The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

I mean, she admitted to it. Or at least that she was in the area when Futo did it.

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I am just amused at the possibility that Bishamonten backs both Byakuren and Miko.

Anyway Shou. I like her hair. Is it naturally like that, or does she use stuff in it? I could see naturally, since not!tiger tiger creature.

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The music dumping! It's a thing I do.

Rural Makai City Esoteria - And the winner for oddest song title iiiiiiiis... Seriously though, I really, really love this piece. It's almost certainly one of my most beloved pieces of music ever, and it's got some really amazing versions from the fans. Trivia: this song is in the rather unusual 11/8 time signature.

I did a music dump for this song in the main thread. To save about an hour of Youtube searching, I'll just link it here.

The Tiger Patterned Vaisravana - DUN! DUN DUN! DUN-DUN-DUN DUN!! Very powerful. Sadly, there's not much behind this theme than the power, but since you are fighting a fearsome tiger goddess and her fearsome lantern, power is probably the point. Stage 5 boss themes are usually pretty heavy, with the notable exception of Legend of the Great Gods.

Standard dBu fare
POWERRRRRRRRR
More power
Mixed with Rural Makai
Indian folk
Maybe she's a tiger
God of good fortune
Les pianos, they return
The required orchestral piece
I rarely link vocal versions, but...
...I am forced to conclude that this piece works better as a song than an instrumental
An incredibly rare sedate version
SAMBA!

Heart of Stone

Well, since he's even active in the outside world, I guess he's as much of an opportunist as Kanako and having any organization prop him up serves his purposes regardless of whether it is Buddhist or Taoist (or Shinto).

edited 3rd Oct '12 3:43:16 PM by Recon5

I think that if Bishamonten backed Miko during the war it doesn't even mean that Shou will back her now. Certain things have come to light, she's not promoting Buddhism anymore, et cetera.

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Oh of course. I do think that if it comes up at all, Bishamonten would be more likely to be against Miko or let Shou do as she pleases about it, since she is the one representing him here.

And I do think Shou would be anti-Miko. Duh.

I just thought that the possibility was amusing.

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Well, Bishamonten supports Byakuren, whose relationship with Buddhist tenets has been a bit shaky, even if it seems to have stabilized a bit nowadays.

Heart of Stone

Bishamonten might be a totally open-minded guy who thinks that Byakuren's ideas are Just Swell, though. I mean, compassion at least leads to good karma, even if it's bad for getting towards Nirvana.

edited 3rd Oct '12 6:30:35 PM by Pulse

I sure said that!

He approved of Byakuren's idea of getting him some worshipers from an untapped population. As long as he didn't have to do much legwork since he's a busy god.

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Well, yeah. I never meant to imply he wasn't in it for the faith, just that he's cool with other forms of benevolence in his name.

I sure said that!

Neither Byakuren or Bishamonten give a whatever about Nirvana at this point. They're focusing on keeping their mortal flocks happy and peaceful in the here and now rather than encouraging them to look beyond all the illusions. Good Buddhists they sure ain't.

Well Buddhism believes that the gods are also trapped in the eternal cycle of reincarnation. The only way to get out is through illumination. I think Byakuren wants the Youkai to reach that.

edited 3rd Oct '12 11:55:50 PM by asellus111

So Shou. She's pretty serious, except when she's off duty. Do gods get time off? Well she does. Evenings and weekends or something. Or evenings, at the very least. I imagine people rarely pray in the evenings. Apart from vespers and such. Other things need to be doing, you know.

Also, I assume evenings because she gets drunk in her downtime and people tend to get drunk in the evening on account of them not needing full cognitive facilities for the rest of the night.

Heart of Stone

...Yeah I do assume she gets drunk by night. She shouldn't, but she does anyway.

I am pretty sure she is a violent drunk. Since she isn't much of a fighter even while sober, this ends badly for her.

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Really? I imagine her as more of a table dancing kind of drunk.

Heart of Stone

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Don't insult her dancing unless you want to get mauled.

