[Jeff Probst]

This is James's Final Tribal Council Thread.

All other Jurors should remain in their own threads. 

James, you have until Saturday at 8c/9e AM to post your statements/questions to the Final 2. Remember not to take up too much of their time as they have 8 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.

[James]

Please rise for the arrival of King James. Welcome to the King's Court. The King has been watching from his throne attentively and now the King gets to decide who wins Stranded 41.  You have both outlasted (seriously, use that cockroach repellent on yourselves). You have both outplayed. Have you both outwit? That is what we're here to find out. This is time to take credit for the great parts of your social game and ALSO to own the moves you made that demonstrated your sheer social incompetence at times. You both have the same first couple questions. Then you each have your own specific question. Here are the requirements for your answers, the King is quite picky: STEPHANIE:Cut the bullshit, stop the gaslighting, don't throw a hissy fit like a 16 year old girl that just found out her crush who's on the football team kissed her bestfriend. I know that's difficult for you but try your best. VOCE:Lots of people have made the King aware that you hardly spoke in the game. So please speak up, no need to get scared now. You're not mute. Use your words. I know it's scary talking to a King but please, if you want the gold, put in a little effort. 1 - Describe your social gameplay style. Use CONCRETE examples to explain this (yes, class is in session). Under that radar/orchestrating everything/doing a whole lot of nothing?2 - What was your biggest mistake/misstep socially in the game? You each have at least one, don't be shy. Admit it.
STEPHANIE QUESTION:Explain the whole Paul/Mike boot from your point of view. Start from the very start. Start of the night or even earlier, whenever Paul's name first came up. VOCE QUESTION:Create an actual resume for me. Enumerate all the moves you think belong on your resume and give an explanation.

All your answers WILL be cross-checked with the other peasants that are part of jury. Congrats to the both of you, if you win, your throne is going to be waiting for you, a few floors below my throne room of course, since you will just be the King or Queen of the Losers... and I'm the King of Stranded 40.

[James]

Please rise for the arrival of King James. 

Welcome to the King's Court. 

---

The King has been watching from his throne attentively and now the King gets to decide who wins Stranded 41.  

You have both outlasted (seriously, use that cockroach repellent on yourselves). 

You have both outplayed. 

Have you both outwit? That is what we're here to find out. This is time to take credit for the great parts of your social game and ALSO to own the moves you made that demonstrated your sheer social incompetence at times. You both have the same first couple questions. Then you each have your own specific question. 

---

Here are the requirements for your answers, the King is quite picky: 

STEPHANIE:
Cut the bullshit, stop the gaslighting, don't throw a hissy fit like a 16 year old girl that just found out her crush who's on the football team kissed her bestfriend. I know that's difficult for you but try your best. 
VOCE:
Lots of people have made the King aware that you hardly spoke in the game. So please speak up, no need to get scared now. You're not mute. Use your words. I know it's scary talking to a King but please, if you want the gold, put in a little effort. 

1. Describe your social gameplay style. Use CONCRETE examples to explain this (yes, class is in session). Under that radar/orchestrating everything/doing a whole lot of nothing?
2. What was your biggest mistake/misstep socially in the game? You each have at least one, don't be shy. Admit it.

---

STEPHANIE QUESTION:
Explain the whole Paul/Mike boot from your point of view. Start from the very start. Start of the night or even earlier, whenever Paul's name first came up. 

---

VOCE QUESTION:
Create an actual resume for me. Enumerate all the moves you think belong on your resume and give an explanation.

---

All your answers WILL be cross-checked with the other peasants that are part of jury. 

Congrats to the both of you, if you win, your throne is going to be waiting for you, a few floors below my throne room of course, since you will just be the King or Queen of the Losers... and I'm the King of Stranded 40.

(Hopefully this fixes the format, the King isn't that mean to make you all read a solid block of text

[Voce]

Hi James.  Thanks for your very interesting question.

