I won't say that winners don't normally have their share of luck, but with most of them you can point to some actions they took to put themselves in the winner's seat. With Jenna, the best I can come up with is that she won the last two immunities, and sorry, that's just not that impressive. (After all, Kim did it too.)
Well your inability to assess her winning moves doesn't negate what she accomplished out there. She got far with her various alliances which was strategic based. Then, when Cesternino flipped, she was still well-positioned enough to survive over both Christy and Heidi, even when she gave her immunity away to Heidi, proving that she knew what was going on and that she didn't need individual immunity that round in order to outlast, while also pretty much ensuring Christy left, since Heidi would probably have been the other big choice to eliminate that round if it wasn't Christy. So all the rounds up until her immunity run were all results of strategic positioning via alliances
Jenna wasn't positioning herself - she was just letting others lead (except for the one instance with Deena). There's certainly something to be said for knowing when to do this, but we really saw nothing else from Jenna. There's no evidence she even thought about jury permutations, and if she did, apparently she wanted to face Heidi, Alex, or Rob, which is not the best setup for her to win.It wasn't the worst either though. What is amazing was that she was able to win by so much despite her initial plan being foiled. Had Alex not ran his mouth to Rob, then theoretically, 1 of the outsiders would've gotten booted that round leaving those 4 versus the 2 leftovers. Alex would still want to side with the girls, so at best Rob could swing to the underdogs and try forcing a tie. Other than that, the girls would have the strategic advantage probably which is as good a plan as any. There's no evidence that Jenna though about jury permutations, but let's not be naive. We know how editing works, she was clearly smart enough to get into alliances, was a fan of the show, and even had a stronger jury performance than someone strategic like Amanda despite being like 6-7 seasons earlier. If you're out there 24/7 with nothing to do in the Amazon, do you really think she didn't think of any of that kind of strategy? We haven't seen most of the winners talk about anything concrete not just Jenna. Tina, Ethan, Vecepia, Sandra, Amber, Danni, and Aras are examples of other winners who weren't shown as strategic types based on their TV show edit, but do you assume they had no strategic thoughts?
She wasn't in control of the alliance after Deena's ouster - Alex was, and he was hoping to face her because she was beatable.
How was Alex in control of the alliance? He had no control over Rob obviously, and the girls Heidi and Jenna were closer to one another than him. And how
do you know Alex would've beaten Jenna? I highly doubt that and there's been nothing to suggest what you just said is true
Jenna was the single least in control member of that alliance, and having things happen beyond your control is not "positioning".
Alex = 2 tribe connection to Rob, but chose to side with Heidi and Jenna over him. Also took Jenna on the ice cream reward, so he favored he over Heidi which makes sense since she had a tribe connection to him and Heidi didn't
Rob = No tribe connection to Heidi. 2 tribe connection to Alex, and 1 tribe connection to Jenna. Probably, his loyalty went. But remember, he thought Alex's head wasn't in the game on the swap tribe, and we were shown a F3 alliance between Deena, Rob, and Jenna at the merge. So again, Jenna is in prime position
Heidi = Obviously, Jenna is her #1, and she had no tribe connection to Rob or Alex
So even without overtly leading, Jenna was the most in control of that alliance, and if anything, was the leader! It's the exact opposite!
Jenna played emotionally, not strategically. None of the factors that benefited her were intended consequences.
Her positioning and strong allies was the result of her early and mid-game gameplay. It was no accident. They just manifested their usefulness at a later
point, but those opportunities were the ultimate result of her strategic gameplay. She didn't play emotionally, since she was sharp enough to oust
Cesternino (which is where Colby failed), and then win with a solid jury performance (which Amanda failed at)
They just happened without her direction. And her tantrum lasted several days - remember refusing to work because she was just going to be voted off anyway (as opposed to because she was in the power group).
Maybe saving her energy won her those immunities 
Just because she wasn't screaming the whole time doesn't mean she wasn't throwing a tantrum.
