The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Suwako, Patches and Seiga.

I love Mokou too much to let her win when I'm not in top condition.

Ehehehehe, here's where I come in. I switch my Mokou vote to...let's say Rumia. There, now Suwako is winning.

Heart of Stone

Eh. OK. I am fine with frog goddess.

This isn't a change of vote, I am just accepting that she probably has this in the bag.

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

Hmm, well.

This seems a little sketchy, but I'm gonna add half a vote to Suwako, because even though I forgot to ask her just now, I'm pretty sure Cynicmuffin would want to vote for her. What with Suwako being her favorite Touhou character and all. And with a bit of prodding, she might join us in the discussion for at least this round.

I believe this situation calls for a victory kero.

Pianist's RSI.

Heart of Stone

So you're casting half a vote on behalf of someone who isn't even reading the thread at the moment? That seems extremely sketchy.

he is considering the opinion of a touhou fan, with the intention that it bring her to add to the discussion.

only giving it half a vote seems sketchy to me.

edited 27th Sep '11 1:40:03 PM by JacktheSnowman

Just another passerby

Okay. So then do I get to represent all the 50 lurkers out there who are, I assure you, positively champing at the bit to see Mokou next, and give all of them half a vote too?

Only if you can name them.

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

They're not registered. They're nothing but nameless IP addresses floating in the aether.

then they can't really contribute can they.

Just another passerby

Aha, but you see, if I vote Mokou in next for them, they might join us in the discussion, at least for this round.

waitaminute. how can you claim to represent lurkers, whose opinions you can't vouch for?

there are tons of arguments for both sides.

Faw, just do whatever you think is right. i'm not gonna argue over an irrelevant statistic that's not even going to go on any record.

what aster said.

edited 27th Sep '11 2:00:19 PM by JacktheSnowman

Just another passerby

Even if the half is discounted, Suwako is still in the lead.

Heart of Stone

I know. That's beside the point. It would set a bad precedent.

edited 27th Sep '11 1:59:29 PM by SuperDimensionman

Okay, I withdraw the behalf vote and declare Suwako the narrow winner anyway. Unless you guys want to keep discussing this for another 10 hours or so while I go to bed.

I'm guessing the answer is no. So let me try to fudge a profile.

EDIT: Thought there was profile made overview, nevermind.

edited 27th Sep '11 3:00:28 PM by Horselesshorseman

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

The Leader of Native Gods Suwako Moriya

Appearance:

Theme:
Native Faith*

, Tomorrow Will Be Sunny, Yesterday Was Not, X, The Floating Objects in the Sky

Stage: A Merry Japanese God
Moriya Shrine (Inner Sanctum)
bgm: Tomorrow Will Be Sunny, Yesterday Was Not*

Spellcard Motif: Native gods, warring gods, mythology | Frogs | Water | Worship | Iron ring
Notable spellcards: MoF, DS, Hisoutensoku
Party Start "Two Bows, Two Claps and One bow", Native God "Master Longlimbs", Divine Instrument "Moriya's Iron Ring", Spring Sign "Jade of the Horrid River", Frog Hunt "Snake Hears And Eats Frog", Native God "Seven Stones and Seven Trees", Native God "Froggy Braves the Elements", "Suwa War - Native Myth vs Central Myth", Scourge Sign "Mishaguji-sama", Frog Nap "Can Always Hibernate", Clap "Daidarabotchi's Worship", "Magma Amphibian", "Divine Battle Above Gensokyo"

Write-up:
Picture the world millenia ago. Technology barely existing, metalwork only being developed slowly throughout the world, the world of each individual human narrow and poor. Youkai roamed the night. And gods ruled the world.

The mishaguji were such beings. Like youkai, they inspired fear in the humans who lived under them. But they were curse gods. In their despair, the people bowed down to the mishaguji, begging for mercy from the dreadful curses, and the curse gods grew stronger and stronger from the faith they gained. But they did not grow strong enough. A new god appeared and tamed the mishaguji, usurping their position of power. Her power was indisputable, and the people's faith in her came from grateful hearts. She became the goddess and de facto ruler of the small nation that used to fear the curse gods.

