View source for X 2009 Epic

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''If I have to animate another decapitation sequence, I'm going to '''scream'''.''

Remember ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'' and ''[[X 1999]]''? "Oh [[CLAMP]]," you said, "between the [[Ho Yay|gratuitous homoeroticism]] and the [[Eye Scream|gratuitous heterochromaticism]], you're [[Tear Jerker|tugging on my heart strings]]! This pain, it is beautiful and terrible."

[[It Got Worse]].

The premise of [[CLAMP]]'s manga and anime ''[[X 1999]]'' puts the [[Story-Boarding the Apocalypse|Apocalypse]] in the hands of a fifteen year-old boy, Shirou Kamui. His choice between saving humanity and [[The End of the World as We Know It|saving the planet]] is complicated by [[Refusal of the Call|his own indecision]], his own lack of information. Epic is an [[Alternate Universe Fic]] by [http://mithrigil.livejournal.com Mithrigil] that updates the situation--[[Butterfly of Doom|what if]] Kamui had been given ten additional years, to make an informed decision?

Given that premise, it's no wonder '''Epic''' takes the [[Darker and Edgier]] route. Gone are [[The Woobie]] and the concept of [[Break the Cutie|breaking the cutie]]: with the youngest member of the central cast a twenty-four year old animator, this is definitely not a story about people pretending to be [[Ordinary High School Student|ordinary high school students]] while saving the world. It also directly challenges the concept of [[Too Soon]], discussing terrorism in [[What Do You Mean It's Not Political?|a directed political fashion]].

'''Epic''' is complete and can be read [http://community.livejournal.com/epic_is_epic/ here].


