I wanted to stop watching after the "c'mon in guys" discussion in episode 1 but this season has been better than average in the modern era.

There's always too many advantages, that's a constant. I like all newbies with at least some strong players, and very few meme/drawing dead players.

And when someone like Tiffany is making fun of you, you know you're really bad. That was a pathetic attempt at lying.

Ya but Tiffany is really good at figuring out if people are lying

Xander leaving everything in his bag was pretty bad also

These people dont realize shes always on.

Shan is awesome. What I was trying to imply was not that Shan isn't awesome, but merely that Genie voting for Ricard on this vote was not necessarily evidence of Shan's awesomeness. It has seemed to me that Genie wanted to vote Ricard out for several votes now. My read was she nodded her head at Ricard's pitch with no intention of voting with him. Furthermore, it seemed to me, Genie was still trying to lobby Shan to vote out Ricard which was not surprising given she'd already been writing his name down during previous TCs. It might be a bad read by me, but I had the impression that voting Ricard out was exactly what Genie wanted and had been wanting for while. If Shan was causing Genie to throw votes on Ricard all along, then I stand corrected, but it was my impression that Genie was just kind of cluelessly voting for Ricard because that's who she wanted out and didn't seem to understand the need to be on the same page with other people.

MHE is an incel QAnon type. He believes anyone who supports a black player in the game is racist, so he’s constantly triggered. His posts in these threads almost exclusively consist of either that, or him ranking which of the women on the show he wants to sleep with. He constantly says he’s done with BB/Survivor, yet continues to watch and be triggered by them. His posts should be disregarded

I think he or she is a good poster

There's something about knowing Russell is pure evil and him acting accordingly. Everything I've read about Russell outside of Survivor makes total sense with how he behaved and played. He is a little goblin.

Meanwhile Shan does not strike me as likeable. "Gangsta" turned pastor, crocodile tears at every Tribal Council, trying to manipulate and guilt players to just hand over their advantage as a sign of "trust." The latter part is all in the game, no doubt, but I was quite happy to see Ricard stand his ground and tell Shan to get a grip when she asked for the advantage back.

Perhaps Shan is not likeable by you, but surely you see that the people playing the game with her seem to like her, no? I suppose it IS Survivor and appearances can be deceiving, but it seems like the people she's playing with like her fine. At least until she stabs them in the back, then who knows.

Right, if Symbioticse meant likeable by others in the game I get it. I think from a viewers standpoint she comes across as phony.

You cant put “gangsta” in quotes when she was literally in a gang

Maybe for the gamebot types that inhabit 2+2, but for the general population of viewers she's probably well received.

Shan getting huge amounts of screen time early, so I suspect Jeff/the producers love her but she won't be around too long.

Something off-putting to me about Ricard. He seems to always be smirking, I dunno. Something not genuine about him, just a vibe I get. Obviously I don't know the guy in real life so I could be way off.

Also props to Naseer for his hilariously awkward delivery of the goat on astroturf line. Didn't even try to work it into a conversation, just said it with a big grin on his face lol. That was cool how they didn't show him finding the idol ahead of time, so it came as a surprise to viewers when he said it.

Think I'm on team Naseer, seems upbeat and just a bit clueless. Also liking Deshawn and Danny. Luvu seems to be the most likeable tribe to me so far, they appear to get along pretty well and not too much drama.

i loved the story how naseer's daughter made idols and hid them in the backyard and made her dad find them for practice. and how he gave her credit for him finding it

It was perfect. An American couldn't pull it off like that, but who knows what stuff people from another country say that translate into English as something crazy.

As soon as he spoke in the first episode I thought he was kind of a disingenuous creep. I'm surprised that Shan even linked up with him but I also know that she can see more on the island than we can, plus he's a great shield for her to throw under the bus if she ever wants to.

Will be interested to see how he gets along post merge with others.

Russell brought me to this franchise so I'll always hold him as an entertaining player and somebody who brought a new spark. I get that Russell can be viewed as more authentically himself than Shan who is sort of playing in a contradictory role to who she's meant to be in real life but for me, Shan is infinitely more likeable because I think she's approaching this from a game standpoint, whereas clearly Russell from a human level just enjoyed humiliating people. He was also just undeniably a complete misogynist (que people calling me a woketard).

I find it sort of weird that Shan seems to be as controversial as Russell. People either love her or hate her and I was wondering why. I think it's because her social manipulation with Genie, JD and recently Ricard seems like intentional gaslighting, which it is but I feel like that's the most effective way for someone like her to play the game. She's not going to be this overtly authoritative figure like Russell, a lot of the way she's going to control the game is going to be from a position of perceived vulnerability unless it's in a tribe of women. I think people sort of recognise that behaviour in their real life from mostly women in real life and react negatively to it - I just think it's gameplay.

I frankly find Shan's gameplay through the pre-merge more impressive from a social standpoint than Russell's ever was. I'm in the "love" camp as she's the best woman they've cast since maybe Natalie Anderson or Kim before that as someone who just stands out as a great player and character.

His Social Media is nauseating and he's clearly performatively woke in a nauseating way. For what it's worth, none of the people on UA had pretty much anything good to say about him in exit interviews except Genie. They all praised Shan as the one who took them down and still weirdly adore her but described Ricard as slimy, fake, obvious and disingenuous.

He's clearly a smart guy I think Shan brought him with her because she can bounce ideas off him and he's actually useful compared to the others who weren't strategists. I think he's pretty good tv apart from the guys thing but he just annoys me and has a cringeworthy twitter. I think calling him a creep is harsh AF though

Shan is one of my favorites from the last 10+ seasons.
I may be biased as I drafted her to my team on another board.

Of all the people I know who watch Survivor, everyone seems to like her.
She's getting a big edit which is primed for either a big fun downfall or an outright win.
I don't care either way as long as it's entertaining.

Calling Ricard a creep may be out of line, but saying he comes off as smarmy and untrustworthy seems to be spot on. I agree with you on why Shan is working with him. I think she values his input and isn't one of these types who feels the need to surround herself with loyal sheep only. There is some danger with partnering with Ricard, but in some ways...well, he's more stable than some of the other players who were loyal to Shan. Because of how he is perceived, he is great as a potential shield OR an attractive option to sit next to at the end.

Shan's group of people has had to keep going to the meeting where they vote someone out. It's the driving force on why Shan is getting all this screen time. Who else are they going to give it to?

Of the big pre merge characters i've only ever found it entertaining when they have a big downfall. An outright win for me has led to some of the worst seasons

Good that spring to mind
Silas in Africa
John Carrol in Marquesass
Rupert in Pearl Islands
Ozzy in Micronesia
Marty in Nicaragua

Bad that springs to mind
Boston Rob in Redemption Island
Kim Spradlin in One World
Cochran in Caramoan


If Shan ends up maintaining this edit and wins the season i'll be very down on it. If she gets blindsided at the final 7 by Ricard/Liana, i'll be much more satisfied.

(I am not 'anti' Shan in any way, it's just what I want as a viewer)

100% agree ^

I love how she's playing hard and schooling these terrible players but it's more entertaining if she meets her doom near the end game, as opposed to an easy coast to the win.

There's no way she wins or even makes the final judging from recent edits. At least I'd be shocked because it's rare a person makes a run a la Kim, Rob or Tom like they used to be able to. Only factor in this season is that it's much shorter so it's more plausible.

I'm looking at people that have barely had edits at this point like Danny.