#Catch up T144

[completeoveranalysis]

[8]

AND SWINGING BACK AROUND TO A COMPLETELY GENUINE MOMENT, WE HAVE: SAKURA’S GOODBYE TO FAI

ONCE AGAIN, THEY HOLD HANDS

OH HOW IT HURTS

Sakura knows what’s going to happen here because she’s going to MAKE it happen. She knows what these hands are about to do. And it will destroy Fai. And they will lose her. 

And you can SEE the concern in her eyes as she gives him the most important advice she possibly can - to pick Himself as his life goal, rather than his brother, or the family, or her. What she wants for him is so beautiful and caring and at the same time so completely the opposite of Fai’s entire existence that it might as well be an abstract concept to him. 

And in the future they’re currently set for Sakura knows this only ends in tragedy for them all. But since she’s changing the future, and blowing the possibilities wide open, this is what she WANTS. A loving and good future for Fai, where he isn’t broken and can see worth in himself. 

This is just as much what she’s fighting for as Syaoran, and she’s going to make it happen no matter what. 

[instagram-money]

FREE TRAINING: http://bit.ly/24freetraining ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️ 2019 British Open leaderboard breakdown: Coverage, scores as J.B. Holmes starts on top in Round 1 A Ryder Cup has broken out at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush. The top of the leaderboard is littered with former Ryder Cup golfers on both the European and American teams, and it makes for what should be a terrific final three days. J.B. Holmes is (improbably?) your leader after shooting a 5-under 66, but he's going to be hunted by some of the biggest dogs in the game over the final 54 holes. There are a few monster names who have played their way out of the tournament -- Rory McIlroy shot 79 and Tiger Woods shot 78 -- but plenty of stars are still in the mix as we wrap up the first day of play at Portrush. Here's at the leaders after 18 holes at the last major of the season. 1. J.B. Holmes (-5): Holmes summed up his strategy well after his round when he said playing a place like Portrush forces you to hit away from pins often and you just hope to hit a few putts. Holmes got plenty of looks after hitting 83 percent of greens in regulation. Maybe the most impressive part of his round? He bogeyed the first and played the next 17 in 6 under. 2. Shane Lowry (-4): While the day was not a great one for some Irishmen, it was good for Lowry. He's a former North of Ireland winner on this course and has long praised both that event and this track. His 67 looked as if it might be a bit better as he got to 4 under through 12 holes, but he couldn't manage anything over the last six. He parred his way home for the early clubhouse lead before Holmes clipped him late. He's been quietly great recently with three top 10s in his last five starts. We'll split the T3s into some different categories since there are so many of them at 3 under. T3 Heavyweights -- Brooks Koepka, Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm: Everyone here except for Garcia shared the lead at one point in the day. Obviously, Koepka is the one who catches the most eyes, and he was tremendous, but I'm blown away by the ball striking of all four of these guys. They all seemed to be in complete control from tee to green in Round 1 and all but Rahm have at least one major. The four combined for just seven bogeys on the day, and Rahm had three of those (two in the last four holes!). If you fast-forwarded this thing to Sunday and told me one of these was the winner, I wouldn't even blink, although I would warn you that only two golfers -- Woods at Augusta and Gary Woodland at Pebble Beach -- have beaten Koepka in the last four majors. T3 Contenders -- Tyrrell Hatton, Lee Westwood, Tony Finau: This is an intriguing crew. I would be surprised if any of these guys won on Sunday for a variety of reasons, but they're all tantalizing. Westwood for what it would mean to win a dang Open at that age. Finau because it would be the fulfillment of his laugh-out-loud talent. And Hatton because an Englishman hasn't won since Nick Faldo in 1992. At least one of these three will be in it until late on Sunday. T3 Pretenders -- Ryan Fox, Alex Noren, Dylan Frittelli, Robert Macintyre, Kiradech Aphibarnrat: I'm not (yet) a believer. Hey, they're all solid professional golfers, but Open winners in this field in this year? Noren is probably the most accomplished, but he's been mostly rubbish in 2019. Aphibarnrat is the most intriguing, but he's never had a top 10 at a major. The rest are mostly unknowns on this stage who could make for good fun should they hang around for another 36 holes or longer. T16. Justin Rose (-2): Remember last Open when he barely made the cut then nearly won the tournament? If I'm leading the tournament, I'm pretty wary of where Rose is at all times. T20. Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day (-1): My (new) pick to win is coming from out of this group, and it's not Spieth, Day or Fowler. T42. Justin Thomas (E): He fought so hard to get it back to par after starting 3 over through four holes. Impressive last 14 holes after it looked like he was going the way of Rory. T128. Phil Mickelson (+5): His six-day fast helped him beat two guys with a combined 18 majors! Unfortunately, he's also probably still going to miss the cut. T144. Tiger Woods (+7): This ... does not seem good! T150. Rory McIlroy (+8): I watched the entire thing, and I'm still astonished to see it on my screen. CBS Sports was with you the entire way Thursday updating this story with the latest scores, analysis, and highlights from Round 1 of the 2019 Open Championship. ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️ Fox News. MSNBC. CNN. Blaze TV. Free Speech TV. Fusion. InfoWars. Newsmax TV. ◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️ us news live, us news today, us news scene, us news live stream, us news daily, us news 2019, us news today live, us news iran, us news headlines,

