u/More-Lake1410

Both characters took accountability and showed great self-awareness. Nura pointed out that it wouldn't really make sense for her to be mad at Oliwia since she also contributed to Dunia's elimination because of beef with Ren. Oliwia actually showed that she took Ren's words to heart, and the first thing that Oliwia did when Nura told her that she wanted to be alone was to give her space. She also acknowledged that she hasn't been good company because of her possessive and overbearing attachment to people. 

Nura was nice in a moment in which she could have said to Oliwia to fuck off and exclude herself from fault from Dunia's elimination, having an irritating behavior towards people because of the turmoil that happened. Oliwia could have taken Ren's words in the wrong way and failed to see what he was trying to convey, behaving with Nura similarly to how she behaved with Ren. 

This was an unexpected but really sweet and tender moment in which two people showed respect to each other despite the circumstances and just enjoyed their company in silence. Simple, yet a very effective scene because of what it meant for both characters, especially for Oliwia (a turning point in the way she handles and understands friendship).

I actually liked Oliwia this episode. Gosh, I have a tug-of-war relationship with her. There are some episodes in which she genuinely pisses me off, but there are instances like this in which I feel for her. Hopefully, she keeps evolving as a person and truly takes in and verbalizes the fact that the way she viewed friendships was unhealthy.

This shit was aggravating to watch for MANY reasons. First of all, why the fuck did Ally have to take her idol out of her pocket? It was random and pointless as hell. This was just a very forced way to give Ally a tiny moment of her feeling bad about potentially betraying Tom, which wasn't needed, taking into account Ally's conversation with Natalia and her admitting she's accustomed to the betrayal aspect of the game and she doesn't really get affected by it. Then, Fiore is conveniently lurking in that long-ass bamboo tree for who knows how long. Sorry, but blatantly contrived and convenient moments like these piss me off. The fact that Fiore managed to climb that bamboo tree and not a single soul noticed is surprising since you would think she would have struggled since climbing that requires endurance and strength since it was LONG, making struggling noises or some shit. Then, when Fiore is trying to explain to Natalia the reasons to vote Ally, she just goes along with it, and Fiore isn't able to EVEN mention the idol to Natalia. Are you serious? 😭 This just makes the elimination even more lackluster because Fiore finding out about Ally's idol amounted to nothing, and the idol became even more insignificant. This is something less aggravating and more minor, but Ally notices that something is wrong since Natalia and Tom didn't approach her about the vote which I think it became a recurrent pre-elimination ritual until now, and, despite having this gut feeling, she doesn't use her idol. I don't blame her since the fear of needlessly wasting the Idol exists, but it still sucks. 

Ally's elimination also made Benji's elimination WAY more shitty in retrospect. Ally betrayed her closest ally for nothing. The idol was wasted, and Ally was also wasted this season. I don't think she has a shot at coming back, and if Benji doesn't even come back either... omfg, BOTH of these eliminations would be horrendous since Benji's elimination would feel even more pointless as well as him coming back. The same happens with Ally; her being in this season became pointless as well as her totem. A whole pile of nonsense. I love Ally, but she was done SO dirty with this season, and the fact that a big part of her criticism as a character was that she felt like a waste of a casting slot just to exactly display that this season is DIABOLICAL. You can say that she got over the fact that she didn't care about people's stance on her, but based on the little introspective moments we have seen about Ally, it seemed that she wasn't over that 100%, and it could have been interesting to see her struggling with that since you don't go from being heavily influenced by people's opinión to not giving a flying fuck COMPLETELY, and it would have given her more to do and warranted why she was back in the first place.

The only positive I can extract from this elimination is Natalia grabbing the idol, since while not valid to use, Natalia may succeed in tricking people with it which feels fresh and something that we haven't seen in DC yet. But yeah, I had to vent because this was bullshit.

Since I have seen this trend reemerge, I thought it would be a more unique idea to suggest you all tell me your five LEAST favorite characters instead. My bias and opinion will obviously predominate, but I'll take into account the fact that there may be some characters in which I get why people wouldn't like them, and I can give you a pass (e.g., 🟨🟩) despite me loving them as characters since I can see the hate is valid.

Brief opinion on the eliminated players:

1. Anastasia (love her sm, both in S4 and S5)

2. Aubrey (still lowkey stan; I can't get over the idea of her being one of my favs when the FvF designs aired)

3. Benji (could probably go lower if he fails to return)

4. Ernesto (ended up being likeable + bonus points since he is Spanish like me)

5. Manu (a mess strategically, but he still had a charm that I liked)

6. Evie (kind of a purposeless character, but at least she had funny lines)

7. Aiden (not as bad as some people say since this is actually his most entertaining season, displaying plenty of personality. still not a big fan of him)

8. Bruno (ended up being a disappointing character (even more than Evie), and I didn't really manage to connect with you).

9. Finn (started to grow on me quite a bit but ended up being a really plain and sometimes unlikeable character)

10. Alec got a bit better this season, but still my least favorite character in comparison to the other eliminated players.