Who cares if she threw a tantrum or not. We're not here to moralize and judge people anyways. In terms of gameplay, it was largely irrelevant since she won anyways. Call it a tantrum or not, the juror still overwhelmingly favored her
Yeah, but that was her adapted strategy. She won with a back-up one which is very admirable, whereas with other winners, would've lost if their optimal plan failed (like Hatch or Heidik). Matt isn't anyone's "goat". A goat is up for grabs. That goat helped screw up her primary plan to begin with, so if she had gotten rid of him when she wanted, she wouldn't have been in her bad end-game position to begin with. That is not "lucking into someone else's goat"
Dragging a "goat" requires good positioning and strategy. Lucking into someone else's "goat" does not.
Technically, however, Matt was his own "goat" since he dragged Rob down the stretch at least as much as Rob dragged him earlier.
Okay, at least you addressed this yourself to an extent
"The only person she didn't seem to get along with was Christy." and Butch and Roger and Jeanne and Joanna and Matt, plus Deena considered her a spoiled brat. Don't forget that her shared entitlement issues, along with those of Alex and Heidi, were part of what led to the overthrow at F7.
Butch didn't seem to have a problem with her even though he voted for Matt. I've seen them in pictures together when Jenna saying how much she
likes him, and at F4 all of them were friendly. Butch didn't say anything bad about Jenna at the final jury either, even though she'd let him go at
F4. Roger was the #1 goat of the season, so who cares what he thinks about Jenna. Jeanne didn't seem to have a problem with Jenna, and she was probably
mostly annoyed after seeing Heidi's talk of the pretty girls or after they blindsided her. Joanna didn't seem to have anything in particular against
Jenna either, with Jenna saying she really liked Joanna. Matt called Jenna spoiled during the show, but he wasn't on the jury anyways, and he should
partly thank Jenna who could've forced a tie at F4 against him along with Butch. Then we have Deena, who I don't ever recall saying Jenna was a
"spoiled brat". We know Deena and Jenna were big allies together, and she even voted for Jenna to win even AFTER being blindsided and betrayed by
her. In terms of the "entitlement issues," it was a bit sloppy, but sometimes it is better to viscerally prove where your loyalties lie, because if
you seem to be playing all sides, then people might consider you wishy-washy and boot you for that. In her case, it was not good, but we've seen the exact
opposite with like Dolly or Lisa. Cesternino mainly flipped because of Alex flat out telling him he was the 4th wheel. That's not Jenna's fault, but
an incompetent ally's arrogance, which she couldn't really know about in advance
Jenna's help in voting out Deena didn't win her any votes. It was certainly was a deterrent for Deena, who certainly would have voted for Rob over her, may likely have voted for Heidi over her, and would have considered voting for either Alex or Matt over her even though she disliked both of them considerably.
Deena still voted for Jenna so that's a non-issue. It definitely secured Alex's vote. If he wasn't going to vote for her already, that
visceral loyalty to him sealed the deal
It got rid of a strong mental competitor and secured Alex to Jenna as a loyal juror and in-game ally who chose her and Heidi over even early tribe ally Cesternino
Alex detested Matt so there was no way he was getting Alex's vote no matter what Jenna did or didn't do in the game. The vote for Deena was as I put it, a sideways move, that neither gained or lost advantage for Jenna.
I will say I don't believe much of what Jenna said about her role in the game because right after the finale when she was getting booed, she and those who voted for her invaded these boards with the intent of making themselves look better. They did not make a good impression. Things like Deena insisting Matt didn't throw the last immunity when he not only claimed he did, but we actually saw a confessional on the show where he indicates he is going to do so really ruined a lot of their credibility.
Interesting. I did not know this. Even if we don't believe what Jenna says though, I still find myself leaning towards giving her more credit than
less. I came up with my analysis of her before she ever posted in my thread, and that was when I didn't really like her. Like many, I was a big Christy
fan
