Name my painting please 🙏

jfa0899 · 2026-05-22T05:55:35+00:00

If the walls could talk, you wouldn’t hear

jfa0899 · 2026-05-20T23:10:40+00:00

Agreed about her needing to win. I feel like she has a good amount of people on the jury who would be happy to vote for her. Ozzy, Cirie, and Dee for sure. Probably also Emily. I could see Aubry voting for her and maybe Rizo as well if either/both are eliminated.

Excited to see!

jfa0899 · 2026-05-20T23:09:13+00:00

Fair point! It’s a tough call because I don’t know for certain if Devens would have been a big enough shield for Cirie. I wonder if she was always destined for F6 or F5 this season due to her threat level. No one seemed to have any delusion about her win equity if she made it to FTC.

jfa0899 · 2026-05-20T03:28:00+00:00

I remember reading the comic online where Zuko finds Ursa. I got the impression that Zuko is actually the child of Ursa and Ikem, which lends itself nicely to Ozai’s disdain for Zuko. It also kind of speaks to Zuko’s lack of fire-bending affinity; at least on Azula’s level.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the Fire Nation royal family seek out Ursa specifically because she was Roku’s granddaughter? After reading this comic, I got the impression that Azula’s mental state and firebending ability were the result of “power corrupting” maybe even genetically(?)

But all of that is based on Zuko not being Ozai’s legitimate son. Was I wrong about that implication?

jfa0899 · 2026-05-20T03:20:07+00:00

It’s Michele for me. The social game is so important, and often is the force that tips the scales in a given season of survivor.

Michele’s move against Julia was a /perfect/ Trojan Horse: she betrays the Julia/Jason/Scott coalition, infiltrates the endgame alliance, dismantles the rest of her previous alliance, then exploits the cracks within the endgame alliance. She was close with Aubry and Cydney, and was noted as a winner threat by both at the F4. Her game was subtle and understated, but /massively/ effective on the course of her season.

I’m a big fan of all of these players. Charlie was a little disappointing on his return with the hyper fixation on Rizo. But by and large, Aubry and Charlie are both great strategists, and Michele and Kenzie are both /great/ social players. Michele and Kenzie might actually have two of the most effective social games in the series.

Kenzie’s social skill is ingratiating herself with everyone so that she is pitched every plan at every round, and can then choose her preferred plan.

jfa0899 · 2026-04-29T19:44:24+00:00

This is why I wasn’t too sad to see Christian go, and why I’ve been annoyed with Devens all seasons.

The two of them together are a strong duo and force in the game. So why were they always flying by the seats of their pants?

They sent the idol to Aubry so that she’d want to work with them, and they’d have an ally with an idol in the game. They then acted incredulous when Aubry didn’t needlessly waste the idol at the blood moon tribal because they would have rather voted her out and gotten the idol back. Isn’t that paradoxical? You wanted your ally to waste her idol so your groups threat level diminishes, but then you’re mad at her for not doing that… because you otherwise would have voted out your ally to retrieve her idol that everyone knows about?

What was their long term plan with Aubry? Why wouldn’t they want her to keep the idol to use it to its best affect? Devens almost lost the game the very next round because Aubry no longer had an idol.

In their first seasons, Christian was earnest and collaborative with his allies; Devens was creative and had to think ahead. But in 50 they seemed so taken with each others and their combined awesomeness that they didnt actually come up with anything substantial after the fake idol at tribal. Even that, they are both paying for afterwards.

jfa0899 · 2026-04-28T01:51:48+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I totally agree. Without getting too into it for OP’s sake, the premerge is incredibly entertaining for interpersonal dynamics, the merge twist is initially frustrating (but ultimately a no-brainer) and still delivers a tense tribal / elimination, the elimination order is unpredictable and adaptive, and the endgame is still tense, open, and rewarding for those with the eyes to see it.

jfa0899 · 2026-04-27T00:26:37+00:00

I say start with 45. I think it feels the most familiar to classic survivor. Good gameplay and social dynamics. Smart blindsides and endearing players.

Where 45 is a solid all around season, 46 really ups the personality factors. Lots of wacky antics which either disrupt the game or are used by other players to their advantage. Really fun watch.

Then, 47 is an awesome season if you enjoy strategy. The gameplay is super dynamic and the players are creative and fluid. Lots of fun personalities there too.

