The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

The standard magician immortality spells supposedly lock you at your current age. She could have had eternal "kindly old woman" or eternal "middle aged", but she chose eternal youth. No more and no less. And of course being old reminded her of death, but that's her flaw. And the fact that she's not over it means it's still her flaw.

Also, vanity isn't exactly the worst flaw ever or anything. It's not a mortal sin or anything (or maybe it is, not clear on theology). It just means she has a bit more pride than she strictly needs to do her job. Ergo she is not the 100% selfless person that some like to paint her as.

edited 26th Aug '11 5:10:34 PM by Clarste

Never tried to imply 100% selflessness, but, again, she did a bunch of stuff in the past that she may or may not regret, yet cannot have undone or altered. It's like a (greatly expanded, in terms of scope) tattoo she got when she was in college and drunk.

edited 26th Aug '11 6:00:25 PM by Pulse

Well, she's still using youkai magic, so I don't think she regrets that part at all.

Being vain connects to pride, which is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It comes before a fall after all.

But yes, I can see what you are getting at now. Sorry. And I do kinda like the idea of her not being over her fear of death, although I can't see where it would come up now she is immortal/unaging and all.

Re: Pulse: I do like that analogy actually.

edited 26th Aug '11 5:28:21 PM by Otherarrow

The best thing to say about Byakuren is that comparatively, she's one of the nicest people in Touhou. But like Yuyuko, her current personality and actions are contrasted by her backstory. In Byakuren's she done goofed and done made several questionable choices.

I'm kind of wondering what would have changed if ZUN had gone ahead and made Myouren the final boss. Miko shows that ZUN isn't exactly shy about taking liberties with established historical/mythical characters. Would Myouren have had a similar motivation as Byakuren for immortality? I think that if he had used Myouren, possibly turning him into a girl or whatever, it would have been more similar to Miko than to Byakuren. The death of Myouren gives Byakuren a sympathetic backstory even if she did make questionable decisions that went against her religious teachings.

A youkai-saving immortal Myouren might have been much more of a problem causer than Byakuren. Alternatively, he could have been exactly like her except with a penis. And shorter hair.

Are you prejudiced against long-haired men then?

Yes.

I take offense to your prejudice!

I deduce from your statement that you have long hair, and are male. Fabulous.

yea but there are also youth restoring spells that magicians have IIRC

Im probably missing the point of the post, but I've been up 30 hours straight and i haven't been to this thread in about 40 pages so cut me some slack

The point is that since Byakuren was an oldish woman when she became immortal, it would have locked her at her oldish age. Since she's at a youngish age, then its possible that she did a youth spell first for vanity reasons. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

Or practicality, perhaps, but I still think vanity is more fun.

Buddhist Monk Byakuren: Saving youkai even as society hates and fears her. But first she has to comb her hair.

No man. It's always vanity. Maybe even good old fashioned self centered, "grind puppies into powder so I can continue looking good" super vanity. Always the reasoning that would reflect on the character the most negatively, because that's how the fandom rolls. There may be no bad people in Touhou, but there are also no good ones either.*

But honestly, think about it. Either you can achieve magician youkaidom at whatever age you reach the spell and risk getting stuck as a barely functioning bag of bones (with your only strength being your deep knowledge and magical skill), or you cast another spell beforehand that gets you to a nice young age and body to be stuck at for all eternity (and you get to keep the deep magic skill and such too). I'm surprised it is implied that most magicians don't do this.

Although, I'll admit, there probably was at least some selfish reasoning behind it besides "it would be practical and would help me in the long run". So yeah. Maybe vanity was involved to a degree. We already established, multiple times at that, that Byakuren isn't a perfect saint.

edited 27th Aug '11 7:24:04 AM by Otherarrow

Well, it's natural that she isn't a saint. After all, she's only huma—

edited 27th Aug '11 7:27:07 AM by Fluid

With the appearance of a literal and actual saint into the ranks of Touhou, I don't think even saints are perfect saints anymore.

When even Celestials are pricks, all bets are off.

speaking of magicians and their ages.

is anyone else really sick of seeing stories where Alice/Patchouli/whoever, is angsting because they will outlive Marisa (despite the fact that they won't because she is a magician).

im starting to think there should be a rule against making touhou doujinshi before reading P Mi SS

I believe that while Marisa is a magician, she isn't a youkai magician. She is still human, and thus still ages and still can die of old age. Of course, whether she finds some method of immortality or makes the jump to youkai magician like Alice and Byakuren is yet to be known, although I think she is working on such a method?

But such fics/comics are still annoying I guess.

edited 27th Aug '11 8:32:20 AM by Otherarrow

Marisa has shown a recent interest in various immortality remedies that don't involve eating Mokou. Of course, since its not a spell that she can just steal and because it involves actual hard work, she's not making much progress oddly.

Her profile in PCB states that she tried to make an elixir of immortality.

Marisa isn't one to shy away from hard work.

I suppose just asking Alice or Byakuren didn't occur to her. Or maybe Alice told her to screw off and Byakuren was all willing to help but Marisa thought "pffft, and help youkai for a living? Pass!"

Its not like she really has to worry about it. Sufficiently strong characters can beat up the grim reaper and prolong their life. And since she beat up Komachi who is possibly stronger than any of the actual reapers that Tenshi met, she doesn't have to worry about dying of old age if she keeps her strength up as an old fogey.

That's why I said "oddly."

edited 27th Aug '11 8:54:30 AM by Bocaj

Oh. I thought you were being sarcastic.

Nah.