The Survivor Thread

[Life]

Yeah, I'm happy too. Upset a little that Kirstina played her idol already, but it's good to see that not every person there is an idiot.

What? What? What? Brain does not compute this sentence.

I can't believe I went from excited to disappointed this quickly. Honestly. Let's do the weekly rundown.

- Let's start with you, Russell. I love you to death as a character but look at the facts. You played the same way twice in Samoa and you lost the same way twice. The first time, you were an unintentional goat, the second an intentional one (Parv's jury speech is proof). And your great idea... is to play the same way again? What? Look at all the factors that are working against you.

1. Zapatera (unlike Foa Foa) has not gone to TC yet. Their spirits aren't down in the dumps and this lets them form full out opinions on people, namely you.
   
2. Everyone else on Zapatera has seen you on TV and knows your plan.
   
3. You're getting visibly frustrated in your seach for the HII.
   
4. You lashed out at Ralph in front of David and Mike. On Day 6. This was a suicidal mistake.
   

In a nutshell, you're socially fucked and YOU caused these problems. At best, you're another Final 2/3 goat (I personally think we're having an F2 again this season since F3 increases the chance to bring a goat). At worst, you're the first Zapatera boot. And a tribal switch (there won't be one) fucks you over hard.

- This actually leads nicely into my next point and the reason why I'm so disappointed by this season now. Dear CBS. Please hire an assassin of some sort to bludgeon the editors to fucking smithereens. That was pathetic. Had I not actively LOOKED for inside videos (survivorsucks is the best place for them), I wouldn't have known Matt's personality at all thanks to his monstrous 2 confessionals. In 2 episodes. This is only going to get worse since I haven't even seen anything from Zapatera aside from Russell and a bit of Ralph/Mike. Like maybe something from Krista since she's apparently joined the Russell alliance because she knows he's a goat and has said this but the editors don't want to smear Russell's good name. I'll still watch the season but... I'm expecting the worst now. 75% of this episode's confessionals came from either Rob or Russell. And I'll even go and count them if you want.

- Phillip Sheppard is the saving grace of this season. He is Coach 2.0. But funnier. And considering that I have a lot of newfound respect for Coach, I can't help but laugh at what the editors are doing with the amazing material that Phillip gives them. Like using his "I love America" confessional as a backdrop to his hilarious crab hunt. I was nearly in tears at that. It seems that while the editors have forgotten how to set up good storylines, they haven't forgotten how to show comedy on the screen. Good for them, at least they're getting something right.

- Ometeppe. I'm just going to come out and say what everyone is thinking in the back of their minds. This tribe is pretty much just as bad as Ulong (not as likable though since Ulong was amazing to watch), Ravu and Fang. And when you get considered along the likes of Ravu and Fang, you're pretty much shit.

- Matt, I'm sorry. You got screwed by a paranoid control freak. This is why I don't like Redemption Island though since in my mind, you have one chance and one chance only. Make use of your time on RI since if I were on the jury and you were in the finals, I wouldn't give the money to someone who takes a 2-week break from the game and then comes back in (this is part of the reason why Lil didn't win Pearl Islands even though being pretty unlikable was another good portion of it).

- Grant, Natalie and Ashley. I don't get it. Those arbitrary rules of "you're with me or against me" that Boston Rob and Russell set down don't actually exist. I just find it hilarious that the three of you sit there and adore Rob as much as you can ("If Rob were to propose to Grant right now? Done deal.") just so you can be in his good graces. Don't align with him simply to "make power moves along with Rob". Just sit there, pretend to not care and tell the audience that you're just going to let Rob do everything including taking the fall. Leading the game on Day 1 almost always results in a downfall (Tom Westman and Earl Cole are the lone examples but that's still 2/21 that have succeeded). Guaranteed. I can go through every season (minus Fiji and Gabon which I haven't watched) and show specific examples of this (I'm looking at you, John Carroll and Silas Gaither).

- Taking out Matt on Day 6 was suicide. Phillip is loyal if you know how to play your cards right and Kristina was obviously going to play the idol so it was inevitable that the "Dumbass Blond Alliance" was going to eat itself starting now. But you don't take out a physical guy! Not when Zapatera kicked your ass in the physical part of the first challenge! If you want to break up Ashley/Matt, go for Ashley. You always have time on your side when you're the majority alliance. If you lose again, Kristina and Matt are clearly next on the pecking order. You have time. Way to fuck it up.