The most obvious choice for me is the reaction of a considerable part of the fandom (especially in TikTok and Twitter) when Logan found out that Jade went for immunity while he was drowning. Firstly, I'm aware production is mainly at fault for all of this and Jade is obviously not responsible for what happened to Logan. However, Jade's decision wasn't right morally speaking and that's undeniable. 

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Everyone else stopped focusing on the challenge and tried to help Logan, but she didn't. Logan's reaction was COMPLETELY justified and it was kind of infuriating seeing people clowning, laughing at him and making a mockery of what happened to him just because they disliked him as a character and everyone jumped at the bandwagon of doing this biased bullshit. Even if you have a strong disdain for a character, you shouldn't let your hatred cloud your judgement and seeing people utterly disregard such traumatic event while ALSO enabling Jade's tone-deaf justifications and deflecting was INSANE. 

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That just made Jade FAR more unsympathetic and I couldn't fathom the fact that she really thought she was making a point by saying he was already getting help, when sending more help never hurts, especially in this situation in which Anastasia and Isabel were really struggling to get Logan out of the place where he was stuck. The fact that she also compared what she did to Logan framing Zaid and lying to Anastasia... GIRL, WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Logan's life was in danger while Zaid's life wasn't. There are different levels of severity, and what Logan did compared to what Jade did is light-years apart—don't give me that. 

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If Logan did all of this shit and tried to excuse himself the way Jade did, he would have been CRUCIFIED. This is why I hate double standards and I started rooting for Logan in the finale (even if I didn't like him that much either) out of spite. I was also lowkey reveling when Logan won and saw people rioting because of that, lmao.

WHY WAS SHE GIVING YANDERE? 😭 She was REALLY losing her shit and going psychotic fr. Ara was fucking hilarious here, and I love to see this more unserious, chaotic, and lighthearted side of her. Her delivery here was off-the-charts and you could really feel she was having a hard time swallowing Nura's rejection. This also adds a new plausible and potential layer for Ara since, despite trying not to display it in an externalized way, she seems to be unable to handle rejection. I don't know if this will be further explored from just a question of pride or something more deep and vulnerable. Nevertheless, I'm REALLY intrigued.

TW: Long post incoming:

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Before y'all jump at me, yes, I'm a Hannah fan, and of course I would think this. However, my intention is not to mindlessly glaze her since I know she's far from perfect, being a young girl that has room to grow and improve in certain aspects. She has not been the nicest at times (which, tbh, it was warranted at times, but we will get to that in the second part), has had bad comments, and she's obviously not a pure soul fallen from heaven. However, the amount of overdone scrutiny, the far-fetched nitpicking, and the double standards I have seen on quite a few occasions with Hannah are insane. I hope I make myself clear enough and I'll try to explain everything I aim to lay out throughoutly. Hopefully, there aren't grammatical mistakes that I have overlooked.

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I'll be addressing Hannah's friendships from least to most debatable, imo, since there has been discussion that Hannah has been a bad friend in general with I think that is untrue for the most part based on what we saw. The worst thing is that people usually downvote when people like me try to give counterarguments to these initial claims in which there is barely analysis, but they do not argument back at all. Anyway, I'll be dealing with her pre-merge friendships since they have much more to unpack.

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Tristan and Hannah's friendship: Didn't get much focus, but their few interactions were cute and innocuous. Hannah gave Tristan advice in Episode 6 about "sitting in shit" and basically acknowledged that there are certain times in your life in which not everything is rainbows and sunshines. Hannah basically was reassuring with Tristan, telling them that they don't have to always smile and it's okay to be sad, being a possibility to look at yourself introspectively and manage your emotions healthily. The little we saw was undoubtedly healthy, so I'll move on.

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Diego and Hannah's friendship: Hannah and Diego's friendship got a bit more focus, and we saw how they both deeply appreciated each other, with Hannah calling him a breath of fresh air and Diego wanting to include her in his alliance with Jade and Spencer. Based on what the criticism I saw, Hannah was wrong for asking his ALLY and friend to vote with her for Spencer. What? Mind you, Hannah didn't even hate Spencer in this moment and explained to the Vibe Tribe that the Spencer and Jade duo had the most agency and were quite powerful and dangerous strategically. It's only normal that you want to get votes and ask one of your closest allies to stick with you. Diego ended up voting for Benji instead of Spencer, and Hannah wasn't upset about it. In fact, the Vibe Tribe also voted for Diego, and Tristan apologized to her, and she literally said that there weren't hard feelings. She even encouraged Diego, saying he was brave for telling Spencer how he truly felt and made his intentions clear instead of being ambiguous. 

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Yes, Diego was in a tough situation because voting with Hannah meant voting against Spencer and his alliance, but Spencer already rejected him and strung him along. There's no way this awkward situation was going to get fixed before elimination since Spencer was being avoidant and was already planning to blindside Diego. Every single member voted for the person they thought getting out would benefit them the most. Jade wanted to keep the alliance, so she voted for Benji. The Vibe Tribe was on board and were friends, so they obviously voted together despite liking Diego. Benji voted with Hannah since he was on the outs and wanted to stick with her, and Spencer voted for Diego since he was overwhelmed and felt he was a distraction to his game. Everyone has their own interests in mind and tries to vote with their allies, but Hannah isn't apparently allowed to do that or gather votes to try to be in a better position in the game. In fact, Hannah was going to get targeted after Benji initially since the Vibe Tribe and the Diego-Jade-Spencer alliance were planning to do so in the beginning of Episode 5.

