Remilia's relationship with Flandre is one that always puzzles me. She apparently cares about her little sister, but this is something that is, at best, only mentioned and never seen. (Flandre rarely appears. I think Koakuma has more canon appearances than Flandre at this point) As for Remilia locking Flandre in the basement, well, I think I read somewhere (I forgot where honestly) that Flandre actually just stays down there of her own free will, and is more of a shut in. Of course, this could be because Remilia told her to stay down there. Eh.
I sometimes wonder if Remilia plays up the "spoiled brat" routine for whatever reason. (People drop thier guard, an excuse to boss Sakuya around some more, trying to get people to think that she really is 12ish instead of 500ish) The arrogance is probably very real, however.
Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.
One Winged Egret
Hmmm, I was planning on writing something about Remilia a while ago, and even voted for her a few iterations ago, but now I'm drawing a blank. I guess I should've gone back into my old habit of writing them as they came to mind and saving them on my desktop. All I can remember now is the title I had planned, so let's work from there and see if I can improvise.
Spear the Gungnir
Odin, the Allfather, leader of the Aesir. A god of wisdom, sacrifice and of course war. Obsessed with the end of the world, as described in prophecy. Bound by fate, yet marching knowingly into his own doom. His spear, the Gungnir, is said to begin the battle that ends the world. Or rather, it is said that it will do so. For that is its fate. That's what the spear was made to do. And now Remilia claims that spear for her own. Whether or not it's the genuine article is hard to say, but ultimately irrelevant. What matters is that Remilia claims it.
Now, Remilia herself doesn't seem to put much thought into fate. She's much more obsessed with her own vampiric heritage and maintaining her Scarlet reputation. That doesn't mean that fate isn't an important part of her though. It's just not worth thinking about. Because Remilia's will is fate itself. What she wants done is done. Is that not fate? While some may see a spoiled brat, she sees herself as the god of her domain. While she may not be using her explicit fate manipulating powers to get what she wants done, as long as it ends up being done is there a difference? She wants to meet new people outside her mansion and she meets new people from outside her mansion. She wants a rocket, she gets a rocket. She wants to get the real moon back, she gets the real moon back. She claims fate for herself and gets what she wants with her own hands. That's a power everyone has, yet Remilia claims it for her own. After all, she knows her "fate" is stronger than yours.
That's not to say she doesn't cheat a bit. For reasons that are unclear, she's accumulated a number of loyal accomplices, which certainly make this fate thing a lot easier to control. When she's fated for some tea, all she has to do is call Sakuya and there shall be tea. When she's fated for a swimming pool her old friend Patchouli is always available. How did she gather these people though? Was it charisma? Was it fate? Is there a difference? All that matters to Remilia is that she has what she needs to get what she wants. In that sense, she's absolutely content with her life. After all, what she has is what she wanted, what she was fated to have. No more and no less.
In the end, what fate is all about is taking what you have and doing what you can. Remilia knows this, so she doesn't think about it. It's something so obvious that it doesn't bear thinking about. What she has is the world, what she can do is anything. Everything else is a matter of details.
edited 30th Jul '11 7:37:15 PM by Clarste
"Justice!"
You're half right. No canonical source ever says anything about Flandre being confined to the cellar, but Perfect Memento says "Flandre seldom leaves the Scarlet Devil Mansion", with the footnote "perhaps she's locked away, but it's also rumored she's a shut-in".
Angel of Draconic Wisdom
I always thought it was more for the safety of everyone else. I'm not for the omnicidal maniac flandre, that some fans make her out to be. But at the very least her power could cause some serious havoc if she was free to go where she wanted.
Doing nothing is a choice.
I prefer to think of Flan as a shut-in who wants to cultivate a fearsome reputation, either for her own purposes or to add on to her sister's.
If there is, in fact, a Scarlet Devil Mansion Nation Mansion, "the basement" would be a much larger environment that she isn't straying from. It would be kind of like being imprisoned in the Underground, wouldn't it? It would also be possible that, as the Lady of the House's sister, she has responsibilities down there.
It's time... to STOP!
Had to wait 'til I was gone to start Remi's discussion didn't ya'. That said, I apologize to the Lunar Corps, I have failed them.
or silver things.
You know, the masters of the night with tons of weaknesses for some reason... -Marisa Kirisame
Of Note
Remilia's power is to manipulate fate. It is unknown if she can use it consciously, but once you meet her your fate has changed.
Remilia also has the power to control demons apparently and also has some oni powers. She's still weaker than an Oni though.
If enough of her is large enough to into a bat, she can regenerate from any attack at any time.
She also wields the spear, Gungnir. In Norse mythology, this spear was wielded by Odin, the King of the people of Asgard. It was fashioned by, humorously given previous conversation, dwarves, and stolen by Loki. According to Marvel, it's wielder can channel their energy through it to shoot laser beams. Not really canon, but it explains it's danmaku capabilities. For more info, read Clarste's write-up.
