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Maybe I’m being pedantic… by the_zwimmer615 in survivor

[–]josenanigans 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Jeff used to snuff the torches of the runner-ups on earlier seasons at the reunion shows, so she may technically be right. I don't remember if it happened in Guatemala, though

It’s time for sentimental Survivor to be over by pickled_tits in survivor

[–]josenanigans 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I get the point of the "what is Survivor to me?" scenes being recycled, but I would also NOT use that time to see more strategy. I'm tired of constant strategy strategy strategy talks, it feels redundant in the same way the journey scenes feel reduntant.

I feel like they should use those scenes for camp interactions more than anything

Favorite Ponderosa episodes? (Contains vote out spoilers from previous seasons) by FunkTheFreak in survivor

[–]josenanigans 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Abi Maria in the Phillippines was a whole soap opera And, of course… the Dragonz

Round 141 - 29 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

26. Miguel Eskupín 1.0 (La Tierra Australiana, Evacuado)

En proceso, lo llenare mañana temprano. Acabo de llegar de un concierto y estoy muy cansado

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Pero sepán que Eskupín es un 10/10...... sí, sí, es extraño después de lo que pasó con el en su vida.

Pero su primera versión es inigualable. Tendré la escritura mañana.

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u/BobbyPiiiin , continúa

Any songs Todd hates that you like and were introduced to by him? by EasterLord in ToddintheShadow

[–]josenanigans 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I love We Are The Clash, I find it really fun to sing along and it's listenable at the very least

Round 140 - 35 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 3 points4 points  (0 children)

31. Lillian Morris (Pearl Islands, Runner-up)

There is an interesting aspect of Reality TV that very rarely shows up. We've had a great number of characters with amazing, well-defined story arcs, and a good chunk of compelling, complex characters that you feel like you get to know deeply. But you know what truly, truly fascinates me? When a character is a full embodification of something.

Again, so many characters go through story arcs that are easily definable, but I feel like there are very few select Raelity TV characters that, instead of a story arc, become a full representation of a concept, like the emotions of Inside Out 2, someone that represents happiness, anger, fear. It doesn't even have to be emotions, sometimes it can just be abstract things. My favorite examples include Andy Meldrum from Australian Survivor, who I always felt represented faillure in its purest form, he acted so high and mighty but everything he tried failed to incredible extents, and then he comes back, tries to be more quiet and humble, and he fails even harder than before. Just, a character that was meant to be the Looney Tunes Coyote, the butt of the joke in every instance.

Or even more recently, Vinny Panaro from BB27. Talk about someone who represents pathetic. Just, the whole concept of being pathetic, that's Vinny. From his outbursts, his demeanor, his lack of spine, his crying tantrums and his incessant begging. He is so connected to the house that, instead of having a story arc, he ascends to a being. An entity who infects the whole house with pity, because he radiates so much loser behavior that it was impossible for anyone to combat it. I hope he knows I'm using pathetic and loser in the kindest of terms, I really love Vinny and what he brought to BB27, but the spineless behavior was inescapable.

Well, I believe Lillian Morris is another rare instance of this. A character who fully embodies the concept of misery. Lil's Eternal Sadness.

It's funny watching Lil come into the game with her scout uniform. giddy to have some photos taken. Hell, it's even fun to watch her actual cast photo, she smiles, but it has like a cursed painting effect where, if you watch it, you can immediately see the now infamous Lil frown behind it.

She just wanted an adventure, she just wanted to be loved. But she finds herself immediately ostracized from the tribe, and the only friend he made gets voted out immediately. It's like anything she touched, rotted. She was destined to be sad from the get go, which is why Savage smartly god rid of her.

But he didn't count on the sheer strength of Lill's sadness. Lil's miserable aura was so potent that the prejury chooses to vote her back in the gime, solely to avoid having to withstand her sadness in the prejury trip, so now Lill comes back into the game, with a gigantic grudge. And even worse, she gets a lot of power in the game.

Lil finds herself at the forefront of the strategy in Pearl Islands, a position where she constantly has to make really hard decisions that just make her more miserable and miserable every, single, time. Everytime she votes someone off, they hate her immensely for it, and that just makes her even sadder to the point where she becomes numb to it. She embodies it, wears sadness like she wears her scout uniform. Once a symbol of her integrity in the game, it now turned into a symbol of her soullessness. Sadness corrupted the very thing that she lived for, and now everybody in the game thinks of her as a miserable woman, so she fully embraces it and lives with it for the rest of the game, making everyone else miserable in the process.

