[4]

Nick found and shaking crying over “his lie comes from his gentility. And I believe in him.”

The EXTREME CARE in the way Sakura sympathises with Fai. The tender love she wants to use to help him through the pain he’s been suffering with alone for so long.  

AND THE FACT THAT FAI THOUGHT HE WOULD NEVER HAVE THIS.

Fai lived the entire journey not wanting the others to find out about his past and why he was there, convinced that they’d all hate him and rightfully abandon him  for the betrayal, and instead THE SECOND the see the truth they’re only full of sympathy and love and hurt for him. 

Kurogane and Sakura both saw Fai’s past and never thought a single bad thing about him. They both sided with him instantly and only wanted to help. 

THE LOVE FAI NEVER THOUGHT HE WAS WORTH WAS THERE FOR HIM IN THE WORST MOMENT IN HIS LIFE ;_; And because of that he survived the storyline he was never supposed to.

OOf. Digging further into CLAMP’s multiverse is a mistake It seems to loosely connect to CCS but frankly I think I can just ignore it, since it seems to be ‘Clow had a wish and Sakura Kinomoto was gonna grant it with the Clow Cards’

Which is not really covered in Tsubasa at all beyond CCS Sakura passing her wand to Clone Sakura via dreams. It’s really just another in a long, long line of arse pulls. 

So let’s ignore it for now. In case anyone who’s watching is familiar with Tsubasa though, I’ve run into a bit of a plot hole in the original material that needs filling

Okay so basically Fei Wang Reed’s plan was to both gather Sakura’s feathers and have her travel across dimensions to retrieve them. I’m pretty damn sure this is a retcon, because in the first chapter Xing Fuo remarks that ‘he’s failed’ when her feathers are scattered. In fact what he was trying to do was capture and control Sakura with her memories intact. Not to mention the existence of Kyle Rondart means that Fei Wang didn’t want Sakura to retrieve her feathers. Or else why would he stand in her way? You could claim that it was so she would have to keep journeying, but then the existence of Clone Syaoran becomes a problem. If the point is to have Sakura travel dimensions so that her body remembers them, why the fuck would Clone Syaoran travel independently? Because that would mean theoretically that Sakura would just have to sit tight and wait for Clone Syaoran to bring her feathers to her, thus foregoing the ‘travelling dimensions’ angle entirely. This indicates to me that Clamp made some changes on the fly and then needed to plug holes.  So what would be the alternative? The ruins at Clow also turned out to be kind of useless.  I’ve decided for this fix it fic (if it gets written) I’m doing a few things: 1. Sakura is no longer a clone. It all went down with that and it was pointless. Sakura is just Sakura. Only Syaoran has a clone. The problem with the Clones is that we’ve built an investment in them emotionally. We’ve travelled with them and we care about them. But they are entirely dropped and replaced with their ‘true’ selves. Offscreen, they live a whole other life. It’s hard to care.  There’s also no meaningful difference between the clones and their true selves, they’re the same people.  Any plot points that require an alternate version of Sakura and Syaoran can happen with existing people from other dimensions. We never meet alternative versions of Sakura and Syaoran. Why is that? I’d argue that they’re a dimensional lynchpin like Yuuko is, but we know CCS Sakura and Syaoran exist so...? 2. The way this all ends is that Sakura helps to restore Clone Syaoran’s heart. At the same time we learn that original Syaoran is different from his clone, because he’s a different damn person. Fei Wang Reed explicitely did not copy Syaoran’s soul, just his body and abilities. Sakura falls in love with Syaoran, not the clone. Unrequited love is a thing, that’s okay you know? And clone Syaoran fades away, his soul remains and the group find a way for him to be reborn as a new life.  Kurogane and Fai then travel with this new baby while Sakura and Syaoran stay in Clow. My justification for Sakura not falling for Clone Syaoran goes like this: C!Syaoran was his own person, but his soul was still that of original Syaoran. Therefore his personality was sort of a mashup between them. Clone Syaoran is polite and shy. Original Syaoran is a lot more confident and has a brashness to him that we remember from CCS, just in a more mature and respectful way. So the person Sakura fell in love with initially sort of didn’t exist?

