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SweetJahasus
Dec 23, 2005

Dragon Slayer
Samurai Warrior
Escape Artist
Viking
Chong-Ra Master

BE THE WIZARD
Welcome, everyone, to season 40 of Survivor! The show that will never die or possibly will die very soon or is possibly already dead just like me.



Survivor airs Wednesday, February 12th on CBS! Check your local listings.

:siren::siren::siren:PAY ATTENTION TO THIS: :siren::siren::siren:
This season is an ALL “STAR” season that includes ONLY WINNERS!!!! I cannot possibly emphasize enough that if you do not wish to be spoiled on at least 20 previous seasons DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER.

The rules of this thread, since this is a bit of a funky season that will definitely have some spoiler territory for newer fans:
  • :siren:If it pertains to season 40 but has not aired, DO NOT spoil it in this thread:siren:. Keep that poo poo to Sucks or some other dumb Survivor fan site.
  • Throughout this thread, spoiler talk for previous seasons will be rampant and open game. Since the end result for literally over half of the existing seasons is spoiled just via the cast, I don’t see much need for spoiler tagging previous season talk. (If you disagree, make a compelling reason and we can keep black barring everything, ugh).
  • Keep any veiled racist/sexist/misogynist bullshit out of the thread. Survivor has had enough of it recently so let’s forget season 39 and move on with a hopefully fun season we’ve all been yammering about for years.

Now for all of the boiler plate poo poo for new viewers in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 20 years.
What is Survivor?

Survivor is a reality show where a group of 16 to 20 or so contestants, from all walks of life, are stuck on a remote paradise and forced to live together for 39 days; gathering their own food, building their own shelter, and purifying their own water. The cast is split into opposing, equal teams, called tribes. The tribes must work together to form a community, in the hopes of one contestant becoming the Sole Survivor and winning one million dollars. At least one contestant is voted off every episode.

A typical Survivor season has three phases. Pre-Merge, Post-Merge, and Endgame.

  • Pre-Merge: Roughly the first half of the game. The tribes compete against each other twice each episode. First for a reward, and second for tribal immunity. Tribes that fail the immunity challenge will be forced to vote one of their own members out at the end of the episode.

  • Post-Merge: The tribes are merged together. Players are now playing for individual immunity and all players will participate in voting out a player from the tribe.

  • Endgame: 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. The last nine players voted out before the final tribal council will join a Jury that will decide who will win of the final three (sometimes two) players.


This Season’s Gimmick

It wouldn’t be Survivor without something dumb that we all hate, so of course Edge of Extinction is back!


For those unfamiliar, Edge of Extinction answers the question of “How can you win Survivor without playing Survivor?” It’s universally been considered to be a bad idea for dumb idiots and the winner spawned from it (season 38) led to that season being the wettest fart this side of God Friended Me. Anyway, it’s back now because :iiam: and there’s also something about Fire Tokens, which are new and afaik they’re kinda like garnets from The Genius, except you trade them for idols or tacos instead of cash.

Oh yeah, they also get $2,000,000 if they win which is cool that Survivor is trying to catch up with inflation. Hopefully this trend continues and isn’t just for the winners season.


Supplemental Material

  • Rob has a Podcast: Available on iTunes or their website. He does a few podcasts a week discussing the latest episodes events, interviewing the player who was voted out that episode, and provides theories about strategy. This podcast provides insight into the game that was not aired on the show. It is heavily referenced in this thread.

  • Twitter: Survivors poo poo on each other, shill for their crap, and every once in a while tweet something that's actually amusing.

  • YouTube: The Official YouTube Channel occasionally puts Ponderosa videos and bonus scenes on their channel but other times they're trying to draw traffic to their CBS All-Access app so they'll put them there instead. Worst case, just search for "Ponderosa [jury member]" and you'll find someone else uploaded it so you don't have to figure that out.

Glossary of Terms

  • Blindside: When a tribal council seems to be set up so one or one of two possible players are getting eliminated, but somehow either a secret coalition or a surprising idol play makes it so someone else is voted out instead. :blindside:

  • "The Edit": Survivor is a show to entertain. It is produced and edited in a way to give players a streamlined personality and to create as much tension before Tribal Council as possible.

  • Goat: A useless, awful, or crazy person that is not being voted out of the game specifically so a player can look like a more desirable final survivor to the jury compared to the goat.

