Survivor - (5th Season Anniversary Special)

Chapter 1 - Kodai Island

Hello there, welcome. KoopalingFan is back lol.

So if you read Survivor - Caribbean, I mentioned that I was going to be releasing a 5th season anniversary fic, in honor of approaching my fifth season of Survivor. Up to this point, there have been four season so far. Kodai Island, Emperors vs Knights, Mexico, and Caribbean.

But before I release Survivor - Heroes vs Villains, this fic is going to go over the highlights and big moments form the first four seasons, as well as the players themselves. This fic is meant for those fans who have been with me since the very first season and for those fans who... I guess "binged-read" them and all caught up now. I really didn't expect all this to happen, to be honest lol. I thank you all for your continued support. Really means a lot.

I was actually wondering of how I was going to do this. This was supposed to be eight chapters long, with two chapters per season, but we're gonna bring it down to four. ...And obviously, massive spoilers ahead. You shouldn't even be here if you don't want to be spoiled, unless you don't mind spoilers in spite of you not reading all four seasons. But I'm just saying that you've been warned lol.

Here we go. Pretend this is on the official Survivor channel on YouTube.

~KF

SURVIVOR - HEROES VS VILLAINS

Well, this was a first timer, that was for sure. But hey, the show was making a major accomplishment at the time. They were getting ready to have their very first All Star Survivor season.

And of course, since five was a magic number to an extent, they desired to celebrate it. Therefore, it was time for them to do something special.

R.O.B. the robot (the Smasher who was in charge of the pre-season of Survivor - Caribbean), was seen sitting down on the end of a white couch. Wait a minute, why was he sitting down on something like that? Not necessary. Last time the Survivor fans checked, there were no legs to show. Maybe it was just to look professional?

But anyway, with him already breaking the fourth wall, his eyes were fixated on the camera that was zooming in on him. "Hello. I am R.O.B. the robot. Thank you all for tuning in. Welcome to a special segment in Survivor. In case you don't already know, we are about to go through our fifth season, our very first All Star season of Survivor, where twenty of the most notable players are about to play this game for a second time. Obviously, we have never done anything like this before, so what better way to start this next season off by celebrating the four previous seasons that came before."

If the fans were glancing around the area R.O.B. was in, he appeared to be in some kind of lounging area. Basically, the kind of lounging area employees would go in when they were on break. If the camera was to have an overall view of the place, the fans would have gotten a better view of the couches, small black tables, tan colored walls, and even a coffee machine of all things.

Maybe it was all to avoid complaints from people not being comfortable enough to interview.

"Sitting right across from me is Master Hand," 'Sitting?' Neither of those two needed to have chairs. Seriously? But anyway, yes. The master was floating across from R.O.B., being the first individual to be interviewed by the robot. "and together, we will both go over some of the biggest iconic moments from the first four seasons, as well some of the players themselves. ...So,... how are you doing Master Hand?"

"I'm doing fine." He greeted back.

"Let us cut right to the chase here. Did you honestly expect this much success to come out of your show?" A pretty standard first question to start off with.

"Well, I was pretty much hoping people would like it at least." The hand replied. "I didn't expect us to still be going at this point, yet here we are. And I wanted to start this off as twenty people coming from all over the universe to compete in a game like this out in the wilderness. Several worlds are represented as the whole thing brings people together. Thus, the show was born with Survivor - Kodai Island."

In other words, in the actual reality show itself, the whole concept was brought to light thanks to a certain someone wanting to bring 'different walks of life together in order to create a new society' out in the wilderness. Long story short, a 'social experiment'.

"I'd say the first season went pretty good. There were obviously improvements need to be made, however. Thankfully the ratings were good enough for us to shoot a second season, Emperors vs Knights. And that became a huge critical and commercial success. Some even say that it's the best season we've ever done so far. But that season fixed all of Kodai Island's problems and it worked."

"So obviously the ratings were good enough for a third season." R.O.B. assumed.

"Exactly. Mexico was shot and the goal was for us to be consistent with the quality. It was in a unique location and our first eighteen person cast with a completely different theme. It is arguably the most 'tame' season of the show, but it was still a good season. And then with Caribbean,... come on. Such a great cast. And it was not just a great season, but... it was overall a great story for the audience to watch. I bet even non-Survivor fans should give it a watch. ...So the fact that we now have our first All-Star season is still blowing me away."

"Likewise and you could pretty much say the same for everyone who is anticipating season five." R.O.B. was a hundred percent in agreement. "So let's start off with the first season, Survivor - Kodai Island. Since it's the first season, it's going to be the most important season, because without it, the other seasons would have never existed. Where'd you like to start off first?"

