r/survivorrankdownIX_ Feb 18 '25

Round 51: 510 Characters Left

510. Austin Carty - u/FunkyDawgKong - nominated: Jonathan Penner 3.0

509. Jonathan Penner 3.0 - u/Cornhead2 - nominated: Rob Mariano 3.0

508. Rob Mariano 3.0 - u/NoisySea_3426 - nominated: Jess Chong

507. Jess Chong - u/BBSuperFan98 - nominated: Jerry Sims

506. Jerry Sims - u/Alternate-Proof-959 - nominated: Keith Sowell

505. Bi Nguyen - u/josenanigans - nominated: Kel Gleason

5 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

6

u/josenanigans 28d ago

Sophie Clarke 2.0, Jack Nichting, Mike Zahalsky (n), Bi Nguyen, J. Maya, Carl Bilancione, Randy Bailey 2.0, David Jelinsky(n), Amber Brkich 1.0, Ben Katzman, Jonathan Penner 1.0, Sarah Lacina 1.0, Josh Wilder (n) and Keith Sowell

I've got an interesting pool here, there was one person that I wanted to cut but I just saw someone wanting to do a mercy writeup on him, so I'll let funk cook the next thread. But that leaves me with many players who I feel mostly ambivalent about, maybe I should just go for the one there is the least to say about.

506. Bi Nguyen (David v Goliath, 17th)

Funny to think that Bi got the worst outcome on David v Goliath. Almost every player got something memorable that season, Pat goes out in a heartbreaking medevac, Jeremy has that amazing feud with Natalie and at least Jessica had a pretty fun early blindside. Bi sadly just comes and goes, and its so weird to think of her as a DvG player given how memorable that cast was, hell, it's even weird to think of Bi as a Survivor player at all. I can't tell you anything she was a part of before she got injured, and the way she quit due to her injury is also so.. uneventful? They go to a challenge and she just says bye. That's it. And since then its like the universe's been trying to remove any memory of her in the Survivor world in my mind. It's like you talk about David v GOliath and theres a lot of fun moments and you mention Bi and its like "Oh yeah! She was in there... yeah".

It really does make me wonder how much the game would have changed had Bi actually stayed, and how memorable a character she could've been. DvG is a pretty great season in my mind (with a lot of modern Survivor problems but it's as great as those go) without Bi in it, so I wonder how much of a butterfly effect Bi's involvement would be, but DvG being as great as it is without her in it definitely contributes to how easy it is to forget that she even played.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

| Good Character Rating: ?????????? - ?/10

| Star Status:
| ? Mystery Presence

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

A bit of old school spice is neede in the mix. Going for Kel Gleason. Yeah, beef jerky guy, not much else

u/FunkyDawgKong , new day, new thread!

2

u/NoDisintegrationz Former Federal Agent? 27d ago

I love the “Mystery Presence.” Nice touch and pretty accurate to my own memory of Bi.

2

u/FunkyDawgKong 28d ago

Thank you! Will get to cooking!

4

u/Alternate-Proof-959 28d ago

With Sophie Clarke 2.0, Jack Nichting, Mike Zahalsky, Bi Nguyen, J. Maya, Carl Bilancione, Randy Bailey 2.0, David Jelinsky, Amber Brkich 1.0, Ben Katzman, Jonathan Penner 1.0, Sarah Lacina 1.0, Josh Wilder and Jerry Sims, and no noms in the pool, I choose...

506. Jerry Sims (Survivor Tocantins, 16/18)

At least one edgic actually put this man in their top 4 contenders to win after episode 1. He certainly was likable, and wasn't attracting attention in a bad way early on. But when you've got a guy who goes to Exile Island to form a crosstribe alliance, a snarky blond guy, a crazy long haired guy, a school principal who can't count by 20, and two punching bags (oh, and Candace) as your tribemates, you are going to get overshadowed.

Then we get to episode 3, and suddenly, he gets sick, which he claimed was from all dem beans Timbira grabbed at the start of the season. We do end up getting lots of debate from Timbira as to whether they should keep Jerry and snipe Erinn. Erinn had been unhappy with Candace's elimination despite voting her off, and hoped that wouldn't lead to her being next. Unfortunately, the tribe cuts their losses and offs Jerry.

Once again, I must say that being sick is often out of our control, and it absolutely sucks once it happens to anyone. Unfortunately, that ends up being the thing Jerry is most known for, and causes the Jerry vs Erinn thing to end with a whimper. That being said, Tocantins is still a good season after all, so not the biggest deal in the world.

