Romelio

Romelio is a contestant appearing in Total Drama: The Next Generation. He is labeled as **The Theater Geek**.

## Biography

Romelio was once a star athlete, and he was successful in all sports that he tried. He thought sports were his passion, until a teacher asked him to help as a stagehand in a short staffed musical production for drama class. Being a part of the production changed Romelio's outlook forever. He abandoned all sports to pursue his real passion, musical theater.

Romelio joined the Total Drama series in hopes of being discovered.

## Total Drama: The Next Generation

Upon arrival, Romelio impressed everyone with his massive strength, but he quickly expressed his love for the stage with his theatrical personality. He also developed a friendship with Max very early on.

Things got dicey when Orlando arrived, assuming that the gay teen would be attracted to him, going as far as to expose his abs. Romelio made the point that he wasn’t attracted to all guys, and also that he had a boyfriend already named Julian. Revealed later, however, Romelio actually appreciated that Orlando was trying to show his acceptance of him.

When teams were being decided, Orlando was hopeful that he’d be teamed with Romelio, while Romelio hoped for a different outcome. Ultimately, the boys were put on a team together, The Chilly Dogs.

While getting acquainted with his male team members in their cabin home, Romelio found himself attracted to Wolf. He excused himself to take a seat on the steps outside. Another team member, Declan, eventually joined him outside, and he caught Romelio crying. He revealed that he greatly missed his boyfriend, and questioned his motivation for being in the competition. Declan insisted that he think about his desire to be there, and that he shouldn’t be taking someone's spot in the game that really wanted to be there. Romelio greatly appreciated the conversation.

During the challenge, where the new players were dressed as past contestants, Romelio put his acting chops to use to truly embody his character, Eduardo. He excelled at the challenge, under the leadership of Declan, even using his tremendous strength to eliminate his early friend, Max.

Romelio was ultimately too in character in the challenge, proved by aiding Tiffany in the challenge, who subsequently caused his elimination. The Chilly Dogs lost their first challenge and needed to vote out a player. The bottom two were Declan and Romelio, with Romelio being the one to be eliminated.

Declan took the elimination of his friend particularly hard, feeling that Romelio gave the challenge his all. Romelio explained that the others felt that Declan's direction was what cost them the victory, so he sacrificed himself in behalf of Declan, recognizing that the game meant so much more to him. While Romelio took his loss well, Declan cried uncontrollably.

## Trivia

* Romelio is Latino.
* Romelio's appearance was based on a stranger the author saw with a similar build and hairstyle.
* Romelio is named after a character portrayed by Hori, a drama student in the anime Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun.
* Romelio is flamboyant to show his comfortableness with his sexuality. I also wanted to portray a gay character who is not bullied, or closeted.
* Romelio is intentionally placed next to Wolf in the cast image to appear like he is looking at him.
* Romelio was my first character eliminated first that wasn’t created or included with that in mind. He was originally going to make it further, but I felt that his early elimination would be both a shock, and help other elements of the story progress.
* Romelio's boyfriend is name Julian, a reference to Romeo and Juliet.
* Romelio was going to say that he had dated some horses, as opposed to stallions, but the latter was went with as the former has more sexual connotations.
* Romelio's pajama pants, decorated with phantom masks and roses, are a reference to The Phantom of the Opera.
* I questioned including the conversation between Romelio and Declan outside the cabin as I felt it would make Romelio's elimination far too obvious, but ultimately went with it, thinking it could appear to be a misdirect.
* Romelio portrayed Eduardo in the challenge, another strong Latino character. Part of the joke was that Eduardo is sexually ambiguous, and I consistently go back and forth with him being gay or not, despite his eventually being in a relationship with a woman.
* Romelio and Declan dressed as Eduardo and Brad from Total Drama Wilderness was purely coincidental as I felt they both bore resemblance to who they portrayed.
* Declan expresses his surprise that Romelio wasn’t dressed as Dante, an openly gay, Latino contestant from earlier stories.
* Part of my questioning having Romelio be eliminated first was that I wanted to have a theater challenge for him to show his talent, as others questioned his not being a sports star. After coming up with the first challenge, where he could display some of his passion for acting, the elimination was much easier.
* I thought about including a joke where Romelio commented that his boyfriend had a Boy Scout uniform like what Max was wearing, and when someone asked if his boyfriend was a Boy Scout he would tell them no with a confused expression. This was left out to avoid Romelio slipping out of character during the challenge.
* Romelio was also going to be shown not to be attracted to scantily clad Wolf while in character.
* Romelio was originally going to speak in depth with Declan about Julian. Declan was going to assume that he met him in the theater program, with Romelio explaining that they met on a sports team and were both openly gay at the time. This was partly meant to contrast former contestants meeting more opposition and difficulties because of their sexuality, referencing the difference in culture from when those stories were written.
* One initial idea for Romelio's early elimination was that he wouldn’t put much effort into physical challenges, despite his immense strength.
* It was considered for it to be revealed that Romelio is a terrible actor and singer, but I decided against that.
* Romelio is the first to receive updated character images. This is because he was eliminated first.
* Romelio’s sleepwear image is inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, including his facial mask.Romelio without jacket.Romelio in sleepwear.Romelio in swimwear.Romelio’ s original image.