The End of Tsubasa, Part 2 of 4: Chapters 229 and 230

[nenena]

Two more chapters down. Let's go.



Chapter 229: This is, hands down, the greatest Villainy Fail of all time.

Team Incest spends a total of four entire pages dramatically declaring that they REFUSE to allow that future (the one where Sakura grows wings and is sucked away?) from happening, that they WILL create a world where all four of them can live together and fuck each other in peace, and that they WILL escape the Doom Tube WITHOUT sacrificing even a single one of the four of themselves!

Unfortunately, 50-story-tall FWR is still holding them in his hands. He looks down at them and lolz. "Sillybeans! YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE."

And then both Sakura suddenly grow wings.

Well, not quite. They both grown one wing each.

Holding hands and looking quite symmetrical, the be-winged princesses glare up at FWR.

FWR rather stupidly seems surprised by this all-too-predictable turn of events. "Fucknuggets! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!"

Both Sakura, in unison, state: "We have the power within us to surpass space and time. You gave us this power, remember?"

FWR: "So now you intend to use that power to escape from my prison?! BUT I DIDN'T GIVE YOU THAT POWER TO USE FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!!"







brb






lmao






Okay, I'm good.

So wait, waitaminute, how is it that FWR is the one who gave Sakura the power to surpass space and time? Is this a reference to the long-abandoned plot twist that Sakura could only cross dimensions if she had been to them before, thus the entire reason that FWR scattered her feathers and forced her to go on a journey to retrieve them in the first place?

Which still, as I continuously point out, makes the whole thing where he tried to kill her in a previous time loop completely nonsensical.

And in the previous chapter, he also said that he was the one who put the power to surpass space and time in the ruins at Clow Country (okay), and then somehow took that power and stored it in the Doom Tube (okay again).

Question:

If Fei Wong Reed is the one who gave the power to cross space and time to Sakura/the Ruins/the Doom Tube in the first place, then why is he still obsessed with trying to gain the power to cross space and time?! If he could give that power to others, doesn't that mean that he already has it?!

Fuck you, CLAMP. Fuck. You.

Moving on. Two more pages in which Kurogane and Fay try to do something, and fail miserably.

FWR isn't even paying attention to Daddy and Mommy (the non-incestuous Mommy) anymore. He's still yelling at the clones. "STOP! Even if you escape, the laws of space-time are still crumbling! You cannot reverse it anymore! By destroying your prison, you will make it worse - you will cause the very universe itself to collapse! You will erase your own existence!!"

Does that deter Team Incest, though? No, of course not! All four of them rev up their magical powers and declare, "WE WON'T STOP! BECAUSE WE BELIEVE... IN EVERYONE!"

Ah, the power of love.

No, wait. When Sailor Moon saved the universe solely with the power of love and sparkles and awesome, it actually made perfect sense, because Sailor Moon is a kiddie manga/anime in which that sort of stuff actually works.

Tsubasa, most notably, is not.

Or rather, I think it's trying not to be a stupid kiddie manga, what with all of the death and sex and tragedy and violence and incest, and all that. Trying, but failing miserably on all fronts.

Chapter 230: About Time.

The two Sakura break the Doom Tube to smithereens. They and the other two members of Team Incest escape.

Total chaos. The world goes kablooey.

Kurogane takes advantage of the total chaos to leap at FWR and then proceed to slice that failure of a villain CLEAN IN HALF.

FWR starts to dissolve into glass shards. "It's just like what happened to Syaoran!" Mokona shouts.

As he dies, FWR reaches out his hand toward the smashed remains of the Doom Tube. "No... The witch... must be revived... That is... the reason... for my existence..." He goes on, dissolving further and futher. "I must tell you... I... For the sake of... I......."

Suddenly, FWR's death scene is upstaged by WTF FLYING RANDOM BLACK GOO ATTACK OF DOOM!!! Where did THAT come from?! I dunno, but whatever that stuff is, it suddenly blows all four members of Team Incest apart! They reach for each other, screaming! The goo separates the two Sakura from the two Syaoran! Oh noes!

Meanwhile, FWR has been dissolved until there is nothing left but the lower half of his face, which then begins to smile in the most horrible, creepy way imaginable. "Syaoran," he says, addressing both of them at the same time. "You are the same as I... For your sins... You must pay... the price..."

Hey, are you paying attention to this, Atsushi Ohkubo?! If you're going to use a shitload ton of ellipses in your speech bubbles, then dammit, THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT. When a character is dying and barely able to speak, THAT'S when you bust out with the ellipses. NOT when a character is having a perfectly normal conversation with another character!!

Moving on. Ding-dong, FWR is dead. Black goo is everywhere. A huge swirling vortex of black goo swallows the two Syaoran.