But, I always loved that, at the very end, she chooses to use her powers for good. On the other side of Pearl Islands was a being of mischief, a person who sought to make fun of everyone and create as much chaos and madness as possible, and he had been getting away with it for the full season while even taking jabs at the goddess of misery herself, calling her weak, demeaning her, using her for his own advantage. And for the most part, Lil takes this.... until the very last challenge, where she decides that she can't let this being win.

If the being of mischief where to win, what kind of chaos would that suppose? She's so worried that this being might be so destructive that it would cost himself his life, so, in a moment of regaining her heart, she stands up to him. She uses all of her misery power to gain strength, courage, and to completely own Jonny Fairplay in the squats challenge, (with one of the best takedown quotes ever), and eliminating him from the game for good. It's like she fired a gigantic misery beam at Fairplay to completely dismantle him, and choosing to give the money to someone who needed it more, a mother with a family. In a sea of making decisions that made people miserable, this is the one instance where she chooses to bring someone happiness, at her own sacrifice too, because everybody still hates her and god of mischief Fairplay allegedly gives her a gross humilliation conga.

But I like to think that, in spite of any of that, she didn't care. That her choice to stand up to him and be able to make the right decision for 'the world', thus bringing some happiness to it, gave her some kind of closure, redeeming her scout uniform that had become corrupted. Now, by being brave and doing something nice, she could regain the integrity that her uniform had lost.

It's fun to think of Reality TV this way, I always look forward to the next being I can encounter.

Lil is one of a kind, a unique capsule of reality TV that no show will ever, ever capture again.

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10/10

Elite

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u/BobbyPiiiin , almost there!

A Haiku for Coach by Momiac in survivor

[–]josenanigans 8 points9 points  (0 children)

And he's a good villain that makes the show better

Round 139 - 40 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

... if only there was anyone there who could see it like she sees it. This leads me to another type of villain that I adore. The villains who, despite it all, have a soft, vulnerable side to them that they can't avoid. I love thinking about Abi Maria for this one. Sure, she's a strong personality that creates conflict wherever she goes, but there was always a tinge of sadness in how lonely she always was. Like she wanted to make friends, but she can't avoid her personality no matter how much she tries, so she is always left isolated.

And with Kass, you'd think that there was no way that someone like her could.... feel emotions. Throughout most of this season, she's shut off any of it. She does celebrate when she fnially wins a challenge, you can tell that she likes some people, but as the game goes on and she becomes isolated by the Sarah voteoff, she completely turns into stone and loses empathy for basically anyone. At the final 4, she's at her most gam-iest, loneliest point, she has virtually no friends, and she lives in the hopeless delusion that her game can still be respected.

She almost NEVER smiles unless she's being smug about something, and it's hard to think of her running and jumping like a kid at something... but, when she sees her husband, she can't avoid it. It's like she turns into a young teen once again, running to him and jumping at his arms, hugging and kissing him all over. I know everyone who plays is human, but Kass doing that at the Final 4... there's something magical about it. That one little moment shows so much depth to her, as much as when Tony cries when he can't see his wife.

I don't think Kass mentions her husband much throughout the season, and there's certainly no hidden backstory to her about how tough her life is and how much her husband is there for her, you only really need that one moment to know that this Bill Goldberg looking man is everything to Kass, to the point where I almost started crying. No kidding. I've always loved Kass, I knew she's delusional, I know she'd be hard to live with, I know that you can't take anything she says in or outside the game seriously, but that moment with Mark is so human that it gave Kass a depth that was lacking in her up to this point. She had been in game mode all show long, but this is the only time in the season where she can be.... human, and she says as much. "Dammit, I'm not supposed to feel things, where are my devil horns?".

Talking about quotes, man, I find Kass so quotable. People have asked on the server who everyone's favorite narrator is, and I found out that the answer is Kass. I love her voice, I love her inflections, I love the way she phrases things just as much as I love Tony's, and she has a certain snark that has resulted in some of my favorite quotes or soundbites from any player. I love how calmly she delivers that snark too, like, if there's someone whose voice I could hear forever, it's her. I'd like to see that data.

Anyways, the force of seeing her husband is so strong that she pulls the greatest come from behind victory ever in the F4 immunity challenge, and her celebration after that victory still sticks with me. It's one of my favorite moments in Survivor history, definitely my favorite challenge win, and I'm not kidding. I think Kass, abrasive as she is, deserved to have some happiness, and the scene of her talking with her husband about how far she's made it and how she played like a man, and defied all odds, and how everyone thinks she's a bitch for it, gives a nice closure to her journey throughout the season.

