I've moved this from edgic at KQ's suggestion.
find it fascinating how, in each season, little family configurations seem to ally and hold tight, and how the members of each 'family' end up in the F4. Almost all of us grew up in families of some kind--mother (M), father (F), kids (S,D=son, daughter), maybe an eccentric uncle/grandparent type (E) in the mix. Under stressful conditions, people naturally reproduce a time in their lives when they felt safest. All of us can be mothers, fathers, weird people, kids, yet we typically feel more comfortable in one of these roles more than others when we find ourselves in social groups. So it goes for the survivors, also. Some of them we've even named for their role (e.g., "Mama Kim").
Those of us who are psychologically minded sense that there are all kinds of dynamics that play out between siblings, between children and their parents, and between parents and their 'weird' relations. I've had fun watching these patterns get re-enacted on Survivor, season after season.
I went back and looked at the F4 for all the seasons, put a * by who won and a - by 2nd place, and classified their editing as one of these four family characters. I did this pretty quickly, and my memory about some people is alittle spotty so please(!) feel free to change them (and I can't even remember who Matt was in S6--horrors!). These are ordered within F4 by likeability as rated by Kirblar in the Overdogs, Underdogs.. thread who noted that the most liked player rarely wins (top=most likable to bottom=least). I also listed Kernel's edgic ratings for each player (from their original seasons):
Final 4s:
S1:
Rudy: E MOR
Rich: F* CPN
Kelly: D- CPP
Sue: M CPN
...so Rudy was most likeable, edited middle of the road, eccentric, Rich won as 2nd most likeable and was edited as a complex, negative father, Kelly came in 2nd as a complex, positive daughter, and so on...
S2:
Elizabeth: D OTTP
Tina: M* UTRP
Colby: S- OTTP
Keith: F MOR
S3:
Lex: F CPN
Tom: E CPP
Ethan: S* UTRP
Kim J: M- CPP (if there hadn't been a production error, F would've won)
S4:
Kathy: M/E? CPP
Paschal: F OTTP
Vecepia: M*? CPN
Neleh: D- OTTP
S5:
Helen: M CPP
Brian: F*/S*? CPN
Clay: E-/F-? MOR
Jan: E UTRP
S6:
Rob: S CPN
Jenna: D* MOR
Matt: S-? CPP
Butch: F/E? UTRP
S7:
Sandra: M* MOR
Darrah: D UTRN
Jon: S OTTN
Lillian: E- MOR
What I noticed is that the person in the mom or dad role wins most often (5 or 6 wins/8). In the F6, there is always a complete configuration (mom, dad, eccentric, kids). Never have there been two kids in F2. KQ noted there have never been two dads in F2, and two moms only once (and in that season, Vee was questionable). Statistically speaking, these three results are unlikely to have happened by chance.
I'm not saying that players are edited to be mom, dad, kid, etc. I'm saying that they are naturally that role (or it is their strategy to fill that role at some point), and their editing reflects that fact.
Most commonly we have a parent figure and child as F2.
find it fascinating how, in each season, little family configurations seem to ally and hold tight, and how the members of each 'family' end up in the F4. Almost all of us grew up in families of some kind--mother (M), father (F), kids (S,D=son, daughter), maybe an eccentric uncle/grandparent type (E) in the mix. Under stressful conditions, people naturally reproduce a time in their lives when they felt safest. All of us can be mothers, fathers, weird people, kids, yet we typically feel more comfortable in one of these roles more than others when we find ourselves in social groups. So it goes for the survivors, also. Some of them we've even named for their role (e.g., "Mama Kim").
Those of us who are psychologically minded sense that there are all kinds of dynamics that play out between siblings, between children and their parents, and between parents and their 'weird' relations. I've had fun watching these patterns get re-enacted on Survivor, season after season.
I went back and looked at the F4 for all the seasons, put a * by who won and a - by 2nd place, and classified their editing as one of these four family characters. I did this pretty quickly, and my memory about some people is alittle spotty so please(!) feel free to change them (and I can't even remember who Matt was in S6--horrors!). These are ordered within F4 by likeability as rated by Kirblar in the Overdogs, Underdogs.. thread who noted that the most liked player rarely wins (top=most likable to bottom=least). I also listed Kernel's edgic ratings for each player (from their original seasons):
Final 4s:
S1:
Rudy: E MOR
Rich: F* CPN
Kelly: D- CPP
Sue: M CPN
...so Rudy was most likeable, edited middle of the road, eccentric, Rich won as 2nd most likeable and was edited as a complex, negative father, Kelly came in 2nd as a complex, positive daughter, and so on...
S2:
Elizabeth: D OTTP
Tina: M* UTRP
Colby: S- OTTP
Keith: F MOR
S3:
Lex: F CPN
Tom: E CPP
Ethan: S* UTRP
Kim J: M- CPP (if there hadn't been a production error, F would've won)
S4:
Kathy: M/E? CPP
Paschal: F OTTP
Vecepia: M*? CPN
Neleh: D- OTTP
S5:
Helen: M CPP
Brian: F*/S*? CPN
Clay: E-/F-? MOR
Jan: E UTRP
S6:
Rob: S CPN
Jenna: D* MOR
Matt: S-? CPP
Butch: F/E? UTRP
S7:
Sandra: M* MOR
Darrah: D UTRN
Jon: S OTTN
Lillian: E- MOR
What I noticed is that the person in the mom or dad role wins most often (5 or 6 wins/8). In the F6, there is always a complete configuration (mom, dad, eccentric, kids). Never have there been two kids in F2. KQ noted there have never been two dads in F2, and two moms only once (and in that season, Vee was questionable). Statistically speaking, these three results are unlikely to have happened by chance.
I'm not saying that players are edited to be mom, dad, kid, etc. I'm saying that they are naturally that role (or it is their strategy to fill that role at some point), and their editing reflects that fact.
Most commonly we have a parent figure and child as F2.
