Beast Mode Redneck's RETURN

[bubba]

Hello.
Congratulations on both of you for making finals. I am happy to see that neither of you took a goat like JT or Amanda to the end. So, considering the circumstances I am not as displeased as I could have been otherwise. Anyways… I am not surprised to see either of you at the finals, and I respect you a little bit more as two somewhat strong players are here at the end.

I am, however, pretty irritated that I was painted as this huge villain everytime either of you mentioned me. You both called everything I said bullshit, and made me sound like I was in the wrong after being lied by my alliance and left in the dark. Of course I was pissed, but both of your attempts talking to me were condescending and quite frankly ineffective. I am quite turned off on both accounts because I do not believe that you guys handled the situation like a good player would have.

Another comment that bothered me is when you said that the best players always lasted longer. Which means in your mind Amanda and JT are better players than me. And then JT is better than Na’Onka or Austin, which I’m sorry, but to me that sounds ridiculous. I want to give you both a chance to defend this statement you made, or to tell me why you said such a thing if you wish.

Next, lying is a key part of the game, but there are also lies that have no purpose, for example knowing fully well Trish was going to get voted out, why would I be left in the dark? I didn’t have the numbers, nor was I around enough to change anything. So, I would like an explanation for that as well.

Hayden, out of everyone in this game you were my favorite. I actually predicted you winning from the get-go. You played a solid game in all aspects, and you showed that a good player does not need to win immunities to make it far. Congratulations on doing what very few people have managed to do: make it to finals during their first game.

Mary, I respect that you decided to go against the better player, it shows confidence in your game. I respected you a lot before I realized through observation how fake you were. You pretended to be everyone’s best friend, and resorted to a lot of unnecessary fluff to make it through the game. I also found a lot of your actions unnecessary and just flat out eye-roll worthy. For example making JT/Hayden beg for you to take them to the finals, it made you seem conceited and just flat out annoying.

Questions:
1. Why did you pick the character that you did to play this game?
2. Biggest regret in the game.
3. Compare each jury member to a castaway from the real show, and tell us why you chose said castaway.

As a final note, if I detect bullshit from either of you throughout the FTC I will vote for the other person. Final Tribal is a chance to come clean, talk about your game, leave the lying in the game, don’t bring it here.

Best of luck,
Bubba.

[Hayden Moss]

"Another comment that bothered me is when you said that the best players always lasted longer. Which means in your mind Amanda and JT are better players than me. And then JT is better than Na’Onka or Austin, which I’m sorry, but to me that sounds ridiculous. I want to give you both a chance to defend this statement you made, or to tell me why you said such a thing if you wish."

The idea of the best players are the ones that last longer is tricky to explain. The logic is really that, if you did something to get voted out, you're doing worse than the people who didn't. So the explanation here is that, since you blew up after the Trish vote, we all wanted you out, because we knew you were gunning for us, and we couldn't risk you staying around too long and flipping people to your side. So, by painting a target on your back, you put yourself in a position to be voted out over possibly weaker players like Amanda. Does that make sense?

"Next, lying is a key part of the game, but there are also lies that have no purpose, for example knowing fully well Trish was going to get voted out, why would I be left in the dark? I didn’t have the numbers, nor was I around enough to change anything. So, I would like an explanation for that as well."

You see, I never saw it as you "weren't around enough to change anything". I totally believed that you could have convinced people to vote another way, if given the time. I really liked you dude, and if thing's played out differently, I could have seen us teaming up. That vote that said "you're a good guy but a bad player"? That was me. So the reason you had to be left out of the loop was that, from my point of view, you could have very well have changed things. Plus, there was always the threat of an immunity idol.

"Hayden, out of everyone in this game you were my favorite. I actually predicted you winning from the get-go. You played a solid game in all aspects, and you showed that a good player does not need to win immunities to make it far. Congratulations on doing what very few people have managed to do: make it to finals during their first game. "

Thank you. Really, that means a lot

"1. Why did you pick the character that you did to play this game?"

I loved the way Hayden played in BvW, and it's how I wanted to play coming into this game. And I think I did that very well. I stayed low for the pre-merge, then made my moves post-merge.

"2. Biggest regret in the game."

Having to say all I said about JT last tribal council. I really hate that Mary made us do that. It sucked having to trash talk an ally I had throughout the entire game, but I had to do it for the sake of my game. I know he respects the game, and I hope he understand why I had to say all I had to say.

I'm gonna have to get to the 3rd question a little later, assuming I have time. If I can't I'm SUPER sorry, I've been so busy this week, and that's a question that's gonna take some thought.