  • HII: Hidden Immunity Idol. They are hidden around the island. Clues will be given that could reveal their location. One-use item that a player can use after the votes are cast (but before they are read) at Tribal Council to nullify votes against that person. They can't be used at Final Four player or later.

  • Mactor: Portmanteau of "Model/Actor". A player who doesn't know the game very well and are just using it to further their career.

  • Pagonged: Going into post-merge, it's the act of voting out the former members of your opposing tribe before voting out the former members of your original tribe. It's the reason it's important to win tribal immunity pre-merge so that you outnumber the opposing tribe members in post-merge.

  • Pony/Poison: After the new season's cast is announced, thread members will pick a "Pony" (someone they think is awesome and will win) and a "Poison" (someone they think will suck and/or be an annoying rear end in a top hat they hope will lose or just simply suffer)

  • Purple Rocks: In the event of a tie at Tribal Council, there is a revote, with only the people receiving the most votes being eligible to receive votes during that revote. If the revote also ends in a tie, Survivors draw rocks. Whichever player draws the differently colored rock is eliminated from the game.

  • Splitting the vote/Flushing the Idol: An alliance that splits its votes between two members to counter a potential idol play. If one of those two players plays a Hidden Immunity Idol, there will still be enough players voting for the other guy to vote them out. This strategy can be risky.

Okay so enough of that, let’s get to the good stuff. Next post will have the cast so this is your last chance to not be spoiled!

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SweetJahasus
Dec 23, 2005

Dragon Slayer
Samurai Warrior
Escape Artist
Viking
Chong-Ra Master

BE THE WIZARD
The Cast:
This season, they didn’t release a mass cast photo for some reason (or I can’t find it). Once they do I can stick it here I guess, or not. Meanwhile, here is our commander in chief moments after someone told him that they hoped a woman wins this season. :blindside:



Ethan Zohn – Winner, Survivor Africa

”This water could use more elephant poo poo.”

Ethan is our earliest winner, who has never played modern Survivor and it remains to be seen if he even understands how the game works these days. Most famous for beating cancer after his Survivor win and being just a nice guy. In his bio he really leans into being an old dude because he references pinball, VHS tapes, and uses the phrase “to the max”.

Sandra Diaz-Twine – Winner, Survivor Pearl Islands AND Winner, Survivor Heroes vs. Villains

”This time, I’ve been practicing my army crawl so I’m sure to win.”

Sandra has been on Survivor a ton, including most recently on redacted, last season did not happen and is our only person ever to win twice (for now). She is the loving poo poo and is indisputably one of the funniest players and best trash-talkers out there. She answered a question on her bio with “Yup”, which I know all of you just read in her accent.

Amber Mariano – Winner, Survivor All-Stars

”Oh my Goddddddddd I’m so good at Survivorrrrrrrr”

Ambuh is more famous for marrying Boston Rob than for winning the first ever Survivor All Star season. Many argue that she didn’t win, but Rob really just lost it – however none of that matters because they got engaged at the finale and so I guess Rob still won, or something. She’s weirdly a dark-horse candidate to win since most of her threat level is tied up in Rob, who will assuredly not make it far. There’s not much to say about her, because she’s the most boring winner out here. Even her bio reads like she’s applying for a job. A job where you write LOL! In your resume.

Danni Boatwright – Winner, Survivor Guatemala

”I didn’t hike 11 miles through a Guatemalan jungle to deal with your Ay Dee Dee”

Danni won one of the best seasons of Survivor we’ve had (fight me). Guatemala had a ton of fun characters, which sadly Danni was not one of, but she made up for it in the end by beating the world’s most hateable player, Stephanie Lagrossa. Yet another candidate to do well, since she played a pretty quiet, but effective game her first time and doesn’t have a playbook about her like many of our other winners. She has a weird obsession with Kansas City and may get under water quickly with a lot of these serious gamers, leading to her being a no-vote finalist. She could also win. I don’t know, Danni is an enigma.

Yul Kwon – Winner, Survivor Cook Islands

”Well, actually…”

Yul was the first winner to ride the super idol (aka Tyler Perry Idol) to victory. Many consider his win dominant, but he only beat challenge beast and amateur pornographer Ozzie by 1 vote. He worked for Obama and he worked for Facebook, so he may be a hero or he may be the devil I can’t figure this out what is happening? His original season was Survivor: Racism Edition which was really weird and doesn’t hold up at all, but it spawned a lot of great and famous players like Sekou. Yul is really smart and diplomatic, and everyone knows it, so he could be a key ally for many people. In his bio he mentions that he’s a germophobe so he’s probably going to love making GBS threads in the ocean.

