Courtney/Duncan

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Pairing
Pairing: Courtney (Total Drama)/Duncan (Total Drama)
Alternative name(s): Duncney, DxC, CxD
Gender category: Het
Fandom: Total Drama
Canonical?: Broken up; Enemies
Prevalence: Most Popular Pairing in the fandom
Archives: n/a
Other:
Angel Courtney Devil Duncan by YintoYang and TDI-Exile. Angel and Devil dichotomy between Courtney and Duncan was common in fanac before Action aired.
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Courtney/Duncan, also known as Duncney, is the most popular pairing within Total Drama fandom. The ship is between Courtney and Duncan, both prominent characters. It has been popular since 2007, when the contestants bickered throughout the start of Island (2007) and shared a kiss during Basic Straining. Courtney/Duncan was canon from 2007 to 2010. The two were broken up in an infamous love triangle during World Tour, where Duncan cheated on Courtney with Gwen, forming Duncan/Gwen.

Courtney/Duncan and Duncan/Gwen are inseparable as pairings, as is Courtney/Gwen, and the vast majority of fans have seen content of all three ships. Ship war between Duncan/Gwen and Courtney/Duncan fans specifically has existed since 2009, though Gwen/Trent and Courtney/Gwen shippers are not to be ignored from the equation.

As of September 2023, over 1200 works on Archive of Our Own are of Courtney/Duncan, composing around a quarter of all works within the Total Drama tag. On FanFiction.Net, over 115 fics under the Total Drama category have "Duncney" in their summaries and over 480 have either "DxC" or "CxD".

Common Tropes

  • Getting Back Together - An off-shoot of future fic. Since around 2015 or so, this mostly happens in fanworks only after Total Drama has long since ended.
  • Lawyer and Motorcyclist AU - Another off-shoot of future fic. Courtney may be portrayed as a lawyer and Duncan, a motorcyclist or some other kind of rebel, (tattoo artist, musician etc.) Although Duncan canonically ends up in prison after Total Drama: All-Stars, Duncan is rarely seen imprisoned in Courtney/Duncan fanworks.
  • Playa Des Losers - Missing scenes focusing on their time at the Playa Des Losers during Total Drama: Island (2007), since Courtney and Duncan got together the same episode which had Courtney eliminated, Basic Straining.
  • Crime AU - Courtney and Duncan may be portrayed as star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of the law, or on opposing gangs, inspired by Romeo and Juliet. In these fanworks, Total Drama, the in-universe reality show, doesn't happen.

Courtney/Duncan Fandom

Courtney/Duncan shippers may dislike Duncan/Gwen and prefer Gwen romantically with Trent. This is largely due to the love-triangle arc of World Tour, which effectively de-canonized Courtney/Duncan from then on. The arc revealed Duncan had been cheating on Courtney for some time beforehand and Gwen helped him do it, leaving Courtney heartbroken. Needless to say, Courtney/Duncan fans disliked this arc. Fanac for the pairing tends to ignore World Tour all together, taking place in Alternate Universes where Total Drama never happened more so than other pairings for TD.

By the time later seasons such as Revenge of the Island aired, the flames directly from World Tour cooled. As of 2020s' Total Drama fandom, some fan circles consisting of mostly younger users such as Wattpad and TikTok may invoke flames while communities such as Reddit and Tumblr are more sympathetic on all sides.

But let me tell you Wattpad Duncney stans are feral. They will rip apart any mention of Gwuncan. They will tear your Gwen stories to shreds. I didn’t realize how much I love the Gwuncan friendship dynamic until now because I was literally terrified to make them friends just in case someone came into my comments and shat on my favorite goth girl. Those people are out for blood.[1]

Fanon ships getting into the ship-war picture, whether Het, Slash or Femslash, is rare but not unheard of. The biggest BNF for the pairing back in the day was CITPrincess on DeviantArt and Tumblr. Modern ones include the-type-a[2] and duncney[3]. Overall Total Drama BNF Kika-ila[4] also produces fanworks for this pairing.

In May, Duncney Week is celebrated in r/Totaldrama.

"Screw you I’m getting my duncney on"?

In 2014 on the day before Mini Duncney Day, an infamous harasser in the fandom, cherriquitecontrary, who ran theconfessioncam, said this after an argument on her Tumblr[5]. The phrase is sometimes memed in the fandom and otherwise parroted around. It was also featured in unironicduncanstan's Total Drama Iceberg in 2021.

