#So yeah that's what chess is like

[mymarifae]

me: i finished the latest trailblaze mission in hsr so i can look at what other people are posting now! oh boy i hope it's discussions and theories about the story. i can't wait to see what everyone thought about firefly (what was going on with you sweetie...) and A Child's Dream - that segment in particular really left a profound impact on me. like who is mikhail? the voice we hear throughout is obviously misha's - did he have a twin? does mikhail have something to do with clockie? and from what we heard and saw, misha or... mikhail. encountered the embodiment of Death that lurks beneath the dreamscape. what's... the full story there...? i can't wait to see other people's perspectives it'll help me piece a more coherent theory together-

other hsr fans: *thirstposting about aventurine and/or dr. ratio, trying to cancel sparkle even though the entire point of her character is that yes she's a horrible person because it's high time we see how DANGEROUS and CRUEL the masked fools can be - no more reducing them to the silly wacky hijinks sampo pulled on jarilo; you should be scared of these guys; the game's story never wanted you to make sparkle your next skrunkly blorbo babygirl lol, heated discussions about whether dr. ratio displayed the same racism towards aventurine that sparkle did and if that makes aventurine/ratio a bad thing to ship (??????????), more thirstposts about aventurine, 500 billion generic yaois of aventurine and ratio that don't even maintain either of their characters*

me:

#HONKAI STAR RAIL IS SO GOOD AND YET NO ONE SEEMS TO WANT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT MAKES IT GOOD #I FEEL ACTUALLY INSANE #I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE STORY!!!!! AND THE CHARACTERS AS INDIVIDUALS #NOT ABOUT HOW HOT THEY ARE OR WHO THEY CAN BE SHIPPED WITH #aventurine isn't even that sexy his eyes are the most interesting part about his design (HIS DESIGN. HIS CHARACTER IS MORE INTRIGUING) #the rest of it is just kind of ... like. yeah he's a blonde man. ok. #and my thoughts on aventio are i think ratio would betray aventurine for a single corn chip. and aventurine would do the same #i do not see a romance ever blossoming there. not even an enemies to lovers kinda thing. they're both too busy playing 5d chess for that #i want to talk about FIREFLY. I LOVED FIREFLY :( #i want to talk about acheron. and MISHA. SWEET BOY WHAT'S GOING ON? #there's so many interesting things going on rn and aventurine is not one of them. #like ok he knows some things but he's such a sleazy businessman about sharing info that idgaf i don't want to learn anything from him #he's always going to leave something out. because he needs to always have an advantage. for this reason i ignore 80% of what he says #i've gotten more context and clues out of everyone else he is nothing to me. i'll eat him.

[chess-draws]

i wanted to draw full-body versions of just ricky and jane from [this post] but then it kinda got away from me and i ended up doing full body versions for them all.. whoops?

#i dont even like how ricky turned out but shhh #still love love LOVE mischa !!!! hes just the most guy ever #the pairings were picked randomly !!! #just based on what colours i thought would fit well together #also i am not bothered enough with skin tones rn so yeah #chess draws #rtc #ride the cyclone

[torgawl]

can we talk about sukuna and rika and why the king and queen of curses having a dispute is also narratively fitting? if sukuna is an heian era sorcerer with an antipathy and disregard of human emotions and the weak's will to live, blind to love and unable to comprehend the value of relationships with others then rika, as his counterpart, works especially well. rika is just a kid, or was just a kid. an innocent young girl who ended up dying tragically and saw herself transform into a vengeful spirit after being cursed by love. not only does she represent the weak (remember when sukuna's slaughter of women and children was implied?), she represents love itself. with her feelings lingering after death, she clinged onto her existence with the sole wish of protecting yuuta. it counteracts so well with sukuna's selfish will to kill time before his final breathe, which he admitted to be his will and motivation.

before i move on to my next idea, which let me preface by saying that it might be a little out there and dives into theory territory, i'm going to contextualise it with some information on the symbolism of "king and queen" that might help understand why this thought may make - at least some - sense.

