The audience is SUPPOSED to dislike ______, and that’s a good thing

I think this episode has made pretty clear our respective pre-merge “villains” for the season, and it’s fun how they seem to serve almost identical roles on their respective teams; Lynda for Blue, and Spencer for Red. Both are almost universally disliked conflict magnets who manage to sneak by through the skin of their teeth, just enough to irk the audience every time they manage to do so.

But I’ve seen people confused as to why there’s a lot more Spencer hate, now, or thinking there shouldn’t be, but I completely disagree. The writers do not want you to like Spencer. The season’s narrative is inherently stronger if the audience wants Spencer to fail, simply because he doesn’t.

I think it’s obvious to point at things like “he single-handedly just voted out a unanimously liked character through careful schemes” as examples for why the writers want you to not be on his side. but even more key is the way this scene is presented- we aren’t privy to whatever stupid scheme Spencer is about to pull out of his ass. We, the audience, have no clue he has Jade’s idol; and what that means is, we’re squarely in the same position as the rest of Red Team, watching with dread as we realise he’s going to get first pick of who’s about to go home. Naturally, with the information we have and through dramatic irony, we side with the others. Not with Spencer. We aren’t let into Spencer’s world enough for this to happen.

Obviously this doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to enjoy Spencer as a character or appreciate his villainy. But he is that- he’s the one we should love to hate with the way the season is written. And every time he goes to another Tribal Council and manages to skirt through with some other secret magic plan, we should be disappointed

basically don’t be mad that people don’t like Spencer. as he’s presented currently, ONC doesn’t really want you to like Spencer I feel LOL

I think this episode has made pretty clear our respective pre-merge “villains” for the season, and it’s fun how they seem to serve almost identical roles on their respective teams; Lynda for Blue, and Spencer for Red. Both are almost universally disliked conflict magnets who manage to sneak by through the skin of their teeth, just enough to irk the audience every time they manage to do so.

But I’ve seen people confused as to why there’s a lot more Spencer hate, now, or thinking there shouldn’t be, but I completely disagree. The writers do not want you to like Spencer. The season’s narrative is inherently stronger if the audience wants Spencer to fail, simply because he doesn’t.

I think it’s obvious to point at things like “he single-handedly just voted out a unanimously liked character through careful schemes” as examples for why the writers want you to not be on his side. but even more key is the way this scene is presented- we aren’t privy to whatever stupid scheme Spencer is about to pull out of his ass. We, the audience, have no clue he has Jade’s idol; and what that means is, we’re squarely in the same position as the rest of Red Team, watching with dread as we realise he’s going to get first pick of who’s about to go home. Naturally, with the information we have and through dramatic irony, we side with the others. Not with Spencer. We aren’t let into Spencer’s world enough for this to happen.

Obviously this doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to enjoy Spencer as a character or appreciate his villainy. But he is that- he’s the one we should love to hate with the way the season is written. And every time he goes to another Tribal Council and manages to skirt through with some other secret magic plan, we should be disappointed

basically don’t be mad that people don’t like Spencer. as he’s presented currently, ONC doesn’t really want you to like Spencer I feel LOL