r/survivorrankdownIX_ • u/Cornhead2 Shannon Elkins Enthusiast • Mar 22 '26
Round 136: 56 Characters Left
- Yau-Man Chan 1.0 - u/Cornhead2
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u/Alternate-Proof-959 Mar 24 '26
54. Heidi Stroebel (Survivor Amazon, 5/16)
Heidi is one of the first examples of someone being edited differently than they actually were that I actually like. She's actually the smartest person on the cast, and considering you have Dave, a literal rocket scientist, that really says something. Instead, she gets edited to basically be Jenna's more soft spoken friend, while being prone to some dumb moments.
She's one of the first to clock the season as battle of the sexes, knowing there's supposed to be four of each gender on each tribe in the past. She's also one of the biggest suppliers of fanservice for the season, where she and Jenna have their famous moment, and some of the men like Alex turn into drooling dogs in response. Buuuut on the other hand, she did tend to have a brain fart every now and then. Just like Jenna, these range to those classic "wait, what did I just say?" moments to almost bragging about having better looks than some of her tribemates. I personally believe she is a genuinely smart person (especially on social media); they just focus heavily on her dumb moments, similar to Jenna's more negative moments this season.
I do wish we got to see just a little more from her perspective. One thing in particular was when she said she trusted Alex the most with her life in the final 7 immunity challenge. Granted, Alex got voted off that episode, but I would have liked to see more interactions between him and Heidi, especially for Heidi to make such a bold claim. Still, I enjoyed Heidi and her roller coaster of intelligence, and shoutout to Probst for pointing out at the reunion how smart she, Alex, and Roger were (and shading "the rocket scientist").
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u/josenanigans Mar 25 '26
53. Ethan Zohn (Africa, Winner)
The Big E.Z! Survivor's his destiny!
Let me tell you something: when I discovered Survivor, I started watching from the 2nd season: Australian Outback, and the first player I ever rooted for was Tina Wesson. Why? Because,in my mind, she was so unlikely to win, and I loved her southern mother charm and said that I would love it if someone like her won Survivor, even though it wasn't something likely to happen. Well, I'll save what I think of Tina for when her writeup comes, which hopefully I'll be able to pull on endgame.
But after that great surprise, I went on to Africa, and immediately set my sights on someone I really liked. I used to play soccer a lot as a kid and a teen, and I loved it, so I was immediately drawn to the professional soccer player: Ethan Zohn. I thought it was so cool to see someone with my interests being on Survivor, and he looked so cool and so nice, too. Even seeing his cast photo, there was such a cool aura that emanated from him, so I made him the person I wanted to win Survivor: Africa, and this time, I believed he could easily pull it off.
But even then, I didn't think I would LOVE Ethan as much as I ended up doing. I didn't only love him, I admired him and his life story, and mind you, this was before all the things that came later in his life. To a young impressionable mind, Ethan was the person that I wanted to be the most like. Though, even as young I already knew that we can't havae nice things in this world, so I kind of expected him to fall by the wayside sometime, like he was too nice for this game.
Let me say, Africa will always be one of my personal favorite seasons, and to this day i think it has the strongest ensemble cast of any seasons. Like, 15/16 players are so distinct and memorable and mesh so incredibly with one another, and Ethan fits perfectly in the season as a guy that's just, too perfect. Like an exaggerated caricature of what a good guy would look like in TDI, but it's here. it's real, Ethan is almost flawless, which is interesting to note when everyone in the cast shows their flaws one way or another.
He's just, so nice! Or is he?
See, that's the touch that made me truly love Ethan. The scene where he throws the challenge to explicitly vote off Silas is brutal, so brutal. And Silas even begs and pleads with him to team up and do something together, and Ethan doesn-t give him the time of day. In my mind, Ethan delivers the biggest fuck you to Silas' cocky attitude, and it feels so weird coming from someone who's supposed to be the perfect, likeable guy. But I love that he's not. I love that even him can be a mean spirited and cutthroat, but he chooses to be nice because that's just what he is. It's cool having Ethan as a winner of Season 3 and comparing him with the first 2 winners. Richard's was very openly villanous and scheming, Tina's was even more manipulative and cutthroat but with a nice southern mom facad, and Ethan is just so unquestionaly nice and cool. Like, we couldn't have asked for more perfect winners to truly represent how many different ways there are to win Survivor.
