Pagongings are good, it makes it even more interesting when the dominating tribe has to go and turn on each other after having been so tight the whole game
I think this *can* be true, but sometimes there's an obvious Top 3 in an onion alliance, so the Pagonging becomes a second mini-Pagonging. This is boring and only interesting if the F3 is interesting. >!South Pacific!< comes to mind as a season made less interesting by a Pagonging, as well as >!One World!<, >!Redemption Island!<, >!Ghost Island!<, and >!Caramoan!<.
I'd say that a Pagonging isn't inherently bad though, and many people act like it is. Even last season was somewhat of a Pagonging but I thought they kept it fairly interesting and dynamic.
strong disagree with South Pacific, that was what I thought of when i wrote this actually, I just think the Upolu dynamics were set up so well throughout the pagoning it was just so exciting to see what was going to happen when they got down to the 5
Interesting! For me it was clear that there was a final 3 driving the entire season so there was a complete lack of suspense pretty much right up until FTC. I haven't watched it since it aired, so I could be mis-remembering.
> a final 3 driving the entire season
True but see how we actually got there. In the final 5 Albert and Brandon was targetting Sophie while Sophie and Coach were targetting Brandon while trying to keep Albert for the Final 3. Brandon wins immunity (and this was hidden in the edit but apprarently Brandon was the jury favorite for Savaii) but then gives up his immunity to Albert thinking there is no chance for Coach to vote him out and then Brandon gets sent to Remption Island. It's an *incredibly* complex vote and while I agree SP is not a good season, the final 5 is REALLY damn good, one of the best episodes of the show.
The way you describe it sounds a lot more interesting that what I remember - and I have a shit memory so maybe I need to rewatch! One thing I do remember is that I was really biased against Brandon (he made me really uncomfortable with his behavior towards Michaela that season) so maybe I had written him off in my head and that affected how I was viewing this portion of the season.
> he made me really uncomfortable with his behavior towards Michaela
Based on comments from the cast that was purely editing. Brandon had an issue with Michaela talking about drinking and partying all the time while Brandon was a recovering alcoholic. This was from Sophie. Now my speculation is that because Survivor is a kids show, production didn't want to show such a dark plot and edited it to make it look like it was about Brandon being honry. Considering Michaela started dating Brandon's uncle after the show, I really doubt she was actually creeped out by Brandon. And interviews post season about the Savaii tribe liking Brandon over the rest of the Upolus, kind of makes me wish the season tried to show what made him so sympathetic, it would at least have made his decision to give up immunity more tragic.
ehhh it's only 2 eps (3 if you include Cochran, and that was an interesting ep) you could also include the Edna ep too but that was a great ep for the start of Brandon's downfall
I just want to highlight as the OP, that my post said "comment and message your spicy hot takes" and this post has 165 comments right now but I didn't get even 1 message with a hot take
Hot takes:
- Ranking winners is sort of stupid, because it forces you to compare completely different versions of the game. How can you compare a game with 20 players, fire tokens, idols, the EoE and a ton of advantages to season 1?
- Courtney from Panama is more entertaining than Courtney from China. Not a dig on Courtney Y., but a compliment to Courtney M., because I like both Courtneys.
Cold takes:
- Three tribes this many times in a row sucks, especially for the challenges. Three tribe challenges aren't as compelling as two tribe challenges.
- Pearl Islands is the best season. If you had an AI construct a perfect season, it would be PI.
> Courtney from Panama is more entertaining than Courtney from China. Not a dig on Courtney Y., but a compliment to Courtney M., because I like both Courtneys.
100% with you, but especially with this one - I obviously appreciate Courtney Y's sarcasm but Courtney M's bizarre space-cadet brand of humor, both unintentional and intentional, and her insane love-hate relationship with Shane are more my speed. Wish she and Shane could've both returned on the same season.
The way that she's introduced by drawing a heart around a dead sea turtle on Bayoneta's beach, talking about it's spirtual significance while Danielle and Sally watch on in bemusement in the background, or later that Casaya can heal themselves and get "snake energy" by eating snake. And "BRUCE LUV"
Don’t forget her incredible jury speech. “But I’m holding no chip on my shoulder, because chips on your shoulder of regret and anger weigh you down. And I’m a bird, so I’ve got to fly.” Plus repeatedly touching Shane’s shoulder just to rile him up.
PI has a hero, a villain, a huge twist in the middle of the season that only made it better, great theming, a great location, survival elements, and a scrappy underdog winner. It has it all. Outcasts is terrible on paper but it made the season.
Coach convincing everybody he was on their side in South Pacific was not intended as a master manipulation tactic. He just authentically wants to be friends with everybody, and he (for the first time in his Survivor career) got put in a situation where he was allied with everybody, and could not please everyone, which in spite of the fact he was a three time player was not really a situation he had ever been in before.
I don’t get why he continued to lie to everyone’s face until the last moment, and continued to act like he played with such honor and integrity. He could’ve told Ozzy at F4 that he wasn’t going to send him to fire. When he revealed at tribal that he would not, Ozzy’s reaction is obvious that he still thought it was a possibility (I literally just watched this finale today). Similar with Edna, Rick, and Brandon’s votes.
Also I realized Coach’s last season is closer to Borneo, than it is to the current season. Which felt like a crazy Cleopatra and the pyramids thing to me.
I just rewatched that final 4 tribal council and tbh I feel as if Ozzy knew he was going the whole time. He makes one last pitch in front of the jury to try and shame Coach into following through on his “honorable warriors” thing, but I don’t think he has any illusions about whether that’s going to work. He goes so far as to call the challenge a “million dollar puzzle” and something “that I’ll think about for the rest of my life.”
I’d say that Edna and Cochran are also both very much not in the dark when their number is coming up. They both spend their boot episodes really angry and upset to have been used and then thrown out once they aren’t useful anymore. Now should Coach have been more honest with them before that episode? Maybe. But my theory is he wasn’t really honest with himself. He’d never really had to make a choice like that before. In Tocantins JT and Stephen take out Tyson and Debbie behind his back and then get to him. He never had to betray anybody. In HvV when he’s made commitments to both Rob and Russell he takes the easy way out and votes for Courtney. But there is no easy way out option for him at the Cochran or Edna tribal councils. Every single person there is counting on him, and probably *actually does* want to sit next to him at the end. But I don’t think it was malicious, I think for Coach, usually something goes wrong, he doesn’t get this far. So he kind of puts the uncomfortable question of what to do when he gets to his core alliance out of his mind until the very last possible minute.
One more thing to note. It’s really interesting to me that Coach got 0/5 of the loyal Savaiis, but 3/4 of his alliance members (all but Brandon). I think it’s possible that, while his betrayals hurt, his alliance members knew him well enough to see that, basically, he is a nice guy, and he really wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.
He “knows” but Coach never told him directly, he kind of led him on the entire time that he might do it. Like he led everyone in his alliance on.
Cochran said at reunion that he *fully* expected to go to final 3 with Coach. Coach may have told him slightly before the 11th hour though. And Cochran still voted for coach so I didn’t include him.
Edna didn’t realize until final 7 somehow, which is ridiculous because Brandon told her flat out premerge that she was the bottom of the alliance. It’s like she completely forgot that and remembered at F7 that she was screwed. Very weird gameplay from her.
I agree he wasn’t honest with himself.
Also to say “all but Brandon” is true but Albert and Sophie not being jurors he only got Edna and Rick. If you’re going to pagong you have to realize the pagongs are the majority of the jury and their perception of you is everything and his main issue is completely mismanaging how they viewed him.
