Survivor - 5th Season Anniversary Special

Chapter 4 - Caribbean

Okay, last chapter has just arrived. This is the last chapter for this short special. And the moment when I post this chapter, I will go straight to work on the pre-season of season five. I am quite excited right now.

I think this chapter is actually going to be the easiest, and the big reason for it being that Caribbean is my most recent season so my memory of it is still fresh in my mind.

Let's get on with it!

~KF

HEROES VS VILLAINS

Only one more season left.

"So how about that latest season, huh?" ROB brought up to Master Hand. "The one where I first started handling the pre-season of this show? I think I remember that pretty well."

Oh yeah, right. That did happen, and not just some random Alloy that nobody cared about... Too harsh perhaps?

"I remember as well. It is the latest season, after all." The hand brought up. "I get vibes that people enjoyed it more than Mexico, but they'd rank it right behind Emperors vs Knights. But one great thing about Survivor - Caribbean is its storytelling. It was a great season, but it was more than just a season. There was a whole story behind it. And I think it's a good, positive message behind it. Most of the castaways related to it rather well."

"I'd like you to go into detail with that."

"Very well. To sum it up, basically,... Ken's final juror speech." Master Hand remembered. "I think Caribbean has the perfect blend of character development and strategy, which was why I personally think it's the best season of the four. You have awesome, multi-dimensional characters in Ken, Vector, Meta Knight, and Val. You have great blindsides in Joker, Corrin, the build up to K. Rool's elimination (the biggest vote of the season), Meta Knight, Ken betraying Simon out of nowhere, the controversial Springtrap elimination where Val sabotaged her own game, so many interesting strategic moments."

"So in other words, while everyone is signing up to play Survivor, it's more than just a game, it's a once in a lifetime experience. You actually get to form friendships from people that at worst are total strangers. It's about appreciating the little things that come with playing Survivor... and at the same time, it is a game that people want to play. You need to give it all to get that million dollar check. Like I said, it's all about having that perfect balance. And I think Ken it's a great person to start with."

Huh. Supposedly they were not going to start by discussing a winner this time. Then again it made sense, since Ken Masters was one of the biggest highlights of the season, just how Ryu Hoshi was also a big highlight from his season. ...Damn. With only two Street Fighter representatives.

"So,... obviously your run was really fun to watch! I guarantee you people are going to remember you for a while!"

Ken appreciated the compliments. "I mean, wow. I saw my own edit as the season was airing and I think they did really good! In the beginning people were coming to the conclusion that I didn't have the right strategic mind for the game and then later with the Simon boot and all, I've proved the wrong and next thing I knew, I became a fan favorite with one challenge away from winning Survivor. Hahaha! Say all that ten times fast!"

"You were in fact a massive figure." ROB laughed. "Great personality, fun character, was an interesting strategist,... and overall a great person! ...Really a shame we can't have you with us for season five..."

"Hey, Ryu played before me and I just played in the last season. I'm good." Like Panther, Ken seemed to be okay with not coming back for the time being. "I think I would have been considered a massive target out of the gate, anyway and likely going home early."

"Are ya proud of the way you played?"

"I am. I may have not always made the best decisions, such as taking Simon out a couple rounds early. Maybe it was a good thing that Val played her idol on me to get rid of Springtrap. Otherwise, it would have been embarrassing if I went home right after Simon. I should have took him out later. But other than that, I'm... kinda surprised myself! Didn't think I would be one challenge away from winning. I wanted to win when I knew that I actually had a chance, but no matter if I'm the first boot, the last, or even the winner, like... at the end of the day,... not everybody out there has a chance to play a game like this. It's important to appreciate every little thing that comes witih Survivor. Even though you're starving, smelling, and dealing with everybody all the time,... you're still on the show! Make the most of it! It's already important to make the most out of your life, anyway. And in a game such as Survivor where we get to make our own rules, you gotta do the same thing."

"Valid points there." ROB felt like Ken was giving his final juror speech again. "Live your life to the fullest."

