YMMV / South Park: The Streaming Wars

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Cartman's actions in this episode bring to question whether his fate at the end of South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid truly is the result of his friendship with the other boys bringing out the worst of his behavior, or if he only has himself to blame, since he came up with his breast implants scheme all on his own and the only involvement the others had was giving him the money because they mistakenly believed it was an important medical procedure for his mother's health. This gives the impression that, in the original timeline, it was only due to meeting Yentl that Cartman changed his ways, rather than just distancing himself from the others.
  • When Cartman threatens to live with his grandmother, Liane simply says "I'm sure Grandma would love that". Did the show forget about her death in "Cartmanland", or is this Liane's way of pointing out the futility while refusing to cave either way?
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After years of Cartman's bullshit and making her life a living hell, the fans cheered for Liane as she finally grew a spine against her son and decided she's had it with Eric and his schemes.
  • Many fans believe being called a Karen is what Randy deserves as he's been acting like a selfish jerk (even more so than before) ever since he bought Tegridy Farms.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Butters' rant about streaming services, mentioning buyouts and that everything is going to end up on "like, three" services in the end. While this was scene as an Author Tract even when the special came out, consider 2023's court case of HBO Max suing Paramount+ and the Weasel Words of South Park Digital Studios spreading the episodes between both services, while promising less than initially announced, and it makes a lot more sense.
• Moral Event Horizon: Pi-Pi crosses it when he reveals he plans on working with ManBearPig to squeeze up all the water supply in Colorado so that everyone will be forced to buy the urine from his Water Park as replacement when it runs out. He doesn't even care that ManBearPig will eventually kill everyone, including himself; which even disturbs the corrupt Water Commissioner.
• Salvaged Story: After many fans felt Cartman's fate at the end of the Return of COVID special was too harsh (and that his friendship with the other boys is what caused it), this special does a good job of quelling those arguments. Cartman's blatant refusal to accept responsibility for his actions after costing himself and his mother their home (out of petty selfishness) is on full display here, his mother makes it explicitly clear that she's more than done with his behavior, he is shown to prioritize elaborate schemes (which will all fall apart if people see through Cartman's manipulations, which Liane does) over maintaining a living for himself^note as shown when he spends 10 grand on breast implants for a Gold Digger scheme instead of using the money on a better home, and his friends are nothing but nice to him (even giving him money they made for what they thought was important surgery for Cartman's mother). All of these events push the argument that Cartman's refusal to change his ways will remain solid until (in this timeline, at least) he ends up homeless and miserable, and it will be through his own fault and nobody else's.
• Unexpected Character: It's doubtful that anyone saw the return of Pi-Pi, a One-Shot Character who previously had only appeared all the way back in Season 13, which was well over a decade old when this episode came out, and a brief cameo in South ParQ Vaccination Special.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: As horrible as Cartman's plan was, you really have to put a lot of blame on his friends for taking him at his word when he said the money was going to be used to surgery on his mom. As sad as Liane's situation is, they should know by this point that Cartman is selfish and opportunistic enough to use Exact Words or just flat out lie without any consideration to others for his own benefit. If any of them had just bothered to verify with Liane who has no reason to lie, they wouldn't have lost their money to Cartman's braindead scheme.