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Dee Watches Survivor (Currently On Kaoh Rong)


Deeee

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9 hours ago, Deeee said:

Going to do my KR write-up on Sunday and then start MvX that night. I'm digesting the Michele win and a few hours later...it still feels so wrong. But this season is definitely fantastic.

Dee we were doing so well lately!!!

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On 8/14/2021 at 11:57 AM, Alex95 said:

@Deeee do you know all the Anna tea before you do your rankings? Because she is up there as one of the craziest motherf*ckers in Survivor history lol.

 

@Elliott warned me and I spent about ten minutes on her Twitter before I seriously couldn't take anymore :dead:

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THOUGHTS ON SURVIVOR: KAÔH RÕNG

 

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This no doubt emerges as one of the greatest seasons of all-time. What a cast. Aubry, Tai, Cydney, and Debbie emerge as four of my all-time favorite players and four of the greatest imo. Alecia and Jennifer are awesome early boots. Julia emerges as a deceptive player in a nice twist. Michele is a cool, calm, collected presence. Scot and Jason are despicable human beings that unfortunately serve as really necessary evils.

 

I really love the recurring theme of pride being the downfall of men, since we see the oversized egos of Nick, Scot, and Jason lead to glorious downfalls. Anna, Peter, and Liz all fall due to feeling too comfortable, which really just highlights how invested in this game nearly every cast member was this season. A competitive season makes for a good season and there was no dearth of competitive spirit amongst this cast. The gameplay is exquisite. There were numerous ties, the takedown of a super idol, misplayed advantages, really solid and effective blindsides. Unpredictability is of paramount importance when determining the quality of a season. Kaoh Rong never stopped being unpredictable. There was an electricity in the air with this season that really made viewing a special experience.

 

My major complaint for the season is just how awful FTC proved to be. LOL. A complete joke. Not only was it entirely boring, but all three of those d*ckhead men (Nick, Jason, Scot) really screwed up what could have been a perfect ending with their inability to recognize any strategic prowess outside of their own. This is not to continue to criticize Michele as a winner, but more so to point out how men hate when women make them feel small. Aubry played one of the most beautiful games of Survivor, but lost to the more conventionally beautiful, laid back, less "aggressive" player, which just pisses me off for so many reasons that extend beyond the world of Survivor of course. Besides her loss, FTC just proved to be so incredibly boring. I also think I've arrived at disliking the jury twist, but not so much considering it is something new that also never comes back. 

 

What a season. I am looking forward to the next, but these are some huge shoes to fill. 

 

CAST RANKING

 

1. Aubry Bracco - An absolute queen. One of the most complex and incredible players this show has seen. Without a doubt. I see no way in which you could say the edit did her favors. The edit showed her blunders. The edit showed her in all of her complexity. Aubry just kicks that much ass this season omg. From an immediate mental breakdown to masterminding her way to the finale against some pretty crazy odds. Her convincing Tai to abandon ship and rendering a super-idol useless is without a doubt one of the most exhilarating gameplay moves I have ever seen on this show. The way she took back the power of the game was the stuff of utter beauty. Or her reconciling with Tai and working him well-enough to force a tie between herself and Cydney right before the finals. We could also talk about her forming an alliance with the right trio on the Brawns tribe to save herself from an early tied-up vote. Or her smart decision at the last second to vote for Peter instead of Julia and secure herself more time in the competition. Or aligning with Cydney at the right moment to oust Nick from the competition and then hatching a plan with Cydney to recruit Michele and Julia remove Debbie in order to buy herself another week. Or her setting sights on Julia, coaching Tai into saving his Idol, and eliminating the snake. Or her sandbagging Joe to Final Five and essentially securing herself victory had he not overeaten lol. There is no denying Aubry is one of the sickest players ever. But beyond that she is also a top-tier narrator and awesome character. Her love for wine, eggs, and coleslaw. The Oregon Trail analogy. Her calling Neal a son of a b*tch when he left with the idol. The list goes on and on and on. Aubry truly transformed during the competition, and like any great reality television legend, a metamorphosis is necessary. From the shaky, unconfident player to the absolutely dominant strategic and social force. A kickass narrator. A god-tier player. A storyteller. A righteous queen. Easily one of my favorites of all-time and that will likely never change. 

