Final two! Come join me in the Hufflepuff Common Room!





Monica! <3 So...we had an interesting relationship to say the least. I really enjoyed talking to you early on in the game and viewed you as my number two ally behind only Sierra for the first couple rounds. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like I’m in a unique position because I got to see your early gameplay firsthand perhaps more than anyone else on the jury. You were fun to talk to, funny, likable. I was like, great! A sane person that I can work with and enjoy talking to at the same time! So understandably, I was thrilled when we ended up together on the swapped tribes. But it was at that point that I started to see another side to you.

You’ve owned up to your gameplay in the fourth round, which I appreciate. But it was truly terrible. You went from one of my most trusted people to the person I trusted the least. It was overstrategizing, it was telling Kim about your idol and not me, it was interrogating Kim about how I knew some random information. You made it impossible to trust you. If we hadn’t had the double tribal twist, you would’ve been voted unanimously that round, and I’m pretty confident you wouldn’t have played your idol.

What irks me the most about our conversations after round 4 was that you would very obviously try to inflate my ego. You would call me a genius, say you were going to let me take the reins, etc, etc. And then in the round that I got voted out, you said multiple times, in the smarmiest way possible, how I was your “lil’ mastermind” and ask how I was possibly coming up with these brilliant plans. Now, at the time, I thought this was just you being weird. I just thought “Oh, maybe she’s just really unaware and doesn’t realize she’s making me really uncomfortable.” And I don’t mean like a gamebotty ‘you’re exposing my game’ uncomfortable. I mean a ‘wow, I can’t believe she thinks I’m this self-absorbed that I would be buying this for a second’ uncomfortable. But as information slowly trickled into the jury house, I began to realize you were just completely trolling me and probably having a great laugh with Austin about how much I was buying your shit. And that did hurt, because I really did enjoy our nongame talks and saw you as a friend. The fact that you talked to me only to troll and make subtle jabs right before relegating me to the jury...it’s not the best feeling.

You went on to be very rude to Kelley in the round that she left. Which made me feel awful, because I felt like I had ruined her game by targeting Austin. That was straight up terrible jury management. And then, I’ll take us back to round 12. You said: “One thing I would like to bring up is that Sierra called me a goat. I am wondering if people are going to start to throw accusations as ways of changing perceptions for other people. I am not trying to be a goat and I intend to make it to the end on my own achievements/gameplay.” There’s a big difference between saying you’re not a goat and showing that you’re not a goat. The key is to show, don’t tell. You told everyone that you weren’t a goat, but you showed everyone that you were. I mean, you were perceived by everyone as a goat. And then right at the end of the game, you decide to tell everyone about your supposed brilliant game plan from day 1. In my opinion, making yourself a goat to get to the end and reveal your strategy is taking the easy way out. The only thing you ever showed me in this game was that you were difficult to work with, had a tendency to put a target on your back (you were a potential boot way more than Austin), and made rash, unstrategic decisions, which you attempt to write off as pretending to be clueless.

There’s a reason Austin ended up in the majority alliance and you ended up in the minority. You say you aren’t here because of Austin. But that is simply not true. Austin could have voted you out at almost any time throughout the individual part of this game. Meanwhile, as far as I know, you didn’t have any real opportunities to vote him out. But when the time finally came, that at long last you actually had the chance to vote out your biggest threat, you didn’t take it. Even if you win, there was no reason to take the bigger threat and the fact that you did makes me, again, question the strategic mind that you have told us about many times, but never fully showed us. I can say with certainty that if you had voted out Austin and then revealed your master plan at final tribal, you would’ve won in a landslide. You may soon regret that decision, especially when an awesome victory for you and a winner this jury could really get behind came so close to fruition.

Which brings me to Austin. After those paragraphs, you might think you have my vote in the bag. And you did Austin, you did. You had this game in the bag.

I’m gonna be straight up with you. We never talked. Never. Whether it was because of time zones or something else is beside the point. But I don’t know who you are. I don’t know anything about you. All I know is that you really upset a lot of people on this jury. You could’ve had an easy victory if you had played things just slightly differently with people who were going to or already had been voted off. But basically, I don’t have enough information to decide whether you’re the Russell Hantz or the Tony Vlachos. You might be Russell, stomping on people when they’re down, being fake and talking shit behind backs, leading people on just for the fun of it, making crazy moves just for the sake of making crazy moves.

