YMMV / Total Drama Lakeside

• Base-Breaking Character: Boris was met with mixed reception due to his archetype and character image alone, but also his obnoxious, occasionally creepy personality. Once he was hit with some character development and got a nice sendoff, though, he gained more fans.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Isabella, the first boot, became one of the most beloved first boots in not just the series but the wiki at large. The author even gave her a cameo in a late-merge challenge and a heightened amount of focus in the losers' special because she was so much fun.
  • As usual, most of the family members who showed up at the merge were praised, mostly Kelsey's mom Susan, Graham's grandma Ursula, the entire main cast of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Wolfgang and Puck.
  • The middle schoolers who the final seven were forced to look after in a late-game challenge were also loved for their one-liners and ridiculous personalities, especially the bubbly Allie and bizarre Rylan, who took it upon themselves to help out Graham and Kelsey in their Ship Tease.
• Ho Yay: All sorts of it, all throughout the story, mostly thanks to Christian. One can also draw this conclusion from Roald's obsession with gym-going and the male physique, but he does eventually get a girlfriend.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Kingsley is a black Camp Gay strategist who has a first name traditionally used as a last name, a love-hate relationship with the story's main villainess, and was the second voted off. Real-life Total Drama's 2023 reboot introduced Bowie, a black Camp Gay strategist who has a first name traditionally used as a last name, a love-hate relationship with the story's main villainess, and got second place.
• Unpopular Popular Character: By the mid-merge, Erica ends up alienating practically everyone else in the cast. She's also one of the most popular characters to the reader base, with many finding her villainous yet self-aware antics fascinating.
  • Kaitlin and Artemis also qualify, as they're viewed as outcasts due to their odd personalities and spend most of the time just arguing with each other, but readers appreciated them as great comic relief.