Parvati Shallow – Winner, Survivor Fans vs. Favorites

”One time I met a man in the Atlanta airport who had two prosthetic legs. That blew my mind.”

Parvati is a Stephanie Lagrossa fan according to her bio and I can’t really look past that. However, I will persevere. She’s often considered to have the “best” win because she aggressively manipulated and charmed the cast of FvF on the road to a dominant win, and nearly a second in HvV by manipulating part-time hobbit and full-time shitdump Russell Hantz into being her shield. She’s going to have a HUGE target on her, possibly one of the biggest outside of Tony, and seems to know that. Hopefully she can work a new angle now that she’s a parent and get ingratiated with a group, because she does make drat good TV. She’s also married to John Fincher from Survivor Samoa, who was duped and voted out by the aforementioned Russell Hantz.

Rob Mariano – Winner, Survivor Redem(*softly gags*)ption Island

”All of my daughters have the same middle name. No I’m not psychotic why do you ask?”

Rob is famous for not having the top of his head, instead he has a Boston Red Sox cap stitched into his skull, which has earned him the very creative nickname “Boston Rob”. This season marks his 893rd time playing Survivor, and it only took him 892 times to win! Every time you say his name, Jeff Probst gets a boner, and he literally wrote a book about how to win Survivor (in 4 tries). He was also on the Amazing race twice and had a reality show about him and Ambuh getting married called “Rob and Amber Get Married”. All that said, Rob is a tour de force if he can get a foothold in the tribe, which is incredibly unlikely with this bunch. He was an “Idol” on the season-which-must-not-be-named, and gave advice to all of the players who lost, and none to the one who won so that probably helped his book sales. He also famously barfed on tv.

Big Taint posted:

“I’m pretty over Boston Rob.”

-me like 15 years ago

Sophie Clarke – Winner, Survivor South Pacific

”HAHAHA OH MY GOD GUYS JACK AND JILL HAHAHA OH MY GOD YOU’VE GOTTA SEE IT HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

People around here like Sophie, I think. She’s the people’s champion in that she is smart while also hating everything. She played with Coach :haibrow: during Survivor: Church Edition and was a bit of an out-of-nowhere winner who ultimately ended up being really satisfying. She famously won a “reward” challenge to go watch the new hit movie Jack and Jill (3% on Rotten Tomatoes) and while the sycophantic tribemates laughed at the…uh…jokes? she didn’t and is our hero for doing so. She has the most coherent bio and actually sounds like she’s read a book before so she’s many people’s favorite to win. I have her in my top 3 winner picks, personally, and can’t see any reason why should won’t do well. I will not edit this after she’s booted first.

Kim Spradlin – Winner, Survivor One World

”I’m here to cash checks and be un-entertaining, and I’m all out of checks.”

A lot of people consider Kim’s win to be the most dominant win, which is weird because her season consisted of her, a racist guy, and 16 bowling pins. One World sucked, there’s no way around that. Kim was incredibly dominant but among a group of players she’s going to have to turn her charm up to 1000. She’s incredibly charming, however, and is no slouch in challenges, so she can be a very important player for whatever alliance she finds herself a part of. In her bio she mentions that she started watching in 2001, and also mentions that she watched from the beginning so :goonsay: I’m going to have to nitpick your details here a bit.

Denise Stapley – Winner, Survivor Phillipines

”I know I’m not J.K. Simmons but I mean c’mon, right?”

Denise is notorious for being the only winner to attend EVERY tribal in her season. A part of the now infamous Matsing tribe that got worn down to just 2 players (who both ended up making the final 4, oddly), she’s had a ton of practice dealing with the stressors that come with tribal. Her original season is one that gets a bit buried due to a cast member who made the finals later getting arrested for being an utter piece of poo poo. She’s also a therapist so she’s got the mind to overcome the bullshit Survivor throws at you. Denise is our oldest cast member, which may put a target on her for challenge usage, but she’s fit as hell and can hold her own. Her bio mentions that her strategy is to adapt, so if she can just get her entire tribe decimated again then she’s got this.