"I mean, you only live once." Masters shrugged. "And we all don't know when we'll take our last breath here..."

Deep.

"Ken ended up finishing his season with a lot of fans absolutely loving him." Master Hand was now center focus again. "A few of them were rather angry that he didn't win, even. One more challenge and he would have won that season. Despite that, what an exciting journey. He almost got rid of Chrom out at final five, even when he wasn't the biggest strategical player over all, he wanted him gone just so he could have had a higher shot at winning the final immunity challenge because he knew he was going to be the next to go. And judging by the fact that Chrom actually won that challenge,... it's a shame that things didn't work out in his favor."

"Speaking of challenges, he won five individual immunities breaking Sonic's record!"

"Records are meant to be broken!" The host chuckled. "That man was a beast in challenges. And at final eight, including the time when Val saved him with her idol, he was basically immune for four rounds in a row until the final four. Just impressive to watch him go on an immunity run."

"Well even though Ken didn't win, we still had a great winner in Doc Louis." Oh. Now he was getting to the season's winner. "As well as me thinking that Caribbean is the best season we've ever had so far, I also think that Doc Louis is the best winner the show has ever seen."

"Oh, nice!" He wanted to hear his thoughts. "How so?"

"We can start by the fact that his name was never written down except for once, and that was at the final four when Ken wrote down Doc Louis because he felt that he was biggest threat to win the game and because he was going to vote for him once he was on the jury." Though what about Sonic? His name was never written down at all. "Now you could say that Sonic had no votes cast against him in his season, Doc Louis was never even an option to vote for aside from that one vote. Even Sonic had a huge opportunity to go home in that joint Tribal Council twist. He is the first and only winner that has never found an idol, nor won immunity."

As well as the first non-Smasher to win the game. And the fact that it was a Punch-Out representative of all franchises really made things interesting to look at.

"Even though it may not have appeared he had any shot to even make the merge, he literally proved everybody wrong after fans dismissed him as just 'the guy who was going to be a challenge liability'. He's not a big physical player and he knows it, but his team always had bigger problems to worry about. Sans was being lazy, Kawasaki was messing up the tribe's food, and Ridley was irritating everyone."

"And then when he got to the merge,... did you really think he of all people was going to get the boot there?"

"Ooooof course not."

"Exactly." He pointed his finger at ROB. "A lot of the physical players were going home once the merge hits, and at final seven. Staying under the radar was his overall strategy, and he really used that to his advantage at the final seven where he infamously said that he needed to 'take all the big dogs out', meaning all of the big threats such as Ken, Springtrap, Val, and Vector. Sure, Sonic made his move also at the final seven, but Doc had more of a consistent strategy going for him. Sure at the surface, the final three was rather unsatisfying to some people. It was him, Yoshi, and Chrom. But at the same time,... that was his plan! He sat at the end with two people he knew he could beat, because all of the big players were all the jury. And if the worst part of your game is... not being a physical player of all things, you've probably done something right. In my personal opinion, I think he's a textbook definition of playing an under the radar game. Look no further."

What were the former boxer's thoughts of the game he was playing?

"I mean," Jerome 'Doc' Louis talked. "people on the jury have told me that they weren't even looking at me to be voted out, while also not even thinking of me actually winning Survivor. A few of them were kinda annoyed of Vector surviving so long, Ken starting to have a shot, Simon was aligned with them, and Val up to her elimination was in literally every vote. All this in mind, I faded into the background. And then by the time Ken left, they were all like... 'Who's left now?'"

"Haha, right? That was what I was wondering. But as said, that was your strategy. You wanted to take all the big dogs out and all the big dogs were on the jury."

"People like Ridley and Simon were kinda annoyed of who was left, because they felt Ken deserved the money, but he got taken out at four. Val had a shot to win, she got taken out at five. Vector had a shot to win, he got taken out at six. ...All three of 'em got voted out back to back to back all for being big threats to win... What else was I supposed to do? Sit at the end with them? Then I would have looked stupid in front of everyone."

"I think you did the right thing by voting them out, since well,... you got the votes needed to win the season!"