Where was a great place to start? There were so many iconic moments. Mario vs Bowser, the classic blindside in Ganondorf, Mewtwo's flip flopping, Wolf betraying Bowser, the infamous rock draw, and Sonic blindsiding Wolf without even putting his name down.

"Let's just start off with the overall story of that season." Oh, okay. The narrative of season one was a decent place to start off as well. "It was the most simple comparing to the other seasons. One team against another, Sumasshu vs Tatakai... And oh boy... Sumasshu really had it rough."

"They sure did." It was important for the audience to note that R.O.B. was not even thought of being part of the Survivor production crew at the time. Nonetheless, he still witnessed the season from home. "I mean, nine of the ten Tatakai members making it to the merge?"

"Exactly. And the four members from Sumasshu that made the merge are four of the five players that are going to be on the next season. Sumasshu was very down in numbers. But what saved them was due to Wolf and Mewtwo deciding to save Bowser and target Ganondorf. And eventually it came down to Mario and Sonic being the last two from that tribe. Mario was soon voted out, and Sonic won four challenges and went on to win the whole season."

"Kind of interesting to see." The Smasher stated. "Come to think of it, before final seven perhaps, Sonic really wasn't that big of a name, was he?"

"He wasn't, but that one thing he did caused him to win a million dollars." Master Hand answered. "Aside from Mario, he is the original underdog of this series."

The scene suddenly cut to someone that actually had the ability to sit down, unlike the master and the robot. For the fans though, perhaps seeing a Survivor contestant himself talking of his own experience on the show was likely more interesting to watch than hearing Master Hand talk all day, unless one never minded that of course.

"How do you feel about being the first ever winner of this show?"

"Definitely feels incredible, man." Sonic the Hedgehog answered to R.O.B. "I actually have the Mobius World Record of being the world's fastest hedgehog, so I kinda know what it feels like a little to have a big feat such at that. But obviously, with something like Survivor which I've really grown to love of how it's being going at all, it really feels nice to be this series' first ever winner."

But what about that move? "...Might as well talk about that Wolf thing, right?"

"We should." R.O.B. nodded with interest. "It was going to be a hot topic worthy of discussion at some point, anyway."

"No doubt about it. Had I not done what I did, it of course would have been different. But for the longest time I wondered why in the world was Wolf still in the game. People were talking about him it a bit more than it seemed." Sonic explained. "But there was almost no action done about it until I had that talk with Lucario, telling him that Wolf was a bigger threat than Mario and I. If I didn't have that conversation with Lucario about how Wolf was a bigger threat, Mario probably goes... But of course,... Mario won immunity that round!"

"He did." Even R.O.B. knew. "So with Mario being immune, that left you and Wolf."

"The majority at that point was myself, Wolf, Link, and Mario. Lucario, Mewtwo, and Pit were on the bottom. We put our votes on Lucario for being the bigger threat. The one thing we were all worried about though, was of someone having the idol. That's why I got scared in the first place. If they had the idol, and if the target is saved, somebody from that majority was going home. I was on the chopping block and Mario's right hand man at that point. Getting rid of me weakened his options, and people thought it was a bigger problem to deal with than Link. Maybe it should have been the right move to target Wolf over me and Mario anyway, but people were thinking different. But I've made my social play, Mewtwo plays his idol on Lucario, and Wolf gets blindsided. ...If I did not speak up, I would have been out in his spot instead."

"I believe the end game would have been different." The interviewer thought out loud. "And you know, maybe someone from Tatakai would have won that season."

"Maybe." Oh, man... Survivor had like, ten million 'what-ifs' to it. No wonder the game was so hard. "To be honest, what was actually funny about the whole thing was that no one even knew that I played a bit of a factor into it except for Lucario. I told Mario, but that was pretty much it."

The scene then switched back to Master Hand taking up Sonic's spot.

"What should we discuss next?"

"Hmm... I think this is gonna be something everyone watching at home wants to hear about... the rock draw at final eight."

"Oh, goodness..." Master Hand sighed. It was only a matter of time before it was brought up.

"So there were eight players left in the game following Bowser's exit. Ike decided to come up with this plan to split the votes between Lucario and Mewtwo for being a pair. Three votes on Lucario, three votes on Mewtwo. It was not supposed to matter whoever those two vote for, and in that case it was Mario for being perceived as a major underdog to win the game."

"And everyone seemed to be on board with it except for Pit." Lord... "As a result, there was a bit of conflict in terms of decision making at that tribal. To this day it is the only rock draw we've ever had on the show, but it also one of, if not the most criticized moment of Survivor. Why? Because the fans and even other players found the whole rock draw thing to be so preventable. There were a lot of things that should have played out differently. It was a series of bad decisions."

