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Last month's Tsubasa: Chapters 224, 225, and 226.
I'm holding off on my final Scanspam Week post, just so that I can put myself through a very special kind of hell first.
Seven chapters of Tsubasa,recapped all in one sitting. No, actually, I couldn't do it. I broke down after three chapters. So here are the first three chapters that I was able to finish. I have four more to go, and then - apparently - the series is finally going to fucking finish before the end of this month. No, really.
So now I'm scrambling to play catch-up, I guess. Anyway, here are chapters 224, 225, and 226. Let's go.
Previously, on Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle...
Yuuko died. I haven't read xxxHolic in like, three months, so I dunno what's going on with all that Yuuko-death shizbit. But anyway, she's dead, Jim. Moving on.
Cloney and Clone Princess were reborn in yet another suspiciously-just-like-the-616-universe world. They reunited as high school students, and had a son, Oediporan. Sakura apparently spent her entire adulthood being frail, sick, beautiful, and helpless. Then I guess she saw her doom-n-gloom prophecy in a dream, fucking finally, and now adult!Cloney is preparing to send child!Oediporan on his epic journeythat will ultimately result in Oediporan giving birth to Cloney thus completing the cycle because holy shit I still cannot believe that SYAORAN IS HIS OWN FUCKING GRANDPA.
Chapter 224: In Which Sakura Points Out the Obvious.
Sakura sends her son away, and Oediporan cheerfully waves goodbye to his father: "Thanks for the training! I can't wait for more tomorrow!"
Cloney looks away and mutters sadly, "I don't know if I'm going to be able to train my son tomorrow."
"...I had a dream," Sakura says, ominously. She flashes back to a Sakura (which Sakura?!) and a Syaoran (which Syaoran?!) trapped inside the Doom Tube, which has still not been explained at this point in the story. I guess this is what she saw in her dream, then. "Also," Sakura adds, "It should not have been possible for the Syaoran that you were cloned from to be born as our son."
YEAH NO SHIT SHERLOCK
Sakura goes on, "If our son grows up, travels to Clow Country, is captured, and then cloned so that you and I can be created once more... Then all of the events of our pasts will happen again, too. We'll be repeating the same tragedies over and over again, trapped inside this never-ending cycle, forever."
"However," Sakura continues, as a dozen more recycled scenes from chapters past swirl around in flashbacky little flashes behind her, "what I saw in my dream was the one moment that did not exist among your and my past experiences." Oh, so she didn't dream about the Doom Tube, then? So what did she dream about? The flashback scenes populating the background behind Sakura are all events that we've already seen happen to her.
"Could that one moment," Cloney says, "be the way out of this endless circle?"
"What I saw," Sakura said, "is that our son and my other self went their separate ways, never to meet again. No matter how long they waited, no matter how many worlds they visited..."
Wait, okay, so she IS talking about the Doom Tube, then?
Cloney thinks that this is terrible. "That's terrible," he says. Look at his concerned face.
"I don't want them to end up like that!" Sakura says. "Not my son, and not my other self either!I mean, I'm totally okay with my son ending up banging his mother happily ever after! But separated for all eternity?! That's horrible!"
"Are you absolutely certain," Cloney says, "that the ones that you saw in the dream were Oediporan and loli!Sakura?"
"Yes," Sakura confirms. And now the flashback scene behind her changes, and we see what we saw waaaay back in the very first chapter of this trainwreck, with Sakura and Syaoran trapped inside the Doom Tube, and Sakura being sucked away into darkness while Syaoran reaches toward her helplessly. Okay, so it was definitely the Doom Tube ending that Sakura saw in her dream. "And even if it were you and I in my dream, instead of them," Sakura goes on, "that wouldn't mean that we were able to change the future. Because you and I are also 'Sakura' and 'Syaoran.' "
Deep, CLAMP. Real deep.
"I had one more dream, too," Sakura adds. She summons Cardcaptor Sakura's star-staff out of thin air. "I met a version of myself from another world, and she gave me this..."
