Naruto 638 Review.

Hello everyone and welcome to my review for this very early chapter of Naruto. I wasn't expecting this chapter to come out a day earlier but its a very pleasant surprise for me. you can check out last week's chapter review here.
Last week's chapter ended with Obito absorbing the Jyuubi and becoming its host, resulting in this new creature called Jobito ( non-cannon but its catchy). We start the chapter with a glimpse of how he became the new Jnichuriki, the way he sealed the ten tails seems very similar to how he uses his Kamui technique to me.

Either way Obito absorbs the Ten tails completely it seems, and just like how every Jinchuriki has some sort of physical characteristic of their  tailed beast ( Naruto's whiskers, Roshi's red hair) Obito also develops some changes thanks to absorbing the Jyuubi.

Naruto sums up the absorption process quite nicely, he knows what the chakra of the other tailed beasts looks like and saw all of them enter Obito, also the seal that Obito used is different than the one Nagato had when he revived everyone, Although it should be noted that Madara almost did manage to force Obito into reviving him in the previous chapter and that Obito's current white hair is due to the fact that he Almost completed in reviving Madara.

Oddly enough we don't see the image of Obito actually using the seal in the panel of him and Nagato, although its a bit dark so its hard to tell, either way it is a different seal but at the start Obito was controlled hard by Madara. Bee final makes a reappearance and the Hachibi is looking in bad shape without all its teeth, it mentions that the Ten tails had yet to reach its full form, this means its probably not as powerful as it would have been had Obito sealed it later.

Whether or this means the Jyuubi will reach its final form is questionable now, but if we assume Obito can absorb natural energy it should, if not then its a good thing it got sealed before it reached its full potential.

Even without reaching full power though, the new Jobito is incredibly powerful, able to remove the barrier that was used on it before in seconds as well as resisting Hashirama's famous Mokuten control that he has on all the Tailed beasts. Hachibi sums it up by saying that Jobito isn't stronger than when it was free, its powers have simply been more focused, something we know happened earlier with another tailed beast.

Its quite Ironic that Obito caught both of the mindless Tailed beasts, oh well such is life. The destruction of the barrier means we will probably see the Kages be more active in the fight now, due to the fact that they no longer have to sustain anything, Kishi also hints at possibly another path the story might take with this panel.

The focus on the moon in this panel is a strong foreshadow to me at least that we might see more of the ten tails evolution, since its "True" body is said to be sealed in the moon somewhere, what that means right now is sketchy but I think we haven't seen the last of the Jyuubi's evolutions yet.

Still even the strain of containing the current Jinchuriki seems to put a large strain on the already unstable Obito as he cant seem to even remember who he is, it would be pure irony if the only power that could revive Rin turns out to be a power that causes you to forget everything, ahh how delicious that would be.

Hashirama admits to being weaker than Obito, and apparently Madara is bored of waiting and decides to use his Trump card now, I cant really imagine what this is in anyway, but I'm guessing its some sort of method to control Obito, it really cant be anything else can it? The only other option is if he can somehow bring back the Original sage of six paths but zombies bringing back zombies seems so lame to me.

Chapter ends with Obito ripping the first two Kages into pieces, its brutal and a strong demonstration of his amazing power, the speed to surprise those two and the ability to just take them apart is quite scary, its a stronger demonstration to me than all the nuclear missiles the Jyuubi fired in its beast form. Still I don't imagine he has anyway of actually sealing the ET Kages so while impressive its hardly anything to get excited about, I'd have preferred him to tear someone else apart, someone irreplaceable to the story like Tenten or Shino but two zombies? meh.

Conclusion.

I really have no predictions right now as this story is spinning out of control, after many chapters of utter predictability its nice to see the story advance in a way I really have no idea how it will go. Because of this I think this chapter deserves a 4 out of 5.

Naruto 637 Review

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's review of Naruto 637, If you would like to read my review of chapter 636 please click  here.

Last week I asked if Obito was redeemed in his final moments when it looked like he was going to die and a vast majority (38 votes) said that no, Obito's performance didn't change their opinion of him at all and that they still considered him a loser. A much smaller group said that Obito was in fact redeemed when it seemed like he might die ( only 8 votes) and 5 people thought Obito was always awesome.
Me personally I find that I liked him a bit more in the last chapter, true he will never be as cool as when he had his mask on and called himself Tobi. But Obito is hugely motivated by love and that's something I think we can relate to, sure he's way overboard and crazy but at least I can understand what he feels a little.