Suwako was, however, not the only ambitious god. A war was being waged throughout the island of Yamato; a war fought by gods who wished to unite the many nations into one. Suwako defended her kingdom tenaciously, using the finest iron weapons available at the time. When a goddess called Kanako dueled with her, however, and used a vine to make her iron rings rust and decay into dust, the goddess of the small kingdom had to concede defeat. However, a true victory would not be as easy for the invading goddess as she expected...

Millenia later, the island is now known as Japan, and until recently, the two gods had been living more and more quiet lives in their native shrine, being served by a shrine maiden with divine blood coursing through her veins... Indeed, she is a descendent of Suwako, who remains the true god of this shrine. And when her old enemy, new friend Kanako decided to move their base to Gensokyo, our froggy friend smiled. She was prepared to face the death of a forgotten god, having spent the last thousands of years practically in hiding. But she is not going to miss this opportunity to start a new life elsewhere...

With this in mind, Suwako is a multi-faceted character with the history and force of a fearsome native god, along with the bouncy, playful quirkiness of a person feeling born anew.

In Gensokyo, the eldritch terror wears a silly hat.

Relations:

• Sanae (distant offspring)
• Kanako (former enemy, now best buds)

Alternate Character Interpretations:
A Girl and her Hat
-by asterism

Broken and Remade
-by Cynicmuffin

If Suwako was a D&D deity.
-by Dragonexx

The Mature God
-by JackTheSnowman

Frog in the Earth
-by Otherarrow

Snake Eats Frog
-by Pulse

Untitled, Nonsequential Observations and Theories Concerning Suwako
-by Tacitus

edited 8th Oct '11 3:44:29 PM by Fawriel

Suwako. She is a god person. Kero.

And now the overview is in its proper place.

Of Note

Suwako's listed ability is the ability to create earth, note the lowercase. This is ground, not the planet.

She can also control Mishaguji, curse gods who, through large amounts of faith, caused birth, harvests, militaries, and other random things I don't know about. Suwako is the only one who can tame them.

Suwako is the goddess of the Moriya shrine, but lost her kingdom in a battle with Kanako. She also had a kingdom. Suwako was still in command of her kingdom in reality, though.

She is Sanae's ancestor.

She apparently takes the form of a frog, explaining her affinity with them.

Interestingly enough, two of Suwako's attacks in GQ take the form of snakes, including the Mishaguji, her ultimate attack. The snake is, of course, Kanako's symbol.

The frogs printed on Suwako's dress were taken from Chōjū-giga, the picture scrolls drawn in 12th century.

The name Suwako (諏訪子) is modified from Lake Suwa (諏訪湖, pronounced Suwa-ko), the largest lake in Nagano prefecture. The area also features one of the world's largest geysers.

Among the Touhou fandom, Suwako's hat has almost become an entity of its own, largely thanks to the imposing leer of the eyes on top. Its most common name is Pyonta.

Music

I love Native Faith. It's almost too catchy. It'll never leave your head. EVER!

It also can't be played properly on any given instrument by one person.

Overview

I guess Suwako's okay. I haven't an idea of how to portray her, though. She seems to side towards to extremes. Cute or Mature. I suppose for a goddess who's essentially retired, you can be both, but it's a hard difference to split. I guess that's all I have to say about her. Her profile states that her and Kanako are actually good friends despite constant arguments, and the Sanae is not actually aware of the history of her shrine, but she knows who Suwako is. So I suppose that helps cement the Moriya relationship meter. Or not... I don't think about Suwako a lot, okay?

