Survivor: Borneo- Hero or Villain

Here comes another of my installment of looking at the cast of a season and mentioning whether or not I think they were a hero or a villain (or neither). This time, I’m going through the cast of the very first season and mentioning my thoughts on them.

Sonja may be best described as a hero to me. I’m not sure if this will be accepted by everyone or not. But she played pretty well throughout her brief time in the game. It seemed pretty heroic the way that she fought throughout the game and even the way the tribe sacrificed her life in the game due to her seeming to be the weakest seems heroic to me.

B. B. probably doesn’t have characteristics of either a hero or a villain. Or does he? He seems like he was a pitiful player from the few days that he played. He kept whining about how he didn’t want to play the game which made Pagong’s first tribal council very easy. There could be arguments that he was a villain due to not going along with anybody’s plans. But, I think that neither category is the better fit for him, in my mind at least.

Stacey may possibly be the only player whose status as hero or villain isn’t decided but what she did IN the game, but by what she did OUT of the game. Her time in the game was ended after her tribe didn’t like her and voted her out. She was convinced that production got people to change their votes to eliminate her. So she sued the show. While nothing ended up happening with the lawsuit because it was settled out of court, she solidified her villain status in Survivor.

Ramona isn’t someone who stood out on her season. For me, any contestant who failed to stand out that well is probably neither a hero or a villain. That’s just my opinion at least. I don’t see any way she fits either category.

Dirk, to me, is easy to classify. He may not have wanted to make big moves in the game, but he mostly did that to get along with other people. He was nice to everyone and seems easily identified as a hero to me. He doesn’t fit other categories.

Joel was widely regarded by the women of Pagong to be very demeaning towards them, so much so that they decided to vote him out instead of someone who compared them to cows. The point is, while he may not have done that much in the game, he was certainly villainous for the moments that he stood out in it.

Gretchen may always be remembered for the way that she was voted out of the game in a most unusual way. While it may not have been clear enough why she was voted out, it was clear to me that she was a hero the way she was in the game.

Greg is the goofy, lovable player that may be one of the most well-liked contestants. I’ll admit, there could be potential arguments that he’s a villain. But to me, the way he lead his tribe, even though they didn’t win against the onslaught of Tagi, he is a hero to me.

Jenna is an example of how one’s stats as hero or villain can change in different seasons. In my mind, the first time she played, she was heroic. Now I’m not going to count her All-Stars game in this blog post. That might come in a later one. She may not have stood out that much, outside of her appearance at the first individual reward challenge, but she was a hero from what I could tell of her.

Gervase won’t be ranked in this blog post. That’s because, in my mind, his status as hero or villain wasn’t actually decided until his second time playing. So he becomes without a category his first time playing the game. Well, I can’t think of something at least.

Colleen outranked the rest of her tribe. The reasons for this might vary depending on who you are talking to. I’m not sure why all the others were picked off first, except for the Jenna boot which was strictly alphabetical. You see, the way she outlasted the rest of her tribe seemed pretty heroic to me and there’s tons of other evidence to support her heroism in the game.

Sean is all over the place with his edit. But what certainly remains clear, to me at least, is his lack of a status as hero or a villain. You see, there’s actually evidence to support both sides. One would say that the way he voted after the merge screwed people over and made him a villain. Others would say that his likability and unwillingness to offend people by his voting strategy is why he’s a hero. And that is why I can’t decide between the two.

Sue is another person that I find hard to categorize. She made moves that could put her in either category. But, even in the first season, she is probably best considered a villain. While she slipped back and forth throughout the game, she is a villain mostly due to her jury speech.

Rudy does a lot of stuff that’s unintentionally funny. The way he played the game couldn’t have been anything other than heroic to me. Production even swears that if the show were scripted, he would have been the first winner. He has a great overall edit and is an overall nice guy.

Kelly may be considered by some to be a hero because she faced off mainly against Richard, an undisputed villain. But, just because you face a villain doesn’t automatically make you a hero. If anything, everything about her edit seems to imply that she’s a villain. She turned on her alliance to further herself in the game and make herself look better to certain people on the jury. So, she’s a villain in my mind.

Richard is so obvious to classify that I almost don’t even need this paragraph. But, every cast member deserves a paragraph. Richard dominated the game from the very beginning. He knew that he would win from day one and he did. He didn’t care how he did it. After helping make the first ever alliance, he then took it all the way to the end and didn’t care how many people he might piss off. He played the best game for sure in his villainous way that almost no one else can match.

The Cast- Sonja: hero, B. B.: neither, Stacey: villain, Ramona: neither, Dirk: hero, Joel: villain, Gretchen: hero, Greg: hero, Jenna: hero, Gervase: neither, Colleen: hero, Sean: neither, Sue: villain, Rudy: hero, Kelly: villain, Richard: villain

Well, those are my thoughts on the cast of Survivor: Borneo. I hope that I made good thoughts. Did I get any wrong? Were there any that you agree with? Should there be a better third category than neither? I know that they’ll always be people who don’t fit as a hero or as a villain. I just hope that I got the rest of them right. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.