in alchemy the king usually appears in conjunction with the queen, representing the sun-and-moon duality. in accordance with the theory of sulfur and mercury, which together, after alchemist purification, form the philosopher’s stone (also called the elixir of life, associated with rejuvenation and immortality), usually represented by the crowned hermetic androgyne (the union of the complementary male and female, achieving perfection or completion in the human state). according to jung, the king and queen also signify the spiritual conjunction that takes place when the process of individuation is complete, with the harmonious union of the unconscious and consciousness. jungian psychology has subjected the alchemistic tradition to extensive analysis and views the king less as an image of paternal authority and more as an archetype of higher insight and wisdom.

with that in mind, i think it's easy to understand where i'm headed but i want to add something else. remember jjk 0? geto's plan at the time was to obtain rika so he could use her power and move forward with his plan to annihilate all no-sorcerers. he believed her to be the key to achieve his goal and was willing to risk his own life for it. furthermore, the story is highly based on buddhist concepts and one of the core aspects of jujutsu kaisen is the cycles of suffering the characters are subjected to. in buddhism the goal is to become free of the samsara (continuous cycle of life, death and rebirth), eliminate suffering and achieve nirvana (enlightment). this ties withe the name of the series as kaisen is comprised of the kanji 'kai', meaning cycle, and 'sen', meaning battle, which combined with jujutsu (which means magic/sorcery but contains the word curse) describe the story as an endless battle of curses. and in a sense, the story also repeats itself, between generations and storyline-wise with the events circling back to how it all began. yuuta managed to land a fatal strike on geto once again, but now rika is pointed to be in a direct confrontation with sukuna as the queen of curses. now that i went through all the context needed to understand this, is it possible rika is once again in danger of being taken away? the idea of achieving a state of perfection with the unity between king and queen is quite intriguing. sukuna finally addressing yuuji as a worthy rival because of his unshakable resolve and unbreakable soul, is almost directly implying yuuji to be the one with whom sukuna has his last battle. an ultimate power-up (or the equivalent to), would be veyy cathartic before a final fight where yuuji would have the opportunity to finally go all out and have his well awaited and deserved protagonism (in my eyes, at least).

#so i guess my point is i'm not expecting sukuna to lose but i'm also not expecting yuuta to die (as of now at least) #i feel like it's not impossible that something happens to rika though #i kind of like that idea 😅 since that's not the original rika and yuuta is able to fight even without her #it's also quite funny that in the animal kingdom some females eat their counterparts and sukuna is said to be a cannibal #rika isn't human and i'm not theorising he will eat her but wouldn't it be ironic #and if jjk isn't a story full of irony idk what is #sorry for the random post #please don't trust what i say it was a random thought and i just thought it was fun to expand on it a little 😂 #i didn't even go through the chess symbolism we could also go through that route #the queen is the most powerful piece but the king is the most important. we could talk about checkmate. we could talk about the move where #the queen sacrifices itself for a more favorable tactical position which would also be interesting in the grand scheme of things #so yeah expecting interesting things from this fight not gonna lie #maybe this didn't make a lot of sense but you know what whatever i'm just having fun using my single brain cell rn bye 😂 #jujutsu kaisen #jjk leaks #sukuna #rika orimoto #okkotsu yuuta #jjk 💭

[totopopopo]

i just knoooowwwwwww this girl in my greek class is a tumblr girlie and i’m so genuinely terrified of her finding my blog because i like her VERY much and i don’t need her to know i live like this

#this isn’t a gay thing this is literally me being a socially awkward dork who’s afraid of ppl they wanna be friends with #plus she’s like WAY cooler than me. like. considerably cooler than me. and she knows it like it’s very clear she knows it (bc it’s obvious) #but also i don’t want HER to know i know. #do you know what i mean? no? yeah that’s because all people are like 4d chess to me so i have to start thinking in 5d

[redknave]

will & ana both own oversized black king chess pieces aND USE THEM AS HOME DECOR !!!!

