ok. cohlune updates bc im finally making progress on his route (or like. not his specifically but he shows up here). so hes the prime minister of caldealand but also seems to be taking care of the princess (muefell. i dont know WHERE her parents are rn). their dynamic is actually very silly to me, because cohlune seems to be responsible for her but she also is very silly and VERY prone to danger (girl that is addicted to running into danger for fun but shes literally fine) and cohlune has to do his best to kind of. keep her from that. the point i just hit in the game is that theyre trying to capture this dangerous creature (who used to be a safe one that muefell was friends with. its a long story) and cohlune is all prepared to go in there, until muefell hits him with the big wet eyes and is basically telling him that she wants to come w them (in much less words, i think you'd enjoy her speech patterns a lot as they're very short and choppy). and ofc cohlune tells her no because its CRAZY dangerous but she hits him w the big wet eyes and he gives in in like a minute because he cant handle being stared at like that. theyre very silly, i have a LOT of this route left so ill be periodically popping in to give more info if you want more :) but the more i see of him the more i think youd like him a lot :)

no thoughts no words but so real so real love it the brain is ruminating n will read again later its so so good

SURVIVOR 41 SEASON PREMIERE THOUGHTS

Here are my thoughts on the opening episode of the new season. Nothing I’m about to say is revolutionary, it seems like all these opinions have already been shared before, but I wanted to wait a few days to think on everything as well as talk to some family/friends before putting my final thoughts down. Overall it was pretty polarizing, lots to both love and hate:

PROS

Diverse cast: I don’t think there’s a dud among the whole cast, and the diversity allows for more dynamic chemistry and a lot of different stories to be told

Candid shots of production: I like that they are letting us in to that world. Previously in moments like the medical disaster in S32 Kaoh Rong they showed production, and it made a great impact as a viewer. I don’t find it breaks immersion, in fact the opposite. The average audience member nowadays is much more knowledgeable & initiative than back in 2000, when a show trusts its viewer in this way I think it helps them become more invested in the show, understanding the ins & outs of how it’s functioning

Editing/storytelling style: there was a lot of great moments playing with the edit this episode that previous seasons tended to stray away from. I enjoyed the edit showing/giving us as a viewer information the contestants don’t have yet, like hidden advantage locations. I also enjoyed how they presented the Prisoner’s Dilemma, leaving it a mystery until tribal council whether or not Xander & JD chose to risk or protect their vote. It’s nice that in yet another way production is trusting us as a viewer with more (or less) info

Fourth Wall Breaking: this is both a pro and a con for me (con to follow). I enjoyed the moments Jeff spoke to us as a viewer, explaining new rules or changes to the game. This reminded me of S1, and I think was a great way to help any new fans coming in to the show. Only new changes were discussed, and it was kept relatively brief, so even for super fans it didn’t feel bloated or like a time sink

Subtitles at tribal: while I have more to say on live tribals, I do at least appreciate this time having full subtitles for all conversations taking place. While contestants may want to obscure info from other players, us as viewers should never be left in the dark, so I appreciate this effort being taken this season

Penalties for losing challenges: I enjoy this twist, as it seems to carry the spirit of the game. This is Survivor, it should be about having to get by on less, not more. I always found it odd that there were “reward” challenges. There are two ways to give a team an advantage, you can boost them up with a prize, or you can penalize the opposition, and I’m happy to see this element come more into play. Similar ideas had been done before in previous seasons when a contestant would get to raid the opposing tribes camp for one or two items (ie. Sandra in S7 Pearl Islands) and that always seemed to make for great television

Footage from Home: I enjoyed the return of footage from back home like in the earlier seasons. It helps us connect and become more invested in the contestants, and I assume they will go away after the first episode or two, so long term they don’t seem to pose a problem

Shot in the Dark: this twist is just weak enough to be balanced. In essence I don’t see this really changing or impacting the game in any significant way, but it does at least maintain a glimmer of hope for each contestant so as a viewer you’ll never be bored. Should someone pull this off I think they are deserving of the free immunity for having read the situation properly, and would make for great television. Some may say this could make for an unfair moment with a separate contestant “wrongfully” going home, but that’s always been the case since hidden immunity idols were introduced. At least this way every contestant is aware of the confirmed, tangible (albeit slim) threat and not just the idea they “could potentially” have an idol

CONS

Cinematography: it seemed off, very different than last seasons. The confessionals all looked fine, but you certainly noticed it during camp life and challenges. There were no night shots used, a lot more static camera shots, and the slow motion during challenges was just overblown. There was maybe one good slow motion shot of Xander grabbing his buff and jumping in the water, every other one felt forced (Brad bellyflopping? Brad chopping bamboo? Naseer huffing & puffing a sandbag a couple feet?)