Or you might be Tony. You built STRONG bonds with a lot of people. I mean you got Monica to take you to the end over an easy win. I’m definitely seeing shades of Tony and Woo with that. You got lots of people to completely trust you.

At the same time, I see shades of someone like Kathy VO or Shirin in Monica. She came out the gate way too strong, ended up alienating people, but was able to quickly adapt and compensate, something extremely important in this game.

While this post might seem very pro-Austin, I keep going back and forth and I am completely undecided right now. I just wanted to give people a different perspective after reading some very anti-Austin posts.

Now for my question which, disclaimer, I’m completely stealing from Eddie Fox from SI8 (shout out to Eddie) because I like it so much. I want you both to write a synopsis of SI9 as if it was the actual show. Who are the main characters, who gets the villain edit, the hero edit? What are some notable storylines? Are there any overarching themes to the season’s narrative? Any foreshadowing, red herrings, etc, etc? This can be as long or as short as you want, but have fun with it, be creative. Lastly, what does your winner’s edit look like and what does the other person’s loser’s edit look like?

Congrats on making final 2 and good luck with this and the rest of the questions! Let me know if you want/need any clarification.

ERIK. <3.

Dude, this might like make me seem even worse of a social gamer than people are already perceiving me as but:

Quote

Now, at the time, I thought this was just you being weird. I just thought “Oh, maybe she’s just really unaware and doesn’t realize she’s making me really uncomfortable.”

That was literally just me being myself. And by that, I mean weird. I could feel that our non-game convo's suddenly stopped and that like the trust was not there. That was just me kissing ass and not trolling at all. I can see it as sloppy or not admirable but I just want you to know I was not laughing to Austin about it at all. I guess that was me being Shirin before I evolved into a Kathy VO.

I felt completely powerless after the Kim vote. I was just trying to get back in good graces. Like I do not know what I was supposed to talk to you about when you told me straight-up that I would have been voted out if it had been just our tribe in a vote. Stuff like "my lil mastermind" is just my sense of humor, sadly and proudly. Like I said (and maybe he said idk) you were the first flip target because you appeared as a cunning game player. I did legit see you as a lil' mastermind.

I am genuinely sorry I hurt your feelings. The only thing I laughed about was how great timing it was for you to target Austin when we were targeting you.

I guess I'm finding out that I'm like really ... a natural troll. Or a natural goat. In life. Which I guess explains my ignorance and offense taken when Sierra made those claims.

In terms of show, not tell. That's hard to defend at FTC when all I have is words haha. But in terms of show: look at me, I am in the FTC. You say that Austin is the reason that I am here, and then you say I was a target countless times, more times than him. Doesn't that make it more impressive I am here? I was able to cling to a minority alliance while having an escape route the entire time. Yes I had the chance twice in the endgame to get rid of Austin. But I did not think it would be the wisest move. I can go more into that if you want.

Anyway, this isn't even answering your question. I just felt bad that you felt bad. I never meant or had any malice. You are right, you are the only juror (also Yve!) to know me in the first few rounds. And I definitely enjoyed the times we had during that time.

Clarification: "it was interrogating Kim about how I knew some random information." -- what is this referring to?

Clarification 2: Would you have voted for me over Garrett?

OH and I'll get to your question in a bit. I just wanted to clarify that.

Quote

Now for my question which, disclaimer, I’m completely stealing from Eddie Fox from SI8 (shout out to Eddie) because I like it so much. I want you both to write a synopsis of SI9 as if it was the actual show. Who are the main characters, who gets the villain edit, the hero edit? What are some notable storylines? Are there any overarching themes to the season’s narrative? Any foreshadowing, red herrings, etc, etc? This can be as long or as short as you want, but have fun with it, be creative. Lastly, what does your winner’s edit look like and what does the other person’s loser’s edit look like?

So if this was the actual show, I think one of the overall arching themes would be: What is the value of friendship? What do you do when you put trust into someone? Do you do it because you enjoy their company or because it will help their game? How blinding does trust get? If Survivor is the ultimate social experiment ... how often does our successful socializing actually lead to our failure?

