#serious analysis

First Off, Where Are We?

The decor is giving me hotel room vibes. Mainly in the design of the lamp and the little notepad thingy on the table. But I guess anyone can by a notepad with a pen stand or Anonymous Lamp. I Guess. But I’d expect more to be on a desk if any actual work was too be done at it, which, again, leads me to think hotel. The champagne(? I don’t drink, is that champagne? I’m kind of assuming it is) bucket and the cramped nature of the armchair’s placement (normally you’d want a chair that you could turn around by a desk) supports this argument.

But maybe answering this would help:

What does this mean?

...I don’t know. Do you know? I don’t know. All my pathetic one-language-knowing self has to go on is a comment someone made of Minitokyo for this scan

which google says means “be glad.” What is the significance of that? I know not.

What time is it?

Well, judging by the orangey clouds outside the window andd the fact that tuxedos are kinda evening wear, I’d say duskish.

What’s the occasion for the get-up?

A party? A wedding? A date? Prom? Iuhhoh.

Why, if he’s going to unbutton ever single button on his shirt, would he not untuck the shirt?

That doesn’t seem comfy to me. I’ve never worn a tuxedo, though, so maybe it makes sense? Or not? Maybe CLAMP jsut wanted to show off that sweet cummerbund? Maybe Kurogane is just Super Committed to this Melodramatic But Somehow Oddly Restrained Fanservice.

Like, In Shonen fighting anime characters shirt disintegrate at the slightest breeze, but noooooo in this CLAMP series you will get a narrow strip of skin and You Will Like It.

And, y’know, you will like it.

How come when I search “cummberbund” on pinterest, half the images I get are of Benedict Cumberbatch?

I don’t think the answer can actually be found in this picture, but I feel like I deserve an answer anyway. I get it. It sounds similar, but why? Does this happen when you search Cabbage Patch too?

Why you napping when your glass is full, son?

Yuuko would not approve.

What are his legs resting up against?

Too high for most pieces of furniture. Maybe a bureau? I’m thinking the wall, though. I hope he’s not scuffing it. He prolly took his shoes off, though.

Did someone just come in?

Or does Kurogane sleep with one eye open at all times?

I think someone just came in. But I don’t suppose we can rule out that second option.

What is this?

Some kind of paper? cloth? Most probably something from what he was wearing, but his pocket square is accounted for already:

Maybe gloves. He’s not wearing gloves in the picture.

The more I look at it, though, the more I”m not sure if the part below it is... like, a belt loop? Or just a part of the chair?

I Wnat To Know. This detail was clearly included on  purpose.

Anything interesting on the bottle?

Oh hey, it says “Cham” something right on there so it is champagne. Why did I doubt myself? I’m always right and was not wrong several times about several things in the diatribe already. I never reveal my ignorance to the masses. No.

Other than that I don’t really see anything recognizable. Just some Fancy Design Noodles. That’s the technical term for what those are. Feel free to drop this into conversation and look like The Smartest Person At Your Local Function.

What’s the significance of the lion decoration on the bucket?

I think it’s just that lions are cool.

Why did I just do this? Nothing of value has been gleaned from this? So why?

Because I just wanted to have an excuse to stare at this image for a half an jhour and you are all my unwitting accomplices.

Yok - Obviously already goes to therapy and has for years. 2/10, needs to start handing out her therapist's number.

Tay - Needs both Yok and her therapist to tell him to get out of a relationship that makes him unhappy. 4/10, DTMFA.

Khun - Hey do you want to make yourself really sad? If you want to make yourself really sad think about how unlikely it is that Khun got anything close to the help he needed after his abduction, and certainly not in any long-term and sustaining way that had a chance of teaching him healthy coping mechanisms, so he got the unhealthy ones in the form of agoraphobia and a constant anxiety-distraction feedback spiral. And everybody writing him off as crazy and deciding he wasn't good for any kind of responsibility any more, even though he clearly still tries to protect Kinn and still speaks up to say the shit nobody else in the family can say as the "crazy" one. And obviously knows all of this. Are you sad? GOOD YOU SHOULD BE. 13/10, plus he also needs a million hugs, which, as previously discussed, are no replacement for therapy, but he deserves them anyway.

Macau - Don't really have a lot of data to assess, but honestly he seems mostly as okay as he could be, given the circumstances of having been raised in a viciously abusive home and certainly being aware that his brother is shielding him from the worst of that abuse. 6/10 of the sort that will probably come due in a few years when he looks around as an adult and is like, wow, my childhood was fucked.

Vegas - Just. It’s. You know. *waves hands* The only reason Khun's coping mechanisms for dealing with terrible trauma aren't the worst ones on this list is because Vegas exists and his coping mechanisms are even worse, plus the trauma is ongoing and escalating. The whole "using sexual coercion to pretend to be in relationships ostensibly for the purposes of following your dad's orders to defeat his brother so he doesn't beat you" is, um, wow, that is a lot, that is a whole lot, especially when combined with a side of extreme self-loathing and apparent outbursts of self-harm. 15/10, needs a whole team and years of help, but in the meantime let's all prescribe "kill your dad" to get the ball rolling, that is sound medical advice, I just know it is.

Pete - Actual therapists, unlike parts of fandom, would hopefully realize that whatever the fuck Pete has going on is more complicated than Stockholm Syndrome or trauma bonding, and by his own admission goes back way, way farther than his current predicament. An actual case where, "Tell me about your childhood," would be a solid opening gambit but would by no means get the whole story. A bit later when trust is established they can also tell him that he can't be somebody else's sole source of emotional support, because that is already happening and oh boy that won’t end well. 10/10, will somebody who doesn't have him chained up please ask him about stuff, okay, there's clearly a whole lot of something going on.

Kinn - Okay bear with me here but my thinking on Kinn has changed drastically since the beginning of the show. Early on I would have rated him very high for very many reasons, but it turns out nearly all of those reasons come down to needing to be able to separate himself from his abusive and manipulative father and enforce boundaries in that regard. Not an easy task, for sure, but with everything else he has proven to be remarkably open to facing problems head-on, acknowledging them, and changing things to fix them, even when it requires him to admit pretty terrible things about himself. 7/10, because that dad thing is still pretty fucking dire.

Kim - Surprise dark horse contender, maybe, but while I think, say, Khun and Vegas know they're fucked up, I'm not sure Kim knows how fucked up he is. Definitely needs some help realizing that you can't actually just create entirely new personas for different facets of your life and expect that to end well, then go around telling people you just met that you like your invented self better as if that's a normal thing to say, then inadvertently reveal that the compartmentalization was never going to work because you were just repressing a lot of rage that risks exploding out and hurting people you care about. 11/10, being beautiful and writing songs isn't going to cut it, get a professional in here.

Arm - Sees so much shit while watching a whole mafia do things that he definitely needs help coping with it. Also seems to be Khun's primary source of support which is neither healthy nor easy, even though it is adorable. 5/10, and no, alas, watching cctv of other people's therapy doesn't count.