But enough of last week, lets talk about this chapter now.

Madara's manipulation of  Obito's body starts us off and we get a minor flashback to their first meeting and how Obito thanked him. Its quite surprising to think that from the moment they met Madara saw Obito as nothing more than a guy he will some day either convince or force to give up his life for. Its sad to think how low Madara would go.

Hashirama senses the chakra that's being formed and asks either Naruto or Sasuke to stop him, its a bit hard to tell which one he is referring to but either way Sasuke responds first and charges on to stop Obito. While they prepare to stop Obito the Kages finally get a bit more involved in the story, with Hashirama and his brother sending their clones to distract Madara and the 4th recognizing that Obito = Masked man and uses his teleporting jutsu to get to him.

Where is the third Hokage anyways? feels weird to see the other Kages taking action and he's just disappeared, then again its not something new since a lot of other characters are apparently standing around and doing nothing except watch as team 7 + Hokages do all the work.

Its sad to see young Obito being told never to give up and how things will change for him in the future. While the fourth probably meant that if he kept trying one day Rin would like him back, Obito instead took the darkest meaning possible to never giving up and continued to try to be with Rin decades after she has already died.

Most Epic Panel.

I loved this page a lot, the way it time has changed everything for those two men. In one panel Minato is encouraging a young Obito and in another he is trying to kill him. I cant write too much about it aside from the fact that I found it beautiful.

Obito's hair loses its color very much like Nagato did before he died. That along with his black half makes him look identical to Zetsu, I wonder how much of Madara's will is inside Obito as well.

The fourth mentions how his mark never leaves a target, so once marked he can teleport to anyone anytime he wants and he marked Obito in their fight way earlier. Still even Hyuuga seals disappear up death so for a seal to last 17 years is a bit skeptical for me. 

The chapter ends with Obito surprising everyone ( well at least I myself was surprised) and becoming the Jyuubi's host, I did not see that coming at all and I gotta wonder why he didnt just become the Jinchuriki from the start since that would have made more sense to me.

Whether its due to being betrayed by Madara or it was his plan all along, this war now has developed into a 3-way fight between the alliance, a Jinchuriki Obito and Madara.

Predictions.

My prediction of Orochimaru being the host of the ten tails is an impossible dream now sadly, I really expected him to show up and do something about it but it seems Obito will become the new host. Still here's my thoughts on what could possibly happen.

* Madara might ignore or even help the alliance in order to kill Obito, he will be enraged that his "puppet" has become the thing he aimed to be from the start.

* If Obito does use the infinite Tsukiyomo, the only person who could stop it now would be Madara as he has infinite chakra as well as the Eternal Mangkyo.

* How the other Kages will get involved is a bit hard to see now however I can imagine if Madara forgives Obito for his betrayal then we will have the alliance split into two forces, one to face Obito and the other to face Madara.

Conclusion.

I really enjoyed this chapter, I like the dynamic between Obito and his sensei and even though we barely got a glimpse of it here I enjoyed what we got and hope for more. Sasuke continues to ignore everyone and do his own thing which I find refreshing and interesting. I look forward to seeing how the story goes and give this chapter a 4 out of 5.

Naruto 636 Review

Hello everyone and welcome to my review of Naruto 636, to read my review of last week's chapter click here.

Last week I asked if you guys think any of the Kages should have died when they fought Madara. The majority of voters (66%) said that yes, at least some of them should have died, while roughly 20% said no, they shouldn't die and the remaining 14% said they werent sure. Personally I believe at the very least Oonoki and Tsunade should die, I mean now we got 5 more kages fighting Madara, it seems like way too many characters in one place and I am not sure how Kishi will give them all the attention they need.

Anyways onwards to today's review

This is one of the most Kakashi-centric chapters to come out, and its pretty awesome just for that. Whoever predicted that last week's ending was genjutsu, congrats to you as you were correct, Kakashi and Obito's mutual piercing turned out to be just a trick. It seems every battle between two Sharingan users starts out with a genjutsu duel, as this also happened between Sasuke and Itachi when they fought.

