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Survivor: LJ Idol Reunion Part 6
May. 24th, 2021 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clauderainsrm We're back!
We left off with a 6-6 split going into the merge between the forces of Old Asaga and Old Luzon. Would old relationships stay strong? Would some of the newer ones from LaMina hold?
swirlsofpurple had come back into the game, with an idol in her possession to keep her from being the first person voted out of the merged tribe.
I've always liked when Production took away the 'easy" choice. There's nothing more pointless to watch than a season where someone comes back only to be voted out immediately. Which is why I made sure that whoever it was coming back into the game would have a little time and space to get their feet back under them again.
We also had just gained our first 5 members of the Jury. Which, to the Survivor fans in the group, meant that the game was about to get serious. (if it hadn't already before)
bsgsix ended up winning the first immunity, and it wasn't even close. It's funny, because looking back, I even used a picture of Shonee winning immunity. For those who don't follow Australian Survivor (pretty much all of you), Shonee was a player beloved by her tribemates who went on a *really* dangerous run of immunity wins late in the game that almost got her all the way to the end. For those paying attention to the pictures used over the course of the season, there were quite a few of those references thrown in. Much like Survivor editing, and producer questions throughout a filmed season, to help guide viewers through the unfolding narrative.
Looking back, and knowing how bsgsix was actually part of the tightest alliance (the one that made it to the very end of this game) it's kind of funny to see how many times the "I don't watch the show" was mentioned. As if she wasn't smart enough, and competitive enough, to pick up on how to win. :D "Don't look at me! I'm just over here winning the immunities. I'm no threat!" :D :D :D
This is where I saw lawchicky819 start to come out of the shadows and play more aggressively. What I don't know is if it was getting anxious to play (after avoiding tribal council for so long) or, if, as a known fan who wasn't part of an alliance, made her feel like a noose was slipping around her neck at some point in the near future. After all, at the merge there are two main kinds of boots - the big threat and the compromise, where no one particularly wants to eliminate them, but it's better than getting voted out themselves.
It's always interesting, to me, during every Idol season (and special event like this) when the word "fair" gets thrown around and I delved a little bit into that during the tribal council. Because what is "fair" always seems to favor of the person making the argument. :) It's rare when someone who doesn't fit that criteria goes, "Yeah, go ahead and get rid of me"... :D
Looking through the tribal council, I now notice how quickly gunwithoutmusic comes to explain what bsgsix was talking about, and uses the idea of going to the end with her as an example. Which, in retrospect, was a clue to what his plan was!
Of course, it's also where bleodswean talks quite a bit about NOT thinking about the game strategically. Which might be why the perception was "OH, she must be REALLY game playing HARD!" :p
swirlsofpurple's idol play being Rick Devens was also deliberate. Like him, she was coming back into the game. Would she, wreck havoc like he did? I honestly didn't know. But it was going to be fun to watch!
***
As the votes starting coming in, I'll admit, I was shocked. There were 3 votes that were completely unconnected to everyone else and 9 split between two others. Which, to me, meant that there definitely were at least 3 people who were wild cards, unconnected, but that despite all the time about there not really being alliances, you don't get a 5-4-1-1-1 vote by coincidence. :)
wolfden was voted out. Which (see above) seemed like the compromise "Let's vote for someone who didn't get many votes this week" tactic. lawchicky819 was the other. Who also didn't get many votes, but it felt more strategic given that she was talking about changing the game up.
If things hadn't come in tied, I could see how that argument might have worked. But the old lines seemed to hold, and old Asaga continued on their downhill slide... in a couple of weeks I went from thinking Luzon was done for, to now entirely sure how any Asagas were going to make it to the end...
***
While everyone else was celebrating New Years Eve,flipflop_diva was finding her THIRD idol. This one involved solving a puzzle. I was expecting the big night to distract most people... but she found it, and solved the puzzle, far faster than I was expecting.
Not only did she seem to be part of a solid alliance, she now had the largest arsenal of hidden immunity idols, at once, in the history of Survivor! And her original tribe now had a small edge numbers-wise, so I didn't think she was in any danger.
it's difficult to point to any one event and say "this is what cost people the game", but for the vast majority of those who didn't make the Top 4, this was the vote that cost them the game. ;) Is it fair to say that? Maybe. Is it dramatic and over-the-top to say that? Definitely!
Will I say it again? Without a doubt!
This is the vote that cost most of you the game!
lawchicky819 was trying to shake things up, and (from the outside) was looking for a way to stay in the game just a little longer. As has been mentioned, she was, in a lot of ways, playing "the goat", someone that no one will vote for at the end because they just ruffled too many feathers. At this point, in a group playing Survivor, one of the alliances (close knit groups) would have taken her in and used her for a few votes to get rid of a big target.
