How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailand/S13 discussion

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Dr Will Hatch two point oh	How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailand/S13 discussion	Lead	[-]
Posts: 5379 (07/23/07 6:14 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	I understand why people hate thailand from a strategic pov, since only Brian and to a slightly lesser extent Clay played with any foresight. However, I dont see why people think its so terrible. I thought the cast was really good. For those who hate mactors, theres quite a few older people who were memorable,like Clay,Helen,Jan,Big Ted and Jake. The younger ones were also for the most part entertaining, or at least had an understandable arc. The challenges are imo,among the most creative ever produced. taroutao was beautiful, the TC was beautiful, whats so bad about thailand? oh yeah,there was no phoney bologna sweetheart and her surrogate survivor father Last Edited By: Dr Will Hatch two point oh 12/07/07 9:10 AM. Edited 1 time.
SenseiKreese	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#1	[-]
Posts: 2681 (07/23/07 6:48 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	There were no bad seasons prior to All-Stars. People just like to bitch about things. Thailand was no better or worse than Australia, Africa, or Borneo.
beatles20147	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#2	[-]
Posts: 11814 (07/23/07 7:25 PM) Registered User Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	*Quote:* Thailand was no better or worse than Australia, Africa, or Borneo. You know you're one of my favorite posters, Mario, but I gotta disagree with this. Thailand was the only pre-ASS season that I think a lot of people (myself included) were disappointed with. It started off really well but it pretty quickly had drama that was more uncomfortable to watch than entertaining (the whole Ted/Ghandia thing--it did lead to the 150-200% quote so it wasn't all bad though). Then just as Robb starts becoming likable, he gets the boot. The fake merge makes for a great individual episode, but it caused us to lose one of the few people who created conflict, and then we endured a Pagonging that never seemed to end despite lasting only three weeks. Besides the first season (which is a totally different circumstance), it was the only pre-ASS season with a completely static boot order; nothing was ever shaken up. Coming after Marquesas hurt it, since I guess people were expecting that post-merge strategy would be different after the S4 power shift. In that respect, it was the right season at the wrong time. I prefer it to a number of the post-ASS seasons, but for the first seven, it comes dead last. It still has more than enough moments and characters to make it worthwhile but there were some episodes that really dragged.
SenseiKreese	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#3	[-]
Posts: 2681 (07/23/07 7:56 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	It did drag at times, but so do all Survivor seasons. The thing Thailand has going for it (that not a lot of people give it credit for) is that it's one of the funnier seasons. On my Funny 115 countdown, it's right up there next to Pearl Islands and Amazon with the most entries. I agree that Thailand isn't that interesting when it comes to strategy, suspense, etc. But in terms of memorable moments, it's right up there with the rest of 'em. P.S. In my personal opinion, Thailand is still my least favorite of the pre-All-Star seasons. But I always stick up for it because it's nowhere near as bad as a lot people seem to think. I don't think it's the greatest season ever, but it's still about as underrated as Borneo is overrated. I'd personally rank Borneo and Thailand about the same.
OnlyMatthew	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#4	[-]
Posts: 1306 (07/23/07 8:14 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	I liked Thailand, but I really hated the Ghandia bullshit. From what I can gather, a lot of people were rooting for Sook Jai (or at least that's what the popularity polls said), and Jed had the highest popularity of the entire season. I think that the general public enjoys more youthful and alpha male mactor-kind of people, as poor strategists they may be. I honestly think that it wasn't as popular because it had a lack of people to root for. Most people had some pretty agitating flaws. Many characters were also very one dimensional, focusing and talking about only one thing. Examples are like Brian, who was just a hardcore gamer. Clay was a redneck, Ted was confused black man. I really liked their challenges, though, like a previous poster said, many of them were great. I'd say that most of them were fun to watch. Also, about Borneo, I only started watching the premiere through download, and I found it pretty boring. I saw the first fifteen minutes, and the start was pretty dreadful. I'm sure it gets better, and a lot of the characters stand out to me, which I can credit to the intros and good cast selection.
