Previously on… Survivor!
The last two surviving Shadowsquids, Harmless and Yurimaster, found their backs up against the wall after a medical emergency led to an uninformed Venexis breaking a 3-3 tie by voting out the Squid’s strongest member, Magnen. With their ally, former Oerhaos ally Blackyoshi, they begin to launch an offensive on Venexis as the traitor.
In the Immunity Challenge, castaways learned some hard truths about each other during the Coconut Chop. The big threats targeting each other led to Emelia Kaylee winning immunity, and Nin10mode’s expansive knowledge of his tribesmates led to him winning reward in the form of the Time Master.
During the vote, Harmless’ attempts to intimidate Emelia Kaylee into voting out Venexis backfired, as he shared the messages with fellow Oerhaos staples Raz and Nin10mode. Word got back to Venexis and BY, causing them both to turn against Harmless, preparing a 5-2 vote against him.
However, Yurimaster interfered, reasoning with Venexis and gaining both of his allies back on his side. While both Harmless and Nin10mode became cocky for both their sides’ sake, they both received all of the votes, with Nin10mode being blindsided 4-3.
6 are left. Who will be voted out… next?
SPOILERS: Avoid the Breakdown if you don’t want spoilers!
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Breakdown:
Episode 10: “Guilt Trip Airlines.”
Challenge: Culture Shock
Description: Contestants must match up, based off of visual aid and independent research only, which Tribal Council, Immunity Idol, and Immunity Necklace set belongs to each season. If they wish to not be involved, they may drop out for an advantage in the next challenge.
Immunity Winner: Venexis (Given to Raz)
Reward Winner:
Reward Winner:
Voted Out: Harmless (4-2)
Other Votes: Emelia Kaylee
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Rarely in Survivor History does a season’s biggest villain and biggest hero work together in the same alliance, yet in this ORG, the season’s biggest hero and villain are working together to run the game as of last vote. Harmless, through his angry, fire-and-brimstone ways, has both helped and hurt his alliance but his part helped fish them out of a 6-3 minority in the Final 9. In the meantime, the kindly underdog Yurimaster has recovered after a bad start, learning to control his temper and work a strong social game to keep his allies on board long enough to keep Harmless from facing a 5-2 blitzkrieg.
They have two allies, Blackyoshi and Venexis. Venexis is working to keep things balanced between the Squids and Oerhaos out of sympathy for the Squid’s struggling start (in part due to the quit of Bomberman in the Final 11, taking away their only shot at a comeback). Blackyoshi, a close friend of Yurimaster’s, wants to help him get ahead, partially out of guilt for betraying Oerhaos that’s telling him he doesn’t deserve to win.
This leaves Emelia Kaylee and Raz as the bottom two. Emelia Kaylee has been a very mellow person this game, playing under the radar, not overreacting or starting fights, and letting other people do the fighting for them. Raz, however, is definitely on the bubble. He’s been seen as the leader of Oerhaos’ strategic force, a strong challenge player, and a controversial figure since he’s seen the destruction of Shadowsquid as just business. In an emotional game like this, the least emotional person is becoming vilified, and almost everyone in the game would like to see Raz out of it.
Now, he knows it, and he’s pissed off.
“I don't like not knowing things. I asked Ven if he did it, and I already knew he did it, I'm not dumb, MK is trustworthy and I know Nin wouldn't vote for himself. I asked him why he did it. He said he doesn't like how we're picking off the shadowsquids one by one. I would agree. But then I learned Harmless was putting everyone against eachother. Sending MK pms to vote off Ven. Then sending Ven pms to collaborate votes with them. I hate that. It's so..evil, I guess is the word. I wish these people had the mindset to win.
“In the real survivor, who goes in to have fun? (don't tell me someone actually does MoY) These people are only in to keep others in the game. I hate how everyone seems to think the shadowsquid, and the remnants of them, are the "protagonists" of this survivor game. Because they're not. They've been making everyone on our side go against each other. I can't even accept that Ven and BY would go against me.