Fay looks up at the goo-tornado. "The world is returning back to normal!" he declares.

Wait, whut?

I thought that the universe was supposed to collapse even worse if the Doom Tube was broken. Why is the universe suddenly being fixed, again?

Also, didn't Fay just witness that goo-tornado eat both Syaoran alive?!

The two Sakura reach toward the tornado, panicked. "Syaoran isn't coming out!" Mokona shouts.

The two Sakura scream. "SYAORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Meanwhile, inside the goo vortext: total calm, and total blackness. The two Syaoran stand in the middle of a blank black nothingness. "Where are we?" one Syaoran asks. I can't tell which is which anymore.

"I don't know," the other Syaoran answers. "But I do know that there is nobody else here. There is nothing here."

And then the chapter ends.

Next up: Chapter 231! Wait for it, guys. You're going to need to have some pretty strong liquor on hand to get through this next one. Or at least, I know that I will.

Comments

[alice-rm.livejournal.com]

So...the only one that made something useful was Kurogane...? at least is something

Thank you, I think I wouldn't be able to read this manga anymore without your summaries

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

Dear god i hope Soul Eater never starts messing with clones, time travel or I DIED BUT IM NOT RLY DED!!!!111 scenarios. Granted if Ohkubo did, he'd probably know wtf he's doing and make it relatively logical which says a lot coming from a series where humans turn into friggen-freckin weapons.

And if this was how FWR was gonna die why couldnt Kurogane kill him before he created a friggen plethora of epic villainy failures? :\ Their conversation shouldve went like this instead:

FWR: NOO I DIDNT GIVE U THE POWER TO DO THAT UR BREAKIN SUCH NONEXISTANT RULEZZZ!!!!11
Sakuras: SCREW THE RULES I HAVE GREEN HAIR

[nenena.livejournal.com]

And if this was how FWR was gonna die why couldnt Kurogane kill him before?

That is a damn good question.

[cykstar.livejournal.com]

I feel like I need to start reading these chapters just for funnsies.

Honestly, Kurogane killing FWR like that NOW pisses me off. He couldn't have used the other times where FWR was being all ranty and bitchy to kill him.

It doesn't help that the most recent chapter of xxxHolic pissed me off as well. All I found out from it is that Watanuki is possibly smoking weed and that he needs to wear loose kimonos more. And he might as well get it on with Domeki because Himawari has seemed to completely disappear now!

[nenena.livejournal.com]

And he might as well get it on with Domeki because Himawari has seemed to completely disappear now!

Arrrrgh, really?! That pisses me off, too. I'm not surprised that CLAMP would just write Himawari out of the story - it kind of felt like she was always window-dressing in the first place - but still, arrrrrrgh!

And yes, seconded to the Kurogane thing. It really makes no sense. There's absolutely no reason why he was unable to touch FWR before, and then all of a sudden he was able to easily slice the dude in half. WTF, CLAMP.

FIRST

[corinn.livejournal.com]

This is what I wrote to respond to that exchange at the last summary where I said it's looking more like Watanuki could be FWR. I got caught up in classes and didn't want to post it anonymously (wasn't on my own comp), so here it is:

SECOND

[corinn.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'm not certain, but I think it's a stronger possibility now than before. I'm just having fun playing with the tinfoil hats. Because the story is so goddamn convoluted, I actually wouldn't put it past them to include attempted matricide in their Oedipal saga.

Watanuki had his own farewell scene with Yuuko. (It was rather like a love scene at parts. It was very odd.) Then Yuuko disappeared, and he did not take it well. Then he wrapped himself in Yuuko's damned butterfly kimono (which was mysteriously left on the floor when she disappeared) and announced his intent to take over the shop. Somewhere in there, it is hinted he spoke with the Syaorans in the black void, and they gave him his glasses back (which he had lost in a dream with Sakura, I think). The meeting isn't shown; just Doumeki seeing a glimpse of the Syaorans and a hand giving the glasses.

The fact that everyone but Mokona, Doumeki, Himawari, Kohane, and the old fortune teller has forgotten Yuuko really bothers Watanuki, because it's like Yuuko's existence was erased.

Then Watanuki says his plan is to work granting wishes at the shop for a very long time... until he can meet Yuuko again. Then he reveals that he can no longer leave the shop. He says it is a "price." Though he does end up saying he knows "there is no living thing which does not die." But Doumeki has some Chekhov's Gun egg (a copy of the one Sakura got in Acid Tokyo) that he's supposed to use regarding Watanuki's "choice," and they keep playing that up so much it's annoying as hell. He seems to know what to do with it, and says he can't "use it on him," so I dunno what the fuck he's gonna pull.

