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accirax · 9 months ago

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Disventure Camp All Stars Power Ranking (Round 7)

Alright, time for another power ranking... in space? Looks like it's going to be all stars for our All Stars. There, now if they don't make that joke in the episode, I've made it for them.

In case you haven't seen my previous power rankings ( 5 | 6 ), the Power Ranking Format is essentially a way of ranking how well each player is doing in the game. So, in essence, this is a long form way of predicting who I think will be eliminated from the competition in the next episode. There will be spoilers for last week's episode (obviously) and its power ranking, so make sure to read that first if you don't want to be spoiled on how I ranked our last boot. If you want more clarification on the rules, that first post will help you out as well. Furthermore, I'm going to be spoiling the preview for next episode, so if you want to go in TOTALLY blind, save this for later. Let's go!

Recap - Fiore's Elimination

Current Point Total: 18 acquired/29 possible

So. That was sad.

And I mean that purely from a point of my personal enjoyment, not a critique of the writing. I feel like I've seen some people claim that Fiore's elimination was a bad move writing-wise, and while I respect their opinion, I can't say I entirely agree. I still think that believing Fiore could be this season's winner wasn't a completely ridiculous idea-- the main reason why I thought that could be the case is because she was framed as sympathetic as compared to Hunter, as opposed to in S1 where she was a full villain. I still think that Ashley's attitude regarding Fiore is... a bit misguided, given that the only "revenge" she has to get on Fiore is for Fiore outsmarting her in the game of smarts.

However, in retrospect, even if Fiore reunited with Alec, I'm not really sure what she would be doing for the rest of the season that wouldn't just be a total retread of her prior content. If Fiore and Alec quickly regrouped and became allies again, then they would play the rest of the contestants in the exact same way they did in S1. If they didn't regroup, or even did on only tentative terms, then they wouldn't have the numbers, and Fiore likely would have been eliminated shortly anyways. Knowing what I know now, Fiore seems like one of those characters who has the edit to be the winner, but not the actual social standings to make it that far. I will still absolutely miss my favorite character, but she already got her chance to shine in S1, and I can always rewatch that if I want to see her dominate again.

As for my predictions... well, I'm really talented at putting the boot in 9th place, huh? I mean, it gets closer and closer to accurate every time, so I can't really complain. What's interesting to me is that what I did correctly totally flipped between Connor and Fiore. For Connor, I was correct in assessing that Yellow had bad vibes, but did a terrible job determining who on Yellow would get axed. For Fiore, I was totally wrong in predicting a Cyan tribal, but at least I managed to determine which member of Magenta would go home if they did face elimination. Hopefully next time, I'll be able to synthesize the good points as opposed to tripping into both of my pitfalls. Although, I'm a little worried...

Trailer Analysis

... Because, what the hell is this preview? Don't get me wrong: the episode looks really fun, and I'm super excited for it! But, in terms of content, I'm having a hard time discerning anything of note. Let's see what we can get out of this trailer.

So, obvious starting point; this episode is space themed. I'm guessing that the teams all have to race to these escape pods, completing challenges along the way. The outfits look great, and I'm very impressed by the number of outfits per character they're introducing this season. Keeping their 2D riggers in business, I suppose...? The outfits seem to be at least somewhat inspired by Star Trek, although, I think there's actually a bigger inspiration behind this episode that I haven't personally seen anyone else mention yet...

This episode seems to be really inspired by Among Us??? I only played the game, like, once, so I could be totally off. But, there appear to be many, many challenges that mirror Among Us' minigames. Here's Ally swiping a card...

Here's a door quite similar to the doors in... at least some maps? (Tom is holding a tablet, which we also see Ally and Jake fighting over, that may report each team's tasks).

There are multiple scenes depicting what appear to be a power outage, which is something that happens periodically in the game. Jake is fixing it, just like a crewmate would(?).

I think that you usually fix wires instead of cutting them in Among Us, but the similarity still stands. This is the Among Us episode. If the eliminated character gets fucking ejected I swear to god--

This arcade setting intrigues me because, as far as I know, arcades are common to neither Among Us or Star Trek. That could mean that this arcade was placed here for a highly specific Disventure Camp reason. Is it here to distract Ally? Can players flunk the challenge to find an advantage within the machines? Or are there just particular tasks/games that they wanted to throw in this episode that needed to be at an arcade?