Seeing this panel reminded me of Kakashi's very first fight against Zabusa and how he said almost the exact same thing, which leads me to believe that like with Zabusa, Kakashi will probably deliver the finishing blow against Obito.

I loved the various flashbacks between the current fight and a fight they had before when they were kids. It was interesting to see the differences that time has had on those two men, were as before as children Obito was definitely the "good guy" to Kakashi and people would have cheered for him instead, now as adults their roles have completely switched, ironically this reversal was caused by each of them adopting the other's philosophy in life.

Obito became a lot more like Kakashi after being crushed, he abandoned all sense of friendship and ties to people and believed accomplishing his mission of reviving Rin to be the most important thing in his life. Kakashi though became more like Obito, caring more about people and putting their well fare above everything else.

A lot of Kakashi's thoughts are about Naruto this chapter, because Naruto reminds him the most of the past Obito, the guy who made Kakashi a better man. While its too late to change the current Obito into a good guy ( and I personally hope he doesnt, he should die evil) the current Naruto is just what Kakashi imagines Obito could have been.

The past and present fight end in the same way, in both cases Kakashi won but unlike before where Minato was around to stop the fight, in this dimension its just both men and unlike before where it ended with a peace sign between them, here it does infact end the same way as it did in the genjutsu earlier. Both of them did pierce each other but its clear that Obito's wound is far more serious than Kakashi's.

The battle ends with Obito retreating back to the real world, quick question, can Kakashi use Kamui on himself to get out of this alternate dimension? I cant remember and I hope someone can refresh my memory on this.

Meanwhile Madara is growing bored of his fight with Hashirama's clones, and notices that Obito has returned and is severly injured, instead of helping him out Madara immediately uses the chakra receivers and Zetsu cells Obito has in his body ( the ones he used to replace his entire right side of the body) to control him and force Obito to revive him.

Its a sad ending for Obito, this technique kills the user so its almost guaranteed he will die to revive Madara, and while he did become a bit boring after taking his mask off, I found that Obito thinking of Rin in his last moments to be a bit touching. Its also a little ironic to think that for a peson who manipulated people from his first appearance, Obito was never even fully in control of his body, Madara could have forced him to perform the technique whenever he felt like it but instead allowed him to run around on a whim, and when he decided to revive himself he simply forced Obito to use the technique.

A sad ending for the character most of us saw as a master manipulator.

Predictions

well this chapter set up a few possibilities, but lets start with the most obvious one.

* Madara revives himself, fairly obvious but I dont know if this is actually an advantage for him or not, sure he can be the Jyuubi host but with an undead body he is immortal and has unlimited chakra, plus who can say that Madara can contain the Jyuubi anyways?

* Obito might not die from using this technique, I think this is more likely because we saw how in the past Minato stopped the fight between Kakashi and Obito, and I get the feeling that this time Naruto will stop Kakashi from killing Obito, sort of a generation thing.

Ratings.

I loved this chapter, I've been waiting for a Kakashi chapter for a long time so naturally I'd love anything including him, even so his fight with Obito was well done and the chapter had a pretty awesome cliffhanger. It seems this war arc is finally shaping up cause the last few chapters have been quite decent, Obito's death ( or soon to be death) hit me a bit more than I thought it would to be honest, Although I felt this fight was a bit rushed and could have been expanded upon, I still think this chapter deserves a 5 out of 5.

Comparing Different Ad Networks Review.

Sadly I have not been accepted for Google Adsense despite applying for them a few times, its a little disheartening but I am very interested in finding a way to monetize this blog.

So I am going to be testing out different Ad Networks to find out what their CPM rates are and use the best one hopefully. I'll be using a few over the next few weeks and this is the current list I have.



Cpmleader.
Cpmgo.
Fidelity Media.

Hopefully I can find some results that will interest other bloggers like me who cant get Adsense but still wish to benefit from their traffic, drop me a message if you have some good alternatives to the networks mentioned above.

Naruto 634 Review.

Hey everyone, the latest chapter of Naruto just came out and I'm glad I have the time to review it, luckily my final exams have been pretty easy and havent eaten the giant chunk of time I expected them to take.

To read my review of chapter 633 click here.