EDIT: It occurs to me now that between Iku's quote above and Suwako quote when defeating Yukari, where she boasts Yukari can't gap into her shrine, ZUN defines Suwako as goddess without boundaries. She can't be manipulated, or controlled. She can only beat you down while the music swells into a painfully catchy melody.

edited 27th Sep '11 5:05:49 PM by Horselesshorseman

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

A Girl and her Hat*

Now, I like Suwako. She is, on the surface, an absolutely adorable girl, with adorable nonsensical noises*

, and adorable frog leaps, and an adorable method of flight*

^{SUWAKOPTER! flapflapflap~}

.

However.

Beneath her exterior, she is...a bit more. Firstly, her hat is incredibly evil and peverse she is one of the oldest characters in the series at well over 2500 years old*

Both times in canon where she engages in battle, she does not do it out of aggression*

^{First time is a game, second time is a test.}

. A few of her spellcards in Mountain of Faith have a trick that may make them easier, suggesting that she is having fun and not playing to win. She freely wields the terrifying power of the Mishaguji, and unlike characters like Yuyuko, she is rather liberal with their power, using their curses as her ultimate attack in all her appearances.

Furthermore, her 'Suwa Wars'*

spellcard might imply that she still carries a grudge from the battle she lost all those years ago. Her win quotes in Hisoutensoku are rather malicious, and in an offhand comment in Mountain of Faith, she claims to be the true power of the Moriya Shrine, a place that is well know for ambitious schemes. Though the schemes are probably Kanako's, who's to say the goddess didn't seek the advice of her older, wiser friend beforehand?*

^{She probably didn't. But still, one can speculate}

. In fact, in one of her win quotes, Sanae accuses Suwako of manipulating events from behind the scenes.*

^{You're fond of taking action from behind the scenes, right? But in that case, I'll have to remain suspicious of you as well.}

However again, despite her surprisingly sinister nature, she is an informal and easygoing goddess, happily taking on challengers to exhibition matches, and (flying in the face of fanon) cheerfully assuring Cirno that she can continue freeze frogs to her heart's content, as frogs are susceptible to cold temperatures. Perhaps she adjusts her outer personality in accordance with the general mood, after all she goes from landing on Sanae's head in amusing slapstick fashion, to declaring herself the creator of the very lands before launching into a fierce battle that carries up into the very skies themselves in the space of a single scene.

Perhaps she appears to others as she sees fit. Whatever the case is, that surely is one impressive hat.

edited 27th Sep '11 4:08:44 PM by asterism

Heart of Stone

Oh dear, I seem to have contracted Footnote Fever~.

Alas, there is no cure. Catch the fever! CATCH IT!

Music: Native Faith is all up in your faith.

O-Life Japan remix, C-Clays vocal remix, SHO remix, dBu remix, and the ligament tearing sisimai remix.

edited 27th Sep '11 4:23:16 PM by asterism

Heart of Stone

Suwako is a frog.

From what I've seen of her, she seems very...childish. If one did not know the history of the shrine, and was just randomly looking in, it would be very easy to assume that Suwako was the youngest, and not just because of her current form. She acts like a kid. Must be odd for Sanae to have to treat her ancestor as if she was her little sister. Although I do think she can get manipulative and cunning (though not exactly serious) if the time comes.

I remember hearing (I think it was from Touhou wiki before someone corrected it?) that Suwako and Kanako were sisters. How the hell did that come about? Fans are dumb.

If this "Gensoukyou" plan of Kanako's fails, she can just make them their own island nation to rule. Everyone will believe in the frog who made her own land from nothing! (This may not actually work. There is a reason Kanako does the planning)

I can see her in a "rivalry" with Cirno. Less because Suwako is angry at what Cirno is doing, and more because seeing Cirno try to come up with ways to defeat and freeze her is amusing.

(Also, I'm a bit curious. Are Suwako and Kanako based on any Shinto Gods in particular?)

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

I don't think they're based off of any existing shinto myths, but there's 8000+ gods, so what do I know

edited 27th Sep '11 4:22:33 PM by Metaflare

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

i've got a write up in the works but im gonna save it for tomorrow, partially because i want to flesh the idea out some more, but mostly because i think i just hit the wall.

Just another passerby

You mean 8,000,000+