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Yay! There are lots of comments to reply to! Thanks to all of you for being so quick to read and respond. I highly doubt I'll even get through half of these tonight, but I'll reply to as many as I can now and then I'll get to the rest in the morning...

Responses are going to be a little bit shorter this time than usual since I'm a little pressed for time. Hope you don't mind!

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Hello CirieFieldsofDreams. Thank you very much for your comments on the episode, and congratulations on being the first to reply. I enjoyed reading them, and I'm very glad to see you enjoyed it so much. Thanks a lot for rating it a 10! :)

Wow what a surprise! I loved this episode for its unpredictable-ness (if that's a word) alone. A bit disappointed that Ami went home, yet I can see how it had to have been done. Ruth Marie...haha she had just laid out her strategy after the challenge and you send her home. Harsh, but understandable

It's nice to see that you thought it was unpredictable, because I thought it would be too. I figured both votes would be pretty suspenseful right up until the very end. I would have loved to keep Ami around longer, especially after I saw that she didn't make the merge in the real Micronesia either. That was a sad bad... Unfortunately, RM served her purpose in the story, and she was playing a pretty good game, which is why I wanted her blindside to appear to be even more of a surprise. If not for that, she could have gone a lot longer.

Thanks for your predictions and for filling out the Popularity Poll too! :)

I don't think I've gotten a single prediction right thus far, but I'll go with Jason

That's okay. There's no harm in getting them right or wrong. It's really just for fun, as I'm sure you know.

Thanks again for your comments. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Have a great night! :)

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Hi SFC! Thank you very much for another great post of comments. You bring up some very good points, and I enjoyed reading your thoughts! :)

I guess Mikey does have the Idol. I was okay with seeing Ruth Marie go, didn't care for her that much. Ami was a little sad to see go. Malakals reaction was great seeing that Earl was voted off. I was kinda hoping Joel would go instead of Ami, but I knew that wasn't happening.

It will soon be confirmed who indeed has the idol, but I'm glad you pointed out that it looks like Mikey has it right now. Malakal was definitely taken by surprise with the Earl vote and since there was no Exile Island, they don't know what happened. Sorry to get rid of Ami. Based on this episode though, I think you were supposed to want Joel to stay, but I know that wouldn't be true for everyone.

Sherea counting Joel's mentions of Airai

Thanks! I enjoyed this too, and I'm glad that it got to show a bit more attitude from Sherea.

Thanks for the 9. Much appreciated! :)

Ami: were you surprised to see Ruth at the Losers Lodge?

Great question. I would love to ask this at the Reunion, but I meant to say something about this in the notes: I thought it was funny that Ami wished RM luck and she had already been voted off, so I definitely think she was surprised to see her at Losers Lodge, but I'll give Ami's official answer at the Reunion.

Thanks for your predictions and for filling out the Popularity Poll. I like the little comments next to each person's rating.

Brooke - 5 (I don't see why she is so popular)

Well, this was the first episode where she delved into negative territory, so I expected her to go down a bit and she has. Other than that, I think she's kindof just middle of the road, and a little bit bland as people have said, but still a fairly decent character which keeps her on people's radars.

Eliza - 9 (She's getting a little Cocky)

Yep, and now she was blindsided by the vote as well. This goes back to Ami's confessional in Episode 5 about things getting shaken up if you feel too comfortable. That's what happened with a lot of the women in this episode.

Ian - 6 (Kinda bland, but he is getting better)

Good to see he's improving.

Mary - 6 (I hope she and Aras aren't the next Romber)

It won't be quite *that* dramatic (or vomit-inducing, depending on what one thinks of Romber).

Mikey - 10 (What I hoped he was in the real show)

Me too.

Thanks for doing those Edgic ratings. I have a lot of question marks down beside my ratings for the Episode, and I figured that the submitted ones would be all over the place too. Yours are very good and hit a lot of the ratings that I was expecting, so great job! :)

Also, great job on those two Edgic lists too. Still the same four people coming up, but the orders change again. Very interesting...

Thank you again for your thorough comments. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Hope you enjoy the rest of the story! :)

Hi Brazil Luvs Ami. Thanks a lot for commenting on the episode. I'm not sure if you saw the episode notes for this week, but I did post a combined apology/congratulations to you there for guessing the two boots correctly. Sorry that you had two of your Favorites go home!

