{Young Writer}

[Wes Anderson]

Jury questions from Young Writer will go here.

[Young Writer]

Dear Richie. You have far bigger concerns than to worry about whether I might be voting for you. It would take a lot for that to not be the case, but nonetheless I do have a question or two I want answered that could change it hypothetically.

Considering you got the bandit had in challenge 3, why did you never tell me about it? Did you ever consider using it on me the round I went out? Why or why not?

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Writer my friend, it is good to see you.

My philosophy with idols is that it is almost never the right move to tell anyone about them.  Idols are in a class of their own when it comes to items and advantages.  The best and most optimal use of an idol is always to guarantee passage from 5 to 4 if one can make it that far without needing it earlier, and it is best done with an idol nobody sees coming.  The only way to guarantee that is by keeping the secret completely.

I did not think it wise to play the idol on you in the round you went out.  To begin with, there were plans we were aware of which would have split votes against both of us to counter such a play.  Our own counteroffensive had a legitimate chance at success.  Revealing to the game at large that any idol besides the Fox's Tail existed would have dramatically altered strategy considerations for everyone to my detriment.
Finally, to play the idol would buy one round at the cost of leaving us both in an incredibly weak position.  It was my worst case scenario to lose you, but it was a worst case scenario I felt confident I would be able to come back from.  I don't think that either one of us would be in the Final Tribal Council if I had played the idol on you.

Tu amigo,
Richie

[Young Writer]

I have a question for all 3 of you. You see, I am a lover of survivor theory. So rather than debating moves and relationships, I ask you all, what is your guiding philosophy in survivor? How do you like to play the game? Based on your interactions, how would you summarize the gameplay of your fellow finalists? And lastly, why is yours the best approach?

Feel free to play with that last part if you want to.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

My overall guiding philosophy is that Survivor is an amoral game and anything is fair to follow the cardinal rule of playing to win.  That being said, I specifically did play this game with the goal of being loyal, which is a principle judged on a moral scale.  It changed the way I approached everything, but as you know I didn't feel that being loyal to someone meant sharing every secret or every decision with them.  When you accepted the Team Zissou Ring we talked about whether or not to tell Suzy about it, and agreed that we either had to tell her now or never.  My position was that the Rings were an item that required absolute discretion, a secret that should be kept even from our closest ally.  It is possible to be loyal to someone and to trust someone without unnecessarily giving them ammunition they could use against you.  The same is true of my decision to keep the idol completely to myself.  Trust and loyalty are eroded by power imbalances in this game.  The Rings created an imbalance in our trio with Suzy.  The Idol creates an imbalance in any one to one alliance.  That I only shared information even with my closest allies when it was relevant to something happening doesn't make me disloyal.  Madame D. told me she had the Fox's Tail when it was apparent that another attempt to vote her out was underway, not when we became aligned with the second set of Rings.  If she had never been in that kind of trouble it's unlikely she would have told me or anyone that she had it because there was no cause for sharing that information.

I do believe my esteemed opponents were playing the game to win.  I know they were thinking about the best moves they could make, and hard decisions about loyalty versus individual advancement were made.  I think that Oracle played a more emotional game than me.  I think that M. Gustave's decision making was driven more by building his resume move by move.  I was playing towards a desired endgame and I was confident that if I could reach it I'd have a resume worth talking about.  My approach worked in this game because by building core loyalties I had strong allies to keep me safe and a great deal of flexibility to connect with and work with anyone else in the game.  Careful control of my secrets and information was an important aspect of that which allowed me to maximize my chances of reaching the end in a good position even when those people I was loyal to made resume building moves that made it impossible for me to accept my own desired endgame anymore.  It was the best approach because it allowed me to play a game where I was consistently in a power position with a great deal of influence and control, and I was able to rebound back to such a position quickly any time things went against my plan.

Your friend,
Richie

[Young Writer]

Okay last post of mine (though if I think of another question for you I'll be sure to ask you), also going to all three of you. Just go through the jurors AND your fellow finalists, and give a compliment to each. Also please try to not be too generic or use something you've already said about that person at this FTC.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Peter Whitman is fearless.  I mean, it took serious backbone to take the mutiny and directly challenge an established majority the way he did.

Buckley is just hilarious.  He had the funniest PM title in my inbox bar none.  He brought a lot of levity that made people love him and underestimate him as a threat.  He is also admirably focused on what is important in life, because it could not have been an easy realization to decide that he had to pull himself out of the game.

Young Writer is the thinker, the one I could bounce good and bad ideas off of for an honest assessment.  A smart, bold and savvy player and a fierce competitor.

Herman brought a whole new meaning to loyalty, but beyond anything in the game he seems like such a wonderful and devoted father.

Duke was the biggest sleeper threat in the whole game, he's got a subtle but powerful likeability about him.  I could feel it even from a consistent position outside of his strategic faction and I can certainly understand why the people he was with were so devoted to him.

Royal is the most wonderful friend, and he is the most generous player in the game not for giving me items but for giving all of us his time and energy to replace in when the mods had nowhere else to turn even though he knew he would be playing on a clock.  He is the embodiment of a mensch, which is a word I used repeatedly in my confessional about him.

Suzy brought this sincere, wholesome passion and appreciation for the game and it's thematic content.  There are so many occasions throughout the game where I just felt unbridled joy talking to her.  I am absolutely one hundred percent positive she would win the Sia award for this season.

Madame D., I don't know if I can find more compliments to give since I've apparently been so effusive with them throughout the game that I come off as phony about it!  She genuinely cares about other people and celebrates their successes.

M. Gustave grew a lot as a player throughout this game, I'm proud of him.

Oracle is very open and is willing to be there for anyone even when there's a whole game worth of negativity in between you.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

In my head this was on the list but somehow didn't make it to Pietro's typewriter...

Margot is incredibly tenacious.  She's got hustle and flow like nobody I know, and she's a damn scary competitor in the challenge ring.