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Amelie and Hannah's friendship: Well, this friendship got through some shit. Amelie and Hannah's relationship started on a bad note because of Amelie's abrasive and bossy personality, but Hannah cared about her enough to help her change and be her supportive cheerleader. Hannah was Amelie's mentor at first and took part in helping her with her growth and development. When Amelie came back, we saw how grateful she was to Hannah and genuinely took her advice to heart. However, Hannah evolved into this more cutthroat and game-oriented player, being at her lowest after Benji's elimination and trying to hide those vulnerable emotions with this more detached and cutthroat persona. Hannah was kind of wrong for getting on Amelie's case for blaming Amelie about working with Jade to split Anastasia and Marissa up, even though I also understand Hannah's concern since Jade did vote for Amelie before and after Jade took part in betraying Benji; Hannah didn't want to go through the same thing again and lose Amelie. Amelie taking the executive decision of agreeing with Isabel and Jade and the three of them strategizing without Hannah (intentionally on Jade and Isabel's part) was kind of fishy as well. Two allies should talk things out first and then decide together instead of going ahead with whatever other people say without taking into account your ally's input. 

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Btw, I saw comments on Hannah being criticized for wanting to ally with Anastasia and Marissa when I lowkey thought it wasn't bad either since the Jade-Isabel duo was strong as well and Jade had the advantage. Hannah didn't want to make the same mistake again and use the couple as shields. But, no, Hannah apparently was just Anastasia's minion, kissing her ass, and her strategic input was abysmally bad once again. People blamed her initially since she didn't use Ivy and Zaid as shields and now that she's trying to do the same with Marissa and Anastasia, she's making the wrong decision as well.

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Another controversial moment was when Hannah chose immunity instead of helping Amelie. Firstly, I truly get why Amelie was so taken aback with Hannah's decision since Amelie had in mind Hannah's pre-merge image before she was eliminated the first time around, and even if she noticed Hannah was changing, she couldn't fathom she would do something like that. Nevertheless, Hannah was labeled as ungrateful and morally bad because of this, and while I agree it obviously wasn't the morally exemplary decision, there are nuances to it. Hannah VISIBLY struggled when making the decision. She didn't have a "idgaf" attitude at all. We can observe her getting anxious, indecisive, and emotionally blocked, not really knowing what to choose at first. She ended up going for immunity, preventing Logan from winning it, but didn't feel completely proud of it, breaking down when she won. Even if Hannah decided to help Amelie, there's no way Amelie would have outrun Logan and won that immunity. If I were Amelie, I would be kind of relieved that at least my closest ally has the immunity and not some random person outside the alliance. Hannah didn't need that immunity, but Amelie didn't need it either since Jade wasn't fully targeting her yet, and she was the swing vote along with Hannah. Despite this, we always see the show from the spectators lenses externally in which we know how everything folds in the grounds of targets and strategies, but the contestants in the competition aren't FULLY aware if someone may be unexpectedly plotting against them, and it is always useful to have an immunity just in case things go south all of a sudden. It's also true that Amelie did indeed help Hannah win the previous immunity in Episode 18, but Amelie could have said no to Hannah and told her to manage her money better. Amelie chose to give her the money and could have used that same money to go for immunity herself instead. Amelie wasn't really entitled to the Episode 19 immunity, but I get where she was coming from, and Hannah was indeed being kind of selfish. 

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Then Hannah and Amelie argued after the challenge, and things got a bit ugly and overly emotional. Here's when I think Amelie in this instance was a bit out of line, even if she didn't have bad intentions. It's true that Hannah mentioned her mom, but it didn't feel as if she was LITERALLY bringing up her mom's death. I think her comment "You're not my mom" felt more as "You don't overrule me,. I can make my own decisions". Then, Amelie goes a bit to the extreme and touches the sensitive subject of what Hannah's mom would think about what she was doing when Hannah wasn't really being THAT villainous and THAT horrible of a human being if you really think about it. After the dramatic tiebreaker and Marissa's second elimination, Hannah wanted to talk things out with Amelie, bit Amelie didn't let her and tried to avoid her a significant part of Episode 20, so she didn't have the opportunity. In brief, I think both of them were neither fully wrong nor fully right, but neither did unforgivable things, and I'm glad they forgave each other and put that behind them, understanding each other's perspectives and growing from mistakes. In the end, most friendships go through rough patches, and they get strengthened after overcoming these patches. They both had a positive influence on each other in the end, and that's what truly matters.

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Benji and Hannah's friendship: This is when shit gets more controversial. Hannah and Benji's relationship started as a relationship of need, since they were both on the outs, but they grew to care about each other, especially Hannah, who started to see him as an actual friend. The first subtle sign can be observed in Episode 5 when he looked annoyed at Ivy because of her stick comment. Despite Hannah being honest with Benji, thinking the idea was dumb as well, she didn't lay into Benji in comparison to what Ivy did, keeping insisting that the totem looked like a fucking stick with a cold delivery, even if she didn't notice she was being condescending and kind of mean. Don't get me wrong, I love Ivy, and her being labeled as a conniving bitch because of the stick incident never sat right with me. I'm just comparing how both reactions were different. 