And the last two pages literally repeat, word-for-word and panel-for-panel, the scene where Cardcaptor!Sakura gave her wand to Adult!Sakura. Wow, way to go, CLAMP! You took a three-week hiatus to churn out a 16-page chapter, two pages of which were straight-up reprinted material?!
That is a special level of fail right there.
Chapter 225: In Which Sakura and Syaoran are STILL TALKING TO EACH OTHER and NOTHING HAPPENS.
Blah blah blah Sakura and Syaoran spend two pages hugging and repeating how much they love each other. Syaoran even says "And now I will repeat to you the exact same words that I said when our son was born," and then he does.
Pacing, people. This is not how you do it.
Flash forward (finally!). Widdle Oediporan stands stoicishly before his father. "Mother saw this in a dream?"
"Yes," Cloney says. "There is somebody who is waiting for you."
Psssst! Hey, Kid! IT'S YOUR MOM.
"If this is something that I must do," Oediporan says, "Then I will go." Now that's vowing to rescue and ravish your mother like a real man, kiddo.
"Then I entrust to you this sword," Cloney says, handing his son his sword, "and my name." It was your name in the first place, Syaoran, Cloney think-bubbles.
Oediporan struggles to hold the sword, as it's way too big for him. He looks up at his father, and for the first time, there is fear in his eyes. But his father merely places his hand on Oediporan's shoulder, and then tiny little Oediporan stands tall.
This page is fucking beautiful, and absolutely heartbreaking. Or at least, it would be, if not for the fact that this scene actually shows a man blessing his own grandpa to go forth and fulfill his destiny of banging his own mother.
After their son is gone, Sakura and Syaoaran talk at each other some more. Siiiiiigh. "All that's left," Sakura says, "is for that letter to reach Touya-niisan and Yukito-san today." She can say "today" because the Japanese postal system is fucking AWESOME and all domestic mail is automatically delivered overnight. No shit. "I asked them to deliver that staff to the witch," Sakura goes on, "as our payment to her." In the background, we see Touya and Yukito holding a letter, and then Yuuko holding Sakura's staff in her hands.
Then Syaoran reveals to Sakura the item that he's holding in his hands. It's the Doom Tube.
"This was in the Li family vault," Syaoran says, "just as you saw in your dream. Apparently it was entrusted to my care, according to the will of a mage who is related to my family. His name was Clow Reed."
"That's the same name that the witch mentioned," Sakura says.
"Before I was reborn into this world, I had no magical abilities of my own," Syaoran goes on. (Yeah, that's why you had to eat Fay's eyeball in order to steal his magic, remember?! Oh burn. But also, uh, CLAMP - are y'all ever going to explain how Cloney was able to cross dimensions all those times back when he was crazy and killing everyone? That couldn't have been an ability that he stole from Fay. Then again, Kyle was able to cross dimensions whenever the hell he wanted to, too. So was it FWR that was giving Cloney and Kyle the power to do that? Are we to assume that FWR is able to send his employees across dimensions, but... not himself? Come on, CLAMP, gimme something to work with here!)
Oh wait, Syaoran is still talking. Okay, back when he was still Cloney, he had no magical abilities. But then he was reborn into this universe and got juiced up on Clow's magic. Gotcha. "In this world, I have power because I am related by blood to Clow Reed," Syaoran explains. "Perhaps this is the blessing that we need. This power was given to me so that we can break the cycle. If we keep repeating our time over and over again, forever, that's the same as a living death. But with this power, I swear I can find a way out of this circle."
And then Sakura and Syaoran embrace, open up their (flipped, again) magic circles beneath their feet, and...
...revert back to their teenage forms, wearing their Clow Country outfits, trapped inside the Doom Tube, with the transparent barrier separating them again.
Well.
We've seen that happen three times now, and it still makes no fucking sense.
Sakura and Syaoran press their hands against the barrier between them. "The dream that I saw..." Sakura says.
"...We won't let this happen to them," Syaoran finishes. "Well... until we can meet again, then."
"I'll be waiting," Sakura says, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against the barrier.
Aaaaaaaaand we're back to the present, AKA The End of the Fucking Universe. Finally!
