Yolanda

Yolanda is a contestant in Total Drama: The Next Generation. She is labeled as **The Safety Patrol Officer**.

## Biography

Yolanda is enrolled at a school notorious for being unruly. She aspires to a career in criminal justice, but for now she serves as the top safety patrol member in her school. Many members of the faculty credit her for the vast improvements the school has made since her appointment. She takes her role incredibly seriously.

Yolanda joined the Total Drama series to enforce fairness.

## Total Drama: The Next Generation

When Yolanda arrived, she mistook the host Jack’s attempt to help her off of the boat as attempted assault. She quickly put his arm behind his back as an impulsive reaction. She apologized, stating that she was used to most guys being up to no good. She introduced herself as liking cars and justice. Jasmine mistook Yolanda commenting on her brother Naveen’s size as flirting, and proceeded to threaten her.

Yolanda did well in the first challenge, holding down Gabe and eliminating him from the challenge. She was eliminated fairly soon after, though. In the second challenge, Yolanda was paired against Winnie in a task to draw the host blindfolded. Yolanda won this task as her opponent drew the host as a horse. Yolanda’s tea, was victorious, overall.

Yolanda was concerned about her teammate Andrea being out at night. On night patrol, she came across Vivi and Naveen and urged them to get back to their cabins, at which they complied. Her real goal was to meet up with Andrea and Byron who had been out swimming together. She insulted Byron, saying that Andrea could do much better. Byron retorted that they didn’t answer to her, and she was violating her own curfew rules.

Yolanda was selected as the caller for her blindfolded team to find puzzle pieces in a challenge. She did well for a while, as the opposing team was purposely trying to throw the challenge. This backfired, however, as her opponent, Kirika, caught on and started using it to her advantage, causing Yolanda’s team to lose the challenge.

After the challenge, Yolanda took Jack aside to voice her concerns about Byron. After some investigating, it was discovered that Byron stole from Jack and tried to blame Andrea for it. Yolanda later assured Andrea that she was open to listen if she needed to talk, though Andrea wanted to be alone.

In the superhero cosplay challenge, Yolanda was dressed as Glamazon Prime, a cyborg Amazon warrior. She used her Lariat of Honesty to interrogate Gabe, in order to obtain extra information about his team. Her team ended up being victorious.

During the following challenge, which involved pushing the opposing team off a platform and into the water, Yolanda, again, discouraged cross team fraternization. Yolanda was the one to first notice that her opponent, Eddy, was lying still in the water. She dived in and brought him back to the platform. Wolf was successful in resuscitating him. She was among the contestants that Eddy wanted to thank before being medically evacuated from the competition.

When Orlando was reluctant in letting Jasmine compete in the escape room challenge, Yolanda suspected that it was because of her height. Yolanda noticed some key elements in the challenge, pointing out a large red arrow that served as a clue. She also seemed a little annoyed with Declan’s confidence.

After Orlando was eliminated, Declan felt particularly upset about it. He voiced that he felt that they misjudged Orlando’s actions against Jasmine. Yolanda seemed to consider what Declan stated.

Before the game show challenge, Declan opened up about his father being a past contestant. Yolanda insisted that she didn’t think it would matter to anyone, but Declan explained that people get voted out for far more minor reasons than that. When Declan struggled with the challenge, Yolanda assured him that it didn’t mean he necessarily would be voted out. Jasmine was the one voted out, after it was exposed that she threw the previous challenge in order to protect Naveen. Yolanda seemed insistent that she needed to be voted out to keep things fair.

Yolanda asked more about Declan’s father, though he didn’t see, to want to talk about it. Yolanda assured Suzy that Jasmine deserved to be eliminated for cheating, though Suzy was wary of trusting Declan.

The notoriously flirtatious Tiffany became roommates with Yolanda after the merge, and she had her sights set on Declan. Suzy teased Yolanda about liking Declan which made her both defensive and protective of him.

After his friend Gabe was voted out, Declan was visibly upset. He confronted Yolanda about it, his being upset about Yolanda not revealing to him that they were voting him out. He assured that he could have voted for him, and was also annoyed that Tiffany was included in the vote and not him. Yolanda explained that Suzy didn’t fully trust him. He then had Yolanda promise him that she would include him on the next vote.

During the laser tag challenge, Yolanda and Suzy teamed up, after Suzy eliminated Tiffany. Later, the pair built a trap that successfully caught the formidable Wolf. His hands were free, however, and he targeted Suzy first, but eliminated Yolanda after she pushed Suzy out of the line of fire.

