Tropes which appear in The Epilogue, the ninth and final story in the Touhou Doujin: Dawitsu's Folly fanfic series.
Note that YMMV tropes should go on the YMMV page for the series.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Dawitsu refers to himself as 'the mysterious mimicker, the cretinous copycat...'
- Affectionate Nickname / Embarrassing Nickname: Ran calls Dawitsu various names, like 'Honey-bunch' and 'Muffin-cake'.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The Dawitsu Mansion foyer gets converted into a psychedelic background... Marisa likens it to a Mushroom Samba she had when accidentally cooking the wrong type of mushroom.
- Artificial Human: It seems Yutaka and Patchouli have figured out a way to artificially create youkai life, as Yutaka offers Dawitsu some vague, scientific-sounding help with his equally vague, but implied fertility problem.
- Artificial Limbs: Subverted. Ran's got six robotic arms, but they're not to replace any lost limbs- they're simply part of her Alice Twilight cosplay.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Remilia, after twenty years of life without Patchouli, has taken up reading books regularly, which suggests she misses the presence of a bookworm in the mansion. Also, when Marisa is unconscious for a lengthy amount of time, Reimu gets genuinely worried about her, and even says that she loves her. Marisa then wakes up, saying 'That was seriously the gayest thing I have ever heard. Lesbian.'.
- Babies Ever After: Averted- no Official Couples end up having children. It's implied Dawitsu and Ran want them, but cannot for some reason, presumably infertility of one party.
- Badass Preacher: Presumably Jean, given his former Badass antics combined with his new status as Byakuren's right-hand man and Buddhist Priest. However, he doesn't do anything badass in this story in particular due to the size of it.
- Bat Deduction: How Patricia comes to conclude that the incident is fake.
- Battle Butler: Ran is this to Dawitsu, momentarily, and Chen before that.
- Battle Couple: Dawitsu and Ran.
- Becoming the Mask: Ran and Sakuya take their roles as the head villainesses and Elite Mooks of Dawitsu (who's the Big Bad of his fake nostalgia incident) a little too seriously, and argue over what role they'll play when they Take Over the World.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Cirno, of all people, manages to freeze Dawitsu and Yutaka, the former of which is a villain Of Another Story and the latter is a Willfully Weak Hypercompetent Sidekick with almost God-like terrain manipulation skills. It takes Flandre to save them from her. Damn, Cirno...
- Big Bad: Dawitsu, of his fake nostalgia incident. Sakuya even claims he's going to Take Over the World.
- Big Eater: Marisa and, of course, Yuyuko.
- Bigger on the Inside: The Dawitsu Mansion foyer becomes large enough to be a Psychedelic Amazing Technicolor Battlefield.
- Bilingual Bonus: Discussed. Jean noticeably speaks less French in this book due to now spending twenty years in an English speaking area, and no longer keeps his snarky comments in his own language. Marisa says she misses the times that he did.
- Bittersweet Ending: The series ends on a bizarrely Metafictional front- the characters all seem to know that something is coming to an end, yet continue doing what it is they're doing, happy exactly where they are, all while Yuyuko and Yukari sing 'We'll meet again' by Vera Lynn a la the equally Post-Modern Freakazoid!. It's surprisingly just as poignant.
- Book Ends: The final, italicized portion towards the end of the book. Shows the characters in one final moment, doing whatever it is they want their final moment to be...
- Books That Bite: Yutaka still seals her books with this spell. It's actually a bluff to distract the potential thief (Marisa, naturally) from her and Patchouli's more advanced library defense mechanisms.
- Call-Back: Dawitsu's fake nostalgia incident involves taking Flandre's Laevateinn, just like in the first book. He also calls back to Touhou 2, mentioning the first time a Humongous Mecha was used in touhou-related media. Also, Reimu's hair is set on fire by Yutaka and Patchouli's attack, referencing when Dawitsu had his hair on fire fighting Reimu. Also, most of Suika's dialogue consists of either Non Sequitur dialogue or her reminiscing her holiday to the outside world.
- Captain Obvious: Sakuya does this to obfuscate stupidity, saying relating to the Amazing Technicolor Battlefield she, Reimu, Marisa and Patricia are in, '...hmm, you don't think that space is being altered, do you?'. Naturally, Reimu lampshades this, asking how she didn't notice sooner.
- Children Raise You: It's noted that Reimu has grown up significantly, mainly because she's been the chief raiser of Patricia Hakurei, while Marisa (who had a less hands-on role, presumably) is still rather immature.
- Composite Character: Patricia Hakurei seems to be one of Jean, Marisa and Reimu, not in looks, but in personality. This sort of makes sense: she was raised by the three.
