Survivor: Fan Characters

Survivor: Fan Characters is a Sprite Comic created by SWSU-Master, which, obviously, is inspired by the hit reality TV show Survivor. It is notable for using its own sprite template created by SWSU-Master himself, as well as going on for nine seasons, including an All-Star season.

It can be found here, or here if you prefer deviantART.

It follows the same formula as the TV show. An even number of contestants are put onto two tribes (usually), who then have to compete in challenges against one another for rewards and immunities. The tribes have to go to Tribal Council where they have to vote someone out from their group every so often. It is a working formula on the TV show, and even more so in this web comic where the characters and events can be shaped by SWSU for maximum entertainment.

So far, there are nine completed seasons, with a tenth season currently in development.

Tropes used in Survivor: Fan Characters include:

• The Ace: Several, but Hogan is the prime example.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: The jury openly celebrated the downfalls of Manipulative Bastards Vinnie ("Will the jury please stop high-fiving each other?") and Minerva ("Jury, doing "The Wave" is out of hand."). Even P. Bear, the latter's only ally left at that point, was visibly smiling at them finally getting their comeuppance.
• Bastard Understudy: Hope to Baxter in Season 3, Marius to Jessica in Season 5, and Sin to Vinnie in Season 6.
• Batman Gambit: Vinnie, in both of his seasons. He has escaped many attempts to have him voted out, through his manipulation skills. In All-Stars, he even comments to Bitsy about how, in spite of being known by everyone to be a snake, he can still get them to trust him more than each other.
  • Gatemaster also does this (although with a lot more luck) in Season 5 to get the final four he wants.
  • Skylar falls into this category too with his idol scam, although that was partly enabled by a Sure Why Not moment.
  • Charlie from Season 1 and Phil from Season 7 tried one a la Richard Hatch. It worked in the former's case (although she didn't win in the end) but backfired spectactularly for the latter.
• Battle of Wits: Duh.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Bitsy was a sweetheart in Season 2, but come All-Stars she managed to betray even more people than Baxter and Vinnie.
• Black and White Morality: Season 3, Season 4, and Season 7.
  • Black and Grey Morality: Season 5, Season 8, and Season 9.
  • Grey and Grey Morality: Season 1, Season 2, and All-Stars.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The final three women (and contestants) on Yrsa'ka before the merge; Melanie is blonde, Oehda is brunette, and Kiara is a redhead.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Gatemaster. The guy controls his entire season, despite being... you know, a stupid goof.
• Canon Immigrant: Season 4, Fans vs. Canon, had ten of these. Also, the host is still Jeff Probst. Russell also appeared in Season 7.
• The Chessmaster: There's usually one or more in each season.
  • Survivor: Fan Characters - Sky
  • Brains Vs. Brawn - Vinnie (and to a lesser degree Ellise)
  • Season 3 - Baxter
  • Fans Vs. Canons - Minerva, Lilly
  • Cursed Islands - Gatemaster (not that he is even aware of it though), Marius
  • All-Stars - Bitsy, Vinnie, Sin... there's quite a few this season.
  • Season 7 - None in particular, although Phil seemed to see himself as one.
  • Season 8 - Matt (a la Russell), Oehda, Melanie.
  • Season 9 - Prescilla
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A number of people, but most noticeably Vinnie, Baxter and Bitsy.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Many examples, but Craig, Kala, and Gatemaster are the most prominent.
• Dark Horse Victory: Marius in Season 5 and Cherman in Season 9.
• Darker and Edgier: Season 9. The season pretty much revolves around the villain getting everything that they want through frankly vile means. Not to mention that said villain throws out serious curse words left and right makes it almost NSFW.
• Decided by One Vote: All of the completed seasons so far, with the exceptions of Seasons 4, 8 and 9.
• Diabolus Ex Machina: The curses in Season 5 were typically these. Marius won using one, though.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Minerva Mink pulls this off on P. Bear. Renny, however, doesn't pull it off on Gatemaster or Victor.
  • Montana also pulls this off on almost everyone on her tribe after her nemesis got voted out.
