-R-

Part 1. King and Queen

I would like to start by saying that I am not the expert in chess metaphors and this is my own opinion, and how I best interpret what makes what character each piece.

We will start with our King piece Leo and our Queen piece Mikey

I already did a post on them being king and queen a while back but I am doing characterizations of chess metaphors so it made sense to start with them

King piece

The king is the most vulnerable piece, he needs the boards protection and the board needs his guidance.

Core attributes to a character being a king piece

1. Being either a strategist or being the one to give guidance, they are generally the ones the other characters fallow, and that’s presented in different ways because there are many ways to flavor a king piece

2. They have an air of vulnerability to them, and this can also be presented in different ways but you always feel that air of vulnerability to them, they often times feel like characters you want to protect or you feel like the other characters should be protecting more.

Gender is irrelevant to the King piece he can be male, female, it can even be both or neither. Same is said for the Queen piece even though they are the only two pieces referred to as he and she. Leo himself actually does have Devine Feminine energy about him

Leo is of course the strategy guy @freakadr0id posts about the characters and how they are used in battle REALLY helped with my character notes and they helped me FINALLY figure out which piece April is. If you haven’t seen those posts I recommend them (I wish I knew how to link)

Leo is grate at quickly coming up with effective strategies on the fly, and while it’s more on the nose in Rottmnt, there are other ways to present this attribute. Steven from Steven Universe for example is always the one to try and help eventually becoming the one people look to for guidance becoming a North Star of sorts for those who feel lost. Princess Bubble Gum is even more unique as being a king piece who created her own board from scratch even her citizens, like I said many ways to flavor a king piece.

Leo’s portal’s actually help him move vary similar to the Queen he can literally go wherever he likes just like her. He gets cocky, wanting to be the hero, sometimes causing him to overestimate his abilities or underestimate his opponent this is a behavior that mirrors a common king piece behavior called “wanting to be their own Queen”.

Remember that air of vulnerability I mentioned earlier? Well that behavior is a byproduct of the king piece hating their vulnerability with a fiery passion. Usually this comes in the form of feeling like they don’t bring enough to the table, usually from guilt of not being on front lines. For Leo though with his brothers having easily identified skills that have distinct advantages it becomes difficult to recognize the advantages Leo brings to the team as a well round fighter. So he try’s to in a sense “be his own Queen” by being the champion or hero, which is technically the Queen’s job

There are actually many powerful king characters who also try to be their own Queens, again princess bubble gum, Ford Pines from Gravity Falls who had to be rescued every episode he was in, Rose Quarts from Steven Universe also was her own Queen by being in the middle of the action where the Queen piece usually is. All of these characters Leo included try cover up their vulnerability by being the strongest, by also being the Queen the only King who was some what successful was Rose Quarts but her story still seemed so lonely being it’s own tragedy.

Leo also somewhat suffers from the guilt of not being in the thick of it in a sense, the King works best being away from the fight and just like @freakadr0id pointed out, Leo is less effective in fights with multiple enemies, because while he can direct the fight their is only so much he can do being in the middle of the chaos. Meaning, he would probably be more effective strategy wise to be AWAY from the fight, where the king is supposed to be, but that’s not who he is, he is not going to stay behind. He doesn’t have to completely stay away, their are ways he can be in the fight but he can’t do the Queens job

do you remember in the opening of the rottmnt movie where you are looking through future leo’s eyes? And do you remember seeing exactly where he is?

YEP! Right in the middle of the huge ass battle! Where it’s hard for him to direct the battle or see the enemy at to many angles. Probably being the reason he got mortally wounded! Future Leo has a similar problem to Rose Quarts, where she was trying to be on the front lines of battle with her people giving Pearl a freaking stroke, because Pearl was right, Rose was to important to be in the fight. BECAUSE WHEN YOUR KING GETS TAKEN THE GAMES OVER!! Leo still has some growing pains to get through, but lucky for him he has a really great Queen

Queen Piece

The Queen is the strongest on the board and is best at protecting the king. What the king character and Queen character are to each other is irrelevant, just like gender. They can be lovers, platonic friends or even family.

Core attributes to a character being a Queen piece (basically what I just said)

1. The most powerful character, this can be presented in different ways. Just like the King their are many different ways to flavor the Queen

2. Is the best at protecting the King, The Queen piece character is best at protecting the King character because she protects him in the way he needs to be protected

Now of course we have seen how powerful Mikey was becoming, what with yeeting everything from cargo ships to skyscrapers. And we see in the beginning of the movie that he is going to get stronger

Just like many other Queens he is devastatingly powerful

But what makes him the best at protecting Leo? Raphael, Donnie, and Mikey are Leo’s comfort zone, back bone, and his protectors just as Leo is theirs. Mikey seems to be the one to kinda notice Leo’s insecurity about being leader and wants to encourage him.

Mikey, before the movie makes strides as being the heart of the team, essentially he is a Queen of the people. And being the family therapist. Leo is not a grate communicator and doesn’t like expressing vulnerability, the more he tries to stay guarded the more he is unintentionally pushing people away. He needs to be able to communicate and process, because the famous line he says at the end “this wasn’t about me” did not sit well with me.

Mikey might be able to protect Leo in the way of getting him to open up more to him, and maybe teach Raph that the way Leo copes isn’t even that bad. What Leo does is something people do when they know their doing something dangerous, or bad. They already covered that Leo’s strategies need to be safer and Leo understands that. But the jokes are seriously not something Raph needs to stress so bad over that you can see it’s taking years off his life. This is a type of protection that Mikey can extend to the rest of the board

Raph is a Rook and Donnie is a knight and I will do a post on them later, but what I am saying is they are piece’s with fixed moves, Raph can only protect Leo the way he knows how same goes for Donnie. But Mikey being the Queen can protect him however he needs to be protected, weather that’s being Doctor Feels, or!

Literally ripping open the fabric of space with his own portals. He can protect Leo however he needs to be protected his moves are not set

And as the Queen he can rally the board to help because the Queen Character is usually the one to do that

I would give more examples of this but I already made this post vary long

Summer 2022 KFP gijinka studies ~