Last week's poll was split almost evenly between all the techniques the rookie 9 showed, Shino's bugs were considered the most impressive though so congrats to him, oddly enough Kiba who I thought displayed the most amazing skill of all ( come on, how awesome is Cerebrus?) got almost no votes at all. Anyways lets talk about this week's chapter.

The chapter starts out with a pretty sweet panel of team 7 on their respective summon, Naruto immediately asks how Gamakachi got this big, which is a fair question considering that he didn't get much bigger in the 2.5 years time skip yet he got huge since the invasion of Pein arc not too long ago, but alright lets not nitpick here.

( Anyone wondering what Bunta is doing? what is more important that fighting the Jyuubi right now?)

Its interesting to see the sheer size of the Jyuubi when compared to the summons, they seem tiny next to it and their gigantic in their own rights.

I gotta admit, I like the new snake summon, I think this is the first snake summon we get who isn't a complete jackass, the Mandas were pretty annoying but this new guy is quite awesome. Also some people seem to think its wrong that Sasuke can still summon snakes but that seems pretty normal to me, he probably made a pact with them just like Naruto did with the toads.

Its weird to think though that while the new generation of Sanin get their own summons, Sakura is stuck with Katsuya again, would have been interesting if she got her own summon like her team mates did.

 

So team 7 charges ahead with their summons, well 2/3 of them do and Sakura stays behind, a little disappointing in my opinion that she isn't going forward and killing stuff to, I mean all she did since her big powerup was one gigantic punch and then summoning Katsuya to heal, I would have liked a big more punching from her. But it seems we wont be getting that.

 Loving the combination of Susanno and Aoda, by combining the massive mobility of the snake with the sheer power of Susanno, Sasuke is really a lethal force. I get the feeling this might be a foreshadow of a Kyuubi/Susanno combo in the future, something we already saw Madara perform in the past. 

We get a small montage of the rookie 9 wishing the best, and yet again, Lee and Tenten are gone. What is up with that? I mean sure Lee already had a small moment when he and Naruto attacked the Uchiha duo like 10 chapters ago, but since then he's been missing for too long. You'd think Tenten as one of the best long range fighters would be seen throwing some kunai or something but nope, she's invisible too it seems.

Also Sakura sure seems awfully proud of Sasuke this chapter too, crying just from watching his techniques? yeah sorry Naru/Saku fans, Kishi is killing that pairing hard.

The wind/fire combo was mentioned 300 chapters ago and its nice to see it finally combined here between Sasuke and Naruto, and whats more it looks like it actually did damage the Jyuubi for once ( which it will heal off by the next chapter of course). The combination though did kind of make Naruto say something a little weird.

Well, whatever makes you happy Naruto.

Juugo sure gets a lot of attention for a guy who just stands around doesn't he? and it seems Sai might be suspecting something as well, I like this development a lot, its nice to think that Sasuke might have some hidden motives for what he does rather than just being this good guy all of a sudden.

Love this last panel, after weeks of speculating what Orochimaru is doing and where he is, we finally find out, he's gone to help Tsunade, and that's probably why he needed Karin as well since she's an amazing sensor and could help him find her ( also for her healing abilities as well). Whether or not Orochimaru intends to help though is another question, but this is honestly one of the best cliffhangers we've had for a long time and I'm excited for next week's chapter.

Predictions.

Obviously the biggest  prediction to make right now is what is Orochimaru up to? he's either there to kill the Kages ( or in some way harm them) Or he's there to heal them, me I don't think he means to help them, it just doesn't seem like something he would do. Then again a reunion of those two Sannin is quite exciting to look forward to.

Rating.

A really good chapter this week, which is a relief considering how last week was pure fanservice, while the story didnt actually move forward much here, the pieces were set up nicely, mainly with Orochimaru, its amazing how that guy can make a chapter better just by appearing in one panel, but he pulls it off here nicely, this chapter gets a 4 out of 5 from me.

Naruto 560 Review

Hey everyone, its been too long since I the last time I reviewed Naruto, life has recently been very hectic and I havent had the time I needed to review, but thankfully at least I have the chance to write about this awesome chapter.

