Blood versus Water Cast Assessment

Okay, readers of my blog, this is my assessment of the cast of the upcoming season. I'm not sure if this is the type of thing I'll ever do again. I know with returning players, I'd always list a brief summary of their time on the game the first time and any other times they might have played. But I'm not certain I'll do predictions again. There are rumors that RC was supposed to be on the season but was replaced at the last minute because of a family sickness. It's possible that it was her planned partner for the game that couldn't play. The fact that Colton is returning means that I can't include him on my list of returning medically evacuated players anymore unless he has the misfortune of being medically evacuated again during this season. He has a second chance like James did. I'm not certain if the medically evacuated players should be by age they are or by position in the game. If it is position in the game, the new list is Erik, Bruce, and Joe (post merge medical evacuations), Shamar, Dana (in my mind she was medically evacuated and will always be on lists like these), and Gary (around episodes 4-5 they were pulled), and the last ones left are Kourtney and Mike (pulled from the game very early into the season in the first or second episode). If it is by age, I'd go with Gary, Bruce, and Mike (the oldest to be medically evacuated), Erik, Kourtney, and Dana (the younger ones pulled from the game who just happened to be taken from three seasons in a row), as well as Joe and Shamar (the only two left). I think that I will stick with the first group for now since it is arguably fairer for the returning players in my mind to have been taken from the game at around the same point.

But as I was saying, I will talk about the returning players for this upcoming season. Also, if I joking refer to someone as the winner, that means that the wikipedia page, which does not allow spoilers, has this person as either alphabetically last in the contestant list by last name or alphabetically first in the voting list by first name. That is by per happenstance when you look at the page. Looks like Tina or Aras wins again according to them and Vytas or Tyson is the first one out of the game. Redemption Island is back and there are new twists along with it such as replacing a loved one on it which rumor has it that at least one person will. It also make the unfair two don't get to play twist better since the two people aren't necessarily out of the game. I'd imagine that the returning player screwed by that twist will feel better about it than the new player will be. Redemption Island will probably be more interesting with more returning players going there. Also, the filming for the 28^th season recently wrapped (I think) and should have all new players. Hopefully, there are no other season long twists that prevent it from being a "normal" season. But I have heard rumors of returning players on the 28^th season, I don't know how true they are. If the rumors are true, there will be three tribes. But I always here conflicting information regarding spoilers (even from the same source) and am thus not looking any up anymore, if I can help it.

Rupert, Gervase, Aras, Colton, Tyson, Tina, Kat, Laura, Candice, and Monica are the returning players. Rupert is my favorite contestant of all time and takes away Boston Rob's record of only four time contestant. He's the lovable pirate from the Pearl Islands that some people hate for some odd reason. I am not one of them. Gervase was on the very first season and was not on All Stars. This means he now breaks Michael Skupin's record of longest gap between seasons. (Sorry, Michael, but that record was probably going to be broken eventually. You still have others, right?) Aras was the winner of the twelfth season and the only contestant who came close to a day 39 medical evacuation. He had more votes cast against him than any other winner. His return means that La Mina is the only tribe from that season which hasn't had a returning player. It probably will when they finally decide to bring back Terry. Who could forget Colton from One World? He was the biggest villain in Survivor history. Some may argue that Russell Hantz deserves that honor. Well, he does not. Colton was controlling a lot of the game due to his hidden immunity idol that he still has and become the first player to convince his tribe to give up their tribal immunity idol for no reward of any kind. His time was cut short by a medical evacuation, but I imagine things will be different for him this time. He didn't make the merge, but I figured that he'd be back at least once. Tyson was originally in Tocantins before making an infamous dumb move in the 20^th season (but not the worst move of the season). His return means that Randy is the only male villain from season 20 that hasn't returned to a new season yet.

Since some of the female players from past seasons have the same first name, I will be sure to point out which one I'm talking about. Tina was the winner of the second season. She is the only winner to play 42 days the first time since the second season is the only season until this one to last more than the standard 39 days. She is also the only winner to be the first voted out the second time she played. Kat was the crazy person from One World who was very emotional after she was blindsided from the game. She is the only One World contestant on this season to make the jury. She might have been chosen due to her boyfriend being a Big Brother winner. All these contestants from One World make me think that there could be an alliance between them. Same season alliances could be a common occurrence now that Dawn and John showed how successful one can be. This also makes me wonder if not having any players from the same season could lead to a different alliance. Anyways, I should get back to the contestants. Monica is also a contestant from One World (at least this Monica was). She was screwed by Colton and a tribal swap and the only player on this list besides Colton who didn't make the merge. She might only be chosen because of her famous husband also playing with her. Laura Morett is from Samoa. She is best remembered for her heated rivalry with Shambo and lost to a tiebreaker revote. This means that Samoa finally has a returning player who is female and not named Russell. Candice was on Cook Islands when she mutinied and was brought back as a hero who became a villain on the twentieth season. I'm not too thrilled about her returning, but she isn't the worst player on this list (cough, Colton, cough).

