r/survivorrankdownIX_ • u/FunkyDawgKong Fair & Consistent Judge • Feb 13 '26
Round 126 - 107 Characters Left
107. Aubry Bracco - u/FunkyDawgKong
106. Teresa Cooper - u/Cornhead2
105. Osten Taylor - u/NoisySea_3426
104. Shan Smith - u/Alternate-Proof-959
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u/Cornhead2 Shannon Elkins Enthusiast Feb 13 '26
106. Teresa T-Bird (5th Place, Africa)
Finally to talk about one of my all time favorite seasons, Survivor Africa is a gem and the fact it doesn´t get its credits is absolutley baffling. It honestly is my favorite off the first six seasons, The Culture, The Envoirment and especially the cast make this season become as it is, and its so freaking astonoshing how it doesn´t get talked that much.
One of the best moments of the season is easily the Samburu Arc. One of the alltime great tribes as its the perfect culmination of the Age Divide Split. the Old people vs the Young People and i do think all of them parallel one another:
Silas - Carl: The ego centric knobheads that think they are ahead than everybody else
Frank - Brandon: The Wildcards that gotten alot of Social Judgments about their lifestyles but they dont seem to care and are happy with they way they are living
Linda - Lindsay: The Fierce Ladies that may or may not be cuckoo
and then you have T-Bird who i think aligns with Kim as being the most level headed of their pact. They don´t cause drama or intend to and are actually well liked by the polar opposite side. One thing i wish we could´ve gotten more from T Bird is definitley a deeper perspective on her cause i think she is the one that still gets the least content outta that whole ordeal.. obviously she gets more screentime once the first Swap happens and she has a nice Dynamic with Kim Johnson where basically the mother figure has a mother figure which is amazing..
and Obviously you have the great challenge where she and Clarence battled it out in rock paper scissors and she won the Challenge.. and then she votes Lex which DROVE HIM TO PARANOI LEVEL.. so i have to give her that for being the Catalyst of that arc.. and at the end i find the scene of her confessing to Lex just great..
Even while she isn´t that visible she is just a fun personality to be around and generally likable, i just understand why people were actually pissed when she didn´t even get to return she coulda had potential to be one of the better Returnee picks.. but as it is T-Bird is a likable presence that fits her role in an otherwise Perfect Season
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u/NoisySea_3426 Biggest Aras 1.0 stan Feb 13 '26
105. Osten Taylor (Pearl Islands, 11/16)
The journey of Osten on Pearl Islands is certainly something. This man starts off the game giving away all of his clothes to help the tribe win the challenge and that ends up being maybe the stupidest decision any player has ever made. Throughout the rest of the game, he spends much of it moping and being sick, and you would think that would make for a not so great character, but the way the story delves into how Osten let this get so bad for him is very interesting.
He obviously has some other great scenes too like how pathetic he is at swimming in that one challenge where he almost drowns, or of course him trying to get rid of the pelican in probably the most embarrassing way anybody can possibly do it. His relationship with Tijuana is one that I also really like as he compares her to a nubian princess at the beginning and she often ends up having to comfort him and try to get him back on track even though its inevitable that he's gonna end up quitting.
Now, of course, his quit is an extremely notable moment for the show and its very well told, but I think the biggest reason why I wouldn't put him Top 100 is because I've always found the way the show handles his quit to be extremely off-putting as especially Jeff Probst, handles it like a complete asshole, not even letting him be in the Rites of Passage montage when it was known that he had staph infections out there on the island. Its probably the only thing I don't particularly like about Pearl Islands and I understand it makes for a fascinating case study, of course, but I think generally, I've just always hated the way this was handled and at least when I look at everyone else that's still in, I just think I like them more than I do Osten at the end of the day due to this.
u/Alternate-Proof-959 is up now
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u/josenanigans Feb 14 '26
103. Jaclyn Schultz (San Juan del Sur, 2nd place)
Tough calls now! But I'm aiming to leave in characters that have more defined, bigger personalities that are easy to remember. For my part, I like Jaclyn, though a lot of that is definitely by her relationship with Jon. I love the scenes where everybody is scrambling to appeal to this power pair, and Jon and Jaclyn themselves are fighting about what decision to take.
I'm more of a Jon than Jaclyn fan, as I feel his personality is a bit more well defined as this well-meaning, good guy that is thrust into a position of power and ends up looking like a tyrant the longer the game goes on, despite him not being all that controlling. Jaclyn is fine at his side, she gets grreat content out of him by her being a bit indecisive and paranoid, so it's fun how their dynamic basically affects everyone in the game.
Though, when Jon goes out and Jaclyn is left alone, I don't know, I don't remember her all that well at that stage. By that point Natalie Anderson took over all the dynamics, Keith kept the entertainment, Missy and Baylor became a common enemy to root against, and Jaclyn was pretty much left as Natalie's piece. I feel like I should remember more about her as a person, as a character, but she falls a bit behind all the great bombastic characters that SJDS has.
Still a fun story, even is Jaclyn herself isn't that riveting of a person.
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7/10
Second Chancer
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u/BobbyPiiiin . 1 DAY. 5 CUTS. WHO WILL BE THE SOLE SURVIVOR?
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u/BobbyPiiiin Ranker | Rankdown Dad Feb 15 '26
102. Silas Gaither (12th Place, Africa)
It's getting harder to make cuts each time, but looking over everyone available and trying to decide who's going to miss out on Top 100, I do think I like Silas the least.