The fact that we see Derek but NOT Trevor in this trailer intrigues me. It's quite possible that Trevor was fully left behind on Earth, and Krystal only recruited Derek for this space mission. Talk about being worlds apart.

Aiden and Jake will have a chat, albeit possibly only briefly. Were they separated from their teams by something? It looks like Jake might be trying to make amends (given that, if Tom "has a boyfriend," Tom definitely isn't into Aiden either), but Aiden is still hesitant to believe in/work with him. Notably, this is during the power outage.

Tom reads from a piece of paper in the arcade, which could fit with the idea that there's some special game/challenge that can only be completed in the arcade. I don't even want to know what Ellie would do with a totem at this point (/pos).

Like I alluded to earlier, Ally and Jake are definitely fighting in this episode. I'll talk more about my theories on that in both of their sections (and probably Ashley's as well).

These two continue to be iconic. I'm SO here for it, honestly.

"I knew it... I knew it! We're all gonna die...!"

Back to Among Us for a moment, one major aspect of that game is the Imposter; the traitor hidden amongst the cast trying to kill them all. Aiden's quote here could easily be in regards to a role like that existing within DC. Then again, I really have no idea how they would implement that. Would the Imposter be one of the contestants, and, if so, does that person get any additional advantages or protections in tribal? If that is the case, then I guess I'd predict that Grett or Ellie might be the Imposter, just because we didn't see a whole lot of them in the trailer. Or, could the Imposter be someone more like Trevor or Nina? That would make more sense from a fairness angle, but neither of them could really pretend to be a contestant and get away with it, as far as I'm aware.

Another really interesting thing about this preview is that, as far as I can tell, every single scene comes from the challenge. If the losing team does stick around on the ship to eject someone, then it's possible that some scenes are sneakily from after the challenge has ended. Still, there's not a single shot of camp. I wouldn't be surprised if the episode cold opens on the challenge, with the campers "waking up" on the spaceship and having no idea how they got there. At the very least, the challenge is going to take up a HUGE chunk of the episode.

The fact that we can't really tell what's part of the challenge and what's not makes it really hard to tell which team would wind up losing, and, to an extent, which relationships are going to receive particular focus. Even though I was wrong last time, I at least thought I had a leading theory on which team could lose the ball challenge. This trailer gives me no inclinations as to whether Cyan, Magenta, or Yellow is headed to tribal. Therefore, a lot of my analysis will likely be based off of who I think is most likely to make it to the merge, with that based on what story lines they have to expand upon in a merged setting. We have to be merging pretty soon, right...?

This will be a challenge. I'll try my best!

Power Ranking

#1: Ashley

In my mind, Ashley is 100% safe in this upcoming episode. I’ve already said that I think Ashley will make the merge this time, and I still believe that’s true. For Ashley to even be viable for elimination, Magenta would have to cut themselves down to TWO PEOPLE, which seems pretty unlikely on the writers' end. And, even if they did, with the way that the preview shows Jake and Ally, I find it really difficult to believe that the two of them would suddenly work together to eliminate the person that both of them feel closer to. More likely, in a Magenta tribal, it would come down to who Ashley feels more comfortable moving forward with… and Ashley obviously feels comfortable working with herself. No riding off into the sunset yet.

#2: Alec

Pretty much everything I said last week about Alec still holds true this week, because the Yellow tribe’s dynamics didn’t change much between this week and the last. If anything, Alec’s situation possibly got getter, because 1) he proved that he’s useful in challenges, and 2) he grew closer to Riya, to the point that she’s more of a genuine ally than just “not already in a pair.” I guess those strengths could also be reasons to target him, but now that Riya probably prefers Alec to Grett and Yul, the trio turning on him feels even more unrealistic.

#3: Tom

Tom really just keeps ping-ponging across my list, doesn’t he? Well, this time his move is motivated by the spicy content revealed in last week’s episode. Tom has a boyfriend! … Or, more likely, he doesn’t. In either case, wouldn’t it would be sort of weird to have him sent home without ANY further development on that plot line?

Okay, fine, that’s not entirely fair. Tom explaining why he ignored Jake throughout this game so far could theoretically be his swan song before clearing the stage for Jake and Aiden to have beef without him. However, I’m, like, 99% sure that Tom made up that boyfriend on the spot, and if THAT’S the case, it would be weird for him to go home without ever facing the consequences of his actions, whether or not Jake is there with him.

