First of all, I chortled out loud when I read your question preamble for the first time. I love that you clearly had fun writing this jury speech.
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Mirabella, my queen, I bend the knee. That's right, I just changed fandoms for you. Your opening statement gave me simultaneous life and death. It was refreshing, shocking and everything an opening statement should be. My one big regret was not taking a shot at you in the final six when I so clearly could have done so. There is only a single word fitting how I feel about you right now: Respect. |
Thank you! My gills are turning pink from blushing!
I saw firsthand how impressive you were at scrambling in that F6 round, so it means a lot to me that you have respect for my own scrambly ways. I've said it before, but I'm sad we didn't get a chance to be on a tribe until merge when we were already pretty locked into different sides of the votes. I think we would have gotten along well if we started off together.
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| For all three of you, I would like you to grade how you believe your social relationships are with each of the jury members going into this final tribal council using the O.W.L. grading rubric: (O)utstanding, (E)xceeds Expectations, (A)cceptable, (P)oor, (D)readful, (T)roll. Please, give an extremely brief explanation for each grade you give yourself. |
I'm gonna try to make all of these brief.
1. Amos Diggory: T(roll)
Troll marks are reserved for failures "with distinction." Amos and I had some good conversations early but none in the last four rounds he was in the game, which is a pretty spectacular fail. After the snape vote it was clear we were on opposite sides of things and the conversations just faded away in all the busyness of merge. When I realized I hadn't talked in a few rounds, I used that fact as I pitched long-term plans to Fred/Pomfrey/Ron as an indicator that they could trust me not to flip on them (you don't have to worry about me trying to save amos - we don't even talk!). At one point Ron was openly joking in the alliance chat that Amos would have no reason to vote for me at FTC, so I think not talking to him also reduced my jury threat status and I was really worried about that after the Angelina vote. None of that is to excuse the fact that I stopped talking to him, but hopefully it shows that I had reasons to distance myself from him and wasn't just being lazy.
2. Angelina Johnson: (A)cceptable
We had some fantastic conversations on our original tribe and could have formed a stronger social bond with time, but getting swapped apart did some damage. Even on opposite sides of the merge vote, we still talked at merge. Then there were some awkward votes where we knew we weren't aligned and about a round and a half where Maxime wanted to act as a go-between between us and our direct conversations quieted down. It wasn't a super close relationship by the end, but we both respected each other's games and were competitive but not vindictive. I don't think there's any reason for us to have hard feelings with each other.
3. Cormac McLaggen: (P)oor
I considered a (D) here but I don't think we ever had a bad conversation. It was always difficult for us to chat because we didn't want to look disloyal to our alliances after merge and weren't on a tribe together before but we both had respect for each other and we had a great conversation at the end of the F6 round when the vote had locked in where I think we both recognized that our communication was a lot worse than our feelings about each other. This P is for (P)oor, but also for unfulfilled (P)otential because things could have been a lot different.
4. Fred Weasley: (O)utstanding
It's been a long long time since I bonded as much in a game and looked forward to getting online to talk to someone in an ORG as much as I did for Fred here. We had so many shared interests and we understood each other on an almost uncanny level at time. Even though we got separated a couple of times we always found out ways to look out for each other because we genuinely got along and enjoyed each others' company. I really hope this turns into a lasting friendship after the game because getting to know him was absolutely one of the best parts of this game for me.
5. Gilderoy Lockhart: (E)xceeds Expectations
I think a lot of people expected that we would hate each other so "Exceeds Expectations" seems really fitting. All of our conversations were hilarious and both of had a motivation to make this game fun that we recognized in each other and respected regardless of what crazy strategies we tried. I was really glad that we got an opportunity to talk at the deadline when he got voted out about the importance of keeping things interesting.
6. Lily Potter: (P)oor
We were legitimately close on the original tribe and dynamics changed by the time merge got around that kept us apart. We didn't talk much strategy after that, but we still shared our Chris Pratt gifs and kept in touch from time to time. It wasn't a close trusted relationship for most of merge, but we weren't enemies either.
7. Madame Maxime: (E)xceeds Expectations
I love Maxime, we went through a lot together and she was my closest ally up until her boot round. We could strategize together in two different languages, and if that's not chemistry I don't know what it is (maybe linguistics). I can't put an O simply because our communication got messy near the end and I regret how the final moments of the round went when I officially found out maxime was the target minutes before the deadline and panicked to change my vote, not wanting to be the only one voting in the minority.
8. Madame "Poppy" Pomfrey: (E)xceeds Expectations
This should maybe be an O- or an E+ if there were half-grades, because while didn't fully trust each other with strategy, Pomfrey and I's relationship was entirely based upon social game. We spent the first 6 rounds apart and were on different sides of the merge vote but I worked hard to develop a social relationship with her anyway and when an opportunity for us to work together emerged, we relied on our social relationship for the trust necessary to pull it off. It's difficult to build relationships based on check-ins, the hour between swaps and the crazyness of a merge round so the fact that we were close by end-game was a real testament to both of our social games.
9. Newt Scamander: (A)cceptable
I would feel bad giving Newt an (E)xceeds expectations just because everyone expected us to be a very tight pair. In reality we had a positive and functional relationship that had not yet reached the level of a devout friendship. With a little more time, I think it would have gotten to that level, especially with us sharing a similar sense of humor.
Thanks for this question! It was good to reflect on the relationships that got me to where I am today and this got me really excited for the chance to talk to everyone again at reunion :)
10. Hagrid: (O)utstanding.
I proposed to Hagrid before tribes were even made and he said yes so I bought my wedding gown. All of you are invited to our Vegas wedding after this.