She is highly charismatic, because she knows she is feared and likes to maintain her image.
She is a light eater, and is unable to drink enough blood to make another person into a vampire. It is stated by ZUN that the people she drinks often become anemic.
She likes to claim she is the descendant of Vlad "Dracula" Tepes. She is not.
She was 500 years old as of her game, making her one of the few characters who have a canon age. Excluding Flandre, I think the only others who can say that are PC-98.
She all the classic vampire weaknesses except crosses. Other than crosses she has all the weaknesses. All of them.
She uses arrows as weapons, and can spawn bats from herself for familiars.
She can go outside on sunny days by using a parasol.
She is believed to descend from France because of the etymology of Scarlet. The male name Rémy is popular in France, however ZUN made up the name Remilia. Remigia is the female of Rémy.
Music
Septette for the Dead Princess: I can see why many people like, It personally isn't my favorite theme however. I particularly like the bit at the one minute mark on the original though. I like the SWR version the best.
Overview
ZUN states that Remilia is egotistical and childish despite her age. I tend to agree. Still with all her charisma and intimidation tactics, I imagine there is another side of her too. A cool, calculating side that sits upon her balcony seeing not Gensokyo, but a world for her kind to conquer. Then, I imagine her childish side takes over again and she realizes that "ruling Gensokyo would be boring, and where is Sakuya, I asked for tea 30 seconds ago." I think that she is closer to her sister than some people think and further from her than others think. They live in the same house, they are sisters, they probably hang out together, but Remilia has her own plans that involve leaving the house, and Flandre doesn't care for that. Since Meiling has served her for some time now I imagine she is quite friendly with her, but I assume they don't interact often. Maybe only when the Tengu drop off the new issue of Tengu Jump, as it will forever on be known. Patchy is her friend, but I'm still not sure how to describe their relationship. Patchouli seems to stay underground all day while, ironically, the vampire prefers to go outside. Sakuya is still fairly new to the mansion. I don't believe she has served Remilia for very long. She probably cares for Rémi more than Rémi cares for her, but their dialogues make me believe that she at least trusts her maid.
I'll add some quotes later, I want some good one for Remilia since she's been in many a game.
edited 1st Aug '11 10:52:02 AM by Horselesshorseman
I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.
The Fool
I like to think that Remilia is terribly arrogant, but usually tries to live up to her own inflated version of herself, i.e., she wants to be friends with the coolest people she can meet, so she tries to be reasonable with her servants, though she certainly has... Moods.
I sure said that!
One Winged Egret
Noblesse Oblige.
B Villain
'Beware the Scarlet Devil'
Eastern Prussia, 1721 Midnight
A full moon's night. The perfect time to go hunting for prey...Now then, who should I eat first? Huh, now what's this? Someone is still awake and alone. Perfect.
"I should really get home now. Now where was it again? Dammit, I'm lost! I probably had one too many drinks, huh? What's that in the sky? Is it an owl, no wait...owls aren't that big...it looks almost human-like. And it's coming toward me?"
The man still had no idea what the figure was but every part of his body was screaming one thing: "RUN!!!" The man rushed away from the thing, but no matter where he would go it was still there.
"Go on keep running! I love the thrill of the chase!"
It wasn't long until the man lost his breath. Attempting to shake the creature off he hid in an alleyway.
"Heh, finally giving up I see."
"W-what who's there!? Show yourself!"
"Very well...human"
"A child? No children don't have wings. Who, no, what are you?
"Me...You foolish humans don't know of me. Very well, I will tell you who I am. Spread the word of me and the fear that my name will bring men begging on their knees. For I am Remilia Scarlet, eldest daughter of the Scarlet clan. The Queen of the Night. A descendant of the legendary Vlad Tepes Dracul himself. I am The Scarlet Devil.
"Devil!? So you are a servant of Lucifer." The man shuffles through his pockets and pulls out a wooden cross. "Stay back demon. In the name of God I command you to go away!"
"Fool. Do you think that mere idols can make me retreat? Now then, time for my dinner"
Remilia closes in onto the man with incredible speed. He barely has any time to react when he suddenly feels two sharp fangs sink into his neck. His life flashed before his eyes and the man thought that he will die.
"N-no! NNOOOOOOOOO'!
"Hey what was that noise."
"Get the torch an animal must be attacking somebody..."
"What was that."
Remilia stopped her meal to realize that the villagers were awakened by the man's screaming. "Hmm, you're too loud to be a good snack. Ah, well I wasn't that hungry."
She flies of into the distance and into the light of the moon. The man was shaking in his boots, cold sweat running down his face, his heart beating so fast he could collapse from a heart attack anytime soon.
"Hey, I found somebody!"
"Boy, are you okay?"
