This week's Tsubasa: Chapter 218

[nenena]

Isn't it a little late in the game to be treading water like this?



Last week! The universe collapsed and imploded on itself. Or something. Also, there are too many damn Sakura in this manga.

This week! The universe is still... falling apart at the seams, apparently. (Helloooooo, confusing artwork!) TeenParent!Sakura is holding merged!Sakura's corpse, TeenParent!Syaoran is hugging son!Syaoran, and they are both floating in magical protective bubbles next to each other. Fay, Kurogane, and Mokona are floating in a different bubble made of Fay's magic. FWR has no magical sparkle bubble, because he sucks.

So anyway, the universe is falling apart at the seams. Just like this narrative.

Son!Syaoran looks around in horror as the background artwork splits apart and shatters. OH NO WAIT, it's not actually breaking apart, it's... coming back together?! "WTF?" Syaoran asks his daddy.

Mokona helpfully exclaims, "All of the broken dimensions are fixing up!!" And indeed, we're shown the previously 'shattered' visions of all the past worlds visited over the course of the manga, slowly pulling themselves back together.

"What are those reflections?!" Kurogane asks.

OH HEY, I thought that CLAMP was just being symbolic with the artwork, when they showed the broken dimensions floating around like shattered glass. But I guess this is literally happening, and Our Heroes are apparently actually witnessing all of the past dimensions that they've visited, floating around them like shards of broken mirrors. (Except that now the broken mirrors are fixing themselves, so... yay?)

Anyway, Fay answers Kurogane's question: "It's the past of every dimension that we've traveled to... No. Not the past. These are memories of the past. They're returning every dimension to the way that it was!"

Who is the mysterious they of which Fay speaks? Turn the page and... Why, it's TeenParent!Sakura and TeenParent!Syaoran, using their swirly magical powers to do exactly that! They're both sweating profusely and breathing in those little labored puffs of breath that CLAMP likes to draw. But hell yeah, they're doing it.

"They're also repairing the universal laws that Fei Wong tried to break," Fay adds.

"Can they do it?!" Kurogane asks.

"Those two have tremendous power," Fay says, "But... If they truly had the power to undo everything that Fei Wong has done so far, then I would have sensed their presence earlier, even if they were in a different dimension!"

"Mokona never felt them, either," Mokona adds. Oh yeah, Mokona actually can detect magical powers other than Sakura's feathers. I totally forgot about that.

"So where exactly have those two guys been this whole time?!" Kurogane wonders.

"But also! But also!" Mokona adds. "Syaoran just called them 'father' and 'mother', so how come they look exactly like Syaoran and Sakura?"

GOOD. QUESTION.

Meanwhile! Back in the Syaoran/Syaoran magical bubble! Son!Syaoran notices that his clone-father's hand has started bleeding. "Father!" he exclaims.

"Don't pay attention to that," TeenParent!Syaoran snaps at his... son... Oh goddammit, CLAMP. They look exactly alike, they're the same age and height, they're dressed in the same clothes, there is NO WAY that you can expect us to think of these two characters as father and son. No. Freakin'. Way.

So now we're flashing back to chibi!Syaoran when he first appeared in Yuuko's shop. "You made your decision back then," TeenParent!Syaoran says. "You said, 'because it is something that I must do.'"

Son!Syaoran glances over at the Sakura/Sakura bubble. He gazes at the dead!Sakura cradled in TeenParent!Sakura's arms, and repeats his trademark catchphrase, with a look of steely determination in his eyes: "I will not allow Sakura to die. Never."

TeenParent!Sakura smiles at him.

Oh.

For.

Fuck's.

Sake.

TOO FUCKING LATE, IDIOT.

Let's repeat: Sakura has already died three fucking times since the end of the Infinity arc. Right now she's still fucking dead and yet Syaoran is gazing lovingly at her goddamn CORPSE and repeated his Dramatic and Symbolic promise that he's not going to let her die. What the hell, CLAMP?! What the everfuckingloving HELL are you smoking, here?!

I'm pretty sure that this scene is intended to be dramatic and heartwrenching. Instead, it just comes across as ludicrously comic. There's nothing quite as stupid as seeing the hero of the story dramatically swearing to his DEAD GIRLFRIEND that he's not going to let her die, while his biologically identical mother gazes back at him and smiles lovingly.

Thank you, CLAMP. You have managed to perfectly condense everything that is wrong with this utter trainwreck of a series into one single page. God. Fuck. Dammit.

Moving on.

"Do not lose sight of your wish," TeenParent!Syaoran tells his son. "And if you truly wish to fulfill your promise, then make your choice. Now. No matter how painful of a choice it may have to be. Choose."

Syaoran stares at his father in horror. "?!" is his only word bubble.

MEANWHILE!

FWR is still the star of this story arc and he is GODDAMMIT PISSED about being ignored for a whole twenty pages! Rising out of the mess of swirly magical artwork like an enraged bat out of hell, he throws down a fucking huuuuuuuge magical circle and screams, "You will NOT interfere with the fulfillment of my wish! YOU WILL NOT!!"

And then the chapter ends, for the second week in a row, with a set of two final pages that... make no sense visually. But hey, magical swirlies!! Yaaaaaay!

Next week: PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD END THIS SHIT ALREADY PLEEAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEE....

I have a sneaking suspicion that TeenParent!Syaoran's line about the choice being "painful" is foreshadowing the fact that he and TeenParent!Sakura may have to be sacrificed, somehow, in order for son!Syaoran and merged!Sakura to get their happy ending.

By the way, merged!Sakura is still looking pretty dead to me.

But hey CLAMP, don't let that stop you from having Sakura and Syaoran ride off into the sunset together. The Sakura-Syaoran romance is already incestuous, and even took a brief dip into being completely pedophilic before FWR conveniently "fixed" that for us, so really... At this point, would adding necrophilia to the mix really be that big of a deal?