Tyson Apostol – Winner, Survivor Blood vs. Water

SweetJahasus Note: I’m not putting a quote here because no made up quote can do Tyson’s actual quotes justice

I won’t pull my punch here, Tyson is my favorite. He’s who I want to win, even though I don’t see him winning. He’s played 3 times before, twice with Actual Crazy Person Coach Ben Wade, so the fact that he’s not in a strait jacket babbling in a corner is pretty impressive. Tyson is a staple on RHAP, and is a constant gold mine of quotes. In BvW he played with his now wife, who was voted off early, which led to him rampaging through the game in order to avenge her. Tyson would openly talk poo poo to jurors on their way out:

He’s got an uphill battle this season because it’s tough to decide which players would want to align with chaotic evil, and I think Tyson wants to take big swings which has bitten him in the past. I still must believe that he will win though, even though it may take some black magic.


Tony Vlachos – Winner, Survivor Cagayan

”bbbblbllbublbuublublububuluullblllbllblubllbluublblblblblblllblllbllbl”

If Tyson is chaotic evil, Tony is chaotic neutral. Tony actually upends the alignment chart and is just chaotic chaos. On his original season he had the benefit of the second incarnation of the super (Tyler Perry) idol, which much like Yul he never even had to play. I think that even without that idol, he’d have won, because he played the ultimate scramble game that mixed idols, alliance flipping, and tight allies to great effect. He got really lucky in the final 3, because dumb money hater Woo chose Tony to join him in the finals over the universally despised Kass, but it’s a credit to Tony for convincing Woo to take a $900k pay cut. Per his bio, his only hobby is spending as much time as possible with his family which explains the two month family-less vacation he’s taking while he’s probably the first person voted out.

Natalie Anderson – Winner, Survivor San Juan del Sur

”COME ON TWINNIE COME ON”

Natalie is the second blood vs water champ, with a similar story to Tyson. Her twin sister was the first boot and she used that to fuel her to a victory that was really very impressive and on the back of a super risky idol play and blindside late-game. She’s probably most famous, however, for her time on the Amazing Race (before Survivor) with her TWINNIE. I actively hated them on that season and still do, to some extent, despite how much I liked her on Survivor. She’s another one of my top 3 to win this season as she’s got a built in super-ally of a great player in Jeremy and she won the game at a middle season so she’s not too recent in memory and isn’t a “legend”. Her bio mentions that she’s relying on luck this season so…gently caress.

Jeremy Collins – Winner, Survivor Second Chance

”This season I will be referred to as Boston Jeremy.”

Jeremy is another one of those winners that people love, which is why he’s my 3rd top winner pick. He’s got a long road ahead of him, because he mounted a very dominant win in his second time out and is considered to be one of the ultimate social threats. The upside to being a social threat is that you’re socially competent and can build an alliance around you, which Jeremy is very capable of doing alongside his SJDS ally Natalie. In his bio he mentions that he used to take notes every episode he’d watch which yeesh…buddy…I know I’m doing a lengthy OP on a Survivor nerd forum but drat.

Michele Fitzgerald – Winner, Survivor Koah Rong

”I got this new tattoo and I intend for everyone to see it MOM.”

Michele is right there alongside Ambuh for the most questionable winner in this cast, but IMO Michele ended up playing a pretty good game upon re-assessment. She caught a lot of poo poo for being invisible for the first half of the game, which was symptomatic of having some very alpha lunatics on that season that dominated some camera time (also fan favorite Tai). She had some late clutch immunities and a solid social game to go alongside it, but a quite bitter jury helped propel her to the win over other fan favorite Aubrey (who poo poo the bed in final tribal). I like her odds this season because everyone out there probably doesn’t know who she is so she can be window dressing until merge and then come forward to do well again.

Adam Klein – Winner, Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X

”Here, wait, take the picture again I’m gonna act tough.”

Adam is our super fan. He’s the one who coined the stupid term super duper fan, and he cried a lot (for a good reason, but it’s the main thing I remember him for). He had a quite tragic story about his mom, who passed away shortly after his original season, and Adam seems like a likeable kid, but is also kind of a rat. He did a lot of waffling between groups on his original season, which worked well for him, but the super fan schtick likely won’t go over well with this bunch. I see him being an early target. He is a “keynote speaker” now which is weird because he’s basically 4 years old and has no life experience but okay I guess.