#ouatedit #ouatiwedit #scarlet queen #anastasia tremaine #will scarlet #once upon a time in wonderland #ouatiw #pls forgive theres not a good shot of either props #this is literally the only shot that shows ana's pieces & the shots of will's king are all this blurry/in-motion #also the oversized chess set ana uses to play is red & gold so her black pieces probably dont serve an actual function #i dont know what this means btw i just love that they both found these and were like 'hell yeah this would make a great paperweight' #thinking about how ana (trying to get will back) has the king & queen but will (trying to forget ana) only has the king

[coconut530]

UH-

also more Suitor Armor under cut because

BRUHHHHHHHHH HEART IS IN SEVERAL PIECES

#Nevermore #Nevermore Webtoon #Webtoon #AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAA #um. What an episode #First off her doing chess around Percy is epic #Ira was so into it too 😂 #Fun little servant lady #First time seeing Annabel thoughts! Usually it’s just Lenore’s #Her’s are red and Anna’s are blue #Monster Lenore ���� #The whole time Anna put her head underwater I was scared she was like gonna drown #Those visuals 🫨🫣 #That WRITING #MMMMM #RED IS SO GOOD #ALSO PEOPLE MAKING THESE LENORE SPECTRE PHOENIX THEORIES AND NOT GONNA LIE IT’S MAKING SENSE #I IMAGINE IT’D LOOK SO COOL #BUT YEAH I CAN SEE WHY RED N’ FLYNN WERE PROUD OF THIS ONE IT IS A STUNNING EPISODE #AND WHAT ELSE WAS STUNNING WAS SUAR #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #LITERALLY I READ THE FIRST DUMB THING THAT HAPPENED AND WAS STUNNED INTO SILENCE FOR FIVE MINUTES #RICONNNNNNNN #AND THAT SPELL IS SO COOL WORDS ARE COOL #BUT RICON YOU’RE SUCH AN IDIOT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #LOOK WHAT YOU DID YOU MESSED UP A PERFECTLY GOOD LUCIA #HER DAD JUST WANTED TO GO BACK FOR HER OTHER DAD WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #ok um I’m done now webtoons are epic ok bye #Suitor Armor #Suitor Armor Webtoon

[daisychainsandbowties]

damn casper you can turn anything into homoerotic tension (affectionate)

i have one (1) talent but at least it’s this one 😌🙏

#i’ve made fish bones homoerotic so like. yeah hand me anything and i can make it gay sex #like a catalyst (casalyst? 🤔👀😳) for gay vibes #anon #the best thing is i don’t even know what you’re talking about is it chess is it the apollo lunar module i have no idea

[4lph4kidz]

I think really the only canon case of Jake being ‘manipulative’ would be his convo w Jane, and while yes that one thing might’ve been manipulative, that doesn’t make Jake HIMSELF inherently manipulative. Does that make sense? And like, he’s not going into things like ‘I am a chessmaster, a puppeteer, all of you will dance to my tune’ he’s going ‘hmmm how do I avoid this awkward conversation’

pretty much. ymmv with how manipulative it is i guess, and as another anon said, saying jake is manipulative is just another way of saying he tries to be indirect to avoid confrontation... anyway, this is up for interpretation since i think it depends on whether or not you read the line 'i really was not prepared for this answer' as facetious or not. but my impression was of genuine surprise and like idk how manipulative someone can be if they aren't certain abt their understanding of people. that said now that i'm looking at it it does kinda seem like some faker shit. damn we'll have to see how i feel about it in the context of my next reread i guess

and obviously he does prevent her from backpedaling after he gets that answer, but that doesn't seem like a conciously manipulative move either, to me it reads as him jumping to believing the thing that's more convenient for him and ignoring contradictory details. hope style.

