YMMV / Total Shuffled Island Series

• Anti-Climax Boss: Mal is defeated with a simple "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight by Sky and just like that Mike is back. Hell, it wasn’t even much of a fight, more like “I Know You’re In There Somewhere” pep talk.
• Arc Fatigue: Some readers have criticized the Dawn/DJ/Sammy threesome plot of this. The three and their Love Triangle are a major Spotlight-Stealing Squad that takes three seasons to be resolved. Compare that to the other two first-generation couples Geoff/Bridgette and Sam/Dakota, which get together by the end of the first season and are then shifted Out of Focus for good afterwards.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Ella's Shuffledverse counterpart is a major source of division for the readers. Her supporters liked her arc of learning not to let other people take advantage of her and thought of her as a good finalist while her detractors believed she was boring and only got as far as she did because of Plot Armor.
  • B would be a more minor example, some people actually liked that he made the merge in Island and think he deserved it while others would rather see a character with more growth like Beardo or Beth there instead of him given that he never really had any significant story-line. This got slightly worse in Action when he once again made the merge over characters that some readers deemed more insteresting such as Topher (who originally was supposed to merge in the season instead of him) or (once again) Beth.
• Broken Base: The same-sex romances between Duncan/Brick and Sky/Eva in Pahkitew Island have come under rather harsh debate on whether said romances would actually fit with their characters (since all of them have only been shown as heterosexual in canon), and whether their chemistry is good enough for it to actually work.
• Creator's Pet:
  • Alejandro is accused of being this. He stays the same character without developing, but the author keeps him around over undeveloped and interesting characters, like Scott.
  • The Dawn/DJ/Sammy threesome have a lot of attention dedicated to them, and the author drags them out as far as possible just for plots. The author even stated that she kept Dawn and Sammy as long as possible in World Tour because of the wedding challenge.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • In contrast to his Base-Breaking Character status in canon, Ezekiel is widely considered one of the best characters in World Tour, thanks to the author choosing to give his widely-despised feral subplot to Staci instead and make him a surprisingly competent Ditzy Genius who makes it all the way to 5th. He's so beloved, Ella being responsible for his elimination in Africa only served to make her even more of a Base-Breaking Character.
  • While nowhere near as popular as Ezekiel or other cast members, Owen is widely seen as the best character overall in Pahkitew Island, due to being written very in-character, downplaying the gross-out humor associated with him, and overall being probably the kindest character in the cast, and thus a breath of fresh air compared to the mostly morally grey cast of the season.
• Fan Nickname: Readers of the series refer to the universe of the story as the 'Shuffledverse' because of Shuffled being part of the series title, and the story image is a playing card, which is shuffled in a deck, which fits the theme of the contestants being shuffled around to different seasons.
• Growing the Beard: While the first three seasons were regarded as decent enough stories all things considered, they were still frequently criticized for their lacking antagonists, some of the characters being massive spotlight hogs (with Alejandro arguably having it the worst, making it to the final three twice without ever changing), and regularly failing to deviatate from the source material beyond their characters. In comparison, Revenge of the Island sparked massive renewed attention for the series, having what some consider the strongest cast in the series, including Noah, a fan-favorite from canon and who many argue as the best villain of the series. The series as a whole was noted as improving on a writing front from this period forward as well.
• Magnificent Bastard: Noah is considerably more devious and manipulative than in canon. Serving as the Big Bad of the fourth season, Revenge of the Island, Noah keeps a low profile while subtlety sabotaging the competition. He causes Leonard and Justin's eliminations by writing them anonymous notes, stroking the former's ego and making the latter butt heads with Lindsay throughout the challenge. Upon Courtney being given the power to decide who to eliminate, Noah gets Zoey eliminated by her by forging a diary framing Zoey as a two-faced hypocrite planning to betray everyone. Successfully eliminating Courtney and Jasmine and making it to the finale, Noah becomes the first villain to win a season by using a variety of traps and weapons to wear down Harold and defeat him.
• Never Live It Down: Topher's elimination in Action has been heavily criticized.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Widely seen as the biggest, most recurring issue with the series; the romance aspect is simply not very good. Certain ones stand out in particular:
  • A common complaint regarding Pahkitew Island is that the relationships between Duncan/Brick and Eva/Sky are given too much focus despite how short the season itself actually is, to the point where the Big Bads of the season (Heather and Mal) come off as afterthoughts.
  • While more of a Broken Base than anything, some people weren't very fond of the romance between Dawn/DJ/Sammy due to some Out Of Character Moments and them taking up a lot of focus.
• Rooting for the Empire: Considering how much of a Base-Breaking Character Ella is in World Tour, it's not uncommon to see readers root for the much more interesting and fun to watch Sugar instead.
• The Scrappy:
  • Alejandro. In spite of being the main antagonist of Island and making it to the final three twice, he doesn't actually change much from his initial characterization (and arguably he has even less without his rivalry and romance with Heather), leaving him widely considered a static and undeveloped character who became unnecessary to the plot and overstayed his welcome.
  • Amy. Her rigging in Action to get far aside, like Alejandro she's a largely flat, unlikable character who has very little to do outside of tormenting Samey, and yet received a hefty amount of screentime regardless.
  • Dave. This has less to do with him as a character, and more just how out of character he is. Unlike canon Dave (who is also The Scrappy), he's useless in challenges, had his already considerably negative traits going through Character Exaggeration to make Sky more sympathetic, is outright disrespectful of Mike due to his condition, and overall is just plain too obnoxious to be even remotely standable. The fact an already disliked character was made even more unlikable made Dave a huge target for reviewers and critics.
• Seasonal Rot: While still well-liked, Pahkitew Island is still regarded as a step down in quality compared to Revenge of the Island and All-Stars. This is due to the romances receiving too much focus, completely wasting Anne Maria and Max as characters, Dave himself being written Out of Character, the villains not being particularly well-written, and the season as a whole lacking the charm of the previous ones.
• Shocking Elimination: Cody being the first elimination in Revenge of the Island. Everything seemed to be shaping up to Leonard being the first boot, as he was more poorly received than the former character, but after he was eliminated first in The Ridonculous Race, the author decided to give him more focus and saw Cody as the most expendable of the geeks on the Toxic Rats team, thus making him the first boot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being Base Breaking Characters in canon, Cody and Max both got this reception due to being the first campers booted off in their respective seasons.
  • Scott is an interesting case. He would've been the main villain of World Tour if not for Sugar. As confirmed by the author, this would've led to him becoming more akin to his All-Stars self when competing in that season, which could've given him development instead of just leaving him as the antagonist again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some readers have wished that Tyler was eliminated in Africa instead of Ezekiel (as per the author's original intentions), as it would have made for an interesting subversion of the "both World Tour newcomers have to make it to the final four" fan rule many viewers predicted.