“Who else in this game would let Nin back into the alliance after he went against us and voted brando? Most of us, I'm sure, brando wasn't kicked out, so that's fine. Who else would be willing to let BY back into the alliance even after he went against us and got brando voted out of the game? Some of us, we've already lost a lot of trust in people after now being betrayed twice. Who else would be willing to let Ven, BY, and Yuri in the alliance, and trust them with my survivor life? Not many people, that's for sure. I've been betrayed three times, and even then willing to let two traitors and a person who has been against me the entire game in the alliance. I dunno about you but I'm not sure if I'm the antagonist or if I'm just too trusting. I want Harmless out of the game. After this, I don't know what to do. BY and Yuri are in their own little thing, MK and I are together, and Ven is just on his own.”
Looking at things from Raz’s point of view, it makes sense. I keep comparing this season to Borneo as my intent was to mimic the lack of knowledge these players have in regards to Survivor. Raz has currently been the only one left to betray no alliances and played a very clean game strategically. It’s everyone else that’s either been taken away from him or has turned on him.
I definitely sympathize with him and see how strangely inverse that it is that the person who’s played the cleanest game has everyone’s ire and the cutthroat people are excused as underdogs as long as they don’t take it too far. I’ve made an effort to show the strengths and flaws in each side because I feel that telling the fairest story is the best way to go, even when I do inject my personal commentary into it like I have last round.
However, there’s still a reason that people view Raz the way he does. Whether it’s logical or not, fair or not, or necessary or not, the players’ law goes in Survivor. They can make 2+2 equal fish if they want to. So, if Raz has any shot of getting ahead, he’s going to have to swallow his pride and show people what he’s made of that will either gain him allies or jury votes, whichever makes more sense.
The Challenge
With tensions running high this round, I again wanted to give people a bit of a breather, yet I also needed to up the ante because we are at the Final 6, and they need to prove that they can beat tougher challenges in order to win this game. So, for this round, I left them a choice.
A) Do the challenge. It’s another lousy research challenge related to Survivor that’s far from popular here. In it, I’ve downloaded pictures from WhereDidMaryComeFrom’s Survivor art direction rankings (if you’re reading this, which you certainly aren’t, thanks!), uploaded them into Imgur Albums, and told contestants to guess which season it’s from. Their options are to take the cues from the 28 different seasons (identifying the pagoda as the one from China, the cutlass as from the pirate season Pearl Islands), or do their research via the internet.
B) Don’t do the challenge. Take the risk, and get an advantage in the next round. The Final 5 challenge is going to be the hardest one in the game, and any advantage in it can be nothing but good. In addition, Yurimaster still has the challenge advantage from the auction, which could give him a commanding victory. The catch is, however, if 5 of the 6 contestants drop out, no one gets immunity, we go straight to Tribal Council, and then they all must compete in this challenge next round with no advantage. It’s their choice of whether to push it or bite the bullet and compete.
Right off the bat, we get the four who aren’t participating.
Raz: at this point, Raz is at his lowest he’s been all game, and the last thing he wants is a shitty research challenge when he feels he’s already doomed. I think this choice was entirely emotional.
Emelia Kaylee: a little more surprising, but he’s making a career out of playing possum, so it makes more sense for him to take a seat than it would Raz.
Yurimaster: He’s probably the safest out of anyone in the game. Harmless would be targeted before him, and if Harmless were to win immunity, then Raz would be targeted.
BY: His job is to protect his alliance, and if Harmless can get it this round, he stands a better chance of getting it next round.
This leads our involuntary matchup- Harmless, and Venexis. They decide to go for it in order to make sure someone gets it. However, this comes with some interesting caveats and conversations.
I establish to both that I won’t accept people throwing the challenge to get around the at-least-two-must-compete caveat. This starts some interesting conversations.
The Deal(?)
“But, of course, there will be a time when turning on each other will be mandated.
I'm also entirely serious about what I said in the challenge topic. I'd like to give immunity away, and would be willing to forfeit and let you take victory by default. Weirdly, this might be the most unified stance we've had so far on a challenge since the merge, everyone but one simply giving up.
First though, I am very curious what you'd do with immunity. Would you keep it, or give it away? And if so, to who?” ~Venexis
“You misread, Ven: if one of you forefits, then no one gets immunity.” ~Me
“Change of plan. We both participate, but one to a lesser degree?” ~Venexis
“I might need to keep immunity, sorry. I've been such a huge target lately I can't risk it. I've been voted consecutively by Oerhaos for I don't remember how long, with the exception of booting Magnen.
