Past Seasons Talk: The Tribe Has Spoken

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 5/23/2020 at 4:48 PM, LadyChatts said:

Nowadays the seasons film March-May, and end of May/beginning of June until mid/end of July.  So the turnaround is quicker.  I don't even think Zeke or Michaela went home when they filmed MvsGX and then Game Changers.  Back in the older seasons, I think there was a few weeks break; seasons usually filmed in the spring/summer (for the fall season), and in the fall (for the spring season).  

I assume that the prior seasons don't actually air before the next one is casted, right?  So when James and Amanda are picked as "Favourites" for Fans versus Favourites, they're not actually "Favourites".  They're producer favourites, and the producers have no idea who the fans will actually respond to.

[ozziemom]

12 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I assume that the prior seasons don't actually air before the next one is casted, right?  So when James and Amanda are picked as "Favourites" for Fans versus Favourites, they're not actually "Favourites".  They're producer favourites, and the producers have no idea who the fans will actually respond to.

For Fans versus Favorites they might have seen a few episodes of China. China was on in September 2007 and Fans v. Favorites began filming in October 2007. But the reception Amanda received by the Fans would indicate she didn’t make much of an impression.

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 5/23/2015 at 10:38 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I was thinking I'd like to see another All-Stars type game..... now we have Tony from Cagayan who could go up against the likes of Parvati, Kim, Yul ---  are Kim and Yul the type of people who just say no when they're asked back, or are they not just asked back?  

I was reading through the thread and I found my own post from 2015.  Pretty cool.

[Ms Blue Jay]

What the hell is Exile Island in Gabon?  A freaking field?

Jeff has shockingly long hair - for him - in Gabon.  

Edited May 25, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Check out this cool challenge in Gabon.

The goalies at the bottom of the hill are blindfolded and have to be guided by callers.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[peachmangosteen]

11 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Check out this cool challenge in Gabon.

The goalies at the bottom of the hill are blindfolded and have to be guided by callers.

Ah, challenge variety, we'll never see it again lol.

[ozziemom]

44 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Ah, challenge variety, we'll never see it again lol.

What, no puzzle at the end? Plus there are probably no usable hills in Fiji. It’s like they are now just using the same area and props over & over. Gabon had a lot of issues but the challenges were interesting.

[Guest]

Wasn't that the challenge where Ace got frustrated with Sugar and his accent became even more suspect than usual?

[Ms Blue Jay]

2 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Wasn't that the challenge where Ace got frustrated with Sugar and his accent became even more suspect than usual?

LOL.   I didn't notice the accent thing, but yes he was certainly frustrated.  I like Sugar and all, but she just kind of stood there during this challenge the whole time dumbfounded.

The shaved head, the accent, the fashion photography, and the sleazy smile make Ace remind me so much of Nigel Barker.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

I know that this makes me a hypocrite, because I do eat meat, but I'm really creeped out by these people eating a humongous turtle in Gabon.  They JUST had a food reward, too.

[fishcakes]

25 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I know that this makes me a hypocrite, because I do eat meat, but I'm really creeped out by these people eating a humongous turtle in Gabon.  They JUST had a food reward, too.

Oh god, I must have blocked that from memory because that's horrible. I don't even like it when they eat those giant clams, but a big turtle is worse. I hate the idea that these animals have lived peacefully for decades and then some idiots on a game show kill and eat them, while no doubt complaining that they'd rather have pizza. I guess this also makes me a hypocrite, but I don't care. It's a turtle. Jesus.

Edited May 26, 2020 by fishcakes

[Ms Blue Jay]

10 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

Oh god, I must have blocked that from memory because that's horrible. I don't even like it when they eat those giant clams, but a big turtle is worse. I hate the idea that these animals have lived peacefully for decades and then some idiots on a game show kill and eat them, while no doubt complaining that they'd rather have pizza. I guess this also makes me a hypocrite, but I don't care. It's a turtle. Jesus.

Yeah it was horrible.  They're the winning tribe, called Koda, and they have won, I think 8 out of 10 challenges?  So they're CONSTANTLY winning, eating, and morale is high.

And they just won a big food reward -- a huge platter of danishes, muffins, etc. 

