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This month's Tsubasa: Chapters 213, 214, and 215
First! In my continuing quest to completely ruin Watchmen for my flist, I now present you with two links of brain-breaking awesome:
One! Two!
You have no idea how much I wish that that last one was a real thing. No idea. If only because it would send Alan Moore into an apoplectic, frothing raaaaaaaaage that would inevitably provide far more entertainment value than the series itself.
Oh hey, speaking of that bit between Eddie and Laurie...
It's time to recap three weeks' worth of Tsubasa again. Siiiiiigh. Oh well. I'm home sick on a Friday night, so I might as well channel my snarky rage into doing something productive. For certain limited definitions of "productive."
So, here we go. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle chapters 213, 214, and 215.
One Sakura to rule them all,
One Sakura to find them,
One Sakura to lead them all
And in the darkness bind them.
(Sorry, couldn't resist. Sakura has been more of a lifeless prop than an actual character for the majority of this series, anyway.)
Chapter 213.
LAST MONTH! The "reservoir" part in this series's title was just starting to make sense. According to Google and three spellcheckers, "series's" is the correct way to modify series to show possession. WTF, English.
Also, Clow Country = Tokyo. WTF, CLAMP.
Anywhoo.
"Yes," FWR says, "That is correct. Your WTF faces amuse me and my manga-writing overlords. Beneath this reservoir is..."
I dunno what's beneath the water, because now we cut to dead!Sakura floating around and being all glowy-like.
Mokono looks down into the water and sees ZOMG the capsule that contains the feather that Sakura left behind in Tokyo!!! ZOMG!!! The capsule breaks open!!! ZOMG!!! One of Sakura's feathers is inside!!! ZOMG!!! It emits a huge glaring burst of light!!! ZOMG!!! FWR says, "That is the feather that the princess left behind of her own free will." Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Moving on. Now we get to the best part of this month's run of chapters, in my humble opinion: Mokona finally freaks the fuck out.
"Sakura left that feather in Tokyo to protect the people there! They couldn't survive without water!" Now this little marshmallow-puff thing is screaming hir lungs out at FWR while tears fly from hir squinty little eyes. "SAKURA IS A KIND PERSON!! Syaoran told us about how the water here tried to protect her! Because the water KNEW - the water knew how Sakura once left her feather to protect IT! But you--! BUT YOU--!! You can't use that feather to make everyone sad! YOU CAN'T!!"
FWR just looks down at the hysterical little creampuff, and smirks.
The feather floats up into the air, through the space-time rip, into FWR's dimension, and is absorbed back into Sakura's body.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" Fay shouts. (Why? Because her getting more feathers is suddenly a bad thing?)
Kurogane tries to move toward Sakura, but he can't move. "I can't... move..." Thank you, Exposition Ninja.
Then the background artwork suddenly goes psychedelic.
"Something's weird!" Mokona exclaims.
Next we see Syaoran, posed dramatically on top of a rock - oh wait, it's like he's trying to run but frozen in place. His hand is outstretched toward... the swirl of black goo that ate up loli!Sakura... OH WAIT. Loli!Sakura's hand is still sticking out of the goo, reaching for Syaoran.
Wait, WHAAAAAAAT?!
I checked and double-checked the artwork from chapter 212 and hey, y'all, CLAMP totally made it look like Sakura was swallowed up completely and Syaoran failed.
But I guess that... she... wasn't?
If Sakura was still reaching for Syaoran, then what the frackin' hell has Syaoran been doing all this time? I thought he was supposed to be racing against time to reach Sakura's hand before the goo finished eating her up. But instead, Syaoran's had time to stop in his tracks, stand frozen while FWR goes all exposition-y about Tokyo appearing in the middle of Clow Country, do nothing while Sakura's left-behind feather put on a lightshow, and furthermore, apparently stood still and listened during Mokona's freakout.
WAY TO RACE AGAINST TIME THERE, HERO.
Unless Syaoran has been frozen for a while, the same as Kurogane and Fay?
Thanks for making that clear, CLAMP.
Anyway, Syaoran is still reaching for loli!Sakura's hand, gritting his teeth, and exclaiming "Dammit!" I really can't tell if this is because he's frozen in place by FWR, or because loli!Sakura is floating high above the water and impossible for him to reach, or what.
But who cares. CLAMP doesn't need to resort to storytelling logic in order to prolong thisromantic stupidity of Syaoran trying to reach Sakura's hand, they're just going to go ahead and drag it out over three chapters to make the now-inevitable moment when Syaoran finally does succeed in taking her hand seem like a real emotional payoff.
This isn't going to work. But they're going to try.
Oh look, FWR took back the Exposition Hat. Go, Exposition Hat, go! "Her body, engraved with the memories of many dimensions. And the feather, sleeping for eons beneath these ruins, which holds unfathomable power. With this power, I will smash apart the chains connecting the many dimensions."
Sakura's corpse turns into pure light, and her wings sprout from her back.
"As the dimensions break apart, the most fundamental laws of the universe will collapse as well. And finally, the dead will be able to return to life!"
FINAL PAGE: Oh hay LOOK, suddenly we're shown overlapping panels of scenes from various dimensions that Our Heroes have visited, mostly showing various peoples having I-feel-a-great-disturbance-in-the-force moments. Hanshin, Nihon, Infinity, Shura, that dimension with the rabbit critters, that French world, Fairy Park, and...
