#vs survivor which is really really really fucking funny but also a little weird and sexist tbh like no one else exists as survivor like tha

[oswednesday]

Does Dead By Daylight Hate Women?

yes if augustine ends up a playable victim

no if she ends up as a new menu npc

[ladyloveandjustice]

so, now that i feel mildly better enough to write about it, I did indeed see Justice League.

It was...it was better than the Superman movies and BVS. And Suicide Squad. Definitely watchable. Not spectacular but there were only a few scenes where i was like “ugh this is taking too long”, the ending actually went by pretty quickly.

But did have a very forced patchwork feeling of two movies smashed together (which it was, considering the reshoots). I mean ya wanna talk about tone problems. On one hand we had somber dark and edgy BVS type stuff on the other hand it was incredibly cheesy! so cheesy! and I like cheesy! but this cheese kinda felt really forced- if you’re going cheesy you need to go the whole hog. own the shit out of it. this movie didn’t quite make it.

They definitely made an effort to revert Superman to Superman Classic. Apparently dying and coming back to life makes you like 1000% more cheerful everyone should try it. And I like what they were going for but I don’t think Henry Cavill can quite pull it off. yet. i mean maybe he’ll get used to it, it was a major tone shift for him. It doesn’t come off a genuine “aw shucks” thing like it should for Clark it felt...forced and a little condescending. Supergirl’s Superman, in contrast, was a lot more of a natural at it. But yeah, maybe he’ll get used to it. Points for trying.

the absolute worst part was the Superman is OUT OF CONTROL RAGEZOMBIE BACK FROM THE DEAD fight vs everyone else like it dragged so long and we all knew exactly how it would we know he’ll beat up everyone we know Bruce will get Lois and love will cure everything just got STOP WE DON’T NEED THIS JUST GET ON WITH THE MOVIE

actually the worst part was the villain, a very generic evil it was absolutely impossible to care about them fighting at all like it was even worse than Suicide Squad and that is saying a LOT

they...definitely tried for some Bruce/Diana sexual tension and i was definitely not here for it like oh god can you just not arbitrarily pair Diana up with one of them always can DC stop. 

speaking of Diana she was one of the better parts of the movie, as expected, her actress has a good presence and all that. 

of course the movie had to comment on how HOT she was ALL THE TIME though.  (oh god the bikini armor on some of the Amazons was the worst even worse that i expected)

I do like that Bruce seemed to recognize she should be the one leading the team because YEAH. GLAD YOU’RE ON TOP OF THAT CHUM. And her feeling uneasy about being in the spotlight because of survivor’s guilt over Steve and not wanting another death on her conscience that made...kinda sense i guess. Her arc of getting comfortable with her status as a leader and inspirational figure again after being a behind the scenes hero for so long was nice in some parts. The fact that Bruce of all people called her on it...not so much, but I’m glad the rest of the team was basically like “wow Bruce stfu” and he said sorry. (Cyborg’s “SO ANYWAY WHILE BATMAN WAS BEING AN ASSHOLE I WAS DOING ACTUAL IMPORTANT THINGS” comment was good, that’s my dude right there) (Barry’s “you know if she kills you, we’ll all be on her side” comment to Bruce- how I feel about every Bruce v Diana conflict ever. )

For Barry he was likeable...but he fell heavily into the overdone “funny-autistic-streotype-but-we’re-not-gonna-say-it” bit for me. like. am i out of line here? it was the whole “I don’t understand people what is brunch” speech that pushed it over for me, but idk. it was very weird, and like a lot of the movie, sometimes felt forced.

Cyborg! He was there! He was definitely 80s comic mega-angst “I HATE U DAD” Cyborg which made sense as the Accident had literally just happened and as the movie went on you kind of saw his personality emerge a little- complete with the “boo-yah” thrown out there for us cartoon fans. When a review complained about it i was like “how dare u for once that is something from these movies that caters directly to me” but wow it was delivered immediately after they defeated the bad guy very dramatically so i can see why it stood out to that reviewer so much.

 I did think the angle of him hearing weird languages in his head and not knowing what the fuck’s happening made the whole “AM I MAN OR MACHINE” angst a little more relevant. The whole “I’M NOT HUMAN” bit has a bit of a different context now than in the 80s with tech being more accepted, so that was probably needed.

He unfortunately wasn’t terribly memorable, though I did like the “we’re both accidents” bonding moment with Flash and how Diana immediately seemed to decide she was his big sis. 

Aquaman...probably shoulda been in it interacting with the others more? The whole vibe he had going could have really worked if they spent more time establishing it and him, but they didn’t, so it...once again...felt kinda forced. I did like that his Mom seems to be the key component to whatever his backstory is though. Well at least ONE male hero’s mom apparently gets to be the complicated heroic figure he has a weird relationship and doesn’t understand instead of like. just. dead.

There were a lot of parts of the movie that would have worked better if i hadn’t seen the movies preceding them. like Bruce’s whole “WE NEED CLARK” and “HE WAS SO IMPORTANT” and “HE WAS MORE HUMAN THAN ME” and “YES I THINK WE SHOULD BRING HIM BACK FROM THE DEAD WITH THIS THING WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT WORKS SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN” like...you didn’t even know him Bruce. you guys measured your dicks for twenty minutes and then teams up for two minutes you had no chance to get to know each other. and nah, he actually was equally as annoying and broody and cold as you! You’d know that if you’d ACTUALLY EVER TALKED. 

also the opening montage of “THE WORLD IS LOST NOW THAT SUPERMAN WAS DEAD” he was only around for TWO MOVIES guys, he spent MOST OF THOSE MOVIES IN WEIRD FIGHTS WITH ALIENS DESTROYING MAJOR CITIES like the previous movies really did not do anything to establish he was this essential to the world’s hope. In fact the entire last movie was about how the world didn’t really like him all that much.

(especially painful was those white guys yelling at the Muslim lady and that was supposed to be connected to Superman being dead somehow? BIGOTRY ONLY EXISTS BECAUSE SUPERMAN DIED GUYS. IF HE’S ALIVE BIGOTRY IS OVER.)

I think another thing that held the movie back was they basically had to establish half the team. Cyborg’s origin was actually plot relevant (but still didn’t feel fleshed out enough), but for Flash and Aquaman it was very casually thrown in our faces and yeah. Just felt messy.

anyway.

it could’ve been worse. it could’ve also been a lot better. i dunno guys. i really want DC to get their act together, and i know there were a lot of tragic issues with this one. but at this point their only solid offering has been Wonder Woman. It’s...looking grim.

[survivormagictreehouse]

Episode #4: “I am definitely sobbing 24/7” -Gavin

-okay so dan left eight to one a real... how you say... zzz. and then birch activates the earthquake and gives us... the best swap... ever...? i say us i mean ME so anyway the swap gives me... my alliance members of vi/collin/ruthie which YES. we already are half the tribe eat it UP. then i have cindi who im close to, who im also in a second game with rn. which BAM, and also... og tribe majority mmmmm delicious. THEN from the other tribe i get. BODHI who im also close to outside of this, and am also in another game with rn (where im about to vote to keep him in so woo we love  building trust...?). then i have rachael who is a sweetheart and TIMMY. ONE OF MY OLDEST ORG FRIENDS HELLOOO. this swap is kind of... too... good? all the people i'd wanna vote out are on the other tribe so the MO rn is to just sweep challenges ideally? thats the agenda. because rn the ones i want gone are birch/keegan/zachary/gavin... all of whom are on the other tribe. so we better get to winning even tho it might be bad for austin/jay if we do (but maybe timmy would go first idek)

-okay so... we just won jeopardy? that challenge truly had me weighing up and considering literally fighting a child because that zach is half child prodigy, half robot he was literally bodying the challenges... BUT THEN WE WON ASFJDKSAL. we literally just went for broke on the final jeopardy and it came THROUGH. im so so happy because i want all of my swap tribe at merge, they are all people i want to stick around so even one tribal would be a disaster. i think timmy might unfortunately be screwed just because jay/austin are really connected. also the annie tribe is probably gonna lose... another og tribe member. but HONESTLY what can you do. this is good for my longterm survival anyway hopefully they turn inwards and get rid of one of OG Jack even though its probably unlikely KJFLSAD.

-well, to start out, i am sorry this is later than anticipated. however, what matters is that i am doing it now... right? ANYWAYS... onto the confessional. i think the main thing i want to talk about this round, is the brilliant move i orchestrated during that challenge that gave us the win... and the fact that i got NO CREDIT FOR IT. OKAY Y'ALL... I SEE YOU. but anyways, i think it is clear that i am basically a mastermind. however, what really matters is that we won... so GO TEAM (me)! following the challenge this round i was added into an alliance chat planned by keegan and zach with rachael and myself. so, when jess wasn't included, i obviously had to go talk to her and subtly expose that alliance... and funnily enough, keegan added jess to alliance with birch! FUNNY. so, we basically figured out that keegan is trying to play everyone and anyone he can--which will definitely be useful information going forward. overall this round, i think i really strengthened some key bonds with birch and rachael specifically. i was on call with rachael for 5 hours straight and talked about personal things with birch for about an hour. so, i honestly feel pretty good going forward. and on the bright-side, if things start to look like they're going south, i always have that idol in my back pocket. until next time... xoxo, gossip girl.

-well, to no ones surprise... we swapped. AND I WAS SEPARATED FROM MY RACHAEL. i’m not crying... (jk, i am definitely sobbing 24/7). but on the bright side, i at least have jess with me. unfortunately due to zachs poor math skills, we lost the challenge that should have been an easy win for us given our lead going into the final jeopardy... but gavin is not bitter. so, unfortunately, we have to go to tribal with a brand new tribe. on the bright side, it seems to be looking in OG jack’s favor numbers wise, so i don’t particularly feel like i am in danger. however, you never know what could happen at tribal council. so, if worse comes to worse, i will have my idol ready to play—but i am hoping it doesn’t come to that. it appears as though austin or jay will be leaving—which is perfectly fine with me (even if i want keegan to go sooner rather than later, it’s best not to make any unnecessary waves right now. so i will continue to let him become a bigger target and try to take charge and snake as he does... and we will go from there.

https://youtu.be/R3zDNJfI3Pc

https://youtu.be/4QKj_KZhhCE

-I....am upset. You put me on a tribe with little cutie Gavin and then RIPPED HIM AWAY. I am beyond upset. I am outraged. SWAP US BACK COWARDS. Can't wait for the next earthquake to hit so we can be reunited. I miss him so much. He still sends me tiktoks though so thats cute. we are watching Hamilton together on Friday and I am so excited.

-It’s 1:02PM and I still miss Gavin.

-It’s 5:14 pm and I still miss Gavin. Hope he doesn’t go home, but I won immunity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So I forced a swap. yay! I also exiled myself, mainly to keep myself safe cause fuck getting voted out, Am I right? So I don't really have anything to report on. uhhhh, yeah. Go everyone!! 

