User blog comment:IchokaSuzumi666/Challenge vote and vote off/@comment-1874924-20100710171032

I've seen other people mistake Shane for a girl, probably thinking that his avatar is meant to be a likeness. I was also unsure for a time, having seen some ambiguous references. (To save people the trouble of asking, I don't remember where.)

Sorry fot the OT comment, Christina. To make amends, here's something on-topic:

When importing characters from another franchise into the TDI format, there is always the temptation to have the main characters go the furthest. After all, these characters have received the most development in their own universe, and are therefore the easiest to write for. You should understand, though, that doing it this way is pretty predictable, and so could turn off readers who like to be surprised (like Shane). You should be aware of that, and you should be prepared for it.

That said, there's no reason why you can't run your competition fic "according to form" if that's what you want, and there's no reason why that can't be done well. I recall an Agatha Christie story, "A Body in the Library", which she deliberately built on almost every murder mystery cliche in the book in order to show that a story full of cliches could still be a good story. (A body in the library is itself the 2nd-biggest murder mystery cliche of all, after "the butler did it".)

To reiterate, a predictable elimination order has significant pitfalls but won't necessarily kill the story. If that's what you want to do, then go for it, and I wish you the best.

Disclosure: I know nothing about Phineas and Ferb beyond the fact of its existence.