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Chapitre 194 - The Tone That Calls The Princess

Ohoho look, we have the matching pair of [redacted]s!

How perfect that they were exactly identical outfits, and yet (like Fujitaka and Nadeshiko in the previous chapter) are Together but Separate.

They’re here together, near each other, but visually separated, and with physical distance between them - Lava Lamp stands in front and to the left, Watanuki sits behind and above, on the right. You could cleanly cut the image in half and they wouldn’t cross over at all (except the TINIEST bit in the middle). They also both stand facing different directions; Watanuki looking to the right (to the past? It’s what he can’t remember), while Lava Lamp faces the left (to the future? It’s his entire mission, and has been for a very long time). Except Watanuki actually LOOKS in his direction (he’s not aware of the greater plot) but Lava Lamp is looking directly at the camera, like he tends to (he IS aware, and still knows far more than us). Above them both is the moon (A sign for Yuuko? A sign for their mother? A sign for where they came from? A sign for the mysterious darkness they live their lives in?)

Meanwhile they sit on a GIANT AMMONITE FOSSIL. Which. Is the strangest thing to me and I love it dearly. It might have some symbolism I’m not aware of but even just on the surface level we have a lot. It’s a fossil, like the Clow ruins, like the archaeology that ties Syaoran to Fujitaka, like a clear link to an unknowable past. But it’s also a spiral - a sign of things going in circles and spirals and repeating themselves, like time loops, and Lava Lamp’s life in general, and whatever else is happening in the timeline. 

Maybe also a sign of things starting at a central point and spiralling further and further away from where it all started, like the plot we’re trying to make sense of?

Or maybe it’s a sign for what’s inside it? A shell that contained a creature within, like the ruins might contain Evil Wolverine?

I’m also googling it now to find out that they can be a symbol of “change and positive motion”, which is very much what Lava Lamp and Watanuki are collectively trying to achieve, so it all fits one way or the other!

Strangely my files don't reveal if this one had any splash text across the image though, which is a mystery all on its own.