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Yeah, I don't know why I brought up Nirvana in there. I really was thinking about Bishamonten trying to amass faith, sorry.

Now I have this picture in my head of a drunk Ichirin and a clueless Byakuren cheering her on.

I sure said that!

For the record, the thing about her drinking is a pun. "Tiger" is an idiomatic way to call someone who gets rowdy when drunk.

Isn't her name misspelled so as to be read as 'drunk person' in the UFO soundtrack?

Heart of Stone

Probably why this pic was posted two years ago, well before recent revelations about Shou's alcohol intake.

After work, she and Komachi hit their favorite bar and complain about the vagaries of fate concerning human imagination and supernatural causality.

...So she's not quite a tiger who used to be able to transform into what people thought was a tiger until she spent too much time looking like a statue of a god to be able to turn into the not-tiger.

Picdumpin'. Lemme tell ya', once you see a pic of Unzan giving Shou a spanking, there's no good way to unsee it. Also, do tigers and foxes have a rivalry in Japanese mythology? 'cause there was more stuff with Shou and Ran than I was expecting. Or is it due to the Chen-Nazrin parallels?

• Spear, pagoda, tiger print, it's her
• A lot of yellow
• Captivating eyes
• Nice source lighting
• A mite uncomfortable
• So Hokkai was a pond in the middle of a Makai city
• Tiger looks legit
• Battle regalia
• Annoyed that more people are checking out her abs than her bust
• They'll get to her eventually, patience
• Splendid androgyny
• Fearful symmetry?
• Shou's back
• She practically sparkles
• Tiger recommend you close all other windows before proceeding
• Onikobe Rin gives her +4 Str
• Another Paseri pic
• Another f7(eiki) pic
• Smiling
• Sleeping
• Rising
• Losing her composure
• Kinda bored
• Serene but also threatening
• You don't wanna see Unhappy Tiger
• Could she do the ears at one point but gradually lost the ability?
• Alarming yellow eyes
• Think this has something to do with the Chinese zodiac
• Wonder what her growl sounds like
• Giving 2010 an ominous start
• And here we have a sketch of a nude bloodsoaked Shou in-between tiger and humanoid forms
• Judging by the background, I have no idea where she is
• Sit in front of a big ring, now fold your leg like that, do the Kanako!
• Not-tiger with a bearded tiger
• Not-tiger riding a not-wolf
• Glowing lotus petals
• White not-tiger
• Chillin'
• Not-chillin'
• In repose
• Damn the "same style" guidelines for profile pics
• Again, makes me think of Calvin and Hobbes
• Naz may well be the older mother figure in the relationship
• Guess this is fanservice
• The other popular pairing
• The flower detracts from the ferocity
• Cub
• Buddhism is hard!
• With a guest appearance by Paru-Chan
• She's sold that thing to every store-owner in Gensokyo

...And I guess music? Besides the amazing mellow remix asterism shared with us, SYNC.ART'S did another, trancier rendition of Shou's theme that I quite like.

edited 5th Oct '12 12:05:30 AM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "CHIMERA"

That's a tiger, not a wolf. That's Gekigami, the tiger god of lightning.

Heart of Stone

So, Shou. I picture her as serious and devoted to her role, but not at all certain how to handle anything outside of her role. Nazrin may have been sent to keep watch on Shou, but she probably ended up mostly taking care of her

Oh yes. I can see her being extremely devoted and good at being a divine avatar (indeed, it is her youkai purpose now, since her tiger not-tiger creature is disproven) but isn't exactly good at anything else. Like combat. Or not losing her Pagoda.

Or not getting drunk and mauling someone for insulting her dancing.

edited 6th Oct '12 3:37:34 PM by Otherarrow

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I must say, I dislike the 'clumsy, forgetful' interpretation of Shou. She lost the pagoda once, to the best of our knowledge, and we are unaware of the circumstances of its loss, only that Shou kept the loss a secret from everyone except Nazrin.

Heart of Stone

Hmm. You have a point. I usually don't like those kinds of interpretations, so I am surprised I latched on to this one.

I blame the fact that I have very little headcanon for Shou.

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