SFC15 Notes

General Stuff

Well, that’s SFC15, and it was a Roller Coaster. I personally like the end result of the season, and It doesn’t seem to be getting a harsh reaction so I’m glad about that, and while I’m not sure how it will age. It does seem that seasons where the comments are in heated discussion tend to age somewhat better than the ones that don’t. But we will have to wait and see won’t we?

The Winner (Part 1): Taro

One of the biggest complaints when it came to Taro’s winning story was near the end he really didn’t have a massive struggle and that the game seemed a little too easy. That he was never in a spot to show what he’s been bragging about. It’s like he didn’t have a winner story.

I can’t argue with that. People always ask me, if I’ve ever changed my winner midseason, and my answer has always been “No. The person I chose at the start, has always won in the end.” This season.... Is an Exception.

Taro was not supposed to be the Winner.

The Beta Draft

Do you remember in Episode 1, when I mentioned my fuckup with Cha’Telle? When I was deep in development, I had sent all of the confirmation notes and working on the final characters on my end for the cast, and I had someone who I had cast.... Drop out. Now this has only happened once before, but unlike last time when it was a premerge boot. This person... well.... There’s no easy way to say this. They were the winner. So I had all of the confirmation notes sent, most of the characters sprited, and a large delay from SFC14 I was already working on. I couldn’t go back and rewrite everything again. So from the Final six, I had to rearrange the bootlist.

First off, I knew that the story in general was something I really liked and did not want to start over on, so to keep it generally the same, I knew I’d need a low key winner that wouldn’t force me to rewrite everything. Then I had to look at the bootlist. I had Ky as the Fan Favorite Pre Finale Boot. Leah and Taro as Finale Boots. Shaega as the FTC Goat, Sylvia as the Finalist who was so close yet didn’t have what it takes, and then the winner. Of those, the choice was pretty easy on which would fit the low key winner the best.

The Winner (Part 2): Taro

Anyway, back to Taro. Initially I had planned for him to be the Final Juror, Kind of a Father Figure to the Tribe, which helped him survive elimination after elimination with his feeding strategy. (Which btw I had been toying with the chef character for a few seasons now). But once all of his allies were gone, there was no need for him anymore. He was much less strategic than he was in the Final Draft, one that would be fitting for an endgame juror.

So when I decided that Taro would be the winner, he was retooled to be a behind the scenes player, one who was able to stay out of the fray in the early stages where being any bit active was detrimental to your game. The in story reason for why Taro never faced any obstacles. He never let himself be put in positions like that. Which when there was so much stuff going on, it was easy to just not focus on his problems since there was already enough in the story, and he and Ky were there to lighten things up if they ever got too dark. Due to his change in role, the Ky and Taro dynamic was very last minute, but is probably the best thing to come from the change, so that’s a plus.

In the end, Taro generally stayed as the same person, he’s a social butterfly who loves making Sushi for others and offering advice and encouragement to others. Only in the final version, he was a bit more deceptive about it and used it to lowkey manipulate how the game was going.

The Runner Up: Dustin

If you paid attention to the Beta Draft, you probably noticed a lack of Dustin.... Yep. I mean I did flat out say in the Cast Release he was a last minute addition. I meant it. The Dynamic that was pointed out on Day 39 with the “Super that played like a Normal, Normal that played like a Super, and the Normal that became a super” Was something I wanted to use in the rewrite, but since I had to cast someone at the last minute. (And Dustin’s owner knew the situation) I needed to change the winner edit, into a FTC loser edit. Thankfully Dustin made that fairly easy.

I imagined Sylvia was portrayed fairly accurately, and predicted the audiences reaction to Dustin quite well. Dustin started off the game as a favorite with being the good willed Surfer Dude who just wanted to play a game and win. But as the game progressed and he needed to do more than just be a Chill Dude... that his ineptitude began turning off his allies and the audience. Overall Dustins character did not change, he did not become a dick at any time, or act intentionally malicious. He just made a BUNCH of dumb moves, and no amount of Immunities would have fixed that with the jury.

The Story

Now for the fun part of the story. While the general flow of the season was simple. Supers dominate early, fall apart, and the fans take control until they self-destruct on their own leading to the endgame we had. The Core Normals regaining control, but losing it in the Clutch to a Super.

But outside of that. The general pattern I wanted this season was A.) Not to let your emotions get the better of you, but still be able to use them to better yourself and make connections, and B.) Being Able to Understand people, whether it’s seeing deception, being able to form bonds outside of alliances, or being able to keep a group together. Like Koah Rong. Emotional Intelligence played a big role in this season. Those that showed it, had success in the game.

SFC16

Well the Good News is, the Wait will likely not be as long. Unless something goes terribly wrong with the confirmation notes. Most of the brainstorming is set up, so that’s like 4 months cut off the wait time that was there for SFC15. As for a hint, there might be some familiar faces.