Then suddenly - Bob, Marcus? - spotted a gigantic turtle.  I was like, oh cool, and also, like, well, there's animals EVERYWHERE in Gabon.  So?  But then they fucking caught it, killed it, and ate it!

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Omg, Scandal!  I think somebody wrote "Ace-hole" on their vote and it's censored on my TV.

Edit:  It was Sugar.

Kenny was in her ear and told Sugar that Ace was scheming against her.  Honestly, I'm not sure of the truth based on what we were shown.
Then the next episode Sugar immediately regretted it, because Matty told her Ace WASN'T scheming against her.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Oh my god, and now this?!?!!?  This is a vote for Marcus.   LOL.  Gabon is wild.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Lantern7]

Was there any part of Gabon that fans can agree on liking? Seriously, Bob gets put through the wringer as the worst winner ever (*koff*Fabio*koff*), Randy was an asshole (not a racist; in my mind, I saw some of myself in the grump,and I'm probably going to feel bad for saying that within a few years based on some of the horses I backed), Sugar was sometimes good as actual sugar in large doses, Corrine sucked, Crystal REALLY sucked . . . and Ace was an ancestor of Coach, maybe? I blocked that out.

Oh, and I made this poster when that season was airing:

[Ms Blue Jay]

I watched Gabon for the first time in 2013.  All I could remember from that season was Crystal and Ken, so I guessed I liked them.

I am rewatching it now and I didn't even remember G.C. existing. 

Personally, I'm liking Sugar this time around.  And I still don't have any issue with Crystal and Ken.  They're always on the losing tribe, yet somehow they make it pretty far because they're the only 2 burned in my memory.  I kind of feel like there were so many tribe shakeups and twists because Fang lost sooooooooo many challenges.  Definitely 90%.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[SVNBob]

2 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Randy was an asshole (not a racist;

Randy is not a racist, nor is he a misogynist. 

 

Randy is a misanthrope; he hates all people, with some individuals hated more than others.

[Lantern7]

9 minutes ago, SVNBob said:

Randy is not a racist, nor is he a misogynist. 

Randy is a misanthrope; he hates all people, with some individuals hated more than others.

Right, and I could relate to that. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever been that surly, but I can sympathize. 

[AncientNewbie]

Randy just never did it for me. I don't like the loud confrontational people IRL or on tv. Which, I know, is weird for a fan of this genre.

Sugar puzzles me. I'd watch/listen to any deep dive into this season if there was a narrator I trusted, because they all seem to have so much animosity to this day. Somehow she managed to be in the midst of everything and yet more as a chaos agent, as she knew she wasn't winning but they couldn't get her out.

[peachmangosteen]

I should rewatch Gabon. I remember loving it. I mean, there were so many horrible people to root against, there was so much hilarity, there were people to root for who were also horrible but I wanted them to win. The Ponderosa is one of the best just for the drama. I wonder how I'd see it now though.

[fishcakes]

Randy is a misanthrope, but he's also racist and a misogynist. Those aren't mutually exclusive. Some of the things Randy said were most definitely racist and misogynistic (saying Susie couldn't speak English, calling Crystal a sasquatch and Sugar a whore). The fact that he's an asshole to everyone doesn't mitigate the specific ways he's an asshole to POC and women.

[Ms Blue Jay]

18 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

Randy is a misanthrope, but he's also racist and a misogynist. Those aren't mutually exclusive. Some of the things Randy said were most definitely racist and misogynistic (saying Susie couldn't speak English, calling Crystal a sasquatch and Sugar a whore). The fact that he's an asshole to everyone doesn't mitigate the specific ways he's an asshole to POC and women.

Watching right now.

Randy, verbatim:

Randy is talking about "Sasquatch."

Charlie:  Who is Sasquatch?

Randy:  "Sasquatch is Bigfoot, which is Crystal.  Which is also T-Rex."

Matty finally gets to enjoy a reward in this episode I'm watching, and he's adorable, dancing along with the Gabon dancers.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Oh my god it keeps going!

Crystal:  What is your problem with me?

Randy:  You made Fang a living hell.  You and your boy G.C.  You and your posse ran the tribe like it was a gang.  When you guys had power, you guys were arrogant, you were hard to get along with, you were causing division in our tribe.

That's "coded" language where you don't even need the code!