Our chapter starts with a beautiful panel of ma-Tobi staring intensely at us, Unluckily this is all we see of Tobi for this chapter as the scene follows Madara and Muu engaging the long range division + Naruto.
Madara immediately notes his enemies all have one kind of forehead protector while Onoki tells us that he has no idea who the man in the mask is, in my opinion that might mean that whoever Tobi is, is someone who is thought to be long dead.

Madara knows who the man in the mask is though, unfortunately he doesnt refer to him by name, but he does say that things arent going according to plan, which hints that Madara must know who Tobi is, Madara then asks who is using Impure Resurrection...

Kabuto introduces himself to Madara, I had originally thought that Kabuto talked to the person in the coffin before he showed him to Tobi but this is their first meeting together, I like how Madara dismisses Kabuto just like Tobi did.

Its kinda funny to think how Kabuto knew Tobi wasnt Madara from their first meeting, it puts all their previous conversations in a new light.

Kabuto then proceeds to tell Madara about how his summoning is special and he is "beyond himself at his prime"   Their conversation is cut short by an attack from Gaara.

Madara decides to prove himself as the greatest Uchiha, and what better way then showing his mastery of fire techniques?

While ugly, the above images shows the allies working together well, I love elements and was impressed by how quickly the cannon fodder managed to make a wall of water to protect themselves, against someone of Madara's power this is quite a show.

Madara then proceeds to go into good old fashioned Taijutsu, moving like a cyclone he cuts up members of the alliance while Naruto prepares himself to take him on, Gaara's protective nature shows itself again as he protects a fellow ninja from Madara's sword, then proceeds to grab it while another shinobi holding something suspiciously similar to Zabuza's sword, plan doesnt work though but the Ninja army does show that its not useless in this chapter.

Muu, finding the killing too slow for his liking tries to aid Madara but luckily while split from his body he cannot use Dust techniques, Onoki not realising this tells the sensors to keep an eye on Muu anyways.

I love the teamwork in this picture, all the allies immediately retreat as Naruto approaches, knowing how large his area of effect is, while Onoki raises the ground itself to give Madara less time to react to Naruto's technique, the whole plan is helped by just how beautiful the whole page is.

Its all for naught though as Madara reveals that he himself has ( Perhaps the original?) Ultimate defense.

Madara's Susanoo looks the closest to Satan that we have seen so far, which ties in well to what the Kyuubi said, that Madara has more evil chakra then it does, Onoki doesnt seem to know that Madara has Susanoo and the Mangkyo Sharingan, I'm guessing that they had their fight before Madara acquired those powers, showing how much Madara has improved since then as well as how old Onoki is ( he fought pre-mangkyo Madara :/  )


Gaara and Naruto have a plan to handle this though, what is this Plan G? the allies really are working well with co-ordinating and figuring out the enemy, Madara, wanting to be productive decides to kill some no-names while he waits for their next attack.

Another impressive attack ( Yes you can make a drinking game out of how much I praised the alliance army this review) Naruto charges in with his Rasenshuriken and Gaara does a trick we just saw earlier this chapter...

Madara gets dragged around a lot doesnt he?

A rasenshuriken that close, no way it can miss right?

Unless of course Madara is like Pein and has some sort of Preta path to absorb Chakra but that would be a ridicules asspu-

 .....Oh...

Madara reminds us of why he is the strongest uchiha by activating the Rinningan, it seems that Kakashi might be right and that it is just some sort of mutation, Tobi saying he "gave" it to nagato might be further evidence of that...

Kabuto seems to think the same thing also, or at least that the Rinnengan is a stage higher then the eternal Mangkyo sharingan ( this news will make Uchiha fans so happy)...

Kabuto thinks that with Madara he now has some powers of the sage himself, but even dead and decaying Madara proves to us just how defiant he is.

Two heads are not better then one in this situation!

Madara has taken everything we know and taken it up a notch ( or 12) by using a two headed Susanno which can apparently use seals itself we are in for a show.

Our chapter ends with its best panel, a giant metorite is heading towards the allied army and there really doesnt seem to be anyway to get rid of it, with our heroes trapped underneath it, its unlikely everyone will get out alive.... ( Short of Kakashi wrapping it away or Onoki using some amazing technique)

And thats all folks, hope you enjoyed this review, I know i certainly missed writing all this stuff, till ( Hopefully) next week and have a great week

Survivor South Pacific episode 5 review

Howdy, sorry for missing last episode's review, damn life is getting in the way of blogging for you guys.