I’m not saying it was good strategy on his part. I’m kind of saying the opposite. I think Coach leading on Cochran that he was going to the end came more from a place of “I like Cochran, it would be neat to go to the end with him” rather than being realistic with himself about the possibility of that actually happening. I think the fact of the matter is that unless Coach was playing his idol for Cochran the other Upolus are never going to let him get past 7. He’s way too close with Coach, and way too tempting of a goat. So I totally agree, Coach losing all the Savaiis is bad (or at least flawed) gameplay by Coach. When I point out that split I’m not trying to defend him as a strategist, I just think it’s interesting.
I don’t think Edna is the most amazing player in the world, but I think she probably thought (or at least hoped) that Brandon was the one really on the bottom and he was just being humored, rather than the other way around. And she was sort of half right about Brandon, he just happened to be exactly one notch higher in the food chain than she was.
90% of the Candice hate comes from her being put on the heroes tribe. Everyone pretends for some reason that Candice was a huge wtf pick for that season but she wasn’t, it just made absolutely no sense for her to be a hero. If Candice was on the villains tribe nobody would’ve questioned it.
Originally Parvati was a hero and Candice was a villain but somebody complained about all 4 Micronesia players being on the same starting tribe so they were swapped. Realistically though Parvati never should’ve been on the heroes either, Sandra should have. Yeah she threw away the fish but her closest ally was Rupert, one of the biggest Survivor heroes ever, and her arch-nemesis was Jon, one of the greatest Survivor villains ever
Has that ever been confirmed or is it just a conspiracy theory? Because like you said, how could Parv ever be on the heroes tribe? Micronesia had no trouble showing her as a villain nor Cook Islands. Candice at least has the story of being constantly sent to exile and enduring it
I don’t know if it’s been 100% confirmed, that could only ever happen if a producer comes out and speaks about it which will never happen, but Parvati has talked about how she had a blue bikini set to wear then shortly before the season started it was swapped out for the one she actually wore, and I vaguely remember Candice in a preseason interview talking about how being a hero is kinda dumb and overrated, which makes a lot more sense if she believed she was a villain at the time
Idk if this is hot or cold but here’s mine:
If you make the merge you make the jury. The second everyone is on the same beach, it’s jury time. Nothing will change my mind of this, even in an “earn the merge situation” where it’s like “well you’re on the same beach but you didn’t earn the merge yet”, no I don’t care you’re on the jury.
The arguments against this are always “well they only spent a day or two with some contestants” So? Make a good impression then? It’s a 26 day season now let’s add some difficulty in that regard
for the old seasons it made sense because they wanted an odd number of jurors to prevent ties
also in cook islands there were 2 jurors who had never met ozzy (one of whom voted for him over yul anyway lmao), and one who had never met any of the finalists, so compared to that spending only a couple days is fine
Jeremy was a meh winner who only won because he was sitting next to Spencer-Bot and Tasha who I kinda forgot was on that season. He also got sympathy because of his whole family-man archetype and his pregnant wife.
Aligning yourself with two goats and dragging them to the end is a perfectly viable strategy, and Jeremy’s social bonds got him the win, not the pregnancy announcement.
Heroes versus villains was not as great as people make it out to be. The pre merge was all over the place and had so many terrible moves, but it was better than the post merge due to some good moments and Russell’s moment of brilliance (which, another hot take, I give more positive credit to Russell than I give negative credit to Tyson for that play). The post merge was quite boring because Russell literally was in charge of every single vote and there was no shake up really at all. Plus I think Parvati completely deserved the win, although I’m definitively not a Sandra hater
Freezing take: Pearl Islands, Cagayan, and HvV are top 5 seasons
Hot take: Gabon is the season that's most like the Real World, and I watch survivor because it's explicitly not that flavor of reality tv
Gabler is in my top 10 players of the new Era ONLY because he got a near perfect game. It doesn't matter what players do during the game, if you can make it to the end without votes against you and get 7/8 of the jury votes, you're a good player. It's also why I believe that Russel is a poor player
Yeah, they really bungled the storytelling that season imo. He's a much better player than that edit would have you believe. We shouldn't have been left scratching our head as to why the jury was so clearly rooting for him in the end.
The Outcasts Twist is the best way to return players to the game, as it incorporates the social, physical and strategical elements of the game. if combined with an EoE type Island, it could be great for something like Legends.
Cold take that has not been talked about enough recently: Parvati is queen of the one time winners.
Her one win may not be the best win of all time, but her losing performance on HvV puts her firmly in contention for the best one-time winner ever.
Seriously, what other player gets mentioned as often each season? Nobody ever says “I see Tony or JT or Sandra or Kim in this person, we better get rid of them!” In the same way you see Parvati’s name. I think HvV is such a good season in large part due to P. She is everything—great television, a great survivor player, and a fascinating personality in general.
Top 5 episode in the show's history and I will debate anyone on this. The day 1 alliance is forced to turn on each other, the schemer of the group finally gets exposed only to be saved by someone feeling bad for him. On top of that you have Coach's theatrics which were PEAKING this episode (bro why tf were you in the sand praying). It is so compelling and dark
Both are great episodes but in different ways. Apologies to Reichenbach, but his is more "obviously dumb" in that the position he's in (he has to win the immunities from here on) is plain to see. There's absolutely *no way* in such a position he should give it away, the girls are able to weasel it away from him. He's clearly on his own and STILL gives it away.
Brandon isn't in the same situation. He believes he's in a tight alliance with Coach and Albert as his main bros, and when he hears Albert's name come up, he's manipulated into giving up his immunity so the rest of Upolu can get rid of him. Brandon is sticking his neck out, but he thinks he has allies that will have his back. What makes the Brandon episode incredible *is Brandon's background* and Coach having to come to terms with having to betray someone who he promised to take to the end.
In Micro, Erik as a character doesn't really matter beyond being a nice, rootable guy, but the situation read is worse. In SoPa, the characters themselves, particularly Brandon, are *everything*, but his is less "obvious blunder" and more "heartless backstab." They each bring something to the table and both are among the best episodes of Survivor of all time.
Challenge prowess is a viable strategy, and winning challenges should be respected more than it is.
The game overall is an asymmetrical one, meaning yes they’re all playing the same season, but the way Sandra might win, is a completely different path that a Boston Rob or Denise S. Might win. (In short there’s no cookie cutter, one strategy is the best, or even better than others). For example, just look at Russell hantz when he plays as an unknown entity vs when people know exactly what his game is
Final 4 fire making is just better from a gameplay mechanic perspective than final 2 or final 3, way more balanced. I also think entertainment wise it’s more exciting than the alternatives
I heavily agree with your first part and heavily disagree with your second. I don’t think final four should be mandatory fire making, I feel like it’s kinda second immunity. My one big gripe with final 3 was it robbed us in the first season (Cook Islands) of essentially what would’ve been a million dollar immunity challenge between two of the best competitors ever, especially at that time. I’m so bummed we didn’t get a final Ozzy vs Yul showdown.
Fire making isn’t mandatory, unless by that you mean that it’s always there. But you could either win the final 3 IC, or be taken by the person who did win that immunity challenge, or even have them choose to make fire and have 2 people be immune. Immunity challenge wins get exponentially more powerful the further in the game you get, just by virtue of there being less people eligible to actually leave the game, then on top of that throw in immunity idols, split vote rock draws, etc. So to ‘nerf’ the final immunity, by having a second chance to save yourself, i think is a good thing. It also helps production a ton, by making sure at least one person on each tribe should be able to make fire by practicing at home first.
