u/GYM2Quick

Personally I think they're pretty solid choices, Benji and Spencer especially. Sam to me isn't a bad character either, he just lacks depth and other character interactions. Def wish we got to see him interact with Ara and Finn more. But still, I don't think he's bad. He's just alright to me. Pre-merge Sam was pretty solid at least.

Now dgmr, I do love Logan and I find Jade just ok (I don't like her as much as I used to unfortunately), and the F2 is not random whatsoever (both of their professions are related to water), but I think that Zaid vs Isabel had a lot more potential while feeling more unique.

Now while I do consider Isabel probably a top 2 overrated character in the series, I am not gonna ignore the fact that she did have A LOT of potential to be a finalist. If anything her wicked plot could've possibly worked too if written differently.

Not only do I think Zaid vs Isabel have some of the most wasted potential in DC4 (alongside Lynda imo), but it's also religion themed, with Zaid being muslim and Isabel being catholic, and it would've been one of the more unique F2s of the series.

What plots can I see for both? I would've loved for Zaid to have a moral conflict and being influenced by others into becoming more ruthless in the game due to wanting to win for his family, but struggling to accept that he has to betray others in order to win and to not let his family down. I personally find an arc of Zaid betraying his friends to fit him slightly more than Logan, as Zaid is a very loyal guy who stands up to him friends when someone attacks them, so it wouldn't be impossible. Also, still keep Logan and Zaid as a dynamic, but expand on the story about both of their fathers as that had potential. Maybe Zaid sometimes will act in ways that makes him feel like he's acting just like his father? That could be pretty intriguing if you ask me. Also, I would ideally have Lynda in the merge over Richard and Zaid befriends her bc of their love for cooking. Also, still keep his dynamic with Anastasia but give it more depth. I feel like an Anastasia-Lynda-Zaid alliance could've been interesting, as well as a Diego and Zaid dynamic.

Now as for Isabel, admittedly I don't have a whole lot of ideas for her, but there are a lot of good ideas out there somewhere. Maybe you guys fill this in.

What do you think?

If you ask me, I certainly don't see Spencer outlasting Benji to become a finalist over him and I truly believe he's going to be the first DC4 character remaining to be eliminated (I think he'll be 6th place as him going before the motel episode sounds about right imo, and he can get decent focus in that episode alongside someone like Alec).

And even then, I don't think Spencer's story really benefits him that much if he does end up becoming a finalist compared to Benji who wants to overcome failure and to change his life for the better.

Adding this scene I showed without having Benji as a finalist? It feels rather lackluster thinking about it. Compared to most characters this season (*maybe* aside from Nura and Lake), nobody else really benefits that much from making finale than Benji does, and I feel like Nura could end up getting 5th place instead of Benji here as he has a stronger reason to make finale and even win. Him not making finale and then going to the motel does not feel fitting enough for him.

Now, I think it's all but confirmed that either Nura or Benji is a finale lock, as they *do* make sense in the end, and like I said, they along with Lake are really the only characters who I'd say truly benefit from it. It's just that it makes a lot more sense for Benji mostly bc of how both himself and Anastasia said he will win.

And thus, I predict the finale being Benji, Lake and Sam. Their helpers? I think Anastasia should be Benji's helper, Rosa being Lake's helper and maybe Spencer or Ren being Sam's helper. I do think Natalia will be the jury boot (or maybe even Nura. Tbh I'd much rather have the jury vote come down to either Nura or Benji being eliminated as it just feels more interesting and pretty unpredictable who would end up going). I think Benji vs Lake could also wofk well as the F2.

And also, I think we are a little overdue for a winner that ends up getting a lot more focus AFTER merge rather than the entire season like Logan (he was relevant since EP1). Benji not doing a whole lot in the pre-merge, only to be saved for merge where he just straight up shines more is EXACTLY what I wish ONC did with Zaid: Having Zaid in the backseat, getting setup for an arc, while Ivy and Tristan's stories run through the pre-merge, only to have Zaid take the stage for an amazing run in the merge, is honestly a GREAT idea bc Zaid, like Benji in FvF, would shine a lot more in the merge rather than pre-merge, so saving both for merge while giving development to other characters who need it is good. It's a shame Zaid didn't get as much as he should've (also if Lynda merged over Richard, an Anastasia-Lynda-Zaid alliance would highkey be peak). An Isabel-Zaid F2 as well would've been pretty interesting to see as well, and just in general, I think an anti-hero Zaid arc would've been really solid. Zaid easily had the most winner potential out of everyone in the show imo.

