- Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:03:42 am
#1295
I'm back. And feeling a little better about things.
I don't mind the fact that there was no swap. The way I see it, the more you swap, the more likely people are to want to use things you said against you out of sheer paranoia-induced self-preservation. On the other hand the fact that there was a double-boot has made me all but convinced I'll have to be paranoid about whether it's a final 2 or a final 3 for the rest of this game. If the jury starts at 12, of course it's final 3. Jury starting at 11... that can go either way.
There's always the one person each game who goats themselves out. It's always been a personal favorite of mine. Goating yourself out, throwing challenges, being a general douche, making small mistakes on purpose just to damage your perceived resume and appear less threatening, intentionally lying to a player who you know you don't need to lie to all the way up to the point where you boot them just to create genuine animosity that you can then use as your "one thing you would change" at FTC, the list goes on. Almost no one respects these things if they catch on, but if you can get away with it? You can use any tool in the box. All examples of valid tactics if you can pull it off. This season, that player is my main man Dan.
Dan... is not fake. At least not in the way that a typical player is. He's been saying what's on his mind since day 1, and obviously that reached another level tonight at the challenge. He sought out an opportunity to curse off So for LITERALLY no reason. I mean, I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's WAY smarter than and WAY too level-headed a player to have straight-up flown off the handle based on So asking a question based on punctuation. So it was pretty blatantly strategic.
I felt really bad for Kelly when she said she had an autistic brother and he still didn't apologize... I know that Dan is too good of a player to have really wanted to hurt her feelings and of course he couldn't have known that, but at that point he probably decided it was better to leave it where it was instead of trying to "sorry" his way out of it. I didn't think he took it TOO far by ORG asshole standards, but it sucks that it happened that way. He probably didn't have to say "retard" and could have gotten his same point across, but I think he knew what he was doing. He wanted to shock. It sure seemed like it was calculated. I don't know if he's trying to prove his value to Dale and Nadiya, but it rubbed some people the wrong way I'm almost sure. Jaclyn said something about how douchey it was, although that was probably just to steer the target on someone.
I mean Dan knows that Dale and Nadiya seem to value Joaq lower than he does Dan or myself. So what's the best way to make himself more indispensable to them than I am? By proving consistently across tribal lines that he has no connection whatsoever to that So/Kelly alliance. It will make it near impossible for him or us to work with those guys if we need to come the merge, which is maybe the point of what he did. He wants to be the one working with Dale closest. He wants to be the one most valued by Dale out of the original Asmats, while at the same time seeming to build a hoard of haters in his path to appear beatable in the end. That way when it comes time for things to change, I'm more likely to go home than he is, and all the while he's making people want to keep him around by cursing people off and calling them retarded or boring.
I kind of hope I can use this AGAINST Dan if I ever needed to. I do think Kelly's group will come into the merge red-eyed trying to get him out, and may even try to pull me in on it, which won't work. Whether it started out as intentional or not, I think it would be kind of easy to paint this as an intentional act of self-sabotage by Dan if need be. I will have a close eye on any future public feuding involving him and the girls to see if I can use that as ammo against him. And now he's talking to me about how great of a shield he is... I mean come on.
We formed kind of a 4-person alliance with me, Dale, Dan and Nadiya. Dale had been poking around for awhile trying to make things happen, so I finally acquiesced and agreed to work with him for real. He's an aggressive player who I know is going to be hard to trust. I really do hope he loses one of his reinforcements, preferably Drew, to keep us in the forefront of his thoughts for at least a few rounds at the start of the merge.
I like Nadiya way better than Dale, and she's a much better social player. It's not even close really. The best social player on our tribe aside from maybe Dan or Val if she was here more. Not as wordy, not as outward, but seems more genuine in the way she goes about things.
Naturally it seems like Jaclyn has become the target heading into tomorrow night. I feel bad for her because I think she's gotten screwed some nights by her schedule. Her exit is likely to come as a bit of a shock to Asmat I would think. It could still be me with Joaq (yet AGAIN) immune, and it likely will be if Yali decides... you know what? We can trust Jac. I don't know if we can trust them. I am probably their backup if anything happens. I'm not comfortable with that but what can I do at this point but to keep playing hard.
If we don't merge after tomorrow, it's gonna really suck. We will have lost Max AND Jaclyn without even losing a challenge and we'll be forced to debate amongst ourselves who the next target is. I'm probably gonna need to fend off Joaq suggestions left and right... and the truth is I'm not even sure if it's worth it to do so. I really don't want to throw him to the wolves, but I'm also not entirely sure where he fits in my game going forward. I'd probably rather have Jac leave, merge at 11, and continue to hold onto Joaq for a few rounds as a potential buffer for myself and I guess Dan?
I really don't know. I love and hate that Joaq has been immune twice in a row. Hate it because each time it probably moved my head one person closer to the chopping block, love it because it shows he has both guts (when he took immunity for himself) and challenge ability (not really because this comp was blind luck). Sometimes all it takes is racking up a couple of "wins" and eventually they just blend into each other and mold into an unshakeable challenge beast rep. If he starts to pair that with a few early merge wins? That could spell trouble for him. I wonder if he'll ever try to flip back to Asmat without us.
Kelly wins immunity again too. Great to see that but it seems like overkill at this point with so many crosshairs pointed at her. It sucks that the ex-Asmat I have the closest thing to a friendship with is likely gonna be the first one people want to target. Maybe we can pull something off where we go for the person who is least likely to have the idol if it's still not found by that point.