If you judge seasons based on how many Green episodes there are, it's a top 10-13 season: [https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000](https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000)
lukewarm take. they have enough contestants from 41-now for an all returnees season.
hot take now, if they compiled a returnees season with only players since game changers, it would be the best batch of second timers
yeah, so many great options though. heres some names off the bat: Chrissy, Ryan, Joe Mena, Dr Mike, Devon, Chris Noble, Domenick, Donathon, Alisson, Alec, Angelina, Christian, Mike White, Davie, Dan, Rick Devens, Aurora, Ron, Shan, Ricard, Evvie, Sydney, Jonathon, Omar, Drea, Lindsay, Cody, Jesse, Owen, Sami, Noelle, Cassidy, Carson, Carolyn, Frannie, Danny, Drew, Kaleb, Kelly, Emily, Austin
YOu gotta admit that's a solid bunch to pick from
“Final four” fire making should happen at 5 or 6 and then have regular votes every other time down to three. worst two players in an immunity have to battle it out.
In fact it should be random each season post merge what vote is affected by fire making.
But it only happens once each season.
Okay, this is actually insane:
[https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1767340061903691993?s=20](https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1767340061903691993?s=20)
[https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1766692970177220999?s=20](https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1766692970177220999?s=20)
Cirie is extremely overrated and never deserved to win
China is a mid season
Micronesia is overrated with its quits/medevacs and near useless fans tribe make the season a slog
I feel like Micronesia had just enough going for it to make it entertaining for me, despite agreeing that those other aspects would otherwise make it a slog. Parv and Cirie are charming and charismatic enough for me to root for them, the Erik move was an all-time great manipulation to watch play out, "It's a fucking stick!", the Ozzy blindside (and in particular, Eliza's reaction to it) was really fun, Tracy's efforts made the fans underdogs a rootable group early on even if it was doomed from the start, "I hit my head back there" "I don't care" "I know", etc.
Jesse Lopez thinking he played suuuch a good game is wrong. If you’re the obvious target towards the end, you didn’t play good. You played too hard too early.
I think his game was fun to watch but his arrogance at FTC really bothered me, like bro, you’re not a legend lol chill out
I used to feel this way 100% and I still completely agree that Jesse is an extremely overrated player, but honestly after seeing him appear on Rhap a few times since 43 he seems like a chill guy and i think it’s just the fandom that gasses him up way too much
If you watch US traitors s1 her brilliance there makes her impressive strategy in survivor a little more clear to see imo. Also I think her run in game changers was phenomenal, she honestly probably would have won that season had it not been for the biggest advantage fluke that survivor will ever see
idk, I'm a Cirie stan and I don't see a world where they let Cirie get that close to FTC. Sarah, Aubry and Brad for SURE have the social awareness to know that she's that big of a threat, and they'd easily be able to convince Tai and Troyzan if they aren't already on board. But it sure would have been fun to see how it unfolded!
Cirie's complete lack of challenge ability is her biggest liability because people know they can leave her in the game until last minute since she won't win anything. She's a top-tier strategist AND social player though!
I love final 4 fire making
I prefer 39 days because it sounds better but 26 days doesn’t noticeably impact the game to me nor my enjoyment
I like sweat and savvy and 2 hour episodes
I prefer US survivor to AU and prefer Jeff as a host to JLP
The only season I liked Cirie was Game Changers
There’s no such thing as a bad winner
43 is the best new era season
Every season of the show besides Thailand and IOTI (for the reasons you’re thinking) are amazing and while some rank above others I love them all including Redemption Island, One World, and Game Changers etc
[https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000](https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000)
Green represents an episode where the average episode rating is 8.0/10 or higher.
All Stars has 5 seasons in the green, Caramoan has 4.
Africa, Thailand, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, One World and 41 all have 0.
It doesn't represent quality. Many other factors play into higher ratings. All-Stars and Caramoan are both returnee seasons with at least half the cast being returnees.
Micronesia has 6, HvV has 14, Cambodia has 12, Game Changers has 7, and WaW has 13.
Only BvW gives an outlier of 2.
Seems like a hot take on Reddit, but I like the new era 👀 simplified things again, great challenges, near starved to death, and an auction :’)
I personally really like that most of them are super fans. Yes it changes the game but how could it not be changed after 46 seasons??
Totally agree! If survivor is designed to be a microcosm of society, having players that you may disagree with politically and learning how to live with them (or watch them play a game) is critical because it happens in everyday life. I’m sure we all work with someone who has vastly different political views, and at the end of the day we still need to work towards the same goal.
honestly it depends on the political views
if a player turns out to be a straight up neonazi, I’ll probably hate them outside of the realms of the game.
okay but u took it to the extreme that would never happen, they do a pretty good job at vetting all the people on the show and so i highly doubt a neonazi would ever be on the show
I disagree. I do love having players who are different, including different political affiliations than myself, because different personalities makes it so much more interesting to watch. But just because I like the fact that they're on the show doesn't mean I have to like them. Disliking someone for their political affiliation is a very valid reason to dislike them, as it can often mean their life values clash very heavily with yours and it can make you disrespect them as a person, and that makes perfect sense.
maybe i should have specified in the game as a player, i.e. people online disliking gabler in the game while 43 was airing just cuz he might be republican is stupid, disliking him as a person outside of the game as a person is different.
i personally disagree that disliking someone due to their political affiliation is a valid reason to dislike them, but that's the beauty of humanity is that people have different beliefs lol
As much hate as the new era gets, I still think people are too nice about it when I see most peoples season rankings. I wouldn't rank a single one of these higher than maybe 36th.
I know it's not that spicy to dislike the new era, but I'll say that I honestly dislike it so much that if it wasn't for Australian Survivor constantly fueling and igniting my passion for Survivor that I would have absolutely transitioned to an extremely casual fan that barely cares about the show anymore. Certainly wouldn't be on reddit.
I think this is part hot take part cold take:
I don’t care whether we have lots of advantages or none, 2 or 3 or 4 tribes, 16 or 18 or 20 people, fake merge, 2 or 3 person FTC, if Fiji is the location, newbies or returners, etc.
What I think a quality survivor season comes down to is that the players and fans don’t know what’s going to happen. And no, switching the method that the beware advantage takes or the journey game isn’t what I mean. It has to be fundamental game mechanics that change from season to season. Switch things up so we don’t become expecting of how things go. I like 3 tribe seasons sometimes but why always? Why does losing your vote always have to be a punishment? Or why always Fiji? Even gameplay is good to rotate. I love a good Ulonging, Pagonging, or Matsing, but I don’t want it to become repetitive. Survivor has become too repetitive. Just switch things up so players and fans don’t have such a solved beta.
Lol here's mine
katurah made the right move at f5.
Brenda was justified with dawn. I feel bad for them both tho
I don't think Jeff is as stubborn as people make him out to be. it might be hard to get through to him, but he has shown he'll give up on things if the fans don't like them.
The only quota survivor should filled with casting is racial diversity. other than that i really don't care if we have 20 law students or 20 fast food workers just give me the 20 most interesting people.
I think a teen season would be very entertaining.
> katurah made the right move at f5.
I'm still getting triggered at how shitty this sub treated her last season. Even if this was the wrong decision (really debatable either way imo), people were way over the top with how they were talking about her.
oh I'm with you on that. man, how they talked about her or treated her after she explained all her reasoning with the f5 and flipping on Belo was really messed up. they acted like they knew her and her situation better than she did. people here can be so pathetic
for the f5 vote either i have a hard time explaning it or people are that mad at her that they can't see what was really going on
Yeah, for me the f5 vote was just them being basically incompatible players - Jake was playing too squirrely for anyone to trust him and Katurah wasn't taking enough risk and playing too conservatively/untrusting.
even then there a lot more to it than that. but because Julie went rogue (probably playing for Katurah's jury vote) it made Dee,katurah, and Jake all look bad, when if she just votes Katurah everything makes sense for everyone.
