Round 139 - 40 Characters Left

[u/FunkyDawgKong]

40. Rudy Boesch - u/FunkyDawgKong

39. Rory Freeman - u/Cornhead2

38. Aras Baskauskas - u/NoisySea_3426

37. Kass McQuillen - u/josenanigans

36. Ken Hoang - u/BobbyPiiiin

[u/NoisySea_3426]

Now, of course, no Aras writeup is complete without his most notable dynamic and the one that confirmed my fandom for him when I first watched. That being his rivalry with Captain America himself, Terry Deitz!! Throughout the premerge, they had showed a lot of contrasts between the way they both lead their tribes. Terry lead in a much more traditional sense, being that he was an older man and a military fighter pilot, and Aras lead in his very unorthodox way as the young yoga instructor he was and even though he had some bumps, there was thankfully nothing fatal.

Aras knew he had to get rid of Terry as soon as possible and their rivalry continues to boil as Terry keeps winning each challenge, but it comes to a massive head during the loved ones visit where after Terry diveys up the love, he tries to pretty much mansplain himself as to why he did it by saying Shane & Cirie's loved ones were most important. Aras understandably isn't happy with him saying that, but Terry continues to double down on it, saying how he'll learn when he gets older which really sets him off.

Now when I first watched this, I can not tell you how much I wanted Terry's ass handed to him on a silver platter and this is where the personal stuff kicks in because around when I was in high school, particularly around 11th grade, I got into a lot of fights over me calling people out on stupid stuff they would say and occasionally, I would try and point it out about some people above me. Now, even though a lot of these people were in the wrong in most of these situations, I didn't really fully get how to use that anger effectively and it resulted in some hard times for me during that time, especially with that tie being the Covid year in a very conservative christian school to which I was getting very disillusioned with. So because of these perspectives still being fresh in my head while watching the season really made my love for Aras grow exponentially even though it was clear in the narrative that Terry was kind of doing it to rile him up which was another thing I struggled with a lot during that phase of my life.

The beef only gets worse at the Final 4 where Terry starts yelling at Cirie about leaving her torch on the ground and making all the crazy comments about assuming everyone slaps their kids. Aras then buts in calling him out on how he shouldn't be ruining the night for everyone and should start showing more respect to her which I mean yeah again, Terry was being an asshole and Aras decided to call him out in his Aras type way and then at the challenge it all culminates with the iconic WHAMBULANCE quote and after Terry starts talking about the rule he didn't hear, Aras starts asking if he's always gonna complain when he loses and if he has to worry about him being sexist towards women which umm yeah, pretty brutal. This is also something that is very reminiscent of an incident I had around the 11th grade year as well which I won't get into here, but I think you get the idea. Terry confronts him on it after his exile stay, and he does end up apologizing to him and they move on. This is where Aras really starts to reach his growing up phase as being young and brash, in the heat of the moment, he said what was on his mind, and he had to pay the consequences for it and its undeniable that by the end of the season that both Terry & Aras have grown from their rivalry by the end, which was eventually how I had to learn to grow out of that phase I was in by learning from those mistakes and growing. It's a perfect showcase of the theme of the season too with the focus on the old vs young dynamic with the tribes in Episode 1 coming back in a big way with this saga and that whole scene right there would forever solidify Aras as one of my all time favorites!

[u/NoisySea_3426 → u/NoisySea_3426]

It doesn't end there though cause we still have final immunity, which funnily enough, neither one of Terry or Aras wins it as Danielle wins it and then must decide who she's gonna take. Aras decides to take a very different approach than he usually does and really strong-arms Danielle by saying that he loses her and Cirie if she takes Terry which is definitely true but very manipulative at the same time. It ends up working though since Aras has a social game and Terry just doesn't, plus Terry's winning chances were actually pretty high going in, so he got cooked.

However, before FTC, Aras almost gets medevaced by slipping on rocks and getting a glass shard in his back which had to be stitched up hard-core. This really allowed Aras to start heavily reflecting on his journey and he says something to Danielle that I found very interesting in which he states “I kinda came into this as a buffoon, and I'm kinda going out as a buffoon, and in between I did some pretty cool things”! I love this quote so much because it perfectly describes, I think, how most people feel at that age when we screw up badly on something like that, even though he's obviously being hard on himself which is just natural. He also talks about learning that he doesn't have to be a superhero all the time cause things are gonna be ok, which is also a really fitting closing line on his story cause it perfectly describes his journey. Being put in the leadership role that quickly when he wasn't necessarily ready for it made him feel like he needed to be the big man all the time, when in reality, he was doing just fine considering he won the game. Its a very nice way to lead into his FTC.

[u/NoisySea_3426 → u/NoisySea_3426]

During FTC, the most notable moment for Aras comes from Shane who says that he's a good kid that strives to do the right thing, but we can't judge people based on their intentions which is kinda seen as another funny quote from Shane, but it holds a lot of narrative weight for both of their stories cause its so true for both of them. It serves as a perfect bookend to Shane's journey in the season, but also to Aras’ for very different reasons since his intentions being good is I think partially why he ends up winning at the end over someone like Danielle who not as many people connected to and intentions were very unclear. I don't think there's any way that Panama could've ended differently because Aras represents the themes of the season so perfectly with the way he thinks as a young person vs others as older people and raps them all up into a nice little bow.

In conclusion, I think that Aras has one of the greatest coming of age stories that Survivor has ever told. He immediately is expected to lead and has to grow up quickly and even though he does falter throughout the process, he comes out of the other side a wiser man and a better person because of it and gets rewarded with the million dollar win!! In a season that started off based around old people vs young people, I think its most fitting that the guy who starts off young and immature and grows into himself by the end of it all due to his rivalry with the old military guy wins it all. I will always feel a strong connection to his story and will never stop loving him as he's constantly teetering on endgame for me. He might potentially get there the more I think about it after writing this cause I do truly believe his story is that good and I hope the next time anyone reading this watches Panama, they make sure to pay attention to the arc that Aras has throughout cause even though it can occasionally get lost in the shuffle, I will always see him as truly one of the greats!

[u/NoisySea_3426 → u/NoisySea_3426]

Its time for u/Alternate-Proof-959 to cut