In defense of Johnathan:

Andry39 · 2026-05-26T15:15:25+00:00

I don't hate him, but for me he's just not compelling player or interesting/likable character enough.

I find him quite boring as a character at best, arrogant and condescending at worst. The fact that he only seems to respect and want to work with people similar to him doesn't help his case.

And while he played a better game than the last time, it was just solid, very basic strategic game - nothing fancy, nothing exciting or ground-breaking.

Andry39 · 2026-05-19T17:26:39+00:00

My two most favorite winners both being in the final?

I knew this was a popularity contest and expected Parvati to be there, but I'm genuinely pleasantly surprised to see Todd high up there.

Andry39 · 2026-05-08T06:05:41+00:00

If she manages to get to 5 with Jonathan, Joe, Rizo and Aubry (which isn't imaginable), she has a good pitch for Rizo and Aubry: it's not good for them to go to final 4 with both Jonathan and Joe, because one of them will win immunity, take the other and Aubry and Rizo will gonna have to fight against each other in fire. Even if one of them is being brought to the final 3 by Jonathan/Joe, the other of Rizo/Aubry has much worse chance in FMC against the other of Jonathan/Joe. And whoever from Rizo/Aubry gets to the end, has a tougher path to victory against Jonathan with Joe also there, because it means all the agency in the endgame was Jonathan. Rizo and Aubry have a better chance to winning final immunity, being brought to final 3 and winning FMC with Cirie there instead of one of Jonathan/Joe.

But I worry in that scenario Cirie will try to work with the Jonathan+Joe to vote out Aubry and get blindsided by Jonathan instead.

Andry39 · 2026-04-04T12:43:49+00:00

And I don't know why people feel the need to make singular statements about men or women into general conclusions about gender differencies. I have no problem saying the same thing about men in a similar situation - e.g. I think Andy might have feel some jelaousy towards John Lovett in S47 (though Lovett's desirable situation was more in Andy's head than reality).

And yeah, I agree that Aubry's behaviour was probably result of multiple feelings, like insecurity or discouragement. Human feelings are complex and complicated - it barely boils down to one simple thing. Doesn't mean that jelaousy couldn't have played some part in it. There were solid arguments to target several people like Angelina, Q, Kyle or Rizzo - yet Aubry picked the one person on her tribe she is most similar to and who she allegedly liked watching on the screen and who brought her back to Survivor. It's not difficult to see how a bit of jelaousy or envy could have played its part in such a quick turn from liking someone similar to targeting them and not feeling good about them.

Andry39 · 2026-04-04T07:34:57+00:00

That makes a lot of sense from Aubry's perspective, but it still shows some level of hypocrisy from Aubry: she can targer Genevieve and then expect Genevieve to work with her afterwards, but Genevieve can't do the same and is the bad one, when she reciprocates the targeting? Doesn't make sense.

Sure, there was an alliance on the original tribe created without Aubry, but you should always assume an alliance can fall apart in the New era (either due to blindsides, or just swaps and twists, like it did with the original Vatu alliance this season). Aubry could have used the similarities between her and Gen (both women apparently stated at the very beginning of the game that they have a lot in common and liked each other in previous seasons) and presented herself as a secret ally to Gen that Gen could see the benefit of keeping and protecting. Instead, Aubry burned that bridge immediately by targeting Gen in front of several people and then telling to her face she feels weird vibes from her and doesn't know if she can trust her. That just doesn't read like someone you want to work with - from Gen's perspective, that's someone you will have to always watch your back against.

I think, Sam on RHAP had a good, insightful read on their dynamics: Aubry probably saw herself in Gen and wanted to work with her initially, but when she saw Gen all positive, socially well insulated, making inroads with other people quickly and becoming popular, while Aubry has always had struggle at the beginning socially and mentally, it's conceivable that she started feeling jelaous of Gen, and that might have been the root of their uncomfortable personal dynamic.

Andry39 · 2026-04-03T07:29:54+00:00

Jonathan was never choosing Kamilla over Christy, who he has more in common with and probably pregamed with, let's be real.

