onalark

fast twitch vs slow twitch: Rodney is fast-twitch, Mike is slow-twitch

This season seems particularly dull. It's full of characters who all seem to claim deep knowledge of the game and mastery of the best strategies to win ... yet, the season has been ... dull. Everyone is playing 'safe.' Even the scrambling, of which there hasn't been much, has been dull. Safe scrambling - that's got to be an oxymoron, but I think it fits what we've been shown. I'm wondering: has the show reached a new evolutionary stage of sorts? In the early years, people did not know what strategy was the best, so many strategies played out: an early favorite: "I'll catch a lot of fish and everyone will like me and want to keep me," or "I'll gather a lot of firewood and everyone will like me and want to keep me." After a few years, weaker players realized they could get away with being lazy around camp and would be 'carried,' much to the annoyance of others who still thought the firewood/fish gathering strategy was the only way to go. Then more elaborate strategies around alliances evolved. The fox, bear, goat, bunny paradigm appeared. Game play grew yet more nuanced (and interesting!). One aspect that I think kept things really fun was the casting of clueless noobs amongst those who had some inkling of what they were doing. That, and twists to the game by TPTB that actually did throw wrenches into the works. But this season, we have an island full of 'superfans' and no big twists. Furthermore, the superfans are dullards everyone. And, the lessons these superfans claim to have mastered are superficial and without any deep insight. "Flippers never win." Yeah, right. So don't bother doing any analysis of the fact that you're sixth in an alliance of six ... because, you know, flippers never win. I wonder how any of this season's characters would have played the game had they been cast years ago - before they got all their superfan "wisdom?" I'd bet that they'd all be more interesting and likeable - their flaws hidden, so to speak, by their more active game play and scrambling. Would Jenn have played harder? She really disappointed me when she more or less 'quit.' It's too bad, for example, that Sierra didn't want to form a girls alliance. Her read of things being hopeless was perhaps correct, but I still lay some blame with her (and others) for not being more creative and effective in sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt to create new cracks to be exploited if only by others after she was gone. Outwit, outplay, outlast - we seem to be squarely in the Outlast evolutionary phase of Survivor.

In Heroes Vs Villians, Parvati played two HIs for other people after the votes were cast. In other words, Parvati played the HIs exactly as she would have played one for herself except she gave them to two others (Jerry and Sandra, IIRC). It makes no sense (to me at least) that you would have to play a HI before votes were cast. If so, Mike's bluff was "called" by his own actions before anyone voted. If you re-watch the episode, you'll see that everyone was waiting to see what Mike would do after the votes were cast when Jeff said "if anyone has a HI ... " - they were waiting to see if at that point Mike would give the HI to Shirin. To me, that clearly suggests you can give away an HI after the votes were cast, a la Parvati.