Originally Posted by wonkeydonkey:
“In BB9 people perceived as 'big players' (ie Luke and Bex) were out relatively early on; certainly in the case of Bex, they almost all seemed to assume that Mo would go. From that time on it was obvious that there was no hostile power block that could prevail against the general friendship group that B-block quickly became. Apart from in the aftermath of the cake task (when the hostility towards Rachel was short-lived, and really only acute for half a day) Rachel really never seemed to have anything to worry about. She got on badly with no one after Luke had gone; she was very close to Kat and quite close to Mikey; Rachel was only up for eviction once, against someone she was neutral about, and in fact never lost a friend from the house from beginning to end. The tasks were generally unemotional stuff - eat sprouts, lick crisps, paint yourself blue, make a table tennis video.
In BB13 Luke lost two of the people he was closest to early on; he was up against one of his closest friends a bit later in a head to head; the house was very badly split, with him on the minority side almost throughout; he was up for eviction three times; two of the people he had thought were close and friendly defected completely to the other side; the turf war task seemed designed to be as stressful as possible. It was not until the final week that the stress seemed to be off, and both Luke and Rachel faced notably difficult final line-ups, with strong rival contenders.”
“In BB9 people perceived as 'big players' (ie Luke and Bex) were out relatively early on; certainly in the case of Bex, they almost all seemed to assume that Mo would go. From that time on it was obvious that there was no hostile power block that could prevail against the general friendship group that B-block quickly became. Apart from in the aftermath of the cake task (when the hostility towards Rachel was short-lived, and really only acute for half a day) Rachel really never seemed to have anything to worry about. She got on badly with no one after Luke had gone; she was very close to Kat and quite close to Mikey; Rachel was only up for eviction once, against someone she was neutral about, and in fact never lost a friend from the house from beginning to end. The tasks were generally unemotional stuff - eat sprouts, lick crisps, paint yourself blue, make a table tennis video.
In BB13 Luke lost two of the people he was closest to early on; he was up against one of his closest friends a bit later in a head to head; the house was very badly split, with him on the minority side almost throughout; he was up for eviction three times; two of the people he had thought were close and friendly defected completely to the other side; the turf war task seemed designed to be as stressful as possible. It was not until the final week that the stress seemed to be off, and both Luke and Rachel faced notably difficult final line-ups, with strong rival contenders.”
BB9 was three weeks longer. The length alone results in stress, and it also has implications for how we evaluate other things.
BB9's Luke went out in week 8 of a 13 week series, so it may have seemed "relatively early". But 8 weeks would be most of bb13, and indeed Conor wasn't there much longer, since he went out in week 9.
It's interesting that you don't mention Rex at all, since he was the HM who put the most pressure on Rachel. Anyway, the time when Rex saw her VT and accused her of lying was when Stu was HoH in week 8. The cakes were in week 10, which would have been the last week of bb13. The cake clash also led to her being up for eviction that week.
So Rachel's trials and tribulations lasted about as long as all of bb13, even if we assume (which I don't think is entirely correct) that it was smooth sailing for her from then on.
BB13 had nothing comparable to 'spit-gate'. That night was very stressful in itself, and it led to lasting divisions and ill-feeling. bb9 was at least as badly split as bb13.
The nastiest thing in bb13, Conor's rant, wasn't even heard by most of the HMs. And the HMs targeted in the bb13 eating task were Deana, and to a much lesser extent Lydia, not Luke. And while Rachel wasn't a target on spit-night, she did face direct pressure from Rex a number of times and had Luke and Bex using auditions against her.
Unlike Rachel, Luke A never went up against anyone like Alexandra or Rex.
I don't know which "two of the people (Luke A) had thought were close and friendly defected completely to the other side". I'm guessing Becky was one, though they were never very close. Of course, Rachel had a defection from her Rebecca too.
