The chess analogy

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

This is a bit spoilerish, but mostly I'm cutting it so as not to expose everyone to my rambling. I'm probably overthinking this whole thing. XD

One of the things I've been thinking of lately is how the chess metaphor applies to the different characters caught up in the fight. How closely do they correspond to chess pieces, and how many of them fit the correspondences?

(Assume that the rebellion is the black pieces, because Black Knights and all that, and that Britannia is the white pieces.)

Black King: Lelouch (of course)
Black Queen: Kallen (because she's their big fighter in Knightmares, and also because, as the show wears on, there seems to be the implication that she's going to wind up working more closely with Lelouch)
Other than that, though, it seems like all he has is a bunch of pawns. Am I wrong? Does anyone see more pieces for him?

On the other side, though, Britannia has a whole lot more pieces.
White King: King of Britannia
White Queen: Suzaku in Lancelot (...lol, poor Suzaku)
White Rooks: Cornelia and Schneizel
White Bishops: Guilford and Schneizel's equivalent to him?
White Knights: Jeremiah and Viletta

The one I'm least certain about is the bishop association; mostly I've picked Guilford and a potential equivalent on Schneizel's side because I can't think of anyone else. The show might introduce someone new to fill the role, though.

The rook assocation makes somewhat more sense--they're both important, powerful pieces who, thanks to the move of castling, have strong associations with the king, especially the idea of protecting him. So it makes sense that Lelouch would have to go through them first to get to his father.

However, in individual battles as opposed to the overall war, it often seems that Cornelia is the king because she's moving the strings at the moment. I'm not sure how long this will last, or if Schneizel will wind up taking over the role later. Likewise, I'm not sure how long Suzaku, as the queen piece (having the most blatantly powerful Knightmare and all that), will stay on the board. Not that I think he'll get killed quickly, but depending on the direction the show takes, he might wind up swapping sides partway through. I imagine it'll be a while yet, though.

My favorite association is that of Jeremiah and Viletta with the knights. Like the knights, because of Jeremiah's demotion and shame (and in Viletta's case her decision to stick with him), they can't move about freely. However, because they've both already been exposed to the Geass and Viletta has enough information to possibly begin associating the Geass with Lelouch, they can make unusual moves that other pieces would not be able to make.

Thoughts and discussion by other people geeky enough to overthink like this are welcome.

Comments

[mossygirl.livejournal.com]

Fascinating subject ^_^ I haven't played chess in a very long time, but I would say that a few characters need to be added. The first one I thought of is Euphemia--she may be just a pawn now, but I feel like her importance may grow soon (she's certainly very important to Cornelia). Secondly, C.C. Actually, it might be better that C.C.'s not on there. I would put her on Lulu's side--and she has great freedom of movement, so it'd be high up--but she does seem to be somehow above what Lulu is doing. Maybe she has a bigger plan in mind--maybe she's directly subordinate (or part of?) to the one playing the game? I don't know ^^;;

(yay for geeky overthinking!)

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like I mentioned above--I don't think Euphemia has settled into a role on the board just yet. We'll have to see how she works when she starts taking more action.

And heh, I just noticed that you suggested something similar to what I did--that C.C. is more related to the one playing the game than any of the pieces being played. It seems to fit her.