- Lastly. Rob, this is not the right time to revert back to your ASS style of play. You're almost as bad as Russell since you're going to re-vilify yourself really quickly, you don't have an outside relationship with anyone to take advantage of (I am speaking about Lex here) and the game's changed since ASS. I'm predicting early post-merge boot here.

Basically, Ometeppe is full of fucktards including Rob (aside from our Lord and Saviour Phillip Sheppard who ejects star dust from his mouth every time he speaks) and Russell's fucked on Zapatera. I'd love Grant to win but there's no way the winner isn't coming from Zapatera (considering that we have smart people there with good personalities). And I'm beyond disappointed with the editing.

EDIT: I'm giving out cookies to whoever catches what my quote references to.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Survivor

[Don Draper]

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Edited July 5, 2020 by Don Draper

[Life]

More Stephen and I. And he did answer the returning question.

Hey question (not Tocantins based, just want your opinion).

Why do I feel like Zapatera made the wrong move in throwing the challenge not because of numbers but because of the tarp that was part of the reward? I thought the tarp was one of the most important survival items you can get out here.

dude that is EXACTLY what I was thinking. I was actually shouting at the screen when I watched it. Russell wasn't the issue at all. The tarp will come in handy -every day-.

Regardless of common sense, if these guys have even watched Samoa they should know how valuable the tarp can be.

Things like chairs are also incredibly nice. It's surprising how irritating it is to not have anywhere to sit down except the dirt or the bed (which is typically filthy, cluttered with stuff, and set back a significant distance from the firepit).

But, yeah. Tarp.

Yeah, I was slightly raging at Zapatera for doing that. They always have time to get rid of Russell due to the sheer amount of numbers. Steve should have known that since Ralph is clearly the guy who will eat an HII vote if Russell had one. That tarp looked way too important in my mind.

Also, I know I started off enjoying Russell in Samoa since it looked like he basically mindfucked Galu out of an 8-4 advantage but I've really started to not enjoy him and his fans. When people start claiming that he's the greatest thing to happen to Survivor since sliced cheese, do you also get offended? Since in my opinion, you're a much better strategist and you're also likable.

haha, I do think I was a lot closer to winning than Russell ever was. And of course, there are 20 people who were even closer to winning than that. But I do have to give Russell major props both for his total game dominance and his awareness of the cameras. Russell knows how to make good TV; when I was out there, I saw the TV cameras as an adversary or, at best, a necessary nuisance.

Maybe it bugged me a little in s19 since I was fresh off my own season, but now I've grown to just love to watch & appreciate the man and his game.

[Darros]

[spoiler=Last Night]Wow, Russell lost the challenge. I'm .... amazed.

I can see this as a good and a bad thing, but now the Zapetera tribe looks more unified. They still shouldn't of voted him him out that early IMO, I mean Rupert had the idol. They didn't need to worry about him finding out.

Also, WTF Rupert. You shouldn't be telling anyone you have the idol, especially at the challenge. Even with that cover up you managed to look stupid, and Phillip found out.

That could've helped Phillip too, but then he had to blab to Rob and ask for a favor for Kristina?! Dumb move. Now he's going to get voted out, because Kristina just left.

Also, Matt is definately a good competitor. I'm rooting for him.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Hawk King Tibarn

[Life]

You mean Ralph?

There's no point in putting shit in spoilers. But I do agree that getting rid of the garden gnome this early was a bad idea. Should have sent Krista home, she's dead weight and even with a possible idol, Russell couldn't have guessed that 6 votes would be on Krista.

[Don Draper]

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Edited July 5, 2020 by Don Draper

[Life]

So Life, whatever happened to Ometepe being worse than Fang and the winner definitely being from Zap? <img src='http://serenesforest.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

I'm still calling Mike as the winner. Ome keeps shooting themselves in the foot while Zap has been incredibly unlucky.

I'd love to see a Rob/Grant/Natalie/Ashley/Andrea endgame IF G/N/As weren't trying to give Rob the win a la Stephanie LaGrossa. But that's not going to happen if you ask me (and if Mike is smart).