- Cool Old Guy: Jean, and to some extent, Dawitsu.
- Cool Shades: At least Minoriko thinks they're cool, and she's certainly Took a Level in Badass...
- Cool Teacher: Jean and Marisa are this to Patricia. While Dawitsu still fails to be one to his class.
- Cool Uncle: Jean to Patricia.
- Counterpoint Duet: Demi and Youmu have one which is apparently one of their singles for Youmu and the Half Ghosts. Subverted in that they do agree on some things, it's more a playful occasional disagreement in song.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jean and Hebiko.
- Death Glare: Reimu gives one to Dawitsu that's described as such, 'Reimu glared at Dawitsu, a special, juicy kind of hatred squeezed from concentrate transferring itself from her eyes to his.' Damn.
- Death of the Author: Vaguely discussed In-universe by Yuyuko, who says on the matter, 'Then he becomes a ghost. An influence, for want of a better word. When a writer of a universe dies, the universe becomes more alive than ever before, and all who read also define the characters, rather than it being limited to the scope of the original writer. In which case... genii may exist in Gensokyo after all...'
- Discontinuity Nod: Discussed by Reimu and Marisa, who argue over who solved the incident in Touhou 10. Of course, the real answer depends on what the player chose when playing the games, so there is no right answer...
- Distant Finale: The Epilogue is set twenty years in the future compared to the rest of the series.
- Doorstep Baby: Implied to be Patricia's origin.
- Downer Ending: Not an overt type, but there's a sort of... lingering sadness about the entire tone of the book that manages the stick around even during the more ridiculous moments.
- Endless Corridor: Part of Yutaka and Patchouli's advanced library defense system- if someone attempts to leave the library holding a book from it, the stairs leading to the way out become endless due to an automatic terrain-altering familiar.
- Energy Weapon: Marisa may be old, but she still knows how to master spark.
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: In-universe. Dawitsu is pretentiously overanalyzing Romeo and Juliet when acting as an English Teacher in the Human Village.
- Fanservice: Ran in an Alice Twilight cosplay, and if this picture
is anything to go by, Yutaka and Patchouli as robo-pirates. - Fantastic Racism: Reimu still exhibits a little against Youkai, and refers to Chen as a cat in a derogatory manner at one point.
- First Gray Hair: Jean has well passed it...
- For the Lulz: Why Dawitsu starts his fake nostalgia incident. It's all so he can have a little fun with Reimu and Marisa, and remind them of the good old days.
- Freudian Slip: Reimu and Patricia both make a few slips that imply that despite Patricia's adoptive nature, Patricia sees Reimu as her mother and Reimu sees Patricia as her daughter.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Minoriko Aki, and how... it seems Dawitsu's scheme mentioned in Yutaka's Big Fat Youkai Wedding paid off, as now Minoriko is not only God of the Harvest, but also God of Seasons and the Passing of Time. Oh, and she has some really cool sunglasses, too.
- Gay Moment: When Reimu thinks Marisa is dead, she tells her that she loves her. Marisa wakes up right on cue, saying it was the gayest thing she's ever heard.
- Happily Adopted: Unlike Reimu, Patricia is told the situation early on: she is the adoptive child of Reimu. And this does not seem to bother her, and Reimu has the occasional Freudian Slip indicating she sees Patricia as a true daughter regardless of her being adoptive.
- Happily Married: Dawitsu and Ran, Yutaka and Patchouli, Sakuya and Rinnosuke.
- Hidden Depths: Almost everyone, really. Reimu is a competent, mature, caring parent, Dawitsu and Ran want children, but can't have them, Yukari is genuinely concerned for the state of the story, and Gensokyo in general, and misses the younger Reimu, Hebiko genuinely cares about Tokage enough to support her entire writing career from the shadows, as well as secretly visiting a grave to her deceased pet lizard on a regular basis, Tokage is secretly guilt-ridden over the aforementioned assistance Hebiko gives while she takes all the credit, Patchouli is secretly a gossip-monger, Youmu and Demi's relationship is greatly expanded upon and the origin of Youmu and the Half Ghosts reveals Youmu sang while working under Yuyuko blues-style, Marisa and Jean really do love each other... really, this book is filled with hidden depths for characters...
- Holding Hands: Marisa and Jean... they try to be affectionate in an experiment to see if they're right for each other, and it's so painfully awkward that they decide to call it a day. However, later on, when all is said and done, and they 'feel a conclusion coming', they hold each other's hands as they sleep anyway, showing that they really do love each other.
- Hook Hand: If this picture is anything to judge by, Yutaka and Patchouli have them when cosplaying as Robo-pirates, and Dawitsu himself has a peg-leg.