{{tropelist}}
* [[Affably Evil]]: Representative Kigai
* [[Alas, Poor Yorick]]: Subverted, they never find {{spoiler|Daisuke's}} head.
* [[Angsty Surviving Twin]]: Subaru.
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Played straight. A reversal of ''X'', actually: {{spoiler|Fuuma spares the little girl's life}}, whereas ten years later in '''Epic''', {{spoiler|Kamui leaves her to die with the rest.}}
* [[Apocalypse of the Week]]: Was supposed to happen in 1999 and was delayed until Kamui could make an informed decision.
* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Despite his obvious mental instability and [[Foe Yay|the fact that he's sleeping with the enemy]], Subaru has managed to rule the Sumeragi Clan unchallenged for seven years on sheer value of kicking ass.
* [[Badass]]: Several, most notably [[Badass Longcoat]] Subaru Sumeragi, who [[Took a Level in Badass|took at least one level]] in 2001 when he blew up the SONY building.
* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: Subverted repeatedly.
* [[Big Bad Friend]]: {{spoiler|Kamui, to Fuuma.}}
* [[Bishonen]]: Subverted, since they're all older. There are references to [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|Kamui looking like he was a manga character before he grew up.]]
* [[Bring Out Your Gay Dead]]: As in ''X''.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|Seishirou's car}}, which would make {{spoiler|Yoshio}} [[Chekhov's Gunman]] and {{spoiler|Subaru}} [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]. {{spoiler|Kamui drives a Subaru, after all, and Sorata, ever the hanger of lampshades, makes the pun on Subaru-the-car after the collapse of Nakano in book 2.}}
* [[The Chosen One]]: Kamui.
* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Even the monk calls "Horseshit."
* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: "''We'' are the first-and-second."
** Also, {{spoiler|Hurricane Aoki}}, and Sorata {{spoiler|dropping the roof of Zojo-ji.}}
* [[Dead Little Sister]]: Kotori becomes one.
* [[Death by Irony]]: {{spoiler|Representative Kigai is electrocuted and drowns.}}
** Also later, {{spoiler|Kakyou, who has been going blind, gets [[Eye Scream|stabbed through the eyes]].}}
* [[Death by Sex]]: Subverted twice: once, {{spoiler|Aoki and Karen, wherein ''he'' dies}}, and a second time {{spoiler|which might as well be sex-by-death for the onmyouji}}. Averted for {{spoiler|Sorata, who does not have the time to sleep with Arashi.}}
* [[Deconstructor Fleet]]: CARD-CARRYING MEMBER!
* [[Disability Superpower]]: Subverted ''hard''.
* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]: Subaru most of the time, and {{spoiler|Fuuma in Book 2.}}
* [[Downer Ending]]
* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]: Averted, though the bridge literally drops.
* [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]]
* [[Emotionless Girl]]: Still Arashi.
* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: '''Quintuple'''-subversion! Cars are established as a big deal in book one, including Seishirou's Tommy Kaira [[Incredibly Lame Pun|tb]]. Then, in the beginning of book two, the Dragons of Earth inform us that Every Car Can Die. First subverted when {{spoiler|Kamui sacrifices his Subaru after Nakano}}, double-subverted when {{spoiler|Subaru thinks he can blow it up with a cigarette}}, discussed and triple-subverted when {{spoiler|Seishirou explains that it takes effort to blow up a car and that it'll take [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|more than a little cigarette]] to do it}}, quadruple-subverted when {{spoiler|Kakyou fails to blow it up in a firefight}}, and shot to hell when {{spoiler|Subaru blows it up with a little cigarette ''anyway''}}. Phew!
* [[Eye Scream]]: Kakyou's whole arc deals with eyes.
** {{spoiler|Kakyou himself is going blind from all of this eavesdropping on people more powerful than he is.}}
** {{spoiler|Then he sees that, when They come for him, They have [[Mismatched Eyes|one of each others' eyes]].}}
** {{spoiler|And then They stab him through his.}}
* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Assuming you thought Kamui was seriously going to choose the Dragons of Heaven.}}
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: Pretty much all of them.
* [[Five-Man Band]]
** [[The Hero]]: {{spoiler|The Marvel}}, subverted {{spoiler|due to complications caused by the end of book one.}}
** [[The Lancer]]: Sorata, and proud of it.
** [[The Big Guy]]: Arashi, subverted because, [[Yamato Nadeshiko|you know. Chick. In hakama.]]
** [[The Smart Guy]]: Aoki, also [[Team Dad]].
** [[The Chick]]: Yuzuriha
** {{spoiler|[[Sixth Ranger Traitor]]: Karen}}
* [[Five-Bad Band]]
** [[Big Bad]]: {{spoiler|Kamui}}, subverted {{spoiler|because he's, well, tiny.}} Also doubles as [[Evil Genius]].
** [[The Dragon]]: Representative Kigai!
** [[The Brute]]: Anonymous and Nataku
** [[Dark Chick]]: Kakyou
** {{spoiler|[[Sixth Ranger Traitor]]: Kusanagi}}
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Sorata, most of the time, and [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|Seishirou]], at least pertaining to their own stories.
** The rest of the cast, at any given time, is actually [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]:
*** Kamui thinks he is {{spoiler|a [[Villain Protagonist]]}} when he is in fact ''neither''.
*** Fuuma thinks he is an [[Everyman Hero]] in either an [[Urban Fantasy]] or a Spy flick, and is wrong on both counts. Etc.
** Yuzuriha educates Kusanagi on [[Lampshade Hanging|the brief history of heroes and villains in anime]], at the beginning of book 2, and she still doesn't get it.
* [[Geodesic Cast]]: Discussed and ultimately subverted.
