Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle/Headscratchers


 * OH GOD THE LAST CHAPTER! After all these freakin' twists and WTF moments and everything else, THIS IS HOW IT ENDS?!
 * More particularly, what the smeg is up with the feather? Why does Syaoran absorb it? What exactly did they pay?
 * They paid their lives, or soul in the astral plane, got unexisted as a result.
 * THANK GOD THERE WAS AN EPILOGUE. Okay, apparently,
 * No. No. Chapter 223. How is this supposed to explain anything? C!Syaoran  No amount of precognition could prepare one for this, short of omnipotence. And yet Yuko is still going around looking like, "Ah, everything I've planned for is coming together" when she's supposed to be nothing more than  . It's official. There's no point to trying to make sense of this series, because it just does not make any sense at all.
 * Well, technically, Yuko isn't going around at all anymore. But yes, I'm calling shenanigans on this, and praying for the One True Mokona to smite all these confusing nuts.
 * Warning: the things that bug me are spoilerific.
 * But they aren't Cardcaptor Sakura Syaoran and Sakura? Those two are completely separate from their Tsubasa counterparts. As for taxes, Li family is rich so I doubt they have to worry much in that way. Besides, the CCS manga had, if this troper remembers correctly.
 * They're all going to die anyway. They'll have one again in the end.
 * I can understand why  refused to tell   his real name, but why did he persist in hiding it from , who he was in love with?
 * Is 's real name , or is that also a pseudonym?
 * Pseudonym. Kimihiro = prophet. Watanuki = Written as April 1st, which is Sakura's birthday among other things. Watanuki means padded clothes, and refers to removing the padding from clothes on April 1st and making a substitute to protect the owner (generally a child) from evil.
 * What, exactly, is happening? I think I have an idea, but any time I try to summarize in my mind I start getting these headaches.
 * Relatedly, how is  related to whatever it was Fei Wong Reed was doing in  ? He seemed to be doing fine without   before   borked
 * Let's see if I can do this: I probably missed some stuff so someone might want to expand or add stuff.
 * What confuses me most and is not in your summary is that
 * I can understand why  refused to tell   his real name, but why did he persist in hiding it from , who he was in love with?
 * Is 's real name , or is that also a pseudonym?
 * Pseudonym. Kimihiro = prophet. Watanuki = Written as April 1st, which is Sakura's birthday among other things. Watanuki means padded clothes, and refers to removing the padding from clothes on April 1st and making a substitute to protect the owner (generally a child) from evil.
 * What, exactly, is happening? I think I have an idea, but any time I try to summarize in my mind I start getting these headaches.
 * Relatedly, how is  related to whatever it was Fei Wong Reed was doing in  ? He seemed to be doing fine without   before   borked
 * Let's see if I can do this: I probably missed some stuff so someone might want to expand or add stuff.
 * What confuses me most and is not in your summary is that


 * Wait, I thought
 * I think he needed the . Also, if I am not mistaken, the
 * This just in,.
 * My impression was that the whole business in Syaoran's flashback was all designed to get Syaoran to wish.
 * So,
 * Well, I could be wrong, but  Apparently, we have no choice but to wait for Clamp to reveal things in their own sweet time. Dammit.
 * On a related note, how are "the names similar"?.
 * Looking at the Japanese RAWs, the exact phrasing is
 * On a less spoilerific note why doesn't anyone care about the destruction of Hanshin Castle?
 * Presumably with all the Kudans running around, everything gets destroyed on a regular basis? Maybe Hanshin Castle is from IKEA, so they can just rebuild it every time the turf battles knock it down.
 * Shougo does berate Primera for wrecking up the castle in her fight with Fai, though probably not nearly as much as he should have. And then he goes on to wreck a bit of it up in his fight with Syaoran anyway.
 * So  is the one Fei Wong is trying to bring back from the dead? Since when was   dead? And why  ? Does he just want to prove that he can do it?
 * Hopefully we'll find out in the next chapter. I think what Asschin meant is that  Damn you and your Mind Screw, CLAMP!! *Shakes fist*
 * The way things are going, I really doubt we'll be anything but more confused. The Big Reveal is just making a bigger mess of things.
