Honestly, after Cole left, I don't believe that the target was ever fully off my back. From every vote past the Final 8, people were scared of me and brought up my name as the person to vote for. At that point in the game, I knew it was too late to worry about downplaying my threat status and more about doing what it took to ensure I was not the target for THAT specific round. My strategy turned into a take it one vote at a time rather than looking ahead to the end.
My best move post Cole leaving was voting out Patrick. After going throught the final 8 tribal, I knew I was definitely going to be next on the hitlist for people to go home. Simone, Patrick, and I were seen as a tight trio and I knew that the perception of us as a trio was going to stay vivid in everyone's minds if I didn't do something to distance myself from it. After Cole left, I publically made it clear that my vote was now open for the taking and I was ready to do what I had to do in order to stay.
My goal at the Final 7 vote was to do whatever it took for my vote to be in the majority going forward. I knew that Matt/Roark were gunning for me from that round so I knew if I wanted to have a chance at working with either of them again, I had to make a move. Going into the Final 7 tribal, I honestly did not know who I was going to vote out. On one hand, I wanted to go to the end with Patrick because I had made such a genuine connection with him and we had been loyal to each other for so long. However, on the other hand, I realized that if I voted out Patrick, I would no longer be lumped into this power trio, Matt would be grateful to me for saving him, and Ryan would feel a lot more secure going forward since he wouldn't have to worry about me being closer to Patrick than I was to him. Ultimately, it came down to what move would allow me to get myself to the end of the game. I mentioned in my opening statement about how I wanted options and voting Patrick out was the best way to ensure I had these options going forward where I could work with people outside of Simone/Patrick and be seen as an individual rather than a group.
Honestly, Christina was probably my closest ally on original Natyaya. Her and I just clicked so well and our minds ran on the same wavelengths. On original Natyaya, I wanted an alliance between myself, you, her, Leif and Julie. I really was planning on working with Christina throughout the game especially given we knew she had an idol and I wanted to be on the right side of the vote when it came down to that idol being played.
My relationship with Christina changed a lot over the course of the swap to the mid-merge. Obviously, we got separated and we both made new connections. My goal was to reunite with original Natyaya come the merge and utilize the new relationships we had to move ourselves forward in the game. However, when I attended the tribunal and the first thing Ali said to me was "Christina wants to know wtf happened that Kat got voted out over Bill the inactive," I started to become wary of just how power-hungry Christina was. One move I made in the pre-merge was becoming tight with Bill. Everyone talks about how he was so inactive and never talked to anyone, but I talked to him more than some of the people who were saying that. The social game is a two way street and if you don't make the effort to get to know someone, you can't blame them for doing the same. Beyond that, the fact that Christina was trying to play my game and tell me who I should have sent home did not ring well with me. When we hit the merge, I quickly became aware of how tight she was with Matt and Ali and that scared me. The fact that she would talk to me about them as a sidenote (Ali would just vote whoever she told her and Matt was a loser who had no one else) made me wonder what she was saying to other people about me. I think that my relationship with Christina deteriorated after seeing how she interacted with me about other people in the game. I lost my trust that she really wanted to work with me and I acted on it. Now just because I didn't want her as a close ally did not mean I wasn't open to voting the same way as her. I sided with her on the Patrick vote for one. Seeing her turn on Matt so quickly near the end of the merge like he wasn't valuable to her made me realize I could not work with someone who was so sure of themselves in voting out their close allies. I had no faith that she would have not voted me out had she had the chance. I don't think Christina was entirely at fault for saying the things she said, but it was easy for her to tell people "Wow you backstabbed me I can't believe you" when she was never liable to go home with her immunity wins.
What do you think was your worst move and why?
I believe my worst move was voting out Ali over Christina. People were itching to vote Christina that round and I do believe if I had pushed hard enough for it, she could have went home. I had nothing against Ali whatsoever and I think that I could have moved forward with her in the game. We got along well and the only thing holding us back from becoming tighter was Christina. I honestly never distrusted Ali and my biggest mistake was voting her out to weaken her ally instead of voting the ally out herself.
How great of an impact do you think voting me out first had on your game? (I've said I would have voted for myself but I didn't see myself as 'that' big a threat yet. I've heard some good points toward this vote in Ponderosa, too. So I want to see how you all saw it)
Honestly, I think voting you out first had a huge impact on the rest of the game. You were definitely one of the main influencers of the game and the glue holding people together. At the tribunal, you told me that you had an alliance with Leif, Ryan, and Chrissy and that Julie was going to be on the chopping block had you went to tribal. Come the merge, there were definitely groups forming between Patrick/Cole/Simone/Christina/Ali vs. yourself/Chrissy/Ryan/Julie/Leif. The fact that you were able to bring Julie and Leif together with Chrissy and Ryan even though they had very previously wanted Julie out made me certain you were a huge and inimitable part of that group. I had strong allies on both sides and I did not want to have to choose between allies and isolate myself from one entire group of people. The former group discussed taking you out and at first I was not entirely on board with it since I was afraid Roark/Matt would swing to your side. However, I talked to Chrissy and out of nowhere she brings up getting rid of you and I ran with it. I did not want any big alliances/groups forming and with you here, I was afraid that would happen. With the latter group turning on each other, I did not have to pick a group of people to side with which was exactly what I wanted to happen. I wanted to play the middle until I was able to determine who I was closer to and felt I could go further in the game with (which ended up being Simone/Patrick/Cole). With you going home the first merge vote, it set the tone of getting out big threats. I honestly believe if you had not been voted out that round, the game would have turned out very differently.
If you had to pick one adventure time gif to represent yourself for this final council, what would it be?
What vote was the hardest for you, if any?
The hardest vote for me was hands down Patrick. Usually I go into tribal knowing exactly what I want to do and I don't really change my mind during tribal; however, my personal connection with Patrick was just so strong and we got along so well. I honestly wanted to go to the end with him. This was one of the moments where I had to separate my personal feelings from the game. At the end of the day, even if I wanted to go to the end with him, I did not have faith I would have been able to make it to the end if I hadn't voted him out (obviously this is all hindsight considering Simone ended up voting him as well and he would have went home regardless, but at the time, I felt all the pressure was on me). It was easily the most difficult decision I had to personally make in this entire game.