And then Watanuki finds Yuuko's pipe and utterly fails at smoking, but tries until he gets it right. The last shot in 185 is of him reclining on the back porch, smoking, with Yuuko's butterfly kimono on his shoulders like a cape. I think it's supposed to be symbolic, but it (and the chapter) is coming across as Watanuki being a bit cracked about desperately wanting Yuuko to live.

Anyway, Watanuki's being FWR could make a bit of sense, if you look at it in a twisty manner. FWR wants Yuuko to live, and can't seem to leave his home dimension. It could be that Watanuki is walking down the road to become FWR, but Doumeki's Doom Egg power will help him avoid it.

The possibility of FWR being Doumeki is nebulously out there, too, which I say largely because of the appearance of FWR's eyes, the fact that we never see what Doumeki's grandfather looked like when he was older, and the fact that two of his clone experiments (Xing Huo and Kyle) bear a passing resemblance to Himawari and Watanuki. Waaay back in the beginning, my best friend said her pet theory was that FWR was an older Doumeki who snapped when he lost his friends and decided to try recreating them (Xing Huo and Kyle), failed at recreating their personalities, and ended up deciding to go back and fix things so he wouldn't lose his friends. Playing with her theory, if that sequence of events is true, it could be that FWR/Doumeki decided that the event that eventually led to him losing his friends was Yuuko's death, so he decided to prevent that from happening.

If either of the boys turns out to be FWR, it would actually play into how the TRC/HOLiC world has become so circularly clusterfucked. Then breaking the cycle would mean preventing someone from becoming FWR. In either case I just proposed, the cycle would stop when whoever becomes FWR learns to let go, which agrees with the theme of letting go.

[end old comment]

THIRD

[corinn.livejournal.com]

You really need to read the new xxxHOLiC chapter. There is strong emphasis on the cycle starting over. The first page of the whole series is quoted, and the magazine's text on the side says something about "what does the new subtitle mean?" Because the logo now has a diamond with some kanji in it.

Anyway, it looks like Watanuki is slowly starting to act like Yuuko. He's shown lounging on the couch in a butterfly kimono, smoking, and being sleepy. LOL.

Evidently it's a Four Years Later situation, and Doumeki is in university. Watanuki asks why he's studying folklore when his forte was always the sciences. (Since when?)

I'm leaning more toward Doumeki being FWR. Largely for the lulz. Unless his interest in folklore plus strength in the sciences is a big red herring thrown out by CLAMP. Which also would not surprise me.

I AM surprised that I keep trying to make sense out of all this. Especially in light of TRC 231, which makes me agree with the need for liquor. But I'll rail about that when you summarize it.

Re: THIRD

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Iiiiiiinteresting theory.

However, my problems with Doumeki-as-FWR are:

1. He's not related to Clow Reed, and I can't fathom why he would ever claim to be if he's not.
2. WTF does he care about Yuuko? I mean, not that he doesn't care about her at all, but he certainly doesn't care about her to the extent that Clow or FWR do.
3. Why would he care about proving himself to be a greater magician than Clow Reed? Doumeki just doesn't seem to care at ALL about how his abilities compare to anyone else's.

FOR THE LULZ!

[corinn.livejournal.com]

1. Point.
2. I'm starting to wonder if FWR sees Yuuko as necessary for something rather than loving her. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't he always refer to her as "The Witch"? That's not exactly affectionate. But it's been so long since I read the first half of TRC that I don't remember much about FWR himself, leading to...
3. ...Was wanting to surpass Clow one of FWR's stated motivations? I really don't remember.

I'm still ambivalent. FWR could be either of the boys, or someone else entirely. I do find the coincidence of Watanuki not leaving the shop and FWR not leaving his dimension suspicious.

There are a lot of possibilities, but I had a new idea caused by FWR saying that resurrecting Yuuko is his reason to exist, and then Mokona dons the Captain Obvious Hat to say FWR is dissolving just like Syaoran did:

FWR is a clone himself.

When you consider the series, it makes absolutely no perfect sense.

Of course, TRC 231 seems to be attempting to destroy anything even remotely resembling plot continuity. Unless the reincarnated clones disappearing isn't retroactive like Yuuko's disappearance; otherwise, Oediporan would cease to exist. (That would actually be a happy ending to this travesty, I think.) Their disappearance doesn't make any sense in the first place, since they aren't technically clones anymore. I think.

BTW, do you know what that kanji on the logo on the title page is?

I have the sneaking suspicion that TRC will end on a To Be Continued note, leading into whatever xxxHOLiC does.

I just want it to end.

Re: FOR THE LULZ!

[nenena.livejournal.com]

3. Yes, FWR stated many, many times that he was going to prove himself to be the greater magician than Clow Reed, either by a) gaining the power to surpass dimensions or b) bringing back Yuuko.

籠 = kago. It could mean seclusion, cage, or devotion. It's kind of an odd kanji to be sticking there.