i honestly think that yul is the reason the idol was nerfed, so many opportunities to flush it but yul's social prowess and intimidation kept his alliance from trying to go against him. if he hadn't made it to the final tribal i think that in fiji the super idol would be present

“Well the kiss is nice but maybe if it were love he would have given you the immunity necklace.” I really miss the old Jeff. These snarky remarks were gold.

“It could be us four caucasians” we just skimming over that LMAO

Yul completely broke the expectations of the super idol. He used it not only as an advantage but as a social tool maximizing it's utility and proved it needed to have its mechanics changed.

Billy is secretly the guy who determines the outcome of this season by sending Yul to find the immunity idol and it took me so long to know that. Respect to billy

'In between the random, inane nonsense there is actually gems and nuggets of information that is actually useful." - Yul, describing Cao Boi 😆😆😆

The addition of the Billy/Candace love story really helped me understand Yul's story

In my opinion, he’s one of the top 10 winners of all time. He didn’t win any individual immunity’s but he was a good competitor, he was socially aware of his tribe members and tribal lines and he was a great social player. He also deserved his win because unlike Ozzy, who cared about one part of the game, Yul was able to have a very balanced game and won because he was a jack of all trades instead of good at just one.

Yul was a straight up boss and played people like they were chess pieces

Yul: “I’m never going to get a date again.” After the season meets his wife thanks to Brad, gets married, has two daughters.

It still always baffles me how great this cast was. Parv and Yul are some of my favorite winners of all time. Ozzy is they guy I wanted to be like when I was little. Candice and Panner are such great characters as well... Cook Islands directly impacts the casting of FvF and that in turn impacts HvV. Without Cook Islands we might not get two of the best seasons of all time...

A couples alliance can be powerful in this game. They were right to vote off Billy, he was too dangerous.

YUL is easily one of my top 5 all time favourite winners! As an Asian who watched this season I was rooting for him all along. He is so smart and what a handsome man! He aged so well, a husband and a father. What an amazing role model!

It took 19:57 for a dumb to finally appear and it honestly was something completely out of Yuls control. Easily one of the smartest winners ever

Yul is one of my favorite players. He isn't perfect, but for a guy who never watched the show, he did great. Finding the super idol and using it to run his social game, he was kind and usually honest when he could, but when he manipulated he did it for the game, not just to do it. He played well socially, he helped his tribe come back form 8 to 4, he earned this win.

Yul is my favorite player ever which causes me to like Cook Islands more than most. I thought Yul being called the Godfather was the coolest thing ever when I was younger.

i always tell people to watch Cook Islands because yul like the winner 🚪🚶🚶‍♂️

yul is just so dang well spoken. I could honestly listen to him talk forever

My all time favourite player. Loved him as a player but also as a human he seemed to have the perfect outlook on life

Wait this explains so much about something Peridiam touched on! In his "Not filmed" video, he mentioned in Samoa that someone got chewed out by Jeff because they wished a jury member a happy birthday, and Peridiam said "Well I don't get how Yul did it but they couldn't". That's because Yul brought the hat to an empty jury bench before they showed up. I'm sure he would've got chewed out if he stood up mid tribal or even after the vote occurred

The only season i was able to watch from start to finish. You cant help but root for the Aitu 4. Ozzy and Hul hard carried that team to victory. Crazy!

I think that every "godfather" type player (robfather, etc) all had the idol. It's probably really difficult to play that way without it

Yul was such a great player this season. I would really like to see him play again in a season where he has a chance to play. WaW he went too soon. Maybe an old school vs new school survivor?

Alas, like Wanda singing, we must say goodbye to Billy giving his heart 😭😭😭

I think the sole reason Yul's idol was so powerful was that Penner was kept around. No doubt Penner's a survivor legend but had he gone home pre-merge, I don't see Jenny or Nate flipping. Raro screwed the pooch in the double vote because they put too much faith in a guy who already screwed half the cast.

After watching this season a second time, i cant believe ozzy even had a chance. Yul 100% carried this whole season.

