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Sceptic,

Did Sugar say "I want to humiliate Randy"? Not to my recollection. In any case, it was presented as Sugar getting the best of Randy in a battle of wits, not Sugar being mean and cruel to Randy. You don't get deeper without independent analysis, and while you seem to think that that analysis is implicit, I continue to believe if the editors had meant that to be a focus, they would have found a way to make it explicit.

Just because something hasn't been done before doesn't make it negative. Being quiet at the voting booth may be the norm, but there's nothing requiring it. (As I recall, Rob C.'s tribute while voting out Roger in S6 was loud enough to be heard, but they edited that out to make it seem like a blindside when the votes were read.) People remain quiet because they either are trying to pull off a blindside or because there's no need to anger a jury member. In this case, there was no blindside in the vote itself, and Crystal certainly had no reason to expect Randy to vote for her. I disagree with you that she was violating the sanctity of the voting booth in any way. And Crystal didn't say "You suck!" - it really stretches the interpretation of what she said to get there. You seem to contradict yourself when you say there is zero distinction between saying it softly or saying it loudly. I agree with this statement, but apparently you don't. And while this may have been trash talk, it was not unjustified considering Randy's continual trash talk all game. This is really no different than "How do you like them apples?" (I forgot the name of the movie but it starred Matt Damon and Robin Williams.) I doubt you consider that an N moment for the Matt Damon character.

Randy could have been developed as a prophet given the first couple episodes, but that isn't where the edit went. Instead of working with his team (Fang's main flaw per Probst at numerous TC's), Randy decided to sit back and watch. Then he went over to Kota and basically threw his allies under the bus while taking every opportunity to bash Fang. And Randy turned out to be wrong about Fang - they rebounded and now they control the game. He was not a prophet after all, so what is there to take from his early edit except that he was overly negative about his situation? The problem comes when you continue to treat him as the character you expected to see instead of the character that was actually shown. (And it continues with this push to have his final episode CP. His strategy was presented as an excuse to be as nasty as possible. It wasn't really strategy as he indicated in his talk to Corinne that he couldn't fake being nice to the others. Basically, it was just a nice bonus for him to potentially use his nastiness as a means of taking someone out with the idol. The strategy was just straightforward, and it wasn't presented as any kind of internal conflict. He was going to be nasty regardless, and if he could have his cake and eat it too, so much the better.)

I'm not sure what you mean about the "N-ness of Crystal" being telegraphed by the prior TC. Crystal wasn't N then either. She just asked Randy to explain why he had a problem with her, and then she let him air his grievances. The interruptions went both ways and were more or less inevitable in such a setting. Certainly, Randy had no high ground against Crystal considering we saw him bashing her without proximate cause several times that prior episode. I do believe that many posters here decided Crystal was an N personality early in the season, and thus rate her such no matter what. If Ken somehow doesn't make the end, I wouldn't be surprised at all if she wins based upon the edit she actually got instead of the edit that's reflected on the official Edgic tally. I thought she was too visible for a stretch, but her recent cooldown actually puts her only slightly more visible than I would expect a winner to be overall. She has not been too OTT as many others insist.

Whether you buy my arguments that Crystal's voting comment was toneless or not doesn't concern me. As far as I can tell, your argument boils down that you dislike Crystal and like Randy more than the edit would suggest we should.

I disagree that Sugar's edit was intended to show pettiness (even if it did come through). The whole episode was a big "feel good" boot. Was it overdone? In my opinion, yes, but that's a failure of editing, not a success. Why assume that the editors always intend the reaction you experience? Isn't that a bit presumptuous. Editors aren't perfect, and they won't please everyone. Some people actually prefer to root for the nasty people - it happens. That's why I don't think it makes much sense to look only at how an episode made you feel without looking at how the editing was actually presented. You say you are, and I disagree that you actually are. My "once again" referred to making the same argument several times in the same response - sorry if it offended you, but I don't believe it was inappropriate.

Glad we agree about Corinne, however.