Thanks again for your question Bubba!

[Mary Sartain]

~ Mary responds for Bubba, part 1 ~ 

hi bubba! it is stupid late (or stupid early depending on how you look at it...) again and i have early class tomorrow, but i want to make sure that i give you at least a partial response tonight still. 

Sept 9, 2014 19:25:18 GMT -5 bubba said:

Hello.
Congratulations on both of you for making finals. I am happy to see that neither of you took a goat like JT or Amanda to the end. So, considering the circumstances I am not as displeased as I could have been otherwise. Anyways… I am not surprised to see either of you at the finals, and I respect you a little bit more as two somewhat strong players are here at the end.

I am, however, pretty irritated that I was painted as this huge villain everytime either of you mentioned me. You both called everything I said bullshit, and made me sound like I was in the wrong after being lied by my alliance and left in the dark. Of course I was pissed, but both of your attempts talking to me were condescending and quite frankly ineffective. I am quite turned off on both accounts because I do not believe that you guys handled the situation like a good player would have.

well bubba, there are a few things i could say about that. 

as i have said in my opening statement, the only reason i didn't let you know about the trish vote was that real life got in the way. i liked you from day one because we had a good conversation about respecting the "classic" players that nobody ever plays as and not liking the millions of brendas and parvatis and boston robs that show up in every game. so naturally i wanted to work with you, and even in the early days of making my alliance with jt and hayden, i always wanted you to be up there with us. then the merge hit and i still had that in mind. hayden and jt were nervous about including you in the alliance, but i told them i liked you and wanted to work with you, and then you had such an extremely negative reaction to the idea of voting for trish, and you said you thought she was deserving to stay longer and that nay or austin should go instead. 

now i know that you don't want to see any bs in the answers, so i am not gonna give you any here. yes, you did change your target to amanda later, but the fact is at first you wanted to target those two. for me, i saw that as very hypocritical. i had seen nay and austin online way more than trish, and they had done a lot more in challenges and been more social with me. so to me it made no sense that you would claim to make your decision based on who "deserved" to be here and target two of the most active people in the game.

the other reason is, well, it was just strategy. you called me out in public, you named my alliance and told everybody to come after us. and at the end of the day that was my fault because i was the one who vouched for you and tried to include you and i was the one who didn't pm you in time. so i felt like my back was against the wall because i had screwed up in front of my alliance and put them at risk, which could have caused them to lose trust in me, and you were out there making a lot of good points about why people should vote against us, which could have made everybody else lose trust in me too. so i took what seemed like the only course of action i had left, to try and totally discredit you and act like you were the villain. it's not something i'm proud of, but i was desperate and at the time i felt it was the only option i really had. 

so, do i think you were the villain in that scenario? no, i think you were the victim. you got lied to, you were mad about it, and you had a right to be. but it would have been suicide to admit that then. i couldn't say the truth because it would have cost me the game. 

Another comment that bothered me is when you said that the best players always lasted longer. Which means in your mind Amanda and JT are better players than me. And then JT is better than Na’Onka or Austin, which I’m sorry, but to me that sounds ridiculous. I want to give you both a chance to defend this statement you made, or to tell me why you said such a thing if you wish.

again, this is something i said but didn't really believe. i have been taken out for being a threat a bunch of times, and i don't think for a second that just lasting long makes you a better player. take a look at becky in cook islands. she made the finals, and rob cesternino never did. so is becky a better player than rob c? heck no. jonathan penner has never cracked top six, abi-maria made top five. is she better at survivor? gosh no. on the other side, look at tina in all stars or cirie in heroes vs villains. both of them got taken out early because of who they were outside the game. that doesn't make them bad players, that means that they had a reputation. it's nearly impossible to play your way out of a situation in which people are targeting you just because of the person you are. so yeah, the idea that better players last longer is just silly. 

so why did i say that then? well it goes back to the same reason i already said - i couldn't say the truth because it would have cost me the game. i was still playing up the "yeah, whatever, bubba is crazy" angle because if i had been like, "well bubba has a point, we totally broke his trust and betrayed him" it would have given people reasons to look at us as a threesome and want to break us up. again, not something i'm really proud of, but something that i felt was the best way for me to get out of that situation. 