- Humans Are Special: Yutaka, Ran, and Patchouli all seem to espouse this idea, and it's unknown if Dawitsu also thinks this way, but it would seem so.
- Humongous Mecha: Dawitsu gets to pilot the freakin Grolgoth!.
- Hypocritical Humor: Jean reprimanding the now adult Marisa on stealing magical knowledge to further her own power when that's exactly what he and his theological idol, Byakuren have done in the past. Naturally, Marisa's there to lampshade his hypocrisy.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Subverted. Reimu says about how Dawitsu is pretty hard to fight when he's only attacking For the Lulz, and would hate to see him fight seriously, and Marisa points out that they had, and that he was just as easy to beat, suggesting that perhaps he just
takes games very seriously. - I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Remilia is aware of this trope, and that's why she never turns anyone, willing or not, into a vampire- she would most likely end up just making a powerful enemy for herself. Flandre isn't cynical enough to think that all cases will turn out this way, though.
- Immortal Immaturity: Flandre has gotten better in this respect, and it seems twenty years of actually experiencing the world has done her some good. Remilia has also begun to read in a manner similar to Patchouli, though that could be for different reasons...
- Improbably Female Cast: Lampshaded by Dawitsu, who announces, '...ladies and ladies, girls and girls, the one you have been waiting for all this time has finally arrived! It's the one, the only... Mateyuu Dawitsu!'.
- Ineffectual Death Threats: Reimu gives some to Dawitsu, who lampshade how ineffectual it is.
- Insufferable Genius: Patricia thinks she's naturally gifted as a shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, but she's actually far inferior to Reimu due to her lack of experience.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Dawitsu and Patricia- Dawitsu being a centuries-old Youkai with the mental attitude of a twenty-something, and Patricia being a thirteen year-old human.
- It Will Never Catch On: You know Tokage Reiketsu? The Jerkass bad fanfiction writer? She's now a successful writer. Of romance novels, at that. However, she owes a large portion of her success to Hebiko, who improves her work secretly. She ends up giving up her work in order to give Hebiko due credit, telling her fans as such in her last Author's Note.
- Jump Scare: Dawitsu pulls one on Reimu. She is not amused.
- Kneel Before Zod: Minoriko Aki tries this on Marisa. It doesn't work, despite her increased power.
- Large Ham: Dawitsu for the most part has calmed down. And yet when he's acting as a nostalgia mission villain, he's right back into Chewing the Scenery. Also, his 343 Guilty Spark-based Mooks are certainly this. Ran and Sakuya also become large hams as part of the Masquerade.
- Large-Ham Announcer: Dawitsu is an announcer as part of his fake nostalgia incident.
- Laser Blade: Ran has these as part of her Alice Twilight cosplay.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: While not out and out stated, it's implied Ran and Dawitsu have tried (and failed) repeatedly to have children. Dawitsu seems to blame himself for this, meaning that perhaps he's infertile. Yutaka offers him artificial help in vague terms, saying that 'it wouldn't make him any less of a man' but he declines...
- Magic Mushroom: Marisa mentions how she once accidentally cooked the wrong type of mushroom... at the very least, she saw psychedelic imagery.
- The Man Behind the Man: Rare non-villainous example: Hebiko is this to Tokage's entire successful writing career- she's the one fixing her scenes and making her the success story she is now, and doesn't take any credit for it, nor does she want to. Yet, despite this, Tokage does the right thing and tells the truth eventually.
- Manchild: Marisa, to some extent. She still isn't bored of adventuring, even at 36. Reimu regresses into one temporarily due to Dawitsu's plan succeeding.
- Manipulative Bitch: Yukari assumes Yuyuko is being this to Youmu, but in fact, she isn't. Yukari is simply overthinking the situation.
- Masquerade: All part of Dawitsu's fake nostalgia incident, Flandre, Sakuya, Dawitsu, Chen, Ran, Yutaka, and Patchouli all have to adopt one. It soon falls apart once Sakuya starts behaving like a loose cannon.
- The Mentor: Reimu is this to Patricia, and unlike Jean and Marisa, is more likely to criticize Patricia, and thus improve her.
- Meta Guy: Yukari and Yuyuko. They both know the series is ending, and behave as such. Yukari even seems to reference the works of the Touhou fandom in general as part of a bizarrely touching speech about how Gensokyo, being a creation of a mortal man, will eventually die, yet hope exists as fans propagate the series so much more than the original works themselves. Also, Reimu, Marisa, Jean, Patricia, and Dawitsu all have their moments as Meta Guys/Gals.