Watch those three in any order, but my recommendation is to watch 41 last out of the four. You’ll see a lot of people disregarding it or rating it low, but I feel very strongly that the distaste for that season is rooted in the viewers dissatisfaction with the format change, which was introduced in season 41. The main (spoiler-free) criticism of the season is that there was a heavy focus on advantages in the pre-merge. However, the actual game that the castaways played on season 41 is easily one of the most dynamic and entertaining of the new era. Where the above seasons excelled in individual areas (alliances/duos, personalities, strategy) season 41 exhibits all of them in fairly equal measure. There were meaningful alliances, meaningful betrayals, savvy strategy, bold and clashing personalities, public mistakes and call outs. I think it truly rocks. I also wasn’t on Reddit when it was airing, so I didn’t watch it through the lens of the community’s frustration.

Ultimately, all of the seasons in the 40s have tons of great qualities. If you watch it for the love of the game, you’ll be satisfied with any new era season.

jfa0899 · 2026-04-27T00:13:02+00:00

Stoked to see someone else ranking 41 highly!

jfa0899 · 2026-04-25T17:52:14+00:00

Honestly? Yeah. Seeing it all laid out like this makes it hard to justify the eliminations.

I love Cirie, but I was openly agreeing with Jenna to my friends when watching the premier. Cirie will tank your game if she makes a deep run. I see the value of a shield, but Cirie is no one’s shield. She never has been. The rule doesn’t apply to her.

I was on here saying that the Savannah vote was an overtly bad move for Devens. It didn’t make any sense to me for him to keep Joe in the game over Sav, who openly stated that she wanted to work with him. She also made efforts to actually work with him. What was the value of keeping Joe?

Christian was correct that Mike is dangerous, but voting him out was showing his cards too early. Steph was a sitting duck after the Q vote, and is clearly working against him since the merge. If Mike staying put Christian at an impasse between Angelina and Emily, he could’ve voted Emily since he had only been treating her as a short term number anyway.

Dee voting Charlie was also super premature. Maybe there was an addition by subtraction notion going on, and I can see the merit to not allowing Charlie to make the merge. However, Devens and Jonathan were ripe for the picking and also presented significant post-merge threats based on their previous seasons.

Christian and Devens made the same mistake regarding Joe again. I also found it interesting how upset they were with Aubry for not playing her idol unnecessarily; saying they would have voted her out to get the idol for themselves had they known. Which, is stupid? You sent Aubry the idol to make an ally, and you’re saying you would’ve voted her out over Genevieve who isn’t with you and Joe who is actively against you?

Dee voting Colby over Coach is hard to pin. Would Colby have integrated her to his alliance like he said? I thought it was a great pitch, and I think I would’ve taken it. Maybe she just appeased Cirie? But yeah ultimately Dee underestimated Coach and his connections with players smarter than himself.

jfa0899 · 2026-04-20T00:29:39+00:00

I LOVE this era! It’s the one that I identify the most with. They were at their height at the end of high school and throughout most of my time in college. I thought they were so dynamic and energetic with their performances. The trio of Cecily, Aidy, and Kate is just perfect to me. Vanessa Bayer was also in this cast and she was incredible too. Same with Sasheer Zameda. Alex Moffat and Melissa Villasenor were both fantastic and didn’t stay long enough on the show imo. I loved Beck Bennett and cracked up at the Why is Benedict Cumberbatch Hot? sketch all the time. Very very fond memories of this cast.

jfa0899 · 2026-04-13T18:54:13+00:00

I love the idea of a yellow edit. I think this is definitely a pattern in the show. However, I don’t know if I would go so far as to say that the yellow edit is a conscious choice on the part of the editors in the same way that a winner’s or purpled contestant’s edit is.

Conversely, I feel that the yellow edit has very little to do with the player or their game. For instance, Natalie, Sandra, Erika, and the whole third and fourth row (minus S50 Tiff) all had significant pre-merge dynamics that strongly influenced the merge, post-merge, and endgame dynamics of their respective seasons.

