Occupation fucked around with this message at Jan 14, 2013 around 15:30

• Pre-merge: The first half of the season (or so). Roughly 6-9 episodes long. As of late, the merge has occurred during the seventh episode. The merge is almost always whenever 12 or 10 people remain in the game. The two(sometimes more) tribes face off twice each episode: First for reward, and second for immunity.
  
  
  • Reward challenge: The reward challenge is usually for a basic necessity that the tribes need to survive on the island. As an example, fishing gear is a common early reward, as it allows the winning tribe to be able to hunt for crucial protein. Rice is another common early reward- a simple carb is essential to, well, living. Generally early game rewards are not that crucial to win the game or gain a decisive advantage against the opposing team, with two major exceptions.
    
    The first reward challenge is usually for flint and steel, a necessity so the tribe can have fire for heat the ability to cook their food. More importantly, however, a fire allows the winning tribe the ability to boil water, which is necessary in the climates they are usually at to not get a disease from the presumably infected water. (Usually people don't drink any water before they can boil it, so dehydration is a major factor in tribe strength).
    
    Secondly, at some point, usually two or three episodes in, a reward challenge will have a tarp as the reward. This is the other major, major necessity to tribe strength; a tarp keeps the rainwater out of whatever shelter the tribe builds and keeps the tribe both relatively warm and not wet (pneumonia is always a major concern), while secondarily keeping them fit for immunity challenges.
    
    
  • Immunity challenge: If one tribe wins immunity, they are safe from elimination at the end of the episode (called "Tribal Council") and win the Immunity Idol. The team that loses must, that night, travel to the "Tribal Council Area" and vote out one of their members. Play then continues as normal.
  
  
• Post-merge: After about 6-9 episodes, so when about half of the players of the game remain, the game features a "merge". The two tribes are no more and form one tribe, with a different color buff and name. Reward challenges now are for one person and one person only. However, they're usually allowed to pick guests to share in or go along with them- which introduces an entirely new layer of strategy to the game. Immunity challenges are now for an immunity necklace, not idol, only able to be worn by one tribe member- the winner, obviously. Whoever wears the immunity necklace at the next tribal council cannot be voted for. Immunity necklaces can be given by the winner to another player, making the gifted player immune to the vote.
  
  
• End game: Once 5-7 players or so remain, the show reaches the End game phase. Usually the very strong core alliances are shaken up here as people try to reach the end or placate the jury.
  
  See, the thing that makes Survivor unique is that there's a jury. When the final three people remain, the last 9 eliminated players get called back as the Jury, wherein they're allowed to grill, yell at, quiz, comment about or whatever the hell they want to do to the final three remaining contestants. This is during the appropriately titled Final Tribal Council, (early seasons had 2 remaining contestants and 7 people on the jury) after which the jury for the player they want to win the million dollars and the title of Sole Survivor.

• Borneo- First ever season, almost like a documentary, Hatch makes up a ton of rules of the game that are still used to this day
  
• Australia- First season that really resembles modern Survivor with alliances and backstabbing and strategy focus, "The Fire"
  
• Marquesas- First appearance of Boston Rob (probably the most famous Survivor player ever), shows why everyone in subsequent seasons never, ever wanted to engineer a tie for any reason- this is important because a ton of subsequent seasons has people break alliances or vote against a really solid alliance they have just to avoid a tie and it seems really stupid, but Marquesas' tiebreaker challenge really indelibly left a mark on all future Survivor votes
  
• The Amazon- Has one of the smartest players to ever play the game (Rob C), first ever appearance of someone giving an immunity necklace to someone else
  
• Pearl Islands- Amazing cast, Johnny fuckin' Fairplay, and a bunch of really memorable scenes makes up for one of if not the shittiest twist in Survivor history.
  
• All-Stars- First season with more than two tribes (had three tribes). First ever All-Star season, Boston Rob's play is absolutely brilliant (engineering a Final Tribal Council where he couldn't lose has never been done before or since), seeing all the biggest personalities back for the first time is new and exciting. The only real problem is the FTC ending up to be one of the bitterest in Survivor history. Friendships are literally destroyed over this season's final tribal.
  
• Vanuatu- One of the best, most strategic underdog plays ever, with a 1 v. 6 final seven somehow ending in the 1 winning the game. Besides that, kinda mediocre overall but Chris' play is good enough to make this season great. Has the vertical maze, though, one of the most memorable immunity challenges ever.
  
• Palau- The first and only time in Survivor history where a tribe doesn't end up winning a single immunity challenge. Therefore, features the worst tribe of all time. Schadenfreudian pleasure in watching the Charlie Browniest team ever get increasingly miserable. In my opinion the best, and most insane, final immunity challenge in Survivor history- goes on for twelve loving hours.
  
• Guatemala- First season that has two returning players in the cast (a fixture of later seasons). First appearance of the incredibly weak and useless hidden immunity idol.
  
