survivor sideblog

[hnd-romancer]

so I’ve not watched survivor since last summer when I moved and my internet provider was like “I know you only moved two blocks but we can’t provide you internet there” and I decided to just not have internet at home anymore

but if cirie wins I will be watching all of this season at the library and live blogging my reactions then

[hnd-romancer]

people I don’t care to see back in survivor 50, ranked in order of least unwanted to most unwanted:

Mike white: seems like a cool guy, but there were better choices for 50.

Aubry: I’m sorry, I can’t remember much of what she did post kaôh rōng. As someone else said, should’ve brought back cydney instead

Colby: I mean if he wants to actually play this time, good for him, but he seemed pretty dead in hvv. I’d rather see either Jerri or Kelly wigglesworth again (since we barely saw her in Cambodia)

Dee: I kinda just don’t want any winners here? Would rather have seen Austin.

Kyle: I’m happy he won but I don’t care too much to see him play again. Should’ve brought back Sai instead.

Charlie: he lost at ftc, and was pretty boring before that. I’d rather see Shan or Ricard again.

Joe hunter: can’t say I dislike him more than coach ozzy or Jonathan, and it’s not his fault his edit was Like That, but can’t say I care to see him again. Should’ve brought back Carolyn instead.

coach: more fun to watch than ozzy at least, but he lost in ftc in South Pacific and they really should’ve brought back Shane Powers instead.

ozzy: annoying in South Pacific and I don’t remember what he did in game changers. He did well in Cook Islands but it’s all been severely downhill since then. Should’ve brought back Becky or Sundra instead.

Jonathan young- the only thing I remember about this man is that he said racist shit on tv. Should’ve brought back Drea instead.

[hnd-romancer]

season 48 failed both Kyle and Joe by completely removing their talking about experiences with racism and incarceration- Kyle’s and Joe’s dad’s.

[hnd-romancer]

i think i'm gonna make a goal out of becoming more comfortable calling my representatives

cause currently it makes me really anxious to even think about calling and leaving a message for my rep, but i'm also internally labeling it as something that's easy to do so surely i'll just do it soon.

but i think i'm ready to acknowledge that calling my reps does make me nervous and is hard for me to do, and make a goal out of getting better at it intentionally.

so this week i'm gonna call one representative about an issue i care about. then the week after that i'll call 2, and then after that 3, and so on till 7. and hopefully by then calling my representative about something i care about will be as natural as my walk to work.

[hnd-romancer]

i do find it kinda funny the thought of Eva post-game, knowing she lost, watching Rachel Lamont play the game she clearly wished she’d played

[hnd-romancer]

okay im out

see yall next season

[hnd-romancer]

i think the interesting thing about eva is that she isn't the first survivor contestant with autism, just the first to be open with it

somewhere in the longass survivor canon, there has been another autistic contestant. and they had some kind of edit, and whatever it was, it was probably better than this shit edit eva's getting

[hnd-romancer]

kamilla vs eva firemaking with kamilla winning... pls

[hnd-romancer]

back home and watching live but i have nothing to say

season 46 was such a delight, and 47 was still entertaining

what is this shitttttt

if kamilla wins i'll file this away with survivor south pacific, but if it's joe i'm just rolling it up with ghost island

[hnd-romancer]

haven’t seen the new episode, saw star got voted out with the only other votes going to mary. not gonna watch the new episode, at least not until there’s a winner and that winner is Kamilla or Kyle (or shauhin i guess. I guess i could stand a shauhin win. I def don’t think Mary, or mitch are pulling it out but if they do i guess ill watch that too)

[hnd-romancer]

finally watched the last survivor episode and i really liked it! I don’t get why people are saying it’s boring tbh. Maybe yall wanted a blindside but i think we got something way more interesting. David’s downfall was just so perfect to me.

David, all this game, has said he’s playing this game by being honest with his allies and being a physical challenger. He’s done both. He’s also been a complete jackass, but that’s beyond the point.

so then this episode, David correctly picks up on what no one else in the cast has gotten- that Kamilla and Kyle are a duo, and Shauhin is also working with Kamilla. He reads the room correctly. He goes to his still-loyal allies and tells them the truth.