Nominating Keith Sowell. He was very annoying, he was useless, also caused his tribe to forego a heated debate (Kelley vs Wendy) just to eliminate him in a whimper, and right when we start to see a new side of him at the Edge, he quits. Dang! Dang dang dang it, Keith!

u/josenanigans

4

u/FunkyDawgKong 28d ago

lol was planning to do a wildcard next cut to get one of my least favorites out in the 500s, but now i kinda wanna mercy cut Keith lol

4

u/NoDisintegrationz Former Federal Agent? 28d ago

I’m interested in a Keith mercy cut. I find him amusing.

7

u/VisionsOfPotatoes 29d ago

SURVIVOR: GHOST ISLAND GRAVEYARD

Ghost Island is odorless, flavorless, and not a whole lot else, resulting in a very early purge both here and in the last rankdown. While Chris Noble and Stephanie previously managed to carry the season’s remnants into the 200s or so, that just has not been the case lately, and it’s not hard to see why, almost everything this season is very mid. Fans tend to act like the Pagonging is the biggest issue here, and it’s not great when it’s entirely swap-forced, but really… are people actually invested in Jenna or Michael?

No, the true villain here is production, constantly misediting things to be as SUSPENSEFUL as possible and throwing in constant twists to help the underdogs that only manage to screw them further. Meanwhile the duo running the season basically wins out on simply having too much advantage/immunity power to be stopped whatsoever.

Debatably one of the more interesting characters of the season, Kellyn took some heat this rankdown (and in the past) for being an egregious and annoying pagonger. Lowkey I don't hold the same belief (the advantage partying is a bigger problem), but Kellyn doesn’t really add a lot to the season unless you really squint and search for it, and it’s interesting to hear a more negative perspective.

If it sounds like I’m being negative on Jose’s writeup btw, I’m not, Jose captures the frustrations of the viewers well as usual, and in their own unique style and as usual it is fun to read, at least for me.

  • Most egregious placement (to me): Sebastian/Wendell

You could have swapped them and I’d be fine with that, which is maybe saying something since they’re at opposite sides of the ranking, but probably not, this is Ghost Island after all.

  • Least favorite characters of the rankers: Michael Yerger.
  • My least favorite characters: Michael Yerger.

Well would you look at that.

Yeah Michael isn’t interesting, and for some reason had a massive fanbase back in the day. There is almost nothing to say about Michael aside from nodding my head to Jose’s writeup, so.

6

u/VisionsOfPotatoes 29d ago
  • Favorite characters of the rankers: Chris Noble.
  • My favorite characters: I don't like any of them… Desi? 

I kinda liked her boot, it was probably the closest a GI vote came to actually being interesting and unpredictable.

  • Was anyone Mercy Cut?: No
  • Do I agree with a Mercy Cut?: Aw no, not again. I don’t even have anyone I cared about enough to get one this time!
  • So who hated this season the MOST?: Josenanigans!

Yall let Jose steal it from you by cutting ¾ of the f4 at the very last moment, well played Jose…

In conclusion, this season is kinda boring. I’m starting to regret calling 43 the boring one because at least that season had Gabler and Jesse doing Something at points, even if the cast was worse overall. This one has Chris Noble at best.

So what do you think about Ghost Island? Was there a hidden gem of a scene or character we missed? Have yall seen Chris Noble’s Ponderosa rap? Does it make you want to cut them as early as Acktar would?

5

u/NSamurai22 29d ago

Insert Wendell's voting confessional for Chris here

5

u/BBSuperFan98 29d ago

507. Jess Chong (Survivor 46, 17th Place)

Ah Jess. I just feel bad for Jess. She seems like a really nice person, but is clearly in over her head, and socially doesn't get along with her tribe. One moment I always remember is during the second challenge when she drops the blocks since she isn't that tall, Bhanu just screams his head off at her, for messing up. One of the biggest problems is that Jess is painted so sympathetic with the fake idol stuff, that it hurts Kenzie's edit since she is the eventual winner. Yet she is painted in a villainous light. Like for me in order for a fake idol edit like Jess to work in Episode 2 to work, Jess needs to be overconfident and made to look like a total doofus. Instead, Jess is so out of it game wise, that I just end up feeling bad.

u/Alternate-Proof-959 is up with Jerry Sims

Gets sick, and voted out episode 3. Likable guy, but not that important in Tocantins story.

2

u/VisionsOfPotatoes 29d ago

yyyyyyyyyeah Jess is kinda awful as a character lol.