I'm currently attempting to make heads and/or tails of the challenge, maybe if you submit like one question that might be enough though, lel.
would that still count Moy?” ~Harmless
“I'd prefer if as many were answered as possible.” ~Me, Utterly Confused
This is where a shift happens in Venexis’ thinking. Upon realizing he can’t throw the challenge Venexis instead thinks about winning it. Harmless, however, still expects Venexis to give him the challenge. It’s funny how a community of gamers produces a Ken Hoangesque move.
“Oh. Uh... damn. Guess Ven, but don't purposely get right! I don't know.
I'll try to get as many right as I can, from the looks of it I might miss a few. But hopefully by some gamble or skill we can work it out. If you get immunity then it's no biggie, we still got a 4-2 vote assuming you're not willing to turn it into a 3-3 stalemate.
Also, about us turning against eachother at some point in the game? Well... we'll talk about that later. But for now let's not worry about that, or else we'll never see that light of day.” ~Harmless
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“Guess it means I'll have to try after all, haha. I haven't started yet so I have no idea what the difficulty is like.
The only other thing about this game is that it really doesn't give the best choices. I'm certainly a target now too, you saw how MK responded in the challenge topic. It's cool with me, I'm not thrilled about the game now, the last three eliminations were all people I voted for (and most as some sort of tiebreaking vote too), that's pretty stressful. If you be a hero to one person, you're automatically a villain to another, that's how this game is set up.
So I'm not really opposed to being voted off, should it come down to you versus me (I think there's an excellent chance it'll end up being you versus whoever you vote this round, and then me going home next round). I was never in it for the money, and the difficult choices every single round (more accurately, the flak thrown at you for making a choice from an extremely limited selection) isn't my idea of fun.
I'm gonna be open with you now you so don't sacrifice immunity early. I was planning to give it to Raz, because I already know who I want to appear in the final three: MK, BY, and Yuri. They've probably played the game better than anyone else, and they deserve it. I'd honestly like to keep Raz in till the final four, but if by some random chance I'm still alive then (unlikely), I'll self vote that tribal council.
So yes, personally, I think you should try as hard as possible to win immunity, because there's a very good chance you're the target this round. There's every chance we might already be playing against each other without realizing it, I don't think it'll be obvious until the challenge ends. If you're safe, I really don't think a unified vote would be possible, and I'll probably be going home instead.
I won't forfeit the challenge and cost you that chance, but the price for that would be that I'd try to win too. If only to help those people along a little.”
This is where Harmless’ behavior comes back to bite him. Venexis is also feeling the guilt of the game hit him, but instead of benefitting just one person, he’s going to benefit four others. EmKay, Yurimaster, and BY, for playing the best game, and Raz, as a sort of apology. There are two people he’s leaving out of the equation: himself, and Harmless.
It’s a pretty ballsy thing to outright say that someone is the one person other than yourself you don’t think deserves to win, especially at a time like this. But the lines have been drawn. Whether it truly be sacrifice or strategy, Venexis is playing to win this challenge, and Harmless has a fight on his hands.
Unsurprisingly, that’s where this contest ends.
The Results
After that, it’s just a matter of who gets the most right. There’s not much to commentate on, other than to say that both did an excellent job.
On the necklaces, they apparently found a solid site to research from, which leads to them getting perfect 28s on that part.
Venexis gets all of the idols right, giving him another 28. Harmless almost does, but mistakes the Pearl Islands idol for the Fiji idol, listing it twice. This gives him 27, a single point difference.
For the next round, Harmless doesn’t do as well, as he’s busy with some schoolwork and has to quit early. Therefore, he only gets a 3/28. His only hope is to hope Venexis didn’t do any of his. However, it’s a hope unfulfilled, and Venexis gets another perfect score. With 84/84 correct, Venexis wins immunity.
And now… for the giveaway.
I should just note that this is the third time immunity was given away this season. As I was busy trying to distance myself from my reputation as the guy who gave away immunity and was promptly voted out, needless to say I was less than pleased to see that this became a giant give-a-thon of a game.
And, as he stated in his PM, he gave his immunity to Raz, the obvious target of the night. Now the players will have to find a new target to go against. And it looks like Venexis already has an idea of who to go after…
Tribal Council
Needless to say, Harmless is not happy. We’ve already seen the outcome of Harmless-not-happy events, so his response is definitely expected.
