Author's Notes

My final notes on the story...

Jade

When I sat down to decide my boot order, I knew right away I wanted Jade close to the end if not right at the end. How could I not? Jade makes for a fantastic villain. Not only is she mean, fierce, and strong-willed, but also smart and crafty. Sure, there's also Logan but between the two, Jade has more complexity and with Bade, could also have enough likability to stand a chance against Andre in the final vote (That, and females get awfully underappreciated in modern Survivor). Writing for Jade was a ton of fun, coming up with snarky and horribly awful lines and trying to villify her in terms of her game play. The Zoey boot was a very proud and popular moment for me and it was pivotal for determining what kind of player Jade would be and what kind of storyline she would have. With Beck, she wavered between likable (Bade moments) and hate-able (bullying moments) but with Beck gone, she went full-on blood-thirsty villain and the carnage was simply awesome. Definitely my most controversial character, which is great considering a lot of other characters had controversy as well. Love her or hate her, Jade was an undeniable presence in the story and I would have no hesitance in including her in an All-Stars (Heads up, it's never going to happen but still...)

Andre

If this were real Survivor, Andre would undoubtedly be the winner against Jade. Possibly in a unanimous landslide due to all the animosity that Jade caused. Unfortunately, I was the writer and I decided to let it go to the vote. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with Andre at first. I just knew I wanted him far because I loved him on the show. I knew he was going to get to the final three at least. I knew he'd win a lot of immunity challenges post-merge. I knew he would have a relationship with Tori. But other than that...I had squat. So Andre was really a character I was developing as the story went along. I don't even remember when but then I realized who I wanted him to be and started to build him up as a guy who was pretty much working with Tori but also being nice to everyone so that he could beat her in the end. Once Tori left, he played on his own and started to step it up. You could also say that Andre had a lot of moral struggles in the game because he was trying to be himself and be nice to everyone but was put in situations where he had to hurt and betray people he liked (Robbie, Beck, Lola, Michael) which is a testament to how hard this game can be. Andre was a perfect foil to Jade because once it was clear that a jury of eliminated players would decide who the winner was and I played up the fact that Jade would realistically be slaughtered by a jury (and she would if this were realistic), the winner picks immediately shifted to nice and likable Andre. It was a good scheme to throw people off the scent of what I was actually planning: Letting the readers vote on the winner. Speaking of...

The Vote

It's easy to say that the vote was unfair because the editing of the story can potentially be in favor of one of the characters. This is the exact reason why I'm strongly against this in actual Survivor: because the only way a vote can be fair is if the editing is perfectly even and the Survivor producers will never do that. That way, in order to make the Jade vs Andre vote as fair as possible, I had to take the following notes into account:

-Jade and Andre needed to have the same amount of visibility. They either both got the same amount of visibility in an episode or if one got lots of visibility in one episode and the other got very little, then the next episode they would be reversed (i.e. Jade's huge prominence in the merge episode, then Jade disappeared in the F9 episode while Andre was a bit vice versa)

-They had to be polarizing in order to help make potential points and appeals to different preferences in characters and game play. This is where Jade and Andre came in with the classic good vs evil concept. Like I said, they had different strengths and weaknesses that made them comparable. Andre was the best physical competitor and had the best social relationships whereas Jade was the best strategist and made the biggest moves. As I read people's reviews and PMs before the vote, people were split down the middle between Andre and Jade: just as I planned and hoped.

-Both of them were part of very dominant ships in the story and in the Victorious universe: Bade and Tandre. Bade seems to be more popular than Tandre so Tandre lasted longer to give Andre a fighting chance against Jade.

-Both of them had strong story lines in which they had to adapt to the situation, in which they faced challenges, in which they had success and in which they have been betrayed.

- Both of them had an equal amount of praise by the jury (Andre by Tori, Jade by Logan) and an equal amount of battering (Andre by Quinn and Logan, Jade by Chase and Tori). Jade did get asked more questions than Andre though (Cat and Zoey asked nothing of Andre)...oops.