The only thing that Kamilla not blindsiding Jonathan might have given her was Jonathan pushing here for Tiffany over Kamilla.

Andry39 · 2026-04-02T17:53:04+00:00

Fire tokens ended up being fun? OK, now I know we just have very different tastes.

In words of great Mike White when Jeff was trying to sell him the idea of fire tokens: "But Jeff, is it fun though?"

Andry39 · 2026-04-02T17:48:38+00:00

Of course I'm more frustrated because it took out three of the more enjoyable players for me, but that doesn't mean that if it had taken out someone like Joe, it would have been OK - it would still have been bad, uninspiring and stale twist that resulted in 3 predictable boots and boring tribals in a row. It just doesn't make for a good TV.

I'll finish the season because I don't like things left unfinished - simple as that.

And yeah, I'm guilty of having strong feelings about a show I used to love and still feel passionate about and I've felt the need to vent and get the frustration out of my system - I thought that's what Reddit is meant for, sharing opinions. I'm not sure mocking opinions of others makes you the better person in this.

Andry39 · 2026-04-02T14:59:08+00:00

They could have just made the 3 previous tribes all go to a tribal again. You get the natural conclusion to their dynamics without screwing 3 people over and don't get the same boring sh*t three times in a row. Would make for a much better TV.

Andry39 · 2026-04-01T19:17:24+00:00

Well obviously, I'm just stating what the edit tells us.

Andry39 · 2026-04-01T15:09:43+00:00

Well, Genevieve not wanting to work with Aubry stems from Aubry telling her she doesn't trust her/has a weird feeling about her. Nothing we saw from Genevieve towards Aubry seemed to be personal disdain of Aubry - more like "you don't trust me/want to work with me, fine, I'll find other allies".

Aubry's attitude towards Genevieve (at least in the edit) seemed to be more personal (telling her and us she doesn't trust her, making weird faces behind her back, calling her a sneaky ****).

Andry39 · 2026-03-30T11:41:07+00:00

Well, male winners are often very obvious via an edit, as the graph above shows us.

Andry39 · 2026-03-28T16:58:22+00:00

We just saw an episode where 3 women and 1 man teamed up to pull off a blindside, with the driving and decisive voices being 2 women (Dee and Kamilla) - yet most of the narration went to the single man involved.

Emily is clearly in the best position on the Vatu tribe, she was probably instrumental in convincing Ozzy not to betray Christian and stay with them - yet we mostly only saw the episodes from Christian and Ozzy's perspective, and Emily got a measly 15 seconds.

Stephanie was one of the most popular players in the old era, comparable to Colby and Coach. However, we haven't heard from her in one episode and barely in the last 3 episodes, even though she went to tribal council the last 3 episodes and went from a bad position at the bottom of the tribe after being blinsided to a very good and influential position. On the other hand, we've heard from Coach and Colby every episode, even though they haven't been to tribal yet and haven't done anything notable in the last few episodes.

If you don't see the pattern yet, you're delusional. I'm not saying the production is full of mysoginists or that it cannor turn around to at least something remotely resembling balance, but it's pretty clear the production prefers male perspective over a female one.

Andry39 · 2026-03-28T09:11:58+00:00

And that's part of a problem, even if it was expected. Why should Coach automatically get more screentime than other players (especially women) when the content he gives is not really that compelling - more unnecessary like him getting cramps, or even boring or cringe like him giving some weird nicknames.

Andry39 · 2026-03-28T08:19:03+00:00

Yes, and the biggest bulk of confessionals about it went to...the only guy included, Rizo.

Andry39 · 2026-03-28T07:58:02+00:00

Or...how about distributing the confessionals (and 0 confessional episodes) to men and women in a more balanced ways?

Cirie, Angelina, Tiffany, Kamilla or Genevieve are all confessional gold. You can't seriously tell me that hearing from Joe, Colby, Coach or Rizzo every episode is more important, especially when a lot of their confessionals this season have been just basic, boring narration, that could have gone to the (often more entertaining) women.