Declan bragged about his performance in the challenge, as Yolanda was happy that her, Declan, and Suzy were as solid as ever, with Suzy finally letting go of her misgivings toward Declan’s loyalty. As they chanted ‘final three’, Tiffany walked up forcing herself into the group. She teased Yolanda and Declan about liking each other, again, which seemed to particularly annoy Declan. Suzy, Yolanda, and Declan walked off, leaving Tiffany by herself.

Declan was quickly eliminated in the croquet challenge, and then relegated to painting the set. Yolanda got defensive of Declan, who was disappointed about being the first out of the challenge. Suzy seemed annoyed with them, as Kirika looked on. Yolanda was also unceremoniously eliminated when her croquet ball got cut in half by a guillotine blade. She quickly went to assist Declan with painting upon her being out of the challenge.

Yolanda was particularly rattled at Declan’s surprise elimination. She accused Suzy of being involved, which Suzy quickly denied. Yolanda apologized for accusing her. Tiffany later spoke with Yolanda, stating that voting out Declan was Suzy’s idea. Yolanda refused to believe her.

During the therapy challenge, Suzy and Yolanda were paired together. Yolanda stated that Suzy was her best friend there, which seemed to take Suzy off guard. Suzy later suggested that they not try to take the challenge too seriously, as that would be putting a target on their back. Suzy eventually admitted to Yolanda that she did vote out Declan, after Yolanda assured her that she could tell her anything. Yolanda was really upset, and walked out of the challenge. At the elimination ceremony, it was revealed that the pair that placed last in the challenge would be automatically eliminated. This was Suzy and Yolanda. On the Boat of Losers, Suzy attempted to mend things between them, but Yolanda refused to listen.

## Trivia

* Yolanda was meant to be named Yvonne, but I got mixed up when I created her page.
* When designing Yolanda, I had misgivings about her resembling Alexandria, but ended up liking her image enough to keep it. I initially did color her shirt similarly to Alexandria’s Total Drama: Best of the Best look, so I made sure to color it yellow, instead.
* I found Yolanda fairly difficult to redraw.
* Yolanda was based, in part, on Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
* I regretted making Yolanda’s goal to be an officer very soon after this story debuted, as events involving the police were major news at the time.
* Yolanda had very little to do early on in the story. This was partly on purpose to reduce her role after police brutality was rampant on the news. I had plans for her later on, but earlier I gave her the night patrol for something to do, though she didn’t seem to think the curfew applied to her.
* Yolanda’s conflict with Byron was meant to showcase his dislike of authority figures.
* Part of Yolanda’s character was her wanting the ‘right thing’ to be done. This particularly came out in eliminations, with someone thought of having done something ‘wrong’ being eliminated, and her enforcing that.
* Yolanda’s cosplay character, Glamazon Prime, is based on Wonder Woman and Cyborg. The name is based on Amazon Prime and Optimus Prime, also referenced by the robot aspects of the costume.
* In the slasher challenge, Yolanda was going to represent Angela Baker from the Sleepaway Camp series, particularly Sleepaway Camp 2. I wrote a long scene of her finding Tiffany on the beach and leading her along while playing the guitar and singing a song about wanting to see Tiffany die, making Tiffany suspicious. The whole time Yolanda would deny being in character, also making Tiffany suspicious. It ended with a trust exercise, with Yolanda blindfolding Tiffany. Tiffany would reverse things and tie Yolanda to a post before escaping. This all seemed super niche, and overly silly in tone. I switched her to a more recognizable Freddy Krueger reference.
* In the laser tag challenge, I considered having Yolanda reference Katniss, but felt she was best suited as Lara Croft.
* In the croquet challenge, Yolanda was dressed as The Queen of Hearts. This was a reference to getting her heart involved with her friends, as well as her being strict about rules and legal procedures.
* During the therapy challenge, when the counselors were brought out, Yolanda speculated that past contestants might be brought back. This was really her hoping to see Declan, again.
* Yolanda was originally going to be voted out after Suzy was automatically eliminated from coming last in the challenge, but I decided to forego that to have a more emotional scene between her and Suzy.
* I lumped Suzy and Yolanda together as I struggled to give them much to do, in general. I enjoyed the dynamic of their friendship, though, and before they were targeted by Tiffany, I considered them the power alliance.
* Yolanda may like Declan more than as just a friend, but she respects that he has no interest in a relationship. Her appreciation for him comes from his strong convictions.
* A trope of some of my past stories is having a female character that makes it far into the story without much of any storyline or personality portrayed, and an unbelievable excuse for an elimination. I feared that would happen to Yolanda, so I tried my best to combat that. I did intentionally give her less to do early on in order to give focus to other characters that weren’t going to make it as far as she was.

## Gallery

Yolanda in her sleepwear.Yolanda in her swimwear.Yolanda’s original image.