It’s a game of wits against Death himself. And it’s surprisingly funny. That’s the part that always surprises me.
Maybe it has to be, given the heightened premise of a knight returned from the crusades playing a lengthy game of chess against Death himself during the Black Plague. As serious and dire as the stakes are throughout the film, if there isn’t humor, then the entire concept of the story would seem silly on its own.
There was a line I got via some trickle-down teaching about writing dramatic stories: You need to find places to add some humor, or your audience will find the wrong places and add it themselves.
This Builds Character 
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