“You do realize Raz already thinks of you as a traitor and will curbstomp you eventually, right? Why in the world are you giving immunity to him? I don't mind if you keep it to yourself, give it to MK or anybody else, but really??”
Venexis’ response?
“Yes.
To be 100% honest, I think I've lost any right to decide the outcome of the game. Nothing that's happened lately has sat well with me at all, and after talking it over very in depth with Raz last night, I feel things would be in better hands.
And now, since I'm not immune, everyone is free to vote me off if they feel I deserve it. I won't tell you whether you should or not, I'm surprisingly okay with either option.” ~Venexis
The most pronounced element of this game is just how personal it’s gotten. The final 6 here is a major downer round. After the strongest competitor (and one of the more amicable ones) was blindsided, people who did it felt guilty and people who lost him felt hopeless. Right now, Venexis is willing to give Raz that control over the game and let everything fall where they may.
Harmless becomes the logical voice in the room.
“Look ven, unless if I really had to vote you or unless if Yuri really convinces me otherwise, I'm not planning on getting rid of you. Raz probably is. You can't just throw the game away. We're voting MK, and we'll see a plan through this. But until we drop Raz we can't make that a reality.
Can we agree? I know you voted out Magnen, the one I could only trust 100% of the time, but I'm willing to give you another chance. Anything we can do to stop Raz.” ~Harmless
That’s the last correspondence between Harmless and Venexis.
Tribal Council answers are what you’d expect of them.
Harmless hates Raz:
“1. Would you see yourself as a hero or a villain?
Neither, really. I just am who I am, neutral if anything. Just a person trying to compete in survivor. Next person that says that me or Yuri don't deserve to win because we've been playing underhandedly will get my glare the rest of the competition though, even if they only said it in the Runouw chat. *hint hint Raz hint hint*”
Yurimaster gives out levelheaded answers:
“3. The last time there was an immunity giveaway, it was followed by a shocking blindside. What do you make of this one?
I think the alliances cause this. You just cannot predict what they'll do. The one who's giving the immunity away, suffers from a great risk of being targeted by other people. I think it's a rather courageous act, but it's really risky too.”
Raz sticks to his guns:
“3. After the vote, are there hard feelings between the remaining players? Do you think this will carry over into real life?”
“I won't keep any big grudges, but it does change what I think of people, and what they're willing to do just to win 100$ and potentially ruin friendships.”
Emelia Kaylee keeps it clever yet cryptic:
“2. How do you plan on getting out of this one?
I'm not too concerned with those plans right now.”
And BY has his bags packed and ready to go, happily.
“1. What is your role in Survivor: Runouw?
Hm. That's a tough one. I did want to stay neutral in the first place. But I'm not.
I'm probably a hell of a traitor for nearly everyone and I do feel sorry that. Especially for my vote against brando. That's probably been my biggest mistake thus far. And this might influence my actions in one of the next rounds. (Exceeeept I'm getting voted out this round. : 3)”
But it’s Venexis who gives out the boldest answers due to his “fuck-it-all” attitude. I’ll post his entire TC answers here.
“1. Why? Why give away immunity? Why give it to Raz? And why compete if you didn't even want it?”
“Why? I'm a curious person.
Why give away immunity? I'm not proud of my involvement at certain points in the game. I don't think any self-respecting person would be okay with every single one of their decisions so far. If everyone feels my actions warrant my elimination, so be it.
Why give it to Raz? There are many people more worthy of directly affecting the game than me. I think Raz knows what he's doing, and now he can't be a target during Tribal Council.
And why compete if you didn't even want it? Anyone who's kept up with the game to this point should be aware that Survivor is a game that intentionally creates conflict. Perhaps I did it to show that I am capable of influencing the game on a very large scale. Maybe because sacrifices are required in order to protect anything. But mostly because not trying would have been a wasted opportunity.”
“2. Just how certain of your fate in this game are you?”
“Very. I was never in it for the money, or really even to win. I joined because it seemed like a fun thing to do. That ended up being a bad move- everyone has been taking the game much more seriously than I have, until recently anyway.”
“3. What crosses the line in Survivor from being "just gameplay" to being reprehensible personally?”
