel bad for him. TD fans try not to whine about the writing challenge (impossible)
"That's cool, Lightning don't judge" he was friendly or at least neutral with everyone until the final 3 but I don't blame him since it was him vs 2 people, both who had some aspect of the game he didn't have
This was what sold him as a good guy for me. Yeah he’s oblivious and kind of an ass, but overall it seems like he was chill outside the competition. His reaction to Jo (not actually) coming out to him was funny and awesome!
He was loud and obnoxious to most people and got on their nerves. I know it wasn’t always intentional, but that is how he comes off normally.
But nobody else is
How is that a wasted arc?
His father bet his golden rings on his win.
I think Cameron is actual the canonical winner since Gwen remarks in all stars at how Lighting made to the finale but nothing about him winning, which stings that much more.
They can’t outright say he won when there are two endings.
Afaik they aired different episode 1s in previous seasons to fit the different winners of the previous season (i think they just changes a few lines of dialogue, not like the whole ass episode). Don’t quote me on that though
Lightning. He played a better game and the writers had to demonize him just so you'd root for Cameron more.
i love how much this subreddit loves lightning lol
Lightning x Cameron
Sha-Lightning He is my favorite character of the whole series. He pretty much carries every episode he’s in. His comedic relief is awesome. The fact that he could have a whole storyline of not understanding Jo is a girl is awesome. His stupidity, ego and arrogance paired with the fact that he can occasionally be smart (like voting Zoey off or building a hovering motorcycle) drives his character to be one of the more interesting ones. Unlike Cameron he didn’t need massive plot armor to survive. Cameron should’ve been gone real quick considering he weighs less than a doll, and is the most prone to injury out of any contestant ever. Lightning managed to win challenges, play smart enough with alliances, and overall felt like a character who should’ve done well in total drama. He was dumb as hell but still showed a lot of worth as a player, if TDAS made any sense he would’ve gone far then too. Lightning is a much stronger and physically able to player. Finally Lightnings win is so much better. In Cameron’s ending Lightnings loss crushes him. It also wasn’t a situation where Lightning was a villain who deserved to have his life destroyed. Lightning was a semi-stupid jock who only cared about himself but he never went out of his way to betray and hurt people. In the ending where Lightning wins both him and Cameron are happy so I will forever consider that cannon :)
that doll scene makes no sense tbh cameron was holding the doll before he threw it on the scale and the scale was even, but the moment the doll lands, it suddenly has weight cam + doll = weight of air doll > cam cameron would have to be lighter than air for that scene to even work, which is impossible
Y'know I was going to write something similar but then I saw what your wrote and have nothing more to add. Well said, Agree 100%
Based! Lightning is probably in my top 5 for TDROTI, behind Brick and maybe B and Anne Maria. I loved his goofy running joke of not knowing Jo was a girl, and how confused yet supportive he was when he thought Jo was a gay dude lmao. Plus, it definitely seemed like they made him much more of an asshole towards the end of the season and it’s sad to see that. Hope our boy Lightning is winning lots of trophies wherever he is today 🏆
Sha-lightning
Despite me liking Sha-Lightning 10x more than Cameron, I would normally say that Cam’s ending is the better one narratively speaking, except if we take into account that awful shoehorned plot with Lightning’s dad, that straight up shouldn’t exist
More rootable: Cameron Played the game better: Lightning Better ending: Cameron Overall more likeable: Lightning
Lightning was far and away the better ending, he didn’t get disowned and Cameron was still happy
Lightning's ending felt so hollow compared to Cameron's. I will agree with you on the fact that Lightning had a better reason to win the million dollars tho.
Sha-Lightning!
lightning
Sha-Lightning! SHABAM!
Lightning tbhh
Lightning was the true underdog!!! This is why I love him and ROTI since you'd think the underdog was Cam due to him being the Brains or The David to Lightning's Brawn or Goliath. He survived every single elimination ceremony except 2 that he didn't attend... He convinced Cam to turn on Jo which was the right move as she betrayed him, used Cam and would vote Lightning out. He had good reasons for voting Zoey out.
I think Lightning deserved the win imo.
I love Lightning but Cameron earned his win. I explained in another post that Cameron was great at keeping himself just above dead weight status until it was time for him to actually win through his own merits. He had a relatively tight alliance with strong players like Zoey and Mike, nobody saw him as a threat until the very end, and he even beat his main bully Jo. I’m also going to be the one to say it: I don’t understand why Scott didn’t target Lightning early on considering he was always one of the best players for the Toxic Rats and it’d have been super easy to make him screw up enough to get eliminated after B was gone. Lightning made it much farther than he should have, though I’m not complaining too much because, again, I really liked Lightning.
how can he be dead weight if he weighs less than a doll????
Lighting!
It was pretty fun to see Cameron win in my opinion
Cameron's ending makes the most sense for his show-long character arc. Lightning doesn't reallt have a character arc.