tullfan2	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#5	[-]
Posts: 2848 (07/23/07 9:32 PM) Registered User Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	The problem with Thailand from a gameplay point of view was that there was no tribal swap or similar twist introduced to shake things up. The swap was novel in S3 and was essential for the power shift in S4. In Amazon, the swap resulted in the Rob/Deena/Jenna/Heidi/Alex/Matt alliance which mixed up the genders. The return of the outcasts in Pearl Islands was a factor in the unpredictability of that season. I'm in the minority here but I found the game in S12, a season which gets a lot of praise here, to be about as dull as Thailand because the HII/Exile Island twist flopped and because of Terry's immunity run. Borneo was the prototype for what happens when there are no twists. One tribe gains the upper hand after the merger and picks off the other tribe before turning on itself. The seasons that repeat the Borneo game dynamics are the ones that interest me the least. The best episodes of the most recent seasons (the 10th episodes of Cook Islands and Fiji) were good primarily because of the HII twist.
Quiddity	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#6	[-]
Posts: 3835 (07/23/07 10:04 PM) Registered User Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	Compared to the other pre-ASS seasons, Thailand just doesn't cut it with me. Yes, Borneo is also a season with a predictable outcome, but it being the first season and having for the most part more interesting people makes it a lot better. And it has what I would probably say is the absolute worst non-recap episode of all time, the one where Sook Jai lost the immunity challenge about 5 minutes into the episode and whined and moaned for the remaining 40 minutes. That said, I'll take Thailand any day over Cook Islands. And it does have the funniest challenge in Survivor history, the Attack Zone.
Pulau Tiga	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#7	[-]
Posts: 4307 (07/24/07 8:58 AM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	*Quote:* For those who hate mactors, theres quite a few older people who were memorable,like Clay,Helen,Jan,Big Ted and Jake. Thing is, what did someone like Jan really bring to the table? She had her animal graveyard, which gave us a few minutes of entertainment. But aside from that, she was nothing but a non-entity throughout the season, only used for an occasional narrative confessional. Jake also lacked any true entertainment value for the season. Pre-merge, he simply did not get any dynamic editing, and served as nothing more than a narrative figure. Post-merge, he got a big visibility boost, but it was mainly him telling us that his back was against the wall and that he would try to make deals where he could. It just wasn't all that interesting. Even Brian was dull until late into the season, and while characters like Clay, Ted, and Helen were all decent, they simply weren't as over the top as many characters we've seen throughout Survivor. *Quote:* The younger ones were also for the most part entertaining, or at least had an understandable arc. Tanya, Jed, Stephanie, and Erin brought nothing to the table. Tanya was too sick to contribute, Jed was only interested in going off by himself, Stephanie was physically depleted, and Erin simply did nothing to ever warrant any interesting editing. Even the younger players that the editing highlighted were severely lacking in any real entertainment value. The scenes from people like Shii Ann and Penny always seem incredibly forced to me, and they never really registered as interesting characters, but simply elements of the overall plot. *Quote:* The challenges are imo,among the most creative ever produced. Quite a few of the challenges sucked. Puzzles just don't make for good TV, and Thailand was full of them. It definitely had a few great challenges, but they were interspersed between a ton of dull ones. *Quote:* It started off really well but it pretty quickly had drama that was more uncomfortable to watch than entertaining (the whole Ted/Ghandia thing--it did lead to the 150-200% quote so it wasn't all bad though). QFT. Grindgate was one of the few moments of the season where the characters really made for an interesting dynamic, and even then, it was more uncomfortable than entertaining. I believe that was actually the first episode of Survivor I ever saw, and I don't recall feeling anything but put off by the events at Chuay Gahn. *Quote:* Examples are like Brian, who was just a hardcore gamer. Clay was a redneck, Ted was confused black man. And even then, those edits were so stretched out and took so long to come to fruition. Brian was nothing but a dull alpha male until late in the season, when his true colors finally began to show. Clay's edit progressed throughout the season, but it took so damn long to get to the end of his character arc. I know he was a long-term dynamic, but most characters in Survivor get fleshed out to some extent early on, and then have period of cooldown. Clay and Ted were all cooldown with a few occasional moments that contributed to their character stories, fleshing out their characters only when all of the moments combined together. I actually had not seen the whole of Thailand until very recently, so my experience with it may have differed from most peoples'. I saw a few episodes of it when it originally aired, but did not really start watching Survivor until Amazon began. So I had 5 years of hearing about Thailand before I actually sat down and watched it. Needless to say, my expectations were low, and while Thailand had its moments, it rarely exceeded those expectations. I simply felt like I didn't know any of the characters until deep into the season, and I felt like the stories we got from characters like Shii Ann were lacking and forced. Many of the challenges were boring to watch, and nothing really captivated me as a viewer at any point. The finale may have been decent, but it didn't make up for all of the episodes I sat through to get there.
