Declan

Declan is a contestant in Total Drama: The Next Generation. He is labeled as **The Gatekeeper**.

## Declan

### Friends

Romelio, Orlando, Naveen, Yolanda, Gabe, Wolf

## Biography

Declan has many interests that he takes very seriously. He is also a competitive swimmer, and gets intensely frustrated when people join the team that aren’t as dedicated as him. He has little interest in things like dating, because he views it as a distraction.

Declan joined the Total Drama series, because he feels that everyone that has played before him was doing it wrong.

## Total Drama: The Next Generation

Declan was very confident upon arrival. Eying his competitors, he declared himself the winner. Clara noted his appearance, and asked if he liked K-Pop, stating that she did, too. When he asked if she knew how to speak Korean, and she said no, he stated that she wasn’t a true fan. He also seemed insulted when Gabe compared the color of his hoodie to Declan’s hair.

Claiming that Orlando’s workout regimen was annoying him, Declan left his cabin after teams were formed. He met up with Romelio, and the two of them talked. Romelio was attracted to one of his team members, something that made him feel like he was somehow cheating on his boyfriend. Declan assured him that he was normal, and his missing his boyfriend was not extraordinary. Declan also asked Romelio to examine his desire to be in the competition, considering the other contestants that wanted to be there.

As the first challenge commenced, Declan took charge, using Wolf as a distraction, and having his team target who he considered the biggest threat. He and Romelio worked closely together, with Declan helping Romelio understand his ‘character’ and instructing him on what to do. Romelio protected Declan from an assault from Max. Declan was ultimately eliminated from the challenge by Tiffany, and his team lost the challenge.

During the first vote, Declan was shocked to learn that his friend Romelio was eliminated, not understanding the reason. Romelio explained that the others were planning to vote out Declan, but Romelio was inspired by Declan’s words of not taking a space from someone that really wanted it. He revealed that he asked the others to vote him out in order to spare Declan. Declan took the news hard as the host, Jack, comforted him.

In confessional, Declan’s eyes red from crying, he described his team as not being smart for voting out on of their strongest players. He also stated that he was determined when he signed up not to make friends.

During the next challenge, Declan chose which team members would compete in which task. Declan solved his task of sorting his team members’ personal belongings, though when they won the challenge he didn’t like the feeling of them being ingratiated toward him.

Unbeknownst to Declan, Andrea had suspicions of his being a banshee. Andrea pointed out to Byron that his dyed hair, pale complexion, emotional outbursts, avoidance of the sun, green shirt, dark coat, and his Irish name were indications of such. Byron said that he was starting to believe it. At some point, Declan complained about losing his sunscreen, but it was found among the things Byron took.

During the comic book cosplay challenge, Declan expressed his discontent at some of Jack’s choices for costumes. Declan also took the lead, again, by picking Andrea as the first player on their team to search for the others. This choice may have been questionable, but the team did win the challenge.

For the challenge requiring the contestants to push each other off of a dock, Declan selected Orlando as who would sit out, slightly bothering the politically correct teen. Declan proved himself as valuable in the challenge, keeping Gabe in a hold. Gabe expressed his awe at Declan’s abdominals, and asked for fitness advice while petting Declan’s stomach. Declan was able to force Gabe off of the platform. Declan was easily eliminated a little later when the much larger Naveen picked him up and tossed him in the water.

Declan mentioned a talk he had with Orlando off screen when trying to convince him not to compete in the next challenge, though Orlando seemed insistent on Jasmine being the one to sit out. It was apparent that the two guys were now friends.

During the escape room challenge, Declan took the lead proving as a strong leader, yet again. He was, however, unaware of Jasmine’s attempts of sabotage throughout the challenge. Declan was short of breath when holding up the rather heavy Wolf, at Declan’s insistence at his own strength. Declan eventually fell after losing his footing, causing one of his contact lenses to fall from his eye. He covered his eye as he begged for help to find it. Wolf was the one that found it, though he noted later that they were colored contacts. The team ended up losing the challenge after misplacing a key they needed later. Orlando was voted out, and he insisted that Declan was again the target before he said something. Declan was dismayed at another of his friends’ departure.

After the vote, Declan lamented voting for Orlando. He felt that Orlando wouldn’t have voted for him, and that his seeming to have been antagonizing Jasmine must have been a misunderstanding. Suzy seemed annoyed the most by Declan, her feeling that Orlando deserved to be eliminated. The others left, except Jasmine. Declan accused her of knowing something the others didn’t, as well as sharing the fact that Orlando’s family were victims of hate crimes, this motivated his trying to be a kinder person. Jasmine was surprised by this revelation.
Wolf revealed to Andrea that the contact lens of Declan’s he found was colored. Andrea again returned to her theory that Declan was a banshee. When Jack approached the pair, she asked if Declan was hiding something. Jack refused to divulge any information, but this further convinced her that she was right. Wolf later tried to interrogate Declan, which made Declan uncomfortable. He seemed to be hiding something.

