Board 8 > Survivor: Game Changers Topic 2: Everybody Choooookes...Sometimes

(+) Yeah! (+)

Oh my god, this week's episode was just...omg. Varner does seem very remorseful and I do remember the gossips of Zeke being trans, but still, that was one helluva bomb. God. The first, like, 15 seconds after Varner said that might just be one of the most intense moments of Survivor I've watched.
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In Varner's "The Day After" video, he brings up the fact that those on the island had not seen Zeke's season as it hadn't aired yet at the time of filming, so he jumped to a far-out conclusion that, since Zeke was immediately brought back as an All-Star, him having been transgender was made a big deal on 33. Still doesn't defend it but I guess it gives a little more perspective?
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Varner was decent at defending it on RHAP.
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Oh yeah, that's one aspect that I forgot about.
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Peridiam posted...

also if brad culpepper doesn't win this season i'll be in total shock

which is actually a great feeling that i wish i felt more often :\

forget "fuck you Brad Culpepper"

we "fuck yeah Brad Culpepper" now!

I legit started rooting for him after reading that funny115 write-up, I mean I always liked him before but that cemented it. So good.

I really have warmed up to him a lot this season.
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oh my god big brother canada that was way too fast
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(standard double eviction but garsh)
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Wait, what? (TAR29 episode currently airing)

Why did they use the UTurns BEFORE finishing the detour??
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Wow I REALLY hate Shamir.
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I am fucking shocked. But at least now only Matt/Redmond are preventing it from being a race.
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Unfortunately they're preventing it from being a race while being unbearable assholes.
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If they're so worried about Zeke being "outed" then why are they airing this on national television? Couldn't they just say something happened at tribal and they're not showing it and Varner is out? How is that fair to Zeke or Varner? How can Zeke even be outed when he's a completely different person now? Like who in his life didn't know?

I'll never understand this bullshit and I thought Probst's condescension was embarrassing.
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To be fair, from what I read, Zeke approved of them including this moment in this episode and even worked with the editors to make sure the tribal was acceptable in his eyes.

I think that's pretty cool.
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AmericanDragon posted...

If they're so worried about Zeke being "outed" then why are they airing this on national television? Couldn't they just say something happened at tribal and they're not showing it and Varner is out? How is that fair to Zeke or Varner? How can Zeke even be outed when he's a completely different person now? Like who in his life didn't know?

I'll never understand this bullshit and I thought Probst's condescension was embarrassing.

1. I'm gonna address questions four and five first because this answer plays into my answers for 1, 2, and 3. As you said, Zeke is a "different" person now and is a man. Period. Given that he's a man, it's entirely possible that he had a large number of connections that had no idea of his transgender status. I mean, I'm assuming you're a cisgender man yourself, you don't tell all your friends and relations "Hey, I'm a man and have always been one." So Zeke perhaps didn't go around making a big deal about his former gender in a similar fashion. Varner outed him, thus turning him from Zeke, man, to Zeke, transgender man. That one descriptor can change a lot. I mean, while transgender individuals are gaining more recognition and respect nowadays, it's still something that can often be looked down upon. As Zeke said at tribal council, once you're "outed", you become your gender, rather than yourself as an individual human being.

2. All that being said, I believe that Zeke okayed the footage being shown (partially because it would be REALLY difficult to edit around a tribal council of that magnitude, but perhaps also because he wants to shine a light on some of the issues transgender people face, and just generally call attention to the idea that "outing" a person for whatever reason is NOT okay.) At that point, it'd already happened, and it's kinda hard to go on in the season without that level of tribal council discomfort coming up again. So I think Zeke got out in front to try and put as positive of a spin on it as he could.
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(all Amazing Race latest episode spoilers below)

AdmiralZephyr posted...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I am fucking shocked. But at least now only Matt/Redmond are preventing it from being a race.

Just finished watching it. I don't think I've ever hoped so hard for a non-elimination leg before. And just think, we're going to get 3 or 4 non-elims this season and all these shit teams are going to be saved to race another day, while Seth and Olive are out this early... this is bullshit!

MartinFF7 posted...

(all Amazing Race latest episode spoilers below)

AdmiralZephyr posted...