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What I said about Ivy being overhated and the stick incident being taken out of proportion is related to my next point, which is how babied and infantilized Benji was in S4. The demonization of Ivy really pissed me off, and the same happens with Hannah. Benji is a grown ass man who is old enough to make his own decisions and he could have voted differently from Hannah, forcing a tie between Jade and Isabel if he was so convinced about his plan being better and more plausible. Hannah wasn't pointing him with a gun to vote with her. It's true that Hannah didn't take Benji seriously most of the time, but Benji didn't really make the best effort in being taken seriously either. Like, who in their right mind would think that the fake totem Benji tried to make could pass for a real idol? The goofy-ass face Benji painted was so damn unserious 😭. Like, he genuinely thought he had a chance to fool everyone with whatever he created. I don't want to be harsh, but that is how it is. There are other Benji's actions and decisions that make him look like a fool such as throwing the coconut to the pole that supported the basket instead of shooting it upward to score a basket in the episode 5 challenge or in the Episode 7 challenge in which he ended up getting a ball and Anastasia took the ball away from him because he was flexing about the fact that he had the ball without playing attention to his surroundings or when he was supposed to be dodging or catching the balls, he was looking in the exact opposite direction and seemed completely clueless (and yes, he ended up getting hit because of that). We can also point out some of his uncalled-for and random-ass comments. Who the fuck says to someone "Bros before hoes" when their girlfriend has been eliminated? I'm sorry, but Benji played a huge role in earning that reputation, and I don't blame Hannah for not taking him 100% seriously since he didn't help matters at all. Hannah is not going to be delusional with herself and think, "Wow, this guy is surely right about everything he yaps about; there's no question".

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Secondly, Benji didn't really make an effort in arguing why allying with Jade and Isabel could be detrimental for their game and a complete mistake. He kept arguing that they didn't know what Jade could be planning behind their backs and that she was untrustworthy, without really explaining why. These vague statements could be applied to any other contestant since you can't fully trust anyone in the competition. His passivity and lack of determination was utterly noticeable and that wasn't Hannah's fault. He could argue how he saw Jade and Spencer exchanging knowing glances and whispering to each other in the previous eliminations. Some kind of visual evidence that would have made their arguments more convincing. If Hannah had heard this from Benji, it probably would have given her pause and made her reflect on the idea of going along with what Benji said, but he didn't do that. A missed opportunity. Hannah wasn't the brightest person ever, but at least she had more diligence and tried to give reasons as to why allying with Jade and Isabel was better, even if she wasn't fully right either. Furthermore, if we actually get this scrutinizing about Hannah allegedly "forcing" Benji to vote with her and not following his advice, we can also point out how Benji made feel Hannah bad just because she had her own convinctions and reasonings as to why she thought allying with Jade and Isabel was better for them, telling she wasn't being herself and was just being Jade and Isabel's pawn because she thought that the best thing wasn't to make a move against them and be in the good graces of people that know how to play the game for the most part. We could also the same thing about Benji being a pawn for Zaid and Ivy by this logic. He was judging and making her feel guilty because of that, which I don't think is right either.

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This ties with my next argument of why Benji is allowed to have their own perspective on the matter and Hannah isn't? Why is it okay for one and not the other? Yes, Hannah's plan crumbled in the end, but that doesn't mean her reasonings were not valid and totally nonsensical. Hannah's plan crumbling was beyond her control since there was no way that she could have predicted that the girls' alliance would reemerge since she was on the opposing team and the alliance kind of fell apart. It was even more beyond her control the fact that Isabel was suddenly fixated on targeting Benji out of all the people—who wasn't a physical or threatening player—because she wanted to isolate Hannah. People talk so lightly about the fact that Hannah screwed up and her plan was AWFUL just because we, as espectators, watch everything that happens in the competition and within alliances externally and we are witnesses of all the strategic frameworks between contestants. The contestants are not aware of all of this as we are. It's easy to say that Hannah's plan was horrible because we saw how everything fell apart, but we're not guaranteed that allying with Zaid and Ivy would have been much better and we cannot 100% claim that Benji and Hannah wouldn't have faced a similar fate.

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I have an old post explaining why Hannah's plan of allying with Zaid and Ivy wasn't that bad on paper and also argumenting how allying with Zaid and Ivy could have had drawbacks as well in case you wanted to check it out:

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https://www.reddit.com/r/DisventureCamp/s/cFzZMsC8wI

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I have also seen quite a few people saying that Hannah didn't even apologise to Benji when she clearly said that she was sorry and should have listened to him in his elimination while she was crying. I also find interesting the fact a good portion of the fandom give Hannah flack for Benji's elimination, but they also say she was dramatic asf about it. If the consensus is that it is not worth the aggravation, why do people keep being insistent that Hannah is fully guilty of eliminating Benji, being mistaken, and getting kind of heated with this as if her mistake was the worst thing ever, when according to these people this is an elimination game in the end and is not that deep? I can highlight the double standards as well in the relationship between Benji and Ivy, in comparison to the relationship between Benji and Hannah. Once Ivy apologised and people started forgetting about the stick incident, they mostly gave her a break (despite still having quite a few detractors) but Hannah made a mistake and consequently apologised for that, yet most people are not that merciful or lenient with her. 

