#vol 231

NO WAIT I'M NOT DONE

I went back looking for when Yuuko might possibly have told Syaoran the rule that Magical die once their creators do

And I didn't find it but I DID find this in chapter 221

In which YUUKO WAS COMPLETELY WRONG, APPARENTLY

RARE MOMENT WHERE YUUKO WAS JUST COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY INCORRECT

But, on the other hand, I also spotted this moment:

Which I can kind of chew on and get a little more out of.

To me personally it doesn't make sense that the universe would put all three [Syaoran]s in the void for the price of a wish that has already been so thoroughly paid. I'm also still working on processing this sudden new rule that means Sakura and Syaoran can't exist any more EVEN THOUGH Yuuko and Clow paid the price for that existence. Like, it was PAID FOR by two entire people, so I can't really sit happily with the idea that Evil Wolverine dying suddenly undoes their entire reincarnation.

(Maybe I will change my mind later, this only just happened)

BUT, if we're picking things that Yuuko had to be wrong about, it would be VERY interesting to me if it wasn't those two this, but actually all the crimes that Syaoran committed while he was on autopilot.

Yuuko claims here that it's not his price because it was Evil Wolverine actually, BUT Evil Wolverine never pays that price either, so it WOULD connect (for me) that once Evil Wolverine died, this price would snap back to Syaoran.

ESPECIALLY WITH THIS:

WITH SAKURA ACCEPTING TO SHARE THE PRICE OF THOSE CRIMES.

Which would check out, since she stops existing the same moment Syaoran does!

If it was THIS that killed them both, then I actually like that much better! Because that was a price they CHOSE to willingly share, and knew the price would hit them later.

Clamp: *writes a sudden tragic turn at the end of their story*

Me:

[11]

aka ME IN THREE HOURS ONCE THIS HAS ACTUALLY SUNK IN

Oop there’s the crack! They really can just get out that way, even if all it took was A COMPLETELY UNJUST LOSS

I really want to yell at Evil Wolverine for these words that keep coming back because I’M SORRY THEY DON’T EVEN MAKE SENSE EVIL WOLVERINE, THIS WASN’T EVEN SLIGHTLY RELATED TO HIS CRIME. THIS WASN’T EVEN HIS PRICE. IT WAS JUST THAT THEY APPARENTLY NEEDED YOU TO RUN THEIR BATTERIES. 

THIS IS COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO PRICE AND/OR CRIMES

THIS IS JUST PULLING OUT THE POWER CORD

[12]

GLASSES?

… GLASSES?

Surely I am missing something over these glasses. 

However, it is also hilarious without context.

…

[10-2]

ALSO I'M PRETTY SURE HE SAID THAT WHEN HE DIED LAST TIME TOO

I WENT LOOKING: HERE IT IS

Someone pointed out to me (I'm sorry I forget who) that it was a callback to his backstory when Sakura taught him to say thank you instead of sorry

SO IT'S ALL COMING BACK OUT AGAIN FOR THIS FINAL DEATH

Syaoran saying thank you to Fujitaka, his father -> to Syaoran saying thank you to Lava Lamp (from who he was cloned) -> to Syaoran saying thank you to Syaoran and Watanuki, his sons

[4]

She sure wasn’t wrong!

This is one of those things where the characters are (or at least, Watanuki is) only just figuring out what those words meant, though we as the audience have known this for a while. When Yuuko said they were the same she meant literally the exact same person - technically ‘cloned’ but in the weird Naturally Occurring Universe method, where they are “the same person” still.

Though - I suppose we only know that Watanuki was the Naturally Occuring Universe Method, and Syaoran was “made by Evil Wolverine”. We don’t know what method that was or if it matters. 

We never really found out the “specifics” of how Evil Wolverine did what he did, just what the ingredients were at one point (ie, when he was harvesting souls) - and that they aren’t always necessary (since Watanuki wasn’t a harvested soul). 

[9]

THAT IS A WILD THING TO CLARIFY BUT OK SURE. SURE LET’S JUST KEEP TURNING THE PAGE AT THIS POINT. 

