No disrespect to anyone who wrote this song but oh my god, this song has so many sexual undertones and generally just feels weird to listen to. If the songs were being rated fairly, the Fans should’ve won this episode.
Though I’m glad they didn’t because Aiden’s elimination was very deserved.
Another episode, another Megathread, as per the usual, this is where we discuss the episode as it comes out, please properly spoiler tag your posts and their titles after the fact, it's all under Rule 3.
I've been saying this since the beginning, but this episode really locked in for me that Ally is outlasting Benji. We see that Ally is getting visibly annoyed at Benji's lack of effort and realizes that having him as her number 1 ally is gonna be a problem. This, combined with the fact that they introduced Benji as a comic artist, giving a clear way to end his story of self-discovery, leads me to believe that Ally is gonna betray Benji. I doubt it'll be an active betrayal. Probably more like Ally finds out the others are plotting to eliminate him and she doesn't try to stop it.
This feels more likely to me than Ally going before Benji because I can't think of any possible reason for Ally to be targeted. She does well in challenges, and she has no beef with anyone besides sort of Aiden, who's gone now. Meanwhile, Benji has already been targeted before and probably will be again, though I think this will probably happen late premerge. And this would then give Ally an arc about morality for merge.
I’m already preparing in advance, this is about to hurt my soul sm
Aiden left the game with
A biased challenge that was impossible to win
Everyone voting against him which hasn’t happened before this ep.
He got backstabbed by his closest ally
No one felt sad for him
No one cared
Aiden is the character that left in the worse state compared to everyone else. This is a sad elimination
You sure seem to enjoy your time manipulating Nura a lot, don't you Ara?? 👀👀👀
No idea why they changed it, this one makes way more sense
Aiden’s downfall was something that the Disventure Camp 5 narrative had been building up since Manu was voted out. Admittedly I may be biased to a degree with this post because I genuinely enjoyed Aiden and think that Disventure Camp 5 was his best season and also have been hanging around a lot with my Aiden moots on Twitter but I think that his elimination was not handled very well and failed to properly capitalize on the preceding buildup.
The number one issue with Aiden’s elimination is easily the pacing. Aiden being booted in EP8 was a good time for him to go but the pacing in the episodes immediately preceding this vote worsened. Aiden got a generous amount of focus in EPs 2, 3, and 4 though went UTR in EPs 6, 6, 7, and the first half of EP8. EP8 was crunched for time given the four performances but he definitely should have gotten something pre challenge. Perhaps the Benji and Ally scene could’ve been moved to EP9, and perhaps Aiden could have gotten more focus in (don’t laugh) EP6 and EP7. This isn’t helped by the way the pre-elimination Fans scene was written. It felt rushed kind of like the EP3 Manu scene.
The second issue I have with this elimination is that it wasn’t really touched on or alluded to much why he’s played up the attitude compared to previous seasons. I did hear that apparently one of the proofreaders said it’ll be touched on later in the season so I’ll wait until then for a final verdict but I think that stronger alluding to at least would have been beneficial. I think that it can be inferred that Aiden has some kind of inferiority complex given his two consecutive prior season losses and stunted acting career, but this really isn’t super concrete.
Thanks for reading this post if you have made it to this point lol. I am kinda just yapping here since I’m a bit crunched for time IRL rn so this isn’t the most cohesive or thought out post in the world but I do hope that the points I’ve raised are understandable.
I feel like the issue Aiden’s had in the past that’s unfortunately bled into DC5 is that he gets a lot of screentime yes but that screentime isn’t really utilized as well as it could be. Hopefully DC5’s Rescue Island / Comebacks and Motel episodes can fix some of the issues I’ve pointed out here.
- For those wondering, the Ren is Evil theory suggested that when Oliwia and Ren look at the clouds, Oliwia sees a mole which represents the others perspective on Ren (A blind goofball who will be BLINDsided by Sam), and Ren sees a Wolf (Rens perspective of themselves) + other small things.
- And this season has the sun and the moon as the team flags. That and the fact Dunia is a Tarot card reader (i think) and Ren describes themselves as a jester (a fool which means boundless potential).
- But this episode kinda makes me think otherwise. But GUESS WHO ALSO FITS THE MOLE AND WOLF! OLIWIA!
- Lets get started, last time I said the Mole is associated with traitors and being blind. Who was literally working againtst their team? Oliwia.
- The others see Oliwia as a traitor and also blind to the fact no one on Aidens side liked her.
- But Ren thinks otherwise, they see Oliwia as someone with Potential to be a big PLAYER (a wolf).
- The mole can be associated with the sun (Moles cant see in daylight i think) and the Wolf with the Moon (which is when elimination is.
- And who is sitting on the FUCKING MOON? Oliwia!
- An outcome that i can see is Oliwia finding out Ren is going to be targeted by Sam, and makes a plan to defeat him. She manages to eliminate Sam as the final Pre-Merger.
- During merge Oliwia and Ren join Natalia (Rens fav) and Fiore (Who comforted Ren) in a Allaience. It doesnt end well as Natalia betrays Ren turning Oliwia into the main villain.
