Uncharted Thoughts.

I often find TV boring, false and just filled with propaganda. I like Netflix shows, and HBO all time greats, but since the whole ‘woke’ ultra liberal infestation of the media (not of all was bad) I found myself completely cut off from the shows of modern day Television.

That was until I doing the dishes four nights ago.

I decided while completing the mondain aspects of my everyday life I’d out something easy on in the background. Twenty minuets later, the pans are ‘soaking’ and I’m watching Allan Carr, Johnathan Ross and Cat Burns murder some of Britain’s most notable B list celebrities.

The premise of the show is simple. 19 ‘celebrities’ in a castle, 3 are traitors. The three get to kill 1 person a night. The others get to vote off a player at the end of every session to try and eliminate the traitors. In between this they play games (boring pass times) to collect money for the overall cash prize (charity).

The premise is amazing. It is exciting, and draws the viewer in. Everyone thinks they can do a better job than those on the show, and those on the show look like idiots unable to work out such a ‘obvious’ scheme.

But, the truth is. It is an impossible task. There is no strategy for the faithful’s, just blind luck and I think Stephen Fry knew this.

There is no finger prints, no murder weapon, no investigation or evidence. It is just pure guess work, and a little bit of acting.

We can draw parallels of this in history. The Salem Witch trials are a perfect example of how these… well, witch hunts go about.

But first, lets talk about the show.

All the advantage is in the hands of the traitors. The Faithful’s are just fish in a barrel.

The Traitor advantage.

Advantage 1 for the traitors. They knew who each other are. This a MASSIVE strategic advantage. It reminds me often of the Robert Baratheon speech on unity in A Game Of Thrones, season 1. He explains to his wife how 1 is a bigger number than 5, because one army, under one banner, with a single goal is better than five armies under different leaders, with multiple goals and moving pieces.

Advantage 2 for the traitors. 19 people, and 3 are traitors. Needle in the hay stack. Not only are these three working together, but they are a very small minority within the group, so a random shot at a player, will most likely be in their advantage.

Advantage 3 for the traitors. There is no evidence. It is a game of be seen, or stay quiet. If you are seen, then make sure you are the loudest in the room. If you are the loudest in the room, make sure you are charismatic and a leader. If you are not seen, do enough to stay everyone’s friend. There is literally no evidence to go off, so the Faithful are just blind firing at people.

Advantage 4 for the traitors. Its a numbers game. They kill someone every night, and every episode someone is voted out. Two people leave a session, it doesn’t take long to whittle out the Faithful’s, in two episodes 4 people leave. 19 down to 15 remaining, 12 of which are Faithful. It’s an unfair advantage due to the disorientation of the game. Look at it like this, you start a game already at the disadvantages mentioned, unless, one of the traitors just makes themselves obvious or they all decide randomly to pick on a traitor by seer luck, the first two or three episodes is just a warm up game. Literally, getting used to how the game is played.

Advantage 5 for the traitors. The Table. The table makes no sense for the Faithful’s. It is just a shouting match with no sense of order. The loudest voices get heard, the quiet voices look suspicious and those in between are the jury. Stephen Fry mentioned a technique in one of the mid game episodes, he said “We all influence each other so instead of debating, we should go with our gut” and I think he was right to do this. It might be the only way to catch the traitors.

Advantage 6 for the traitors. Divide and conquer. They can discuss each night before the murder, who to kill and why. Plenty of time for them to discuss tactics and how to drive a wedge between the groups.

Advantage 7 for the traitors. Betrayal. Another tactic used by traitors of every single season I have seen thus far, is the betrayal. If a traitor picks up too much heat, or if a traitor wants to prove their innocence, they often vote out one of their own. This is a smoke screen that completely disorientates the Faithful and adds more time onto the search in favour for the traitors.

The Faithful Advantage.

Advantage 1 for the Faithful. Numbers. They have more numbers than the Traitors, thus more time to figure out who is who. It also gives them an advantage on the votes. The chances are, you won’t get them due to the needle in the haystack advantage for the Traitors, but, votes are on the side of Faithful’s here. If they can spot a traitor, or randomly guess in the first two or three episodes the chances of that person being voted out is much higher.

Advantage 2 for the Faithful. More eyes. There are more faithful than there are traitors. They are able to see more, and collect data quicker and with more witnesses. If they smell blood, they could hone in on their target with more precision.

