Week 6 Story: Survivor Season 36: Castaway

(Survivor Bermuda Logo: Wikimedia Commons)

“Welcome back to Survivor Season 36. I am your host, Captain Jack Sparrow, and we are down to our final three contestants. We have been through several challenges and only the strongest have survived. First, we have Jack Dawson, a starving artist from Wisconsin who was one of the survivors of the infamous Titanic wreck. Next, we have Chuck “Wilson” Noland, a systems manager and high school volleyball coach from Memphis, Tennessee. Last, but not least, we have Sindbad, a sailor from Baghdad, Iraq. For all of you new viewers joining us this week, let me run over how the show works. It is the same rules as previous seasons of Survivor, but with a twist. Instead of voting contestants off of the island, the contestant with the most votes against them are left stranded on whichever island we are currently on. Tonight, we will find out who will make it to the finale and who will be left stranded.”

Camera zooms in on Chuck and Jack privately discussing their votes for tonight

“I don’t know Jack, Sindbad is a nice guy and he’s my friend. I feel bad teaming up against him like this behind his back.”

“Chuck, it’s him or one of us. We have to stick together and vote for him. He’s already rich from his long run on Jeopardy!, it’s our time to shine.”

Sindbad is facing the camera for an interview

“I honestly don’t know who I’m voting for tonight. I have grown to like both of them throughout this experience. Chuck is a great guy, but he does tend to talk about volleyball way too much. Especially how superior Wilson volleyballs are to other brands. Jack is cool too, but he did almost lose our team the challenge in week two when we realized he wasn’t a strong swimmer. This is definitely going to be a tough decision.”

Camera is on Captain Jack Sparrow in the middle of the beach

“Who’s going to get stranded tonight and miss out on the chance to win one million dollars? Find out after these short messages.”

Commercial break

Author's Note: The original story that is the basic of this retelling is Sindbad's Second Voyage. In this voyage, the sailor Sindbad goes to various islands with a group of merchants. However, one day they end up on a nice island where Sindbad decides to relax and go to sleep. He wakes up and realizes that the ship has left and he is stranded on the island alone. Sindbad now has to find a way to get back home. Later on, Sindbad meets up with the ship that left him and finds out that is was an accident. I changed this story and turned in into the reality TV show Survivor. I included Jack Dawson from the movie Titanic, Chuck Noland from the movie Castaway, Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. This retelling changes the way Sindbad was left on the island since it is now a competition on who will be left stranded. 

Bibliography: Sindbad: Second Voyage by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). 

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part B

(Sindbad Plots Against the Giant by Maxfield Parrish: Wikimedia Commons)

I like how Sindbad just decides to build his own ship and travel even though he has gone through so many terrible experiences already.

Whenever their ship gets destroyed by the Rocs, I think it would be funny to see everyone freaking while Sindbad is calmly floating with his driftwood because he has been through this scenario plenty of times.

It was extremely weird reading the part about the old man that forces Sindbad to carry him around. However, it is actually a pretty funny scene which I could use in my retelling.

My favorite part so far of this entire unit is when they throw rocks at the monkeys because they know they will get mad and start throwing coconuts at them. I can just picture this happening and someone next to Sindbad saying, “Watch this,” as he throws the rocks at the monkeys.

Whenever Sindbad the crew get shipwrecked this time I would like to change it to where he is like on a phone or something while the captain and everyone else is freaking out. They see Sindbad on his phone playing a game or something and he just looks up and says that he’s bored and he’s been through more exciting adventures.

It would be funny if the people of Serendib prank Sindbad once they realize he’s harmless. They hear him speaking in Arabic to himself and they decide to pretend like they’re savages or something to scare him. They let this prank go on for awhile and then reward Sindbad with treasure for being a good sport.

It seems as though Sindbad really does not want to go back to see. I’ll change it to where he secretly does and puts up kind of a fight against the Caliph’s wishes. However, he’s secretly excited about going on another adventure.

Everything seems to go fine at first during the first few days. I would like to see Sindbad just constantly looking over his shoulder or something just waiting for something bad to happen since he’s so used to it now.

In my retelling, Sindbad will be relieved when he sees the pirates because it wouldn’t be a voyage for him without something terribly wrong happening. Sindbad will be like, “Oh no, pirates,” but say it in a tone to where you can tell he’s not scared.

I found it interesting how the elephants decided not to kill Sindbad. In fact, they showed him where an abundance of ivory was even though he had killed so many elephants.

Sindbad’s whole story kind of made me think of the movie “Groundhog Day” because he’s sort of reliving the same day over and over again, but with different adventures. I could possibly incorporate something like that into my version of the story. 

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sindbad by by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part A

(Sinbad's third voyage. Encounter with a man-eating giant: Wikipedia)

It is interesting to me how Sindbad was able to see that he was managing his money poorly because I feel like a lot of people do not realize that until it is way too late.