-When your tribe mates don't listen to your wager advice and you lose the challenge :))))))))))))))))))))))))

-So a swap happened so that's fun.... I can't even lie I  have swap PTSD from my last Survivor. I was swapped into the minority, rocked myself out with an idol for a souvenir. THAT BEING SAID... This swap worked out for me! I think? At least for now? If I didn't have Gavin with me I'd be extremely worried but because I do believe he has an "in" with the bro's Keegan/Zach aka: a duo... I'll at least know if they are up to some shady shit. I also got Chips! SO PARTY. I'm really thankful we got a swap because I don't know if I would have survived a couple of votes on my previous tribe. I wasn't necessarily "in" with people. So a swap was welcomed but I was also scared shitless. This swap has really opened the door for me/Zach? I don't trust him the slightest BUT at least we have some sort of dialogue right now compared to the crickets we were exchanging on OG JACK. This swap also broke up the "alliance" of Zach, Rachael, Keegan...and Gavin. So now they'll need to find a replacement Rachael and I know I'm not as pretty as Rachael but maybe I'll fill the female quota in that alliance? Chips has opened up a LOT to me so far. We've exchanged idol searches but he feels on the bottom of that "alliance" and I don't blame him. I just don't know where we go from here after this vote. He flips? to Jay? Maybe a Jay/Chips/Keegan/Zach majority? He wants me to flip to a Chips/Jay/Timmy/Majority? I have no idea. We also get Birch next round! I do enjoy Birch so much but that's a number for Keegan and that makes me un-easy. Keegan is easily my biggest threat so far. Next round could potentially be a 6.vs. 2 majority and it can't be THAT simple. I'm going to focus on winning... I guess? I'm really enjoying Timmy so far even though he's given me a few red flags or I'm being lied to hardcore. Austin told me he had a vote reveal however, why would Timmy tell someone who he has said "treated him badly" about a power? So either Timmy is playing me or Austin is playing me. Either way they both can go?! Timmy gives me such weird vibes. I want to trust him but I also think he's going to be a super cut-throat player down the line and that SCARES ME.

Ok.....with the swap that happened and us losing immunity I really feel my game is over. Which really sucks bc i wanna work with ppl like keegan jess jay chips and zach but I dont feel most of those ppl wanna work with me.  I'm not gonna give up tho . I'm gonna try talking and making deals and doing what I can to save myself.  It's not over til tribal and I have plenty of time. Pleaseeeee atomic gods let me make it through this one vote 

Me never remember what my last confessional was about? The title of my autobiography. So, we swapped which is super unfortunate but the tribe I got swapped into has a majority OG Jack members. JESS, ZACH, GAVIN, CHIPS and myself against JAY, TIMMY Z and AUSTIN. And then we lose the challenge because math is apparently impossible? Like ZACH either threw the challenge on purpose or he’s just the worst person at math. Either way, we’re going to tribal tonight. The current plan is to stay tribe strong and vote out an OG Annie which is fine by me. JAY is saying he wants to work with me because we’re both previous winners which is a good point. But I’ve got some solid alliances already and I don’t want to mess those up this early into the game. As far as I can tell right now, the plan is to split votes between JAY and AUSTIN with AUSTIN being the primary target since he’s pretty bad at challenges and isn’t likely to work with us down the line. TIMMY apparently spilled the beans about a six person alliance that didn’t include himself or CINDI, so we’re trying to keep him safe and pull him in as a number for the future. Who knows what will happen though. There’s idols to worry about which is why we’re trying to split the vote. 

This tribe swap makes me so happy because I vibe with these people so much better and it gives me a new chance in this game to fix my activity level. On top of that, we are safe!!! Another round of not having to go to tribal is a good round for me. Who knows why the Annie tribe only wagered $3,000 because that made absolutely no sense but I’m not complaining. Overall, A+ round!

So this round, i find myself swapped into a tribe of people that are so much better then my old tribe. I was on the outs of that 6 person alliance and I am sure I would have been the next to go for sure. I get a really good vibe off of zach and jess, plus gavin and keegan are cool too. Not to sure about Chips but I have to put my trust in these people for the mean time. As for the challenge, we lost and i knew I was going to vote with the old Jack tribe. We plan on splitting the votes 3 vs 3 with austin and jay voting whoever. Of course in true them style, the moment they found out it was them, they threw me under the bus immediately. Hopefully everything goes as planned tonight and Austin goes home, if not it is going to be me. I have had good convos with people tho and hope that can get me through this tribe.

Well this swap completely sucks. In the complete minority, someone sold out the alliance to Timmy so I doubt he trusts me anymore. I just tried to be honest with him so he'd see me in a better light and I hope it worked. Beyond that, we lost the challenge and I think my head is on the chopping block. Earlier today Chips came and told me that he's pretty sure the votes are coming down on me and they're gonna tell me Austin to fake me out. And you know, that's probably true because Zach, Keegan, and Gavin have all told me it's Austin. What troubles me is that Chips doesn't seem to have a plan otherwise even though it seems like he wants to do something else. So once Zach told me it's Austin, I had more of a chat with him. He really seems to not want me to go anywhere, which is hard not to believe. Either he's telling me the truth or he's a fantastic liar. Same with Keegan, even though I think it's in both of our best interests to work together going forward. At this point it's clear that it's gonna split between Austin and myself so i worry if I don't vote Austin then I'm just automatically out. Shits really hard in the game right now and all I want is to survive another day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25eKaudnTmA&feature=youtu.be

https://imgur.com/31jZcmF

I am finally not at the bottom. My original tribe has minority and I have prior existing relationships with 2/3 of the og Jack tribe. Plus I have bodhi, whom I absolutely love, on my tribe. I am happy. 

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Click HERE to watch the Round 4 Cast Assessment!

[mesaprotector]

Completed NDRV3/Danganronpa V3! Going to ramble on for a few many paragraphs under the cut (spoilers for the whole franchise, obviously).

Overall I really, really liked this game. It made me really mad at times, some of which was the controls (first time playing the game myself vs. watching a no-commentary subbed playthrough - side note, I think the second is just as immersive). The ending, as for the last two main-line games, blew my mind. The only thing that makes me sad is that there most likely won’t be another.

Characters

Going to have to think about it, but I think I like the cast as much as I did that of DR1 and SDR2. Going to go in death order on my feelings (it’s easiest to remember).

Rantaro: Will have to watch his free-time events to decide more, since the past two games each had characters dying in the first chapter (Mukuro, the Imposter) who were really cool once you learned more about them. Despite being the SHSL Survivor he felt a bit bland. Moving on.

Kaede: Oh god where do I start. I’ve written two whole posts (one last week, one way back in April) about how much I fucking love this girl. How goddamn brave, charismatic, and honorable she was. I’ve heard that some people wish Shuichi had been the one to sacrifice himself instead of her, or that her case had come later, and while I with all my heart would have loved having more Kaede, the way things happened was the only way that would have made narrative sense. Monokuma’s always had the hardest time, in every single killing game, getting someone to commit the first murder. Hell, even Korekiyo and Kokichi didn’t try to kill anyone though they could have escaped scot-free; that’s a testament to Kaede’s leadership ability. Rest in fucking peace, girl.

Hoshi: Really like him. Thankful that the little dwarf guy was a really cool, stoic character and a good person, and man was his motive video sad. I know what it’s like to have nobody you really care about (not now, thankfully, but in the past). 

Kirumi: Not sure how I really feel about her. The whole “prime minister of Japan” thing felt contrived (yes, I know I’m not questioning the whole “robot teddy murder bear” and all the other crazy shit that this franchise pulls, but still). She’s supposed to be sympathetic but I don’t find myself having a lot of sympathy for her. Out of all the characters I’m probably least interested in playing her free time events. Mind, I don’t hate her.

Angie: It’s hard to tell with her if she’s just a selfish, manipulative person who used the circumstances of the killing game to give herself more power, or if she genuinely cared about her friends’ lives in her own ditzy, overly pious way. Her behavior in the second trial and trying to throw Himiko under the bus would point to the first one, but I’ll watch her free-time events to decide more. Not one of my favorite characters though.

Tenko: I ended up really, really liking her after the demo made me think she’d only be annoying, and spent more time with her than anyone else in the first two chapters. Her (initially) one-sided obsession with Himiko is better for me than Touko’s fixation on Byakuya, or Kazuichi’s on Sonia, because she actually goes out of her way to genuinely help her friend! And she dies because of it. One of my favorite characters despite her early death (man, is this getting to be a theme in this game).

Korekiyo: Okay, so... I’ll get this out of the way: I like Korekiyo. Yes, he’s a delusionally evil, twisted person who killed one of my favorite characters in Tenko. He has a really neat design though, and a really neat specialty that makes him one of the coolest characters to talk with in the series. He’s un-self-consciously a romantic (in the literary meaning of the word) which is rare in fiction and something I really appreciate. I wish he’d had a slightly different motive for his murder scheme - even something on the level of Celes’s banal evil would have been preferable - in part because part of the fun of the killing game is that the participants aren’t used to killing. Anyway, awful person, really cool character. Moving on.

Miu: This human disaster was one of my favorite characters early on, though she drifted down the list when she never ended up showing much depth. In the fourth trial I found myself wishing they’d touched on her reason for specifically targeting Kokichi in her plan, since she should have known he wouldn’t be an easy target - maybe I just want her to have had some altruistic reason, what with him seeming so evil? Anyway. Might watch her free-time events but I’m guessing they’re mostly her trying to get Kaede or Shuichi into BDSM.

Gonta: Sweet, naive, adorable relationship with Himiko that ended way too soon, surprisingly sharp at times but again, naive. Not much else to say about him. 

Kokichi: I wrote a long paragraph about him in a post a few days ago - a very interesting villain and character, even if he’s not necessarily completely evil. He made me so damn mad from the end of the fourth trial until he’s cleared in the fifth one - laughing at Gonta’s death is a good way to do that though I guess. I see him as a foil to Nagito - Nagito cared a lot about his fellow students and that motivation led him to throw them all under the bus. Kokichi is only self-interested (at least in the simplest possible interpretation) but that motivation led him to nearly save them all. I don’t like him quite as much in part because I relate to Nagito’s morality in a very strange personal way - but he’s still really interesting, especially as a wannabe mastermind who feels safer being hated than being real.

Kaito: I goddamn love the guy. After Kaede’s gone he’s the heart of this group - charismatic, stubborn, illogical, and trusting unconditionally in his friends even after it screws him over. He’s also hilarious in the lengths he goes to just to be lazier. You’ve got Maki doing sit-ups at mach speed, Shuichi struggling just to get to ten, and Kaito staring up at the stars rambling about how great space is. I regret not finishing his free-time events, even it was in favor of Maki’s.

Tsugumi: I don’t even know what to say. Pre-sixth trial she was a somewhat bland but very likable character with a funny habit of calling the others out on their more ridiculous quirks. Afterwards she’s just the mastermind who I can’t even really pin down as having a personality (like the real Junko or Monaca had). Then again, the nature of this game makes her role less important. Like with Korekiyo, I think I have to evaluate her as two separate things for it to make sense.

K1-B0: I can’t say I was that crazy about our morally upright, easily-offended robot, but I definitely didn’t dislike him. (Her? They?) A little bland and the scene with him and Miu in the lab weirded me out. Maybe that’s just what happens when you spend too much time around Miu.

Maki: Now to the survivors. Yeah, she’s something of a Kyouko expy (there are worse characters to resemble), and her plot line and character development isn’t as subtle as it could be, but I still like her. She gets unfairly criticized for being overly violent and impetuous when the only person she was trying to kill was the mastermind (like Kaede); as much as I love Kaito’s optimism, her “less talk, more action” realism very much has its place. I’d want someone like her around in any killing game I got involved in.

