YMMV / Total Drama: "Sundae Muddy Sundae"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Courtney plan to betray Gwen because she wanted to win, or because she was still distrustful of her and had doubts about Gwen wanting to stay her friend?
• Ass Pull: From Courtney's abrupt change in character completely undermining and invalidating a plot that took up a majority of the season, to Mal somehow being able to find her chart for no explained reason, to the forced logic behind why she loses the challenge and is subsequently eliminated, the entire episode can more or less be summed up as this trope.
• Broken Base:
  • Was Courtney's punishment too extreme and did it do more harm than good for her character, or was she totally in-character and simply receiving what she had coming to her since Action? You've also got the people who claim that while she did deserve karma for what she did in Action, this episode ultimately was a case of the character's punishment far eclipsing the original crime.
  • Courtney's overall behavior in this episode when compared to the rest of the season. Was she actually "in-character" compared to how she was in the earlier episodes (such as "Suckers Punched" and "You Regatta Be Kidding Me") or is her abrupt change yet another example of the season long Flanderization/derailments that the majority of the cast suffered from? Another side points out that even if she is "in-character" in regards to how she's acted in previous seasons, her personality in this episode still ends up contradicting everything that the season had been doing with her character up to this point.
• Catharsis Factor: Despite how infamous the episode is due to its handling of Courtney, seeing Courtney being humiliated and eliminated can be seen as rewarding for her horrid and jerkish behavior in previous seasons and how she always prioritized winning over friends and relationships, even planning to backstab her best friend and her new boyfriend. This may have been intentional, as the show's writers have stated that they never intended to redeem Courtney.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Many fans like to ignore the events of this episode due to how contradictory it is to everything else established in All-Stars.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Courtney is ultimately eliminated with nobody (minus Scott) seeming to miss her at all, and eventually resurfaces only to be barfed on by a pair of sharks when they smell her sundae, causing her to break down crying.
  • Courtney and Gwen's newly reformed friendship has been unraveled once more, as has the former's relationship with Scott, leaving him bitter and regretful in the following episode.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Courtney. Although she is played as the villain of this episode, the majority of fans found her sudden betrayal to be out of place and the consequences for her actions came across as extreme as it unraveled her arc with both Gwen and Scott. The Downer Ending (on her side) and the accompanying exclusive clip only fueled the episode's bad reputation among fans.

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