• Eat That: Has been used as challenges several times.
• Edible Theme Naming: The two tribes in Season 9 are named "Carbo" (short for Carbonara, a pasta dish), and "Amatri" (short for Amatriciana, another pasta dish).
• Engineered Public Confession: In All-Stars, Norman maneuvers Sin into admitting that he set up Norman to look untrustworthy to his alliance members. While not knowing that Violet was hiding in a tree above them. Or that Al was hiding in the bushes close to them, and is not happy about being duped by Sin.
  • In Season 9, Cherman does this with Prescilla/Bonnie at the final Tribal Council with his recorder that he gave to Barbie.
• Epic Fail: Season 7's Ho'Aku tribe appeared to follow Ulong's steps in the beginning, with only two people left in the tribe after eight episodes, but as a Ho'Aku member eventually won the game, they're more similar to Maraamu.
  • Cherman in Season 9 managed to spectacularly lose every single challenge he competed in. Often within five seconds after the start of the challenge. Then it's magnificently subverted at the end when he wins the season.
• Five-Bad Band
  • Baxter's alliance in Season 3 fits pretty well.
    • Big Bad: Baxter
    • The Dragon: Alex
    • The Evil Genius: Spade (this one's debatable)
    • The Brute: Issac
    • The Dark Chick: Hope and Beth
  • The Corsona alliance in Season 7 also fits this to a T.
    • Big Bad: Phil
    • The Dragon: Dinah
    • The Evil Genius: Wrecker
    • The Dark Chick: Ryuia and Chloe
    • Team Pet / The Load: Quadratic
• Freudian Trio:
  • The minority alliance in Season 3 fit in a variety of ways, such as the Freudian Trio and the Beauty, Brains, and Brawn:
    • Montana (Id) (Beauty)
    • Violet (Ego) (Brawn)
    • Norman (Superego) (Brains)
  • The minority alliance in Season 7 also fit the Freudian Trio:
    • Krauss (Id)
    • Chrii (Ego)
    • Ker (Superego)
  • The main villain alliance of Season 8 form a Terrible Trio:
    • Matt (The Big Bad)
    • Xero (Henchman #1)
    • Johnny (Henchman #2, although he's not all that aware he's part of a villain's alliance)
• Guile Hero: Considering the nature of the game, any hero who plays a good strategic game becomes this. Hogan, Ellise, Norman, Barney, etc.
• How Much Did You Hear?: Polly votes out Max over Bitsy after hearing him making side deals, then pays for it by getting voted out by Bitsy.
• I Call It Vera: All of Kala's friends probably count, but Mr. Happystick is the best example.
• I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: Montana takes off her top to talk strategy more effectively with Baxter. Amazingly, this also appears to temporarily cure Alex's stuttering problem.
  • Penny and Geena from Season 8 use this to win a challenge. Poor Malik never stood a chance... and then Johnny tries to do the same thing in the same challenge!
• Intergenerational Friendship: Bossy 25-year-old doctor Ellise and the devious 45-year-old mobster Vinnie.
  • Joseph and Amy, who formed a father-daughter relationship with each other.
  • Dominant alpha-male Krauss and the elderly female clown Ker.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: The ratio of human characters to anthros, robots, aliens, and other strange creatures is about 5:2.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Seeing as it's a Survivor parody, this is to be expected. There are currently 147 characters by the way. 151 if you count Jeff Probst and Kala's... "friends".
• Mega Crossover: There are fan characters from... (takes deep breath) Mortal Engines, Destroy All Humans!, Shaman King, South Park, Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tiny Toon Adventures, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Suikoden, Kingdom Hearts, Harvest Moon, Tomb Raider, Teen Titans, Crash Bandicoot, The Flintstones, Barbie, Backyard Baseball, The Powerpuff Girls, Dragon Ball, Harry Potter, Silent Hill, Portal, Kung Fu Panda, Yu Yu Hakusho, Phoenix Wright, Halo, Chibi-Robo!, Haruhi Suzumiya, Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, Second Life, Devil May Cry, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Ice Climbers, Trauma Center, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Resident Evil, The Sims, SSX, World of Warcraft, Ranma ½, Total Drama Island, Advance Wars, Tekken well, not really..., Super Mario, Blinx the Time Sweeper, The Legend of Zelda, Chrono Trigger, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Wario Ware, Golden Sun, Darkwing Duck, Twilight, Inuyasha, Metroid, Hunger