#vol 165

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

Now that Ashura is finally Defeated he has (thankfully) opted to stop strangling the life out of Fai with one hand and murdering everyone he loves with the other - just in time to have Emotions! Aren’t we lucky!

I’m going to dive right into this but what I need to get out of my head first is a discussion of CLAMP trends, because it’s hitting me over the head and ruining all my flow. 

So let’s do a couple of comparisons - but with spoilers for X/1999 and Tokyo Babylon (so if you want the Tsubasa content but not the spoilers, skip to the next post. You won’t miss anything). This is essentially Tsubasa version of what happened with Subaru and Seishirou (and presumably what would have happened with Fuuma and Kamui), but with large thematic changes that I quite appreciate. In both, we have the caring and sympathetic magic using main character who is forced into suffering and tragedy by his opposite - the darker magic user who uses his power for mass murder, but who loves the main character in a twisted selfish way and wants only to be killed by them. In the end, the darker magic user dies, and it’s sad and tragic and the main character will continue to suffer for the rest of their life because of it. But! The darker magic user truly did love them, in the end, in their own way, so it’s framed as tragic. 

I appreciate that all concerned parties have shown up in Tsubasa previous to now, so the parallels are both fresh in the narrative and absolutely intentional by CLAMP. The difference is that in Fai’s version Ashura is his father figure rather than his lover, and I (personally) tend to like this quite a bit better. You have all the emotional suffering but without the Tragic Gay Ending being the cornerstone of the relationship. Also, and most importantly for me, it allows space for Fai to heal. Where Subaru and Kamui were going to suffer for the rest of their lives (if the world wasn’t destroyed), Fai’s romantic interest still lives, so he has a long life ahead of him where he has time to recover and heal and grow as a person. 

I lean much more into this changed version of the same story pattern because it’s still dark and heartbreaking but it sticks with what I tend to think of CLAMP’s overall maturation in storytelling. Instead of bleak and hopeless tragedies with a tiny (tiny) upshot at the end, now they deal in the same kind of tragic heartbreak but with a much deeper appreciation for hope and cultivating a more optimistic view of life and love and recover. It gets to pull at all the same emotional notes but it’s far less oppressive, and I think it shows a marked change in the kind of story CLAMP want to tell as time goes on. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[9]

The tragedy of all this (or one of many) is that OG Fai only ever wanted Yuui to live free - and instead he ended up manipulated and emotionally tortured and used for centuries and it’s only now, after all that suffering, that his true intentions finally have a chance to come free. 

Yuui (Fai) SHOULD have had the chance to live free all this time, but Ashura interfered and this is where he ended up instead. 

But now, finally, all the facts are out and it can all be put to rest. OG Fai can finally move on and New Fai can actually live a life that neither of them had the chance to live. 

And Kurogane is here to help him move on, in the exact way he needs it. 

Even if he’s still bleeding out as he does so. 

They’ll get to that. Eventually.

One day.

[completeoveranalysis]

[8]

AHA!

FINALLY! CLOSURE!

I did not for a single second blame the tiny suffering child to wanting to survive when we were misled into thinking that was what happened. But now we know - it was lies. Neither twin betrayed each other. Memory stealing is just a bit of a jerk move that will make people suffer under misinformation for their entire life. 

Either way, Yuui chose Fai and Fai chose Yuui - and Evil Wolverine, in his eternal wisdom, just seemed to roll with whatever with no particular concern for who was who. Because that is the fantastic level of planning of I come to expect from his fashion challenged self. 

OH YES HERE WE GO, TIME FOR TEARS. 

But at the very least we now have even more confirmation that the Original Fai held no grudge against his twin for surviving. In fact he insisted on it, and the only remorse he felt was that he wouldn’t get to be with him. 

So we can now unravel Ashura’s extra layer of horrible, twisted illusions that made Yuui (Fai) think that his dead twin both hated him and blamed him for a choice that HE DIDNT EVEN MAKE.

Honestly, Ashura is just the worst and Evil Wolverine is right there with him. 

I can’t wait till we can have them both safely in the recycle bin for all of time. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[7]

Cue me desperately trying to keep track of all the feathers that apparently ended up in Celes. 

I see Ashura is spiting me even beyond the grave by making me flick frantically though all the past chapters. THANKS ASHURA. 

It’s not either of these two

One was Chii, and the other Fai gave them in Hanshin. Both are in Sakura now. 

So it was just in the Fluorite all along

And you can even SEE the tiny shape of a feather in the middle of it and it’s infuriating. 

ASHURA HAS FOOLED ME FOR THE LAST TIME. 

But at least this is gorgeous!

[completeoveranalysis]

[3]

Okay back to THIS moment. 

Ashura is bestabbed and finally decides to replace attempted murder with signs of affection. He wipes Fai’s tears away, saying “You mustn’t shed tears for one such as I.” And now on this page he either whispers closely to Fai or kisses him on the forehead, but either way he passes on his intention that Fai should have been the one to kill Ashura and that would have removed his curse. 

