User blog comment:Rhonda the stalker fan!/Total Drama 30 Day Challenge: Day 5/@comment-3350823-20180708035546

Here's Gideon's post for Day 5, because the wiki is being a butt and trying to prevent 'hijacking' (a problem I've been sharing):

Although the two endings in each season are officially coequal, one ending usually makes more sense than the other for various reasons. Therefore, the winner I preferred isn't necessarily the one I consider canon. With that in mind ... Island: Owen. If it wasn't clear before, the cooking challenge (where Owen blew the challenge for his team, yet wasn't even considered for elimination) made it clear that he was the "creators' pet". Also, TDDDI's explanation of why the TDI winner gave up the "bird in hand" makes more sense in the "Owen won" version. To wit, Owen couldn't resist the allure of the bigger prize, whereas Gwen wasn't even given a choice. Action: Beth. Although I thought her challenge performance too inconsistent to make her a logical finalist, Duncan winning was anticlimactic. As an aside, I've noted elsewhere that an analysis of the losers' reactions in the two endings indicates that Justin was the swing vote. In the special bridging TDA and TDWT, Beth loses her money after getting into trouble with the law, but there is no sign Duncan ever had it. World Tour: Alejandro. Snatching away Heather's apparent victory on an absurd technicality is a classic Chris move. More importantly, the stinger (Alejandro ending up in the robot suit) looks very different through the lenses of the two endings. With Al winning, it comes across as a pyhrric victory, i.e. a victory that is not worth the price. With Heather winning, it comes across as simply kicking him while he's down. Likewise, he asks whether "MY million dollars" (emphasis added) is safe in the "Al wins" version, and asks if "THE million dollars" is safe in the "Heather win's version. Alejandro is simply not selfless enough to care about the safety of a cash wad that isn't his.

Revenge of the Island: Cameron. Making the final challenge a duel instead of a race--the only TD season to do so--and amping up Lightning's jerkass factor in the last few episodes were clearly meant to position Cameron as the underdog protagonist. After all that prep work, the "Lightning wins" ending was anticlimactic. ROTI was also the first TD season where the winner apparently gets to keep the money, and Cameron spread his around. All-Stars: Mike. The whole season had an excessive focus on Mike (to the point where my DW called that season "Total Drama Mike") and having him win with the "all your powers combined" facet of the much-reviled Reset Button seemed the most logical outcome. That said, "commando Zoey" was a plausible winner and, quite frankly, the winner I would have preferred. Pahkitew Island: Shawn. Just as I had accepted that Total Drama would never have a season where I truly liked both finalists, along came PI, where I would have been happy with any of the Final Four winning--yes, even Sugar--although Jasmine was my favorite of that lot. That said, the hatchet job the writers did on Sky in the finale seemed meant to make Shawn the more sympathetic finalist, despite his questionable mental stability. For me, though, this viewer manipulation had the opposite effect, so I was more sympathetic to Sky. Nevertheless, the options in this season were close enough that I'm content to accept the ending that aired in the U.S., which had Shawn winning. Ridonculous Race: the Cadets. The last two scenes before the endings diverged, including the feet on the final stairs, showed the cadets ahead, and there’s simply no way “Glutes Woman” Macarthur was going to blow a lead on the stairs. The Cadets also had the better developed story arc, thanks in part to their rivalry with the Ice Dancers; and while I liked Geoff and Brody well enough, the Surfers were simply too stupid to make good finalists. My favorite winning moment was Gwen’s ending in TDI, because Owen getting distracted by the motivating brownies and thereby failing to complete the course was perfectly in character for him.