I have a question for both of you: At any point during this game, did you ever try to purposefully do worse in a challenge to manage your threat level on that front? Did you ever sit out for similar reasons?
Hercule, this is something we talked about a little, but I want you to elaborate a little more on how you felt the swaps helped or hurt you. You were with Judy basically the entire game, how did this effect the way you played with her? Additionally, you were part of the tiger idol finders, and it was widely known that you found it first and let Judy keep while the target was on her. Was that a good move on your part or not?
I actually was doing ze opposite of zat. Several of my arguments for keeping me over M. Kennedy at
par exemple ze F5 if Mlle Garcia wins Immunity involved me being stronger at challenges zan 'im, so I was fighting as 'ard as I could to win every challenge, or at least to 'ave a respectable enough showing to plausibly argue zat. I was not worried about being taken out as a challenge threat.
I think I could 'ave been okay with most swaps honestly, but overall I don't think ze swaps were bad. I actually think SVU was ze perfect tribe for a player like me, because if I was on a tribe like BAU, I could see myself going down a M. Peralta route where I got restless and overaligned, but on SVU zere was always something to do, and all of ze people who were potential side allies on SVU went 'ome leaving only my core alliance members, which left me less connected in ze merge but also less obviously connected, and I am more zan capable of forming new connections. Ze only problem was zat everyone to some extent knew zat zey were my core alliance members, but honestly, I still am not entirely sure why SVU was not targeted more zan eet was in ze early merge. I don't know 'ow anyone could plausibly believe zat M. Briscoe and I were not incredibly close after we voted together for 4 times on SVU plus once on Strike, but eet seems like we some'ow did a relatively decent job of 'iding ze extent of zat relationship, all things considered. I actually do think I deserve a lot of credit for getting ze four surviving SVU members to F7, because my web of relationships in my opinion went a long way towards 'iding 'ow close we were as a group.
Constantly being with Mlle Hopps was less great and probably a detriment to my game, because I 'ad a super strong relationship with 'er and to an extent to ability of us to accomplish things together was neutered by ze fact zat everyone assumed we were attached at ze hip. But I leaned into eet and fully embraced eet, because zere was no way for me to escape zat perception, so I used eet as a way to distract from my other relationships which were arguably just as close with people like M. Briscoe. I knew zat Mlle Hopps and I would probably eventually be split up at some point, but if I'm honest, we kind of eventually 'ad a public breakup due to ze situations with M. Peralta and M. Briscoe, so by ze end, I don't think zat our association was why she was taken out. But being so publicly tied to someone definitely influenced my play in ze early merge considerably.
Re: ze tiger idol, I think so? I kind of already answered zis in my response to Mlle Garcia's question, but I think using ze tiger idol to strengthen and maintain my trust with Mlle Hopps was a more effective use zan just playing eet on myself for no
raison when I knew I wasn't getting votes. Maybe eet strengthened ze public image zat we were tied together in a negative way, but I think fighting against zat was an uphill battle at zat point.
Though I will say, although I 'ad relatively leetle to do with finding ze tiger idol, I did do a good job immediately understanding 'ow to optimally use eet and coordinating myself, Mlle Hopps, and M. Briscoe so zat we all played eet immediately at deadline. M. Morningstar, Mlle Garcia, and M. Wilde all 'ad solved eet as well, so if one of zem 'ad beaten us, zat could 'ave been a problem. Ze real benefit zat we got from playing eet was less zat we played eet and more zat we prevented others from playing eet, and in zat regard, I immediately knew ze correct approach to take, though I'm sure Mlle Hopps would 'ave thought of zat too even without me. I do want to take a leetle credit zere though.