"For starters,... obviously Pit should have flipped. But with worst coming to worst, coming off his betrayal of Bowser, we have Wolf (who still had his second idol). He had the opportunity to play it on the right person to keep the numbers on his side, but instead of playing it on Mario, he chose to play it on Sonic instead. It was a clear misplay, but I could understand where Wolf was coming from because Mewtwo and Lucario could have played it safe and put their votes onto Sonic."

"I guess that's understandable." R.O.B. gave Wolf O'Donnell a pass on that. "But darn it at the same time. ...But the main thing is that a lot of fans that watched that moment over and over again are saying that Ike should have gotten criticized himself. They were saying that he himself was also to blame. What are your thoughts on that?"

"Every time when it is talked on the streets, they would always say that Ike is the dumbest Survivor ever for not changing his vote. They literally call it the dumbest move of all time. Okay, it made sense for Ike to not flip his vote in the beginning, because he didn't know whether or not Mewtwo had an idol or not. He did in fact have one, but he... chose to not play it."

"You think he deserved to get some of the blame, too?"

"I kinda think he should have." Master Hand 'nodded'. "More than Wolf at least. He did try to stop the tie vote from happening. Mewtwo knew he was on the chopping block, and he chose to note play his idol. ...But I guess in a weird way, he never needed to play it because he and Lucario both survived that round, and Mewtwo plays his idol on Lucario at seven."

"But getting back to Ike, everyone is saying he should have changed his vote to Mewtwo at the re-vote. Mind you, he was in their alliance, but he was planning on flipping against them for that whole episode. And that was the right moment to do so, but he didn't because Pit wouldn't flip. But the thing is that Ike didn't even need Pit's vote anymore, and that was where people found a problem."

Now Ike was getting some screen time, taking Master Hand's spot. Hold up a minute... Ike was on screen... The last time the fans witnessed him on Survivor was at Kodai Island's reunion show.

"So,... what exactly was going on in your head at the time?" R.O.B. questioned the swordsman.

"Whew..." The blue-haired man did not even know where to start himself. Him feeling guilty about the whole thing could have very well been a reason to why. "Well, in my mind I was scared to death of being voted out. My name was never even written down, but I knew I was a target because they figured that I was likely to win challenges. But at the final eight, I knew that I needed to have some sort of resume. So that's why I decided, 'You know what, let's just all vote for Lucario and Mewtwo and send one of them home. We can all go back to camp and be done with it.'"

"So you were in fact ready to go against them despite you being in their alliance."

"I really was." He nodded in confirmation. "But Pit wasn't. He didn't want to betray Lucario because he didn't want to look like a villain. But I was preparing myself to jump ship. Link even promised a final four deal with Wolf and Bowser, and after Bowser was sent to the jury, I really needed to vote with Link at that point. The minority group was getting ready to become a sinking ship."

"We were all minutes away before we were told to head off to tribal, and we still weren't able to convince Pit at that point. So Mario's alliance decided to put their four votes on Mewtwo, and Pit's alliance was going to put their votes on Mario. Pit was more likely to turn against Mewtwo than Lucario, so that was why Mewtwo was the plan, even though he was never going to win if he reached final three. We all continued to try and reel Pit in at tribal, we all vote once, it was a tie. Apparently Mewtwo had an idol that could have been played, but it was too late for him. Master Hand already gave him a chance to play it after Wolf played his on Sonic. ...But he never got up."

"And this is the part where most of the Survivor community doesn't seem to understand." R.O.B. pinpointed where Ike's critics came from. "They feel that at the re-vote, that was your opportunity to jump ship and make a move yourself to send Mewtwo out of the game... But, you didn't do it. Some of them even think that you let Pit take all of the blame for what happened afterwards... Would you agree with that?"

Wow. What a way to put Ike on the spot by asking him a 'yes' or 'no' question like that. Simple, yes. But powerful.

"...Yeah." He spoke quietly. "I did... And I regret it... especially since Pit is my friend. Me and him still talk, but when that tribal aired,... we kinda stopped talking for a bit. Not gonna lie."

"...So you admit that you also deserved some of, if not most of the blame for what went down..."

"...Absolutely." Ike slowly nodded in agreement. "I absolutely agree... I think the reason why I put all of the blame onto Pit was simply because that I was the one rock'd out, even though I never had a single vote cast against my name. ...The reality is that the person I need to blame the most here is myself. I didn't flip because he didn't want to, my mind was having a million thoughts at once, and my mind sort of backed away... I messed up."