Anyway, how do y'all feel about this?

SPENCER IS LOOKING AT SAM'S BULGE I KID YOU NOT-🙏

Like wtf? It doesn't have Spencer tickling or kissing Sam's feet? Wtf are we doing dawg... ONC has seriously fallen off so hard and they're clearly not doing anything right no more.

Give us the yaoi! Give us more Spam thumbnails! This is a crime against fucking humanity chat... How are we gonna live without Spam...

I seriously don't trust ONC with anything anymore. After they refused to show Benji in a speedo in EP69, or making Ren and Oliwia elope in EP43, I think it's safe to say that they can't do shit.

All the comments better be "W Ren" btw

Now ik the memes about how Tom is gonna survive EP17, but all things considered, EP16 has been building up pretty well towards his elimination next episode.

Judging from the first 3 images, we know that Benji wants to target Tom next time with Natalia's alliance and his own alliance. The next slide shows Spencer talking to Lake and Rosa about how Tom is so reluctant on voting off Natalia (and vice-versa). The third and sixth slide shows Sam reinforcing Spencer's point that Tom is a huge threat and talking to Fiore, Natalia and Ren about voting for Tom, with Natalia being reluctant to vote him off.

So at the very least, we can assume that Tom is getting votes from Sam, Spencer and Benji next episode, with Nura and Oliwia following his lead. That's already 5/11 votes possible. So it's pretty much guaranteed that Tom is going. But there's more stuff I could see happen in the future.

The fourth image shows Rosa's conversation with Lake about cutting people from your alliance loose, and then her going to Benji, Nura and Oliwia to convince them to vote Spencer. Benji lies to her about voting Spencer, and in the fifth slide tells Nura and Oliwia that voting off Spencer is "a short-term strategy", pretty much foreshadowing their future dynamic, and after Spencer's conversation with Lake this episode about him being unlikeable, the way I can see this dynamic come back is through Sam.

In the eight slide, Sam mentions that "his options to work with became more limited" due to him burning bridges with all the fans (Nura, Oliwia, Ren), Natalia being ruled by her grudge, Fiore starting to hate him, he's already sort of working with Spencer but they don't like eachother much, and he wants Tom gone, so I doubt he would work with him. That's 7/10 (not including Sam) people who wouldn't want to work with him, which leaves Benji, Gabby and Lake, and out of all of them, I think he'd try to work with Benji long-term. Sam doesn't know Benji very well as he didn't watch DC4, so he's basically a nobody to him. I can see Sam and Spencer trying to get Benji on their side due to Benji wanting Tom gone too, and eventually we'd get Benji and Spencer as a dynamic again.

However, remember what Rosa said about cutting alliance members loose? I feel like it's foreshadowing Lake voting for Tom due to her edit this episode and her losing Rosa as well, and perhaps decides to work with Spencer to vote for Tom, so that ends up being 6/11 votes for Tom, pretty much guarantees he's gone.