Sarah Lacina – Winner, Survivor Game Changers

”I beat all these idiots and this bigot ipso facto I’m good at Survivor”

Sarah is our most recent female winner which is pretty loving insane because not only is she bad at Survivor but also that means we’ve had 5 straight seasons of male winners. I truthfully don’t know how Sarah won. People from her season say she was likeable but that didn’t really come through on the screen, since all of her confessionals sound like she’s a serial killer explaining how she’s getting away with a crime. She was part of a season that’s looked down upon pretty often because of a very very very uncool incident between bigot dummy Jeff Varner and fan favorite cool dude Zeke. On her bio she lists 19 pet peeves which definitely helps me see how you were so liked in your last season :wtc:

Ben Driebergen – Winner, Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlersgently caress this name

”As you can see from this hat, I’m a boy. A cow boy.”

Ben is a controversial winner because he spent about half of the game in the crosshairs of the entire cast, only to find idol after idol after idol and save himself, famously with his “Ben Bombs”. Is now a time I can talk about how he had a segment discussing his PTSD over IEDs while simultaneously “dropping bombs” on people and celebrating it – I dunno….that always stuck in my craw. Ben was also the winner of the season that introduced the final 4 fire making challenge, which came with a poo poo ton of controversy blaming production of rigging the game for him. I don’t buy into the rigging, but I was sad to see fan favorite Devin fall victim to this 11th hour twist. Make no mistake, Ben will be a huge target because people don’t want to keep folks around who root out idols often. His middle name is Russell so draw your own conclusions about what witchcraft Russells have.

Wendell Holland – Winner, Survivor Ghost Island

”Put the mic down. Put the pen down. Use an eraser.”

Wendell won the closest vote in Survivor history which resulted in a final tribal TIE, with the deciding vote being the zero-vote finalist. On his original season he had the benefit of only needing to be ½ of a good Survivor player, as he had his best bud Dom there to pick up the slack where he fell off. Fortunately for him, the other finalist was someone who he was closer to, which won him the vote, even though Dom played an amazing game as well. Wendell is a social dynamo and everyone knows it, so he’s going to have to turn the charm up a little extra to get people under his spell this time. He has recency bias going against him, but if he can ingratiate himself again then he’s got the social chops to ride that pretty far. His bio is pretty boring, but did make me take notice of how many peoples’ inspiration is their parents. Let’s be honest here guy, your parents aren’t that great – shoot higher.

Nick Wilson – Winner, Survivor David vs. Goliath

”I will be insulted if I don’t get votes this time!”

Nick is our most recent winner in the cast, and is the most recent winner who actually played Survivor for 39 days this cast saw before going out there. He’s got a pretty steep hill to climb if he wants to win, as he hasn’t been in the “community” enough to have a lot of pre-game alliances and friendships, and his entire charming shtick from his first season is exposed. I think Nick may have the worst chances of anyone outside of Tony, sadly. He did orchestrate one of the coolest moves ever at a tribal though, which was a minority vote split (that succeeded!). He has listed his inspiration in life as Sandra, which is incredibly cool. He is also incredibly cocky in his bio which definitely bodes well for the guy with little to no pre-game relationships.


Okay that’s it, premiere is Feb. 12th so I guess everyone post about who you love or hate or how bad my OP is I don’t care. Just remember the #1 rule of Survivor:

Aerox
Jan 8, 2012
I want the final 3 to be Kim/Sandra/Denise and I will be furious if any of them are out before the merge.

Sand Monster
Apr 13, 2008

SweetJahasus posted:

Rob has a Podcast: Available on iTunes or their website. He does a few podcasts a week discussing the latest episodes events, interviewing the player who was voted out that episode, and provides theories about strategy. This podcast provides insight into the game that was not aired on the show. It is heavily referenced in this thread.

I've never really listened outside of maybe an episode or two years ago. Are there any past episodes or interviewees that are particularly interesting or insightful?

SweetJahasus
Dec 23, 2005

Dragon Slayer
Samurai Warrior
Escape Artist
Viking
Chong-Ra Master

BE THE WIZARD

Sand Monster posted:

I've never really listened outside of maybe an episode or two years ago. Are there any past episodes or interviewees that are particularly interesting or insightful?

Every week after the episode airs he does something with Stephen Fishbach (of S18 fame) called the Know-It-Alls which I find to be the best of their shows since it's pretty succinct and they have decent takes on stuff.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

As far as RHAP goes I really enjoyed The Evolution of Strategy audio books they did (Really glorified podcasts) about Seasons 1-30 but 1) They're not free, though there are sample chapters available you can check out and 2) It really depends on how much of Josh Wigler you can take.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

This channel uploads all the bonus videos and jury episodes a couple days after each episode airs if you want a more specific reference for your youtube section.