 * The way I see it
 * Actually, if you read XxxHolic then you find out that
 * So, why are mom and pop physically the same age as their son, exactly, aside from the impossibility of visualizing mom as anything but a loli?
 * Read 217. Kinomoto Sakura as an adult has womanly charms.
 * 218, Mokona pointed out that CCS!Sakura and CCS!Syaoran look identical to TRC!Sakura and TRC!Syaoran, down to the clothes, so it must be important. We'll probably get an explanation soon, but it probably won't make much sense.
 * It was said right in 216 that turning back their time was part of their price, hence why Mom and Dad are the same age.
 * Are Mom!Sakura and Dad!Syaoran the ones from CCS, or a completely different pair that got help from CCS!Sakura? Clear that up already, CLAMP! And if they aren't, then who are they?
 * Probably a completely different pair. I'm getting the feeling that it was an Author's Saving Throw, so that CCS!Sakura, and CCS!Syaoran are actually just living in peace in their universe and didn't die or get caught up in these shenanigans.
 * Parents!Sakura & Syaoran are the Sakura and Syaoran from CCS. The evidence is that CCS!Sakura gave Yuuko the wand from CCS as part of her "price".
 * Which was revealed in Chapter 217 to have been given to Mama!Sakura from CCS!Sakura in a dream. So, it's either face-value, CCS!Sakura helping out a fellow Sakura in her time of need, or some symbolic dream CCS!Sakura had. Either way, Yuuko having CCS!Sakura's wand isn't conclusive.
 * They are not the CCS Syaoran and Sakura. CCS Syaoran and Sakura are Syaorans and Sakuras of a different world, and Clow Reed, after doing all the necessary things for Tsubasa and XxxHolic left his magic for CCS!Sakura to inherit. Whereas the reincarnated clones grew up fully aware of their past lives. That is obviously not how CCS Syaoran and Sakura were.
 * The sudden Darker and Edgier Cerebus Syndrome. What. The. Fuck. Man?!
 * It was always darker and edgier; we just didn't know it. The darkness creeped in slowly, inexorably. The very beginning in Clow country set up for the link to Acid Tokyo and Fei Wong's insidious machinations to, er, save Yuko's life; Yuko's relevance to the story was hinted at by her regular appearances; the darkness began showing up with the Rekort arc and that thing in the jungle with the bunny-people, and hints as to the true nature of Cloney began VERY early on with the shots of Syaoran Jr in his stasis tube. On the xxxHoLic side, we had a shot of Mom!Sakura and Syaoran Sr.'s tube early on as well (and Watanuki's existence issues were hinted at LONG before things turned really dark). It was never sudden, simply lurking just beneath the surface.
 * But that's not fair. I didn't read through fifteen volumes because I wanted Darker and Edgier, I did it for the opposite. And even then it's still overdone. Sakura got a pipe through her leg for no reason.
 * If you want predictable, happy stories that don't veer suddenly towards Angst Alley near the end of the second act, why in Mokona's name are you reading works by CLAMP?
 * For the hot bishies and Ho Yay? That's why I started it. a
 * They were expecting it to be more like the series the main characters originally came from, perhaps? It's not like CLAMP never does happy and angst-free.
 * Did CLAMP plan all this? or was it just one big Chris Carter job, but with pretty pictures?
 * So, do inter-dimensional analogues share genotypes as well as souls and phenotypes? Syaoran Jr.'s ability to produce offspring without horrible genetic conditions depends on the answer, as is the burning question of if he is literally his own son or not.
 * Nicknames. How do I refer to the Syaorans? Syaoran Jr. doesn't work anymore, since he's also the source material. Syaoran Prime doesn't work because he's also the son of a Syaoran, a second if you look at it from a conventional temporal perspective irrespective of reincarnation. Original Syaoran doesn't work either, because that should refer to the Syaoran from CCS who is not involved at all besides some possible offscreen stuff helping his wife giving her analog some encouragement. And I can't refer to him as "Syaoran", because that could refer to any of the three. I can't even use "Protagonist Syaoran", because the father/clone/thing started out the protagonist. Cloney can't refer to the reincarnation father, but father doesn't work either since from his own perspective he could be seen as a son of his own son. This series has literally reached the point where the English language is insufficient to describe it.
