Fai, Kurogane, Sakura, and the recent 'Princess' thing, + vid recs
- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, chapter 112
First, when Fai woke up in C130, he addressed Kurogane by his full name instead of the usual affectionate nicknames ("Just accept them as a token of my love!" - Chinese Tsubasa character book) in a cold "voice", to put a distance between the two of them.
Then, starting C132, he did what I hate IRL women (usually) for doing when in fights with their husbands, like, instead of working out the conflict, mommy decides to blatantly ignore daddy and go overtime show of attention to the children who will no doubt feel the tension of it...at the end of that, I thought things will improve after the mommy and daughter hug at the end of the chapter, but Fai, expert of running away, isn't going to let it happen.
In spite of looking at Sakura with (maternal) realisation of love back in C133, when he was thinking of his company-deprived childhood, or because he feels that Sakura-hime has gotten too close to him even after he had succeed in pushing Kurogane away, he displaces that connection that in C134, by kissing hands very formally and declaring that Sakura will be his only princess.
Considering the context again, I do not believe that he intend that act to be anything other than as the traditional pledge of fealty sworn by knights to their sovereigns, it's about honour, it's about devotion, it's about duty, but it's not any sort of love that approaches familiarity. He's not going to be her mommy anymore, he's not even vying to switch to the role of daddy, he's kneeling to be her knight, a valued servant yes, but disposable and detached at a distance in a way that family isn't.
Fai, you selfish idiot, I bet the Princess is especially tired of knights and have no want of them anymore, she needs family more than anything right now!
Crossposted to fai_fye
Vid-recs:
千年女王[Thousand Year Queen]'s HK ending sequence: 傳說 [Legend) sung by 路雲娜. The sequence is very beautiful, and I think the song is beautiful even if you can't understand the words, which are in Cantonese. The traditional Chinese lyrics are here and I'll have to get around to translating them. It's a very unforgettable theme in HK:
傳說中有個女王在世上 [In the legend there is a queen in this world]
長長頭髮 兩眼似星光 [Long-long hair, both eyes like star lights]
傳說中這女王善變似 [In the legend this queen is shifts like]
白雲樣 [white snow]
That with the images of the sequences, there is just a very melancholic feel to it, and ah, much poetic mood can definitely not been translated well...but the theme of starlight and universe creates a mood of distance high beyond reach, and white snow is cold and it's not something that can be kept. < / nostalgic >
Kurogane and Fye AMV - Kein Zurück, clips from the CLAMP manga Tsubasa, animated by BeeTrain. Song is by the German band Wolfsheim, and Kein Zurück means 'No Future' or 'No Way Back'. AMV is arranged by Rakibou, and the appearances of subtitles and the DIVX stamp in some of the images aside, it's very well done, the sequences suit the mood of the song all the way through all together. Kein Zurück's English and German lyrics link, gekked from Kopfschuss99's Columbine vid...
ETA: Rant, okay, maybe this is premature, but how long do you think it'll be before someone writes Harlequinn style romance novels of Knight!Fai and Princess Sakura? Ew.