Games, Dead Rising, The World Ends With You, Scrubs, Star Fox, Liar Game, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Mega Man, Tytania, The Raccoons, Cooking Mama, Animaniacs, Final Fantasy, Baywatch, Soul Calibur, Superjail, Fire Emblem, Jak and Daxter, Love Hina, Kirby, Darkstalkers, Left 4 Dead, Lucky Star, Mii Channel, Street Fighter, Riviera: The Promised Land, Friday the 13 th again, not really..., Maple Story, Death Note, Friends, Animal Crossing, F-Zero, Batman, Bully, Katamari Damacy, Get Fuzzy, Happy Tree Friends, Invader Zim, Enchanted Arms, Guitar Hero, America's Next Top Model, One Piece, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Sly Cooper, Metal Gear Solid, Donkey Kong Country, Glee, Rock Band, Naruto, EarthBound, Marvel vs. Capcom, Tales of Symphonia, Grand Theft Auto, Spyro the Dragon, Monkey Island, Mighty Mouse, Rocko's Modern Life, Yoshi's Story and, of course, Survivor... whew!
• Morality Pet: Two of the "negative" winners were given a genuine friendship with a much more positive character to make them more likable: Skylar with Taylor, and Marius with Gatemaster.
• Nice Hat: Sin has a very nice smiley-face hat on Season 5. He replaces it with a very nice smiley-face bandana for All-Stars.
  • He gets the hat back at Ponderosa.
  • Season 7 gives us Skazzatrazz's stylish fedora and Quadratic's huge Irish hat.
• Non Gameplay Elimination: So far we've had Sue quitting in Season 2, Trent getting medevaced in Season 4 and Maria/Mo getting ejected for physical violence in All-Stars. Donovan quit in Season 9, but unlike the other reasons it was for gameplay purposes.
• Odd Couple: Vinnie and Ellise, Baxter and Alex, Iris and Hope, Marius and Gatemaster, Craig and Popper, Ker and Krauss...
• Out of Focus: It's natural that some characters won't be able to get as much screen time as others, but this was especially noticeable in Season 9 as the creator deliberately kept the screen time of no less than three characters limited up until a certain point for plot-relevant reasons: Prescilla/Bonnie until the fifth episode, to make the reveal of her villainous nature even more shocking; Cherman until the final episode, to set him up as a surprise winner; and Tofuchao, to give Cherman another Final 3 partner he could win against.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Hope from Season 3 starts out as a sweet girl on the Pambar tribe who quickly makes friends with Iris. After the tribe is assimilated, the two are separated, Hope joins the all-male Roku tribe, and Baxter shows her the ropes... and it all goes downhill from there for Hope.
  • Bitsy somewhat in All-Stars, who could be somewhat justified by I Did What I Had to Do.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Final Tribal Council in Season 9 was basically a giant one delivered to Prescilla/Bonnie by Cherman and the jurors.
• Redemption Quest: After the first episode, Ellise spends a few episodes trying to improve her poor first impressions. It works, as she ends up winning in the end (it's even brought up at Tribal Council as a positive).
  • Krauss also tries to improve his first impressions after the third episode, when he realizes what a Jerkass he originally was. He manages to perform a Heel Face Turn, forms one of the most unbreakable alliances in SFC history with Ker, and even though he doesn't win, the change of character he's undergone is tremendous.
• Refuge in Audacity: Jeff's ridiculous exit methods, starting from the third season. They include: a helicopter (Seasons 3 and 7), a jet ski (Season 4), a jetpack (Season 5), a Star Trek-style teleporter (Season 6), a smoke bomb (Season 8), and a portal created by Cherman's stolen gun (Season 9).
• Sacrificial Lamb: Cassie asks to be voted out at the start of Season 3 after becoming sick, which ultimately changes Montanna's mind about quitting herself.
  • If a contestant is from the Sonic series, then there's a good chance that they won't be lasting too long. In Season 1, Bea is eliminated third; Season 2, Slash is eliminated second; Season 5, Amber is eliminated fourth. Season 4 and 8 are the only seasons where the Sonic fancharacters do particularly well. Chaona finishes fourth in Season 4, Knuckles finishes eighth in Season 4, and Malik finishes sixth in Season 8. Season 9 was a mixed bag, as Zachary was eliminated first and Tofuchao finished second.