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I'll say that one mistake that Hannah made in her friendship with Benji is helping him to befriend Zaid. Hannah's intentions were inherently good, and she did help Benji enhance his social skills quite a bit. However, if Hannah knew from the get-go that she wanted to allign with Jade and was commited to it, picking Zaid as an experiment for Benji's training of social improvement wasn't the best option since the feeling of betrayal was obviously going to be more hurtful and unexpected from Zaid's POV and Benji was inevitably going to get the brunt of him. This shows how Hannah didn't really plan this without thinking ahead and just wanted to help Benji in that moment. I get she picked Zaid since Benji kind of screwed up with his dump truck ass comment which really pissed off Zaid for no real reason, lmao. I get that Zaid could have felt weirded out, but It felt that he genuinely felt upset.

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To wrap this up, Hannah has not been the perfect friend and could have handled quite a few things better as I pointed out with Benji and Amelie, but she did show her good-hearted intentions with all of them, being far from an outright rubbish friend. An awful friend who is constantly self-absorbed and selfish wouldn't have cared about helping Amelie palliate her stubborn, conflictive and basically self-destructive behaviour, even less so after treating the team as if they were below her from day 1. An awful friend wouldn't have been interested in helping on other people's issues such as comforting Diego, validating his aunthencity and feelings or making sure Tristan felt reasured and making sure that they acknowledged that feeling bad is an intrinsic part of life. An awful friend wouldn't have been focused on helping Benji deal with his social awkwardness, encouraged him to find his true calling and trusting that he will achieve that some day, try to include in alliances as Hannah tried in Episode 14, keeping him in mind the whole time, or trying to relate to him by saying that she was shitty student in school and she's not this picture perfect girl he think he is, and that she is flawed as well.

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I will post a part 2 that will be significantly shorter (hopefully 😭) addressing quite a few more double standards, mischaracterization and a comparison between Oliwia and Hannah since it became a topic of discussion. If you read until the end, I appreciate it :)

While it's true that I found Bruno's elimination quite weak and dumb (well, like most eliminations this season so far), from Spencer's thought process (nobody is convincing me that Spencer's decision was actually good overall) to what it meant for Bruno's character and how unsympathetic he came for the most part, at least there is something intriguing and decent that we can take away for Spencer and Lake's direction this season.

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Well, firstly, Lake voting for Bruno felt surprising, but this first decision in which she actually puts the game over her friends follows the narrative arc that is gradually unfolding with Lake this season. We already saw these seeds planted for a more game-oriented Lake when she started to weigh the idea of her maneuvering in the competition differently after her talk with Spencer in Episode 10, possibly ignoring her fixed moral compass of honesty and good-heartedness.

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It would be truly satisfactory and fresh to see Lake adopt a more cutthroat mindset and learn that the game is more ruthless than she would like to think and winning with a morally exemplary attitude is borderline impossible. I really like Lake, and she had one of the strongest storylines in S2, but she feels quite stale, and her narrative potential this season is still testing its waters, even if I'm slowly seeing character progression. Lake acquiring some of Spencer tactics and cold-blooded attitudes in the upcoming episodes could be interesting to watch and could shake Lake's character up and make a possible long run for her warranted this season.

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Talking about Spencer, Bruno's elimination would have a contrary effect with him, even if I'm starting to become unsure about future positive development for him since he still hides behind the overused game-bot mantra that he's just neutrally playing the game while also ignoring Rosa's advice of being nicer. However, him getting saddened when Fiore said that people liked Bruno more and he was always on the chopping block in that aspect makes me have a tiny bit of hope for a possible redemption, but at this point they may give it to Fiore, lol. I think Rosa may confront him a bit more harshly this time around about the Bruno vote, which, added to what Fiore said to him, will leave him thinking (hopefully). Taking into account their current beef, it would be funny and pretty wholesome to see Lake and Spencer eventually coming to terms with their perspectives of the game and being more accepting of each other. This exchange of qualities between them and new palettes of characterization could be really nice and unique, imo. 

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I just think Spencer's character is also stale, and the fact that his social game still sucks ass (maybe a tiny bit less in comparison to S4, but still) and doesn't learn about the flaws in his approach to the game is laughable. A character progression, a proper and clear storyline, and more layers to Spencer's personality would be appreciated since I have a hard time believing he is this complex and amazingly written character that a considerable part of the fandom claims him to be, when he actually has surface-level writing for the most part and the tiniest bits of vulnerability and backstory end up unexplored, even if I'm not a fan of the guy with the "tumultuous relationship past trauma" overused and dull storyline. They could also explore his hidden fear of not being liked by people because of his brash attitude and how it TRULY affects him even if he is in the game rn. ONC needs to give Spencer something and let him open up emotionally or some shit, since he's kind of underwritten if you really think about it and we barely see beyond this dickhead, game-oriented persona.

