The Survivor Thread

[RPS]

"You know you can get her autograph after the show?"

Guatemala is actually a pretty good season.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I've never quite gotten why apparently the producers hated Guatemala.

Or, well, aside from who wins. That probably wasn't quite what they wanted.

[RPS]

They had no chance of winning, really.

[Pizza]

Yeah, I've never quite gotten why apparently the producers hated Guatemala.

How can anyone hate Guatemala? Just made it to the merge, and it might have been my favourite pre-merge yet. Definitely up there with Africa or Pearl Islands in my top 3 thus far. Most of the players have been fairly well established, and the ones that weren't went fairly early. The tribe mix-up was very well done, and seemed a lot less of a "Oh, shit, this isn't what we planned, mix em up!" then a lot of seasons do. It also had one of my favourite tribal councils ever. Looking forward to post-merge, hoping it stays strong.

[GoGo Yubari]

Would that be the Judd vs. Margaret Tribal Council?

And yeah, Guatemala's pre-merge phase is fantastic.

I'm still sad that Brian Corridan didn't make the merge. I bet he would have been a great post-merge player.

[Pizza]

Yeah, Judd vs Margaret. Judd's a hilarious character, and that tribal was ridiculous. Agreed on the spoiler too.

I expected that Rafe would give the immunity to Brian or Amy, since it was clearly going to be one of them. Also disappointed that Gary voted for Brian, would have like to see him force a tie.

[Pizza]

Finished Guatemala. It took me about a month to do Vanuatu, a month to do Palau, and about a week to do Guatemala. Fantastic season. The finale wasn't great, but everything else was. A lot of solid characters, and I'm hoping a bunch of them come back. Probably in my top 4 or 5, behind Pearl Islands, Borneo, and Amazon.

Regarding Stephanie:

I never actually saw her as the sweetheart from Palau, she was just put in a position where she was a bright spot on a weak tribe, and got sympathy for being the underdog, so her being edited in a not so positive light this time around didn't phase me that much. I thought she would have played a cutthroat game in Palau if she had to pre-'merge' or had the opportunity to post merge, and I think she knew exactly what she was doing during the Janu tribal council. I was very impressed with her play in Guatemala, I think she's one of the better players I've seen. Every single tribal council she's been involved with except for the Koror ones, she had complete control of the vote. She was able to get rid of the people who may have betrayed her before they had the chance to, and kept the right people at the right time, except for Lydia vs Danni. It's too bad her and Rafe voted Lydia out over Danni first, then lost to her in the immunity challenge. Maybe Stephs straightforward approach at the jury would have worked against Rafe, who turned on all the same people.

Edited August 11, 2011 by pizzamonkey

[GoGo Yubari]

Nah, I think Rafe would have beaten Stephenie as well. I think he was actually playing the best game that season except he outsmarted himself when it came down to Danni vs. Lydia (he was a Survivor super-fan and knew that older women had a habit of doing well in endurance challenges (see: Kim Johnson, Lillian Morris), and apparently Danni was sick in the days leading up to the final challenge). He screwed the same people over but played the good cop to Steph's bad cop, and probably would have benefited from backlash stemming from Stephenie's edit in Palau vs. actually playing a game with her for real.

You've got Panama next, right? Enjoy the utter madness that is Casaya.

[RPS]

Yeah Rafe had the game in the bag. He groomed Stephanie into a goat so well and knew she was going to take the heat. She had an in your face, diva attitude which was clearly not going to go over well with the jury. Rafe was nice and diplomatic: he voted you out, but it always seemed worst coming from Stephanie because she had a bigger personality. You can even tell when he touched the pole that he knew his game was fucked over. It was around Guatemala that they started moving away from straight up endurance challenges that could theoretically last hours to endurance challenges that would end very shortly. In Palau, it lasted for that huge fucking time and I think Probst was starting to hate long hours on the set. I mean, Rafe won four immunities leading up to the final one, he clearly would have won a straightforward endurance immunity.

