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(If I'm wrong, you're allowed to laugh in my face too- I'll be laughing in my own face biggrin )
I sincerely doubt Ashura's already awakened. I get the feeling that Fai will know when he has- they have some sort of close bond, plus the Chii thing, and I think Fai will lose it (or at least act a LITTLE differently) when Ashura escapes. As for giving Diana Faye my full Fai Theory, I'll do it when I'm not feeling so lazy. biggrin also have a Syaoran mystery I'm trying to figure out, but again, I'm too lazy to find my evidence and stuff right now, so I'll put it up later. I'm a bit less enthusiastic about his puzzles. biggrin

I don't think Fai had much in the way of family as a kid. This is based on his dependence thing. He's so clingy; after him and Kuro get seperated once, he holds everyone during dimension switches to make sure they all get there together; he tries really hard to make everyone like him (I think that's alot of the reason behind the 'Happy-happy-HAPPY!' thing). I think that healthy family ties would keep that from happening. (Kurogane is the poster child of my idea of unhealthy family relationships, by the way- his history would be interestng too). At a fairly young age, Ashura (or Ashura's predecessor) took an interest in him and took him to the castle for training and observation. Gradually, Fai fell in love with Ashura, who used this to get Fai to do what he wanted, both sexually and politically speaking. By now, fai was so dependent on Ashura for "affection" (I get the feeling Ashura's idea of affection was the sort of affection you might give a dog, like a pat on the head and 'good work', plus or minus some mansex) that he went along with it and tried not to think about it too much. During this time he picked up the smiling habit, to show Ashura how happy he was with him. Small possibility of physical abuse as well as emotional abuse, but I doubt it. Ashura seems more subtle than that. But it would explain why Fai freezes up at doesn't move when something's coming straight at him... though I havenb't figured out yet why that happens sometimes but not tothers. The tatoo was one of 2 things; I'll get to that later.
2 theories on what happened at the beggening of Tsubasa, both start with a major threat of a civilian uprising.
1) Ashura gave Fai instructions which he followed, not knowing the extent of the damage it would cause. I think that whatever Fai did actually killed all those people we see dead in the beggening, and when he finished and realized what Ashura had made him do, he was... betrayed? Devastated sounds too melodramtic, but you get the idea. Not a happy camper. He got into a verbal fight with Ashura which escalate into sealing Ashura into the pond thing and fleeing.
2) Like #1, except that during the uprising, Ashura was injured because of some mistake that Fai made.

2) Ditto except somehow a mistake of Fai's got Ashura hurt. The coffin is actually some form of suspended animation to keep him alive, and Fai is running because when Ashuraq escapses, he's gonna be pissed. This one is the less likely of the 2; Ashura doesn't appear injured, and Fai wouldn't be too worried about an injured Ashura hurting him anyways, I think.
Anyways, the tattoo theories. First of all, I don't need to go intot he phoenix symbolism. I just thought I'd point out that it's a phoenix. Interesting that it was taken away from him though. We'll see how that goes.
1) The tattoo looks an awful lot like the seal on Ashura's coffin. Like, almost identical. This leads me to beleive that Fai may have put it on himself. The problem with this is... well, if Yuuko took it away, he'd just make a new one, yes?
2) Ashura put it on him "to limit his powers" but it also has minor enchantments built in that make Fai more... crap, I can only think in White Wolf gaming terms here. Ashura: "You like me. You want to do what I say." Fai: "But I... oh, ok. heart "
Predictions! The least founded and stupidest of the whole Fai theory.
What Jenx thinks will happen when Ashura escapes....
1) Nothing. Fai will keep running, maybe subtly hurrying the group on a bit more than usual, but that's it. When Ashura actually finds him, he'll freeze up and then try to run. If Ashura corners him, he'll give up. In otherwords, exactly how he's behaved in every fight previously.
2) Caged animal- he's gonna lose it. When he realizes Ashura's escaped, he'll try to get Mokona to switch dimensions again, and hurry the group along, get substantially more paranoid. When Ashura finds him, he'll go crazy on the poor guy (I can't beleive I just referred to Ashura as 'the poor guy') and probably even cast spells to keep him away. If Ashura corners him, he'll fight back until he's dead or unconcious.
3) Vanishing Act- he'll up and leave. Probably something like leave a note in the middle of the night, then just camp out elsewhere, keeping a constant watch for Ashura. Reasoning here is that he wuldn't want THEM ******** over too when Ashura finds him, or thinks he'll be less conspicuous if he's away from them (which is true- Kurogane and Syaoran are pretty damn conspicious, between the temper and the hero complex stuff). When Ashura finds and/or corners him, the reactions would fall under 1 or 2.

Wow eek you're so creative...

I respectfully disagree with your theory on a few points;
You mention he doesn't dodge because he doesn't care if he lives or dies. If he didn't care, I don't think he would be running from Ashura, or freeze up in certain life-or-death situations (I'm afraid I don't interpret this expression as grim resignation sweatdrop ) I think he's doing all this because he wants to live, but doesn't want too face his problems and/or past. Loveable little coward, but still a bloody coward. I think I didn't say what I meant here. Fye probably does still care a little, but what if when Ashura caught up with him he wouldn't be dying anytime soon. Torture and all that. And given he was just in a nasty battle, Fye could be all confused inside, not sure what he wants to do.
I'll admit that the sexual abuse is probably a product of my sick mind and/or wishful thinking., What can I say, I like yaoi, and will interpret affectionate comments thus. biggrin Oh, I'm a big fan of Yaoi too^_^
I'm not going to dispute that Fai was important in Celes (though for all we know, he was a random member of a rebellion who had never met Ashura- that comment is completely unfounded and just me playing devil's advocate, please don't go into how it's terribly wrong xd ), but I AM going to say he isn't king. I'm not sure which translation you're looking at, but bwys is the only one I've seent hat could even be possibly taken that way, and that's very iffy and their grammar is quite off, despite how much I love and depend on them. Besides, Fai calls Ashura his king, and though it's not entirely impossible to have 2 kings in one country, it's very unlikely, meaning either Chii is weird, Fai is weird, their government system is weird, Fai is a foreign king, or it's a mistranslation. I'm willing to bet on the latter. I'm reading the manga I get in the store, and in there Chii calls him king. Now that could be for a few reasons, and yes mistranslation is one of them. But assuming it isn't, the rebuttles to your good points are: 1) If no one was left alive in Celes, kinda makes Fye king by default. 2) If Fye was the next most powerful man after Ashura, with Ashura dead he could be king. 3) I don't doubt that Ashura was Fye's king, but he sure isn't anymore, and I don't think Fye was a foreign king. Though wouldn't it be freaky if they were related o_O;; 4)Fye, Chii, and the rest of the crew are all a little weird. ^_^
As for the postwar guilt theory, that IS interesting, and I'll keep it in mind, but it seems that his opening scene takes place directly after the battle/war/whozim. I can't think of anything that would cause a change of heart so sudden. I didn't mean to make it sound like a sudden change of heart. I think that that battle was just the last one of a war, and a long one at that. Fye would have had time to develop all those feelings.
In any case, thanks for the food for thought. 3nodding I wouldn't have had any food for thought if you didn't start the hypothesis thing in the first place^_^

yesh yesh. everyone should share conspiracy heories here, because ewe all love conspiracies. smile

and sakura, WE WANT SCANLATIONS!!! (of volume 9 that you mentioned) RAAH! hiss.
-mokona