The thing about writing a transformative work of something is that you get a look into how it was constructed and the different ways it works, and you see it differently. Sometimes this is good and leaves you with a renewed appreciation for the original, and sometimes you're writing a Fight Club pastiche and you realize just how much repetition is in Fight Club.

I digress.

I have been working on a Westing Game AU of Modao Zushi, in that I'm dropping the basic conceit on MDZS. And one thing I have been struggling with is the climax. I have the build-up. I have the basic ending. But-- what happens at the climax? I have the beginning of what, but what happens? Because I don't want to make JGY the bad guy, it feels wrong? It doesn't feel like it would fit at all. I don't wanna do it.

And then a lightbulb hits me and it's like... the Westing Game has no bad guy.

The Westing Game has no antagonist.

The Westing Game is a murder mystery without a murder. The climax is when the mystery is figured out. It's all internal. And there's no bad guy.

If there is an antagonist, it's Sam Westing.

Sam Westing is not presented as the antagonist by the text. Every heir is better off for having taken part in the Westing Game. Even Judge Ford gets some kind of closure by being able to pay Westing back.

Which led me to being like "omg Sandy you broke character". That moment when Ford tells Sandy that Westing paid for her education and so she rightly recuses herself from any case having to do with Westing, and Sandy's like "I DID NOT PAY FOR YOUR EDUCATION TO BUY A JUDGE WHAT THE FUCK JOSIE-JO".

Whereas that doesn't make much sense for Sandy to give Westing the benefit of the doubt. But Westing is so caught up in this idea of himself that even though he's badmouthing himself, he still has to go "okay look I paid for your education because you're a bright kid unlike my own."

But also, that unlike my own? Shouldn't really be stricken out.

And having thought about this, I went back to my Table Of Westing Heir Ages that I'd put together for the Sydelle Pulaski Wins The Westing Game fic and compared ages.

Sandy is 65. Judge Ford is 42. Judge Ford is the first promising kid whose education was funded by Sam Westing. Also, Crow is 57. Crow's not old enough to be Judge Ford's mother (aside from, well, biologically, but when Ford was born, Crow wouldn't marry Westing for another year), but Sandy's old enough to be her dad. He taught her chess. He was never kind to her.

And her experiences of him led her to join the Westing Game with one purpose: protect the person that Westing has constructed this entire thing in order to hurt. Because Ford, if not the narrative, fully believes that Westing is the antagonist of his own game.

Because she last saw Westing when she was 12 and her time with Sam Westing before then was playing a game with him that she never won, with him berating her the whole time, and it's doubtful she actually wanted to be playing with him in the first place.

I think Sandy and Judge Ford's interactions are the most Westing that Sandy is? Possibly because I think the people we see Sandy interact with the most with are Turtle and Judge Ford, but, like, there's this bit:

Sandy fidgeted with his pen. “There’s something I didn’t write down. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you, you being a judge and all, but, well, Jake Wexler . . . he’s a bookie.”

No, he should not have told her. “A small-time operator, I’m sure, Mr. McSouthers,” the judge replied coldly. “It can have no bearing on the matter before us. Sam Westing manipulated people, cheated workers, bribed officials, stole ideas, but Sam Westing never smoked or drank or placed a bet. Give me a bookie any day over such a fine, upstanding, clean-living man.”

The doorman’s face reddened. He pulled the dented flask from his hip pocket and downed several swigs.

Judge Ford: Sam Westing was a terrible person.

Sandy: I'm sitting right here!

Also since I'm quoting, I noticed this vividly on last review, and it suddenly seemed poignant. Sandy's bio on himself says "Married, six children, two grandchildren." Sandy's inventing a life for himself where he's a family man with lots of children and grandchildren.

Which brings back around to Turtle and Judge Ford.

Angela is Violet, a comparison so clear that Crow makes it explicit*. And then there's Turtle, whose clearest connection is Judge Ford. Violet didn't have any siblings. Judge Ford was older than Violet. But there was the daughter who wasn't what Westing valued, and then there was a young girl who Westing saw himself in. Westing reinvented himself from Windy Windkloppel, changed his name, stuck that new name on a town, rode that ambition. I'm unclear how much formal education he had, but he funded Judge Ford's and he funded Turtle's. He gave them their starts, his own sort of way of helping others who were like him succeed.

And in the end, Sandy on his deathbed is joking around with Turtle about having paid for that education, and it's so different from the way Judge Ford sees it. Judge Ford sees it as Westing trying to buy her, not knowing what she'd grow into, but seeing the Westing connection as a problem to deal with and recuse herself from. How much did Westing ever think about her?

He named her one of the Westing heirs, but I doubt he saw her as an actual heir. Although it'd be amazing to see what he would have done if Ford had won the game...

And then there's Turtle, young enough to be his granddaughter, who is probably related to him in some way (Westing's obit says no siblings, so if that's true, Grace is probably a cousin). And Turtle won his game. And Turtle wanted to keep playing. And Sandy was always nice to her. From the start, Turtle was an heir, not a pawn.

I have nothing to end with here, except the list of people Sandy plays chess with:

Judge Ford: plays until the age of 12, never wins a game

Turtle: never played a game against "Sandy", first wins a game in college against Eastman, wins The Westing Game

and... Theo. Who falls for Sandy's queen's sacrifice gambit.

And just to tie a ribbon on the "children Sandy didn't have" theme, Theo's dad was the man Violet wanted to marry.




*notably, in all the talk of heirs, when Crow thinks she's won the game, she says half of the winnings goes to the soup kitchen and the other half goes to Angela. Crow knows who her heirs are.