[N][M]Noir Mini Mafia - Ch. 5

A post that says little. No conclusion about ShoCkeyy, of course he's still keeping an eye on me (Trfel), it's the start of the game, it would be foolish not to. And I'm not sure what alright even means for HoldenGolden. But let's see how he follows this up.See here, a key example of LightningStrike saying absolutely nothing. His previous post, where he said "Trfel looks alright but nothing spectacular from his entrance." He says that sometimes I do big entrances but usually don't, it's not even alignment indicative either way. This is not indicative of a LightningStrike who is trying to solve the game, but rather just existing.
Eywa- comes in with a scumread on Vivax. LightningStrike asks why, but doesn't ever follow up with or do anything with the information in the slighest. This seems like mafia!LightningStrike interacting with a mafia partner, interacting with them, but not providing a read of substance on them.

I could provide more examples, but there are lots of examples of LightningStrike not saying much. And I think it's more important to look at what LightningStrike does say. See the points below.

So all it takes is one "good" post to negate a serious scumread? It makes sense that a post would start to cause doubt, but in this case LightningStrike unvotes but still gives himself some uncertainty on it. To me, this fits how LightningStrike would want to treat a mafia partner. Put pressure on them to distance, then back off but leave yourself a thread to show you're still questioning it so you can go back to them later if needed.
LightningStrike provides more reasons to scumread ShoCkeyy. Sure. How does he follow this up?LightningStrike with the mini-sheep (lamb?) onto my scumread of Fecalfeast. Shows that he's still suspecting ShoCkeyy too, even if he's not doing anything to develop this read other than noncommittally calling it "weird."
And then scumreads Fecalfeast after Fecalfeast calls LightningStrike mafia.Accusing Fecalfeast of lying, and that's basically the only reason given for the scumread. But LightningStrike gets very upset at Fecalfeast, spamming "Kill FF" and saying to ignore him because he's mafia (see here).And then unvotes out of nowhere. The read completely vanishes. I'll talk about this more in the third point below, but I'll ask: does this match a town perspective? Someone said you're not doing any scumhunting. So you get mad at them, call them mafia for lying, and then suddenly completely forget about them, unvote, and say you need to filter dive everyone with no explanation or thought process? This shows that LightningStrike wasn't invested in and didn't care about his scumread of Fecalfeast, which absolutely does not match the way LightningStrike treated Fecalfeast earlier.And then, suddenly, scumread on HoldenGolden. Boom, out of nowhere. Not followup on ShoCkeyy, not following up with his angry scumread of Fecalfeast, but HoldenGolden. Conveniently, HoldenGolden was town and the leading wagon at this time. But that's material for another time; what matters here is that LightningStrike didn't pursue his earlier scumreads, instead going for something easy and convenient.
And LightningStrike's list post, coming over 12 hours later. Suspicious of Eywa-, makes sense. Suspicions of ShoCkeyy seem to have vanished for no reason. And the scumread of HoldenGolden, that doesn't line up with LightningStrike's own reasoning (see the third point). However, note LightningStrike's read on Fecalfeast here, which is worthy of special attention. LightningStrike lessens his scumread of Fecalfeast to a scum lean, citing Fecalfeast's filter being not as bad as he thought. However, this had nothing to do with the initial reason LightningStrike used to scumread Fecalfeast (lying about whether or not LightningStrike was scumhunting).

Then HoldenGolden gets lynched, Day 2 comes around. LightningStrike votes for....ShoCkeyy? What about his scumread on Fecalfeast, that was still a scum lean and now vanished? Just because of those two posts by Vivax, which honestly don't contain much reasoning at all? You read those posts, quoted in LightningStrike's post here, and tell me they justify LightningStrike's scumread and vote here. I bet you can't.

And as far as scumreads go, that's it. Nothing else posted.

LightningStrike's hard scumread and then instant 180 on Eywa-, as mentioned in the second point, fits in this category.