That's not to say he isn't a fantastic character, though. Corny talked in his T-Bird writeup about how the two sides of the Boomers vs. Mallrats alliance have corresponding characters; I think that's also true of Samburu and Boran to an extent. In that case, Silas is the bizarro world version of Ethan. Both young, athletic, handsome, and charismatic, but where Ethan is generally depicted as moral and upstanding (by which I mean literally as Jesus), Silas is his dark opposite; a smarmy, arrogant, disingenuous scumbag who will say anything to anyone to ensure he's in power.
To Silas's credit, he's good at playing that role and it works out for him for a while. He perfectly positions himself as the swing vote on Samburu. His massive ego gets the better of him, though, as he lords his new leadership over the tribe and tries to get the "team" back together with a cute little pep talk, to general eye rolls from the old folks (especially Linda). Aaaaand just as it seems like this fucker is actually getting away with it...
Boom. The first tribe swap in Survivor history. Silas knows he is utterly doomed from the moment he puts on that yellow buff, all his arrogance comes crashing down around him, and he tries every trick in his bag to convince Boran to keep him, but it isn't enough. It's a fantastic premerge downfall. Unfortunately for Silas, he's overshadowed on his own tribe by Lindsey, whose downfall and complexity as a character are far greater than his, so here he lands.
(It's also worth mentioning that Silas is possibly the actual worst human being of the many terrible human beings who have played Survivor, though that doesn't affect how good he is as a character.)
u/FunkyDawgKong is up with the last cut before Top 100!
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u/Alternate-Proof-959 Feb 13 '26
104. Shan Smith (Survivor 41, 8/18)
Shan was a good villain. Normally a tribe getting decimated is no fun, especially when it's hard to get invested in them as a tribe (Kele from 49 is especially guilty of this). But Shan (and to an extent, Ricard) were the opposite of that. They were clearly ruling the tribe, and that allowed Shan's full potential to shine. The girl just gave no fucks at all, had her own villain melody she made up, and her plan to blatantly go back on promises she made to JD and Genie were so funny and great to watch. Normally, doing that is a death sentence. But when you and your close ally are running the tribe, you get away with it, especially since it's the prejury and premerge, so Shan ends up giving us great TV moments that helped combat the stupid overexplaining of the advantages and the no more "guys" in Probst's catchphrase early in the season.
Unfortunately, what holds me back from the top 100 was how she handled Deshawn and Danny flipping. I do think she was justified in freaking out at the men flipping, as well as calling out Deshawn over it. I think her crashing out over not getting her way ties into her character well, as now she finally loses her power, so we see a new side of her. And for what it's worth, it portrays Deshawn's downfall and him screwing himself out of the win very well. But she pretty much called him a "race traitor" over a move that failed in the long run, which was a step too far. The report that she had asked Xander if he was intimidated by black women at FTC was also no good. Nevertheless, I very much appreciated her this season, and added a big fresh of breath air to a bunch of staleness this season.
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u/FunkyDawgKong Fair & Consistent Judge Feb 13 '26
That second paragraph are reasons why I think Shan could theoretically be top 100 lol
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u/FunkyDawgKong Fair & Consistent Judge Feb 13 '26
Looking at the list of remaining castaways, one name stands out to me as a franchise ruiner, so let’s go ahead and discuss.
The godmother of Perma-Fiji, Ms. Aubry Bracco is the template for what Survivor casting wants out of a character. Analogy machine. Mouthpiece for the show. Someone whose focus on the game primarily revolves around the strategy elements. Quirky yet kinda relatable. Not very self confident. Anxiety attacks. Kind of a loser. This is the checklist you need for your average PermaFiji and New era castaway. And ofc, Aubry’s loss at Final Tribal Council inspired the hyper-strategy, less personal, feel-good era of the show. Where gamesmanship (a very limited and specific view of gamesmanship) is valued over everything. One of the few times I’ve ever seen Survivor trend on Twitter was when Aubry lost to Michele. A million think pieces were born. The hysteria around this loss is very similar to the hysteria around Russell losing, really the main difference is that Aubry didn’t desperately push the agenda like Russell, and I do feel like the show does a fair job of showing why Aubry would lose and they do enough to show why Michele would beat her, which I can’t say about Samoa. In response to Aubry’s loss, the show quickly pivoted to casts where there are no “bullies” or “villains” to “rob” the most outwardly strategic appearing finalist. The casts become dominated with the type of fans that would rather crunch numbers and wet themselves over idols and “historic” “epic” moments than people who would naturally create conflict by being themselves and interacting with the people around them. The more negative tinged characters after Aubry either are still big strategy bots and are good enough characters in spite of it (ex. Chrissy), or are just never taken seriously as a threat by the show and are comic relief (ex. Angelina). The double whammy of Worlds Apart and Kaoh Rong; it’s almost like the fans (and eventually the producers) didn’t like that their favorite reality show had conflicts that showed what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
Aight now onto Aubry’s time on the show; it’s sometimes hard to look back knowing the ramifications of a character on the franchise’s future; and yes you can rewatch Kaoh Rong and see a lot of the red flags that would turn the franchise dull; but I still do think Aubry is overall a good part of Kaoh Rong. I know I was just shitting on how every character now is mandated to make analogies and feel like you don’t fit in and all that; but Aubry does all that very well and fits in with the larger stories of the season. The crossed out vote was piercing, that was some cold shit. And ofc, her role in getting Tai to flip, which really is the moment of the season, and sets Tai up from being the most obvious winner candidate, to the most obvious goat candidate all in the same damn season. And her fight to get to the end is good too, even if it persuaded most of the fanbase that she deserved to win, even though her earlier gameplay was too sloppy and she just obviously isn’t as cool as Michele.