• Panama- First season with four tribes. Features Cirie, one of the most strategic players ever. First appearance of Exile Island, wherein the tribe that wins the immunity challenge sends a member of another tribe to a remote location to fend for themselves with minimal supplies. After that...eh.
  
• Cook Islands- All four tribes are divided by race. Features the first and only appearance of the revamped, completely overpowered hidden immunity idol, which results in the best immunity idol play ever. Features Yul, Penner (two of the most strategic players ever) Ozzy, (one of the all-around strongest competitors in Survivor history) who turns out to be a fixture of later seasons (and an annoying loving twat, but whatever). Also features Parvati, who sucks this season but would later turn out to be a manipulative genius in later seasons. Also features the first usage of a final three tribal council over a final two, and a nine-person jury over a seven-person jury.
  
• China- Unique location, great challenges, totally different tone to the season- and first appearance of Amanda, an amazingly strong all-around player who would become a fixture of later seasons (and turn in some of the worst final tribal council performances ever). Has Courtney, the -est player ever. Great season.
  
• Micronesia- A pseudo- All-Stars season, great cast, hilarious pre-merge play, amazing post-merge play (including the manipulation of someone to make one of the stupidest plays in Survivor history) makes this season one of the best ever.
  
• Tocantins- The first usage of Exile Island strategically. Features the man, the myth, the legend of Coach, the most utterly ridiculous Survivor player ever. First ever time a Survivor season could be argued to be co-won, since Stephen and JT basically cover each others' weaknesses perfectly. Wonderful season.
  
• Samoa- First appearance of the divisive Russell Hantz. Probably the best underdog play in Survivor history, with the 4 Foa Foa members entering the merge against 8 Galu members and ending up part of the final five. Great blindsides and strategic play. Great, great season of Survivor.
  
• Heroes v. Villains- Second "true" All-Stars season, and the personalities are much more vibrant and interesting this time around. If you've seen the previous seasons wherein the people competing are from it's absolutely great. Also has Russell Hantzing it up like a madman. Also has the imo stupidest Survivor play of all time.
  
• Redemption Island- Fourth (fourth!) Boston Rob appearance ends with him utterly dominating the game like it's never been dominated before. The Redemption Island twist ends up sucking but in my opinion it so perfectly ends the character arc of Boston Rob from his start as the cocky idiot in Marquesas, to the mastermind with bad jury management in All-Stars, to the completely getting hosed over due to bad luck in HvV, to his final incarnation as an brilliant, strong, and ruthless champion in RI.
  
• Philippines- A brilliant season from start to finish, never letting up- includes the single worst tribe ever in Survivor history (so long, Ulong), some genuinely amazing stunt casting that actually adds to the enjoyment, and at least seven or eight people who deserved to win for one reason or another. After three seasons of pure bullshit, this season was just fantastic on literally every level. Denise's story is amazing- you can't write TV that good.
  

• Hero Edit: The winner of the season is edited to be as honorable, noble, or admirable as possible. Usually scenes of them being lovely aren't included. Any scenes of them in conflict with another tribemate are usually presented as the hero "in the right", and any sneaky or underhanded play is presented as brilliant/necessary for survival. The winner of the season and any cast member which the show is interested in bringing back in subsequent seasons are edited this way. Usually, the challenge beast is edited to be a hero.
  
• Villain Edit: The antagonist of the winner is usually edited to be the "villan". Any scenes of them being lazy, evil, stupid, or an rear end in a top hat are usually edited to be incredibly damning. Any scenes of "strategy playing"- blindsides etc- are usually presented as the villain being a backstabbing douche. Villains usually advance far but don't win- many make the FTC and lose, much of the time due to a bitter jury. "Villains" usually get brought back into a subsequent season, usually under the redemption edit.
  
• Buffoon/Crazy Person Edit: Any goats or entertainingly bad players usually get edited like this. Usually used as evidence for why the mastermind player would lug them to the FTC. Their ineptitude/craziness is overstated and this is usually where the editors have the most fun with digs on them (for instance, whenever Coach talked on Toncantins the editor would edit in an eagle cry to make him even more ridiculous).
  
• Punching Bag Player Edit: These players are usually edited to be constantly picked upon, bullied, or otherwise mistreated. Usually presented as through no fault of their own- the tribe just, suddenly, for no reason, decided to pick on the player, either because they look weird, are physically weak, or are otherwise bizarre (usually the buffoon and crazy person is also the punching bag). Punching Bags usually flip going into the merge- so the narrative tries to present their flip as justified or otherwise understandable. Usually where most of the complaints of "disingenuous editing" come from when contestants complain about editing- Sugar from Gabon and Sierra from Toncantins were both constantly poo poo on in their respective seasons and were edited as the punching bags just trying to survive the horrible assholes on their tribe. According to the contestants who played with them, however, they were actually horribly annoying, whiny douches. The claim that Sugar was actually a gigantic whiny annoying baby seems to have at least some merit, since her edit in HvV presented her as such.

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