[Jeff Probst]

This is Joaquin's Final Tribal Council Thread.

All other Jurors should remain in their own threads.

Joaquin, you have until Sunday at 12c/1e pm to post your statements/questions to the Final 3. Remember not to take up too much of their time as they have 10 other jurors to get to. Please no listing or questions requiring novels for answers. You should post all of your statements/questions in your opening post in this thread.

[Joaquin]

Congrats to the final 3! We have quite the collection of gameplayers on this season so making the end is no easy feat.

RUSS

I feel like I got to know you the best both strategically and personally of the F3, given that I was with you for so long - this can be both a blessing and a curse, in that my mind on you is largely already made up and it'll depend on how the other two do here. So my question to you is to give you a chance to help some of the other jurors make their decisions:

I want you to talk about one or two times in this game that you felt like you got lucky. And not like some cop-out bullshit like "I got lucky Joaq didn't realize the OG Munin idol clue was posted!" that was inconsequential to the game, some hard-hitting stuff. I think one of the common questions on the jury is regarding your self-awareness, so I think this will help get that shored up.

Good game, best of luck, and treat yourself to an Ann Sather's cinnamon roll during this.


STEPH

I find it kind of amusing that in your opening speech you do talk about what a great relationship we had (although I know you're trying to justify your game to the jury), because I thought you were really fucking boring and talked about that to other people here. When I said you were in the best position, it was because I thought your jury chances were meh but you wouldn't be taken out immediately if people tried to get out a goat in a round. I've got two questions for you:

1) Show me you're not boring

2) Talk to me about a key alliance you made on this season where you didn't have a preexisting relationship. And don't try to come up with a connection we don't know about lol, we talk. Something the jury has noticed is that a LOT of the key people you played with here, you either played with / played for / hosted with, and it's hard for a jury to vote for someone who didn't have to make as much effort socially.

Congrats and good luck!

Yve

Yve, I will say, what you've got going for you is that personality-wise you are the most interesting of the F3. I so looked forward to our non-game conversations because of how fun they were (the Columbia St coffee is really good). At the same time, you were labelled a goat *really* early on. I've got two questions for you:

1) Was being labelled a goat at the Coconut Chop challenge a surprise to you? And afterwards, how (if it all) did you change your game to try to go for the win?

2) Would you actually have voted Cochran with Me/Russ/Tammy or was that smoke being blown up my ass?

To you All

Congrats again. I'll be basing my votes your truthful answers and how much zest they bring. If you're gonna suck my dick, go full deep throat. If you're gonna punch me in the face, put on your best Mike Tyson impression. Life is not worth living boring.

C'est la vie!

[Russell]

I want you to talk about one or two times in this game that you felt like you got lucky. And not like some cop-out bullshit like "I got lucky Joaq didn't realize the OG Munin idol clue was posted!" that was inconsequential to the game, some hard-hitting stuff. I think one of the common questions on the jury is regarding your self-awareness, so I think this will help get that shored up.

I got lucky a lot. I don't think anyone can win Survivor without getting lucky. It's kind of the fun of it, right? The elements of randomness that are inserted in make things unpredictable so no two seasons are the same. I don't want to come into this Final Tribal with the pretense that I ran the game, because I didn't: no one did. I simply want to pinpoint the few moments where I did have agency and showcase how I maximized those moments better than my competitors.

1) The blow-up between you, Penner, and Melinda had nothing to do with me and I am INSANELY lucky that it happened because, if you guys had stayed strong, I would've had no ability to penetrate it and I would've been left pretty useless. This had nothing to with me whatsoever, I don't take any credit for it happening. Sure, I tried to be advantageous of it, but so did everyone else.

2) NuFenrir losing every immunity and sending home Melinda and Alex is another moment of luck. The swap was inherantly random and, if it had gone another way, we could've enterred the merge with a Fenrir majority. All of us Munins strongly benefitted from having an initial majority at the merge so that, even with Val's blindside, we didn't fumble. I benefitted the most from this because it was clear at the merge that the easier targets were going to be picked off. I really believe that what happened to Jeff would've happened to me if the majority was flipped.

Hoping this is satisfactory, but feel free to push back if you're looking for something else. Thanks, Joaq

[Yve]

Congrats to the final 3! We have quite the collection of gameplayers on this season so making the end is no easy feat.