I feel like this season was defined by friendships, cliques, and partnerships. I feel like the merge felt more like a Big Brother (I am thinking US 6) season than Survivor. TWO SIDES IN WAR. Or! As you guys will see later, Garrett was pretty brilliant in seeing some of the parallels with Gabon. There were just some people that would *never* work with each other. It made for very interesting strategy that people were really defiant about relationships that they had fostered. And then behind it all, all of that was undermined by an evil secret friendship that got to the end that exploited the dynamic of the season possibly to their own ruin. A clique of two.

I think the main characters would be Me, Austin, Yve, Sierra, and Caryn. I definitely see Sierra/Caryn as the stars of their particular original tribes. And then me/Austin v. Austin/Yve having the pull of the season story lines.

Foreshadowing: It is hard to not be biased with my own perspective. I think Austin/I making a day one deal would be very good for editing. The FairPlay boot would be very interesting with Katie/Yve/Austin/Stephen/I and how everything played out.

Yve and Garrett being tribe captains and also making it to f2 is pretty cool. Garrett/Austin being the first people I talked to.

Solid episodes:
1. I think the Kim round was very important fateful to see how all these chess pieces worked. I could see Kim getting a favorably winner's edit up until that point.
2. The Katie boot episode would be very intense and definitely the turning point of the season. Her saying that I would be following her soon would be a good red herring.
3. The Erik vote would be a pretty classic Survivor episode since it all seemed to happen isolated of that round and the implications of it sustained the rest of the season.
4. Caryn/Sierra's boots kind of mirror each other narratively.
5. This finale (which I assume is Yve boot onward) has proven to be really fascinating.

Villain edit: Gosh, I thought differently before Austin and I got all cocky and everyone has brought us down a peg. I feel like we would be heroes all the way up to the f6 and then it all topples with the Yve vote. Such a villainous f2 it turned out to be without them realizing it. Rory deff made himself a villain after battering Garrett.

Hero edit: Yve. Katie.

Notable storylines: The BelYvers. The Hags. Austin/Monica f2. Sierra vs. Sue. Idols being utterly never used effectively, or if at all. I think sadly the twist of returning players was a bust, storyline and game wise. Sue Hawkroach surviving so many votes. Caryn being a challenge beast. That Katie shrine I keep hearing about.

--

Austin's Loser Edit: Fairly liked person with a level tone ... that secretly gets way too excited about the game and perfecting playing both sides. Like Rob C in Amazon without ever having to endearingly scramble with Rob or being a novel character like Rob C was. The hubris and treachery of it all was for nothing and ultimately leads to his ruin. I think he would very UTR until post-Katie and then explodes post-Erik. Sorry to do this to ya again but definitely a Russel-esque edit, but without being a complete sociopath.

MY WINNERS EDIT: I am definitely very into your Shirin/Kathy comparison (lmao of course I am). I did not realize how alienating I was being, got a wake up call when flopped, stepped back a bit, made new friends but could still rely on this day one deal. Never really lost that alienating edge tho. Never had to get blood on her hands but was always in the line of fire. So I was with high visibility but nothing that really guarantees a winner. Lost some of the endearing underdog quality that she once had when she got a bit too cocky in mid-to-late merge. Finale humbles her as Austin gets the most extreme his game gets (cutting Yve) and gets her right back to that underdog position she originally occupied. Definitely problematic at times but always had a sense of fun to the edit. Jenna's winners edit meets Sandra's meets one of, if not both, of the Natalie's? Pushed buttons but was always in the thick of it. Always kept trying new schemes.

Thanks for the responses, Monica. Reading through mine and others' posts, I understand that it must be hard for you guys to hear this stuff. Just know that I'm really not angry at you or Austin. Much of the bitterness on this jury comes from the fact that you guys are both perceived to have been extremely cocky throughout most of this game. No one wants to vote for the self-satisfied, cocky people. But I think actually one of the major flaws of this game is that it's alias, it's online, it's on a forum. It's very easy to alter and misinterpret someone's tone to fit your own perception in a chatroom. It's very easy to get angry at people who you cannot see, cannot hear. It's easier to see people who may be genuinely great people as sociopaths or robots because of the limitations of the internet.

