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#5

Played by: SurvivorFanGP

Winner of the game

Here is Tajgoddess, the winner of Tocantins by a 4-3 vote over JT. I'm going to do things a little backwards this time and tell you why she isn't higher than 5^th in this ranking.

SFGP will fully admit that, at least compared to many other cast members, he was sort of UTR as Taj. Aside from his public fights with Benjamin "Coach" Wade at the beginning of the game, Taj kept a relatively low profile and didn't step on anyone's toes. For that reason, Taj wasn't quite as big of a character like some others.

Now why does Taj beat out most of the players on this list? Because Taj was really fun to watch in PMs. There were times when she was on just about everyone's side. She never received a vote against her the entire game. I called her as the winner at the final 11 (as well as the entire final four at that time, heh heh). Taj's social game was exceptional, and it's why she remained in control 95% of the game.

Taj started off the game on a different foot than everyone else on this list so far - she got the slim majority of votes on Jalapao for giving off the best first impression. As a reward, she got to live with Timbira for about 24 hours and form early bonds with them, while being immune at the first Tribal Council of the game had Jalapao lost the first challenge. She formed some bonds with members of Timbira, specifically Sierra and Candace, and then returned to Jalapao to get her game on.

And get her game on she did. She had friends everywhere. When Spencer targeted her after the second challenge, she remained calm and kept her friends close, securing the votes to make her stay. In fact, she didn't even get Spencer's vote at Jalapao's first Tribal Council. Talk about damage control.

I remember after the fifth immunity challenge Jalapao was socially scrambling. Stephen knew he was in a bad place. Brendan was looking for assurance that he was in some long-term plans. Sydney was looking for that tight ally she wanted. JT and Joe wanted a third wheel as they were beginning to trust Sydney less and less.

Everyone looked to Taj, the person at the center of Jalapao without appearing to be at the center. If someone wanted to make a power play before the merge, they needed her. It was a brilliant position to be in.

After Jerry left at the first merge vote, Taj had yet to make a major move in the game. Then again, due to her social gameplay, she hadn't needed to. However, even the best player in a game can be blindsided, and Taj didn't see the Joe vote at final 9 coming. She was left out of it, and it was never even hinted that he was leaving that night and not Tyson.

How did Taj react? She went into overdrive to win Brendan back, a move that would give her many jury points later on. She worked hard and worked fast, as they had less than 24 hours until the next Tribal Council. Along with help from Sydney, Taj got Brendan to flip back and vote out Tyson at the final 8.

If it wasn't before, it was now Taj's game to lose. She was in the majority alliance as they pagonged Stephen, Erinn, and Sandy. Slowly those three were beginning to ask why Taj's name was never brought up to be voted for, but they were voted out before they could do anything about it.

When they were down to the final four, Taj was in a final two alliance with everyone, except maybe Brendan who was on thin ice anyway. He won immunity at the final four, but thanks to Taj's social game, Sydney and JT went after each other. Then, when JT won immunity at the final three, he took Taj to the end instead of Brendan.

Taj played the game exactly how she needed to given the cast of active and often over the top players. She flew under the radar and kept her social connections afloat, all the while avoiding getting a vote the entire game. It was simply astounding and brilliant to watch her subtlety work people in PMs and then see the other players run to their confessionals and talk about how much they trust Taj. SurvivorfanGP played one of the best winning games I've ever seen in my nearly two years as an ORG player.

Truly a god.dess indeed.