Pairing Names for Courtney/Duncan

DxC was the first and most popular pairing name for Courtney/Duncan from 2008 to around 2010/2011. It was one of the last in the fandom overall to get a commonly-used portmanteau name. CITPrincess popularized the use of "Duncney" on DeviantArt, though she didn't create it[6].

Fan Opinions

Because everyone who watches the show knows about Courtney/Duncan, fan opinion regarding the pairing varies greatly. Courtney's somewhat drastic character shift in Total Drama: Action is often a point of contention.

Perspectives are split into Watsonian and Doyalist for convenience on this article, as both are prevalent in meta.

Largely Watsonian

Duncney. I’m not really invested in any of the ships in TD but I can’t lie that I enjoyed Duncan and Courtney’s dynamic.

In Island Courtney helps bring out the soft spot in Duncan where we see him actually be kind and make friends. Meanwhile Duncan helps her loosen up and realise she doesn’t need to be 100% good 100% of the time. Which, I’m a sucker for ‘good girl gone bad’ soooo… lol

After that I agree they became toxic but it was still enjoyable for me to watch. And no, I’m not a psychopath, I just think the over exaggerated-ness of it all really suited the shows theme and I loved them just leaning full into the chaos.

But then the whole cheating thing happened and even for a kids show, that was just a bit much and a bit out of the blue tbh. So after that didn’t care much for Duncan, Gwen and Courtney (although she had some fun moments in AS).

So yeah I’d go with Duncney pre Gwuncan.[7]

...The most you could say about why Courtney treated Duncan the way she did is because she let her competitiveness cloud her judgement, but that's still not remotely Duncan's fault and he shouldn't be responsible for keeping Courtney's temper in line. Courtney's lack of self-awareness was her problem and no matter how much she cared for Duncan deep down, she wasn't able to overcome that flaw and endured the consequences for it. Even after the fact, she stopped being the victim in the love triangle situation for the same reason; because she felt so entitled that she lost any awareness about how her behavior was affecting the way others saw her.[8]

Largely Doyalist

S1 Duncney was really good but then in later seasons it just got to be a little Too Much yknow. Courtney was way too pushy to the point of being unlikeable and Duncan was not much better. I think I’d like Gwuncan more if not for the whole cheating thing + the weird way that Gwen’s arc went between TDWT and All Stars (she’s apologetic during TDWT and acknowledges that Duncan had cheated, and then in All Stars she claims that Courtney and Duncan weren’t even together at the time and says that it wasn’t cheating??)

Idk I think it just has to do with the flanderization of the characters + inconsistent writing. I know this is speculation, but I think they probably wanted to make Gwen seem more likable in All Stars after the whole cheating thing but they weren’t sure how to do it, and they just ended up creating more inconsistencies.

I’m not personally a fan of either ship at this point but I don’t think there’s any shame in shipping them. I just think it’s worth acknowledging that both ships have their faults. I think both ships just kinda got messed up by the love triangle stuff and never really recovered.[9]

Axel, their Zombie-Killing Official Lovechild?

Axel writing to her parents by thomas_zloi. The speech bubble recites Total Drama's opening.

After the unveil of Total Drama: Island (2023)'s cast, Axel struck out to some fans as a new contestant who looked like a Courtney/Duncan lovechild.

Example/Notable Fanac

Duncney AMA, Archived version, an AMA by duncney, considered a BNF in Courtney/Duncan fandom.

Fan Communities/Fan Events

Collections

Blogs

Fan Art

Fan Comics

Fan Fiction

Fan Vids

Fan Mixes

Meta

References/Further Reading

  1. ^ For all of high school I was in the TD fandom only on Wattpad, Archived version posted November 25th, 2022 on Tumblr
  2. ^ https://www.tumblr.com/the-type-a
  3. ^ https://www.reddit.com/user/duncney/
  4. ^ https://www.deviantart.com/kika-ila
  5. ^ Screw you I'm getting my duncney on, Archived version
  6. ^ only 90s kids remember when it was called DxC instead of duncney by chickenmcnuggie, Archived version (18 Feb 2014)
  7. ^ Duncney. I’m not really invested in any of the ships in TD but I can’t lie that I enjoyed Duncan and Courtney’s dynamic., Archived version posted August 30th, 2022 on Reddit
  8. ^ Courtney's intentions in her relationship with Duncan might have been more sincere than her actions suggested, but the fact of the matter is, she still mistreated Duncan enough for him to actively stop wanting to pursue a relationship with her., Archived version posted March 4th, 2020 on Reddit
  9. ^ S1 Duncney was really good but then in later seasons it just got to be a little Too Much yknow, Archived version posted May 2nd, 2023 on Tumblr; Anon on real-total-drama-takes
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