Okay, so, I was going to finish catching up, but I think I'm just going to read pages 37+ when I no longer feel like this game is sucking the life out of me. I want to read it for context, but we only have about a day left and I kind of just want to talk to people. So I'm just going to throw out all my thoughts at this point and continue reading the other pages some other time.
First off, I think the Alchemist wagon was awful because he was townflailing like a champ, but I'm not going to harp on it because my predecessor and my teammates thought he was scummy at the time. And not only do I know I'm reading this game from a biased standpoint, I also know that I'm probably one of the few people that would read his posting as town. I have other thoughts about it, but I'm leaving it for the post game.
I don't really know most of you that well, and I do think this is a really difficult game, but here are my reads (towniest at the top):
Quilford
- I didn't like his early posting and I had some of the same thoughts as Alchemist early on in that Quilford's early read flip looked like him moving from a
posture into an
opportunistic wagon vote. I also didn't like him discrediting everything Alchemist said by claiming he wasn't scumhunting. However, I disagree with Alchemist in that Quilford wasn't scumhunting early on and I can see Quil taking some offense to that. I also think it's possible the read change was as a result of a reevaluation of Alchemist's posts. There's also some weird buddying that goes on between him and Mina, but I find it a little too blatant to come from actual scumbuddies. I don't remember which post it was, but I did find it a little weird that Quil was only interested in a towncase on him existing instead of the actual case. Other than that, I did like a lot of his more content-filled posts where he lays out his thoughts, and I thought a lot of them looked like they were coming from town. I also liked how he didn't just let ETL hammer Alchemist based on emotion. My predecessor and my teammates have generally thought he's town, and I'm inclined to agree with them.
BBMolla
- I didn't understand the townreads on BBMolla as I was reading through this game, but I'm hesitant to call him scum based on the conviction he displayed when he pushed through the Alchemist wagon. I didn't like how he mostly just scumread Alchemist off of an RVS comment he made during a time ETL and Mara were arguing about the RVS stage, and it surprises me that no one else pointed this out. I was also disappointed that he ignored Mara's plea to not lynch Alchemist (which was the whole point of her claiming Tracker) when he thought Serra was scummy regardless of Alchemist's alignment. Like, I can understand not wanting to lynch Patrick, but Mara was an uncc'ed claimed tracker and he was scumreading Serra (he does explain Serra had only 9 posts, but it's really
). I guess if he really thought Alchemist was scummy, I can see him going super tunnel mode (especially considering I fall victim to this a lot myself), but it makes me pretty unhappy to see. I also think it's possible that a lot of his read had to do with the Serra comment he quoted
here. The fake hammer was kind of dumb, but I've seen enough terrible reaction tests that I don't have any thoughts on it and don't really care that it happened. I also had this small tinfoil theory that he was partners with Serra, but that was squashed when BB opened Day 2 stating he wanted to vote Serra.
Mina
- I don't know what it is, but I keep getting this nagging feeling that this could be scum. I had some concerns regarding the buddying between this slot and Quil's, but I guess it could just as easily be two town townreading each other, or one town getting buddied. I still think it's too blatant to come from two scumbuddies. There were some posts I didn't like from her, but I don't have the same issue with them after seeing them again.
ETL
- I didn't like her early on, but I know she can be a bit bullheaded in the early game and I've been in my own TvT with her before (see Snork v Brian
here). I remember seeing a lurking related comment, and some of my teammates seemed a little suspicious of her earlier, but I can think of at least
one other [recent] instance where she admitted she was struggling with real life obligations. While I've seen her as town a lot, I've only seen her as scum once (here) and from what I remember, she wasn't really that engaged in the game or trying very hard. A lot of her play here feels like her town game to me. I think the biggest thing that concerns me is her Serra read, but I think I can see why she'd be townreading him. I have a small worry that if she's scum, she could have been trying to distance from Serra early on this day phase or bus him because he's expendable from the tracker flip. I also did see some of her teammates thinking I could be town for replacing in as a chronic lurker, which I guess makes some sense if I think about it, but I don't know why it's even a thing. I don't know if it's been asked/answered, but I noticed my partners wanted to know why ETL was voting for Patrick yesterday when Mara's reasoning for the lynch wasn't that satisfactory. Also some comments from STD/Ceph wondering why ETL voted Patrick despite not being a top scumread of hers regardless of Alchemist's alignment and being less likely to be scum if Alchemist were town (this isn't something I remember very clearly and I need to check up on it).
Serra/Johnny
- The only game I think I've been in with Serra is this
one. He was a lot more active there, but I get the same feeling from his thoughts and progression. I haven't had much of a chance to read through Johnny's posting, but the thing that stands out most to me is the way he's catching up. I guess the game's pretty dense and I'm not surprised to see him want to go a few pages at a time as I have done it before (
town,
scum; I think there's a pretty big difference between my two catch-ups, and not just because the PbPA I did in the scum game was completely unnecessary
). But the only other times I've seen someone else do it that way were when
Penny did it here and
Jagged did it here. And in both instances they seemed pretty forced. Johnny's catch-up also reads more like a commentary than an actual analysis.
I don't actually have a placement for Patrick right now (if I did, I'd have him about on par with Mina). I've generally had the feeling he's been trying to figure the game out, but I don't actually remember what his thoughts have been as I've mostly been glazing through his posts and this game has been a pretty dense read. My teammates have stated a townread here at some point, as well as a small paranoia that we're fucked if we're dealing with a Patrick/Mina scumteam.
I've also been wondering about the Day 1 lynch and wondering why there wasn't a counterwagon. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the scum didn't join the wagon, and it's one of the reasons why I have ETL near the bottom of my list (the only people left off the wagon are my slot and hers).
I know there isn't a lot of time left, but it's 6 in the morning and I'm going to sleep. I also believe I can convince you I'm town before the end of this day phase.