Ok, but first I'll start with a bonus clarification. I didn't articulate myself well with what I meant by "show, don't tell". That's a saying used by writers that basically means you should make the reader experience the story through feelings, action, senses, whatever else, rather than just using exposition and explanation to drive the plot forward. I just think that the best players of Survivor don't need to explain their games much in the end. Look at Natalie A, Tony, Tyson, Cochran, Denise, Kim, BRob. Many of these people are considered to be some of the best winners and everyone on the jury knew the game they were playing before FTC. That's what I meant by show, don't tell. There are a few cases where "telling" works, but in those cases (Natalie W and Sandra HvV), the jury came to this grand realization once they articulated their games. No one on this jury is coming to a grand realization with your game.

Clarification 1:



Clarification 2:
I would've voted for you if you had voted out Austin without giving your grand strategy reveal at TC15. Reveal it in FTC and you would've had my vote. As much as I love Garrett, it would've been impossible to deny your better gameplay and you would've been a very satisfying winner. Voting out Austin would've been the "show don't tell" that I needed from you, because at that point you would've positioned yourself to be the clear winner.

Thank you for the clarifications, Erik! I don't remember freaking out about that, and I have been told by others that Kim was trying to label me as 'insane'. So take that was a grain of salt.

I took none of it personally -- do not worry.

For my final big 'show don't tell' move -- can I get you banned from the game for posting screenshots?

Quote

- Screenshots are forbidden this season. Do not take a screenshot of anything in your confessional, a PM, or an AIM conversation.

^_^ jk jk

Quote

Screenshots are forbidden this season. Do not take a screenshot of anything in your confessional, a PM, or an AIM conversation.

Whoops haha. Well....I'm no collar. I break the rules.

Hey Erik! Sorry this answer took a little while but I could tell this one was going to be a bit more of a thinker, and I'd want more time on it. At one point I started and lost all of my progress when I was nearly done so....that was upsetting and I needed to step away as well lol. Anyways, let's get into it. Kudos to Monica, she nailed a lot of things in her answer so sorry for any excessive overlap, I just happen to agree with her in a lot of cases on this.

Quote

Now for my question which, disclaimer, I’m completely stealing from Eddie Fox from SI8 (shout out to Eddie) because I like it so much. I want you both to write a synopsis of SI9 as if it was the actual show. Who are the main characters, who gets the villain edit, the hero edit? What are some notable storylines? Are there any overarching themes to the season’s narrative? Any foreshadowing, red herrings, etc, etc? This can be as long or as short as you want, but have fun with it, be creative. Lastly, what does your winner’s edit look like and what does the other person’s loser’s edit look like?

I'm just going to go down the line and answer the aspects of this in the order you present them.

Synopsis: *to be read in the voice of Jeff Probst and in the style of the pre-finale episode season recap*

This Season on....Survivor. 15 new castaways found themselves stranded in the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the Serengeti. They were joined by three seasoned veteran *shots of Rob, Kim, and Rory entering*, who were back for redemption. Early on in the game, for some it was smooth sailing *shots of Y'mra S'bor winning immunity*, while for others it was far from it *shots of Sangoma losing & Zane, Taj, Fairplay getting snuffed*. On Day 3, Austin and Monica made a Final Two alliance to the end, but decided to keep their alliance secret.

A major twist early in the game sending two tribes to tribal at once shook the game to its core, sending major power players home *shots of Kim & Rob (only because he's a returnee) getting snuffed* and even idols weren't protection enough. *shots of Vytas snuffed, Monica wasting her idol*. After the shocking blindside of Katie, two sides clearly began to form, the young and the old. On one side was Sierra, Erik, Garrett, and Kelley and the other Monica, Rory, Caryn, and Sue. Yve & Austin found themselves in the middle, and resolved to play both sides. After voting out another player with potential to swing either way *Stephen snufffed*, Yve & Austin seemed to join the side of the young.