so yeah he's kinda shitty but not really conciously so. roxy put it best i think

#shrug #not sure how much i wanna keep talking about this though i'm open to alternate interpretations #there is something to purposefully disguising his true intent / ability / whatever with wilful ignorance and incompetence #but i don't think he's actually confident enough in his understanding of other people to try and make those kinds of manoevres #he reads very heavily as autistic to me and seems to second guess himself a lot even when he's proven to be more insightful than he appears #to be fair it's a matter of interpretation #and reading between the lines means you might just be filling in the gaps with what you what to see #who knows maybe he was playing 5D chess and knew the whole time that she would definitely deny her feelings for him #but i think it's equally likely that he would have agreed to date her instead if she'd managed to get her feelings out #. so yeah idk if he went in with any kind of manipulative intent other than to try and resolve an awkward situation as hastily as possible. #idk about reading this comedy of errors ass scene as anything but obviously farcical lol

[x-nephophile-x]

You ever just make an OC for a fun little small idea and now suddenly she rules your braincell? The 20 minute screentime man ever become a blorbo that demands you write 15k words for him? I'm going to start BITING

#yeah this is about my tiefling durge Mirani and Enver Fucking Gortash #Im losing my mind im so unwell theyre my roman empire #im in love with this bastard #them and their stupid 4d mental chess #and their emotional constipation #theyre so weird and not even in a blood and gore and murder way #theyre just talking in circles around each other #and they both somehow understand whats going on underneath the words theyre saying because the real convo is what they arent saying #excuse me lemme just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- #ive decided this stupid 15k worth of one shots is in fact a fic since they are just scenes that go together in an order and im posting it #at some point on ao3 #for the very niche group of people who wanna see the tyrant get loved like an idiot #cas rambles in the tags

[baejax-the-great]

I think some of the arguments about fan interpretations of characters and OOCness forget a fundamental part of human nature which is this: each of us perceives the world and the people in it in slightly different ways based on our own experiences.

Most people have certain characteristics they consider fundamental to their Blorbo and some characteristics that are less important and could be changed, ignored, or scrapped for AU purposes. Unfortunately, which specific characteristics fall into which category are not going to be the same from person to person. Sometimes the overlap between two people's interpretations will be huge, and those two people will probably enjoy the same fan content. Sometimes not so much.

Personally, I write for a ship that were childhood friends that became lovers. In many AUs, people have them meeting for the first time in adulthood, and for me, that changes the nature of the ship and their characters so much that I can't really get into it. I consider their childhood friendship fundamental to them as people, and those authors don't. Which is fine. Many other people like those AUs. Nobody here is really in the wrong, we just have different opinions on what makes these particular Blorbos them.

In almost all cases, someone out there will find your interpretation of a character OOC. And that's fine. Hopefully they are polite and simply choose not to read your fics/engage with your HCs/whatever. But I think all of us have had the experience of reading a wildly OOC take and seeing other people enthusiastically going along with this "wrong" interpretation of the characters and thinking, "What??!?!"

It's fine. It's normal. It's annoying as hell (people are wrong on the internet), but it's inevitable. And if you find that interpretation particularly heinous to your Blorbo sensibilities, the block button is your friend.

#fandom #fanfic #idk I saw that one post where someone compares like #some people saying chess is beating each other with sticks and it's normal for someone who likes actual chess to be disappointed #as an analogy for bad fandom takes and like... nah man #tons of games have different rules and that doesn't make the game wrong #like maybe you thought all poker was just texas holdem and someone comes along playing five card draw #you are both right they are both poker but you are coming from different life experiences to expect what poker is #characters are so much more complex than games with rules #what speaks to me about a character might not be what speaks to you and this will affect what we focus on/exaggerate/emphasize in ourfanwor #like yeah obviously some people are stone cold wrong BUT it is our burden to bear the weight of knowing and understanding their wrongness #I see new authors freaking out about like what if I'm OOC!!!!!! #and it's like... eh you will always be ooc to some goober out there go have fun #will never forget that one post with like over a thousand notes about how Fenris doesn't use contractions in speech #it was just... provably untrue #posts I expect no one to read lol

