#checkate

(1) riley's whole thing is that she wants the team to be worthy of not being called the "worst team ever" and prove herself as a worthy captain - chess had already achieved something similar through being a really freaking good gymnast worthy of going to the Olympics (I remembering reading a post or a fic back then that suggested that Riley could have resented Chess for um having all these opportunites and basically throwing it all away which could be another minor reason on as to why she killed her and I think that interpretation has some merit),

2) Cairo wants to have a closer friendship with Riley akin to the one they had way back then (woo Eighth grade woo) her umm i guess "obsession" (i don't think that's the right word fnsnd maybe investment?? interest???) towards Chess and Kate's friendship (which imo is rather apparent when she teases kate and when she and kate fight right after Phoenix) could be interpreted as jealousy especially towards Kate since she has what Cairo wants - a closer relationship with her best friend & a best friend that actually doesn't push her away

and 3) (although this is kinda wishful thinking on my part) i think both Riley and Cairo want the relationship that Chess and Kate have: a really close friendship that isn't competitive or concerningly codependent at all AND a friendship with healthy communication and a much healthier um support system (to be fair Checkate also had these problems i.e the scene before BTB but only the audience knows that, in Riley and Cairo's POV, everything is going fine between the two of them and (in Cairo's POV) both are basically girlfriends; also let's face it Checkate is a much healthier friendship that Cheerwives). It is rather obvious that both Chess and Kate value each other very much and as shown in Wallflower, that is exactly what Riley and Cairo want from each other: to be valued and to have their efforts be respected.

then i knOW that Riley, Cairo and Kate being the main MAIN characters of WATT (credits to @ari-is-anxious for the Soldier, Poet, King comparison, also really check out their tags on their posts cause their tag analysis are GREAT!!!) has i dunno sOMETHING to do with the whole checkate-cheerwives parallel thing BUT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS EXACTLY JDJSJV BUT LIKE UM in a sense of how Kate and Cairo react to the events in WATT, they are kinda um two sides of the same freaking coin cause um Kate - with her always at Chess' defense in Act 1 and wanting to avenge her death - kickstarts the plot of Act 2 by being the first to suggest that they should go to the police and by being the first to suspect that the killer is one of them (the latter is her very much on Defense mode - pun intended) then Cairo, who convinced everyone to frame Mattie in Defense which then also pushes the plot even further - starts IDK and goes on to suspect and question eVERYONE BUT RILEY aka her also going on the defensive because at this point i think it's very much agreed upon that by Wallflower Reprise, she already knew who the killer is).