Meanwhile, I am watching the season right now and it's pretty known that G.C. was depressed, he even disappeared at one point, and quit being "leader" because he never wanted to be a leader.  If that's a "gang", that's a pretty ineffectual one.

Oh my god, now Randy is voting for Crystal and he just said "BITCH" right into the camera!  Oh my god.  This man is awful!

There was a really cute part earlier on where Randy was growling at Sugar at an Immunity Challenge like a bull and Sugar looked back at him and said "Ugly.  This is just an ugly person right here."  I know it doesn't "sound" cute and I know that Sugar is an actor, but man, she is working me!

I hate to be an asshole conspiracy theorist, but Gabon is really, really messed up, production-wise.  Fang lost 9 out of 11 challenges while the show was starting.  I think in an attempt to even things out, production kept creating all these twists where the players kept getting swapped back and forth from tribe to tribe until Merge point.  It doesn't really make sense that people on Koda kept getting voted out leading to and post-merge.  It feels like production intervention.

On Wikipedia it says

1) Original tribe

2) First switched Tribe

3) Second switched Tribe

4) Merged tribe.

Utterly ridiculous.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Here's Sugar voting for Randy:

"You are a disgusting, old, hot-headed, chauvinistic, alcoholic bigot, and you need to grow up before you die, alone.  Loser."

I'm confident in taking Sugar's word on it, since she lived with him and none of us know him personally at all.  It's kind of weird to definitely label the guy "Not a Racist" or "Not a Misogynist" when none of us know him.  And what we do know, is that he used both racist and misogynistic language to describe other people in his season.

Man, the camerapeople not recording Jeff's face when Crystal yelled her vote for Randy was a missed opportunity.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

10 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Randy is not a racist, nor is he a misogynist. 

 

Randy is a misanthrope; he hates all people, with some individuals hated more than others.

So far, he hasn't said anything hateful about any of the men, except G.C. (the only black man in the cast.)

So this isn't true.  He doesn't hate all people.  He said out loud that he likes Corinne, Charlie, Matty, and Kenny and has never said anything negative about Marcus and Bob (1 woman, and 5 men).  He said that Corinne and Charlie were "great" and that Charlie was his "first gay friend" (when asked what he thought of them by Matty).   He out loud said he doesn't like Sugar, Susie, Crystal, and G.C.  So, 3 women, and 2 black people, but definitely not all of the people.  (Is Susie Latina?) 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[fishcakes]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Is Susie Latina?

Susie is Latina, which is why Randy made the comment about her not being able to speak English, even though she speaks English just fine.

I do think he's a misanthrope even though he has a few people he likes. It's no different from being a racist who has a black friend (but, you know, only at work) or a misogynist who likes his mom or his neighbor's ... sister. He just hates people in general, probably because he was that awkward kid in school who had no friends and he somehow was never able to move past that and form relationships as an adult. So part of me feels sorry for Randy, but then he starts talking and it goes away.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Yeah, Susie not only speaks English, but she speaks as if English is her first language with no accent.  So Randy's comment is purely based on the colour of Susie's skin and not how she speaks.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

I just watched the remaining Gabon players do this ridiculous challenge.

BLINDFOLDED, they have to go through an obstacle course and then solve a puzzle.

It was awesome.  Susie wasn't even on the course.  She was walking randomly in the middle of a field.  LOL

[Lantern7]

FYI, Randy isn’t a hill on which I’d like to die upon. I’m just saying I can relate. Physically, I’m close to Dan Foley, and you can understand why he was given up for adoption. Once again: he was basically the freak child of Norm and Cliff from Cheers.

[AncientNewbie]

20 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I just watched the remaining Gabon players do this ridiculous challenge.

BLINDFOLDED, they have to go through an obstacle course and then solve a puzzle.

It was awesome.  Susie wasn't even on the course.  She was walking randomly in the middle of a field.  LOL

Between that and Hill Bowling for Points earlier in the season, they did some great blindfold challenges. I wish they'd bring some of that back.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm onto Tocantins now.  (I'm randomly watching seasons I feel like in (somewhat) chronological order, and I finish them pretty fast, within a few days each).  This cast is EXTREMELY good-looking, full of model-esque people.  Candace, J.T., Tyson, Erin, Sierra, Brendan.  Carolina.  Joe looks like the Dillon brothers.  etc.

