Receiving the news that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer finally decided to retire was definitely one of my saddest moments as a Manchester United supporter. In a club like United, players come and go all the times, but when the one’s going is someone who has given us amazing performance and devotion all the way, well, it’s like parting with a good friend.
Yet, I know that’s more to my grief in relation to Ole’s departure than just his excellent years in United. I’ve witnessed United legends--Denis Irwin and Roy Keane, for example--left the club before, but it wasn’t as sad as this.
I started to truly love United in the mid ‘90s, so naturally, the first players that I relate with United over the years are Class of ’92 (then, the rising stars of English football) and those who came to the club during that period. There are lots of players that fall into the second category, but Ole’s the one who spends the most time with United amongst them all. Not to mention the only one who receives legend status.
You can basically say that I’ve watched Ole play for United growing up. As long as he’s still in the club, it feels like I can still relate myself with my childhood. Now that he quits football, I lose one of that “connections”. Maybe that’s why Ole’s retirement struck me so much.
Putting my personal dilemma aside, I sincerely wish Ole well, whatever he chooses to do after this. 20LEGEND will live forever!
Monday, September 10, 2007
TSUBASA RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE chapter 165 (CLAMP) 9/10/2007 12:44:00 PM
Even though it’s rather out of character of me to write TRC review for only one chapter, I’ve decided to write this down immediately because.....mmm, ......because I feel like it! Tch, as if anybody would care about my reasons.
Okay, first thing that I’d like to make clear is the “Kurogane slashed realFai”-thing. He didn’t and it was very stupid of me not to realize it sooner. RealFai was still “asleep” inside the pool and the one Kurogane was, well, nobody. It was just a vision, a magic trick, or whatever you want to call it, created by Ashura-ou.
Then, answering question number 1 and 2 (at least some part of question no.2) from my previous TRC installment-- Ashura-ou is positively dead and what Tomoyo-hime gave Kurogane was really a protective seal. There’s definitely something more to it than “you lose some of your strength if you kill someone unnecessarily”-thing. What protection does it serve, actually? Heck, we’ll never know until CLAMP reveals about it in the future.
Almost instantly after the fall of Ashura-ou, realFai’s body started to ascend from the pool. Sakura’s wing that “protected” him all along returned to Sakura’s body, making the inevitable--the decay of the body--happen. However, during that process (the wing’s return and the decomposition), realFai’s last memory was somehow revealed. Contrary to ourFai’s belief all this time, his brother had never had any grudge against him before he died. RealFai willingly died so that he could save Yuui. As simple as that. OurFai finally realized that by preserving realFai’s body, he had prevented his brother from resting in peace.
Of course, we all know that ourFai’s letting go of his brother is not the end. Far from it. OurFai’s still got one curse. Ashura-ou wanted ourFai to kill him so that the final curse would be lifted from him. I suspect that the curse has something to do with killing someone most precious to him (apart from realFai, Ashura-ou seemed to be that person to ourFai). Gosh, makes me wonder, is Sakurazukamori-thing (destined to kill and be killed by his/her most precious person) will be applied here.
In the end of chapter 165, ourFai came into trance state like the one he was in before stabbing Sakura (when the first curse was activated). What will the second curse be? Something devastating, I'm sure of it.
It would be interesting to see how the rest of the gang would refer to ourFai after this. I don’t recall Syaoran ever called ourFai “Fai”, Sakura is still soulless, and Kurogane always use “that guy” or “the mage” when referring to Fai. So, it only leaves Mokona. Will he call ourFai “Yuui” right away? Aargh, my questions is piling up.....
Friday, September 07, 2007
TSUBASA RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE chapter 160 - 164 (CLAMP) 9/07/2007 12:35:00 PM
Another piece of review? Again? Yeah, sorry for that. I know it would be classier if I wrote something sophisticated like the nature of life, the corruption of society, or that kinda stuff. Too bad I’m too lazy to delve into that matter now, so here I am, reviewing another TRC’s chapters.
In chapter 159, we had learned that Ashura-ou asked ourFai (Yuui) to fulfill his wish one day. That wish was, apparently, protecting Celes from anyone who brought harm to the people of the country. Anyone, including himself. I’m not sure if that was really his wish or he simply wanted to die for who knows what reason.
Not long before ourFai fled from Celes, he found out that Ashura-ou had slaughtered his own people. The more he killed, the more magically stronger he became, and Ashura-ou didn’t even show any remorse doing it. If ourFai kept his promise, he should’ve killed Ashura-ou because he clearly had brought harm to the people of Celes. OurFai couldn’t do it, though. After all, for ourFai, Ashura-ou was the first person who showed him (and realFai) compassion, gave him home, and cheered him up with kind words, albeit Ashura-ou’s hidden motive. Instead of killing Ashura-ou, ourFai chose to put him to sleep (literally) and ran away from Celes.
It seemed that Ashura-ou had known that ourFai would’ve never been voluntarily willing to kill him, whatever evil thing he might do. That’s why he gave ourFai the tattoo thing (you know, the one ourFai handed over to Yuuko at the beginning of the gang’s journey). OurFai’s magic grew stronger the more he used magic, but the tattoo would suppress further development of his magic. Thus, even if ourFai refused to kill Ashura-ou, the curse would cause ourFai to do so as long as Ashura-ou’s magic power was stronger (assuming that the curse hadn’t been broken).