The Jury Vote

Zoey (Jade) - Felt Jade did a really surprisingly good job of handling the jury's questions and respected Jade's power play which changed the tide of the game.

Logan (Jade) - Declared that Jade was the best player and ran the game in comparison to Andre who was weak other than challenges

Lola (Jade) - Liked Andre more but felt Jade played a better, more aggressive game.

Tori (Andre) - Andre was her best friend and they were aligned. Also knew that Jade wouldn't be there if Andre didn't save her at F4 and didn't like Jade as a person.

Cat (Andre) - Honestly forgave Jade but was still closer friends with Andre. Figured Andre would have more votes anyway

Quinn (Jade) - Felt Jade was more strategically successful than Andre.

Michael (Andre) - Thought that Andre played a smarter game to ensure his jury votes to win and did the best job of befriending Capzos such as himself

Chase (Andre) - Bitter towards Jade and was friends with Andre since Andre was vastly superior in the social game.

My Goals

When I decided to write this story, there were a number of things that I wanted to accomplish.

-One thing I really miss about Survivor is how well it focused on the relationships of people who would never meet under any other circumstances. Early survivor had some amazing relationships, both love or hate. Off the top of my head there was Richard and Rudy, Colby and Jerri, Rodger and Elisabeth, Vecepia and Sean, Neleh and Paschal, Rob and Matthew, and so many more. Not only were these pairs that worked together as alliances in the game, they were actual friends (except Colby and Jerri, but they did reconcile) and this relationship was highlighted. Nowadays, it's game, game, game, game. Don't get me wrong, the game is great but sometimes I miss seeing dynamics between people other than just strategy. So I needed to make sure to capture that interpersonal relationship dynamic with this story. That's where all the ships (friendships and romantic) came in. We had Bade, Tandre, Cabbie, Choey and Michase (Is that what that one is?) primarily. There were also smaller friend interactions of Jandre, Quogan, Candre, Cade, Bat, Bori, Zola, Quistin and maybe a few others I'm forgetting. And there were, of course, the feuds of Jori and Lolagan. There were even some crossovers, mainly between Tori/Zoey, Tori/Lola and Andre/Chase/Michael, along with the later Jade/Chase rivalry. I'm glad that these dynamics worked out the way they did and that they captured some of the old-school feeling of Survivor. These ships were also crucial in helping keep the show true to both Victorious and Zoey 101.

-As much as I support the relationship dynamic being involved in my story, this is still a Survivor fanfic and I need to stay true to that show as well to keep any Survivor fans interested. So of course, game play was still heavily involved and it was important to make clear how the game worked and what was going to happen. The rock tiebreaker was mentioned but never used and three immunity idols came into effect in three different ways (Idol successfully used, idol used but not necessarily needed, idol used on someone else. The only other way I bailed on is to not use it and be flushed out with it) Obviously a lot of power shifts and big moves occurred because a majority alliance simply picking off the minority is absolutely boring. So shake-ups at the right spots were absolutely crucial to have.

-I also had to have a balance between 'good' characters (Andre, Michael, Cat, Zoey, Beck), 'evil' characters (Trina, Logan, Jade), characters who were kind of both (Chase, Quinn, Tori, Lola, Robbie), and characters who were just there (Sinjin, Nicole, Dustin) because having all of one of those archetypes at the end would be boring too. Another crucial part of Survivor was focusing on these characters as individuals as I addressed earlier so ships had to eventually be broken up. And I feel a lot of these characters delivered really well on their own, even if they did phase out of character at times. I think the dynamics of the cast were solid too.

Draft Changes

-Some people were locked in the position that they were going to place from the beginning. These people included Trina, Sinjin, Beck, Zoey, Tori, Michael and Jade. They were always going to finish where they did.