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I am fucking shocked. But at least now only Matt/Redmond are preventing it from being a race.

Just finished watching it. I don't think I've ever hoped so hard for a non-elimination leg before. And just think, we're going to get 3 or 4 non-elims this season and all these shit teams are going to be saved to race another day, while Seth and Olive are out this early... this is bullshit!

Seth and Olive being out early was probably the best thing that could have happened, not because I disliked them but because I thought they were so obviously going to win that this threw me for a loop and will make the rest of the race more interesting.
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Seth & Olive were one of those teams that was both generic personalities AND dominant racers (a horrible combination). It's good we got rid of them early.
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Now we need to get rid of Matt and Red because they are dominant racers and actively terrible personalities.

Actually if the next two teams to go are Matt/Red and Shamir/Sarah I will be at the very worst neutral-leaning-positive for everyone left.
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survivor question, bbcan5 spoilers can be inferred

Is there a survivor equivalent to Harvey Dent? 1st season, fan favorite, almost won and "died a hero". Came back the 2nd season, early fan favorite but then was portrayed as a villain, and gets voted out to fan cheers and "lived long enough to become the villain"?
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Stephenie LaGrossa in back-to-back seasons.
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Ozzy maybe?

Oh, yeah Inviso's might be better.
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Those two are your best answers.
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Inviso posted...

I dunno, Naomi. I'd say President Sarah is looking pretty solid too. It's definitely between those two right now though.

The funny thing about Brad Culpepper is that if they are a finalist and lost to ...Sarah..., it'd be... really odd given the portrayal the former has received thus far. It's like they'd be begging for people to throw a fit. But whereas Braaaaaad could be a fan favorite robbed edit, the President has had a much more decidedly strategy-oriented edit with a couple humanizing moments.

It's a close race for sure, but if they both make finals I'll be very shocked. I am of course rooting for my pre-season winner pick in Sarah, haha.

Also, I'm loving this season but for someone like Naomi who is more gameplay-oriented, I could see this season kinda flailing. Gameplay has been rather underwhelming with initial tribe alliances sticking strong and no crazy flip-flopping by anybody. I assume merge will be interesting since there's so few people from the minority tribe left now that they might just be left alone while the majority begins turning on each other.
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According to a reddit link Varner was fired from his job.

Damn.
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That sucks but is also not terribly surprising.

I mean, apparently there were people calling for the firing of Tony after Cagayan aired (of course his boss told them where to shove it). If that would happen for just lying and being a bit too aggressive, I'd imagine that what Varner did would be a PR nightmare for his job.
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Oh wow.
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Surskit posted...

Inviso posted...

I dunno, Naomi. I'd say President Sarah is looking pretty solid too. It's definitely between those two right now though.

The funny thing about Brad Culpepper is that if they are a finalist and lost to ...Sarah..., it'd be... really odd given the portrayal the former has received thus far. It's like they'd be begging for people to throw a fit. But whereas Braaaaaad could be a fan favorite robbed edit, the President has had a much more decidedly strategy-oriented edit with a couple humanizing moments.

It's a close race for sure, but if they both make finals I'll be very shocked. I am of course rooting for my pre-season winner pick in Sarah, haha.

Also, I'm loving this season but for someone like Naomi who is more gameplay-oriented, I could see this season kinda flailing. Gameplay has been rather underwhelming with initial tribe alliances sticking strong and no crazy flip-flopping by anybody. I assume merge will be interesting since there's so few people from the minority tribe left now that they might just be left alone while the majority begins turning on each other.

A few things about the edit:

Episode 1(first hour of the premiere) we see Brad Culpepper's confessional titled WWMD. What Monica did was go to the end and lose by being a goat. This confessional ends with Brad saying that he has his foot or something like that in this game and is immediately followed by a goat losing its footing.

Episode 2: We see Cirie telling Sarah that she will only vote for her if she is out of the game.This is a foreshadowing that we also saw last season when Ken promised to Adam that he would never write his name down and he didn't(even in the F4 Ken votes out David).

Last episode heroic music was played when Sarah spoke and not when Zeke spoke. Sarah's speech was put in the end of the episode. We saw that Andrea cried multiple times but the editors really didn't give a damn about Andrea in general and really focused on making Sarah look good.