"You two are the ones that I created?!" FWR screams at the clones, who are still undoing all of his shit with their magic. "You're those clones?!"
"You're the ones that we went on our journey with?!" Mokona exclaims, equally as incredulous. "Sakura and Syaoran?!"
Chapter 226: Why the hell am I still recapping this shit, I should be watching season 4 of Hell's Kitchen before it gets pulled off of Hulu permanently.
There is a big tearful reunion with lots of joy and hugging. This probably would be an incredibly powerful scene, if the shit writing throughout the rest of this finale hadn't already destroyed any sort of emotional investment that I ever had in any of these characters.
Anyway, the joyous reunion goes on for ten pages, I won't bother to recap it all here. I should note, however, that quite a bit of the squee factor is destroyed every time CLAMP draws Sakura into one of the panels, as she is still cradling the corpse of the original Sakura in her arms. Good God, CLAMP.
Anyway, the reunion reaches its emotional climax when Cloney (now sixteen years old and dressed identically to Oediporan) touches Oediporan's cheek and says, "Whether as my original, or as my son, you are still my most precious person, always and forever."
YES, HE'S HIS OWN GRANDPA.
And then FWR gets tired of watching all of this lovey-dovey bullshit, so he throws a hugeass motherfucking fireball at them. And then the universe goes kablooey. For like, three pages.
And then everything just... freezes. In the middle of going kablooey. The kablooeyness just... stops.
"Everything's frozen!" Mokona comments. I would make a snide remark about stating the obvious, but actually, it's not obvious just from looking at the artwork vomited all over the page. So thank you for that much-needed editorial commentary, CLAMP.
"He froze it," Fay says.
FWR tilts his head back. "The Witch of Dimensions is gone," he says. He gazes at the images from every world reflected in the broken shards floating around him. "In every world, no matter which world, she's... gone." His eyes widen. "Is she... dead?"
He holds still for a moment, his head bowed low.
The FWR raises his head - and his arms - and begins screaming like a maniac. "Never!! I will never accept that! The witch WILL BE REVIVED!!"
And that's it, I'm done. This chapter is done, and I'm done. Hoookay, deep breath time. Only six more chapters of this crap to go!
Seven chapters of Tsubasa,
So now I'm scrambling to play catch-up, I guess. Anyway, here are chapters 224, 225, and 226. Let's go.
Previously, on Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle...
Yuuko died. I haven't read xxxHolic in like, three months, so I dunno what's going on with all that Yuuko-death shizbit. But anyway, she's dead, Jim. Moving on.
Cloney and Clone Princess were reborn in yet another suspiciously-just-like-the-616-universe world. They reunited as high school students, and had a son, Oediporan. Sakura apparently spent her entire adulthood being frail, sick, beautiful, and helpless. Then I guess she saw her doom-n-gloom prophecy in a dream, fucking finally, and now adult!Cloney is preparing to send child!Oediporan on his epic journey
Chapter 224: In Which Sakura Points Out the Obvious.
Sakura sends her son away, and Oediporan cheerfully waves goodbye to his father: "Thanks for the training! I can't wait for more tomorrow!"
Cloney looks away and mutters sadly, "I don't know if I'm going to be able to train my son tomorrow."
"...I had a dream," Sakura says, ominously. She flashes back to a Sakura (which Sakura?!) and a Syaoran (which Syaoran?!) trapped inside the Doom Tube, which has still not been explained at this point in the story. I guess this is what she saw in her dream, then. "Also," Sakura adds, "It should not have been possible for the Syaoran that you were cloned from to be born as our son."
YEAH NO SHIT SHERLOCK
Sakura goes on, "If our son grows up, travels to Clow Country, is captured, and then cloned so that you and I can be created once more... Then all of the events of our pasts will happen again, too. We'll be repeating the same tragedies over and over again, trapped inside this never-ending cycle, forever."
"However," Sakura continues, as a dozen more recycled scenes from chapters past swirl around in flashbacky little flashes behind her, "what I saw in my dream was the one moment that did not exist among your and my past experiences." Oh, so she didn't dream about the Doom Tube, then? So what did she dream about? The flashback scenes populating the background behind Sakura are all events that we've already seen happen to her.
