The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

So, have we turned "blood is amazing" into a meme yet?

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

Upload it to 4chan and we may find out...

edited 1st Aug '11 11:56:42 PM by raigakuren

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

But it's a forced meme. ._.

I will take it like a man.

The Master Spark isn't strange. Which is a more fitting word than "unnatural" to use here, but I wanted to use "unnatural" to make a point. The Master Spark takes something that is thought of as very powerful, and uses it as energy, if you buy into the idea that it really is powered by magic. In that sense, it's just conversion of power, only that it doesn't work in a way we can understand. That's the thing. Magic powers certain processes without a plausible explanation as to why, but it still has to follow a certain framework before it starts seeming weird and arbitrary and unnatural. Byakuren becoming healthy and unnaturally strong makes sense to me, her "growing backwards", not as much. To put it like this, I can imagine her "gaining youth", but not "losing age". The former still seems like a forward progression, while the latter just completely goes against nature.

Well, I could definitely imagine a spell that is specifically designed to de-age a person, so Byakuren is not the best example, except I think it's implied that her youth is a consequence of becoming a youkai magician, rather than the result of a spell. Similarly, being children is part of Touhou vampires, but if it's just a natural part of their being, I cannot imagine it turning adults into children, because for something that's so natural for a whole species, it's just too unnatural to me.

And that is not a good reason to me. I can buy that vampires stop aging, that they stop growing up, but not that grown-ups will return into not-grown-ups. Not aging anymore is a reasonable consequence of a certain sort of eternal life, but if you make the rule that they also have to turn back into children if they weren't already, it becomes an arbitrary rule with no purpose besides lolicon fanservice. If the purpose is supposed to be that it's a trade-off, then turning into a child is a pretty weak price to pay. It'd be more effective to pay with an arm or leg or with your health or whatever.

Point is, vampires are supernatural, but not extranatural. They don't have to explain how they work, but the ways they do work have to follow a certain intuitive framework to a certain extent or break my immersion.

Yeah, the interaction between Remi and Flan was adorable. You have some good ideas in there. In particular the bit about Remilia and Flandre being "princesses". My only complaint is that the story seems to meander and is inconsistent in tone, but you explained that already.

By the way, what is my prize?

It's not like people using magic to make themselves young and pretty is anything new. Byakuren's profile suggests that it was a specific spell that made her youthful. Akyuu also notes that humans need to cast a specific spell to become magicians.

edited 2nd Aug '11 2:30:19 AM by asterism

Heart of Stone

As I said, I can buy a spell specifically targeted towards that, but not de-aging as a natural consequence of something like being turned into a vampire.

And now for some Remilia cuteness.

Raocow fighting Rex!Remilia has to be one of the best things I've seen in a while. Thanks for the link.

ON TOPICISH:How does youth magic work anyway? Is it permanent? If you run out of magic juice (mana, MP, whatever), do you revert back to your "true" age? Does the process of deaging hurt? Or is it just an illusion? It is apparently black magic, so is there a cost to it?

But yeah, I can accept the "vampires stay the age they were turned at" or "vampires can stop aging at certain points for whatever reason" but "vampires automatically become kids again when turned" kinda stretches my suspension of disbelief.

EDIT: "Blood is Amazing!" isn't already a meme? I wouldn't have been surprised if ZUN himself was trying to make it one when he wrote it into the book six times.

edited 2nd Aug '11 6:49:50 AM by Otherarrow

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

Blood is amazing. Its why I donate blood whenever I can. Remember, you're not only saving a life, you're also providing a fresh source of blood to the friendly vampire population so they don't have to hunt.

Every donation can not only save three babies, it can keep a vampire fed for a month. Take a hint, give a pint.

Sponsored by the Remilia Scarlet Foundation For Home Delivery of Dinner (TM).

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

I for one, support the efforts of the RSFfHDD(TM).

Blood is amazing!

edited 2nd Aug '11 7:52:12 AM by Otherarrow

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

I'd say that becoming a little girl automatically happens to anyone who enters Gensokyo unless they take specific measures beforehand to prevent it. Remi being Remi and Flan being clueless they didn't get the memo before the SDM was moved and Sakuya was too busy being perfect to remind them, or maybe she assumed they already knew.

