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 gratuitous homoeroticism and the gratuitous heterochromaticism, you're 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 Apocalypse in the hands of a fifteen year-old boy, Shirou Kamui. His choice between saving humanity and saving the planet is complicated by his own indecision, his own lack of information. Epic is an Alternate Universe Fic by Mithrigil that updates the situation--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 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 students while saving the world. It also directly challenges the concept of Too Soon, discussing terrorism in a directed political fashion.

Epic is complete and can be read here.

Tropes used in X 2009 Epic include:

• Affably Evil: Representative Kigai
• Alas, Poor Yorick: Subverted, they never find Daisuke's head.
• Angsty Surviving Twin: Subaru.
• Anyone Can Die: Played straight. A reversal of X, actually: Fuuma spares the little girl's life, whereas ten years later in Epic, 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 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 at least one level in 2001 when he blew up the SONY building.
• Because Destiny Says So: Subverted repeatedly.
• Big Bad Friend: Kamui, to Fuuma.
• Bishonen: Subverted, since they're all older. There are references to Kamui looking like he was a manga character before he grew up.
• Bring Out Your Gay Dead: As in X.
• Chekhov's Gun: Seishirou's car, which would make Yoshio Chekhov's Gunman and Subaru Chekhov's Boomerang. 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, Hurricane Aoki, and Sorata dropping the roof of Zojo-ji.
• Dead Little Sister: Kotori becomes one.
• Death by Irony: Representative Kigai is electrocuted and drowns.
  • Also later, Kakyou, who has been going blind, gets stabbed through the eyes.
• Death by Sex: Subverted twice: once, Aoki and Karen, wherein he dies, and a second time which might as well be sex-by-death for the onmyouji. Averted for 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 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 tb. Then, in the beginning of book two, the Dragons of Earth inform us that Every Car Can Die. First subverted when Kamui sacrifices his Subaru after Nakano, double-subverted when Subaru thinks he can blow it up with a cigarette, discussed and triple-subverted when Seishirou explains that it takes effort to blow up a car and that it'll take more than a little cigarette to do it, quadruple-subverted when Kakyou fails to blow it up in a firefight, and shot to hell when Subaru blows it up with a little cigarette anyway. Phew!
• Eye Scream: Kakyou's whole arc deals with eyes.
  • Kakyou himself is going blind from all of this eavesdropping on people more powerful than he is.
  • Then he sees that, when They come for him, They have one of each others' eyes.
  • And then They stab him through his.
• Face Heel Turn: 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: The Marvel, subverted due to complications caused by the end of book one.
  • The Lancer: Sorata, and proud of it.
  • The Big Guy: Arashi, subverted because, you know. Chick. In hakama.
  • The Smart Guy: Aoki, also Team Dad.
  • The Chick: Yuzuriha
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Karen
• Five-Bad Band
  • Big Bad: Kamui, subverted because he's, well, tiny. Also doubles as Evil Genius.
  • The Dragon: Representative Kigai!
  • The Brute: Anonymous and Nataku
  • Dark Chick: Kakyou
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Kusanagi
• Genre Savvy: Sorata, most of the time, and 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 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 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: Sorata.
• Heroic Sacrifice: also Sorata.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Aoki with the same electrical wires he used to kill Kigai.
• Hometown Hero: Fuuma, the Marvel.
• Ho Yay: Discussed, occasionally realized.
  • Seishirou and Subaru 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 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.
  • 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, "There are no words for you, Representative Kigai."
  • And immediately after that, "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, Inuki and then Aoki. In the Back.
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Subverted. Kusanagi has to ask which cars they were hidden in. The Ambulances.
• Instant AI, Just Add Water: Subverted, since Nataku cannot function without Anonymous.
• Invisible to Normals: As in X. 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: Kamui is very fond of doing this.
  • Just. The Ambulances. Which might actually cross the Moral Event Horizon.
• Love Makes You Evil: Double-subversion: Subaru, Subaru, Subaru.
• Magnificent Bastard: A favorite trope of the author.
  • Seishirou. One would argue that he wins out, in the end.
  • Representative Kigai.
  • 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. 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, it is because he is settling a personal slight. Then again, 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 explicitly tells Subaru that 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 Kamui.
• Parental Obliviousness: Aoki has no idea who Yuka's boss is.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Imonoyama. See also Screw the Rules, I Have Money.
• Redemption Equals Death: Kakyou calls Subaru out on his inaction and gets a fist through the eyes for it.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: 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: 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.