phantasmzombie wrote:

What a terrible way to end what could possible be the best season of Survivor ever. After they said Sandra won, I could not even bring myself to watch the rest of the reunion show, I turned it off. Russell won "Player of the Season" for the second time in a row, clearly the fan favorite and didn't even get a single vote from the jury that I could see. I'm not going to watch another Survivor that goes to a jury because you obviously can't depend on them to vote for the best survivor.

Yeah, I wanted Russell to win too, but everything Kilm said is on the nose. Russell has no interest in preserving relationships or garnering jury votes because his strategy both times was, "I got to the end, they'll respect me for that and the way I played". No, they won't. Unfortunately when this season was taped, the previous one hadn't aired yet so Russell didn't have the wisdom of seeing his strategy fail so miserably the first time, so he just used the same tactics and got screwed both times.

Just think about how you'd react. If you were playing and were being told by this guy that you're his boy to the end, and you helped him vote some people out and watched his back, then suddenly he turned on you for no reason and snuffed your torch, you'd be pissed off too and definitely wouldn't want him to win; especially if the person who tried to warn you about him backstabbing you is sitting there at the final tribal council too (Sandra). It's fine for us on the sidelines to say, "He's the best player ever, he should win", but if you were in the game with him, you'd think, "He's a lying douchebag who voted me out when he swore on his kids that he'd keep me. Fuck that guy."

Jeff Probst said it best at the reunion when Russell campaigned for a change in the rules to include America's votes. He basically said that if they opened it up to America, then it's not Survivor anymore. The whole point of the show is to play not only a strategic game, but a social one as well and overcome that paradox of having to vote people out, yet have them continue to like you enough to make you the winner. It's a very delicate, advanced strategy that is very underrated and a lot of players overlook it to their eventual downfall.

If they get America voting, then it's just American Idol bullshit and that entire social dynamic would be completely lost.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything you said. It was a pretty lame season because most of the contestants were just dull stereotypes and not really real people. I mean you had Sassy Southern Mama Jane, "the hot chick who seduces all the dumb men but not really that hot" Brenda, douchebag frat boy Shannon, Dumb Blonde Kelly, New Joisey Mafioso Dan, and sociopathic criminal black person Naonka. No personalities, just annoying American stereotypes.

It's still Survivor though so I still had fun watching it. Screw spoilers, if you haven't seen the ending yet, you shouldn't be reading this thread.

God damn I am glad Fabio won. I'd have been really pissed off if Chase took it as I couldn't understand at all why anyone would vote for him to win.

Also, as per the reuinion episode, aren't we about done caring about Boston Rob? Did anyone really care that he was having another kid enough to take up valuable time away from talking to the actual contestants? Never liked that guy.

Not yet. It doesn't broadcast in the UK, so I usually wait a few weeks then torrent the episodes to catch up. Looking forward to it though.