Easy to say now, and impossible to prove, but think Heroes would have been better off building around even an out of shape Tom than JT. Don't see Tom, or Cirie, going for the let's save Russell routine. Course it would have helped if Tom had seen Cirie as less of a threat and tried to get her as an ally earlier.

With JT fooled, the Heroes didn't have enough smart players to compete with the Villains. While Amanda had reservations about giving up the idol, she didn't have the pull to prevent it happening.

• RE: Heroes built around wrong players,smokedog, 02:15 PM, 04-30-10
  • RE: Heroes built around wrong players,michel, 05:38 PM, 04-30-10
• RE: Heroes built around wrong players,iltarion, 05:01 PM, 04-30-10
  • RE: Heroes built around wrong players,michel, 05:50 PM, 04-30-10
• RE: Heroes built around wrong players,Belle Book, 05:11 PM, 04-30-10

Tom saw Cirie as a threat because she saw him as a threat. She always takes out the alpha dogs. So it was him or her at that point. I don't think an alliance would have stopped that from happening.

Agree on the point about the smart players. The Heroes just aren't cunning enough to outsmart the Villains.

Cirie said she offered an alliance with Tom but he turned her down or rather he never followed up on it.

1) The Heroes never had a leader. We have seen tribe after tribe fall to that same ailment.

2) The Heroes voted out their two smartest strategical players in Tom and Cirie early.

3) If the theme to this season was "What did you learn?", then I would say we are learning that those who changed their games have failed while those who have played the same game are succeeding.

Tom didn't want to be the leader in Palau, and even after he rode that to a win there, he refused to try it again this time around. He and the Heroes suffered from that decision.

Cirie also changed her game by trying to take forceful control of the game instead of working in the shadows like previous seasons. With too many enemies around her, Cirie stuck her neck out, and her enemies took her head.

JT played such a good game in Tocantins that even the opposing alliance wanted him to win. Still, he decided to change his game, was overaggressive, and lost everyone's trust in the process.

Meanwhile, Russell, Parvati, Danielle and Sandra have played close to the exact games they played before, and they are doing well. Candice may likely be the last Hero standing, and that would be mostly thanks to a mutiny once again. Smarter for her this time, she waited until after the merge to jump ship.

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Very nice analysis Iltarion.

I'd just argue that Cirie did try to stay in the shadows but her reputation kept her out of it. At first, the alliance had Tom, Colby and Steph on one side, Amanda, Rupert and James on the other. While JT was flip-flopping, Cirie was sitting quietly in between both sides and, with luck, could have come out on top.

As for the villains, I'd say Russell changed somewhat, going from eliminating all the women to aligning with all of them.
Parvati didn't align with the cute dumb guy but the ugly smart one.
Danielle has been the one keeping the alliance on track which was one of Shane's roles in Casaya. There, Danielle was more of a rebel, going after Bobdawg, protecting Bruce, talking with Terry and Austin.

Yeah, if they had kept Cirie and maybe Tom around, they'd have been better off than with J.T. and Amanda.