Dr Will Hatch two point oh	How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailand	#8	[-]
Posts: 5379 (07/24/07 10:08 AM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	I disagree with everythingby om and pt. anyone i talk to about survivor either doesnt care or perfers so called normal people. people with real jobs. secondly,it doesnt get more one dimensional then the outback. Colby,the good guy vs Jerri,the bitch. Clay was VERY entertaining and much cleverer then he gets credit for. much smarter infact then fanfavorites like kathy,rob c and yauman. ted was also a decent statagist,merely getting outplayed and far from being a sexual predator. jan was hilarious. i dont have time to defend the others. and i LIKE puzzle challanges. thai21 was a very interesting concept. much more so then the condescending palau sumo one where wittle coby proves something to himself and beats James the evil redneck. onedimensional,anyone?the whole concept of heroes and villains on survivor is 1d
RavuRules	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#9	[-]
Posts: 1764 (07/24/07 11:33 AM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	I think for the most part, when people rank seasons are judge them, they are coming in with a lot of contextual emotional biases. Most of the "rational" reasons people give for not liking a season can be applied to every 1 of the others. So if people are complaining about Pagonging, it's sort of a shallow reason given that Borneo created it, but as everyone says, Pulau Tiga gets a bye, because of people's nostalgic emotional bonds with it, which have little to do with the actual occurences of the season and everything to do with feelings and whims. Same with the lack of strategy. It's not really that different from the lack of strategy of the other earlier seasons. It's funny that some people are now mentioning that Thailand needed twists when exactly what the newer seasons have but which pisses people off. So when it comes down to it, people are influenced by mass Sucks opinion (no matter what they say), individual preferences and subjective emotions, with the justifying reasons just being formalities of argumentation Now, granted, I consider Thailand to be my 2nd or 3rd least favorite season (ahead of Borneo for sure). However, as I've said before, I've enjoyed all the seasons on some level. I'm pretty cogent of my thought processes, so I know I disliked it due the people I related with (which were few) failing to those I didn't. Also, as I've mentioned before, I have a shallow side when I watch these shows. I like the younger, good-looking people, and don't care for seeing real people on a reality show. Plus, as a younger individual, it sucked to see how badly Sook Jai (sort of as the young tribe) represent so horribly for us young'ins. I didn't like the lack of strategy and Pagonging as others mentioned. But again, those are my particular whims, and if someone else likes it, that's cool too
panurge46	Survivor Thailand Sucked	#10	[-]
Posts: 1123 (07/24/07 1:49 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	Ravu, I hope I won't surprise you when I say that I know why I rate Thailand as the worse season of Survivor ever. Disgust is a reaction that overrules any "contextual emotional biases"!! Sorry Mario, Amazon was the first Survivor comedy. Thailand's humor was gruesome. 1- If some Reward challenges were fun, few of the important Immunity Challenges were: Of the 14, there were 7 that were puzzles (#1: Flying your flag; #2: Floating Puzzle; #3: Temple Transfer; #4: Tan-dy Gram; #9: Thai Numbers; #11: Cube Crisis; #13: Step on up) Of the other 7, we had a Q&A immunity challenge which shouldn't happen. (Since the players in the minority have so little control over Q&A challenges, I feel they should only be for reward.) Then we had the worse tribal challenge in Survivor history and it was played at the crucial 6 vs 5 stage of the game: Thai 21 is a stupid game, worse than Tic-tac-to: If I go first, I take one flag and win every time. (At least in Tic-tac-to, the person going second can tie.) To see the contestants finally figuring it out only with 6 flags left showed how pathetic they were. (Note to Ravu: That cannot be said about any other season.) 