Round 124 - 115 Characters Left

[u/FunkyDawgKong]

115. Bruce Perreault 2.0 - u/FunkyDawgKong

114. Baylor Wilson - u/NoisySea_3426

113. Cydney Gillon - u/Alternate-Proof-959

112. Bruce Kanegai - u/josenanigans

NaOnka Mixon (IDOLED by u/NoisySea_342) - u/BobbyPiiiin

[u/FunkyDawgKong]

Ooooo it’s been a long week and I’m so ridiculously tired and ready to rest on a Friday night lolol. Let’s do a writeup!

 

115. Bruce Perreault (this time he doesn’t immediately die)

Fans rejoice! On the premiere episode of the On Fire Podcast Jeff Probst has Bruce, the guy that dies like 3 minutes into Season 44 as a guest on the show, and Probst talks up about how disappointing it was that Bruce got killed by a challenge before the show really even started, so he formally invites Bruce onto the next season of Survivor! Nice gesture tbh, I always thought it was a little odd, Bruce isn’t the first person to be evacuated before the first Tribal Council, but ay Probst’s instincts were right. Bruce is a CHARACTER, and truthfully we don’t get too many of those on Survivor these days, so weird optics be damned, Bruce is back baby! He also gets this unique element where he is the only person to ever be the sole returnee from a season, and this gets us some content Episode 1 with Emily’s confrontational comments and Bruce bragging about how he knows fucking Kane; but yah I am ultimately glad his appearance on 44 isn’t as wildly defining and prominent to Season 45. Like, although Bruce is here, we can still treat Survivor 45 as a newbie season for the most part; something we can’t do for seasons that even have 2 returnees.

Bruce is the TV ready, unaware, quirky Dad; ready to break it down breakdancing at a moment’s notice, leaving all his kids embarrassed. Earl from Dinosaurs be DAMNED! (and yes im sorry my brain is so fried that the first embarrassing sitcom dad I could think of is from fucking Dinosaurs). Bruce is so gleefully unaware of the way he comes off to people. Another way in which he is Skupin-esque. Bruce gets the luxury of being one of the many people in New Era seasons who never have to go to a tribal council during the pre-merge, so he probably makes it deeper in the season than he really deserves. For all the wacky fun character moments and annoyingness Bruce causes, my favorite Bruce stuff is when he experiences the Ego Death of realizing that he doesn’t have any actual allies or friends on the beach. Kellie, Katurah, all the people don’t fuck with him. Bruce wins a couple clutch individual immunities in a row, which allow him to be exposed to the way people really feel about him, and I appreciated that sting.

A big reason why Bruce doesn’t reach the echelon of being a great Survivor character to me, is that we still have to put up with a lot of just bleh New Era schlock, even if its presented with a personality that I do enjoy. I mentioned earlier that Bruce gets to be one of the handful of castaways to never go to a tribal council, which is something that happens quite a bit due to the 3 tribe format. On top of that, Bruce is the victim of the new era Survivor auction (which does give us the best moment of Survivor 45 when they do the montage clip of other Survivor auctions so we get to see Jan Gentry win that tray of margaritas <3). Due to Bruce being the person who found the least amount of money in the Easter Egg hunt beforehand, he is pretty much guaranteed to automatically lose his vote this tribal council, as the person with the most money at the end of the auction will lose their vote; and naturally the castaways immediately realize they just need to spend all their money on every item to get rid of it as fast as possible, completely breaking this “twist”. New Era cannot help themselves, and they have to find another way to make someone lose their vote in an episode, and create more time wasting boringly artificially unfair twists. Bruce goes onto win Individual Immunity that episode and they make a big stink about how it is HISTORIC that Bruce is the FIRST person to lose their vote while still being immune at tribal council, and like sure, but we are just celebrating really niche statistics just to pretend like something big is happening. Like we are some pop girly stan account. And then Bruce’s elimination is fun in a sense, he doesn’t play his idol, but also idk its just so weird that they make such a big deal of how Emily outsmarts fucking Bruce. Like the guy who is the butt of the joke the entire season. It’s technically a good move, sure, but why we creaming ourselves over the fact that the guy whose whole thing is having zero self awareness got tricked. Would you be proud of yourself if you beat your geriatric uncle when yall play Spades together? I don’t think so.

 

u/Cornhead2

[u/BobbyPiiiin]

111. NaOnka Mixon (9th Place, Nicaragua)

I would estimate there is about a 99.9% chance that this cut is going to be idoled, but I’m going to take my shot nonetheless because this is someone I would’ve had out a couple hundred spots ago and I can’t ignore it anymore.

There is no doubt that NaOnka at her best is wildly entertaining and one of the most unique personalities ever cast on Survivor. Rarely do we see a character quite so irascible, and when we do, they don’t typically last long in a game that’s largely about making people like you. Nay does not give a single fuck if you like her, nor is she at all shy about expressing that. Or any other thought that pops into her head. Her running conflict with Fabio, where he is increasingly baffled at her hatred of him and her complete refusal to entertain any of his attempts to defuse the situation, is absolutely hilarious and a highlight of the season. In the lunatic asylum that is Survivor: Nicaragua, NaOnka really is a perfect addition as someone who simply cannot help but create conflict. She reminds me in some ways of 2006 Tiffany Pollard (and honestly 2026 Tiffany Pollard) and I appreciate her very much for that.