Himiko: I’m fairly sure that if there’s anything absolutely every Danganronpa fan agrees on it’s that Himiko is fucking adorable. I honestly didn’t like her very much early on when she’s just being lazy, insisting magic is real, and ignoring Tenko. Then she loses the two people who she was closest to, decides to become a more energetic, honest person, loses another good friend in Gonta, and somehow, at the end of it all, is the most positive person to survive. I was one free-time period short of finishing her events, but she’s an amazing friend. Her dialogue in the second half of the game makes it clear how many funny observations she makes that she’s just not used to sharing with anybody. I wish her so, so much luck in her post-fiction life.

Shuichi: So... Shuichi is pretty bland. He’s the “worst” protagonist in the series, though that’s with only Kaede (amazing), Komaru (great), Naegi (good), and Hajime (good) to compare to. It’s because he’s bland that I ended up thinking more about the group and the overall outcome of the game, than just about my favorite characters surviving (had Kaede been alive near the end I probably wouldn’t have slept for days). So maybe that was intentional. Still, I wish he’d changed a bit more, and had figured out earlier on that solving trials wasn’t always a good thing. I’m not sure he even really learned that lesson. Despite all this, he would have been an okay side character and is okay as a protagonist - just no more than that.

The Ending

I don’t know what overall feeling is towards the ending, but I think nobody can say they expected it. I’ve played a couple of other games that focus on the player or audience forcing the characters to participate against their will (Save the Date! is amazing if you have a couple of hours), though there’s some weirdness in this version since the way I understood it... they had real people who voluntarily chose to have their memories erased to participate in a killing game in which people actually die. Which would be less about the moral responsibility of the player and more about what the self is. Do you have any right to choose what a person in your body, but with different memories and personality - will do? Danganronpa V3 takes the side of “no - this person is not you” and Tsumugi doesn’t even try to argue against that point. 

The series always had a lot of social commentary (more in the first game than in the second, especially if you watch Monokuma Theatre over again), and that becomes even more true in this installment. So... did I “like” the ending? You can interpret the ending as saying you aren’t supposed to like it. It met my expectations in being mind-blowing and pretty coherent, but I wouldn’t say it made me as happy as with the endings to the first two games. Still, the epilogue with Maki, Himiko and Shuichi staring out at clearest blue as a beautiful track plays - that came pretty close.

Aesthetics

Speaking of which, the soundtrack. I really liked... what is it, “Living in a Lazy Parallel World” that comes up often when plot twists are starting to happen? (Kinda like the memetic “New World Order” though that track is mostly for positive developments rather than negative ones.) 

There was also a cool track with a voiceover in English that came up whenever the Monokubs showed up. (To go on a tangent, I ended up actually liking them for the most part. Helped that the most annoying one got killed off first.) YOU’RE ON THE THRESHOLD OF AN AMAZING ADVENTURE -

Now, the art. I appreciated the game returning to a more claustrophobic closed environment like that of the first game (though nothing beats DR1 in atmosphere), and the design of many of the rooms, like Korekiyo’s, made me want to actually visit. I felt there were far more drawn cutscene panels than in previous games, which I definitely didn’t mind. 

Gameplay

I lied; I won’t talk that much about gameplay except to say the last Mass Panic debate with Keebo was actually impossible until I figured out you could access the casino from the menu. Also, the A and S keys switched around a lot but I dealt with it.

I didn’t figure out how to use the Love Key, but maybe it’s for some bonus mode after the game. In one save I tried giving it to Maki (the only person I had five fragments with) and she really liked it but nothing happened. 

Tl;dr

I’ll have to think about how I end up feeling about the ending, but for now I’m putting this game a few notches below DR1, and a smidge above SDR2. At the very least it’s the main reason I’ve gotten four hours of sleep per night this whole WEEK. I have no idea how I’m still standing up. Maybe it’s the power of rejecting both hope and despair~

[borisbubbles]

SURVIVOR: GAME CHANGERS Review

I only saw “Worlds Apart” again as a prelude to the latest season, which I hadn’t seen just yet. Keeping in the theme of self-parody, or so it would seem, this latest season was called “Game Changers” and reinforced its titular promise by... casting a bunch of randoms and like... seven legendary players? My personal pet theory the season was meant as a fanwank dedicated to the AWFUL (um, spoiler) Ciera “BIG MOVES!!” Eastin but then she was booted first, WHOOPS!!!!

I only saw “Worlds Apart” again as a prelude to the latest season, which I hadn’t seen just yet. Keeping in the theme of self-parody, or so it would seem, this latest season was called “Game Changers” and reinforced its titular promise by... casting a bunch of randoms and like... seven actually legendary players? My personal pet theory the season was meant as a fanwank dedicated to the AWFUL (um, spoiler) Ciera “BIG MOVES!!” Eastin but then she was booted first, WHOOPS!!!!

“Game Changers” turned out perfectly average in the end. As one might expect from a season with that name, it focused on The Game a ton, which... meh. The game of Survivor is a combo of social dynamics + basic arithmetic;  no guarantee for entertainment in itself, but a solid frame in which a good cast can shine if allowed to do so. As a subject to model a season of reality television around though... eh, no fanks. The Max Dawsons of the world love hearing about OPTIONS and hypothetical scenarios and blindsides, but not I. 

By investing heavily in The Game, I feel production dropped the ball here: The Game basically always pans out the same way, no matter how many gimmicky twists you throw into the mix. Speaking of which, omg the twists were ridiculous, are you KIDDING me??? The default elimination of Cirie Fields, one of the savviest players to every play Survivor, because she was the only person at tribal council to not possess a grossly overpowered advantage and had relied soley on her own cunning, is definitely a low point in the whole FRANCHISE.

So let me state the obvious truth the producers seem to have forgotten: 

It’s the PEOPLE in that game which elevate it because they are differing factor between seasons. Ergo, what makes them tick should ALWAYS be the main focus. Despite a SHOCKING lack of personable moments (there’s transgate and advantagegeddon but both were awful) personalities did -miraculously- manage to shine and made Game Changers... what’s the opposite of “boring”? Not boring? Acceptable? Cromulent? idk. I consider GC being decent dumb luck for the most part. Still, in a world in which once good shows such as Survivor drift ever closer to Openly Bad Television, we should count our blessings when they come. 

~CAST RANKING~

1. Sandra Diaz-Twine Mana Tribe 15th place

THE QUEEN OF SURVIVOR <3 Explaining Sandra with mere words always sells her short. If you know her, you KNOW why she’s #1. If you don’t, well... acquaint yourself

Sassy latina matron whose entire personality can be summed up by “I don’t give a shit. fuck you, adios” <3 Sandra is just INTENSLY charismatic and personable and even mundane shit, like instructing her minions on who to vote out is funny: "so this is the person i think we should send home and imma tell you why: SIERRA. DAWN. THOMAS.. :)”. <3

I’m secretly grateful she was voted off early though because it meant she was spared the editorial dettol and we finally got to see her unplugged. <3 Foolish men would gun for her all the time, only for her to effortlessly turn the tables on them every single time. It’s weird that despite her legacy, people STILL underestimated her. Of course, this all led to her being despised by the goldfish memory’d fraus. “WHO IS THIS “QUEEN” CAN SHE GO I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER WHO SHE IS” the only person to win Survivor *TWICE*, that’s who! THE QUEEN STAYS QUEEN. 

2. Michaela Bradshaw Mana 7th place

All that Sandra worship, aside, I ALMOST ranked Michaela above her. She -too- is one of my all-time favourite players. Like Sandra, Michaela’s awesomeness is difficult to capture in script; imagine if the entire “Candor” faction from the Divergent universe was distilled into one human being; that’s the Michaela Bradshaw experience in a nutshell.

Great Michaela moments include: 

(1) “TELL MALCOLM YA SEND HIM HOME TOO” (2) “SLIDE TO THE SIDE, SLIDE TO THE SIDE”

(3) Desperately trying and -failing- to control her attitudeface

(4) Stress eating at tribal council, accompanied by the usual attitudefaces:

(5) her strategy to keep Culpepper Culpepper from looking for the HII: michaela: “yo brad, go fish” culpepper: “what do you mean “go fish” is that some sort of metaphor?” michaela: “no... it's a suggestion. go fishing, like go fish. it’s low tide.” culpepper: “..........” michaela: “and bring back fish. at low tide.” culpepper: “............” michaela: “...............................” culpepper: “....................” michaela: “GO FISH!!!! >__<”

On most seasons a Sassy Black Girl With Attitude would be an OTT charicature. On Survivor Game Changers however, she was the ONLY contestant who felt like... a real, complex person, with trivial yet relatable struggles (coping with a resting bitchface, putting too much sugar in your coffee, you know, the sort of little things we all know we shouldn’t do but still do anyway). Survivor as a show doesn’t really do such characters anymore, instead focusing on charicaturizing the people with bigger personalities, and sanitizing the rest. It was great to have a character which broke this tendency, even if it were through sheer happenstance.   

3. Andrea Boehke Nuku tribe 8th place

Pet theory: Andrea was secretly delighted that Zeke turned on her, so she could gun for an obvious jury threat WITHOUT looking like an asshole <3

Seriously, Survivor is known for its comically vitriolic feuds (Sandra vs Jon, Marty vs Jane, Judd vs Margaret, Mike vs Rodney, etc) but especially this one? Andrea was SOOO visceral and bitter in that feud and destroyed him in confessionals (”TERRIBLE GAME MOVE. YOU SUCK AT THIS GAME. I HOPE I SEE YOU NEVER.” is a top 5 voting confesh), shaded him to his face (”PEOPLE AREN’T HUMAN CHESS PIECES”) and then actually got him booted lmao <3 She REALLY hated Zeke for feeling threatened by her stardom (lmfao, okay Andrea LaGrossa) and *I* too really hated Zeke, so it worked for me! 

Andrea is a blatant famewhore, but of the best sort: the one who isn’t fully aware of her own compulsiveness to make moves, not for the sake of her game, but for the sake of her own entertainment. Fortunately for us, she has a pretty good grasp on what “entertaining” involves. <3

After getting Zeke booted, Andrea targeted her friend FirstOfficerSarah, claiming she had never liked her rofl she’s too much, stawwwp.

4. Cirie Fields Nuku 6th place

Cirie’s time on this show was a perfect blend of all her previous arcs: overcoming the physical obstructions of being a self-confessed “couch potato” competing on a Survival show, competent yet interesting strategic ploys, getting screwed over by shitty production twists... wait wut????

I loved her fleshed-out relationships with other contestants. In particular: the Ozzy/Cirie paranoia of “will the other gun for me after what happened eight years ago.... hmm... i don’t think so BUT i’ll gun for them anyway :)”, only for Cirie to be blindsided when Ozzy was booted; her Good Cop/Bad Cop routine with Andrea, her insistence to ALWAYS refer to Sarah as “FirstOfficerSarah” and her secret mentorhood of Michaela. Like Michaela, Cirie’s deep relationships with everyone fleshed her out like a real person, despite several instances of gamebothood. 

I suppose now is the time I address her outrageous exit?