When I watched Cook Islands the first time, I was actually more of a fan of Ozzy and to a lesser extent Penner, Cao Boi, and especially that total spaz Nate. But as I got older and rewatched older seasons in the run-up to season 40, Yul became a guy I enjoyed watching even more. He brought a Borneo-esque feel to Cook Islands in the sense that we weren't just watching a reality show. Through his confessionals, he moved the season in the direction of, as foreshadowing as it may seem, a PBS-style documentary, or a PBS show like Nature or NOVA. In that way, it was a refreshing take on older Survivor seasons. And there's also the fact that Yul Kwon would later go on to feature or co-direct in PBS documentaries himself. lol

I’ve recently started watching old survivor seasons, since the first season I ever watched was season 33, and I didn’t have access to older seasons until now. Cook Islands was for some reason the place I started, and wow it quickly started to rival what I thought was my favourite season previously (season 33). I’ve heard people say that this cast is not very memorable, but I completely disagree. There are so many great characters, even the people who get the early boot are interesting. Never a dull moment in this season, and I just loved how perfectly everything played out for yul. He honestly just seems like such a down to earth guy, and this is kind of random, but I love that he vocalizes his opinion on the game itself. Something I always find annoying on survivor is when people are overly surprised that they got lied to, especially if it was about something that didn’t really matter. In my opinion, you should go into survivor expecting to be lied to and manipulated, because it is almost impossible to win without doing those things. I think Yuls opening speech at the final tribal is a refreshing take on it, and I have never heard another player that I can remember say this.

I never liked Yul until this breakdown, have a newfound respect for him. Now I understand why he received such a high rating by viewers.

39:10 the way you retell what happened is so hilarious 😂 you're quite the storyteller

So I just had a massive big brain moment, at the final 9 when Nate is voted out and Penner switches his vote to join Aitu, it's only a 5-4 vote with Penner being the deciding vote. If he told the Aitu that he would target Nate and they all believed him, but he still voted with the Raro alliance it would've been 4-5 with Yul going home. This would force Yul to play the idol, removing the idol and still sending Penner's target home from his alliance. Imagine if Penner did this 3-D chess move, with only Aitu knowing that he flopped. It would leave the alliances tied at 4-4 still, but now Raro doesn't target Jonathon as well because they don't know he flipped.

Been steadily going through the survivor series and Yul is top 3 if not the best to ever play. Why? Because he maintained his 4 member tribe even after the merge. I've never seen anything like that. We all expect contestants to devour themselves towards the end but he managed to prevent that from happening to his tribe. The guy is truly the ultimate paragon who lived up to his word. The whole time I was thinking he's just like Obama which isn't necessarily a good thing but he has the demeanor of a calm leader. He was very political, very smart, very calm and very levelheaded. I think I actually learned a few things from him in regard to how to maneuver.

Thanks for doing a Yul video, he’s one of my favorite winners of all time. Also I just recently discovered your channel from my roommate who also introduced me to survivor about 6 months ago. Keep up the great work dawg!

Finally we got a video on Yul

One of my favorite players of all time, and definitely one of the best to ever win. He's definitely in my top 3.❤️

who else was sad asf watching Yul's torch get snuffed on WAW?......

Its been a long time since I've seen this season but Yul is one of my favorite players and winners and I was a huge Ozzy fan at the time

I'm so excited to watch this because Yul isy favorite winner

Yul

Yeah, that fire making challenge was "EPIC"!💤💤💤💤

Fave season, fave winner

20:50 What would they have done if like Becky and Sundra mutinied too? There’s not a shot in hell they can run half those challenges as a 9-3 or 10-2, and THATS ignoring the fact that if they both flip Yul and Ozzy absolutely have to too, like imagine it’s 11-1 tribe divisions for like 3 episodes.

We need an updated "where are they now"! Billie should be at the top of the list!

I remember watching this season when it aired, and I totally fell for Ozzy’s decoy winner edit. And it wasn’t the last time that would happen. The same thing happened with Stephanie vs Dani.

My all time favorite player! go Yule!!

Yul is my favorite winner i admire his temple

Favorite winner

Haha, you love to see a new video!

Becky lee was extremely underrated She was seen as a goat, but if final 2 is Ozzy Vs becky, i would vote becky without a doubt Ozzy played a mediocre game and with no dominance

41:39 The face Jeff gas when he is saying "we are gonna go to matches" is priceless 😂😂😂

This was good but I still adore JT the most so far, I never watched survivor til I found your vids three or four days ago I’m like 35-40 videos deep at this point🤣🤣 I prefer the longer vids

I don't think the race division would fly today. It really is amazing though that they did this twist because it was great to see equal members of each race and to see how people of the same race would work together. It really adds something to new to the table to the social experiment of Survivor. Unfortunate that it could never fly today despite flying 14-15 years ago.