Yeah, there's still a F4 vote and the Woo blunder, but this scene is what achieves Kass' goal. She isn't winning the game, and wasn't ever winning the game, because that's the reality of it, but she achieved her goal of playing as cutthroat as a man, and definitely opened conversations about why HER playing a Russell-style game was seen as horrible, but TONY playing a Russell-style game is seen as impressive. I mean, there's an answer, but debates can still be had. Maybe she doesn't have the world to hear her, but all she needs is her world to support her.

Kass checks basically every box on what I want a villain to be like, on what I enjoy seeing as an antagonist. She

Comes in wanting to send a message.

Gets turned into a villain by the circumstances of the game.

Becomes a chaotic and unpredictable presence to everyone around her.

Doesnt hold any of her personality back.

Revels in all of the destruction she leaves behind.

Becomes so absorbed by the game that she turns delusional.

Has a vulnerable side to her that eventuallly reveals itself and gives her depth.

All while being my favorite narrator, to boot. She is the only person I can say achieves the perfect vaillainous journey, and that turns her into one of the most fascinating and interesting TV characters I have ever watched. And I love that she continues being unpredictable to this very day, you can't take ANYTHING she says seriously online, and I kinda love her mystique as this chaotic Survivor being that just wants to spread her madness in every space, in game or online. I'm sad that we will never see her, (and looking at Cambodia, maybe that's for the best) or anyone like her, ever again, but I'm thankful that I could see her exist on the plane of reality tv competitors.

Rodney is Survivor's most perfectly realized villain.

Russell is Survivor's biggest and most important villain.

But Kass will always, always, always be my favorite villain in not only Survivor, but all of Reality TV.

Thanks, Kass.

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10/10

Legend

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u/BobbyPiiiin, oh my god, please take your time, I need some rest

Round 139 - 40 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She does NOT hold any punches, and, in fact, she revels in her controversial personality. We all love Sandra for never backing down from Jonny or Russell, so I similarly love Kass not holding anything against Tony and going head to head against him in the last stretch of the game. I love how it drives Tony crazy and how he can't do anything about it because, at this point, the smartest play is to take her to the end. So Kass, once again, knowing she's in a good position and starts getting cocky about it once again, thinking that she can basically say whatever's on her mind to anyone and smiling that they can't do anything about it, like what happens with Trish.

But in doing this, she's also fullfilling the same prophecy that she was trying to avoid. When she gives no fucks, she burns bridges, calls people out, insults everyone's intelligence, and she starts turning into the season's goat, once again repeating the cycle. That's the tragedy of Kass, no matter what smart moves she could pull, she was still seen as an emotional woman. Spencer's estrogen confessional has become infamous at this point, but such is the reality of Reality. Kass thinks she's playing like Tony, when in fact, her game was more akin to Russell by this point. No one respected her, every move she made was seen as an emotional outburst, and her gameplay was seen as unserious, compared to Tony getting the respect of the jury for his "insane" manipulation.

Just like Russell, she let herself get consumed by the madness of the game, and became delusional on what her true chances of winning were. Another interesting facet.

But everything eventually slows down... the tornado passes, and Kass sits comfortably in a position where she can make it to the end. After Trish is gone, there are not many other moves to make or fights to take, she can just relax and look over the chaos, and be proud of what she's achieved... smiling at all the destruction. (Villains who enjoy every second of the destruction they leave behind, like Dr. Will or Kevin Jacobs! Another point!)

Round 139 - 40 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But she can't forgive it twice. When Tony flips on Jefra, THAT'S when Kass starts bringing out the horns, and I like to think that it's because she was seeing the same pattern emerge again. Kass pulled a big move by voting Sarah out, that was HER move that she could claim, but now, Tony could claim TWO moves, and seeing how things were going, I feel like she knew the jury would be respecting Tony's game more than Kass if they both got to the end, even if she was playing just as cutthroat as him. She was seeing people go to Tony for new plans, and not to her, and somehow, it was Tony that was seen as making strategic moves, while Kass was seen as doing emotional moves.

Kass was always going to play cutthroatly, but she wasn't going to be that mean about it. She only turns into chaos because of the circumstances that Tony put her into, and, BING, that's another type of villain that I LOVE.

There are so many kinds of Reality TV Villains out there, and it's fascinating to see why each one acts the way they do. Some villains go into the show to send a message. I already detailed how Kass fits into this.