 * Needless to say, it passed the point where the human mind was sufficient to understand it months, if not years, ago.
 * I think I've got it. You have Father!Syaoran, Clone!Syaoran and Real!Syaoran. Clone is the clone of Real, who is the son of Father, who is Clone. Real>Clone>Father.
 * Wait, what?
 * "Wait, what?" just about sums up the series as a whole, really...
 * Don't forget that R!Syaoran's name isn't really Syaoran.
 * And we don't know the real name. And despite the fact that he isn't actually a Syaoran, he's the "Real Syaoran". So he isn't a real Syaoran, but he is Real Syaoran. This is why proper references are difficult to work out.
 * Actually, the last chapter revealed that real/son Syaoran's name is, and shares the name with real Sakura.
 * Fridge logic: didn't C!Syaoran trade his relationship with (C?)Sakura? But that apparently didn't mean anything because he gets happily preincarnated and married and has babies ever after anyway...
 * He traded the relationship he had then. Yuko never said anything about a new relationship formed again over the course of their adventures.
 * Which is why she commented afterwards that she was getting soft- she left that loophole in intentionally. Most likely as a part of The Plan.
 * So, are Clow's Great Plan and Yuko's Great Plan one and the same? If so, why doesn't Ass-Chin, who seems to have known them, know enough about it to defeat it? If Yuko made the plan up herself, how did Clow's actions mesh with it so well (Syaoran Jr.'s initial departure from his world was only possible because CCS Sakura had the Wand, which she had due to Clow. And clow was in the rebooted Clow Kingdom. Etc.)? How the fuck were they able to plan in such infinitesimal detail?
 * If everything could have been concluded by undoing the reality warp that undied Yuko, why didn't she just make her Deal with the Devil that she would work for x years in exchange for having died when she was supposed to, or even at the conclusion of the work? It would probably have been a much shorter period of indentured servitude to hitsuzen.
 * xxxHoLic question, because that one lacks a just bugs me page and its easier this way. Who, exactly, did Yuko and Watanuki make their contracts to work the shop in exchange for a wish with, if in both cases the shop was unmanned at the time they made the deal, and they were the one to man it afterwards? Did they make a Faustian bargain with themselves from a week in the future?
 * This one might belong in the CCS page, but only you tropers may understand this. At the very end of Cardcaptor Sakura, Eriol(aka Clow's half-reincarnation) is explaining his reason for attacking Sakura and forcing her to create the Sakura Cards when he mentions that there were "some things I couldn't predict". This apparently refers to Syaoran and Sakura coming to love each other, as well as Touya and Yukito. They may be alternate characters, but seriously, Clow knew that not one, but two versions of Syaoran and Sakura would come to love each other over the course of TRC. Three, if you count by bodies and not souls (the clones, the reals, and the reincarnations). It was indeed inevitable, in fact due to all the stable time loops everything in the manga has been inevitable up until chapter 226. So HOW THE HELL did he ever even consider Sakura/Yue!? I know it doesn't (yet) matter whether the CCS pair actually get together, have kids, etc, since all that matters is that the Star Wand was created, but when there's that many pairs you would think he could at least take a reasonable guess as to who Sakura would ultimately end up with.
 * He may have set up the Tsubasa gambit after the CCS gambit (then not had enough time to correct his earlier plans), and Eriol lacks the full memories of Clow, so its understandable if he didn't retain the knowledge of the later plans and planned corrections.
 * Exactly. My theory is that Eriol's memories probably cut off after Clow, so Eriol doesn't remember any of the stuff that went on in Clow Country.
 * Actually, I think that the thing he didn't predict was that Yue would love someone else more than his new mistress(AKA Sakura) not that Sakura and Yue would fall in love with each other.
 * Why couldn't this series have just stayed the lighthearted, jolly adventuring tomfoolery with some dark elements but a relatively straightforward Gotta Catch Em All plot like it started?
 * Because that would defeat the entire purpose of trope-subversion and genre-deconstruction. And wouldn't be nearly meaninglessly symbolic or "deep" enough for CLAMP.
