Austin
Prediction Writer
Posts: 139
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Post by Austin on May 7, 2015 19:35:41 GMT
110. Colby Donaldson (HvV): This is not the beautiful Colby I fell in love with in Australia. That Colby was fun. That Colby was good in challenges. This Colby is just kinda ... along for the ride. To be fair, Colby did have some fun moments that were heightened by the disparity between the way he was perceived and the way he was 9 years later. Him vegging out while the two girls fought over the idol clue, James calling him "Superman in a fat suit", and his outbursts during the loved ones challenge were all great and all ran contrary to the Colby we knew. Unfortunately, Colby is a somewhat dour presence on the season, and his reunion with Jerri isn't really explored at all. I'm not entirely against the cut RJ, although part of me really, really wants to idol it. But I'm gonna let it stand. Having said that, I feel like you missed a lot of what made Colby awesome in HvV. Maybe it's because when I watched HvV I hadn't seen Australia Colby, (and even then I've only seen a bit of him there - I jumped around a bit in episodes and watched certain moments) but I felt like having a character who was SO far gone from what their roots were, even if their roots were what made us love them, is a very interesting way for a character to go. I think, if you stagnate and bank on old success, your not really doing much as a returning player, character wise. (See: Candice Cody.) There's two things that really make one great on their second go 'round - either A. they refine and make what was awesome about them better (See: Sandra) or B. they go the JT/Colby route, do dramatic shift in character, and give us new insights into how they played the last time. I think seeing Colby in a different light, seeing him losing his challenge prowess, is actually fairly interesting - it's not Superman in a fat suit, its as if he lost his powers. And I think its interesting how he still upheld the values he always stood for, how he still tried his best to be a good guy in spite of not having his "powers" and the, well, power that comes with that. And maybe that doesn't have the same exotic thrill of seeing Colby game back and dominate like he did in Australia, but I don't know what more we could expect from the guy, nine years later. I just think it serves as a good avenue to further explore his character, even if his screentime was limited at some points. There's more I could say, talk about the secret scenes and behind the scenes stuff that I think makes this iteration even cooler, but I've said my piece. I think this is early, but I just wanted to write this up to give some more perspective on what I think is a really awesome character.
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Austin
Prediction Writer
Posts: 139
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Post by Austin on May 7, 2015 19:46:05 GMT
109: Mike Skupin (Philippines): Mike was a goofy presence in Philippines, and I enjoyed him for that. He spent the entire pre-merge towards the bottom of the totem pole on Tandang, because he did Mike things, like building a shelter that nearly killed them all. He then was the swing vote for pretty much the entire pre-merge, being the more interesting half of the him/Lisa duo, but was mostly middle of the road, as far as I can recall. Mike did fun things, like break his goggles and cut his head open after jumping in the water ONCE, grinning like a lunatic after Abi got voted out, etc., which was a fun place for him to go. However, ultimately I don't think his story is as powerful as some of the others left, and I do think the edit had to present him more seriously than the people out there did, since he was in the FTC and they had to build suspense, even though he was a FTC loser.
