The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Also, cats. Cats are all tsunderes.

Song of the Sirens

Does this mean that Chen and Orin and potentially Kyouko are tsunderes? Zut alors!

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Some cats are more dere than tsun, though.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

Kyouko? Those aren't cat ears

Don't tell me we're already starting the "the discussion is over so let's go off on a silly tangent" part.

I hope nobody's too intimidated to post any write-ups or such just because I claimed to be producing something big. That would be weird.

She wouldn't even need that. Constantly hearing everyone's thoughts alone must be enough to give you eye rings, and if dreams count as thoughts, then you're veritably screwed.

That depends entirely on interpretation. I don't recall a single canonical instance of a character being sincerely sad or depressed. Although a bunch of them might have plenty of reason to be. You'll have to decide if that is because everyone's so well-adjusted, or if it's because everyone's too insane to be sad, or if it's because everyone's some otherworldly creature that just works differently, or if it's just something that the series won't show you.

Re: Depression: There's all kinds of characters in the backstory (Layla, Yuyuko, and Byakuren off the top of my head), Mokou in-game (and, to some extent, Nue), and Reisen II in Cage in Lunatic Runagate

I think it's because the default form of therapy is: if you're sad, throw danmaku at the nearest being.

edited 23rd May '11 10:29:42 AM by stardf29

I'm planning on writing a Satori post but I need to sort my thoughts.

Reisen II: The Lost Levels was depressed in her backstory?

edited 23rd May '11 10:35:01 AM by Bocaj

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I don't recall Mokou acting depressed... She seemed pretty nonchalant from what I remember. But then, my memory of canon sources is messy like boogers.

Well, going by backstory, there's obviously also, you know. Koishi. You'd think that one would come to mind a little sooner, but I guess she successfully became invisible to us for a while there.

edited 23rd May '11 10:39:34 AM by Fawriel

Koishi used to be sad, but she seems pretty cheerful now. I seem to remember someone talking about how Koishi emotionally crippled herself when she closed her third eye when y'all discussed Koishi, and that that's basically the main reason Satori's so worried about her.

Song of the Sirens

Mentioning worried, though; Satori, putting all creepy powers and possible loneliness aside and pretty much everyone being afraid of her, seems like a genuinely nice person.

edited 23rd May '11 11:48:23 AM by asterism

Song of the Sirens

Yes, Satori is nice. She doesn't attack immediately not for banter, but to talk to her guests. She doesn't get many after all.

Unfortunately, thoughts are private, it's not like someone reading a journal or a diary, once you put in on paper it's only as private as you make it.

Thoughts are unreachable, people feel unsafe around someone who can see that far. No one wants to face their thoughts, even if they're only thinking about going home and drinking tea.

That was their thought! No one had the right to hear it!

I think that I'd need some psychological background to go further, but you get the idea.

I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.

Of course, from her perspective, anyone coming to the Palace of Earth Spirits has accepted the risk of having their thoughts read. Who storms a palace right at the mouth of hell without gathering intel first?

Oh... right.

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Satori ~ Eyes Wide Shut

"It's gotten boring" she thought. She rarely had time to hear herself think among the voices of her pets, but that thought was heard, and it stuck. As she checked the animals, as she cleaned them and fed them, it repeated itself again and again until she decided to ponder it.

"I suppose things have gotten boring" she considered. She remembered her early years, the time before she found the palace empty and made it home. It was a harsh life — wandering from city to city, carefully hiding her and Koishi's identities, listening to her sister cry herself to sleep over the cruelty of youkai. Nothing was given to them; everything was begged for. To rest was to grow complacent, to be complacent was to die. Koishi forsaked the Third Eye just to live without fear and hatred. Still, it never got boring. Every day was some new challenge, some new threat that had to be dealt with. Though they did not have peace of mind, they had a mission, a purpose: survival. That was enough.

In a way, she still followed that purpose. The pets needed survival, and Satori provided. From the second week after arriving in the palace, when Orin and Okuu stumbled through the front gate, she spent her days caring for the animals that came to her. However, it was tiresome work. After the first twenty pets, she was almost overwhelmed. Koishi's occasional visits only put more work on her. She ordered Orin and Okuu to run the furnace to lessen her burden. However, she still took care of the pets by herself, day in, day out, and it wore her down.

But that wasn't the problem with the animals. She had no problem with hard work. The problem is that, at 8:00 each morning (The Palace is one of the few buildings in the underground that still own a working clock) the animals were woken up. At 9, they were fed. 10 to 4 was free time, which many animals spent talking to Satori. 4 to 6 was dinnertime. 6 to 8 was bedtime. Finally, at 9 o'clock, the animals went to bed. This schedule has lasted centuries, without change. Things have gotten repetive. Things have gotten boring.

A loud knock startled Satori. She opened her eyes and looked out the window. Yamame and Kisume flew up to the window, with Yamane grinning.

"Hey! I heard something about a sick cat!" Satori returned a weak smile. Kisume sank lower in her bucket.

"She's helping out Okuu in the furnaces today. Go through the hole in the courtyard. You'll reach her eventually". Satori did her best to ignore Kisume's thoughts, how she thought Satori's smile was creepy. After centuries of hate and fear, the thoughts of humans and youkai no longer affected Satori; they bored her as well.

"Right then, we're on it!" Yamame gave a goofy salute as she dragged Kisume down the hole.

Satori tried to continue her thoughts, but something had changed. She realized that her eyes had been half-closed before. In fact, they hadn't been fully open for months. She began to ponder why, but it was obvious. There's been nothing to see.

