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- Huh, a couple of keaners.
- —Chris McLean on Ella and Topher
Tophella is the het ship between Topher and Ella from the Total Drama fandom.
Canon[]
Total Drama Pahkitew Island[]
SO, UH, THIS IS MY TEAM?
Chris asked the contestants if they were ready for some fun on Total Drama Pahkitew Island. Ella and Topher were both excited to pop up and say "Yes!" in unison. Chris was put off by this couple's delight and labeled them as "keaners". He walked off, saying that a few days of pain and starvation should wipe those smiles right off of their faces. This comment was enough to make Topher and Ella's faces drop as they looked at him, mildly put off by his contrary commentary. When the teams were established, however, Topher and Ella were placed on opposing teams, with Topher being put on Team Pimâpotew Kinosewak and Ella being put on Team Wâneyihtam Maskwak. This greatly limited any potential future interactions.
TWINNING ISN'T EVERYTHING
Ella came up to Team Kinosewak, while they were having a picnic, to sing them a wonderful little good morning song as a sign of friendly competition. Topher sat at the picnic and glared at her, not really seeming to care too much about her presence. He seemed to think she was kind of weird and was just waiting for her to go away.
MO' MONKEY, MO' PROBLEMS
Topher was amazed by Ella soothing the savage beast with her music. He noted that he'd never seen a happier bear before, even in cereal commercials. When Ella was eliminated from the show, Topher was present to witness her swan song. He stood there, smiling and saying nothing as she sang. It appeared that he was content with her singing, though he had little interest in it. As the song went on, Topher's smile turned into a frown of being mildly but harmlessly un-amused. He continued to watch Ella, probably thinking again, that she was a little weird. One of the lyrics in Ella's song was "I'll miss you all", which means that she would be missing Topher too. After Ella's elimination, Topher didn't bat an eyelash and seemed to continue living his life, completely unaffected by her absence.
Fanon[]
Although Topher and Ella have had very little direct interactions in the series, Tophella is still a widely popular ship in the fandom. DeviantArt is plastered with tons and tons of fanart, depicting the two as a couple and there are 162 stories about them on AO3. Their most prominent rival ships are Tophlett, Davella, Lella, and TophAmy, many of which hardly hold a candle to them in terms of popularity in the fandom.
Tophella shippers have expressed disappointment in the untapped potential of their relationship. Many claim that when they were labeled as "a couple of keaners" by Chris in their debut episode, this was foreshadowing them becoming an actual couple. This also established that Topher and Ella both had bright and sunny enthusiasm in common. As such, viewers expected a relationship between the two to blossom at some point during the season. However, they didn't go anywhere with it beyond this point.
One of the upsides of them having no interactions in the series so far is that they are currently a blank slate for a relationship to be explored and taken in a myriad of different directions. Fans theorize that if Ella and Topher had extended interactions, Ella, being Ella, would be incredibly kind to Topher, like she is with everyone. Although it would likely take Topher a while to warm up to Ella, seeing as how little he seemed to care for her in the show, it can be assumed that he just might be touched by her kindness and affection and maybe even become her boyfriend.
Fandom[]
- AO3
- Ella/Topher tag on AO3
- DEVIANTART
- Topher X Ella tag on DeviantArt
- Tophella discussion on Reddit
- YOUTUBE
- Topher X Ella on YouTube