I will just start off by saying, that yes I am naturally a very quiet/shy person.  In a social game such as this, it is not very easy for me.  I'm not the type of person to open up very easily.  I also am married and have 2 kids, so I was/am not able to just stay on into the long hours of the night.  One more thing, I do believe I am considerably older than all (most) of you. Im 35 btw.  I'm not trying to use these as excuses, I just want to point out why exacley it appears that my social game wasn't ( and i know that it wasn't ) the greatest.

I started the game trying to play under the radar.  This is mostly because of how the last time I played went and I didn't want to have a target on my back on day 1.  My goal was to find an alliance that would be able to navigate a few moves without always doing the pre-tribal scrammble.  I found Hali Mike and Stephanie.  My main "in" with them at first was Mike.  He lives not too far from me, and we could talk sports, which he and I are into,  and we also connected because we're both dads.  Although I felt safe that I wouldn't be going home for a few tribals, I did always feel at first that I was the 4th in the 4.  

Now although I was the quietest In the group, I did feel that Mike had a big influence on the game. That was obvious.  I tossed him Naseer's name very early on,  only because of the way he had played last time.  He had been on my tribe and he made alliances with everyone.  He knew that i knew this and I just thought it's better I name him before he tried to name me.  When you did your fake idol, Naseer's name was already everyone's second choice.  Although I denied it to my allies at the time, I never did switch my vote from you to Naseer. I actually voted for him from the beginning. After that, the random votes for me stopped.

I actually even would have joined an alliance with you ( James ), but because you were getting so much hate from other people, I was only willing to risk it if I felt more people were interested.  I just didn't get that from almost anybody.  

Resume.

Telling Mike from day 1 that I don't trust Naseer, put a small target on his back from the beginning.

When Sydney was not online for the 1 day and her name got tossed out, I said right away I would not consider that, I'm not saying I was the sole purpose she stayed, but it did help.

This might not seem like a big deal but I tried very hard not to panic when my name was written down 3 tribals in a row. If I did I would have seemed paranoid and given people a reason to vote for me early on.

Kept planting the Rodney seed whenever I had the chance.  No one wanted that at first  because he was likable so I didn't push too hard. But whenever I could, I kept saying it.  Then the second I told Stephanie that Rodney said her name he was done. And I got my idol.

I was part of the 4 that took out Paul, knowing he(Paul) wanted to vote me out at that 2nd tribal that night.

The alliance with Stephanie Mike and Hali brought me up to that tribal where I used my idol.

I voted correctly in every tribal except the Mike vote....but even there I voted for Hali just in case Mike had an idol, and I preferred Stephanie stayed.

I won the immunity necklace that finally ended Michelle's dominance.  Had she won that one, I believe she would have been in the final 2, and won the game. 

[James]

Hi James.  Thanks for your very interesting question.

I will just start off by saying, that yes I am naturally a very quiet/shy person.  In a social game such as this, it is not very easy for me.  I'm not the type of person to open up very easily.  I also am married and have 2 kids, so I was/am not able to just stay on into the long hours of the night.  One more thing, I do believe I am considerably older than all (most) of you. Im 35 btw.  I'm not trying to use these as excuses, I just want to point out why exacley it appears that my social game wasn't ( and i know that it wasn't ) the greatest.

I started the game trying to play under the radar.  This is mostly because of how the last time I played went and I didn't want to have a target on my back on day 1.  My goal was to find an alliance that would be able to navigate a few moves without always doing the pre-tribal scrammble.  I found Hali Mike and Stephanie.  My main "in" with them at first was Mike.  He lives not too far from me, and we could talk sports, which he and I are into,  and we also connected because we're both dads.  Although I felt safe that I wouldn't be going home for a few tribals, I did always feel at first that I was the 4th in the 4.  

Now although I was the quietest In the group, I did feel that Mike had a big influence on the game. That was obvious.  I tossed him Naseer's name very early on,  only because of the way he had played last time.  He had been on my tribe and he made alliances with everyone.  He knew that i knew this and I just thought it's better I name him before he tried to name me.  When you did your fake idol, Naseer's name was already everyone's second choice.  Although I denied it to my allies at the time, I never did switch my vote from you to Naseer. I actually voted for him from the beginning. After that, the random votes for me stopped.

