Before you do the Celes arc, I was wondering what your final theories about Fai were? Obviously you know a decent amount of stuff now, but do you have any idea on what evil wolverine's second plan might be? Or how Fai and Ashura met? Just wondering what your thoughts are in general heading into sad cat dad's world.
This is a wonderful question! Thank you for the prompt. Before we launch right into the next big story arc, I’ll take some time here and list all the theories I have floating around.
But with the disclaimer! That I don’t expect most of these to be correct - especially in a CLAMP manga, where they like to distract you with one thing and then pull the entire floor out from beneath you the second you look away.
With that in mind:
THEORIES
Fai
I don’t have many theories left on Fai. I’m consulting my old text document and I had one listed here that says “Fai probably worked for Evil Wolverine”. That’s amusing in hindsight because oh god this is not how I meant it to turn out. The accidental theory that there was another Fai has also turned out far more tragically than expected.
But it seems safe to say that every detail we learn about Fai’s past will be terrible. Fai has done nothing wrong and does not deserve any of this.
The text document I have also lists “Fai had a feather from the start and lied about it” and, for once, I think that turned out just fine. Phew!
Things I still want to know:
-Exactly what his tattoos were (and just how terrible the cost for using his magic will be on him)
-Why he sealed Ashura away (and whether it was out of love or rebellion). My current impression is that Ashura broke him out of his prison and pseudo-adopted him, but also saw him as a means to an ends.
-If his twin will still affect the plot at all
-WILL HE EVER LEARN TO LET HIMSELF BE LOVED (and the answer needs to be yes)
Kurogane
Kurogane is currently the ‘stable’ one of the family, so there’s not a lot of mystery surrounding him right now. The few thoughts I have are:
-’Kurogane’ probably isn’t his birth name
-He will reunite with Tomoyo and then willingly choose to leave again, as his new family needs him more
-Has a suspicious number of limbs still intact compared to everyone else, just saying
Mokona
Pure bean, more important than she knows.
No actual theories but I wanted to include her still.
Things I still want to know:
-How the dampening/amplifying magic effect the mokona’s have will be important
Sakura
I still can’t believe all my wildest dreams about Sakura gaining agency came true and then she died right before my eyes.
My current theories include:
-Our Sakura has effectively been given an exit from the plot, and she won’t regain her body in the ‘real’ world
-There will be another Sakura in the plot line
-Our Sakura may not be an OG Sakura
-Has some tie to Xing Huo (unless, in hindsight, it’s just the parallel that they both got stabbed)
-Her life with Syaoran in the spirit world ties into a someone else’s existence (coughwatanukicough)
Syaorans
Lava Lamp knows TOO MUCH and isn’t tell me anything. But, like:
-Lava Lamp has strong ties to Watanuki and clearly knows certain story beats about how his future plays out (are they related?)
-Lava Lamp has some other tie to Evil Wolverine, and/or Evil Wolverine is strongly benefiting from his presence in the party
-The Syaorans are going to fight and it’s NOT GOING TO END WELL
-I still want to know where Lava Lamp came from and what he’s doing. He’s Clow Reed’s heir but which world is he from, if any.
Yuuko Ichihara
-Is not entirely alive. Was either dead at one point and brought partially into a different existence, or is partially from the spirit/dream world, or something.
-May not make it to the end of the plotline, and Watanuki is being set up to replace her
Watanuki
-Was not originally from this world (or this timeline)
-Was probably originally from the dream world and dropped into the ‘real world’ to save either him or the future, or both
-We probably know who his parents are (the number of couple that this could be is… quite… small) but we haven’t seen them get together yet, or it’s already happened and Timeline Shenanigans.
-Watanuki isn’t his original name either
Doumeki’s Egg
-bad
Xing Huo
-Deserved better
-Will be more important at a later point in the story
I’m struck with how pleased Ashura looks. Not necessarily because he’s happy to see Fai, but because he’s getting exactly what he wants. This is, naturally, everything that Fai gave up so much to avoid ever happening. And Kurogane’s using the name to put things together in his head, because nothing gets past ninja ears.
We also get a bit more of a glimpse of just how little time has passed in Celes. Fai’s conversation with Chi confirmed that time was really out of synch here, but we can see that the bodies are still in the same place and only partially covered in snow, if at all.
I’ve never lived anywhere that had snow, but I assume this means it really hasn’t been long whatsoever?
NO.
LAVA LAMP THIS IS BANNED.
YOU DON’T GET TO PULL THAT CARD.
THE LAST TIME A SYAORAN HAD MYSTERIOUS VISION ISSUES AND EVERYONE PRETENDED IT WAS FINE ALL OF ACID TOKYO HAPPENED.
AND NOW WE’RE IN CELES.
JUST GIVE A ONE SENTENCE EXPLANATION FOR ONCE OH MY GOD.
Mokona instantly embodies my reaction that’s happening. We’ve only just looked at the castle in general and already:
Naturally the thing about the feathers makes sense too. Mokona is instantly scared that she can’t sense Sakura (and thus, Sakura could already be dead) but Lava Lamp manages to explain away the fact that her memories are with her soul, and so can’t be sensed right now.