Anyway I don't know who my pony is but my poison is Ben

Shneak
Mar 6, 2015

A sad Professor Plum
sitting on a toilet.
That is a lovely OP SweetJahasus :pirate:

Lone Goat
Apr 16, 2003

When life gives you lemons, suplex those lemons.




good op

pony: tyson
poison: ben

Zesty
Jan 17, 2012

The Great Twist
Great OP! Seriously better than anything I've made.

It's absolutely worth reading those player descriptions, if any of you skipped them.

Pony: Tyson
Poison: Yul

Sarah the Maga Cop was almost my poison but Yul has been doing everything in his power to make the internet a worse place.

Zesty fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Feb 4, 2020

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

Tremendous OP.

I think its impossible to predict a winner with any kind of real accuracy since there's just so many twists and turns and idols in the game. But gun to my head the one player who stands out to me as a possible winner is Natalie. I was really impressed the way she won her game by really working herself out of a tough spot and working a number of different angles in a short period and picking up the pieces after Jeremy left. I think she's smart without the huge game threat rep others have. I think she's likable without the just overly social thread target others have. Who knows what happens but she's definitely someone I can see getting past the first wave of "easy" vote outs, the second wave of "threats" vote outs, and then working her way to the end without pissing people off.

So I guess that makes her my Pony?

What's a Poison? Someone we think is gonna lose or someone think is gonna be terrible or something we want to see crash and burn? I don't think I hate anyone on this cast. Plenty I don't love but none I really feel strongly against. I don't see Tony doing well at all and the rest of the players would be loving idiots to let Sandra stay in the game. The one person I kind of think could really surprisingly crash and burn is Parv. I like Parv. She's entertaining and has some moves. But I've always kind of felt she was a bit overrated and had help along the way. That's not a knock, everyone has some help. But she did a lot of manipulation and flirting and hiding behind people and I just don't see that stuff working now. She also did some really dumb things and had a tendency to be an rear end. So I can see her loving stuff up for herself.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
Hmm, wonder how AUS Survivor chat is gonna go on here. I think it might be the first time we've had two big seasons on at once.

Anyway. Pony! I really like Ethan. There are a bunch of other contestants that I really like on there (Sophie, Denise, Natalie) but Ethan's so sweet.

Poison. Honestly? Sarah. Her pre-game press has a lot of arrogance and a lot of people seem to be stacked against her. I'm not knocking her winning game, but I think she's definitely gotten her win in her head and not in a fun cocky way like Sandra, and her brand of humour is definitely a bit more niche.

Aerox
Jan 8, 2012
It's hard to narrow it down between my favs but I think this is what I'm going with:

Pony: Kim
I know she probably won't last long because everyone seems extremely freaked the gently caress out by her (and they probably should be) but she's so dang good at Survivor I'm excited to see what she does against competitors with a higher IQ than Leif.

Poison: Amber
She's boring and I'm fully expecting that every single one of her confessionals is going to be about marrying Rob and their relationship and I just do.not.care.

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

Count me amongst those very skeptical about Kim. I don't hold it against her that her cast were idiots. You play with the cards you're dealt. It WAS a dominant win. But they were really loving stupid. Worse, they were passive. Even the competent ones were players content to keep the waters calm, get the easy vote, and not worry that someone else might be a threat to your win. She's not only playing with smart people, but theres going to be very few passive people. Maybe she'll be good, maybe she won't but it feels like watching a dominant amateur go pro.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Yeah, I like Kim but I’d like to see what she can do against actual competition.

Like who would you even say was the next best player from One World? Maybe Tarzan?

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


Going to take this post to remind everyone there's a thread for the current season of Australian Survivor All Stars :) https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3912906

Also, if you want to see what happens if they hide an idol at tribal council, there you go :)

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

STAC Goat posted:

Count me amongst those very skeptical about Kim. I don't hold it against her that her cast were idiots. You play with the cards you're dealt. It WAS a dominant win. But they were really loving stupid. Worse, they were passive. Even the competent ones were players content to keep the waters calm, get the easy vote, and not worry that someone else might be a threat to your win. She's not only playing with smart people, but theres going to be very few passive people. Maybe she'll be good, maybe she won't but it feels like watching a dominant amateur go pro.

There might be more passive people than you'd think. Michele, Ethan, Amber, Danni, Sophie... most of them were good at just staying under the radar, letting the bigwigs shoot themselves in the foot, and maybe rein people in only if necessary.