"Could that one moment," Cloney says, "be the way out of this endless circle?"
"What I saw," Sakura said, "is that our son and my other self went their separate ways, never to meet again. No matter how long they waited, no matter how many worlds they visited..."
Wait, okay, so she IS talking about the Doom Tube, then?
Cloney thinks that this is terrible. "That's terrible," he says. Look at his concerned face.
"I don't want them to end up like that!" Sakura says. "Not my son, and not my other self either!
"Are you absolutely certain," Cloney says, "that the ones that you saw in the dream were Oediporan and loli!Sakura?"
"Yes," Sakura confirms. And now the flashback scene behind her changes, and we see what we saw waaaay back in the very first chapter of this trainwreck, with Sakura and Syaoran trapped inside the Doom Tube, and Sakura being sucked away into darkness while Syaoran reaches toward her helplessly. Okay, so it was definitely the Doom Tube ending that Sakura saw in her dream. "And even if it were you and I in my dream, instead of them," Sakura goes on, "that wouldn't mean that we were able to change the future. Because you and I are also 'Sakura' and 'Syaoran.' "
Deep, CLAMP. Real deep.
"I had one more dream, too," Sakura adds. She summons Cardcaptor Sakura's star-staff out of thin air. "I met a version of myself from another world, and she gave me this..."
And the last two pages literally repeat, word-for-word and panel-for-panel, the scene where Cardcaptor!Sakura gave her wand to Adult!Sakura. Wow, way to go, CLAMP! You took a three-week hiatus to churn out a 16-page chapter, two pages of which were straight-up reprinted material?!
That is a special level of fail right there.
Chapter 225: In Which Sakura and Syaoran are STILL TALKING TO EACH OTHER and NOTHING HAPPENS.
Blah blah blah Sakura and Syaoran spend two pages hugging and repeating how much they love each other. Syaoran even says "And now I will repeat to you the exact same words that I said when our son was born," and then he does.
Pacing, people. This is not how you do it.
Flash forward (finally!). Widdle Oediporan stands stoicishly before his father. "Mother saw this in a dream?"
"Yes," Cloney says. "There is somebody who is waiting for you."
Psssst! Hey, Kid! IT'S YOUR MOM.
"If this is something that I must do," Oediporan says, "Then I will go." Now that's vowing to rescue and ravish your mother like a real man, kiddo.
"Then I entrust to you this sword," Cloney says, handing his son his sword, "and my name." It was your name in the first place, Syaoran, Cloney think-bubbles.
Oediporan struggles to hold the sword, as it's way too big for him. He looks up at his father, and for the first time, there is fear in his eyes. But his father merely places his hand on Oediporan's shoulder, and then tiny little Oediporan stands tall.
This page is fucking beautiful, and absolutely heartbreaking. Or at least, it would be, if not for the fact that this scene actually shows a man blessing his own grandpa to go forth and fulfill his destiny of banging his own mother.
After their son is gone, Sakura and Syaoaran talk at each other some more. Siiiiiigh. "All that's left," Sakura says, "is for that letter to reach Touya-niisan and Yukito-san today." She can say "today" because the Japanese postal system is fucking AWESOME and all domestic mail is automatically delivered overnight. No shit. "I asked them to deliver that staff to the witch," Sakura goes on, "as our payment to her." In the background, we see Touya and Yukito holding a letter, and then Yuuko holding Sakura's staff in her hands.
Then Syaoran reveals to Sakura the item that he's holding in his hands. It's the Doom Tube.
"This was in the Li family vault," Syaoran says, "just as you saw in your dream. Apparently it was entrusted to my care, according to the will of a mage who is related to my family. His name was Clow Reed."
"That's the same name that the witch mentioned," Sakura says.