Shorter game length: an easy one to criticize, and I understand the reason why it’s only 26 days, but the condensing of the game seems to already have an odd ripple effect that I worry will make for a disjointed end game

Two Tribes Going to Tribal: this is most likely related to the 26 day time crunch, but if this is the standard this season it makes me worry how strong of a narrative we will get for each tribal. This premiere episode wasn’t too bad, but it was a 2hr premiere, regular 1hr episodes will surely have a hard time balancing every contestants narrative in that amount of time

Still Live Tribals: I know some people like these as they are exciting, but come on, this is chaos! In the early days Jeff would yell at contestants for trying to get up out of their seat. Jeff needs to maintain control again. Tribal is like a courtroom, Jeff is your judge and there is literally a jury, you wouldn’t see the defendant in a courtroom standing up, running around, whispering to others… there must be order!

Fourth Wall Breaking Moments: as mentioned above I enjoyed when Jeff explained new game dynamics to us as viewers, but when he would interrupt a conversation with the tribes to turn to the camera I just felt cringe. The worst was “alright, first tribal council”. It was so easy to leave that on the cutting room floor, the editors should have known better on that one especially

The Prisoners Dilemma: in concept this maybe wasn’t a bad idea, but the execution was horrible. Analyzing the setup, to me it only makes strategic sense TO risk your vote. The first problem is that a regular prisoners dilemma does not occur within a game, so normally you’re probably not as invested about the outcome of the other prisoners, only your own. But here because it’s a game it does make strategic sense to hinder your opponents. So risk your vote, because you either get an extra vote, or you’ve stolen two votes from opposing contestants for your one. Also looking at this specific situation, all three contestants who went on the boat were debatably the strongest physical player on their tribe, so it would make sense for each individual to want to weaken those other players and increase their risk of going home, in turn weakening their overall tribe. If they could trust their tribe than returning without a vote is not the worst thing, if they can properly articulate the situation and work it to their advantage (Xander was a great example of this, JD showed us the opposite lol). Overall it feels like a pretty flawed twist and needs reworking

No Shelter Building Focus: not a huge con, but I did miss the focus on shelter building. Through the conversation & act of shelter building we as a viewer usually get to see who is a leader, who might be confrontational, who is a team player, etc. But more so we’re reminded of the actual survival element of the show, which production seems to be putting less focus on

No Intro: not the first season to do away with the intro sequence but I would have liked to see it return

Production Challenge Errors: some of the recent staffing changes with CBS must have been on the Challenge Production team because there were some glaring problems with that first challenge. Firstly, Yase’s yellow oar completely blended in to the yellow rope, they had a distinct disadvantage. I know some people will say if they couldn’t notice the other two tribes grabbing their oar from that location it’s their fault, but that’s a crappy excuse, it should be completely level & fair entering a challenge. Also what was with the double anchors on the boats? Perhaps it was left on the cutting room floor but I don’t recall Jeff mentioning prior to the challenge beginning that the boats had two anchors. Now I’m certainly no expert when it comes to nautical knowledge but as far as my life experience I‘be only ever seen or heard one anchor being referenced on use in a boat. Clearly all of the Luvu tribe thought the same as they only unhooked their front anchor. Jeff however later in the challenge yells to the Ua tribe and reminds them to unhook both anchors. Luvu was further away having had a lead so they very likely couldn’t hear Jeff when he said that. It’s like Ua was given an extra advantage. It also was unclear what the objective with the boat was, I was surprised to all of a sudden see Ua paddling in the opposite direction back towards the ship. Production should have had them race in a circle instead of a straight “there and back”

Game Within the Game: I’m sorry, this is the lamest addition they’ve ever added. Really? A standard rebus puzzle? They don’t take up enough time/focus during an episode to actually have any impact, and the puzzles themselves have so far been extremely simple. Jeff says this is “for the kids”, but any child young enough to find that puzzle challenging certainly doesn’t have the attention span to sit through an entire episode and find the puzzle in the first place. For any adult wanting to play this game as well the answer will be online within minutes of it airing… what’s the point? Pure fluff that has nothing to do with the game

Within Episode Flashback: I certainly hope this doesn’t become a habit, but during JD’s confessional when he talks about building fire they actually flashback to him just minutes ago having built the fire. Seriously!? We literally just saw it, why waste screen time showing it again? That was a poor call from some editor and I hope this doesn’t become a storytelling pattern

And finally, the “Guys” debate: so much has already been said on this. Personal feelings aside from the use of the phrase, this is a discussion that should have been had off camera, and came off feeling way to pandering. Jeff literally says at the beginning of the episode “we are all going through what’s most likely the biggest world incident we will ever experience”, but yet we spend more screen time talking about the word “guys” than the pandemic and all the emotional trauma that may have caused? I know Survivor likes to be sensitive, but this was not the way to go about it. It doesn’t ruin the show for me, it’s just a phrase I know I can “survive” without it, but I hope this isn’t the first step in many changes like this down the line. I’m all for being inclusive, but the method in which the show decides to go about change can actually alienate their existing fan base, so I hope they make better decisions on how to implement change moving forward