IMO, and your mileage may vary on this, but the biggest problem was that she mentioned bsgsix as that target. Which got the attention of bsgsix's alliance. Who were the people most likely to see the usefulness of that goat strategy.
bsgsix won immunity, in another blow out. (This time the picture was Ciera, who voted out her Mom... sorry, inside Survivor joke there. :D) But again, another major threat in any game. ) At that point, she was bringing in almost twice as many voters as the nearest competitor. So lawchicky certainly wasn't wrong about her being an obvious threat. The problem being that you can't vote her out until she loses immunity... and no one (other than me) knew that there was a possibility of that ever happening. (The double tribal council was on the horizon, but still a few weeks away) From the tribal council comments though, you can tell that the pressure is definitely there to keep winning as the path to the finale. (Of course, again, her alliance ended up going all the way, so there's a good chance she could have gotten there without winning through... just by having the numbers on her side...)
The other big "threats" were either too beloved figures (which again - threats) or already a part of the alliance most likely to use her vote. It pretty much sealed her fate when she ended up with the fewest votes that week.
There were people "in the middle" though who could have take this shot at someone else, and turned the game to their favor. Especially a member of Luzon taking out a different Asaga member. Or an Asaga taking out one of Luzon's numbers... I really felt like this was a lynchpin moment and instead, a Cesternino in Amazon or "Dolly in the middle" happened - where the group got together and voted out the potential swing vote.
This time there were *4* votes for a single person, so there was definitely a shot at bringing those people together under a plan to get to the end... but it didn't end up working out that way.
She went out on a strong entry, and swinging for the fences. So it's not all bad... but it was still a sting to lose one of the Survivor fans...
The original Asaga, once controlling the game with a 3-person advantage, was now down by 2... and another major game-changing event was about to occur...
***
Now we come to one of, if not THE, most dramatic moments of the season - whenbsgsix stubbed her toe or something... ;) Or at least that's how I choose to remember it. Not that she was struggling to cling on to life itself... way too stressful to think about. Not "she went into a coma"... Instead, make it "she just really liked sleeping. Maybe a little too much". See, much more refreshing way to think about it! Be more positive bsgsix!!! ;)
Obviously she has very poor priorities. Anyone else would have known that you shouldn't be battling for your ACTUAL life when there is a perfectly good battle for your "life" inside a game being played on a knockoff version of Livejournal! ;)
Seriously, I can laugh (and hopefully she can as well) because everything turned out OK. Or at least she's still around, to kick like the hippie she is. I know a lot of people both inside, and out, of the game itself were really worried about the real life struggle that was happening.
But we also had to deal with it inside the game... and that's what the next segment is about!
Touchy Subjects - and the touchy situation... coming up next!
We left off with a 6-6 split going into the merge between the forces of Old Asaga and Old Luzon. Would old relationships stay strong? Would some of the newer ones from LaMina hold?
swirlsofpurple had come back into the game, with an idol in her possession to keep her from being the first person voted out of the merged tribe.
I've always liked when Production took away the 'easy" choice. There's nothing more pointless to watch than a season where someone comes back only to be voted out immediately. Which is why I made sure that whoever it was coming back into the game would have a little time and space to get their feet back under them again.
We also had just gained our first 5 members of the Jury. Which, to the Survivor fans in the group, meant that the game was about to get serious. (if it hadn't already before)
bsgsix ended up winning the first immunity, and it wasn't even close. It's funny, because looking back, I even used a picture of Shonee winning immunity. For those who don't follow Australian Survivor (pretty much all of you), Shonee was a player beloved by her tribemates who went on a *really* dangerous run of immunity wins late in the game that almost got her all the way to the end. For those paying attention to the pictures used over the course of the season, there were quite a few of those references thrown in. Much like Survivor editing, and producer questions throughout a filmed season, to help guide viewers through the unfolding narrative.
Looking back, and knowing how bsgsix was actually part of the tightest alliance (the one that made it to the very end of this game) it's kind of funny to see how many times the "I don't watch the show" was mentioned. As if she wasn't smart enough, and competitive enough, to pick up on how to win. :D "Don't look at me! I'm just over here winning the immunities. I'm no threat!" :D :D :D
This is where I saw lawchicky819 start to come out of the shadows and play more aggressively. What I don't know is if it was getting anxious to play (after avoiding tribal council for so long) or, if, as a known fan who wasn't part of an alliance, made her feel like a noose was slipping around her neck at some point in the near future. After all, at the merge there are two main kinds of boots - the big threat and the compromise, where no one particularly wants to eliminate them, but it's better than getting voted out themselves.
It's always interesting, to me, during every Idol season (and special event like this) when the word "fair" gets thrown around and I delved a little bit into that during the tribal council. Because what is "fair" always seems to favor of the person making the argument. :) It's rare when someone who doesn't fit that criteria goes, "Yeah, go ahead and get rid of me"... :D
Looking through the tribal council, I now notice how quickly gunwithoutmusic comes to explain what bsgsix was talking about, and uses the idea of going to the end with her as an example. Which, in retrospect, was a clue to what his plan was!