Sarah is being portrayed as a criminal and Brad is being portrayed like a trustworthy guy but it is safe to assume that if they both get to the end or towards the finale since let's be honest these are the two main characters of the seasons, they will backstab people. Brad backstabbing people will go against his character while Sarah's backstabbing will be perfectly appropriate for her criminal playing. The villains who win have perfect knowledge of their games and they tend to be humanized like Sarah was.
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I dunno. It's felt like the edit has ignored Sarah at several key moments. Meanwhile Brad gets something decent each week.
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Peridiam posted...

I dunno. It's felt like the edit has ignored Sarah at several key moments. Meanwhile Brad gets something decent each week.

The edit ignored Michele too. Up until the Sandra boot, Sarah had never gone to tribal council, yet still got the big opener about herself, plus the unnecessary "I'm gonna form a bond with Troyzan" scene.
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Inviso posted...

Peridiam posted...

I dunno. It's felt like the edit has ignored Sarah at several key moments. Meanwhile Brad gets something decent each week.

The edit ignored Michele too. Up until the Sandra boot, Sarah had never gone to tribal council, yet still got the big opener about herself, plus the unnecessary "I'm gonna form a bond with Troyzan" scene.

Which contrasts nicely with the Brad/Troyzan scene, where their alliance is presented in a manner of convenience by being the only two men.
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Inviso posted...

Peridiam posted...

I dunno. It's felt like the edit has ignored Sarah at several key moments. Meanwhile Brad gets something decent each week.

The edit ignored Michele too. Up until the Sandra boot, Sarah had never gone to tribal council, yet still got the big opener about herself, plus the unnecessary "I'm gonna form a bond with Troyzan" scene.

As someone who followed Kaoh Rong extensively, I can easily say it didn't ignore Michele. There was always something about her every episode, even if it was just the recap. The editors always made a point to map her position.

I'm not following this season as in depth but I get the feeling Sarah is missing something.
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Peridiam posted...

Inviso posted...

Peridiam posted...

I dunno. It's felt like the edit has ignored Sarah at several key moments. Meanwhile Brad gets something decent each week.

The edit ignored Michele too. Up until the Sandra boot, Sarah had never gone to tribal council, yet still got the big opener about herself, plus the unnecessary "I'm gonna form a bond with Troyzan" scene.

As someone who followed Kaoh Rong extensively, I can easily say it didn't ignore Michele. There was always something about her every episode, even if it was just the recap. The editors always made a point to map her position.

I'm not following this season as in depth but I get the feeling Sarah is missing something.

The recap stuff is true. But there was a string of episodes early on where Michele was always just lumped into the "girls alliance" while Anna got the content. Sarah's not THAT much worse off. And she has a bizarre content focus for someone completely irrelevant to most storylines of the season.
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Those were the recap episodes, yeah. That string, Michele's only content was in the recap. But then not much was going on. The swap? Michele was front and center. Sarah wasn't (unless I'm mistaken).

I also find her first confessional jarring. It's a lot like Tasha. And that whole "I have an excellent social game" right out of the gate... kill me.
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Sarah: "I played Survivor: Cagayan, and I have a phenomenal social game."

girl
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Yeah, but Sarah's first confessional was describing who she was (as a player who probably has no business being in this sort of season...though I thought she deserved a second chance), how she played the first time and lost, and how she intends on playing this time.

Since then she got to be credited as smarter than Cirie, able to see through Sandra's game, made an alliance with Troyzan while the rest of her tribe sat on their hands, and now is just the best darned conservative in the history of the universe because she doesn't think any less of a completely normal human fucking being for being a completely normal human fucking being (I'm still annoyed by that speech, can you tell?)

Don't get me wrong, Brad has pretty solid content too. But he's playing a different brand of game than Sarah. He's in more of a leadership role and despite not really deserving to be in the cast, his place in the Cambodia fan poll shows that production likes him, so it's natural that they make him the figurehead of his tribes. Really, either one would work (and I personally would prefer Brad.)
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The production and Jeff love Brad BTW mainly because he was sued while being on the show for not actually being 89% disabled and he did everything to hide this from the public eye. Brad lost around 200-300 thousands by getting on the show.
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Half the posts are now spoiler tags. Ehhhh...
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Siaperaz posted...