 

2. Tai Trang - The plant-loving, Mark the Chicken-guarding, sneak-kissing, tree-climbing, messy gay Asian gardener. What a f*cking phenomenal character. I did not see him coming. At all. The roller-coaster ride he took me on as a viewer is exactly why I adore reality television. Immediately loved him for his innocence and genuine spirit. His love for plants and his scolding of Caleb for "mistreating" the trees. Him kissing the trees. Tai did not seem fit for the Beauty tribe at all, and yet who cares? His beauty is completely internal and that counts for far more than the external crap. He immediately then sucks you in as he recounts his life as an escaped refuge from Vietnam. There is an instant connection to Tai, his kooky love for all living things, his tiny self, his sense of humor, and the way he completely envelopes himself in this experience. He basically demolishes his legs climbing trees for fruit and searching for Idols, but he has been through worse. Though he was tired, he never gave up on hunting for that Immunity Idol until he had it in his grasp. Tai was so dedicated to succeeding that he did not even think about how he was coming across to others, a theme that could accurately summarize his entire season. By the end of episode one he had already painted a target on his back with his relentless search for the idol. Luckily, he did not end up in tribal until the switch. Between all of the cute bromance with Caleb, his surprising aptitude for the challenges, the tree-climbing, and the crying, there was a serious player gunning for the prize in a blind fashion. Tai was very messy, which so intriguingly juxtaposed his peaceful, loving demeanor. It made Tai instantly interesting. He never ceased being interesting. Turning on Anna to save his own skin. Flipping Aubry to avoid a tie and sending him Peter in the process. Aligning with Scot immediately after the swap despite not relating to Scot on any level. Tai shocked me at every interval of the game, because my initial perception of him was just so wrong. Tai did play a savvy, cutthroat, messy game, even though he is nothing like that in real life. He accidentally reveals the Super Idol twist at Tribal. He throws a vote the way of his ally Jason and finds himself in the minority alliance with Jason and Scot, who are so terrible that Tai is naturally dragged through the muck and mire with them. He is uncomfortable with the sabotage, but rides with them and even engages in the tomfoolery simply because he wants so badly to win. His messiness drives him forward in a way that is reminiscent of Sugar, and I really love it. Because despite him playing very messily, his finger is always on the pulse of the game. He could sense that the women were making plans to oust Scot, so Tai decides to finally disapprove of his allies antics and refuses to hand over the Idol that would save his former partner in crime. It is at the same moment that Scot and Jason decide to turn on Tai, which really goes to show tat despite his shortcomings, he was aware of making just the right move at the right time. He then found himself in the majority alliance with an Idol, an advantage, and having sent home his biggest threat with an Idol in pocket. But then like clockwork, his messiness prevails again during the Tribal where Julia is sent home, as he openly asks Aubry whether or not he should play his idol. Yet immediately afterwards he clocks Michele's likability and pushes extremely hard for her elimination. Again, so incredibly smart, but he burnt that bridge with Michele so quickly and so harshly. He upset Cydney to the point of her revealing his plan to Michele, causing an eruption at tribal, where he fought with Michele, told her she is at the bottom of the alliance, and unsuccessfully used his advantage. He falls out with Aubry as well, but then makes up with Michele and agrees to target Aubry, only to reconcile with Aubry and switch back to targeting Michele. He then refuses to eliminate Aubry and sends Cydney home indirectly via the fire-making challenge. Despite his erratic behavior and game moves, Tai makes it to the finals. And I really feel bad for him at FTC because his language skills were naturally going to make his performance ~seem weaker~ than Aubry or Michele. Was he rightfully criticized? Of course, Tai was a messy b*tch! But he ended his game right where he started, with a final goodbye to Mark the Chicken, who he brought with him to FTC. It is a beautiful moment that highlights his true nature and highlights that despite all of the tomfoolery of the game, he never really lost sight of his heart and his love for nature. He is such an amazing character. What a gem.

