#vol 156

[completeoveranalysis]

[7]

Me, reading Tsubasa. 

[completeoveranalysis]

Chapitre 156 - The Beginning of Misfortune (or Sorrow)

In which LOOK AT THE PRECIOUS CHILDREN. 

JUSTICE FOR THE FLAWLESS CHILDREN WHO HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG. 

SOMEBODY PLEASE SAVE THEM (and me)

[completeoveranalysis]

[3]

LOOK AT THIS PRECIOUS CHILD

WITH COMPASSION BEYOND ANYTHING VALERIA HAS EARNED

Valeria has treated these twins so badly and so unjustly that words don’t really do any of it justice, and yet Yuui’s response is still to see if there’s anything he can do to help them. 

His desire to help even interrupts his plan to escape. Now, before leaving as soon as they can, Yuui wants to see if they can save anyone. 

For some reason. 

This child is just SO GOOD. There would be no judgement if their first reaction was still just escape, because they have no reason at all to stay or care about the people who have trapped them in this hell and facilitated their torture. And yet? Yuui still wants to see if he can help. 

A PURE CHILD, GOOD BEYOND ANYTHING THIS WORLD DESERVES  AT ALL. 

Also, free scrolls are good too. At least there was one good loot drop in all this. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[6]

AHAHA WHAT THE FUCK

I genuinely laughed, I was not expecting that at all. That was WILD to see filling up the entire page. 

Sadly, he still lives!

But on the plus side? This means he was stabbed and thrown into the No Magic Pit. And I’ll take any good news I can get in these chapters. 

On the downside, this means it is now a problem for Yuui to deal with, and he SHOULDN’T HAVE TO. 

HE DOES NOT DESERVE THIS TURN OF EVENTS. 

PLEASE STOP CONTINUOUSLY SCARRING THIS CHILD WITH THE WORST OF ALL TURN OF EVENTS.

WAIT EXCUSE ME

I WAS WRONG

I THOUGHT THERE WAS SOME JUSTICE HAPPENING UP TOP. I THOUGHT SOMEONE HAD FINALLY OVERTHROWN THE KING

I WAS WRONG. HE KILLED EVERYONE. 

THE ENTIRE COUNTRY.

That’s not what I expected AND STILL MUCH WORSE THAN I COULD HAVE EVER GUESSED AT. 

THANKS?

Oh no violence is coming, page under the cut:

...

[softly] what the fuck

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

Yup I’m hiding the real page behind the break because of gore reasons. 

What joy!

LIKE, THIS IS A VERY EXTREME SITUATION AND IM NOT SURE HOW TO COMMENT ON THIS IN ANY WAY THAT IS PRODUCTIVE OR INSIGHTFUL BUT HOT DAMN IS IT HORRIBLE

THE ARM JUST

COMES OFF

Because making a child drag corpses wasn’t traumatic enough already, right?

Meanwhile more horror incoming!

CHILDREN AND OLD PEOPLE

And ok I was wondering just a few pages ago how this could get any worse than it already was and CLAMP really stepped up to the plate, I will give them that. 

And in the face of all that Yuui still doesn’t lose determination. He still continues his goal to use the corpses to escape. If anything he’s more determined to get them out now. 

Despite all the horrific things happening around them these children deserve the entire world 

[completeoveranalysis]

[5]

Oh it’s just breaking my heart. After reading that their uncle is killing people and those people are still blaming the twins for it all, Yuui is shaken but still, desperately, tries to climb up the wall, and Fai can do nothing but cling to the bars and watch. 

THANKS CLAMP EVERY SECOND OF THIS IS WORSE THAN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED. 

Meanwhile there’s more gore coming so let’s put a few more pages under the cut:

I can’t quite make out who came tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down but they seem to have a sword with them at least. 

That’s a tiny bit better as far as loot drops go. 

Still not overly useful down here, but better than paper I guess.

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]

This is where things get a bit tricky, and my reaction to it will depend on which way CLAMP decide to take it. 

On the one hand, the letter makes sense from the perspective of the person who wrote it. They witnessed the king deciding to slaughter innocent people and they condemned those actions, calling them “fits of insanity” because there’s no logical way to excuse those choices. From their perspective, that’s the only thing that made sense to them. 

And I don’t mean to look too harshly on things that were written ten years ago, in a different social climate, but “insane” isn’t really a thing that works so well anymore. On this one page? It’s not so bad. In a second hand perspective of someone who was soon killed by the king, calling him insane makes sense. 

But this is where it starts to lose me. 

It’s still cushioned narratively by the fact that this is a child reading a note and interpreting it literally - because they don’t have any reason to doubt the words written there. This, too, is understandable. 

But if the narrative itself is leaning into the fact that this is the true and actual thing that’s happening (and I’m not certain that it IS yet) then it becomes a bit more disappointing. If the king has real reasons behind his actions then the situation is a lot more complex and interesting to analyse. If it’s just being passed off as “Oh he’s crazy” then it falls into the more dangerous tropes of villainizing mental illness. And that’s both harmful and (personally) less interesting.

This is part of a much larger discussion that I won’t properly launch into because this might not be what CLAMP is trying to do just yet, but it’s enough to make me wary. 

But putting that all aside for now, it’s terrible that even now this is all being blamed on the twins. 

The twins who, only seconds ago, were still trying to help the people who happily threw them into this pit in the first place. 

The twins are PURE AND GOOD SOULS and no-one in Valeria deserves them. 

[completeoveranalysis]

giniroangou replied to your photo “[6] AHAHA WHAT THE FUCK I genuinely laughed, I was not expecting that...”

In the Japanese version he just tells them to pay for their sins rather than atone. Suffering with no hope of redemption.

oh dear god