"Thanks." Doc Louis bobbed his head up and down smiling. "And while I was experiencing Survivor, I had the opportunity to make some friendships, and yes, including Meta Knight."

"Yeah, he was obviously you're number one ally due to him choosing you to be on his team, and how much you didn't support the way Ridley was treating him."

"I just thought it was rather uncalled for. Ridley literally blackmailed him into voting with him to take Kawasaki out, or else he was going to reveal to the entire tribe he had a hidden immunity idol. And then judging him for being a possibility, just because of his small size was ridiculous."

"And yet he was a major reason why you guys won your first challenge."

"Yup." Jerome remembered. "So we became closer and I kinda wanted to give him some coaching, like how I coach Little Mac. My job in America is the motivate people and... kinda make 'em feel good, ya know? Keep their self-esteem up and making them feel important. Everybody has obstacles including myself, so the human in me figured that I needed to help Meta out for his own sake of how to deal with everything going on. Fast forward to what I say, final seven, I figured: 'You know what? Maybe I should take my own advice."

"That's basically what you did to make it a long story short. And also, it was nice to see you make a name for yourself. Now you're not going to just be remembered as Little Mac's coach anymore."

"You know, I wanted to help others, and... I also wanted to see what I was made of. Little Mac told me to give it a shot, and part of me was saying that I was not comin' all the way to the Caribbean for nothin'. I was gonna give it a shot and see where the Survivor Gods were gonna take me, and I just so happened to be the one set to win the season. And... it was all worth goin' out there after all."

There. Done with all the winners and their stories. Moving on.

"Now, ya know how complicated relationships are?" Master Hand asked ROB the robot. "You know in the show you have friends, you have enemies, you have rivalries, all sorts of interesting connections you can make on the island... And the relationship between Meta Knight and Ridley is all of the above."

"Your words do hold some truth to them." He did not disagree. "Ridley did not care for Meta Knight at all solely based off first impressions. He really thought he was going to be a challenge liability because he was small in size... It's kinda crazy if you ask me."

"And then when Joker snitched to Ridley about him finding out that Meta had an immunity idol, Ridley blackmailed Meta Knight into voting with him at the second Tribal Council, or else he tells everyone he had it."

"I mean, I guess it's a little better than the Sheik situation, but still. Kinda nasty from Ridley, hahaha! What's next? Forcing someone to vote out their number one ally? And Kawasaki literally was supposed to be a number for Meta Knight's game, since he voted with Vector and Banjo that round."

"It was a no win situation for him, and it was officially the move that made people dislike Ridley, but really start rooting for Meta Knight. But you know what happened next? Things started to change between the two of them. Meta Knight played a big factor of his team finally winning their first challenge, and he even told Ridley a dark secret that he himself can relate to."

"He did. And it made Ridley really see Meta Knight in a different light." The robot Smasher grinned. "The two grew on each other from there to the point where they were literally on the bottom of the entire game at the merge with Ridley going home at that tribal because no one wanted to work with him due to his behavior and him being a massive physical threat."

"But even after they both got voted out, they continue to grow their relationship at Ponderosa, with Ridley continuing to feel rather guilty of how he behaved to Meta in particular, even realizing that he personally has some work to do."

What was the status of their friendship now? Of course they were both sitting together.

"Okay. Let's just ask the obvious question." Just cutting to the chase. "...Are you two still friends?"

"We have a mutual respect for each other, yes."

"..." Meta Knight blinked and shifted his head towards him. "Just say 'friends'. It is alright..."

"Well we seem to understand each other rather well." Just like in the edit. Why was it so hard for Ridley to say the 'f' word? And not the one most people had in mind...

The small warrior decided to speak for him. "I think it is safe to say he enjoys my company a bit more, now."

Eh. That was something that audience accepted.

"It was really nice for the both of you to grow from being enemies to now becoming friends, basically. And people enjoyed that because it's probably one of the most complex relationships we've seen from the show so far... So Ridley,.. did Meta Knight manage to break through to you?"