 

3. Cydney Gillon - If in the first two episodes you had told me that Cydney would become an all-time favorite of mine, I would have laughed. Based on physical appearance alone, she is both a specimen of physique and insanely gorgeous, simultaneously. It actually is not even fair that she is so beautiful. But she immediately buddied up with Scot and Jason while on the original Brawns tribe and seemed really smug. I appreciated that she never seemed outright malicious towards Alecia, though when she told her to "get the f*cking pieces" during the challenge I screamed! But Cydney helped Scot and Jason steal the Idol right out from under Alecia, which obviously had an absolutely massive impact on the trajectory of the game. She also got fairly annoyed with Alecia when all the latter had said was that she "tried" during the challenge. So I do feel like she added some unnecessary fuel to the fire. Cydney gave great resting b*tch face and hilarious, snappy confessionals that kept me holding out hope for her. I am so glad I did. She immediately bonded with Debbie after the swap and my heart was so full. I loved that Cydney saw past all of the weirdness and realized that Debbie was a straight-shooter. This was a pivotal social move for Cydney, since aligning with Debbie allowed Cydney to pair up with her partner-in-crime post-merge, Aubry. I was a bit frustrated when Cydney immediately realigned with Jason and Scot post-merge, but I understood she felt it necessary at the time due to the numbers game. Except it was short-lived as she would fully emerge as a badass the next episode, eviscerating the men for their egos and carelessness in strategizing. When she read Nick for filth for his obvious facial expressions, I nearly died. When she called out Jason and Scot for being untrustworthy in their movements and for their overconfidence, I lived. Cydney emerged as somebody that did not take any sh*t and decided to take the game into her own hands at this point. She led the blindside against Nick. Honestly, Cydney was key in forming the women's voting bloc that pretty much ran the last half of the season. She was instrumental in eliminating Debbie because Debbie was just too volatile to keep working with. She was one of the key votes that blindsided Scot. She formed a really solid friendship with Michele that was really underdeveloped, but proved to be pretty powerful in the final days of the competition. She helped coax Michele into betraying Julia. She outed Tai to Michele and put his messiness and abruptness on blast. Though her targeting of Tai proved to be her downfall, since he refused to change his vote and stuck her in the fire-making competition, where she failed in huge fashion because she had never once made fire at camp. Her elimination is completely heartbreaking. Cydney had explained over the season her desire to win, but as she revealed her true motivating forces, I couldn't help but to get choked up. Behind the tough exterior, the iconic facial expressions, the hilariously snappy confessionals, the take-no-prisoners attitude was just a kid trying to provide a better life for her mom. I was heartbroken for her because her amazing social game really crumbled due to her laser focus on Tai for the latter part of the competition. Her drive to remove any player that approached her in any undesirable manner (Nick, Debbie, Tai) actually did her in, which I find a fascinating end to the story of a player who on the outside is tough as nails, but on the inside is just crying out for a better life.

 

4. Debbie Wanner - What an amazing character. Is she annoying? ABSOLUTELY. But why would we watch reality television if not to gain from the embarrassing and annoying behaviors exhibited by cast members. Debbie a television gold. Her constantly changing occupations throughout the season had me hollering. Her massive ego and inability to stop talking about herself positively sent me through the roof. This annoying ass, middle-aged woman really drove everybody nuts because she thought so highly of herself, yet still had a solid footing in the game up until her blindside. ICONIC. I mean within seconds she said Peter looked like Obama and started to sing the presidential anthem!!!!!!! "Use that gray matter" "We have the biggest frontal lobes" "Just because I have an immune system like a horse" Her cheerleading during the immunity challenge! Her eviscerating Peter verbally! Her calling herself a spy and a mastermind. Her recounting her part-time model past. "She might go drown herself, you might want to keep an eye on her." Debbie is a hoot from start to finish, a kooky character that absolutely works because she is just on the border of being blissfully unaware and ever-so-slightly in-touch with reality. LOL. There should also be respect for her gameplay, I was pretty impressed with her establishing the plan to tie up the votes and oust Liz. I also love her for being very vocally in favor of only women winning this season and keeping her foot on the gas pedal as she tried to run over the men without considering the intricacies of the game. It was her own stubbornness that resulted in her blindside. Truly a fantastic character. 