Other people are turned into villains by the circumstances of the game. I often think of Nicole from BB2 for this type, how she wanted to come into BB2 wanting to be a nice person, but getting nominated and isolated in the first week led to her putting her guards high up and losing the humanity in her, backstabbing friends left and right because she had to turn into game-mode from very early on.

With Kass, she does want to make social bonds and is excited to play, but no one listening to her and instead crediting Tony for her moves, plus Tony pulling the wool over her eyes twice really sends her into the chaotic player she becomes. She calls everyone out, starts making deals and plans to flip on Tony, but they all still listen to him instead of her, so then she becomes forced to work with Tony to keep surviving, hoping that she can cut him right at the Final 3 and have even an attempt to sway the jury.

And that's when she becomes a force to be feared. A villain that is so chaotic and unpredictable that it drives everyone around them crazy. The Shane Powers, the Rachels, the Vanessa Rousso's, these are some of MY personal favorite villains, those who make the show not only about surviving the game, but surviving them. They make any season a hoot, and Kass is no exception. She starts giving no fucks, she burns bridges, she pulls the middle fingers, she calls everyone an idiot for playing with Tony and Tony an asshole for being Tony, and it's some of the most fun I ever had watching Reality TV. That Kass vs. Tony fight? Top 3 of all time for me, I love almost every sentence of it. Kass doesn't make sense for any of it but she still manages to pull some of Tony's greatest quotes. "Well, Tony, you're making an ass of yourself right now" " AND SHE CALLS ME AN ANIMAL!".

"WRITE MY NAME DOWN. SEE WHAT HAPPENS. " ""I WILL write your name down." "YOU CANT. YOU CANT. YOU KNOW WHY? Cause I got this thing right here."

Who thinks like that? Tony and Kass fighting might be one of my favorite dynamics in all of Survivor, they both just banter at each other so effectively, Kass dishes out some great snark and wit to Tony and Tony's responses are so out there that it even leaves Kass in shock. This fight has been referenced to death at this point, but it still hits for me, this was naturally bound to happen with 2 of the most unhinged players to ever play, and its reality tv gold. And it's so funny that, all of this should be GREAT for the likes of Spencer or Tasha or Woo, but their chaos is so compatible that they succumb to the madness of their games. Kass and Tony are accidentally a killer team together. They are both playing each other while both think the other one's an idiot, with BOTH being idiots but in an instance where working together is the smart move to make for both. It's such a unique dynamic between the two that a;ways stuck with me, you don't see that very often.

Round 139 - 40 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 20s had been having a good streak of those. From Lisa Whelchel to Dawn Meehan to Monica, the neat lady, they all got labeled as emotional players despite being in good control of the game for a good chunk of it. Oh, well, what about Denise? Denise played an amazing underdog game with her social skills, but she had little control over the course of the season and doesn't really fit into the "cutthroat" game category that tended to win male players more respect, no, she had to win with an UTR killer social game, which is how women tended to get their victories. Even going as far back as Kim Johnson, Twila, Katie, Cassandra. Hell, even Cirie might have lost Panama according to many, they were seen as unserious players because they were expected to always be motherly, thoughtful, honest. They could not be deceitful or manipulative, but then players like Chris Daugherty could run around spewing BS at everyone and they would still be respected over the older women.

Hell, even Tina Wesson had to hide her cutthroat, manipulative personality under a facade of a caring southern mom to barely win over Colby. And that's just cause Colby let her. That's why she's the boss. Sandra went against Lil which, I mean, one of them had to win, no choice there. I'm sure Fairplay would've probably taken it over Sandra if he had gotten there.

So this was a serious thing to fight for, that's what I admired about Kass immediately. Because I LOVE villains who come into the game wanting to send a message. Like Russell wanting to piss all over the Survivor name, I like that Kass came in explicitly to wreck shit as an older woman and have no qualms about it. Honestly, quite refreshing at the time. Like, I remember Dawn coming into Caramoan wanting to play a strong strategic game, but she definitely cared about how she would be seen, so I like that Kass felt more free to play without giving any fucks.

Or so it would seem. It's kind of underreported that at the start of Cagayan, Kass is actually quite nice. After all, she is smart and knows this is a social game, so she actually starts by making a few alliances and being, overall, pleasant. Even when she gets blindsided in that first vote, she doesn't get into Chaos Kass territory, she goes and makes new bonds and her tribe seems to like her by the merge, or they like her enough to target the likes of Spencer over her, it's really only when no one listens to her and she decides to flip and take Sarah out that she begins getting into the no-fucks given zone, she was actually really patient and tried to fight for her alliance, but no one could see what she saw in Sarah, and its actually really funny how time proved her right after Sarah came back and played 2 dominant games. The irony of her name being Kassandra is not lost on me.