Hannah confronting Spencer could count as one of these moments for me, ngl. Even if Hannah was wrong in the fact that she initially thought that Spencer was always aiming to target her friends specifically, I see why she was upset and frustrated and why she decided to confront in the first place for two main reasons:

1. I don't know about y'all, but CONSTANTLY being in the chopping block sucks and the worst part is that Hannah couldn't really have done anything to prevent Amelie, Diego and Tristan's elimination (I could see an argument with the Tristan's since they her, Benji and the Vibe Tribe could have splitted the vote, but again, you're usually unprepared and caught by surprise when someone uses an idol, especially when you don't have enough evidence that a certain person could have it). When being on the outs begins to become a pattern, the frustration becomes something unavoidable that we can't help feeling.

 

It's pretty hard to keep a cool head and not let it get to you when, despite all the effort you put into finding allies and trying to have some agency for once, everything eventually falls apart. To make matters worse and add fuel to the fire, imagine your three friends getting eliminated one after another and by the same person, who is being a smug and arrogant dickhead who feels untouchable and unattainable. Call me childish and immature all you want, but I would be pretty pissed as well. Finally, even if I obviously know that trauma isn't always justifiable and doesn't exempt a person from being wrong, it can be stated that Hannah quickly attaches to people. It's an understatement that Hannah has abandonment issues because of the redundant cycle of loss in her early childhood. Hence, this just adds to the fact that it makes sense why Hannah reacted like that since those eliminations triggered those unhealed wounds from the past.

2. My intention in this second reason isn't to really use Spencer's treatment towards Ivy as the reason why Hannah confronted him since she clearly verbalized that she was pissed off that Spencer got her friends out one by one. However, I highly doubt that Hannah would have confronted him, or at least been this furious, if he didn't have that insensitive behavior towards Ivy, which was Spencer's most villainous deed in S4, imo. I can support this argument since Hannah didn't really have any issues with Spencer before Episode 7. In the beginning of Episode 7, we can see her and Spencer sitting next to each other while talking with Tristan and Benji, and she wasn't bothered by the fact that he was near her. In addition, In Episode 6, after Jade told him to swap teams with her since she didn't want to work with Ivy, we can observe Hannah reacting to this moment with a saddened face, probably even feeling a bit bad for Spencer because he was clearly trying to regain Jade's trust after going behind her back with the Diego vote.

Her hate boner towards him started AFTER she was witness of his antagonistic behavior in episode 7. Hannah wanted to eliminate Spencer in Episodes 3 and 5, but the reasons were strategic, and his dislike towards him didn't really influence her choices. Sure, I don't think she really liked the guy that much then, but the animosity wasn't there. In Episode 3, she wanted to eliminate him to desperately save Amelie and because he was the main reason the team lost the challenge. In Episode 5, she noticed that he and Jade were the most strategically competent and dangerous duo on the team and wanted to push a Spencer vote by convincing the Vibe Tribe, which was the most obvious choice.

With these previous unsuccessful attempts to eliminate Spencer, we have strategic reasons already. This added to how Spencer put Ivy down every single chance he got to carry out his strategy, ended up being the icing on the cake and what ended up making Hannah despise Spencer, which is utterly understandable. In fact, Hannah expressed her anger when Spencer kept being an ass towards Ivy after she got her shoulder dislocated and asked him what was his problem. The straw that broke the camel's back and what probably made Hannah snap at him was seeing him say to Ivy, "It is just a game sweetheart" and still acting like know-it-all and unlikeable prick. Hannah even stated in her exit interview that when a person is an asshole in the WAY they play the game, that's when you lose her, so I don't really get the turmoil (especially from the Spanish fandom) that this moment caused.

Sorry, but she is pissing me off as of late. Every time she appears on screen is to chime in when Ren is talking with Dunia. She joins conversations when people are already talking, butts in, and hogs Ren's attention whenever she can. Honestly, it gets to the point where it feels really suffocating and forced. Like, girl, read the fucking room for once. In this last episode, Ren was going to check on Dunia after she saw Nura and Ara kiss, and Oliwia had to grab him by force to prevent him from talking to Dunia. She is just too clingy and acts like a limpet. I feel bad for Ren, ngl. I would feel exhausted. 😭

I do not hate Oliwia, and I get she's acting like this since friendship means a lot to her and she's following what Sam said to her about being the "better" friend. Likewise, I'm also taking into account what happened in Episode 6 when Finn exposed her and crossed the line quite a bit. What Ren did of using the totem to save her was really sweet, and I get why Oliwia is too attached to him, being her first real friend here in the competition. 

Her writing isn't bad (even if I don't really see the appeal of her as a character), and I get she's acting on character, but GOSH, it's just annoying to see. The same rate of annoyance as when she was throwing challenges just to be on the right side of the vote as if she didn't have more opportunities to achieve vote accuracy in the future, lmao. For instance, when she flipped in Episode 4, she would have been on the right side of the vote by voting for Evie since there's no way Evie would have won a tiebreaker against Manu.

Anyway, I had to vent quite a bit because she's doing too fucking much.