 * Does anyone remember the dimension that Clow Reed was king in? You know, the one where Toya is king in the very beginning of the series. What happened to them? Did they disappear when the clones disappeared? Did the dimension implode when the Stable Time Loop imploded? Seems to me that the implosion/destruction/disappearance of an entire dimension, through the actions of several people, would cause them to pay a heavy price, even if the dimension wasn't supposed to exist in the first place. Or, at least, the acknowledgment of someone out there that the dimension existed. It bothers me that it just...vanishes. Really, what happened to that entire world?
 * It's kind of implied the world returned to the way it was before everything started.
 * Like he
 * So, when exactly was the switch made for each of the clones?
 * "Syaoran" was when male Tsubasa did the wish to reverse time. No idea on "Sakura"
 * This is something that is really bugging me. I suspect that Sakura was swapped at the same time. C!Sakura loves C!Syaoran. If the switch was made in - as it seems to be implied - the first chapters, then this clone wouldn't love him, because she would come to realise that "his" Sakura - the one of the alternate timeline - was elsewhere. As she told T!Syaoran. Where though? Fei Wang apparently destroyed alternate Sakura's old body. Where did the soul go?
 * Most evidence however does seem to point to that the clone was made in the first chapters. In the battle in Kurogane's homeworld, a flashback shows alternate Sakura being placed inside the cannister/dreamworld device/... thingy. T!Sakura eventually gets merged with the body of C!Sakura. The soul is in the void to meet with C!Syaoran. AT!Sakura's body was apparently destroyed. But we never see the AT!Sakura again past that one chapter, even when the device returns.
 * That was a really long winded ramble there and I don't think I cleared up a single thing.
 * Very apropriate given the series, really. Any attempt to clear the waters is only bound to stir up more mud.
 * I have been wondering this same thing; I always assumed that T!Sakura was replaced before the events of the series even began, but the fact that she was cloned in the first few chapters really throws things off. Most specificly I am wondering just where did this Sakura that was copied in the first chapters come from in the first place? I always assumed that T!Sakura was in the cut-off time from the moment T!Syaoran made his wish, so how was there another Sakura hanging around to be cloned in the new alternate timeline? Was she a time distorted counterpart like Watanuki? Was T!Sakura somehow existing in BOTH the normal timeline and the cut off time at the same time? And why did her body vanish after being placed in the tube by Fei Wong?
 * After thinking about it, I think I may have come up with two plausible theories to explain all this. Theory #1: T!Syaoran's wish to turn back time created a weird paradox of allowing T!Sakura to exist both in the altered timeline and in the Cut-off time at the same time. She fell in love with C!Syaoran during the altered timeline events up until she was cloned, not knowing he was a copy. C!Sakura came to develop love for C!Syaoran over the course of their journey as she got to know him all over again for the first time. After being cloned, T!Sakura's body dissolved and her soul reunited with her body in cut-off time, regaining her pre-time paradox memories and watching the rest of the journey through the eyes of C!Sakura.
 * Theory #2 (and I think this one makes a bit more sense). T!Syaoran's wish to turn back time caused a similar time distortion in which "Another Sakura" was born to fill the void left by the absense of T!Sakura, who is suspended in cut off time. This Sakura is like Watanuki. She genuinly falls in love with C!Syaoran. When Fei Wong captures and clones her, he clones her completely, which causes her actual soul to be transferred from her original body to the new clone body. So its still her, just in a new body. The reason her original body dissolves is because the soul has left it permenantly.
 * After re-reading the series and comparing everything that was said, this troper has sadly concluded that there just is NO satisfying answer to the issue of when Sakura was cloned and switched, and that CLAMP just made a mistake in their writing. The Japan arc definitly suggests that Sakura was cloned and switched during the events of the first chapter, but the LAST chapter of the series has T!sakura take T!syaoran to the roof of the castle and state that it is a very important place because its where the other Sakurta and Syaoran came *when they were young* (suggesting an earlier switch). in the end, there is just no answer; the suggests both a switch in the first chapter AND and earlier switch, with no evidence to show which is correct.
 * What, exactly, happened in the reservoir when the Tsubasas were seven in the initial timeline- a kidnapping? Murder? Spontaneous death?