 

5. Alecia Holden - Say what you want about me putting Alecia this high, but she single-handedly provided almost all of the entertainment for eleven days/four episodes. I hated that it was at the expense of the  really sexist treatment and bullying she endured, but Alecia never backed down. She continued to crawl under the skin of Scot and Jason and even refused to just get eliminated on the beach just so that she could piss them off for a bit longer. There were numerous one-liners that she provided which had me cackling. "Embryo" instead of "ember" will likely stick with me forever. "I'm a mental giant." Forgetting to take the cap off the marker when voting at tribal. Calling Jason a "hitman" instead of a "bounty hunter." While she did not appear to be the most book-smart or eloquent individual, she really did have a tenacity about her that drove her to try and prove people wrong for as long as she could. I mean the moment where she spent five hours trying to start a fire and ultimately succeeded was a cool moment to watch. She went toe-to-toe with Jennifer at tribal when the b*tch tried to lie on her. She went in on Jason for the "cheerleading" crap. For an early boot, Alecia really made such a massive impact. Love that for her.

 

6. Julia Sokołowski - I kind of lived for her very random snake-in-the-grass gameplay that emerged post-merge. Julia was incredibly young during the season and carried herself incredibly well, which is something I appreciated about her. Pre-merge Julia was pretty low-key. She formed an alliance with Michele and Anna, was exiled by herself at the swap, and made it through some really rough conditions by herself. But she is mostly interesting for how she goes about playing the game once she is able to rejoin the Chan Lot tribe. She immediately buddies up with Peter, even though he is public enemy #1 and also tries to cozy up to Aubry and the majority alliance. She quickly outs herself as a snake and is nearly sent home, but Peter's arrogance is just too much for the tribe to handle and she escapes after Aubry scratches out her original vote to send her packing. She survives to the merge and goes completely double agent, which is actually kind of cool to see! I really expected her to remain wallpaper until her elimination, but she works both sides to her advantage for about two tribals - voting out Nick and Debbie. But Aubry had already pegged her game and she showed her ass with the Tai vote during the Scot blindside. Despite sitting pretty, Julia's lack of loyalty got her booted before Jason even! Putting her this high might not be entirely sensible, but I actually liked how she first merged as this very young, nice, even more timid background character who emerges as a totally deceptive player that was ready to get down and dirty. It worked for me!

 

7. Jennifer Lanzetti - Her performance at Tribal and her absolutely batsh*t crazy antics at camp, flip-flopping between Alecia and the major alliance make the first few episodes of the season really great. This is how you become an awesome second-boot character!!!

 

8. Michele Fitzgerald - The hype is not appropriate. Michele was essentially a non-factor for the majority of the season. The legend was not jumping out for me. At all. She is a really cool person, that much is very clear throughout the entire season. But she is essentially non-existent until the merge, only popping up to criticize Nick for acting like he will carry her to the end and forming an alliance with the women of the Beauty tribe. Michele is immune for the first 22 days of the game, which is a huge mark against her as a character + player. She not only receives very little airtime, but she also is not forced into being a player until the merge happens. At which point Michele is still pretty irrelevant, though she smartly and righteously betrays her closest ally Julia by switching alliances in order to avoid working with the sexist pigs. Her first bit of relevance is the Debbie vote-off, but that was an Aubry-orchestrated plan and Michele just goes along with the plan to survive another week. However, she is actually a key player for the first time during episode ten, which is why I seriously question anybody that goes hard for her. Even then she is completely out-of-the-loop for the Scot blindside, which is easily the biggest move of the game. Approaching the endgame, she has still done practically nothing. That's not shade, just the objective truth. Michele finally betrays Julia the next episode after winning immunity in order to ingratiate herself with the majority alliance - a very smart move on her part. Though she is really doing very little in making big moves in the game and is often not at the center of any progression, she at least is smartly avoiding conflict and building enough friendships to earn her social capital. This becomes very apparent to Tai, who sets his sights on her and the two engage in a pretty big battle at Tribal that finally put a little spotlight on Michele. I wish we had seen this fire and attitude from her the entire time because there could be somebody interesting here, but yeah. Her fate seemed sealed after the reconciliation between Tai and Aubry, but she lucked out due to Joe's evacuation. Another moment that lessens her credibility as an amazing winner in my opinion. Her clutch final immunity challenge win and final reward win allowed her to remove Neal from the jury and essentially solidify her win, considering he was a vote for Aubry and likely influential enough to secure the win for her. Michele definitely came through in the final moments of the game to secure herself a win, which I cannot deny. But everything leading to her endgame felt very, very boring. A long reign of tribe immunity + no gameplay moves + being out-of-the-loop + surviving due to Joe's evacuation just make her a boring winner. Not to mention as a personality/character, she really does not deliver. A solid social game she most definitely had + a jury of people that Aubry & Tai eliminated and quarreled with assisted her greatly. I wanted to love her because I know she is popular, but I am just not sold.

