Ok so I remembered a while ago that the first ever depiction of plurality I've ever seen was in total drama as a kid. And it sent me down a rabbit hole. I need to gush about it so I'm making an analysis post!

How accurate is Mike's system? Let's look into that.

Full disclaimer I'm obviously not a psychologist but I AM a system. Not a DID system, more likely an OSDD/UDD system but still, there's some overlap. Take everything I say with a grain of salt but let's get into it.

First let's actually introduce the system in question for those who've never seen the show or haven't seen it in a while and need a refresher. We can all agree that the first three seasons of total drama (island, action and world tour) are the best and if kinda went down hill after that. The character were talking about here is from revenge of the island which isn't exactly bad but could definitely be better. It's the first season with a new cast and Mike's system show up again later in all stars with some of the original cast.

This lawn chair looking guy is Mike and his alters

Obviously since this is a pre-teen aimed cartoon the slight changes in appearance are all to visually differentiate who is fronting. Obviously he's not gonna magically have lipstick appear as soon as Svetlana fronts but that's all fine, we can ignore the stuff that's just a cartoon visually portraying something. Although it is absolutely possible for the alters to manually change hair and makeup etc when they front, they just can't magically change in a second flat like the show make happen.

The alters consist of:

Mike: the host
Obviously he's the one shown the most. He's the one portrayed as a normal teen boy (second on the right) and is a pretty standard fairly nice person who at first keeps his disorder a secret, but over the course of the show people figure it out.

Chester:
I'm going to assume he'd be a caretaker of some form, as he's an grump old grandpa type (third on the right). He usually fronts when people annoy the system and pulls a "back in my day" ramble. I assume he's a caretaker of some kind since he could possibly an introject of a grandparent formed to take care of the others when they were younger, it's not that uncommon for much older grandparent type alters to be caretakers.

Manitoba:
(The one on the hat) An Australian adventurer probably inspired by the absolute legend Steve Irwin (*Australia tears*). We don't see him often, so it's hard to tell what his role would be, I'd guess maybe a protector since an adventurer would make for a good protector and he has a kind of older brother type vibe.

Svetlana:
(The lipstick one) The only girl in this bitch, a Russian gymnast who usually fronts when the body is in a physically dangerous situation and quite literally backflips out of it. I'd assume she's probably a soother, as she clearly exists to indulge in something she loves and gets joy from it. I'd guess that as a kid the system did gymnastics and used it as an escape and she formed from that, to use gymnastics as a de-stressor.

Vito:
The most obvious sexual protector I've ever seen (the shirtless one). He's triggered to the front literally any time the bodies shirt comes off and when there's talk of relationships and such. He's that classic "I'm so hot look at me" type of guy who has zero shame in expressing sexuality. I'd guess he formed in response to something relationship\sexual happening to protect the others from being hurt by it.

And finally, Mal:

This emo fringe mf is the persecutor. Very obviously too. Taken from the wiki; Before Total Drama, Mal used to be a big part of Mike's life. After causing too many problems, he was sent to juvenile detention, where he quickly took over, striking fear into the other people in the center. After, Mal was forced to the back of Mike's mind, and forgotten about.

So clearly he formed as a trauma response and holds a lot of anger and trauma. Lashing out in response to feel a sense of control. We'll talk more about him later.

But that's all the alters, next let's talk about the portrayal of symptoms.

I can excuse the slightly exaggerated switches since it's a cartoon for pre-teens and they're just trying to visually portray there was just a switch. Usually it's portrayed by Mike being confused for frustrated and taking a deep breath before the design changes to show there's someone else in the front. Again I can excuse the over exaggeration because it's clearly just cartoon symbolism. But they do have much more accurate smoother switches where all that happens is the voice changes and the hair flops into the style associated with the alter.

They don't have any majorly disassociated switches, which is kind of a bummer because it'd be very accurate to DID but I understand they got a runtime to work with here, so they can't really take up half the episode with Mike just disassociated into the void. If it were a longer more serious show it'd be good to see.

We know they're trying to portray DID specifically because Mike literally says so in a confessional. They do use the outdated term Multiple personality disorder, which is kinda a bummer but this is an older show so I gguuueeesss I'll let it slide? The term DID was well introduced by them though, the writers could have done better. Then again I assume they used MPD because at the time it was the make recognised name by the general public and they wanted to make sure the audience knew they were trying to portray someone who switches between identities.