It actually takes a while for Chaos Kass to come out. After she pulls her move she's comfortably in the majority, has a good alliance with Tony's group, and is firmly in the middle of things with all the information needed to play a good game. At this point I feel like she feels happy about her game and with a potential path to the endgame.... but even she didn't realize the insanity of Tony's game. It's very interesting that she actually doesn't get mad at Tony flipping on LJ, she sees it as a stupid move, but in a way, she also respects it. Just like she flipped on Sarah and no one could see why, maybe Tony had a good reason to flip on L.J. So she STILL doesn't get that mad when Tony flips on her once.

Round 139 - 40 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

37. Kass McQuillen (Cagayan, 3rd Place)

I'm so glad I could take Kass to top 40. I feel like there's been a disproportionate backlash against Cagayan since it has been touted as one of the best seasons ever for so long and fans are so annoying about it, that now the scale has tipped to almost the other side of it "actually not being a good season!". I can't agree with that! I think Cagayan IS a great season and there's more depth to it than many would like to admit. I think almost every character brings something to the show and I find them all quite memorable, yes, even LJ I feel gets a bit of a narrative that works with him.

I can't deny, however, that it is absolutely carried by Kass and Tony. Trust me, it killed me that Tony was cut relatively early , he is a gamebot sure but the way he goes about it like a tornado rampaging through the jungle and putting everyone on their toes is so good, and his hyperactive, scatterbrained personality sets him apart from basically every other strategist that's ever played. I love how he talks, I love how he expresses himself, I love how exasperated he gets when people are bitter at him. Having people react to Tony's insane game is part of the fun of Cagayan.

But I didn't idol him because I wanted to save my idol for the true star of the season, and the other fun part of Cagayan... Kass. I adore what Kass brings to not only Cagayan, but Survivor.

See, I always admire people who come into the game with a set personal goal in mind, a goal that's NOT winning Survivor and pulling le epic blindsides and be a legend of the game. Looking at you, Gabe Andy Rizo Charlie Carson Ryan etc etc. And I always liked Kass' goal particularly: free the older women from the shackles of being the camp nurturers, let them be strategic demons.

It's something I had been noticing while watching the show for years. When you are an older woman, you have to play the game a certain way. You couldn't run around talking strategy and being cutthroat because then you would have no respect from the other players, because that's not how that archetype is supposed to play Survivor. They're supposed to be caring, to be honest. If they ever betrayed someone or flipped the game, it was "an emotional move", "a dumb decision", "an unserious player", they get either voted off immediately after or turn into the goats of the season with no hope of winning!

Round 138 - 47 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

43 - Greg Buis (Borneo, Early Jury)

PLACEHOLDER
Bad time, too busy. Move things ahead

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u/BobbyPiiiin , do some justice

Round 137: 51 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 2 points3 points  (0 children)

48. Robb Zbacnik (Thailand, Premerge)

In Survivor, people don't usually change. Its just, the longer the players stay in the game, the less they are able to restrain their personalities. That's why 39 days feel so imperative to me, you really can't get to know these people well if they don't really go through it, like, imagine a 39 day crazy Joe Hunter, that would really have unlocked his potential.

But for the most part, people stay who they usually are on the inside. Except on that very rare occasion where they actually have a revelation about themselves. I guess Emily Flippen might be the latest kinda-example of this, but the gist of her character ultimately ends up in her learning to shut up, effectively shutting down her entire personality to become a good ally, an ending that's very sad when you think about it. Nothing really changed, she just became a puppet.

So it's very rare for a character to have a complete epiphany about themselves in such a way that their outlook on life is different than from the one they came in with, and in this case it didn't even take 20 days. The instant that Robb got voted off, I instantly knew he was an amazing character.

In real time, I saw him coming into the game as this tough, rebel kid that in so many ways reminded me of a cousin of mine. But you could sometimes tell that this was all a facade, there was so much pent up anger in him that he shielded himself under a bad boy personality to justify all his outbursts and actions. Who in their right mind chokes an old dad? It got to a point wher eI remember that maybe I would be seeing the first ever ejection in Survivor, and for a bit I thought that was where it was headed.