I knew it was happening (both perdictions right), and they are may favorite past contestants in your fanfic, I'm really sad. But I hope Eliza revenges Ami..

Sorry that your predictions had to come true. I hope you can find some other characters to root for now though, maybe Eliza.

It was a good episode, but I feel Ami was going home and I also felt that Terry would not be voted off. I'll give a 8.. An episode where Ami is voted out, there's no way it will receive a 10 for me...

I'm glad to see you still thought it was a good episode, and I appreciate you still rating it an 8 even though the outcome was sad. I feel bad about them both going in one episode. But I hope you'll still be able to enjoy the story without Ami in it.

Thanks for your predictions and for filling out the Popularity Poll. A Joel/Tracy F2 would be interesting given what we've seen of them so far.

And I'm glad you still gave Ami a 10 even though I had to make her negative this time.

Excellent Edgic ratings. Thanks a lot for posting all of them. Again, I must say that I'm really impressed with how well you're able to do these.

Brooke - MORN2 (N, because of what Joel said, when her and Ami were complaining about the night)

Yes, this is exactly what I thought too. She complained, she also lied to the men and had a confessional about it, and she's guilty by association with Ami and Sherea (who I think were both N).

Thanks for those contenders / eliminated lists too! Everything looks good. We'll have to see if it comes true - I've noticed a few people shifting positions on some people's lists, so you never know if someone could creep up...

Thanks again for your comments. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. Thanks for being a loyal reader and commenter this season! Have a great night! :)

Hello Kitty Pryde1. Thanks a lot for your detailed comments. I'm starting to really look forward to your posts every week (and your daily Pokemon updates), because you always write so much. Like always, you brought up a lot of great points and I enjoy reading what you have to say.

First off, I'm glad to see Airai finally win a challenge, because this was really turning into Fiji with the tribe on the shitty campsite getting screwed over. It sucks that they had to vote out one of their own after all that though.

I was glad that Airai won a challenge too. I wanted people to feel sorry for them that they still had to go to TC. I like to usually have both tribes with an equal opportunity of winning so it doesn't become so predictable that one tribe's going to win all the time, but I think this season works out really well with Malakal having their winning streak.

Jason and Terry really showed how good they are at challenges with that win, and I loved how they used the All-Stars strategy of just jumping off to let the better players go first, 'cause that's a very smart strategy. Malakal would've been much better off with Aras running instead of throwing the bags.

Yes, you were definitely supposed to get the impression of Jason and Terry doing well. I think that's a smart strategy too, and I'm glad Airai was able to use it to their advantage. Malakal probably thought that the women would be better at balance, which was probably true except for Alexis who didn't do too well. Brooke got knocked off by a bag, but Aras may not have if it hit him, so you're probably right.

In terms of strategy, I'm definitely predicting a fan to win it all at this point, because they have their shit together and they're not getting drawn into petty in-fighting like the favorites are. They may dislike each other, but they're definitely willing to set emotions aside and play strategically. I like the fans more too, because they seem like they could really be on the show, while many of the favorites have been either bland, jerks, or shells of their former selves.

I would definitely have to agree with you here - not saying that a Fan will win, but that they're playing better right now and I like them a lot more than on the real show. The Favorites have had strange edits, but I think you'll see why in the end / I'll explain why, but some of them do start to come around a little more now, like Aras.

One thing I noticed was Eliza's comment about how she'd rather a fan win than Terry. I think that kills her chances of winning, and also those of the other favorites.

Thank you for picking up on this. I'm going to make a note to myself to comment on this after the finale (hopefully I don't forget), because there is definitely some significance to it, although it won't be apparent right now.

In terms of the vote, I'll start with Airai. Did I want Terry gone? Yes. Am I happy that Ruth Marie went instead? Yes. Ruth Marie wasn't that interesting of a player...even in EI (Emmy Award Winner Courtney Marit was RAWBED!) She was the oldest one out there and she really wasn't contributing a whole lot to the story.

