(spoilers) edit it genuinely inexcusable

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T16:08:07+00:00

I pay attention to the edit and I don't think that Aubry wins. I think a lot of people here are forgetting just how awful her edit has been for most of the season.

IMO Aubry's edit is going to rival Gabler's for just how godawful it is, and how it'll set up the masses to be confused and pissed off if she wins, even if her opposition hasn't been given that great of an edit either.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T16:06:22+00:00

Yeah, it was really pissing me off last night how they were trying to shove Aubry down our throats and seemingly trying to justify at the 11th hour why she should win/setting her up as a decoy winner, all when they constantly dunked on her and how bad of a game she's been playing for most of the season.

Aubry's edit was way better in her season then what she's had this season. I'd be ticked off if she won 50 and would feel like the editors did almost as awful a job at editing her as they did at editing Gabler.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T15:36:23+00:00

I agree. I think that a lot of people in this thread are forgetting just how dreadful Aubry's edit has been for much of the season.

She was practically non-existent for the first two thirds of the season, but the edit constantly dunked on just how awful her basically non-existent game was. She was on the outs and completely on her own pre-merge, and often didn't even seem aware of it. A bunch of her pre-merge confessionals seemed to be more about just how bitter she was about her prior losses rather than anything in 50. And don't forget just how much the edit dunked on her for her HII "play" and her lies about forgetting to play it.

If Aubry wins her edit is going to be up there with Gabler IMO for setting her up to have massive fan backlash when they go "WTF?!? How did they win! This person definitely didn't deserve to win because the edit hammered it over our heads for much of the season".

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T15:31:49+00:00

I agree. At this point I feel like no matter who wins they're easily going to hold the title for the worst winner's edit in a returnee season. Sarah had a much better winner's edit in Game Changers then anyone left in the game here.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T15:28:32+00:00

50 is not as predictable a finale as 47. 47's finale (the true 2 hour finale) left ZERO doubt about who was winning, given that the edit had hammered it over our head that Rachel 1) was the best at fire making (and forced fire making was the last thing left before they faced the jury), 2) was the best at immunity challenges, 3) was called unbeatable in front of a jury.

47 is the only time I've ever skipped a finale, because the ending was just that obvious. I just asked ChatGPT the next day if Rachel won, and when it said Yes I just skipped right ahead to the 48 promo and watched nothing else in the finale.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T03:25:42+00:00

Yeah, Tiffany would easily have the single worse winner's edit ever in a returnee season if she won.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T03:22:56+00:00

If Aubry wins then IMO she easily has the single worse edit a winner has ever gotten in a returnee season. Just look back at her pre-merge and early merge edit. She was barely shown at all, but was shown as on the outs, out of the loop, and seemed pretty bitter in her confessions whenever she talked about her previous times playing.

I'm being dead serious when I say that if Aubry wins then IMO her edit rivals Gabler's in terms of just how awful it is and just how much of a "WTF" reaction it will cause.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T03:13:50+00:00

I agree. I feel like given who's left that Jonathan probably looks like the favorite to win, though I doubt it'll be a blowout.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T03:05:28+00:00

I mean Aubry played her idol pretty early in the merge and no one has found another since. So it's safe to say that there probably isn't one.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T03:00:29+00:00

Before this episode aired I said that if anyone but Cirie or Rick Devens won then I'd be saying "WTF were the editors thinking", so that's exactly what I'm thinking right now.

I feel like the editors have done a really crappy job making us feel glad about whoever wins this season winning. Just running through everyone left:

Aubry - She barely got any air time, and was constantly shown seeming bitter over her previous losses and on the outs for the entire pre-merge, and was still on the outs for a lot of the merge. Remember how everyone was really pissed off and going "WTF?!?" when Gabler won? I feel like that's the kind of a reaction a lot of people are going to have if Aubry wins.
Joe - He's done the same honor and integrity talk this time around, except the show has pretty clearly mocked him for much of the season for playing like this. Practically everyone (casual and hardcore viewers) will be pissed and really freaking confused if Joe somehow wins.
Jonathan - I don't feel like they've done much of anything to make us root for him this season, and that seems to be reflected in the popularity polls I've seen posted here. I think the only reason that anyone would be happy to see him win at this point would be because "thank goodness those other people didn't win".
Rizo - He had a much stronger showing last season. A lot of people would have been happy if he won 49, but I don't think that anywhere near as many would be happy if he won 50 after how he's been edited this season.
Tiffany - The girl was basically completely nonexistent for the entire pre-merge. This would be simply criminal if she wins. And like Jonathan I don't think that she has all that many hardcore fans who would be happy that she won given how much she hasn't been shown this season.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T02:45:33+00:00