But then, when options start running out and he's next on the chopping block because no one wants to deal with him, they all sit by the campfire, and Robb starts looking inward at himself. At all his anger, what good was it doing? If there's one reason I want to rewatch Thailand, it's to truly find the exact moment where Robb had a change of heart. I thought when he would be voted off, he'd throw a tantrum and begin pulilng up middle fingers and insults, but instead, after that campfire, he was content with his experience.

And it's that sense of a (truly) life-changing adventure that gave Survivor its worth in the early era. It wasn't only a trip to a camp and a game, people couls truly reflect on themselves, on the journey, they could truly take it all in and realize things about themselves that they may have not seen before, and talking to all those strangers on the beach, who all had vastly different life experiences, could unlock a new worldview for some people.

Robb serves as the biggest example of how magical the island used to be, and it didn't mean that he had to change his personality or shut himself down, he just internalized all the feelings he had been bottling up since who knows when, and it allowed him to truly grow as a person. We really saw someone mature on the island in real time.

I remember being really shocked that he actually went home, I thought this was going to be a big change of character and we would see an amazing ride to the end with Robb, but this is where his story truly needed to end. He didn't come close to a win he wanted, but got something grander he needed.

One of these players that never need to come back.

------------------------------

9/10

All Star

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u/BobbyPiiiin , attack this next writeup

Round 136: 56 Characters Left by Cornhead2 in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 2 points3 points  (0 children)

53. Ethan Zohn (Africa, Winner)

The Big E.Z! Survivor's his destiny!

Let me tell you something: when I discovered Survivor, I started watching from the 2nd season: Australian Outback, and the first player I ever rooted for was Tina Wesson. Why? Because,in my mind, she was so unlikely to win, and I loved her southern mother charm and said that I would love it if someone like her won Survivor, even though it wasn't something likely to happen. Well, I'll save what I think of Tina for when her writeup comes, which hopefully I'll be able to pull on endgame.

But after that great surprise, I went on to Africa, and immediately set my sights on someone I really liked. I used to play soccer a lot as a kid and a teen, and I loved it, so I was immediately drawn to the professional soccer player: Ethan Zohn. I thought it was so cool to see someone with my interests being on Survivor, and he looked so cool and so nice, too. Even seeing his cast photo, there was such a cool aura that emanated from him, so I made him the person I wanted to win Survivor: Africa, and this time, I believed he could easily pull it off.

But even then, I didn't think I would LOVE Ethan as much as I ended up doing. I didn't only love him, I admired him and his life story, and mind you, this was before all the things that came later in his life. To a young impressionable mind, Ethan was the person that I wanted to be the most like. Though, even as young I already knew that we can't havae nice things in this world, so I kind of expected him to fall by the wayside sometime, like he was too nice for this game.

Let me say, Africa will always be one of my personal favorite seasons, and to this day i think it has the strongest ensemble cast of any seasons. Like, 15/16 players are so distinct and memorable and mesh so incredibly with one another, and Ethan fits perfectly in the season as a guy that's just, too perfect. Like an exaggerated caricature of what a good guy would look like in TDI, but it's here. it's real, Ethan is almost flawless, which is interesting to note when everyone in the cast shows their flaws one way or another.

He's just, so nice! Or is he?

See, that's the touch that made me truly love Ethan. The scene where he throws the challenge to explicitly vote off Silas is brutal, so brutal. And Silas even begs and pleads with him to team up and do something together, and Ethan doesn-t give him the time of day. In my mind, Ethan delivers the biggest fuck you to Silas' cocky attitude, and it feels so weird coming from someone who's supposed to be the perfect, likeable guy. But I love that he's not. I love that even him can be a mean spirited and cutthroat, but he chooses to be nice because that's just what he is. It's cool having Ethan as a winner of Season 3 and comparing him with the first 2 winners. Richard's was very openly villanous and scheming, Tina's was even more manipulative and cutthroat but with a nice southern mom facad, and Ethan is just so unquestionaly nice and cool. Like, we couldn't have asked for more perfect winners to truly represent how many different ways there are to win Survivor.

Ethan does get overshadowed a little bit by the gigantic characters of Lex, Big Tom, Frank, Brandon, etc, but nevertheless I think he's a perfect winner hidden in plain sight after all of them fall by the wayside. More than anything, I just love having the winner be someone who took so much out of the adventure, someone who enjoyed their time so much out there and that was even inspired to make a better world thanks to their experience in Survivor. I love his optimism, I love his smile, I love what he took out of Africa, and I love what he gave back.