Sorry about not having Courtney there. I just really don't think she would have fit in with this season, and I needed characters to fill certain roles and Ruth Marie filled what hers was going to be. Sadly, it was just a background character who advanced other peoples' stories more than her own. I guess my own philosophy of writing these fanfics has changed a little bit. I don't ignore characters as much as the real show, but I'm willing to make some minor sacrifices for the betterment of the overall story.

Her elimination makes sense for the fans because it allows them to keep their options open. Eliza may be pissed now, but she's not going to try to form an alliance with Terry to get back in the game, and Terry's not gonna do the same for Eliza. This episode actually sets up a Terry vs. Eliza showdown in the near future.

Another great point. You'll have to hold onto that thought...

Malakal was interesting as well, because I totally predicted it would be Ami this week. I think that the dynamic Aras and Mary have is going to be interesting, but their little foursome with Ian is gonna be difficult to pull off, given that Ian has issues with betraying people.

Glad you thought it was interesting. You'll see more of this in the next episode, but they're going to keep Joel and Kathy in the alliance with them too, so even if Ian votes for someone random, they'd technically still have a majority over Brooke and Sherea. It's just that Ian/Aras/Mary/Alexis would go Final Four over Joel and Kathy. That's where it stands as of the end of Episode 6, but that could change in Episode 7.

It was nice to see Ami get her comeuppance though, even though she was absolutely right about Pagonging the fans. Her problem is that she didn't want to Pagong them, and instead just wanted to boot a favorite the next chance she got.

True. She probably would have booted Aras now if there were enough votes to do it.

10 (This is your best season yet, GF)

Thank you so much. That really means a lot. Knowing how this season works out, I figured that it would be a close call with China as to which one people would think is the best, but I thought China might edge it out. Going by the average episode ratings, this season is ahead of China by quite a bit, so if that keeps up, this season will be better than China! :)

Ami: Do you wish you'd been more open to working with the men?

Thank you for this great question. I will ask it at the Reunion...

Thanks for your Episode 7 predictions and for filling out the Popularity Poll. Nice comments about each of the characters. Fun to read. :)

Brooke - 5 (She's become bland)

But this was her first episode that I thought she had some real tone in...

Eliza - 9 (I still love her attitude)

She was kindof feisty in this one, but definitely getting a little bit cocky in her position. I can really hear her confessionals in my head when I write them.

Jason - 10 (Part of the best alliance ever, plus the fire ants bit was hilarious)

Thanks for the comment about the fire ant scene. Their 3-person alliance will play more of a role again in an episode coming up.

Kathy - 10 (Best alliance ever, plus playing relatively smart with the idol. She didn't make the same mistake Earl did.)

True, but Earl didn't expect Terry to be vulnerable though.

Mary - 5 (She was better this episode, but I just don't like showmances)

[Deleted spoilery comments here, but I'll leave this as a reminder that I almost let something slip]

Too bad she only got a 5 though.

Tracy - 10 (Best player in the game kthx)

yw!

Great job on your Edgic ratings. I'm glad you put Sherea as OTTN. That's what I thought she would be. Your other ratings are all very good too. I'm impressed with how well you're able to do these. Keep up the great work! :)

Excellent job on your Contenders / Eliminated lists too. Thanks for the thoughts on each of the edits.

1. Tracy (This was a cooldown after several high-visibility episodes while still stay CP in her edit, which I think is good for her.)

I agree that it was a cooldown - I'm not quite sure she was CP this episode though. I think MOR3 will probably suffice.

2. Joel (One of the main things keeping from from ranking him at the top is because you just had a Joel-ish winner (In terms of who the person is, not the edit) last time, and it just wouldn't fit with your previous stories to have another right after. He's got the story ties and he and Tracy are pretty much dead even to me.)

Demographically, you mean? A 30s guy? It's possible that I would pick a winner from the same type of demographic. I did have Stacy and Candice (two young women) win back-to-back seasons.

5. Eliza (She's looking bad, but her edit still has legs. I mean, Eliza is who she is, and you can't just tone her down, even in a fanfic.)

