#but rereading the final arc and seeing shinobu's unique relationship with this card was so interesting!!

[beldaroot]

before reading chihayafuru chapter 246 i was definitely a “‘se’ will be the winning card” truther lol. but during my reread of the final arc, i noticed that shinobu has a very distinct relationship with the ‘se’ card that may have foreshadowed that ‘se’ would not be read at the end and therefore, shinobu was destined to not win. 

in the first queen’s match, the ‘se’ card is the winning card. shinobu gets 'se’ though the referee had to call it her take since chihaya got the card at the same time. / chapter 219

immediately after her first win, shinobu encounters emperor sutoku-in, the author of the ‘se’ poem, as a foreboding presence behind her reciting the first verses of the poem. / chapter 220

for the second match, shinobu yet again takes the ‘se’ card. this time indicating that she is the one who knows the gods best while chihaya is being “mean” for placing the cards of the three vengeful spirits of japan, which sutoku-in is a part of, together. / chapter 223

for the third match, shinobu has the ‘se’ card on her side but it is never read and she questions whether sutoku-in will call out to her. / chapter 229 

after this match, watarai-san has a conversation with imada-san explaining how shinobu doesn’t appear to “really pay attention to [the ‘se’ card]” but “lost focus” towards the end, which appears to be the opposite of how chihaya looks at the ‘se’ card. / chapter 230

for the fourth match, shinobu again gets the ‘se’ card after chihaya tries to use it as an “uki-fuda.” however, this chapter shows that shinobu has “never understood” or actually heard sutoku-in’s voice through the ‘se’ card. regardless, she is still able to take the card even without sutoku-in calling out for her. / chapter 234

finally, for the fifth match, chihaya sends ‘se’ over to shinobu for the luck of the draw. given her past experience with the ‘se’ card, shinobu is betting yet again on ‘se’ and is now confident that she will win. even though in the last match it was discovered that sutoku-in has never called out to her, she believes that he is “choosing” her now because they both have felt isolated. shinobu thinks that by taking ‘se’ and winning, she might still be alone at the mountain top but she will at least have sutoku-in by her side in that loneliness. however, in the end, ‘se’ is not called and shinobu does lose her queen title, but she is able to reach the mountain top hand-in-hand with chihaya. / chapter 246

i think i was so focused on chihaya’s (and arata’s) relationship with the ‘se’ card and that i didn’t realize that shinobu also had a complicated relationship with the card via sutoku-in. 

i also find it extremely fascinating that the two matches where the ‘se’ card is not read, the winning card ends up being a taichi associated card: ‘tare’ for the third match and ‘tachi’ for the final match. this makes me feel like suetsugu has been purposefully showing shinobu’s lonely motif through the ‘se’ card. it might be a card about “meeting again” but it seems like for shinobu, it was always meant to emphasize her division from others. so, it’s almost reassuring that the ‘se’ card wasn’t read. it is the one card she never heard a voice for and drove her to further loneliness. it remains the 100th poem of the final match, alone on the playing field, which is the opposite of what shinobu herself is at the end of the match :’)