 

9. Joseph "Joe" Del Campo - Am I ranking him too high? Probably. This is just a default placement because he did not behave like an absolute ass while on the show. I also appreciate him going off on Peter randomly with some bogus FBI nonsense. LOL. There is also some hilarity in him finally winning a reward at Final Five, only to gorge himself on red meat and cause major gastrointestinal upset, leading to his medical evacuation on Day 34. LOL. Not to mention Joe had a solid enough alliance that he was likely advancing to the Final 4/3. Gotta respect him for allowing Aubry to drag his ass all the way there so she could use him as a vote. I also am appalled at his denial of the existence of pathogens in the drinking water and would likely hate him in real life for a multitude of reasons. 

 

10. Neal Gottlieb - He starts out as the nerdy archetype that we have seen a million times on the show. But his alliance with Aubry and Debbie made him a bit more interesting in the game. Neal seemed to be playing his cards right, but then he is evacuated after graphically showing us his many visible skin infections. LOL. His elimination from the Jury is a twist that I am still not entirely sure about, but I would be pissed if I were him too. Although, he completely lost me with the bullsh*t he spewed at Michele on the way out of the game. Is the twist frustrating? Most definitely, but she is just playing the game sir. 

 

11. Nick Maiorano - Just like Peter, Nick is a pretty one-note character. Very arrogant. Way too arrogant. But his arrogance is at least a bit more pivotal to the overall game this season. He is so blindly arrogant that he has no idea that the women of the Beauty tribe formed a close bond right underneath his nose. He is also pretty sure he is running Michele, but instead he is just annoying her. Lucky for him he avoids Tribal for 22 days, the merge happens, and then he wins the first individual immunity. Too bad he could not leverage his power because Neal gets evacuated by medical. His arrogance continues to the point of pushing Cydney completely over the edge with the men and causes her to flip alliances and rally the women together to boot Nick. At his first tribal council. After Cydney makes fun of Nick's very obvious facial expressions. :dead:

 

12. Peter Baggenstos - Okay him being immediately called Obama by a bunch of white folk felt very racist lol. Peter is just an arrogant individual whose hubris was his downfall, which is a trope we have seen too many times on this show for me to consider him interesting based on that alone. The tribe swap saved him from an inevitable elimination for like a week, but yeah. Peter is overall very one-note, but he places here because his continued presence gave Aubry and Debbie multiple opportunities to drag him for filth. :wub:

 

13. Caleb Reynolds - He is definitely very hot and I low-key did enjoy how fun his relationship was with Tai. With that being said, he also strikes me as somebody that I would not get along with in real life for a variety of sociopolitical factors lol. Ultimately he ends up a pretty boring pre-merge early boot with a really frightening med-evac from the game. Definitely did not want to see him die out there and he seemed way too close to it for my television-viewer liking, but he lands here.