Well lets get to it :D

-After the recap we get the touching Stacy-Christine reunion, Stacy getting so much attention pretty much confirms that she will lose redemption island, or atleast she should, her damn cliches are getting annoying.

"The grass is always greener on the other side"

And her chucky cheese too.

-Albert is a pretty smart guy, my bet for an Upolu player winner.

- Coach has an interesting response to Redemption island, informing the tribe that his own mom calls him coach since he was 18....
Does anyone else think that Coach might be the sane one in family?

-Ozzy is being quite an ass to Cochran, course he is doing it to impress his bimbo of the season.

-Speaking of Elice, whats up with her and coch?

-Ozzy revealing that Coach should vote out Albert was a big mistake, you dont say something like that when you're standing next to the strongest guys in the tribe.

-Albert is reading the signs right, but showing his clue to Coach and Sophie really just confirms what stacy said about who runs the tribe.

-Coach with the HII? that used to be just a myth, but now it actually happened, Coach has grabbed the game by the balls, he even told his "little dragon" to go back inside the tent....

-Cochran is a bit too judgmental on Ozzy, the guy fishes for you dude and he gets fish, fishing aint as easy as chopping coconuts.

-Rick got a line this episode!, sure it was short but "thats nice"

-Disgusting challenge, I think they did this in amazon right? either way it was just gross

-Close as hell, the two tribes really are well matched and it comes down to just two ounces, who will win this?

-Its official, God has joined Coach's fan club, if you thought coach was sitting pretty before, well he now has the Almighty on his side.....oh and Brandon

-For your reward, you can take all the food you spit on, nice.

-Did Albert remind you of anyone when he ate the reward? anyone? "Oh my god its so good"

"You cannot fathom the goodness that it is"

-So its the showdown we have all been waiting for, Ozzy vs Jim ( or Cochran, but I think Jim was the guy who got the plan to go down)

-Jim really showed his survivor-smarts this episode, utilizing Ozzy's single mistake to get rid of his best ally? I like it.

-Keith is the swing vote on this, its too bad that he seems so slow on the uptake, no Keith, you dont tell Ozzy you're voting out his strongest ally.

-Whitney mentions how she wants to weazel out of the vote, foreshadowing anyone? but then again survivor is all about foreshadowing.

-Tribal therapy starts and Jeff focuses early on the challenge and asks about their injuries, I personally loved the fact that Dawn lost a tooth and just doesnt care, woman is tough.

-Did anyone feel really bad for Cochran this tribal? most of his tribe took crap shots on him and it was just heartbreaking, especially as i find this his funniest tribal so far.

-Whitney and Keith worked well in this, they appeared ignorant or weak to the rest of the tribe while getting rid of who they wanted, swing votes are dangerous as hell.

-Bye bye Elice, looks like Christine might have a tough Redemption challenge for once.


And thats all folks, hope you enjoyed the episode as much as i did as well as this review.

Survivor South Pacific episode 3 review

Hello and welcome to my very first Survivor review, while I had hoped to review the first two episodes I'll be content with starting from the third episode for now.

Anyways on to the review

After the vote.

 After voting out Christie we see her arrival at Redemption Island complaining about how much she dislikes coach calling him " King farook", since we dont get any interview from samhar I took that as a hint that Samhar is leaving the game.

Back on camp Brandan is starting to feel a bit guilty as he should, although he is still trying to get mikayla voted out.

Redemption island.

Coach really wants to go to redemption island to see Christie leave the game, somewhat petty of him but hey thats Coach for you? his tribe letting him go shows that Coach does have some standing with them, Stacy also wants to go, to support her (only?) ally in the game.

The challenge is the same as the final challenge in Samoa with the contestents holding a stick with an idol on top, really thats pretty much it.

Before we start we are treated to one of Samhar's.....Poems where she talks about getting naked and having 10 children and then another, at least the everyone else seemed as annoyed by it as me.

Challenge begins with Probst telling the the duelist to " get it where you want it" Really Probst?
From the start Samhar seems to lack the focus that Christie has, Christie wants it and she holds it with a deathgrip, while Samhar swayed a few times until finally...