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tbird
Prediction Writer
Posts: 165
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Post by tbird on May 7, 2015 22:39:06 GMT
110. Colby Donaldson (HvV): This is not the beautiful Colby I fell in love with in Australia. That Colby was fun. That Colby was good in challenges. This Colby is just kinda ... along for the ride. To be fair, Colby did have some fun moments that were heightened by the disparity between the way he was perceived and the way he was 9 years later. Him vegging out while the two girls fought over the idol clue, James calling him "Superman in a fat suit", and his outbursts during the loved ones challenge were all great and all ran contrary to the Colby we knew. Unfortunately, Colby is a somewhat dour presence on the season, and his reunion with Jerri isn't really explored at all. I'm not entirely against the cut RJ, although part of me really, really wants to idol it. But I'm gonna let it stand. Having said that, I feel like you missed a lot of what made Colby awesome in HvV. Maybe it's because when I watched HvV I hadn't seen Australia Colby, (and even then I've only seen a bit of him there - I jumped around a bit in episodes and watched certain moments) but I felt like having a character who was SO far gone from what their roots were, even if their roots were what made us love them, is a very interesting way for a character to go. I think, if you stagnate and bank on old success, your not really doing much as a returning player, character wise. (See: Candice Cody.) There's two things that really make one great on their second go 'round - either A. they refine and make what was awesome about them better (See: Sandra) or B. they go the JT/Colby route, do dramatic shift in character, and give us new insights into how they played the last time. I think seeing Colby in a different light, seeing him losing his challenge prowess, is actually fairly interesting - it's not Superman in a fat suit, its as if he lost his powers. And I think its interesting how he still upheld the values he always stood for, how he still tried his best to be a good guy in spite of not having his "powers" and the, well, power that comes with that. And maybe that doesn't have the same exotic thrill of seeing Colby game back and dominate like he did in Australia, but I don't know what more we could expect from the guy, nine years later. I just think it serves as a good avenue to further explore his character, even if his screentime was limited at some points. There's more I could say, talk about the secret scenes and behind the scenes stuff that I think makes this iteration even cooler, but I've said my piece. I think this is early, but I just wanted to write this up to give some more perspective on what I think is a really awesome character. I guess I wasn't clear, but I was saying that his moments that ran contrary to his legacy added to his time on the show, and that the reason I was cutting him was because they didn't explore that side of him enough for it to really add a lot of depth to his character, especially the Jerri stuff. I will not forgive the editors for depriving us of a Colby/Jerri reunion.
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Post by lexvandenberghe on May 8, 2015 2:55:04 GMT
108. Dave Johnson (Amazon) - You fuckers cut Rob C. before Dave? REALLY?!?!?
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Post by Host Brian on May 8, 2015 16:23:51 GMT
107. Amy O'Hara (Guatemala): I said I'd take out Amy here, so I could give her a loving write-up she deserves.
Amy is a badass. Truly. She used to play football and became a cop, and worked her way up to sergeant. She's a tough as nails badass, and that's a role that few female characters get to have. In Episode 3, Amy twists her ankle pretty badly, just like Jeff Wilson. Unlike Jeff Wilson, she didn't pussy out and Amy played through with her injury until she went home. She was even limping in multiple scenes afterwards, and it didn't slow her down and people didn't think of her as weak because she was that fucking tough.
Amy also has the rare ability to be awesome in every scene. Seriously, whether it's her tough, blue collar Boston self or the rare Amy O'Hara is happy and bubbly, she is great every time she pops up on screen. Amy ultimately went home after the swap, and had she made the merge, she easily would've been the first Guatemala returnee. Amy was in contention for HvV and BvW because she was just that good. People talk about Alexis Maxwell as someone who's "robbed" and had potential, but I think Amy has had the most potential of every pre-merger, ever, and she's my favorite pre-merger of all time. Goodbye, Amy.
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Post by Jonny "FIGGA" Fairplay on May 8, 2015 20:24:08 GMT
106: Vecepia Towery (Marquesas): Oh Vee. She's pretty much the one who perfected the idea of the "under-the-radar" strategy, doing very smart, calculated things to ensure that she was never a serious target till the numbers started to dwindle. There's probably a lot of things I could mention about Vee, but sadly she was never really a star of the season editing wise, with a lot of screen time going to people like Kathy, Sean and Neleh/Pappy, and as such isn't as big a character as the rest of the Marq people on the list, so I'll let her go here.
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kass
Prediction Writer
Posts: 105
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Post by kass on May 8, 2015 20:55:33 GMT
105. Paschal English (Marquesas): The designated "old white sweetheart" of the season. Admittedly I liked Paschal at first andddd then he got sorta...racist, to put it plainly. "You see THESE people? This is what they do." "These people are sticking together." "The two of them don't deserve this." etc. That being said, he had a simultaneous precious/creepy father-daughter thing with Neleh. Sucks that he got rekt by the PROD tho. And after the show? He got caught banging some lady in the back of his car...oops!