The new players are in fact on a separate tribe than the returnees. One wonders if this means there will be a tribe swap or if they wouldn't do something like that considering how the new rules of Redemption Island could negate the reason for tribe swaps. Caleb (Colton's finance) will probably be targeted due to his controversial partner. We have yet to see if that will happen or not. Vytas (Aras's brother) could be targeted for being related to a winner, but could last much longer since he does not have a win under his belt. Laura Boneham (Rupert's wife) is related to a four time player, but that doesn't mean she could be targeted just for that reason. I think that she could do well, especially considering Redemption Island and the new rules it has. John (Candice's husband) got married to Candice after the filming of Heroes Versus Villains was over but before that season aired. It would have been during it, but she had to change the date of the wedding in order to appear on the show. I'm not certain he'd make it far or want to make it far. Is he cut out for a game like this? Hayden (Kat's boyfriend) was previously recruited for a Survivor season and was replaced with someone else for reasons unknown. I wasn't into Big Brother at the time (and even now I'm more of a passive fan, if such a term exists) so I don't know much about him winning the season of Big Brother he was on. I'd imagine that he could make it far, although he could also be targeted if anybody recognizes him. His return to the game inspires a future blog post I hope you'll see. Katie (Tina's daughter) could also be targeted for simply being related to a winner. I hope the best for her in the game since Tina was one of my more favorite winners. Brad (Monica's famous football playing husband) might be in the game simply because he's a sports player that Survivor likes to have lately. That could mean he might not last long since he is more likely than others to be known for being like this. Ciera (Laura Morett's daughter) is hopefully a good person and I really don't want her getting into fights with someone like Laura did. To be fair to Laura, they were Shambo's fault, if I remember correctly. Rachel (Tyson's longtime girlfriend) is probably a great addition to the game. I have no idea yet. Marissa (Gervase's niece) is the last player left. I hope that she wasn't chosen simply to appease minorities. I hope that she doesn't turn into a black lady with attitude simply because that way too common a Survivor stereotype.

Now I might as well make my predictions of where each player will rank this season. This might be the only time I ever do a prediction list since it will probably be bad. This is probably very contradictory to each other. I will do a where I want them to rank, where I think they will rank, and where they should rank. Rupert: want rank- winner, should rank- finalist, will rank- juror. Gervase: want rank- juror, should rank- juror, will rank- pre-merge boot. Aras: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- juror, will rank- juror. Colton: want rank- first out, should rank- first out, will rank- juror. Tyson: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- juror, will rank- juror. Tina: want rank- juror, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- pre-merge boot. Kat: want rank- juror, should rank- juror, will rank- finalist. Laura Morett: want rank- juror, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- pre-merge boot. Candice: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- juror. Monica: want rank- juror, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- pre-merge boot. Caleb: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- pre-merge boot. Vytas: want rank- juror, should rank- juror, will rank- pre-merge boot. Laura Boneham: want rank- finalist, should rank- juror, will want- pre-merge boot. John: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- juror, will rank- pre-merge boot. Hayden: want rank- juror, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- finalist. Katie: want rank- juror, should rank- juror, will rank- pre-merge boot. Brad: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank, juror. Ciera: want rank- juror, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- pre-merge boot. Rachel: want rank- pre-merge boot, should rank- pre-merge boot, will rank- pre-merge boot. Marissa: want rank- juror, should rank- juror, will rank- pre-merge boot. I know that this list sounds confusing but I hope that you like it nonetheless.

From what I understand, the two people out of a tribe of returning players are a threat and an annoying person, normally in the opposite order. Saboga took out a threat (Tina). Chapera took out a threat (Rob C). Mogo Mogo took out an annoying person (Richard) and a threat (Ethan). Malakal took out an annoying person (Johnny Fairplay) and a threat (Yau-Man). Heroes took out an annoying person (Sugar) and a threat (Stephanie). Villains took out an annoying person (Randy) and a threat (Tyson). Bikal took out a threat (Francesca, apparently) and an annoying person (Brandon). So, if any of those are true, then there are annoying people (Colton and Kat) and there are threats (Rupert, Aras, Tina, and Tyson). But it is hard to tell how they will rank. Maybe Colton will be the first boot like I hope he will. Or maybe someone else surprising will be the first boot. Who knows? For once during a season of returning players versus new players, the new players could actually go to the first tribal council. We just know now that one from each tribe will go straight to Redemption Island, but we have no idea if they will stay there and get back in the game or if they will get eliminated permanently instead. I do wonder why if you replace a loved one on Redemption Island, they end up joining your old tribe instead of the original tribe. That makes the choice too obvious to keep your loved one in the game at the risk of your own spot in it. If they joined their original tribe, then you would have the hard choice of taking a member off of your tribe and adding one to your opponents. But I think that it will be interesting either way it goes.

So I'm not really sure what else there is to say this week. Stay tuned for more information regarding this upcoming season as well as the rest of my random blog posts before this season starts.