Corn on the Cobly

[Colby Donaldson]

I wanted to wait until a few questions were answered because I wanted to use my questions to hopefully help push me into one direction and to get some clarification on some of your previous questions.

First off, congrats on Final 2. I stand behind Judd's statement that we get the placement we deserve so kudos to you 2. Now, to start things off I want to say that coming into questions prior to anything being said and asked I was about 85% confident I was going to vote Jessica to win this game. I tend to rely on social gameplay so I have to say that I appreciated that aspect of her game moreso than Todd' but at the end that wouldn't be voting fairly because I need to see what you 2 did overall in the game and how well you own up to what you've done to see if you truly deserve to win. I'm going to ask you each individual questions and then followup with questions for you both to answer:

Todd,
When it came to me you were a social mute. Throughout the game you seemed to just be an extra vote in your alliance and appeared to be dragged to the end. Through answers you've proven you have at least done more than this but some of your answers were a little sketchy. Two of the "big moves" you listed for yourself were moves you "could" have done but didn't do.

What strategy did you use to make it to the end? Though you claim you didn't come into the game being UTR did you use this to your advantage or just settle with it and see where it would take you?


Jessica,
When it came to me you were a social butterfly, though I will say you seemed insincere at times. You say you didn't tell me I was being voted out because you didn't want me to scramble and be sad (lol). During our talk before votes you ended up saying, "I hope we can talk after this game," Which let me know anyways, lol. This was the beginning of a string of sloppy plays. In a lot of answers you have apparently taken credit for other people's work. For instance, you were manipulated into voting Todd out over Steph by Parvati and myself. Parvati went on the attack to keep Steph safe and I decided to follow suit and pretend Steph had the idol (even though i knew she didn't). You voted out Todd as the first step to keep Steph safe. I chickened out of voting Todd as well because Parvati revealed I snitched to Kenny and I knew my game would be in danger because of it so wanted to save-face. Sadly, i underestimated how badly my game was already damaged but I give that move to Parvati. As for your second big move, you take credit for the vote switching to me. Kenny claims otherwise. He was the one who pushed for me to be the next vote. I knew Kenny and Todd were close in this game and after Parv blabbed on me and Kenny couldn't trust me he pushed for me to be voted out. Throughout a lot of post-merge you say Todd just followed orders but it looks like Kenny may have been your puppetmaster. You relied heavily on Idols to keep you safe (this is neither a negative nor a positive). You could potentially take credit for being social enough in your own alliance for them to give you the idol but on that same token you were already seen as biggest target so by your alliance keeping you safe another week they in turn bought themselves an extra week of not being the target.

What big moves did you make that were independent of Kenny? If Kenny hadn't pissed you off near the end of the game would you have still ranked him as poorly as you have? Do you think in a final 2 vote you could beat Kenny?


Thanks to answers to other jurors' questions so far I am no longer leaning towards voting Jessica.


I have a few questions for the both of you:

Why do you deserve to win over the other person? Why DOESN'T the other person deserve to win?

How much control over the game did you have over what was being done, boot order, etc?

Did you employ any strategy to either keep target off self or purposely keep target on self to somehow control the flow of the game?

If you could be final 2 with anyone else in this game who would it be?

Any regrets?



Since I am asking for you to state why the other person DOESN'T deserve to win I feel it's only fair you also have the opportunity to defend your own game. Feel free to followup with any rebuttals you may have over any topics you are being or have been attacked over (either by a juror or in answers to this question)!


Goodluck to both of you! hopefully your answers help solidify my vote

[Todd]

hey colby ! im on my phone right now but im gonna wait til my power goes back on to answer. hugee storm here !

[jessica]

I'll answer soon Colby. <3

[Todd]

Hey Colby,

I feel that we had a lot of good conversation back on the Dani tribe. A lot of the time we PMed back and forth through the board, and regardless of how much or little we talked on AIM I thought of you as one of my main allies in the game. I felt that we were really close, and it stinks that you didn't feel the same way.

