In post 681, Tayl0r Swift wrote:also worth noting that italiano is taking this opportunity of pressure on him and plausible counterwagon and NOT being opportunistic.
This statement really got me thinking. If you haven't already, I recommend reading Italiano and Walter in double ISO, following how they interact with each other.
The first wagon on Walter starts at #
238 by Nosferatu. Italiano's next post, #
266, is denouncing it. (At the time, I assumed that this was Italiano reading the situation the same way I was, and townread Italiano for it. I think I was wrong, though.)
Italiano had previously implied a townread or at least "no reason to think scum" read on Nosferatu (#
234).
Walter attacked Nosferatu around the time Nosferatu voted Walter (#
249, #
257, #
278).
Soon after, Italiano was attacking Nosferatu too (#
281, vote in #
294).
The Nosferatu wagon sits at four votes for a while. Then I derail it, based primarily on a gut read (#
367).
Italiano places a (what is to me) surprising scumread on me in #
381 and vote in #
382. (This is the third vote, after RCEnigma and Nosferatu.)
Walter does not join this wagon (although he does ask lots of questions about it, that's natural when it's the largest wagon).
Eventually Walter calls me "70% certainty" of town (#
614); this is technically a mild scumread (assuming a 10:3 setup, a hypothetically town Walter would think a perfectly null read was 75% likely to be town.)
The CFJ wagon sits at four votes for a while.
Then it starts shrinking, as Tayl0r moves to Walter (#
634); that wagon's now the same size as mine (N_M voted Walter in #
600).
Italiano reacts surprisingly strongly to this (#
655), in effect complaining that the wagons should be on me and/or Nosferatu.
Italiano then defends Walter by attacking the wagon (#
674, #
675).
Walter earlier agreed with me that #655 is scummy (#
659), but doesn't vote for Italiano.
As Tayl0r pointed out, there is notable pressure on Italiano but he has no interest at all in the counterwagon on Walter (instead, he's primarily been attacking me).
What I get out of all this is that Italiano is focused quite heavily on defending Walter. Whenever there's a wagon on Walter, Italiano votes the counterwagon (except that with this most recent wagon, the counterwagon to Walter is Italiano himself, and his response is to complain that people aren't on the wagons that previously collapsed!). Basically every time anyone scumreads Walter, Italiano attacks the
read
(but Italiano has only twice actually called Walter town, placing him top of a townread list in #
381, without explanation; and giving a gut townread in #
687). The attacks tend to be with weak or no reasoning, too (e.g. #
674 attacks a read as "sheeping Not_Mafia", and you can't really sheep someone who never explains).
I think the most plausible explanations for all this are:
a) Italiano and Walter are scum together.
b) Italiano is scum (with Walter town), and wants everyone to think that Walter is scum alongside him, in the hope that we end up voting out Walter and Italiano can end up being vindicated by the townflip.
In either case, though, Italiano ends up as being scum. Unless someone can find meta evidence otherwise, I don't think it makes sense for a hypothetically town Italiano to defend Walter
this
hard based only on a gut read.