Tsubasa double-feature: chapters 202 and 203

[nenena]

Chapter 203 in a nutshell.

First, Chapter 202. We begin where we left off, with FWR, Syaoran, Yuuko, and sleeping!Watanuki floating in the featureless void that allows CLAMP to get away without drawing backgrounds.

Yuuko repeats that Watanuki's future can be "changed," and tells FWR that his wish will never be granted. FWR repeats, for the umpteenth million time, that no matter what he WILL fulfill his wish to restore lost life. Doesn't matter than Clow Reed couldn't do it. Nope. FWR pwns Clow Reed and is totally going to do what Clow could not.

This entire exchange takes up six pages by the way. Six pages of nothing but dramatic facial expressions and dialogue repeated from previous chapters ad naseum. It adds nothing new to the story, it doesn't move the plot forward, it's just stupid. The only mildly interesting thing that happens is that both Yuuko and FWR look sad when FWR says that he will restore a lost life.

Then FWR gets all menacing again, and grabs Syaoran, chuckling, "And now you must pay the price!" Syaoran starts to melt. Aaaaaaaaaah! FWR gloats that Syaoran will remain his prisoner, unable to do anything but helplessly watch as the "twisted path" that he created unfolds.

FWR reaches for Watanuki, but Yuuko intervenes, pulling Watanuki away. "This child is not Syaoran," she says. "He will not fall into your hands."

"A-ha." FWR looks at Watanuki. "I see. He looks just like Clow Reed... So Clow must have anticipated this ridiculous plot twist as well." Jiggawhat? FWR continues, "But I seem to have discovered a totally awesome new secret power. I have made one into two. By winding back time, I have created duality. Kick-ass." Then he tells Syaoran, "If you won't bend to my will, then all I have to do is make another one of you. I HAVE HITHERO UNKNOWN CLONING POWERS which I have discovered all thanks to you, sweetikins. Sucks to be you right now."

Then FWR, still on a roll, continues to gloat to Watanuki. Who is sleeping and cannot hear him, but whatever. "You are a being who must not exist! You are a distortion! You will bring misery to all those around you, starting with your own parents!"

Yuuko covers Watanuki's ears. "Don't listen to him." Um, isn't Watanuki still stuck in a magical sleep? He doesn't look like he's listening anyway.

FWR and Syaoran continue to melt away. Yuuko holds Watanuki and tells FWR, "The time that this boy experiences, and the people that he meets, will bind him to life."

Watanuki's eyes slowly open.

Syaoran reaches one half-melted hand out to Watanuki and screams, "DON'T DISAPPEAR!!!"

Watanuki opens his eyes just in time to see Syaoran vanish.

Next, Chapter 203.

We're back in the present, which is actually the frozen past, I guess... Oh hells, I don't even know anymore. Anyway. We're back with Syaoran, Mokona, Fay, and Kurogane. Mokona asks, "So from that moment, until we met you for the first time in Tokyo...?"

"Yeah," Syaoran replies. "I was his prisoner. All those years. Until I reached the age that I had been when I wound back time. And that wish was such an enormous sin... I created a distortion so great that it changed nearly everything." He looks at Fay. "Even you. In the universe as it existed before I wound back time, it's possible that you weren't born as a twin. And you..." He turns to Kurogane. "Your mother and father... Might not have died the way that they did."

Mokona objects. "NO FUCKING WAY!"

You and me both, Mokona. Jesus tap-dancing Christ. So THIS is CLAMP's explanation for why the Clow Country portrayed in chapter 1 of the manga is so completely different from the Clow Country portrayed in Syaoran's flashback?! Christ, I thought that they had actually entered a parallel Clow Country, not that they had entered the SAME Clow Country and that the differences would all be hand-waved away by the idea of a nebulous magical "distortion."

Let's look at what that distortion is being blamed for:

Instead of being Sakura's biological father and the king, Fujitaka becomes Syaoran's adopted father and an archeologist. That leaves open the question of who the hell Sakura/Touya's parents are now.

Fay might not have been born a twin and originally would not have had such a ridiculously sucky life. For all we know, without being born as a twin, he could have lived happily ever after in his original world as a prince. Rather than, you know, being thrown onto a pile of corpses, left to rot, forced to witness the murder of his brother, brainwashed into believing that he had done it, forced to join with FWR, sent to Celes, finally found a loving butt-buddy only to have said butt-body transform into a man-eating monster, and finally being forced to meet, love, and then stab Sakura in the chest. GREAT.

As for what Kurogane's life would have been like without the time-distortion, I don't know. Maybe he would have been a pirate instead of a ninja. We may never know.

But either way, the look on both Fay and Kurogane's faces as Syaoran tells them this is PRICELESS.

Anyway, now Syaoran is standing in front of Kurogane and Fay, his hands clenched into fists, his head lowered. "So please choose," he tells them both. "Choose what comes next."

Kurogane steps toward Syaoran, fist raised.

"Kurogane, NO!" Mokona squeaks.

But Kurogane, instead of punching Syaoran, gives him a noogie. Then he sniffs and steps away.

Fay cups Syaoran's face in his hands and says, "We've already made our choice. So, you know." He pats Syaoran on the shoulders, like a puppy. "And Kurogane, you're more of a child than I thought."

Kurogane's all like "Snarl snarl WHAT?!"

Fay says, "Kurogane, you're sulking just because you saw the troubled look on Syaoran's face." Then he turns back to Syaoran. "You thought that we would leave you once you told us about your winding back time? Oh, come on. This is a CLAMP manga. Anyway, yes, you did violate a taboo... But you can't blame yourself for everything that happened afterward. Trying to shoulder the entire burden yourself isn't just stupid, it's arrogant, too."

Kurogane adds quietly, "If I'd gone through the same things that you did, if I had been asked to make the same choice... I think I would have. If it had meant being able to protect the ones that I wanted to protect."

Fay smiles. "I would have, too." Then he makes a fist. "But since you did violate one of the greatest taboos of the universe, you did get a little punch from Daddy." Wait, that counted as a punch? I thought it was a knuckle-noogie.

Fay continues, "And you also get this." Then he cups Syaoran's face in his hands again, and pulls him close. Syaoran looks up at him with tears in his eyes.

Mokona butts in, "You get something from Mokona too!" Mokona kisses Syaoran on the cheek. "Mokona really, really likes you, Syaoran!"

Syaoran holds Mokona and says, "Thank you."

Fay teases Kurogane. "So why are you still making a pouty-face?"

"Dude. Shut up."

Mokona bounces over to Kurogane and says, "Look, look! He's totally frowning and everything."

"Yeah but he's always frowning," Fay continues, with his usual smile.

Syaoran watches Mokona, Fay, and Kurogane doing their comedy routine, and think-bubbles to himself, I'm surrounded by people who completely accept me, sins and all. He thinks of Watanuki. I'm sure that you have people like that, too. People who are praying for you not to disappear. People who make you yourself not want to disappear, for their sakes.

So... don't disappear!

The chapter ends.

Next week: Please for the love of God, please please please let SOMETHING actually happen!