LAST EDITED ON 01-04-10 AT 01:16 PM (EST)

You're right, I stand corrected. The most they have revealed about Russ was that he made it to F3.

Speculation: If it was revealed to all that he made F3, it should be an early death sentence for his S20 chances. Because, presumably he will play F20 as aggressively as he did S19, and anyone at S20 would surely beware of a previous F3 (at least) finalist who may have actually won for all they know and who plays like he does. He should be an easy early target, any spoilers to the contrary notwithstanding, even though there will be a number of F3 or better finishers there. Even among that crowd he should standout.

Even with an F3 (either from the producers or because someone's ego won't let him keep a secret of it) finish I could see it not necessarily getting him voted out early.

1. The ego level of the All-Stars that won't believe this guy could beat them.

added to.

2. He's obnoxious enough or doesn't have enough friends so the other people figure he isn't a jury threat. The hey they'll hate him more than they already hate me so I'll keep him/I don't have to worry about my friends jumping ship to vote for the new guy sort of thing.

added to

3. Given the way they lurved him finding idols they will probably put the out where they know Russell will look for them so he'll probably get a least one played when he might need it.

You have three good points (not code).

I'll comment on #1, because although there are certainly a lot of huge egos there, we haven't ever seen anything like Russ's ego before (IMO). And nothing ruffles the feathers of a real DAW like someone else being even DAW-ier.

Actually while I think Russ should be an early target, I also think he may be smart and sly enough to defeat those that would plot against him. He showed great instincts in S19, I expect him to do so in S20 also.

LAST EDITED ON 01-06-10 AT 00:13 AM (EST)

There are rumors out there that Erika Shay, senior casting member and Parv's best friend,

did her best to cast a ready-made alliance for her, although her Natalie choice got nixed and Courtney sent in. Also that Parv got placed on a tribe with floater type villain females rather than the ones who would have dumped her at the get-go. Sandra rather than Eliza.

The rumor asserts that Erika set up a Parvati-Hantz alliance before the game began. If so, whether or not everyone knew about Russell, Parv would have known his capabilities and his goat-worthiness.

If you don't remember Erika Shay, she and her fiancee were first team off TAR 5.

http://www.myspace.com/castingrealitytv

"my bitcbes" ~ tag on Parv's myspace
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewTaggedPhoto&friendID=30276475&imageUserID=80573917&imageID=13023246#u=80573917&i=13025235

now if only Erika could have gotten Jessica de Ben on S20, but I guess it was a hard sell to cast the first boot off one of the least popular seasons.

at least there are none of her and Russell

So Parvati would know RussHell would be a great goat for her! No surprise there -- if I was as capable of keeping my feelings under wraps as Natalie in S19 was, I'd probably see RussHell as a good goat -- if I got far enough in the game that I looked at the jury vote.

He's much more than a good goat. He's a natural strategist and he makes things happen so you get to the end and the people against you do not.

I've been lurking (and loving!) this forum ever since I stumbled upon it a couple of seasons ago. Forgive me for being so naive --but does this tidbit about the friend/casting member help explain why Candice is considered a 'hero' (to put a Parvati alliance member on the opposite team so they are not instantly targeted), as well as Danielle on the villains? (to help foster an alliance that might be less obvious for Parv)

I have been trying not to read the posts about the boot list so I have no idea what sort of alliance Parv might work with, and my memory is not as sharp as most of you posters that can recall types of strategies each player uses, but my conspiracy antennae went up when I saw this!

LAST EDITED ON 01-07-10 AT 04:07 PM (EST)

you nailed it! Welcome to non-lurking status wallflowr22.

ETA - Candice on other side is a pre-merge ally but reduces perception of Cook Islands alliance pre-merge.

another spec that is out there on the boards is rumor that Ozzy was cut because he and Parv still have not made up, whereas she and James did patch things up after FvF. There were certain people from FvF who no doubt would have put Parv on the hit list immediately, but none of them were cast.

Also that there was a big push for surefire ally Natalie Bolton even though she didn't do much most of her season, but that casting Courtney Yates prevailed in that one, and Natalie was only an alternate in case Courtney wasn't healthy enough to play.

"Also that Parv got placed on a tribe with floater type villain females rather than the ones who would have dumped her at the get-go. Sandra rather than Eliza."

I have to say, there's a pretty decent reason to include Sandra over Eliza having nothing to do with Parvati's chances. Namely, Sandra's a previous winner and a memorable character, whereas Eliza has already been on twice and never set the screen on fire with personality or gameplay.

yes, I could have worded that better. I didn't mean it was a choice between one and the other. I meant that if Eliza had been cast she would have gone after Parv.

