So I got a Weird Theory and I'm Going to Try to Explain It

[FelineDreams]

 

So, I was spending some time thinking about the lore of the Don’t Starve franchise, mainly in the terms of its relations to chess. Then I got to thinking, what if we are looking at the board incorrectly.

First let’s match the pieces to their counterparts in the game starting with the rook before we go onto the knight, bishop, pawn, queen, and king.

The rook will rush towards the player, which plays well into the movement of the rook in chess. The rook can only move forwards, backwards, left, and right, it cannot however move diagonally which is seen in game since the rook can only go straight for its’ target. The word rook derives from the Persian word “rokh” which is the word for chariot. Chariots are often depicted as heavily armored, which is why the level 3 Shadow Rook has a whopping 10,000 health as well as the having highest damage of all the Shadow Pieces at any level while also having the slowest attack period. While we can see the clockwork rook charge at us (dealing 200 damage to the player), the shadow rook will teleport onto the player to deal a huge chunk of damage to them (45/100/165 depending on its’ level). The best you can do is to dodge and kite its attacks, else the player wants to find themselves as a ghost.

Next, we go onto the knight, also known as the queen killer due to it’s being able to move in a L shape which the queen cannot counter easily. The knight is placed between the bishop and rook on the board. In the game the knight attacks by extending its neck out to the player to attack with a headbutt. In chess its best to use this piece not with brute force in mind, but to strategize how best to use its movement to your advantage. In the right hands, a knight can turn the tables, but if you don’t properly utilize it these pieces would be lost easily. I think this is why the clockwork knight is known as the easiest of the clockwork pieces to beat, along with why you should beat the shadow knight first during the Shadow Pieces fight.

The final of the trio would be the bishop, on the board the bishop would be placed next to the queen and king. In chess the bishop can only set foot upon the tile of the same color they started on, in other words it can only move and capture diagonally. In Don’t Starve the clockwork bishop has a ranged magic attack, which leans well into its diagonal movement as well as the idea of a bishop being a spiritual protector of sorts. The shadow bishop turns into a bunch of bats that will follow the player around, which seems to be based on how sometimes while playing chess you are forced to play keep away with your opponent. Due to its limited movement in its shadow variant, it is also suggested to be the final one left during the fight.

Now onto the pawn, the pawn is seen as expendable despite its special ability to be promoted from pawn to any piece that has been captured. The pawn has the most limited movement, only able to move forward and capture diagonally, but is not to be underestimated due to its ability to be promoted to a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. The pawns in Don’t Starve are said to be the survivors, but after I finish my little spiel, you might see that may not be the case.

First before getting into that we should talk about the king and queen pieces. The king is basically if a pawn could move a few spaces forward, backwards, left, or right, the king is also a bit of a liability to their side since once the king is trapped by the opponent it’s game over right there. Now on the other hand, the queen has the most freedom of movement. This is why in Don’t Starve Charlie is able to attack from anywhere as long as you are in the dark and becomes more dangerous after taking the throne from Wilson.

So where am I going with this? Well, there are two opposing sides in chess, black and white, each side starts with an equal number of pieces. For the lore and story’s sake we will call these the dark shadow and light shadow pieces. We already know the majority of the dark pieces that are in play. Maxwell being the dark king while Charlie is the dark queen, the clockwork pieces are the ones that are next to the dark king while the shadow pieces are the ones on the dark queen’s side. So then, who would the pawns for the black pieces be? Well, those would be the many other hostile creatures that live in the Constant of course.

The light shadow pieces are the survivors, despite being considered pawns for the most part there are cases where a few of them fills some of the other roles. Wilson has taken the nightmare throne meaning he has been promoted from a pawn to a king (which is more checkers than anything, but I digress) therefor Wilson would be the light shadow king. I may be grasping at straws for the rest of these, but I would say that the DLC characters and DST exclusive ones would be the ones taking the roles as rooks, knights, and bishops. I would argue that the bishops are Wortox and Wanda due to their ability to basically teleport away from threats like a bishop can move away from pieces to save themselves from being captured. Now the knights would be Wurt and Winona, since they are characters that serve a supportive role where if used tactically can aid very well into a fight. The rooks would be Wormwood and Walter, though I may be stretching it with Wormwood. Walter is a rook instead of a knight because of Woby, Woby serves as Walter’s chariot which if you recall is what rooks were based on. Wormwood is a rook. Wormwood is a rook due to his ability to craft traps and armor relatively cheaply as well as his speed boost when their flower is bloomed, as I said I may just be grasping at straws with Wormwood here.

You now might be asking, who is the light shadow queen? Well, I shall propose this to you all, the light shadow queen was captured and became the dark shadow queen. Yep, Charlie is the queen of both sides, the dark half is the dark shadow, and the uncorrupted half is the light shadow. Then again you can argue that Willow is the light shadow, being just as iconic of a character as Wilson is as well as being the second unlockable character in the game.

Wait…

Hold on a minute here, I think I just had a bit of a breakthrough with this. Actually, now that I am typing this it makes more sense for Willow to be the light shadow queen due to what we see in her rework short. A younger Willow fleeing from shadows that seemed to be after her, making it so that the only place she feels safe is where there is light. In chess the queen is considered to be an advantage, so some players try to take out the opposing queen first. Willow being chased by shadows which are the dark pawns would seem that they are trying to remove an advantage.

Basically, the Board looks a little like this:

 

Spoiler

WX-78 isn’t included since he was probably brought to the constant by Wagstaff, who is technically a third player in the game. Meaning that WX, while still considered a pawn isn’t really a pawn at play if you can catch my drift. This goes as well for Don’t Starve DLC exclusive characters like Walani, Wilbur, Woodlegs, Wheeler, and Wilba as well as removed and unimplemented characters like Warbucks (who I headcanon as Wilson’s grandfather or great uncle).

 

Sorry if there isn’t much coherence to this, I began writing this after my ADHD brain decided to ask a question that led me through this rabbit hole. 

[The Starver]

That’s cool. One question though: Where is Maxwell in this? Or is he not affiliated with the chess game, having been deposed by Wilson?