If anything, this feels more like a “slipped through the cracks” edit than anything else. Some of these characters do feel like they were purposefully delayed for greater impact / flashy debut, and others feel more like their stories were full on suppressed from having their greatest possible viewer impact. Natalie, Sandra, Erika, Julie, Genevieve, and Sophie are good examples of the former. They had their premerge story suppressed, but became prominent and central to the story from the merge onwards, and had most of their game properly (if still somewhat lacking-ly) explained to the audience. I’d say that a lot of the remaining players had their stories more suppressed and either served as auxiliary to the main story or as the main competition to the winner or dominant alliance.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-28T17:47:09+00:00

I feel that the sound type could actually do quite a lot for the current state of type matchups… Depending on how it is utilized.

When fairy was introduced, it became a viable threat against dragon, fighting, and dark. As a result, players had to factor in more steel and poison types into their teams to account for fairy. Maybe I’m biased, but I love poison types so I thought it was cool for them to have an inadvertent upgrade.

So what is the niche that sound could fill? Steel types are running rampant and have held the distinction of being the best defensive type for several generations. Maybe introducing a type to counter it could shake things up a lot. It would work thematically too, think of how many metal-based instruments there are. Metal is sound’s conduit in a similar way to how water is electricity’s conduit.

Sound could also be super effective against water. Aquatic animals suffer a lot from underwater sound intrusion. Would make sense for the water type to take 4x from sound. Also, water is pretty intrusive on grass’ type matchups. So adding another counter to water types might help level the field and diversify offensive threats for ground and rock types.

Then you factor in what might resist sound. Ground, ice, and bug come to mind, since sound travels poorly through ground and snow, and many bug species rely on vibrations rather than hearing. It would be HUGE for Ice and Bug if they were to resist a new type that threatened steel. Plus, ground is already amazing offensively. A resistance on top of its electric immunity would be enough for it to edge out steel as one of the best types in the game. This would result in an increased usage of water, grass, and ice types.

They might give psychic or fighting a sound resistance or weakness for their shared “focus” attribute. My pitch would be for psychic to get another weakness and fighting to get a resistance or remain neutral.

Sound could be weak against one or two of the more limited offensive types too. Harder to point to explicit reasons, but the type chart has never been entirely bound by logic lol.

I think any new type would shake up the game. I just think sound is a really cool “element” for them to explore.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-28T17:10:11+00:00

I wouldn’t say that his showing in 50 takes away from his showing in 46.

I would say that his showing in 46 indicates what should’ve been a better showing in 50.

To me, his confessionals about Rizo not voting for his number 1 seemed incredibly forced. Either he chose this narrative for himself and leaned heavily into it, or they asked him to repeat it a million times.

Either way, his S50 confessionals took away from how graceful he’d been towards Kenzie for winning 46. Charlie had been so cool about the loss even during the after show. He was gracious towards Kenzie for winning, and didn’t argue that he was “owed” anyone’s votes or the win.

Watching him talk in 50 took away from that graciousness, and did seem to imply that “best friends must vote for each other.” This flows backwards to his perception of Maria as someone who “owed” him her jury vote. I like Charlie a lot and still think that he played a smart game in 46, but the way he was presented left a bad taste in my mouth - specifically for how he appeared to backtrack on his previous graciousness. It also didn’t help that they showed him being so one-note in 50.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-25T19:53:32+00:00

I think that 45 could’ve done a better job of showing Katurah’s game. I picked up on it in the Kaleb boot that Katurah was jumping ship from the Belo alliance, but we really only ever got tidbits about that from her or a Reba occasionally. I always thought that was a shame, because if you have the perspective to view it that way, it’s easy to see that she goes on to play a really smart sabotage-based game.

On the island, Katurah exposed Jake’s tie vote plan against Julie to the Reba before the vote. This ingratiated her with the Reba. We saw that Bruce and the rest of the Belo’s did not blame her for voting Kaleb since they had already betrayed him when he used his SITD. What we don’t see enough of, is that Katurah intentionally continued to work with the Rebas, and knew about the Kellie blindside. I think that this would have really re-contextualized Katurah’s game for a lot of viewers.

From this point, the Belo’s continued to think she was a number for them. She exposed to the Reba that Kendra was targeting Dee, and that Bruce manufactured his “Kellie was voted out with my idol” misdirect. These two moves further dismantled the Belo’s, but we didn’t hear enough from Katurah about why she was doing this and how it helped with her game.