AnnNNNDNDNNDDDDD Candace is gone already.  Dammit!  I thought that there was a cute scene where Candace immediately recognized Taj from SWV, but I wonder if that was a deleted scene or an interview or something.  Damn.

Okay:  Sydney is an ACTUAL model.  I didn't know her name until episode 4.

Quote

Reality TV World: Last week, [Carolina Eastwood] told us that she had been a big SWV fan and recognized Taj as soon as she saw her.  Did you know who she was?  

Candace: Until she choked me underwater! (Laughs) What's your question? I'm sorry.

Reality TV World: Did you recognize who she was from [SWV] when you saw her?

Candace: I'm black! (Laughs) Yeah.

I already hate Exile Island, and Tocantins does this weird thing where the losing tribe's member goes to EI and the WINNING tribe's member goes to EI.  Good lord.  The person on the winning tribe has to lose out on the reward that THEY won for their tribe over, and over, and over again.  Also how it is Exile when you're given a friend?  LOL

Edited May 27, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[enchantingmonkey]

What was the audience's impression of Tony during Cagayan?  Good, bad?  I'm re-watching that season now.  

[Ms Blue Jay]

12 minutes ago, enchantingmonkey said:

What was the audience's impression of Tony during Cagayan?  Good, bad?  I'm re-watching that season now.  

Personally I loved him.  Not sure about the "audience".

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 5/26/2020 at 11:03 AM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I hate to be an asshole conspiracy theorist, but Gabon is really, really messed up, production-wise.  Fang lost 9 out of 11 challenges while the show was starting.  I think in an attempt to even things out, production kept creating all these twists where the players kept getting swapped back and forth from tribe to tribe until Merge point.  It doesn't really make sense that people on Koda kept getting voted out leading to and post-merge.  It feels like production intervention.

On Wikipedia it says

1) Original tribe

2) First switched Tribe

3) Second switched Tribe

4) Merged tribe.

Utterly ridiculous.

Quoting myself, watching Tocantins, the very next season, there are NO tribe swaps until the merge!

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I'm onto Tocantins now.  (I'm randomly watching seasons I feel like in (somewhat) chronological order, and I finish them pretty fast, within a few days each).  This cast is EXTREMELY good-looking, full of model-esque people.  Candace, J.T., Tyson, Erin, Sierra, Brendan.  Carolina.  Joe looks like the Dillon brothers.  etc.

 

Awww yay, Erinn! She's one of my all-time favorites ❤️

[peachmangosteen]

2 hours ago, enchantingmonkey said:

What was the audience's impression of Tony during Cagayan?  Good, bad?  I'm re-watching that season now.  

I remember him being pretty popular but I hated him and I think sometimes I tend to remember people I really hated being more liked than they actually were so who knows lol.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I think it's safe to say the reception for Tony was mixed during Cagayan.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Brendan in Tocantins's eyes are like, turquoise.  I'm swooning.

I know that people have spoken about how popular and charismatic JT was in this season, but it's ridiculous.  Everyone is obsessed with gaining favour with him, even if it would not help them at all.

Stephen - out loud says he's smitten with JT
Coach - obsessed with gaining favour with JT even though JT is on the bottom and he could simply vote him out as his tribe has the numbers post-merge. (and by extension, Tyson and Debbie)
Erinn - who doesn't like her own tribe, but wants JT to adopt her
Brendan - says JT is a "pure soul, so sincere and so real".  (JT thinks that they are enemies).  He suddenly wants to bring JT to the end of the game because "if JT wins, that's like me winning".  What the fuck!  HE JUST MET THE GUY.  He becomes obsessed with bringing him to the finals after one reward trip together.
Sierra:  "He's one of the most amazing people I've ever met in my life".  LOL what

It's crazy.  And JT hardly does ANYTHING to invite this.  He just acts like himself.

Most of these people are obsessed with saving JT.   They all hate Coach so they're obsessed with finding someone new?

Post-merge, even though JT and his tribe are at the bottom of the numbers (JT, Taj, Stephen) both Brendan and Coach give him the pick of whatever way he wants to go to join either faction of the old Timbura tribe.  It's ridiculous.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Challenge:  "Who would you trust with your life?"

JT, Stephen, Taj, and Erinn all said "J.T."  Of course, the group's majority said JT.

