Falling asleep alone only to wake up with a collar strapped around your neck, chained to the bed post. Seeing a stranger walk in and coo at you mockingly, don’t you look so precious. You’re going to be a useful little puppy I can just tell. Starting to shake and cry in fear as they grab onto you and wrestle you to the bed, gripping their hand around the back of your neck to keep you pressed firmly against the mattress. Slamming themselves into your unprepared hole while you lay there and take it because they’re so much stronger than you.
Ok@luckydragon10, you inspired me with that chess post so I’m going to attempt to tackle this knight discussion as best as I can because I do agree that their placement seems somewhat peculiar. I will undoubtedly go off on a few chess tangents in this post, so I’ll apologize in advance.
Usually, the knights are facing forward, toward the opponent. More than likely, the pieces were set up facing Kim simply to show them off, but because chess plays such a symbolic role in Korn’s plans, I think their positioning is notable to emphasize Kim in relation to the knight piece specifically. (Hopefully you won’t mind if I use your original picture from your post.)
So far, we seem to have established that Porsche is the queen piece and Kinn is the king piece because, while Kinn receives protection and remains the focus of the game, Porsche leads this protection. Also, not to get too far off, but I would argue that the queen piece is the main character of the game because she is the most powerful piece; that being said, she also needs protection because, while it’s possible to win without her, it becomes much more difficult for the king to stay protected. All of this aligns with Kinn and Porsche as characters so far. KP are both main characters, but Porsche gets the limelight in the context of the show while Kinn gets the limelight in the context of his world within the show. Porsche is more of a traditional main character because his struggles are more typical of standard protagonists (not to say Kinn isn’t a main character, but I think this distinction is worth making).
Before I get into Kim and knights, I’m going to break this down a little clearer based on my own conclusions about the character-chess symbols:
Kinn: King
Porsche: Queen
Korn: Player
Kim: Knight
*Going by these matches, I would say Vegas is the opposing king and Pete (eventually) the opposing queen? But Pete is currently on Kinn’s side, so we’ll have to wait and see how this match pans out. *EDIT:@cornyonmains made an interesting post about the potential for Pete representing the bishop piece, which you can read about more here.
Kim as a Knight
So, Kim as a knight. Inside and outside of chess, knights are defenders of the crown. I was originally inclined to name bodyguards like Arm, Ken, and Big as knights in this metaphor, but reading your post made me think about just how much Kim suits this piece.
Unlike pawns, knights have resources that others do not have. They work in service of the crown, but they are afforded a level of respect that other defenders do not typically receive. So far, this aligns with Kim as the third son of the mafia. He has resourcesandstatus. Knights are also often well-trained; good ones learn the weaknesses of their enemies before striking. Finally, knights are not in the spotlight. They defend behind the scenes, as Kim seems to be doing. A devoted knight would reasonably do some digging into his king’s allies. Kim probably assumes that Porsche is a traitorous knight (notice I say knight instead of pawn, though I could also see Porsche as a rook in Kim’s eyes) who could easily gain power and retaliate against Kinn—that’s one of the reasons why he has decided to investigate him (in addition to trying to unveil his father’s secrets). I think Kim would be even more passionate about his investigation if he knew that Porsche was actually the queen. Kim doesn’t realize how closely connected Kinn and Porsche are; otherwise, I wonder if he would take more concrete action to warn Kinn about Porsche (even though the audience knows that he has no reason for concern about Porsche’s motives). It also makes me wonder just how much Kim knows about Kinn’s past relationship with Tawan. Could that be one of the reasons why Kim is so devoted to learning more about Porsche—to protect his brother from another betrayal? I think his efforts would make even more sense if he knew what happened to Kinn before.
(*Had to include a smiling picture of Kim because Jeff deserves to be looked at.)
Bringing this all back to the chess metaphor: Kim as a knight is unique.Knights are the only piece that move in an ‘L’ formation, capable of hopping over other pieces. How does this relate to Kim? Well, Kim’s storyline feels very separate from the rest of the plot, and I think this is why. The settings and mood all feel different, very loosely connected to the main plot. Kim is (at least in my opinion from what we know) trying to weed out potential issues, but he’s doing so at a distance 1) because it’s safer and probably more fruitful and 2) because we know he really doesn’t want to be involved in the mafia life if he doesn’t have to. It’s better this way.
Korn as the player
Now, to bring Korn back into this. As the player, he has control of all pieces; however, we’ve seen him steadily lose control over the past few episodes. Kim has gone rogue in his attempts to dig into Porsche’s background and Kinn consistently pushes against Korn’s orders by pursuing Porsche. Korn’s greatest fear at this point is losing control, but I think he’s beginning to realize how quickly it’s slipping away from him. I suspect he will take stronger action soon to retaliate (like he did when he sent Porsche to work with Vegas in Ep7).
Ok, as promised, I went off quite a few times, but this is my general interpretation of Kim as a knight in the chess metaphor. I’ll probably think of more connections later, but hopefully this made some sort of sense. The chess metaphor is ultimately so fruitful that it would be a shame not to dive into it at every opportunity. It’s not completely straightforward, but I think there are some natural connections we can make. :)