When she thought this, Satori felt the lids of her eyes begin to shift a little.

---

First of all, I swear that this wasn't just an excuse to use Yamame again. It just happened. Second, Satori is very hard to write for. She's very static, with no obvious motivations and no quirks besides her Third Eye. She seems like the kind of person who would have the boring life that I just portrayed.

you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped

Man, that story sounds so much like what my life is like. I can sympathize with that so well

"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow

Beats me why Satori would be bored when she lives in a city full of oni.

Song of the Sirens

The Burden of the Mind-Reader

Satori walked around in a panic trying to keep close to her sister. Youkai were flooding into the underground.*

. Everyone moved towards the largest object they could see, a large palace in the distance. When Satori had reached the palace she realized that she didn't know what to do. She caught sight of her sister and pushed through the crowd to reach her.*

^{(hey watch it)(out of the way)(we're doomed)}

At that moment an Oni ran to the front of the palace and called for attention.

"Hey, everyone up here please, ok good, k'thanks. I realize you've been pushed into a rough situation, but I'm sure the people from the surface didn't mean any harm. *

Since us Oni elected to be down here, it's only right that we should help you all get acclimated to this place.*

^{(What! We didn't agree to that we just wanted to get away)(Be quiet Yuugi, I don't want to help)}

We can start today by digging some caves for temporary shelter, we received some materials from the Chief Tengu before you left, and we brought some ourselves, so within a year it's conceivable we could have a city down here. An entire city, isn't that cool! *

^{(No, it isn't)}

In the time remaining, we can use this palace as a shelter. Any questions? *

^{(Why are you still talking?)}

Carefully Satori pushed her way to the front dragging her sister behind her.

"Hello, do you have a question, little lady?"*

"Yes, umm... me and my sister have a lot of pets, see," Satori pointed to an unkindness of ravens which had amassed near the top of the palace. "So, I was wondering if me and my sister could keep them here." *

"Oh, wow, that's a lot of birds, and I see you have some cats too. I guess we can't let them sleep outside, just stay here and watch them, okay." *

Within time the underground progressed, the people began to forget why they were angry with the people from the surface, and eventually forgot their grudges altogether, after some large Oni debaucheries. Satori never left the palace, animals from the underground eventually begun to approach her as well. For the first two weeks, the citizens of the underground tried to make the palace into a community center, but the animals kept getting in the way. Satori and her sister weren't helping matters either, when they tried to speak with the workers they always seemed to say what they were thinking, it was unnerving. Everyday it seemed less workers would arrives, until they stopped appearing at all. On the day they left however, their thoughts were very violent. Satori couldn't quite grasp their anger, but it was clear that they were directed at her.

Over the next month, her sister hid away. After another, she had disappeared.

Not knowing who to turn to, Satori just waited in the palace she didn't earn. She waited for hours She waited for days. She waited for years. She waited and waited. She waited for things to change. Things did change.

Her pets grew strong. Stronger than herself. They protected her, they handled jobs around the palace, they ran the furnaces of the ex-hell, they searched for her sister.

*

---

I kept feeling like I was writing about the Holocaust or some other genocide during the first part, but I seriously doubted that it was a pleasant experience being shoved into the underground.

I don't like how I couldn't find some way to end this on a happier note, but I clung onto the fact that we kept getting back to how lonely she is and I wanted that to be the overall theme of the write-up. At least we know how it ends though, right?

I mostly wanted to use a footnote at the end of every sentence, so to constantly show Satori's burden of hearing everyone's thoughts, but in the end it just became a gimmick, so I toned it down. Still, that last one.

I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.

Dunno about her pets being stronger then her. Utsuho's probably stronger after getting her sun power, but I think Orin was afraid of Satori finding out about Okuu's new genocidal tendencies, which is why she sent evil spirits to the surface, in the hope it would attract someone strong enough to stop Utsuho.

Song of the Sirens

Well, Satori isn't a good fighter. I just think she doesn't care for it. Her Third Eye abilities are her true power and what makes her the girl that even evil spirits fear.

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You've clearly never fought her in Double Spoiler. She's a damn nightmare, more so when she's not copying others

Aya brings out the best in everyone. Hatate helps, I guess.

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Orin could still very well be more powerful than Satori, but is still thinking like a pet. In fact, Okuu probably does too, even during the whole "RAZE THE EARTH WITH THE SEARING DIVINE FLAME" incident. Maybe the line of thought went "If Satori-sama rules over the [Former] Hell of Blazing Fires, then if the surface world was full of Blazing Fire... Satori-sama would give me extra birdseed for letting her rule over the surface!" Satori strikes me as the kind of person who is really friendly and emotional, but awkward and shy, Hence why she loves animals so, so much. She's almost hypnotic to them...

Oh also hi I'm a new troper but I've been lurking for years so don't feel like you've got to do anything fancy I don't want to intrude or come across as a jerk or anything because I've been here all along and just didn't join because I'm a moron DOT.

edited 23rd May '11 6:43:56 PM by Pulse

I sure said that!

@ Horseless: I like what you did with Satori's thoughts. Still, I wouldn't have bothered with the asteriks; it breaks the narrative flow.

@ asterism: She's a universally hated youkai. Even the oni stay away from her

edited 23rd May '11 5:45:22 PM by yarrunmace

you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped

The irony is I added the asterisks to not break the narrative flow.

I love irony.

I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.

x6 Weren't the spell card rules invented so even poor fighters had a chance to win?

That awkward moment where Kyoro is one of Satan's Generals.