-Lola, Logan, Nicole, and Dustin switched places in my boot order a lot but the places were always 14th, 13th, 9th and 8th. I ultimately put Lola and Logan further than Dustin and Nicole since they were more prominent characters and their feud was a solid storyline that was cut before it got too old.

-Cat and Quinn were also considered as possible pre-merge boots since they're obviously not that strong but since Robbie obviously had to be a pre-merge boot and I personally wanted Beck, a predictable yet boring frontrunner, out before the merge, I put them as far ahead as they got so I could develop them as characters which based on the reviews was a good call. Almost everyone loved Cat and Quinn was pegged as a very likely winner.

-Originally, Cat wasn't going to play her idol at all and she would have just been voted out with it in her pocket. However, after Andre told Cat to use it, I realized this was stupid and I changed it last minute to have Cat use the idol to save Jade. I think it was more fitting for her naive and nice character.

-The original final two was Jade vs Chase, with Jade voting out Andre instead at the final three. However, I screwed that up when I put the story in the Victorious category where Jade would have easily slaughtered Chase in the vote, no matter how bad Jade was. So I switched Andre's and Chase's placings so that the vote would be closer, which it was. I guess Chase did still have some support near the end but Jade's support was substantially greater than Chase so I stand by the change.

-Many of the events weren't present in original drafts and I just camp up with them on the fly. These events include Cat nearly being medically evacuated for her injuries, Jade cutting the hair from Robbie's head (Again, thanks Courage1220), reuniting Bade at the F7 reward challenge, bringing in the hated ones for the F7 immunity challenge, and threatening to remove everyone from the game after they were weak from wasting all of their food. Coming up with these plot twists was fun and it helped draw from the potential repetition of the game.

Running Gags

-The batteries in Andre's keyboard were slowly dying if anyone caught those few moments. Kind of symbolic of the progression of the game.

-Obviously there were references to the fact that Lola and Tori were both played by the same actress, Victoria Justice. I can't believe no one noticed or at least called me out on the fact that they both left back to back. That was totally intentional. What better way to cap off that running gag?

-Survivor fans have hopefully caught the occasional little references I made to events that happened or famous lines that were said on the actual show. If you've seen plenty of Survivor, go back and see how many you can find.

-I might be forgetting a few...see what else you can find! XD

That's about all I've got. If you still have any questions about the story, I'll be happy to respond to PMs and keep interacting with readers. I'm going to keep trying to come up with new material and finding time to work on it and I hope you'll stick around for whatever I can whip up. Until then, I just want to thank all of you one last time for all of your support and encouragement. You guys are awesome! Well, have a good New Year! Let's make 2013 awesome! -Chee5e55ave5

Last response to reviews in the story :(

Jmags-WriterofAwesomeness: Jade may have won the game but Andre was still a winner so that's good. I've considered the possibility of doing other game show fanfics (probably not The Biggest Loser or Love in the Wild since I've never seen those). Even if I do, it'll take a long time just to get the basic storyline down and then to write it; this story took twenty months alone, maybe sixteen if you take the four-month hiatus into account. But I'm glad you enjoyed the story and I hope to bring you good quality content in the future. Thank you!

Nutella Cupcakes: Sounds like a somewhat busy two days (depending on how fast you read). Anyway, I'm glad that you loved the story! Thanks!

TobiasFangor92 - Can't please everyone, but at least Jade wins!

Ailodierap - Don't thank me, THANK YOU for being supportive and keeping this story alive! I'm satisfied with Jade winning too (although I was happy either way) and thankful that this story made it to its end. Thanks again for the love!

DaSurvivorMan - Glad you enjoyed the story! I love that I was able to complete a Survivor fanfic. Big Brother is one of the shows I'm considering writing a fanfic for (Even though I hate it now) but it's a matter of picking which show will comprise the cast and then figuring out the storylines. Right now, I can't come up with something inspiring enough for a good Big Brother fanfic but if I do, you'll eventually see it.