So, Advantagegeddon. Cirie getting default-elim’ed because she didn’t have a Ridiculous, Overpowered Rigged Advantage up her sleeve is absoutely fucking BULLSHIT no matter how you slice it. I have no doubts production was hoping something like this would happen at the Final six, just not to Cirie lol, WHOOPS. It totally backfired and will hurt the franchise, mark my words. Survivor is a social game first and a strategic game second and this meritocratic TREASURE HUNT it’s turning into undercuts its basic mechanics. For it to claim the one person commonly regarded as the best player to never win was just... the worst possible outcome? (or best, if it leads to the number of advantages getting culled in future seasons but i’m not getting my hopes up.)

But there’s always the returnee ouroboros to fall back on. Her and JaredGOD (

) for BVW3 plz.

5. Tai Trang Nuku 4th place

On paper, I shouldn’t care too much about Tai: an idol-finding gremlin who streaks and says weird things and talks about the game a lot... MEH

In practice, holy shit he owns. Sinewy, sixty-year old challenge beast gaysian <3 Tai had the best idol-related storylines in the franchise and his idoling of Malcolm was for sure epic. He instigated Advantageggeddon and as much as the moment itself sucked, the back-and-forth paranoia between him and Cirie leading up to it was great. He talked about The Game a lot, in a mr Hyunh-like voice (lolracist), only to succumb to language barrier-induced confusion and panic. His flakiness also inadvertently destroyed whatever remained Culpepper’s social game, lmfao <3 Mess with Taingel and get electrocuted by the halo!!!

Tai’s non-game related content was pretty great as well. Not everyone can pull of stuff such as “loving chickens” and “streaking” but he did, effortlessly and naturally. Tai setting the chickens loose, only for them to shit all over Cirie <3 Streaking  at the one reward because “MY BOYFRIEND AND I ALWAYS TALK ABOUT GETTING NAKED IN ARKENSAS”. <3 It was fun. I shouldn’t counterpoint this with not-fun instances such as  fake-drunk Debbie (X_X) mooning him at the merge feast, but our collective Dillip ptsd must all bear witness. 

IMMA VOMIT -- Malcolm, Tai, all of us. 

6. Sierra Dawn Thomas Nuku 9th place

Alol I can’t even type out her name without being reminded of how Sandra pronounces it. SYEAH-RAW. DAWWWWWN. TAW-MAS.

I kind of LOVE Sierra and I’m not sure if I can explain it properly. She just... really clicks with me? She’s a fun overdog, a scrappy underdog and a comitted townsperson, which means she’s good in pretty much every situation she’s in. As in World’s Apart, she is a disarmingly normal and relatable person among a cast of crazed goons. In Game Changers, this of course meant production had no clue what to do with her, so they made her a non-entity... except lolwhoops they didn’t because she kept tumbling into relevancy time and time over <3 

After the highest heights of the Double Tribe Tribal (the Kiss may actually be my famo of the season, in fact?

), Sierra hunkered down and wrapped Culpepper around her finger and somehow became the New Sheriff In Town around the merged tribe. An UTR floater from a hated season who was a replacement for Natalie Anderson calling the shots on a season dubbed “Game Changers” <3 I love how this universe functions, sometimes.

7. Troy “Troyzan” Robertson Mana 3rd place

um, i know right? I was TERRIFIED of  Troy “Troyhard” Robertson going into the season. I was SURE his getting owned by an alliance of women would have fed his macho ego and turned him full misogynist in addition to his Wacky Self-Serving Memebase Existence. Instead the Kim ptsd emasculated him and drove him into Queen Sandra’s arms, lol <3

Troy was barely on this show, but bear with me. I’ll take a non-entity with a fun and funny edit (everyone CONSTANTLY coddling him like he was a danger to himself AND others <3) over a potential chauvinist pig. Especially when said non-entity was the ONLY male on the original Mana tribe to cockblock Tony’s all-male, anti-Sandra alliance <3 Early Game Changers truly was Sandra’s Island, y’all.

lmao @ his FTC arguments tho

troy: i wasn’t surprused i made it to the end, because i played a really good game² ^__^ jury: ²[citation needed] troy: uhh i suppose i didn’t, whoops, my bad. *deletes his mental wikia page*

8. Hali Ford Mana 13th place

¯\_(ツ)_/¯  <-- Hali’s entire existence on this season.

You can preeeeetty much c/p my World’s Apart write-up for Hali here. She was once again an endearingly weird random, nuanced slightly differently? She didn’t spend her time fetishing over the constitution or regaling what her fourth and fourtheenth favourite things in life are, but in the neverending game of musical thrones which was Game Changers she was a random townsperson who loathed Brad Culpepper (and Culpepper loathed her too?), which worked me too, I guess.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

hali: “please take culpepper out. i beg you -_-” sandra: “k gurl” jt: “nope” sandra: “...hali?” hali: “u do u, guys ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ”

and then was targeted over residu floaterhood and became collateral damage in Sierra and Culpepper’s Plan To Oust Michaela. Sadly, Michaela and Cirie had already bonded, dooming Hali, who proved too peripheral to be worthy of saving. Oh well, it could’ve been worse (I.E.: Michaela going), I guess.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

9. Malcolm Freberg Mana 17th place

Much like how Sandra going early caused her to shown at the full extent of her sass and pizzazz, so does Malcolm benefit from being booted pre-merge. This was easily his most intrinsically likable appearance; *shockingly* without the otherwise omnipresent Golden Boy Edit blinding us... I wonder whether there’s any correlation???

But yeah Malcolm “at his best” to me is him as an analytic narrator/hapless follower and he provided that. He was the ONLY person to openly gun for Sandra while simultaneously understanding why she’s dangerous (ie: not being like “Sandra won TWICE... that must mean something... right??”): that she just doesn’t give a FUCK about anything but her own survival when push comes to shove <3

But we’re mostly here because of Malcolm’s reaction to being idoled out. You know, taking your exit with grace is one thing, but Malcolm is hilariously bad at losing with dignity and thank goodness he is. His reaction to losing the IC in Philippines after fumbling his rigged advantage is my fave non-Abi, non-COOKIES?? moment of that season, ngl. If defeat was a picture, it would look like this:

FWD to this season: "IMMA VOMIT!!!" & “JT IS NOT GETTING A CHRISTMAS CARD, KID COULDN’T KEEP HIS STUPID MOUTH SHUT *supernovas during final words*" hysterical.

10. Sarah Lacina Nuku Sole Survivor

For someone who is fundamentally boring, FirstOfficerSarah had several good moments. I mean, her “last time, I played like a cop, this time I play like a *CRIMINAL*” was the superobvious impetus to kick the Generic Winner Arc into motion, so I happily zoned out of most of the Sarah content... only to be pulled in by a random, unexpected fun moment at the turn of a dime???

“MOST PEOPLE CAN’T TELL WHETHER THE LICENSE PLATE THEY’RE DRIVING WITH IS OUT OF DATE ON SIGHT... *raises hand* I CAN ^__^” A+ Coach refs <3. 

Other things I enjoyed: the way she handled her Vote Steal Advantage (this game had too. many. fucking. advantages.), pawing it off to Cirie, only to be like “welllll actually it’s non-transferable, it says so at the bottom, ... so... can you give it back now? I plan on using it tonight :)” holy crap stone cold.  <3 And the breakdowns. The breakdown DURING Transgate, interrogating Varnercunt about his vile behaviour while calling out all the inconsistencies in his story <3 her breakdown AFTER Transgate, concluding Zeke Smith is the best (only) transgender she ever met in her life <3 Her breakdown AT the family visit upon seeing her.. idk... hubby? boyfriend? whatever Wayne is <3

In conclusion, Congratulations, Sarah, you were an acceptable Boring Gamebot Winner!! That being said, the memory of her becomes ever more distant, akin to a tumbleweed rolling downwind in the desert...

11. Tony Vlahos Mana 19th Place

BAI TONY!!! :) SAY HI TO CIERA FOR ME!!! :) The knowledge that Tony didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell in going far made him far easier to stomach this go around. This was of course aided by his own obnoxious machinations; for ex: Upon landing at Mana beach he immediately (immediately.) brayed “IMMA LOOK FOR THE IDOL, SEE YA!!!! LOLOLOLO” and darted in to the jungle. <3 Psychotic, bellowing monsterbeasts are so much better when everyone’s in on the joke. Sadly, Tony then OF COURSE had to show is ass by turning on Queen Sandra *sigh*. Oh well, at least we know who won that battle. It also had the added bonus of making TROY situationally funny: Troy catching him in the act of digging out his “Spy Bunker” and making Tony explain why he’s all frantic and covered in dust and debris. <3 and when Tony tried rallying all of the men against Sandra, Troy REFUSED because he was already tucked under her sassy wing. WILL THE SANDRA OWNAGE EVER END???? 

12. Aubry Bracco Mana 5th place

I really like Aubry as a human!!! kick-ass aspergers princess <3 but she was barely on this show when you reflect on it. She had a token confessional every ep to narrate the strategic events to which she was tangentially related. Not bad, but in terms of personal development it’s nothing.

Her epic anxious aspie self eventually DID emerge at the F7 round buuuuut too little to late. It felt like a hollow non-sequitur to me. “LOOK AT AUBRY BEING AUBRY. :) SEE? :) SAME OLD AUBRY :) NOW THAT’S SETTLED, LET’S GET ON WITH ~THE GAME~ FOREVERMORE” cool storytelling, braz. I also did NOT enjoy the valedictorian Aubry/Probst one-two-punch at the end of every tribal council, trying to pimp ~The Game~ as if it were anything more than baseborn arithmetic. “WOW Aubry :o This Tribal Council has really been GAME CHANGING hasn’t it” “Mhm Jeff, I wonder how much the GAME will CHANGE after the vote :)” x at least half a dozen times, are you f’king kidding me.

13. Brad Culpepper Nuku Runner-Up

Culpepper was perfectly adequate this season. His time amounted to a whole bunch of whitemediocre strategy noises and superawkward sociodynamics that were honestly too awkward to appreciate. Luckily those inherently Not Good qualities were transmuted through the Monica megaphone making them Not Bad :) 

It is enough to colour Brad a very pale chartreuse once put through the red/yellow/green feelings-as-colours prism. He had a handful of quirks (Brad the Interior Decorator <3 “What do you mean, GO FISH??? O_O” <3 Being the Matt von Ertfelda to Troy’s Butch Locksley <3 (wait does that make Sierra the Cesternino? discuss.)) and a few Not Good Moments (browbeating Tai, Michaelousy) 

In the end, it all balances out to neutrality. Brad’s story was a reiteration of his spouse’s, nobody does Monica better but Monica. Not Brad, Monica.

lol I thought I’d have more to say about Brad, but I don’t. Sorry boo. 

14. Caleb Bankston Mana 18th place

Caleb was on this season? Like, not even POKING at his being cast as a “Game Changer”, which is pretty suspect in itself, it actually felt like he wasn’t on S34 at all?

lol what did he even do? umm, he pecked Tai on the cheek once, which... isn’t it precious when douchebro’s try to enforce their bromoerotic routine with an actually gay person, but that’s not how it functions. Bromosexuality with a homosexual is just homosexuality, Caleb, I’m so sorry to tell you [/karajanx]. He also had immediately bonded with his other “bro” Tony (... Brony?) and therefore became a semi-sentient anti-Sandra voice. Still voted Tony off anyway tho lol. 