 * Stable Time Loop. There was no "first time"... I think
 * There was a first time, though- when Male Tsubasa made the wish to go back in time, borking the entire space-time continuum and granting Ass-chin free reign with regards to cloning.
 * Yeah... Tsubasa kinda uses all tropes about Time Travel that there are and then some more. At the same time. Trying to make any sense of it would earn you a Nobel Prize or something.
 * It helps if you look at the timeline like Sarda, every event has/will happen(ed), only your perspective gives "order" to them.
 * I think that FWR tried to kidnap Sakura (to make clones of, or steal feathers from, or something), and Syaoran totally failed to save her, out of his own stupidity. She survives, but the Black Seal of Death is upon her, so she's set to die in about seven years. Syaoran spends the rest of that time trying to find a way to break the curse, along with Fujitaka and Nadeshiko, but they fail, and Sakura is about to die when FWR winds back time, erasing Sakura's parents, and replacing Syaoran and Sakura with pod people.
 * Asschin's plan was to hit Sakura with the death seal so that Syaoran would make his time-rewinding wish. Asschin then had both Sakura and Syaoran to make the clones and start his true scheme. Unfortunately, Syaoran put half his heart in his clone which caused the Syaoran clone to develop a personality.
 * On a similar note, why did female Tsubasa's memories explode out like that- did Fei Wong leave a bomb of some sort in her?
 * Why did Fei Wong need Sakura/Tsubasa, and to mess with her/them so much, to revive/preserve Yuko anyway? "physical memories", what?
 * It needed to be Sakura because of the Stable Time Loop. No idea how that's connected to Yuko.
 * Sakura also has some immense magical power st
 * If the feathers were actually the clones' reincarnations' souls, why did female Tsubasa release them? And why did they give Sakura Tsubasa's memories if they were actually Sakura and Syaoran's souls?
 * Where did Fei Wong Reed come from, anyway? Was he a manifestation of Clow's reality warp? A relative of Clow's also in love with Yuko? Some random schmo who had an unfortunate hobby and a knack for Xanatos Roulette?
 * How the fuck did all the Xanatos Roulette players (CCS Sakura, Yuko, the two Reeds, male Tsubasa, Fei) plan everything out so well? This isn't wheels within wheels like most Gambit Pileups, its wheels within wheels within wheels within R'lyeh as drawn by M.C. Escher on LSD!
 * I agree, but then there's that little invincible spell that CCS Sakura always says, the gist being, "I'm sure everything will be all right." Yuko does almost the same thing, saying she believes in the children and what they would do. The male Tsubasa, if he's anything like his clone/father, which he is, simply decides to do something and then does it. It's not so much planning as it is determination and faith to see things through. Fei Wang Reed on the other hand...
 * In CCS Clow was described as essentially omniscient so not to much of a sterch to assume he could plan this sort of thing.
 * In their many adventures across the multiverse the gang seems to have a knack for running into people they know from either their own world or from a world they visited earlier, and yet they never run into their own duplicates. Not that this series needs to be any more confusing, but it does seem a little improbable. Especially when they keep running into Toya and he never even mentions Sakura as looking suspiciously similar to his little sister.
 * It's hitsuzen.
 * In CCS it was established that Yukito was Yue's disguise and therefore not human. So how does he manage to be born in all these other dimensions?
 * The soul is the same shared soul all alternates have, and as for how he managed to be born, when his mother and his father loved each other very, very much...
 * At the start that is true, but later on it's stated that Yukito became his own person, with emotion and a personality seperate from Yue. In otherwords, he makes himself 'real' or 'human' if you like, and by extension Touya affirms this after the power exchange. When Touya wakes up and Yukito laments that he's not real and his memories are false, Touya tells him, with a hand to his cheek no less, that every memory they have together since they met is real, and that Yukito is real to him.
 * Similarly, other man-made characters like Chi, Freya, Minoru's maids, Blanche, Hikaru, and the robot rabbit all manage to be reborn in multiple worlds. According to the Chobits manga, persocoms do have souls, but the same doesn't go for Angels or Clover's robots. So how did they manage it?
