User blog:Courierthekid/Most Deserving Runners up.

So it's been a long time since I've done one of these, and for good reason. CBS decided to leave my cable provider last year in the middle of HvHvH so I got to see neither that or Ghost Island live. They eventually signed back on and I somehow had all the episodes save despite them not being a part of my service, don't know how that happened, but I'll take it. Anyway, I'm ranting. My point is that I haven't been able to watch the past few seasons until just recently, and it's been a while since I've done one of these opinion pieces so I wanted to try one again and see what you all think.

So there has been a lot of controversy in Survivor since almost the beginning of the show of Player X was more deserving to win than Player Y, but in the past few years this has really become more and more commonplace. Sarah Lucina is the first winner I can think of in a while that nobody really complained about winning, but honestly I just don't get the hate. So I wanted to make this little post and kind of give my very late opinions on some of the shows most "Robbed" or at least "More deserving" runners-up and why I think they actually deserve to be there. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong or offer up your own opinions, but please stay civil. also Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't watched the past 18 seasons of the show.

Russell Hantz: Samoa- The King of Crybaby finalist, Russell was just awful in Samoa and HvV, but I'm going to focus more on his time in Samoa than HvV because that was arguably his better game, and the one where most of his fans say he was the most deserving person to win. I don't have much to say about him that hasn't been said before so I'll just give you all a little bit of awesomeness on the part of the shows editors. Check out the episode Houdini Magic When Russell is debating on voting out either Liz or Natalie and literally looks at the camera to tell the audience why he's going to lose the season.

Parvati Shallow: HvV- Parvati is another one that shocks me how people still debate to this day how robbed she was, Survivor is a social game first and foremost and Parvati's time in Samoa could best be chocked up to just a really poor social game here, not quite as bad as Russell, but still bad. This one is also kind of Obvious thanks to Rupert laying out everything for the audience at FTC, but while it could be argued that Sandra wasn't as successful in her strategizing, I don't think it's fair to say she didn't strategize at all, and that strategizing with the heroes, even though it constantly failed, was the key factor in building relationships.

Chase Rice: Nicaragua- The main argument here is one that I kind of agree with, just not in the case of Nicaragua. The argument here is that if the current rules on quitters were applied Fabio would have lost 4-3-0. Fair, but Nicaragua is an interesting case study to me because the two quitters in this case that swung the votes were not only Chase's Allies for a good portion of the game, but admitted on several occasions that they hated Fabio, so if that doesn't say enough about how poor Chase's game was overall I don't know what does. Marty and Dan really hit the nail on the head with Chase he was the worst player in Nicaragua and I actually believe this is another situation like in Gabon that he only got those votes from Brenda and Alina because they just didn't want to vote for Sash.

Sabrina Thompson: One World- Nah, Kim was queen bee of this season and while I think Sabrina was Likable I just can't say there was any way for her to beat Kim. A testament to how out of her league Sabrina was, Kim took out Jay because she thought he was the only person left in the game capable of swinging the tribe against her. Not Sabrina, Not Troy, but Jay was the final threat to Kim.

Aubry Bracco: Kaoh Rong- Aubry is a weird case for me because I was going in to the Final Tribal rooting for her to win. I mean Michele's  first confessional was just one episode before the merge, how could she ever Win? Maybe Tai could beat Aubry, but surely not Michele right? Well let's look at the argument here. Scot and Jason were way too over the top and unfairly trashed Aubry to sway the Jury and cause her loss... No, No no no this is not what happened. Blame the editors! I'm more than willing to admit that it was an editing mistake that cast Michele as the first (and hopefully only) ever Purple Winner of a season, but I cannot believe Scot or Jason had any actual pull over that Jury. Aubry's closest allies didn't even vote for her, but hey Maybe Neal was the key to her victory all along, in which case, well played Michele.

Domenick Abbate: Ghost Island- Dom was on the fast track to winning the season but halfway into the merge his game devolved and he got a bit too into the evil mastermind persona which really turned off latter half the jury who he kind of bullied and intimidated out of the game. He had good relationships with Kellyn, Sebastian and Donathan until there was no more use for them and then he decided to rub in their faces how much he outplayed them, which is never a good move when your asking someone to give you a million dollars. I think compared to Wendell, Dom played the better strategic game for sure, but he killed his own game and has nobody to blame but himself. A little social grace goes a long way in Survivor. This is also the only season I think the simplified final four twist didn't interfere with the game, because I do think Wendell and Laurel would have forced a fire-making challenge against Angela either way.

Chrissy Hofbeck: Heroes vs, Healers vs Hustlers- This is the one I wanted to save for last, because this is the one I think I disagree with the most in terms of her "robbed" status. and I'm going to do a full 180 here from where I was with Kaoh Rong, the editors really got this one right this season. I'm not going to argue and say Ben was the most deserving person to win this season, I was pulling for Lauren or Devon, but compared to Chrissy? Oh yeah he was. The beauty of Chrissy's loss here is that whether or not the final four twist was there I still think she would have lost. The fire-making was just choosing who would take her down. Chrissy in my opinion ticked every box a glorious runner-up could tick. Saying she's the smartest player in the game? Check. Refusing to associate with anyone outside of her own alliance and still expecting a win? Check. Saying that she doesn't need to worry about the player who will beat her because there is no way they could ever beat her? Check. It wasn't a winner edit, it was a Russell edit. Seriously the biggest argument against Ben is that "Production gave him too many chances," but I just don't believe that because of how many times Chrissy says she's going to let Ben search for Idols, that she'll let him try and talk to her allies and sway the vote. he's no threat, he could never beat her. Production didn't give Ben too many chances, Chrissy did and that's why she lost.

Anyway That's all I have for now, who knows maybe by the end of David vs Goliath I'll have another one to add to this list? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, whether you agree or disagree with me, if there are any that you think I missed, why you think I'm wrong if you do. I have a lot of fun writing these, so if you enjoy reading them I may do more in the future.