You're right about that. That's why I enjoy writing for her as a character! :)

Thanks again for the comments. I really enjoyed reading them! I appreciate you taking the time to be so thorough with everything. Hope you have a great night! :)

Hi cardswin5! Thanks for all of your positive comments about the episode. I appreciate you taking the time to be so detailed with everything, and I really enjoyed reading your thoughts! :)

I usually don't like double tribals but I loved this. I thought it was kind of funny that the week after I say Ruth is boring she gets a strategy and gets booted. But still liked her boot overall. I like that you are getting rid of the people without a lot of personality ie Earl and Ruth. The Ami boot was completely different. I expected it but still loved it and the fights that her and her alliance are causing. I think Brooke is a smart woman and will try to get herself into a good spot with the other alliance. We'll see what happens.

Sometimes I don't like double TCs either, but fortunately I have control over what the outcome is, so I'm glad that it worked out okay. I always thought RM was playing a good strategic game. If not for this blindside, she probably would have went quite far. But I didn't want to give this away after Earl was voted out, but I sortof thought a lot of readers would expect Earl and RM to go early simply for the fact that they were important characters in their original seasons who went kindof UTR. The reason for that, which I hinted at several times, was because they were central to the story the first time and not central to the story this time, so I thought that would indicate they didn't win. Anyway, I'm glad you liked both of the boots in this episode. I loved writing the Malakal Tribal Council because of all the conflicts.

Malakal tribal council questions because I love tribal council fights!

Thank you. I really enjoyed this Tribal Council too, and a huge thank you for rating the episode a 10! I really appreciate that! :)

Thanks for the predictions and for filling out the Popularity Poll! Good to see some 7s, 8s, 9s, and a few low ones in there too.

Gonna try this again but too lazy to go find visibility chart. Feel free to correct my wrongs.

Actually, the visibility chart was very inconclusive this week. There were a lot of people who were right on the border between two numbers, so I'm glad you didn't use it because this tells me visibility based on your impressions of them in the episode and not based on a sentence count.

All of your ratings look great! I'm glad you put OTTN for Ami - that's what I thought she would be, although I definitely can understand and am still considering CPN. Thanks for posting those ratings because I had a lot of question marks this week, and the more ratings the better.

How'd I do??

You did awesome on all of the Edgic stuff - ratings, contenders, eliminated people. It all looks great! Keep up the good work!

Enjoyed it a lot!

:)

Thank you again for all of your thorough comments. Hope you continue to enjoy the rest of the story. Have a great night! :)

Hello chad6. Thanks for sharing all of those thoughtful and detailed comments on the episode. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say. You bring up lots of great points, as always. Much appreciated! :)

1. It left a really bad taste in my mouth because both Ami and Ruth Marie (who I liked) were ousted, and Terry (who I hate) and Joel (who I'm not too fond of) were saved. It sucked that the Malakal TC was between two interesting character: Joel and Ami. I feel everyone on Malakal made the best move for them. It will be interesting to who moves into the power position. My guess is one of Joel, Aras or Mary. Whoever does, they better not get too comfortable as we see what happens when you think you're comfortable.

Sorry that you lost Ami and Ruth Marie instead of Terry and Joel. I know it can be hard to see some of your favorites go, as well as some of the more interesting people (ie. Ami and Joel). Too bad the Malakal TC wasn't between Alexis and Sherea or something like that... I agree that everyone on Malakal made pretty smart moves for themselves. Interesting comment about the person in power not getting too comfortable - that's definitely an important recurring idea.

2. I really didn't like the double boot. I mean, I know they do this situation on the real show but this type of double boot is so unfair. RM was screwed. Airai was screwed. They should have been given a chance at immunity.

And sorry about the double boot as well. RM did technically have a chance at individual Immunity - *if* Terry gave it to her. It was just bad luck that Terry ended up as the person who gave it away. Airai won a REWARD Challenge though, so they never actually won Immunity and had to vote someone out still - just a Reward. But sometimes I don't like double boots either. I just thought this one would work well since I have the power to control the outcome.

3. Joel is becoming a very strong player. He made all the right moves this episode. Thus, I feel like we will remain atop the Edgic winners list. I think he may become a distraction but I also think he has a good chance to win.

I've even surprised myself with how much I came to like Joel while writing this fanfic. He definitely appears to be a strong player in a good position, so we'll see how that works out.

4. I was confused about the fight between Eliza and Terry (I don't know if you mentioned this in your notes): Were we supposed to be on Terry's side?