"Well, at least you two are still friends." R.O.B. glanced at the bright side of things. "You both forgave each other for what I'm hearing."

"We did. And yet,... I really made Pit look like a fool in front of the entire universe. ...I knew I owed him a big apology after seeing my tribal start to finish..."

Back to Master Hand.

"Now with that out of the way, let's talk about yet another controversial moment." R.O.B. decided. "This time, at the final nine where Wolf betrayed Bowser by not using his idol on him."

"Hahaha, wow." Master Hand laughed, followed by a sigh remembering it all. "Kodai Island's mid-merge was filled with controversial moments."

"Yes, and when Bowser got voted out, Wolf received major backlash for it." The Smash fighter recalled. "So the tribe came back from tribal after voting out Wii Fit Trainer who had the Legacy Advantage in her pocket. Power Sumasshu had the majority, now having Link with them since he flipped with Bowser's extra vote."

"And here's what went down." Master Hand went on to explain to the universe of what exactly occurred. "After Wii Fit's exit, the plan for Power Sumasshu was to vote out Mewtwo for causing chaos and being close with Lucario. However, Pit actually thought that it would be a good idea that his alliance could actually use Bowser to vote with him to take out Mario."

Pit. Yes. Pit. Of all people. This was coming from the guy who was mostly known for his role in Ike's rock draw and for being the first infamous 'goat' of the show's history... And no, not goat as in 'greatest of all time'.

"So Bowser found himself in a powerful position. He literally had the opportunity to vote Mario out once and for all. Besides, he did want him out since day one. I know he was hungry to blindside him, especially since he thought it would be best to get rid of Mario before Mario got rid of him."

"And then he changed his mind..."

"He did. Bowser was actually playing pretty smart here. The man thought that getting rid of Mario would not have been a bad move at all, but he then thought that the better move was to be patient and wait just a little longer, because there was still the Mewtwo-Lucario duo people needed to worry about. So he figured the better option was to stay loyal and send Mewtwo home... The problem was though, Lucario had a strong feeling that Bowser was not going to vote with the Tatakai alliance. As a result, he decided that he needed to take out Bowser himself after saving Mewtwo with his idol. I think it's kind of an underrated move for Lucario, to be honest. That was his idea."

"Maybe he was just a little under-edited."

He 'shrugged'. "Probably. But the thing was... Bowser could have been saved that round. Wolf saved him before at the joint Tribal Council back in the pre-merge, but he found a second idol in the second tribe swap. He was still holding onto it, and he knew very well that Bowser was going to be targeted because he was the biggest physical player up to that point. He literally won immunity in the previous round."

"And obviously, he should have played his idol on Bowser to save him. That was his right hand man."

Bowser Koopa was not shown on screen (yet). However, the man that was sitting on the couch was Wolf O'Donnell himself, him snickering at his own stupidity shaking his head.

"I didn't do it."

"You didn't." R.O.B. smirk, snickering back.

"But I should have." He nodded, completely owning up to what he did. "I screwed him over at a time where it wasn't really necessary. Mind you, Bowser was indeed a threat to win actually. I know it may sound crazy to some people, but Bowser was starting to change the perception around him, slowly turning his whole game into some sort of underdog story. And with him pulling that move off at the final ten with Link while having immunity? Even I was impressed. So Bowser was a threat to be that I would eventually need to cut ties with. The problem was that most people simply found it to be the wrong time to let him go, and I don't think they were wrong. It was a matter of bad timing and I blew a major opportunity... Damn it."

He muttered that last part under his breath, still regretting it to this day.

"So you of course feel that you deserved the backlash you got."

"Well I didn't take it personal." O'Donnell turned his head side to side. "As a player though, it made sense why people were mad. Some people were actually rooting for Bowser. But hey, you wanna know the fun part about it? Say if I was never able to get rid of Bowser, worst case scenario. If I sat in the final three with him, I could have explained myself to the jury, 'Hey, I saved this man not once, twice. And no one knew that we were secretly working together for all this time. He would have been out a long time ago if it wasn't for me.'"

"...Throwing him under the bus at final tribal?"

"A million dollars is a lot of money." He grinned largely at that. "Bowser's my bro, but we're both villains in our own light. I don't think he would take it personal at all."

"Do you find it amazing that you two are still great friends even after what happened?"