Oh, what's that I see?
Clow Country!Yukito and Clow Country!Touya, staring on in horror as the ruins are engulfed by a giant sand storm?
Why yes, yes it is.
OKAY, CLAMP, YOU'D BETTER FUCKING RESOLVE THIS QUESTION of whether there's one or two Clow Countries soon, OR MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE.
Evidence for the Two Clow Hypothesis:
1. When Syaoran made his original "set back my time" wish, it caused reality-altering ripples throughout all dimensions. In order to protect Clow Country from being altered, Yuuko confesses that she separated it from the space-time continuum. Which resulted in the ruins being frozen at the moment of Sakura's goo-impregnation for seven years. This also resulted in the endlessly-repeating time loop, everybody in the rest of Clow Country experiencing the same evening over and over again for seven years, until they eventually dissolved into goo themselves.
2. And yet! At that moment, FWR also created the Syaoran clone and sent him to live... in Clow Country... and the clone experienced seven years growing up with Sakura and Fujitaka. In a Clow Country that had been significantly altered compared to the Clow Country that real!Syaoran experienced, just as Yuuko had warned him would happen.
The only way that this can make sense is if there is more than one Clow Country. Maybe a copy-but-altered Clow Country was spawned at the moment when Syaoran made his reality-fucking wish?
I don't see any other way that Cloney could have grown up and experienced seven years in Clow Country, despite the fact that Yuuko claims to have separated Clow Country from time (which in turn created the time loop)... Unless there was more than one Clow Country. One frozen/looping, the other reality-altered but with a normal passage of time.
Evidence for the One Clow Country hypothesis:
1. If there are two Clow Countries, then there are three Sakura. One of the Sakura who was reverted back to a loli, then frozen in time, when Syaoran made his wish. The other is the Sakura who grew up with Cloney in the other Clow Country. The third is the clone that FWR created. Remember, he cloned a fourteen-year-old Sakura, not the loli. The problem is, that leaves one of the three Sakura - the one who grew up with Cloney - completely unaccounted for. Other than FWR mentioning that he kidnapped her, cloned her, and destroyed her body... Well, other than that, we haven't heard head nor tails about her since. Is her soul still floating around out there, somewhere? Did her soul perhaps merge with loli!Sakura in the "real" Clow Country at some point? Does CLAMP even care? Do they even remember that their own internal storytelling logic has spawned three Sakura, not two?
2. It is entirely possible that loli!Sakura was frozen inside the ruins of The One True Clow Country this whole time, while a copy of herself ran around and had a (second) normal childhood with Cloney. That would be super-weird, but it would explain a lot about Sakura's reaction to the ruins in the very first chapter. Remember, in alter!Clow Country, the ruins were being excavated, and nobody seemed to know what was inside them. It's not like in original!Clow Country, where the royal family apparently hung out in the ruins all the time. Assuming that original!CC became alter!CC, it would make sense that reality's dirty little secret - that there's another Sakura frozen in time in the reservoir - would be buried along with the ruins.
3. If there's only one CC, then how do we deal with Yuuko's statement that she separated the dimension in order to prevent it from being altered? Or the fact that when Syaoran returned to CC he found it stuck in a time loop seven years in the past? It's entirely possible that Yuuko froze only part of CC, maybe just the ruins (but then wouldn't Nadeshiko's body still be there?). Or maybe it took seven years of CC being "separated" before the space-time stress on the dimension accumulated enough to result in the time loop.
Or maybe CLAMP just has no idea what they're writing.
Yeah, that.
Chapter 214.
Oh, cool! When you place the first page of this chapter beside the final page of the last chapter, you get a really nifty two-page spread that shows a whole bunch of different dimensions from this series. On this page: Piffle, Tokyo, that Chinese dimension, Yuuko's shop, Recourt, and... a forest-y place that I don't remember. Oh well.
Next page. OH NOES! All of the dimensions that we're still seeing are tearing apart at the seams!!!
Does anybody remember the M'Kraan Crystal from the X-Men comics? And how it had the power to shatter reality, and how whenever it did that, the artwork would start breaking apart in a way reminiscent of exploding shards of broken glass? Yeah, that's kind of the same effect that CLAMP is going for here.
Anyway, OH CRAP. Reality is tearing apart at the seams, including in the empty space between Syaoran (still unable to reach Sakura) and Sakura (still loli, still dead meat, still his mom). The stone that Mokona is standing on starts to dissolve. "It's no use," Mokona says, apparently also frozen and unable to move from hir precarious perch. "I can't even stand up anymore..."
And Syaoran is still gritting his teeth and reaching for the princess, and Kurogane and Fay are still trying to inch toward FWR, and FWR is still standing there gloating.
Then Kurogane starts jiggling his sword until...
Um, well, I'm not sure what happens, but it looks like all of a sudden he makes a swing with his sword, and then he can somehow move again? What did he do, cut through FWR's magical douchebaggery? I dunno. The important thing is, he runs straight toward FWR.
FWR regards Kurogane with his usual contempt. "Just as my wish is about to be realized... How uncouth."
He's about to fireball Kurogane's face, when all of a sudden...
Fay's all like, hey motherfuckers, I just got my magic back, remember?! and he throws a giant-ass magical shield in front of Kurogane.
But FWR smirks and sends his fireballs through the shield anyway, roasting Kurogane pretty badly.
