Brawn

**Highest Placing Member**: Brooke (3/20)

Brawn was a tribe from Survivor: Cloncurry.

Despite reaping the rewards of their physical strength, Brawn was divided by a brewing power struggle between its warring leaders Shannon and Simon. After the Tribe Switch, fractures between the remaining Brawn members were easily exploited by the Brains newcomers, who effectively turned them against each other to advance in the game. Their tribe color was red.

## Tribe History

The red Brawn tribe demonstrated a ferocious energy at the beginning of *Survivor: Cloncurry*. This allowed them to physically overpower the rival Brains tribe, and also caused its members to slowly separate into strategic cliques vying for total control. Shannon led one faction, which included her 'Space Bun Mafia' trio with Flick and Kez, as well as Doug and Isaiah. The other side was led by Simon and his closest ally Emmett, who created a quartet with fellow duo Brooke and Locky. The primary reason for Brooke working with this group of alpha men was because she thought they would be easy to manipulate, and would be bigger shields once the tribes switched and then merged. This group ultimately brought Harmony into the folds of the alliance in preparation for their impending war against Shannon's clique, though she saw herself as a powerful swing vote. In the early morning hours of Day 5, Simon found one of two Hidden Immunity Idols that were hidden at the Brawn camp. Although he and Emmett previously promised to share any idols they find, Simon chose to keep the knowledge of his idol secret.

The war on the Brawn tribe commenced after they lost the immunity challenge on Day 5. Shannon's faction initially believed they pulled Harmony onto their side, meaning they had the numbers to eliminate Brooke. However, Doug and Isaiah eventually convinced Shannon they needed to vote for Harmony because she was actually against them. Meanwhile, Simon's crew hoped to fracture their main rivals by voting for Flick or Shannon. At tribal council, Flick voted for Brooke as her alliance initially planned but the other members voted for Harmony. Locky voted for Flick, having missed the crucial final meeting where his alliance decided on voting for Shannon, which caused a 4-4-1-1 tie. All players voted for their alliance's primary target, though Brooke switched her vote from Shannon to Harmony because she was getting frustrated with the incompetence of her allies. Brooke had to be sneaky when Brawn returned to camp from tribal council. She wanted to keep a positive relationship with her allies and told them how she switched her vote because she was scared of drawing rocks. She then spoke to Shannon's alliance, who now held the numbers on the tribe, and pledged her allegiance to them.

When Brawn lost the challenge on Day 9, Brooke went to her first official meeting with the majority alliance. At this meeting, it was agreed to split the votes between Locky and Simon with the intention of voting for Simon at the revote. Brooke then spoke with her original alliances to keep their line of communication open, where they decided to vote for Flick. Brooke also had a private conversation with Simon where she told him that he would be receiving votes at tribal council, so he revealed to Brooke that he would be using an idol to save himself. At tribal council, Brooke whispered to Simon that he should not play his idol because the target had shifted away from him. This was not actually true, but Brooke switched her vote from Simon to Locky. This meant that Brooke now had Simon's idol to her disposal and the majority still had control because Locky was voted out in a 4-3-2 vote. Despite losing another member of his dwindling alliance, Simon was thankful that Brooke saved him and was still in possession of his idol. Simon also felt more powerful the next morning when he found the second Brawn idol.

The Brawn tribe lost the following challenge on Day 12. Brooke was still considered a valuable asset to the majority alliance, and they told her their next target was Emmett. However, she and Doug had formed a close relationship outside the alliance, and he confided in her that he was not comfortable being dictated the votes by the Space Bun Mafia. Brooke suggested they bring in Emmett, Isaiah and Simon to create a coalition against the girls, where Kez would be voted out. Doug and Isaiah readily accepted this deal, though Isaiah accidentally let slip to his allies that Kez was a potential target. This caused chaos amongst the tribe, with the Space Bun Mafia pleading to Brooke and Doug to vote for Emmett. The pair decided to keep the girls on their side, but still vote with Emmett and Simon. At tribal council, Isaiah voted for Kez, the girls voted for Emmett, but Brooke, Doug, Emmett and Simon had the power to eliminate Isaiah.

A Tribe Switch occurred the following morning, where Flick, Shannon and Simon were joined by Hayley, Jacob, Neda and Wai from the original Brains tribe. Although the Brains initially had the majority, they worried about the possibility of losing their numbers by losing the next immunity challenge and gaining original Brawn Doug after tribal council. Neda was particularly concerned Jacob would flip to work with original Brawn because he was not involved in her six person majority on the original Brains tribe. Hayley did not share this concern because she spent days building relationships with outsiders on Brains, including Jacob. However, the four original Brains were thrilled to find out about the Brawn rivarly between Shannon and Simon. Although Brawn did not lost their first immunity challenge or gain Doug as a member, the tribe went to tribal council on Day 17. Simon did not want to play either of his idols and started pleaded for his life to the Brains by highlighting that Flick and Shannon were a dangerous power couple. Flick and Shannon voted for Simon at tribal council, but Shannon was eliminated because the Brains saw the logic in Simon's argument. With the merge in sight, Simon told Neda about his two idols because he wanted to demonstrate his loyalty to the Brains majority. This was a fatal move for Simon because Neda told the Brains and they collectively agreed to throw the next immunity challenge. The Brains told Simon they were coming after Flick, but they told Flick about Simon's two idols. At tribal council, Neda voted with Simon for Flick in the event Simon played one of his idols, but the rest of the Brains and Flick blindsided Simon with two idols in his pocket. On Day 20, the Brawn tribe disbanded when the Final Twelve castaways merged.