If I was Mike, I'd offer Andrea a Final 4 deal with the ability that she can lambaste him in front of the jury if he doesn't keep his word. This is already much better than anything that Rob can offer Andrea since I have no doubt that Rob won't even let her make the Final 6, never mind Final 4. That basically hooks Andrea for good and Zap can knock out anyone they choose on Ome, even with that HII that Rob still holds. Simple.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Survivor was my religion for the first 20 seasons but then I went to college. I'm irritated with Russell so much, I don't care how smart the man is, he's an overconfident asshole.

[Darros]

Survivor was my religion for the first 20 seasons but then I went to college. I'm irritated with Russell so much, I don't care how smart the man is, he's an overconfident asshole.

You realize he was voted out and lost a duel weeks ago, right?

[Caliban of Sycorax]

You realize he was voted out and lost a duel weeks ago, right?

Yes, my mother told me. I was very happy because I hated him in 19/20.

[The Thief's Assassin]

Love survivor, been watching since Pearl Islands but i havent seen the end of RI yet because im stupid and cant catch up on the recordings!

[Life]

A bump but a well deserved bump.

First off, I am of the opinion that RI was rigged for Rob to win. I think he was allowed to look at the Survivor's psych reports. I think there was a cameraman who's job was to tell him if he was in trouble. I think under the table agreements to Ashley, Natalie and Grant were made (like $500 grand each) so that they'd follow his every lead.

Now for the good stuff. I'm on my first viewing of Fiji which is a much better season than anyone gives it credit for. I'm 3 episodes in and while the boots have been pretty predictable (Jessica, Erica, Sylvia), the editing is absolutely fantastic.

And then I started chatting to Yau-Man. Similar to my conversations with Stephen but I actually have much more access to asking Yau-Man questions since he frequents the Facebook group Previously On Survivor (POS for short). So I wanted to get his take on certain things that don't get shown to the audience.

Here's the transcript to date.

57 minutes ago Rafi Broer

Ok. I'll ask here if you don't mind.

Up until you guys got fire, how bad was the survival aspect? You had a pretty big confessional at the start of Ep3 about how you needed fire or you'd all die.

I mean, the licking water off of leaves stuff was pretty sad to watch because I could see that you guys were just all deteriorating so fast out there. And the 2nd Immunity along with the Erica boot couldn't have helped.

So basically, was it as bad as the TV showed or much worse?

52 minutes ago Yau-Man Chan

It was really really bad - it's a lot worst than what you saw on tv. Remember, for every episode it's 3 real days and they never gave us any water or food. The skinny people like me and Michelle do much better as we are not always eating or thinking about food. The bigger (fatter) people have it worse as they are use to snacking and having food in their stomach all the time. Now of course the producers don't want us to die or get too sick so in seasons where there are really not food around, they'll give them rice or beans but in Fiji there's actually food all around us - coconuts and sea snails which is very protein rich. We even found oysters on the rocks.

49 minutes ago Rafi Broer

Huh. So you guys really were surviving, I guess. Aside from earlier seasons (Marquesas really comes to mind), I can't remember a later season where food really became an issue. And Gabon doesn't count because Fang messed up with food there.

46 minutes ago Yau-Man Chan

Yes, we were, but we should have to be - those of us happy to each coconuts and raw sea snails were ok!

41 minutes ago Rafi Broer

Here's another one. Like I said before, if you don't have time to answer, don't worry.

When Moto won the first reward (if you can't remember, it was the same reward where you guys got flint since Michelle got the fire going earlier that day), they picked the fishing gear (obvious smart choice). But they didn't show Ravu's reaction to the Moto pick, especially since Probst specifically mentioned that Moto already had fishing gear.

Did that bring a new low to Ravu? Just the thought that Moto is unintentionally rubbing wins in your face by taking extras of what you guys need? Or was it just the fact that it was the third straight loss which sucked?

21 minutes ago Yau-Man Chan

Yes, Ravu was in bad shape an quite demoralize - like for those who have more will be given etc. But it was advantage for me personally since I know I can endure the hardship and harsh conditions and so it gave me hope that I'll make it to the merge if we keep losing and my tribemates are getting worse!

12 minutes ago Rafi Broer

But wouldn't that worry you in return? The first three votes were all about making the tribe stronger (Jessica, Erica and Sylvia) so as the 52 year old man, wouldn't you be worried about your own chances?