The production and Jeff love Brad BTW mainly because he was sued while being on the show for not actually being 89% disabled and he did everything to hide this from the public eye. Brad lost around 200-300 thousands by getting on the show.

What?
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Peridiam posted...

Sarah: "I played Survivor: Cagayan, and I have a phenomenal social game."

girl

Since they let this in and since Sarah is not an over the top character like Debbie her narration is reliable to the edit.
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AdmiralZephyr posted...

Siaperaz posted...

The production and Jeff love Brad BTW mainly because he was sued while being on the show for not actually being 89% disabled and he did everything to hide this from the public eye. Brad lost around 200-300 thousands by getting on the show.

What?

http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2015/01/30/Ex-NFL-lineman-Brad-Culpepper-sued-for-insurance-fraud-over-Survivor-appearance/7871422623976/
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Who is Siaperaz?
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Siaperaz posted...

Peridiam posted...

Sarah: "I played Survivor: Cagayan, and I have a phenomenal social game."

girl

Since they let this in and since Sarah is not an over the top character like Debbie her narration is reliable to the edit.

https://survivoroz.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/1377618_10201248029700982_446593448_n.jpg
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Just watched the episode

So amazed and happy that Zeke has the capacity to take what COULD have been

[Tribal Council will not be shown tonight due to private information about a castaway being discussed at length. Jeff Varner was voted out 6-1]

Into a really eye-opening and hopefully educational experience for many viewers who don't understand transgender issues.
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Jakyl25 posted...

[Tribal Council will not be shown tonight due to private information about a castaway being discussed at length. Jeff Varner was voted out 6-1]

Yeah that wouldn't have happened. These editors are pretty talented. If Zeke said he wasn't comfortable with it being shown, they would have just shown up to the point where Varner gave his pitch to vote out Ozzy, then edited together other clips to show them shooting him down. They could have shown clips from other tribal councils if necessary (that's been done before; Gabon in particular was infamous for this). As for the vote, they would have thought of something (again, maybe show clips of people heading up to the booth at other tribals), or, if it was going to get too complicated with people actually going back and formally writing down Varner's name, just say, you know what, this is his fault, let's just totally bury him and make it look like he threw in the towel without a vote.

And you know what? I'm sure people would have gotten suspicious, and someone (most likely Varner himself) would have probably eventually said on the internet, "Yeah, something happened that we couldn't show. That's why that tribal council was so weird on TV." (again, it's not like that hasn't happened before either)
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That's such an interesting idea that I kind of want to see someone try it just for the challenge.

Freeze Frame of Jeff Varner: [I must go now. My planet needs me.]

*digital teleporter effect*

Probst: "Jeff Varner died on the way back to his home planet."
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jesus christ that took a turn

good riddance varner
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Based on what I've seen, it looks like the online Survivor community has been very good about channeling their feelings about this into love and support for Zeke as opposed to hatred for Varner.
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i don't really see a reason to blast varner (though thats not gonna stop anyone)

as far as i'm concerned, the only person whose opinion is relevant on what varner did is zeke himself
and how varner deals with what he did is ultimately up to him

i don't doubt that he felt sincerely bad afterwards, but i'm on team sarah: he said something he knew crossed a line in order to try and garner sympathy for the game. because he didn't realize the consequences of what he said doesn't excuse it - he deserved to be (essentially) thrown out of the game like he was and he earned whatever amount of shunning and disdain (without violence or epithets) pushed his way for what he did.
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Make no mistake, Varner did that with the intent to cause damage. I believe that he didn't understand the extent, severity and permanence of the hurt he was going to cause, and as far as I'm concerned he couldn't have fully, for lack of a better word, appreciated it until he saw it played back in front of 9 million people. It was no slip of the tongue. It would have been a little bit different if the two of them had been in a heated argument at TC and it just started escalating and escalating and escalating to the point where he finally blurted it out. It still would have been awful but at least then he could have covered his mouth and said "Oh shit, what did I just say?!" and it would have been a little more sincere. But that was totally premeditated.

I also believe that he does truly feel remorse for it.
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