Edited August 11, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[Pizza]

Took a bit of a break because I've been busy at work lately, but I just did the first two episodes of EI. Episode 2 is great, the Casaya alliance is already insane. I think I know who wins this one and recognize some names, but I'm still looking forward to it.

[bill_da_bill]

Realized it's been a while since I have posted in here, finished up Guatemala and Exile Island now.

Thoughts on Guatemala:

A good season, not a great season. I heard some of you guys say that the producers and such were down on this season, but I don't really see it. Some good characters on the show such as Judd who was a bit of standout to me. I will say there were a few people who I was bummed to see go home when they did such as Brian and Brandon.

They definitely made Stephanie out to be much more cutthroat in this season, but I think it's just a side of her that wasn't able to come out in the previous season. She controlled the votes every time on her original tribe in Palau it just never came out with her as cutthroat cause the angle was how bad/unlucky the tribe was. Stephanie played the better game than Danni all along, but this just goes to show how dangerous it is to leave an unknown/wild card in the game as long as they did with Danni.

Thoughts on Exile Island:

I loved this season. The strategery may have been lacking, but the entertainment value and cast of characters was outstanding. As far as pure entertainment goes, Shane was probably the most entertaining, what's he going to do next, type of players in any season. He was a horrible game player, but man was he fun to watch. Sad to hear that he doesn't make any further seasons, unless he turned them down it baffles me that they would never bring a guy like that back.

On the other hand Courtney was a whole different kinda crazy in the nonsensical, what the hell is she saying, kind of a way. Her final jury speech was something else.

Cirie was the best strategic player in the game and it was sad to see her go home before Danielle. When a big move needed to be made it was Cirie who made it, eliminating Shane and Courtney at the times she did and they she did it really was brilliant. Anyone would've beat either of those two in the finals and everyone knew it.

Terry was another interesting player as he has to be up there with some of the better challenge competitors ever. He was not goodas a strategist. You have to give the Casaya tribe credit for sticking together, cause Terry did try, it just feels like with an alliance as combustible as that and the leverage Terry had he should've been able to do something at some point. All he ever really did of worth was get Danielle to the final two. In his defense he never had the opportunity to watch anyone before him really use the hidden idol strategically. And had he used it before he did than he might not have made it to the final three, but than again he also may have been able to control who did make it their with him a little bit better.

Aras was a worthy winner, not one of the best, but good at challenges and very good at the social game as well. If you were on the Island you liked Aras, even at the final tribal Shane was the only one who had beef with him.

I am on to Cook Islands and on the second episode, the cast seems pretty strong and I don't know how long it lasts, but I enjoy the racial divide twist. It's a very interesting social dynamic I think and it's been interesting to watch early on.

This is my first experience with an Ozzy season, so I am looking forward to getting through this one at least before the new season starts.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I was expecting to hate the racial twist, especially since Survivor really really sucks at racial sensitivity (see: their decision to edit Nick in Outback as lazy which everyone in that season has pretty much denied. That might have been partially motivated by the fact that Nick was incredibly dry and stoic, but jeez) but it's really not so bad. The dynamic between Cao Boi and the younger, American-born members of his tribe is genuinely interesting.

[Pizza]

Cook Islands done. I've never heard anything good about Fiji, if they don't have anyone significant come back in later games I'm going to skip it, because I want to catch up enough to do FvF and HvV quickly so I can jump in on the new season.

Season 12 thoughts

Shane was awesome. Him constantly snapping at anything and everything was great, and him randomly being naked when they carted out Bruce was just hilariously surreal. The whole Casaya tribe was great, but Shane and Cirie were definitely the standouts. Cirie being the mastermind that she was throughout the game was awesome, and it was incredibly disappointing when she lost the fire challenge, because I think she had the game won otherwise. Terry constantly trying and failing to break Casaya every week was fun too. Aras as a winner reminded me a lot of Ethan. Neither of them had to do anything amazing, they were both decent challenge players and nice guys who had numbers at merge, were aligned with a superior strategic player who did most of the legwork for them(Lex and Cirie) and beat complete jobbers at final jury.