And then he was swapfucked and used as a human sacrifice to grant Hali Ford just enough good fortune hoodoo to stumble into the merge. Which... is the best outcome I could’ve hoped for. If Hali doesn’t make the merge, Michaela gets voted off at the F13, robbing us of her Cirielliance and “GO FISH”, making this season way worse. So gratz for being the meatshield for another meatshield, I guess!

15. Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth Nuku 12th place

Ozzy was... IMMENSELY boring this time around, yep i’ve said it, dwi. Ozzy’s personality is notable for its basic smugness (</3) and delusional self-entitlement (<3) but neither side showed itself, so why should I bother with whatever bland husk was left behind?

Seriously though, Ozzy solely existed as the physical gestalt of the long-haired, athletic, situationally relevant (citation needed on the last one though) white male who catches fish. Apparently that’s all it takes to be the OVERWHELMING fan favourite (um until Transgate oops) with the fraudience. Jesus fucking Christ, I’ll never understand.

That said, I did enjoy his aforementionned dynamic with Cirie. (“she targets me... she targets me not *picks the petals off an imaginary forget-me-not*”) only to stumble into her side at the merge through their shared Andrealliance. A pity this potentially interesting relationship was whisked out of the spotlight like HvV Colberri was in favour of more STRATEGY TALK. Obladi, Oblada, life goes on~

16. Ciera Eastin Mana 20th place

Ciera is often cited as one of Survivor’s biggest game-changers because she VOTED OUT HER MOM... in a unanimous vote.... that was orchestrated by the opposing alliance for splitting up the last remaining family pair in the game... in which she had no say whatsoever, so she just jumped on the bandwagon. SUCH A “GAME CHANGER”!!!

Since then, Ciera has been retconned as ~The Brains Behind That Operation~ and spends her time haranguing others about MAKING BIG MOOOOOVES like she once "made”. *BARF*

As expected, she *immediately* started off her usual spiel by badgering her tribe mates on day two about BIG MOOOOVES. I don’t even remember whom she targeted. I think Tony and Sandra? Wait, the fact that everyone else was already targeting Tony and Sandra at that point proves that it was :) . It is fortunate she did though because it reminded everyone what an annoying brat Ciera Eastin truly is and nixed her at the first opportunity <3

17. James “JT” Thomas Nuku 16th place

As sure as day follows night, so sure can we be James Thomas Jr. is going to overthink a situation and clown himself if Stephen Fishbach isn’t there to hold him by the hand.

Credit where it’s due, JT instigated one of the best tribal councils ever. JT assuming that Culpepper would vote off Sandra based on sweet nothings and then informing him he was voting Sierra so they could idol Sandra out was “Cersei Reinstitutes the Faith Millitant” levels of accidental self-destruction. It created the pandemonic hellscape we all know and love: The Mana’s dancing on the ashes whilst Sierra bestows the Kiss of Death upon a devastated (understatement) Malcolm; Hali and Aubry’s jaws almost literally dropping to the ground, and JT and Sandra both coming close to tears as both of their plans went hilariously awry. It was EPIC and JT put that in motion.

That said, I find him sooooo smug and Michaelous that I just can’t help but dislike his pillsbury doughboy existence. Like, who cares if Michaela eats too much sugar, you just GOT YOUR ONLY ALLY BOOTED, sit back and eat a slice  humble pie. Luckily Sandra was there to mess with his g-ddamn’ mind, eat the sugar, make him feel safe and then mercilessly slitted his throat while he had an idol in his [proverbial because he didn’t even bring it to TC with him lolol] pocket. And people still wonder why Sandra is the best.

18. Ezekiel “Zeke” Smith Nuku 10th place

Ugh, Zeke.

Now, I understand that Zeke is notionally interesting and even likable as a “transmale who is more than just his gender”, but my first instincts were always to be wary of him. it wasn‘t until Andrea articulated her own reasons for disliking Zeke (um, the non-self-serving one), that I understood why I had disliked him myself.

As a transmale, Zeke wishes to prove he’s more than his transgender status, a plight I sympathize with. However, in doing so, Zeke inadvertantly ruins the seasons he’s on. 

(1) his in-game  personality is really barren and insipid. because Zeke avoided talking about himself or his past beyond what is skin deep, he really only talks about ~The Game~ and *snore*. Who on earth is Zeke Smith? I saw two back-to-back seasons of him and I have no bloody clue. This creates the paradox of Zeke’s transgender status being his most notable trait, by sheer force of being the ONLY ~personal~ thing we learned about him. By ignoring it, Zeke is pretty much no different from like... every other droning gamebot this show has produced.

(2) he actively goes after good people. Zeke’s way of getting the confirmation he craves so desperately is to establish himself as a Big Character/Great Player on a reality tv show. I do believe he’s self-aware enough to realize he doesn’t have the panache of a Sandra or a Cirie or even an Andrea but not self-aware enough to realize/accept he’s too bland to ever fill the rifts left in the space vacuum by their potential exits. In Zeke’s mind’s eye, he WANTS to be a Sandra. Ergo, he constantly targets people (mostly women or beta males) who are superior to him in both intellect and personality... I surely can’t be the only one detecting a Girl-Hating Girl vibe from this sort of playstyle, right???

As for transgate, eh. Definitely a memorable moment and one where I sided with Zeke, but it was epic because of others: Andrea breaking down and sobbing, complete with crodocile tears, Tai SCREAMING hard truths in broken English at a backpedaling Jeff Varner, Sarah pointing out inconsistencies and hypocrisies and being SHELL SHOCKED by her first sentent experiences with a transgender person. Zeke himself though, just stared and sat there doe-eyed, taking a moment to ponder philosophically about his ~metamorphosis~. On a human level the correct way to go about the sitch, on an enterainment level valium incarnate .

Ultimately, Zeke is TOO BORING to truly dislike even, and that’s precisely why I do and must? He’s clearly not made for reality television, he’s too earnest and reserved for a game he doesn’t even play well. Idk, Zeke, you’ll have to do something else for a living. Now, I heard there’s a job vacancy for an LGBT  councillor in North Carolina...

19. Debbie Wanner Nuku 11th place

When it comes down to “Putting Up A Character”, only two things can happen. Either you’re hilarious or horrific. This season Debbie pole-vaulted from the Coach/JFP side of the spectrum over to Corinneville and never looked back.

I refuse to recount any of her many insidious attempts at camera-muggery; they all boiled down to the same tired rhetoric of “AHA! I KNOW NOW MUCH YOU LOVE DELUDED OLD DEBBIE!! WATCH ME SAY SOMETHING DELUSIONAL OR DO SOMETHING CRAZY!!! PLEASE POINT AND LAFF. HA HA HA. I’M SO FUNNEH :)” bitch that shit only works when you DON’T fling it in our faces 24/sevs. I wouldn’t mind if she had any wits or originality about her, but nope, she’s just an arsehole. :)

People claim "Game Changers” ruined her, but, to paraphrase my Bio lecturer after I flunked my internship last year, ultimately it was Debbie who ruined herself, so~

lol this was prolly the shortest write-up of them all too. What an epic character.

20. Jeff Varner Mana 14th place

Ho, boy, it’s time to discuss Transgate, isn’t it? -___- I’m not even going to pretend like Jeff Varner’s presence of this season had any other bearing. Neither am I going to dissertate “Should’ve Known Better” scenarios because Varner - working as he did at an LGBT organization based in NorCar - definitely knew better. 

 Fortunately, none of his tribemates were having any of it. I can’t recap this entry any better than having them do all the work for me. Roll that tape: Varner: “What I’m showing is a Deception-” [nb: um weren’t you a pretend bisexual at the time of S2??] Debbie: "That isn’t a deception in a strategic game, I don’t think so :-/” Varner: “Jeff; I argue for the rights of transgender people on a daily basis in the State of North Carolina. I’m just fighting for my life here. I’m not outing him” Tai: “BUT YOU *ARE* OUTING HIM!!!! YOU JUST OUTED HIM!!!” Varner: “I don’t want people to have this perception I am some evil and horrible person” Andrea: “So... what *was* your goal in doing that, then?” Probst: “so, Jeff, you just equated “keeping your identity hidden” to a full-blown deception... isn’t that a giant leap? Don’t you see that’s kind of really bad?” Varner: “Oh I do see that, I feel bad about it. I support ya, Zeke~” Probst: “Dude, you can’t unring the bell-” Varner: “Imnotunringingthebellimapologizingtozeke” Ozzy: “You should be ASHAMED of yourself :-/ You’re playing with people’s lives at this point.” Varner: “I made a horrible mistake. I really thought he was out and loud and proud about it-” Sarah: “if you thought he was out and proud about it, then why were you making a point that everyone should know?  Varner: “because we haven’t discussed it” Sarah: (talking over him) “Because he’s *NOT* out and loud and proud about it.”

At the end of the gay, he really only cared about not coming off as the Bad Person, which... ouch. There’s no rock bottom to his dignity when a mil is at stake, is there, huh?

[velkynkarma]

I've just read your cool One Piece/Voltron posts, and I was wondering how do you think the rest of the paladins would get along the crew when they came to save Shiro or whatever? (Pidge would would LOVE Franky and Chopper.)

I’m only gonna go into one or two interactions for each paladin, because otherwise I could write a whole essay on character interactions. Even prior to the timeskip there were a LOT of Strawhats, it’d be difficult to write their interactions with each paladin :P Shiro’s been covered here and here, so he won’t be covered extensively in this list.