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

There will be some. There will also be players who try and play under the radar and don’t move quick enough. But there’s gonna be a lot of aggressive players and we have no idea how Kim deals with a cast that isn’t collectively saying “anyone but me”.

Again it’s not a knock on her. She played with who she played with. I just don’t know what she’s capable of.

She’s not alone. There’s others like Ethan and most of the old school ones who we don’t know if they can play the modern game. And players we’ve seen play the modern one might do things totally differently or not be able to do what worked the first time. Kim just stands out because of her rep.

STAC Goat fucked around with this message at 11:45 on Feb 4, 2020

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
Kim, as far as I can tell, is very good at being both a physical threat as well as being able to make everyone feel like she's their best friend. It's similar to Lauren's analogy about Chris in the EoE finale: everyone thinks she's their best option. We've seen it before with J.T.

It's a different kind of dominant win compared to Rob, who both controlled his tribe in a different way, and had his winning game mixed in with newbies.

I think that if Kim can find another Sabrina or Chelsea - loyal players with just enough blemishes on their playstyle that she can outshine them in a FTC - then she'd be fine.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

STAC Goat posted:

What's a Poison?

The opposite of a Pony. It's the person you absolutely don't want to see win.

SweetJahasus
Dec 23, 2005

Dragon Slayer
Samurai Warrior
Escape Artist
Viking
Chong-Ra Master

BE THE WIZARD
I think all of y'all are underestimating the impact that pre-game alliances are going to have on this season. I'm cold on Kim not because she's seen as a threat, but because she's not a part of the "community" and surely doesn't have the relationships with the necessary people. There are a lot of poker players on this cast...that is important. They are all friends. There are a lot of people who have played previous all-star seasons together and have a rapport. That is important.

They're all threats, in their own way (except Amber) so they should all be wary of everyone. IMO it's going to come down to who has been in each other's DMs enough to be connected to the most people. If I had to guess, I'd say that the power rankings for that quality would be:

A Tier: Rob, Wendell, Adam, Tyson, Jeremy, Parvati
B Tier: Sandra, Tony, Natalie, Sophie
C Tier: Ethan, Nick, Ben, Sarah, Kim, Michele
D Tier: Amber, Danni, Yul, Denise

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


Yea, that's the one thing that I think will make it hard to watch this season. There's winners that are part of the Survivor community and probably have hung out multiple times throughout the years. And then there's winners that don't really seem to have had much of a presence in the community after winning their season.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

I just read the bio post (it's very good) and am curious: why does everyone think Tony has like a negative chance to make it very far? Does everyone just hate him or something? I don't follow stuff that happens outside the game really.

SweetJahasus
Dec 23, 2005

Dragon Slayer
Samurai Warrior
Escape Artist
Viking
Chong-Ra Master

BE THE WIZARD

IcePhoenix posted:

I just read the bio post (it's very good) and am curious: why does everyone think Tony has like a negative chance to make it very far? Does everyone just hate him or something? I don't follow stuff that happens outside the game really.

Thanks :) For Tony it's mostly like this.

Imagine your job is to hold a fish and if you hold the fish for 39 days you win $2M. Would you rather hold a dead goldfish (Amber) or a 180 pound pissed off wahoo?

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

IcePhoenix posted:

I just read the bio post (it's very good) and am curious: why does everyone think Tony has like a negative chance to make it very far? Does everyone just hate him or something? I don't follow stuff that happens outside the game really.

Tony's great, but he also has a reputation for sneakiness and chaos. And that's difficult to deal with. He turned on LJ, a guy he played an idol for. But he's also surprisingly apt at the social aspect, considering Trish's loyalty and the fact that he literally won his million by convincing Woo to take him.

He has two advantages, thankfully. The first is that his Game Changers performance blunted his threat level, and I think he's definitely going to try to calm down and ease off. The second is that Sarah is on his tribe, and she's got a bigger target on her back (and more cockiness since she's a bit fresher off her win). So if he's smart, he can shield himself for a bit, but he'll need to adapt some new kind of gameplay to make it far.

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

As the OP said Tony is like all chaos and I think besides the fact that the cast should largely know that its the sort of thing that a cast like this probably won't tolerate for long. If Tony can tone it down or keep it secret maybe he can do well but I get the feeling he'll come in with a lot of people already worried about him and he'll do something kinda dumb (but entertaining) that will make him a target.