2- Grindgate: Anyone who thinks that the 2 episodes it stretched over were survivor episodes is quite naïve. Those episodes were Exhibit A for the defense in case Burnett was charged with promoting a "work place" where sexual harrassment was tolerated. (Contracts don't protect against criminal lawsuits) Those scenes were horrible to watch. And I don't even take into consideration that maybe Ghandia was right. Why wasn't Ted DQ'd? Grind your secretary and see how long you last on the job. (Note to Ravu: OK, the same could be said about the "Sue quits" episode of ASS, but ASS is not much higher on my list.) 3- Brian himself was bored. Listen to him talk and all he says is: "Do I really have to hang around these bozos until day 39 to get my check?" From episode #1, he looked like a guy who wanted to get the hell out of there. He was bored, his tribe was bored, the mood was boring, I was bored. (Note to Ravu: All the other winners seemed to enjoy the game even if Hatch admitted he was ready to go back to his real life) 4- Watching an old woman becoming senile should be considered painful, not entertaining. 5- The young players were as much out of place as Robbbb's skateboard on the beach. I didn't find one amusing. 5- Ken was a huge disappointment. He practically refused to play the game, sitting out challenges, avoiding leadership... 6- Good'ol Jake enjoyed being wrapped around Penny's little finger. 7- Did Erin speak besides complaining about Shii-Ann? 8- Is anyone more over-rated than Shii-Ann? Colby, in ASS, had an almost perfect comment about her. He just needed to add that if you want to ride someone's coattails, you'd better find a way to be that person's closest ally. In two seasons, SA was always an outsider. 9- Someone considered Ted as a strategist. That's a funny one!!!! To establish a strategy, you need to know what's going on around you. Ted was blind to the events around him. Helen's judgment of the situation wasn't much better. 10- Clay was a gross individual. (Final note to Ravu: No, I couldn't say that about someone else on another season. No other final episode contestant was as unappealing as Clay.) Oh! I enjoyed Magilla, the only good cast member.
RavuRules	Re: Survivor Thailand Sucked	#11	[-]
Posts: 1764 (07/24/07 1:58 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	Dude, panurge, calm the fuck down. I was just making the point that opinions about a season are just that--opinions. Geez. You can dress it up with justifications and a series of points, but we all are entitled to our own opinions
Kirblar	Re: Survivor Thailand Sucked	#12	[-]
Posts: 6646 (07/24/07 4:03 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	It's not a lack of twists that was the problem, its a gigantic mass of individual problems that combine into the worst season ever. The casting is really bad. The only remotely entertaining/interesting people on the cast were Helen, Shii Ann, Clay, and Robb. Possibly John, but its hard to say. It's a cast full of people ranging from "eh" to unlikable. The location ended up being terrible. It's rainy, wet, and brown. It felt "dirty" watching it, and with the constant overcast sky, you didn't get anything like the effect of Fiji (which was also brown, but used the Mud and bright sun to its advantage) Ted's fucking drama was not good TV. It's the kind of conflict that people change the channel on rather than watch. It wasn't just Grindgate either. His unsubstantiated racist claims against Clay in the finale were complete bullshit. (Was his source for that ever confirmed, it would seem to have to have been Brian or Helen.) The Delayed Merge was fucking terrible, and they didn't learn their lessons from it when they expanded the pre-merge in S10, 11, 13, and 14. The merge changes up the game and usually creates 1-2 interesting episodes and the potential for a powershift. Having and endless pre-merge leads to a malaise setting in as viewers wait for the politicking and gameplay that Survivor's known for to occur. When merges happen at 9 or 8, we've always seen the leader of the majority group established at the first postmerge vote win. There's a simple reason for this. There's no room to maneuver with the tribe that small. You flip on a group that late, and you sign your death warrant with the jury. Survivor 1gets a pass on strategy because no one had ever played the game before. Number 2 a little less because people were still figuring it out (and getting played by Tina.) But by Africa/Thailand people had caught on to basic survivor strategy and were angry at contestants for being such dumbfucks. That's another large part of why the seasons are considered so awful: The players hadn't fucking learned a thing.