Fay makes this great oh noes, my hubby! face. Or maybe he's making that face because the fire hits him next, too. Well, he was standing right behind Kurogane...
Back in the ruins, Syaoran looks up at the space-time rip just in time to see a huge fucking fireball explode out of it. Crispy-roasted Fay and Kurogane are knocked right back into the reservoir, too. They're down, but not dead. They both look up at Syaoran at the same time and exclaim, "SYAORAN!!"
I guess this single exclamation is meant to convey a lot, such as the fact that Syaoran is a giant loser if he hasn't even managed to reach Sakura's hand yet, and also the fact that hey, if Kurogane and Fay could break free of FWR's freezing-magic (for... no apparent reason...?) then dammit, Syaoran can too.
So Syaoran grits his teeth again, focuses his willpower, and keeps pushing toward Sakura.
Fay casts a spell. Kurogane swings his sword.
And I don't know what the fuck just happened but somehow Kurogane and Fay's powers combined manage to launch Syaoran through the air and he finally, FINALLY grabs Sakura's freaking hand. Which, by the way, has been in danger of being "immediately" swallowed up by the black goo for something like FIFTEEN MINUTES.
Next page. Oh wait, now I get it. Kurogane and Fay's attacks had nothing to do with Syaoran. They were sending their mojo back through the space-time rift in order to smack FWR in his smug face. Ah, well. I like my interpretation of CLAMP's hella confusing artwork on the previous two pages much better.
Anyway, now we get another whole page of Syaoran just taking Sakura's hand, and then a two-page spread of him finally pulling an unconscious loli!Sakura out of the deadly black goo.
I guess this is supposed to be some sort of big emotional payoff? Like, the reason that Syaoran made his time-reversing wish in the first place is because he (illogically) believed that he could change EVERYTHING if he would just have been able to have grabbed Sakura's hand the first time.
It doesn't work as an emotional payoff, however, because CLAMP has resorted to too many cheap storytelling tricks to get us here. For one thing, they set up the black goo so that it was supposed to swallow up Sakura in an eyeblink, and the reason that Syaoran missed her hand the first time around is because he hesitated. He wasn't fast enough. THIS time, however, he more than hesitates. He dicks around, listens to other characters make with exposition, gets himself frozen, etc. When time started "moving" again a couple chapters ago, the black goo went from hanging out around Sakura's body to horrifically covering her completely in the space of a few panels. Now *that* was good, because that established a sense of urgency. Sakura's outstretched hand was in immediate danger of being swallowed up again... But then it wasn't. For like, THREE CHAPTERS her hand has just been hanging out there, waiting for Syaoran to take it. And it took him damn long enough, too.
Why was Sakura's hand spared for so long? Was the black goo (re-)frozen by the same spell that stopped Syaoran from moving? If that was the case, then again, that's crap, because it removes all sense of urgency and danger from the situation - and basically nullifies any sense of accomplishment what we should feel for Syaoran when he finally does succeed.
Or if the goo wasn't frozen, then that's just bad writing.
Next, we see FWR, actually looking somewhat worse for wear. Kurogane and Fay's combined attacks have somehow managed to actually hurt him. His monocle is cracked, too. "So, you took it," FWR says, "that hand. And with your choice, the final chain has been severed. You have brought back a soul that was on the brink of death. Your feelings, and your choice, will cause that one - one whose foot was placed in the valley of death, and one who has also been frozen in time... to be called back!"
Loli!Sakura is magically pulled out of Syaoran's arms. "SAKURA!!" he shouts.
Dammit, Syaoran, I told you so. I called this way back in chapter two-hundred-whatever when you made your freakin' stupid wish. I told you that even if you could grab your loli mommy's hand, it wouldn't change anything, because FWR would just overpower you AGAIN and do whatever the hell he wanted to anyway. I told you, man. I told you.
I don't care how much romantic or emotional symbolism CLAMP has poured into this whole hand-grabbing thing. I still don't feel it, I still don't buy it, it's still ridiculously illogical, and it still doesn't change the fact that it's a fucking STUPID thing to center Syaoran's wish, and thus the entire story around.
Meanwhile, back in Earth 616, Yuuko - still wearing her DEEPLY SYMBOLIC butterfly kimono - suddenly collapses in terrible pain.
This is how we know that it's really the endgame, you guys. When Yuuko stops getting new outfits in every chapter.
She's been wearing that damn butterfly kimono for what, like, fifty chapters now? Or something.
Chapter 215.
Yuuko is looking vaguely omniscient, vaguely sad, and talking to herself (for our benefit) again. "No, Fei Wong. Your dream will only ever remain a dream. But now you must finish what you have begun. And, Clow..."
Meanwhile, back in the Psychedelic Collapsing Dimension of DOOM, Kurogane, Fay, and Syaoran look on in horror as loli!Sakura merges into dead!Sakura's body.
Dead!Sakura's kimono vanishes, and she's suddenly wearing the dress that dream!Sakura died in. (Are you following this shizbit? I need a flowchart to keep track of all of the many and various dead Sakura in this series.)
Mokona exclaims, "The little Sakura and the big Sakura smushed together?!"
Kurogane: "What. The. Hell. Is going on here?"
Fay: "Yyyyyyyyyeah, fucked if I know. I really want some of whatever CLAMP's smoking, though."