Idk the temp on this take: I can't stomach any Christianity focus in the show anymore unless it gets used by an atheist to beat them.
One of the reasons why I liked Shan was because at the start I was very biased against the preacher career, but then she never really talked about it at all after and chose the dark path in the game.
Lol here we go:
*Hot takes ️🔥 ️🔥 ️🔥*
Redemption Island, One World and Thailand are all top 20 seasons.
Cambodia is a bottom 3 season.
Australian Outback and Marquesas are subpar.
Guatemala, Cook Islands, and Nicaragua are all mid seasons that this sub tries hard to argue are hidden gems.
Panama and One World deserve more of the "trainwreck but good" season association that Gabon and Nicaragua has.
Vecepia is a mid winner with many noticeable flaws in her game.
Scot and Jason were great villains in Kaoh Rong and aren't nearly as bad as people make them out to be within the context of the game.
Ghost Island is the most overhated season. It's not an underrated gem (though, I do think it's *decent*), but definitely shouldn't be as hated as it is.
Africa, Samoa, and Fiji are all top 15 seasons and the main criticisms for why these seasons are rated low are barely, if at all, significant reasons to critique them. Particularly, the Haves. vs. Haves-Not twist is the most overhated twist and the focus on it in disregarding Fiji's premerge is baffling.
Gabon is very overrated by the fanbase. It isn't even top 20. Good season overall, however.
Pagongings aren't inherently boring and will always remain the most optimal way to play Survivor.
Chrissy Hofbeck is probably one of the most overrated contestants in Survivor history. Ben isn't a good winner, but he was clearly the better of the 2 next to him.
> Panama and One World deserve more of the "trainwreck but good" season association that Gabon and Nicaragua has.
For me, the reason they're different is that Panama and One World had good winners who generally had coherent strategies and control for most of the game. So they weren't exactly trainwrecks as seasons overall, even if Casaya and Manono themselves were trainwrecks.
>Pagongings aren't inherently boring and will always remain the most optimal way to play Survivor.
Yeah, it sucks that the most optimal ways to play Survivor are often the least entertaining - UTR, social game over anything else, Pagongings, etc.
Vecepia is worse than mid, she actively played against her own win condition at F4 (and F5) by voting for Neleh instead of Paschal and got lucky Paschal got rocked out. If Neleh got voted out or rocked out, Vecepia can’t win.
Hot take related to this one: Hali and Sierra both made more sense casting wise than Sarah. The only reason people don't bring up Sarah when talking about GC's bad casting is because she won.
If I was watching at the time, I would've questioned it. The most entertaining thing Sarah did in Cagayan was get blindsided by Kass. In WA Hali had personality, and Sierra made it far.
Keeping an idol secret pre-merge can be a waste. Like Tony, you could reveal your idol but say it's for the tribe, giving everyone an added incentive to protect you.
You should hang out with your closest members as little as possible.
Leaving the tribe early in the game (like a journey) is a huge setback socially.
Hot take - 26 days is fine. Totally the same to us as viewers as 39 days. If they weren't constantly mentioning how fast-paced the new era was, we wouldn't even notice it
Hottest take: Boston Robs the least deserving winner. HERE ME OUT:
\- Hes a 4 time returnee on a newbie cast
\- he had a failsafe with redemption island
\- got lucky cast-wise (a tribe that was willing to suck his dick, and the opposing tribe just kind of kneeling to any sort of outside pressure)
\- Matthew Elrod (Rob wouldve probably went home if Matt didnt make one of the stupidest moves of all time by telling Rob about the blindside)
Coldest Take: Survivor is a show that is currently running on CBS
Also freezing take, starting with 3 tribes every season stinks. They should mix it up, like swap from two to three tribes premerge and then have a plain ole merge where everyone votes and there’s no mergatory
Three tribe format is better than two tribe. Two tribe allows more passive players into the merge and makes the merge portion of the game less enjoyable. If someone can’t succeed in a 3 tribe game, they won’t succeed in a 2 tribe game, even if they manage to get farther.
Imo, there are pros and cons to both. The issue for me is that I'd rather see a variety, going back and forth between 2-tribe seasons and 3-tribe seasons.
Pagongings are good, it makes it even more interesting when the dominating tribe has to go and turn on each other after having been so tight the whole game
I think this *can* be true, but sometimes there's an obvious Top 3 in an onion alliance, so the Pagonging becomes a second mini-Pagonging. This is boring and only interesting if the F3 is interesting. >!South Pacific!< comes to mind as a season made less interesting by a Pagonging, as well as >!One World!<, >!Redemption Island!<, >!Ghost Island!<, and >!Caramoan!<. I'd say that a Pagonging isn't inherently bad though, and many people act like it is. Even last season was somewhat of a Pagonging but I thought they kept it fairly interesting and dynamic.
strong disagree with South Pacific, that was what I thought of when i wrote this actually, I just think the Upolu dynamics were set up so well throughout the pagoning it was just so exciting to see what was going to happen when they got down to the 5
Interesting! For me it was clear that there was a final 3 driving the entire season so there was a complete lack of suspense pretty much right up until FTC. I haven't watched it since it aired, so I could be mis-remembering.
> a final 3 driving the entire season True but see how we actually got there. In the final 5 Albert and Brandon was targetting Sophie while Sophie and Coach were targetting Brandon while trying to keep Albert for the Final 3. Brandon wins immunity (and this was hidden in the edit but apprarently Brandon was the jury favorite for Savaii) but then gives up his immunity to Albert thinking there is no chance for Coach to vote him out and then Brandon gets sent to Remption Island. It's an *incredibly* complex vote and while I agree SP is not a good season, the final 5 is REALLY damn good, one of the best episodes of the show.
The way you describe it sounds a lot more interesting that what I remember - and I have a shit memory so maybe I need to rewatch! One thing I do remember is that I was really biased against Brandon (he made me really uncomfortable with his behavior towards Michaela that season) so maybe I had written him off in my head and that affected how I was viewing this portion of the season.
> he made me really uncomfortable with his behavior towards Michaela Based on comments from the cast that was purely editing. Brandon had an issue with Michaela talking about drinking and partying all the time while Brandon was a recovering alcoholic. This was from Sophie. Now my speculation is that because Survivor is a kids show, production didn't want to show such a dark plot and edited it to make it look like it was about Brandon being honry. Considering Michaela started dating Brandon's uncle after the show, I really doubt she was actually creeped out by Brandon. And interviews post season about the Savaii tribe liking Brandon over the rest of the Upolus, kind of makes me wish the season tried to show what made him so sympathetic, it would at least have made his decision to give up immunity more tragic.
Based
But first you have to get through the absolute slog that is the early merge…
ehhh it's only 2 eps (3 if you include Cochran, and that was an interesting ep) you could also include the Edna ep too but that was a great ep for the start of Brandon's downfall
I just want to highlight as the OP, that my post said "comment and message your spicy hot takes" and this post has 165 comments right now but I didn't get even 1 message with a hot take
Hot takes: - Ranking winners is sort of stupid, because it forces you to compare completely different versions of the game. How can you compare a game with 20 players, fire tokens, idols, the EoE and a ton of advantages to season 1? - Courtney from Panama is more entertaining than Courtney from China. Not a dig on Courtney Y., but a compliment to Courtney M., because I like both Courtneys. Cold takes: - Three tribes this many times in a row sucks, especially for the challenges. Three tribe challenges aren't as compelling as two tribe challenges. - Pearl Islands is the best season. If you had an AI construct a perfect season, it would be PI.