panurge46	Re: Survivor Thailand Sucked	#13	[-]
Posts: 1123 (07/24/07 4:15 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	Don't worry dude, I'm always calm. It's hard to stop laughing when you write something like: *Quote:* I'm pretty cogent of my thought processes, so I know I disliked it due the people I related with (which were few) failing to those I didn't. Can I call you JEN?!!!
Dr Will Hatch two point oh	How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailand	#14	[-]
Posts: 5379 (07/24/07 4:34 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	Ravu, thanks for the civilty you bring to this madhouse. This asshole panwhatever calls me someone. my new favorite phrase, creepy populism, can aptly be applied to survivor sucks,where there is only shallow analysis. Big Ted would have voted out Jan,followed by Clay then beat Brian in f3ic if Brian hadnt marginalized him
Pulau Tiga	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#15	[-]
Posts: 4307 (07/24/07 5:25 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	*Quote:* anyone i talk to about survivor either doesnt care or perfers so called normal people Sure, I'd rather have someone like Jan than someone like Ibrehem any day of the week. But that doesn't mean Jan was a good character. A real person? Absolutely. An entertaining one? Not in the least. And when you have a cast lacking any really entertaining characters, you get a dull season. *Quote:* secondly,it doesnt get more one dimensional then the outback. However, Australia had truly epic moments and storylines. Thailand? Just an uncomfortable "he said/she said" that lasted a couple of episodes. Besides that, there was nothing epic about it. *Quote:* Clay was VERY entertaining and much cleverer then he gets credit for. much smarter infact then fanfavorites like kathy,rob c and yauman. Clay was a decent character and decent player. Unfortunately his awareness of the game toned down his more outrageous character attributes and his personality toned down his gameplay. He had a good gameplan, but was no great strategist. He was a good character, but was no over the top personality. *Quote:* ted was also a decent statagist,merely getting outplayed and far from being a sexual predator. Ted didn't do anything. He just didn't factor into things, and he just wasn't entertaining. *Quote:* jan was hilarious. For a couple of brief, two-minute scenes throughout the season. Most of the time, she was useless, and she prevented any real power plays from occuring. *Quote:* i LIKE puzzle challanges. You're probably one of the few. Puzzles are difficult to watch. You can't really follow along with the players, you can't see what they're doing and what they're not doing, you can't build up real suspense. You just sit there and wait for the players to finish their puzzle, and then all of a sudden, they're done and they win. It's not much more entertaining than Probst simply announcing the winner of the challenge in some dramatic fashion. *Quote:* thai21 was a very interesting concept. Thai 21 was a simplistic and dull concept. *Quote:* much more so then the condescending palau sumo one where wittle coby proves something to himself and beats James the evil redneck. Palau's Sumo challenge was great. It developed characters, as you stated. It was entertaining to watch. It built up suspense. It highlighted individual personalities. The Thai 21 challenge did none of that. *Quote:* onedimensional,anyone?the whole concept of heroes and villains on survivor is 1d Fair enough. But Thailand's characters weren't dynamic and multi-dimensional. They were just outright dull. They simply weren't developed either way. There was no villain or hero, but there was nobody in between, either. *Quote:* So if people are complaining about Pagonging, it's sort of a shallow reason given that Borneo created it, but as everyone says, Pulau Tiga gets a bye, because of people's nostalgic emotional bonds with it, which have little to do with the actual occurences of the season and everything to do with feelings and whims. Everything was new in Borneo. A Pagonging wasn't played out and predictable, because it had never happened before. By the time Thailand rolled around, a Pagonging was just that - played out and predictable. We had seen it three times in the past (and once in reverse). That wasn't the case for Borneo, and it was for Thailand. For a lot of people, that's part of what makes the gameplay in Thailand more boring than the gameplay in Borneo. *Quote:* It's funny that some people are now mentioning that Thailand needed twists when exactly what the newer seasons have but which pisses people off. Sure, people are never going to be happy. That's a given. But Thailand lacked any real power shifts or surprises or dynamic plot events. That can hurt a season, just like a plethora of twists can hurt a season by turning it into a crapshoot. *Quote:* Plus, as a younger individual, it sucked to see how badly Sook Jai (sort of as the young tribe) represent so horribly for us young'ins. If you