"B-beware..."
"What"
"Beware...the Scarlet Devil.
A minific that takes place about 100 years before Gensokyou's creation. A look from a victim's point of view of a Vampire attack. Europe in the 1600-1800s was notorious for it's hysteria involving "supernatural" forces, thus it would be the perfect setting for a writeup about Remilia.
edited 30th Jul '11 8:59:51 PM by raigakuren
That awkward moment where Kyoro is one of Satan's Generals.
Some kind of a New Leaf
I like that idea. I like that idea a lot.
edited 30th Jul '11 8:58:39 PM by XionGaTaosenai
I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.
Ghosts' Poet
Tangentially related: Remilia is Tenshi+.
Both of them were spoiled brats who were transformed into inhuman creatures (unless you believe that Remilia was born a vampire, but I don't buy that). Both of them gained immortality, power and incredible weapons...at a price. Tenshi was terribly unsuited for her transformation, and chafed at the restraints placed on her. Remilia coped, and thrived.
In 500 years, Remilia's successfully gathered her own posse together and outfitted her surroundings (SDM) to her liking. She generally enjoys being a vampire. Tenshi simply watched others enjoy themselves and complained to herself. When Remilia caused an incident, she was just being herself and getting what she wants. When Tenshi caused an incident, it was a glorified tantrum.
In summary, while Tenshi's status as an arrogant blowhard is annoying, Remilia's isn't because she actually has some awesomeness to back it up.
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
Avvie-free for life!
If she wasn't born a vampire, Remi apparently learned how to regenerate her neck scars away. That makes her more capable or savvy than many modern vampires.
As for her power to manipulate fate, it could just be a version of being Born Lucky except that things go the way she wants instead of benefiting her even when she is unaware of it.
Ghosts' Poet
Who says they were neck scars?
...
...
The vampire probably got her shoulder or something.
edited 30th Jul '11 9:54:44 PM by yarrunmace
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
This. Cannot. Continue.
I wonder if I'd like Remilia as much if she didn't have such awesome music?
The "Divine Symphony D
" cover of "Septette" is pretty solid (I especially like the use of pipe organs), while Morrigan did a more low-key... not sure how to describe it, jazzy modern ambient something. Kitsune Workshop's remix has a lot of sadness to it, while the lily-an vocal version pretty much explodes with charisma. nazz-can's remix used to be my all-time favorite, but then the latest WAVE album came out and that was that.
So there's my music dump, now for... oh lawdy, 800+ pages of Remi art to choose from. Guess I'll start with a few pools and tag combinations...
- Pretty close to canon, I think
- Quite an entrance
- Moonlight
- It's the look of childish delight that sells it
- Kinda cool
- Fractal bat wings?
- Bad weather clothes?
- Have I mentioned lately that Banpai Akira is absolutely friggin' awesome?
- Such a dramatic style shift that I decided to include it
- Cheeky
- Got some tats
- Give her a hand
- Hungry
- Striking eyes
- The castle floats
- More eveningwear
- Kind of a Jeanne d'Arc look going on here?
- Mopey grown-up Remi
- Gain cleavage, lose skin color
- Thought she was smoking at first
- Very graceful
- Vamps have pointy ears too
- You got blood on yer face... (technically guro)
- The blood sees through
- Dragon demon vampire thing
- Quack
- Dual Tech with Sakuya
- Swirls
- A lot of (electrical) energy
- A little eldritch
- Red-eyed posse
- This guy did some of the more cyberpunk images of the SDM crew I've found
- Moved to Ivalice
- Vaguely creepy
- Needs Mentok the Mind-Taker SFX
- There are times to laugh maniacally, and this is one
- This is probably one as well
- Interesting wings
- Ditto
- Recognize this from Touhou Soccer
- Temper tantrum
- A little girl charging with a big ass spear
- Charismatic
- She knows magic, too
- Unbowed
- Seat o' Powa
- The guys making comments have a good idea
- Don't question why a vampire's throne room would have such huge windows
- Vampire Demon Pope Remi (close-up)
- Cracks me up every time
edited 30th Jul '11 11:37:04 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
literary masochist
Sorry to backtrack to Meiling a bit, but I was listening to "Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17" earlier, and now I imagine her sipping tea while standing at the gate. The music kind of places less emphasis on her being a badass martial artist in favor of a more elegant... I dunno, Dance Battler?
edited 30th Jul '11 11:51:12 PM by KylerThatch
This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...
EDIT: OK, gotta revised this first sentince. The "Beware the Scarlet Devil" writeup/minific was kinda bleh. It wasn't bad, but most of it being just dialouge kinda didn't get through what you were trying to convey (you know, it didn't seem like a vampire attack). I did like the other two write ups, though, I just got nothing to say on them. Sorry!