But! It sets up a very neat parallel with Syaoran, who was also technically an empty body (as a clone) that had something inside him (half of Lava Lamp’s soul, that let him grow his personality and, ultimately, his own soul) taken out.
The result was different in both cases. When Syaoran lost his half of Lava Lamp’s soul, his programming took over and animated his empty body, making him wild and dangerous. When Sakura lost her soul, her body just went limp.
What’s also interesting is that their origins are the same as well. Syaoran was initially empty and had a piece of a soul inside him to grow his own memories and individual self - and technically Sakura was too, at the start. She was an empty shell, and it was only the giving her the feathers that slowly allowed her to build up her personality and individuality. Now we just have to see if those were her memories all along, or if she was just as much of a clone as Syaoran.
In which Lava Lamp looks determined and secretive and slightly mystical. All of which are entirely appropriate and I still have no idea what’s going on with him.
I know even less about what’s going on in the splash text.
But someone is wind right now and I wish them the very best!
In my heart I like to believe that Ashura just woke up like five minutes before they turned up then ran around frantically putting everything together like... "I've been waiting such a long time" buddy, I bet you were still trying to hide the kid underneath your cloak right as Fai was opening the door don't lie.
This is absolutely the only way I can see it playing out in my head.
Here we are again with some excellent translation notes about the first part of Volume 20, all from the wonderful @giniroangou.
Highlights Include: Tube mysteries solved!, Fai’s dramatics actually making sense, wonderful explanations of Fai’s lies, Yuuko Queen of sass, Watanuki will change the future!, a touching Lava Lamp moment, and oh god the Fai flashback gets worse?
Chapter 150
p.9 - Yuuko is still talking about a one-in-two chance here, not two-in-one. A couple of the speech bubbles are also swapped around - first she explains the body/soul separation, then the two worlds Sakura has gone to.
p.12 - Kurogane’s words to Fai are even more straight-forward in the original text. Just: “Don’t hurt anyone else with that sword. Including yourself.”
p.18 - Mokona and Yuuko aren’t talking about the store being different here, they’re saying that the inside of the tube is not in the same place as the store.
p.19 - An alternate translation for the dream world Sakura went to could be “The World of ‘Dreams’.” Once again for clarification, this is NOT in reference to Yuuko’s shop - the inside and outside of that tube are in different places.
p.20 - “My man Lantis” is BEAUTIFUL and I wouldn’t change a thing about it, but unfortunately it’s much less funny in Japanese. Eagle says “uchi no Lantis” which is basically like “our Lantis” - it’s an expression that indicates someone as part of the speaker’s in-group, so it can be used for a family member, a member of an organization, etc.
Lantis doesn’t actually say “I saw the future,” just “I had a dream,” though they would amount to the same thing.
p.24 - I would translate Fai’s line as, “Sakura-chan knew what I was lying about.” It’s not that she knew he was lying but that she knew the truth behind it.
Chapter 151
p.26 - This is a continuation of Fai’s final line from the previous chapter, so the lie Sakura knew about was that Fai knew one of her feathers was in Celes. Also, they dropped the honorific in the translation but Fai is still saying “Sakura-chan.”
p.28 - Fai is saying here that he found out at Yuuko’s shop that Sakura and Syaoran were searching for the feathers but he never told them about the one used to make Chii.
p.29 - It’s obvious from the flashback, but Syaoran is talking about what happened when they all arrived in the first world they were sent to (by Yuuko not Yukito.)
p.30 - Mokona isn’t talking in general terms, but saying specifically that from the moment she awoke at Yuuko’s shop she could sense a feather there but couldn’t tell who in the group had it.
Fai then says to Lava Lamp, “That’s why you kept your distance from me.”
Again, this is not really about Fai lying in general but about the specific lies people around him were already aware of. He’s basically saying to Yuuko, “You knew what some of my other lies were too, didn’t you?”
p.33 - Fai refers to his wish to go with the group as something that was devised/planned - it’s the same word they’ve used previously to talk about Fei Wang arranging for all of them to go on this journey, so I’d assume that’s what he’s referencing here.
p.34 - Kurogane asks why Sakura wanted to go into the tube, not why she’s living there.
p.39 - Slight adjustment: Fai’s saying he wouldn’t mind gouging out his eye if he could, but he can’t because losing all his magic along with both eyes would probably kill him and he can’t die yet.
