#evil wolverine

[completeoveranalysis]

[3]

Oh! I think they’re out? Is that the swirl of them getting out? With all the glass falling away around them? I do really like the shattered glass falling across Evil Wolverine's face, but either way I suppose let’s just turn the page on this one.

OH!

OH!

OH INCREDIBLE.

THEY FUCKING STABBED THE GUY. 

Together!

Kurogane CUT RIGHT THROUGH EVIL WOLVERINE LIKE BUTTER, with Fai’s magic spiralling around him as he goes. 

TALK ABOUT A BEAUTIFUL MURDER. I JUST LOVE IT.

[completeoveranalysis]

[13]

Oh that works too! Same thing in principle but with one less step - if Clow Reed didn’t turn back time, then Evil Wolverine is just kind of like His Wish Personified. 

Which is just absolutely fucking wild to think about. Like, Clow Reed just kind of thought that he would like it if Yuuko came back to life, and because he was just wildly overpowered that single thought came to life with an entire own personality and name and endless magic power of its own that it could systematically break the entire universe and kill countless worlds and people to make that wish happen. 

And that wasn’t even something Clow Reed did on purpose! Apparently. 

I think I’d prefer it if Evil Wolverine was actually a consequence of a wish or action, rather than just a stray thought gone rogue, since I feel like that’s more in line with the message of Tsubasa and xxxHolic combined. So much of both of these stories is wrapped up in grief and obsession and learning how to handle them - it’d be much more on theme for Evil Wolverine to be “an incorrect channeling of grief or obsession” rather than an accidental thought crime. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]

E̵̻͑͋L̶͖̋̾D̶̦̪͒̐Ŕ̴̮̜I̵̦̬̿̔T̵͙̑̈C̷̯͎͗͠H̴̥̬̑͘ ̴̱̄Ṗ̴̥O̵͇̾̿W̶̲̝̾E̵͕̒R̴̪̣̒̚ DOUBLE SAKURA HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

[completeoveranalysis]

[12]

AH THANK YOU FAI!

Fai you are a precious bean, finally this is some brand new information. 

BECAUSE they are time travel anomalies that don’t quite fit the new universe (because the universe says so) they had to pick a price that matches their existence. It’s so interesting that they took this discussion entirely OUT of the previous chapter, where it actually would have made more sense to have it (since Watanuki and Lava Lamp clearly discussed exactly this and helped each other make these decisions off screen), but still! We have the explanation now at least, and it makes sense. 

Lava Lamp is continuing his journey to lessen his influence on any one individual world, and Watanuki is staying in the store forever, since that’s technically slightly outside existence. 

Finally something that makes complete sense to me.

This page is just stuff we’ve covered here on the blog already, but it’s nice of the dads to explain it just in case a reader had missed the implication back when it happened; Evil Wolverine was also a clone, though we don’t know of who or why or how or when. 

(Though I assume Clow Reed. My best guess is that Clow tried to rewind time to prevent himself from accidentally wishing Yuuko into existence (and thus breaking the universe), but as a result he caused Evil Wolverine to pop into reality fully bent on bringing Yuuko back from the dead)

It’s also wildly optimistic of Fai and Kurogane to hope that the price for Lava Lamp/Watanuki’s existences gets to be fully paid quickly, since the last few chapters of Tsubasa has been uh… wildly one sided when it comes to the price of fulfilling wishes. You can just pay for a wish and pay for a wish again and pay for it even more and STILL the price is not enough and it keeps coming back and taking things from you, EVEN IF YOU PAID IN FULL AT THE MOMENT OF THE WISH, and people like Evil Wolverine never have to pay for anything ever. 

I think it would have made sense if Evil Wolverine had been lying about the prices of things and making people pay for wishes for him, but I suppose that’s not the plot we have and a lot of things are just question marks. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]

This is one of those pages where I agree absolutely with (a) the actual conversation that is happening, and (b) the emotion being conveyed, however, (c ) the context…

The context drives me wild. 

Like. On hearing he has to pay a price STILL, Lava Lamp is despairing over the fact that the only thing they have to give is the Mysterious feather that was Syaraon (their dad) but Watanuki cautions a bit of temperance since they can’t pay too much without causing devastation to themselves in some way. And I LOVE the way he phrases it, it’s entirely beautiful and I adore that it’s coming from Watanuki, who has learned so much and come so far into stepping into Yuuko’s position. 

HOWEVER THE THING THAT DRIVES ME MAD IS THAT WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE EVEN PAYING FOR, EXACTLY, SO HOW CAN THEY INTUIT HOW MUCH THEY NEED TO PAY?

I need like ONE line of dialogue from the disembodied voice of a receipt ghost who can just quickly say “Item; Price” and vanish again. 

Please receipt ghost you’re my only hope. 

To my DELIGHT Watanuki actually kind of captures everything I was stressing over (Thank you Watanuki). 

I get a little lost in the layout of the speech bubbles here, and I wouldn't call the translation exactly 'fluid' here, but I believe Lava Lamp is like “Oh I I think I know, let’s pay using the curse (which curse? No idea!)” and Watanuki is like “No it has to be something precious to you.”

Do I even know exactly what they’re talking about? Well not yet!