What strategy did you use to make it to the end? Though you claim you didn't come into the game being UTR did you use this to your advantage or just settle with it and see where it would take you?
My strategy to make it to the end consisted of sticking to my main alliance but also making deals on the side in order to ensure my safety. Although these side deals fell through because I was being played, I felt that by making them I would hold some power and be able to decide who would get voted off. That wasn't the case though, because I was played by Parvati, Heidi, Judd and JT. I can't blame them, but there was one point with each of them that I actually believed we had something going. There was a Final Four made between myself, Kenny, Parv and Heidi and there was a deal to vote Nat off the round she actually got voted off and Jess the round after that. Although Nat got voted off when she was supposed to according to that agreement, she wasn't voted out on the terms I had agreed to. As we all know she was only voted off because Jess played my idol. My deals with Judd and JT fell apart Final Five and Final Four round as they both ended up voting me out, showing me that they were only trying to stay in the game. My initial strategy was not to play an UTR game, like I have stated it just kind of happened that way and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't break from it. At times I felt that it was nearly impossible for either myself or Jess to succeed in the game but I wasn't about to give up. I had won a free trip to Exile Island during the Survivor Auction which proved to be VERY beneficial, and I believe that I used my URT strategy to my advantage. One benefit to playing the UTR game is that you are not targetted for being a threat. That is why, I think, the Koro alliance continually targetted Jess or Kenny instead of me. Sure I had votes at most of the tribals, but when people were idoled out or the vote was split with just one vote determining who went home, Koro always voted Jess or Kenny. I believe that being UTR opened up a lot of opportunites to me, and I was able to jump on many of them and end up in the Final Two.

Why do you deserve to win over the other person? Why DOESN'T the other person deserve to win?
I deserve to win over Jessica because I took a harder path to the Final Two than she did. Jessica had idols, a plethora of allies, and a lot of help throughout the game. I didn't have as much help as she did, and I believe I had to play the game harder than her to get to the spot I am in today. I was only immune from one tribal, Jess was immune from four, so I had to do a lot more wheeling and dealing to ensure that the votes didn't fall my way when Jess didn't have to worry about that because even if she got the majority of the votes she could just play the idol. If anyone doesn't think I deserve to be sitting in the Final Two, then I must have shocked a lot of you by surviving as many tribal councils as I did, which is definitely winner worthy in my book.

How much control over the game did you have over what was being done, boot order, etc?
Honestly, I pretty much had zero control over anything in this game besides a couple of the early boots and the Natalie boot. Other than that, I was pretty much defeated when it came to the debates regarding who should be the next to go. As you might know, had I gotten my way at Final Five JT would have been gone that round instead of Judd. I really wanted JT to go for a variety of reasons, one of which was that had I orchestrated that boot and I ended up in the finals, I would have had a move late in the game that I completely controlled and made happen. I wasn't able to pull it off though, and I really wish I was able to, but thats the way the game goes and there was nothing more I could have done to pull it off.

Did you employ any strategy to either keep target off self or purposely keep target on self to somehow control the flow of the game?
A major part of my strategy was to keep the target off self. I never once purposely kept target on self, and whenever I felt I was in danger I did my best to ensure that the target was on someone else. I didn't care who, as long as it wasn't me. By having a main group of allies and people on the opposing tribe with who I had side deals, I thought that I would always be able to ensure the votes did not go my way. This worked some of the time because I was never the one who needed to play an idol or worry about a swing vote voting with me, not for me. It didn't work towards the end of the game, but that is when I relied on my main allies to help me get as far as I possibly could.

If you could be final 2 with anyone else in this game who would it be?
Honestly if it wasn't Jess I'd want Kenny sitting next to me. He was my other main ally and I really feel that he played an amazing game that was worthy of winning. Not only that, he did a lot for me personally and I give him a lot of credit for helping me get to the finals. Take the Final Four boot for example. If he had voted for me like him and Jess had discussed, it would have tied again at the revote and I would have had a 50% chance of going home. I really appreciate all that Kenny did for me and our Dani alliance throughout the course of this game <3

Any regrets?
None.

Thanks Colby, great questions !!