As a general rule I think most of Team Voltron would get along with the Straw Hats. The Straw Hats are a kind of weird bunch, but I think once team Voltron adjusts to the bizarre physics and powers and generally weird antics of the Straw Hats they’d be okay with them. They’re a generally friendly bunch after all. I think they might have a few ideals barriers at first with the Straw Hats, since they are outlaws and Luffy professes to not want to be a hero, which is kind of what Voltron is all about. But the Straw Hats tend to do heroic things quite often anyway just to help people out because they’re not assholes, so I think they’d get along okay in the end. I can see the paladins getting a little exhausted by the high-energy Straw Hat crew, especially more reclusive characters like Keith, but overall they’d all work well together.Also, the Straw Hats are totally psyched about the entire concept of Voltron, especially Chopper, Franky and Usopp, because they are experts on Giant Interconnecting Robots, naturally. Except Robin. Robin is Not Amused. Or Zoro. Zoro doesn’t remember because he forgot it. On purpose. But I think there are a few team/crew interactions that could be of interest.Hunk and Sanji: Oh my goodness fuck YES. This is the one I would want to see the most. Enthusiastic gourmet with an incredible palette, and professionally trained gourmet chef. I feel like Sanji would try to give Hunk crap at first just like he would for any of the chefs back home, but since Hunk tends to be a little more passive (more like Usopp in general temperament), this might get a little rocky. Sanji’s pretty perceptive though, he’d probably eventually back off and just focus on the one passion they both have, FOOD. I CAN see a major conflict showing up at some point since Hunk has proven to be a bit wasteful of food in the past (he threw some of Sal’s worse offerings around when he didn’t approve, and was 100% involved in the food fight, or the food goo attack), whereas Sanji treats food like it’s sacred. You don’t waste food, period. That might be a point of contention, but I can see Hunk really learning from it, and the two would get along pretty good after that. Bonus: through weird coincidence they both play the same leg. I can also see him hanging out with Franky or Usopp though, both for their technical/engineering savvy...and Usopp because he’s funny. Keith and Zoro: As a general rule I don’t see Keith getting along with most of the Straw Hats, or at least struggling with the high-energy crazy stakes of the ship. Keith likes quiet. The Straw Hats are the very antithesis of “quiet.” Keith also doesn’t really like loud enthusiasm, or people who shirk the very big responsibility of saving the world. The Straw Hats are literal outlaws with wanted bounties and they don’t give two figs about saving the world (even if, through coincidence, they often do—for the Straw Hats, they only do so because it’s personal in some way, or they just Happened To Be There). But I can see Keith getting along with Zoro, who’s closest to him in temperament. Zoro also tends to be the outsider in the crew as well, since he’s quieter and a little warier than the others. Also, Zoro is an expert at not just swordsmanship, but dual- and triple-wielding swords. I can see Keith deciding to train with him just to learn new techniques for even higher levels of expertise. Shiro: Keith, please tell me you’re not learning that three-sword style...Keith: Of course not, that’s ridiculous.Shiro: Oh, good—Keith: I mean, I only have two swords.Shiro:.....A secondary character would probably be Robin, who’s also quiet and calm...and also has quiet an understanding for some dark and sordid pasts, so she could relate if he needed a listening ear.Lance and Usopp: I can absolutely see these two having a lot in common and getting along well. They’re both the people-person of their respective group, they’re both the resident snipers, they both have a tendency to want to run away from conflict unless they have to stay and fight, and they both have insecurity issues in regards to their place on the team where everyone else has a clear-cut role. Usopp’s dream is just to be a brave warrior, whereas most of the rest of his team has some form of ‘be the best at X’ or ‘do X first,’ which implies some degree of expertise in order to be successful. Likewise, Lance often equates ‘success’ with ‘being the best at something,’ even if that definition of success doesn’t really suit his own skillsets (which are geared towards people, or supporting others). I think they could relate here. Obviously, they are also both excellent shooters and great at keeping people entertained, and I have a feeling they could get up to some insane shenanigans as a team.That said I can also see Lance getting into some real spats with Sanji over girls, because they are both the resident would-be Cassanovas of their teams. That could get ugly, especially since I’m pretty sure in one-on-one combat Sanji’s gonna win that one hands down. (Lance totally hits on Robin and Nami at first. Sanji comes to their defense, he thinks. Robin finds them both amusing; Nami thinks they’re both idiots...but she will absolutely play Lance like a fiddle if she needs something from him).Bonus Bonus:Sanji: *kicks Zoro through a wall*Zoro: *throws Sanji off the deck*Lance: Ugh, those two are so loud! Why are they always arguing?! Keith: I know. Can’t they just get along? They’re on the same team!Every Other Straw Hat and Paladin: *dumbfounded stare at Lance and Keith*Pidge and Franky: Franky is the most tech-savvy guy on the team. In the absence of computers, Pidge would be all over the more mechanical aspects of the crew. She would absolutely want to know how the hell a cola-powered engine works, how Franky gets that much weaponry stored away inside of himself, and all about how the Thousand Sunny works. It’s a kooky kind of engineering and lacks the delicate elegance of the Castle of Lions or the natural efficiency of the Olkari technology, but it’s strangely effective and highly intriguing. I don’t know that Pidge would like Chopper the most, they don’t seem like they have a lot in common. He’s cute, but Pidge hasn’t been proven to fall head over heels for cute things in the show like she does for machines (Beezer), which Chopper isn’t. The person I can see her interacting with the next most is probably Usopp, who also invents all kinds of stuff, or maybe Robin, who’s a bookworm, and that might appeal to Pidge in other ways. Allura and Nami: Nami has already proven she’ll adopt princesses in the past and I think Allura would be no exception. I think Nami would invite Allura to hang out with her and avoid the insanity of the majority of her crew (plus the rest of Voltron, once they get involved), and considering how frustrated Allura got with team Voltron fooling around with the gun noises, I think she could probably use the break. Allura and Nami are also the respective navigators for their team/crew, so I think they’d have quite a lot to discuss (space travel vs ocean travel, for example, or Allura offering input on maps and planets, since she’s frankly amazed they haven’t even managed to map their own world yet). Allura gets along with Robin really well too, and Chopper, because they’re both shapeshifters. But perhaps the craziest moment is when she and Zoro end up in an arm wrestling match, because she can match him evenly in a no-holds-barred strength fight, to the shock and awe of every single Straw Hat crew member. I mean, this is the same guy who threw a building at an opponent once, and Allura’s just like, “Oh, what a quaint game you humans have, with these strength matches.” (On the flip side, every Voltron paladin is frankly stunned any human can keep up with Allura at all). Coran and Brook: Look, they’re both the old uncle-grandpa type characters of the team. They’re kooky, they’re quaint, they’re deceptively polite and formal, but they can still kick six kinds of ass if you threaten their team/crew, and don’t you forget it. Coran laughs at all of Brook’s skull jokes even though he only gets maybe 20% of them. Brook yo-ho-hos for a solid minute at the Coranic joke. Brook listens to all of Coran’s old war stories and tales of ye olden dayes, and is able to reproduce some Altean music after getting a bit of a walkthrough to how it works, so they can sing old Altean folksongs and such. Coran learns every word of Bink’s Sake and will belt it out at the top of his lungs with great enthusiasm. Coran and Brook also know what it’s like to be an only survivor, and to watch the rest of your race/crew die, while being the only one to carry on a tradition or still keep a promise to those people. Coran also gets along with Franky well (again, mechanic, and that inherent paternal instinct that’s kind of there but silly). He’ll help Sanji out with setting places or with minor food prep too, but Sanji’s banned him from anything more intense than that after that horrible Paladin Lunch. Which he forced down like a trooper because  you don’t waste food, but man, never again. The Space Mice and Chopper: Chopper’s the only other one who can understand the space mice besides Allura, I have a feeling they’d get along great. They can talk to each other and share adventures. It’d be awesome for them.Luffy gets along with everyone in the same way he gets along with everyone in canon: About 75% of the time you want to clock him for being an idiot, and 20% of the time he’s friendly or calm enough that you’re just kind of neutral to him, but then there’s that 5% of the time he shows an incredible display of wisdom or leadership and you go “Oh...that’s why we listen to this guy.” All the Voltron paladins have seen it at this point, so they’ll put up with Luffy’s goofy antics, play with him, tell him stories about their giant cats that turn into a giant robot, and pull him out of the water a dozen times in a day, because it’s endearing in a weird way, but they also know he’s got their back when they’re in trouble. Hands down. No questions asked. He’ll tear apart an entire island if that’s what it takes to save them, ‘cause they’re his friends, and that’s what Luffy does.(The paladins all refused to join in on Tactics Fifteen though, because...no. Just. No).

[kimlovesgrahamscott]

AH YES GOOD LORD THERE'S STILL GRAHAMSCOTT SURVIVOR I'M LONELY IN THIS HELL- anyways I just got really a weird idea ?? Like Warren loves to prank Nathan with airhorns?? And record it, probably (I know that shitty prank is so old but heY), also!! I love your fic so much , it keeps me AWAKE AT NIGHT

Seriously, I’m so sad that this fandom is dying.  I came into the fandom really late, which I’m guessing is why I’m still here.  That and I don’t think I’ve shipped anything as hard as Grahamscott in a really long time.

Wait, that was a lie...  It’s the first time I’ve shipped something as hard as Grahamscott and felt a connection to one (actually both) of the characters in a really long time.  Which is why I have a word doc of four pages of ideas that are almost all Grahamscott...

BUT THE AIRHORN PRANK THING LIKE I SEE THIS!  Like it starts out like...  Like Warren doing the pranks and he’s like a YouTuber or some shit and he posts it on there.  And Nathan thinks it’s kinda funny at first, then annoying, and then it starts to piss him off so he gets Warren back.  It turns into pretty much the Prank vs Prank channel on YouTube.  They keep upping the ante.

And then shit gets real.

I’m thinking, like, Nathan’s trying to set up some ridiculous prank and gets seriously hurt, almost dies.  Maybe some sort of food allergy or like...  electrocution, or something crushing him.  I don’t know but somehow because of this prank war, Nathan ends up in the hospital and Warren, who we all know is a precious cinnamon roll who is too good for this world, too pure, freaks the FUCK out.  He has to do something drastic, right, cuz the love of his life almost fucking DIED and how the fuck could Warren live without his precious little Nathan?

So Warren like throws a party when Nathan gets out of the hospital with all their friends cuz Nathan was in there for a while because of story drama reasons.  So Nathan thinks it’s just an opportunity to prank him again and at some point, Warren goes missing.  Warren ends up popping out of a cake like a stripper does, except he’s not a stripper so he’s like fully clothed and stuff.

Now I’m imagining that Warren sings some cheesy ass song.  I’m thinking “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley or “I Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon.  And then Warren proposes.  And there’s crying, happy crying, and like yeah.

I don’t even know.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Tell Me Where To Find Shelter – The Absurdly Complicated Multiverse Version

Okay, so – remember this post about me vs my brain on the name of this AU (I'm still a bit torn between the current one and "Fallout of Darkness")? In which I revealed that I'd considered an even more complicated AU situation that brought Victoria and Emily in again via Portal and BioShock? And mentioned I'd likely talk about it one Thursday in the tags?

It's one Thursday – let's go ahead and talk about it, just for funsies. Now, for any potential fanfic purposes, I have basically settled on a "Sole Survivor Victor and Fledgling Alice" FO4/VTMB crossover. But when I first started coming up with crossover stuff, one of my first thoughts actually involved the Portal series – specifically, how Cave Johnson might have reacted to the Institute. And that reminded me that the Perpetual Testing Initiative is a thing in the sequel, and that reminded me of the "tears" in BioShock Infinite, and – well, for a tiny bit there, I had a crossover that more or less spanned every game in my Steam library, starring characters from Corpse Bride and American McGee's Alice. XD Let me try to break it down for you:

-->Obviously, for Fallout 4 and Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines, we have Sole Survivor!Victor and Fledgling!Alice, as per standard

-->I'd also already come up with a concept for Emily in BioShock – have her be a Wintry Houdini Splicer who, thanks to not completely overdosing on the cosmetic Plasmids, still retained her mind (if not her original skin and hair color)

-->That left Portal and Victoria, so I whipped up a backstory where Victoria ended up in Aperture Science as a test subject after her family's money finally ran out for good; she'd be part of the Perpetual Testing Initiative, with a modified portal gun that can make non-test-ready areas testable (that is, she has a gel sprayer to allow her to make surfaces portal-able)

-->Now, how do we get these all together? Well, you could figure out a way to have them all exist in the same universe (it would take some kludging, but I think it could be done), but as you probably already guessed, I went for "something makes it so they can access each other's universes." Portal already has a canonical multiverse thanks to the PTI, and BioShock has its tears, so I just had to think up ways to get Fallout 4 and Bloodlines involved. I figured something could go wrong at the Institute to get the former on-board (teleporter accident?), and the latter. . .well, the best I could come up with is that weird portal you use to get in and out of Ming-Xiao's inner sanctum interacting weirdly with one of the other methods. Though I guess a Tremere doing something inadvisable with blood magic also works. . . Basically, reality ends up getting ripped open and portals between all four worlds open up, and the characters stumble through them. Much WTFery ensues.

