#kamui shirou

mairyuu:

Starting a collection

Yuzuriha putting Kamui in early grave

Gotta love early X Kamui

So seemingly I’m not fine with X still having an open end… I really want to know what ending Clamp had in mind for the manga. Because the story was awesome and it deserves conclusion.

And as I’m now used to guessing what the fuck is going on in a story, this is my take on X.

@noa-ciharu So here’s the explaination to what I meant with my idea what Kamui’s wish was.

What is (both) Kamui’s wish(es)?

To catch up:

Kamui of Heaven = Kamui, the one that is supposed to fight to maintain the world like it is

Kamui of Earth = Fuma, the one that fights to destroy the world and bring Change

What we know from the story

First, let’s see what hints does the story give us:

1. The “Kamui of Earth” has a wish that only Kamui can fulfill
2. The Kamui of Heaven has to discover the Kamui of Earth’s wish so the future can be changed (Vol 18/ch 6)
3. The Kamui of Earth tells Karen:“If nobody ever killed anyone, then why would we lose sight of the most important things?” (The translation is sadly slightly different between languages and scenes, but this will fit)
4. She then tells Kamui that she was thinking it meant “the more you care about a person, the more you lose sight of things and maybe while not noticing you hurt a person close to you.” (Vol 18/ch 8)
5. As long as the Kamui is the Kamui. Fuma won’t return.
6. The Kamui of Heaven’s will die in the final Battle
7. Kamui himself says he doesn’t care about the future of the world, he just care about Fuma and Kotori
8. The Kamui of Earth knows Kamui’s true wish and tells him it’s different from wanting to bring Fuuma back
9. The Kamui of Earth acts according to the wishes of the Dragon’s. He even looks like a person important to them

The Kamui of Earth

I feel like the Kamui or Earth is the key here. His fate is to being destruction and change. But at the same time it’s his fate to grant the wishes of everyone (and the earth) and they even see him sometimes as someone important to them.

Despite all the cruelty, he says he brings the people what they wish for. When Kamui asks him in Volume 19 Chapter 3, if he killed the Girl, he says, if that’s what true to you, it’s your wish.

So the Kamui of Earth has to act according to the wishes that the people who encounter him have. That’s why the future is not yet decided. If the wishes change, Kamui of the Earth will change.

So in that sense, Kamui of Earth is the test, the key to humanities survival. That’s why Kamui of Heaven has to find out not only what his true wish is, but also what the Kamui of Earth’s wish is.

Are there really two wishes?

We don’t know if the Kamui of Earth’s wish and the Kamui of Heaven’s wish will be different. The only thing we know is that they are both Kamui’s connected. Their selfes and their fate.

So wouldn’t it be satisfying if their wishes would also connect in the end? That what Kamui of Heaven wishes for, would fulfill the Kamui of Earth’s wish. That would be a great final with a satisfying conclusion.

Though I don’t think it is exactly the same wish, like it was for Subaru and Seishiro.

Speaking of Subaru and Seishiro

Their realtionship was often mentioned to parallel Fuma’s and Kamui’s relationship. And because of that there is the theory that the outcome of their relationship is an example for what should not happen to Kamui and Fuma.

Subaru and Seishiro both desired to be killed by the other and because of that there could never be an outcome where both get their wish granted.

So if one of the Kamui’s was to die, their relationship would be just as unresolved. It would end in a tragedy. And that would just be repeating the same thing. So Fuma’s and Kamui’s relationship was probably supposed to end differently. With them both somehow surviving this.

That’s why I don’t think that any of them wants to die or be killed by the other. Also this is what the anime and movie already did.

Works that inspired the Story

To dig deeper, I have been reading a bit through Wikipedia and one big influence made me come up with the idea.

Besides of course Christian influences, the story is stated to be inspired by Devilman. Which is an iconic story about good vs evil and humanity itself. So no surprise.

The main topic of devilman is what it takes to be human. In the end the ultimate human thing is being able to love. Even though humans can be cruel, what made them bond was love. Satan never understood what that meant and thereby destroyed the earth.

But what does this have to do with X? I get the feeling, that X might have headed towards a similar ending. Though maybe with a different outcome.

Dragons of heaven vs dragon of earth

The dragons of heaven represent in view of humanity. They are the ones that want to protect humanity, the want to prevent doomsday.

On the other hand there are the dragons of earth, enemies of humanity as they want to destroy it. They say humanity has failed.

But due to what happened during the story we see more and more dragons of heaven fall into despair, because they keep loosing people that are precious to them. They stop having faith in humanity.

When Subaru loses the love of his life, he becomes a dragon of earth because there is nothing anymore that he can fight for. Hinoto offeres Arashi to join the dragons of earth ad well after she lost her power and can “no longer protect humanity”.

So what if the key is to prove that humanity if worth surviving?

So this brings us back to what’s most important? Why do people lose sight of what’s important if they only focus on one person? Subaru knew that a lot of people care about him, still he could only see Seishiro and with him gone, he stopped fighting. He forgot about the people that cared about him because he lost what was most important to him.

Now Kamui himself is still on a similar path. He lost Kotori and now the only thing that he has left is Fuma. That’s why he wishes to bring him back. Despite all the new bonds he had formed over the span of the story. He says everything that counts for him is Fuma. Even if he will hurt “Fuma”.

That is the wish Kamui pulls the strength to fight from. And the other dragons of heaven support him.