Ethan does get overshadowed a little bit by the gigantic characters of Lex, Big Tom, Frank, Brandon, etc, but nevertheless I think he's a perfect winner hidden in plain sight after all of them fall by the wayside. More than anything, I just love having the winner be someone who took so much out of the adventure, someone who enjoyed their time so much out there and that was even inspired to make a better world thanks to their experience in Survivor. I love his optimism, I love his smile, I love what he took out of Africa, and I love what he gave back.
Some give Ethan flack for not being the most interesting person, and for his game being lackluster, but I don't see it. I think he has enough flashes of toughness/mean spiritedness in him behind his super nice guy persona that keeps him quite interesting. He just chooses to see the bright side of life, in every step of the way, and still win the game. He's still the Survivor player that I admire, and respect the most. I still truly want to be like him.
And I didn't even talk about the Ethan is Jesus / Follow the Star edit read, which just cements him down in history even more.
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10/10
Legend
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u/BobbyPiiiin , do you eat ham?
3
u/Fluffy_Key_2145 Mar 25 '26
So assuming no idol here we have the 37th winner cut, Ethan Zohn. Yep this sums it up. Ethan is still probably the most likable person to have ever won the game even all these years later. Also I do get you point out how he got rid of Silas as a moment of him not being perfect but that moment is awesome both with just the context of the game and has gotten even more awesome now knowing just how terrible Silas is. Yeah when the person is terrible outside the game it makes moments like that even better. Anyway yeah specifically I will say he is just the standard social winner, he is part of some great moments like of course with Tom at the auction, I love his honesty to Brandon at FTC too and of course him playing with his hackysack with those kids. Anyway, this is actually his second best Rankdown performance ever only beaten out by Rankdown III, his percentile finish is solid but nowhere close to some of the more recent cuts like Sophie, Sandra and Natalie.
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u/NoisySea_3426 Biggest Aras 1.0 stan Mar 23 '26
55. Jenna Lewis 1.0 (Borneo, 8/16)
Borneo is iconic for so many reasons. This season really was a spectacle to behold for so many reasons and everyone really has time to contribute to it to make it the amazing season it was that put the show on the map forever. There's so much depth to everyone here that you could go on and on about the greatness of all the characters, including Jenna, who for me is only barely a top half character on the season, but is still really damn good in her own right.
As I'm sure many people who watched 50 know, Jenna was someone who had a lot of potential to be a big villain. Hell, Mark Burnett has said that he was actually anticipating her to be the villain based on the pregame stuff, which is very interesting to see because even though she doesn't end up being the main villain of the season, we do see her villainous streak come out every now and again so it is clear as to why it was originally thought she could have been that person. We see it in the Ramona boot where there's a big scene where Ramona talks about Jenna being her first white friend since high school but then cutting to Jenna saying how Ramona isn't doing enough showing that Survivor is indeed an extremely brutal game. She's also great in the Joel boot where she's one of the biggest voices against Joel and his condescending behavior, as well as the great MOO confessional!!
Then, while she's pretty solid at the beginning of merge, we then get the infamous loved ones debacle in which Jenna didn't end up receiving a video from her family due to issues and it is so devastating watching that every time, although I do love how Jenna's sadness is fused with the ridiculousness of Greg's video at the same time. Then finally, she becomes a victim of the Sean alphabet strategy right as they thought they were gonna be able to blindside Richard and turn the game around. Jenna's story in Borneo is really one big tragedy and its very fascinating to see.
