Cecilia is the most forgettable Cook Islands cast member. FACT.
More than Rebecca, who to my knowledge is the only voted off person ever who never even got a farewell confessional? :P
I liked the Romber storyline (I know, I was a sucker for the romance edit), and I was mainly just excited that it was All-Stars, even though I didn't know anyone but Shii-Ann, since Thailand was my 1st season and ASS was my 2nd.
I don't particularly enjoy the showmance stuff, it seems you do so this would make sense.
I think I definitely have a nostalgic bond with ASS, and there were a lot of things I liked about it.
Yeah, I'd say this makes sense too. ASS was my 6th season, but my 4th full season. Having watched Guatemala, Borneo and Australia right before it tempered some nostalgia for me I'd say.
No other season had the epic helicopter intro and exciting star power that ASS had.
Can't really disagree with you there.
The finale also was the probably the best one of all the seasons in my opinion. The crowd went from booing Romber, to exploding into cheers when the 2 got married, and you really don't see a showmance become a real romance and culminate in an on TV marriage like that every day.
I love extremely over the top jury rants so I did enjoy that part, but for the most part with me I didn't particularly like the finale. Like I mentioned above the showmance thing does nothing for me. The boot order was quite predictable and I did not enjoy the fact that Amber won a ASS at all.
Also, ASS stood the test of time for me, because I always find new and interesting things about that season, mainly because of all the characters, who I've gotten to know from all the pre-ASS seasons. I never quite got indoctrinated with pre-ASS propaganda like other Sucksters, so for me there was no real fall of the favorite syndrome or disgust with what ended up happening.
I come from for the most part the same perspective, I only watched 2 pre-ASS seasons before seeing it and having watched it for the first time over a year and a half after its original airing, there was likewise no pre-game hype for it with me. The part about certain pre-ASS superstars like Kathy or Lex getting their reputations destroyed on the show didn't bother me in the none cause this season was the first time I saw them.
Amber looked like any other UTR deserving winner, because I didn't have a preconception of her as a useless one nor did I necessarily see Hatch or Tina or Ethan or all the other higher rankers as particularly special, based on what I saw out of them in ASS and then later in their original seasons. I think this definitely accounts for my greatly contrasting perspective from others, and it's another example how POV and biases affect opinions on both sides of the fence
Well I'd disagree about just how much Amber did in relation to other UTR winners like Vecepia, but we've argued ad nausiem about that before so I won't bother going into it. I personally despise ASS for the ultra predictable boot order, the complete lack of attempts to shake up the game, the fact that nearly every vote off is unanimous, the fact that players got booted solely for their pre-game reputation, not how they actually played during the game, the personal relationships having such a huge effect on things, and the Rich-Sue thing which was probably the worst episode in Survivor history. My overall opinion of the season is completely different then yours, but at the least I understand where you're coming from.
Regarding UTR Players:
No Zoe, Ravu? Arguably the worst one ever :P
I would argue with just how "official" or "useful" edgic ratings are (I for one disagreed so much with the ratings they were giving out during Guatemala that I threw up my arms and quit for good, quickly becoming about as anti an edgic person as you can get at this board) but in the end I don't necessarily disagree with your findings about how unmemorable certain invisible or UTR characters were. I would be interested in confessional numbers for these players too, I remember Becky having an extremely pitiful amount but don't have the number off the top of my head.
Jenn: Ultra invisible. Extremely over-rated here. The "Jenn should be on ASS 2" stuff is absolute garbage if you ask me. If she isn't considered generally by the Survivor fandom as one of the more attractive women to be on the show, people would be "Who?" with her as much as many of the other UTR players throughout the game's history.
Amber: I would say Amber's much more memorable than Becky, but ASS certainly spoils a proper comparison. It would be tough to truly compare her now that our outlook on things has been spoiled by the fact that she was on a second season and won the game. Talking strictly about Australia, I think Amber comes off as slightly more memorable with the general public for the simple fact that it was a 16 person season compared to 20 and it was the second season, not the thirteenth. And as discussed by KP, you're fooling yourself if you think she doesn't get a ton of criticism at this board.
Stacy: As invisible as they come, no argument there. She's almost universally ignored by the Sucks community now after some heavy criticism during last season.
Darrah: Along with Zoe the poster child for the ultra invisible UTR player before Becky & Sundra gave us a more recent example.
Ravu, as I've pointed out before, the reasons aren't that hard to figure out why Becky and Sundra, Becky in particular are criticized as UTR players here. They come from a very recent season and are the best recent example of a contestant who got extremely far (top 4 or above) and got an absolutely horrific edit. Becky's has the worst edit ever in relation to how far she got in the game (3rd). The fact that they're from the "poster-child" season for horrible edits, Cook Islands, makes the fact that they're gonna be brought up somewhat more likely. And we've got a poster at this board who uses every opportunity available to bring the topic up. If you weren't here, I guarantee you the Becky discussion would be much lower. Not that I'm criticizing you or anything, but you gotta admit, one big reason why she's brought up often is because of discussions involving you. Know why we don't talk about Darrah or Zoe as much here? Because we don't have someone rabidly defending them non-stop. Darrah, Zoe, Stacy, Lilliana, they certainly got their hatred and bashing here at Sucks. We don't have D/Z/S/L defenders who make a lot of posts like you, naturally we're not gonna see them brought up as much now. :P
Bah, I should know better to get involved in this discussion again. I'll try to bow out of it before I frustrate myself to extreme levels again.
ETA: A few minor edits based on reading KP's posts.