Now, the accuracies:

•positive triggers.
They're correct in the way they use positive triggers, it's absolutely a thing. Being around something an alter enjoys can pull them to the front as they want to indulge in it. Best example is Svetlana always showing up when there's a chance to do gymnastics and Manitoba taking the front during challenges were there's adventuring and treasure hunting. It's something they enjoy so they'd obviously want to front.

•emotional triggers.
This is also right, certain emotions can lure certain alters closer to ease or ride out said emotion. Chester is always the one that shows up when people annoy the system, and Vito when there's any hint of romance/sexuality in the situation.

•amnesia/ memory blocks:

Mike never knows what the hell happened when he comes back, which is accurate to DID specifically as alters can't remember what others did in the front. All their memories are separate. You can be co-con yes, you'd have an idea of what happened then. But a full on switch? You'd be clueless. It's also said in an interview with the characters that Mike doesn't remember his childhood which is also accurate. Trauma memories are blocked from certain alters so they can function in day to day life without constantly being triggered and getting non stop flashbacks. We don't actually know what happened to him, we know that clearly the system did gymnastics at some point and apparently their first job was helping a family member in a car workshop.

But if I had to guess, the fact there's a sexual protector and Mike doesn't remember his childhood plus the fact it's clearly stated to be DID which forms in childhood because of severe repeated trauma... you get what I'm saying here? Unfortunately I think some kind of assault was involved as a kid. General abuse as well, maybe from a gymnastics coach or family member (not connected to the one he helped work).

Since Mal got them into juvenile detention and a fair asking of people from abusive upbringings unfortunately fall into crime I'd say that's telling there was some serious abuse as a child. But luckily in his teens he seems to be getting better and is in a much safer environment since he 1) got diagnosed and 2) landed a spot on a TV show.

•masking
Yes! Alters to have to pretend to be the host sometimes. Usually for safety so no one knows you're plural and uses that to exploit you. Also before the host knows that they're plural and the others have to pretend to be them while in the front to keep up the illusion they're not a system. This is accurate, it happens all the time. I know my head mates have definitely pretended to be me a ton of times in public, with old friends, in school etc.

Mal masks as Mike a lot, you know it's him because of eyebags which is a Mal design aspect.

Note the eyebags of Mal but the hair of Mike. He's masking, even putting on Mikes voice.

Things that are a bit questionable:

•the head space
Yep, headspace's exist. Although I think the way they portrayed it in the show is more of a cartoon stylistic choice again. Because they show it as literally being the inside of the bodies brain.

I mean it's not impossible for a headspace to show up like that, since they form to suit the systems needs. It's possible as a kid Mike realised there were people in his head and thought about it in the literal sense since you know, he was a kid. So it formed as a literal brain. But again I think it's more of a cartoon stylistic choice. Which makes me wonder what their headspace would actually look like. Point is, they got the existence of headspaces where alters communicate correct. But since it's unclear if it was just a stylistic choice or if their headspace actually formed to look like a brain because child Mike took "there's people in my brain" literally I'm throwing this into the questionable category.

•the alters all look the same.
Aside from the small changes like the hat and lipstick etc, they're all matching the body. This isn't impossible but it's not that common. Usually alters have fully different appearances. Sure I understand them all looking like the body when they're in the front because duh, you can't change the bodies appearance outside of things like clothes, hair etc. Svetlana would obviously look like a boy when fronting in a boys body.

But they could have given them all unique appearances in the head space. They already have unique voices, so idk why they stopped there. That'd be way more accurate. It also raised a question about Svetlana, is she cis or trans? If she actually had her own appearance would she be a cis girl or a trans girl slice she's formed into a boys body? All the others are boys, and while obviously it's completely possible she formed a cis girl in the headspace, it would also make sense for her to form a male body in the headspace because everyone else is a boy and that's just what the brain seems to do. And as she developed into a fully functioning alter she realised "fuck this sucks" and identified as a girl?

I need answers people, ANSWERS! Svetlana trans???

Basically it'd be more accurate if each of the alters had their own unique appearances in the headspace.

