Is leadership the theme of this season where leader's where chosen before play begins.

You have Mick, who has gone to one extreme - appearing unwilling to ever take a leadership position. On the other is Galu's Russell, who seems determined to make as many of his team's choices as possible. Then there is Jaison, who chose to act like a leader for the sole purpose of removing Ben from the game. And there's the Foa Foa Russell, who is using his ability to manipulate (or at least influence) people for purely selfish reasons; to manuver out any tribemates who he perceives to be a threat to him regardless of the outcome this has on his team.

• RE: leadership the theme of the season,dabo, 09:29 AM, 10-20-09
  • RE: leadership the theme of the season,michel, 06:26 PM, 10-20-09
• RE: leadership the theme of the season,iltarion, 03:08 AM, 10-21-09

I wouldn't call it a theme. It is a factor in how the early game is playing out. In Thailand they had predetermined leaders, the elders Jake and Jan, who picked the tribes at the outset. Jake held onto the leadership role at Sook Jai, Jan pretty much took a backseat at Chuay Gahn with Brian and Helen filling the vacuum.

At Galu Russ S. has been trying to play tribe leader to the utmost, early on we saw a breakdown about building the camp shelter, Shambo has been stepping up and doing a lot of the work, we've seen nothing much about alliances and how anyone is playing the game.

At Foa Foa Mick determined to only fill the leader role when he absolutely had to, camp came together through a mutual effort, and Russ S. has been the strongest one in playing and controlling the game, though Jaison was able to force the issue and get Ben voted out, and others have had their game moments.

Leadership cannot be the theme in of itself. The editing is playing around the opening twist of leadership and it's possible that the winner's story will be built around how players treated leadership.

The message of the season could be:

- "A leader must make the tough decisions". That would be Russell Swan's winning story.

- "A Leader must delegate" could serve Mick very well.

- "A leader controls the vote" would lead to a Russell Hantz victory.

- "You must lead by example" would be Shambo's hope if she stops screwing up!

- "You must use you leader to advance" could be Dave, Erik, Monica, Jaison and Natalie's winning story.

- "You must get rid of the leader" could also fit Danger Dave or Liz.

- "The best leader is the silent leader" could be the way we will eventually see Laura and John playing.

There could be other possibilities or maybe none of them will turn out to be the season's story. Time will tell.

I think this season is more of a character-driven story, with RussHell being the biggest character of all, of course.
The leadership subplot is an ironic one, however. Remember, when they started, Mick freely accepted the leadership role, probably more as social recognition of who he is. RussWell, on the other hand, only reluctantly took the role and seemed more afraid of it than anything. As it turns out, Mick has been a primo non grata, while RussWell has convinced himself that he IS the leader of Galu, who deserves to be respected as such.

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