I actually even would have joined an alliance with you ( James ), but because you were getting so much hate from other people, I was only willing to risk it if I felt more people were interested.  I just didn't get that from almost anybody.  

Resume.

Telling Mike from day 1 that I don't trust Naseer, put a small target on his back from the beginning.

When Sydney was not online for the 1 day and her name got tossed out, I said right away I would not consider that, I'm not saying I was the sole purpose she stayed, but it did help.

This might not seem like a big deal but I tried very hard not to panic when my name was written down 3 tribals in a row. If I did I would have seemed paranoid and given people a reason to vote for me early on.

Kept planting the Rodney seed whenever I had the chance.  No one wanted that at first  because he was likable so I didn't push too hard. But whenever I could, I kept saying it.  Then the second I told Stephanie that Rodney said her name he was done. And I got my idol.

I was part of the 4 that took out Paul, knowing he(Paul) wanted to vote me out at that 2nd tribal that night.

The alliance with Stephanie Mike and Hali brought me up to that tribal where I used my idol.

I voted correctly in every tribal except the Mike vote....but even there I voted for Hali just in case Mike had an idol, and I preferred Stephanie stayed.

I won the immunity necklace that finally ended Michelle's dominance.  Had she won that one, I believe she would have been in the final 2, and won the game. 

Great answers. Thank you for answering the questions.

[Stephanie]

Hay James!

Describe your social gameplay style. Use CONCRETE examples to explain this (yes, class is in session). Under that radar/orchestrating everything/doing a whole lot of nothing?

My social gameplay style was a combination of being *somewhat* under the radar while orchestrating moves here and there as the game progressed. Definitely not a whole lot of nothing. Coming into this game, I knew that my strongest skill was my social game. I wanted to make friends with as many people as possible as well as form alliances with people that I had a good feeling about. That worked as I was able to form pretty strong bonds with people like Mike, Hali, Paul, Michelle, Naseer, and Voce early on (Some relationships stronger than others, of course).

When I saw you on the forum, I knew you were going to be a huge problem for me. I needed to get you before you got me first. That’s when I did what I do best: talk shit. The strong relationship that I had formed with Mike benefited me because he was the one that pointed out you and Morgan’s meetup and the picture you posted on Discord. I took that, ran with it, and started to put a target on you and Morgan’s back. I said stuff along the lines of, “Oh yeah Mike, these two are really close.” and “They tried to get me out and betray me last season. They’re not to be trusted.” I then took that and gradually began to spread it throughout the whole tribe, slowly getting everyone to turn on you. Throughout this whole shit-talking I was doing, I still managed to play the victim and make it seem like you were the villain. This would help make sure that no one sees me as that much of a threat yet and that I can skate by for a few more votes.  

When you left, I didn’t want the rest of the tribe’s eyes to be on me (we just had that whole war happen). So I ran around again and painted targets on people’s backs (those people being Paul and Michelle). Before I did this, I had people like Mike, Hali, and Voce come to me being suspicious about Paul and Michelle possibly working with/being close to you/wanting to keep you. With suspicion already bubbling, I again took that and made it a much bigger deal than it was. I spread stuff about Paul and Michelle actually working with you, how they’re budding challenge beasts, and how they could sweep if they make it further in the game. 

As for the orchestrating part, I’d like to say that I was the one responsible for Paul’s boot during the double tribal. By the time the double had come, the targets on Paul and Michelle’s backs had gotten much bigger. Michelle was immune so I targeted Paul instead. Pretty much everyone on the tribe had a suspicion that they were working together and I proposed that they needed to be broken up sooner rather than later. All I needed were 3 other people to be on board to go through with this plan. Mike’s preferred F5 was him, me, Hali, Paul, and Michelle. I did not like that at all. Mike had also just told me days ago that as his #1 ally, if I had a plan that I was planting my flag on or putting my foot down on, he wouldn’t even hesitate and just go through with it. So I tested that. I pretty much told him that I want to make this move now and that if we don’t get them out now, they might get us first. It didn’t take much convincing. He was on board. Hali was very close to Mike so it wasn’t that hard convincing her either. Voce and I had made a final 2, he seemed a little lost around this point (not being sure what to do), so I picked him up as well.  


