Sep 04, 2025
Author's Commentary #552:
Time to talk about Chapter 552: Barbecue boots on.
Whelp, I got the game done. And of course, now's the time to do some overdue character bios.
ジョエル・デュエンディンク (Joel Duendink) is how Joel's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is August 29th, which he shares with Swedish streamer and content creator, Joel Varg Johansson, aka Vargskelethor.
His favorite piece is the rook.
As stated earlier, he's a Vargskelethor Joel homage. The song he sings is a parody of the BBQ Pit boys' theme, Barbecue shoes. Joel actually did a remix of the song for one of his Vinewrestle videos, which featured a cyborg caricature of a pit boy. That served as the inspiration for this Joel.
ジーン・パッカード (Jean Packard) is how Packard's name would be spelled in katakana.
His birthday is July 13th, whihhe shares with English actor, Sir Patrick Stewart.
His favorite piece is the knight, because of the Four Knights Game opening.
An obvious parody of Captain Picard from Star Trek, I felt that by naming the opening, "Four Lights Gambit", I had to throw in a parody cameo. And of course, he likes to shout "Four lights" and "Four knights", playing the Four Knights Game whenever he can. A fun trivia story about Sir Patrick Stewart, the actor who plays Picard, is that prior to a scene where he played chess in an X-Men movie, he had never played chess before, nor had his co-star, Sir Ian McKellen, resulting in a chess master having to teach them how to play on set.
ミルキア・パカオ (Milkia Pakao) is how Milkia's name would be spelled in katakana. Милкиа Пакао (Milkia Pakao) is how her name would be spelled in Serbian (Cyrillic). Her surname is Serbian for "Inferno".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
Her birthday is December 19th, which she shares with Yugoslav grandmaster, Vasja Pirc.
Her favorite piece is the queen.
Milkia's design has actually been in reserve since late May or early June. She's not the sole owner of Inferno's den, but she is one of it's top dogs.
As for the game, the opening featured in it technically isn't named beyond just "English Opening", so I'll take the liberty of dubbing it the English Opening: Four Lights Gambit. An obvious reference to the Star Trek Next Generation episode, Chain of command, this explains the parody of Picard, Packard's cameo. As for the man himself, he'll get a more proper introduction alongside some of Inferno's den's other rogues in the next chapter.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