[rusted-sun]

i am. so weak

#DONT READ THE TAGS IM ALREADY ASHAMED OF MYSELF FOR BEING ABSOLUTELY DOWN ROTTEN FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT MAN #need to get it out of my system before i explode but THE FUCKING FICS OF HIM ARE SOOO GOOD I CANT STOP SOMEONE SAVE ME #its almost 2am. ive been at this for like 5 hours now. i have so so so many new bookmarks saved I Am Not Okay #the girlies here were right. men in uniforms.... AHEM #i am so ashamed of myself BUT AINT MY FAULT HES NOT FFS #i am going to turn into an oyster before i reveal who this is istg #heres to praying noone knows my ao3 or secret blog #fuuuuuuuuuck man.... yknow what yeah thats the goal. fuck him. #if he was real i would hate him but omfg... on my knees and holding out a ring for HIMMMM GODDAMN #the most babygirl that has ever babygirled #chess shh

[highkey-lowkey-as-hell]

sometimes it just hits me that like. chess qualified for the olympics. chess was supposed to go to the olympics. chess may not have competed but she was this close to being an OLYMPIAN.

#we are the tigers #chess watt #i'm taking a class on the ancient and modern olympics rn #so roughly 1-2 times a week i go 'huh this is a watt thing isn't it' #no but seriously it's low-key funny #like preston was like #i'm gonna write a musical about cheerleaders #and about the stress of being a teenager #and also murder #and in all these things about addiction and cheerleading and high school and privilege and all of it #he was just like 'what if a character was an olympian and it wasn't even a major plot point' #like iconic #(by not a major plot point i don't mean that it wasn't significant) #(obviously it drives a lot of chess's character) #(but like. the major plot points are the murder and the framing and such) #(the olympics are not a major plot point) #anyways yeah #i feel like it's so random and i love it

[woohooincoffin]

#dai gp #idk why but this was so touching to me? humanized him so much for me #just playing chess (?) with dorian #a mage #antithetical to so many things cullen is in many ways #but he hasnt turned out to be what i thought he was #i love the characters in this game they are so real #also the pc having the worst posture ever like yea yeah it’s like that #xyz

[chirpsythismorning]

Personally, I've never said that Will would be the only main character anyway. I just think that it makes more sense for him to be centered now because there is a lot of stuff that has to be addressed regarding his character. That does not mean I think Mike cannot get targeted whatsoever. But Will's plot points would get more focus because still do not know:

1- Why he was specifically targeted by Vecna in S1, and why was he specifically kept alive. Is it because he has powers or is there any other reason? 2- Why did he get possessed, and why wasn't he killed again. 3- The way he is still connected to Vecna, has to be addressed because it is ongoing since S1. 4- The obvious parallels between Vecna and Will have to be addressed, 5- Will's whole S1 and S2 have to be addressed. 6- Why is the UD stuck on the time Will went missing specifically. 7- If Will has powers, it it why he got targeted, and probably is that why the UD looks the way it looks, etc.

So it makes more sense for Will to get targeted narratively to address these narrative and plot points. That's not saying Mike cannot get targeted, but it is rather saying that he probably will not be the first person to get targeted rolling to S5's beginning.

Yeah honestly I'm in agreement with that, when it comes to Vecna, we can presume the only reason he would even target Mike is to get to Will.

Though, we've also seen that he's calculated.

Every action he does, he is thinking ten steps ahead.

Yes it's about getting to Will, but that doesn't mean that all it takes is targeting Will and that's that.

They didn't need to 'waste' their time having Vecna confronting random teenagers with trauma, specifically with Max and then Nancy?? But they did. Because Vecna has his own arcs with all these other characters that are merely pieces in his little game, with all the trauma he's caused them. And it all ties into what he wants in the end.

Vecna confronting Mike in the final season, after keeping the audience in the dark for so long about his inner feelings, is a writers dream, because it's a little too perfect.

This is a TV show, which means certain things have to happen to make the story interesting and engaging and exciting. And that's why a lot of fans predict Mike will be targeted. Because why if Will is what Vecna wanted this whole time and that's all there is to it, couldn't he just go for it and get it over with?

Because this is a story and those sorts of things take time to build up to, and it wouldn't be very interesting if it was all resolved right from the jump.