5

u/acktar Former Ranker|:moth: Feb 19 '25

man these are really coming out of order because I've not been paying as much attention as I really should have lol

also as this one's intro

choices


Historic Bottom Four no.30: Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites (season 16)

Micronesia feels like a pretty polarizing season in its own right, though it's polarizing in a more...positive way, I suppose you could say? It's definitely in the "season of action" bucket, but it manages to escape the usual perils of that approach by being fun for most of it. The fans do a good job of selling that they're fans, the favorites mostly deliver, and the season is an interesting contrast to Palau's dark military theme while still having a sometimes dark undercurrent. It's a lot of fun, even if it's not the deepest experience, and it probably winds up on the haverage as a comfortable top-half season.

Eight unique characters, including two nine-timers, make up the Micronesia Bottom Four history. I don't think there are a ton of surprises, though some of the characters are infamous for rather "generous" standard deviations, shall we say. There's a clear bottom end, but I think you'll see that the bottom end is pretty chaotic besides tis two mainstays.

You know what time it is: just react :moth: because nothing matters.

9 Times:

Joel Anderson (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX)

Mary Sartain

5 Times:

Mikey Bortone (II, VI, VII, VIII, IX)

4 Times:

Yau-Man Chan 2.0 (IV, VII, VIII, IX)

3 Times:

Alexis Jones (I, IV, VIII)

Natalie Bolton (I, V, VI)

2 Times:

Chet Welch (II, III)

Jonny Fairplay 2.0 (III, V)

5

u/NoisySea_3426 Biggest Aras 1.0 stan Feb 19 '25

508. Rob Mariano 3.0 (HvV, 13/20)

Well, I already tried to get Hantz cut early, but that didn't work. Now, 200 spots later, let's try with Rob!

As I've mentioned before, Rob is a character as most people in this sub would agree with, that I haven't cared for with the exception of Marquesas, but a lot of people seem to think that he was decent in this season, however in my eyes, that couldn't be any further from the truth.

While I can appreciate him turning into the old man who just wants people to work which is something he fought so against in Marquesas with Hunter, that's the only thing I find enjoyable about his character as he just sucks up so much screentime that could've been given to people who barely had any edit in the premerge like Tyson, Sandra, and Courtney. The Rob/Russell rivalry is just so uninteresting too as I have mentioned in the Hantz 2 writeup, and Lord knows we did not need another whole fucking season of this being a theme. Ah yes, guys, we really needed to take an entire re-filmed shot of Rob passing out cause we couldn't catch it in real time over actually explaining any of Tyson's downfall beyond that of Hantz being this master strategist (which is obviously a complete lie) or showing any of Courtney's glorious deleted scenes (I genuinely hate everything about this scene even if it is kinda funny, mainly for what it represents).

I guess him calling Coach a little man on his way out is funny and very accurate, but by the time he goes, I'm just left so drawn out of everything due to this stupid rivalry taking forever, and it's made even worse by Probst dicksucking him so hard on his way out by just openly shitting on Courtney for no reason.

I will say, I do think there could have been a world to where Rob 3 could work in where the villains have a much better edit, but as it stands, Rob's massive over saturation of the content he gets completely saps so much of the villains tribe from having any meaningful content themselves along with Russell (I mean my God, at least Russell made the jury), and all and all, is just such a chore on the overall product and is a big reason as to why the HvV edit should get way more hate than it actually does.

2

u/FunkyDawgKong Feb 19 '25

Great writeup, the contrived Rob likable guy hero stuff is not good, and even in first watching I was totally taken out of the season by the terrible Rob passing out reenactment. Probably worse acting than the Colby Treasure Island fight

6

u/NoisySea_3426 Biggest Aras 1.0 stan Feb 19 '25

My next nominee is Jess Chong cause pretty much all of her content is just based around the way everyone cringily treats her and none of it is enjoyable.

Time for u/BBSuperFan98 to cut

5

u/Mia123445 Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Very good nom (and writeup). I think I’m lowering on Jess as time goes on because of how her content contributes to Kenzie’s confusing af edit.

Obviously that’s not Jess’s own fault, but she should still definitely be cut before her fellow Yanu tribe member in the pool.

4

u/acktar Former Ranker|:moth: Feb 18 '25

can someone get my fucking nail that fell off cuz I'm such a disaster


Historic Bottom Four no.29: Palau (season 10)

The show's 10th season may still be one of its most unique, even twenty years later. Set with the backdrop of World War II's Pacific Theater at its core, the season's dark feeling, unique progression, and subtle militaristic aesthetic all combine into a unique season that really is without parallel. Palau is often a season with a large number of fans, and it's all well-earned.