[completeoveranalysis]

[11]

AND THEN SHE -KUNS HIS NAME AHHHH

THE FINAL KINDNESS

AFTER SIX MONTHS OF PAINFUL AVOIDANCE

HERE AT THE END SHE OFFERS HIM FRIENDSHIP

AND IT BLOWS HIM WIDE OPEN

[completeoveranalysis]

[10]

Kurogane KNOWS something up and he knows it’s happening NOW

and I eternally love the background reactions to it as Lava Lamp turns towards Sakura

Meanwhile Sakura and lava lamp do their hand thing and it murders me right in my chair

[completeoveranalysis]

perfect

[completeoveranalysis]

[9]

Also I’m pretty sure this is one of - if not THE - only time the screen splits to everyone’s reactions and no-one is surprised in the slightest. 

Because it’s the most Syaoran thing he could have possibly said.

[completeoveranalysis]

~

Warning! This post contains spoilers up to chapter 170 of Tsubasa (and Chapter 71 of xxxHolic). Please skip this if you have not read that far.

Please also make no comments about what happens after that point in either manga.

~

SO here is the other splash image that really stuck out to me:

This time not because of the Seresu arc but because of how the Infinity arc itself ends.

Here's the link to the original post the image is from if you'd like the full context, but the particular quote from that post I want to use as a reference is here:

"Syaoran also sits on the throne - which as far as I can tell, isn’t his. ... The only one ever wearing the crown they’re all wearing [on their clothes] is Sakura. Now, does it make sense that Syaoran has usurped her throne? Heck yeah! He’s stolen everything from her. He’s stolen her journey (they’re following him now, always a step behind), he’s stolen her feathers, and he’s stolen the person she’s in love with."

Where I was kind of on the right track but couldn't have possibly guessed what all the chess imagery was ultimately feeding into. Looking back now the initial liveblogs for all of these Chess-related splash images are such a big mix of different iconography, so it’s very fun reading through all my old guesses back then. I think I did a really good job of trying to decipher some of it, especially the Cinderella and Snow White imagery in Chapter 140, but the Chess was a bit trickier.

Which, like, understandable, because the chess game that was happening in the chapters was stressful as heck and did not end well, but there is a nice conclusion to it with this image which is easier to read now - especially in regards to Sakura. Because it's made very clear to the viewer that the symbol of the Queen piece is in reference to her; both in these splash images (where she wears the crown at one point, and every character wears the symbol in ways that reflect their allegiance to her) and in the plotline, where she functions as the Queen of the battles taking place. Here is another good example of the symbol being used for Sakura with it right there on her throne, and the two Syaoran's wearing the symbol in smaller ways to represent their relationship to her. But with that all in mind? I had no idea what it was really getting at with Syaoran on Sakura's throne here.

BUT NOW I DO.

If you go back to that example I just gave with Sakura sitting on her throne? It's a different throne! It still makes it very clear that she's undeniably the Queen piece, with the symbol in gold actually being a key part of the throne itself.

And the throne Syaoran sits on? It has the crown symbol as part of the decoration, but it's not representing him, it's just a small symbol to show that matches Sakura's throne. This throne is his own.

He's the King piece.

(And, important distinction; the throne is not Lava Lamp's, but our original plotline Syaoran who is now in Autopilot mode.)