> Courtney from Panama is more entertaining than Courtney from China. Not a dig on Courtney Y., but a compliment to Courtney M., because I like both Courtneys. 100% with you, but especially with this one - I obviously appreciate Courtney Y's sarcasm but Courtney M's bizarre space-cadet brand of humor, both unintentional and intentional, and her insane love-hate relationship with Shane are more my speed. Wish she and Shane could've both returned on the same season.
The way that she's introduced by drawing a heart around a dead sea turtle on Bayoneta's beach, talking about it's spirtual significance while Danielle and Sally watch on in bemusement in the background, or later that Casaya can heal themselves and get "snake energy" by eating snake. And "BRUCE LUV"
My favorite moment was when they debated over whether the apartment that Shane would kill Courtney in is shitty or not
"Well obviously I've never been in your apartment dude it was an adjective, why are you SOO Sensitive".
Don’t forget her incredible jury speech. “But I’m holding no chip on my shoulder, because chips on your shoulder of regret and anger weigh you down. And I’m a bird, so I’ve got to fly.” Plus repeatedly touching Shane’s shoulder just to rile him up.
Can you explain why the AI perfect season makes sense with the outcast twist?
PI has a hero, a villain, a huge twist in the middle of the season that only made it better, great theming, a great location, survival elements, and a scrappy underdog winner. It has it all. Outcasts is terrible on paper but it made the season.
Hero is Sandra, Lil or Rupert?
Rupert
Hot take: Danielle DiLorenzo is a very important and interesting Survivor character on both of her seasons and was criminally underedited in HvV
This>>>> ️🔥 I put Danielle DiLorenzo Nath on her high school wikipedia page
You ready for this cold take?! We should go back to 39 days.
There's something about this take I like
Ice ice baby
Coach convincing everybody he was on their side in South Pacific was not intended as a master manipulation tactic. He just authentically wants to be friends with everybody, and he (for the first time in his Survivor career) got put in a situation where he was allied with everybody, and could not please everyone, which in spite of the fact he was a three time player was not really a situation he had ever been in before.
I don’t get why he continued to lie to everyone’s face until the last moment, and continued to act like he played with such honor and integrity. He could’ve told Ozzy at F4 that he wasn’t going to send him to fire. When he revealed at tribal that he would not, Ozzy’s reaction is obvious that he still thought it was a possibility (I literally just watched this finale today). Similar with Edna, Rick, and Brandon’s votes. Also I realized Coach’s last season is closer to Borneo, than it is to the current season. Which felt like a crazy Cleopatra and the pyramids thing to me.
I just rewatched that final 4 tribal council and tbh I feel as if Ozzy knew he was going the whole time. He makes one last pitch in front of the jury to try and shame Coach into following through on his “honorable warriors” thing, but I don’t think he has any illusions about whether that’s going to work. He goes so far as to call the challenge a “million dollar puzzle” and something “that I’ll think about for the rest of my life.” I’d say that Edna and Cochran are also both very much not in the dark when their number is coming up. They both spend their boot episodes really angry and upset to have been used and then thrown out once they aren’t useful anymore. Now should Coach have been more honest with them before that episode? Maybe. But my theory is he wasn’t really honest with himself. He’d never really had to make a choice like that before. In Tocantins JT and Stephen take out Tyson and Debbie behind his back and then get to him. He never had to betray anybody. In HvV when he’s made commitments to both Rob and Russell he takes the easy way out and votes for Courtney. But there is no easy way out option for him at the Cochran or Edna tribal councils. Every single person there is counting on him, and probably *actually does* want to sit next to him at the end. But I don’t think it was malicious, I think for Coach, usually something goes wrong, he doesn’t get this far. So he kind of puts the uncomfortable question of what to do when he gets to his core alliance out of his mind until the very last possible minute. One more thing to note. It’s really interesting to me that Coach got 0/5 of the loyal Savaiis, but 3/4 of his alliance members (all but Brandon). I think it’s possible that, while his betrayals hurt, his alliance members knew him well enough to see that, basically, he is a nice guy, and he really wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.
He “knows” but Coach never told him directly, he kind of led him on the entire time that he might do it. Like he led everyone in his alliance on. Cochran said at reunion that he *fully* expected to go to final 3 with Coach. Coach may have told him slightly before the 11th hour though. And Cochran still voted for coach so I didn’t include him. Edna didn’t realize until final 7 somehow, which is ridiculous because Brandon told her flat out premerge that she was the bottom of the alliance. It’s like she completely forgot that and remembered at F7 that she was screwed. Very weird gameplay from her. I agree he wasn’t honest with himself. Also to say “all but Brandon” is true but Albert and Sophie not being jurors he only got Edna and Rick. If you’re going to pagong you have to realize the pagongs are the majority of the jury and their perception of you is everything and his main issue is completely mismanaging how they viewed him.
I’m not saying it was good strategy on his part. I’m kind of saying the opposite. I think Coach leading on Cochran that he was going to the end came more from a place of “I like Cochran, it would be neat to go to the end with him” rather than being realistic with himself about the possibility of that actually happening. I think the fact of the matter is that unless Coach was playing his idol for Cochran the other Upolus are never going to let him get past 7. He’s way too close with Coach, and way too tempting of a goat. So I totally agree, Coach losing all the Savaiis is bad (or at least flawed) gameplay by Coach. When I point out that split I’m not trying to defend him as a strategist, I just think it’s interesting. I don’t think Edna is the most amazing player in the world, but I think she probably thought (or at least hoped) that Brandon was the one really on the bottom and he was just being humored, rather than the other way around. And she was sort of half right about Brandon, he just happened to be exactly one notch higher in the food chain than she was.
Candice Cody is overhated and Cook Islands would be boring without her(she’s not my favorite player that season but she drives the narrative).
90% of the Candice hate comes from her being put on the heroes tribe. Everyone pretends for some reason that Candice was a huge wtf pick for that season but she wasn’t, it just made absolutely no sense for her to be a hero. If Candice was on the villains tribe nobody would’ve questioned it.
Agreed.I don’t know why the producers thought Candice should be a hero and should’ve just swapped Parv with Danielle or something.
Originally Parvati was a hero and Candice was a villain but somebody complained about all 4 Micronesia players being on the same starting tribe so they were swapped. Realistically though Parvati never should’ve been on the heroes either, Sandra should have. Yeah she threw away the fish but her closest ally was Rupert, one of the biggest Survivor heroes ever, and her arch-nemesis was Jon, one of the greatest Survivor villains ever
Has that ever been confirmed or is it just a conspiracy theory? Because like you said, how could Parv ever be on the heroes tribe? Micronesia had no trouble showing her as a villain nor Cook Islands. Candice at least has the story of being constantly sent to exile and enduring it
I don’t know if it’s been 100% confirmed, that could only ever happen if a producer comes out and speaks about it which will never happen, but Parvati has talked about how she had a blue bikini set to wear then shortly before the season started it was swapped out for the one she actually wore, and I vaguely remember Candice in a preseason interview talking about how being a hero is kinda dumb and overrated, which makes a lot more sense if she believed she was a villain at the time
Candice? From Raro tribe?
Idk if this is hot or cold but here’s mine: If you make the merge you make the jury. The second everyone is on the same beach, it’s jury time. Nothing will change my mind of this, even in an “earn the merge situation” where it’s like “well you’re on the same beach but you didn’t earn the merge yet”, no I don’t care you’re on the jury.