• Secret Test of Character: Done by jurors at the final Tribal Councils in Seasons 2 and 8. More specifically, Bitsy tells Ellise that she won't be voting for her and then asks her if they can still be friends after the game even if her vote costs her the million, and Johnny does something similar with Matt in Season 8. Of course, it turns out that both jurors had always been planning to vote for their respective friends and just wanted to make sure that their friends didn't view them as just a jury vote. Ellise passes Bitsy's test with flying colors, but Matt bombs Johnny's test in spectacular fashion, effectively screwing himself out of the only vote he could ever have gotten.
• Shocking Elimination:
  • Meredith in the original season.
  • Slash, thanks to a 2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 vote.
  • Denise in Brains vs. Brawn. Ellise won immunity, then handed it to Kris at tribal council. After the votes, she played her Hidden Immunity Idol, forcing Vinnie to play his Hidden Immunity Idol. When the votes were read, none of them counted. The four people in the majority then had to draw rocks to see who went since they were technically all tied with zero votes. Denise pulled the purple rock and was sent home.
  • Violet in All-Stars, cementing Bitsy as a baxtabber.
  • Three people in Season 7 were idoled quite unexpectedly: Betty, Ventious, and Quadratic.
  • Kiara in Season 8, in a manner similar to Denise above. Melanie nullifies her vote, forcing a tie between Matt and Heinz - once it's deadlocked, everyone except Heinz and Matt are forced to draw purple rocks, and Kiara is the unlucky recipient.
  • Sanza in Season 9, especially since everyone had thought that he was a shoo-in for the winning spot.
• Sole Survivor: So far, there's been nine of them.
• Take That: Rene comes across some old Atari 2600 E.T. cartridges dumped in a lake.
  • In Season 7, a lot of the contestants ignore Jeff's introductions while competing in challenges.
  • One against Redemption Island in Season 8. Delivered by one of the most deluded people in the cast.
• Theme Naming: The Prince of All Cosmos and Popper. Hur hur hur.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Flip-flopped; Ellise managed to survive the annihilation of her alliance in Season 2 and win, Violet and Montana both made the final four in Season 3 while the Five-Bad Band of six had the power (and Montana also wins), Ker from Season 7 managed to go on an immunity run at the final 5 and win as well, and Cherman from Season 9 made it all the way to the finals and a landslide win in spite of being a constant target at every Tribal Council and having all his allies voted out; however, it's subverted in All-Stars when Norman was the only guy left after the women took control, and was voted out the one episode he needed to survive the women's alliance.
• Ventriloquism: Kala likes to make her coconut friend, Omay, talk.
  • And Mr. Happystick, and Omay 2.0, and Kevin.
  • Also Hogan with his Rainbow Afro Hand in All-Stars.
• The Villain Makes the Plot: They're the ones that usually start the conflict and drama.
• Villain Protagonist: Sky, Marius, and Melanie. What set them apart of the other villains is that they had stories setting them up for the eventual win of their seasons, plus they each had good qualities.
• Villainous Breakdown: Prescilla/Bonnie has an EPIC one in Season 9.
• What Measure Is a Non-Badass?: In-Universe example in Season 9: Prescilla/Bonnie claimed that this was the reason why the jurors should vote for her over Tofuchao and Cherman, as she had been the one orchestrating most of the votes while Tofuchao rode coattails and Cherman sucked at all challenges and was kept on just because he was weak. However, like with Russell from the original TV show, everyone made it clear to her that while they could almost respect some of her big moves, she was ultimately too horrible a person for them to ever want to "reward" her for her immoral gameplay.

Bonnie: Would you want Aleksan in the merge instead of this worthless piece of shit?
Madison: Maybe you should have let that happen, considering the "worthless" one just destroyed you.

• Who's on First?: The "Nobody" alliance in All-Stars.
• Word of Gay: Norman was confirmed to be gay long before he said so himself.
  • Lyle from Season 1 is also gay.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Victor wants Greg voted out right after he helps build his tribe's shelter in Cursed Islands. It doesn't work.
  • In Season 9, Prescilla gets her boyfriend Adrian voted out after he makes it clear that Starr, her designated ally, will be the next one to be voted out and then naively gives her an immunity idol.