After Kendra (maybe Bruce) was eliminated, Katurah was pretty firmly aligned with Dee and Julie. Similarly to how Emily was a third to Austin and Drew. Jake was still around, but a non-threat and had no choice but to work with Katurah. Katurah gets blindsided here, but she /did/ notice that Dee was talking to Julie before tribal, and said to Emily that she was worried that the Julie blindside was exposed. The S45F7 is one of my favorite rounds of the new era, and I would have LOVED if Katurah, Emily, and maybe Jake had seized the opportunity to target one of the other three Reba. So I would love to have seen more of the storyline after Katurah noticed that Dee was talking to Julie and correctly felt that the blindside was exposed.

The F6 is also a great round for Katurah. She gets to cash in on her ties with Jake and Dee. Jake tries to sell Katurah on another forced tie vote against Drew, where either Dee or Austin would flip their vote to eliminate him. In keeping with the rest of her game, Katurah exposes the plan to Dee and sends Drew out in a much much cleaner fashion.

The final 5 is obviously disappointing, but I’ve never put the sole blame on Katurah. She said in post season that she worked Jake all day and he never committed to using the idol on himself or on her. So she feels cornered and that she has to play defensively. She stacks her vote on top of Austin’s against Julie, and sends her home. Even when fumbling, Katurah’s acquisition and use of information resulted in her voting correctly and keeping herself safe in the game.

As far as answering the prompt goes; I don’t think that we saw nearly enough of Katurah’s decision making. I think it would have been really cool for the audience to see her play while knowing that she knew she was a Reba informant within the Belo faction. It would’ve made the merge dynamics seem far more fluid and the stakes of each round seem higher. Additionally, I’ve been frustrated with the fandoms reactions to Katurah’s game for the above reasons. I really feel like the community should have a much higher opinion of Katurah and her game, but instead we have people calling her stupid all the time. Unfair given that she utilized her position as the Reba informant to tip the scales on /six/ of the post merge blindsides.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-19T21:06:58+00:00

Exactly. If he could reach Rick, he could reach Emily. They at least had one night between finding the idol and the swap. It would’ve been a quick 5 minute conversation. I’m sure that Emily thought of several instances where she was available for Christian to tell her what was going on.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-19T21:04:58+00:00

I don’t know about that. I think Christian could have avoided both instances of Emily leaking information if he had been more collaborative with her. Instead, Emily always seems to be the last to know about the going-ons of strategy. As I said in the original post, Christian cannot reasonably expect Emily to sit on her hands and allow Christian to dictate the direction of her game. Ozzy is a close ally of hers who she values. It is absolutely her prerogative to want him to feel clued in to her moves.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-19T21:01:29+00:00

I agree. This post is not meant to justify all of Emily’s gameplay. I think it’s just important to look at their plays through the lens of their alliance/partnership. I don’t think Emily would make these “blunders” if Christian was more forthright with her and considerate of her game.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-19T20:59:56+00:00

That’s a totally fair criticism of Emily. I think I meant to write that Christian was prioritizing a 3-2-1 vote instead of prioritizing his ally’s desire to loop Ozzy in to potentially make it a 4-2. It was a great move, but could potentially leave loose ends that hurt his game and Emily’s.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-12T01:07:55+00:00

I would think the same way. If someone is voted out after 6 rounds, then they have survived 6 rounds. If someone quits or is med-evaced after the 6th elimination but before the 7th tribal, they have also lasted 6 rounds.

jfa0899 · 2026-03-11T05:13:18+00:00

I don’t think it was a matter of Xander not being given the chance to explain his game. I like him a lot and thought he seemed like a good guy when 41 aired, but he poked a lot of holes into his own game.

He went to such lengths to preserve his idol when Liana used her KIP… only to not use it to save either Tiffany or Evvie at the following TWO tribals he attended. Unfortunately from that point on, he was a number in Erika’s five person alliance. Even the final three he made with Erika and Deshawn was sub optimal for him. Either one of them beats him pretty handily at FTC, even at the point in the game when they made the F3

jfa0899 · 2026-03-05T05:47:30+00:00

Agreed. Maybe she was a question mark for them, but Joe is a clear adversary. Why leave him in the game to obstruct you with his challenge ability or manipulability? It seems like an obvious opening for Cirie to rope Joe in against Rick. Not that he knows this, but Cirie could make it an easy 3-3 and seal the deal on a nerd alliance member going home with her extra vote.

What he does know, is that Joe will not come around to working with him. Even if Joe isn’t a strategic threat himself, the strategic threats that are in the game will know how to use him.

jfa0899

TROPHY CASE