No. Pretty average, why?

Now that I know people didn't share the same opinions with me toward the latter half of the merge, I probably should have saved the idol. Even though it looks like clout or respect on Qaz's game, me playing the idol on him was literally last minute. I had no intentions of it the entire tribal council, and then Joey coming out with another idol led me to play mine so that I could take out Ethan when no one else wanted to. It wasn't a matter of saving Qaz. It was a matter of sending home who I wanted to.

Some kids are like in high school and 7 feet tall and you're like oh of course you play basketball. I just wanted to know.

And thank you for clarifying the intent of the idol play.

@Ken

1. What was the hierarchy, in your opinion, of this alliance (Dana, David, Kara, and any other people who went to jury or didn't make it that far)? Who in that group would be your ideal final 3, and why?

The hierarchy definitely placed me at the bottom. David and Kara were obviously friends, and the David and Qaz duo was gaining a lot of strength as the game went on. I always knew I would likely be the first to go from that group, but it didn’t stop me from making a promise with them because it was one of the easiest groups to stay loyal with. David would be on top by default, I guess, because I’m not sure how close Kara and Qaz were. Qaz also came to me a couple hours before he was voted out about how he was worried about Kara making it deep. David>Qaz>Kara>Dana.

2. You three are the last representatives of each of your original tribes, what common bond did you find across these divided tribes?

Besides all the preaching of Masoala strength I had in my speech, I’d say it would be how we talked with one another in our tribe chat. Kara was very easy to talk to and we had a lot of personal talks with each other. I knew that my way in with her was to develop an actual friendship (which I hope lasts outside this game!) because she had a way of getting people on her side that I didn’t at the time. David and I kind of struggled at first to click on a personal level, but it just kind of happened because of his association with Kara. And then Qaz and I kind of formed this secret alliance (which I guess got exposed with my idol play) because we bonded over the fact that we were both hated villains. Mix that all together and you’ve got yourself a group of 4.

3. While you were originally cast as a pure villain, many people here feel as though they were not placed in their correct tribes to start with. So I find it hard to justify some of your more erratic gameplay with "well he's a villain so of course he wasn't always loyal!" Why should you be forgiven for that vs someone like Kara who is at least perceived to have always stuck to her core?

I talked about this at the start of my speech if you want a more brief answer, but this isn’t just about proving or justifying anything I did. Me not sticking to my core as a pure villain is the exact reason I separate myself from Kara. Kara even admits that there were moments in this game that tested her “core” toward leaning away from a pure hero, similar to the way I felt when faced with dilemmas throughout the game. There were times where I was heroic and friendly in order to get what I wanted, such as establishing that Masoala strength. I’m not asking for forgiveness, but separating that heroic aspect aside, my gameplay as a pure villain was the only thing I’ve known. Being a pure villain doesn’t equate to disloyalty, because I actually had a lot of loyalty this game. And unfortunately, there were times I had to break it in order to escape being a target and making sure the vote happened the way I expected it to, minus a few times.

4. In this game, it seems like you've been blamed for quite a bit of wild things. From the Dan vote, to the attempt to say you gave Joey an idol, and also an attempt to say you flipped on Qaz and not Matt. I even believed you had voted me to leave for a while (which I was perfectly fine with as I was done with the game anyways). Why do you think you were so easy to pin untrustworthy actions on in this game?

I think I was the scapegoat for a lot of other people’s decisions because it’s easy to blame the pure villain for a lot of those actions. Addressing each one, the Dan vote had pretty much no strategic backing besides Jabbar and I wanting to win challenges and keep the drama in. I talked about the theory that I gave Joey an idol in part 2 of my speech if you want reference, but that was easy to blame on me because everyone pretty much suspected that I had it after receiving a huge clue. And the only people I had told at that time was the Qaz fan club. I think Dylan thought he could blame me, but that’s why I defended myself. People thinking I flipped on Qaz was blameable because he had voted me once and I had voted him twice, so many people saw my idol play the previous round as a waste, when in reality it had a lot of value. TL;DR It’s always easy to blame the pure villain for a lot of things, especially when I was the last one from my tribe, and didn’t have a say in a lot of the discussion at the start of the merge.

