I know it’s technically next episode but this is beautiful and you should be proud of yourself Danni!!! I’ll put my pre-swap thoughts here.
1. So I think the rankings said it all. Like I called very early on, Penner was the top dog, closely followed by Cochran. Just like Cochran spearheaded the vote for Penny, Penner completely orchestrated the Ziggy vote. Like when we had talked earlier on in the day, the vote was for Tammy, but somehow it changed to Ziggy in the few hours I was afk.
I was honestly surprised I was last in the power rankings, and it honestly kind of stung a little bit!! Like I know I haven’t been calling the shots, which is part of my strat to lay low at first to let the big dogs emerge and eat each other. But LAST? After YVE who literally was completely absent last tribal until literally 10 minutes before???? To be last I would have had to have been ranked low by everyone, including my BFFs Cochran and Jeff and Penner, who I’ve actually talked the most strategy with. It almost seems like they don’t really respect my input, especially Penner who asked me who I would rather get out, I said Tammy, then he comes in and says to vote Ziggy. I know they’re stupid rankings and I know I actually am NOT important on this tribe, but it honestly just sucked to be LAST after YVE. YVE?!?? Bah.
Also, Cass. I think I remember why I was intimidated by them in season 30, I think their confessionals were like… vicious. So I’m kind of scared of Cass as a person tbh, and it’s hard to forge a voting relationship with someone like that. But also they’ve been nothing but super nice to me personally, I’m just thinking back on their confessionals, and I may totally be even wrong about that. Regardless, I’m hesitant about them, but clearly people think they’re calling the shots.
Side note, I guess I’m good at challenges? Woohoo! It’s fun to be a beast-ish!
2. My BFFs are Cochran and Jeff, just because I just click with them. Penner I would count in that group too, but Penner didn’t tell me that Ziggy was gunning for me round 1 so he’s not a ride or die. But like… those three also just so happen to be the top dogs, and I’m now acutely aware that I may just be a pawn to them. I’ve been kind of playing up the dumb/cute side of me, but CLEARLY I’ve been going too far with that! It got to the point where both Penner and Cochran told me explicitly what to say to individual people, and I thanked them for that advice. So, yeah, pawn game too strong!!!!
3. I really am trying to lay low here, but I guess I’m laying TOO low. I’m hoping to do the opposite of what I did in Socotra: in this game I want to just get by in the pre-merge, then be dominant post-merge.
Speaking of Socotra, I can really only compare this season to the only other one I’ve played. Generally how I like to play is I find my people, the ones I just click with on a person-to-person level, and stick with them for better or for worse. Julia was my ride or die who takes some credit for me winning because of her rallying at Ponderosa, but her bad intel put me on the wrong side of the merge vote in the first place. I was a pawn to Andrea until we were both against a wall and scrambling, and she voted out a bunch of my friends before we got to that point. Tai and I were ride or dies from the beginning, but he was seriously almost the cause of my demise at the very end. Meanwhile, with LJ – I voted out his ride or die, and then he saved me at the very end, allowing me to win.
So in this pre-swap tribe… Do I have a Julia? Is there really someone who would rally for me? An LJ, who would sacrifice his game for me? As much as I like my people, me placing completely last in those rankings makes me think I don’t have a Julia or an LJ. But I think there are a whooooole lot of Tais.
In Socotra, Julia was always on my tribe from the beginning, but we really didn’t become ride or dies until the swap. So I’m going into this swap hopeful to find that!!!
And, real quick, can we talk about the freaking idol I am so mad about!?
I cracked the second clue enough to know that the password WASSSSS SOMEWHERE on THIS PAGE:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre04.htm
Now, post swap, there are new clues. BUT ALSO I NOTICED THAT IN THE RULES NOOOOOOWWWWW, not pre-swap, there’s a rule that says no special characters. DOES THIS SERIOUSLY MEAN THAT THE PASSWORD WAS HRAESVELGR ALL ALONG????? But instead of “ae” it was the symbol that smushes them together?????? And it was as easy as COPY AND PASTING that word????? If so I’m gonna be so FREAKING MAD AT MYSELF LMFAO. So my goal of getting all the idols is bust ☹
Lets keep this party going shall we?