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tbird
Prediction Writer
Posts: 165
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Post by tbird on May 8, 2015 21:09:50 GMT
104. Christa Hastie (Pearl Islands): Too tired to write. Stephen, tell everyone why she's great pls
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Austin
Prediction Writer
Posts: 139
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Post by Austin on May 8, 2015 21:14:09 GMT
103: Jonothan Penner (Philippines): Penner was pretty great in Philippines. I loved a ton of what he did - what's your story, the idol player, his awesome narration, the immunity win, he was just a fantastic character, through and through. But he's not as up to bat as he was in CI, and he was a tad gamebotty at times. And he went out from an incredibly stupid move on his part, by not taking Lisa's deal. Also, y'know - Sierra demanded it, so I gotta do this cut. Sorry Penner!
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kass
Prediction Writer
Posts: 105
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Post by kass on May 8, 2015 23:02:01 GMT
104. Christa Hastie (Pearl Islands): Too tired to write. Stephen, tell everyone why she's great pls K. Amazingly derpy (seriously everyone hated her but the only reason she got an amazing P edit was b/c she was aligned with Sandra/Rupert), Big Bird voice, made consistent passive-aggressive jabs at Shawn/Burton (also made the pact that SHAWN CAN'T USE THE SPEAR). Honestly I just love her.
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Post by lexvandenberghe on May 8, 2015 23:08:49 GMT
106: Vecepia Towery (Marquesas): Oh Vee. She's pretty much the one who perfected the idea of the "under-the-radar" strategy, doing very smart, calculated things to ensure that she was never a serious target till the numbers started to dwindle. There's probably a lot of things I could mention about Vee, but sadly she was never really a star of the season editing wise, with a lot of screen time going to people like Kathy, Sean and Neleh/Pappy, and as such isn't as big a character as the rest of the Marq people on the list, so I'll let her go here. I would idol this, but some inconsiderate sumbitch tried to cut Rob C.
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Post by lexvandenberghe on May 9, 2015 1:15:49 GMT
102. Russell Swan (Phillipines) - Look, I love Russell Swan. His complete exasperation at losing every challenge made my heart break. This is a matter of I couldn't find anyone left who deserves to go before him. This one hurts, and if it gets IDOL'D then c'est la vie. I won't be offended.
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Post by Jonny "FIGGA" Fairplay on May 9, 2015 15:02:48 GMT
Been over twelve hours, gonna make my cut.
101: Keith Nale (San Jehovas Witness Del Surround and Drown): I personally love Keith. So. Fucking. Much. He's a perfect little comedic character who says things and does things that just make you want to laugh. Do I think he's a top 100 character? No. His gameplay was atrocious at times, but that just kinda adds to his appeal for me. He's just going to miss out on the top 100
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Post by Host Brian on May 9, 2015 18:34:40 GMT
105. Paschal English (Marquesas): The designated "old white sweetheart" of the season. Admittedly I liked Paschal at first andddd then he got sorta...racist, to put it plainly. "You see THESE people? This is what they do." "These people are sticking together." "The two of them don't deserve this." etc. That being said, he had a simultaneous precious/creepy father-daughter thing with Neleh. Sucks that he got rekt by the PROD tho. And after the show? He got caught banging some lady in the back of his car...oops! I wasn't home last night to post this, but the "Paschal is a creep" thing only came after he was caught having an affair. The relationship between he and Neleh wasn't ever considered creepy until this came out, and Paschal's racism makes the reward trip with he and Sean even better. We seem him interacting with a black guy from Harlem, someone who he'd never meet in real life, and the two of them bond and become friends after that. It makes him, even if you don't like him, a better character, which is the point of this rankdown. I'm not idoling it, but it's disappointing to see a revisionist history based off of his actions off the show.
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Post by lexvandenberghe on May 9, 2015 22:04:51 GMT
May I also add that I've never met an African-American fan of Survivor who had a problem with Paschal. We expect a little racism from old Southern White people. That's why none of us had a problem with Paula Deen.
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