 

14. Elisabeth "Liz" Markham - Essentially wallpaper except for her steadfast belief that she and Peter were running the game, indulging in talking ageist sh*t about Joe and Debbie, only to have them send her ass packing. It felt great to watch. :wub:

 

15. Darnell Hamilton - Watching him sh*t in the ocean felt like something I did not need in my life though I was hollering lol. Anyways he is a pretty unmemorable first boot otherwise, messing up the mission and stupidly taking way too much ownership of that fact. He tried to scapegoat Alecia out of the game, but failed. Moving on.

 

16. Kyle Jason - Basically apply everything I said about Scot to Jason because they acted with one brain for the entire season. Although he particularly reviled me with his picking of his skin moment and joking about feeding it to Alecia. Really f*cking disturbing stuff. He only ranks higher than Scot because there at least seemed to be some semblance of humanity in him as he discussed his daughter and wanting to provide for her because she is autistic. But he is also just a sexist assh*le that really overstayed his welcome.

 

17. Scot Pollard - A villain that is a genuinely awful human being is not a fun villain! Scot proved to be nothing more than a privileged, sexist pig with zero respect for anybody who refuses to give him what he wants. His treatment of Alecia was abhorrent. His reign of terror over camp life felt unnecessarily harsh and unentertaining, just given how dangerous this season proved to be health-wise for practically every contestant. His downfall is absolutely glorious and makes for a fun few episodes, but that is simply because I found myself actively rooting for him to disappear from the television screen. Also, his behavior at FTC was stupid and I loathe jurors who end up regretting their vote. Maybe stop behaving so bitterly and award the person who masterminded you elimination, idk.

 

18. Anna Khait - Funnily enough, Anna seemed to have all of the makings of an interesting player. Too bad ten minutes on her Twitter highlighted her as a f*cking lunatic. 

 

 

MY FAVORITE MOMENT

 

 

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SEASON RANKING

 

1. Pearl Islands 

2. Borneo

3. Heroes vs. Villains

4. Panama - Exile Island

5. China

6. San Juan del Sur

7. Cagayan

8. Cambodia

9. Kaôh Rõng

10. Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites

11. The Amazon

12. Philippines

13. Gabon

14. Palau

15. Blood vs. Water

16. Vanuatu

17. South Pacific

18. Guatemala

19. Africa

20. Tocantins

21. Samoa

22. The Australian Outback

23. Cook Islands

24. Marquesas

25. Nicaragua

26. Fiji

27. One World

28. Worlds Apart

29. Caramoan

30. All-Stars

31. Thailand

32. Redemption Island

 


WINNER RANKING

 

1. Sandra Diaz-Twine (PI)

2. Sandra Diaz-Twine (HvV) 

3. Natalie Anderson

4. Todd Herzog

5. Yul Kwon

6. Parvati Shallow

7. Aras Baskauskas

8. Tom Westman

9. Tina Wesson

10. Sophie Clarke

11. Denise Stapley

12. Jenna Morasca

13. Jeremy Collins

14. Tony Vlachos

15. James "JT" Thomas Jr.

16. Danni Boatwright

17. Tyson Apostol

18. Mike Holloway

19. Vecepia Towery

20. Michele Fitzgerald

21. Ethan Zohn

22. Earl Cole

23. Kim Spradlin

24. John Cochran

25. Chris Daugherty

26. Natalie White

27. Rob Mariano

28. Amber Brkich-Mariano
29. Jud "Fabio" Birza

30. Brian Heidik

31. Richard Hatch

32. Robert "Bob" Crowley

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Cydney is my favorite player from this season and I wish she'd come back for another season :wub:

 

Her elimination is still to this day the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen in this show 😢

Edited by .Rei
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I totally get ranking Michele lower than like #2 or 3, but having her below Julia makes no sense to me because Julia was basically just a more boring, less integral-to-the-season version of Michele. 💁🏻‍♂️ At that point it kind of just seems like trolling lol.

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11 minutes ago, #jeah said:

I totally get ranking Michele lower than like #2 or 3, but having her below Julia makes no sense to me because Julia was basically just a more boring, less integral-to-the-season version of Michele. 💁🏻‍♂️ At that point it kind of just seems like trolling lol.

Dee would fit in well with all the Aubrey stans back in the day. 🙄

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