2 other questions (for right now, sorry about the bombardment, I just like to know as much as possible).

1. How did Anthony get so low in the pecking order? The episode went from him choking in the food competition (mind you, Moto kinda blew you guys out of the water there so it wasn't just on him) to "Anthony is whiny and he doesn't have the right attitude". Did this happen suddenly or was he getting on Ravu's nerves?

2. Did you support Mookie's taunting of Lisi at the food immunity challenge? I mean, as Mario says in your F115 entry, you bitchslapped him across the face in the fireball challenge but what about with Lisi? The editing shows her laughing a couple days before at your faceoff with Edgardo in the "slide" challenge?

[The Thief's Assassin]

Well see i think RI just showed how dumb humanity really is people followed Rob like a blind puppy

[Caliban of Sycorax]

A bump but a well deserved bump.

First off, I am of the opinion that RI was rigged for Rob to win. I think he was allowed to look at the Survivor's psych reports. I think there was a cameraman who's job was to tell him if he was in trouble. I think under the table agreements to Ashley, Natalie and Grant were made (like $500 grand each) so that they'd follow his every lead.

My parents and I believed the same thing.

[Life]

My parents and I believed the same thing.

That season was ugly to watch. I heard from Tangerine that Natalie's jury speech was basically "Rob played better than me, give him the money". I nearly puked at the thought of that.

From now on, I'm going to pretend that this season never existed.

[Don Draper]

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Edited July 5, 2020 by Don Draper

[Janissary]

Going to a survivor casting call today... wish me luck. And yeah, RI kinda sucked.

[The Thief's Assassin]

That season was ugly to watch. I heard from Tangerine that Natalie's jury speech was basically "Rob played better than me, give him the money". I nearly puked at the thought of that.

From now on, I'm going to pretend that this season never existed.

Can't forget Russel crying when he lost the duel this season was a strange one

[Don Draper]

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Edited July 5, 2020 by Don Draper

[Caliban of Sycorax]

All it was was "let's give Rob the money" for the whole jury, essentially.

[Life]

All it was was "let's give Rob the money" for the whole jury, essentially.

That's the joke name of the season. To me, Season 22 was when Survivor officially jumped the shark.

Next season is the same format and I think Coach vs. Ozzy is confirmed. Coach didn't show up to the 180 Film premiere (considering that it's HIS movie) but I don't know where we got Ozzy from. In any case, we know that Coach is back which is... well, I hope I don't get tired of him.

EDIT: In addition, if someone wants to be added to the Previously On... Survivor! group that I'm in (where I got in contact with Yau-Man), PM me with your Facebook name. I'll have you added to the group right away. It's where we seriously (and not so seriously) discuss Survivor. Or you could join Survivor Sucks which has been around for 11 years now.

And I have more of the Yau-Man conversation if anyone wants to read it. Basically, had Dreamz not reneged on the deal, Yau-Man would have been the first incarnation of Natalie Bolton.

DOUBLE EDIT: Basically, we're just trashing Sugar right now in POS. One of my favourite past-times in Survivor history. I hate that bitch.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Kitty Admiral

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Oh Sugar. Why she was on HVV is beyond me. Jeff's reasoning in the intro was "she wanted good people to win". WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN I DON'T EVEN.

[Life]

Oh Sugar. Why she was on HVV is beyond me. Jeff's reasoning in the intro was "she wanted good people to win". WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN I DON'T EVEN.

Sugar's not even a Hero. She's a villain. Oh she hides behind her pearly white teeth but she's cold, ruthless and FUCKING INSANE. And she was an obnoxious bitch. All you have to do is watch the Randy boot episode. You'll realize that Randy being a dick was calculated and Sugar's much more evil than he could ever be. Just watch it.

[Janissary]

Sugar should go die. It makes us all fat. amirite?

Yeah, she's stupid. I didn't like her season at all.

[Life]

Sugar should go die. It makes us all fat. amirite?

Yeah, she's stupid. I didn't like her season at all.

That's the thing. Without Sugar, Gabon would have been fantastic. Onions, Kenny, Crystal, Matty, Bob and what I consider the second biggest robbing of a rightful winner (Susie). Only Fairplay got shafted harder.

EDIT: Jan, I can get you in touch with Yau-Man if you want. I have connections.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Kitty Admiral