Yeap Samhar is the first person out of the game, but before she left she gave Christie her jacket and that was a sweet gesture.

Back in camp

Brandan decides that its time his whole tribe knows who he is, so he gathers his whole tribe and shows them his tattoos, which didnt seem to get much of a reaction ( except for a jawdrop from stacy)
Personally I dont see what he gets from telling them he is related to Russel, hell even coach thinks that Brandon made a mistake, Coach does seem to be playing the game differently this time doesnt he?

After making a scene Brandon decides to get even more attention by having a confrontation with Mikayla when she asks him if he wants her gone and he goes completely defensive and then has the nerve to say that he is trying to apologize, wonder what he looks like when he is trying to threaten someone?

To prove his sanity, Brandon gathers his tribe Again, this time to get them to tell Mikayla that the tribe doesnt trust her and asking them who is loyal to her, the scene only truly becomes ironic when Brandon goes " just keep me out of the drama, god!"

Brandon's little outburst does nothing except make him and Mikayla cry, sad moment really :/

To have Coach point out the idiocy in Brandan's actions makes it obvious just how much of loose cannon brandon is.

Immunity Challenge

I dont like those duel immunity/reward challenge, get rid of Redemption island and give us back the good old 2 challenge an episode days.

Probst describes the challenge, its one of those physical followed by puzzle challenges, but it is new at least.

for Savaii Ozzy and Dawn are the runners, Savaii has trouble just giving Ozzy enough rope to get his flags, while Upolu has Albert, Mikayla and brandon as their runners, advantage shifts back and forth and both tribes reach the puzzle part at the same time, and here Coach gets Upolu a big advantage by hooking all five of their pieces at record piece, if you cant tell by now yes Coach did impress me a lot this episode.

Probst: Coach is getting all the pieces, what a great hooker

Upolu finishes the puzzle before Savaii even unwraps all their pieces, while the first few challenges were close this was Upolu's day.

Savaii heads back dejected and its immediately obvious that its Papa bear or Cochran for the chop, the alliance of Ozzy decide to vote out PB but tell Cochran that they will tell PB that they are voting Cochran tonight so Papa Bear doesnt ask any questions, yeah.....that'll help Cochran's security issues.

Sensing his tribe is lying to him PB decides to take matter into his own hands and rushes into the forest, making sure he is seen in the process, he then digs a hole in the ground and comes back to camp " with a noticeable Bulge in his pants" as Cochran describes it, his tribe are worried about PB's bulge and everyone wonders if he has the immunity idol...

Except Ozzy who already has it of course, lets hope he knows when to use it this time.

Tribal council

A rather dull TC this time, nothing really noticeble happened and after an explosive tribal last week this TC just felt stale.

Cochran tries to convince everyone that he isnt a physical weakness while PB tries to convince them that he is.

I wasnt quite sure who was going to get voted out, but i was leaning towards PB as he was given quite a lot of screentime this week, and my predictions were...

Correct, for once :D

Papa Bear got voted out, despite the fact that the tribe thought he might have had an idol, wonder if anything happened behind the scenes to convince them otherwise?

Next week is Papa Bear vs Christie for redemption ( On the fence on who to support for that) While Cochran grasps power in his tribe and Brandan costs even more drama despite trying to keep out of any drama in his tribe.

Survivor: South Pacific pre-season thoughts.

Hey everyone, Survivor is coming back ( like it always does, after 22 season can that show die?) and with its new season called Survivor: South Pacific they will future the same "twists" that they did in the last season, which are The Returning players and Redemption island.

The Returning players.


Lets start with a short history lesson shall we?


Last season started this new tradition of putting in two old players along with new contestants, before this we had 2 all stars seasons and one  fan vs fan favorites season, season 20 named Heroes vs Villains showed us one of the greatest survivor rivalries ever, the one between Boston Rob and Russel Hants, as a guy who watched about 15 seasons of survivor ( yes I skipped a few that I hear sucked a bit) it definitely set up season 20 as something special.
So who won?

Russel won their rivalry  ( dont get mad at me, I am just stating who got voted out first) during the reunion show Rob challenged Russel and said he could "kick his ass all over the island" and that comment brought us Survivor Redemption Island.

After such an epic rivalry and indeed epic season CBS decded it cant just end at that, we need more R &R and brought both these players back for season 22.

