ClowYue

ClowYue is the slash ship between Clow Reed and Yue from the Cardcaptor Sakura fandom.

Canon
Yue was in quite a strong and close relationship with Clow Reed, his creator. It is implied that Yue’s feelings for Clow were deeper than simply master and servant. It is also suggested that the loss of Clow Reed is what caused Yue to become cold to those around him for fear of losing someone else he loves. Clow Reed had expected Yue to fall in love with Sakura and vice versa however he soon sees that he was wrong in his assumption as Sakura loves Syaoran Li. And Yue himself says that the only person who can be his master is Clow.

Sakura, who is a very perceptive child (she even realized the love Yukito had for her brother), recognizes Yue’s love for Clow and tells him that she was sure that he truly loved Clow. So she apologizes to him for being a young inexperienced master, promising that she will try her best regardless. In episode 58, once Yue is at Sakura’s home, she once agains recognizes Yue’s love for Clow. She affirms “you really do love Mr. Clow, don’t you?”. Clow asks her why does she think that, and Sakura replies that she sees that she has noticed that when Yue talks about Mr. Clow, he has a serene expression on his face. And also, much to Yue’s shock, Sakura tells him that she thought Yue had similar feelings for Clow that his dad has for her mother, because her dad told her that even if he reincarnated, he would probably fall in love with her mom again. Sakura tells him that Yue looked just like her dad when he told her that, when he was talking about Clow.

In episode 68, Sakura has to face a new secret Clow spell. Once again, Yue kills the mood and repeats his sentiment that Sakura has a long way to go to be Clow’s equal. This leaves Sakura wondering since the rest of her group is very supportive of her powers. So she asks Kero about this before going to sleep, and Kero tells her that there is a different reason why Yue has Clow on his mind, implying his feelings for Clow are special, which is why he was always mentioning him, nothing against Sakura. However, she is still concerned about Clow’s energy, so she decides to go back in time to talk to the real Clow and find out what happens in the current time. Sakura appears in a beautiful garden. There, she sees Kerberos, Yue and Clow resting under the shade of a cherry tree. Sakura lived with Clow her last moments before he died, she saw how Kerberos and Yue loved him and always accompanied him, at times she wanted to be like him so that she could have the love of her guardians and the letters, but Clow made her understand that there was no reason to try to be like him. And he includes Yue as one of his most precious treasures.

Fanon
ClowYue is a rare ship within the fandom. It is overshadowed by Yue’s most popular ship, TouYue, and by more popular ships from the fandom, like TouYuki. The few fans the ship has are very dedicated, making edits, fanart and posts of all kinds for the ship. And they usually comment on how underrated this ship is, considering Yue’s canonical feelings for Clow. As of November 2021, the ship has more than 45 works in Archive of Our Own.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

PIXIV

Variations

 * EriYue - the ship between Yue and Eriol Hiiragizawa, Clow Reed’s reincarnation