This wouldn't have occurred to me the first time through because I was focused so much on what this might mean for Sakura, and how she related to everyone else, but the way the Infinity Arc ends really hammers this home. After all, Sakura is the mastermind in this arc - everything that happens is according to her plan. She's not playing chess just during the literal chess matches, but during the entire plotline, moving every character and circumstance into place to enact her final plan; to activate both Chi's at once, absorb both their feather's, and trigger Fai's curse - resulting in her pseudo (if purely physical) death. But like we see in the plotline, this isn't a loss - it's a win. It's exactly how she planned things to unfold, and it will lead her to winning the game.

Just in case anyone isn't familiar, in Chess the queen is the most powerful piece capable of the widest variety of moves - but the queen is not the endgame goal. You can lose the queen piece in any game and (besides losing a powerful piece) it's not the end of the world. You can still win the game without the queen piece. It's the King piece that's the Win/Loss condition. The King is the piece you have to keep safe at all costs, even if you lose other pieces in the process. The second the King dies, the match is over. You've lost.

And this matches exactly how Sakura played the series events. She was the Queen in control of every move, and Syaoran was the Win condition she was focused on. She foresaw Fai killing Syaoran in the future - which, for her, is the Losing Scenario. She planned everything to avoid this, and she succeeded! She lost the Queen piece (ie, her physical body) but won the ultimate goal of keeping the King safe. She won the 3D future chess game that she was playing by herself, and positioned herself in the place that would have the most benefit for the victory at the end. (Which I still haven't seen, but she was VERY confident about this having a better result than Fai killing Syaoran.)

I'm also super happy that this ties in really well with the fairy tale allusions I talked about back in Chapter 140, but in ways I wasn't aware of back then either.

I talked about Snow White and how the apple (that shows up in a lot of the splash images in Infinity) may have been referring to Sakura's tendency to sleep a lot. What I didn't realise was that Sakura was essentially about to pull the Big Brain Snow White maneuver on herself to ultimately win her chess game. While in Snow White the poison apple is a trap, here Sakura sprung the trap intentionally. Fai is the apple she bit into deliberately - she arranged it so that killed her body, breaking his own curse, and sent her to the World of Dreams (and thus, she is asleep) which also placed her in a Glass Coffin (aka The Jam Jar of Dreams - Im sorry I have no memory of what it's really called). So the Snow White metaphor is now complete.

But also Cinderella! In the image for 140 Sakura is trying on a glass slipper - so she's Cinderella figure as well. But at this point in the plot the clock hadn't struck midnight just yet - like Cinderella, Sakura knew the exact time limit she had to work with, and for her the timing had to be PRECISE. She spent all of Infinity stressed out of her mind about this plan she couldn't trust anyone else with, knowing full well that if she missed the window even slightly it would ruin absolutely everything and they would all lose. Which, funnily enough, makes Yuuko the fairy godmother, since she provided Sakura with the magic she needed to make her plan happen (via wishes). This also means that Fai stabbing her with the sword is the exact moment the clock struck twelve - and like the spell finishing, Sakura could finally drop the act and explain what she had done, even as all the magic disappeared (ie, her luck being traded away). There's even a detransformation sequence of a sort, with her body and soul going in two different directions. But either way, the Cinderella metaphor is also complete!

And with all that done the last part I want to talk about is back in the image of Syaoran on the throne. He's framed on either side with the curtains that portray the chess board, and they're tied back by chains with him in the very centre. He is visually chained to the board - which, like, of course he is. With his Autopilot programming in place he's essentially just a chess piece without any will of his own - a winning piece, for sure, but he's still being moved around without his choice. He's playing the game on auto, making the moves that will lead him to the winning gambit, but without his individual soul he has no choice but to keep playing until the game is over. The goal he's working towards isn't even his - it's Evil Wolverine's. So in the same way that everyone else was a chess piece in Sakura's strategy (if, sort of, willingly), including Sakura herself, Syaoran is a piece being moved around in Evil Wolverine's favour - though if he dies, it's game over for Sakura's side as well.

I'm unclear if Syaoran dying would be a game over scenario for Evil Wolverine, but at the very least it would end the game he is currently playing.

So, in the hyper future 3D chess game that Sakura was playing by herself she couldn't properly win the game for her side by taking out Syaoran because he's her king piece too. Syaoran is the piece at the centre of everything, and will be the key to winning the game for either side. We just have to wait and see if Sakura's gambit will pay off in the way she thinks it will.