Top Ten Survivor Bromances

After a while of trying to figure out what would be a good post for this blog (I have a lot of ideas, but I don’t always know that they won’t until I try to start writing them), I thought that it would be a good idea to sum up the best bromances of Survivor. Typically, they are people who are aligned in some way for some reason that also have a good brotherly like relationship between them. I hope that I didn’t miss anyone that’s important. But here are my thoughts as to the top ten bromances of Survivor.

#10 Jason and Scot from Kaoh Rong: Yes, I hated them, but they were always there for each other even when Tai wasn’t. I figured that they were worthy of the bromance list, but not anywhere high so I put them at number 10.

#9 Grant and Rob from Redemption Island: This probably wasn’t the best relationship. Rob was known to manipulate Grant in many ways and helped to blindside him. But at least Grant was always there for Rob, although I don’t know if they still have a good relationship now that Grant knows more of what Rob was like that season.

#8 Will and Rodney from Worlds Apart: These were people whom others might not have liked that much (similar to the number 10 choice), but they were still always there for each other. I don’t know what else there is to say except that it took a while for them to get together.

#7 Ethan, Lex, and Tom from Africa: Here’s one of two groups of threesomes that are worthy of this list in my mind. They may have been separated for a bit by the first ever tribe swap, but they were always there for each other and dominated most of the merge game, even while dealing with Lex’s crazy ways. Now things were a bit messed up for them at the end, but they were still always there for each other no matter what all happened, even if things fell apart for them at the final four.

#6 Stephen and JT from Tocantins: To think that these people actually made it to the end together was a pretty good feat. They were one of the greatest duos, from what I remember. So many things went right for them that they were a pretty great bromance out of all of them.

#5 Matthew and Rob from Amazon: Well, I can’t remember all of Survivor that well, but I do know that this is a great duo of people that were there for each other. And I don’t know what else there is to say about all this. I wish that I could remember things better.

#4 Malcolm, Eddie, and Reynold from Caramoan: The three amigos did the best they could against the threat of the majority alliance. It’s a shame that they couldn’t do much and what they did do is still a huge controversy to some people. But they were a great group together.

#3 Tom and Ian from Palau: I don’t remember all of why these people were together despite seeing the season they were in as much as I have. But they were part of a core alliance from the very early days of the season and were together until the finale broke them up.

#2 Tyson and Gervase from Blood versus Water: The coconut bandits were a huge part of the season that they played as they got to the end together only for one to be ignored by the jury. The fact that they did so well together was a pretty good sign, even if it was a little lopsided as one was clearly the better player and has the million bucks to prove it.

#1 Richard and Rudy from Borneo: The original bromance is what I think remains the best one. Rudy did like Richard, just not in a homosexual way. They worked with other allies (or tried to, at least) and were there for each other until near the end when someone else won final immunity. But I think that of all the bromances of the game, this was clearly the best of them all.

Well, that’s it for this blog post. I don’t have much else to say so I don’t know why I have these weird closing segments in these random blog posts. Oh, well. I might be getting myself Survivor: Gabon on DVD soon. In case you ever see posts on Sundays, you’ll know why. I still need to work on the Sue recap from the first season that I was promising to do in the past and hope to get it done eventually. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Is the final four tie-breaker irrelevant?

When you get to the finale and you get to the final four, there are sometimes when the vote is split between two people and a tie happens. This happened in the very first season, only it was resolved by a revote. In the fourth season, it was controversially resolved by a rock drawing tie-breaker that even Jeff himself says never should have happened. It was finally revealed in the tenth season that the proper way to resolve a tie at the final four was through a fire making challenge. But there are problems with this that I’m not sure if people have noticed.

One thing that I should add in this post before I get any further is that this only factors in seasons from before Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers because of the twist that they used at the end. I will only be talking about the seasons that are mentioned that used it as a tie-breaker and not as a forced twist upon the rest of the players.

Survivor: Palau was the first season where this happened and the first time people knew that the twist involving the tie-breaker at the end was different. Jenn and Ian faced off in the tie-breaker. Ian won, only to get voted out last. This is the only season where the winner of the tie-breaker didn’t become a finalist in the end. It kind of makes you wonder what the point of the whole thing was.