The seventh slide is Benji striking a deal with Natalia's alliance for the majority, and telling them that they should vote for whoever he, Nura and Oliwia want next time. However, with Natalia being so reluctant to vote off Tom, I kinda doubt this Benji-Natalia alliance will last. An interesting detail is in the ninth and final slide where Benji talks about the fact that Rosa might be right about Natalia only using him as a number, and considering the fact that Benji sided with her to vote off Rosa, this pretty much proves Rosa's point, not to mention that Natalia has the idol. If Benji goes against Natalia in regards to voting Tom, instead choosing to vote for him with Sam, Lake and Spencer, I can easily see Natalia deciding to use the idol to plot against Benji's alliance, thus starting the Benji-Natalia war foreshadowed in EP10. With so much talk about Oliwia not having any reason to get eliminated, I was thinking... what if she's the victim of Natalia's potential idol scheme in EP18? After all, I think Oliwia's story is ending soon as she only really needs to apologize to Ren atp (something that I predict Benji will help with as he himself has struggled with making friends in the past), and she's already had an idol played on her by Ren, so I have a feeling the idol will come back to bite Oliwia specifically (Hence Finn's line in EP6 "You wasting an idol is hilarious" to Ren). If this happens, I can see Benji trying to save Oliwia from elimination but failing, and him feeling awful about it due to Rosa being right about Natalia, but Nura gets his head back into the game. I don't think it's an overexaggeration to say that Natalia would target Oliwia. She's pretty petty and has already targetted Anastasia and Rosa out of it. However, I can also see Tom and Natalia going out back-to-back.

So imo, the EP17 elimination will be Tom (11th plac due to his elimination being built up in EP16, the EP18 elimination will be Oliwia (10th place) to add fuel to Benji and Nura's stories and to add character rivalries with Benji. Benji is someone who usually stays out of conflict and doesn't get mad at people (hell he barely shows anger im general, he has only really shown it in EP15 and I do want to see that from him more), so for him to be in beef with someone could give him an obstacle in the game and add more drama to the merge. And finally, I can see the EP19 elimination being another favorite, and I see it being Fiore (9th) purely bc of the fact that Natalia has been kinda set up to make it much further, and Ren's story doesn't feel finished. Fiore is getting more comfortable with Natalia and Ren and seems to genuinely like them both. Since we never got a Fiore and Rosa dynamic (ONC fumbled the bag insanely hard with that, genuinely how tf was that dynamic not canonized), I think Natalia and Ren will be the ones to give Fiore some much needed depth.

And so, we'd end up with 3 fans and 5 favorites, which is honestly not that bad of a ratio at all. I can see the EP20 elimination being another favorite (8th), but I'm unsure who it could be.

But well, what do y'all think?

I think DC5 Benji is a better character than DC4 Benji and by far much more interesting. DC4 was pretty much the setup, DC5 is the real deal.

The fact that ONC pretty much chose to assassinate his popularity on purpose just to give him a massive glow up is probably one of the most unique things ONC chose to do with a character, along with making his elimination an important part of his story and making him sit out of challenges, ideas that are pretty original since no other character in the show has ever been given something like this before (and btw, I still HC that the sitting out rule was implemented purely bc of Benji's existence as it sounds interesting to think about. It never existed in DC1 when Purple Team lost most of its members pre-merge after all).

The only thing I'd *really* do with Benji in his pre-merge episodes is probably giving him a few confessionals since he did go the first 4 episodes of the season without one, but it doesn't bother me as Nura and Dunia have both gone 5 episodes without a single confessional.

Also fun fact, Benji is one of 3 characters this season to get 4 confessionals in a single episode, the other 2 being Aiden and Natalia. How cool is that?

But overall, I do like that ONC saved Benji for merge while not having him do a lot in the pre-merge. Benji this season has always felt like he'd shine a lot more in the merge anyway, so I don't mind that he wasn't given a whole lot pre-merge, which I'd argue isn't *entirely true*, he had that whole thing about sitting out of challenges, then competing in EP7-10, succeeding once and then failing, but shutting down quickly from it and getting eliminated as a result of it. And funnily enough, Benji lost the challenges for his team in EP7 and EP10, but he survived EP7 to be given another chance to redeem himself. However, it was too late by that point for him to make a comeback from that and it led to him getting eliminated in EP10.

Now tell me chat, is this an actual hot take on here or nah?

Benji, Nura and Oliwia has been canonized as a dynamic this season. Me and a few others prayed so hard we made it happen. Y'all should apologize to the Benjinators for ever doubting the glorious bench warmer👑

Looking back, Isabel really wasn't that interesting of a choice to bring back. She really isn't more interesting than Benji, Spencer and Natalia are.

Benji and Nura solo everyone here btw