I wanted to leave this ambiguous like last week with the Ami/Aras thing, but Terry did start the argument. However, Eliza was shown to be getting very comfortable and overconfident, which reflected negatively on her as well. I thought that they would both probably be Mixed in their Edgic ratings. There is a reason for me editing them this way though, and the fact that you don't know who to side with is good. I'll talk more about this after Episode 7.

I loved Terry's confessional about how he was more mature than Eliza when HE started the fight between them. He is obviously loony if he feels he acted maturely in that situation. I'm beginning to really dislike Terry (but that could be because I really like Eliza).

Yeah, and I liked his quote about Eliza being a "clairvoyant" too, but maybe I was the only one that liked that.

After I read it I wanted to give it a low rating because I was mad about Ami and RM. But, then I realized how well written this episode was and that it must have been good if it evoked that much emotion out of me. Then I realized I should give it a high ranking but then I remembered I hate the double boot. So my final rating will be a 9.1

Thanks. I'm perfectly happy with a 9.1. I don't necessarily think it was one of my best episodes either, but for some reason, it's one of my favorites right now. Probably in a few weeks I'll change my mind, but I just liked it for some reason. Thanks for saying that it was well-written though, and I definitely think it's a good sign that you had a reaction to Ami and RM going.

Thank you for your predictions and for filling out the Popularity Poll. Thanks for the comments next to the remaining players too. I enjoy reading them.

Someone in Malakal will rise as the power player and hopefully it will bite them in the ass. Hopefully they lose again.

Yes, Alexis is CPNN5 in the next episode.

Ami - 10 (I miss her already)

I'm glad you gave her a 10 even though she was negative in this one.

Joel - 5 (Power player? But he should have gone instead of Ami)

You were supposed to be rooting for him in this episode though! :) :)

Thank you very much for those Edgic ratings. I'm still having a hard time coming up with the official ratings based on what is submitted, so I'm going to be reviewing that carefully. Your ratings look great though!

Great Contenders / Eliminated lists too. I'm glad to see Aras and Jason creeping up on the Contenders list.

1. Brooke (although she wasn't in the know about the boot, she still had end game quotes and acknowledges that she must lie to win the game. She is still my top pick for now)

She still seems like a good pick. The next few episodes will definitely be key for the top contenders.

Thanks again for your comments. Hope you like the rest of the episodes a little more and that some of the other people who you like will stick around. Have a great night! :)

Hello MasterDarkNinja. Thank you very much for your comments. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, and I enjoyed reading what you had to say, as always. Thanks for being so thorough and detailed with everything! :)

Interesting thoughts during the episode:

-At first I wondered if the favorites on Airai would stick together and get Mikey to vote with them to vote off Tracy, but I guess not after Eliza and Terry's big fight.

Kitty Pryde1 was probably right about this when she said that the episode was setting up a (likely) Eliza and Terry showdown in a future episode. I don't see them trying to align.

-Mary finally gets a story, she could mess up Ami's plan.

Finally - I was waiting for her to be shown in a significant context for a while.

-I think Malakal made a big mistake putting only women on the job of running the course, people like Eliza will be knocked off from the bags much easier then people like Terry who weigh more.

I'm not sure if this is a mistake or not? Malakal had all four women running the course (which I agree was a mistake since they got knocked off easier, like Brooke). Airai had Eliza, RM, Terry, and Jason running the course, so they were 2-2 for men and women.

-I don't think there was even a scene of Terry pitching his plan to the fans, seems kind of weird to me, but I enjoyed the fan's plotting about the HII. It looks like there's no way Ruth Marie survives here, and I can't really see why Terry would give the necklace to her.

No, I cut out this scene with Terry trying to sway the Fans, and moved some of it into Episode 7 and just deleted some of it.

-Wow, Terry is dumb doing this at TC, bargaining, it might screw up the plan and cost him the game. The fans and Terry should have done this before going to TC, the fans should have approached him with an offer to the F4 or F5 with Aras in anticipation of Eliza feeling screwed over after tonight's vote.

Terry went to Jason and Mikey with that exact same plan before Tribal Council as well. I just decided to cut that part out and emphasize it at TC instead of show