Survivor: Panama had Cirie and Danielle tied at the final four. Cirie was eliminated at the tie-breaker. This was the only season besides Palau to have this challenge and have a final two happen. Danielle made it there by winning the final immunity challenge (although she would have made it there while losing it, due to the contempt of the remaining men against each other), but she didn’t win the game, although she might have by default since the remaining player was injured.

Survivor: Cook Island is the first example of this failing in a final three scenario as it is the first season to have one. The winner of this tie-breaker became the first person not to get a single jury vote at the end of the game. It is likely that if the challenge was won by the other player, this person also would have been ignored by the jury.

Survivor: Gabon might be the only time where the fire making tie-breaker actually mattered. When it was done this time, it would determine who would win the season. Indeed, Bob won the challenge and won the season as a result. Matty, who lost the challenge, would have probably won the season if he were the winner instead. But this season seems to be the only exception to the rule that it just doesn’t matter who wins the challenge.

Survivor: Worlds Apart was when the tie-breaker next appeared after a long absence from being needed in the game. This was the second worst version of it as, like Cook Islands, it took a while for either of the two players to do anything. There was a bit of a controversy regarding a broken flint that was replaced by one contestant and then given to the other when they ran out of time. Now it might be due to this poor performance that the winner of the challenge wasn’t treated nicely by the jury. But the tie wasn’t exactly something that was avoidable this time around. It never is when it happens. All that the winner of this challenge got was a single jury vote.

Survivor: Kaoh Rong is the most recent time where the tie-breaker appeared in a normal manner. Aubry and Cydney competed for a spot in the final three and Aubry won. She was controversially ignored by the majority of the jury, but I still love that she didn’t win as she seemed far too stuck up. This season had a good winner and I hope that people realize it at some point. Now I don’t know if the vote would have been for someone other than Michele if Cydney were there instead of Aubry. I wouldn’t think so, but I’ll never know for sure, will I?

Basically, only once has the winner of the final four tie-breaker actually won the game (not counting Borneo as it was solved by a revote). If the winner of the challenge was ever reversed, would that person have won instead of losing at the jury or getting voted out like Ian did? We’ll never know for sure about what could have happened. I do know that changing the tie-breaker method may not be that good a thing to do. I mean, it isn’t anyone’s fault that these people don’t win.

Of course, something to keep in mind is that different twists and changes in the game could bring forth a change into what could happen with this twist and if it is done away with our replaced in some way. In the 35^th and 36^th season, we saw or will see a twist that will pretty much force a tie between two players and force them into a fire-making challenge to stay in the game. They shouldn’t do sudden changes like this, but there could be changes in what happens and it could be more important. I don’t like that they would force something like this, but I’m already weary of how the next season will end.

That’s all for this blog post, outside of this paragraph. I have a landmark post coming up soon and hope that it will be a random post like this, although it could be about the next season. You’ll keep seeing these Wednesday posts in the meantime, but be prepared for potential changes. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor Past Season Watch for Blood versus Water

Now that Blood versus Water is out on DVD, you might wonder what would be a good way of keeping track of all the former players from before this season that would be playing it again. There’s a cast of ten returning players and they have all played at least once. What’s the best way of getting caught up on the seasons before?

You would need to see Borneo to get caught up on Gervase’s game from it. He lasted until episode 10. That would mean that you’d only have to watch until that episode to get all of his game in. You would need Australia to get caught up on Tina’s first time playing. Since she won the season, you’d have to watch all 14 episodes that season. You would not have to watch Africa, Marquesas, Thailand, or Amazon in order to know about the Blood versus Water season, although it might help for other seasons. The next season to watch would be Pearl Islands which has Rupert in it. He lasted until episode 10.

Tina and Rupert would both play again in All-Stars. You would only need to watch the first episode to see Tina’s game on it. Meanwhile, Rupert went on to be in episode 15, which was the last episode of the season when he got voted out. You wouldn’t have to watch Vanuatu, Palau, or Guatemala in order to know a player’s game from this season. From Panama, you have Aras as a player and he won the season. That would mean watching every episode that season. From Cook Islands, you have Candice who made it to episode 11 of that season.