That is it.

How I would change the game.

It is clear that the game is vastly set in favour of the Traitors. It is, in all honesty a game of luck for the faithful. Either you get one by random luck and guessing, or you loose.

I think for the games purpose, it has to be in favour of the Traitors, but, as Stephen Fry realised, there are no real advantages for the faithful, it is just blind luck.

So I would level the playing field a little.

Change 1, killing.

The main issue with this game is the lack of actual evidence. Besides touching someone’s face, or saying something silly as a code for murder, there is no evidence to who the killer is. They just say “We are killing so and so” and it is done. I think the show need to make the killings harder and in person. This would give the faithful something to go off, rather than just guess work. Plus, it would make the traitors work to kill someone, if they don’t achieve it, then they are left a entire episode closer to their demise.

Lets just think of some examples. Maybe the killing has to be done in person with a fake knife in a certain room. This will make it 100% harder for the traitors, and also make the possibility of being caught much higher.

While sat around the table at the end of each episode the faithful can actually strategies. “Well, were was Allan when we were sat round the campfire, only he, Bob, Susan and Heather were gone at that time and Bob is dead”.

It adds a dynamic to the game that will change the advantage massively.

Also, this could turn the show into a more adult game. CCTV in each room, more playing time, longer show running time. I think it would be more a social experiment and more appealing to a lot of people.

Change 2. More Faithful. Needle in the haystack indeed, but with the numbers game being such a big advantage there are two ways to combat it. Either reduce the numbers of players, which would in turn make it easier for the traitors due to their other advantages and the show running length. I think more traitors will give the players more time to settle in, and more witnesses to their advantage.

Change 3. More and less time. The traitors get less time to discuss tactics after the show. They have a time limit on choosing someone to kill, thus reducing the time they have to be alone. This will cause some disorientation within the traitors ranks and potentially cause conflict and mess ups.

Change 4. Actually in favour of the traitors. One traitor gets to choose the others. I think a head traitor should be chosen, and they get to choose to either have one, two or three (max) other traitors. They also get the choose who they are.

Salem Witch Trials.

Witch trials, and the persecution of women at the hands of the Catholic church is something I have been fascinated about for a long long time. I read the most evil book so you don’t have to, is an article I wrote while exploring the madness of the Malleus Maleficarum, also known as ‘the witches hammer’. This is were my fascination has come from.

Since then, my reading had slowed somewhat. However, while watching traitors, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels it drew with the most famous of witch trials of 1692.

For those of you who do not know, a quick synopsis of the witch trials.

The Salem Witch trials took place in, you guessed it, Salem, Massachusetts, USA.

Salem was settled by Puritans, a group of ideological religious maniacs that believed anything fun, or pleasurable was a sin (basically).

They believed that evil was caused by supernatural entities controlling the moral world… witches.

In a particularly harsh winter, some of the girls in their village/town started to act weirdly. Basically they were having fits, described by the minister to be “beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect”.

This sparked a witch hunt across the town. One witch blamed another, another blamed another, until there was roughly 200 that stood trial.

One of the craziest elements of the trials was, if a witch was to out another as a witch, she would be spared death. Can you see where this went? Before long the hysteria was out of control.

It is a very fascinating insight into the human condition, and into religious fanaticism. But, short story short, 19 people where killed and the incident left its mark on American history.

How Salem, and TRAITORS COLlide.

1. Lack of evidence. Both, the Faithful and the people of Salem have zero evidence towards their conclusions. There was no devil walking among the trees in Salem, and there is no breadcrumbs for the Faithful to follow towards victory. It is just plan and simple guess work and superstition.
2. The power and fear of hysteria. Pointing fingers and naming names. One accused witch would shout above the others and point fingers at the accused to get the mob of her back. Allan, would do the same at the end table of Traitors to get his name cleared. But, once a name has been said, and with no evidence, it returns to the slaughter house of who speaks the loudest, who possesses the flock.
3. Louder the voice, mightier the sword. The narrative of the witch trials was controlled by the religious zealots of the town and the two firstly afflicted girls. The narrative of the round table, it he/she with the most followers.

Simply put, when fear replaces facts and emotion replaces evidence, people will follow the loudest voices — not the truest ones.