The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Eh, if anyone deserves your hate it's Tenshi. No surprise there.

Is it bad that I base what characters I like based on how much I like their theme?

'Cause I fucking love Wonderful Heaven

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

Nuthin' wrong with that. I like Shou so much at least partially because the Tiger-Patterned Vaisravana is awesome. By the same reasoning I'm kinda ambivalent towards Rumia, because I'm not that fond of her theme.

I like Sariel a lot because his/her/its themes are too amazing for adjectives.

edited 4th Jul '11 1:35:47 PM by asterism

Heart of Stone

Young Mistress of Bhava-Agra Tenshi Hinanawi

Appearance:

Themes:
Catastrophe in Bhava-agra ~ Wonderful Heaven*

, Bhava-agra As Seen Through a Child's Mind*

^{The Last Spell theme. I made "Catastrophe in Bhava-agra" to sound space-like in my own way. Pipe organs are very space-like, aren't they?}

Stage:
Celestial Girl, God of Earth, Human's Soul
bgm: Flawless Clothing of the Celestials

Spellcard Motif: Heaven and Earth | Weather | Temperaments | Swordplay
Notable spellcards: SWR, Hisoutensoku, DS
Keystone "World Creation Press", Heaven & Earth "Violent Land that Mothers All", Heaven & Earth "Land that Oversees the Distant World Below", Swordplay "Sword of Swagger", Earthquake "Evacuation Along the Steep Path", "Scarlet Weather Rhapsody of All Humankind"

Write-up:
What happens when one with the mind of a child is given such power that she can get whatever she wants? She will get what she wants, that's what. And if she doesn't get that? Then you've got a tantrum on your hands. An earth-shaking tantrum.

The Hinanawi*

clan was a family of priests. For their services in protecting the keystones that were meant to protect the land from earthquakes, and their services to the Celestials and their god, they were given the honor of becoming Celestials themselves. However, with this title comes not only power, but responsibility to match. Only those who reach enlightenment through rigorous training can become Celestials... normally.

Those who are enlightened are content with their simple and peaceful life in the clouds, artificially extended to technical immortality by powers that allow them to drive off any shinigami that may come to take them. But what of a mere girl who was made a Celestial when she was far from ready for it? What happened to Chiko Hinanawi after she ascended to heaven in name only and took up the name of "Tenshi"?

Why, she got bored and threw a tantrum, of course. An earth-shaking tantrum. The land of Gensokyo below her has to come and get her if it doesn't want to be torn apart by the tremors, because she's got monstrous powers and a magic sword, and she's in the mood to try these out for an exciting change of pace.

Since she's pretty enthusiastic about being punished for playing the villain in this piece, many fans like to call her a masochist. Some like to downplay her actions during the incident for a more sympathetic portrayal and wacky shenanigans with Iku. Whatever the case may be for the side of her personality we do not see in canon, the fact stands: She is the one true villain the series has known.

Where did the aftermath of her adventures in villainy bring her? Will she ever reach enlightenment after all? One can only hope.

Relations:

• Iku (possible friend)
• Suika (freeloader)
• every other Gensokyoan (did not get a good first impression of her)

Alternate Character Interpretations:
Sword of Worry and Joy
-by Clarste

No Need for Tenshi
-by Horselesshorseman

Childish Mind
-by Metaflare

A Tenshi Write-up/Rant
-by Otherarrow

Temperamental Neighbor
-by Pulse

Unexpected Parallels Between an Oni and Celestial
-by Tacitus

Canto V
-by The Chubby Destroyer

Tenshi ~ Shanghaied
-by yarrunmace

edited 20th Aug '11 2:39:23 AM by Fawriel

Let it be known that Wonderful Heaven is one of my top three touhou songs.

Anyways, Tenshi. The only touhou antagonist with harmful motivations. Can't wait to see what comes out of this discussion

edited 4th Jul '11 3:56:28 PM by Metaflare

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

'She is the one true villain the series has known'.

What about Utsuho 'I'll reduce the surface world to ashes' Reiuji? What about Saigyou 'I'll kill anyone who sleeps under my branches' Ayakashi?

You too forget Okuu. She may be an idiot, but she did try to blow up the surface world.

edited 4th Jul '11 3:59:04 PM by asterism

Heart of Stone

One was because she went mad with power (and quickly calmed down) and the other is a sealed tree

edited 4th Jul '11 3:58:49 PM by Metaflare

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

Utsuho was a sillyface and Saigyouwhatsitsname is a tree and they are thus disqualified.

Also, my new signature thing is a reference to this which I swear is relevant to the discussion in some way.

... And I can't think of any aspect of Tenshi that I really like. Not even design-wise or anything. There's the fact that she's got the mind of a child and enormous powers and all, but King Dedede already did that one in a more amusing way.

Well, possibly. Tenshi's jerkness comes from the fact that she dicked around with the earth and the weather because she was bored. Saigyou Ayakashi is a youkai tree, and thus it eats people. Okuu went a bit mad, yes.

Out of interest, what are you other top three favourite songs?

Heart of Stone

Regarding her design, I like Tenshi's aurora belt. That is a nice belt.

Heart of Stone

Well, more seriously, Utsuho didn't really try to blow up the surface world... for all I know, she'd been floating around there for several days just spazzing out with power until someone of the protagonistic persuasion came along. And the Saigyou thing might be the only one who is truly evil in that sense, but it's also more of a force of nature than anything and didn't actually actively pursue any villainous activities aside from evil photosynthesis.