Maybe I'm just cherrypicking once again, but I think the scene alone with Natalia just planted the seeds for a new side of Fiore that we haven't really seen before. I mean, we saw that she worried, even if it was the bare minimum, for people that she ended up caring about quite a bit, such as Alec in S1. Specifically talking about FvF, when Alec got eliminated this season in Episode 5, Fiore got teary-eyed and showed to be extremely sad. In Episode 8, even if reluctantly, and on Natalia's advice, she ended up helping and consoling Ren even if she didn't really intend to and gave him an approval nod when he won individual immunity, which seemed quite sincere. In the beginning of Episode 9, we saw Fiore drawing a sad face with a tear in the grass, which I guess is related to her saddened state in that specific moment. Finally, this moment with Natalia was very promising since I didn't think Fiore got attached to Natalia to the point of worrying about her being unhappy. Fiore's voice even softened when she was going to approach her to maybe console her, give her some advice, etc., but of course Spencer had to chime in and ruin this moment. Hopefully, this conversation continues in the next episodes.

Judging by these few moments, there could be plenty of relevant stuff to unpack with Fiore. These very rare moments of her showing vulnerability, being caring, and getting more emotional can be further explored this season since, while I like Fiore now and her sharp delivery, snarky attitude, and scathing comments (I don't think they necessarily get really stale or old), I've always wished to see more of her introspectively speaking. It always seems that we get crumbs of her backstory with her parents (e.g., them calling her a monster and her saying that while those comments hurt initially, she became used to it), but it always stops halfway, at least from what I perceive, and in that regard, she feels a bit underdeveloped and underutilized as a character. I'm not saying I want to see her a 180-degree shift of personality, or her becoming the most good-hearted person ever, but I would appreciate Fiore being more humanized and showing she has that kind-hearted and less grumpy side with the people she comes to appreciate. 

She already feels authentic, and I don't want her to lose that distinctive spark that makes her entertaining, but seeing more facets of her and her "badass" shell mitigating would enrich her character and would make her feel a little bit less flat and caricature-like (even if she is so real at times, lmao). The Episode 9 little scene I talked about especially intrigues me, since that sad face seems to reflect how Fiore truly feels underneath the persona we are accostumed to, aiming at the underlying reality that she may be hurting for some reason (maybe what she said in S1 about her not caring about her parents not loving her is paying a toll on her as she grows up).

And she's not wrong; while betraying Benji leaves her with one less close ally, she got the totem and is in the best position on the favorites team. While it's true that people may notice at some point that she's the swing vote and could be dangerous in the long run, she can take advantage of playing the middle for now. She's not seen as a nuisance, nor is she expendable. She's the perfect person to cling to whenever Natalia's alliance or Rosa's alliance needs an additional vote that could be decisive. 

Spencer has kind of sealed his fate after pulling that stunt and betraying Bruno, probably becoming the #1 public enemy of the favorites. Natalia's game is being messy, losing the trust of Gabby and mainly Tom, and has a target on her back, with Rosa planning to eliminate her sooner or later. Tom is a challenge threat for the merge and he might get burned somehow with his tension with Natalia. Gabby can get caught in the crossfire and become an easy vote since she's the glue that holds her trio with Tom and Natalia. Natalia is also at Rosa's throat, and Fiore knows that Lake can become an issue in the future if they do not eliminate her soon since she's a formidable competitor with a strong physical and social game. Tom noticed that Fiore is working with Natalia as well, and her sneaky behavior might cost her since, while Fiore is playing a good strategic game for the most part, her bad reputation from the previous seasons and social game hold her back. Everyone has their target, and they are all kind of throwing knives at each other, but Ally is laying low without making enemies and not coming across as a threat. 

It's also worth mentioning the fact that she's the only favorite who has a vote accuracy of 100% (while Sam is the only fan who has a 100% vote accuracy as of now). She's just eating up the competition without being flashy or being a tryhard and has one of the cleanest gameplays of the season, if not the cleanest. SHE'S GOING THERE, Y'ALL.

NO, BUT AT THIS POINT I HAVE TO LAUGH. Wdym there are only 3 men left and we haven't even reached the merge? I'm not the one who cares the most about gender ratio, but this shit is getting out of hand by the minute. Even worse, Bruno's character just ended up in a pitiful note being reduced to a plot device and Spencer's lapdog. He started being quite relevant, and he seemed kind of promising, but everything went down the drain. I knew that Spencer and Sam were the only safe locks for the merge, but it never crossed my mind that the idea that this seems to be actually becoming the case 💀. Maybe Tom will merge too since they are dragging him with his tension with Natalia, but idk.

No, but seriously, the way Riya is haunting the narrative and living rent-free in her mind is quite comic yet is becoming increasingly interesting, realistic, and actually makes Rosa's character more layered and engaging. The way Riya betrayed Rosa in DC2 was really cold-blooded and quite cruel, attacking Rosa's character by taking advantage of her history of thefts out of necessity to take care of Sofia. After that jaw-dropping stunt, Rosa is really wary and hesitant about trusting people and being as social as she was in DC2, being more open to playing a more cutthroat game in order to not get hurt and repeat the same past mistakes. Rosa's tumultuous relationship with Riya is influencing most of her choices, reasonings, and game moves, which makes sense. I'm really fond of characters who play the game in ways that are inevitably tied to their traumas and past flaws since it makes their backstory feel more alive and less neglected, showing how their baggage from the past takes a toll on them. That's why I like Hannah so much, and I'm glad that they are taking a similar approach with Rosa. She just keeps getting better and better, istg.

