Okay, I can't
believe how worked up about this chapter I was last night! I was thinking about what might happen so much I actually couldn't sleep. Over a manga chapter for crying out loud! Look what you've reduced me to CLAMP! And I have work today! Â
This chapter was just fantastic. Everything I wanted to see and, yet again, some more on top. I really enjoyed it a lot. Especially getting to see Fai all sweaty, writhing on the bed, panting and grabbing onto Kuro-tan... *slaps self* Bad thoughts. Bad!
Anyway, Sakura looked so tragically beautiful in this chapter. I just adore the way CLAMP accented her lips. I had to stare at that panel for a while.
I would dearly love for her to wake up soon (although, I have to say it's probably for the best that she did remain asleep for this part. I imagine she would have been extremely freaked out by all the spazming and vampire chit-chat), I really enjoy the mother/daughter relationship she and Fai have formed and I would like to see her react to Fai while he's still in an unwell state.
I think it’s pretty obvious clone!Syaoran knows a Sakura in the world he was taken from. In the chapters to come perhaps he will do some explaining to Sakura on this matter when she wakes up. I’m sure she’ll be very confused and upset when she does, bless her. ^^ But I’m just glad that clone!Syaoran is such an obviously sweet, caring person. Just a victim of Fei Wang’s plotting the same as real!Syaoran, Sakura, Kurogane (and perhaps Fai too). I’d like to see a happy ending for him.
(Hoping this little ramble won’t be off topic!) For all those complaining that the FaixKuro shippers talk about their pairing too much I say, come on! Throw us a bone here! This is a relationship that we all wished to see come to fruition, but I know I never in a million years expected that we would ever be presented with such conclusive scenes of their caring for one another (from Kurogane especially). Writing these last few chapters CLAMP has given us more from Kurogane and Fai's relationship than I ever imagined I would see in Tsubasa. I'm sure a lot of us had resigned ourselves to fanfiction and art and never expected any of these revolutionary events. You can't begrudge us little time to fangirl for a while, can you?
I too am a huge fan of Sakura and Syaoran’s adorable relationship. But as lovely as they are together, we do all subconsciously expect the main characters of a story to have a happy ending. There’s a very high probability that Sakura and Syaoran will end up together and happy in the end so, although it’s true that real!Syaoran has been through almost as much as Fai, we’re reacting more strongly to Fai because it’s possible that the story may not turn out so well for him. With Syaoran I tend to think “Oh no… poor Syaoran… that’s awful… but ah well, he’ll be alright in the end.”. But with Fai and Kurogane; they have room in TRC to die without the story falling flat on its face. When Fai had his eye gouged out I’d never been so concerned that a character might die. Since then, the tension has just been building and building around the two of them.
Sakura and Syaoran have had plenty of sweet moments together. This is the first
real Kurogane and Fai moment we’ve had. </ramble>
I personally don’t think it matters
that much that Fai won’t be dependant on Kurogane for ever. Before we all brand CLAMP crap storytellers let’s see where they’re going with this. Fai still has to depend on Kurogane until his eye is returned (I imagine, with his eye returned his magic is so powerful that his magician blood negitates the small amount of vampire blood that he received) and the fact that Kurogane was so ready to blindly submit himself to whatever price he might have to pay for saving Fai’s life without even asking the cost, it just speaks volumes! The fact that he didn’t actually have to go his entire life being Fai’s bait doesn’t matter one bit. He didn’t even suspect that it was a test and yet he was still more than ready to do anything necessary so that Fai would continue to live.
