Another day. We've had other fish to fry for a couple days, but I have not forgotten about this.
VOTE: Scumhunter
This is entirely about Starbuck, and I can say little more about Scumhunter than that he has done nothing to reverse my strong scum read on his predecessor. I've tried to explain it before, with rather disappointing results. I will try one more time to show why her self choice was not any kind of town tell.
According to Starbuck, she felt like she would be lynchbait, but wanted to be useful. Being vanilla town she had no reason not to volunteer to be chosen. She believed it would be best to control where the kill landed rather than trying to choose scum in the first place, and to this end she wanted to be chosen to carry out the kill based on what the town wanted.
That is the story Starbuck would have us believe, and far too many accepted her explanation. There are however some glaring gaps in her account. Let me point them out.
Why did Starbuck feel like lynchbait?
The earliest post where she indicated wanting to choose town was
#42, only one hour into the game, when she had four votes on her. I cannot believe anyone would feel so dejected so early and for so little.
Why does Starbuck not choose herself to begin with?
She starts by talking about wanting to choose town, and if she meant to have herself chosen all along, why did she only choose herself in response to criticism?
Why was Starbuck worried about where the kill landed?
This seems like something that scum would be much more concerned about than town. She never could explain her stance when confronted about it, she was simply insistent and tried to show how others had supposedly agreed.
Why did Starbuck speak both in favor and against directing the kill?
She said that she would follow the wishes of the majority when she claimed, but in post
#32 she had supported the opposite view. Oops.
I think what mockingjaye said in her first content post about Starbuck's position evolving was right on the money. Starbuck did not start by choosing herself and she first spoke against directing the kill, which makes it clear to me that her eventual self choice and promise to listen to town wishes were only in response to increasing pressure. It comes off as defensive rather than genuine desire to help through self sacrifice. In her attempt to show how others had similar thoughts and particularly in her exchange with Dredd her defensive attitude is obvious. Other than that, all she ever gave was empty promises to catch up and contribute.
I remember how redFF also attacked her which makes Starbuck unlikely to be Stannis aligned, and bvoigt defending her may not mean anything if BBmolla is right about Aegon forces being divided. But Starbuck/Scumhunter could easily be a stranded Aegon goon. She may actually have thought that being chosen would not be that bad, she could carry out an extra kill for her team and if she was isolated they would never need to worry about contacting her.
I have not looked closely at mockingjaye and don't see what the links to bvoigt and Saporerint are supposed to be, but I have thought her play was in line with what I remember from her as town, and I have agreed with many of her thoughts, like the one about Starbuck above.