One of my friends is a fan of Tenshi. In fact I think I convinced him to join Tv Tropes I should tell him about this discussion.

Anyway my first impression of Tenshi is that she was kind of an ass. Plus all the masochism doujins were kind of annoyed me. Anyway, I kind of warmed up to her eventually, but not that much probably because I like Iku better.

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

After having been a Celestial for a while, she probably started reconsidering what she wanted. If she wanted this at all, and didn't just automatically ascend because of her parents.

Nuclear Fusion and Cosmic Mind. I like final boss themes a lot.

Anyways, expect a writeup from me in the next 24 hours

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

Cool. My top three themes are Shou's, Sariel's (Now, until the moment you die), and Suika's (Missing Power), in that order. Not that anyone cares, probably.

Heart of Stone

Mine would be Phantom Ensemble, Flowering Night, and Necrofantasia.

Anyway, boredom is a pretty lame excuse to cause a bunch of earthquakes and stuff. It was all because Tenshi has yet to become enlightened. It all would've been good if she was. But anyway I can see why you would need to be enlightened to want to go to heaven.

Comparison:
Heaven-Peaches, Sake, fishing. Pretty nice.
Hell-ENDLESS ONI PARTY!!!! Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be

In terms of relations to the others...yeah not that great. She's beaten up a bunch of shinigami, destroyed Reimu's shrine, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. I feel sorry for Iku having to deal with her.

edited 4th Jul '11 4:38:08 PM by raigakuren

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

Flawless Clothing of the Celestials remains as one of my favorite themes from the fighting games.

^ The constant oni parties are only in the Former Hell, I think

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

A Tenshi Write-up/Rant

Before I start on the main rant, let me give the good points about Tenshi: I like her character design, and her music is OK. Cool? Cool.

Anyway, I hate Tenshi. I will probably get a lot of flak for saying this (and it may look out of place, since it's so informal) but I feel she is one of the biggest Canon Sues in Touhou, outdoing even the Watatsuki sisters since a)she appears in the actual games, and b) the Watatsukis ultimately lose. Tenshi, however, doesn't, not truly anyway, and suffers no real repercussions for her actions. (unless you feel having to deal with Suika counts)

With that out of the way, on to the main part of the write up.

Tenshi is a spoiled brat. The child of two beings who only achieved celestial status as a reward of service, she managed to ascend into Heaven and angelhood without any real effort on her part. (Presumably, either her parent's love for her allowed her to come with them or they literally dragged her with them and made a deal with a more powerful entity in Heaven to make her like them. I don't think they go into details on how she exactly gained Celestial status aside from her parents gaining it.) Despite being, spiritually, an imperfect human, she is allowed to live like a God, eating the finest foods, drinking the finest wines, holding onto great power, and living a perfect, carefree live that most mortals can only dream of. This isn't enough for her.

She became bored of the perfect life she gained by merely riding her parents' coattails, and descended to Gensoukyou and began to rampage across the land with devastating earthquakes and the like. Why? Because she could. She invokes the wrath of some of the most powerful youkai and humans in the setting and is able to fight them all off one by one. Why? Seemed fun. And the worst part of it all? She wins. Even if she was or wasn't finally defeated, she got exactly what she wanted: to have some fun wreaking the place and to have powerful, important people give her all of their attention.

Tenshi is a spoiled, selfish, and extremely powerful girl who doesn't seem to care about anyone other than herself, and no one has the strength to permanently force it into her otherwise. While there are other characters who can be seen as "villainous", they all pale in comparison to her, at least as far as I can tell.

---

There we go! My Tenshi write-up/rant. I hope I didn't use any inaccurate plot points. I'll admit I am not sure whether or not Tenshi canonically loses against someone, so I made it a point to point out that it doesn't really matter, since she still wins.

EDIT:I decided to come back days later and fix some plot points that were, indeed, inaccurate. Sorry if this disrupts anything. I assumed this would be better than repost the entire thing again. (As unlike my Yuugi write up, I don't feel this one needs a whole rewrite, just some correcting)

edited 6th Jul '11 12:03:39 PM by Otherarrow

Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.

And for once, she's a character that doesn't even need the usual Joker Immunity because she is canonically immortal. Not that immortals can't feel pain, but she doesn't seem to care. (Fanon aside)

She's got a pretty sweet sword.

I wouldn't say she's a Canon Sue so much as a Karma Houdini. There's really no implication that the audience is supposed to like her or anything, and of course the characters don't either.

And I like to think that Suika crashing at her place is a punishment of sorts, although what that says about Suika herself is debatable. It's pretty easy to imagine Tenshi being exasperated by it though.

edited 4th Jul '11 6:01:55 PM by Clarste

Karma Houdini, true, but I do think of her as a canon Villain Sue This is just how I see it, and I can understand that others may see differently.

Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.

I very much prefer MUHAHAHAHA Tenshi to Masochist Tenshi because fanartists that push the latter tend to ignore her boss tier powers. She'd probably be able to fight Yuuka to a standstill rather than get pretzel'd every time they meet.

Actually, Villain Sue I can agree with.

I like yasu's interpretation of Tenshi. Not exactly evil but utterly full of herself. Fits with the canon description of Celestials who supposedly visit earth just to trouble humans with oblique 'words of wisdom'.

EDIT: Corrected the link.

edited 4th Jul '11 6:16:11 PM by Recon5

There's no difference if what you're doing troubles or hurts others. No one thinks of themselves as the bad guy, and if they do they're probably not.