Season 13

Solid season, lots of decent characters. I don't like Ozzy, the Billy move was ridiculous, and Johnathan calling him out for being arrogant at final tribal was spot on. Cao Boi and the young Asians was a really fun dynamic, and Plan Voodoo was a fun episode. Johnathan seems like he could be a solid player, but his decision to mutiny when he already had an alliance with the guy he suspected had the idol was crazy. The final three jury was a good idea I thought, because no way do we get a final two of Ozzy and Yul, it would have been one of them against one of the girls, and that would have been a complete walkover. However, I really didn't like the final tribal, it seemed really condensed, most people just asked one of the three a question, and it just seems like the edit was very rushed and a lot was cut out. I think Yul's a very solid winner, he got a solid final two alliance right away, he always had complete control of the vote, and he was able to save his team down 5-4, which was an awesome move. Even without the idol, I don't think he would ever have been in any danger except for that 5-4 vote.

[GoGo Yubari]

The only player in Fiji who comes back is Yau-Man, who is fucking awesome. Fiji honestly isn't nearly as bad as its reputation makes people think; Yau-Man is a standout amazing character, there's a really good storyline strategy-wise that plays out through the second act of the season, and there are a ton of other great characters (Earl, Michelle, Dreamz, Alex, Rocky). It ends in dire fashion and the big twist that season is probably the worst one Survivor's ever had (jury's still out on Redemption Island), but overall it's not bad.

But yeah, Fiji's skippable. If you want to not get spoiled for China (which is one of the show's best seasons) watch that before FvF, and then you can skip Gabon, watch Tocantins, and skip Samoa to get to HvV.

[RPS]

Fiji is okay if you can get over the fact the season is premised on a miserable twist and it has probably one of the most unlikeable casts ever. I mean even the likeable characters like Yau-Man are awful at some moments.

Edited September 12, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[GoGo Yubari]

I think Earl and Michelle both manage to rise above the morass of unlikability that is Fiji, though Earl is pretty dry.

Also, regarding Panama's outcome;

I was considering the possibility that Cirie could have won it if she won the fire challenge, but I don't know. The thing is it would be dependent on her winning Final Immunity, and Cirie wasn't a good challenge player so I'm not sure if she could. If Terry won, he's taking Aras, no questions asked, because Cirie would probably slaughter him, and Terry did beat out Aras but lost to Danielle.

[Pizza]

Also, regarding Panama's outcome;

I was considering the possibility that Cirie could have won it if she won the fire challenge, but I don't know. The thing is it would be dependent on her winning Final Immunity, and Cirie wasn't a good challenge player so I'm not sure if she could. If Terry won, he's taking Aras, no questions asked, because Cirie would probably slaughter him, and Terry did beat out Aras but lost to Danielle.

You're probably right that Terry would have taken Aras, but I'm wondering how the whole rivalry thing/wahmbulance/talk shit about women comments would have effected that. Plus Terry might not have thought he could beat Aras either, and maybe hoped he could get 'helpful around camp'/'that guy's really strong' votes against Cirie that he wouldn't have against Aras.

[bill_da_bill]

Aras actually lasted longer than Terry in the final challenge. And Aras absolutely would've taken Cirie. It would've been very interesting to see who would've won that, but I think it would've been Cirie.

[GoGo Yubari]

Shit, was it? Nevermind, then. If it's Aras then it becomes really interesting, and yeah, I think he might take Cirie just to stick it to Terry and show loyalty to her. And then she would have absolutely crushed him in the finals.

[Pleatherface]

I'm not sure why but rewatching Amazon, and listening to backlogs of his podcast, it seems like Rob C. is almost nearing bittercakes level.

I really hope that's not the case, because I loved his relationship with Matt.