[Colby Donaldson]

heh, i felt i bumrushed you to get you to align with me. like, i know you agreed but it felt more like a *if i offer him an alliance he'll be forced to work with me and be less likely to vote me out* type of ordeal so i didn't know if it was legit to you. Those types of talks were generally originated by me so I kind of felt i was forcing you to talk . Whether that's the truth or not is a different matter but that's how I at least perceived it so sorry, lol. thank you for answering <3

[Todd]

No problem. I understand what you mean though, you always went out of your way to tell me that you would be loyal to me, and I took that as you liking me and wanting to work with me, so I agreed to work with you and it was sincere.

[jessica]

I'm finishing up your questions now. Expect the answers in about 10 minutes.

[jessica]

What big moves did you make that were independent of Kenny? If Kenny hadn't pissed you off near the end of the game would you have still ranked him as poorly as you have? Do you think in a final 2 vote you could beat Kenny?
When JT had come onto our tribe and shortly after merge Kenny had told me to make a fake final two deal with JT. Little did Kenny know that I already had a final two deal with JT and it was far from fake. Kenny also told us to vote out Steph but he wasn’t the one that came up with the plan to split the vote, or even to split the vote between Steph and Todd. As I’ve said before I split the vote between those two because I wasn’t going to risk Michelle or JT. If Kenny hadn’t pissed me off near the end of the game I wouldn’t have ranked him as poorly as I did because I wouldn’t have had reason to. He wouldn’t have lied to me in this game and he could have very well been sitting here with me. Who knows. Anything could have happened. But if I had taken Kenny to the final two I don’t think I could have beat him. And as I just said in the answers to JT’s questions, I was slightly aggrevated with Kenny still after answering some of the beginning questions and after really sitting down and putting my anger beside about it he did play a better game than me in all aspects. While I aligned with who I wanted to align with and then went from there, he also made sure to have connections with the other tribe at all times and was very strategical. His lies were part of his game play and sometimes that’s just how it works out the best for that person at that time. I can’t really blame him for doing anything that he did in this game. He even admitted to me that he tricked me into voting JT out because he knew that I would have taken JT to the final two over him if I had won the challenge. So can I blame him? No not at all, I would have done the same thing if I had been in his position.
Why do you deserve to win over the other person? Why DOESN'T the other person deserve to win?

I deserve to win over Todd because just because I was given three hidden immunity idols, two of which I needed or I wouldn’t be sitting here; it shows that my allies trusted me enough to want to keep me in this game to help get them further. I’ve played with Kenny before and in my opinion, up until he had done that for me I didn’t think he would have done that for very many people and I’m flattered that he did. So you can blame me for relying on idols because without them I wouldn’t be here but in a way I think that Todd is slightly jealous because if he had been in my shoes he’s asking himself “would he have done the same for me?” I don’t feel that Todd did much besides entering this game with me, and aligning with Kenny. A lot of times anything he did was either something that he had been told to do by myself or by Kenny. In the beginning of the game on original Dani, he was never around, while I was the one going around talking to everybody and for the most part trying to make sure that he wasn’t going to be voted out. For awhile I did take mind set of keeping him around only until I no longer needed him but after merge when Michelle was voted out I knew that I’d have to keep him around since I had lost one of my main allies in this game.

How much control over the game did you have over what was being done, boot order, etc?
When we voted out Greg first I didn’t have much control because I wanted Silas voted out. When Silas went I did have more control because I was going to make sure that he went. I also had control over the vote when Steph went. I figured she didn’t have the idol because why would she have gone around telling people that she had. She wasn’t that dumb and would have wanted to keep it secret. When Michelle was voted out I had absolutely no control over that vote and for awhile felt that I was screwed with her gone. I also think it’s clear that I had complete control over the vote where Kenny went because I was the only one that could vote. When Aras was voted out, Kenny had come to me and told me he was giving me his idol and that we should vote Aras because he was one of Parv’s main allies. Now that was honestly news to me but I was just shocked that he was going to do such a thing for me and intensely flattered. Without him I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.