The rumor is that Sandra was very surprised to find herself on the Villains tribe. I also think Candice belonged on Villains. She threw Aitu to the wolves because she wanted to be with Adumb. She had a good relationship with Yul and wasn't in jeopardy, IIRC.

In Jiffy's new cast assessment, he goes out of his way to explain why some of them got put on the tribes they did, why Candice's mutiny was heroic, etc..

RussHell lost a ton of weight during S19, but he looked substantively larger to me at the S19 reunion than he did at the end of S19.

If he made it to F3 in S20, how come he wasn’t as skinny as a Janu? Maybe he gets his head handed to him fairly quickly once he's swimming with the big fish.

S20 ended in late August/early September, just before Samoa got earthquaked but good.

He's had a few months to get back to his normal size, regardless of when he got eliminated, if at all......

I have to agree that four months is long enough to put back on a lot of weight, especially if you starved to lose it. I didn't realize it was that long.

Consulting TDT’s calendar here, the final TC took place on September 16th, so yeah definitely RussHell had three full months to push his ego down from his head back into his body and fatten up again.

"Look at the fool, thinking his ego is dominating the game. Behold the idiot, who believes a meal of dirt and feces fed to his opponents is the perfect pre-vote breakfast. See the self-blinded man as he gazes out on the hatred he's created and believes it to be ganglord-created respect. And in the end, witness the loss, the denial, and the exact same screams as before...He will fail, we will know it, and he still won't be able to understand how it happened"

Wow, that's an awful lot of vitriolic mockery for a guy who supposedly came in second twice. Yes, I know it's fun to see people you hate experience desperation. But come on, some people just don't have the sort of personality to win the final vote. Doesn't make him an idiot. After all, very few players ever make it to the finals, let alone twice.

I, for one, don't believe the defining aspect of Russell's gameplay is that he sucks in front of juries. What about the rest of the game?

Excellent point.
Not to mention the fool now shares the honor of America's vote for Player of the Season with JT - finals twice and Player of the Season. Puts him way up there in the list of accomplished Survivor gamers, I'd say.

LAST EDITED ON 01-08-10 AT 05:16 PM (EST)

I could give you a long list of other qualities which make him an idiot. But the site may be near its vitriolic mockery quota for the day, so let's just sum it most of them up on one entry: other people are allowed to have emotional reactions. At last glance, he still believed that was restricted to him -- and that just might be the defining aspect of his gameplay.

Sidebar: there are few more intense expressions than the look of surprise on a bully's face at the moment someone finally connects. It's never so much 'You hit me!' as it is 'You're not allowed to hit me!' Call it the alternate Albert Ganz theory -- but this one is a bully. (I suspect he may be a former victim getting back at everyone who's ever done him wrong: i.e. everybody -- but he could also be running on pure natural talent.) Defensive and prone to run verbally scared in the face of threats and endlessly ugly when holding the whip hand.

I'd like to think it's just his game persona.

I'm nowhere near naive enough to try.

Do you want to start on the stupidity of the American voter or should I? (And are we counting Jeff's 16,000,000 votes?)

I, for one, don't believe the defining aspect of Russell's gameplay is that he sucks in front of juries. What about the rest of the game?

The rest of the game: Russell is busy Making Moves.

Busy making alliances on Day 1, busy getting rid of the people he made alliances with on Day 1 by Day 6, busy burning people's socks and dumping out canteens in the middle of the night, busy trying to create chaos within his tribe, busy yelling at people who don't recognize that he is calling the shots, busy looking for the hidden idol, busy finding the hidden idol, busy showing his hidden idol to tribenates, busy showing his idol to more people after the merge, busy wondering if he needs to play his idol, busy playing his idol unnecessarily, busy finding another idol, busy playing his new idol, busy finding another idol, busy telling people has has the idol, busy booting the people he told he has the idol, busy threatening to play his new idol, busy booting more people he made alliances with, busy creating situations that will make it necessary for him to become even busier to deal with the situations he created, busy not getting to know anyone while his alliance mates are getting to know people, busy bragging about himself to the camera 24/7, busy being Russell The Greatest Player Of Survivor Ever.

Wait, there's more: busy telling people how much money he makes, busy getting angry at those people when they tell other people how much money he makes, busy thinking he's got the game in the bag because how could anyone vote for anyone else to win when Russell has been so busy Making Moves from Day 1 and no one else has been trying even one-eighth as hard as Russell to Make all the Moves necessary to show everyone how Survivor should be played.

I don't think Russell necessarily sucked in front of the jury. I think the jury just didn't agree that playing the Busiest Game With The Most Moves automatically entitled him to win. And I don't think that it did either.

A tribe glows in Brooklyn