-->I never got very far with the potential plot for this absurdly complicated crossover, though, mostly because I never satisfactorily answered one of the big questions about the verse – where are the counterparts? That is, where's Alice, Victor, and Emily in Test Subject!Victoria's Portal verse, where's Alice, Victor, and Victoria in Splicer!Emily's BioShock verse, and do we have the same set-up with Fledgling!Alice and Sole Survivor!Victor in their verses? I came up with three potential answers, but never fully settled:

1. The Easy Version: For whatever reason, none of them met the others in their respective universes – Sole Survivor!Victor wasn't pushed into marrying Victoria and ended up with the default Nora, for example. They’re all meeting for the first time here, and finding they like each other. Makes life a little easier, but never really appealed to me.

2. The Funny Version: The others do exist in the other universes, though in varying states – Fledgling!Alice has her standard set up with Victor, Victoria, and Emily; while Victoria's verse now looks more like my RP verse "Aperture Wage Slave" (where Victor is a very disgruntled scientist at Aperture, and Alice also a test subject – Emily's probably part of that group too). This sets up some pretty amusing culture clashes between counterparts (Aperture!Victor probably thinks his company was somehow responsible for Sole Survivor!Victor's apocalypse despite not being in the same world), and I like the idea of people in various universes doing double-takes whenever two or more of the same person is together. However, I felt like the fun was dampened a little by Victoria and Emily being dead in Sole Survivor!Victor's universe. . .

3. The Angsty Version: Which is when I came up with the variation that the others did exist in all the other universes – but those who the "main characters" knew died right in front of them. For example, Fledgling!Alice arrived too late to save Victor and could only hold him as he died in her arms, while Splicer!Emily maybe saw Victoria murdered by some of her less-sane brethren during the fighting when Rapture was really going down the tubes. Naturally, this leads to the characters having some pretty distinct feelings when they see alternate, alive versions of their friends/loved ones/guy she felt really guilty about not being able to save. (And makes Sole Survivor!Victor, who would get that angst no matter what, stand out less.) Interesting story potential, but it did occasionally feel too dark.

-->Honestly, this AU was mostly about fun mental images from the main four all interacting with and trying to understand each other's worlds, with two particular ones that I kept coming back to:

1. A Super Mutant Behemoth getting loose in Bloodlines' Los Angeles, with the gang having to team up to try and take it down before it does too much damage – and LaCroix absolutely losing his shit (specifically at Strauss, because he thinks it's an escaped Tremere experiment – "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" "NOTHING THIS ISN'T OURS" "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO STRAUSS")

2. Cave Johnson Destroyer Of Worlds – aka Cave realizing vampirism means immortality when he gets a look at the Bloodlines universe, getting himself Embraced (he'd go Ventrue if he could), then making plans to use his new state to take over all of the universes on display, with a particular eye toward grabbing Rapture and/or Columbia first so he can also use Plasmids and Vigors to his advantage. If this weird overcomplicated thing had a plot, it would be taking down this version of Cave before he could ruin everything. Like he does.

And that's about it, really. Like I said, the idea didn't stick around that long – I quickly realized I was setting myself up for the same overcomplicated, overthought nonsense that basically killed my BioShock AU, and dialed it back down to the current "three games, one movie" crossover. But hey, what's this tumblr for if not to tell you all the weird crossover ideas I have? XD

[survivorsolomonislands]

Episode 8 “Worst case scenario: Everything else”- Johnny

Well the last thing I thought would happen happened... my plan actually worked, like flawlessly. Everyone did what I wanted them to do, nobody turned on me, I didn't get a single vote, I can rest easy for two days at least. I got rid of a rookie, possibly an idol, and solidified something with Allie and Willow and even Aro and Zak. Jacob is on the outs now so I hope he feels bad. Hey Jacob, next time you're gonna throw someone under the bus make sure they're not driving it!! Would honestly love to vote him out soon, maybe we'll merge maybe we won't.

(a little bit later)

I think this is for sure going to be the biggest tribal(s) of the season. RTP seems ready to draw the line and get rid of Mitchell and has ordered me to get rid of a Makira, but I made the decisions to tell Mitchell that RTP is afraid of nuMakira, because I don't really see myself working with nuTemoana because I only trust RTP out of those people, like Jacob tried to throw me under the bus, Luca tried to throw me under the bus, Johnny and Lex both withheld from me that Luca was gunning for me even though I told Lex when Luca threw out her name, so really why would I wanna work with them? Like a number's only a number when it's specifically my number. I think come merge, if Mitchell or Dana gets voted out of Makira and Jacob gets voted out from Temoana it'll be Dana/Mitchell, Willow, Allie, Zak and Aro vs. RTP, Lex, LA, Johnny, Luca and me smack dab in the middle, or so it would seem, because even though I may be the swing vote I really am actually in a good spot with Dana and Mitchell, and I'm not a flipper, I'm actually leading the charge. Interesting...

(a medium sized bit later)

At this point even if I get blindsided tonight I'm probably playing the best game I've played so far, I've got solid alliances worked out where I am sort of the mastermind, yet at the same time I'm able to play both sides. Ryan trusts me and trusts that I'm gonna be all Temoana strong, but honestly everyone's a fake ass Temoana except me I've literally never left this beach. No one knows how far i'll go, except I hope it's final tribal. I think tonight may be drawing the line, maybe just pencilling it in a little bit if Mitchell plays his idol. I may still have a slight chance to pretend like it wasn't me who told him but who knows. If we go into the merge with a 7-4 advantage it doesn't necessarily matter. We can pick off whoever's left 1 by 1 and I can get to the end hopefully with Mitchell and Dana, or Allie and Willow, or Zak and Aro, haha I hope nobody catches on to how well I'm playing this game. Tonight for Temoana the plan is to blindside Jacob, he's really fake in my opinion, but honestly I'm lying to him too so I guess so am I? But he started it so that's his fault. I'd love to blindside him right after Daisy, especially since he got votes last tribal council like how could he actually think we just decided to switch to Aro, and then he's like dictating to me that we should split between Zak and Aro and I'm like a giggly little hyena bc you need more than one person to split, unless you're Debbie.

First off, I'm SHOOK that I won the first individual immunity of the season. Holy crapola I didn't see that one coming, so that's pretty good for me, even though it does put a HUGE target on my back, but I'm just hoping that my social game is strong enough to the point that people will forget about me winning the challenge. I really wanted Willow to win the challenge, so she could give immunity to Jacob, and now i'm really torn whether to give immunity to Jacob or not, considering he's my closest ally in this game, and now I really really have to think. The main issue is that giving immunity puts a HUGE target on Jacob and my back's as a duo later down the line, which is concerning. I'm not at all worried about this tribal council, even if I wasn't immune, which is why I'm a little pissed off that I won it, because I really didn't need it, it paints a target on my back, and Willow was going to give it to Jacob, but one thing I do know is that i'm guaranteed top 11 now, which is pretty good, and I'm about 2 more tribals away from beating my record from Survivor: Tibet (side season, placed 9th), so I'll take that. I honestly can see myself winning this game. My social connections are up to par, I have a really good connection with nearly everyone in the game, except Aro and Dana, and hopefully those are the two going home in both of these tribal councils, and funny enough, I'm pretty sure that both of them have immunity idols too, so worst case scenario, both their idols get flushed and Mitchell or Matt/Zak will go home, all of which I don't trust too much either. I think it'd actually be a travesty for my game if Mitchell went home, because I'm really really vibing with him well, and I'm hoping that this split vote doesn't cause any dissension, however, I think I can rebound and make sure I'm not one of his targets, if he survives this tribal council, which It's about a 50-50 shot whether he survives or not. As for my tribal, the plan is for LA, Luca and I (the people I trust most to not flip their votes and try something ballsy) to be voting for Dana, while Lex and Ryan are going to be voting for Mitchell. Just in case Ryan tried something ballsy, to keep Dana safe and take out Mitchell, who I know Ryan would prefer more to be voted out more, I need to keep Ryan's vote planted on Mitchell, so just in case he was supposed to vote Dana, and tried to switch the vote, he wouldn't even be able to switch his vote to Mitchell since he's already on Mitchell to begin with............ if that makes any sense. As for now, I'm hoping merge is around the corner, I'm ready to get this game REALLY on the road, and I am fairly confident in my abilities to make it to the final 8 of this game at least without getting targeted, and we'll see how it goes from there. I truly can see myself with one of the higher probabilities to win this game, and I think people are seeing that as well, and I just need to hope that it's not me at the final 6 or 5 getting blindsided, and throwing my ass onto the jury. It's gonna be a tough game, but I'm ready for it to pick up and start playing the way I know how to..... slick as fuck (throws sunglasses on). It's game time.

I'm zakriah and I can't even find an idol when I have a clue Also either Jacob is going or its tying with me and going to rocks tbh and thats all I have to say about that

I hate this. Being on Ulawa has fucked me over so much, everyone is well connected and has alliances and I'm basically on my own, all I can do is hope people want me as a number so they keep me around. I have a terrible social game, I'm a shy person, and being trapped on Ulawa for all those days has not helped my situation. Its down to Aro and me, and I have no interested in working with Aro, not that I had any interest in working with Aro but a lot of people are loyal to their second tribe and I'm not, I don't have that to fall back on. My goal is just to make jury at this point. It would be awesome to have at least one person I trust, but Jacob is being weird? We basically use each other for information and he said he'd bring me into whatever he had going on, AFTER the merge so I'm like okay.. We're one world but OKAY. All I can really do now is hope Ryan, Johnny and Luca are telling me the truth, that they want either Dana or Mitchell gone and not me. I hate it so much though, I kind of hate not having a say or level or control but this isn't like Ulawa so I can't just go for it, I need some tact here.