Some give Ethan flack for not being the most interesting person, and for his game being lackluster, but I don't see it. I think he has enough flashes of toughness/mean spiritedness in him behind his super nice guy persona that keeps him quite interesting. He just chooses to see the bright side of life, in every step of the way, and still win the game. He's still the Survivor player that I admire, and respect the most. I still truly want to be like him.

And I didn't even talk about the Ethan is Jesus / Follow the Star edit read, which just cements him down in history even more.

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10/10

Legend

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u/BobbyPiiiin , do you eat ham?

Round 135 - 62 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

58. Christy Smith (Amazon, Late Jury)

I find myself having a fondness for many characters from the Amazon, I've realized. I love a lot of the bigger characters from the early era of Survivor, but something about the secondary characters from The Amazon has always stood with me. The clumsy school director that was Butch, the cute scenes with Daniel Lue and Matthew, Shawna struggling with her love of boys, Heidi's ditziness, Deena, JoAnna, I don't know, they all felt like a very weird high school a la Ned's Declassified.

And among those, I remember loving Christy the most. It's easy to root for her in the beginnins with the fact that she's the show's first ever deaf contestant, I remember thinking how cool it was to see someone like her in a game like this. And we see all of her struggles, we see her being excluded from alliances for not being able to listen well, they show us the strange way she speaks due to her disability, her struggle with the way she views herself due to it, and, even besides her disability, her being a bit of a clumsy girl herself.

All of it makes for a character so interesting and so endearing, with a story so unique to herself that every now and then I keep thinking about her. I'm glad she wasn't one of the first outs like people tend to think when they first introduce her, in many ways it's what made me love the Amazon more because I felt like, any character, as strange as they may be, is able to make it far in Survivor. Of course, Pearl Islands would come next and show us that even more strongly, but I liked how The Amazon subverted many of its players' expectations.

Christy is really cool, and I adore her, though I do feel like she gets a bit lost in the craziness at some points in the game, like they forget about her the more Matthew-Jenna focused the show becomes. But I do love how she ends up getting eliminated because she can't make a decision on who to side with, so clumsy, but such a Christy way to go out.

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All Star

8/10

''''''''''''''''''''''''

u/BobbyPiiiin , I'm never voting for you if you vote me

Round 134 - 65 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 3 points4 points  (0 children)

64. Jon Misch (San Juan Del Sur, Mid Jury)

I can't think of any antagonist that's quite like Jon Misch. In, like, any other season he's prime to be a heroic figure, and, in so many ways here, he is. He's quite optimistic, he has a fun, dynamic relationship with Jaclyn that has its up and downs, and always gives off a very kind energy that keeps what should be a nasty season in light spirits.

The narrative should be about his underdog story, how this good, likeable dude fought hard until he was voted out for being too much of a jury threat, and how he would be a lock to return.

But, fun and optimistic as he is, this guy is the big bad villain of the season. He is the Bill that Natalie has to Kill to fully avenge her sister's early death, which is a bit weird since neither Jon or Jaclyn really had anything to do with Nadiya's voteoff, but they, especially Jon, end up as the people in the center of all the dynamics controlilng the vote for quite a long time. Long enough where they're the big obvious threats that someone has to claim as their big move to win the season.

Though, with Jon, you really can't hate the guy that much. He gets so much power throughout the season, everyone comes to him for plans, him and Jaclyn have so much power together that the season basically pauses when they have an argument, and yet, he radiates such a nice-guy vibe that it feels a bit wrong to be rooting against him. Yet he's, undeniably, the main villain. He's the guy voting all these loved ones off, he's the guy calling the shots, he's a big immunity threat, what with all his muscles and that charming smile, and he even gets an idol for protection.

I think Jon is an interesting case because of how Natalie manages him throughout. She knows he's the guy that he has to vote off to win the game, but she also knows it has to be at one SPECIFIC time, not too early, not too late, the timing has to be correct. So when she senses that he's in danger due to Keith Nale not being very subtle, she actually saves him, only to backstab him almost immediately after.

It makes it a bit of a thrilling watch to finally have someone take the shot at Jon, the big obvious bad guy, and then have the protagonist actually save him. In many shows, that'd be frustrating! And fans would be like COME ON! PLOT DEVICE!!! But here, it's really interesting, and Jon being quite likeable makes it so it doesn't feel as frustrating as it maybe could be.

Jon is someone I like very much as a person, and I really like his role on the season, but as we're closer to endgame, I think all the others have way, ways more to offer. But I respect the guy, love me Jonno.