Did you employ any strategy to either keep target off self or purposely keep target on self to somehow control the flow of the game?
No, there was no way to keep the target off of me after Michelle went and during the game after that I knew without a miracle (which I got) I would be next. And I wouldn’t purposely keep the target on myself just to control the flow of the game. I’m the type of person that would rather play conservatively and know that I’m not a target and that I’m safe than to repeatedly attract attention of people to get them to want to vote me out. Because with my luck, they would succeed.

If you could be final 2 with anyone else in this game who would it be?
Michelle of course. I adore Michelle to pieces and she’s one of the best friends I could ever have. (Yes, Todd is another best friend of mine but I do have the ability to have more than one) I feel that if Michelle had lasted longer she would have steadily become more interested in the game. She went in phases where she’d love it and then hate it and then love it and then hate it. And if she had gotten the view that she would have been able to make it to the end of the game, then I do think that she would have put more energy and effort into it.

Any regrets?

Yeah, if it makes you feel any better I do regret voting you out. I feel that if we hadn’t voted you out then when the first vote at merge came around, Michelle wouldn’t have been voted out. Because you had told me that you would never write down either of our names. Of course I had no way of knowing that Michelle would have gone right after you or I wouldn’t have voted you out. But I guess the saying “hindsight is 20/20” is true in more ways than I’m sure we’ll ever know.

Since I am asking for you to state why the other person DOESN'T deserve to win I feel it's only fair you also have the opportunity to defend your own game. Feel free to followup with any rebuttals you may have over any topics you are being or have been attacked over (either by a juror or in answers to this question)!
One thing I must say is that no matter what you say to me or what is said about me using 3 idols in this game, if you were in my situation you would have done it too and you cannot deny that. If you were the one that had an ally that gave you an idol to keep you safe, and then it happened again, let’s not go and say that you wouldn’t be glad that you were still in the game or that you were made those idols ever existed. I can’t say that I relied on idols for gameplay because I didn’t. I didn’t go around pissing people off to purposely vote me and then idol them out. I just knew that they were going to come after me anyways because I was a threat and that in order to stay in the game that I would need one. You could be jealous that somebody in this game wouldn’t have done the same for you, or that you wonder if they would have. But let’s just try and put yourself into my shoes for a minute and see how it would have been if you were in my position. You’d be thanking your allies and thanking the host for even putting them into the game.
As far as some of the recent, nicer things I have said about Kenny, no it is not sucking up. I will never suck up to anybody because it is not in my personality. And if you think that at any point then I feel that maybe you should take a few more minutes to get to know me. A lot of the things I originally said in response to Judd’s questions about Kenny was because I was still mad at him for what he did to me. In all fairness to Kenny I didn’t put my anger aside in order to answer the questions honestly and truthfully and I do want to apologize to him for that. After looking at how I answered them and how I really felt I did want to correct that. He did play a good game and a large part of the reason that I voted him out was that I felt he played the game 10x better than me through giving me the idols, through the strategies he had, through the lies that he told, and that the jury would see that and it would be an easy vote for them and he’d win be a landslide.

Thanks for the questions Colby, I did enjoy answering them and sorry it took me so long. Good luck with your decision.

[Todd]

In response to your answer about me being jealous that Kenny gave you the idols. It doesn't really matter if I would have been or not, and there is no way to tell either because I made sure that I was never in the position to need an idol to stay in the game. You, however, did not.

[jessica]

So because I was viewed as a threat, I'm supposed to just lay down and be like "oh yeah don't vote for me because I used an idol because you were afraid of me so much." Sorry but thats not going to work. That's the reason why they wanted me out, is because Parvati knew I was going to come after her at some point. You on the other hand, they weren't afriad of. So them being afraid of me, I take as a compliment.

[Todd]

Yeah, that is a compliment, but at the same time they weren't afraid of me due to the UTR strategy I was using and the fact that I had a backup plan with them. I feel like I covered all my bases to ensure my safety, and you relied on idols to ensure yours. On the surface, it looks like you and I played pretty identical games. But in reality our games were very different.

[Andii]

oh god.

[Courtney]

lemons are sour.