"Before I was reborn into this world, I had no magical abilities of my own," Syaoran goes on. (Yeah, that's why you had to eat Fay's eyeball in order to steal his magic, remember?! Oh burn. But also, uh, CLAMP - are y'all ever going to explain how Cloney was able to cross dimensions all those times back when he was crazy and killing everyone? That couldn't have been an ability that he stole from Fay. Then again, Kyle was able to cross dimensions whenever the hell he wanted to, too. So was it FWR that was giving Cloney and Kyle the power to do that? Are we to assume that FWR is able to send his employees across dimensions, but... not himself? Come on, CLAMP, gimme something to work with here!)
Oh wait, Syaoran is still talking. Okay, back when he was still Cloney, he had no magical abilities. But then he was reborn into this universe and got juiced up on Clow's magic. Gotcha. "In this world, I have power because I am related by blood to Clow Reed," Syaoran explains. "Perhaps this is the blessing that we need. This power was given to me so that we can break the cycle. If we keep repeating our time over and over again, forever, that's the same as a living death. But with this power, I swear I can find a way out of this circle."
And then Sakura and Syaoran embrace, open up their (flipped, again) magic circles beneath their feet, and...
...revert back to their teenage forms, wearing their Clow Country outfits, trapped inside the Doom Tube, with the transparent barrier separating them again.
Well.
We've seen that happen three times now, and it still makes no fucking sense.
Sakura and Syaoran press their hands against the barrier between them. "The dream that I saw..." Sakura says.
"...We won't let this happen to them," Syaoran finishes. "Well... until we can meet again, then."
"I'll be waiting," Sakura says, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against the barrier.
Aaaaaaaaand we're back to the present, AKA The End of the Fucking Universe. Finally!
"You two are the ones that I created?!" FWR screams at the clones, who are still undoing all of his shit with their magic. "You're those clones?!"
"You're the ones that we went on our journey with?!" Mokona exclaims, equally as incredulous. "Sakura and Syaoran?!"
Chapter 226: Why the hell am I still recapping this shit, I should be watching season 4 of Hell's Kitchen before it gets pulled off of Hulu permanently.
There is a big tearful reunion with lots of joy and hugging. This probably would be an incredibly powerful scene, if the shit writing throughout the rest of this finale hadn't already destroyed any sort of emotional investment that I ever had in any of these characters.
Anyway, the joyous reunion goes on for ten pages, I won't bother to recap it all here. I should note, however, that quite a bit of the squee factor is destroyed every time CLAMP draws Sakura into one of the panels, as she is still cradling the corpse of the original Sakura in her arms. Good God, CLAMP.
Anyway, the reunion reaches its emotional climax when Cloney (now sixteen years old and dressed identically to Oediporan) touches Oediporan's cheek and says, "Whether as my original, or as my son, you are still my most precious person, always and forever."
And then FWR gets tired of watching all of this lovey-dovey bullshit, so he throws a hugeass motherfucking fireball at them. And then the universe goes kablooey. For like, three pages.
And then everything just... freezes. In the middle of going kablooey. The kablooeyness just... stops.
"Everything's frozen!" Mokona comments. I would make a snide remark about stating the obvious, but actually, it's not obvious just from looking at the artwork vomited all over the page. So thank you for that much-needed editorial commentary, CLAMP.
"He froze it," Fay says.
FWR tilts his head back. "The Witch of Dimensions is gone," he says. He gazes at the images from every world reflected in the broken shards floating around him. "In every world, no matter which world, she's... gone." His eyes widen. "Is she... dead?"
He holds still for a moment, his head bowed low.
The FWR raises his head - and his arms - and begins screaming like a maniac. "Never!! I will never accept that! The witch WILL BE REVIVED!!"
And that's it, I'm done. This chapter is done, and I'm done. Hoookay, deep breath time. Only six more chapters of this crap to go!
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On the other hand, thank you very much for recapping this so I don't have to subject myself to this torture. Your summaries are 100x more entertaining, after all.
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It will be fun seeing how they have the guts to end all this shit in two chapters when they need 5 to tell every stupid small thing.
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Yeah, the father of Byakuran, Medusa and Gilgamesh was finally killed in instant.
Sadly....another compensation occured before he lost his breath....