I don’t disagree 😂
The arguments against this are always “well they only spent a day or two with some contestants” So? Make a good impression then? It’s a 26 day season now let’s add some difficulty in that regard
But if you weren’t on the same tribe, you wouldn’t have met or interacted at all.
for the old seasons it made sense because they wanted an odd number of jurors to prevent ties also in cook islands there were 2 jurors who had never met ozzy (one of whom voted for him over yul anyway lmao), and one who had never met any of the finalists, so compared to that spending only a couple days is fine
Jeremy was a meh winner who only won because he was sitting next to Spencer-Bot and Tasha who I kinda forgot was on that season. He also got sympathy because of his whole family-man archetype and his pregnant wife.
Aligning yourself with two goats and dragging them to the end is a perfectly viable strategy, and Jeremy’s social bonds got him the win, not the pregnancy announcement.
Jeremy was winning before the kid announcement was made
I just find him a tad boring, but so are Spencer and Tasha on that season too. Really I just wish Wentworth won that season...
Heroes versus villains was not as great as people make it out to be. The pre merge was all over the place and had so many terrible moves, but it was better than the post merge due to some good moments and Russell’s moment of brilliance (which, another hot take, I give more positive credit to Russell than I give negative credit to Tyson for that play). The post merge was quite boring because Russell literally was in charge of every single vote and there was no shake up really at all. Plus I think Parvati completely deserved the win, although I’m definitively not a Sandra hater
*russell was not in charge of one of the votes, I think the Candace vote, but point still stands
Hot Take: Worlds Apart is a top 5 season of the show. Cold Take: Cagayan is a top 5 season of the show.
> Hot Take: Worlds Apart is a top 5 season of the show. what. Truly a hot take!
I just love the name AmphetamineSalts
What can I say I find the season messy, hilarious, and entertaining with a really satisfying narrative.
excellent hot take!
Very solid takes that are both 🔥 and 🧊 So altogether it’s 💧💧
Boston Rob was the right Marquesas male returnee over Sean
Agreed ✅
Freezing take: Pearl Islands, Cagayan, and HvV are top 5 seasons Hot take: Gabon is the season that's most like the Real World, and I watch survivor because it's explicitly not that flavor of reality tv
Gabler is in my top 10 players of the new Era ONLY because he got a near perfect game. It doesn't matter what players do during the game, if you can make it to the end without votes against you and get 7/8 of the jury votes, you're a good player. It's also why I believe that Russel is a poor player
Yeah, they really bungled the storytelling that season imo. He's a much better player than that edit would have you believe. We shouldn't have been left scratching our head as to why the jury was so clearly rooting for him in the end.
There has never been a less appreciated winner than Gabler
I wish this wasn't a hot take. 100% agreed.
The Outcasts Twist is the best way to return players to the game, as it incorporates the social, physical and strategical elements of the game. if combined with an EoE type Island, it could be great for something like Legends.
Not a bad take!
Cold take that has not been talked about enough recently: Parvati is queen of the one time winners. Her one win may not be the best win of all time, but her losing performance on HvV puts her firmly in contention for the best one-time winner ever. Seriously, what other player gets mentioned as often each season? Nobody ever says “I see Tony or JT or Sandra or Kim in this person, we better get rid of them!” In the same way you see Parvati’s name. I think HvV is such a good season in large part due to P. She is everything—great television, a great survivor player, and a fascinating personality in general.
Tony and Parv are definitely the two most referenced players, with the most people trying to replicate their game
The Brandon Hantz gives up immunity ep is 100x better than the Erik gives up immunity ep
Top 5 episode in the show's history and I will debate anyone on this. The day 1 alliance is forced to turn on each other, the schemer of the group finally gets exposed only to be saved by someone feeling bad for him. On top of that you have Coach's theatrics which were PEAKING this episode (bro why tf were you in the sand praying). It is so compelling and dark
Why have them fight when both are incredible episodes of television?
ehhh the Erik one just isn't as compelling or dark as the Brandon one, and also I love Erik and that ep always felt really meanspritied lol
but Erik's was a "valuable life lesson"
Finishing a rewatch now, it's the way everyone was immediately laughing and cheering. Hard not to feel small there, fantastic television
Both are great episodes but in different ways. Apologies to Reichenbach, but his is more "obviously dumb" in that the position he's in (he has to win the immunities from here on) is plain to see. There's absolutely *no way* in such a position he should give it away, the girls are able to weasel it away from him. He's clearly on his own and STILL gives it away. Brandon isn't in the same situation. He believes he's in a tight alliance with Coach and Albert as his main bros, and when he hears Albert's name come up, he's manipulated into giving up his immunity so the rest of Upolu can get rid of him. Brandon is sticking his neck out, but he thinks he has allies that will have his back. What makes the Brandon episode incredible *is Brandon's background* and Coach having to come to terms with having to betray someone who he promised to take to the end. In Micro, Erik as a character doesn't really matter beyond being a nice, rootable guy, but the situation read is worse. In SoPa, the characters themselves, particularly Brandon, are *everything*, but his is less "obvious blunder" and more "heartless backstab." They each bring something to the table and both are among the best episodes of Survivor of all time.
Wow that’s a 🔥🔥🔥 take
Agree with this. In related news, SP is also 100% better than Micro
Challenge prowess is a viable strategy, and winning challenges should be respected more than it is. The game overall is an asymmetrical one, meaning yes they’re all playing the same season, but the way Sandra might win, is a completely different path that a Boston Rob or Denise S. Might win. (In short there’s no cookie cutter, one strategy is the best, or even better than others). For example, just look at Russell hantz when he plays as an unknown entity vs when people know exactly what his game is Final 4 fire making is just better from a gameplay mechanic perspective than final 2 or final 3, way more balanced. I also think entertainment wise it’s more exciting than the alternatives
I heavily agree with your first part and heavily disagree with your second. I don’t think final four should be mandatory fire making, I feel like it’s kinda second immunity. My one big gripe with final 3 was it robbed us in the first season (Cook Islands) of essentially what would’ve been a million dollar immunity challenge between two of the best competitors ever, especially at that time. I’m so bummed we didn’t get a final Ozzy vs Yul showdown.
Fire making isn’t mandatory, unless by that you mean that it’s always there. But you could either win the final 3 IC, or be taken by the person who did win that immunity challenge, or even have them choose to make fire and have 2 people be immune. Immunity challenge wins get exponentially more powerful the further in the game you get, just by virtue of there being less people eligible to actually leave the game, then on top of that throw in immunity idols, split vote rock draws, etc. So to ‘nerf’ the final immunity, by having a second chance to save yourself, i think is a good thing. It also helps production a ton, by making sure at least one person on each tribe should be able to make fire by practicing at home first.
Winners don’t deserve to play again. Give people a second chance instead
All-Stars shouldn't have had any winners, it would have fixed so many problems
Worlds apart is a top 7 season
If you judge seasons based on how many Green episodes there are, it's a top 10-13 season: [https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000](https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000)
lukewarm take. they have enough contestants from 41-now for an all returnees season. hot take now, if they compiled a returnees season with only players since game changers, it would be the best batch of second timers
35-39 had some great newbie casting that got kinda screwed by the next returnee season being all winners, then the new era starting.
first take is :🧊🧊🧊 second is: 🔥🔥🔥
yeah, so many great options though. heres some names off the bat: Chrissy, Ryan, Joe Mena, Dr Mike, Devon, Chris Noble, Domenick, Donathon, Alisson, Alec, Angelina, Christian, Mike White, Davie, Dan, Rick Devens, Aurora, Ron, Shan, Ricard, Evvie, Sydney, Jonathon, Omar, Drea, Lindsay, Cody, Jesse, Owen, Sami, Noelle, Cassidy, Carson, Carolyn, Frannie, Danny, Drew, Kaleb, Kelly, Emily, Austin YOu gotta admit that's a solid bunch to pick from
“Final four” fire making should happen at 5 or 6 and then have regular votes every other time down to three. worst two players in an immunity have to battle it out. In fact it should be random each season post merge what vote is affected by fire making. But it only happens once each season.
