Board Thread:Season Rankings/@comment-24584422-20180611085656/@comment-27391152-20180612134335

Cut - Zeke Smith - Season 33 - MvGX

Is Zeke the worst person in this bunch? No. But I feel he's gonna be saved if I don't do this so oh well he can go. :)

Zeke basically personifies everything that I don't like about the more recent season of Survivor, but primarily three things: playing up to the theme, BIGMOVEZ, and forced storylines. I think I'll separate this write-up into those three categories.

1. Playing up to theme:

You know, there used to be a time where the theme of a season actually had an impact on the season (think Pearl Islands), and back then, I really, really enjoyed them. Nowadays, the themes are becoming so obscure and repetitive that they may as well not even exist. So, to have so much airtime dedicated to making these themes seem somewhat interesting is just exhausting. Cue Zeke. In the first, idk, 7 episodes, his entire storyline is "I AM NOT A TYPICAL MILLENIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Twitter?? I don't know her!" His constant playing up to the cameras was much more than boring, it was downright insulting; insulting for the producers to think that this is what the audience cares about. Yet, somehow, this is one of Zeke's better qualities.

2. BIGMOVEZ:

After a pre-merge of having an identity crisis, Zeke struts into the merge in a reasonably good position. He has connections with both the Gen Xers and the Millennials (of course he sides with the much more boring Gen Xers btw), and should be a lock for the end game. But no, this is Zeke we're talking about, being safe just isn't gonna cut it for him. For whatever reason, he decides that he needs to make himself look like a huge threat and take control, randomly deciding to first vote out his close ally Chris, and then flip to try to take down David. Such pointless, boneheaded moves that aren't even fun for me to laugh at because the edit and players make him out to be a goddamn genius! Despite almost going home at the Final 10, he LUCKILY ends up in the majority. Yet, in spite of this luck, he STILL manages to be the next one to go because of how much of a threat he's made himself out to be. Ugh! The fact that some people actually consider Zeke to be a good player just infuriates me and I am -not- having any of it.

3. His stupid edit:

Look, I've done a good job at forgetting Zeke's existence so I might be getting this wrong, but I feel like I remember him getting some kind of underdog or "hero" edit, which just infuriated me to no end. If anything, Zeke should be painted as a heartless villain he has absolutely no idea how to play the game, but no, the producers decide that he needs to be the audience's favourite and play him up to be some kind of god. barf. Like sure, his bonding scene with Bret was nice, but literally, everything else seemed extremely forced, especially considering the game he played. He sucked up some much airtime despite coming NINTH place, and to top things off, he gets to come back for the next season. YAY!

Zeke sucks and I am THRILLED that he got out this early. Thanks Rob <3

Save - Russell Hantz (20) Controverchele opinion but Russell was actually somewhat tolerable for me in his non-Samoa appearances. He not only enabled legends like Parvati but he was edited to be the terrible player that he is this time around and I was actually able to appreciate him (at least a little bit) as a lolzy character. Someone else to save RI Russell please <3