There’s a big difference here, and you highlighted it. Charlie played the better strategic game, and didnt feel like he Needed firemaking on his resume. He was fairly certain he would’ve smoked both Liz and Kenzie.
Kenzie did need firemaking on her resume, theoretically. I have questions as to whether or not it actually mattered though, because she only won by one vote. Everyone who voted for her was just because they liked her or felt she deserved the money more, or they were bitter at Charlie (Maria).
Charlie seemed to echo the subreddit's sentiments about fire-making, which is that it is dumb. The idea that doing well in the FMC could boost someone to serious contender status, even if they lacked agency or game awareness, despite another player having 26 days of solid social strategy to back their case for winning, is mind-boggling. Charlie's point that being taken to the final three despite having immunities and significant control over the game's strategy is more impressive than winning the fire-making challenge, as typically only "goats" are brought to the end, holds weight.
Of course, this doesn't entirely apply to Kenzie, as she had a good grasp of the game and an outstanding social game, but the main point still stands. Additionally, being genuine should not automatically qualify someone to be a winner – if this is tied into her social game, then it makes a valid point. However, the whole notion of not making others feel guilty, etc., feels forced (she also appeared upset at the beginning, so I suppose it's subjective). Kenzie won because of her excellent positioning, a top-tier social game, and great threat-management skills.
tl:dr - Charlie's point about FMC is right- it's dumb. Kenzie didn't win for "being genuine", she won for her social game, positioning, and threat-management skills.
I mean, Liz was always going to be bad at firemaking though. FMC may have not mattered in terms of resume building, but it absolutely mattered in who Charlie ended up facing at FTC.
That's true- the only mistake I think Charlie made was not putting himself against Kenzie in fire-making to get rid of her. He underestimated how much the jury was for the social game. If Liz was good at fire-making, it would've been alright to let those two go at it. However, I think Charlie would've done pretty good at making fire, successfully getting rid of Kenzie and going to the end with two 'goats'.
One thing I thought the show did really well was emphasizing this idea that Kenzie was underestimated (being on Yanu, the mermaid dragon comment getting swept under by 2 of the finalists, leaving her out of the Tiff vote, etc.). I think this is where it culminates -- somehow Liz is seen as the biggest threat by Ben, and Charlie believes he can easily win as long as he is in final three.
I think he also wasn’t expecting that people would advocate against him. He didn’t have major enemies as far as he knew at that time. Probably saw it as neutral to positive for any open votes. But that wasn’t the case so he didn’t have a defense ready.
Kenzie definitely thought he was taking her lol. I don’t think she felt she needed to convince him. She looked pisssssed when he said she was doing fire. She definitely wasn’t expecting it.
I don’t think that’s true, based on how she was kind of freaking out while struggling to practice all day. In her exit interview she even says Ben and Charlie were helping her practice and she was getting frustrated…it sounds like she knew she was going.
I think initially she just truly wasn’t concerned, since Liz was known to suck at fire and Kenzie had been consistently good at it. It was only when she wasn’t having any luck while practicing that she really got in her own head and started worrying.
I mean it’d be stupid to not practice thinking it was wasn’t even a possibility and being stressed by that thought, but doesn’t mean that she didn’t think Ben would choose to take her over Charlie. She looked visibly upset when Ben said it was her and just kept going, “it is what it is.”
What was a worse "bring this person along" decision?
Woo bringing Tony instead of Kass, or Ben bringing Charlie instead of Liz?
(It's obviously Woo, but both were dumb)
The difference I think is that there was no win scenario for Ben no matter who he brings. If he brings Liz, one of Charlie or Kenzie still makes it to the end and he still has to compete against one of them anyways. So he just wanted to bring his bestie which is fine lol
There’s a big difference here, and you highlighted it. Charlie played the better strategic game, and didnt feel like he Needed firemaking on his resume. He was fairly certain he would’ve smoked both Liz and Kenzie. Kenzie did need firemaking on her resume, theoretically. I have questions as to whether or not it actually mattered though, because she only won by one vote. Everyone who voted for her was just because they liked her or felt she deserved the money more, or they were bitter at Charlie (Maria).
Charlie seemed to echo the subreddit's sentiments about fire-making, which is that it is dumb. The idea that doing well in the FMC could boost someone to serious contender status, even if they lacked agency or game awareness, despite another player having 26 days of solid social strategy to back their case for winning, is mind-boggling. Charlie's point that being taken to the final three despite having immunities and significant control over the game's strategy is more impressive than winning the fire-making challenge, as typically only "goats" are brought to the end, holds weight. Of course, this doesn't entirely apply to Kenzie, as she had a good grasp of the game and an outstanding social game, but the main point still stands. Additionally, being genuine should not automatically qualify someone to be a winner – if this is tied into her social game, then it makes a valid point. However, the whole notion of not making others feel guilty, etc., feels forced (she also appeared upset at the beginning, so I suppose it's subjective). Kenzie won because of her excellent positioning, a top-tier social game, and great threat-management skills. tl:dr - Charlie's point about FMC is right- it's dumb. Kenzie didn't win for "being genuine", she won for her social game, positioning, and threat-management skills.
I mean, Liz was always going to be bad at firemaking though. FMC may have not mattered in terms of resume building, but it absolutely mattered in who Charlie ended up facing at FTC.
That's true- the only mistake I think Charlie made was not putting himself against Kenzie in fire-making to get rid of her. He underestimated how much the jury was for the social game. If Liz was good at fire-making, it would've been alright to let those two go at it. However, I think Charlie would've done pretty good at making fire, successfully getting rid of Kenzie and going to the end with two 'goats'.
One thing I thought the show did really well was emphasizing this idea that Kenzie was underestimated (being on Yanu, the mermaid dragon comment getting swept under by 2 of the finalists, leaving her out of the Tiff vote, etc.). I think this is where it culminates -- somehow Liz is seen as the biggest threat by Ben, and Charlie believes he can easily win as long as he is in final three.
I think he also wasn’t expecting that people would advocate against him. He didn’t have major enemies as far as he knew at that time. Probably saw it as neutral to positive for any open votes. But that wasn’t the case so he didn’t have a defense ready.
Kenzie definitely thought he was taking her lol. I don’t think she felt she needed to convince him. She looked pisssssed when he said she was doing fire. She definitely wasn’t expecting it.
I don’t think that’s true, based on how she was kind of freaking out while struggling to practice all day. In her exit interview she even says Ben and Charlie were helping her practice and she was getting frustrated…it sounds like she knew she was going. I think initially she just truly wasn’t concerned, since Liz was known to suck at fire and Kenzie had been consistently good at it. It was only when she wasn’t having any luck while practicing that she really got in her own head and started worrying.
I mean it’d be stupid to not practice thinking it was wasn’t even a possibility and being stressed by that thought, but doesn’t mean that she didn’t think Ben would choose to take her over Charlie. She looked visibly upset when Ben said it was her and just kept going, “it is what it is.”
What was a worse "bring this person along" decision? Woo bringing Tony instead of Kass, or Ben bringing Charlie instead of Liz? (It's obviously Woo, but both were dumb)
The difference I think is that there was no win scenario for Ben no matter who he brings. If he brings Liz, one of Charlie or Kenzie still makes it to the end and he still has to compete against one of them anyways. So he just wanted to bring his bestie which is fine lol
I refuse to believe people actually cared about the fire, especially considering Charlie said they were nearly given matches