... Oh unless Lava Lamp is talking about the disembodied Evil Wolverine voice that keeps haunting them here? is THAT a curse? Wait ok, so if that is true I think I need to go back and recontextualise Evil Wolverine's final words as A BRAND NEW CURSE HE IS LAYING ON THEM DELIBERATELY ALL OF A SUDDEN WITHOUT SAYING WHAT IT IS, which matches his vibe exactly, but fuck you think there would be a limit to the amount of curses you can lay, ESPECIALLY when you are currently dying, and especially when he literally never pays the price for anything ever.

Actually I think I'd almost prefer it if Evil Wolverine trying to bump his prices onto them in his final moments, and that's what's caught them here, but let's not go too far off track.

When Lava Lamp says "I may know the answer! ... This is the final curse that Fei-Wang laid!" this is probably a very dicey word choice for saying they will try use Evil Wolverine's final curse as payment to leave the void dimension, and Watanuki says it probably doesn't count.

I think that's as good as I'm going to get.

Uh… sure!

THE PRICE, as the kids say.

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

Chapitre 230 - A World Reborn/Resurrected World

BROKEN JAM JAR CONFIRMED!

It’s hard to get more broken than that!

Also Evil Wolverine screaming Don’t do it in the sidelines is delightful. This is what the anxiety demon inside my head looks like whenever I have to answer the phone.

And there we go! There goes the Tsubasa power being used to return everything to the way it was. 

I think I’ve said this elsewhere but I really love the symmetry of the wings being used this way at the end of the plot here. It ties up and inverts a lot of the plot beats that we’ve established throughout the series in a way that's very satisfying, like;

The Sakuras previously being used as tools, now being able to use their own power for themselves (and reclaiming both their agency and their personhood)

The wings being intended (by Evil Wolverine) to break the universe for what he wants, but here they’re used to restore it instead

The feathers being scattered across the dimensions was a method for Evil Wolverine’s plans, but now the fact that they have memories of the dimensions is working against him, leading to the ultimate ruin of his plan

The fact that the presence of the feathers in a world would typically cause some kind of disturbance or imbalance as a result, but now the fact that they were there at all is what is letting all the dimensions be healed 

Also the feathers also being parts of Sakura - their absence was initially going to kill her, and now the Sakuras get to use them to save her (and the others) from dying 

The flip of both Sakuras initially being Evil Wolverine’s victims, now being the people directly responsible for his downfall

And there’s something in the parallel of the feathers coming together to make Sakura who she was, and now the Sakuras are coming together to make the worlds what they were

And I like the idea that Evil Wolverine absolutely destroyed the lives of all these people individually, but now they’re all here together and he just can’t stand up against them all. If he hadn’t hurt them all they wouldn’t all be here, but here they all are saving themselves and all he can do is scream about it. 

It’s pretty straightforward but also very just narratively satisfying to see it wrap up this way. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[7]

?

Did he… need her alive for this?

Is that why the dream had to end. To prevent his universe hack.

At face value his sincere shock over her death made me a little suspicious that Yuuko might have been his precious person - but that raises a lot of questions that I can’t possibly answer so maybe I’ll just put a pin in that until he gets to say some more. 

More likely he just wants to revive her so he can use her to revive his actual precious person. 

Though since this is the end of the chapter anyway, wouldn’t that be such an interesting way to tie the plot together? If Evil Wolverine’s unnamed and mysterious person he wants to bring back from the dead was Yuuko Ichihara? Or maybe more specifically whatever her original name was - since Yuuko is an assumed name. And if the reason WHY she was using an assumed name wasn’t just for mysterious mystical protection reasons, but specifically because she was breaking connection with him? 

Not only would that CLOSE that mystery, since Evil Wolverine's person wouldn't be a person we’ve never met but a person we know extremely well, but it’d also be an incredible surprise since I never would have expected that, ever. That never once occurred to me. I’m sure other people probably had that on their bingo card but I’d never thought they would be connected from their opposition everywhere throughout the entire plot. 

And IF that ended up true, what would their connection be? Like I assumed Evil Wolverine was bringing back his significant other, but Yuuko was clearly in love with Clow - so I don’t know, what if she was his daughter, or granddaughter? Or mother?

Of course that’s assuming that Evil Wolverine isn’t a clone of Clow Reed. Or if Yuuko herself is a clone of the person Evil Wolverine actually cares about. 

The clone maths never ends. Let's just stop thinking there before I spiral all week long.

[completeoveranalysis]

[11]

aka ME IN THREE HOURS ONCE THIS HAS ACTUALLY SUNK IN

Oop there’s the crack! They really can just get out that way, even if all it took was A COMPLETELY UNJUST LOSS

I really want to yell at Evil Wolverine for these words that keep coming back because I’M SORRY THEY DON’T EVEN MAKE SENSE EVIL WOLVERINE, THIS WASN’T EVEN SLIGHTLY RELATED TO HIS CRIME. THIS WASN’T EVEN HIS PRICE. IT WAS JUST THAT THEY APPARENTLY NEEDED YOU TO RUN THEIR BATTERIES. 

THIS IS COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO PRICE AND/OR CRIMES

THIS IS JUST PULLING OUT THE POWER CORD

COME BACK HERE SO I CAN YELL THIS AT YOU!