It’s crazy how everyone mistook a whale as an island. I think I could retell this part to have someone question the legitimacy of the island before a huge group of them get on it.

Sindbad being stranded in the ocean and luckily getting on shore to an island reminds me of the movie “Castaway.” I will probably have Tom Hanks as the main character in my retelling.

I think it would be funny if Sindbad had to something outrageous or tell a secret that was only between him and the captain before the captain believed it was him.

I like how Sindbad ended up better off getting thrown off the whale and landing on that island. In my retelling, I will talk more about the stuff that he bought when he got home and will include expensive items that are just unnecessary.

When Sindbad said he was bored, I imagined him doing really mundane activities and I found it comical for some reason because of his earlier story.

It would be funny if the merchants Sindbad was traveling with were pranking him when he thought they had left him. They are hiding and watching him freak out, but then he gets a ride from that huge bird and they realize that they made a terrible mistake.

The snakes around the diamonds made me think of Indiana Jones because of his travels and his fear of snakes. I could incorporate some aspects of those movies into my version of this story.

The way the merchants got diamonds by throwing meat so that the birds would get it is so bizarre, but I love every part of it.

Sindbad seems really calm when the bird is coming to pick him up. I will change this and have him thinking or saying stuff that will show how scared he is.

Once again, I love how he came out rich by going through some terrible events.

Although they were savages, I don’t like how easily the dwarfs took control over Sindbad and his fellow travelers. I think it would be better if the dwarfs thought they were stronger, but Sindbad and the rest of the crew easily handled them.

I will retell it as if Sindbad and the rest meant to land on the island with the giant on it without having any clue what was on the island.

It would be funny if Sindbad was like, “Don’t worry guys, I read this in the Odyssey,” and devised a plan like Odysseus to escape the giants.

It’s hilarious how he met up with the crew of his second voyage which had left him stranded. It would be funny if Sindbad had acknowledged that this had happened to him before.

This part took an unexpected turn and I did not think Sindbad was going to kill people for their provisions. I will probably try to retell this in a lighter way.

Bibliography: The Voyages of Sindbad by by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Week 5 Story: Rocky 7

(Rocky Balboa: Alatele fr, Flickr)

Rocky Balboa, and his lesser known brother Bullwinkle, were gifted fighters at a very young age. Rocky, who was only sixteen, was destined to become a champion when his time came. One day, the retired fighter Apollo Creed came to visit Mick, Rocky’s trainer, to ask for a favor. Apollo explained how gang members were vandalizing his gyms across Philadelphia and he needed Rocky’s help to beat them up since he would go to jail for assaulting minors. Mick did not want Rocky to get injured, but Apollo was one of his closest friends so he agreed to let Rocky go with him. Apollo also insisted on bringing Bullwinkle in case there were too many gang members for Rocky to handle on his own.

The three of them drove to the only gym that had not been vandalized yet. They waited in a dark alleyway which had a good vantage point of where the gang members would most likely target. It was around midnight when Rocky and Bullwinkle sprung into action after seeing suspicious shadows moving around the gym. There were five gang members dressed in all black holding cans of spray paint about to deface yet another one of Apollo’s gyms. Right when they were about to start, they heard the thunderous footsteps of Rocky coming towards them. At first, they couldn’t see who it was, but soon they realized it was Rocky, the greatest fighter in Philly, and all of them decided to run away except for one.

The brave soul who decided to stay and fight was by the smallest and youngest of the group. He couldn’t have been older than twelve years old, but he pulled out a pocket knife and rushed towards Rocky and Bullwinkle. Seeing how young the boy was, Rocky and Bullwinkle decided to dodge the attacks instead of throwing any punches themselves. This went on for awhile until Apollo screamed from the car, “Finish him already!”. Bullwinkle punched the boy in the stomach and Rocky struck him with a mean left hook. The boy was instantly knocked out, but still breathing since Rocky didn’t want to kill him. Apollo came up to Rocky and Bullwinkle and gave them praises on how well they defended his gym. The next day, Apollo bought Rocky all the best boxing equipment that money could buy to help him on his journey of becoming a world champion.

Author's Note: For this week, I chose the story of Ramayana to retell. Rama is the reincarnation of the god Vishnu. Rama, the prince of his city, is loved by all his people and a very talented fighter. One day when Rama and his brother are young, a sage named Vishvamitra asks Rama's father if he can take Rama to help save his hermitage that is being ravaged by demons. He takes the two brothers to a jungle where they encounter a female shape-shifting demon. Since she is a female, the brothers hesitate to kill her. They eventually work together to kill her though. Vishvamitra was happy and summoned celestial weapons for Rama. I changed Rama to be Rocky Balboa, the fictional boxer, and Vishvamitra to be Apollo Creed who is also from the Rocky movies. I changed the demon to be a young gang member whom Rocky and his brother would be hesitant to beat up since he was so little. Apollo is happy and rewards Rocky with state of the art boxing equipment. I also changed Rama's brother's name to Bullwinkle because it was funny and I couldn't think of any other name that would work. 