Chapter 152
p.45 - In case it wasn’t clear, Kurogane is connecting his punch here with his line from the previous chapter about punching Sakura.
p.46 - Yuuko’s criticism of Kurogane after he says, “Hey, Witch,” is much more entertaining in the Japanese version. She says, “On top of being beyond rude, there isn’t a shred of taste in the way you address me.” Kurogane’s comeback is the ever-eloquent, “Shut up.”
p.47 - It’s not actually the meeting between Sakura and Watanuki that Yuuko says will trigger another change to the future, but Watanuki himself.
p.48 - I would change Yuuko’s line about Watanuki vanishing to, “Watanuki hasn’t vanished either” (presumably in addition to Sakura’s soul not having vanished.) Then she says that “for now” Watanuki’s identity has nothing to do with them. It’s an ongoing state that has the potential to change in the future.
p.50 - Lava Lamp says nothing about Fei Wang slicing out Sakura’s memories - he’s saying that Fei Wang wants her body with the dimensional memories etched into it. (This isn’t new information btw - Yuuko already explained it to the group back in Acid Tokyo.)
p.51 - We have another “Syaoran” with quotation marks from Mokona here.
p.52 - Let’s re-translate Lava Lamp’s lines here because they came out super awkward: “The reason I didn’t say anything despite what I knew was that Sakura… the Princess trusted you. Even if you’d lied, the Princess trusted you, lies and all.”
p.53 - Lava Lamp only speaks for himself here; he specifically says “I’m going to trust you too.”
p.57 - Again, we have “Syaoran” in quote marks, this time from Fei Wang. I’m sure everyone’s tired of me pointing these out, so just assume the quotation marks should be there from now on unless I say otherwise. And the translators are very inconsistent with this, but Lava Lamp’s relationship to Clow Reed has so far only ever been denoted with the word “chisuji”/血筋. He’s part of Clow’s lineage, but we don’t know anything beyond that.
Chapter 153
p.62 - Eagle specifically says that he’s offering the clothing as an apology for keeping silent.
p.63 - Kurogane could just be talking about Fei Wang watching them - he doesn’t specify whether it’s a single other person or multiple other people.
p.76 - More precisely, Eagle says here that Lantis lying would have come to nothing.
Yuuko says that the one Sakura saw being “stabbed” in her vision was Lava Lamp. The implication matches what Fei Wang was talking about in the previous chapter - that Sakura put herself in Lava Lamp’s place.
Chapter 154
p.84 - Lava Lamp refers to Sakura’s feathers as both her memories and her heart (“kokoro”), furthering the parallel with Syaoran.
Chapter 155
p.101 - This is actually a complete sentence in Japanese. It contains the same information as the translated version, but since pronouns aren’t necessary it stands on its own and can be assumed to mean, “You killed me.” It’s also written entirely in katakana, which can indicate stilted speech and here I think is meant to just drive home how horrific this is.
p.102-103 - I can see why the translator struggled a bit with these pages because a lot of the Valerian titles are unconventional. The twins’ father is the “teiou” written with the characters for “younger brother” and “king” (弟王), and the other ruler is the “kyouou” written with the characters for “older brother” and “king” (兄王). A little later it’s clarified that the “kyouou” is the country’s king/emperor - the reading of the word is “ou” meaning “king” but the kanji is 皇 meaning “emperor.” The twins’ mother is referred to as “okisaki,” (御妃) which can refer to an empress, a queen, or a princess consort. The twins themselves are called “koushi” (皇子), meaning “imperial prince(s).” It’s kind of hard to tell from all of this what the best representation of these terms would be in English, but I would guess that this is intended to be an imperial family, with either the younger brother next in line to inherit the throne if the older brother has no children or with dual rulers who were reduced to a single ruler once one of them died.
Whatever the case, as has already been explained, the twins’ parents both died and their fate was left in the hands of their uncle (their father’s older brother and the current ruler of the country.) Specific to the official translation, the “elder prince” refers to their uncle the kyouou, and “his majesty” who passed away is their father the teiou. The “royal consort” who killed herself is their mother.
I also want to point out that in this chapter we see the return of the term “fukou,” which we’ve seen Fai use in Acid Tokyo and Himawari use to discuss her effect on the people around her. The official translation often equates this word to unhappiness but as I’ve said before, I think it would be better represented as “misfortune.” Where this translation says that the twins’ mother committed suicide because “life held no joy anymore” I would interpret it as “because she’d brought such misfortune into the world.” Just keep in mind that generally when words like “unhappiness” and “sorrow” pop up in this part of the story, that’s what they’re translated from. Another word that gets used a few times in reference to the twins is “kyouchou” (凶兆), meaning “evil omen.”
p.104 - Though the implied concern here could be the twins taking the throne, the original text just refers to them one day surpassing their uncle’s power.
p.108 - “And the people shall be happy” isn’t necessarily saying that the people are going to be happy about this situation, just that the king believes enclosing the twins in a bubble of their own misery is going to allow the people to live happy/blessed lives. You could probably interpret the line either way though.
p.110 - The king doesn’t just say that one of the twins must die to get out of this situation, but that one must kill the other.
Chapter 156
p.136 - I had left a comment saying the king was telling the twins to pay for their sins rather than atone, but I’m taking that back! There are two words that sound the same when spoken (“aganau”), but depending on the kanji they’re written with one means “to pay for” (購う) and the other means “to atone for” (贖う). In this case, the one used is “atone.” Still horrific though!
That wraps it up for now. I am really regretting doing this by page numbers with all the black pages coming up, but otherwise thrilled to be back in the game! I hope all my babbling has been somewhat informative and as always, please remember that I can make mistakes too so I am always open to questions, suggestions, corrections, etc.
