CLAMP - Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, ch. 130-155

[oyceter]

OMG! OMG! Not enough exclamation points in the world!

Um, so I have been squealing about this for several straight days, and OMG! OMG PEOPLE! I still can't talk about this with capslock and exclamation points and incoherent flailing of the hands! OMG! THE AWESOMENESS!

I am still not over the fact that there are VAMPIRE TWINS! And the eyes! The eyes! OriginalSyaoran giving CloneSyaoran his own eye so CloneSyaoran can grow a heart, OriginalSyaoran still seeing through it and forming connections even though he isn't physically there, CloneSyaoran taking Fai's eye and Fai's power, and then Fai offering his other eye to Yuuko for a chance to go after Sakura!

Also, I have so much Sakura love right now. I love bruised and battered Sakura going after the egg in Acid Tokyo, I love Sakura giving up her leg for her wish, and OMG! Sakura! In black! And chains! And Loli-gothed up! And playing mindgames with OriginalSyaoran and Fai and Kurogane, pretending hesitation because she knows they expect that of her, and then going behind their backs to ditch them! And prepared to sacrifice everything for them! And she gives up her good luck!

I don't know what kills me the most, the fact that Sakura is willing to do this for cloneSyaoran, who she doesn't even remember from her past (she is doing it all based on him saving her! repeatedly! during the entire journey!), or that originalSyaoran so clearly wants to get close to the gang, except they all (and Sakura especially) want cloneSyaoran back, or that cloneSyaoran, who made that first incredible sacrifice for Sakura is out there, insane, or... OMG!

And Fai! Fai has been devious and hiding information from everyone from the very beginning, except now he owes Kurogane his life. Except he went insane and nearly killed them all, and would have, were it not for Sakura! And I want to figure out what is happening with his twin, who he may or may not have killed, and Ashura-ou, and how that connects with the Ashura/Shura story from earlier in the manga.

Hopefully I will be able to post something more coherent on twins and doubles and clones and originals and copies for both xxxHolic and Tsubasa, and feathers and wings and butterflies and flight, but right now, I am still overwhelmed by the squee! And the angst! And the eye trauma!

I am quite serious about the incoherency; I think I spent an hour yesterday laughing and laughing and laughing in utter delight as Rilina explained things in chat, because the crack! Such quality crack and angst! Even now I am trying not to burst into hysterical giggles and wave my hands around to express my complete and total glee at all the plot developments and grinning like a maniac.

rilina has a much more coherent look at running themes in xxxHolic and Tsubasa here (spoilers through xxxHolic ch. 136, spoiler-text for Tsubasa through ch. 155).

So much thanks to rilina for single-handedly getting several people, me included, caught up on this to share in the massive squee!

Because OMG! OMG! SO QUALITY!

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I think you're even more squeeful about TRC than I am!

It's also worth noting that Sakura gets stabbed to save originalSyaoran, not cloneSyaoran. Which just makes the angst even that much more delicious!

I ought to say its so fanservice-y for CLAMP to get to put the gang in new costumes for each world, but I don't care. I love it! Loligoth!Sakura was sort of awesome.

[oyceter]

I am embarrassingly squeeful about TRC! I was quite fond of it to begin with, even with interminable Piffle races, just because I liked the art so much, but now that CLAMP is throwing signature angst in, they have me wrapped around their little fingers!

I adore Loligoth!Sakura. So much!

*wibbles*

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

You two got me. I had to chase down the scanlations for the rest of TRC. I've been obsessing lately Clamp's male couples -- light and dark, smaller and larger, and the yin-yang of it all finally smacked me in the face a few minutes ago -- most notably the imagery of the shared eye in XXXholic. I wish I knew more about Asian philosophy because I feel like I'm almost onto a powerful motif in Legal Drug, TRC and XXXholic (Wish too).

[oyceter]

Yay!

I am not sure about Asian philosophy, but I feel the duality thing is pretty common elsewhere too? Or the evil twin thing for CLAMP. I also love that CLAMP managed to take what seemed to be an entire fanservicey premise (the worlds populated with other CLAMP characters) and make it into the theme of the book!

I think there's a lot of duality/twin stuff in other manga as well: Yuki Kaori, FMA (brothers everywhere!), and probably more stuff but my brain just conked out.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Duality is everywhere in manga, Clamp in particular. In fact, I always use the CCS Sleeping Beauty episode to talk about deconstruction, for the way it presents and subverts binary oppositions.

But I'm groping for something other than the twins/doppelganger kind of idea, as pervasive as that is in TRC. It's these recurring pairs of opposites among the shounen-ai couples, esp. in Clamp. It's almost a cliche that one will be tall and dark and physical, and the other will be smaller, lighter, and more magical: Toya/Yukito, Domeki/Watanuki, Kurogane/Fai, Rikuo/Kazahaya, Saiga/Kakei, Shuichiro/Kohaku. The darker one is always cast as the protector of the lighter one who is vulnerable. Dark is stoic, while light is excitable and emotional. Some of the light characters resent their dark protectors, but others are more accepting. The light characters are usually coded as effeminate. It's as though Clamp is using a coherent system for coding its male characters in these couples.

[oyceter]

Oh yeah. The whole seme/uke thing? They usually map onto traditionally male and female gender roles... usually you can tell by height and blondeness vs. darkness. It's a pretty standard yaoi/shounen ai/bl coding, though I have read things that break out of the whole seme/uke thing, as I am not that fond of it.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

That's just it. Why those codes for seme/uke relationships? I have the kind of mind that wonders how those patterns get started and what underlying significance they have beyond a kind of archetypal shorthand.