Byakuren's youth magic is apparently fuelled by the existance of youkai. If youkai ceased to exist, the magic would fail and she would presumably revert to her true age and crumble into dust into a suitably dramatic fashion.

Kanako does not appear as a young girl. Neither does Eirin.

ON TOPIC: Blood. It's amazing, you know.

edited 2nd Aug '11 9:37:47 AM by asterism

Heart of Stone

Don't know how this even has any relation to the current discussion, but I just suddenly had an image in my head of an original vampire character from a story I'm writing turning remilia and flandre...

Doing nothing is a choice.

There was a CYOA type thingy on that touhou project CYOA site where Remilia has her progenitor locked up in her attic and she's sufficiently traumatized by something that it did at some point. If I remember, she does not like to talk about or acknowledge that its up there.

And then Yukari screwing around again brings a Belmont to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Or something.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Regarding vampire youth, rather than de-aging I'd imagine that adults simply aren't candidates for turning into vampires. Maybe adults turn into the mindless zombies Akyuu mentions while children turn into full-fledged vampires. For whatever reason. That doesn't seem particularly implausible to me.

Or it could be pure dumb luck, like how everyone involved in the incidents thus far, with the exception of Unzan, is female.

I sure said that!

I just don't think it would say that vampires trade maturity for immortality if it wasn't a requirement that they lack maturity. It's definitely implied that Remilia being a child isn't a coincidence.

edited 2nd Aug '11 12:22:55 PM by Clarste

Though that could cause a crap ton of problems if every vampire had a childish temper and immaturity thrown in with all that power. I would imagine a whole host of worse problems then the scarlet mist incident...

Doing nothing is a choice.

Well, Dracula is supposedly a real vampire in this setting. Remilia's theme music tries to claim he's her ancestor. Its lying, of course. Its a filthy, deceitful piece of melody.

Dracula wasn't a kid so I don't think its a mandatory requirement.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Was he? It's not like Touhou doesn't take other liberties with mythology.

I'm going to say yes, he wasn't. He was a vaguely ugly eastern European man who all the young, impressionable vampires want to be like.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Is Dracula even "real" in the Touhou setting? For all we know, Remilia read the book and decided to claim decent from that fictional vampire for shock value (after all, commoners are probably going to recognize Dracula, fictional or not, more than they are going to recognize the real vampire Percival Scarlet*

)

I am willing to accept the "vampires becomes kids when turned" thing as canon if canon material says it is, but I will say that it is still very stupid, and does still stretch my suspension of disbelief.

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

It's also possible that his "natural" form was that of a young boy, but he was able to shapeshift into the unsettling-but-strangely-fascinating looking dude Harker & Co encountered. Is that a creepy, horrifying thought? Good! It's high time Dracula was creepy and horrifying again!

You know what I just realized?

Remilia has at least two servants bound to her, whose names she probably chose herself to fit her theme, which likely has something to do with the bond itself.

Sound familiar?

Yukari has one or two servants bound to her, whose names she probably chose herself to fit her theme, which might very well have something to do with the bond itself.

HMMM.

A-hah!

Dracula was a little boy! The reason we know him as the tall, dark and handsome gentlemen he was popularized as is because all the ladies he's wooed the skirts off of didn't want to admit they were seduced by a grade-school kid!

It's not really that creepy at all.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

edited 2nd Aug '11 12:52:44 PM by Dragonexx

Doing nothing is a choice.

Incidentally, Remilia claims to be a descendant of Vlad the Impaler, rather than Dracula in particular. He's often associated with Dracula, of course.

Unless Chen was named by Ran. Unless Ran was ordered by Yukari to name Chen Chen.

For some reason, I keep imagining Remilia as a Bond villain. Probably because blocking off the sun is a rather Bond-villainy scheme*

.

'Ah, Miss Hakurei. I've been expecting you' <smirk>.

Heart of Stone