But on the next page, Fay dons the Exposition Hat anyway. "Here's what I can say, however. The Sakura-chan who accompanied us on our journey, and the Sakura-chan who remained frozen in the separated dimension... Both of them, taken individually, possess incredible magical power. And if you put the two of them together...!"
"I harvested souls," FWR cuts in, stealing the Exposition Hat back from Fay, "and implanted them in artificial bodies, but that only resulted in failed creations." Wait, WTF? Cloney, Xing Huo, and Clone Sakura were failures?! By what standard?! Is it because Cloney and Xing Huo turned on FWR in the end? But what about the Clone Princess?! AAAAAAAAAGH, FWR, you idiot!!!!
He keeps going. "A body engraved with the memory of dimensions. A magical power that slumbered for ages beneath the water. And a true being capable of inheriting them both. I finally have gathered them all in my hands!"
And he keeps. going. "Clow once attempted to fulfill the same wish, but failed. And because of his failure, she, like that princess, has had her time and her very existence cut away... She, who because of that, was severed from all worlds! Her, the DIMENSION WITCH!"
"YUUKO?!" Mokona exclaims.
Sakura floats and glows. In another dimension, Yuuko stands around and looks beautiful and tragic.
"Sakura's light is disappearing!" Mokona suddenly exclaims.
The artwork on these pages would beg to differ, but whatever. She still looks pretty glow-y to me... Oh wait, but now her body is dissolving. Oh shit.
Syaoran, Fay, and Kurogane all rush toward Sakura at the same time.
"You WILL NOT INTERFERE," FWR says, blasting them all backward with a fireball so huge that it takes an entire two-page spread to contain it.
FWR gets this crazypants grin on his face and exclaims, "The dream that you could never make come true... I and I alone will fulfill that dream now, Clow!!"
"SAKURA!!!" Syaoran screams. Of course he does.
"No," Yuuko says. "That is a dream that no being could ever fulfill."
In the store room in her shop, the DOOM TUBE sits on a shelf, looking ominous.
Next up, a two-week break. Thank God. Is your brain melted yet?
One! Two!
You have no idea how much I wish that that last one was a real thing. No idea. If only because it would send Alan Moore into an apoplectic, frothing raaaaaaaaage that would inevitably provide far more entertainment value than the series itself.
Oh hey, speaking of that bit between Eddie and Laurie...
It's time to recap three weeks' worth of Tsubasa again. Siiiiiigh. Oh well. I'm home sick on a Friday night, so I might as well channel my snarky rage into doing something productive. For certain limited definitions of "productive."
So, here we go. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle chapters 213, 214, and 215.
One Sakura to find them,
One Sakura to lead them all
And in the darkness bind them.
(Sorry, couldn't resist. Sakura has been more of a lifeless prop than an actual character for the majority of this series, anyway.)
Chapter 213.
LAST MONTH! The "reservoir" part in this series's title was just starting to make sense. According to Google and three spellcheckers, "series's" is the correct way to modify series to show possession. WTF, English.
Also, Clow Country = Tokyo. WTF, CLAMP.
Anywhoo.
"Yes," FWR says, "That is correct. Your WTF faces amuse me and my manga-writing overlords. Beneath this reservoir is..."
I dunno what's beneath the water, because now we cut to dead!Sakura floating around and being all glowy-like.
Mokono looks down into the water and sees ZOMG the capsule that contains the feather that Sakura left behind in Tokyo!!! ZOMG!!! The capsule breaks open!!! ZOMG!!! One of Sakura's feathers is inside!!! ZOMG!!! It emits a huge glaring burst of light!!! ZOMG!!! FWR says, "That is the feather that the princess left behind of her own free will." Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Moving on. Now we get to the best part of this month's run of chapters, in my humble opinion: Mokona finally freaks the fuck out.
"Sakura left that feather in Tokyo to protect the people there! They couldn't survive without water!" Now this little marshmallow-puff thing is screaming hir lungs out at FWR while tears fly from hir squinty little eyes. "SAKURA IS A KIND PERSON!! Syaoran told us about how the water here tried to protect her! Because the water KNEW - the water knew how Sakura once left her feather to protect IT! But you--! BUT YOU--!! You can't use that feather to make everyone sad! YOU CAN'T!!"
FWR just looks down at the hysterical little creampuff, and smirks.
The feather floats up into the air, through the space-time rip, into FWR's dimension, and is absorbed back into Sakura's body.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" Fay shouts. (Why? Because her getting more feathers is suddenly a bad thing?)
Kurogane tries to move toward Sakura, but he can't move. "I can't... move..." Thank you, Exposition Ninja.
Then the background artwork suddenly goes psychedelic.
"Something's weird!" Mokona exclaims.
Next we see Syaoran, posed dramatically on top of a rock - oh wait, it's like he's trying to run but frozen in place. His hand is outstretched toward... the swirl of black goo that ate up loli!Sakura... OH WAIT. Loli!Sakura's hand is still sticking out of the goo, reaching for Syaoran.
Wait, WHAAAAAAAT?!
I checked and double-checked the artwork from chapter 212 and hey, y'all, CLAMP totally made it look like Sakura was swallowed up completely and Syaoran failed.
But I guess that... she... wasn't?