… BUT REALLY I HAVE THOUGHTS

“Nothing more than an image” SYAORAN YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT TRUE

OK OK COOL SO NATURALLY OCCURING CLONES ARE SAFE FROM THIS TECHNICALITY

So like, if Watanuki was born because Lava Lamp turned back time, and Lava Lamp died, then Watanuki would still be safe because the universe itself popped him into existence and Lava Lamp didn’t do it directly. BUT Evil Wolverine made Sakura and Syaoran using the (???) method, so they are “man-made” and therefore aren’t independent life safe from deletion.

…Even though, I suppose Watanuki WAS susceptible to this happening to him too, but under different conditions. He started to slip out of reality when the universe itself started to destabilise - so if the universe destabilised enough, even naturally occurring clones might vanish. BUT, man-made clones are completely immune to that, as Syaoran and Sakura never once flickered when that was going down. 

So, TLDR it’s bad to be a clone because once your power source goes out you get emptied from the recycle bin. 

[8]

AHHH

OK OKOKO+OKFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

HOLD ON ONE MOMENT

SO on the one hand I still adore the Syaoran club just getting together and theorising their escape plan. They have an idea of how to get out of the void and they’re determined to make it happen!

BUT THEN TECHNICALITIES COME BACK AROUND AND I’M THROWING THINGS

WHAT DO YOU MEEEAAAAN

WHAT DO YOU MMMMEEEEAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN

WHEN DID YUUKO SAY THAT

DID SHE SAY THAT OFF SCREEN?

IF SHE SAID THAT OFF SCREEN WHAT A COMPLETELY WILD WAY TO INTRODUCE THAT IN THE FINAL CHAPTERS OF THE MANGA

JUST. 

HEY YOU KNOW THE TWO PRECIOUS MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE MANGA WHO SUFFERED ENDLESSLY AND BOTH DIED AND THEN WERE LITERALLY COMPLETELY REINCARNATED INTO A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE TO HAVE A SECOND LIFE?

YEAH THAT DOESN’T COUNT THEY’RE DEAD AGAIN. 

WHY

Also I’m not sure if I even believe it when-

Oh no wait I think I figured it out. 

I was going to say Syaoran makes sense I SUPPOSE since he was made by Evil Wolverine offscreen INITIALLY, so we don’t really know the method, but I thought Sakura was naturally occurring - except she isn’t, is she? She is technically the CLONE of the naturally occurring Sakura clone, who Evil Wolverine made off screen (around the end of Chapter 1) in a way that wasn’t explained until very briefly a little while ago - which is a whole list of technicalities to bring back all at once. I'm too distressed to find the exact page we find out Sakura is an Evil Wolverine clone OF a Naturally Occuring clone but here is my Sakura Chart that mentions it.

And it sure does give you a lot to think about. Like, does this mean Evil Wolverine’s clones count as Magical Constructions? Are they kind of like spells that required his magic to continue running in the background? That would be the only way this connects to the rules that actually checks out with me. 

Because if they ARE magical constructions then that kind of puts them on the same level as the Clow Cards (from Cardcaptor Sakura), who were all magical living beings who NEEDED Clow Reed’s magic to continue existing, and that was why they needed to be converted to Sakura’s magic force in the second arc. THAT checks out at least. Especially since Clow kind of jumped through roughly 27 hoops to have his magic source continue in different places in different places for an unspecified amount of time until it was suddenly running out, so that explains the delay between his "death" and them starting to disappear.

Though this also brings up some interesting questions about some OTHER beings that I kind of read as being similar. Maru and Moro, for one, seem to have a similar existence - they were created by Yuuko, and so should technically be tied to her existence. Though they seem to have something else going on as well, since they were using a lot of their power to maintain the store well before Yuuko vanished, and are presumably still there but in their dormant form, so that’s probably yet another technicality that hasn’t been explained yet. 

The OTHER example that immediately worries me are the Mokonas, who ARE clones made by Clow Reed and Yuuko, both of which don’t exist anymore. Are THEY also some other kind of technicality to avoid this rule? 

It raises a lot of questions that I don’t really have the answer to. And more importantly I don’t really want to think about the fact that Sakura and Syaoran are just suddenly dying again. 

LIKE OK COOL THEY HAD A PRETTY GOOD LIFE FOR A WHILE BUT HOW COME THEY CAN COMPLETELY REINCARNATE AS A NEW PERSON ENTIRELY AND STILL COUNT AS SOMEONE’S CREATION TO THE POINT THAT THEY COMPLETELY COME APART AS SOON AS THEY VANISH?