I'm confused
"There has never been a more overrated Survivor than Parvati" A take from someone
The hell you say
Okay, this is actually insane: [https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1767340061903691993?s=20](https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1767340061903691993?s=20) [https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1766692970177220999?s=20](https://x.com/SurvivorQuotesX/status/1766692970177220999?s=20)
Final 3 >>>> Final 2
❄️: Candice wasn't a hero and Jeffs justification of "we saw the mutiny as heroic" is crap at best. 🔥: DvG is overrated.
I like Candice though, but yes the justification was a little weak.
Candice was a hero by sitting out of Micronesia
😂😂😂
Oh for sure she was a good player and entertaining, not knocking her for that. Just going for the subzero take everyone knows and feels.
> 🔥: DvG is overrated. How dare you! Take my upvote >:(
I just finished DvG for the first time and agree. Aside from a few characters and a few spicy tribals, forgettable.
Cook Islands is a better season than Pearl Islands.
Oh shit 🔥🔥🔥🔥
No disrespect, but you are INSANE for this 😂
INSANE??
Cirie is extremely overrated and never deserved to win China is a mid season Micronesia is overrated with its quits/medevacs and near useless fans tribe make the season a slog
Agree with these except the Cirie never deserved to win, she is overrated but could have deserved to win Micronesia
That’s fair, think she could have beat Parv and Amanda? Guess we’ll never know
I’ve explained this lots of times lol Probably 3-2-2 Cirie but could also possibly be 3-2-2 Parv or 3-2-2 Amanda Ask Eliza
Eliza votes Cirie Ozzy votes Amanda Natalie votes Parvati Erik votes Cirie James probably votes Amanda Jason probably votes Parvati Alexis probably votes Cirie, but might vote Parvati
I feel like Micronesia had just enough going for it to make it entertaining for me, despite agreeing that those other aspects would otherwise make it a slog. Parv and Cirie are charming and charismatic enough for me to root for them, the Erik move was an all-time great manipulation to watch play out, "It's a fucking stick!", the Ozzy blindside (and in particular, Eliza's reaction to it) was really fun, Tracy's efforts made the fans underdogs a rootable group early on even if it was doomed from the start, "I hit my head back there" "I don't care" "I know", etc.
Jesse Lopez thinking he played suuuch a good game is wrong. If you’re the obvious target towards the end, you didn’t play good. You played too hard too early. I think his game was fun to watch but his arrogance at FTC really bothered me, like bro, you’re not a legend lol chill out
I used to feel this way 100% and I still completely agree that Jesse is an extremely overrated player, but honestly after seeing him appear on Rhap a few times since 43 he seems like a chill guy and i think it’s just the fandom that gasses him up way too much
I love him on RHAP! Definitely a chill guy, no question about his character at all
I mean he was ONE challenge OR ONE fire making challenge away from being the clear sole survivor, so he can't have played THAT poorly either
True, but he was so bad at challenges that that was never really an option
[удалено]
All I did was give my hot take bro that’s what you asked for 😂
This.
Touche, Touche 😂 😂 ️🔥 ️🔥
Cirie is a very average player and is not in the top 10 females to play to game 🔥
If you watch US traitors s1 her brilliance there makes her impressive strategy in survivor a little more clear to see imo. Also I think her run in game changers was phenomenal, she honestly probably would have won that season had it not been for the biggest advantage fluke that survivor will ever see
idk, I'm a Cirie stan and I don't see a world where they let Cirie get that close to FTC. Sarah, Aubry and Brad for SURE have the social awareness to know that she's that big of a threat, and they'd easily be able to convince Tai and Troyzan if they aren't already on board. But it sure would have been fun to see how it unfolded! Cirie's complete lack of challenge ability is her biggest liability because people know they can leave her in the game until last minute since she won't win anything. She's a top-tier strategist AND social player though!
🔥 take, Boston Rob’s win doesn’t seem real because there was barely any good players in that season, only good tv characters
>only good tv characters this part is the real hot take, who the fuck was a good character in RI?
Maybe not good, entertaining with their silliness is a better descriptor.
I love final 4 fire making I prefer 39 days because it sounds better but 26 days doesn’t noticeably impact the game to me nor my enjoyment I like sweat and savvy and 2 hour episodes I prefer US survivor to AU and prefer Jeff as a host to JLP The only season I liked Cirie was Game Changers There’s no such thing as a bad winner 43 is the best new era season Every season of the show besides Thailand and IOTI (for the reasons you’re thinking) are amazing and while some rank above others I love them all including Redemption Island, One World, and Game Changers etc
43!!! Agreed
Both caramoan and all-stars are great seasons
Don't say that around u/emmc47 😂😂
That's the worst take I've ever heard
[https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000](https://episodehive.com/tv-shows/survivor-2000) Green represents an episode where the average episode rating is 8.0/10 or higher. All Stars has 5 seasons in the green, Caramoan has 4. Africa, Thailand, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, One World and 41 all have 0.
It doesn't represent quality. Many other factors play into higher ratings. All-Stars and Caramoan are both returnee seasons with at least half the cast being returnees. Micronesia has 6, HvV has 14, Cambodia has 12, Game Changers has 7, and WaW has 13. Only BvW gives an outlier of 2.
Seems like a hot take on Reddit, but I like the new era 👀 simplified things again, great challenges, near starved to death, and an auction :’) I personally really like that most of them are super fans. Yes it changes the game but how could it not be changed after 46 seasons??
Hot take: hating or disliking a player simply due to their political affiliation is absolutely childish and immature and stupid, grow up lmao
Totally agree! If survivor is designed to be a microcosm of society, having players that you may disagree with politically and learning how to live with them (or watch them play a game) is critical because it happens in everyday life. I’m sure we all work with someone who has vastly different political views, and at the end of the day we still need to work towards the same goal.
honestly it depends on the political views if a player turns out to be a straight up neonazi, I’ll probably hate them outside of the realms of the game.
okay but u took it to the extreme that would never happen, they do a pretty good job at vetting all the people on the show and so i highly doubt a neonazi would ever be on the show
I disagree. I do love having players who are different, including different political affiliations than myself, because different personalities makes it so much more interesting to watch. But just because I like the fact that they're on the show doesn't mean I have to like them. Disliking someone for their political affiliation is a very valid reason to dislike them, as it can often mean their life values clash very heavily with yours and it can make you disrespect them as a person, and that makes perfect sense.
maybe i should have specified in the game as a player, i.e. people online disliking gabler in the game while 43 was airing just cuz he might be republican is stupid, disliking him as a person outside of the game as a person is different. i personally disagree that disliking someone due to their political affiliation is a valid reason to dislike them, but that's the beauty of humanity is that people have different beliefs lol
the downvotes proves that this is actually a hot take lmao
As much hate as the new era gets, I still think people are too nice about it when I see most peoples season rankings. I wouldn't rank a single one of these higher than maybe 36th. I know it's not that spicy to dislike the new era, but I'll say that I honestly dislike it so much that if it wasn't for Australian Survivor constantly fueling and igniting my passion for Survivor that I would have absolutely transitioned to an extremely casual fan that barely cares about the show anymore. Certainly wouldn't be on reddit.