Yve

Yve, I will say, what you've got going for you is that personality-wise you are the most interesting of the F3. I so looked forward to our non-game conversations because of how fun they were (the Columbia St coffee is really good). At the same time, you were labelled a goat *really* early on. I've got two questions for you:

1) Was being labelled a goat at the Coconut Chop challenge a surprise to you? And afterwards, how (if it all) did you change your game to try to go for the win?

2) Would you actually have voted Cochran with Me/Russ/Tammy or was that smoke being blown up my ass?

To you All

Congrats again. I'll be basing my votes your truthful answers and how much zest they bring. If you're gonna suck my dick, go full deep throat. If you're gonna punch me in the face, put on your best Mike Tyson impression. Life is not worth living boring.

C'est la vie!

Thank you for the kind words about our conversations. We spent a lot of the game together, and it was super entertaining watching our relationship evolve. My workout skills have definitely improved over the last few weeks thanks to you. My most hilarious conversations were easily with you, I'm sure a lot of these folks will say the same thing.

1) The Coconut chop was not at all a surprise for me, in fact- I answered myself for all of the collective negative answers. Although it could have been, I don't think a lot of those answers were personal. At the time, I was in a very vulnerable position. The circumstances behind my vulnerability were all based on what occurred during the swap.

By the time the merge hit, we had three nuFenrirs who had voted together, 6 nuMunins who had never had to vote, and 5 Jorms who had just come out of a split vote. The easiest thing for everyone to do strategically was to lock in with their original tribe, and bring in the folks who had made promises with them. So Kim, Cass, and Penner would have been bad to remove for Melinda, Cristina, and Loveita- regardless of whether or not they were actually going to work together. Tammy voting with you and Russ in the Cochran vote cemented her position in the merge- that left Jeff and I out by default. Because he was better at challenges than me, he was put ahead of me. I know you all know that, I'm saying this because I'm not sure you all knew that I also realized this. Him winning immunity at the merge and literally everyone saying my name due to these lovely dynamics were fun.

Once the coconut chop challenge came out, Jeff was out of the game. The dynamics were almost the same, and so I figured that I would be the easiest answer. I didn't take it personally, but I did take advantage of the opportunity it provided to craft a narrative for me where I was unliked. I tried to take a page out of the Sandra in Heroes vs Villains playbook where she played up the fact that Russell perceived that she was a goat. It may have been annoying for the players at times (it was always more annoying for me), but playing like I had given up and already lost at that point was a huge benefactor to my game- who wants to eliminate someone who lost their interest in the game? What kind of threat is that?

I realized pretty quickly that pretending to already lose the game is not a winning strategy. However, playing it up for sympathy was a great way to get everyone's legitimate perspective of me. I wasn't fishing for compliments, I was fishing for a realistic interpretation of their individual perception of my game. Players would say they liked me, and that they were impressed at how I was still around, but that everyone just wanted to vote for me as an easy vote. This allowed me to get an idea of my true place in the game. As the rounds progressed, especially during the Melinda boot and beyond, I was finally able to maneuver myself into a more stable position. I'm sure if the same challenge was posted in the final 8, I'd be surprised if I was still listed in those categories.

After realizing what my actual position was in the tribe, something else happened in the game- rumor was, the big threats were all getting together to vote collectively. I was not invited into this alliance, but it allowed for me to understand who everyone perceived as threats to win in the end. At the time, it was Penner, Cassandra, Catalie, and you. I'm sure there were outliers I'm missing, and Loveita was added to the list after, but it was clear- I could not win with these people still in the game. It's the ultimate compliment to you all that I began focusing my game on eliminating the "Threats" alliance. And you'll see, from the Penner vote on, I voted correctly at every single tribal council until the end.

Thing is, almost every threat was attached to a non-threat. You were all someone's meat shield, so in order to defeat the threats, I had to play off of their shielded allies. When Stephanie wouldn't get rid of Cat, but offered to vote for you instead, I took advantage of that opportunity. When Cass targeted Steph and Kim told me she had an idol, I spoke with Russell about possibly voting for Cat instead of Cassandra. When Cassandra was the only threat left and Kim had no choice, I knew I had successfully contributed to removing all of the threats out thanks to the fears of their respective allies.