If Sakura was still reaching for Syaoran, then what the frackin' hell has Syaoran been doing all this time? I thought he was supposed to be racing against time to reach Sakura's hand before the goo finished eating her up. But instead, Syaoran's had time to stop in his tracks, stand frozen while FWR goes all exposition-y about Tokyo appearing in the middle of Clow Country, do nothing while Sakura's left-behind feather put on a lightshow, and furthermore, apparently stood still and listened during Mokona's freakout.
WAY TO RACE AGAINST TIME THERE, HERO.
Unless Syaoran has been frozen for a while, the same as Kurogane and Fay?
Thanks for making that clear, CLAMP.
Anyway, Syaoran is still reaching for loli!Sakura's hand, gritting his teeth, and exclaiming "Dammit!" I really can't tell if this is because he's frozen in place by FWR, or because loli!Sakura is floating high above the water and impossible for him to reach, or what.
But who cares. CLAMP doesn't need to resort to storytelling logic in order to prolong this
This isn't going to work. But they're going to try.
Oh look, FWR took back the Exposition Hat. Go, Exposition Hat, go! "Her body, engraved with the memories of many dimensions. And the feather, sleeping for eons beneath these ruins, which holds unfathomable power. With this power, I will smash apart the chains connecting the many dimensions."
Sakura's corpse turns into pure light, and her wings sprout from her back.
"As the dimensions break apart, the most fundamental laws of the universe will collapse as well. And finally, the dead will be able to return to life!"
FINAL PAGE: Oh hay LOOK, suddenly we're shown overlapping panels of scenes from various dimensions that Our Heroes have visited, mostly showing various peoples having I-feel-a-great-disturbance-in-the-force moments. Hanshin, Nihon, Infinity, Shura, that dimension with the rabbit critters, that French world, Fairy Park, and...
Oh, what's that I see?
Clow Country!Yukito and Clow Country!Touya, staring on in horror as the ruins are engulfed by a giant sand storm?
Why yes, yes it is.
OKAY, CLAMP, YOU'D BETTER FUCKING RESOLVE THIS QUESTION of whether there's one or two Clow Countries soon, OR MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE.
Evidence for the Two Clow Hypothesis:
1. When Syaoran made his original "set back my time" wish, it caused reality-altering ripples throughout all dimensions. In order to protect Clow Country from being altered, Yuuko confesses that she separated it from the space-time continuum. Which resulted in the ruins being frozen at the moment of Sakura's goo-impregnation for seven years. This also resulted in the endlessly-repeating time loop, everybody in the rest of Clow Country experiencing the same evening over and over again for seven years, until they eventually dissolved into goo themselves.
2. And yet! At that moment, FWR also created the Syaoran clone and sent him to live... in Clow Country... and the clone experienced seven years growing up with Sakura and Fujitaka. In a Clow Country that had been significantly altered compared to the Clow Country that real!Syaoran experienced, just as Yuuko had warned him would happen.
The only way that this can make sense is if there is more than one Clow Country. Maybe a copy-but-altered Clow Country was spawned at the moment when Syaoran made his reality-fucking wish?
I don't see any other way that Cloney could have grown up and experienced seven years in Clow Country, despite the fact that Yuuko claims to have separated Clow Country from time (which in turn created the time loop)... Unless there was more than one Clow Country. One frozen/looping, the other reality-altered but with a normal passage of time.
Evidence for the One Clow Country hypothesis:
1. If there are two Clow Countries, then there are three Sakura. One of the Sakura who was reverted back to a loli, then frozen in time, when Syaoran made his wish. The other is the Sakura who grew up with Cloney in the other Clow Country. The third is the clone that FWR created. Remember, he cloned a fourteen-year-old Sakura, not the loli. The problem is, that leaves one of the three Sakura - the one who grew up with Cloney - completely unaccounted for. Other than FWR mentioning that he kidnapped her, cloned her, and destroyed her body... Well, other than that, we haven't heard head nor tails about her since. Is her soul still floating around out there, somewhere? Did her soul perhaps merge with loli!Sakura in the "real" Clow Country at some point? Does CLAMP even care? Do they even remember that their own internal storytelling logic has spawned three Sakura, not two?
2. It is entirely possible that loli!Sakura was frozen inside the ruins of The One True Clow Country this whole time, while a copy of herself ran around and had a (second) normal childhood with Cloney. That would be super-weird, but it would explain a lot about Sakura's reaction to the ruins in the very first chapter. Remember, in alter!Clow Country, the ruins were being excavated, and nobody seemed to know what was inside them. It's not like in original!Clow Country, where the royal family apparently hung out in the ruins all the time. Assuming that original!CC became alter!CC, it would make sense that reality's dirty little secret - that there's another Sakura frozen in time in the reservoir - would be buried along with the ruins.
3. If there's only one CC, then how do we deal with Yuuko's statement that she separated the dimension in order to prevent it from being altered? Or the fact that when Syaoran returned to CC he found it stuck in a time loop seven years in the past? It's entirely possible that Yuuko froze only part of CC, maybe just the ruins (but then wouldn't Nadeshiko's body still be there?). Or maybe it took seven years of CC being "separated" before the space-time stress on the dimension accumulated enough to result in the time loop.
Or maybe CLAMP just has no idea what they're writing.
Yeah, that.
Chapter 214.
Oh, cool! When you place the first page of this chapter beside the final page of the last chapter, you get a really nifty two-page spread that shows a whole bunch of different dimensions from this series. On this page: Piffle, Tokyo, that Chinese dimension, Yuuko's shop, Recourt, and... a forest-y place that I don't remember. Oh well.
