Survivor Canberra S2 Edgic - Opening Thoughts
Hello to all the Survivor Canberra fans, and any other people who may have stumbled across this post! My name is Mylo and I'm doing an edgic for Survivor Canberra Season 2 - The Ultimate Sacrifice. After each episode, I'll be going over the content presented in the episode, giving every character a rating based on their portrayal and be using that information to predict where the players may fall - including who the eventual winner may be.
For any unfamiliar with edgic, I'd recommend looking at this post to help explain the general aims of edgic along with the abbreviations. Note that it contains some US Survivor spoilers if that bothers you. My edgic chart this season will look like the following:
What to look for in Season 2
Going into this newest season we can already make some assumptions on how the edit will go for certain placements based on years of Survivor editing. This includes not only last season, but also international Survivor shows that have been creating edits of all sorts for longer than some players have been born. These previous examples can feed into what we can expect this season, even if it won't be exactly correct.
In particular, I wanted to look at the final 6 players of last season and analyze their edits in relation to their overall placement and story arc. Why did they get the edit they did? Can we use what we learned from them to clue us in on this season's endgamers? Let's find out. Obviously, there will be spoilers for last season.
Ashlee was my personal favourite character last season, I enjoyed her bubbly energy and gameplay. Putting aside my personal bias though, her edit ranked as CPM - a complex personality with a mixed tone. Ashlee was given time in multiple episodes to explain her thought process and decision-making, and had one of the most prominent edits of the season. However, she did come across more villainous than the eventual winner, owing to the emphasis on her betrayal of her original tribe and her complaints against Brendan. I settled for a mixed tone because I felt there was enough positivity to balance out the more sneaky aspects shown, but it is noticeable that she didn't make it to the finale, and 4 characters without strong negativity did. Does this mean the final characters are usually given 'cleaner' edits than the earlier boots? It's definitely possible.
Brendan received one of the weakest edits of last season, finishing as UTRN - Under the radar with a negative tone. There are outside factors as to why Brendan was shown less (Camera issues) but even with those Brendan still had an edit that indicated clearly he was not winning. He was invisible for large parts of the season, and when he was shown he was often undermined. When Ashlee complained about him, the audience was meant to relate to Ashlee and support her over Brendan, and by projecting Brad & Jeremy's edits, this in turn minimised Brendan's decision to keep them in the game longer as the 'incorrect move'. Brendan being the final pre-finale boot made sense, he wasn't a main character and didn't need a story conclusion like the other four did. Knowing this, it's unlikely that under-the-radar edits in season 2 are strong winner contenders, and particularly hard to imagine that negatively toned edits can win.
Ben's edit is the typical 4th place finish from US Survivor - also called the 'fallen angel' (Or 'robbed goddess', depending on who you ask). Ben ended with an OTTP - an Over The Top edit with positive tone. The audience was meant to root for Ben, and while he had moments of sneakiness similar to Ashlee it wasn't as emphasised nor as important to Ben's overall arc. While he definitely was a complex personality, I chose Over The Top because Ben's edit was akin to someone like Malcolm from Survivor Phillippines - a golden boy that had very few negative moments. While an edit like this is fabulous for a fan favourite award, winners aren't usually so blatantly positive. Our eventual winner had quieter moments, and a fuller picture of their up and downs (along with an underdog edit that can't be ignored). It's likely we'll get another edit just like Ben's, a decoy winner that just falls short of the eventual win after losing a key challenge or having an ally flip on them.
Just as Ben got the typical 4th place edit, Charlene got a relatively normal 3rd place finish. Unlike players voted out, the edit has to justify why this player didn't win the jury vote, and that is generally the conclusion of their arc. Charlene finishes the season as MORM - A Middle of the Road edit with a mixed tone. I went back and forth between positive and mixed but mixed feels more accurate to how the audience would view her after the season's completion. Her gameplay was shown to be emotion-based and contradictory to what we were seeing - highlighted in the difference between Brad and Brendan's edits where it didn't appear to make sense strategically to take out Brendan over Brad. Cutting Ben, the OTTP edit of the season also didn't assist with that. However, Charlene also had several sympathetic moments during the season and was not shown to be villainous, unlike Ashlee or Brendan. Her edit took a while to truly bloom, and her content wasn't always particularly developed which is why I went for MOR over CP. I'd imagine the next 3rd place finisher to have a very similar edit to Charlene, where it highlights strategic mistakes and gives less overall content than the top two players.
Brad had an incredibly game-based edit, easily the most game-focused edit out of the entire cast. His edit wasn't necessarily a usual 2nd place edit, but there is a clear distinction between his edit and the winners. Brad concludes the season with a CP - a complex personality but without tone. His thoughts were clearly explained from episode 1, and for a lot of the season he appears either in charge or strategically savvy. However, out of the final 6 he is the only player who didn't have a clear tone at all. He rarely got humanising content, and when he did it generally fell into Charlene or Jeremy's stories, not his own. When watching the season I was already spoiled that Jeremy had won (and thankfully I have not been spoiled on season 2's winner - lets keep it that way please!) and I assumed Brad would go before the final 3 as his edit didn't necessarily explain why he'd lose a jury vote. In hindsight though, it's clear now why he received the edit he did. It was game focused but not emotion-focused, which this season had highlighted was a key attribute to several players games. The pair of Brad and Jeremy was established early on (as was Ben and Charlene - notice that those two early pairs made final 4 together?) and their arcs finished with Charlene deciding which game was better. Her vote for Jeremy signified that his ability to connect with others and play to emotion was the successful strategy this season, and justified the attention to emotional plays throughout the entire season. Going into next season, I think toneless edits need to be considered heavily. Most players in a season have good and bad moments, so for the edit to not focus on them means that player is being excluded from tone for a reason. For Brad, that reason was to explain why Jeremy beat him. I don't think we'll see a similar second-place edit next season, but I do think edits without positive tone are less likely winners.
Jeremy had a sneakily good winners edit from the very beginning. Throughout the entire season he was both shown to be smart, aware and game-savvy, but also friendly, approachable and someone in touch with emotion. Jeremy won the season with a CPP - a complex personality edit with a positive tone. It was clear why Jeremy could win, he was called out as being a threat as early as the first episode but remained in the game due to his social bonds and ability to make friends. He didn't receive as much strategic focus as Brad, which caused doubt and gave Brad a believable decoy winners edit, but in a season that demonstrated again and again the importance of genuine human connection Jeremy was the one who was shown to exemplify that theme the best. This season could absolutely have another similar edit, however I think it'll depend on the season's themes. If the season turns out to be extremely gamebotty, then next season we could see a player win on the strength of 'big moves' as opposed to quieter social moves. I think regardless, CPP will be the edit to look for. The issue in Ashlee's, Brendan's, Ben's, Charlene's and Brad's edits is they either were too negative (Ashlee, Brendan), too one-note (Ben) too undermined (Charlene) or too toneless (Brad). Jeremy's edit hit the spot of a normal winner edit in a way the rest of the endgamers did not, and I believe that will be the key for the next season.
No season is the same and I'm sure some of these rules will be broken next season (and rules are meant to be broken anyway, right?). However, we can definitely use the logic behind the edits of these last 6 people to help inform who our next endgame players are. I particularly noticed that the final 4 were two pairs established in the pre-swap - that's not a coincidence and if we see early developed pairs this next time it's a fantastic sign for those players.
I'll be back after episode 1 to present the first edgic of the new season. Until then, enjoy the rest of the pre-season y'all.
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