2) I'm sorry, Fenrirs, but yeah- I was game to vote for Cochran. In the round before, Tammy's name was being pitched by Penner. Eventually, the vote went to Ziggy instead- but Tammy and Kim were both aware that Tammy was just as vulnerable. So getting switched to a tribe with Cochran, Jeff, Tammy, myself, you, and Russell meant that Tammy switching sides was inevitable. It is a credit to her game that she convinced me she was voting for you, even after I explicitly said to her that I wanted to vote for the three of you. Afterwards, it was apparent to me that Tammy just wasn't interested in bringing a partner along with her in her. Why would she need to? She was guaranteed to survive the next two votes. So yeah, I was going to flip for the same reasons Tammy was, she just gained your trust quicker than I could. And what did any of you need with a second flipper?

Of course, voting WITH Cochran ended up being the correct move for me in the end. It helped me garner favor with the old Fenrirs, allowing for me to shift sides more easily throughout the merge to insure my survival.

[Stephanie]

You think I was boring?



Lol in all seriousness, ok, our social relationship was definitely not the strongest and I'm sure you saw me making a move on you from a mile away. I was definitely closer with others within Munin just as you were, and I think that was rather obvious to us both that we were never each other's highest priority. I was more reiterating that my social capital was widespread, and I figure me ranking 2nd/10 in the Munin hierarchy the first three rounds holds some weight to that.

I can't remember us having an official alliance involving others in those early Munin days, other than I believe you and Val recommending each other to me. There wasn't a real need to overplay in those early days as the nine of us were all in agreement to kick out Mookie and then Kim Spradlin before the inevitable swap.

I did think that we'd be able to work together fine once things got more tricky in a potential swap, and merge situation and I remember us having that conversation just before we voted Kim Spradlin out. Obviously once we got to the merge, you, me, Catalie and Russell were a four of sorts, even though it was obviously not something I was invested in for the long haul as I didn't feel it was a benefit to me and broke away from it when I saw the appropriate time for my best interests.

And then you told me after I voted you at nine, that you were legit about the final five with you, me, Cassandra, Catalie and Penner. Whether you meant that, only you know, but if true then for whatever reason I was in your plans. So even though we were closer to others I felt we had something of a strategic relationship in the early days, even if, again, I don't think you were super shocked by my votes at nine or seven.

Well I wished you enjoyed our interactions more and found them more engaging! I can't pretend it doesn't kind of suck to hear, although obviously that's on me if you felt that way, and appreciate the honesty if nothing else. I will say that in general, I'm more of a shy/introverted person who doesn't necessarily always find it super natural to let people in to know the real me. So if people come at me with some personality then I'm more likely to give it back to them, rather than initiate it in the first place. I definitely do think our conversations were a bit stagnant/awkward. I thought you were hilarious with some of your posts on the board but being honest I didn't feel that same spark in our conversations to the point where I'd have anything to give back to you.

I think I'm more the type where if you throw the ball to me, I'd catch and throw it right back at you just as hard but I'm not going to throw the ball to you in the first place, if that makes sense? Just to be clear, this is a me thing and not something I blame you for, obviously I fell short in my social game with you if you felt this way and that's something I need to be accountable for. I consider myself to be a very introspective person who wonders why I am the way I am, how I'm perceived and areas I need to work on. I'd like to think I had fun interactions with other castmates, and even though I spent less time with Jeff than anyone on the jury, the funniest moment I probably had in this game was when we decided to break the ice by impersonating the pre-jurors we interacted with ahead of the merge challenge, which he won. Totally the reason he won, by the way! But again I think that's something that he initiated with me than the other way around, so that allowed me to come out of my shell a bit more and develop a social connection with him, even though it obviously didn't develop into a strategic one.

So that could be a flaw in my social game or just how I am as a person in general, but either way I'd like to think it's something I can fix because I know I'm not perfect, in this game or out of it and there's always room for me to grow.

To show some more of that zest and flavor you're asking for, I'll tell you what I'll spend with the $200 if I manage to pull this out with....