WHY!?  I mean I think he's a decent fisherman... (?)

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[peachmangosteen]

I will never understand JT's appeal.

[Ms Blue Jay]

On a superficial level I definitely get it.  He's very cute and he has an aw-shucks way of speaking. I think one of them said he has an innocent smile.  He has dimples and a sweet face.  But these people seem deeply obsessed with him.  

On the river rafting reward trip, Brendan became so enamored with JT because he was so full of wonder at the trip like a little kid.  LOL.  This blindness caused him to be voted out immediately after.

Also, Brendan was voted out with an idol in hand and they didn't even replant it!  Back then there was no replanting.  So poor Erinn kept being sent to Exile Island to read the same clue to the idol they already knew about, that was already gone.

There was a funny part where someone said a challenge was unfair and I think Stephen said something like "None of us have thrown rocks at tiles to break them before.  This is our first time doing this" and Coach said "No, I have actually."

Omg, for the Loved ones visit Coach brings out HIS ASSISTANT COACH.  What?????  And they start doing exercises together.  And he says "Guess what they call me out here?  They call me the Dragon Slayer."  The only person I've ever heard use that phrase was Coach.

Now Debbie is saying if she makes it to third place, and she wins Immunity, she will give up her Immunity to either JT or Stephen and happily take 3rd place.  I have no idea if that's true but jeez.  This is really like a cult.  

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[fishcakes]

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Omg, for the Loved ones visit Coach brings out HIS ASSISTANT COACH.  What?????  And they start doing exercises together.  And he says "Guess what they call me out here?  They call me the Dragon Slayer."  The only person I've ever heard use that phrase was Coach.

Coach is so ridiculous. Was it Tocantins where he won a challenge that involved getting a ball through a maze and dropping it in a slot and just as the ball was approaching the slot, he said, "Dragon .... [drops ball] SLAYER!" To make matters worse, after the challenge, he goes up to a tribemate and says, "did you hear me say 'dragon slayer' when I won?" LOL. What a jackass.

[Nashville]

39 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

Coach is so ridiculous. Was it Tocantins where he won a challenge that involved getting a ball through a maze and dropping it in a slot and just as the ball was approaching the slot, he said, "Dragon .... [drops ball] SLAYER!" To make matters worse, after the challenge, he goes up to a tribemate and says, "did you hear me say 'dragon slayer' when I won?" LOL. What a jackass.

 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I don't get who the dragon is.  Where is the dragon?  The game?  

[Nashville]

1 minute ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I don't get who the dragon is.  Where is the dragon?  The game?  

Reality, most likely.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Check out the juries' reactions to Coach deciding to recite a poem right before the vote.

Also, I don't remember Jeff openly mocking a contestant as much as he did Coach.

I think Coach even said something like "When you take me down, because you're trying to get at the truth at Tribal, I love it" and Jeff just responded "Okay".  LOL

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[AncientNewbie]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I don't get who the dragon is.  Where is the dragon?  The game?  

Wasn’t Brendan the original dragon?

[Ms Blue Jay]

Oh my god, no votes for Stephen in the Final Tribal Council/Final 2!  I don't like this one bit!  This season is a nerd's nightmare!

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Guest]

1 hour ago, AncientNewbie said:

3 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I don't get who the dragon is.  Where is the dragon?  The game?  

Wasn’t Brendan the original dragon?

I believe that's correct.

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Oh my god, no votes for Stephen in the Final Tribal Council/Final 2!  I don't like this one bit!  This season is a nerd's nightmare!

Stephen didn't like it one bit either, and was clearly still scarred by it when faced with another golden boy (Joe) in Second Chance.

This reminiscing over Tocantins JT just makes harder to think about Game Changers JT. He had lost all of that charm and appeal and came off quite badly.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Stephen made a fatal mistake by answering Debbie's FTC question honestly, I think.  he should have lied and said he would take JT to the final 2 100%.  Everyone in that game had lied, so why should FTC be any different?

However, everyone was so psychotically in love with JT who knows if it would have helped.

JT and Stephen played basically the same game, although Stephen betrayed Taj way harder.  I thought it was really snake-like for JT to vote for (Erinn?) when he knew Coach was going home just so Coach wouldn't be mad at him for it.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay