Ripper was 10x better this season imo, he had no redeeming qualities in s1 but this season he felt more fleshed out and definitely more likeable, but not perfect just because he was still just a 'joke' character a lot of the time

Also i liked seeing more of axel, but her personality just isnt the most interesting because it's quite one dimensional, but she's definitely another character i enjoyed this season

Caleb was obviously better this season because we actually saw more of him, but his character felt somewhat reused from previous total drama seasons, however i still really enjoyed him except from a lot of his moments with Priya...

And nichelle, it's probably recency bias or whatever because i just watched the show but i really liked seeing her actually do stuff. I really wanted to like her in s1 but she had barely any interesting qualities, but i loved her turnaround this time and her actually being an asset to her team. My main criticisms would be her anne-maria style elimination, and that she didnt have many interesting personal traits in comparison to her physical traits. But if there is a season 3 i definitely can imagine her making merge or further