Court Dragon
Subconsious: Rorschach in Gensokyo.
Speaking of the Moriya Shrine, I'm not sure it's really at the top of the mountain.
I have a message from another time...
literary masochist
That Gensokyo just is, and that each individual tends to project their own vision on to it? You know, the way we have the light-hearted and silly Gensokyo, the cutesy moe-ified Gensokyo (well mostly just the characters, in fanart), dead serious "youkai will kill you if you're not careful" Gensokyo... you get the idea. They're all, in a sense, correct, if a bit exaggerated at times. I myself prefer not to hold myself to any single facet of the whole, though I might prefer one over the other at a given time.
Kinda the way you can get a comedy, a drama, or a suspense thriller (among others) out of the same framework of "real life".
This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...
Ghosts' Poet
Kyler just won the topic
edited 7th Dec '10 3:20:59 PM by yarrunmace
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
I wonder: since it's been stated that disbelief in something in the outside world is more likely to make it exist in Gensokyo, could Gensokyo be a sort of anti-reality to our world? Not called "land of illusion" for nothing, I guess.
The "place" of Gensokyo, or at least how we see it in the series, is very interesting, at least to me. It is relativly young (the border was only put up in the late 1800s), yet someone who did not know it's age (such as myself) would get the impression it's been around forever. Also, despite it's youth, what is known about Gensokyo's creation sounds like something out of an ancient myth: a cursed land sealed off from the rest of reality, it's "creation" marked by the sighting of a divine youkai of immeasurable power who is rarely seen in the modern day, if at all. Despite the land being home to ageless youkai, I got the impression that there are very few (I currently count one) who know the exact details of Gensokyo's creation and even less, if any, who actually care.
Gensokyo's physical properties also interest me, mostly in that we know nothing really concrete about it. Is it a separate "realm" from the Earth, split away by the Hakurei Border? Is it still part of the Earth, just sealed off from the rest of it by the Border? (I personally believe this, after all, Gensokyo and the Earth have the same Moon.) Do things happen/appear there in reaction to them happening (or not happening) in the outside world, like Rinnosuke's theory states? If the Earth were to somehow be destroyed, would Gensokyo survive? Just how easy is it to get through the border, if the Moriya Shrine can just appear there from the outside world without any problems and if things/people can apparently just wander in? (and yet two characters on the other side who are actually looking for it can't get in without plot involved for one of them?)
This "serious mini-essay" attempt turned out asking more questions than answering them, and doesn't really note on it's various inhabitants at all. If I am doing something incorrect with this, you have my apologies.
Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.
The newcomers were already gods in the outside world, while Renko and Maribel are mere humans as far as I know. Perhaps Gensokyo is easier to find/enter for those who are already fantastical in nature.
Funny but not helpful
Likely. If Gensokyo is a sort of last refuge for fantastical creatures, the boundary should allow them in more easily so that any stragglers can escape to Gensokyo. Plus, youkai seem to cross it easily anyway if their snack runs to the real world are any indication.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
But it seems like the idea for something must exist in the real world before it can exist in Gensokyo, right?
"Justice!"
But it seems like the idea for something must exist in the real world before it can exist in Gensokyo, right?Since Gensokyo's real world is more or less the same as our real world, is that a meaningful question? You can't write a story about something existing in Gensokyo without having the idea of it, after all.
Are you saying that the Touhou games exist in the real world that corresponds with Gensokyo?
"Justice!"
Oh, that would be awfully meta; probably not, actually. I like the idea, though!
(I also don't recall hearing anything about a certain part of Japan disappearing in the late 19th century, if it comes to that.)
Court Dragon
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
alternatively...
(read The Rant)
This. Cannot. Continue
On the picture front! I suppose it would be difficult to find pictures that portray Gensokyo very well... Though they definitely exist. Might be a good challenge! (cracks knuckles)
- Traditional.
- Something is about to happen.
- Technically very high over Gensokyo.
- Like the texture on the trees.
- Didn't know Gensokyo had that many mountains.
- Netherworld isn't very otherworldly.
- Heaven's weird.
- Very soft.
- It rains in Gensokyo too, y'know.
- Big ol' lake.
- Big ol' sky.
- Just another day on Youkai Mountain.
- The monochrome makes it spooky.
- Don't worry, she has ways of staying warm.
- View from the top is nice.
- She comes by to ask about cucumbers at least once a week.
- Boundaries.
- Immigrant.
- Maybe it's the symbolic stand-in for a certain someone?