In the moment, Vecna's choices might feel random, but in the grand scheme of things, we're starting to see it's all for a greater reason?

S5 is going to have ups and downs, and I think Will being targeted by Vecna in some capacity is inevitable and it's bound to happen multiple times in s5. Though I also think some other confrontations are due. And if Max was worth targeting because of her guilt over Billy and Nancy because of her guilt over Barb (both involving Vecna himself), then yes I do think it makes sense for Mike, the og protagonist, who has guilt tied to the other two og mains, Will and El, also tied to Vecna, to have some sort of confrontation with him.

I don't think it will start and end with Mike interacting with Vecna though, by no means is this the biggest plot point to s5, because I do think it all goes back to Will regardless of the different things that happen along the way leading up to that confrontation.

However I do think it will be one of the major plot twists for the overall audience because it is super unexpected.

And I do think it makes more sense for them to save the biggest confrontation for Vecna and Will for the end of s5, because if they did it in the beginning it would feel sort of anticlimactic to repeat it in the end.

And so, what makes more sense is to yet again create the semplence of a confrontation between Vecna and Will, maybe even go there, but still not fully go there... And a confrontation with Vecna, potentially involving Mike, obviously affecting Will feels like a way to surprise an audience who is only expecting the Will part, and to also have that impact Will's character in a way that is going to make his confrontation in the end feel even more anticipating, despite it being entirely expected by the majority!

#stranger things #byler #stranger things 5 #st5 predictions #will has powers #vecna terrorizing nancy over barb felt low-key out of place when i remember watching the first time #i even remember watching with my family and them being like wtf does this have to do with nancy #but I get it now #ITS TO MOVE THE PLOT FOWARD #but also... nancy being chosen in that moment and her trauma related to barb being a point that vecna uses to taunt her #taunting is what vecna does to make people feel hopeless... #even though he didn't do that in that exact moment to get to will #it was a calculated move #like chess #and so yeah mike wheeler is fucked basically #but that's not ONLY bc it has to do with mike and his trauma #but how trauma is dealt with on stranger things as a whole #and what's stopping these characters from facing the truth and what it looks like for every character to finally do just that #it also does play a part in the overall story #and will's arc as well #bc his confrontation with vecna is inevitable #and it will likely be even more powerful for will to beat vecna alongside his party after all of them faced their demons #ALL of them

[chess-draws]

mmm idk. day 26, remove

#chess draws #inktober 2023 #idk what inspired this so like yeah

[jrueships]

this is so cute <33

#while YOUR teams battle to their inevitable deaths in a cruel game of 4dimensional chess #MY teams (the loser squad) gets to go on a gorgeous winter retreat 🥰 #it's called having skill look it up - last seed in the conference #where tf are they? the fucking Himalayas or something?? #the abominable snowman is going to emerge and offer them yellow snowcones #alpey trusts him #jabari has to stop him #'what ☹️? they go with kjs jacket... 🥺' #'YEAH they go with MY JACKET 😠!' #OH wait utah allstar weekend right?? and utah is like fugly or something #cold* i mean sorry i hate the cold #guy who lives in a city with wind in its nickname. #alpeys fuzzy coat is so CUTE #hes come! prepared !! #jabari just wearing a goth sweatshirt he hates homos #i love them 🥰 #jabari alpey kj get snowed in during their shitty log cabin retreat gup made them go on to get along #kj goes searching for help and leaves an irritated jabari and alpey alone by the roaring fire #slowly dying out (they may have to cuddle for warmth like penguins..😶.. only time can tell 😋) (they do #i cant get over how cute alpey looks in that coat #all bundled up! #comfy!!! #jabari makes fun of him for wearing a big coat bcs hes one of those annoying kids in highschool who thinks wanting warmth is for bozos #but ends up getting cuddled in it cus of the cold and his own stupidity #they do not talk about it #but alpey will sometimes unzip his coat and open it up in an inviting wide gesture of wrapping jabari inside it again if he ever needs to #jabari pretends not to see it or says he looks like an even furrier version of batman #jaba #alpey