Next, lying is a key part of the game, but there are also lies that have no purpose, for example knowing fully well Trish was going to get voted out, why would I be left in the dark? I didn’t have the numbers, nor was I around enough to change anything. So, I would like an explanation for that as well.

bubba i have said it before, i've said it in my opening statement, and i will say it again now even if you decide it's bullshit and it costs me your vote and everybody else's: i was planning on telling you. i had every intention of letting you know what was going on and letting you know that hayden and jt weren't being honest with you. like i said before, i liked you and wanted to work with you. i also knew that there was a very good chance that the two of them were making side deals with na and austin and i was going to be cut out of the deal, so it was also strategically beneficial for me to have you on my side. but life got in the way. i didn't get the chance to tell you because i had a work situation that came up, and by the time i remembered that i needed to pm you it was too late. i pmed you anyway trying to explain what happened, and i aimed you trying to talk about it and show you that i wasn't trying to screw you over, but you told me it was a flimsy excuse and told me you didn't trust me any more and i couldn't talk you out of it. it was a screwup on my part, and it was not my intent to deceive you and keep you in the dark. 

Mary, I respect that you decided to go against the better player, it shows confidence in your game. I respected you a lot before I realized through observation how fake you were. You pretended to be everyone’s best friend, and resorted to a lot of unnecessary fluff to make it through the game. I also found a lot of your actions unnecessary and just flat out eye-roll worthy. For example making JT/Hayden beg for you to take them to the finals, it made you seem conceited and just flat out annoying.

well, i'm sorry you feel that way. i can see why you think that, but i honestly don't think i was fake - i liked who i liked and i disliked who i disliked. i might not have been as vocal with my dislikes because it's just not great strategy to tell people you hate them, but i didn't pretend to like anybody that i didn't. and yeah, i liked a lot of people, and i did consider them my friends, but it's not possible to take everybody to the finals. i had to put friendships and likes aside and make decisions that were best for me. bear in mind, bubba, i'm not just sitting here saying it's okay for me to do things to people and expect them to still like me. i got lied to and betrayed and kept in the dark as much as anybody else: trish stuck me on a tribe with inactive tbird and put me in the minority. na and austin had deals with jt that i wasn't included in, and they tried to get him to target me as well. hayden and jt both lied to me repeatedly at final three, and kept doing it even when i called them on it. na found the idol clue and didn't share it with me. all of those were people who told me that they liked me and a lot of them were my friends. so, do i think that because they did those things it means they aren't my friends, or that they don't care about me? no. i think they were playing a game and they wanted to win. i never took that stuff personally because i knew that people were sometimes gonna prioritize winning more than their relationships with me, and make decisions that were best for them. 

i also did not ask those questions to make hayden and jt beg me to take them to finals. (in fact i actually think hayden's "biggest regret" answer is really funny, because he says i "made" him talk smack about jt. in fact if you read my questions again you will see that i did nothing of the sort: i asked both guys to tell me why i should take them after they lied to me. i did not ever ask them to tell me why they should not take the other person.)

the reason i asked those questions is that i figured out that both of them were lying to me and trying to get me to lose the challenge and that put me in a weird position. i had promised to take hayden, and i had not promised to take jt. hayden broke his promises to me by lying to me, and jt never broke a promise to me. so there wasn't any clear way to look at it from an honor perspective, because there were plusses and minuses to both. and whenever you're in a situation there's no clear answer, what do you do? you see if you can get more information to make a better decision. so i asked the questions i asked to see if there was a way to tip the scales one way or the other. (there wasn't, because hayden kept lying to me and jt told the truth but also pointed out that hayden was a stronger competitor than him and i knew that deservingness was a huge big thing this game, so it all kinda balanced out.) so ultimately i went with my gut, and decided to do the thing that a "good" player would do - be the best by beating the best. 


alright bubba it's past 3 am and i have class in six hours, so i will get to the actual questions (and my answer to nay) tomorrow afternoon, but i hope that this at least helps make sense of what i was doing and where i was coming from. 

[Mary Sartain]

~ Mary responds for Bubba, part 2 ~ 

1. Why did you pick the character that you did to play this game?

i remembered liking mary the first time i watched her season, and then this summer i got micronesia on dvd for my birthday. when i watched it again i realized that mary was actually a much better character than a lot of people think. she was cute, she was funny, and she had a really good social game going. i think if joel hadn't screwed everything up mary had the potential to get really far and shake up the game. so i liked her as a character and thought it would be fun to play as her. as an added bonus, mary is someone that's only memorable for not being memorable, so she was a blank slate and i could play her however i wanted. 

another reason is that she's pretty. and i don't meant that in a shallow way, but it really is easier to successfully play the kind of game i play if i am playing as one of the prettier girls. i am friendly and try to get close to people, and that's the kind of thing people are more comfortable with coming from someone like mary. if you play that same type of game as someone like tarzan or zoe people are a lot less receptive of it - trust me, i have tried. so for me it was a combination of that psychological boost and the fact that i just really liked and enjoyed the character. 