Comments

[bardofawen.livejournal.com]

...Wow. Just... wow.

At the risk of upsetting devoted CLAMP fans... isn't this pretty much what happens in all of CLAMP's series? ;)

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I'd actually say it's about 50/50.

CLAMP's short series tend to fare better, writing-wise (and coherency-wise), but that may be simply by virtue of being short. To wit: Wish, Angelic Layer, Suki Dakara Suki, Clover, and Magic Knight Rayearth. And even Cardcaptor Sakura, despite it's length, remained straightforward and well-written all the way through to the end (so she says, conveniently ignoring two pedophile romantic subplots).

But CLAMP's other stuff... Yyyyyeaaaaah, no. xxxHolic is a mess, X devolved into a complete mess before they quit, Rg Veda was just a mess from the beginning, and... the less said about Chobit's multiple and contradicting morals, the better.

These are just my opinions on those series, of course. ;)

[bardofawen.livejournal.com]

"(so she says, conveniently ignoring two pedophile romantic subplots)"

Well... just as long as they were well written pedophile romantic subplots....

On an unrelated note, I watched Toradora! the other day. Thanks for recommending that one. It's nice to have a high school romantic comedy where a romantic tension stems from the characters being genuinely awkward and confused rather than because their brains apparently fell out their ears.

[eatsyourface.livejournal.com]

I did quite like Tokyo Babylon, though. (And also: "Tokyo Babylon" is quite possibly one of THE MOST AWESOME TITLES ever. Me? Shallow? Naaaaaw.)

I liked aspects of RG Veda (and I loved the music composed for the OVA), but seriously, but seriously, YASHA YOU ARE AN IDJIT. Seriously, the whole thing started off because you were CURIOUS. Curiousity killed the cat.

And Karura-Oh.

And Ryu-Oh.

And ... I'm going to stop there.

D=

[neocloud9.livejournal.com]

Aha. Ahahahaha. I'm so glad you've been writing these summaries. They keep me sane.

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

i know you hate this manga with a burning passion that was sent by the firey yet vaguely homoerotic gods deep within the bowels of the burning pits of hell, but for all that is holy please don't stop posting these summaries because they always somehow manage to make my day just a bit more awesomecore than it would've been previously.

... and once you post the soul eater chapter summary this coming sunday(?) not only will you have made my day more awesomecore than it would've been previously, I will fap forever, jizz in my pants and explode into a plethora of sweet and sour skittles, in which you can split among yourself and all of your lj friends.

Hats off to you ma'am, hats off to you.

My predictions for next chapter: Ded!Sakura turns out to be a clone of a clone of another Sakura and Mama!Sakura turns out to be Mei Ling.

[corinn.livejournal.com]

LAWL. Oh, CLAMP. There's really not much else to say-- you pretty much covered it. Oh, CLAMP.

Because I saw someone else here make a radical prediction, I think I'll do the same! Parent!S&S are actually clones made by CCS!S&S, who then reversed time for CCS!Syaoran with CCS!Sakura's help, for some convoluted reason beyond my wildest imagination. Or to stop FWR. Whatever. And the feathers are/were really Clow Cards-- sorry, Sakura Cards. Which still leaves an extraneous Sakura (after she gave the Star Staff to Parent!Sakura), but CLAMP doesn't seem to be counting, so why should I? /o/

...Randomly, I wonder how many feathers were actually collected? And does that coincide with the 19 Clow Cards in the CCS manga?

I don't think I've said it before, but I think this is one of those series that will be done way better by fanfic authors once the end is reached and the actual motives are revealed. It will benefit from DisContinuity. Preferably by knocking down the number of clones, to start with. Also by doing away with the Unfortunate Implications.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I don't think that "Implications" is quite the right word for the unfortunateness of the Sakura/Syaoran romance. I mean, straight-up incest is quite far beyond the scope of a mere implication.

As for how many feathers were actually collected... Good question. I have no idea. And didn't Cloney collect a bunch on his own, at some point?

[corinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's just the only TV Tropes article in that neighborhood I could think of offhand. Had I gone over there to fact-check, I would have been derailed for a few hours.♥ Also, I'm now getting the vibe that protagonist!Syaoran isn't actually S&S's biological child, per se. I think (hope?) Mokona was trying to give a (poorly executed) hint. I'm thinking (hoping?) we have more clones running around in the capacity of either "child" or "parent." (Hmm, I wish I had that Princess Kraehe "MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!1" icon uploaded... if that's the way it goes...)

It's the desperate idealist in me praying (quite possibly futilely) for CLAMP to please, please dismiss the incestuous implications. And I recognize the mindfuckery that the plot has become so disastrous as to inspire me to want someone to be revealed to be a clone. Or clones. Or... ugh, braindeath. This series inspires so much circular logic, it kills me. I want it to end, and not for all those epically awesome reasons one usually has for looking forward to a grand finale. I just want it to end.

Any idea how much longer it's going to last?

Re:Feathers: I was thinking the same thing. It could be argued that the number is equal due to CLAMP's convenient time-saving offscreen Misadventures of Cloney the Brutal. (Though wasn't one of his last scenes him giving the feathers he had collected to corpse!Sakura...?) However, I don't give enough of a damn to flip through chapters online to actually count those shown. I figure that if the plot does take that route, some fangirl who gives a damn will do it for me-- rather quickly, too. /o/

Random: Thanks for recommending Sita Sings the Blues a few posts back. It was amazing.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

You're right, Cloney dumped his feathers into Sakura at some point. I'm pretty sure it was in the ruins at Clow Country, right before Cloney died.

Any idea how much longer it's going to last?

Hell if I know.

(Awesome icon, BTW!)