 * I just realized this today...So, we know that . But...the characters only went feather hunting in
 * Technically, if they had never gone dimension hopping and left a feather in the ruins, the reservoir would never have been preserved, and there would never have been any people left to repopulate and be the ancestors to the Land of Clow's inhabitants, so the feather from dimension hopping must have been there before the dimension hopping was inserted into the timestream. Don't think about it too hard.
 * After thinking about it a bit, I think I came up with an explanation. When we typically think of time travel and retcons, we think of the kind of time travel explained by Doc Brown in Back To the Future 2; changing an event in the past causes a new alternate timeline to split off from the point of the change. But in Tsubasa, there is never any mention of "time travel" or "changing the past" in relation to R!Syaoran's decisions. Rather, Yuuko stated that she'd "turn back time". Yuuko turned back the time around Syaoran, in all the dimensions, to the ppint in the past he wished to return, and then the timelines continued on from that point. So the reason the power in the ruins exists in the pre-time distortion Clow country is because the events which lead to its creation are still in Clow country's future; Post-time distortion Clow country is not an "alternate" timeline, its the SAME timeline just wound back X number of years, with everyone in it re-living the same or slightly different events that they did before, without realizing it. This of couse means that if someone travelled back in time from post-distortion Clow country, they could end up arriving in the same year they left, just before the time distortion.
 * What bugs me is people spelling Touya's name as Toya. CLAMP specifically have it as Touya, because the spelling of 'Toya' is specifically meant for Yukito only. He's MEANT to say Touya's name slightly differently and can't help it even if he tries. Official translators changing it then confuses the part of the fandom that don't have that knowledge. Some translations companies just do not do their research. Like Del Ray with Tsubasa...
 * So... what happens to all the characters in TRC that had ongoing deals with  Clamp, you really left me hanging, here.
 * Their deals.
 * So...what exactly happened to CCS!Sakura and CCS!Syaoran? Are they living happily in their universe, except maybe when CCS!Sakura gave her wand to one of the alternate universe/clone Sakuras?
 * Pretty much. Their tale is told, their journeys done, and they've earned their respite. How much of the Gambit Pileup was CCS's plan is unknown, and we know she was one of the many planners from the timing of her donation, but from what we've seen, their involvement consisted of the donation, and maybe some correspondence and such with Yuko.
 * Here's a Just Bugs Me for the entry itself. Bittersweet Ending? I found the last two issues full of Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. Both couples finally got to say I love you. D'awww. Time flows differently between the worlds? I don't recall that ever being pointed out, and all possibly the worlds' "original state" also fix the time dilation. Don't ruin the happy ending! ; o;
 * The reason its bittersweet is because one of the two couples is currently feather'd and the other can only be together for a few days per month best case scenario. The Yaoi Guys are perfectly fine, though.
 * The time differences was pointed out in one of the early chapters, when they visit the country with the Princess Emeraude and realize the feather got there 300 hundred years ago. Either Time flows different, or the feathers can travel through time as well as dimensions.
 * It's time. Evidence would be that the links between Holic and Tsubasa happen at really odd intervals. For example, Yuuko's white day arrow in Holic is sent to the Tsubasa gang a month after valentine's day on schedule, but the Tsubasa gang get it arcs later due to the time difference between worlds.
 * Technically speaking, time is a dimension. The word dimension has come to mean parallel worlds, but originally it was just a way of measuring our surroundings: length, width, depth, and time.
 * I tried to keep track of the bodies and souls, but that just gave me a WHOLE bunch of questions. What was the point of Yuuko retrieving T!Sakura’s body? For Clone!Syaoran, I can accept it, since that seems to be the only way to get hold of his soul, but C!Sakura’s soul was fine before . What happened to T!Sakura’s body? Did it legitimately fall apart after ? Or is it floating around somewhere AGAIN? What is going on in the tube before the Sakuras start casting their spell? Who is saying what? Does P!Sakura gain memories of what happened to the other Sakuras and Syaorans, since it’s her soul in F!Sakura? How does she get these memories, she was ! What happened to T!Sakura’s soul? Is SHE the one in F!Sakura, who reveals her real name in the epilogue? How did she get in there?!


 * Dudes, TRC is basically a published version of the Ultimate Headscratcher. Don't think about it too much, or your head will implode.