What was your biggest mistake/misstep socially in the game? You each have at least one, don't be shy. Admit it.

Socially, I think my biggest mistake in the game was not talking to people as much or completely just not talking to certain people for a day or two at a time. I know that I did that with you, Michelle, and Sydney.

I had different reasons why I chose not to talk with y’all. James, you and I had been targeting and dragging each other through the mud. Even if we did talk about anything, not only would it have been super awkward, but we both know we’re not gonna trust each other either way. 

[James]

Hay James!

Describe your social gameplay style. Use CONCRETE examples to explain this (yes, class is in session). Under that radar/orchestrating everything/doing a whole lot of nothing?

My social gameplay style was a combination of being *somewhat* under the radar while orchestrating moves here and there as the game progressed. Definitely not a whole lot of nothing. Coming into this game, I knew that my strongest skill was my social game. I wanted to make friends with as many people as possible as well as form alliances with people that I had a good feeling about. That worked as I was able to form pretty strong bonds with people like Mike, Hali, Paul, Michelle, Naseer, and Voce early on (Some relationships stronger than others, of course).

When I saw you on the forum, I knew you were going to be a huge problem for me. I needed to get you before you got me first. That’s when I did what I do best: talk shit. The strong relationship that I had formed with Mike benefited me because he was the one that pointed out you and Morgan’s meetup and the picture you posted on Discord. I took that, ran with it, and started to put a target on you and Morgan’s back. I said stuff along the lines of, “Oh yeah Mike, these two are really close.” and “They tried to get me out and betray me last season. They’re not to be trusted.” I then took that and gradually began to spread it throughout the whole tribe, slowly getting everyone to turn on you. Throughout this whole shit-talking I was doing, I still managed to play the victim and make it seem like you were the villain. This would help make sure that no one sees me as that much of a threat yet and that I can skate by for a few more votes.  

When you left, I didn’t want the rest of the tribe’s eyes to be on me (we just had that whole war happen). So I ran around again and painted targets on people’s backs (those people being Paul and Michelle). Before I did this, I had people like Mike, Hali, and Voce come to me being suspicious about Paul and Michelle possibly working with/being close to you/wanting to keep you. With suspicion already bubbling, I again took that and made it a much bigger deal than it was. I spread stuff about Paul and Michelle actually working with you, how they’re budding challenge beasts, and how they could sweep if they make it further in the game. 

As for the orchestrating part, I’d like to say that I was the one responsible for Paul’s boot during the double tribal. By the time the double had come, the targets on Paul and Michelle’s backs had gotten much bigger. Michelle was immune so I targeted Paul instead. Pretty much everyone on the tribe had a suspicion that they were working together and I proposed that they needed to be broken up sooner rather than later. All I needed were 3 other people to be on board to go through with this plan. Mike’s preferred F5 was him, me, Hali, Paul, and Michelle. I did not like that at all. Mike had also just told me days ago that as his #1 ally, if I had a plan that I was planting my flag on or putting my foot down on, he wouldn’t even hesitate and just go through with it. So I tested that. I pretty much told him that I want to make this move now and that if we don’t get them out now, they might get us first. It didn’t take much convincing. He was on board. Hali was very close to Mike so it wasn’t that hard convincing her either. Voce and I had made a final 2, he seemed a little lost around this point (not being sure what to do), so I picked him up as well.  


What was your biggest mistake/misstep socially in the game? You each have at least one, don't be shy. Admit it.

Socially, I think my biggest mistake in the game was not talking to people as much or completely just not talking to certain people for a day or two at a time. I know that I did that with you, Michelle, and Sydney.

I had different reasons why I chose not to talk with y’all. James, you and I had been targeting and dragging each other through the mud. Even if we did talk about anything, not only would it have been super awkward, but we both know we’re not gonna trust each other either way. 

Great answers. Thanks for answering.