Original Post:I personally never believed the "Remilia and Flandre were turned" theory. I guess I just always assumed "they were born as their race unless proven otherwise". Besides, Scarlet does sound like a nice vampire name.
I still like the idea that Remilia could be a threatening and manipulative villain, if not for the fact that her "evil schemes" barely make it to Poke the Poodle levels. For someone who wants to emulate the horrifying vampire tales of lore (like Dracula and such), she doesn't seem to be trying that hard. On the other hand, she probably believes she is an evil mastermind controlling all of Gensoukyou from her mansion, and her friends/servants just don't have the heart to tell her that her latest scheme didn't do anything noteworthy because she looks like she is having so much fun. Now I am just arguing with myself.
Still wonder where she got the effing Gungnir. That is the only thing I don't have a (probably made up) answer for.
edited 31st Jul '11 6:14:15 AM by Otherarrow
Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.
I'll have more to say later, but for now:
Is there anything that indicates that Remilia actually has Gungnir? Because everything about that thing seems to me like she just gave a spear-shaped danmaku formation a cool name that makes some symbolical Genius Bonus sense if Clarste's write-up is anything to go by.
"Justice!"
I think it's even less meaningful than that. I think ZUN gave that spellcard a name that he thought sounded cool, and that's all. Still, among all the things Touhou fans pull baselessly from the aether, you can do a lot worse than mythological symbolism.
edited 31st Jul '11 6:16:14 AM by SuperDimensionman
I just never really thought about it before other people brought it up. I'll be honest, I did outright forget about it. I like to think that ZUN's reasoning amounted to "Remilia has a spear attack. Gungnir is a famous spear. So her spear attack is Gungnir!" Just think, we might have been a few stray thoughts away from a vampire wielding the Lance of Longinus! (which would probably be much more awesome)
Other than that, I just don't worry about it.
Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.
literary masochist
That makes me imagine Remilia in the Lancea Sanctum.
The thing about Remilia is, despite her childish and arrogant attitude, a very cool individual. Probably because she's a vampire. Vampires have been stylish ever since Carmilla.
Anyway, she was in all probability a VERY nasty individual before she relocated. Imagine if you will a dark and moonless night, an overgrown forest path, fairly misty. A man runs down the path in complete terror, as if fleeing from something* . He trips on a root but quickly scrambles to his feet, just as a young girl's gleeful laugh resounds in the air around him. An elegant, youthful voice echoes from the darkness: 'Is that all? I thought you could do better then that'...
Cliched? Perhaps. But Remilia is basically powered by cliches. Except the cross thing.
EDIT: To the best of my knowledge, Remilia starts using the Gungnir in Ia MP. My guess is that it was simply to match with Flandre's Laevateinn.
edited 31st Jul '11 6:40:36 AM by asterism
Heart of Stone
"Justice!"
Maybe it wasn't even ZUN who named it, then. I don't know if he names the attacks from the fighting games or not.
One Winged Egret
It was most likely named to match Flandre's Laevateinn, regardless of who named it. I think associating her with Odin while Flandre is associated with Loki is entirely intentional though.
Given that that's also known as the Spear of Destiny... I think it'd be significantly less awesome though, mostly because it doesn't match Laevateinn.
In other news, the lower level version of "Spear the Gungnir" is called "Heartbreak". What's up with that?
Ghosts' Poet
It's a spear that can pierce cleanly through just about anything (going by Wikipedia). It's a good a weapon for 'heartbreaking' as anything.
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
Remilia's always been a favorite of mine. She's got an awesome theme and design. I love both the original Septette and the many fanmade remixes there are to offer of it. I'm a mythology nut and love vampire lore.
However, even I, as a huge Remilia fan admit she has many flaws, of course one's flaws is what makes a character. She's prideful, arrogant, and spoiled, for example, in S Si B she claims to be the strongest, yet is easily defeated by Yorihime like everybody else. She seems to have been holding on to the Idiot Ball during that time.
Sakuya's loyalty to Remilia is as strong as steel. Nothing can stop her loyalty to her mistress. Of course, this being Touhou it can be translated into either; Immense loyalty, Love, or just a Lolita Complex. Remi's most popular ship, apparently.
Her friendship with her sister is...complicated. She claims to love Flan very much but she locks her in the basement. This is for her own good but I'm sure Remilia could try to make Flan have more control of her powers. Her second most popular ship.
Patchouli, is kind of an Anti-Remilia. Their main colors (red and purple) are on the different ends of the spectrum. She often calls Remilia out on her negative traits, but they still care for each other greatly...probably. Not shipped as much as you would think, but there are quite a few Remi/Patchy doujins.
Meiling...yeah she's kind of just there outside the gate.
Coincidentally, Septette For the Dead Princess began to play on my laptop when I was writing this.
edited 30th Jul '11 6:43:09 PM by raigakuren
That awkward moment where Kyoro is one of Satan's Generals.