Of course, it's also where bleodswean talks quite a bit about NOT thinking about the game strategically. Which might be why the perception was "OH, she must be REALLY game playing HARD!" :p
swirlsofpurple's idol play being Rick Devens was also deliberate. Like him, she was coming back into the game. Would she, wreck havoc like he did? I honestly didn't know. But it was going to be fun to watch!
***
As the votes starting coming in, I'll admit, I was shocked. There were 3 votes that were completely unconnected to everyone else and 9 split between two others. Which, to me, meant that there definitely were at least 3 people who were wild cards, unconnected, but that despite all the time about there not really being alliances, you don't get a 5-4-1-1-1 vote by coincidence. :)
wolfden was voted out. Which (see above) seemed like the compromise "Let's vote for someone who didn't get many votes this week" tactic. lawchicky819 was the other. Who also didn't get many votes, but it felt more strategic given that she was talking about changing the game up. If things hadn't come in tied, I could see how that argument might have worked. But the old lines seemed to hold, and old Asaga continued on their downhill slide... in a couple of weeks I went from thinking Luzon was done for, to now entirely sure how any Asagas were going to make it to the end...
***
While everyone else was celebrating New Years Eve,
flipflop_diva was finding her THIRD idol. This one involved solving a puzzle. I was expecting the big night to distract most people... but she found it, and solved the puzzle, far faster than I was expecting. Not only did she seem to be part of a solid alliance, she now had the largest arsenal of hidden immunity idols, at once, in the history of Survivor! And her original tribe now had a small edge numbers-wise, so I didn't think she was in any danger.
it's difficult to point to any one event and say "this is what cost people the game", but for the vast majority of those who didn't make the Top 4, this was the vote that cost them the game. ;) Is it fair to say that? Maybe. Is it dramatic and over-the-top to say that? Definitely!
Will I say it again? Without a doubt!
This is the vote that cost most of you the game!
lawchicky819 was trying to shake things up, and (from the outside) was looking for a way to stay in the game just a little longer. As has been mentioned, she was, in a lot of ways, playing "the goat", someone that no one will vote for at the end because they just ruffled too many feathers. At this point, in a group playing Survivor, one of the alliances (close knit groups) would have taken her in and used her for a few votes to get rid of a big target. IMO, and your mileage may vary on this, but the biggest problem was that she mentioned bsgsix as that target. Which got the attention of bsgsix's alliance. Who were the people most likely to see the usefulness of that goat strategy.
bsgsix won immunity, in another blow out. (This time the picture was Ciera, who voted out her Mom... sorry, inside Survivor joke there. :D) But again, another major threat in any game. ) At that point, she was bringing in almost twice as many voters as the nearest competitor. So lawchicky certainly wasn't wrong about her being an obvious threat. The problem being that you can't vote her out until she loses immunity... and no one (other than me) knew that there was a possibility of that ever happening. (The double tribal council was on the horizon, but still a few weeks away) From the tribal council comments though, you can tell that the pressure is definitely there to keep winning as the path to the finale. (Of course, again, her alliance ended up going all the way, so there's a good chance she could have gotten there without winning through... just by having the numbers on her side...)
The other big "threats" were either too beloved figures (which again - threats) or already a part of the alliance most likely to use her vote. It pretty much sealed her fate when she ended up with the fewest votes that week.
There were people "in the middle" though who could have take this shot at someone else, and turned the game to their favor. Especially a member of Luzon taking out a different Asaga member. Or an Asaga taking out one of Luzon's numbers... I really felt like this was a lynchpin moment and instead, a Cesternino in Amazon or "Dolly in the middle" happened - where the group got together and voted out the potential swing vote.
This time there were *4* votes for a single person, so there was definitely a shot at bringing those people together under a plan to get to the end... but it didn't end up working out that way.
She went out on a strong entry, and swinging for the fences. So it's not all bad... but it was still a sting to lose one of the Survivor fans...
The original Asaga, once controlling the game with a 3-person advantage, was now down by 2... and another major game-changing event was about to occur...
***
Now we come to one of, if not THE, most dramatic moments of the season - when
bsgsix stubbed her toe or something... ;) Or at least that's how I choose to remember it. Not that she was struggling to cling on to life itself... way too stressful to think about. Not "she went into a coma"... Instead, make it "she just really liked sleeping. Maybe a little too much". See, much more refreshing way to think about it! Be more positive bsgsix!!! ;) Obviously she has very poor priorities. Anyone else would have known that you shouldn't be battling for your ACTUAL life when there is a perfectly good battle for your "life" inside a game being played on a knockoff version of Livejournal! ;)
Seriously, I can laugh (and hopefully she can as well) because everything turned out OK. Or at least she's still around, to kick like the hippie she is. I know a lot of people both inside, and out, of the game itself were really worried about the real life struggle that was happening.
But we also had to deal with it inside the game... and that's what the next segment is about!
Touchy Subjects - and the touchy situation... coming up next!
