Okay, so everybody who knows anything about my love for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles knows that the twins own my soul. I offered it up as tithe to the church of Yuui and Fai. And this has been great on the Yuui front! The Yuui front eats well, the supply lines are unharried, everyone is sad but everything is great.
The Fai front's rations consist of three bread crusts and a boiled shoelace.
There is, understandably, very little in canon for our boy. We know that he was the one in the tower, that he was more 'curl into myself and die' traumatized as opposed to the 'burning brightly like the end of the world' traumatized of his brother though we can't be sure how much of that was the difference in the trauma they were experiencing and how much was a difference between them, that he was suicidal ideation before Dickcheese even showed up, that he just straight up ordered Dickcheese to his face to save his brother (seriously, go look at those pages, I love them, in fact I have a whole post), and that he loved his brother more than anything.
Which seems like a lot when written down all together but it really really isn't.
But! There's hope! There is more Fai content in the form of Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen, which all TRC fans likely know about by now but for everyone else is essentially a school au series of shorts featuring a range of Clamp characters, including Fai and Yuui among the teaching staff. It's not a lot, but even like three more panels of OG!Fai opens the door for doubling what we know about him.
There is a problem- namely that I've heard conflicting information about who is who. I've heard a lot of people talk about how the names are switched to avoid confusion from fans- since Yuui goes by Fai for the whole of TRC- but I've also heard claims that this isn't the case at all. So, part of this my first read-through of Horitsuba will be figuring out which I believe is the case, based on what we already know of both characters from canon. To this end, I'll be keeping track of traits of each one as I read the shorts and whatever script translations I can find, and then working shit out after.
So let's get ourselves into this.
~~
"Yuui"
Home Ec Teacher
More chill
Ver nice, good teacher
Polite
Brother picked his clothes for a special occassion, was chill about it
Comforting Kurogane over his brother's shenanigans in one panel
Seriously man can fucking bake
Plays piano
New to the area
Managed a restaurant in Italy
Happy for his brother's happiness
Wears glasses
Cooking for three because Kurogane lives next door and, well, *gestures down to "Fai" section*
If nothing else pulled pranks as a small with his brother
Can imitate his twin's voice?
Played archery
Not much of a voice actor
Seems rather modest and maybe a bit shy maybe?
"Fai"
Chemistry teacher
Nicknames for Kurogane
Just the general fucking with Kurogane we get from early!Yuui!Fai
Bright and smiley
Energetic
Playing up his emotions
Playful troublemaker
Crossdressing
Definitely leaning more towards the 'ship with Kurogane' end of things
Works with Kurogane on department budget shit in one episode of the drama
Can sew
Number one most precious thing is his brother, awww
Can imitate his twin's voice
Voice-acting-capable
Acted in school
Refused to be in a club because too much time from his brother
~~
Okay, so what have we got here? Two very different characters, I'll give that.
"Yuui" seems to lean more towards late!Yuui!Fai in personality, but doesn't seem to be as playful, teasing, or bombastic. Especially that last bit.
"Fai" meanwhile very clearly leans more towards early!Yuui!Fai in personality. He's very playful, teasing, bombastic, and really trying to wear his way into Kurogane's heart. He lacks in a touch of the seriousness of him though.
In fact, when we look at the sequel to the manga- Tsubasa World Chronicle, one seems quite reserved in comparison to the Yuui!Fai we get, while the other is far too bombastic. TWC Yuui!Fai is calmer and more obviously serious than he presented himself early on, but still very clearly teasing and playful, just less bombastic about it.
And that's an important point to make, because one argument I've seen for "Fai" being OG!Fai is that Yuui!Fai was mimicking his brother when he was acting all bombastic and smiley at the start, and I don't think that's the case for a few reasons.
As I just said, Yuui!Fai is a teasing, playful person, just not to nearly the degree as he initially presented himself
We see where his stepford-smiler stuff begins in the manga, where he begins to smile not because he feels it but to make other people happy and repay Ashura- the persona we first see is an exaggeration of himself with a thick layer of smiles acting as a mask between him and these people he's supposed to betray but cares too much about too quickly (because Yuui!Fai is a fucking gift who cares so deeply all the time)
While there's not exactly a lot of opening for it, we don't see any reason in the canon to believe that OG!Fai would have been the cheery bubbly sort if life hadn't had his balls in a vice
Not to say that this isn't the case, but that I just don't think it's likely. Gods know I'm not Clamp, I could be wrong.
Continuing- "Yuui" has some Yuui!Fai traits, like his piano playing, his cooking, his archery. "Fai" acts (and what was Yuui!Fai's life for so long but playing a role), uses nicknames, and crossdresses.
But what I think is something really important to look at is the relations with Kurogane. Because this is Clamp, whatever they're writing, it's also a romance, and they're big on fuckers finding each other throughout space and time. Like who even knows how many versions of Sakura and Syaoran there are getting together anymore.
"Yuui" doesn't get much there. He pats Kurogane on the shoulder in support while his brother is being A Lot. Kurogane helps him move a big cake. The trio all have dinner together every night. That's it. That's what he gets. "Fai", meanwhile, get so fucking much interaction, so much of the same brand of banter and dynamic the pair have in canon- leaning more towards early canon rather than the sequel, yes, but the dynamic is still there in the sequel, just at a chiller level.
So I can see why people would look at that and think "Yuui" is the real OG!Fai. I can also see how people would look at things like cooking and piano and not being so bombastic and think that "Fai" the real OG!Fai. Both sides are understandable. Personally I think...
It's neither.
"Yuui" is close but he's not quite Yuui!Fai- he doesn't seem to have that same teasing, playful nature that still is his nature even when the mask comes off and the world isn't weighing on him. "Fai" is also not Yuui!Fai, he's more like the mask become truth, an exaggeration of the character. Neither of them is the man we all know and love.
So, I present a third option to the board- Clamp didn't have anything more for OG!Fai than what they gave us in canon, which isn't a lot to work off of. To build a character off that, you'd essentially be building someone entirely new for what seems like it was supposed to be all familiar characters just in a different setting. So, instead, they split Yuui!Fai in two.
They took the bombastic teasing and playfulness that would be most familiar to casual fans, the relationship that's straight up canon, and put it under "Fai"- the name Yuui!Fai goes by for the entire series and that would be most familiar.
They then took the calmer, more mature aspects, alongside the hobbies, and put them under "Yuui"- a name that's only really used in one world and late into the series, combining the parts of Yuui!Fai that would be less likely for casual fans to remember clearly into a character who's still familiar enough to work with.
So, what would this mean for OG!Fai? Well for one thing, it'd mean we still only have a few panels to go off of for him, which is a damn shame. Especially since they take place in a time of his life when so much of what we see is colored with trauma.
But, we can always take traits from what we see here and add them to the character- they could be shared, or things that OG!Fai was interested in in those early years that Yuui!Fai took up in his name. Or just because. Or we can futz with shit on our own, work with what we have and, well, make it work.
And at the end of the day, we still have what's canon. That OG!Fai loved his brother more than anything. That he was broken or loyal enough to turn down Fei-Wang's offer of salvation thrice. That even as a small, broken child he still was determined and strong enough to stare Fei-Wang- the big bad of the series- in the face and give him an order.
And damnit if that's not enough to love him by.