We need the story of that epic and legendary fire making tiebreaker

😂 I thought I already saw this video, but I mixed it up with the Penner one at the start lol

he’s the best player in survivor history to me

Ready for the Jeremy Collins video

Yul is the only winner to never be in any danger of going home at any point

I truly wish Ozzy would have won, he is prideful but at the same time pretty amazing knowing his dad wasn’t there to set an example. His first thought is providing and I respect that. And as someone who’s actually communicated with him directly, I can attest to that character in a small way

Let’s go

Yul wanna watch episode after episode to see how it ends

I know Yul is still friends with Penney. I wonder if he and Becky are still friends too.

When he went swimming in the ocean, was it during Yuletide?

Penner talks I see Alan Alda face dang sounds just like him

I love cowboy and agree with him. There's a difference between a racist joke and a racial joke, and jokes bond and unify people. If you can't make a joke then you're the outcast

I bet yul want to support once upon an island on patreon after this video

i gotta know: where does cook islands rank in your favorite seasons? i have a feeling its up there

i honestly feel bad for becky but i understand why no one asked her anything during the final tribal council maybe if she played a bigger/ wasnt yuls side kick people would’ve recongized how she played more

Yul might be the closest thing to a perfect to player (at least in Cook islands)

I wish we’d seen more of Cao Boi and his interactions with the other members of the Puka Puka tribe and how they see the world as Asian Americans. I mean when Cao Boi was making Asian jokes and boat people jokes and the rest of the tribe were saying it was so offensive and he was like “I WAS A LITERAL BOAT PERSON!” I think it would have been interesting to see more of that. But let’s be real, if we did it would have been SUPER preachy. Also, imagine if Becky had taken up Yul’s offer of the idol? The DRAMA

I bet yul enjoy this video whoever sees this

Yul is like Superman

Lmao the idol was nerfed because of Yul. Godly.

Yul is the definition of influencer. 😮

Why wasn't Cau boy in Game Changers?

Can you do the story of Natalie White because people still don’t think she deserves to win and I think people need to know how and why she won

Does anyone know the song that is used throughout the video?

I thought Ozzy should have really latched into the fact that one player knew he was safe every week because of a power and Ozzy won safety every week because of his powers.

Cou Boi was great TV

I’m very interested in the story of Maryanne

They waited too long to bring Yul back, or maybe it was always bad timing (like Earl). I personally would've liked to see him in HvV instead of James, but not making him Ozzy's rival in South Pacific instead of Coach was a missed opportunity if it was possible.

:-)

I love Yul as a player and think he played a good game, but I am not a personal fan of his winning season. All Survivor winners have lucky breaks or things go their way, but with the Super Idol, Bottle Twist and the Final 3 Twist it all felt way too convenient and made his path to the end a bit of a cakewalk.

41:35 very pathetic, neither player can start a fire. AND sundra couldn’t even do it with matches, she literally ran out of matches. Neither deserved to make final 3.

I never liked the idol that can be played after voting. It needs to expire much sooner. Look how easy the game is for the person who has it.

Im sorry but ANY story about Cook Islands is just overshadowed by the Billy/Candice love story

It was so ridiculous that the votes were split almost evenly between Ozzy and Yul. Yul could have won without Ozzy. Ozzy could not win without Yul. Ozzy was a chess piece. Yes, he wasn't a pawn, he was a strong piece. But still a piece, nonetheless. Yul was the grandmaster. If Yul wanted Ozzy gone, he'd be gone.

So sick of seeing the Candace scene. Done. I don't even want to finish the video 🤣

Parvatee will forever be my least favorite survivor contestant

If this show happened 10 years later, Yul would have had to give up his Idol to the black tribe because affirmative action.

The way animals are treated on this show is appalling.

He only had 2 dumbs moments tbh

I like that guy coa boi he is hilarious and right a joke is a joke, as long as you are not a sensitive 5 year old

Yul

Yul

Yul

Yul

Yul