* [[Dying Declaration of Love]]: {{spoiler|Sorata.}}
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|also Sorata.}}
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: {{spoiler|Aoki with the same electrical wires he used to kill Kigai.}}
* [[Hometown Hero]]: Fuuma, the Marvel.
* [[Ho Yay]]: Discussed, occasionally realized.
** Seishirou and Subaru {{spoiler|are in a functional, if parasitic and disturbing, relationship.}} As in ''Tokyo Babylon'' and ''X'', this is far enough out of subtext and into text to qualify. Pretty much every scene they are in together ends or begins with sexual activity.
** Kakyou {{spoiler|is carrying a torch for Hokuto, but has multiple dreams that twist and conflate her with Subaru and Seishirou.}}
** Fuuma and Kamui's [[Foe Yay]] persists.
** {{spoiler|Fuuma and '''Sorata''' also have a [[Last Kiss]].}}
* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Kusanagi and Yuzuriha.
* [[I Have the High Ground]]: "Science abhors a hypocrite."
** Also,  {{spoiler|"There are no words for you, Representative Kigai."}}
** And immediately after that, {{spoiler|"Fairness."}}
* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Subverted with Kamui, who's pretty much gotten over it.
* [[I Just Want to Be Special]]: Daisuke.
* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: Twice, {{spoiler|Inuki}} and then {{spoiler|Aoki}}. [[In the Back]].
* [[Incredibly Obvious Bomb]]: Subverted. Kusanagi has to ask which cars they were hidden in. {{spoiler|[[The Ambulances]].}}
* [[Instant AI, Just Add Water]]: Subverted, since Nataku cannot function without Anonymous.
* [[Invisible to Normals]]: As in ''X''.  {{spoiler|Inuki's invisibility to normals is more tragic and disturbing here, however, as Yuzuriha is married to Daisuke who cannot see him.}}
* [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]]: Multiple times, thanks to Kakyou.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|Kamui}} is very fond of doing this.
** Just. {{spoiler|The Ambulances.}} Which might actually cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]].
* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: Double-subversion: {{spoiler|Subaru, Subaru, Subaru.}}
* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: [[Writer on Board|A favorite trope of the author.]]
** Seishirou. {{spoiler|One would argue that he wins out, in the end.}}
** Representative Kigai.
** {{spoiler|Kamui. The Ambulances. The ''Ambulances''. Also the macadamia nuts. But mostly '''the ''Ambulances''.'''}}
* [[Meaningful Funeral]]: Two of them.
* [[Mind Game Ship]]: Seishirou/Subaru, as in ''X''.  {{spoiler|It goes a lot further into the "mind" part, though. And the "game".}}
* [[Modesty Bedsheet]]: Averted where the manga could not.
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Discussed. One of the predominant themes of the story is that the terrorists always win by virtue of acting at all. The only time a Dragon of Heaven seeks out defeats a Dragon of Earth, {{spoiler|it is because he is settling a personal slight.}} Then again, {{spoiler|if Fuuma could move}} things would be very different.
* [[My Significance Sense Is Tingling]]: As in ''X''.
* [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine]]: Subaru has Sorata and Arashi over for tea ceremony, during which he tells them very politely where they and their apocalypse can stick it.
* [[Officer and a Gentleman]]: Kusanagi.
* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: Seishirou {{spoiler|explicitly tells}} Subaru that {{spoiler|he will not permit anyone but Subaru to kill him--and that he'll have to.}}
* [[Only One Name]]: Hinoto, Kanoe, Nataku, Anonymous.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Kusanagi.
** Subverted with {{spoiler|Kamui}}.
* [[Parental Obliviousness]]: {{spoiler|Aoki has no idea who Yuka's boss is.}}
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Imonoyama. See also [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]].
* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: {{spoiler|Kakyou calls Subaru out on his inaction and gets a fist through the eyes for it.}}
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: {{spoiler|Subverted with}} Fuuma.
* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: Tokiko, later Kotori.
* [[Seers]]: One on each side.
* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: Most of the ones that pass through Kakyou.
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: {{spoiler|Subaru's sacrifice negates all the supernatural components of the apocalypse and severs the connection of magic to the world, effectively making everything Kamui and Fuuma did pointless.}}
* [[Sibling Yin-Yang]]: Burly, athletic and gigantic Fuuma and frail, sickly and artistic Kotori.
* [[The Dutiful Son]]: Fuuma and Kamui both qualify.
* [[The Everyman]]: Segawa Keiichi, sports reporter.
* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: Subverted with Kotori.
* [[Too Soon]]: Subverted. '''The point.'''
* [[Twin Threesome Fantasy]]: Subverted, Kakyou finds it disgusting.
* [[Waif Prophet]]: Hinoto and Kakyou both qualify.
* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: Kamui.
* [[You Killed My Father]]: Fuuma thinks Kamui did it. Fuuma is wrong.

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