Jun 11, 2026
Author's Commentary #832:
Time to talk about Chapter 832: Spotlight #46: Anastasia.
When it comes to this series, I like to take risks in order to try and craft an engaging story. Perhaps one of the biggest risks I feel I've taken is in regards to the dynamics between Anastasia and Alya.
As both Russia and Ukraine have storied chess histories, the moment I committed to doing an international tournament arc in the form of the Chess Olympics meant I'd have to figure out what to do in regards to how these two countries interact in a fictional world. The easy way was to just invoke the power of fiction and have the IRL war between the two never occur here in the universe of this story, but a part of me felt that might offend Ukrainians. Thus, I decided to be a masochist to myself and decided to try tackling the touchy topic. For Anastasia and Alya, I wouldn't be surprised if sadly there are real-world equivalents of them. The worst part is, their split could have been avoided. I'll elaborate more on this when I do Alya's spotlight.
As for Anastasia herself, though she did make a drastic genre shift in terms of what content she now makes, she really enjoys it. Though she acknowledges that some of her old fans want the old her back, she has no intention of ever going back to being a full-time prankster. She'll do collabs of the sort occasionally, but now, her passion is politics, as it makes her feel like she's doing good for the world. The other big reason though is that doing pranks reminds her too much of Alya, whom she now hates with every fiber of her being. She also despises Russians as a whole, aside from pro-Ukrainian ones, as well as Raymond for allowing Russians to compete in tournaments as she believes that they should be banned until the ends of time because of the war, even though it has been over a year since the war ended in-universe.
One final fun fact about her is the fact that before she split with Alya, she used to have long hair. Following the split, she cut her hair short, to mark the new post-Alya chapter of her life. As a result, she'll never allow her hair to grow past her shoulders.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
