Michael M - did you always intend on voting me out at the final five? Had I not suggested Donna at 9 and it could have been whoever you wanted, who would have gone?
Yes Pete I did always intend on voting for you at final 5. I found you to be the leading force in the Bill/You pairing upon merging, and my plan was ultimately for Jess to keep you and Bill thinking she would simply knock me and Tiffani out and final 5, but she didn't really want to do that, so you found the need to seek Mitch, not fully trusting Jess (at least that's my interpretation of the move you made, or I think you would have kept the idol to yourself.) At 5 if Mitch had gone as I so deeply desired, I would have simply told Jess "Bill and Pete...clearly a pair Jess, we HAVE to get them out, I mean, I know they are nice, but Tiffani is gonna be easier to beat, and will probably vote with against either of them and they won't vote against eachother", and thus I believe you would have gone in a 3-2 vote if the final 5 I wanted to happen would have occured. I should note though that I never saw the final 5 that occured to happen, and once again it was a situation like that Donna vote (more on that next) where as long as it wasn't me or Jess, if people wanted to turn on each other, be my guest, let's do it! It just happened to work out that in the new situation, once again, you were the better choice (only unfortunately it wasn't in the ideal situation I had been planning for, which you cleverly messed up, lol.)
I would love to lie and say "Donna would have been my number one choice" to falsify total power, but that certainly isn't the case at all. Honestly, I really hadn't a full on bias in any direction, other than I didn't really want to get rid of Joe because I didn't see him as as big of a challenge threat as the other two (which was slightly disproven the next round when he was one strike away from winning). Honestly, I think I might have been happier to see Michael L. leave at this point because he was the leader of the opposition, and I found the Jordan elimination to be a callout to me, so yeah, it probably would have felt a little better to get him out over Donna. However, at this stage in the game, I knew getting any of the three of them out was the best move, so I had no need to dispute any decision you wanted to make, as long as you didn't wanna vote me, and wanted to vote one of those 3 out, my vote was yours. I could wait til later to try to push my desires, at that point I just wanted it to be any of them, lol, and I believe true power is just as important as flexibility when one less exciting move has the same effect as a more exciting one that can't be executed at the time.
For both of you: I will say that all I wanted in this game was to make it to the end with Michael L but he made that impossible for me to do that. I made some bad choices but at the time they seemed to be the right choices. I want to know from each of you, who is the one person that you wanted to be in the final two the most all game, and if it is each other, who out of everyone else would you have been happiest to be in the finals with.
Honestly, at the VERY beginning, I saw Tiffani playing a more quiet game, and I started thinking maybe she would be an interesting person to be at the end with. Michael L. however talked to me at some point about how Tiffani making it to the end would be a little weird in his eyes, and I realized if I took Tiffani to the end, maybe people would see me as taking an easy-beat to the end (which I still think she's a bit underated, but that's beside the point.) At final 9, I wanted to find someone nice, someone who was a bit more in the spotlight, and I realized if I make it to the end with THEM, and I didn't take what might have been an easier road, maybe that would prove that I am playing this game, and don't need to take someone quiet to win this game. While when I made the final 2 deal with Jess, I expected her to be a little louder, and more instrumental in gaining the trust of you and Bill while I worked with my 2 original Sleuths moreso, I still made that deal, and I knew that I didn't want to break it, and at that point, at final 2, I knew that Jess was the kind of person that I could trust, and that would trust in me, and that was more than enough in this game, so to the final 2 I wanted to take her, and I think we made great allies, and while she may be a tough opponent at this point, it is a decision I stick by, and am proud to have made. This is the happiest I could have been with a final 2 situation, and I'm glad we made it.
Lastly, I feel I need to ask you both this, had Bill not gone to you to take me out and the three of us were assumingly sticking together, would either of you have tried to talk to me to get me to switch my vote or would you go for Mitch?
Honestly, if I knew for sure that you would vote for Bill or Mitch, I honestly might have considered it, but it just got me a bit that you were going after Jess. Jess honestly, as much of a player as I was, I didn't want her to go, I wanted us to be at the final 2, and if you were suggesting her at final 5, it seemed that if we both went to you to vote out Mitch or Bill at final 5, it would make us a pairing clear as day. Part of the allure of getting you out, was that Bill and Mitch went to both of us, and tried to secure both of our votes, so in short, if Mitch or Bill could be options, since I credited the ability to see me and Jess as a close pair (which your move to give the idol to Mitch suggest so), it just made more sense to get you out with Bill OR Mitch if possible. I assumed Mitch would believe me and Jess and vote with us for Bill, but he ended up getting us in the end, just like he got you after working with you the round before, but in the end we were still able to fight back and survive the betrayal, where as if you were in the final 4, and were hip to our scent as they were, I think you would have been a more formidable force to reckon with.