Eva and Joe don’t believe him. They think he’s being paranoid. David tries to claim Joe went back on his word and Joe sees it for the manipulation it is. Kyle also goes and manipulates Joe with a personal story, and it works. Shauhin has apparently been planting the seeds of a David blindside for days.

and that’s what’s so interesting to me, because that’s what David all this game has failed to understand- that you can be honest and tell your loyal allies the truth, but it can still fail if the liars are better at lying than you are at telling the truth. It’s absolutely beautiful to me that David kept to his ideals of honesty and was still voted out by Eva and Joe who would’ve also kept to their ideals had David been better at the social game. david didn’t get voted out because anyone broke their ideals- David got voted out because his ideals were never going to win him the game. And that’s so fascinating to me.

This episode had no reward challenge, Eva’s journey and the drama about it were relatively short. This episode was just an entire hour dedicated to exploring why exactly being completely honest and expecting that from other people is a dumbfuck strategy in survivor. Beautiful. 10/10. Can’t wait till Eva and Joe realize David was right about Kyle and Kamilla and Shauhin. Hopefully we get more Star next ep, her and Kamilla at tribal was hilarious.

[hnd-romancer]

i do think it is kinda sexist to suggest Eva is being a pickme for male validation. Y’all, she’s being a pickme for a million dollars. She’s found herself an alliance with (seemingly) a bunch of muscleheads that are all about strength and honor and integrity.

they don’t want to be scheming and conniving. they’re just missing the reason why these strong guy alliances almost never work out- having a 5 strong alliance seems fine for now, but only one of you wins. two of you are going to the end with someone you can’t beat and two of you won’t make it that far.

now the reason this alliance has held up so far is that each one of the five of these people thinks that they are strong enough to win challenges and likable enough to get the votes. now do i think Kyle and Shauhin remain loyal to this alliance? No. They’re both more strategic than that. Do i think Eva can win every immunity challenge? No.

But if the alliance holds strong and Eva makes it to the end? I think she beats any of the four of those guys.

so yeah Eva has said some weird shit about women both on the show and in her pregame interviews. Yeah she would systematically vote out all the other women bc she doesn’t think they’re as deserving. Yes the game and narrative are both clearly biased in her favor.

but considering her strengths (physical strength, more likable than most of her alliance, at least to the people in the game) and her weaknesses (bad at telling when others are lying, not very strategic), she has picked an alliance that is most likely to work in her favor.

I do feel like it’s critical to acknowledge there is a deliberate monetary end goal that Eva is doing a good job at working towards. She’s not stupid.

[hnd-romancer]

Eva and her alliance are only being given a positive edit, with the only criticism coming from Chrissy, who is shown to look alone and crazy, and i see it being for one of two reasons, and both reasons suck. Either Jeff just really has that big of an inspiration kink that his Autistic Survivor (tm) is going to be shown in a positive light no matter what she does, or one of the Strong 5 is going to win the game, and they’re trying to make the audience enjoy that. Or both. Either way i hate it. Kinda hope it’s the first and Kamilla wins, but that still sucks as a narrative choice.

[hnd-romancer]

Rip Chrissy you made good points but they did not care

[foreos]

why are all the women fucking against each other this season

[hnd-romancer]

Yes get them!!!!!

[atfisty]

Eva has to be a “guy’s girl” at least partly due to her autism right? Like hanging around with a bunch of dudes who never talk about their feelings and only ever talk about their special interest sport teams for a few hours? Dream scenario for someone on the spectrum.

Girls night where there’s 10 different group chats among six girls and everyone has their own agenda and can say anything on that tone of voice that can make you cry, and apparently mercury is in retrograde so now the whole group dynamic shifts for no good god damn reason? Nightmare.

[hnd-romancer]

idk what your gender identity is or if you’re neurodivergent, but this is sexist as hell my dude. I’m assuming you don’t have any women friends either?

I’m not gonna say women don’t sometimes have different dynamics than men, but you can totally find friends of any gender who are uncomplicated, straightforward, and down to talk about special interests. And by glorious chance you find friendship with another non-man neurodivergent person, like i have numerous times, it can be one of the most understanding, freeing things you experience as a neurodivergent woman. I hope Eva finds that, and if you’re a neurodivergent non-man, i hope you find it too, and realize what friendship with women can actually be like💜