Oct 29, 2024
Author's Commentary #150:
Time to talk about the Season 5 intro chapter, Chapter 150: The Red Reaper of Prussia.
We're shifting back to Fairy league, however, the main focus is not on them, but on the new long-term antagonist, Red Reaper. He actually came to be mainly because I watched too much Youjo Senki. And yes, I had Jingo Jungle playing when I wrote this chapter and commentary. While this was originally his debut chapter, I ended up retconning things to have him appear in Chapter 25 back in Season 1, as well as in Chapter 66 of Season 2. This chapter was also originally part of Season 4, but after I revised Season 4, I decided to have this serve as the intro to Season 5, as the original intro chapter for Season 5, A WWCF meeting, now Chapter 131: Emergency meeting, is part of Season 4. The swap made sense as at the time, I only posted the Chapter to debut Red Reaper, and it helps each season flow better. Now let's talk about Charlie Beagle.
チャーリー・ビーグル (Charlie Beagle) is how his name is spelled in katakana. He's an obvious homage to Snoopy from Peanuts who infamously fights against the Red Baron.
His birthday is October 2nd which was the day Peanuts first launched.
He's never played chess, so he doesn't really have a favorite piece, but it would probably be the knight.
レッド・リーパー・フォン・リヒトホーフェン (Red Reaper von Richtofen) is how his name is spelled in katakana. His original name was Frederick von Richtofen, however, he adopted the name, Red Reaper upon becoming an undead lich. フレデリック・フォン・リヒトホーフェン (Fredrick Richthofen) is how his old name would be spelled in katakana. Alternatively, he can also be referred to as
赤い死神 (Akai shinegami) which is the Japanese translation of Red Reaper.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His birthday is May 2nd which he shares with the Red Baron himself, Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen. Obviously, Red Reaper is literally based off him, and might even be his ghost in this universe. His rating of 2780 is also a nice reference to the fact that the Red Baron shot down 80 planes during his career.
His favorite piece is the bishop, mainly because he believes they are the most fighter-plane-like piece on the board. Though the king is a close second since he views himself as king of the skies.
Red Reaper's actually the head enforcer of the Desperado league and the member with the most kills. He prefers to have the DESPER matches take place in the skies, but he also enjoys crushing people in matches on the ground too. As shown at the end of Season 2, he's also seemingly not bound by the rule that prevents Desperados from killing each other. More will be revealed about him as the story progresses.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
