HeaLnDeaL
Let's Keep Fighting
I'll be the first to admit that Flyhn tried very hard. As DLE mentioned early, there was a fair amount of apathy in the game and not a lot of people had the time to be involved in the game as much as Flyhn, Viper, and myself were.
The thing is that I tried even harder than Flyhn and as a result I succeeded more. I anguished and persevered over the riddle clues and earned an idol, I established a field of root allies early in the game that let me find more. It's not like each ally I earned was just given to me for no effort; many of them were the results of weeks of talking to establish trust and weeks more of joint strategizing after that. Talking to as many people as I did and getting a feel of the land required a lot more effort than being comfortable with only a few, not to mention the time and effort involved in making many of my allies think that I liked them more than my other allies or at least make them believe I was still useful to them even if I had other allies. I tried very hard in challenges to come up with the best plans and the only challenge in the entire game that I wasn't very involved in was the chess challenge simply because I had teammates who knew chess way better. Flyhn was undoubtedly one of the people who talked to me the most and he tried a lot and I wanted someone like that to strategize with and we became friends. But when we reached the mid-merge, Flyhn's effort culminated with him having only two close allies (me and Blazade, or maaaybe arguably a third in Jalmont?) whereas I had way more. I played hard in the beginning, I played hard in the middle, and I played hard in the end and the relationships that I was try-hard in developing got me to the end while not only leaving me able to say that I tried hard but also while leaving me a resume.
I also very much disagree that Flyhn convinced people he was "stupid" or at the very least I didn't think he was stupid. I know that he felt Whydon looked down on him and that Whydon thought he could outsmart Flyhn, which made Flyhn feel like Whydon thought he was stupid (maybe Whydon did but idk, I'm not Whydon). Flyhn's ability to strategize with me showed he wasn't stupid in my eyes. Maybe Flyhn did convince people he wasn't a threat, but at the same time even based on what he's said in this tribal council he wasn't a threat to me and I continued working with him because of that.
The thing is that I tried even harder than Flyhn and as a result I succeeded more. I anguished and persevered over the riddle clues and earned an idol, I established a field of root allies early in the game that let me find more. It's not like each ally I earned was just given to me for no effort; many of them were the results of weeks of talking to establish trust and weeks more of joint strategizing after that. Talking to as many people as I did and getting a feel of the land required a lot more effort than being comfortable with only a few, not to mention the time and effort involved in making many of my allies think that I liked them more than my other allies or at least make them believe I was still useful to them even if I had other allies. I tried very hard in challenges to come up with the best plans and the only challenge in the entire game that I wasn't very involved in was the chess challenge simply because I had teammates who knew chess way better. Flyhn was undoubtedly one of the people who talked to me the most and he tried a lot and I wanted someone like that to strategize with and we became friends. But when we reached the mid-merge, Flyhn's effort culminated with him having only two close allies (me and Blazade, or maaaybe arguably a third in Jalmont?) whereas I had way more. I played hard in the beginning, I played hard in the middle, and I played hard in the end and the relationships that I was try-hard in developing got me to the end while not only leaving me able to say that I tried hard but also while leaving me a resume.
I also very much disagree that Flyhn convinced people he was "stupid" or at the very least I didn't think he was stupid. I know that he felt Whydon looked down on him and that Whydon thought he could outsmart Flyhn, which made Flyhn feel like Whydon thought he was stupid (maybe Whydon did but idk, I'm not Whydon). Flyhn's ability to strategize with me showed he wasn't stupid in my eyes. Maybe Flyhn did convince people he wasn't a threat, but at the same time even based on what he's said in this tribal council he wasn't a threat to me and I continued working with him because of that.