mood atm: currently rereading a lot of watt fanfics and also basically replaying the entire watt boot in my head for hints cauSE GODDAMNIT I KNOW THERE ARE SOME CHEERWIVES-CHECKATE PARALLELS HERE BUT I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON IT like obvious character traits aside (riley & chess being the friendlier ones in their respective duos and having um overachiever-ish traits in a way that they both seem to fear disappointing people whie cairo & kate are um not only attached and not-so-secretly in love with their best friends but also seem to be almost the polar opposites of both riley and chess in a way that both are very brash, stand-offish, and kinda bitchy), i really feel like there is something kinda eerily similar in their motivations and friendship dynamics. Like um i kinda feel like in a way, chess and kate are basically what riley and cairo want to be since um in my opinion:
(also credits to @ari-is-anxious for like a big chunk of my ramble cause a lot of the things im gonna say here are basically rephrased versions of their tag rambles so yea credits to them and go check them out!!) (Also check read more for a more lengthy and detailed ramble about um the cheerwives-checkate thingy)
(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).
So yea it is evident that the two girls want to preserve what is left of their respective relationships (kate kinda mentions this in the argument after Phoenix) by defending their best friends at any cost - thereby moving the plot. aND THEN THERE'S ALSO THE WHOLE THING ABOUT CHESS AND RILEY BOTH BEING FRAMED AS THE HEROES IN THIS SCENARIO (i have seen a lit of people say that they thought Chess was gonna be the hero here) AND THERE ARE A LOT MORE STUFF THAT I WANNA RAMBLE ABOUT BUT GOD I'M BAD AT BEING SPECIFIC JUST UM KNOW THERE IS SOMETHING THERE SO BRJFJSJDJ