Tom also lost the whole “regretful, I’m going to ask to be sent home because I feel so badly about how I treated Jake these past few years” angle that I thought he might’ve had last episode. That puts Tom back in a safer spot for as long as he has Aiden as a shield. I don’t think he’s going home anymore, so he’s here.

#4: Tess

There’s still a possibility that Tess could get caught in the “indecision results in elimination” sinkhole, but now that Tess knows that Ellie is part of the villains alliance (and didn’t tell her), I have a hard time believing that the choice would be so impossible for her. The thing that was swaying her towards Ellie's side was not wanting to ruin her outside-of-game friendship with Ellie, so if she believes that Ellie is backtracking on that already, she'd be less likely to remain loyal.

Furthermore, her little moment with Ally last episode could be considered enough content for a justified elimination, but... was it, really? They talked for, like, thirty seconds, and not even about themselves. Now that Hunter has been eliminated, All Stars is wide open with opportunities for Tess and Ally to bond without their relationship hinging around Hunter. Their one conversation so far has still mostly been about Hunter, so eliminating Tess here would sadly close that door. Losing Ally would obviously close that door too, but... uh...

#5: Ally

Here’s my declaration that, in case of a Magenta tribal, I think that Ashley would very likely flip on Jake to work with Ally.

The preview seems to foreshadow Jake acting pretty childishly next episode. He’s bickering with Ally, presumably still over who is Ashley’s closest comrade. (If the episode starts with everyone waking up in space, I wonder if Ashley and Jake won’t get to have their conversation before the challenge begins.) Given all of the allusions to Among Us, I would really suspect that Ally is going to be an MVP of this particular challenge. Therefore, if the team loses, it would be a direct result of Jake’s insecurities dragging their team down. That kind of behavior, in my opinion, could sway Ashley’s mind.

Ally’s elimination here continues to feel pretty random to me. I know I was wrong when I claimed that Connor wouldn’t go home from the Yellow team because his elimination would be too clear cut… but Ally still feels the same way to me now! It's hard to get around that assumption! Aaaaaaaa!

#6: Grett

Placing Grett ANYWHERE feels bad to me, because, in my opinion, there are mildly compelling reasons for her character to stay or go.

First, my reasons why I think Grett could be eliminated. Mostly, there's just a part of me that feels like she's the most expendable member of the Yellow Team left. Alec, Riya, and Yul still seem like they all have Big Villain Things left to do, and as the least villainous of the quartet, there might not be room for Grett moving forward. As I said before, I can better imagine Yul's character without Grett than Grett's character without Yul.

There are also some other oddities I've been noticing as I've retreaded s1 via Silly Billy's interviews. Grett and Gabby's relationship was, like, really important to S1, and it left off on kind of a bad note. Presumably, if the two of them were ever put onto the same (merged) tribe again, they'd have some sort of notable reaction to each other. But, to my memory, Grett and Gabby haven't interacted this season at all. Are they just saving any turbulence the two of them might have for once they actually hit the same beach? Or does the fact that no Gabby/Grett plotline has been set up imply that they never will have any notable content together?

On the other hand, there are my reasons why I think Grett would stay. Although I do think that a Grett-less Yul still makes more sense, I do think that the particular situation that Grett is in right now could lead to a more interesting predicament for her. After axing Connor, the Yellow Team is comprised only of villains. That means, if they have to vote someone out, the villains' alliance will have to cannibalize one of their own. If Grett does turn the tide of the vote against Yul, she would be in a really interesting position with the rest of the villains. She's kind of turned against them by voting out her own boyfriend, but it would only be with their consent that he was taken down in the first place. In a merge scenario, does she explore alliances with potentially hostile outsiders, or does she stick with the treacherous villain's alliance?

The bigger thing is that I just don't really think that there are the numbers for a Grett elimination right now. Yul had way more of a chance of throwing votes on Grett when 1) Connor could be down to vote for anyone who wasn't him, and 2) he could appeal to any desire Alec and/or Riya had to save Connor to sway their votes. Now... why the hell would Alec and Riya decide that they want to work with Yul over Grett? Other than "entertainment," anyways. Now that the target on S1 girls' backs has shrunk a little, I feel better about Grett's longevity. But, I still don't feel confident either way, so she winds up in the top half... barely.

