#bsd 77

Now, then, back to the topic of Fyodor’s Queen—Firstly (for those who don’t know much about chess), the queen (♕, ♛) is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally or diagonally, combining the power of the rook and bishop.

That’s why Dazai’s Queen being Lucy Maud Montgomery makes so much sense. Lucy moves so freely about the board (Sky Casino) that she manages to transport Atsushi midair to Anne’s Room while he was falling to certain death from the aerial tower. 

Sometimes, I feel like we don’t give her enough credit for all she contributes to the story and just how powerful her ability is. She freezes time inside her Room (she used it to store coffee beans!)—Anne’s Room isn’t in the least bit affected by the outside world—so mysterious is her ability that even she doesn’t know specific details about it such as the Key? Not to forget that however powerful be the ability users, inside her Room, they are at the mercy of Anne; that she carried the whole of the Sky Casino arc and to add she isn’t even part of the Agency?? Well, not officially, at least. Yeah, if it were not for Lucy, the Agency would have been done for before even they started. Well, I don’t particularly want her to join the Agency at the end of the story, just want her to keep doing what she likes, but I digress. 

To put it simply, the Queen is the one chess piece with the highest freedom of movement on the board. On Fyodor’s side, the only ability user with that kind of freedom is Gogol. Gogol’s ability is almost on par with Lucy, except he can’t disappear altogether into his overcoat. He has to appear somewhere else but again, there is no limitation over how much distance he could cover and how many things he could store with his spatial manipulation.

Seems pretty plausible, right?

But there are some drawbacks to this theory,,, I will explain both the cases: what if Gogol is the Queen and if he is not.

Gogol is the Queen.

One thing I noted is that Fyodor didn’t mention his Queen even once during the whole of Sky Casino arc. He plays with his Rook (Sigma) and moves his King once (idk what that means in real time or maybe it’s just a compulsory free move lol) but more or less whatever pieces he moves are the Rook or the pawns (I believe the residents of the Casino and the Hunting Dogs (??) are the pawns? No idea) 

Chess fun fact: you can checkmate with one rook and one pawn! See:

Overall, Fyodor’s movements were very minimal when compared to Dazai’s. Even Ango mentions this:

--and add to it Fyodor seeming surprised Dazai brings his Queen this early into the game:

What I am saying is that he did not move his Queen from its original position at all. Makes sense bc Gogol was out of the picture after the Wretched Chair arc. Gogol was believed to have died during that arc.  

Moving forward, during the final showdown just after Sigma surrendered and was willing to impart information about the Page to Atsushi, he sends in Hawthorne (his Bishop as per the above post) to ‘kill’ Sigma as well as Atsushi. But then, Dazai moves his Queen (Lucy) to help his Knight (Atsushi) and they end up capturing Hawthorne in the process. Sigma falls from the sky.

So far, so good.

Now comes the confusing part. If Gogol indeed is his Queen, then it’d mean he moved his Queen for the first time to save his Rook but sacrificing his Bishop in the process. Just like how Lucy saves Atsushi, Gogol saves Sigma. Or to say, Fyodor isn’t all that infallible as Ango or Dazai were saying just after their loss in the Sky Casino. He did have to make a choice between saving one or the other of the pieces, right? (See, I am trying to write this totally unbiased and not bring my secret shipping propaganda here) so setting that aside, what I don’t understand is why and how Sigma is more valuable to him than the blood manipulating pastor who has been doing exactly as per his biddings? At first, I wondered if he was gonna opt for castling with Sigma but he has already changed positions now so that isn’t possible either. Maybe, he didn’t expect Hawthorne attaching himself to Atsushi with a thin line of blood and getting himself captured?

idk seems off to me too, but let’s just keep going and see all kinds of questions this hypothesis raises—the hypothesis that it really was Fyodor who sent Gogol to save Sigma:

one] shooting Sigma was a calculated risk on Fyodor’s part to make him fall from the height to the waiting Gogol and to stop him from revealing the location of the Page to Atsushi (which he did anyway and which I believe Fyodor didn’t foresee) I might be making Fyodor more empathetic toward Sigma than he is (and I am sure I am wrong) but I do believe he didn’t mean to straight up kill him, for he didn’t make Hawthorne use any of the poison-blood-ink-bullets (whatever those are) that he used on Fitzgerald. Remember, how he wanted to off the guy to stop them from using God’s Eye but Kyouka foiled his attempt with her quick action? 

two] Fyodor was aware of Gogol not dying in the Wretched Chair arc. Gogol knows Fyodor knew about his escape too. He is playing the role of the Queen, after all. Maybe, all along that was the actual plan?  

three] Fyodor lied to Sigma about the Decay of Angels plan since Sigma genuinely believed Gogol (Queen) was gonna die in the very first move.

four] Gogol is lying to Sigma about Fyodor’s intentions for him. In chapter 98, he says that Fyodor is gonna be hellbent on killing him one way or the other because his assassination attempt had failed. That’s how he convinced him to join him in the jailbreak. 

But Fyodor is the one who sent him to save Sigma? Then, why is he lying? 

I can think of two reasons: 1] Gogol decided to forfeit being a piece in Dostoyevsky’s game right after he was sent to save Sigma and decided to turn his game on itself. That’s why he needs Sigma to find out Fyodor’s ability so he can kill him OR 2] both Gogol and Fyodor know the real plan and are lying to Sigma.

phew, I am tired why is all this so complicated lol but tl;dr: Fyodor knew Gogol was alive and was purposely not moving him; he sent Gogol to save Sigma from falling to his death; now they are both lying about the real purpose of the jailbreak or Gogol has decided to stop being his chess piece.

Gogol is not the Queen.

In this case, the story is pretty much linear and goes as Sigma says and believes. Gogol was truly meant to die during the Wretched Chair operation. And, Fyodor expected him to be dead too. 

So that, after escaping, Gogol secretly came to the Sky Casino of his own free will knowing that the next step in Decay of Angels’ plan is supposed to happen there. Then spotting Sigma falling from the sky, he saves him so he could use him to find out Dostoyevsky’s ability and kill him to free himself of ‘the brainwashing called feeling’. Well, this is quite simple and makes sense too compared to the first scenario which leaves me with more questions than answers if true lol

The only point I have here then: if Gogol isn’t Fyodor’s Queen, we haven’t met his Queen yet. It has to be some new character with an ability even more powerful than or on par with Lucy and Gogol, someone who can move freely about the board, someone who he hasn’t moved at all as of yet. Because of all the characters we met so far, I don’t think there is anyone else who fits the description? 

Of course, there is a third scenario that he started off without a Queen which is... impossible, lol.

Oh, and I agree with the post I linked above that Chuuya could be one of Dazai’s Rooks just like Sigma is to Fyodor.