Clef's coronet. - MANGA SPOILERS.

[suzanami]

I  know everyone here hasn't read the manga yet, so, fair warning:

SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE MANGA BELOW!



Okay.

This has always left me a bit lost.
At the end of the manga, when Clef is talking to Ferio, Presea and Ascot about what Mokona is (See: He has no clue.) while Umi and Fuu are trying to get into the Road of the Pillar with Hikaru, and right before Mokona reveals himself as the Creator, Clef's coronet/headpiece begins to melt.

See here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/starshapedcandy/6a2e2922.gif


Now, I've always been really lost as to what this means.

I mean, I have vague thoughts floating around in the fandom area of my brain, but I just can't get my mind around what's going on. Like, does it have something to do with Mokona revealing himself as Creator? Or is it because Emeraude's "reign" is officially over now that Hikaru or Eagle is about to become Pillar, so the authority she gave him is dissolving? (Oooh, symbolism?)

I don't know. Does anyone have any thoughts? Or does no one know what the heck it means. XD;

[sciathan_file]

I think it is just symbolic of the fact that another overwhelming power has surfaced in Cephiro...at least in my interpretation.

Up until this point, in the absence of the pillar, Clef is pretty much the most powerful force in the world itself, so when Mokona, and through him, Hikaru surfaces as the pillar, its indicated by his coronet melting.  Well, at least that was interpretation of it...

[Madoushi_Clef]

*coughs* Suzanami gets cookies for noticing something about Clef that I didn't. T_T

Ha, that's funny. I never noticed that before. *feels slightly slow* For now though, I'd have to agree that it has something to do with Mokona's/Hikaru's power.

[suzanami]

*claps* Yay, cookies!
*continues staring at manga art with googly eyes*

[Madoushi_Clef]

What kind do you want? Chocolate chip?

*melts* The manga is so PRETTY. I can never get enough of CLAMP's art.

[suzanami]

What kind do you want? Chocolate chip?

Please. I want chocolate so bad. D: And we have none in the dorm.
My mom makes the most wonderful chocolate chip cookies...

[Madoushi_Clef]

Chocolate cookies, it is then! *puts on apron and runs off to bake chocolate cookies, even though she's basically never baked anything in her life* O_o;;

Umm... something to keep this on topic... *looks nervously at Milieva*

I really need to read the manga again. I need to go to the library... I only own the 1st and 2nd book of the second series... ACK, I don't even own THOSE... they're my brother's... Hey, it's not my fault I was totally out of money, and he had, like, fifty dollars. *pouts*

[Milieva]

Props for the old-school manga scan.  It think it marks the end of an era in the symbolic right, but the rise of a higher power, seems to be the cause of the "melting".   

_{Personally I think it is just to get him out of the damn thing for two seconds so we can see how handsome he actually can be.  Umi thinks he looks better with out it too.}

Umm... something to keep this on topic... *looks nervously at Milieva*

Am I a dictator now?

[sciathan_file]

Yes, indeed.  You are our benevolent dictator.

*Bestows unto Milieva the coronet of the Cephiro Forum Dictatorship (see I am still awesomely on topic!)*

[Madoushi_Clef]

Personally I think it is just to get him out of the damn thing for two seconds so we can see how handsome he actually can be.  Umi thinks he looks better with out it too.

*melts* Yes. I agree with Umi. We do get to see him for a longer period without it in the anime. *pets*

*Bestows unto Milieva the coronet of the Cephiro Forum Dictatorship (see I am still awesomely on topic!)*

This one doesn't melt. At least, I don't think so.

[Trin-nya]

I wasn't to sure I should bring this back after eight years of dormancy, but I'm doing it anyway!!

On the subject of the circlet melting, I am almost 10,000% convinced that it was Mokona's way of showing/telling Clef that he doesn't have to worry and harbor all the hardship on his own as much. Also, I also like to imagine it as Emeraude's way of an apology too~ 

[suzanami]

I wasn't to sure I should bring this back after eight years of dormancy, but I'm doing it anyway!!

It's cool!  Reviving ancient posts is more or less okay when you have something to add, just because this forum goes through so many dormant periods.

[Antoinette Veronica]

I wasn't to sure I should bring this back after eight years of dormancy, but I'm doing it anyway!!

On the subject of the circlet melting, I am almost 10,000% convinced that it was Mokona's way of showing/telling Clef that he doesn't have to worry and harbor all the hardship on his own as much. Also, I also like to imagine it as Emeraude's way of an apology too~ 

Clef is indeed working very hard for the country, I think of him as an equivalent to the Pillar during Season 2, it is especially evident in the anime when he tried to uphold the castle's integrity on his own! (headscratcher: where are the other mages who are supposed to be part of the "team" Clef mentioned in the beginning that maintained the castle?) He looked so strained and exhausted with Sierra on the verge of tears knowing he would have collapsed if not for his immense willpower) .

I agree with Trin',  but it also saddens me that maybe Mokona had told him he should not harbor everything on his own, he was still the one doing most of the hard work after the Pillar system dissolved, for example he was the one having the work meetings with Geo and Tarta and Tatra (where are the other council members?)

[Down]

HOW DID I NEVER REPLY TO THIS THREAD I dropped the ball there. XDD

For me, the answer's twofold: Mokona's answering Clef's (slightly unasked) question over his identity, and he chooses that way of doing it for a specific reason. Clef's suddenly fitting together the pieces - and guessing at the gaps in the picture - and working out what Mokona might be, and Mokona answers him by dissolving the symbol of his role as Guru (because circlets and crowns are pretty much always symbols of status in the kinds of cultures Rayearth is drawing on? The importance of Emeraude's circlet is certainly played with in the anime, and though we're talking anime here it was Ohkawa Nanase who wrote the second season of Rayearth so the recognition of circlets as symbolic of position/power is easy to regard as being in the original too). Which is something only someone with more power than the Guru - with power over the role of Guru - could do, and aside from the Pillar there's no one but the gods who fits that category? So it's proof of the truth of Mokona which Clef's grasping at.

But I think he picks it because that circlet IS the symbol of the Guru - the role of the Guru - under the old pillar system, and whoever wins this test - Eagle or Hikaru - that system is going to be changed, and therefore the authority of that old position as 'Guru' will be taken away. By removing that symbol of power, and letting Clef take on a new one after the change - the circlet he wears in the epilogue is very different while still being on a theme, after all - Mokona lets the role of Guru be recreated with authority under the new laws of Cephiro. Which is supported by the way it melts - Mokona is dissolving the post! XD

...It also, of course, means that if Eagle took Cephiro and sent her to sleep with himself, then Clef would be free from his role and able to leave her with the rest of the Cephirans. Because as Guru he might think he should stay - or even take up Cephiro's cause against the pillar, and that would be an unhappy circumstance for all involved. And dependant on how the Cephirans are treated under Autozam's rule, either is a possibility?

(In the anime, of course, Mokona is devoid of godhood, so it's Clef exceeding his own limits which breaks it instead~)