YMMV / Checkmate (Anla'Shok)

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sociopathic Hero Wolfe is a particularly iconic Victor despite not appearing until more than eighty chapters in, with his ally Sawyer and rival Basil also doing a lot to make his Games so notable.
  • Gilly's calculatingly clownish persona and braveness serving the Rebellion in several moments make her one of District 4's most popular Victors in the story even though she never gets much focus.
  • District 10's female Quell Victor-tribute is only shown in two chapters and doesn't even get a name, but is viewed with more interest than many other far more important Victors due to being a Rebel sympathizer who nonetheless collaborates with Snow to keep her family safe and winning her Games due to her Feel No Pain senses.
• Friendly Fandoms: Oisin55, Lorata, and Anla'Shok, who were posting stuff at the same time, often had Shout Outs to each others work and had an overlapping fan base. According to an Author's Note from the story Checkmate, its author, Anla'Shok once requested (and received) permission to "Rip off" a speech Jason makes about the impact parcel day has on the Outer Districts from Fall Into the River, and have Blight tell something similar to Mags as an implicit appeal to scale back on the consecutive career victories.
• Magnificent Bastard: Wolfe is an unstable but brilliant and charismatic District 2 victor who the rebellion selects as a tribute due to correctly believing that he can win the 66th Hunger Games and that his victory will motivate neutral outlier districts to become more resolved in hating the Hunger Games. Wolfe initially agrees to play his part in this plan because it appeals to his ego, but later becomes more committed to "leveling the power field" due to loyalty to his mentor Lyme and anger at being maimed and losing friends in the arena. As a tribute, he is a calculating manipulator and fierce warrior who terrifies Caesar Flickerman with some choice words and an intense stare, but nonetheless fights honorably against people he respects. During the rebellion, Wolfe helps to save Lyme and his surrogate brother Bahamut (her first Victor) from a cave-in. After the war, a bored Wolfe hacks into mutt controls to murder dozens of detestable Capitolites and presents a report on the security weaknesses to the authorities while convincing them to make him a Boxed Crook. He spends the rest of his life chasing down dangerous criminals while being idolized by the next generation.

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