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ccborrega · 4 years ago

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Either Clow lied to Yuuko's face or Eriol lied to Sakura's face and the memories left behind for her were lies too.

Or maybe a bit of both?. Bear with me. Basically, the problem is there are conflicting versions regarding Clow's 'Death' and his motivations for it between CCS and Tsubasa/Holic:

I've said it in previous rants, but Yuuko states in the Holic Kei CD drama that his death came as a surprise to her ('Even though red wine was your favorite, I couldn't make you have some- by then you were already gone, all of a sudden') which- you'd think maybe if he and Yuuko are like the big masterminds behind everything that's going on along with Fei Wang, he'd like.... let her know what he's going to do??? Specially since he knows (Either because he decided or just foresaw it) WHEN he was going to 'Die'?? Like he let Yue and Kero know in advance and all??? He definitely knew WHEN he was going to 'Die' and just decided not to tell her. So that's one thing.

Then, when her time starts moving again and she's disappearing, she's expecting to reunite with him ('To death... to where you are...') which kind of makes sense within a simplistic vision of 'He died' that she's seemingly subject to... except, we know Clow is not as much 'Dead' as 'Nonexistant' by then. As per CCS canon shown to us through a vision Sakura has, at the time where he was supposed to die, he split into two separate, living beings: Eriol, who has all of his memories and magic (And yet is still a different person as per his own statement.), and Fujitaka, who is a common human being. In other words, he can't meet her ever again because he isn't anywhere. But she doesn't seem to know this.

(You could argue that he didn't as much lie to her as deliberately with-held information- an you'd have a point, but it's still a pretty shitty thing to do to the woman you're already leaving with a shit-ton of problems to solve in your stead, specially if she's under the impression that the two of you will eventually meet again when she's done playing her role cleaning after your mess.)

Not sure why Eriol didn't like- drop by and explain things to her but perhaps he didn't want to pain her further by letting her know Clow didn't exist anymore? And instead he left her with an empty promise. Charming. (To be fair, he's not Clow anymore, so technically this wasn't his business anymore, but like- he's just not gonna say anything because he's technically someone else? Bruh.)

Then there's the matter of Clow having spent some time (At least a good five years) as the king of Clow Country. By TRC's account, this would have happened after he told Yue and Kero that he was going to die- an here's where another contradiction enters because, as I've already stated, Sakura Kinomoto SAW the moment where he split into two happen. So we're left with- he either was lying to Sakura in her vision regarding WHEN his 'Death' happened (In reality it happened years into Yue and Kero being asleep and not on that same day.) OR he lied to Yuuko and was coming and going from Clow country for years, even as they were still making the Mokonas and later when they were sharing custody of them, making his final moment with Yue and Kero completely true.

(In the case Sakura summoned that vision by herself without his participation, this would make it the truth and mean he definitely lied to Yuuko.)

The only other options are: 1- Because time flows differently in each dimension, he managed to live a handful of years in Clow Country and then go back to his world to 'Die' within the same day. Or 2- Because logic was already collapsing, the timelines are not really meant to add up in any way that makes sense... which just sucks for the reader because everything else can more-or-less be explained in a satisfactory way, even if it's one that includes time paradoxes. This just feels lazy.

Now, timing aside, the contradictions between Sakura's account of his 'Death' and what Yuuko thinks it to be leave us with another matter: Either he, once more, lied to Sakura in that vision he left behind for her OR he lied to Yuuko, making her think he was going to come back to visit still when in reality he was going to 'Die' and THEN making her think he was dead and in the world of the dead when in reality Clow is completely gone and what's left of him is still among the living.

(Once more, Even in the case Sakura summoned that vision by herself without his participation, it'd only mean he definitely lied to Yuuko.)

Then, Eriol reveals that when Clow split himself in two, his wish was to 'Not be the most powerful magician in the world anymore', and the motivation behind this, he says, is that the knowledge of the future was too painful a burden for him. Meanwhile, Tsubasa establishes that the reason he begun to hate his power and his status as the world's most powerful magician was his accidental wish. So what is the truth?

Look, I know, OK? I know CCS predates Tsubasa and Holic and it's possible CLAMP hadn't really planned on explanding the Clow lore like that, but the matter still stands that these conflicting statements make Eriol look like a liar.

(UNLESS, an this is something I for whatever reason had stored in my memory as canon but I don't know WHERE I got it because it's nowhere in the manga and I don't think it's in the anime either, though it's been a good ten years since my last full rewatch... unless Eriol has lost all the memories of Clow's life and therefore completely forgotten about Yuuko. Which would make him an unreliable narrator more than a liar, but certainly adds insult to injury where Clow's treatment of her regards.)

Finally, there's the matter of Clear Card's current problem being that Sakura is growing too powerful to control her magic- which, Tomoyo HAD pointed out it sounded like it could happen when Eriol revealed he was wrecking shit up to help her become more powerful so that she could help him give half of his magic to Fujtaka at the end of CCS. What did the creepy little ferret say back then? 'Nah, we're good, she can handle it'. So, that was a lie. It's specially bad when you realize it's also stated that Touya is recovering his powers little by little- meaning their magic grows with time. Meaning there was no way Sakura's power wasn't going to grow enough to start being a problem eventually.

Again, Clear Card is a new work and CLAMP probably didn't plan on expanding CCS when they finished the original manga, but the fact that all of this happened despite Eriol straight out telling them it wouldn't makes him look like either an idiot or a liar, and one that threw Sakura under the bus to save himself. I have a feeling a lot of things in Clear Card are going to get reversed conveniently because the wand Sakura Kinomoto hands to her adult!clone self in Tsubasa is still the star one (which doesn't exist anymore in Clear Card), but right now as per April 2021, Eriol is not looking great.

Of course, it's always possible this is just CLAMP not quite fact-checking themselves as well as they could before referencing their other works in the newer ones or something like that but if I'm right... we just added another layer of fucked-up to Clow's character.

#CLAMP #xxxHoLic #CCS #tsubasa reservoir chronicle #Clow Reed #srsly this is another one of the reasons I have such a strained relationship with Clow x Yuuko #It just seems o me like she continuously got the short end of the stick whenever it involved him #cc rants

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