OKAY. WELL THIS MOTHERFUCKER (YES ME) FOUND THE IDOL!! I was screaming honestly, because according to what everyone had told me, I was 99% sure that Dana had it, according to what Willow told me. SO! I asked Willow where she thought the idol was, just so I could double back and see if it was really gone, so I'm casually searching, for the first time in forever, not using my random.org strategy of searching for idols, and I ask Willow where to look, and she tells me exactly where to look and then... On 4/23/17, at 5:13 PM, Andrew (Solomon Islands/Hawkins Host) wrote: > Congrats! You have found a hidden immunity idol! You must play this idol after the votes are cast but before the votes are read, this idol can be used to save anyone up until the final 5. I FUCKING LOST MY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT. All day I had been contemplating giving immunity to Jacob to ensure his safety, and now I am able to be so much smarter with it. So immediately my first thought is that I'm 100% giving Jacob the idol, keeping my closest ally in the game, and biting the bullet by losing the idol in the first place, but it's fine since any suspicion of having an idol can be a MAJOR hurt to my game, so I took it like a hot potato, threw it in Jacob's direction, and now he's going to play it at his tribal council, and idol Matt out of the game. Here's the sad thing about this (and by sad, I mean fucking hysterical). I told Ryan last night that he needs to message Matt, and make sure Matt understands that him and Jacob working together is the best move, and that if all six of us make the merge, then we're in an incredible position.......... WELL, Matt didn't take that advice, and instead lied to Jacob's face, telling him that him, Allie, Willow and Jacob were going to work together to 2-2 the vote, and then Matt went behind Jacob's back and said there was no chance he was doing that. So now, Jacob is going to use his idol, nullify the five votes against him (since Willow and Allie are bitches and would rather take the easy vote than stand up for a close ally of theirs), and take out Matt, and it is going to be GLORIOUS! This means that Matt's alliance with Allie and Willow frees them up into my hands, it frees up Ryan's previous allegiance to Matt, and focuses his attention more on Lex, Jacob, Ryan and I as a foursome, without Matt involved, and it basically gives me a severe amount of control in this game. As for my tribal council, finding the Makira idol means that there is a very slim chance that Dana actually has one, but I can't stop the splitting the vote plan I made up because then LA, Luca, Ryan and Lex are going to know I was the one who found the idol, and gave it to Jacob, and I don't really want that to happen. Jacob and I are the only ones in the game that fully 100% know what is going to be happening at both tribal councils tomorrow, and if everything goes according to plan: Matt and Dana going home, we are headed into a potential merge with 4 veterans and 7 rookies. TAKE THAT MATH! Honestly, I could see the split vote going poorly in a sense, but I do know that they're targeting LA, and personally I don't give too much of a shit if LA goes home, but the only way it wouldn't work is if Lex AND Ryan flipped on me, and considering Mitchell is trying to get LA to vote for Ryan, I don't entirely see anything going south this round. . However, if things do go south on my tribe with the split vote, I have a SHIT ton of quotes that Ryan has said about not trusting Mitchell that I can hopefully use against him. Either way, I've got Luca, Allie, Willow, Jacob and I working together, hopefully able to swing things at merge if things do go south, and I've still got six people on my side (hopefully), and potentially even swinging in Aro to get him to wanna work with the rookies he started this game with. I've got a plan B to my plan B in this game, but I'm hoping I don't have to drop to plan B. This is probably the only round of the game I can see things going south, but I highly doubt that things will actually go south, and I'm going to be more than okay this round with both tribal councils going exactly how I want them to. Best case scenario: Dana and Matt go home, with Aro burning his idol at tribal when Jacob whips his out. Next best case: Mitchell and Matt go home, with Dana's idol out of the picture. Worst case scenario: Everything else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VSwosbWktg&feature=youtu.be also this because YAS: [4/23/17, 2:09:11 PM] Matt: I want final 3 with you and Mitch [4/23/17, 2:10:17 PM] Dana: i would absolutely love that. like that’s an ideal situation for me, and i think it would be really fair 2 [4/23/17, 2:10:26 PM] Matt: I agree [4/23/17, 2:10:36 PM] Matt: I don't think we could beat RTP

ok so i havn't made a confesshy in a while but here we GO so the challenge was a load of barnacles but we won so idc??? and miss daisy goes home MAYBE with an idol so??? all good to me!! the important thing is that i've been talking to people. in particular, i've been tryna shore up relations w luca, johnny, and LA; been talking to them for a while, tryna establish trust... you know, dancin. and i think we've been vibing really well which made me feel good bc i like them!! i like people for the most part in one world, which is one of the most intricate elements of the game - from here on out, we all know each other. votes are gonna get harder for that reason. and then i'm dancin at junior prom, come back and see i may have been the first infected with the virus, and then we're goin to double trbal. FJWROIDHFLCUI i fucking hate double tribal. the whole point of the tribal stage is just that - you're a tribe. if you can come together and win, you get to stay a tribe. double tribals undermine that and punish everyone for nothing. it's ridiculous and goes against the very point of the tribal stage; they only work in seasons with more than two tribes. tribes are supposed to stay in tact if they win, but there's no chance to do that here, which is dumb!!!! but ANYWAYS idk what's gonna happen bc i'm all prom'd out and like everyone... but then miss matt, my BOY from day 1, pulls me and dana into a chat to say that RTP is gonna strike at us tonight. matt had already informed me that RTP wanted to me nuMakira vs. nuTemoana in the merge. there's no chance he'll know for sure how tight we all are so maybe he thought he could divide and conquer us, but if jacob goes home on makira, we might be seeing willow/allie/aro/zak/matt/dana/me kick some grassy ass post-merge!! and that's bc i'm playin my idol and gonna send RTP's ass home. i thought i had real relationships w the people here on nunuMakira, but I can't blame them for wanting to vote me out. RTP, on the other hand, is gettin too big for his britches and just had to fuck up a good thing. i knew this would come eventually - there's a reason this kid hasn't reached single digits in seven times playing and it's bc he sux - and of course he just has to fuck up somethin good and now he'll pay the price. either he votes for me w everyone else and i play the idol and he's gone and he feels a fool, or i play the idol and he votes dana and we both still here and he knows that his time is numbered bc matt is a good boy is it too much to ask to just get a good cute alliance together and ride it out??? why y'all got such a BONER for BIG MOVEZZZ and #BLINDSIDEZZ????? old school survivor is legit the best way to play the game and it was the best era of survivor too so fuck y'all goodbye mitchell kalabang ain't goin home tonite!!

Mitchell, stop telling me that I'm your ride or die. We've been on the same tribe for four days, and just because I smoke weed and I'm in a fraternity does not mean I trust your ass. Do you think I haven't heard stories of you leading a charge to take out Lex and Karen the first round of this game, and that you were the one calling the shots on the old Temoana, and that you probably have more connections in this game than anyone? I love that people in this game think I'm stupid. It's starting to fire me up... Let me tell you something. If you think I don't know what I'm talking about in this game, that means that you haven't had a strategic conversation with me yet, and that means I don't trust you. Everyone can take note of that for the future *puts on shades*

  We're getting at a pretty far moment in the game right now and I think it's showing, these votes will be crucial when determining which players will be in the right spots come merge. There's this feeling going around, a constant mash of anxiety and paranoia, nobody really trusts each other and it shows. Johnny is really well-placed right now but he's my closest ally at this point. There's a rumour going around that Jacob is going home in the Temoana tribal which will be a big, big warning sign. The issues with Matt still haven't fully healed and suffice to say, I don't trust him at all. As about our vote, I'm very paranoid. I'm being told it's a 3-2-2 vote split, with 3 on Dana and 2 each on Mitchell and LA. This plan should hold together but will it really? Dana is a huge threat to my game, she's been throwing my name around and she has much closer allies in this game than me. So I guess we'll see what happens.

Ok so currently I have like an insane Jacob who is like "It's 5-1 me, you targeted me, this is your plan!" which I mean, is true, but like what the fat hell who thought it was a good idea to tell this crazy ass twink that he was the target because now he could play an idol or do something or expose me to nuTemoana and now I wanna actually shoot somebody :)

this is so dumb but if it works i s2g i'm gonna LAUGH i've been telling like luca and LA that RTP threw their names out knowing that if they were with RTP that would get back to him, and matt confirmed to me that it did FJWMIDSOFJCW my plan's been to make RTP mad and since he's so arrogant he'd be like "oh well mitchell gotta go he's shady" well BITCH it's intentional shade you think i'd get caught??? the funny thing is that it's ridiculous. playing so bad on purpose to get caught without everyone else knowing it's a setup so they vote for you and you idol someone out.... i love the concept but then again it's so fuckin stupid there's no chance it'll work but if it DOES im gonna SCIOEFKNDCEWDISJ tribals gonna be fun bc i know im not dancin outta here yet :) oh and if jacob plays an idol and takes out like matt, and they split the votes and dana goes home here, and we merge right after and my numbers are me, aro/zak, and allie/willow against the world... worse shit could happen!! at least i'm beatin my previous placement know THAT ! (remember when i said the same shit in machu picchu but then actually did go home lol well at least this time i got mr idol :'] )

RIP ME. Stop being so casual Matt, because if you fuck up, I go home. They better be voting Mitch tonight so he can play his idol, because if not IM IN TROUBLE. Also if they split, i'm also probably in trouble unless we can talk LA and Luca into flipping in like a single minute. Basically Matt just told us that Willow and Allie told Jacob that Matt was targeting him for the vote- AND YOU'RE PROBABLY THINKING- WHAT DOES STUPID TEMOANA AND THEIR LAME ASS VOTE HAVE TO DO WITH THE MAKIRA VOTE?. THE ANSWER: LITERALLY EVERYTHING. Matt is the informant from Temoana lettin us know that RTP is coming for me and Mitch, and if this mix up with the Jacob vote got back to RTP then we're fucking screwed because Matt may have inaccurate information about who is going home on our tribe. Who knows what the odds that this happened are, or that RTP decided to flip the vote on me, but irrelevant, but i'm just hoping Mitch and I idoling out RTP doesn't backfire tonight. Here are the scenarios I see happening tonight: 1) Everyone actually is voting LA like RTP told Mitch and I. Mitch and I will still vote RTP, Mitchell will waste an idol, and we lose everyone's trust on this tribe forever (unlikely). 2) Everyone votes Mitchell, we vote RTP, Mitchell idols him out in the biggest heroic fuck-you RTP has ever seen. 3) Everyone votes for me and not Mitchell, I have no idol, and I leave here as a queen who has been wronged by her tribe. 4) They split votes (a big risk), and either i go home (again, as a queen who has been wronged)  if it is 3-2 for me, or if it is 3-2 Mitchell RTP and I will tie, at which point Mitchell and I start threatening Luca, LA, and Johnny to vote with Mitch in revote. 5) Something else upsetting happens and i die a spiritual death in the process. [4/24/17, 6:37:22 PM] Dana Barry: is you tribe solid for the vote? [4/24/17, 6:38:11 PM] Matt: Yeah except they decided to tel Jacob I organized the plan to get him out [4/24/17, 6:38:19 PM] Matt: They pulled a Laura Boneham [4/24/17, 6:38:27 PM] Dana Barry: who the fuck told him [4/24/17, 6:38:38 PM] Dana Barry: like that didnt need to happen [4/24/17, 6:39:47 PM] Matt: The girls [4/24/17, 6:39:54 PM] Matt: And like don't blame me [4/24/17, 6:40:06 PM] Matt: Because I was working as a spy to the other tribe and now they know I'm a flipper [4/24/17, 6:43:55 PM] Dana Barry: do people on our tribe from nuTemoana think you flipped? [4/24/17, 6:45:00 PM] Matt: I don't know [4/24/17, 6:45:05 PM] Matt: Jacob might have exposed me [4/24/17, 6:45:23 PM] Matt: in which case I'm worried [4/24/17, 6:45:24 PM] Matt: But idk [4/24/17, 6:46:00 PM] Dana Barry: yeah that would be worrisome, because if he did they could be lying to you about who is going on our tribe tonight so that we’ll waste an idol [4/24/17, 6:47:38 PM] Dana Barry: i wonder if there’s any other way to confirm [4/24/17, 6:49:21 PM] Matt: No clue WISH ME LUCK 2NIGHT CREW

Okay so I'm pretty sure our vote is gonna be a simple 5-1 vote for Jacob, which I feel really bad about. Because Jacob is someone who I really like and have wanted to work with from the beginning but I accidentally screwed that up. I hope I can be friends with him after the game, and hopefully backstab Matt because he's highkey a shady bitch. Allie thinks Matt is just trying to scare us into being his ally. Anyway I hope tribal over on Makira goes well, and that either Ryan or Lexi get voted out since I know them the least.

RTP i'm swingin my big ass dick w my idol around it and u ain't touchin me or that idol but i'll make sure to smack u with it on ur way out