2. Biggest regret in the game.

the entire round that trish left. no question. that was probably my biggest screwup in the entire game on a lot of different levels. there were a lot of things that i could have done differently that would have kept all of the drama and chaos from happening. if i had avoided bringing you in on the plan, or if i had approached it differently and told you that it was basically happening no matter what, if i had pmed you in time to let you know what was happening... any of those things would have kept that round from becoming the massive chaotic mess that it turned into, and would have prevented a lot of the other stuff that you mentioned (the fights at final eight, the stuff about strong players making it far, etc) from happening at all. so if there's one thing that i would like to change it is the way i handled that round, because i think it would have spared everybody a lot of grief and drama all the way around. 

3. Compare each jury member to a castaway from the real show, and tell us why you chose said castaway.

trish ~ ozzy (micronesia)

going into the merge at micronesia, it looked like ozzy was in a great position to win the whole thing. he had a lot his former tribemates with him and he was really good at challenges. but parvati wanted to get herself into a better position, so she shook the game up and took him out, and that one single voteoff basically blew up the entire game for everyone and caused a huge chain of events that made micronesia one of the craziest and most dramatic seasons in the show's history. 

i think that that fits pretty well for trish. a lot of people viewed her as a great challenge competitor and one of the leaders of rheali, and someone that people respected as a player. those were good things, but that was a big part of what got her targeted when the merge hit. jt and i and hayden wanted to change up the game and get our threesome into a better spot, so we got the numbers to take trish out. that move had a huge impact and set the whole game on a different course. 

--

bubba ~ stephenie (palau)

steph was one of the strongest competitors in palau, and when she got to merge she tried her best to get in a good alliance and keep herself safe, but the korors felt like she was too much of a threat and double-crossed her. in this situation a lot of people would have given up, but steph held her ground, looked the strongest tribe in survivor history square in the eye, and said "you think i'm a threat? fine, i'll show you how much of a threat i am." whether you like steph or not, you gotta admit that was one of the most badass statements any survivor's ever given. 

i think bubba had a similar story to steph. he was strong all through the game, and then at merge he came in and started cleaning house in the challenges, and wound up getting double-crossed by the people he was working with. and just like steph, bubba refused to go down without a fight. as soon as that target was on him, bubba just stepped up his game like a badass and played the hardest he possibly could to try and turn things around. and he almost did it, too. he managed to get sarita on his side, and he made a really good case to amanda, nay, and austin to try and get them with him. if that had worked out, there's a really good chance that bubba could have been sitting up here right now. 

--

sarita ~ kat (one world)

kat was someone who was a lot of fun, but she was kind of off in her own little world sometimes. she played a pretty good game, until troyzan left. troyzan was a big threat who rubbed some people in power the wrong way, and on his way out he basically asked her to bust up the women. even though kat didn't actually do much to deserve it, her association with troyzan was what got her in kim's crosshairs and wound up getting her sent home. 

that's pretty much exactly what happened with sarita. she stuck by bubba and trish even though they were in the minority, and when she was thinking about changing stuff up and trying to make a big move it was kinda already too late, because she had those associations with bubba and trish. that made people see her as untrustworthy, but also as a threat in the end because bubba and trish would probably vote for her. sarita also has a really fun personality and she marches to the beat of her own drummer just like kat did. 

--

amanda ~ sarah (cagayan) 

sarah was in a great spot going into the merge of cagayan, and she had everything hanging on her to make the decision about which alliance was going to rule the game. her problem was that she waited too long and didn't commit to a side, so she got targeted and taken out, and tony's alliance went on to make the finals. 

like sarah amanda was a strong player when she wanted to be, but when it came down to the critical point and amanda was the swing vote, she wasn't able to make her move in time and that's what got her sent home. 

--

naonka ~ brenda (both times)

brenda is one of my favorite survivors ever, and i really hated that she got such a bad edit in caramoan. but the reason why i picked her for nay is that i think that both incarnations of brenda had elements of her playstyle in them. nicaragua brenda was a lot like the sassy side of nay. they both are unbelievably fierce when they want to be, and they are classy divas who can werk and slay like nobody else. but on the other hand, nay was a great person to talk to, a good friend, and someone who was really understanding. so in that sense she reminds me of brenda in caramoan, who was loyal and honest and someone that was probably the biggest social threat in the whole cast. so because brenda had those two different sides to her, i think that makes her very similar to na. 