Clone Syaoran needs the opportunity to grow on his own. 

Tsubasa Chronicle spoilers? Some writing problems I have. I think pushing some of Tsubasa Chronicle's weird clone developments into the main storyline rather than the "backstory that eventually comes to light and becomes relevant" would have made for more compelling storytelling. (An idea I had was the villain switching the clone Sakura in right in the beginning when her feathers are scattered, so your journey would have not been restoring memories but instead GIVING another's memories to a new husk body without being aware of it, thus the significance of Fei Wang Reed's goal being more clear -> giving life to a lifeless body and harnessing power for it via the dimension travel).

Also some things need to be simplified. And the "clones are your parents" thing is just weird. Why do they have to wait in a tube looking like middle schoolers?

Does anyone ACTUALLY understand King Ashura's motivations? I sure don't. The first curse had already been activated in the end. So he wants to be killed by Fai to avoid the second curse. Couldn't he just be polite and tell everyone what's up instead of being so dramatic about it?

[4]

OH EXCUSE ME??

WHY MUST THEY HURT ME THIS WAY????

Syaoran is just gushing blood at this point, to the point that HIS EYE COMES OUT

OR RATHER, FAI’S EYE COMES OUT

THE COLOUR (IE, THE SOURCE OF FAI’S MAGIC) COMES OUT OF HIS EYE AND CRYSTALISES LIKE FAI’S OTHER EYE DID BACK IN NIHON

Which gets me from a few angles, because like, could that go back to Fai now? Could he get that magic back? Or did he already trade away the ownership of it when he traded all of his magic to Yuuko? Does he even want it? It’s uh… caused many problems. And painful memories. And even more painful injuries. 

BUT ALSO THE LOOK OF SYAORAN WITH HIS NORMAL EYES RESTORED?

THAT’S JUST SYAORAN!

MY CLONE SON IS DYING

AND IN HIS HARSH BREATHING HE FINDS HIMSELF MENTIONING THE FEATHERS BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES THAT WAS HIS CORE ALL ALONG

If he was going to have to talk about anything in his final moments it would have to be the feathers

And he almost looks lifeless as he passes on that they should give the feathers to Sakura. Because that was his central programming from start to finish.

Unless he knows something else?!

Is this the implication that maybe giving the feathers to Sakura at this point might cause something?

Is there a thread of a chance that Sakura is not just an empty body but that there is still something to be restored?

(And how cruel would that be to bring her back only to find that her most important person has died all over again?)

OH NO IM SCREAMING

HELLO ITS REALLY HIM 

ITS SYAORAN tALKING ABOUT HIS FAMILY ON HIS DEATHBED

I WASN'T PREPARED FOR THIS

OH NO NOW I AM ALSO DECEASED

HE SEEMINGLY ROUNDS OFF THE FAMILY BY MENTIONING SAKURA BUT THEN ALSO ADDS LAVA LAMP

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

HOW WILL I EVER RECOVER FROM THIS

THEY NEVER EVEN TECHNICALLY KNEW EACH OTHER

THEY SPENT THEIR WHOLE LIVES INTERTWINED

THEY FOUGHT AND TRIED TO KILL EACH OTHER AND DIED TRYING TO SAVE EACH OTHER

LAVA LAMP GAMBLED HALF HIS SOUL ON SAVING THIS BOY AND WATCHED SYAORAN'S ENTIRE LIFE FROM HIS OWN EYES RIGHT UP UNTIL HE LOST HIS SOUL

AND NOW HE’S HOLDING HIM AS HE DIES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM AND SYAORAN LISTS HIM AS PART OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE TO HIM, MAKING THEM FAMILY FROM START TO FINISH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!