Why I hate the anime chess scene (aka. I still refuse to let it go a year later)
I wrote about how this scene establishes Zod's character and also his and Desir's dynamic pretty much perfectly, but how did the anime 'ruin' it? I mean, a scene can be bad for a large number of reasons, but "ruin" or "destroy" is a completely separate term that I think shouldn't be thrown around so easily.
The problem is that the scene doesn't work anymore.
In both the novel and the manhwa, Desir doesn't win the chess match because he is better than Zod, he wins because he makes him hurry. He says in the novel, that he never defeated him in chess before, and also that he is now at a disadvantage, because this Zod plays differently than in the future, so he doesn't know how he will react to his moves.
The only reason he manages to win, is because Zod has a meeting in less than half an hour, and he is a cocky old man, and makes a harsh move that loses him the match.
After this, Desir shows him his idea, and he pretty much loses any and all interest in anyhing that isn't this new shiny thing that he doesn't understand. He cancels his meetings, he gives Desir his credit card, he does not give a fuck! He needs to know what Desir did and he needs to know it NOW! That's his character. This side of him is shown in the novel and manhwa multiple times. If there's a shiny new magic trick he will not care about anything else but that.
And the anime made Desir show him the 'shiny new magic trick' before finishing the match. If Zod's character is the same as the novel and manhwa one, there is no meeting anymore. There is no 'I only have x minutes I need to hurry'. There is no 'There's no way this kid can beat me'.
There is however 'Oh fuck, I have to win, no, I NEED to win, I NEED to know how he did that, I can't risk not winning, there's too much on the line.' and Desir, if this scene made any sense, would now lose. Lose the match, lose the sponsorship, lose the whole story.
And he knew it. He knew how Zod works, he knew how to make him lose, and he made him lose in every other iteration of this story, except for the anime, because anime Desir is apparently a fucking idiot.
And that's why I'm not excited for the 2nd season, and why I hate everything about this, because the story should be over. Desir lost. He didn't have to, of course, but the anime needed half an episode of filler, so something had to be cut, and you know, why not the chess scene? It doesn't have any significance after all. Not like you can ruin the whole show by cutting it, right?
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