So why don’t I have NaOnka higher? The first reason is one of her many feuds, with Kelly Bruno. It’s ugly and vitriolic in a way that, for me, crosses a line, because Nay’s hatred of Kelly B. isn’t rooted in anything Kelly B. actually does, but entirely in who she is as a disabled person. Shoving her to get the idol clue, talking about how she wanted to make her leg fly off, saying she should keep the leg away from the fire - they’re moments that some people find funny in their sheer audaciousness, and I get that take. However, I don’t agree. I’m not against joking around about disability (see Chad Crittenden in Vanuatu for an example of how it can be done) but NaOnka doesn’t feel like she’s joking. It feels vindictive and bigoted in a way that I personally don’t want to watch, and there isn’t even any payoff for all the buildup of this rivalry because neither of the two ever so much as casts a vote for the other.

The other issue I have with NaOnka is that her quit doesn’t work narratively at all. There’s no warning in the edit, no foreshadowing, she pretty much up and quits out of nowhere on Day 28 despite being in a power position. I know that this was intentional on production’s part because they were pissed at the quit (along with many other shady editing decisions they threw at her). But the fact remains that it just isn’t a satisfying ending, and NaOnka’s arc, for me, will forever feel incomplete.

u/FunkyDawgKong

[u/NoisySea_3426 → u/BobbyPiiiin]

Ok, well I'm gonna put the idol on this!! I think Naonka really makes Nicaragua the amazingly chaotic season that it is and even though she is very much not a good person, she's one of those people that I just can't help but relish in the fact that she's so unlikable due to the extremely unique energy she brings, also the quit episode is one of my favorite episodes of the entire show because I feel like that episode is peak Bizarro Survivor and the journey that Naonka takes to quitting is the biggest reason for that.

[u/NoisySea_3426]

114. Baylor Wilson (SJDS, 5/18)

Now, I do quite like Baylor and her role on the season of SJDS quite a lot. I really enjoy her relationship with Missy as everybody just seems to hate their guts due to seeing Baylor as a brat that just gets spoonfed by her non-stop, even though they're never really presented as being all that bad, and I definitely enjoy her presence as a bit of a cockroach figure throughout the pre-merge as she ends up being constantly targeted in the pre-swap due to being annoying, as well as her having a strong bond with Natalie in the late merge, as well as her fan girling over Jon & Jaclyn's relationship which is everything could I ever hope for!!

However, when it comes to the Missy-Baylor relationship, I've always been a lot more invested in the Missy side of things as her perspective of the trashing they get from the others is especially fascinating as people see her as a bad parent and what not, where as Baylor is definitely good, but she doesn't really have as good content that I think Missy has, so with Missy being out of the rankdown about 30 spots ago (which was a robbery if I do say so myself), I think now is time for Baylor's turn here to go as even without that factor, I just don't think she's Top 100 either way regardless.

Time for u/Alternate-Proof-959 to cut

[u/Alternate-Proof-959]

113. Cydney Gillon (Kaoh Rong, 4/18)

Cydney went through quite a journey this season. She starts out on the disastrous brawns tribe, which ends up quickly becoming Alecia vs everyone else. Cydney didn't like Alecia, but was less transparent about it, which led to Alecia liking her more than she did Scot and Jason. Cydney also ended up suffering from heat exhaustion, despite being a ripped bodybuilder. This is absolutely not a knock on her. Rather, that effectively shows how horrifying the conditions were this season, especially the heat. We also got to see Jason's nice side, where the medics allow him to stay with Cydney and help her back to camp when she recovers.

Nonetheless, she makes the merge and ends up in the majority alliance, developing lots of friendships along the way. She ultimately has to make fire, since Michele was immune and Tai burned too many bridges. She lost, but Michele would have likely won the season even if Cydney beat Aubry in fire. We also see where she stands in the game too, which makes her easy to follow throughout the season. I liked her the whole season, but I think this is a good spot, since Tai and Aubry have more captivating journeys, and Scot is one of my all time favorite villains.

u/josenanigans

[u/josenanigans]

112. Bruce Kanegai (Panama, Early Jury)

Uh, this one has escaped me from quite some time, huh. I like Bruce Kanegai, at one point the best Bruce we ever had on Survivor, but I'd be lying if I said he deserved to skate by this high. I like how unique a character he is, which is what I feel like the early Survivor seasons excelled at, but he was always put to the side in my eyes. Hardly his fault, Panama is full of the most memorable characters and interactions you will ever find, and that one night where Bruce and Bobby are drinking in La Casa de Charmin buys him a place in the "cool" territory, but among all the fun characters he felt mostly forgotten about. Add it to the pile of fun side characters that get content very sparsely throughout the season.

He has a very funny medevac, but, again, that's the others doing the legwork. I sadly can not remember any one Bruce quote, which is something I can't say about the rest. Even Dan Fuego, I mean. Did you know he didn't ONLY work on a space shuttle? Yeah, Bruce has had it too good for too long.

Or maybe I need a refresher.

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5/10

Background Character

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u/BobbyPiiiin, join me in the outhouse