"...He did manage to break through to me." Oh, okay. The man was honest about it. Cool beans. "I do own up to me completely misjudging his character, let alone his physical ability out there. But the moment when he informed me of some of the events in the past, I've realized I was wrong about him all along. I did in fact apologize, and the two of us manage to actually... 'hit it off' as some put it."

And Ridley literally almost never apologized to anyone. But Meta was in fact owed one. After all he did to him was simply unnecessary. The fact that the Kirby character managed to have the patience to deal with all that? And actually managed to connect with him on a personal level? It was the reason why people enjoyed watching their relationship unfold.

"So Meta, when you explained to Ridley of your past, you have made Ridley realize that having friendships in life, or at least respecting others is important."

"Indeed it is." He nodded, his feet barely able to leave the seat. "Or at least, it is better than being cruel and heartless all the time. Due to our positions being rather similar regarding us being leaders in our own way, we sort of need to be trusted by others by properly guide them through things. And if we are not trusted, we can't be counted on. For example, I can not just count on my team to do their jobs, they need to rely on me as well. And with actually connecting with them a little bit, it increases the chances of us trusting each other. Ridley was making the exact same mistakes I was making, and it took him coming onto Survivor of all things to make him realize the error of his ways."

"I... I mean..." Ridley was struggling to find a response. He wanted to justify his actions, yet at the same time, he knew he was wrong of how he was acting. "You learn something new everyday."

Decent place to start.

"I suppose even I realize that I am not correct all the time. I am not immune to making errors here and there. And if I realize where I make my mistakes, I may not apologize all the time, but I do own up to them..."

Okay.

"...As for Meta Knight, he is not perfect either.

"And I am well aware of that." The Galaxia wielder maturely responded. "And I never will be. But that is why it is rather important to learn. You strive to be the best person you possibly can, and at times I may need somebody else's perspective on certain matters, and that was basically how I was able to get Ridley to understand that it not necessary to always come off as condescending to everyone else, since the universe does not really revolve around you."

Alright, that low-key ended Ridley right then and there. He sort of shifted his head to the side slightly in a bit of embarrassment.

"However, he has been improving as of late, and I think he would do just fine."

"...I suppose your constructive criticism is appreciated. I will continue to think twice about my actions..."

Nothing wrong with personal growth. Everybody needed that every once in a while.

"So, how about Val?" ROB then asked Master Hand. "Let's talk about her."

"Oh..." He remembered... Well, of course he did. It was the most recent season at that point. "Valery Ramos. One of, if not the most interesting female to have played this game so far. First woman in history to find an idol, and she voted for every last person out of the game for the tribals she attended up to her elimination. She makes the final tribal she would have convinced that jury to vote for her to win. But her main goal was to live up to certain standards and expectations thanks to Foxy's performance in Emperors vs Knights."

"And what happens? She ends up actually outpeaking Foxy making one spot further than him." ROB reminded. "I think she played pretty well, aside from that one mistake, that is."

"And unlike that Wolf situation, this is for what she did do." Master Hand told him. "She was so tired of Springtrap, she decided to use her own idol to send him out of the game, even though later it turned out to not be in her best interest. The better option for her was continue to remain patient like she was doing. For her game, it didn't sound too much of a bad idea, but timing is always everything and this could be a good example."

"But other than that," Crazy Hand's brother continued. "she was playing a great game up to that point. And I think she more than pleased Foxy. She made it to the Loved Ones visit, and she won the Folklore challenge, the same challenge where he himself managed to do in his owns season."

"Realistically speaking though," ROB wanted to ask. "what was the furthest she would have gotten had she waited on getting rid of Springtrap."

"Well, the fans have been saying that if Ken goes at seven, Vector probably still leaves at six since they didn't see him staying over Springtrap." The crocodile would have been the biggest threat to win at that point. "So unless he won immunity, Vector goes. Springtrap might have finally been gone at five if he had no necklace, and Val would have used her idol then to secure her safety. But if it was her against, Chrom, Yoshi, and Doc Louis, Val would have been the biggest threat to win. So her only shot at winning probably would have been if she won final immunity, and unfortunately I of course see Chrom still winning that."

