ncassaro wrote:
I think we need both theme-based and edgic-based analysis, but the problem with theme based (as has been said) is that it's hard to pick a theme before the merge, let alone before the end of the season. For example, Palau was "the season of firsts" but it was hard to see how that gave us Tom as a winner until it did.
No, Palau's main theme was seen in episode #1 when Jeff said something like: "The game has already started... you can swim, you can paddle but you need to decide how you will get to shore first" and then: "You have to decide whether you go ahead and take nothing or you take all the supplies you can carry..."
Palau's theme was: "You have to make the tough decisions."
- Stephenie made a bad one from the start and we kept seeing her waffling with her voting decisions.
- Ian was shown as being quite uncertain about what to do and his edit was killed in episode #3 when we heard him say: "I went shark hunting against my better judgement."
- As for James, he was always decisive, only he was wrong at every turn!
Tom was always shown making the decisions: From carrying only flint, to going to the new island, to making an alliance with Steph, to deciding on the use of water, to deciding that Ian would be their delegate (where Ulong couldn't decide) and to boot Willard. Even the decision that could have been the worst, picking the weak Janu, was justified by editing when we saw Janu start off really strong, climbing the tree like a little monkey.
The problem with themes is finding the right one and sometimes just the difference between "Good vs Evil" and "Saints vs Sinners" can change every thing. But China Amanda and Peih Gee, Micronesia Tracy and Eliza and Marcus proved that ratings can be wrong.
BTW flf: The themes are always brought in by the edit of the players or by Jeff's comments. They are always based on editing decisions. Dan's gluttony, for example, wasn't needed to explain his story but it was shown.