5. Why was attempting to vote for David or Qaz in the early rounds such a bad move? In my opinion you had a good chance to make it here if the fan club stayed intact, and apparently it didn't ruin your connection with either of them.

I guess I’ll edit that a little bit. Voting for David was pretty justified after what happened at the Julian vote because it showed me that he was just going to play a pivot/flip position for a while, and could ruin our plans to take that shot at Mud again. As far as Qaz, it was such a bad move because we had a really strong bond at that point in the game, and he constantly defended me in front of people who were throwing my name out like Mud. That’s why I put my foot down and said I wouldn’t vote Qaz again when the Fan club brought it up once or twice again. From my perspective, voting them at the merge didn’t ruin my connection with them because I made a Masoala promise after that vote I wouldn’t vote them again this game. I guess I fucked up with that at the final four when I did Kara, but I was 100% under the assumption it would go to fire, and I wanted her or Matt to earn their way here. When he posted it would be a rock draw, I changed my vote because that’s a cheap way to leave this game after nearly a month. I hope I answered this question well enough because my relationships with David and Qaz were very complicated.

Hi and congrats to you three. I have a couple individual questions/comments for each of you.

Kara - Let me start by saying it was an absolute pleasure getting to know you in the limited time we talked this game, and if our paths happen to cross in future games I'd love to align with you for real. In your speech, you touched on how you used your social skills to build relationships with people which I think is something that's really important in these kinds of games. What, in your opinion, is the single most important relationship you built this game, and how did it help you get to the final 3?

David - I heard from multiple people constantly throughout the game that you would regularly campaign to have the target shifted off of me at many of the post-merge tribals, and I assume this is because you wanted to have me as a number to make move later. In the perfect scenario where everything goes according to plan for you, what could this "big move" possibly have looked like? Who it have been against, and who would be in on it?

Dana - If I vote for you, will you promise to leak everything interesting said in the winner's chat to me immediately? An answer in the affirmative is a prerequisite to earning my vote.

Again, thanks for a great (if chaotic) game -- I had a lot of fun getting to know you guys some more!

@Will

1. If I vote for you, will you promise to leak everything interesting said in the winner's chat to me immediately? An answer in the affirmative is a prerequisite to earning my vote.

Yes. Immediately and indefinitely.

hi

i'm gonna keep this as short and as sweet as possible, i'm gonna try to keep an open mind but i'm definitely biased

richard brewster:
i think you played by far the best strategic game in this group of 3, however i'm finding it extremely hard to actually want to vote for you at the moment

my question for you is, what was your thought process behind attempting to guilt trip me for ignoring you/being upset with you after the ethan vote off?

kara jayne:
i think your social game was phenomenal, so congrats on that.

my question for you is simply this: would you ever have voted with me post-merge if i had put in the effort to make it happen, or were you dead set on getting me out at all times?

david:
i'm kinda blanking on what to say to you but you're here so congrats

what particular aspects of the game do you think you outplayed your two opponents in?

@Joey

1. What was your thought process behind attempting to guilt trip me for ignoring you/being upset with you after the Ethan vote off?

First, I guess it's appropriate to apologize about that. I shouldn't have guilt tripped you for being upset because you had every right to. I ran the risk that tribal council that you guys didn't have another idol and you would be voted out. My gut told me though that you were gonna pull something off, because I told Will that he wasn't the target, leaving you as the only other option.

Second, my thought process was solely because I was distraught of our relationship after that outcome. I've known you for, like, 3??ish years and it upset me at the time that I ruined a relationship with you over a group game. You called me a psychotic cunt and I lashed back by guilt tripping, which was wrong. I'm not trying to justify my behavior, but it was only because I was genuinely sad that we weren't on speaking terms and you wanted nothing to do with me in the game after that. I hope that's enough, but if not let me know. @_@

David - I heard from multiple people constantly throughout the game that you would regularly campaign to have the target shifted off of me at many of the post-merge tribals, and I assume this is because you wanted to have me as a number to make move later. In the perfect scenario where everything goes according to plan for you, what could this "big move" possibly have looked like? Who it have been against, and who would be in on it?

Yeah you were the one person I feel I could make a move with on that side.
My move would have been against mud for sure. Mud and then I was hoping I could take out Dylan just after that so let me explain.