•trapping Mal
It is completely possible to block alters from fronting. A gatekeeper can do it, and probably a protector as well. So the fact Mal was shoved back into the headspace for a while and blocked is totally possible. But the fact he came back because the body got hit in the head makes no sense. It'd take more than a physical bump to free him. Either the gatekeeper/protector would have to let him go or something pretty major would have to trigger the system to get royally fucked up for a bit and remove that block. Like a flashback, system bleed or something along those lines. So while Mal being trapped isn't inaccurate the way he was freed is.

And it's also completely possible for him to trap the others when he gained control, he'd have basically forced himself to become front stuck which can happen but is kind of hard to do. Usually being front stuck is involuntary or alternatively you can be front BLOCKED by the gatekeeper/protector when they don't want you seeing something in the headspace. I've been front stuck and front blocked before so I can say it's possible. But I'd didn't induce it, Mal probably couldn't have forced himself into front stuck/block.

So the whole trapping/being front stuck IS accurate but the way they handed it kind of missed the ball.

The inaccuracies:

•the "evil" alter.
Mal was handed badly, plain and simple. He's actually pretty good as a character and it's very obvious he's meant to be a persecutor I'll give him that. But the evil alter stereotype is harmful to systems as a whole and especially persecutors who are ALWAYS seen as the evil one. Persecutors aren't evil, they're self destructive to the system and themselves  and they CAN be reformed and heal. Mal does show self destructive behaviour, wanting to take over the system and win the show by any means necessary while knowing it'll only push the systems support group away is self destructive as hell.

But he shouldn't have done stuff like breaking other contestants properly, blackmail/manipulated them, physically hurt them etc. yes it is possible for someone to accidentally be caught in the crossfire of a persecutor but they don't harm other people intentionally. They lash out at the other alters and themselves as a trauma response.

Mal would have been better handled if he sabotaged the system as a whole to win the show himself rather than harmed other contestants and trapped the others.

•final fusion.
This is the worst handled part. Like Mal wasn't handed well but I can at least see what they were TRYING to do with him being a persecutor and all.

Final fusion is a thing, and I have nothing against those who try and aim for it/ have achieved it but it's not a decision to take lightly. Final fusion is actively working to heal to the point all alters integrate with each other into one person. It's not a cure, because that one person can still split again later down the line and they'll still have all the dissociation and trauma. But it is the closest thing you can get to a 'cure'. Not a lot of systems like this, because well, when you've lived with the system for your whole life you grow to care for the others and love them. Even if there's a few you don't like there's still plenty you do.

Those alters are people themselves too they all have their own relationships and ideas and feelings. So if the host just decided "time to fuse" without the permission or cooperation of the others then obviously the others would be pretty hurt. They all have their own feelings, many of them wouldn't want to be fused. So most people aim for functional multiplicity instead.

Simply being able to communicate and function as a system so well you can live as normal of a life as possible. That's what me and the others want too.

So essentially, yes final fusion is a thing. But the show did it SO wrong. You can't just press a button in the headspace and boom you're cured.

You'd have to
1) establish good communication with the others, with little to no amnesia
2) get their permission
3) work together over long periods of time to achieve the goal
4) have professional psychiatric help to achieve it
5) uncover and process a lot of last trauma

It'd take YEARS of very hard work. And over time the alters would slowly merge until eventually there's only one. And again, that's not a cure that's just fusing the current system into one. They could still split later and still have all the other trauma symptoms. You can't cure DID, you can heal, not cure.

So total drama really fucked that one up.

So overall, is Mikes system accurate?

Actually, pretty close! I'd much rather kids see this over something bullshit like split. It's easy to understand, several symptoms are correctly portrayed and all the alters are unique. It's mainly Mal and the final fusion that really hold this portrayal back. It's almost accurate, ALMOST. They got so close to being an actual good and accurate representation they just fucked up toward the end with making Mal "evil" rather than just a self destructive persecutor and the bullshit portrayal of final fusion as a cure.

As a system myself I'm not completely disappointed, but mildly annoyed they fucked up toward the end. THINGS WERE GOING WELL DAMNIT!!!

Might actually make some designs for each of the alters so they can actually have proper head space appearances lol.

Overall I'd say Mikes system is a 7/10. They got a lot right but dropped the ball on some of the more important stuff by playing into the "evil alter" and "fusion cure" stereotypes.

That's my analysis and rant, hyper fixation can calm down now (we better not introject one of them from this, even worse all of them as a sub system)

That's all for now, Ethereal sequel tomorrow!