“That's a very hard distinction to make. In one sense, Survivor is a very do-or-die game, with no real restrictions. I don't think anyone's violated that. As for me personally? I hated everything about the forfeit, it would have been the ultimate insult to me had my tribe been Shadowsquid to start. As a member of Oerhaos, I can say it was done solely to protect the tribe as a whole, but that doesn't make the "we're so good, we can afford to give this victory away" aspect magically disappear. Oerhaos was established right from the start as the unstoppable force, and maybe nobody else would have a problem with a godlike power relentlessly mocking anything it considered below itself, but I discovered that I did have an issue with it.
I'd consider many Squids to be friends, and that's where this game ultimately went wrong. Survivor takes total strangers and pits them against each other, meanwhile, any action you make here is going to alienate the people you've been friends with for years. I really am sorry to all of you guys I voted for; and to everyone else, it definitely isn't your place to decide how anyone else can act toward the people they consider friends. Especially when more often than not, every option is a shitty one. If you're a hero to one person, you're a criminal to another- it won't ever be just one or the other. I tried.
That's what bothers me, personally. Everything that's happened so far would be legit in real Survivor, but this is not real Survivor. This is Runouw.
How's that for a confessional?”
A lot has been said. Now it’s time to get to the vote, which Yurimaster is happy to do.
“So, I'm assuming that by Ven's immunity give away, we are going to vote MK, right? Just to confirm, and see if everyone else agrees.” ~Yurimaster
Both BY and Harmless agree to that. That right there is three votes against MK, the backup choice for the anti-Raz coalition. All they need is to talk to Venexis.
BY sends in his vote.
“Going for MK. I'm not having any problems with him. I need to vote him for my goal of getting Ven and yuri into the final round. Once I'm certain that this happens, I can peacefully take my journey to the other side as well. Pretty sad, considering that I did like my torch. : 3”
At this point I feel as though we’ve just had a plane crash in Guilt Trip Airlines. Venexis and BY both want to give their games up for each other now, as well as Yurimaster, who at this rate stands a high chance of being paraded into the finals.
Meanwhile, at the Oerhaos side of things…
“Voting Harmless.
Really, the guy's a lil' revolutionary. Stirring up shit, grabbing people from one side and wrenching them over to another, not even considering for one moment the endgame or our meta-relationships - here we might be competitors, outside of it we're friends. Maybe? Who knows by the end of this.
Probably going to want him out of the proceedings before he throws more shit.” ~Emelia Kaylee
Speaking of Emelia Kaylee, in real time I had to make a hard turnaround on the guy, seeing as people actively thought of him worthy to take to the end. His calm demeanor in a spiteful and emotional game can work wonders for him if he gets to the end with the right person.
In the meantime, Venexis talks to Blackyoshi about the vote revealer.
“Hey. I saw your answers, you mentioned using the vote revealer soon?
If that's the case, would you mind sharing the results? It's totally fine if you'd rather not, but I'm not allowed to self vote this round and I have no idea who's a target- I'd like to minimize my vote as much as possible by voting someone who clearly isn't a target.
Totally up to you, if not, I guess I'll be forced to pick someone. But it would be appreciated.”
“I‛ll go for MK and share any results once I got them.” ~Blackyoshi
Blackyoshi is willing to share the answers with Venexis, but they’ve misread the rules on the vote revealer. When they use it, everyone sees who voted for whom. The point is to make it open for everyone. Blackyoshi thinks he’s going to be the only one to get them.
Meanwhile, Venexis tries to send his vote in for himself. However, after Harmless tried that last round, I reminded him of the penalty in place and kept him from doing it. Therefore, he sends in his vote for someone else.
(I’d also like to say that once the Game Grumps said nothing was sadder than a sad, elder Japanese man. I disagree and would like to offer for evidence this episode: sad Venexis.)
“Sorry, seems I misunderstood a thing and am now just needlessly holding up the game.
I think Yuri would be safe, if I voted him- I'm pretty sure nobody else would vote him off this early. To be honest, though, even the chance is too much of a risk for me, as I really want to see him as one of the finalists. Likewise, I won't vote MK for similar reasons, although I know he's already getting one against him.
Raz is immune, and BY is my tentative pick for the final three.