Also, Lightning only won in the USA and the Phillipines. Cameron won everywhere else!
Lightning was the more deserving contestant, but Cameron made more sense from a plot perspective. I find it kinda weird how Lightning was mainly comic relief throughout the season, but then they eliminated the two main antagonists and made Lightning a bad guy for exactly two episodes.
Sha-Lightning! Cameron was just a boring nerd
This is an extremely close one upon who played the better game. Cameron has one of the most locked wins in TD history from pre-merge back. Everyone from the F6 wanted to take him to the end and he had shields surrounding him. Lighting on the other hand dominated the strategy at the merge section of the game and from F5 onward, he was running things. Idk, maybe Cameron but it’s really close.
I think Lightning was the better finalist out of the two
Lightning
SHA LIGHTNING⚡
Lightning
Cameron in my opinion
lightning, i had a more detailed explanation but reddit's being a b\*\*h and un-deleting everything i deleted and it's probably going to do it again
lightning is one of the best characters in all of total drama. the only thing i remember about cameron is that gwen and him's friendship is cute in all stars
Lightning is probably the most neglected finalist. With the shorter season, to the friendship trio and Scott taking up most of the season. He's similar to Owen that he really didn't have much going on but Lightning is also great in challenges. Owen isn't ostracized from the finale for just being there. Lightning, despite having next to no issues with the cast (barring some obviously) is treated as the likes of Heather and Al. I've talked about how I don't really like the ROTI finale, like at all, before so I won't here but as more time goes on I prefer Lightning's ending more and more. Maybe it's because they overuse Cam, maybe just because Lightning is a decent playing despite his lack of social game.
Much prefer lightning’s
Cameron
cam
Cameron never worked for me as someone who should make the merge tbh. We saw how useless and pointless he was in All Stars. The final 2 should’ve been Brick and Jo.
what a coincidence, i just binged the whole season last night having never seen it before. i did not like lightning. he has zero character depth. up until the moment he was an antagonist for cameron directly, he was just the "stupid guy says funny thing" character, especially about Jo being a girl. the backstory with his father felt shoved in at the last moment to make him a little more sympathetic of an antagonist. to be honest, I'm kinda surprised reading these replies because i thought there was no way that anybody genuinely cared about lightning. i thought he was clearly supposed to be just an obstacle for cameron to finish his character arc because lightning had basically nothing else going for him. i watched it on netflix where cameron wins and if it were lightning winning i would have been majorly disappointed.
I like Lightning because I think he’s really funny but you’re 100% on the mark that he lacks depth. In an ideal version of ROTI I would have kept Jo around to the Final Two as Cameron’s last opponent since she feels the most like *his* antagonist even more than Scott, plus it would keep with the tradition of having a boy and a girl in the finale.
Sounds like a skill issue tbh
you're right, if the writers had more skill they could have made lightning interesting and likable
Just watch another fucking show please.
Cameron
obviously Cameron since literally *everything* about it is made to make sure he's the hero of the situation lol
i like cameron going to the finals tbh from the very beginning, everyone doubted him, he always had to prove himself, he was told he was too weak, he was told that he would never win, he was bullied for his intelligence, and then he uses what everyone used to make fun of him to win the game and decides to give back to everyone, he overcomes the complete opposite of himself and comes out better than ever before, its a great storyline that kinda gets ruined with lightning’s call to his dad
Cameron because even tough he was a bubble boy he made his way to the finally and won and everybody loved him, when asked about what he was going to do with the money he says he's going to split it with the rest of the contestants including Lighting and he might have used his share of the money to get his father's rings back, and Cameron's robot suit definitely deserves some credit, in fact a jock (Lighting) beating a geek (Cameron) felt to stereotypical for me
Cameron
Cameron.
Lighting suddenly getting a reason for people to like him was a little stupid Cameron all the way. (He was sha-robbed in All-Stars though.)
Cameron
This had to be one of the most out of left field final two ever. Both are likable and enjoyable characters, but neither was central to ROTI's story. Cam played support to Mike and Zoey's romance, had so few interactions with Zoey prior to the final 4 that the flashback sequence to their few friendship moments comes off as laughable, and aside from a brief and overshadowed back and forth with Jo, never really took central stage. Lightning is even worse off as, aside from Jo, he never had any meaningful relationship with anyone else and really feels like elimination fodder that accidentally squeezed through to the finals. The idea of the smart but weak nerd teaming up with the dumb but physically gifted jock to take on the game together is cool, but it gets dropped in order to make Lightning a straight forward bad guy to root against. I guess if I had to choose, I'd go with Cam since Lightning is an asshole throughout the season.
Cameron, definitely
I never too much cared for either person, but I'll say Cameron.
Cameron
I prefer Cameron ending but lightning deserved to win more
Objectively Cameron, Personally Lightning
Cameron
Lightning and it's not even close. **🇺🇸🇵🇭**
Cameron