feel anyone on Sook Jai represented you just because of the age proximity, then your problems with Survivor are more far-reaching than I realized. *Quote:* I was just making the point that opinions about a season are just that--opinions. Geez. You can dress it up with justifications and a series of points, but we all are entitled to our own opinions Panurge was just sharing his opinion, like you did. He gave his reasoning as well, something you did not do. He's stating why his opinions differ from yours. All of that is his right and completely understandable for him to do on a fucking message board meant for individual presentations of opinions. *Quote:* Ravu, thanks for the civilty you bring to this madhouse. Ravu is the guy that turns this place into a madhouse (and hey, that's why I like him). He just likes to come in and rebel against popular opinion. *Quote:* Big Ted would have voted out Jan,followed by Clay then beat Brian in f3ic if Brian hadnt marginalized him Then there you go, that's another problem with the season. Brian dominated and made the proceedings very dull by preventing things like that. And I don't see why Ted would have beaten Brian in the F3 IC.
Jeff P3	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#16	[-]
Posts: 1445 (07/24/07 5:27 PM) I need a life Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	I personally find it hard to "rate" the seasons that haven't come out on DVD, since I have sworn myself to not watch the non-released seasons until I have the DVD. However, with that said, a couple years ago I watched the first 6-7 episodes of Thailand that I had recorded on VHS. It's great stuff, not the best, but better than alot of pre-merge seasons. It was the predictable merge and onward that I didn't like, along with a bunch of bland people (a few good ones, though) on the show after Shii Ann left. And no, Thailand is not better than Borneo, or even on the same level. Not even close, in my book.
panurge46	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#17	[-]
Posts: 1123 (07/24/07 5:29 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	DWH2.0: *Quote:* Big Ted would have voted out Jan, followed by Clay then beat Brian in f3ic if Brian hadnt marginalized him That's what you call strategy? Forgetting that it had no chance of happening, that means Ted loses to Helen in F2!!!!!!!! Brilliant strategy there. Where was Ted supposed to get votes against Jan anyway? Learn what strategy is. Strategy certainly isn't wishful thinking which is at best how one can describe that plan. I've called it blindness.
OnlyMatthew	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#18	[-]
Posts: 1306 (07/24/07 5:59 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	undefined *Quote:* secondly,it doesnt get more one dimensional then the outback. I don't see how comparing Outback to Thailand makes Thailand worse. On the case of challenges, I didn't like the puzzle ones (specifically the tangrams, the memory one and thai21). Watching puzzles is boring, and is only fun if you get to interact and to them yourselves, we were not give that opportunity. I do recall Thailand having some good challenges, though. As characters, I liked Clay to an extent, maybe it was just his dark witty humour. I honestly think Ted should have gotten the underdog "polite" edit, and that the Ghandia thing should have been editted a lot differently. Getting rid of the anti-Ted confessionals and giving Ted a big arc would be more satisfying. Ted was an outsider on most terms, but he still put trust into Brian, giving a venue of Ted being the hero and Brian being the villain. There were a lot of editting opportunities, but maybe the editting wasn't as fancy back then. I enjoy seeing a player dominate the game, if it's done with some emotion and entertainment. Brian had neither, and his nickname Mr. Freeze is appropiately assigned. All of his confessionals were redundant, and gave very little true emotion. The only time I can recall his emotion being expressed is his fear of the elephant ride, and the lack of buildup towards that just made it empty in terms of entertainment. I hated Jan, seriously. She was boring, had an annoying voice, lacked strategy and gave very little entertainment. Her enthused exclamations makes me think she's a toddler. The only thing that makes her stand out is her pet cemetery and her appreciation of drinking. I guess CBS was doing the elderly more justice, and they couldn't really do much with an annoying F3 person. In most cases, a twist like a shuffle would get rid of this, but Thailand didn't have any major twists. I think that twists bring out the gamer in most Survivors, as it tests their ability to adapt. Although the HII was unfair and overpowered, I really liked the riddles of finding it (Yul's particularly). Seeing him solve the riddle was fascinating for me, and seeing him handle it was also entertaining. I think CI is underrated, honestly. Twists usually produce more entertainment, but can often screw over players or get rid of favourites.