Don't take the AS ranking REALLY seriously since I should rewatch that season (even if I'm not too thrilled to rewatch it 😭). However, I think the ranking represents how I feel for the most part quite well, especially for the top and bottom 5.

Where I live, it is already June 2nd, but probably in a bunch of other time zones, not yet, but anyway 😭

In my case, I discovered DC in early 2024 when AS was airing. I don't remember exactly how I got to know about DC, but I remember AS E8/9 being the first episode I ever watched from DC (quite random, ngl). I remember a few days later watching S1 and S2 BETA. 

I also joined the subreddit in early July 2025 and started interacting from the get-go, tbh.

Happy Pride Month, btw! <3

ONC did it again, they gave us a quite strong episode with enjoyable dynamics, a fun challenge (imo) and interesting strategy bits (btw, I'm quite grateful that the pre-elimination ritual involved every character and it didn't felt really rushed as other times, seeing the characters communicating with each other quite well).

However, the episode tanks a bit in the elimination department as well as most of the other episodes. I'm not sold on Benji's elimination, not because strategic-wise it didn't make sense (Ally's move wasn't bad, even if it was a BIT too soon if I had to nitpick maybe), but because of how Benji has been handled so far on this season and how sudden felt his development in Episode 9 after Rosa gave him a pep-talk. If he comes back, his storyline can still be substantially good, even if won't come across as effective, since him ACTUALLY trying and fighting so hard for a spot in the competition once again can be quite cathartic. However, if he doesn't come back, idk man... I will just say that sometimes the predictable route is better and prevents potential misshandling in the characters' arcs/storylines. Benji is the most obvious choice to be the comeback winner and I kind of hope they push that.

Anyway, the MAIN thing I wanted to talk about is how characters are being the catalyst of each other's arcs. In this case, Lake and Spencer. I kind of predicted this would happen since their beef has loads of potential to lead into an interesting dynamic in which both will end up picking up traits from the other and will need each other to save their own skins at some point. Spencer will probably get more humanized as the season goes on thanks to Lake and Rosa (Rosa is playing that role more now than Lake is, but let me cook, y'all), maybe letting his guard down a bit more by opening up with people and letting aside his "game-bot" dickish and distant persona while Lake will steadily learn that winning the game and having morally exemplary behavior is unattainable and borderline impossible. I believe there will be a moment in the competition in which she will take in that mindset in the hard way, and she will start to play a bit more ruthlessly. I think that with what we saw about Lake being hesitant about her way of playing and rethinking her gameplay (it also helped that Spencer wasn't actually an ass this time around) and Spencer being kind of shocked and APPARENTLY unaware he wasn't treating Bruno the best way, stuff is going to get more interesting with these two.

This could also be applied with Rosa, which is adopting a less passive and more cutthroat gameplay this time around, allowing herself to "dance with the devil" as she pointed out and working with Spencer. We saw her devilish grin when she saw the turmoil happening in the Gabby-Tom-Natalia trio, and even if she felt bad in her confessional about eliminating Benji, she's not going back to her old ways of playing the game and she's going to take the bull by the horns, especially if that is against Natalia. Rosa's influence on Spencer has been previously mentioned in the other paragraph, and I think that role will fully pass to Lake when Rosa gets eliminated. Yes, I think Lake is going further than Rosa, and even though Rosa is one of my favs, Lake seems to be the kind of player that is REALLY a slow-burn and has more long-term projection to get further than Rosa is, at least as of now.

I also wanted to point out Spencer being the reason why Ally ended up voting Benji through his slight manipulation. She has taken more agency now and she's ready to do everything she can to stay in the game, even if this means betraying her closest ally. It was kind of ironic to hear Spencer talk about how he expected more from a person who made the final 3 though, especially since he ended up placing 9th (quite far from the final 3) and reached the merge because of straight up plot armor (Episode 8 team swap - I'm talking about this specifically, don't jump at me y'all). Idk if he said just to manipulate her and didn't really mean it, but it still was kind of eye-rolling.

I just found these scenes the most remarkable of the episode and I'm glad Lake and Ally seem to have a newfound and more intriguing direction from now on, it kind of irked me that this was thanks to Spencer from all people, but it kind of makes sense (especially with Lake). I guess I have to thank him...

FINALLY. I'm free from exams and university, and I was able to catch up a bit with the show.

Brief thoughts and ranking of the eliminated players:

1. Anastasia (Love)

2. Aubrey (Still stan, somehow, lmaoo)

3. Ernesto (Like)

4. Manu (Like)

5. Evie (Neutral leaning towards like)

6. Aiden (Neutral leaning towards like)

7. Finn (Mixed)

8. Alec (Still dislike, but he got a bit better this season, imo).

I wouldn't say I hate Nick in S1, I was just more annoyed at him than anything. I didn't hate his existence. However, he was the one who fit the category the best.

For the canon ship, Zaivy and Anarissa are kind of interchangeable, ngl.