Steph's Stranded Shopping list~

Alcohol to celebrate like the Vikings do, pretending I'm making it theme appropriate as an excuse.
A round of shots for any jurors who vote me to join in the fun. Sorrynotsorry those who don't vote for me, you can't sit with us.
Hire a security guard outside the door to keep every juror who didn't vote for me blacklisted from the party.
A heater, because a month freezing my ass off in the snow while playing this game has taken its toll.
Better alarm so I don't sleep in like I did for the F5 challenge deadline. (Although saving my energy for the F4 one paid off, right?)
Calculator, to add up all the numbers I counted to at the F4 challenge and pretend that's the amount of prize money I won instead so I actually have something worthwhile to contemplate spending it on.
Riddle/poetry book, because clearly getting my head around those idol clues wasn't my forte and I need to brush up on my skills.
Birth control, while I'd love to pull the sympathy card and say I have a baby on the way and need the money, now doesn't seem the ideal time with the world in its current state.
A crown. Because fuck it, whoever becomes a two-time winner of this series and toppling this cast deserves one, and in my non-biased opinion I think it'd look better on me than Russell or Yve, and if people are just not wanting to stare at Russell's bald head any longer then I'll gladly throw a few extra bucks in to buy him a hat.

So I firmly disagree that with any perception I relied on or needed pre-game connections to get by in this game. Obviously I've already won this series as Stephanie in an anonymous setting so I know I can do it regardless, and I believe if I win this in an Open ID setting it's because I earned it by my own merits. I have crossed paths with a bunch of these people before (I'll list out the extent of those relationships in response to Jeff's question if you don't mind, so I don't double up) but like if anyone in this cast considers me a close friend or a shoe-in ally coming into this, well quite frankly that's news to me.

Just because I've played for or played with someone before it doesn't translate to an auto-alliance. I'm not going to say it wasn't a factor at all and past games weren't talked about, that's a thing in Open ID games, but honestly in most instances the "past games" I had with people weren't even positive experiences and were skewed more negatively if anything? Like honestly, it'd be like if you and I crossed paths again in an Open ID game. We weren't the closest in this game, we'd probably talk about what happened but are we going to align because of our relationship in Stranded for Victory? I doubt it. We could align due to mutual interests in the context of the game at hand though, which is what happened with some people here.

For example, Cochran is someone who I played with in Namibia, so on paper one might assume that was an auto alliance if we ever had the chance to play together, but when you scratch beneath the surface, we literally only played together for one round in that game, the merge round in which I voted him out. If anything I was slightly relieved to see him go before I had to deal with him as I didn't anticipate he'd want to play with me, although I wasn't necessarily ruling it out here. So honestly the majority of past relationships I've had with people fall into that category. I honestly feel like I gave everyone a fair chance in this whether I'd played with them before or not and I was playing for my own best interests to give myself the best chance to win throughout.

To give examples of a key alliance which was formed with people I didn't have a pre-existing relationship with, well Cristina already mentioned this in her thread but while, as I said, there was no real need to overplay in OG Munin in terms of alliances when we all knew we were making it to the swap, an alliance Cristina called the Valkryies was formed between myself, her, Loveita and Val. Cristina and I have played together before years ago, although I can't remember if we even brought it up because that relationship was irrelevant, and I voted her out here anyway so clearly it was inconsequential in this game too.

But Loveita and Val I absolutely have never played with or interacted with in any capacity before this game, they can attest to that, and they were two of my closest friends and allies in this which were formed completely organically, and obviously I stayed true to them and didn't vote either of them out the rounds they were eliminated from the game. I got to know the real them for who they were just like I believe they got to know the real me for who I am. Loveita and I bonded over psychology (as you see in her thread, we both have a background in it), cats, and Broadway shows and musicals and childhood video games. In terms of strategy, obviously she and I were close and we flipped together against you at nine to work with the Fenrirs that round. And then Val, she told me about her hosting her mock American Idol contests, how Thai food > Indian and white wine > red and me making her life choices from the other side of the world for those important matters. She and I were obviously together the entirety of her game, already had the initial alliance with Cristina/Loveita from the beginning, and were able to form a close trio with Catalie going into the merge which unfortunately came to an unexpected and untimely end.

I'd very much love the chance to earn your vote, but whether you do or not, I definitely hope we get the chance to catch up after this is all over and get to know the real person beyond Joaquin/Stephanie on a deeper level than we were able to here.