There were several people wanting you out at f11 because Joey had immunity and y'all were the big names at the time. Obviously I truated you at least a little bit and Kenneth and I never really clicked so I went to work on shifting the vote. This is where me and Matt got talking about taking out mud and we agreed you were good to have around so we went on and changed the target to Ken.

My hope was that Joey would leave at final 10 so that your side wasn't strong enough to pose a threat and we could FINALLY do something together. I already had Matt and Kara (she wasn't a fan of mud) and then I had a really good talk with Qaz where I at least convinced him that mud should go if Ethan won immunity (we both wanted Ethan out too).

That gives us 5/10 votes and I figured Dana was on board as well. The only problem was, ALL this depended on Joey leaving at ten. Since he didn't leave me and Qaz really talked a lot about what to do and how to go about it. He wanted to make a move on Dylan since Dylan gave the idol to Joey but wanted to wait a round but then Matt had the same idea so Qaz spured on Matt and that rift there really destroyed plans I had for making that move with you. Unfortunetly Joey staying was a big hit to my game at that point in time.

david:
i'm kinda blanking on what to say to you but you're here so congrats

what particular aspects of the game do you think you outplayed your two opponents in?

-

I think I defimet my outplayed them in my bonds within my side of the game.
Its no secret that half the cast hated me BUT the people I was with I had a great relationship with each if them OR I made myself so useful that they couldn't get rid of me.

For example in the Masoala 4 I was way tighter with Kara than either of the othwr two and same with Qaz. And with Dana we had an almost business relationship that I was able to sort of keep in check through Kara. I also had a really tight thing with Matt for most of the game to where I don't think he ever really wanted me out. And even Mud I really had built a connection there that Definetly was a lot more game based but it certainly left him needing me around for awhile.

So I'd say I out positioned them. Dana played strategically and Kara plaued socially but the majority of the time I was in a position that I wasn't in danger because of connections I had and being protected on all sides i could.

Hi guys congrats, well done to you three for making it to the final 3 in this mammoth season it really is something so ya’ll should be proud!

Dana - you are deemed as playing both sides but to me that just SCREAMS flip-flopper! I wanna know who you were exclusively loyal to, if you had to pick one or two people who were the ones you were never gonna flip from and why?

David - I admire your determination but tbh I despise your personality! I feel throughout the game you came off as slimy and very cocky and it would literally make me feel so happy if you didn’t win! How would you change my perception?

Kara - everyone is saying how you played a great social game but you spoke to me like... once and when you did you lied so I don’t see it? Also Kara to me you were invisible but everyone is defending that you were having a tough time irl but I’m not about to give you a sympathy vote.. so i wanna know what moves you made that were actually influential to the game progression?

Congrats on finals you three. Obviously you did something right to be here.

Dana, I believed you played the best strategic game before coming into this tribal council. But hearing from all three of you makes me think that you got lucky many times and wouldn't be here without the moves other people made. Everything said in this tribal seems to point towards you being on the bottom of most of your alliances and eventually needing that final immunity to even be here. Explain to me something YOU did post-merge that increased your chances of getting here, other than winning immunity.

Kara, you played a tremendous social game. No one wanted to vote for you at any point, and while you were pretty passive strategically you at least had some say in votes. I have a few questions for you. First, more of a personal one, why were you constantly leaking things I said back to people like David and Dana? If you wanted to build trust and have me actually believe you would take me to finals, I don't understand the reasoning. Secondly, would you have taken me to the end if Dana did not win that final immunity? You answered this privately but I want to see it in public for the whole jury to see. I have one more question but it will come later.

David, your responses here do make me appreciate your game more, but to me it still seems as though you played a similar game to Kara with her having a better social and strategic game. My question for you will be combined with another question I have for Kara in my next post.

David and Kara, you two played a very similar game and were very close throughout. It is always risky to go to the final two with someone like this as you risk splitting votes. However, in my first season I made finals with Austyn, who was my best friend at the time. I ended up winning because it was clear to the jury I had made the bigger, better moves between the two of us. That being said, I have a few questions for you both.

Tell me why you deserve it over the other. What differentiates you to make you more worthy of the win?

Why did you take each other knowing that there was a potential that the jury saw you as basically the same player? Did you ever consider cutting each other in order to get all the votes from the people who would vote one of you two?

I will answer everything after school and practice