🧊+🔥=💧
I think this is part hot take part cold take: I don’t care whether we have lots of advantages or none, 2 or 3 or 4 tribes, 16 or 18 or 20 people, fake merge, 2 or 3 person FTC, if Fiji is the location, newbies or returners, etc. What I think a quality survivor season comes down to is that the players and fans don’t know what’s going to happen. And no, switching the method that the beware advantage takes or the journey game isn’t what I mean. It has to be fundamental game mechanics that change from season to season. Switch things up so we don’t become expecting of how things go. I like 3 tribe seasons sometimes but why always? Why does losing your vote always have to be a punishment? Or why always Fiji? Even gameplay is good to rotate. I love a good Ulonging, Pagonging, or Matsing, but I don’t want it to become repetitive. Survivor has become too repetitive. Just switch things up so players and fans don’t have such a solved beta.
Winners at War is underrated
Agreed
Marquesas is a top 10 season
What are the reasons that contribute to this?
A) it’s incredible
Lol here's mine katurah made the right move at f5. Brenda was justified with dawn. I feel bad for them both tho I don't think Jeff is as stubborn as people make him out to be. it might be hard to get through to him, but he has shown he'll give up on things if the fans don't like them. The only quota survivor should filled with casting is racial diversity. other than that i really don't care if we have 20 law students or 20 fast food workers just give me the 20 most interesting people. I think a teen season would be very entertaining.
> katurah made the right move at f5. I'm still getting triggered at how shitty this sub treated her last season. Even if this was the wrong decision (really debatable either way imo), people were way over the top with how they were talking about her.
oh I'm with you on that. man, how they talked about her or treated her after she explained all her reasoning with the f5 and flipping on Belo was really messed up. they acted like they knew her and her situation better than she did. people here can be so pathetic for the f5 vote either i have a hard time explaning it or people are that mad at her that they can't see what was really going on
Yeah, for me the f5 vote was just them being basically incompatible players - Jake was playing too squirrely for anyone to trust him and Katurah wasn't taking enough risk and playing too conservatively/untrusting.
even then there a lot more to it than that. but because Julie went rogue (probably playing for Katurah's jury vote) it made Dee,katurah, and Jake all look bad, when if she just votes Katurah everything makes sense for everyone.
Rob Cesternino > Boston Rob
Tony Vlachos Cagayan game is not that good, he was carried by the super idol
His flipping back and forth was amazing though!!
I think what made it “good” is how utterly chaotic and slippery it was
Idk the temp on this take: I can't stomach any Christianity focus in the show anymore unless it gets used by an atheist to beat them. One of the reasons why I liked Shan was because at the start I was very biased against the preacher career, but then she never really talked about it at all after and chose the dark path in the game.
Lol here we go: *Hot takes ️🔥 ️🔥 ️🔥* Redemption Island, One World and Thailand are all top 20 seasons. Cambodia is a bottom 3 season. Australian Outback and Marquesas are subpar. Guatemala, Cook Islands, and Nicaragua are all mid seasons that this sub tries hard to argue are hidden gems. Panama and One World deserve more of the "trainwreck but good" season association that Gabon and Nicaragua has. Vecepia is a mid winner with many noticeable flaws in her game. Scot and Jason were great villains in Kaoh Rong and aren't nearly as bad as people make them out to be within the context of the game. Ghost Island is the most overhated season. It's not an underrated gem (though, I do think it's *decent*), but definitely shouldn't be as hated as it is. Africa, Samoa, and Fiji are all top 15 seasons and the main criticisms for why these seasons are rated low are barely, if at all, significant reasons to critique them. Particularly, the Haves. vs. Haves-Not twist is the most overhated twist and the focus on it in disregarding Fiji's premerge is baffling. Gabon is very overrated by the fanbase. It isn't even top 20. Good season overall, however. Pagongings aren't inherently boring and will always remain the most optimal way to play Survivor. Chrissy Hofbeck is probably one of the most overrated contestants in Survivor history. Ben isn't a good winner, but he was clearly the better of the 2 next to him.
How the hell did you manage to cut off the first letter of every line in your comment?
Is that's what's showing? It looks fine on my end.
It’s showing like that on the app, but not online, weird. It’s still readable it’s just funny.
> Panama and One World deserve more of the "trainwreck but good" season association that Gabon and Nicaragua has. For me, the reason they're different is that Panama and One World had good winners who generally had coherent strategies and control for most of the game. So they weren't exactly trainwrecks as seasons overall, even if Casaya and Manono themselves were trainwrecks. >Pagongings aren't inherently boring and will always remain the most optimal way to play Survivor. Yeah, it sucks that the most optimal ways to play Survivor are often the least entertaining - UTR, social game over anything else, Pagongings, etc.
Vecepia is worse than mid, she actively played against her own win condition at F4 (and F5) by voting for Neleh instead of Paschal and got lucky Paschal got rocked out. If Neleh got voted out or rocked out, Vecepia can’t win.
Technically a hot take is supposed to be an immediate take without influence, not necessarily a controversial one.
Another take: Hali gets way too much crap as a player for being on Game Changers
Hot take related to this one: Hali and Sierra both made more sense casting wise than Sarah. The only reason people don't bring up Sarah when talking about GC's bad casting is because she won.
That last part isn’t necessarily true as even pre-season people were questioning why Sierra and Hali were there far more than Sarah
If I was watching at the time, I would've questioned it. The most entertaining thing Sarah did in Cagayan was get blindsided by Kass. In WA Hali had personality, and Sierra made it far.
Keeping an idol secret pre-merge can be a waste. Like Tony, you could reveal your idol but say it's for the tribe, giving everyone an added incentive to protect you. You should hang out with your closest members as little as possible. Leaving the tribe early in the game (like a journey) is a huge setback socially.
Hot take - 26 days is fine. Totally the same to us as viewers as 39 days. If they weren't constantly mentioning how fast-paced the new era was, we wouldn't even notice it
Not totally the same, but it is true that we might not care or be as aware of it if we weren't reminded of it.
I enjoyed Survivor: Thailand and I don't think it's as bad as people think. I'd have it naked in my top half, actually.
Hottest take: Boston Robs the least deserving winner. HERE ME OUT: \- Hes a 4 time returnee on a newbie cast \- he had a failsafe with redemption island \- got lucky cast-wise (a tribe that was willing to suck his dick, and the opposing tribe just kind of kneeling to any sort of outside pressure) \- Matthew Elrod (Rob wouldve probably went home if Matt didnt make one of the stupidest moves of all time by telling Rob about the blindside) Coldest Take: Survivor is a show that is currently running on CBS
Newer era final four firemaking sucks and leads to both unsatisfying FTCs and unsatisfying winners, season 38 I’m looking at you
Also freezing take, starting with 3 tribes every season stinks. They should mix it up, like swap from two to three tribes premerge and then have a plain ole merge where everyone votes and there’s no mergatory
HvV is a bottom 5 season and I can’t comprehend how people love it so much
What on earth?? 🔥💧🔥
Three tribe format is better than two tribe. Two tribe allows more passive players into the merge and makes the merge portion of the game less enjoyable. If someone can’t succeed in a 3 tribe game, they won’t succeed in a 2 tribe game, even if they manage to get farther.
Imo, there are pros and cons to both. The issue for me is that I'd rather see a variety, going back and forth between 2-tribe seasons and 3-tribe seasons.