Magic and rationalization
Apr. 14th, 2007 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootSome ruminations on magic in CCS. This will likely eventually become a page on a CCS website, because a brief look around the web shows that all the extant pages, including Wikipedia, are focused exclusively on the anime. Other pages may well include "Why Clow Reed is a right selfish bastard".
Things we are shown about magic in the CCS universe:
Magic is an inborn quality; some people have it and some people don't; it is not a skill gained by study or effort. We are told that Sakura, a ten-year-old who has no knowledge of magic at all and must be coached through every step, has, by the end of the story, greater power than Clow, who studied extensively for several hundred years (according to Keroberos during the death scene). We see Sakura gaining more strength as time goes on. However, at each step, Keroberos says that she must have more magic than he realized.
Magic is a skill that can be strengthened with use and practice over time. Eriol states, at the end of the story, that Sakura is stronger than Clow/himself and will be able to control her forsight--that she will not forsee unless she chooses to do so. However, all through the second half of the manga, Sakura has been having forseeing dreams without any effort or understanding on her part. This indicates that her strength, the key to control of her foresight, is currently low and will grow greater. In addition, when Sakura first starts to change the Clow cards to Sakura cards she is exhausted by the effort. As time goes on, though, she becomes more able to sustain it and less tired by it.
The core or source of magic is manipulable; it can be extracted, divided and donated. We have to examples of this. The one most pertinent to the main plot is that Clow failed to divide his own magic when he divided his soul, and must have Sakura do it for him. The key issue here seems to be that magic can only be manipulated by a greater power. Eriol tells Sakura that she had to become stronger than he to do this, implying that this was why he could not do it himself. The other example is that Touya gives Yue all his magic, to sustain him when Sakura cannot.
The only way I see to reconcile these points is to suppose that a person's ability to access or manipulate their magic can be strengthened by practice, but that the total amount or capacity of magic is constant and inborn. This, however, stumbles over the outright contradictions embedded in the narrative.
For example, when Sakura is distressed by her inability to supply enough magic to sustain Yue's existence, he comforts her that she is only a child, and that it is unreasonable to expect her to have the same level of magic as an experienced and studied magician like Clow Reed. This implies that magic might be expected to increase with maturity. However this is said mere weeks before the conclusion, during which Eriol informs Sakura that her power has surpassed his. How can she be stronger than Clow, yet not able to sustain Yue?
Eriol tells us that only a greater power can manipulate the wellspring of a person's magic, yet Yue takes Touya's magic at a time when Yue barely has the power to hang onto his existence and could not reasonably be stronger than Touya. If we assume that Touya himself effected the transfer, then it should follow that Clow could have done the same, and Eriol tells us that this was not possible. We might assume that this is a special case, because it is Yue's nature to feed on magic, but taking the whole bundle cannot be his normal method since he clearly did no such thing with Clow.
Indeed, this begs the question of renewability of magic. If Yue must feed at a constant rate, then did he draw down the total of Clow's magic, or did the magic regenerate itself, as blood after donation? Indeed, Sakura uses this very metaphor for Touya, but goes on to say that Touya's magic will not return. If magic is not, then renewable, and Yue did draw down the absolute level of Clow's magic, and Clow wanted to be less powerful, why did he not simply create more magic creatures with an alignment to the Moon in order to draw his power down critically? If Yue is naturally capable of taking the source of a person's magic, why did Clow not allow this, instead of his extremely complicated scheme involving Sakura?
These contradictions can be rationalized, to be sure. Sakura's final access of the whole of her power might not have taken place until the very last moment, fueled by her desperation to protect and save her friends, family and love. Perhaps Yue just barely missed being able to feed from her by a fluke of timing. Perhaps Yue's natural ability to feed on magic was intensified due to his magical starvation, and this was what enabled him, as a one-time event, to take the whole and source of Touya's magic. Perhaps Clow used the means he did because he still wanted to have some magic, and thought it would be more fun to mess with the future of his decendants than to make a lot of Yue's and, upon his death, have them sleep until he reincarnated whole.
All this is possible. Yet no scrap of any such explanation appears in the narrative. In particular, the complete transfer of Touya's magic appears to have been written that way purely because it would provide greater angst.
This is, to be sure, about the level of coherence, or incoherence, I have come to expect of CLAMP.
Things we are shown about magic in the CCS universe:
Magic is an inborn quality; some people have it and some people don't; it is not a skill gained by study or effort. We are told that Sakura, a ten-year-old who has no knowledge of magic at all and must be coached through every step, has, by the end of the story, greater power than Clow, who studied extensively for several hundred years (according to Keroberos during the death scene). We see Sakura gaining more strength as time goes on. However, at each step, Keroberos says that she must have more magic than he realized.
Magic is a skill that can be strengthened with use and practice over time. Eriol states, at the end of the story, that Sakura is stronger than Clow/himself and will be able to control her forsight--that she will not forsee unless she chooses to do so. However, all through the second half of the manga, Sakura has been having forseeing dreams without any effort or understanding on her part. This indicates that her strength, the key to control of her foresight, is currently low and will grow greater. In addition, when Sakura first starts to change the Clow cards to Sakura cards she is exhausted by the effort. As time goes on, though, she becomes more able to sustain it and less tired by it.