--

austin ~ tina (australia) 

tina is someone who is very good at thinking and playing the game, but not someone who immediately makes you think that she is all that dangerous. austin is kind of like that, he is very casual and great to talk to, but he doesn't immediately come off as a big threat. from our conversations though i know that he is someone who has played before and done really good at games, and won some too, so he obviously knows how to work that to his advantage and get himself far in the game. i think a lot of people kind of saw austin as being na's right hand man, but he was every bit as social as her and he showed in the final four challenge that he is great at challenges and not afraid to step up and make bold moves when the time comes. that reminds me a lot of tina, who people saw as being colby's pal, but who turned out to be playing a crazy good game and managed to take home the million dollars. so think kind of underdog threat factor is why i chose tina for him. 

--

jt ~ amanda (micronesia) 

amanda is someone who can kind of rub people the wrong way, and i think it's fair to say that jt sometimes tends to do that by being a bit too upfront about things or not as subtle as maybe he should be in certain situations, but she was part of a very tight group of three in micronesia. she and parv and cirie controlled the game and got to the end together, but because it was a final two and not a final three, that screwed up their alliance and some really difficult decisions had to be made. and, just like jt, amanda was coming off of china where she had learned some pretty tough lessons about survivor and micro was her way of trying improve on that and make her game better, and she did actually get a lot better at the game in her second go around, just like jt has come a long way in working on his performance. 


idk if you wanted finalists too, but if you did i would say that hayden is like chelsea in one world, who played a kind of strong game but when she got to the end she showed that she had never really made moves or done anything apart from what kim wanted, and that is pretty much basically what hayden has shown in a lot of his answers.

for me i would say that i probably played most like kim spradlin also from one world. kim was someone who a lot of people trusted and put faith in, and that didn't always work out, because kim was playing hard to win and she did whatever it took to make that happen. kim was someone who spearheaded a lot of moves and played a very strong game in a lot of departments, but in the finals some of the jurors felt that she was not as honest as she might have acted, and felt that her game was kind of weakened by that. but the thing that most resonates with me is that kim said a few times that she thought chelsea was a threat to her winning, but she took her to finals anyway. and when someone asked her about that, kim had the confidence to say that she knew chelsea might win, but she had enough confidence in herself and the game that she played to think that she could go up against the best and win. and i have that same confidence in my game. you said to me over and over again that goats > cowards, and i said right back to you that i am not a coward. i think that i have proved that in a lot of ways. i was willing to debate you at tribal council even though it could have put a target on my back. i stepped up in challenges all game long even though it would make me a threat. i could have taken someone you called a goat to the finals, and made it much easier on myself, but instead i took someone who was a bit more threatening. hayden on the other hand has taken no risks at all. he did not make moves without me and jt, he has said that outright. is that goat behaviour? he also has sworn up and down that if he had won that challenge he would have taken that "goat" to the finals if he had had the chance. does that show confidence in his game? so bubba, i might have been annoying and i might have done things that seemed conceited or fake, but you said over and over again that you would not respect a goat or a coward, and i think i have shown that i am neither.  

thanks for the questions, bubba, and good luck with your decision! 

[Hayden Moss]

I'll finish this post up real quick.

Trish: Sarah from Cagayan. Ironic that I picked another Cagayan player, but it makes sense. She was a player who was in an extremely go far in the game, but was cut down by a blindside.

Bubba: Gretchen from Borneo. A really great player, a threat to win, who didn't want to vote out strong players.

Sarita: Wanda from Palau. Kooky, crazy, wacky, fun, memorable, and just a nice person.

Amanda: Brenda from Caramoan. We didn't see much of her, but she was nice when we did, and a potentially strong player who we didn't get much out of.

NaOnka: Courtney from China. Sassy and funny, but she could have easily taken home the win had things gone a little differently for her.

Austin: Malcolm from Philippines. A super strong player who got taken out at final 4. Had he been able to convince another player to force a tie, he could have taken home the win in the end.

JT: Rudy from Borneo. He could be abrasive at times, but others (like myself) really like him, and he was taken out at the final 3.

Mary: Jenna from Amazon. A strong female, who rubbed a few people the wrong way, that went on an immunity run towards the end.

Hayden: Danni from Guatemala. I think I ended up playing like Danni because she was always a threat to win in the end, yet her name rarely, if ever, came up. She played an under the radar game, like myself, and was able to get to the end with a player who played aggressively, yet stabbed a lot of people in the back along the way.