survivor - heroes vs. villains

I will cut you. Ask around.

 

Just got done watching it and, as I've said since her alliance with Courtney went down, Sandra is, by far, the most strategic all-around player in this game. Period.

She had a big flaw in that she's useless in the challenges and that's the type of thing that gets you voted out early. Yet she always found a way to shine the spotlight on someone else.

And if there's any doubt in her abilities, look at the fact that coming into that Final council, most of the people there were of the mindset that she didn't do a damn thing and didn't deserve the million. She turned them all around.

How? She read the jury, saw that everyone hated Russell and did her best to not only show that she wasn't like him but that she wanted to get rid of him (and they knew this) from the merge on.

At this point, a case can be made that Pavrati is the best to ever play the game because she's good at all the aspects but what Sandra lacks in physical ability, she makes up for in spades with the social/mental aspect and that's why she's a million bucks richer.

As for Russell, I said last season that he's one of the best to play this game and I'm officially taking that back. You can't ignore one of the biggest parts of this game (the social aspect) and just expect to walk away with the win because you were the best strategic player. At some point, you've got to know that you've got to work just as hard at maintaining relationships as you do at surviving.

Good season but not great. I much prefer the regular seasons. It just seems like it's more fun.

 

Comletely agree with this assessment.

I am not sure that Russel had a great grand strategy as he was the master of claiming strategic moves that he was not behind. Parv played him all the way.

I am suprised that on a message board that has a lot of sports watchers on it there are people who claim the best player did not win! This whole idea is so lame. Russel lacks self awareness and has no grand strategy. His strategy is no different then Sandra's but he does not see it. In both seasons he lurched from strategy to strategy (kind of like surviving day by day the same as Sandra)

Russel is a loud mouth and a bully. I wanted someone to stand up and say "SCOREBOARD BITCH"

I also agree that Rupert is a douche, never saw him as good guy and his sanctimonious belly aching confirms it.

 

Russell needs to realize that he's not carrying people to the final, people are using him as a shield to get there. Still surprised that a jury made up of people who had played the game before and made it to the jury the second time around wouldn't have had more appreciation for Parvati or Russell. You didn't get a second shot, or get to the jury without scheming to vote people off at some point. It was a great season, but I wish they showed the clip of Sandra putting Rupert's name down and telling the camera "I'm putting your name down again and you'll still vote to give me the million." She is definitely a different player when she's in a good position. Probably closer to her real personality. The ability to know when to keep your mouth shut is an under appreciated skill in the game.

 

Non-married people will take offense, but I agree. The husband-wife relationship is way closer and way more affected by distance than a mother-son, father-daughter, sisters, whatever.

 

Rupert played the game WAY more than Sandra did.

Giving away his idol to Parvati, the move that eventually got rid of Tyson, was the turning point in the game. If he doesn't do that exactly how he does, he and Parvati are both finished, and quickly. Say what you want about it being a terrible move by Tyson -- obviously it was -- but it was Russell that was pulling the strings. It was Russell that pulled in Coach and Jeri to get rid of Rob.

Paravti obviously made huge, game-deciding moves too, but to say Russell just takes credit for what others did is as ridiculous as saying he played the same game the mentally handicapped Dreamz played.

None of that means he should have won, but he dang sure didn't coast to the finals.

 

Like Dreamz, he was good TV, just ask him.

 

Sandra does such a great job staying in the game, but the reason it's hard to respect someone that plays like that is that for so long it is just shit luck. If the Villains lose their first three or four challenges like the Heroes did, she's definitely gone, like all the weak women on the Heroes tribe were. And it's not like she did anything to help them win those challenges, so that she survived that part is pure luck. Then, when it came down to her or Courtney, again, shit luck that they decide to go Courtney first.

This was a long time ago so my memory may be faulty, I think things broke for her almost exactly the same was last time she played. She was on a very powerful tribe that never had to shed any dead weight early, she made the merge under Rupert's wing and after he got blindsided by Johnny Fairplay and that alliance was blown up, she never proved a juicy enough target to get rid of. Again this time she was on a powerful tribe and when her alliance got blown up, there was always someone else that was a bigger threat.

Surely some of that is her own doing. She's smart enough not to make herself a target, like when she backed off of her play to vote out Russell when she realized Candice would flip and ruin things.

I don't know. I like watching Russell and Parvati pull idols out of their ass and blindside people more than I like watching Sandra lay on the beach for three weeks.

 

As much as I kept rooting for Russell to be blindsided, I gladly settled for watching his face during tribal. You could see the realization of "oh shit, I'm not going to win AGAIN!" sweeping over him. That was awesome.

As somebody else said, Russell is the best player in Survivor history who doesn't actually understand the game. The game isn't about eliminating people. The game is eliminating people in a way that they will still give you the win.

 

Well said.

And good heavens, what a group of beautiful women. Parvati was smoking. Same with Stephenie. And Candice. And Jerri. Hell, I even found Sandra to be very easy on the eyes. Danielle really needs to do something with that mustache, though. If there were ever a need for another Survivor: Playboy issue, now is the time.

Next season should be interesting. Nicaragua, right? Is that even safe? Or are we not in 1980 anymore? Or whenever that whole deal was. Either way, I can't wait.

 

Rupert's speech to Russell was ridiculous. He played the game better than you and you lost. He won $100,000 in back-to-back seasons and should have won both times. This outcome wasn't the travesty that last season's was, but what Russell did was no worse than what others have done in past seasons.

 

I always cringe when the jury gets to make their little speech to the finalists. It's always brutal and uncomfortable. And filled with bitterness. Between that and the stupid Memory Walk or whatever, it's the worst 10 minutes of television. Ever. Ugh.

Wonder how Sandra would have reacted if Russell -- or anyone -- had burned her hat?