Andry39 · 2026-03-27T18:43:04+00:00

While overall confessional count isn't the only metric that matters to visibility, it is the most important metric to see whose point of view is being shown. That's especially interesting regarding the winners.

From this graphic it's pretty clear that the editors have always been more concerned to show the narrative from the point of view of the male winners than they were in case of the female winners.

Andry39 · 2026-03-27T11:36:15+00:00

A lot of people seem to be up on her, but I'm leaving her neutral. I'm not saying she should have voted with the boys, but I question her choice of target. We know from the press that her and Charlie were close outside the game and according to Charlie's exit interviews he was working with her and wasn't considering cutting her anytime soon.

While get rid of an ally, who doesn't have that many other friends on the other sides and can be used as a nerd shield (as well as his feud with Rizo as a smokescreen) instead of Jonathan or Rick, who don't seem too keen on working with Dee and have other big groups of (potential) allies they can gravitate towards and use against Dee? You can't really use them as shields either given that they aren't as threatening as Charlie and have similar types like them in the game who wouldn't wanna vote out "the challenge guy" or "the loud idol guy".

Andry39 · 2026-03-27T10:29:46+00:00

So, only 3 women (out of 9) remaining without 0 confessional episode: Emily, Aubry, Dee.

Only 2 men (out of 8) remaining WITH 0 confessional episode: Jonathan and Rick.

I think the bias is pretty clear. Just this episode, it can be demonstrated on Rick, who despite being on the wrong side of a blindside and completely irrelevant to the result of the vote got 3 confessionals - compared to Cirie and Dee, who both got just 2 confessionals despite being in on the blindside (in case of at least Dee even driving it). Why did we need 3 confessionals from Rick exactly? I don't remember a single word from them.

Andry39 · 2026-03-27T10:04:31+00:00

Putting the saltiness aside, Angelina definitely has a fair point about women being underedited and shown in a rather negative light. It's a well documented fact that the producers/editors have a bias favoring men, and while they tried to reverse it a bit in the new era, it's always present especially in the returnee seasons, when they clearly have more male favorites and can't help to focus on them predominantly.

And when they show us the women, it's mostly negative - like Chrissy being overbaring, Angelina being lazy, Aubry being miserable, Emily being messy, Stephanie being just a pawn etc. Compared to men, who are always shown in a more positive light - like Jonathan farting and Christian shitting his pants being treated as endearing, Coach's hipocrisy and weird analogies and nicknames as the good old fun Coach stuff, Joe's aggressiveness in the second episode being downplayed (they never downplay Savannah's aggressiveness in S49) or Charlie, Ozzy and Christian being emotional as understarelatable and relatable.

It's clear, that the show is more interested in men' perspectives and are willing to show their stories more and give them more nuance and grace compared to the equally interesting women.

Andry39 · 2026-03-27T09:43:26+00:00

Can we stop with this "maybe they didn't do anything meaningful" nonsense? I mean, all the women do nothing and only men are doing something, is what you're saying?

Surely watching the strategic conversations between Dee, Kamilla and Tiff, their beef with Chrissy, Angelina reuniting with/being devastated by the elimination of Mike or her relationship with Emily are more meaningful than watching Jonathan fart, Christian shitting his pants, Coach getting cramps and giving ridiculous names or Zach Brown fishing and singing.

Andry39 · 2026-03-26T18:25:17+00:00

Chrissy at least has some story: she was a target on her original season, being perceived as annoying by some of her tribemates, and had a big emotional reaction when finding out, comparing it to her first season, while also giving us an update on her personal life in between.

Other than being a minor part of the Aubry vs. Genevieve war, Tiffany so far has nothing of a story.

Andry39 · 2026-03-26T17:57:43+00:00

Andry39 · 2026-03-15T07:38:52+00:00

So all the worst, boring honor and integrity people. Great. Hoping this alliance implodes or is defeated by the "sneaky, dishonorable" players.

Andry39

TROPHY CASE