Thoughts: Kirei-chan told me that this was the longest chapter so far. Instead of regretting that I never included word counts in these summaries, I'll mark this summary as the first time I'm starting this trend and I've back-tracked to include the other word counts. Thank you for the stats, FF!
This is the chapter where the long awaited Emotions are released. Things are definitely going to get harder for Sakura and friends.
I really like the way that ski trips, camping trips and shrine events are both part of the CCS-verse and NT-verse. It makes NT feel like like a real continuation because there are always references to the canon material. I wonder where exactly in Japan they traveled to for skiing.
There's nothing like bringing up Truth or Dare to remind Sakura of split personality Syaoran. And they've been doing so well lately too.
I love how Wish-chan was able to weave in the myth of Yuki Onna into NT.
If I was a Seiju Middle School student, I would not have enjoyed participating in the Winter Competitions. We had Field Days in elementary school and those were the worst. At least the activities are not all sporty as they include storytelling and sculpture building.
I was always disappointed that Sakura wasn't on Syaoran's team but it actually makes things more interesting and it's the only way for the reader to support both teams instead of hoping for just one to win. The Red Team are the definite underdogs but I'm happy to say I have no recollection about who wins! It's also fun to visit pouting Syaoran when he sees Sakura with either Eron or Eriol.
When Wish-chan created Yutaka Ichiro, I thought this was her painless way of splitting apart Rika and Terada-sensei. I was surprised with the outcome!
I wish instead of Sakura being so open with Eron about how she knew she loved Syaoran she would just tell Syaoran that she loved him!!! Their whole conversation was a blur for me. Is this the first time he talked about breaking away from his ancestors?
I wonder if Wish-chan had an awkward time writing about Rika and Tereda. I'm glad CCS:CC got rid of that. I wrote about them once and it went really well, but then again I wrote them as a platonic five-year-old and teenager pair. Interestingly enough, Wish-chan uses Kai as a mouthpiece to express how disturbing the relationship is.
We're at the part where Miho is finishing her riddle and I retract the comment that I made in my Ch 49.5 post about how the flash forward to Ch 50 conclusion was out of place.
Eriol worrying about Miho is the first time Tomoyo witnessed him being stressed. I don't think he becomes that unravelled again until Tomoyo gets kidnapped in Arc 4!
Kai saving Miho from the avalanche is such an amazing moment. When she's calling out for her brother I can't help but remember Sakura calling out for Syaoran when she was on the cliff during the second camping trip in Arc 4.
Even though I'm one doing the re-read, I still have unanswered questions. Does Miho know that Kai is the Kaitou Magician? At the beginning of Arc 3 she published a smear piece about Kaitou and it was clear that she didn't know it was Kai. Yet by Ch 48 she knew that Kai was a part of Sakura's posse when she pointed him the direction to Syaoran and Eriol's duel. In this chapter she remembers that he can manipulate wind, which explains why he wasn't sinking in the snow.
Although he was not a happy camper when Fake!Mikai was prancing about, Eriol being torn between saving Tomoyo and Miho definitely marks the first time he's in a dangerous dilemma and it's fascinating to read.
I forgot that there was another card reading! The one that come up are the Storm, the Mist, the Silent, the Libra, the Illusion, the Twin, the Snowy and the Freeze. Shouldn't Libra and Illusion cancel each other out? I know why the Snow Queen is so vengeful but I don't know the meanings behind all of the selected cards.
The price for a question that Kai wants to ask the Riddle is his old name and identity. This holds true because even after reuniting with his family he is more Mizuki Kai than Tanaka Mikai.
If Clow Reed took away Snowy and Freeze from the Snow Queen, where did the other cards come from?
Awww, Syaoran catches Sakura in her arms after she rescued the Chang twins. I love it. And then he lends her his power to wield Snowy and Freeze!
The scene where Eriol, Tomoyo, Kai and Miho banded together to rebuild the Snow Queen's castle is one of my favourite parts of this chapter. Teamwork!
Not only did Wish-chan do an amazing job at crafting Miho's poem, but she was able to write a whole chapter based on it! And to make everything more astounding, it was a poem she wrote when she was 13, which was six years before this chapter was posted!!
The twins use the Teleport to get around vast distances, and I think this is its second reference in NT, but I don't know if Sakura is ever going to catch it.
The Silver Wolf tells Sakura they'll meet again. I wonder if this is post-NT. She has a vision of Hayashi, which I completely forgot about. There's a line in one of the most recent chapters talking about how she was the only descendant who has yet to communicate with their complementary G5 member so I'm sure that's got to lead to something.
The Winter Competitions seem like such an afterthought after the Snow Queen adventure! How our gang managed to gather enough energy to compete is a mystery to me.
It's always fun when Wish-chan dips into the heads of the non-magical cast. Takashi, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko and even Terada-sensei all know that Sakura and her gang are dealing with something that they can't even begin to explain. I love how Naoko will chat non-chalantly with Dairen about dark forces in late Arc 4.
I thought Miho would be confronting Kai by now but Kai's the one sharing his suspicions with Sakura about how he thinks Miho knows. How does everything get out in the open? In this moment Sakura uses the Heal on Kai and we get a quick reminder of how it depends on the user. Foreshadowing!!! And Syaoran swooping in to scold her about misusing her powers pulls at my heartstrings even more. If I were to ever tackle a NT missing moment it would be the conversation that Miho and Kai has at the end of the scene because I think that's off-camera. I'll see what kind of cues I'll catch in the upcoming chapters.
Fanart spotlight: This is a pure hidden gem as yaninpoart's WIP fanart isn't even up on deviantArt so I was never able to incorporate it in the NT Picture Book. Originally one collage of fanarts but split it parts because of the size, I put it back together again. It's only fitting for my longest blog post to date. My favourite is the centre one but as I was reading I wanted an E&T fanart with Tomoyo in Eriol's cloak. Pre-Facebook, I regularly checked dA for new fanarts from fans who were outside of our community. Seeing these fanarts gave me those feelings of discovery all over again.
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