- Metafiction: See Bittersweet Ending. Also, every character seems a lot more aware of their fictionality in this book...
- Miko: Patricia, the adoptive successor to the Hakurei Shrine, learning her ways from Reimu, naturally.
- The Mole: Sakuya
- Mundane Utility: Youmu using her amazing Samurai skills... to tend to the Netherworld palace gardens.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Averted entirely with Demi. He has been shown to be among the more hard-working members of Youmu and the Half-ghosts, as well as the founder, and even gets to duet with the singer, Youmu, as well as being the one who's designed their own personal house. He's certainly just as instrumental to Youmu and the Half Ghosts, if not more so, than Youmu herself.
- No Fourth Wall: Yukari forsakes the idea of a fourth wall in general, and directly encourages Touhou fanfiction writers to keep writing.
- Non-Action Guy: Jean gets demoted to this. It's even lampshaded by the Narration, who says he himself is disappointed about being demoted to a mere babysitter.
- Non Sequitur: Most of Suika's drunken ramblings- '...hey there mister human man that Reimu likes the pants... high low, jack-a-low, round and round it goes, where it points, nobody knows...' as one example.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever happened the last time Ran got drunk... all that's known is it traumatized both Dawitsu and Chen.
- Nostalgia Filter: Dawitsu is trying to invoke this in Reimu and Marisa with his fake nostalgia incident. It works.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Averted. Twenty years have passed, so all major human characters (Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya and Jean) have all aged considerably. Jean now has established grey hair, and even minor background characters, like one of Dawitsu and Yutaka's human students have all aged accordingly (the student has grown up to become a fellow teacher).
- Not a Morning Person: Reimu. Patricia, on the other hand, gets up excrutiatingly early and falls asleep early at night.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Patricia is the most mature person at the dinner-table when Reimu and Marisa begin arguing over who is better at danmaku while Jean snarks in French in the background. When Patricia reasonably asks the two to stop arguing at the table, Marisa shushes her and says 'Be quiet, Patricia, adults are talking.', Reimu adding 'Yes, Patricia, we're having a mature, in-control discussion here...'. Even Jean unintentionally patronizes her by saying 'Ignore them. They are not.'.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Sakuya, who is playing along with Dawitsu's fake nostalgia incident by pretending to be on Reimu and Marisa's side, yet incompetent. And, of course, Yuyuko.
- Paper Talisman: For the first time in the series, the fight scenes take into account that the paper talismans used by Reimu are, in fact, made of paper, and thus have absolutely no effect on the non-living UFO mooks sent by Dawitsu. Shame Marisa is there with alternate measures...
- Perpetual Smiler: Patchouli tries to be this to evoke Yutaka's creepy edge, but fails miserably, most likely due to he fact that in most other fan-made media she's a Perpetual Frowner.
- The Philosopher: Yukari. Also, Jean is now a Buddhist Priest.
- Placebo Effect: The 'secret seasoning' of the Hakurei Shrine Yakitori, like the 'healing' holy water, is entirely belief-based. There is no seasoning on it, but it tastes delicious because people believe.
- Right Behind Me: Dawitsu sneaks up on Reimu, and shocks her with a Jump Scare by sneaking up on her invisibly and saying 'Right behind you.'
- Running Gag: Even Patricia thinks Dawitsu's a tengu.
- Sanity Slippage: Dawitsu pretends to suffer a little from this as he holds the Villain Ball.
- School Is for Losers: While being a teacher, it's clear Dawitsu doesn't truly believe this, it seems he's developed a too-cool-for-school attitude given that he supposedly looks forward to the end of his workday.
- Settled for Gay: Jean tells Patricia the story of his dead wife, the woman she's named after, and how she was raised by her mother and a homosexual man named Clement.
- She Is All Grown Up: Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and Jean are 36, 36, 40, and 43 respectively. That's right, the young, attractive girls of Gensokyo, now old. A slightly scary concept to some... also, Flandre has grown up mentally, even though she hasn't physically, and similarly, so has Chen.
- Ship Tease: Youmu and Demi have invoked this between themselves to trick the tabloids and give them more fame. However, there's nothing that says there isn't genuine chemistry there too...
- Shout-Out: To Arby 'n' the Chief (emulating The Movie's Gay Moment), No More Heroes (Ran in an Alice Twilight cosplay), Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (One of Ran's attacks involves using her Laser Blades in conjunction with a form of telekinesis that causes the hilts of the blades to glow fluorescent green) and Rayman 2: The Great Escape (Yutaka and Patchouli as robo-pirates, Dawitsu as Admiral Razorbeard, piloting the Grolgoth). Dawitsu also makes a brief shout out to Team Fortress 2 by using his spy kit to sneak up on Reimu and frighten her with a Jump Scare.