Conflicts began to boil over *shots of Garrett/Rory fighting, Sue/Sierra fighting*, and the two sides grew only farther apart. But after a long period of separation, Monica & Austin renewed their final two alliances, decided to play both sides. And so the vote swung back and forth, with no one safe *shots of Rory, Erik, Sue, Kelley snuffed*. Caryn dominated the challenges, with some amazing comebacks *shot of the auction*, but when she finally lost the target on her was too big to be ignored *Caryn snuffed*. As the number of castaways lessened, the game became more cutthroat *shots of Austin lying to people and Monica trolling people*. Tough decisions had to be made *Sierra being told she was going home, Yve snuffed*. After winning the final immunity challenge, Monica decided to keep her word and take Austin along with her to the Final 2 *Garrett snuffed*.

So now the two allies face off against the jury of 9, having gone as far in the game as they can. Who will win? Will it be Austin, the quiet schemer with a cutthroat side who turned on almost all the jury? Or will it be Monica, the fun-loving housewife, whose mouth got in her a few sticky situations? Only one will be victorious and be crowned the Sole Survivor. *cue intro music*

(this was simplified a bit in the style of those often insufferable recaps, but was my attempt at having a little fun with it. Not sure I completely pulled it off, but *shrug*).

Main Characters: By virtue of making the Final Two, Monica & I are major characters. She's a bigger personality and I'm a more prevalent strategic force. Sierra & Caryn are the main characters from both of their "sides", providing big personalities and plenty of moments (not to mention both find idols). Rory couldn't NOT be a main character I don't think, and he brings the drama at all times.

Heroes: Caryn is probably the big underdog hero of the game. She's an unsuspecting physical beast (based on character lol), never really found her footing strategically, and has the wit & charm to pull it off. Yve is the sweetheart of the season, probably not getting a huge edit but still representing the humanity of it all. I imagine her getting a somewhat Tasha-esque edit.

Villains: Rory is the conventional villain, simply due to the fact that he has a major blow-up at Garrett and a slightly inflated sense of importance in the game (asking Sue to quit for him, etc). I think Monica & I also get our fair share of villainous stuff, her from her incessant trolling of people and me from my cold & inexpressive demeanor & cutthroat way of playing.

Notable Storylines: I think the Austin/Monica secret alliance definitely has to be a major storyline of the season, since it all worked out in the end. Taj/Brendan was a big one and that didn't even come to anything. Another major storylines would be the BelYvers vs. Haglliance come the merge, and I think the audience would be rooting for the hags simply because they were much more fun than the rest of us haha. Notable rivalries would be Sierra vs. Sue, Sierra vs. Stephen (or whatever that relationship is haha), and Garrett vs. Rory. I also think that, unfortunately, "Austin keeps betraying everyone" would become an underlying story thread.

Overarching Themes: I think Monica nailed the theme of friendship vs. game. That's basically been a major crux of this final tribal council, whether or not Monica & I are heartless players who faked our friendships. I think, unfortunately, the end result is that in the game of Survivor the person who places friendships first doesn't win, but in the game of life that's probably not so much the case. That's whether I win or lose lol. That theme is also boosted by some complex intertwined dynamics thanks to the "two tribes go to tribal" twist producing interesting loyalties and relationships. Another major question of the season is "how far is too much?". What the boundaries on what should be done to win? I think whatever the result of this final tribal is will answer that question.

Monica's Loser Edit: After thinking about this all this morning, I landed on which irl Final 2 Monica/I most represent, and I landed on Aras/Danielle. It's not a perfect comparison, but I see quite a few similarities there. Monica is the Danielle: fairly abrasive, someone who made strategic moves based on fear and complacency a lot of the time (never "stopping" me from my "evil" ways), and not quite as likable as she thinks. I think her general attitude for the entire game is what would cost her it, and that's similar to what happened to Danielle. Plus, a lack of strong, visible strategic play. I think Monica is a bigger personality than Danielle, though.

My Winner's Edit: That makes me the Aras. We both had quiet presences in the game, were well-liked in the game but not without our detractors (many people found Aras' yogie stuff annoying, though I'm sure I got a more visceral response than he did). He was similarly low key as a character to me, and is often cited by Jeff Probst as one of the more vanilla winners as far as personality goes. I think I played a much more aggressive strategic game than Aras did, but not as strong a social game. Either way, I think personality wise we match up fairly well, and that's why I chose him here. Our ~auras~ were similar.