I thought this was going to be about the Shakespeare play. Is Othello another name for Go?  Because I'm pretty sure that's what they were playing.

(( Hey Aelanie and Riddle of Epicurus,

My fault.  I wasn't really that familiar with Go, and... so I thought they were playing the game Othello.

But... I don't think they're playing Go.  I went back and rewatched the scene, again.  And... here are some other reasons why I think they're playing Othello (or Reversi)

First, the board is 8 x 8.  I think the smallest Go board I've seen is 9 x 9.

Next, the first time you see the board, it looks like this:

G = open space
B = Black tile
W = White Tile

ABCDEFGHI
1GGGGGGGG
2GGWGGGGG
3GGGWBWGG
4GGGBWGGG
5GGGWBGGG
6GGWGBBGG
7GGGGGGBG
8GGGGGGGG

Sorry about the bad picture of it.  Anyway, one of the reasons I thought it was Othello was that A-4 and B-5 were Black while A-5 and B-4 were white.  That's the initial 4 pieces set onto the Othello board, before you start the game.

In addition, the tiles are set into the green squares, not at where the diving lines cross.  Also, the board appears to be green felt.

The next board looks like this:

ABCDEFGHI
1GGGGGGGG
2GGWGGGWG
3GGWWBBGB
4GWWBWWGW
5GGWWBWWW
6GGBWBBGW
7GWGGGGBG
8GGGGGGGG

Again, sorry about the typing of it.

Anyway... I think this does lead to some impossible moves in Othello / Reversi (I'd have to actually set the board up to see if I could go from Board 1 to Board 2)... but, to me, they're playing Go like its Othello.

So... maybe they mixed Othello and Go, so as to add a spot of ambiguity as well?

EDIT: Thought about this while at work today.  Anyway, I looked up some info about Go, in comparison to Othello.  Maybe that's the whole point of the board game.  Go and Othello look very similar, but play completely differently.  So... maybe Utena is playing one "game", while Akio is playing another, yet Utena thinks they are both playing the same thing.  If that makes sense.

Anyway, I'm sorry I messed up Go and Othello. ))

Last edited by CarolineWellwater (10-19-2015 06:42:59 PM)

Agreed; they are playing Othello, no doubt at all about that.  And that's a more obviously resonant choice than Go anyway; Othello, unlike Go, is a game where white can become black and vice versa.  It would be possible (even interesting!) to construct a Go game that had symbolic resonance with the situation -- have a white formation that seemed to be alive, but could be subverted and killed.  But understanding that symbolism would take more expertise on the part of the audience.

Dallbun describes the game as "completely unreasonable;" let's add "impossible."   Here are two of the board states:





One impossibility here is the transformation of the piece on c3 (the far bottom left piece in the first picture) from white to black.  It can't have been flipped through a vertical, horizontal, or down-diagonal move, because in the second picture there are no pieces to its left, bottom, top-left, or bottom-right.  It would have had to be flipped through an up-diagonal move.  But for that to happen, Akio would have had to place a black stone on b2 (far bottom left in the second picture).  In fact, the stone on b2 is white, and because c3 is the only stone touching it, there's no way the b2 stone could have been black in the first place.  This Othello game could not happen in reality -- or else Akio is cheating.  (But we knew that already.  )

ETA that I am giggling while imagining that Utena has no idea how to play Othello but is faking it because she doesn't want to look bad in front of the long-legged older man, so she's just moving randomly while Akio does whatever he pleases with the pieces on the board.

Last edited by satyreyes (10-21-2015 10:27:51 AM)