- Situational Sexuality: Patricia claims that any homosexual men in Gensokyo are 'selfish' as there are so many girls that want boyfriends, making this trope Zigzagged. She even wants to force 'the most handsome' gay in Gensokyo to be her boyfriend... yikes.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Dawitsu recalls the days when Reimu was young enough to have 'stupid teenage crushes' with fondness...
- Sore Loser: Dawitsu, when he's about to lose to Reimu and Marisa: '...oh, you have got to be kidding me! Since when did this thing form around me? Oh, crap, I know what's coming next...'. He then proceeds to subvert this trope by weakly saying (while staggering from his injuries) '...but... it isn't about winning... it's... about...' before Ran asks if he's okay, to which he says he's going to retire from consciousness for a bit.
- Speak in Unison: Yutaka and Patchouli do this a couple of times, to creepy effect. It doesn't help that one time they do it, they're holding each other's hands.
- Take Over the World: Apparently Dawitsu wants to do this, according to Large Ham Mole Sakuya.
- Take That!: Remilia is involved in one against The Twilight Saga, with Remilia summarizing it as follows: "a ridiculous book series about vampires, and their wars with the cursed werewolves, but in this book series, it was all over a conceited human girl. There is no way that would happen in the real world..." She even jokingly calls Edward Cullen her "insane cousin Edward".
- Talking in Bed: Hebiko considers "Pillow Talk" to be incredibly romantic, and tells Tokage she did a good job including it in her book, which she's editing behind the scenes.
- Tennis Boss: Dawitsu starts off his battle with Reimu and Marisa by using attacks that can be reflected back at him, and that is the only way he can be harmed due to being in a Humongous Mecha.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Patchouli's reaction to hearing about Ran's Noodle Incident is "...perhaps the pursuit of knowledge is not always healthy. Let's drop it...". Good advice, Patchy. Good advice.
- Time Skip: See Distant Finale. Sakuya even mentions that the flow of time seems off, as if something skipped here...
- Toilet Seat Divorce: Defied by Dawitsu. He and Ran are happy where they are.
- Trickster Mentor: Dawitsu seems to want to be this to Patricia. He is, at the very least, close to her, and accidentally involves her in his fabricated nostalgia incident.
- Tsundere: Even now, Reimu behaves a tad aloof to everyone around her. Also, arguably Jean.
- Un Evil Laugh: Yutaka has one again. She clearly isn't good at these...
- Verbal Tic: It seems that this book has revealed Yutaka's inability to refer to Dawitsu as anything other than 'Boss' is one of these, as twenty years after leaving Dawitsu's services, Yutaka still calls him 'Boss', something that Dawitsu himself lampshades.
- Villain Ball: Dawitsu invokes this trope deliberately, and holds it throughout his fake nostalgia incident.
- The Voice: Dawitsu is this during his fake nostalgia incident.
- Walking Spoiler: Patricia Hakurei. The whole book may count as one, really.
- We Are as Mayflies: Dawitsu constantly Waxes Philosophical about this, to the annoyance of some characters. Yukari does so too, but in a considerably more meaningful manner.
- Wiki Walk: How Patricia's mind manages to change Jean's conversation from discussing Settled for Gay to forcing the most handsome gay guy in Gensokyo to get with Patricia.
- Willfully Weak: Flandre has clearly been working on holding back her immense power, and now uses it as a warning, suggesting it's under control.
- Who Wants to Live Forever? / Living Forever Is Awesome: Discussed by Jean's thoughts. He eventually picks the former attitude.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: A bizarre case of Zig-Zaggery where it comes under the Evil Gloating variant in a slightly different light- Cirno has frozen Dawitsu, and Yutaka is bargaining for Cirno to leave her alone by threatening her with her fire spells, and begins to monologue about the various ecological effects that she could induce, during which time Cirno decides to Just Shoot her...
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Flandre pulls this on Reimu and Marisa by pretending that her sword has been stolen by Dawitsu once again. And it actually works... for a while.
- Yandere: Ran is referred to as one by Marisa, although it seems her and Dawitsu are Happily Married.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Yukari says to Hebiko, "...goodbye for now, lizard. You're proof that animals can be intelligent..." Cue Hebiko replying with "...I'll try to take that as a compliment."
- You Can't Fight Fate: Implied to be the case when Reimu and Marisa decide to go and retrieve Laevateinn from Dawitsu themselves along with Sakuya even though they could have just sent Patricia. The implication is that even Remilia went along with Dawitsu's fake nostalgia incident, fating the others to go along with it too.
