Yuku free message boards

Thank you for the comments. I will definitely respond to them as soon as I can. You are very right with a lot of what you are saying, Pulau Tiga.

A FEW IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT EPISODE 1:

First of all, I really hope everyone enjoyed this special premiere episode of SURVIVOR: CHINA.

Some general notes about the story and episode:

1) Every story, I always set out to create the most realistic one yet, and one of the ways in which my previous stories were not so realistic was episode length. At 28-30 pages, there was too much content for a regular episode, but this season, I have finally achieved the goal of writing episodes with the right amount of content (some episodes still have a little more), and that ended up being a 23 page premiere. I hope no one says that it's too short because I guarantee that you would get no more than that in an actual episode. In writing this premiere, I was actually very surprised by how much I was able to fit into it, and I think the finished product was very good in the end.

2) Having written this episode weeks ago, it was very interesting for me to read it over in full this morning and see things that I had even forgotten were there. The good part about doing it like this was that I was able to be away from it for a long time and then read it and pick out some sentences that needed minor adjustments, and fix up a bit of the challenge, and I think it improved the episode. I personally ended up liking the premiere better than I remembered, but it is very true that the ones that follow are also going to be much better.

3) As some people have already pointed out, there were some definite similarities between my episode and the real premiere. I have been saying for months that this was going to happen. For one, I feel that the early storylines that happened in the real show were extremely, extremely obvious and certain things were inevitable to happen. For example, as soon as I heard that there was a Buddhist ceremony, I immediately slotted a confessional in for Leslie (because of her Christian background) and a confessional for Peih-Gee (about relating to the Chinese culture). Of course, Ashley's storyline was going to be about being a professional wrestler. Todd was going to be the strategic narrator. Jean-Robert was going to be immediately introduced as a poker player and talk about how it compares to Survivor. Erik and Jaime's romance was inevitable, just as I said in the Press Conference that you would be able to easily predict who the romance was. These were among the very first things that I decided I would have in Episode 1. Funny that they really happened? Normally, it's more frustrating for me than anything when a similarity comes up, but this season, I expected it. It seemed like everything was just too obvious and I'm not going to make Todd and Denise be a couple just to have something be different from the real show. I've always said that I want my stories to be as realistic as possible, and unfortunately, realistic was obvious this time. That's why when someone said "you're never obvious with your stories," I thought it was a bit ironic... Anyway, enough about that, the good thing is there is a lot more branching off from here because my characters do end up going in different directions.

4) Having said that, I will be fully honest in saying that I closely mimicked the "format" of the actual Buddhist ceremony to how they showed in on the real show, because, as much as I researched the topic, I still had absolutely no idea what the ceremony was actually going to entail. Some of the part when Jeff was giving out the buffs and the Art of War was similar as well. The other part was the Immunity Challenge, but since Cook Islands, I've always had my Immunity Challenges almost identical to the actual one due to the TVGuide specials. I did add more aspects to this one though to make it as different as I could (I'll talk more about that later). These were 100% the only parts of my episode that were influenced by what really happened in Episode 1. Everything else was planned out like it always is far, far in advance.

5) About the Immunity Challenge - I ended up using the basis for the real Ep. 1 Challenge and then I had the log puzzle from Episode 2 instead of the part where James/Frosti climbed over the walls etc. I thought it was good to have a more physical aspect with a puzzle, and I also added more obstacles to my challenge to make it more difficult. It really is something that you would have to see on TV the way I see it when I write. I also tried to add some humor into the challenge as well so that it wouldn't be just boring, so I had two little "funny moments" where Zhan Hu actually ripped their tiger in half (accidentally) when it got stuck in an obstacle, and Denise getting hit in the head with part of Fei Long's dragon... I hope you got those and enjoyed them... I was glad to be able to keep the challenge short and sweet as well.

6) I really believe that this episode was successful in that it focused so much on the characters themselves rather than on strategy, and that even in 23 pages, I was able to show a lot for everything to make sense. Hopefully that makes it easier to read as well, but you will definitely, definitely notice some events or "moments" (?) that directly relate back to what happens in Episode 1. As Jeff said, this episode serves to set up the future storylines and I think you'll notice that soon.

7) About the first boot, you might think Aaron was an odd choice being that he was a stronger guy. I've only had one guy as a first boot, so I wanted to have a "younger guy." I personally think that Aaron is and was pretty boring, so there wasn't much I was going to do with him in the story. I also thought right away that Aaron would be the leader of Fei Long (as he turned out to be in the real show), but I thought that was way too typical of a reason for him to be booted, so I consider that to be only as the secondary reason and I came up with the reason that he took an extra drink of water. All things considered, it seems really minor but it would definitely be a much bigger deal if there were 8 thirsty people and there was only a limited amount of water. I actually thought it worked out well doing it like that. Was it a smart move for Fei Long to get rid of Aaron? That remains to be seen but it was better than them just voting out their outspoken leader that no one liked...

8) I have to say that I really liked that whole strategy scene and Tribal Council. In my opinion, they worked very well together and Tribal Council served its purpose of getting all the important issues out.

9) As for Episode 2, I hope you guys liked the promo. There's WAY more things that I could have included in the promo as Episode 2 is a very eventful one. Again, I put things in the preview that focused on the characters and survival rather than the strategic goings-on, but there will definitely be some good strategy scenes too. Episode 2 is always an important one and this one will be no different. It will be up on December 8.

I think that's about all I wanted to say but if I think of anything else to add, I will edit this post with more. My sincere thanks to everyone for reading this, and I greatly appreciate all the comments! :)

- Guatemala fanfic

Frosti: I think I see the end… <Denise is now shown with a relieved look on her face>

I don't have time to thoroughly read the episode, but this quote stood out to me.

Though it seems obvious, it still looks like at least one of Frosti/Denise will be in an endgame situation, probably with one of them in the final two. Maybe. When I have more time I may read it all the way through.

A really interesting and insightful thought, Werwanderflugen. Thanks for sharing it! :)

(I'm in the process of replying to everyone else)

Hi llppoo33. Thank you very much for your comments and predictions. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Have a great night! :)

---

Kitty Pryde1, if I knew how to use the laughing smiley face I would definitely post it! I don't read the Survivor Strikes Back, but I've seen a couple of Scout's blogs and I know that she is notorious for her huge posts and for talking to herself on there. You did a great job of imitating her and you just made my day with that. Thank you. It was perfect! :)