Christine wrote:
She also not only had Wales behind her, but also probably a large majority of the DS forum as well.
DS:BB is like most other Big Brother forums - all sorts of opinions. While it's true that Rachel topped their 'Favourite Housemate' poll towards the end of this year's series (as she topped many other polls), I would estimate that there was about an equal number of 'pro-Rachel' and 'anti-Rachel' threads posted on that forum. It's not like Rachel was the local heroine on there. As far as I know it's not common knowledge what her Username was, when she posted on DS:BB. I think she was viewed like any other Housemate. DS:BB is not known for being a 'gentle' place where every Housemate is cherished!
I know you don't think she's a deserving winner, Christine, and I didn't post the 'quote' from the RTE Blog to try and prove that my view was correct. I would doubt that anyone on a forum has ever succeeded in 'converting' someone else to their viewpoint!
I was struck by the following line:
She hugged the people who were crying and, more importantly, she was never the reason that anyone else was crying.
I hadn't seen 'it put like that before'. I would have highlighted the sentence, but that would be a bit like lecturing, I thought!
I totally understand that a Big Brother full of amicable and non-confrontational characters would be very boring. As I said before, Cinderella's story would be less interesting without the Ugly Sisters, Red Riding Hood's tale would be dull without the Big Bad Wolf. We need contrast to be entertained, but in my opinion, that doesn't necessarily mean that the 'villains' have to emerge as the winners.
I was impressed by Rachel's ability to stay calm and not rise to the bait. I would like to ask her if she was born that way, or whether it's a skill she acquired. If it's something she 'worked on', I find that inspiring!
I understand how people would feel disappointed that Rachel won. Indeed no matter who won, there would be people who would have been disappointed with the result.
What I find slightly amusing is that some people feel that it's an outrage that Rachel won - when the reason she won was because she got the most votes. We can only 'blame' the voters for the result. Or in my case, I can only be grateful to them for agreeing with my preference.