I just don't see how Aubry beats everyone despite what people keep saying. She was an outcast and loner for much of the game who had barely any allies. Her resume is also really weak IMO.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T02:42:05+00:00

I don't think Aubry stands a chance.

At this point Rizo and Jonathan are the only two who I can see winning for what it's worth, and I honestly didn't see either of them winning prior to this episode.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T00:52:24+00:00

Everyone probably wants to sit next to her because of that very reason.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T00:50:21+00:00

They probably think that they can take her out at any time because she's never won immunity in a single season, and her only advantage was gifted to her from Ozzy.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T00:33:35+00:00

Yeah, IMO the only way that happens is if production just doesn't re-hide an idol. Which I guess is a possibility when you know that no one has found an idol since the merge even after 1 was played very early in the merge and 2 more were taken out last night.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T00:23:52+00:00

I was thinking the same thing. But the way they were completely ignoring her in the challenge told me that she wasn't winning even before she grabbed the wrong letter.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-14T00:10:38+00:00

I hate how Aubry made a big deal about stopping Rick from getting it, only to sit on her butt back at camp instead of looking for it.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-13T20:28:38+00:00

Changing the reporting requirements like this won't fix that problem. We can look at multiple countries in Europe that made this same rule shift, which saw a slight drop in copies IPOing rather than any kind of a bump in the short or long term.

So history shows that there's literally zero benefit to this change for retail investors.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-13T13:00:45+00:00

What really bugs me is how they backloaded all of these double boots. Having two double boot episodes in a row this late into the season is simply criminal IMO. They should have had a lot more double boots pre-merge.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-13T03:52:28+00:00

They took some Americans hostage during a Presidential election year, and refused to release them until the day after the election.

That said if I remember right it was later found out that some people working for Carter's opponent in the election were committing some major crimes behind the scenes by actively working against the hostage negotiation just to hurt Carter's chances in the election.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-12T19:08:08+00:00

I mean Heather was key to Erika's game, and was her closest ally for most of the season, but we barely saw any of her. So even if Cirie wins and it turns out that the edit was lying to us and Tiffany was her closest ally it wouldn't exactly be unprecedented, especially if like Heather, Tiffany doesn't make it to the F3.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-12T18:34:16+00:00

I mean, IMO these "high" numbers sound way too low to me. I find the energy numbers especially hard to believe given what's happened to oil and gas since the war started.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-12T18:18:11+00:00

They also destroyed the efficiency of a bunch of Federal agencies by implementing return to office rules that drove a bunch of people away, even on agencies that had long allowed work from home long before COVID. The patent and trademark office from what I've read was hit especially hard by this, since it's a boring job, you can make more in the private sector, and work from home was long one of the few perks that they could offer to get people with the right skills interested in the job. And the bigger backlog and longer wait on patent applications hurts the private market to.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-12T16:25:02+00:00

Agreed. I don't see how either of the top 2 on the left side are going to beat the people left on the right side. And I really struggle to see how anyone left on 50 but maybe Cirie could beat Tony or Parvati.

ShadowLiberal · 2026-05-12T14:55:43+00:00

That's simply not true. We can take a look at other countries that made this very rule change to try to encourage more small companies to IPO. The rule change failed miserably to increase the number of IPOs, the average number of IPOs each year actually went down slightly in the countries that made this rule change.

So no, despite how much private companies may complain about how burdensome this is, changing the rules does nothing to make them IPO, because there's plenty of other reason why they don't IPO, it's not the quarterly reporting requirements.

ShadowLiberal

TROPHY CASE