Nah, this shit should NOT have been allowed 😭. I actually feel so bad for Aiden. Screw this puppet. Legitimately. Fans were robbed.
Gabby seemed to conveniently be in a coma during this SPECIFIC moment during the elimination ceremony. Anastasia literally said that Natalia knew Rosa had misinterpreted what Anastasia had said and knew that she and Marissa were still together. Rosa also DIRECTLY confronted Natalia, telling her that she used her for information. There's no way that Gabby genuinely thinks that Natalia was just looking out for her and there wasn't an underlying intention there. You just have to see Natalia's face knowing she got caught. 😭
I mean, you could give the argument that from Gabby's POV, Natalia genuinely didn't know about Marissa and Anastasia still being together and blindly trusted what Rosa said as well. However, taking into account that Natalia was REALLY adamant to eliminate Anastasia, pressuring Gabby to a point at which she started going a bit too far, and Natalia stubbornly refusing to talk with Anastasia about the vote in Episode 5, which put Tom in danger, and when Anastasia didn't really do anything to Natalia this time around this season... Idk.
The fact that Tom practically swept under the rug what happened with Natalia the night before just because she turned out to be an excellent dance partner is so... 💀
These are my problems with the episode. Oh, well, and Aiden's elimination and pacing.
If I replaced Trevor as a judge then my ass would of been picky as hell especially in TomCat. Especially with Tom. The vibe is suppose to be fun and playful but he’s showing his sad face and stuff. I know that’s kind of extreme but considering the fans didn’t have any face slip ups at all then there should be no excuse. Benji maybe cause honestly if he can’t do splits he should done a Jake jump down or go down with his knees like a rock star
Yes I know Evie stealing Aiden’s spotlight and Aiden not properly doing improv to act like that was part of the performance like an actor should be doing could also be a deduction but I would of given leeway since the theme of camp for their song would of made more sense for them. And because I know Nina would be bias as hell😭. Also Evie kind of ate with it.
Would be like DC4 Emily saying Fiore did not get equal lines but actually wouldn’t deduct, just would be a little sad since Fiore should sing more. What I would deduct for in Let Me Explain would be Spencer doing what he did in the end of the song. I could excuse it during the rest of the song thinking it’s in character. The thing is the end of the songs are important and Spence wobbling a little would have triggered the perfectionist or ocd in me. Like if ya couldn’t do that properly maybe convince your team to have the men on the seats sit down with their legs up instead. Though Lake and Fiore probably forced him into it.
Just my personal opinions since I think the judges kind of gave more of a pass to the favorites. And also to see how the Fans could have won even with the disadvantage Aiden got.
Writing his name with her lipstick and KISSING it was savage asf. I never thought Evie would do something like this. Glad she wasn't the first boot.
If the Faves Lose it’s either Rosa or Ally IMO, if the fans lose, it’s one of Evie or Ren.
TL;DR: I think the final two matchup for this season could be Rosa and Sam because they both seem to lack what their respective teams are expected to have - knowledge for the fans and experience for the favourites, which I think will be the contrasting theme of this season’s finale.
Each season tends to frame its final two around a clear contrast:
S1: old vs young
S2: anti-hero vs anti-villain
S3: growth vs regression
S4: brain vs. brawn (alternatively logic vs emotion)
For S5, I think the contrasting theme is going to be knowledge vs experience, something which has been hinted at ever since we got the character introduction videos for this season.
The fans team is meant to represent knowledge, while the favourites represent experience. However, both Sam and Rosa lack what their respective teams are supposed to embody.
Sam, on the fans team, lacks knowledge. In Episode 7, he reveals he has only watched Season 1 and a few isolated challenge clips from other seasons. Not watching the other seasons means he wouldn’t know how the returning players he hasn’t seen operate, which could become an obstacle to his game later on (though it might not, since most of them have changed their playstyles).
Rosa, on the favourites team, lacks the experience compared to the rest of her team. Most of the favourites competed in AS, so this season would be their third time competing on the show, giving them more familiarity with what the game has become.
While the S4 contestants are also playing for a second time, their experience is recent (they competed just last year), whereas Rosa last competed three (in-universe) years ago. This means her experience is less fresh compared to theirs, especially with the game now including more survival-focused elements than it did in her original season.
Altogether, this places Rosa at a disadvantage in terms of familiarity with the current version of disventure camp, leaving her as the odd one out - the favourite entering this season with the least amount of relevant experience.
We see her struggle early on to adapt to these new survival elements, like starting a fire, since her original season had cabins and a cafeteria, meaning she never had to learn basic survival skills. Her time away from the game also shows in episode 2, where she struggles in the challenge due to her lack of recent competitive experience.
Another similarity I’ve noticed between Rosa and Sam in the most recent episode is that they both passed up opportunities to gain what they lack. Sam missed out on gaining more knowledge on his competition by not watching every other season (probably due to personal reasons). On the other hand, the most recent episode revealed that Rosa declined an invitation to compete again in AS because of Riya, so she lost a chance to gain more experience before this season.
What do you guys think?