Next page. OH NOES! All of the dimensions that we're still seeing are tearing apart at the seams!!!
Does anybody remember the M'Kraan Crystal from the X-Men comics? And how it had the power to shatter reality, and how whenever it did that, the artwork would start breaking apart in a way reminiscent of exploding shards of broken glass? Yeah, that's kind of the same effect that CLAMP is going for here.
Anyway, OH CRAP. Reality is tearing apart at the seams, including in the empty space between Syaoran (still unable to reach Sakura) and Sakura (still loli, still dead meat, still his mom). The stone that Mokona is standing on starts to dissolve. "It's no use," Mokona says, apparently also frozen and unable to move from hir precarious perch. "I can't even stand up anymore..."
And Syaoran is still gritting his teeth and reaching for the princess, and Kurogane and Fay are still trying to inch toward FWR, and FWR is still standing there gloating.
Then Kurogane starts jiggling his sword until...
Um, well, I'm not sure what happens, but it looks like all of a sudden he makes a swing with his sword, and then he can somehow move again? What did he do, cut through FWR's magical douchebaggery? I dunno. The important thing is, he runs straight toward FWR.
FWR regards Kurogane with his usual contempt. "Just as my wish is about to be realized... How uncouth."
He's about to fireball Kurogane's face, when all of a sudden...
Fay's all like, hey motherfuckers, I just got my magic back, remember?! and he throws a giant-ass magical shield in front of Kurogane.
But FWR smirks and sends his fireballs through the shield anyway, roasting Kurogane pretty badly.
Fay makes this great oh noes, my hubby! face. Or maybe he's making that face because the fire hits him next, too. Well, he was standing right behind Kurogane...
Back in the ruins, Syaoran looks up at the space-time rip just in time to see a huge fucking fireball explode out of it. Crispy-roasted Fay and Kurogane are knocked right back into the reservoir, too. They're down, but not dead. They both look up at Syaoran at the same time and exclaim, "SYAORAN!!"
I guess this single exclamation is meant to convey a lot, such as the fact that Syaoran is a giant loser if he hasn't even managed to reach Sakura's hand yet, and also the fact that hey, if Kurogane and Fay could break free of FWR's freezing-magic (for... no apparent reason...?) then dammit, Syaoran can too.
So Syaoran grits his teeth again, focuses his willpower, and keeps pushing toward Sakura.
Fay casts a spell. Kurogane swings his sword.
And I don't know what the fuck just happened but somehow Kurogane and Fay's powers combined manage to launch Syaoran through the air and he finally, FINALLY grabs Sakura's freaking hand. Which, by the way, has been in danger of being "immediately" swallowed up by the black goo for something like FIFTEEN MINUTES.
Next page. Oh wait, now I get it. Kurogane and Fay's attacks had nothing to do with Syaoran. They were sending their mojo back through the space-time rift in order to smack FWR in his smug face. Ah, well. I like my interpretation of CLAMP's hella confusing artwork on the previous two pages much better.
Anyway, now we get another whole page of Syaoran just taking Sakura's hand, and then a two-page spread of him finally pulling an unconscious loli!Sakura out of the deadly black goo.
I guess this is supposed to be some sort of big emotional payoff? Like, the reason that Syaoran made his time-reversing wish in the first place is because he (illogically) believed that he could change EVERYTHING if he would just have been able to have grabbed Sakura's hand the first time.
It doesn't work as an emotional payoff, however, because CLAMP has resorted to too many cheap storytelling tricks to get us here. For one thing, they set up the black goo so that it was supposed to swallow up Sakura in an eyeblink, and the reason that Syaoran missed her hand the first time around is because he hesitated. He wasn't fast enough. THIS time, however, he more than hesitates. He dicks around, listens to other characters make with exposition, gets himself frozen, etc. When time started "moving" again a couple chapters ago, the black goo went from hanging out around Sakura's body to horrifically covering her completely in the space of a few panels. Now *that* was good, because that established a sense of urgency. Sakura's outstretched hand was in immediate danger of being swallowed up again... But then it wasn't. For like, THREE CHAPTERS her hand has just been hanging out there, waiting for Syaoran to take it. And it took him damn long enough, too.
Why was Sakura's hand spared for so long? Was the black goo (re-)frozen by the same spell that stopped Syaoran from moving? If that was the case, then again, that's crap, because it removes all sense of urgency and danger from the situation - and basically nullifies any sense of accomplishment what we should feel for Syaoran when he finally does succeed.
Or if the goo wasn't frozen, then that's just bad writing.
Next, we see FWR, actually looking somewhat worse for wear. Kurogane and Fay's combined attacks have somehow managed to actually hurt him. His monocle is cracked, too. "So, you took it," FWR says, "that hand. And with your choice, the final chain has been severed. You have brought back a soul that was on the brink of death. Your feelings, and your choice, will cause that one - one whose foot was placed in the valley of death, and one who has also been frozen in time... to be called back!"
Loli!Sakura is magically pulled out of Syaoran's arms. "SAKURA!!" he shouts.
Dammit, Syaoran, I told you so. I called this way back in chapter two-hundred-whatever when you made your freakin' stupid wish. I told you that even if you could grab your loli mommy's hand, it wouldn't change anything, because FWR would just overpower you AGAIN and do whatever the hell he wanted to anyway. I told you, man. I told you.