There was no one from Fiji, China, Micronesia, or Gabon in this season. Tocantins had Tyson who made it to episode 9 of that season. Samoa had Laura Morett who made it to episode 10 that season. Heroes versus Villains brought back Rupert, Candice, and Tyson. You would need to watch until episode 6 to get Tyson’s game, episode 12 for the end of Candice’s game, and episode 13 for the end of Rupert’s game. There were no players from Nicaragua, Redemption Island, or South Pacific.

From One World, one would have three players to keep track of. Monica lasted until episode 5, Colton lasted until episode 6, and Kat lasted until episode 12. Those are all the players and all the seasons that you would have to watch to know of their games from old seasons. That’s a lot of seasons and a lot of episodes from each season. You wouldn’t have to watch Philippines or Caramoan to get caught up. But it seems like a lot of potential watching to do.

Well, that’s it for this random post. I don’t have a newly acquired old season to watch on DVD yet. That means that these Wednesday posts will continue until the new season starts. You might even see some random posts on Sundays, possibly, although I will tell you if that happens or not so be on the lookout in case it does as it will probably happen before I could tell you about it (if that makes sense). For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Pondering the Ending to the 35th Season

There wasn’t much time for me to mention how the season of Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers ended in the last post as I tried to quickly write everything and get it published in a good enough time. There was a new twist that I feel I need to talk about as well as doing other, various ramblings in this post of mine.

The main thing that I should discuss is the new final four twist. Jeff said that it will appear in the next season and it might keep appearing over and over again. Or, it might only appear in next season and then we’ll go back to the normal way of doing things. It already makes me wonder if they will try and save a player in the next season like they seemed to have done this season.

One thing that we need to agree on is that if Ben had won final immunity, the new twist wouldn’t have mattered. It is the fact that he won because of the twist that seems to be generating instant controversy with Survivor fans. Some people think that Ben’s pile for the fire making had more wood in it, but since Devon never really got much of a fire at all, I don’t think this probably bogus thing matters anyways. I mean, don’t we have better things to do with our time?

Still, this twist ending has caused problems like we saw back in Marquesas when Paschal drew a purple rock. Surely that was just a dumb thing, right? Nope. The purple rock has been part of the game ever since. Now the new twist will appear in Ghost Island according to Jeff. Will it stay in every season? I do not want it to and I think that fans might stop watching in backlash if there isn’t a promise to get rid of it. Too many things could go wrong with this. Now Ben is the only winner outside of Fabio to have a win that is pretty much tainted. Two quitters voted for Fabio and he won by only one vote. Ben would not have even made it to the end if this twist hadn’t happened.

What people seem to be forgetting is that most twists are planned before the season even starts. Jeff said that this was the season of secrets and it was the last of the advantages that we saw. But why put it in the game? One can wonder if it relates to the fact that they got rid of the final two and the decision of who to take to the end. This new twist does this instead by the winner getting to pick someone to go to the end with them. But wouldn’t a better idea be to bring back the final two? I don’t even like the final two that much, but it still seems better than getting rid of the last real vote out of the game.

I have the feeling that the reunion show was as bad and short as it was in order to not talk about this twist. We know for a fact that they will mess with the reunion show as much as they want to. We saw this in Caramoan and we could see this often. The more they mess with it, the worse things will be. But I think that they didn’t want to risk anyone talking about the twist ending of the season and the small time that people got to speak at the reunion show was pretty much the best way they could insure that people wouldn’t be able to air their rightful complaints.

What else is there to say? I’m not sure, but I will do a post in the future where I talk about the final four fire making tie-breaker and if it is all it lives up to be. Them forcing it still seems like a bad idea. I hope that after Ghost Island, we don’t ever have to see this terrible twist again. If it stays around, that would be bad. But it might be here to stay. I guess that we will see for sure what happens in the future. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

The Ten Worst Survivor Players

This isn’t a nice post, I’ll admit. You should know by know that I have strong opinions and am not afraid to say it if you have been reading this blog of mine for a while. So you will already know who some of what I think the worst players of Survivor already are. But I will mention them and the reasons for why I feel that they are the worst.

