#chessgate lol

This was originally a reblog but then I discovered blade runner lore and things escalated.

Let's elaborate on this post just for funsies:

Although in chess it's 16 pieces per side, it's still a great idea and imo the exact number wouldn't matter that much - what's far more suspicious is that it's 12 "pieces" on either side.

In the video we can see El and Henry moving a lot of their pawns. Then Henry's bishop takes El's knight and El in return takes the bishop with her pawn.

The opening appears to be the Van 't Kruijs Opening which is not exactly an often used opening or a good oone. Actually, it's so bad that even I, who does not seriously play chess can tell it's bad. The pawn movements seem very simple, El and Henry are basically just mirroring each other with their pawns. So I think that beginning sequence does not bear any significance and was chosen so Millie and Jamie could focus on their performance in the scene.

Then we have Henry's bishop taking El's knight. Which as we know is suspicious, since nowadays everyone calls Lucas a knight. Even more so, Lucas is the character continuously telling us to watch out and think. So that might be foreshadowing.

I can't find anything interesting for the bishop. But what's really cool is that the chess set is the same as the one in the movie blade runner:

This is a summary of Blade runner from imdb:

In short, we have the "replicants", humaoid robots, who rebell against humanity and our protagonist has to killed. However, the main character gets to know a replicant, Rachael, falls in love with her and begins to question what it is that makes you human. The movie appears to have a very inception-like ending (Inception's ending basically being: "does it really matter if it's a dream or reality when you're happy?") It ends with us not really knowing if the main character is a replicant as well. There is also a big deal around immortality and the replicants' life spans (which range from 4 years to immortality according to model if I understand correctly).

Another thing that's really interesting about blade runner is that there are different cuts. This may be a good moment to mention that I haven't watched blade runner yet, so here's a redditor's explanation and a news article if you want to diver deeper and judge for yourself (or skip ahead to my sumamry):

Summed up: There are several endings and several blade runner versions: A tacky one, featuring the main character and his love interest driving off into the sunset while brushing off the major questions and ignoring the movie's themes. And a second darker one that leaves it open to interpretation whether the main characters are replicants. There's also a unicorn dream that can be interpreted in several ways, and some of the different cuts focus more on Rachael's fake memories that make her believe she is human.

But back to the Chess game: It's played between Dr. Tyrell, the creator of the replicants, and Roy Batty, a replicant - who is apparently the main antagonist. They replay the so-called "Immortal game" that has been played in real life by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritky in a tournament in the 19th century. In the game, Anderssen who plays white wins by sacrificing all his pieces, as does Roy.

In a way, Henry of course can stand in for Anderssen and Roy, sacrificing everything for immortality. -> He does have an obsession with the rigidity of life and he de-facto turns immortal by transforming into Vecna, didn't he? By doing so he offers everything (human) of himself However the comparison does not really make sense because El is not Henry's creator, it's rather the other way around. So maybe that's a bit of a reach and we should back down to the blade runner reference.

Okay so let's just reconsider all of this: We have a chess floor in S5 that references a chess board in S4 that references a movie where there are different endings, one of them an over-the-top happy ending that doesn't fit the movie style. A movie where memories are the key to being yourself. Interesting.