Chess isn’t always competitive. Chess can also be… beautiful. It was the board I noticed first. It’s an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it. I can dominate it. And it’s predictable, so if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in THEQUEEN’SGAMBIT (2020)
-For crying out loud. Hey, Beth? Fuck you. Shaibel isn’t the only one who kept after you all these years. I know how you lost to Benny Watts in Vegas and then beat him in Ohio. I read the papers. Even on a group trip into town, I spent my ice cream money on the damn chess magazine had your ugly face on it. For a time, I was all you had. And for a time, you was all I had. We weren’t orphans. Not as long as we had each other. You understand what i’m saying? I’m not your guardian angel. I’m not here to save you. Hell, I can barely save me. I’m here because you need me to be here. That’s what family does. That’s what we are.
Say what you will about Azula, but when her first kiss turned out to be a fuckboy who disregarded her feelings and only liked her because she was pretty, her reaction was to trash his party and burn his house down. She’s living out the fantasy of too many girls.
Sometimes I think I have felt everything I’m ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I’m not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.