It’s framed as if Ashura was trying to do Fai a favour and this is boosted in the fact that it’s Ashura’s last living action. He has mere seconds left to live and he uses it to give Fai the affection that (he implies) his actions were always meant to embody. 

Never mind the fact that just seconds ago he admitted that Fai wasn’t actually strong enough to pull this off. Even when Fai put his all into it, he still would have died.

Never mind the fact that Ashura was very definitely seconds away from murdering both Lava Lamp and Kurogane, and would have done so happily. 

Never mind the fact that he murdered an entire world (or at least a portion of it) and spent his entire life deceiving everyone who thought well of him, luring them into trust and security only so he could slaughter them all later.

Never mind all that. This was all for Fai’s benefit, you see. 

It’s that horrible twisted shadow of love that’s entirely selfish and doesn’t take into account any of the horrific suffering they cause on anyone else, least of all on the person they claim to love. 

Fai is, clearly, distraught. He’s broken. Ashura has manipulated him and brainwashed him and turned him against his family and used every memory as a weapon against him and torn Fai’s entire life to pieces around him - but, oh, it was going to be a good thing. It was for Fai, you see. 

Cue me screaming with contempt in the distance. 

ON the plus side, it shows that neat example of all the best villains see themselves as the Good Guys of their own story. 

And, for our benefit (and hopefully for Fai’s) the page ends with a panel that has no Ashura in it at all - just a message that looks forward to the future. 

Ashura, with all his murder and lies and terrible manipulative anguish, could not free Fai from his curse. He tried his absolute best (almost killed everyone involved in the process) and still failed miserably. It was never going to happen, not in this scenario. 

But Fai’s new family might be the ones to help him do it. Admitted by Ashura himself, in his final moment of candor, he sees that the love and strength of Fai’s new family has the potential to succeed where his violence failed. 

And THIS is, perhaps, the only good thing Ashura has done. Even though Fai is overcome with grief right now he now has the seed to continue loving and trusting his family, with the potential hope that sticking with them will bring happiness in all the ways that Ashura did not. 

AND THEN

(with a pause to warn about sudden gore)

HE SUDDENLY DIES. 

And all I can say is THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT

[completeoveranalysis]

[10]

Don’t worry Fai, your brother has your back and always has. 

I’m going to think about this a lot later. 

But for now we still have another interfering asshole to shove his face into Fai’s personal suffering extravaganza. 

Oh boy. Aren’t we thrilled. The secret second curse of untold cursiness will now curse us with the curse. 

But in all honesty I’m more interested in the fact that Evil Wolverine is sitting alone monologing this all to an empty room. 

Like the classy and totally well planned evil genius that he is. 

Totally definitely well planned. Of course. 

Naturally. 

And then instantly: CURSE. 

And END OF CHAPTER. 

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

CLAMP up to their usual shenanigans of having the chapter open with graphic violence. More behind the cut, but don’t look if blood is not in your mental forecast for today.

Oh and stabbing.

aka The very special stabbing we have all been waiting for.

THE STABBING CELEBRATION CONTINUES!

In hindsight it makes a lot of sense that Ashura’s reaction to getting horrifically stabbed would just be “Hmmm... yeah no thanks. Take it back.”

Can I picture Ashura screaming in pain? No. Would it have been gratifying anyway...?

Either way Kurogane has Murder Face (tm) - but this time with actual murder on the menu! I would like to wax lyrically about the wonderful lines of his face (as always) but I think far more interesting is the fact that Kurogane, typically, is defined by how much he loves violence. The harder the fight the more he enjoys it, and whenever he gets a good injury on his opponent he’s usually visibly enjoying himself.

Here he isn’t. 

This is the most desperate and angry we have ever seen Kurogane while doing a violence - except, of course, during the flashback of his past, but that’s because the stakes are the same. His family are all on the brink of death (and so is he) and there is no joy in the violence anymore, only brutal desperation and a hope that he can hold out long enough to save them. 

Not sure if it entirely worked, but still! The stabbing of Ashura is NOW. 

Well, he got what he wanted. 

I was absolutely afraid that Ashura’s stoic response meant that he wasn’t as injured as he appeared, but oof. I think he really is over after all. Kurogane wouldn’t have complied if there was any chance the battle wasn’t over. 

Plus, pulling the sword out does more damage, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Win/win situation. 

AH YES, HERE WE GO. THE DYING SPEECH. 

It is (a) an absolute heartbreaking tragedy to see Fai crying over this. No matter how it turned out, this is still the only family/father figure he had throughout most of his centuries long life that he felt cared for him, and now it has come to watching him die violently and painfully. Fai is, as always, full of love and caring, and this is tearing him apart. 

But (b) we are about to see Ashura take on the “pity” angle, and this is where we can all read this situation in our own way and come to our own conclusions about Who Ashura Really Was Really. I have my own thoughts, but as always, interpret as freely as you prefer!

[completeoveranalysis]

[4]