- The flora is only the second most dangerous thing in this picture.
- Almost ominous.
- Riverside view.
- Saved the best for last.
And from the "not really Gensokyo, but I thought was neat" category:
...Yeah, "challenge" equals typing "Touhou landscape" into Danbooru’s search engine, then taking the time to look through seven pages of results. Looks like "Touhou scenery" has even more, but this took long enough.
Unusually poetic mood approaching:
Gensokyo is the creek you played in as a kid. It's that rotting, abandoned shack where you swore you saw something peering at you through the window. It's that glade where you stopped for lunch during a family holiday. It's the pond where you looked for fairies. It's everything you imagined might be in that cave you were too scared to actually explore.
It's a land straddling the border of the mundane and fantastical, a familiar world that could become wondrous at any moment. It's a place you remember from before you learned enough to know that there's no such thing as fairies, before your science textbook took all the fun out of wondering how the frost got on window panes. It's where your schoolteacher turns into a horned half-beast under a full moon, where the newspaper is written by tengu with loose journalistic standards, and where a fox might come into your village to do some shopping. It's where possibilities spread out instead of being corralled into a Grand Unified Theory. It's a place where you go to have adventures or relax in an idyllic, nostalgic retreat.
It's... got good music? ...Hmm, I blame this on sleep deprivation interacting with cold medication, with a hint of "because I was bored." I think I was trying too hard, but meh.
Current earworm: "Mother ~ Outro"
Okay, now I have to give "touhou scenery" a shot:
- Generic forest:
- Youkai Mountain:
- Nitori's Stage:
- Hina's Stage:
- Tengu Village:
- Onbashira:
- Moriya Shrine:
- Hakurei Shrine:
- Myouren Temple:
- Forest of Magic:
- Human Village:
- Other:
...For some reason I feel compelled to vote to do Nitori next.
edited 8th Dec '10 12:46:51 AM by Hylarn
...
Okay, now comes the challenging part: Pick 3.
I'll do it, too, but I have to leave within the next, like... half hour.
Also, tell me if I can use the video in the "Appearance" section already.
Hmm, now that I think about it, starting to vote on the next character might already be in order, so as to not lose momentum. On the other hand, it only seems sensible to go with Reimu next, what with how directly she's connected to Gensokyo and she's the main character and all.
I assume we're using the "tier" system again?
edited 8th Dec '10 1:26:32 AM by Fawriel
Ghosts' Poet
Voting for Reimu, Marisa and Yukari
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
literary masochist
What is this tier system, and how does it work?
This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...
Funny but not helpful
If we're voting, I vote for the main man the Unnamed Giant Catfish.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Great selection of scenery pictures.
And a vote for Reimu.
edited 23rd Dec '10 4:37:58 AM by Higanbana
One Winged Egret
^^ The tier system is explained in the first post of the previous thread. Basically some characters are clearly more popular than others, so rather than doing all the popular characters first and having the thread slow down for its second half the characters are divided into "tiers" wherein we can only vote within the tier. Popular tiers are alternated with less popular tiers such that we maintain an even distribution of character discussion throughout the thread. Well, it was always more of a guideline than a rule.
Although given what happened with Yamame last time I'm not sure this is entirely necessary.
edited 8th Dec '10 4:58:42 AM by Clarste
Good Egg
Reimu would make sense, wouldn't she? Given how she's not only the main character, but also tied to the survival of Gensokyo itself. Time to go do my research and start working on her essay, then.
Time keeps dragging on.
Court Dragon
Yeah, Reimu is the most logical choice, after a discussion of Gensokyo itself.
I have a message from another time...
Okay, I only came here because of this thread showing up in my referral logs, but that is some pretty awesome Scenery Porn there. (Scenery Hentai ...?)
Also I'm tempted to steal Tacitus's little speech about Gensokyo for something. (And that "Yakumos at the End of the World" is inspiring more prose, d'oh!)
Also also, dammit, I can no longer see "stairs" without thinking someone needs to be warned about them. IT KEEPS HAPPENING!
edited 8th Dec '10 9:46:33 AM by KimikoMuffin
"Justice!"
Okay, I only came here because of this thread showing up in my referral logs, but that is some pretty awesome Scenery Porn there. (Scenery Hentai ...?)Assuming you're still here, I'll ask this while it's vaguely relevant: your comments on that comic greatly resemble a very similar exercise in causal logic in Darths & Droids. Intentional?
^ Could you elaborate on the Rorschach test analogy?
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped