Idk why I’m commenting here, but I have thoughts after watching this and wanted to express them somewhere? I feel like they will be unpopular but 
I’m actually of the opinion this season is… not that great? I’ve been watching older seasons lately (Vanuatu rn <3) so newer seasons pale in comparison, but it has been a straight pagonging except for Morgan’s boot. (That was actually a good TC!) This boot order is atrocious though alol. I remember thinking Malolo >>>>>> Naviti pre-season, so I guess I was going to feel that way regardless. I saw Brendan, Steph J, and Morgan as people who had potential to be really solid players, so to see them all get royally swap fucked (eh Morgan didn’t really) is a total drag. Other than that I just don’t like these twenty person seasons with merges, and multiple tribe swaps. I think it really encourages the pagonging mentality as opposed to preventing them. They should be swapping once around like Day 10 imo. In this season had Naviti gone to tribal council one time with their original 5-5 split that would have created a fracture, and maybe the season would be more interesting right now.
I’m also of the opinion that Survivor’s character development (and reality TV in general right now) is awful. Ever since Adam? it feels like there is an emphasis on sob stories, and I detest that. I feel like this started out as an NBC thing, but now I’m seeing it on ABC and CBS shows too. I’d much rather we get to know the characters for WHO they are, and not their upsetting personal stories. (I.E. We couldn't get to know Ben last season as a tough marine with a softer side. We had to hear about how difficult his life is because of his PTSD. There was more to the guy than his PTSD, but nobody will remember it because that's what the show focused on.) And I’m not trying to take away from Ben or anyone else who has personal issues because it is sad, but it’s a tad much when you start seeing it mentioned in every single episode. There are plenty of past contestants that have had terrible backstories on Survivor who were amazing, and it was never even mentioned. You don’t have to have some catastrophic backstory to be compelling. I will say they are doing a good job not focusing on that for Chris in particular, but Chris is a gem in this so it's not hard to avoid that. (Him not being able to pronounce beneficiary lmaooooo)
I feel like is winning this, which like zzZzZzZ imo. I could be wrong but that's kind of the impression I'm getting. I’m not an edgic master, and HHH was the first season I got to watch as it played out live in a really long time, but I don’t think the editors are really that subtle these days. Maybe I’m also down on Survivor now (this is a super negative post too sorry everyone) because I just don’t feel it’s nearly as authentic anymore? Some things seem super staged, and more contrived than they used to be. | 