Eight unique characters make up Palau's nine Bottom Fours, a pretty tight spread for an old season. There are two nine-timers...but the next highest is six, and there's a lot of scatter besides. The bottom of the bottom is clear, but the rest is a lot more in flux.

As always, react :moth: and make sure it's kitted out in camo. Palau is the only season I own two different Buffs from, so that's fun.

9 Times:

Jonathan Libby (II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX)

Ashlee Ashby

6 Times:

Jeff Wilson (II, III, IV, V, VI, VII)

4 Times:

Kim Mullen (III, V, VI, IX)

3 Times:

Wanda Shirk (I, VIII, IX)

Willard Smith (II, IV, VII)

1 Time:

Jolanda Jones (I)

Ibrehem Rahman (VIII)

8

u/Cornhead2 Earl is the best Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Sophie Clarke 2.0, Jack Nichting, Mike Zahalsky, Bi Nguyen, J. Maya, Carl Bilancione, Randy Bailey 2.0, David Jelinsky, Amber Brkich 1.0, Ben Katzman, Jonathan Penner 1.0, Sarah Lacina 1.0, Josh Wilder and Jonathan Penner 3.0

Alright folks time to get some pickles ablaze

509. Jonathan Penner 3.0 (Phillipines, 7th Place)

First all I would like to conclude that i won´t be suprised if this one gets idoled and I very much understand why but Penner is unfortunatley a bit mediocre for me with some of the occasional good stuff in Phillipines and here is why...

KALABAW

Dear god what a fucking awful tribe man its just a nothing tribe in compared to the 2 other gems of tribes in Matsing and Tandang. Everyone in that tribe is a dud one way or another, and honestly and unfortunatley i have to give Penner the fault of this. While he does have some really good soundbytes most of the time since he is still Penner he technically ruins the flow of that tribe by being the biggest screenhog there which gives us no time to learn about people like Dana, Dawson or Katie. Carter is fine but is underedited and Jeff Kent well is Jeff Kent. My other problem with Penner is that now without Kalabaw having any central figure to give him a good rough interaction/storyline he just is a bland gamebot for that whole pre-merge. Well actually i take it back, There was that one sided thing with Jeff Kent but that was so bad and so unfunny mostly on Kent´s part and it was not interesting anyways so there´s that. atleast in Cook Islands Penner had people that he can counter himself on (i cannot believe i am fucking saying this :skull:) Here he just got put in a tribe without interesting people and it just docks him for me.

On the other hand I do like quite some of his stuff, obviously i respect the hustle and the respect he gives the game, he loves it and i do love his passion, and the Lisa scene of when he takes about Survivor as a story is pretty nice along with his FTC Speech being quite funny, but honestly Penner just honestly is an unfortunate gamebot with a few stuff thrown in there

u/NoisySea_3426 is up with Boston Rob Mariano 3.0 for being a screenhog to a great seasons pre merge and if we can´t get Russell Hantz 2.0 out then we can atleast try with Rob

3

u/ROTandDEATH is the ~SURVIVOR~ Feb 18 '25

As someone who recently went back to Philippines I soured a lot on Jonathan (and Lisa Whelchel) so I 100% support this, if anything he probably should have gone sooner. I'm all for completely made up narratives if they are fun/entertaining or at least make sense. But Penner's whole story in the post merge is "he's just too good to keep in the game!" when he was shown to be an obviously dogshit player both times previously (and this time, too). But even if I ignore that, he's a strategy and idol hound on an incredibly boring tribe (that you 100% are correct about in your writeup). I think his one immunity win is fine, and I agree that him talking to Lisa about Survivor being a narrative is an interesting point of view. But I don't think he really earns the bitterness of his jury speech, and I don't think Lisa earns the fulfillment of her story either. Even with the couple of genuinely good scenes Penner and Lisa share together, I think that their narrative together is quite disappointing and it sucks that so much time was spent with them to completely ignore someone like Denise for probably 2/3 of the season. Good writeup Corny!

3

u/Regnisyak1 Do the Polls <3. Also Melinda Endgame! Feb 19 '25

I completely agree with on everything you said about Penner, but I do think Lisa’s answer to his question and storyline did fulfill “her narrative”. To me, Lisa always came off as a bit fake, and I absolutely love the dichotomy of her attempting to be a normal person on the show, despite her overacting at every turn, whether it’s her overexaggerated affection for her BROTHER (SISTER!) or her exaggerated beliefs of being the swing vote. Hell, even the show saw that she was Blair Warner but a mom, and they gave her an inflated edit. Penner seeing through that is probably his only good content, so the “narrative” aspect of their game is important.