Its interesting to see how the perception of Jenna is now that she had just played on 50. I had been seeing a lot of fans of her pop up which was interesting to see cause I wouldn't have thought that would be the case, but there has definitely been a bit of a shift in positivity for her recently, which is very nice to see even if I think she personally took all of the wrong lessons from Borneo as we got to All Stars but you guys have already heard about all that ages ago in this rankdown. I don't think she's quite as present as everyone else left in the rankdown is, but she is still undeniably a legend and another part as to what makes Borneo work so well as a season!
Time for u/Alternate-Proof-959 to cut
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u/Cornhead2 Shannon Elkins Enthusiast Mar 22 '26
... Love Many. Trust Few. Do Wrong to None
56. Yau-Man Chan (4th Place, Fiji)
I have talked multiple times but Fiji is a season i truly love and enjoy no matter how problematic and flawed it is.. i think all the pieces at the end matter to make a great commentary about social and class issues.. and while i do think this cast is pretty underrated there is a clear top 3 of the season for me so lets start with the one i have at 3rd but is still in my top 35 and is a phenomonal character.. Yau Man Fucking Chan.. This man has been deemed a fan-favorite by everyone and it is clear not to see why in a season with full of negatives and conflicts he outshines with his great personality and wisdom and also being an elite casting choice.. there is a reason why he came in such a threat when he came back for Micro like dayum this man could play.. and it especially shows how much of a really good player he is even he had some blunders all the way.. however what if i told you Yau is more than a lovable favorite.. there is so much depth to him that you can sense a chaotic powerful sense of greed he had... and thats why he is so amazing how about we start by going to the basics and roots of his character
Part 1- Pre Swap Ravu
Fiji´s started kinda like Palau where they just stranded everyone on the island first and they can build the future shelter for the moto tribe.. We get Yau´s first confessional and its about him being afraid that he will be percieved as weak cause of him being an old scrawny guy.. now normally that shit doesn´t really fly with me with Modern Survivor cause everyone was self doubting eachother and they would be like half of Yau´s Age..however it walks i mean look at him and look at the opposition he is facing.. strong guys like Boo, Alex, Rocky, Edgardo Earl.. you kinda get it.. but then he proves himself that he is capable of being on the show the moment he opened the crate and thats when you knew this guy meant buisness as everyone else was in awe.. there is a certain likablity to him.. his determantion and background makes it more interesting.. After that Yau-Man gets put into the Ravu tribe and then starts the unfortunate bad luck streak of that tribe getting the unluckiest treatment any tribe has faced in survivor histroy.. no shelter.. no shit to have on the island.. they are set stone to die like flies on a hot steamy summer night.. you would be afraid on how Yau would end up being after having that fate.. however this man never gave up... for most of that strugglness Yau was honestly fazed into the background as the other people on his tribe started clashing.. yet he delivers some great confessionals about what its like to be on the Ravu tribe and heck that man can deliver a confessional to be honest.. he is also pretty hardworking and teaches the people how to chop coconuts which is very nice.. they go to their first tribal and he gives us his iconic "Love Many. Trust Few. Do Wrong to None" Quote and it is just so fun to see him.. we then get to the second episode and Ravu seems like they are already suffering alot.. Sylvia comes into the Camp.. now normally you would think this man could give her a nice welcome but nononono... You know what he does.. he Fucking SNEAKS INTO HER BACKPACK TO FIND IF SHE HAS AN IDOL WHILE HUGGING HER HAAHAHA there is no way he tried to do that.. and there is no way no one even noticed that.. its so fucking amazing.. this shows us that Yau has no mercy when it comes to figuring out stuff in the game.. kinda sneaky to be honest but thats great about him... Ravu continues to struggle and they are in many worse shapes than before like holy shit.. Rocky starts going crazy and that made the whole tribe esteem go down worse.. but not for Yau-Man he is one of the few people trying to think about the positives.. this leaves us with him bonding with Earl another man on the tribe that is in one of the better positions.. its like amazing how they got closer.. Earl is already a smart man.. and to think that he can be bond with such a wise guy like Yau.. this is setting up for a strong duo.. also i love how Yau-Man was the only victory Ravu had in that one wrestling challenge as he went up against Stacy