As a further attempt in forcing ourFai to kill him, Ashura-ou threatened to kill Sakura (who, you might remember, had landed in Celes before the rest of the gang and had mysteriously been alive although her soul had left her body). Trying to save Sakura from the clutches of Ashura-ou, ourFai, Kurogane, and even Syaoran attacked the king. Ashura-ou stabbed Kurogane by a sharp block of ice during the process and at that instant, it looked like the ninja had finally met his end.
That was the final straw for ourFai. It didn’t matter that Kurogane had just previously cut his living-dead brother, realFai, with his sword; the fact that somebody else had died because of his weakness was enough for ourFai to make up his mind.
OurFai finally decided to kill Ashura-ou and died along with him, somehow. His effort wasn’t successful, though, and in the end, Ashura-ou took control once again. When Ashura-ou said that killing the rest of the gang would probably send ourFai into wrath, enabling him to put out all his power to attack and kill Ashura-ou, Kurogane stroke out of nowhere and stabbed the king.
New questions that popped out inside my head after reading chapter 164 are these:
1) Is Ashura-ou dead?
2) Why was Ashura-ou so surprised when he saw the protective seal on Kurogane’s forehead? It must mean something, considering that seeing the seal made Ashura-ou lost his focus, enabling Kurogane to stab him. And by the way, “protective seal”? That’s a weird way to refer to something which was depicted as a curse (“If you kill someone unnecessarily, you’ll lose some of your power”-stuff) by Tomoyo-hime herself.
3) What was it that had weakened Syaoran and Mokona? Why did Syaoran say that he couldn’t protect Sakura?
4) Would Kurogane be alright, considering that he was badly injured? (I have to ask this, he’s my favorite TRC’s character after all.)
On to chapter 165.
In chapter 159, we had learned that Ashura-ou asked ourFai (Yuui) to fulfill his wish one day. That wish was, apparently, protecting Celes from anyone who brought harm to the people of the country. Anyone, including himself. I’m not sure if that was really his wish or he simply wanted to die for who knows what reason.
Not long before ourFai fled from Celes, he found out that Ashura-ou had slaughtered his own people. The more he killed, the more magically stronger he became, and Ashura-ou didn’t even show any remorse doing it. If ourFai kept his promise, he should’ve killed Ashura-ou because he clearly had brought harm to the people of Celes. OurFai couldn’t do it, though. After all, for ourFai, Ashura-ou was the first person who showed him (and realFai) compassion, gave him home, and cheered him up with kind words, albeit Ashura-ou’s hidden motive. Instead of killing Ashura-ou, ourFai chose to put him to sleep (literally) and ran away from Celes.
It seemed that Ashura-ou had known that ourFai would’ve never been voluntarily willing to kill him, whatever evil thing he might do. That’s why he gave ourFai the tattoo thing (you know, the one ourFai handed over to Yuuko at the beginning of the gang’s journey). OurFai’s magic grew stronger the more he used magic, but the tattoo would suppress further development of his magic. Thus, even if ourFai refused to kill Ashura-ou, the curse would cause ourFai to do so as long as Ashura-ou’s magic power was stronger (assuming that the curse hadn’t been broken).
As a further attempt in forcing ourFai to kill him, Ashura-ou threatened to kill Sakura (who, you might remember, had landed in Celes before the rest of the gang and had mysteriously been alive although her soul had left her body). Trying to save Sakura from the clutches of Ashura-ou, ourFai, Kurogane, and even Syaoran attacked the king. Ashura-ou stabbed Kurogane by a sharp block of ice during the process and at that instant, it looked like the ninja had finally met his end.
That was the final straw for ourFai. It didn’t matter that Kurogane had just previously cut his living-dead brother, realFai, with his sword; the fact that somebody else had died because of his weakness was enough for ourFai to make up his mind.
OurFai finally decided to kill Ashura-ou and died along with him, somehow. His effort wasn’t successful, though, and in the end, Ashura-ou took control once again. When Ashura-ou said that killing the rest of the gang would probably send ourFai into wrath, enabling him to put out all his power to attack and kill Ashura-ou, Kurogane stroke out of nowhere and stabbed the king.
New questions that popped out inside my head after reading chapter 164 are these:
1) Is Ashura-ou dead?
2) Why was Ashura-ou so surprised when he saw the protective seal on Kurogane’s forehead? It must mean something, considering that seeing the seal made Ashura-ou lost his focus, enabling Kurogane to stab him. And by the way, “protective seal”? That’s a weird way to refer to something which was depicted as a curse (“If you kill someone unnecessarily, you’ll lose some of your power”-stuff) by Tomoyo-hime herself.
3) What was it that had weakened Syaoran and Mokona? Why did Syaoran say that he couldn’t protect Sakura?
4) Would Kurogane be alright, considering that he was badly injured? (I have to ask this, he’s my favorite TRC’s character after all.)
On to chapter 165.