I might forgo the rules and some of the honorable mentions in this post. I tried to limit it to one original player from a season. So there will be some people from the same season, but not if they first played on that season. Needless to say, these will mostly just focus on all the contestants that I don’t like for one reason or another. There are others that I could have gone with, but I think that these were the ones that I wanted to pick in the end. These will not include winners as they had to have done something right to win. That’s not to say that I can’t hate winners, but they won’t be in this post.

#10 J’Tia from Cagayan is someone I do not understand why people might have liked before the season started. She quickly turned into a terrible player who only briefly advanced by other players being dumb. The fact that she could have lasted longer than other, actually smart brain tribe members is sad. The two who went before her would have been glad to see her at loser lodge. That’s fun for them at least. I felt she was worthy of the list, but not anywhere higher as she didn’t make it that far.

#9 Judd from Guatemala might be a random choice, but I felt that he was worthy of this. For one, he is such a bad liar that he was easily caught. I can’t think of anything good he did in his whole time playing the game. He exit provided a nice line, but other than that, he had no real substance in the game.

#8 Denise from China is a dumb person and the fact that she was close to winning the fan favorite vote her season is kind of baffling to me. Not much about her stuck out to me from her season except for how bad of a player she was. It was mostly her treatment of Peih-Gee that I didn’t like. But she did one bad move after another that I’m surprised that she was voted out because I wouldn’t see anyone in the game voting for her to win it. Plus, her lie at the reunion show was pretty dumb too.

#7 Sherri from Caramoan probably isn’t as bad as she could have been and I know at least one person who would defend her game play. But she did practically nothing throughout the whole game except cement herself as a goat that people could beat at the end.

#6 Burton from Pearl Islands was dumb the first time and he actually got a second chance by getting voted back into the game. But he was still dumb the second time around and got voted out again. Some wonder why he hasn’t been brought back with others countering that he already got his second chance. But I have the feeling that it is more about just how terrible a player he is.

#5 Crystal from Gabon was such a terrible player, many were shocked to learn that she really did play in the Olympics and not at all surprised that she used steroids to do well in it. She sucked so much in one challenge after another that even Ryan from the most recent season would think that she was bad. I’ll admit that I didn’t want to limit myself to just one player from this season as a lot of bad players were on it, but I felt that when it came down to it, she was the worst one.

#4 Russell Hantz from Samoa, Heroes versus Villains, and Redemption Island had zero idea about the social game that tons of Survivor greats have had. He could never win Survivor unless he got a reality check. But I doubt he’ll get that and know he probably won’t get the million dollar check either even if he wound up playing in every season. He would always lose no matter how far he got and were it not for the absolute terribleness of the next three people, he would be number one on this list.

#3 Abi from Philippines and Cambodia is such a bad person, she was rejected by two different casts as a goat to be brought to the end that people could beat. These people just didn’t want someone like her to have made it farther than actually good players. I’ll still never understand how she got enough votes to get into the game over good players like Teresa.

#2 NaOnka from Nicaragua was one of the biggest failures in the game. Some may say that it isn’t dumb to quit the game. But that is the only way to ensure that you lose it. She could have made it to the end, although I doubt she would have won. But instead, she complained about how hard it was to survive outside with the elements like she never watched the show before. To make it as far as she did and still quit makes her a horrible player and I’ll never understand why some people want her back or think that she’ll ever be back.

#1 Brandon from South Pacific and Caramoan will always be the absolute worst player in my mind unless someone even more horrible manages to come along in the future. John Cochran gets all the crap that he did for his dumb move of flipping, but Brandon was the dumbest player that season. I mean, he lied so much and lied about lying. I don’t know how he ever made it as far as he did. But giving up immunity by far was the dumbest thing he did and why Erik gets crap for it while Brandon doesn’t is beyond my understanding. Maybe it’s because he couldn’t have actually won, unlike Erik. Yet some people still think that he could have. I’ll never understand why he was brought back but after a childish temper tantrum, he was voted out by a tribe who couldn’t stand him to the point of given up immunity before they even had a challenge.

That is all for this post. I don’t know whether or not I should have included some of the people who I thought about putting in this post, but decided against doing. Maybe Phillip Shepard should be on this list, but I think that he’ll wind up on other lists with bad players of a different sort. These posts should continue as normal for now until the new season starts. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.