I don't care how much romantic or emotional symbolism CLAMP has poured into this whole hand-grabbing thing. I still don't feel it, I still don't buy it, it's still ridiculously illogical, and it still doesn't change the fact that it's a fucking STUPID thing to center Syaoran's wish, and thus the entire story around.
Meanwhile, back in Earth 616, Yuuko - still wearing her DEEPLY SYMBOLIC butterfly kimono - suddenly collapses in terrible pain.
This is how we know that it's really the endgame, you guys. When Yuuko stops getting new outfits in every chapter.
She's been wearing that damn butterfly kimono for what, like, fifty chapters now? Or something.
Chapter 215.
Yuuko is looking vaguely omniscient, vaguely sad, and talking to herself (for our benefit) again. "No, Fei Wong. Your dream will only ever remain a dream. But now you must finish what you have begun. And, Clow..."
Meanwhile, back in the Psychedelic Collapsing Dimension of DOOM, Kurogane, Fay, and Syaoran look on in horror as loli!Sakura merges into dead!Sakura's body.
Dead!Sakura's kimono vanishes, and she's suddenly wearing the dress that dream!Sakura died in. (Are you following this shizbit? I need a flowchart to keep track of all of the many and various dead Sakura in this series.)
Mokona exclaims, "The little Sakura and the big Sakura smushed together?!"
Kurogane: "What. The. Hell. Is going on here?"
Fay: "Yyyyyyyyyeah, fucked if I know. I really want some of whatever CLAMP's smoking, though."
But on the next page, Fay dons the Exposition Hat anyway. "Here's what I can say, however. The Sakura-chan who accompanied us on our journey, and the Sakura-chan who remained frozen in the separated dimension... Both of them, taken individually, possess incredible magical power. And if you put the two of them together...!"
"I harvested souls," FWR cuts in, stealing the Exposition Hat back from Fay, "and implanted them in artificial bodies, but that only resulted in failed creations." Wait, WTF? Cloney, Xing Huo, and Clone Sakura were failures?! By what standard?! Is it because Cloney and Xing Huo turned on FWR in the end? But what about the Clone Princess?! AAAAAAAAAGH, FWR, you idiot!!!!
He keeps going. "A body engraved with the memory of dimensions. A magical power that slumbered for ages beneath the water. And a true being capable of inheriting them both. I finally have gathered them all in my hands!"
And he keeps. going. "Clow once attempted to fulfill the same wish, but failed. And because of his failure, she, like that princess, has had her time and her very existence cut away... She, who because of that, was severed from all worlds! Her, the DIMENSION WITCH!"
"YUUKO?!" Mokona exclaims.
Sakura floats and glows. In another dimension, Yuuko stands around and looks beautiful and tragic.
"Sakura's light is disappearing!" Mokona suddenly exclaims.
The artwork on these pages would beg to differ, but whatever. She still looks pretty glow-y to me... Oh wait, but now her body is dissolving. Oh shit.
Syaoran, Fay, and Kurogane all rush toward Sakura at the same time.
"You WILL NOT INTERFERE," FWR says, blasting them all backward with a fireball so huge that it takes an entire two-page spread to contain it.
FWR gets this crazypants grin on his face and exclaims, "The dream that you could never make come true... I and I alone will fulfill that dream now, Clow!!"
"SAKURA!!!" Syaoran screams. Of course he does.
"No," Yuuko says. "That is a dream that no being could ever fulfill."
In the store room in her shop, the DOOM TUBE sits on a shelf, looking ominous.
Next up, a two-week break. Thank God. Is your brain melted yet?
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Thank you very much for this...it looks like a hard work @@U
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DR. MANHATTAN
IN THE TOYBOX
OMGOMGOMGEEEEE
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Not that any of that matters. Fai and Kurogane did a nifty combined attack. In manga-speak, that's better than a make-out scene to prove they're canon! The storytelling is hopeless, but at least CLAMP sticks with relationship conventions.
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Thanks for the Saturday Morning Watchmen link, though! XD
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What IS CLAMP smoking, anyway?
The Logic, I Want It Back-- Or Was It Ever Here?
I think by "failed creations" made with "harvested souls," FWR was referring to his faceless battle drones that he made using the souls taken by the "wings" from xxxHOLiC.
TL;DR babbling ahoy, because for some reason your summaries make me think about this trainwreck and try to make sense of it, and makes me want to see if you can spot something more likely.
On the subject of Clow Country and the TimeSpace Loop of Doom: I think it may come down to the question of is the Clow Reed shown as King of Clow Country the Clow Reed from CCS, or a parallel fascimile? FWR and Yuuko keep referencing something Clow tried to do. It seems like that might be related to why he appears in Clow Country.
I think a lot can be learned or at least hinted at by look back at the first chapter now that CLAMP Has Come Full Circle. LOL, sure, whatever. So, I'm looking at the first chapter and seeing some interesting facts. Little things that add up. I'm not sure what they add up to, but they seem rather significant.
1. The title of the first chapter was "The Beginning of the World." The title caption is shown not on the first page, but on the first blank page after the Tube o' Doom scene. Hmm. Which world are they talking about?