Unfortunately,  Season 22 bombed.Hard. it wasnt a complete train wreck, but I reckon I'll never watch it again.

Firstly there wasnt any Rob vs Russel, which is odd considering that Jeff Probst in one of his youtube videos said it "plays out nicely, you'll all love it"  Instead they were put on different tribes and didnt speak to each other until Russel was sent to Redemption Island....

After Russel got voted out, the show quickly devolved to focus on Rob and Rob alone, with perhaps a bit of Philip if you're (un)lucky.

“Hell hath no fury like a lion and a gorilla when he thinks he’s been provoked.”

So season 22....a bad spot in survivor really, But unlike my initial thoughts that both the Returning players and Redemption island will be scrapped, both have returned.

So who is coming back this season?

If you havent heard yet, there will be 18 players this season, 16 new contestants and two "Favourites" and who are our two returning players?

Well the first one is a famed warrior, a wizened philosopher, a noble soul,  a man far traveled who has gone to the ends of the world and beyond and trained in martial arts passed from generation to generation,he is a warrior, a poet, a Dragonslayer.

Coach is back for the third time, debuting in Survivor Tocantines coach has been quite a dividing individual, most people either love him or hate him, he's that kind of character where you either despise everything he does or enjoy them.

Is coach coming back a good thing?

Well Coach gets a lot of focus, no doubt about that, not as bad as Rob last season but he takes up a lot of screen time, however to be honest I find coach to be entertaining, I mean who came up with lines like " “Sierra is the bowl movements that comes out of the dragon." Or another like " As iron sharpens iron, so must man sharpen man" Who can come up with gold like that?

I wrote a poem too

If Coach doesnt steal the show completely, then I have no real problem with him, sure its unfair for survivor to put back people who have played before (Twice!) instead of new players who havent had a chance yet, but its their show, we can complain about it all we want, but we cant really change that.

As for the second returning player?

Well he's not really as prominent as coach, he played in the Cook Islands ( an underrated season) and Fans vs favorites and is generally a decent guy, he is probably more famous for his challenge prowess then anything else.

Manly hairstyle

Oscar Ozzy also comes back to play the game for the third time, unlike the other 3 returning players Ozzy isnt as much of a base breaker so there isnt as much to say about him.

Whether this season works better then the last will determine a lot on how much attention those returning players get, Redemption island ignored everyone that wasnt Rob and gave him his own show and while  Rob did some pretty outstanding moves ( throwing a clue into a volcano after reading it? Beautiful) he made the season practically unwatchable after the 4th episode.

Still it remains to be seen how it will play out with these two, its already been announced that they will be on opposite tribes ( Upolu and Savaii) and hey at least one person is happy to have those two back

So thats our first twist, whats the second one?

Redemption Island is back

Redemption island returns this season, with a bit of changes this time.

If you didnt watch the last season, then Redemption Island is where players who are voted out compete against other players who were voted out and return to the game later on at some pre-determined stage.

I liked the aspect of " The tribe has spoken"  and then having that person get voted out, redemption island cheapens that a bit by allowing them to come back to the game, the only other season that did that was way back in the Pear Islands where 6 players who were voted out got to make their own tribal council and vote 2 players back in the game and that caused a lot of fans to rage a bit.

Many seasons later, we still dont like players coming back after being voted out.

Redemption island takes far too much time from the show and whats worse it replaces the Reward challenge which I always loved, watching two tribes battle it out in some swimming contest then run and do a puzzle or having them navigate blindfolded tribemates to clues is more exciting then watching two players who arguably dont deserve to be in the game, stack bricks or something >.>

Of course we might still get those big challenges as immunity challenges but we get half as many now in this season as we did in previous ones.

As for the changes mentioned? well Redemption island will not have group challenges anymore, they will all be duels, last season we had 8 players competing in the finale, unlike most where we have 4-5 players.
Not a major change really.

For me, I'd have preferred a good old fashioned survivor season, two challenges per episode, 18 new players, no redemption, but who knows this might work out better then last season ( it could hardly get worse)

What do you guys think? will these new twists ruin this season? how do you feel about Coach and Ozzy playing for a third time?

I'll leave you now with a picture of a cat begging for a comment or two :D