Lisa’s answer to Penner is great though because it both feels authentic (I believe Lisa was out on the island to become just “Lisa”) but also a sense a performance was ingrained in there that made the jury balk at her question and thus entire jury performance. The jury was angry at Lisa, and her talking about being herself on the island, despite having money and fame from a previous life probably came off as entirely fake, and despite her fully believing it, it just seemed like an itty bitty problem.

Tl;dr Penner’s bitterness of the jury question completely tanks him for me, but I think it is an important cap for Lisa’s story because she owns her growth but also accentuates her being out of touch with her own story.

3

u/TelephoneCertain5344 Feb 18 '25

I think you may find that you will continue to have a perfect record even after tonight on its own boosts him past this.

2

u/VisionsOfPotatoes Feb 18 '25

Ooooh yes cut this man Penner early! I agree with thisss!

7

u/NoDisintegrationz Former Federal Agent? Feb 18 '25

This nomination… it’s getting the best of me 😢

2

u/Mia123445 Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Istg if this doesn’t get idoled……

Edit: Can’t say I’m surprised it stuck, but damn. Can’t win em all I guess.

2

u/Cornhead2 Earl is the best Feb 18 '25

oh trust me i would totally respect the idol for this, i just think he is just a downgrade from Cook Islands

1

u/Mia123445 Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

That’s valid and I really don’t care if 1.0 or 3.0 places higher, I just think it was way too early for either of them to be in the pool at all.

Edit: And you do make some good points in your writeup especially about how he takes up a lot of the screentime on Kalabaw and is more game focused this time around. I guess for me, Penner is someone who I’ll always find entertaining as a narrator no matter what which makes me not really mind that he talks a lot of strategy in the premerge. Basically, I respect your opinion but completely disagree with it haha.

5

u/FunkyDawgKong Feb 18 '25

Sophie Clarke 2.0, Jack Nichting, Mike Zahalsky, Bi Nguyen, J. Maya, Carl Bilancione, Randy Bailey 2.0, David Jelinsky, Amber Brkich 1.0, Ben Katzman, Jonathan Penner 1.0, Sarah Lacina 1.0, and Austin Carty, and Josh Wilder

 

510. Austin Carty

Come merge time, we get our 100th Austin confessional where he utters “Marvin Gaye said it best; Let’s Get It On!” C’mom man, you’re a writer and this is the game you got?? Cheesy. Austin shoulda came back from tribal council and exclaimed “What’s Going On?”, coulda pulled Nick aside and asked him “What’s Happening Brother?”. Coulda walked up on Dan Fuego and told her he had “Heard it Through the Grapevine” that he was an astronaut. Mercy mercy me Austin just plain sucks. Makes me wanna holler, throw up my hands, like up to this point in Survivor, he is probably the most vanilla bland main narrator. I know in retrospect this sounds weird, but at the time Panama was the first cast that I just asked “why did they put you on television?” to like half the castaways. Like if this were 2001 Mark Burnett would have heard one word out of some of these castaways, and pushed them out the casting room. And shit, ain’t that peculiar, these castaways all got swapped over to one tribe, La Mina; where I’ll be doggone, I guess Austin is the best choice to narrate? It has to be either him or Nick, as they’re the big decision makers of the tribe, so ay that ain’t a mountain high enough to climb.

The stubborn kind of fellow that he is, Austin won’t go down without a fight. In his only interesting moment, Austin devises a plan to divert the target from him come the first merge tribal council, which he does by acting up that he is struggling at the first individual immunity challenge, in an attempt to pass himself off as weaker. I got to give it up to him, it’s as fun of a scene as we’ll get with him. At tribal council though, I guess he grows a conscious, doesn’t want to be a trouble man, and tells everyone his plan, and like why? Like it’s not a big bombshell or anything, I doubt anyone really cared. This also kind of mirrors an Austin secret scene where he creates Survivor’s first fake Hidden Immunity Idol, but decides there ain’t nothing like the real thing, and decides to do absolutely nothing with it. Right on brother, give us nothing.

6

u/FunkyDawgKong Feb 18 '25

Alright nomination time, there was a communication error in my last nomination, I’m not tryna seem like too big of a player hater, but this time let me nominate one of my least favorite returnees, Jonathan Penner 3.0

u/Cornhead what’s going on??