That leaves just me, and Harmless. I can't vote myself, so..... looks like I'm going with Harmless.
It annoys me because I don't have any real reason for voting him, only reasons for not voting the others. I guess that's just how things are when there's so few people left in the game... might as well certify, too.” ~Venexis
And with Raz voting for Harmless, that should make things 3-3.
“harmless
for the 20th time
con fucking firmed”
We have in Yuri’s vote, BY’s vote, Venexis’ vote, Raz’s vote, and MK’s vote. Now the obvious thing would be to have Harmless vote so there’d be a tie. However, that’s where it gets odd.
Lost in Translation
At this time, Harmless’ area had a power outage. Concerned about his disappearance, I sent him PMs asking for him to vote. We were insanely close to having a vote where the target was going to face the self-vote penalty.
At about fifty minutes until the vote, Harmless logs in. He PMs me, explaining the conflict and asking how much time he had left to vote. I told him, fifty minutes.
So he takes that fifty minutes, stays logged in the entire time… and doesn’t vote.
At first I assumed he was catching up, but the plan had already been made and Harmless was already informed of it. Had he voted MK, he had one last chance to try and sway Venexis back to his side before his past votes took him out of the game. And it wasn’t as if I hadn’t given him fair warning, although he tried to contest it- he thought I only gave him one 50 minutes in but that’s when he got them, not when I sent them. And at the end of the day, he was online and on the main Runouw site for 50 minutes between then and the vote.
So at the end of the day, the blame rests on him, and him alone. Harmless self-voted himself out of the game, to the surprise of everyone. Even I was stunned. The vote reader didn’t help matters, as we had to read this:
“Ninth person voted out of Survivor and the fourth member of the jury…
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Harmless
from Harmless.”
The irony that I had told Venexis he wasn’t allowed to self-vote deliberately, because Harmless had self-voted to get out of voting out MegaR, was not lost on me.
However, he didn’t leave without finally settling the score with Emelia Kaylee.
“If there's any one thing that I hate equally with or more than liars, cheaters, and people that are just complete douches (not you), it is people who make assumptions. I would know because I get a lot of assumptions directed at me or other people I at least understand.
Honestly, I feel it's a pretty big assumption when you assume that people are willing to ruin friendships just for the sake of money or a grand prize. I know some people on their applications have entered primarily for the money, but when one assumes that's all they want when entering this competition? I don't understand why you would do so.
I honestly had no clue what survivor was when I entered, and part of the reason was because I knew I was entering with people I have at least seen before, the other half being that I would get to experience survivor. There may be some part in the money as well, but that's not my primary reason.
So now that I mentioned that I feel like you've made an assumption, I'll gladly proceed to say that I don't appreciate it at all, and that it does not relate to me and hopefully no one else. I don't hate you guys. I just prefer my teammates and my more closely related friends to make it to the end with me, so I can at least feel vindicated in the end. It really is nothing personal MK, and as much as it seems contradictory to me disliking this Oerhaos-Shadowsquid split, it is not related with my point that's me feeling vindicated to help a friend win if I can't.
Please, don't assume that I entered to destroy friendships. This is a game based around on social interaction, I understand, and I hope I didn't cause any personal feelings of hatred to be developed. If I did, then I'm sorry. It really is nothing personal.”
Post-Mortem
I probably seemed quite harsh on Harmless this game, and, yes, I definitely can’t say I approved of the way he acted to others. Despite his role as the underdog antagonist, and the fact that he was somewhat tricky to host due to his confrontational nature, I appreciate him as a character more than perhaps anyone else in the game and I appreciate what he brought to the season.
This was an episode where the very act of playing the game was giving these newcomers guilt, and a round where the one guy who played a clean game is getting ganged up upon because he couldn’t understand others’ positions. I was starting to get really concerned that we’d have either multiple quitters or multiple tarnished friendships, and was starting to regret even hosting this. Mercifully people have repaired their friendships and as a host I’ve learned a lot on how to host a Survivor event that will be less damaging to people. However, what made the early post-merge as dynamic, complicated, and humanizing as it did was the acts of the down and out villain.