The core or source of magic is manipulable; it can be extracted, divided and donated. We have to examples of this. The one most pertinent to the main plot is that Clow failed to divide his own magic when he divided his soul, and must have Sakura do it for him. The key issue here seems to be that magic can only be manipulated by a greater power. Eriol tells Sakura that she had to become stronger than he to do this, implying that this was why he could not do it himself. The other example is that Touya gives Yue all his magic, to sustain him when Sakura cannot.
The only way I see to reconcile these points is to suppose that a person's ability to access or manipulate their magic can be strengthened by practice, but that the total amount or capacity of magic is constant and inborn. This, however, stumbles over the outright contradictions embedded in the narrative.
For example, when Sakura is distressed by her inability to supply enough magic to sustain Yue's existence, he comforts her that she is only a child, and that it is unreasonable to expect her to have the same level of magic as an experienced and studied magician like Clow Reed. This implies that magic might be expected to increase with maturity. However this is said mere weeks before the conclusion, during which Eriol informs Sakura that her power has surpassed his. How can she be stronger than Clow, yet not able to sustain Yue?
Eriol tells us that only a greater power can manipulate the wellspring of a person's magic, yet Yue takes Touya's magic at a time when Yue barely has the power to hang onto his existence and could not reasonably be stronger than Touya. If we assume that Touya himself effected the transfer, then it should follow that Clow could have done the same, and Eriol tells us that this was not possible. We might assume that this is a special case, because it is Yue's nature to feed on magic, but taking the whole bundle cannot be his normal method since he clearly did no such thing with Clow.
Indeed, this begs the question of renewability of magic. If Yue must feed at a constant rate, then did he draw down the total of Clow's magic, or did the magic regenerate itself, as blood after donation? Indeed, Sakura uses this very metaphor for Touya, but goes on to say that Touya's magic will not return. If magic is not, then renewable, and Yue did draw down the absolute level of Clow's magic, and Clow wanted to be less powerful, why did he not simply create more magic creatures with an alignment to the Moon in order to draw his power down critically? If Yue is naturally capable of taking the source of a person's magic, why did Clow not allow this, instead of his extremely complicated scheme involving Sakura?
These contradictions can be rationalized, to be sure. Sakura's final access of the whole of her power might not have taken place until the very last moment, fueled by her desperation to protect and save her friends, family and love. Perhaps Yue just barely missed being able to feed from her by a fluke of timing. Perhaps Yue's natural ability to feed on magic was intensified due to his magical starvation, and this was what enabled him, as a one-time event, to take the whole and source of Touya's magic. Perhaps Clow used the means he did because he still wanted to have some magic, and thought it would be more fun to mess with the future of his decendants than to make a lot of Yue's and, upon his death, have them sleep until he reincarnated whole.
All this is possible. Yet no scrap of any such explanation appears in the narrative. In particular, the complete transfer of Touya's magic appears to have been written that way purely because it would provide greater angst.
This is, to be sure, about the level of coherence, or incoherence, I have come to expect of CLAMP.
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:05 pm (UTC)Basically they were saying that having clamp, design the characters was a good thing, because where as a normal animator might throw away designs because of lack of practically, clamp just says, "this is better!" and does it anyway!
... So whenever I'm dealing with CLAMP, I prefer not to look at what their saying, but rather what their trying to say... So I tend to assume that bloodtype and birthday info is more symbolic, something of a hint and about their personalities than what their actual physical details are.
... This makes it a lot easier when you see... say, leo's born in June.
Not the example, but I know they did something similar a while back... I forget where. I forget how. I just know it was them. o.o;
I blame this for my general inability to subconsciously believe that's what peoples actual ages are in anime/manga series, rather than what that age is supposed to represent.
Prince of tennis didn't help with that either. D:
That being said...
With the magical talents - I assumed that there was ability, and then there was access to that ability... And I think maybe Clow did make a lot of creatures, but making those creatures also had consequences and he didn't want to pay that anymore...
I was also thinking that with Sakura gradually inheriting all of Clow's creations - because she didn't have the ability to access all of that magic that Clow had centuries to deal with, was putting a lot more pressure...
Yue I don't think had any access to magic for a number of years - he was hibernating in Yukito, but there was no one around to help him through - the years of magical neglect were killing him, and the amount of magic needed to turn that around and make an actual difference in keeping him alive, and not say alive for a week then dying again, was more than what Touya possessed.
I also think magic in the CSS world - like you said - is based on need, and Touya needs Yukito, and with Yue, he doesn't need to protect Sakura any more because there will be someone who can do it more effectively than he can.
I honestly think that the way that we constantly saw Touya around when Sakura needed him - all those jobs that he took, were related to his magic and his need to protect the little squirt.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 11:21 pm (UTC)And that's the thing, see. It's /possible/ to rationalize all of the shortfalls in the plot. But a competently told story should, in some way, indicate what the rationalization is. CLAMP consistently fails to do that, which is a major problem I have with them. I like their characters, but their narrative generally sucks.