Before the challenge began, Declan made the announcement that he is the son of a former contestant. He didn’t want the others to view this as an advantage to him, so he hid his identity from them, as well as his eye color. Yolanda seemed to view this as not as big of a deal as Declan was making it out to be.
During the challenge, Declan was extremely hard on himself for being unable to come with answers during the poll questions. His team tried their best to reassure him.

Ultimately, The Chilly Dogs lost the challenge. Declan blamed himself and urged his team to vote for him. Declan was spared, much to his surprise, as Jasmine revealed that she had thrown a previous challenge in order to protect her brother from elimination.
Declan and Yolanda spoke following Jasmine’s elimination. She wanted to talk about his father, but he avoided the subject, besides referring to him as not being a strategic mastermind, and a popular contestant. After the teams merged, Declan spoke with Gabe at a meet and greet. Gabe admired Declan’s being honest about his father being a past contestant, stating that unlike him, Declan had a choice. Declan commended him for not hiding away. Gabe admitted having a crush on Declan. Declan then opened up about his own lack of sexual feelings. He admitted that his father is Beau, and how he himself was born at a young age. He expressed that he’s a good dad, but he wanted to prove himself as a better player than him.

During the horror movie themed challenge, Declan and Gabe were paired as ghost masked figures. They worked well as a team chasing Tiffany around the crew’s quarters, but she eventually pitted them against each other, making them argue about who would be the one to capture her. She got away when a cardboard television containing Kirika fell on Gabe, and Declan also lost his footing.
Declan was upset when Gabe was eliminated. He confronted Yolanda as to why he was not informed on who his former teammates were voting for, who explained to him that Suzy seemed concerned that he would have a hard time voting out Gabe, as they seemed to be getting attached. Declan had Yolanda promise that she would keep him informed the next time, which she agreed to.

Declan was annoyed with Naveen for his seeming to give up on the competition. He encouraged him to talk to Kirika, who motivated Naveen to put more effort in. During the laser tag challenge, which Declan was very confident in, Naveen and Declan met up and had a dramatic showdown, where Declan bent backwards to dodge Naveen’s attacks. He then impressively flipped through the air and pinned Naveen to the ground, getting the upper hand. Almost eliminating him from the challenge, Naveen asked Declan about a film his moves reminded him of. Declan then decided to team up with Naveen for the rest of the challenge. The two went on to bond over similar taste in entertainment.
Declan, Naveen, and Suzy ended up being the final three in the laser tag competition after eliminating the challenging opponent, Wolf. Suzy insinuated that Declan would eliminate her before Naveen, so he proved his loyalties by taking out Naveen, before promptly eliminating Suzy. Declan ended up voting out Naveen with his former teammates.

Declan, Suzy, and Yolanda discussed Declan proving himself loyal to their former team, putting his friendships aside. They then joined in a cheer of ‘final three’, and began talking about voting out Tiffany, as Tiffany walked up, trying to force her way into the group. They quickly dispersed after she arrived, Declan being particularly harsh in telling her she was never part of their group.

Wolf and Declan spoke in their cabin as Declan did yoga, where Wolf admitted that he thought he was asexual, but was confused as he felt he might have had a crush on another contestant. Declan assured Wolf, not only that asexuality took different forms, but also that they were still young and discovering themselves. Wolf appreciated these comments.

During the challenge, which was fantasy themed croquet, Declan admitted not having played before. He was confident in his abilities, anyway, and did decent as the first player to make an attempt. Unfortunately, Declan hit an obstacle that caused his croquet ball to explode. He protested this event, but still was disqualified from the challenge. Feeling bored, Declan asked for something to do, to which Jack responded with having him paint some red rose set pieces black. Yolanda seemed sad for Declan, while Suzy seemed annoyed. Kirika was quick to observe their dynamics.

At the elimination, a confrontation that took place between Suzy and Tiffany took the spotlight. Declan was blindsided, however, and was the one eliminated. He tried hard to take the loss well, and commended the other contestants for fooling him, before leaving. It was revealed later, that Kirika and Tiffany used Suzy’s jealousy toward Yolanda and Declan’s friendship to have her betray him.