The thing about this cast is a lot of them are going to come in with reps and targets, so there's no real telling which ones will stick and which ones will kind of fade away. So I'm just kind of looking at it as who has the skills to shake those first impressions and who will probably play into them. Tony seems like the kind that will play into his rep.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

I appreciate the responses thanks friends

Max
Nov 30, 2002

As badly as I want Sandra to win a third time, I know in my heart it won't happen. I'm rooting for Denise.

JesusSinfulHands
Oct 24, 2007
Sartre and Russell are my heroes

SweetJahasus posted:

I think all of y'all are underestimating the impact that pre-game alliances are going to have on this season. I'm cold on Kim not because she's seen as a threat, but because she's not a part of the "community" and surely doesn't have the relationships with the necessary people. There are a lot of poker players on this cast...that is important. They are all friends. There are a lot of people who have played previous all-star seasons together and have a rapport. That is important.

She literally played poker with Rob, Tyson, and Jeremy .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxsTkHDGc2Y

UltimoDragonQuest
Oct 5, 2011



Pony: Denise (never gonna happen :( )
Poison: Adam

I'm hoping for a ridiculous threat alliance but I think an alliance of younger superfans is going to vote out Rob, Sandra, and Parvati before a Tyson or similar knifes them for the $2M.

Let's all pray the fire tokens begin to approach the entertainment value of Genius garnets.

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


Pony - Boston Rob

Poison - Sophie

Andrew_1985
Sep 18, 2007
Hay hay hay!
I’m also on the Denise train. Is she a therapist or a sex therapist or did I imagine that from her season. As long as she can survive the early physical challenges, mind you. I imagine her winning would ruin Probst’s man crush fantasy.

UltimoDragonQuest
Oct 5, 2011



Andrew_1985 posted:

I’m also on the Denise train. Is she a therapist or a sex therapist or did I imagine that from her season. As long as she can survive the early physical challenges, mind you. I imagine her winning would ruin Probst’s man crush fantasy.
She is both.

e: Dying at Wigler's return to RHAP. Josh goes on a rant about the likelihood of Edge of Extinction for Season 41 and how they haven't finalized plans before taping. Rob's response is asking if fans should negotiate down to Redemption Island.

UltimoDragonQuest fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Feb 5, 2020

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

Max posted:

As badly as I want Sandra to win a third time, I know in my heart it won't happen. I'm rooting for Denise.

Sandra will probably get booted first or something if they have brains but if anyone can find a way to weasel her way out of its Sandra.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

I wonder how scared people are and should be of Denise. Anyone that survived literally every single tribal council in their season seems like they should be a force to reckoned with anyways, even if she doesn't have as big a reputation as the more famous or recent winners.

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

The advantage that someone like Denise has is that there’s just so many threats that she could fly under the radar.

But it’s just kind of impossible to know how this will play out. For all we know Sandra and Boston Rob formed an OG Survivor alliance to keep themselves save and vote out all the low profile modern players. Who knows?

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


STAC Goat posted:

But it’s just kind of impossible to know how this will play out. For all we know Sandra and Boston Rob formed an OG Survivor alliance to keep themselves save and vote out all the low profile modern players. Who knows?

Truly this seems like a given to have Rob and Sandra work together if they can.

Considering they are both pretty big on the game of Survivor, seems having all that time on IOI ahead of the winner season would just be commonsense that they would talk about 100s of scenarios. And then include Amber in there and you have a solid trio.

Could even make it a solid 4 if Parvati and Sandra pair up.

(Although of course they are (probably) starting with 2 tribes and I don't think anyone would fall for Rob asking someone to save Amber again)

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Amber said in one of the ET Canada interviews that she doesn't want to work with Sandra though, curiously enough.

drat, S40 can't some soon enough.

SweetJahasus
Dec 23, 2005

Dragon Slayer
Samurai Warrior
Escape Artist
Viking
Chong-Ra Master

BE THE WIZARD

JesusSinfulHands posted:

She literally played poker with Rob, Tyson, and Jeremy .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxsTkHDGc2Y

Gonna be honest with you, I didn't know this. Thanks for catching that. Definitely improves her chances by a ton IMO.

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An Ounce of Gold
Jul 13, 2001

by Fluffdaddy

IcePhoenix posted:

The opposite of a Pony. It's the person you absolutely don't want to see win.

And more importantly someone that you want to see dragged out with their show death. That
s why it's a "poison" and not pick your gunshot victim. Basically you are picking a person to hate watch.

Pony: Pavarti

Poison: Tyson

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