But fighting brings death. Even though we see some of the dragons from both sides connect, they still die, mostly by the hand of the Kamui of Earth.

They dragons of heaven can’t defeat him. The Kamui of Heaven can only fail. So the only thing they can do is prove that humanity is worth surviving.

Connecting the dots

That is a lot of topics going on there. But there was on particular thing that made me think, what could be answer to solve this puzzle - and that was the Inspiration from Devilman.

The most valuable trait of humanity is

Love. And more precise in this case, forgiveness.

Kamui of Earth’s wish

What could it be that only Kamui can offer to the “other Kamui”? And I say, it might be acceptance and forgiveness.

The Kamui of Earth was born to mirror Kamui. He was destined to kill, to grant wishes. The Kamui or Earth is the test, the test to find out what humans will do when faced with despair. Will they give up? Will they still act selfish?

Kamui wants to destroy the Kamui of Earth in order to bring Fuma back. He therefore wants to kill the personality that is the “Kamui of Earth”. To erase it. There’s no love for the Kamui of Earth, no bond, only hate for what he has to do.

So I think the Kamui of Earth wants to be forgiven, to be loved in the end, to be accepted as part of “Kamui”. Only by this he would reach salvation. As it could have also been Kamui himself in this place if he had chosen differently.

And it would prove that humans can love even their enemies. It’s not exclusive for a single person. Love can be universal and everyone matters. This way humanity would be worth surviving. Because love is something that needs to be protected.

Kamui has to find out that this is what the Kamui of Earth wishes for in order to change the future. Because only if Kamui realizes the Kamui of Earth can be stopped. As long as they all see him as their enemy, that’s their “wish”.

Kamui of Heaven’s wish

This one is a bit more complicated part of the puzzle. As I said, it would be perfect if his wish would complement the other Kamui’s wish.

Fuma is still most important to him. He says, he wants to protect Fuma and bring him back. Kamui doesn’t care about the future of the world. He only cares about Fuma. But is that true? What is he fighting for?

The second half of the story focuses a lot on Kamui building up relationships. Kamui had been a loner and only decided to become a dragon of heaven for Kotori and Fuma. But now he continues to be one for the sake of his friends.

But what if Kamui doesn’t want to actually fight?

This goes into the direction that Kamui wishes he chose differently, that he didn’t chose at all.

Kamui wants to be with Fuma. He doesn’t care about the world. He’s flawed, selfish. And he knows that deep in. Maybe he knows he rather would want to give up than proceeding on the path of pain.

But he doesn’t want to accept that as we knows he would let down his friends. He would hurt his friends by stop following what they all strive for. If he stops fighting, everything would be lost. Or at least, that’s what he thinks.

Kamui wants to be forgiven for being weak and wanting to give up on the world.

Why does Kamui’s wish can change the future?

And now it gets a bit vague. But I’ll try my best to explain.

The Kamui of Earth role is to grant wishes. So if the Kamui of Heaven really doesn’t want to fight and give up, the Kamui of Earth has to obey to that wish. Until now every encounter between the two made Kamui hate the Kamui of Earth even more. He wanted to fight that Kamui, stop him, erase him.

This brings us back to point 5. As long Kamui is the Kamui, Fuma won’t return. So as long Kamui holds onto the role he chose even though he doesn’t want to, nothing will change.

The only thing Kamui can still do, is not fight him. With him not fighting, there’s no fight to begin with.

This would also explain why the Kamui of Heaven’s was foretold to die in the final battle. If Kamui stops fulfilling the role, the Kamui of heaven figuratively dies.

So Kamui would realize that he’s a selfish wimp and that he doesn’t want to do this anymore. But by this, he also gains something. He stops seeing the evil in the Kamui of Earth.

As I mentioned before. It could have been himself in Fuma’s place. If he had decided differently, it would be him having to do the killing. To fulfill the other role, put on them. By stopping the fight, Kamui would be able to finally accept the other Kamui. He would stop hating the other Kamui for what he has done.

Maybe he even starts seeing Fuma in him again. The old Fuma does not exist anymore, but the one that had become the Kamui of Earth still can become like Fuma again. If Kamui wants him to. During the last chapters we see him become more kind again, regaining traits that had been Fuma’s. He wouldn’t be Fuma but a mirror of what Kamui still remembers about him.

Thereby Kamui would be able to grant the Kamui of Earth’s wish. To be loved, to be forgiven.

At the same time, it would prove that humans are not only destructive. Even though Kamui thought his wish would lead to destruction, it proved that humans are valuable to live. Because they can forgive.

We have seen other dragons of heaven already do that. They loved and tried to protect strangers. It’s their strength. It’s the reason why they became dragons of heaven. And now it would be up to Kamui to prove, he’s also capable of giving this love.

Does this make sense?

I don’t know. As X was supposed to have 21 volumes in total and we story made it only about half way through volume 19, I’m not sure if we are missing crucial information about how Clamp wanted to conclude the story.

But this is exactly what I would have expected Clamp to do at the time. To pull some complicated twist that is a twist within a twist. And drawing more parallels between the things that have already happened.

Still, I’m not sure if this would have lead to a “happy end”. The world would be saved, the two other Kamui’s would have survived. But we don’t know at what costs.

The later Kamui realizes what is his wish, the more people would have already died. The world might have already been partly destroyed. But at least in the end, humanity would have a reason to continue. Maybe in the ruins, but it would not be wiped out completely but regained their right to continue living.