tullfan2	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#19	[-]
Posts: 2848 (07/24/07 6:18 PM) Registered User Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	The way the tribes were selected at the beginning by Jan and Jake may have killed the season from the start because it resulted in almost all of the older contestants on one tribe and almost all of the younger contestants on the other tribe. This resulted in less diverse tribes and static tribal dynamics. It would have been a lot more difficult for Brian if he had to deal with Ken, Penny, Robb and/or Shii Ann.
RavuRules	Re: How I learned to stop worrying and love Survivor Thailan	#20	[-]
Posts: 1764 (07/24/07 8:35 PM) Registered user Reply Quote More Recent Posts Message Connection Block Invite	*Quote:* Can I call you JEN?!!! I take that as a compliment! JENius <3!!! In terms of the frequent use of "I" and "me," I find that to be a much more humble and preferable way of discussing rather than passing one's mere opinion as fact like others do ahem *Quote:* Everything was new in Borneo. A Pagonging wasn't played out and predictable, because it had never happened before. By the time Thailand rolled around, a Pagonging was just that - played out and predictable. We had seen it three times in the past (and once in reverse). That wasn't the case for Borneo, and it was for Thailand. For a lot of people, that's part of what makes the gameplay in Thailand more boring than the gameplay in Borneo. Well yeah, I know. My point was that this has everything to do with the point of view of the viewer, not anything to do with a real qualitative difference in strategy or whatever else people claim. The main difference was that Borneo was the 1st season, and Thailand was the 5th. So no matter what, there are people who will always like earlier seasons better than later seasons due to that emotional attachment, which has little to do with how competitive, unique, explosive, etc. the season actually was. That is why you can have such large differences in viewer opinion among those who saw the same season *Quote:* If you feel anyone on Sook Jai represented you just because of the age proximity, then your problems with Survivor are more far-reaching than I realized. Okay Mr. Psychologist. Is it a clinical "problem" to root for certain people over others due to superficial differences? How is it any different from people who root for their countries' representatives in the Olympics or a local basketball team from their hometown? Stop being a drama queen over everything and being the judgmental prick that you can be. I shouldn't even have to address this common sense issue, but apparently, PT enjoys hating on me in threads even outside the winner's analysis thread *Quote:* Panurge was just sharing his opinion, like you did. He gave his reasoning as well, something you did not do My reasoning was fine. Just because you don't understand such concepts does not make it any less logical and true. Not to be condescending, but as a high schooler, you're probably less likely to have been educated on philosophical issues on ontology and epistemology and its real life applications *Quote:* He's stating why his opinions differ from yours. All of that is his right and completely understandable for him to do on a fucking message board meant for individual presentations of opinions. Did I try to silence him? No. I was just commenting about the intensity in which he attacked my comments which weren't even directed at him in the 1st place and came out of nowhere. And I'm the bad guy?! You can be such an asshat PT *Quote:* Ravu is the guy that turns this place into a madhouse (and hey, that's why I like him). He just likes to come in and rebel against popular opinion. I rebel not for the sake of rebelling, but because popular opinion here was moronic as well as intellectually suffocating. Just calling it like I see it. I think things have definitely improved around here though =)