Hi everyone.
I'm not going to spend my time here recapitulating the points I made in my opening speech or in my answers to jury questions. I was honest and frank. I made my case.
I was correct to assume I would be portrayed as a villain by my esteemed opponents but I actually feel vindicated. They both nonchalantly confirmed something I suspected during and after the final six vote, that there was an F3 deal between Suzy, Oracle and Madame D. It's where all the evidence pointed. Madame D. would never cut Margot without something else she thought would keep her safe. The TC turned when we tried to settle on an Oracle vote instead of an M. Gustave vote precisely because M. Gustave and Margot were equally valid eliminations to give them a majority at five. So whether anyone is actually experiencing cognitive dissonance or just putting on a show it's clear as daylight that I had already been abandoned by the people I supposedly betrayed thereafter. I didn't betray anyone. I read the situation correctly and I made the exact correct move to counter it.
Loyalty is a finite resource. My loyalties were finite, and they were true. I didn't make any FTC promises that I couldn't keep. There were never more than two people still in the game who explicitly heard that from me.
Herman, I'm going to speak directly to you now because you took umbrage with me for not doing so in my opening speech. You were not my F3 ally, but I am the one person here who never betrayed you. I voted with you on the revote at final ten. I put your name down at final nine after you gave me permission to do so. You had already joined the new Everyone But Richie Ivanhoe alliance, and they cut you to save their own skin. They knew the other votes were on you, they could have voted straight into that potential for an idol play without endangering themselves but instead they betrayed you. They're so remorseful blah blah blah but they managed to hold it together after that to tie the votes again and they couldn't hold it together for you. You didn't give me a chance after final ten to do anything for you. If you really thought we were F3 allies, why the hell not?
I have to address the one lie being pinned on me that was never a lie. I lied in this game when it suited me and I don't deny that. I'm here because I was good at it and did it effectively when it needed to be done. But I did not lie about Margot floating Suzy's name. I have the receipts. Margot and Madame D. played all of you that round. They played you like a fiddle. But you know what? Everyone who took that as an excuse to permanently wish they could target me (but never managed to get a vote on me) went right back to the cutesy little #vanhoe pagonging alliances while I was the one who still had the Rushmores on my side. Maybe, just maybe, they weren't afraid to keep working with me because they knew perfectly well that I hadn't lied there at all.
I dominated the structural aspects of this game. I was unafraid to take items. I used the items I had to shape the course of the entire game and dictate the endgame. I won the challenges. I turned the twists to my advantage.
My social game was extremely effective. My opposition acknowledged in this FTC that my charisma was making an impact and made me more difficult to target. I had relationships with everyone, I never stopped talking to anyone no matter what the situation was and I didn't play some quixotic game of purposefully burning jurors to lower my threat level. I didn't need a wake up call from anyone to right my ship because it was steaming along just fine the whole time.
I played the best strategic game. I learned and controlled information, and I correctly inferred things I wasn't supposed to know. When Madame D. played her idol at nine I was the one leaking the leaks. Suzy told me everything that round. The opposing pagong alliance misplayed that vote every way they possibly could. They couldn't keep it together to actually force an idol play with a majority of votes, the idol came out because I influenced it. I played hard before and after the merge, and I shaped the cast going into the merge to my benefit. I influenced what my esteemed opponents did on two votes I wasn't present for in Sam and Anthony's eliminations. They weighed the option between Anthony and Margot and worry about my safety tipped the scales.
It is your right as jurors to vote any way you want for whatever reason you want. There was something else said at this FTC about the winner being the representative of the season. The game I played is worthy of that representation. Whether I win or not the things I did in this game will be remembered. I was not a villain. I played a complex game, I followed a game plan and I accomplished the things I set out to accomplish.
It has been my great honor to play this game with all of you.
Your friend,
Richie
{End of letter}
Topic: Epilogue (Read 818 times)