I totally agree that CLAMP magic, in all their 'verses, really, runs on emotion and need. Their consistent moral, if you can always call it that, is that instinct wins over technique and the heart conquers all. But, whereas in Rayearth they made that an explicit part of the world, in CCS the story just bumbles along on hidden assumptions.
Of course, any story functions on the basis of "suddenly, by amazing coincidence", otherwise there wouldn't be a story. But CLAMP stacks the coincidences up like they're playing Jenga or something. The incoherence jars me while I'm trying to have a nice time with the pretty relationships.
... and nothing will make me believe that Sakura was /actually/ more powerful than Clow, by the end of the story. My disbelief is already suspended like the Brooklyn Bridge, by then, and can't go any higher.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 12:56 am (UTC)I sometimes wonder if CLAMP does that deliberately - they leave things vague because they figure their audience will have more fun if they try to fill in the gaps themselves.
But then, I also remember that in XXXholic all of the male characters are drawn by one person and all of the female characters are drawn by another, and I put it down to brainstorming sessions where a lot of things come up but nobody remembers exactly what was supposed to happen.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 01:11 am (UTC)I don't think it implies that the magic itself will increase as much the person's control over it. It is possible that Sakura has, by force of the events in the ending, had this sudden outburst of the power she had dormant inside, but she has no better control over it than she did two pages before. That's what's going to take her time and experience, not increasing her powers, but taking the reigns over them.
If you'll forgive the lame comparison (I've just been reading and theorizing on Bleach a lot lately, so this was the first paralel that occured me), think of Ichigo and how his raw power has repeatedly awed people with hundreds of years of experience, but he has yet to be able to fully control himself. Zangetsu has implied many times that he knows the full extension of Ichigo's power, even though Ichigo himself doesn't. Given the proportions, this is what Yue and Kerberos imply too in those secret chats before Touya's intervention, saying that if Sakura doesn't learn how to control her own powers, Yue will be in danger - Sakura thinks she can just do a few card tricks, but they know the true nature of her power, just how much power that is and how much effort she'll have to put into taming that power and making it work on her favor. That's what Eriol is referencing too; he sees that her magic is greater than Clow's, but he knows she's nowhere near being fully in control of them.
Touya and Yue's case, I understand as hitsuzen. Yue is starved to his very limit, Touya is losing it because he doesn't know what else to do to save Yukito. It's an absolutely desperate shot for both them, and they're grasping at straws because they don't know for sure that it's going to work, but they have to try because they don't really have any other options left. So it's the combination of Touya's willingness to give it all with Yue's craving for whatever he can get that makes it work, where it would otherwise have failed with another person, or at a different time. If they were to try to explain it, they'd check it down to a fortunate meeting of wills causing a coincidental exception, but Yuuko would most likely say the whole thing was also part of Clow's plan, before he even knew it (which, if my memory doesn't betray me, is actually implied very lightly in one of Clow's cryptic lines).
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 02:14 am (UTC)*thinks* I don't think Eriol addressed Touya in particular, but since Clow seems to have figured out everything except who would fall in love with whom, it could be considered a given. On the other hand, if hearts were the one part that escaped him, as Clow, and it was Touya's and Yukito's/Yue's hearts that made it work, maybe not.
ccs
Date: 2007-04-15 01:35 am (UTC)IF....
There's the amount/level of power/magic one possesses.
There's the potential amount.
And then there's the skill or controlled amount.
If all these levels were different... could we not assume that as Sakura becomes more aware of magic and what can be done with it, as her skill and control of magic increases, so does the power level she can work at increase. Increasing and increasing until eventually one day she might actually reach her highs potential ability?
In that case, could not Clow be possibly referring to her potentialbility having exceeded his?
In regards to Yue... he needed magic to sustain him, and Clow was aware of that, was able to consciously feed and sustain him. Where as Sakura didn't find out until after Touya gave it up. If that's the case, then could we not assume the only time Yue was 'feeding' was when Sakura was calling on the cards under his influence or/and only from the cards she had tranformed into a star card? Yue, with his Yukito form, would need more energy/magic to sustain, and although the potential was there, Sakura still wasn't skilled or controlled enough to support him, which might be why he (nor any of the others) mentioned it.
Touya, however, is aware of it and makes the conscious decision to feed Yue---did Yue say he would take all of Touya's magic, or did Touya offer it all in return for keeping Yukito and Yue promising to always protect Sakura in Touya's speed? That could be a difference. If Yue was expecting to receive what Touya offered him and received all of Touya's magic... He might be sad for it--as we see with Yukito--but wouldn't he except it anyway? A passive receiver? Touya, then, exhausted his magic because that is what he chose to do...
Maybe. I confess, it's been quite a while since I've read the manga or watched the series, and I don't recall analyzing anything of clamp too closely--headache material, better to just sit and read and watch and enjoy. ^__^;;
Re: ccs
Date: 2007-04-15 02:17 am (UTC)Only that wouldn't be, you know, angsty enough. *makes face* I'm pretty jaundiced about CLAMP and angst > plot, at this point.