"In a way, yes." Wolf nodded with honesty. "I was really surprised he was able to forgive me so quickly when I got to Ponderosa. The only other person at the time who knew I could have saved him was Link. Not even Bowser himself knew I had another idol when he got voted out. Obviously he would have been even more furious. But,... even though I take responsibility for being the reason why Bowser lost the season,... I think that he was simply surprised he even made it that long, just like the rest of us. And knowing that he would have made it even further had I play my idol on him, that's really interesting to think about. But,... things just didn't happen that way... I suppose you live and you learn."

There was one more iconic segment that was worthy of discussion regarding Kodai Island... The feud between Mario and Bowser. Most people called them the biggest hero and villain duo of video game history.

But for the sake of the Survivor series, none of that was canon. However, they managed to make rivalry on their season, especially since they started on the same tribe.

Master Hand was not even shown for this part of the special. Instead, both Mario and Bowser were sitting together side by side across from R.O.B... Wow! The two were sitting right next to each other. Canon wise, an argument would have started within three seconds!

"Hmm..." The fellow Super Smasher grinned. "Nice little reunion we got here. The fans are probably laughing their heads off right now."

This was the first time Mario and Bowser were seen together on something related to Survivor since their season wrapped up. The two competitors both chuckled in response.

"...Do you two still dislike each other?"

"Well,..." Mario looked up for a moment in thought. "we have completely different personalities, but what we can say is that we do manage to settle our differences, as what you've seen on our season."

"Mario ain't a bad guy." Bowser pointed at him with his thumb shaking his head. "He was rather annoying to be around, but I see why people like him. But like he just said, the two of us come from different backgrounds. Personalities clash. Not everybody likes everybody, so naturally we were both wanting to get the other one out. It's just unfortunate that Dedede had to pay the price for that."

"Maybe true to some extent," That was when Mario looked at Bowser in the eyes. "but at the same time, he did blew the first challenge."

"That, too." He hunched his shoulders in agreement. "And Mario couldn't vote me out because I was one of the strongest in the tribe. They knew they needed me, so I didn't have anymore to lose."

"Except when we limit your options by voting out Falco who was aligned with you." Mario reminded.

"Getting back to the point," Bowser's finger raised, completely ignore the Mario brother's statement. "me and Mario were lucky enough to take a big, huge break from each other when we swapped, and we didn't come back together 'til the merge."

"And your feud started back up." R.O.B. pointed out.

"Hey," Mario then started to laugh pointed at himself in the chest. "at least I was trying to be the bigger person here. Me and Bowser were both annoying each other, but even I realized that I needed to come to terms with him. The smart idea was that I needed to work with Bowser due to the many other threats that were out there."

"And I'll admit." said Bowser. "I was too busy raging at the time. Mario was once again on the same beach as me and whatever team he was on had the audacity to keep winning challenges where I attended every Tribal Council up to when I was eliminated."

"But,..." Koopa heaved a long sigh. "okay, so I was wrong by not listening to Mario at first. I just couldn't bear the thought of even hearing his voice."

"Haha, what!?" Mario reacted.

"But hey, the guy had a point. We needed to work together because we were still going by tribal lines. Four against nine. With or without Mario's vote it was hard to break up nine players from the same starting tribe. And Donkey Kong was the one to convince Mario to patch things up with me (or at least temporarily), since there was the entire Tatakai tribe to worry about. So I shook hands with the dude and we actually began to work together for once."

"And you know," Mario raised a finger. "when Bowser told me to my face that he had no interest on working with me at that moment, I just gave up on him and moved on. I decided that I didn't have time to deal with it and that I would find another way to make it far in the game. But if it wasn't for DK, I would have never though of approaching Bowser again, since at the end of the day as much as we hated each other, we both came from the Sumasshu tribe."

He turned to Koopa directly once more. "And tribal lines were the merge tribe divisions at the time, so we pretty much had no choice but to work together."

"Just to make myself clear Mario, I was planning on voting you off if Wolf saved me at nine."

"And you would have gotten me. You really would have. ...But it didn't happen that way. I managed to outlast you in the end and Sonic won. Maybe sometimes nice guys don't finish last."

Ooh.

SURVIVOR - HEROES VS VILLAINS

(Pretend the season five logo was used to open and close off the first of four videos on the Survivor channel.)

Whew... Finally done with the first chapter. And from the Ike segment onwards, the rest of the chapter was done within a day. When I reduced it to four chapters, Sonic's interview was cut in places and shortened when I decided that I didn't want this to be too long.

So,... what do you guys think about this? And I always, reviews are much appreciated. You guys keep giving me feedback and reviewing, I'll keep making more Survivor seasons since apparently, people like what I'm doing lol. My thanks.

I'll post the next chapter for the Emperors vs Knight segment as soon as I'm done with it.