## Trivia

* Declan is the illegitimate son of Beau and an ex-girlfriend. In Total Drama: The All-Stars, Beau reveals that he had no knowledge of a son, when his ex-girlfriend abandoned Declan with Beau and his new wife. It was established that Declan was biracial when a picture of him was shown within the story, his birth mother being Asian.
* For some reason, I thought I had named Beau’s son Hubert. In rereading Total Drama: The All-Stars, I saw no indication of a name.
* I had wanted to include Beau’s son for some time. His main storyline was going to be his resentment at his father’s promiscuous past, and his being an illegitimate child. When creating Declan, I had not intended for him to be Beau’s son, but changed it after remembering my desire to feature him at some point. I made the decision to have him be Beau’s son before I wrote the first chapter.
* In chapter 2, Declan referencing his great great grandmother being alive was meant as an indication that he was born when his father was young, also indicating that their family tended to have children young throughout the generations.
* Declan was going to be the heartthrob character, though that attention would be unwanted, as he was always going to be asexual. This was going to be a reference to his father. This role was shifted to Wolf. Declan did have some admirers, however.
* Declan stated that he was not on the show to make friends. This was another reference to Beau and his close friendships to Yancy and Jonathan, which Declan considered a distraction. He did, however, fail at not making friends. Declan’s close friendships were intentionally a reference to Beau.
* Declan’s true eye color was taken from an image of Beau.
* Declan telling Romelio that he was normal with his romantic feelings, is foreshadowing to him not considering himself to be ‘normal’ in his being asexual. Another indication of his asexuality in that conversation is his saying that he never put much stock into looks.
* Declan’s design is based on general trends among popular K-Pop idols.
* Declan was meant to appear to be the first character eliminated, with his abrasive superiority complex. He was also meant to seem like a possible winner.
* Declan is meant to fulfill the ‘Courtney’ role in the story. He also has similarities to Quintin, though Quintin feels like he’s always right, where Declan thinks he’s the best at everything.
* The Gatekeeper is a character type I’ve wanted to use for some time. I feel like I could have incorporated it better, but I feel like I wanted to focus more on his being Beau’s son. In the earliest iteration of the gatekeeper, he was going to be an overbearing but efficient leader, who got eliminated early after getting severely injured during a challenge from a log hitting him in the face.
* Beau’s extremely serious approach to the competition is his attempt to do his family proud and his viewing his father as not being strategic enough in his appearances.
* Declan is knowledgable about past contestants that were either very popular, or competed on a season that his father or aunt appeared on, as shown in the challenge on Nametag, You’re It.
* Declan being able to identify his team members’ belongings in the Task Mastering challenge, was an indication of his deep personal interest in other people.
* During the Feud for Thought challenge, Declan stutters ‘Ddu-Du... Ddu-Du’. This is a reference to a song by the K-Pop idol group Blackpink. They are also referenced in an image for Wonderland of the Lost, as the font of their name is referenced in the can of black paint.
* Feud for Thought was written in a manner to make it feel like Declan’s elimination chapter. It was partly referencing Total Deception Island where the learning of contestants’ secrets typically meant their elimination in the same chapter.
* Declan referring to his father as not a strategic mastermind, hints at his shame and desire to be a better player.
* Declan telling Yolanda that his father was popular was a reference to his being popular with the female contestants, as well as his being a popular character.
* Declan was meant to portray Billy Loomis from Scream in the Slash and Burn challenge.
* Declan doing somersaults during the laser tag challenge was a reference to a scene in Total Drama Tropics where Beau did somersaults during a covert operation.
* When Declan responded with ‘you’re not wrong’ to Wolf saying he was mistaken about their being friends, he was actually referring to Wolf implying that they were friends.
* Declan is dressed as an Ace playing card as a reference to asexuals being nicknamed as ‘Ace’, a shortening of the term. The whole Alice in Wonderland themed challenge spawned from this idea.
* Declan is specifically dressed as the Ace of Spades in reference to the Motörhead song, which is quoted a few times during the challenge.
* Declan and Yolanda’s close friendship is not romantic in nature, though she may have feelings for him. This partly comes from her feeling that he is honest and rule abiding.
* I had a challenging time redrawing Declan for episode images. I feel like the last few images of him turned out well, though.
* Declan was not created with the idea of his being suspected of being a banshee. The pieces fell together, however, and made sense from a story standpoint. I had considered Andrea suspecting him of being a vampire, before I thought of a banshee.
* There was a point that I considered having Declan be the ultimate winner of this story.

## Gallery

Declan in his sleepwear.Declan in his swimwear.Declan’s original image.