Bibliography: Ramayana by Donald A. Mackenzie

Reading Notes: Ramayana, Part B

(Sita Longs for the Golden Deer: Wikimedia Commons)

I like how Surpanakha immediately fell in love with Rama. It just shows how amazing Rama truly was since everyone, including the sister of Ravana, loved and admired him.

I found it funny how they first attacked Rama with fourteen demons but then increase it to fourteen thousand demons. If I retell this part I will probably include a ridiculously high number of demons to attack Rama.

The battle between Rama and the demons could be made longer and more epic so the reader could truly appreciate Rama’s superiority in combat.

I could make Maricha change into something else like a really nice car instead of a golden deer to make the story more modern.

The scene where Ravana talks to Sita caught my attention because it seems like Sita is bragging about Rama’s power and then Ravana retaliates and tries to build up his own reputation. This could be made more comical by making them keep exchanging words on how the other is better.

I don’t like how much Rama grieves for Sita. I know that he loves her, but I would rather see him being bloodthirsty and destroying everything in his path to get her back.

I found it funny how Ravana is trying to hit on Sita but he can’t do anything about it since Brahma cursed him a long time ago.

Instead of all of these different animals, I could retell it by replacing them with military items like planes and stuff like that to go find Sita.

Once again, Ravana trying to get with Sita is a part that could be retold in a more comical way.

The part where Rama gets mad and starts basically attacking the ocean was funny to me. It shows how badly he wants to see Sita, but at the same time he is shooting arrows at a body of water. I know that it isn’t exactly just a body of water, but not knowing the god of the ocean would react to this makes it funny in retrospect.

If I retell the part of the war beginning I will be sure to include epic battle scenes and possibly some gruesome descriptions.

I found it interesting how Ravana cried for his son since he is a demon. There are many instances in this story that give Ravana human emotions that you wouldn’t normally associate with demons or evil spirits.

The way that Rama defeats Ravana wasn’t as climactic as I expected. I will probably make it more intense if I retell this part.

I thought it was kind of messed up how Rama basically accused Sita of sleeping with Ravana. I don’t like how this scene progressed so I will leave it out.

The ending was completely unexpected and I was not a fan of it. I will change the ending to make it more of a happier ending because I feel like how that’s how the story should’ve ended. 

Bibliography: Ramayana by Donald A. Mackenzie

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A

(Painted cloth depicting a scene from the Ramayana: Wikimedia Commons)

There have been some words that I don’t know and names I can’t remember in this story. In my retelling, I will most likely keep it simpler as to not confuse the reader.

I like how they explained the city, but I think it would be interesting to completely change it and make it into a wasteland.

Instead of a horse sacrifice, there could be something funny or bizarre that has to be done because I am not a fan of the sacrificial ceremonies.

It is interesting how Ravana can be beat by men and apes. In my retelling, I will probably replace apes with something completely different.

I like how they went through so much trouble to figure out why Rama was crying. It was funny how it ended up being such an easy fix.

If I retell this part, I will focus more on the Rama’s education in combat, archery, and other areas like that because I feel like that would be the most interesting to talk about.

The scene where Rama gets celestial weapons is awesome and I will try to incorporate that in my retelling by making the weapons more high-tech and modern.

I like the idea of the unbreakable bow, but I would like to make it a different weapon. Also, it would be funny if Rama struggled at first and then was able to break it after several attempts.

I really don’t like how Manthara was able to manipulate Kaikeyi. I usually do not like when stories have these kinds of people in them, so I will most likely not retell this part or completely change it. I would have Dasaratha just let her drink the poison or trick her in some way where she does not get her way.

I would probably have Rama call upon his celestial weapons and threaten Kaikeyi with them after she tells him what she has his father to do.

I like how Sita and Lakshmana are willing to go into exile with Rama. It shows how great of a person Rama is if people are willing to sacrifice their own lives just to be with him.

The scene that describes how Dasaratha was cursed is extremely emotional. The parents of the boy he killed cried out for him and said a lot of things that are depressing to read, but it made it a powerful and memorable part of the story.

I really like the fact that Bharata wasn’t evil like his mother. It is nice to see that he didn’t accept the throne and wanted Rama to have it.

At first, I didn’t like how Rama wasn’t going to go back to the city because I thought it was a matter a pride. However, he made good points as to why he has to stay in the jungle and I will keep that ending in the retelling

Bibliography: Ramayana by Donald A. Mackenzie

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