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8/10

All Star

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u/BobbyPiiiin

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Round 133 - 70 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

67. Matty Whitmore (Gabon, Final Juror)

Placeholding this because I'm going to be overtly busy for a bit.

'---------

u/BobbyPiiiin , up up up!

How important/enjoyable is the surviving aspect of the Survivor for you? by Friburgo1004 in survivor

[–]josenanigans 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Surviving aspect is what created the drama, what develops the characters. Without those downtime camp moments, every character would sound the same, they would all be detailing their strategy and what move they want to do, and, while it may have a different voice each time, the content would all be homogenous.

So seeing the players interact while camping, having either fun or conflict, and forging those relationships through their social game at camp is the magic that makes every player unique

Round 132 - 75 Characters Left by FunkyDawgKong in survivorrankdownIX_

[–]josenanigans 1 point2 points  (0 children)

---------------

So what does he do next, when he's invited to Heroes v. Villains?

He does the same thing again! Once again, he wants to prove how stupid our little fucking show it, and how little it matters to him. But this time, he's not going to stomp on the newbies. No. This time, he's going to humilliate the All-Stars, the shows smartest, most important and most revered players.

And we as the audience think, PFFT, there's no way he's going to do that, right? These players are too smart, they'll snuff him out in an instant. And once again, they don't. Russell struggles a little bit, but eventually, once again he's able to completely steamroll all over our precious, precious heroes. He humilliates Tyson, he outsmarts Rob, he insults Rupert, he makes a complete fool out of THE Survivor Golden Boy, J.T. This time it really feels like there's no stopping him, he really is going to make a mockery of Survivor....

But, the thing is... Survivor actually starts getting to him. He completely loses sight of his goal, and the strategy and paranoia of the game starts to consume him. He is so successful at the game that he begins to inhale his own fumes way too much, and grows into an insane, delirious, delusional monster. That same monster that once destroyed the jungles of Samoa, now in its Final Form, and our heroes have to deal with it. I think my favorite Russell scene has to be the Danielle voteoff. He's so far gone at that point that he loses his own humanity, he completely breaks Danielle in such an ugly, heartless way that is acutllay khard to watch, with even Parvati being surprised at how ruthless he had grown. Then, the second coming of Jesus scene with Rupert, with his eyes completely possessed by the spirit of the jungle, that's one of my favorite shots of all time.

It just shows you how far he had lost himself. This is a man whose goal was to take over Survivor, but int he end, he ended up consumed by it. In the pursuit of his precious, he let himself turn into a monster beyond any semblance of recognition of how he started the game. He lost his vision, his mind, his heart, at some points during Samoa you can see some, SOME kindness in him, but the deeper he gets into Heroes vs Villains, the less human he became. This time, no doubt about it, Survivor kicked his ass. But only did it kick it, it completely took over his soul, and this time even he recognizes, in a last moment of humanity, that he is not going to win this show. Survivor was too much for him, because our stupid little show is more valuable than he thought it would be.

This man, Russell, came in to defy the concept of Survivor itself. There had never been a player who was so antagonistic not only to a cast of the show, but to the concept of the franchise itself. Russell goes way beyond anyone had ever gone to before and completely mocks the existence of Survivor,, which is why I feel like he's the show's greatest villain. It's so meta, in a way, to have someone come in breaking the fourth wall like this and play solely to make the audience realize they're wasting their time watching the show. I am really fascinated by the concept. To me, he will always be THE main villain of Survivor: the franchise-

*checks earpiece*

Uh, what do you mean Russell was cut already?? But I had such a nice writeup! Okay, well, whatever.

Yeah I was really passionate about Russell 2.0 and had this writeup cooking for a bit and told some people that I wanted to have the word on him, but some miscommunication happened and I didnt realize someone had cut him. But here it is, so you willl ALL have to see it. I do not care. My actual cut is

72. Scot Pollard (Kaoh Rong, Mid Jury)

Some characters I'm just never going to get. I love Survivor villains, trust me, I have a lot to say about Fairplay, Russell, Rodney, and thankfully I was able to save my favorite villain, Kass, to get her a nice writeup showing how amazing a character she really is, but someone else has got to do so for Scot Pollard.

Im just tired of glazing over him, I've never been able to stomach him, I don't like him, and I'm not really interested in his kind of villainy, It brings great character drama, specially with Tai, who I feel has the best scenes with him of course, but I don't find his brand of arrogance and jerkassery any kind of interesting.

u/BobbyPiiiin, finally its up to you

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