#7: Riya

Riya, too, could go both ways. Her newfound friendship/alliance with Alec implies some further content for her. However, Riya did get a lot of time to "shine" (subject to viewer opinion) in S2, so her run could be coming to a close soon. Her selfish attitude certainly hasn't changed, so if something happened to make Alec grow sick of her, the other three could unite against her.

Something that I think gives Riya the edge over Grett, at least, is that she does have a relationship with someone on another tribe that could be expanded upon later: Aiden. In the first episode of All Stars, Aiden and Riya fight, and she shoves him off the plane. That easily could just be for laughs, or to show off a rivalry that's too potent to sweep under the rug, but it could also be setup for the pair clashing once again in All Stars.

But, in the end, I think a Yellow vote would come down to the Alec/Riya and Yul/Grett pairs clashing, with Riya and Yul on the chopping block for elimination due to being the looser cannons. So, between Riya and Grett, I put Riya lower.

#8: Yul

As you can see, I had a really hard time distinguishing between Riya and Yul. Grett, too— all of them have somewhat compelling reasons for being kicked out, but nothing so concrete that it makes me say, “now THAT’S the next boot.” I just have to hope that Yellow isn’t going to tribal next, which… I think will be the case? Maybe? Who knows.

While I do think that Yul will be a major villain of the season, there’s still a decent change that that role will be reserved for solely Alec, Ellie, or both of them. The rule of threes could come back to bite Yul if, now that he’s used the earpiece twice, the third time leads to his elimination. And, he is really unliked, so I would understand why the other villains would choose to eliminate him.

One interesting possibility I thought of would be if Alec and Riya and Grett and Yul refuse to turn on each other, resulting in a tie vote. Yul was involved in a tie vote in S2, where he beat Maggy in rock paper scissors to stay in the game. It would be kind of poetic if Yul was thrown into a tiebreaker again, and lost this time. That’s why I put him below Riya. But, on the whole, I don’t THINK Yul is going home. Probably…? This power ranking is a mess.

#9: Jake

My lowest non-Cyan entry. I suppose that, despite all the fussing, I’m still thinking that their large group must be the next to cut a number. But we’re not here to talk about Cyan, we’re here to talk about Magenta! And Jake, who could be doing something… troublesome in the next episode.

Despite the leaps and bounds he’s been making in the communication department (which I’m honestly so proud of him for), Jake’s biggest flaw still is and will be his jealousy and insecurity. It’s what put him in hot water with Aiden, it’s quite possibly what drew Tom away from him in the first place, and it’s what’s causing him now to want to fight with Ally for Ashley’s affections. If, as I said before, his flaws are directly causing the team to lose, he might get cut.

Granted, it would be a little weird to cut Jake before he learns that Tom was lying (assuming Tom was). However, that COULD still be resolved at a later point with Jake either on the sidelines, fighting to get back into the competition, or in the fabled Loser's Motel episode (assuming Tom has been eliminated by that point as well). Because Aiden also heard Tom's lies, Tom can still suffer the consequences of his actions with Jake gone.

Despite all this, I think the season would be better with Jake's continued involvement in it, so I hope he doesn't go out next episode. The curse of the #9 slot is... just a superstition, right...?

#10: Ellie

Is this just because I’m salty that I put her in last twice and she still hasn’t gone home yet? Well, maybe a little bit. But also, the fact that she HASN’T been eliminated, and has continued to do more villainous things (especially towards Jake) each episode, has started to sway me to believe that she might be in it for a longer haul. Would they really need this much build up to justify Ellie as a pre-merge boot?

Because, like, they’re putting SO MUCH FOCUS into her being a villain. Her negative arc could get cut off now, but it would mean that all of that time spent showing her tormenting Jake specifically would have no bearings on her elimination, because Jake can't be involved in her vote right now.

I still think that Ellie will be eliminated on the sooner end, but I now kind of think that she might be the first boot after the merge. Then, everyone that Ellie has wronged (who is still in the competition) can band together to send her packing. That would also be even juicier on Gabby's end (assuming she is still in the competition), because it would hammer in that everyone is against her.

For Ellie to be eliminated as the merge boot, she has to survive this episode, which is why I moved her up a little from the bottom. However, I can still obviously see why Ellie could be eliminated now, so she doesn't stray too far from the bottom.