2. Sakura says in chapter one that "As usual, whenever I say that I'm going to see you, my brother always gets angry." Looking back, if CC!Touya knows anything about what's going on-- has happened in rewound time?-- it would explain his dislike of Cloney/"Syaoran" much better than "He dislikes him to be similar to the original templates for the characters from CCS."
3. It is mentioned that it has been seven years since Syaoran and Fujitaka "appeared" in Clow Country. Could it be that King!Fujitaka took Cloney from the original CC to a new CC? With Clow Reed's help? Or that Clow Reed helped rearrange time?
4. It is stated in the very next bubble that Cloney and Fujitaka "came to this country and found interest in the ruins," and Fujitaka is quoted as saying in flashback that, "Clow Country must have gigantic ruins underground. If we could uncover these ruins, then we could unlock the key to our country's past!" I think it's King!Fujitaka. He knows about the ruins, at the least.
(5. Just for the lolz: Cloney says to Fujitaka's picture after Sakura leaves: "I shouldn't have these feelings." In later context? LAWL.)
6. Yukito, the priest, says he's interested in hearing the archaeologists' report on the ruins.
7. What the hell, Yukito is shown being all priesty in a cavern full of water. (ch1 pg33)
8. The ruins "call" Sakura with the images of rippling water.
I think it points to King!Fujitaka and Archaeologist!Fujitaka being the same person. Possibly someone did a mindscrew on everyone but Touya and Yukito to make them think "Clow Reed" was the king, so Fujitaka could go all Obi-Wan on Cloney. I think Clow Reed is only shown in a couple images as king, yes? Touya is now king. It could be that he became king right after the big kerfuffle in the ruins... and my logic is becoming circular. UGH. Still unclear as to WTF Clow Reed has to do with any of this. I think that will be key.
And then there's one more "for the lolz" observation that may be CLAMP trying to be ~c~l~e~v~e~r~: Interestingly, when Sakura goes all floaty against that seal (which was on the floor, but... ends up on the wall? The WTFery in the art started in the first chapter!) she begins to be absorbed by... white goo? Water? And Cloney immediately grabs her out of it. HAHAHA.
Also, I want to know your thoughts on something. In chapter 191-- the dinner after "Syaoran" meets Sakura scene-- Didn't Sakura imply that "Sakura" isn't her real name? This is the only thing that has held back the squick for me. Is it an accurate translation, do you know?
Re: The Logic, I Want It Back-- Or Was It Ever Here?
RE: 191. Yes, that's an accurate translation. Sakura says "my real name isn't Sakura," just like Syaoran's real name isn't Syaoran.
This absolutely does NOT mitigate the squick for me, however, as Sakura is still the same person as Syaoran's mom. We know because the manga keeps emphasizing the fact that Sakura's mother, Nadeshiko, is the AU version of Syaoran's grandmother. Raaaarrrrrgh. So even if Princess Sakura has a different name than Sakura Kinomoto, the problem is that biologically - genetically - she's still the same person.
I think by "failed creations" made with "harvested souls," FWR was referring to his faceless battle drones that he made using the souls taken by the "wings" from xxxHOLiC.
Yeah, I get that, but it still confuses me.
In what sense were the battle drones failures, even? I mean, did FWR *not* want an army of mindlessly obedient asskickers?
If he was trying to create something more, like a *real* clone, why couldn't he do it? My question is, for the guy who created Cloney and Clone Princess and Xing Huo, why couldn't he have succeeded in cloning whatever-the-heck-it-was that resulted in those battle drones?
Something isn't adding up.
Re: The Logic, I Want It Back-- Or Was It Ever Here?
I also think that the mechanics of FWR's magic and abilities were poorly thought out on CLAMP's part, and that they aren't being careful with the actual semantics of their Villainous Grandstanding Monologues. They may try to defend that as FWR's being slightly off his rocker and being misleading and illogical himself. Yeah, suuure. They've stumbled into Illogical Land. AGAIN. Really, I think they totally botched the job as soon as the manga became srs bizniz. They are capable of so much more when it comes to storytelling. I get the feeling they didn't carefully plot out the mechanics of the end of the story beforehand-- just look at the now-illogical scene of priest!Yukito being in a cavern full of water-- and that all their "data collecting" breaks in the publishing schedule are actually the result of one of them going, "....Oh, fuck. Uh, wait. How do I make that work? Damn, I, uh, need to brainstorm. Crap."
At this point, with the total WTFery with relationships... I wouldn't be overly surprised to find out that the Clow Reed who was king in Clow Country is actually a grown-up Eriol. I think I'd laugh. At this point, I'm taking the mantra that anything can happen as utter truth in TRC. Any off-the-wall conspiracy theory you can come up with? At least as likely as anything else. At this point, I think CLAMP is seeking to mindscrew the fans for the lulz.
I want to know WTF Clow Reed has to do with any of this. Also tied in seems to be the question of Yuuko's true identity. I'm getting really sick of everyone having false names. It makes me snarly.
Very little is adding up. I really like what they did with Tokyo and Clow Country, and find it very clever. I just wish they were that awesome for the whole story. Hell, I wish they'd handled TRC with the same awesomeness that they're handling xxxHOLiC. How can Holic be so awesome, and TRC so... not? THE LOGIC, WHERE IS IT? Is it hiding in Holic?
...I still want to see CCS Sakura and Syaoran come in with guns blazing. It's looking less and less likely. But I really want to see them.