It was then time to introduce the final character for this mini-series.

"...Are you proud of yourself?"

"Definitely. Didn't expect all of this obviously, but looking back at everything, you just can't help but to feel proud of yourself."

The vixen was well pleased of what she was able to accomplish.

"I thought for sure I was going to be gone pre-merge, especially if my team attended that first Tribal Council. But luckily my team won the first two challenges, and I ended up being a swing vote with Springtrap and Rodin by the time we actually went. But overall, I'm proud of the way I played and I'm glad that I've managed to do so well out there."

"What was Foxy's reaction after he finally saw your torch being snuffed?"

"Well that was at the live reunion show when the finale was being broadcasted." Val informed. "And after that part of the episode finished, Foxy gave me a big long hug backstage and I busted into tears reliving it all."

"What's the relationship between the two of you?" ROB needed to learn more.

"Business wise, he's my partner in crime. But in real life, he is literally the older brother that I never had." Awww. "We've known each other for so long and this only makes us closer than ever, now that we've both been on Survivor."

"Well, you wanted to show the universe that you have similar intelligence Foxy, and you happened to make a name for yourself on the island, even lasting one more day than Foxy."

"That was the absolute last thing I expected." Ramos said. "I woke on day thirty-seven, and there were four people left other than me. And I was like, '...Oh my god. I've actually done it.' Yoshi was like 'You did it, Val!' He was excited for me because he was one of my strongest allies and I told him a lot about Foxy and he knew how much it meant to me to outperform Foxy in Survivor... The last thing I ever thought of was outperforming him in anything. But I did it... Would have made final four if not for that one mistake I made, but other than that, I wouldn't change a thing."

"Master Hand told me you would have been a guaranteed lock to be on Heroes vs Villains on the Heroes tribe, but instead, look who's coming to play again. Hahaha!"

"If anything, Foxy deserves to be on season five." She was clearly okay with herself not being on Survivor again. "The main thing I was feeling guilty about was me being in the Caribbean of all things, because... me and Foxy perform as pirates in our career, and we discuss about the Caribbean a lot regarding that."

Due to movie 'Pirates of the Caribbean', which was a movie a lot people were aware of.

"So with me being in the Caribbean playing Survivor and not him? Why shouldn't I have felt guilty about that? But luckily I brought him out there for the loved ones challenge and won the folklore challenge. That was my way of making it up to him. And with him coming back, knowing that the next season of Survivor is going to be in the Caribbean again, it's what he deserves for missing out in season four. Now I just need to hope that he wins Heroes vs Villains."

Well for Val's sake, it was best to keep him in her prayers.

Annnnd that's it! Done with this 5th anniversary special thing! Thank you all for tuning in!

So now that this is over, I will officially begin work for season five... this week. ...My first All Star season of this series will be happening in a few months time, and I'm gonna be jumping out of my skin. Didn't think it would ever be at this point.

By the way, if you want my honest thoughts on the real show itself in case you're wondering if I'm still actually watching it? ...Well, not gonna lie, but... I stopped watching after season 40. Honestly, the show ain't it anymore in my opinion. I may not have been the biggest fan of David vs Goliath (season 37) as other people, but at least I saw the appeal of that as to why it was acclaimed. But other than that, the last great season for me was... season 33... and they're getting ready to show season 43 in September. Nearly ten seasons since the last great one for me personally, and I didn't even start watching live until the middle of 35 after I found the show on accident. But the show just isn't that good anymore due to multiple things, but that's another topic in itself.

On another note, Emperors vs Knights is seeing a resurgence right now. Thank you SuperSonicHeroes for taking time out of your day to read some of my older pieces of work just to catch up lol. I haven't actually responded to your reviews yet, but I appreciate the support greatly nonetheless.

And like I said guys, for those of you who are wishing to catch up, there is still time. Hope you all have a great summer. I'll see you with the pre-season in August!