Furthermore, LightningStrike's Day 1 scumread on Fecalfeast illustrates this. LightningStrike got very upset and angry with Fecalfeast, calling him mafia and ignoring him and posting "Kill FF" multiple times, which makes sense. However, what doesn't make sense is backing off of this and giving everyone a clean slate:This absolutely does not match the anger that LightningStrike showed earlier. Which is anger and a hard scumread that makes sense coming from town!LightningStrike. Instead, LightningStrike just casually unvotes and says he'll filter dive everyone, despite absolutely nothing changing in the game to warrant this happening. If anything, the lack of lynch and lack of people listening to him about his sure mafia read should make him more upset.

And then the vote for HoldenGolden. This doesn't match the situation of the game at all. LightningStrike was townreading HoldenGolden earlier, but now is suddenly reading him mafia. The only reasons given are (1) being inactive and (2) not doing anything with his questions. However, note that when GTacc was inactive, LightningStrike called his slot a coin-flip and didn't want to lynch him (see here). So suddenly, LightningStrike is using inactivity as an excuse to strongly scumread an afk player, over the people he's been suspicious of for a while (Eywa-, ShoCkeyy, Fecalfeast). Doesn't match the perspective LightningStrike has already shown in this game.

After the HoldenGolden lynch, at the start of Day 2:??? Imagine this, you were wrong on a scumread. There's a silent night, what do you do? Maybe decide you were wrong on that read and come back with more vigor on your other scumreads? Maybe decide you were completely wrong and need to re-evaluate? But not come back apologetically saying you were wrong... you already had a whole 24 hours to process that your scumread was wrong. And then LightningStrike adds the "I will have to reread and redo my list I guess." He just had a whole 24 hours to do that??!?! This is a prime example of LightningStrike just existing and surviving instead of trying to find mafia and solve the game.

Then LightningStrike was away for about two days (including the silent night). He comes back with a scumread? A suspicion? No, a townread:And doesn't mention the people he was suspicious of at all. No mention of his scumread on Fecalfeast, or who is actually mafia here.

I get that LightningStrike is sick, and I am sorry that he is. But from his perspective the game should be solved. Eywa- is mafia by process of elimination. Dadred is town, because LightningStrike is reading him as town. Onegu is town, confirmed by Fecalfeast's doctor claim, as is Fecalfeast himself (naturally). Therefore I (Trfel) have to be scum by process of elimination as well. However, when I (remember, confirmed mafia) post about LightningStrike being mafia, he votes for himself:Again, I get that he's sick. I don't get why he doesn't care about his scumreads, and responds so heavily to being scumread by confirmed mafia (from his town!perspective). This doesn't make sense.

Eywa-, instead of using reasoning or logic, decides to engage in snide comments, arguing with his scumreads that way. This is completely detrimental for town and accomplishes nothing, however mafia can often use strategies like this when they don't have the means to win the logical battle. I don't think the above posts require any explanation. But it's more important to look at what content Eywa- has provided.

Presumably, this solid read is a townread on LightningStrike. We'll see where that goes from here.So, he thinks that HoldenGolden is mafia, even though even in this post calling him "naked mafia" he's expressing doubt.

However, instead of voting for HoldenGolden, he votes for Vivax for no reason:saying that it's futile to think about HoldenGolden at that time.

HoldenGolden is then lynched, and Eywa- goes to Day 2, voting for Mr. Cheesecake:Eywa vanishes for two days and comes back with a Process of Elimination list of Vivax, me (Trfel), and Dadred.So how did he clear Mr. Cheesecake, who he was voting for earlier? It feels very convenient, just because Mr. Cheesecake was never going to be lynched, Eywa-'s scumread on him naturally vanished. Convenient.

From here, Eywa-'s filter is just the aforementioned POE of three players. He never says why they are mafia, or why anyone else is town (see the third point). His vote wanders back and forth between them seemingly at random. He was suspecting Vivax earlier, so why does he vote for me Day 2? Perhaps because he didn't think Vivax and Damdred could be mafia together, thereby making me 100% mafia? Then why does he move his vote to Damdred? This doesn't make sense for a town who is trying to solve the game.

In this spoiler, I will put every single explanation Eywa gives for his reads.Note that here, Eywa- just says why he doesn't like Mr. Cheesecake's play. Not why Mr. Cheesecake is mafia. Who cares what he likes and doesn't like, who is mafia and who isn't?

And that is literally it. If you don't believe me, look for yourself.