YMMV / Total Drama Stranded

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Kinda inevitable, given the theme of the stories.
  • Calvin: A Tragic Monster, or a monster without the tragic part.
  • Chelsea: A good person with some problems keeping her ego in check, or a bitch who needs to realize that not everybody is in love with her.
  • Keith. Some view him as a man who just puts winning the game prior to his ethics; to others, he's more like Calvin that he admits, or even believes; still others suggest that he's an out-and-out hypocritical sociopath. There's evidence for all of these in the story.
  • Ilona: A girl who tries to be the voice of reason, or a moron who doesn't get that not everyone is here to make friends.
  • Pamela: A deeply troubled woman who learns to open up again. Or just as bad as the people she hates.
  • Florence: His conflicting loyalty to his friends and Drew makes him one of the more complex characters to some. To others, he's just a whiny idiot who should've realized what he was signing up for.
  • Portia: A girl whose first experience with how the real world works has caused her to develop a more dark side, or a brat who gets mad when people don't play the game for her.
  • Mel: Is she just a Jerkass, or just brutally honest and cynical?
• Awesome Ego: Keith and Aloysius, for different reasons.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Chelsea. People tend to see her as either an overall character with some flaws she tries to work out, or as a massive, bossy hypocrite with a huge sense of entitlement.
  • To a lesser extent, Pamela, over how much sympathy she deserves.
  • Too many to list in Strandarama, but the most contested are Portia, due to her actions later on in the game being perceived as having either showing a more strategic side or being a case of He Who Fights Monsters; Brienne, over how far she should have gotten; and Florence, because of his lack of willing to play the game being perceived as being bold or being a pussy. It actually ties into the Broken Base section below.
• Broken Base: A huge one in Strandarama over whose side we're supposed to be on. The villains' supporters claim that the heroes (with a couple of exceptions) are self-righteous hypocrites who prefer getting themselves voted out over trying to play the game, and that the villains are the better side for attempting to shake things up. The heroes' side try to play the Black-and-Grey Morality card, stating that the villains are even bigger jerks than the heroes, who are struggling to stay true to themselves in a very cutthroat game.
• Designated Hero: You'd be surprised by the amount of hate the protagonists get, if it wasn't justified.
  • Ilona is supposed to be the long-suffering Only Sane Man. However, she tends to come off as this holier-than-thou, entitled moron who doesn't seem to get that not everyone is going to play a clean game. Crosses into Too Dumb to Live, since she's y'know, homeless, and would have to survive by being a bit shady.
  • With the exceptions of Ferris and Teddy, every "good guy" in Strandarama is this. Pedro is only looking out for himself and Ferris, and would jump ship the first chance he got. Florence is supposed to be conflicted, but comes off as wangsty. Karly and Linus are great cases of Knight Templar (though at least Linus is Played for Laughs). Yu is scarily obsessed with making friends, even going as for as to harass others, despite their pleas to be left alone. Portia is supposed to be an Anti-Hero, driven slightly crazy by all the pressure from the game but her increasingly jerkish behavior destroyed almost all sympathy for her. (The final nail in the proverbial coffin was backstabbing Mel, without any given reason).
• Designated Villain: Pamela can reach this at times.
  • In Strandarama, most of the villains' only true crime is being a Jerkass. But since they are against the heroes, and are well, jerkasses, we aren't supposed to root for them.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Timothy, and Stanley.
  • Sasha as well, for being a just plain FUN character, especially in her adventures in the secret temple.
  • Desdemona became much more popular after the season ended, for being so inventive in her strategies and never giving up.
  • As far as villainous characters go, Rusty is very popular for being a pathetic, delusional Stupid Evil joke that gets humilated and is an early boot both times.
  • Portia has taken up this role in Strandarama. Well, at first anyway.
  • Ferris is one of the very few uncontested characters in the sequel due to being one of the few heroes in the story who manages to avert being not so different from the bad guys.
  • Drew has gone down as one of the better villains in Strandarama for his unique personality and great insight on playing the game.
• Elimination Houdini: Calvin, thanks to Keith's manipulations.
  • Keith himself, after the merge. He was in the bottom two nearly every time after the merge.
  • Portia is a sort-of heroic example.
• Ho Yay: Calvin gets very angry once Jojo hooks up with Matilda, reacting like Chelsea did, actually.
  • Les Yay: Ferris and Yu had so much subtext in the early episodes, some had guessed they'd actually hook up.
• Jerkass Woobie: Pamela.
  • Misha has been constantly considered weak and helpless by her teammates, despite obviously proving otherwise. Any wonder why she snapped?
  • Jojo, for how he's separated from his girlfriend when she's eliminated, and has his emotions manipulated like Keith to get him voted off.
  • Portia may have become a bit bitchy in the later episodes, but it's implied that all the pressure from playing the game may have been the driving influence.
• Magnificent Bastard: Love him or hate him, there's no denying Keith is this trope personified.
  • Donna/Desdemonda is as well,. though to a lesser degree.
  • In Strandarama, Drew, of all people, was the main cause for a butt-load of eliminations.
  • Similar to Rusty, Brienne believes herself to be one, but is far from it.
  • Marion was this early on. See Villain Decay for more details.
• Moral Event Horizon: Calvin's treatment of Briony crosses this.
  • Keith badly injuring Jojo, and most likely breaking his leg.
  • YMMV, but Portia spearheading the vote to backstab Mel, whose helped her out countless times. While Mel may have been a bit bitchy and rude, that was considered the point of no return.
• Parody Sue: Garfield, according to Word of God.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jojo became a little more likable after hooking up with Matilda and his elimination caused a lot of readers to feel sorry for him.
• The Scrappy: Jojo is universally disliked by fans, for being an extremely dull bully who only exists to be involved in plots of far more interesting characters like Calvin and Stanley.
  • Shannon and especially Jason as well, although this is an Intended Audience Reaction as the author stated he tried making them as unlikable as possible.
  • Austin, from Strandarama, due to leaving his team behind to find monsters, and is a bit of a douche.
• Villain Decay: Calvin was initially a threatening bully, but when Keith took over as the Big Bad, he became a more diminishing threat to everyone.
  • Marion, five episodes in, performed an admittedly great Batman Gambit to get rid of Karly, and seize control of his team. However, he let the power go to his head and became more of a pest than a threat.
• Strawman Has a Point: it's been pointed out countless times that people aren't going to just play with honor, or play the game so-and-so wants them to play. However, this is usually said by one of the antagonists in response to one of the more preachy protagonists, so it's supposed to be viewed as wrong.
• Wangst: Chelsea's morning over "losing" Jojo to Matilda.
  • Florence's confessionals about his loyalty problems.
• The Woobie: Many.
  • Timothy who has become so overshadowed by his brother that the only way he can shine on his own is to keep his identity a complete secret.
  • Illona, who lived most of her life on the streets and had to learn karate to defend herself.
  • Briony, who gets bullied so much she goes insane.
  • Matilda, who gets a ton of hate just for being in love with a Jerk Jock.
  • Florence, who is torn between honoring his alliance with Drew and trying to keep his friends in.