#11: Aiden

Surprised to see Aiden this low? Me too, kind of. The reason he's this low has to do with a specific scenario that I think could happen next episode, so bear with me as I get a bit more conspiratorial than usual in these power rankings.

So, the challenge is probably Among Us tasks, right? But, we saw the paper that Tom read in the arcade, which might be an advantage. So, something that I believe might happen next episode is that Ellie and Gabby will abandon their team to go advantage hunting in the arcade, and their lack of participation will cause the Cyan Team to lose. With Ellie clearly playing for herself, both in the villain's alliance and in the arcade, she's the obvious target. However, if Ellie manages to find an immunity totem, she could save herself. And, if she did, who would go home other than her biggest target, Aiden?

I really love Aiden as a comedic force in this season-- the way that he's just chilling and having fun despite all the drama always makes me laugh-- but he doesn't have a whole lot to do other than be an obstacle between Jake and Tom. I'm worried that the conversation with Jake as shown in the trailer could be a bad sign for him. Unlike Jake and Ally, Jake and Aiden weren't shown to be super hostile with one another, which means Aiden might hearing Jake out here. If he did, I could see Aiden feeling sympathy for Jake after hearing more of his side of the story, and some of the worse things that Tom has done. That could close their chapter of hostility while leaving Tom and Jake to now sort things out on their own.

Another thing that's made me feel more iffy about Aiden's chances was learning that the reason why James may have been eliminated early (and maybe not done Patreon reads) was just because his voice actor was super busy. If that's the case, then I'd really doubt that James would be coming back as a returning competitor, which would mean Aiden doesn't have that "shield" anymore. Furthermore, I hadn't really thought about what would happen after James and Aiden were back in the game together. Assuming they don't both make the final 3 again, one or both of them would need to be eliminated at some point. But, like, how? When? I think (and hope) that Odd Nation Cartoons wants to keep the Jaiden relationship sacred, which means that the two of them would kinda just be enjoying the competition together. That's really sweet, but it's 1) an in-universe threat to the other players, and 2) not that juicy for out-of-universe viewers. Honestly, I wouldn't be too surprised if they both got canned in a double elimination not long after James returned. But, is that really what they would want from their returning player?

I dunno, I'm probably thinking about this too hard in both directions. Aiden could still have a bright future ahead of him even if James doesn't return, and he could also be eliminated without all that totem nonsense if Tess simply chose to side with Gabby and Ellie. I think there's a definite possibility for a surprise Aiden boot, though, so he's a lowly sacrificial lamb. Even he thinks he's going to die, soooo...

#12: Gabby

I... really don't have a justification for this one in terms of game mechanics. It just feels like the right vibes to me? Gabby is the player that I can most easily see a merge without, so now she's at the bottom.

Like I said back at Grett, the fact that Grett and Gabby's relationship hasn't really been expanded upon could be bad for both of them. I'm once again back to thinking that the slight erasure of Gabby's more negative traits could be to make her a more well-liked unfortunate exit. I'd prefer it if the writers took her in more of the woman scorned direction, but, is that really going to happen...?

Returning to the totem scenario, I do think that has a chance to take out Gabby as well. If Gabby and Ellie made it really obvious that they found some sort of advantage (by being absent from completing tasks), Aiden, Tom, and Tess could secretly switch their vote to Gabby and make Ellie burn her idol on herself in a tribal where she gets to votes. It's the potential for that poetic cinema-- Gabby played her idol on Ellie to save her in S1, but Ellie doesn't play her idol on Gabby to save her in S2-- that makes me really like this possibility, unlikely as it may be. Similarly, I like how it eliminates Gabby, who thus far appears to be a less important character this season than Ellie, while still having the other three Team members intend to target the logical biggest threat. They just can't do it directly, in this scenario.

But, still, I don't like putting Gabby in last place just because of one kind of cool scenario I thought of, hinging on a totem that may or may not be in play. The thing is, I just have a hard time thinking that we're about to lose anyone at this point. Everyone feels so important!

And, honestly, this preview confused me so much that I could really see anyone Tess downward going home and not be too surprised about it. That's scary when it comes to making this ranking. I might take a point hit this week, but... maybe I also nailed it! I'm very excited to see where this episode takes us. Thanks for reading!

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