Harmless went from a nicer, unassuming guy going in, to being stuck on a struggling tribe that put him in a minority position he didn’t understand and found unfair. But instead of lying down, something in him was unleashed that made him kind of a motherfucking beast. His immunity giveaway should never in a million years have worked, yet it did, and I both envy and appreciate him for it. The fact that he goes from this to being the guy who almost unravels it is both tragic and engaging. Then, his downfall. The irony of the return of the self-votes via him not voting and blindsiding himself out of the game is the sort of karmic downfall a villain needs to really be legendary.
The most ironic, yet fascinating, thing about Harmless is that while trying to fight Raz, he’s becoming everything he’s accused Raz of. Emotionally distant to the plight of others, abrasive, controlling, demanding, and blindly patriotic to his tribe. I think that this makes him an endlessly fascinating character and is ultimately why I consider him the villain of the season. (And ironically, far from harmless). Regardless of how I feel about his game or interactions with others, I truly appreciated having Harmless add what he did to the story, and assure you in less stressful situations he’s a really great guy.
Post-Episode Predictions
I have no fucking clue
5: ?????
4: ?????
3: ?????
2: ?????
1: ?????
okay seriously
Raz and Yurimaster are the only two who have the drive to keep playing for keeps. Problem is, Raz has the odds against him. Venexis wants a F3 of EmKay, Yuri, and Blackyoshi, with Raz in 4th, but Blackyoshi is also feeling the guilt and wants a Yuri/Emkay/Ven F3. No one really cares too much about poor Raz which boggles me; if you want someone who was playing to win, you don’t get more competitive than Raz.
It doesn’t boggle me as much, however, as how both BY and Venexis are guilting themselves out of the game. While Venexis has more of a reason and intent behind his attempt to give other people a boost, Blackyoshi is struggling with straight-up Ian Rosenberger guilt: he blindsided his friends due to his friendship with Yuri, and wants to make it right.
This is beneficial for Yuri, because everyone finds him an appreciable underdog to boost ahead: whereas Magnen and NanTheDark were too powerful and Harmless too abrasive, Yurimaster is kind, has rebounded sharply from his first impression during the spy fiasco, and is close friends with Blackyoshi, and he’s benefitted sharply from the kindness of others.
Blackyoshi has Nin10mode’s forgiveness if he makes it to the end but my biggest fear is that he’ll quit at the end and not give it his all, when he could easily sweep a jury vote if he gets his big boy pants on. Venexis, who’s to say, people love and appreciate him as a person but find his gameplay relatively obnoxious.
Emelia Kaylee is the wildcard, which is a strange thing to say about someone who’s relaxed, under the radar, and isn’t throwing it all out there like other people here in the game. I’ve been curiously trying to justify his gameplay, because he has friends who a) want him ahead, and b) would vote for him at the end. It’s easy to say that EmKay has done nothing and, hell, I know I’m guilty of it.
I think what’s appealing about Emelia Kaylee, though, is his loyalty and his aversion to drama. While some people thrive off of drama, after his little tiff with Brando the two largely made up, and he’s been staying out of the range of fire ever since. The only reason he got votes last time was because Raz was immune, and for the most part he’s impressed his allies and even his enemies with his loyalty to his tribe, something that I think even the hardened Shadowsquids can find appealing. He stuck with Oerhaos despite being on the outs, and he reported the drama to Raz/Nin10mode to stay in their good graces. There are a few instances where he can get to the end but it involves more activity from him. A floater’s game is not a bad game but it is a game that still needs a boost and some justification.
Regardless, I still have not the slightest fucking clue of what’s going on; this is all just guesswork. Let’s say this: Raz wins immunity, Venexis accepts a vote-out, then from there it’s a 2-2 tie between either Raz/EmKay and BY/Yuri, but Yuri and BY have very few votes so either Raz/MK goes, and then the other one bites it in the FIC afterward, leading to a Yuri/BY finals. From there, I’d guess the jury makeup goes right down the middle, but leaning towards Blackyoshi. It’s just a matter of if Blackyoshi even wants it.
5. Venexis
4. EmKay
3. Raz
2. Yurimaster
1. Blackyoshi
Jury vote: Ven/Magnen/Harmless for Yuri, Raz/Emkay/Brando/Nin10mode for Blackyoshi
Next Time On… Survivor.
Players compete in an intense timed challenge, leading to a complicated situation.
The biggest lapse of communication in the game leads to the most costly mistake in the season.
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