Profound Touhou Original Character Compendium

By "next game", I mean "Fairy Wars", apparently.

And that's a new page. I'll be republishing Tenshou tomorrow morning.

edited 21st Jul '11 7:46:26 PM by XionGaTaosenai

Well, Marisa does have the star motif, and stars are technically balls of fire...

Though that kind of thing is usually more expected of Okuu, but still...

Tenshou Kenkaku

(Character made by WORLD Tree)

Tenshou is another tsukumogami, this time born from a legendary Samurai's armor. He seeks to live up to the reputation of his late owner, and does this by roaming the land, striving to be as manly as possible. He has the power to absorb the strength of other weapon youkai and add it to his own, and his mood changes drastically with the weather.

His primary philosophy revolves around 3 "principles of manliness":

• To Go against the curve is manly.
• Only manliness can beget manliness.
• Women are Manlier than men. *
  ^{this is a corollary to the second principle, as all men come from women.}

He is thus very respectful to all the girls he meets, but often outright bizarre in his mannerisms. His loud, boisterous escapades have found him banned from most civilized places, so he roams the wilderness, searching for heroic deeds to do and other ways to be manly.

When not gallivanting across Gensokyo, Tenshou enjoys painting and poetry, trying to match the old samurai's skill as an artist as well as a warrior. He has difficulty showing his work though, due to the aforementioned banning from civilization.

Tropes Associated with Tenshou

• Rated M for Manly - His ultimate Goal is to be this.

edited 23rd Jul '11 4:19:57 PM by XionGaTaosenai

I'll be honest, I was never fond of Tenshou. Something about him feels somehow not fitting with the Gensokyo setting*

Or maybe because as he was originally written, he was a lot more extreme in his mannerisms. This new writeup seems to have toned that down a bit to a more tolerable level.

Or maybe I'm just feeling less critical now than I was before. Who knows?

As I recall, we had talked WORLD Tree down a bit from punching children in the face if they look too happy.

Since it seems the discussion is stagnating so quickly, I must now decide whether to spend my time thinking of spellcard ideas for this guy (keeping in mind that he was originally intended for a fighting game), or to make a fresh writeup for my old character Nozomi. Or both, if I can spare the time.

The discussion can't stagnate if it never started in the first place.

You'd think that the new guys who never heard of the old toons before might have something to say. Or that they would discuss anyone except their own toons at all.

What... happened here? I can only see the queue system as an improvement to the old poll system, but participation has gotten significantly worse. What went wrong? Yeah, a lot of people disappeared, but about as many new participants came in as those who left. Does the new crowd just not care?

I'm not trying to point fingers, but of all the new people who came in, the only one who seems to be actually participating at all is Metaflare.

I think a lot of people were like I was at first, thinking of this as just a dumping ground

Do they not realize how enjoyable it is to add depth to someone else's character? Is that not the heart of the Touhou fandom?

That's what I'm thinking too,and it disappoints me greatly.

Unless they have powerful negative opinions. And if they have powerful negative opinions, skewer those marshmallows and get out your graham crackers and Hershey bars.

Or maybe just laziness might be the cause. At least, that's my reason. I want to add to this + put up my own OCs, but I've let sloth carry me away.

For that, I apologize.

Well, I have nothing constructive to say.

Despite the title, what you have to say doesn't have to be profound. I think we can have a bit of random tangentially-related silliness.

Yeah, but I hate having, at most, two tiny little things to comment on. It feels pointless to even say it.

Never stopped me. I mean, I doubt anyone else cares about spellcard design (unless it's for their character), but I blabber on about it anyway.

Well, for a start, IIRC samurai were skilled wit hthings like bows, so he could use arrows as his unique bullet (as in, actual arrows.)

also, that bit about women being manlier than men's justification sounds like it was tkaen from 300.

I also had an idea for, well, a SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN , but it'd be too similar and I don't see how to make him work.

Blah. Sorry about not talking, the MSPA fora really can consume one's life(Not to mention being VERY intimately involved in the Adult Stuck RP...).

But since it'd be rude to not appear with anything in hand(And honestly I'd feel bad, especially given the current topic discussion), I'm gonna WALL O' TEXT YA!

—-

Hikari Natsukaze

I already mentioned how much I love this character, as I very much liked the writeup before being accepted in and the writeup solidified her as one of my favorites.

I find her power simple, yet elegant: Tenshi has something similar going on, but is much more associated with earthquakes than the weather in my opinion(IIRC a lot of the weather stuff was due to the Sword of Hisou). However, I feel it undoubtably links the two together, but Hikari's personality is perfect for that!

Hikari's personality is sunny and cheerful. Tenshi's is sour and entitled. But I often feel Tenshi isn't really that bad, she's just...well, it's like giving a bored or tentruming child massive power, things just happen. In this same way, I feel Hikari as a bit of a bent behind her sunniness, a bit of jerkishness if you will. Not really a lot, but I like to imagine when somebody gets her mad, she doesn't get angry visibly, but you'd notice a lot of backhanded compliments and stealthy insults mixed into her normal speech.

You could say they are inverses of each other. Funny enough though, I wouldn't be surprised if they were friends, although perhaps in a Vrtiolic(I know I misspelled that) Best Friends way.

Relatedly, I feel both due to powers and this connection, I feel Iku has some disdain for Hikari. Iku is all about reading the atmosphere, going with the flow, and so on. Hikari is spontanous energy and changes the atmosphere on a whim, causing unexpected events, miscalculations and so on. Not only is it a job interference, but her spontanous, changing energy clashes with Iku's laid back, watch and see and somewhat lazy attitude. So Tenshi and Hikari get along as kind-of friends, but Iku kind of sits in the background, pouting.

Hikari has a bit of an up-and-down relationship with basically all the tengu. While her power can clear away the worst winds for them or stop the most dreadful rains, Hikari also can bring them, interfering with their ways, all at her own whim. Just as the flying tengu have an up and down relationship with the weather, so they do with Hikari.

In terms of fan characters, Tenshou's personality is stated to "change drastically with the weather"...and, in turn, Hikari is the manipulator of the weathers. The idea of Hikari messing with the weather to see her favorite toy march amuses me, even if it's a bit jerk-ish for her. They could also make a very deadly team.

I imagine the Team 9-ish youkai enjoy her, as she's both fun-loving and easy going(Something not seen in a lot of end-game bosses like I imagine her to be), but she also brings delicious and mysterious new fruit from her island or easily produces treats they almost certainly enjoy, like ice cream. I definately imagine Cirno and her getting along: Ice Fairies and Rain Fairies probably have a natural friendship and, in turn, Hikari's watching over the rain fairies makes her a natural choice for a friend of Cirno, who is basically THE ice fairy. The kids of the village probably like her, too.

There would definately be fanworks of Yuuka and Hikari fighting over the "summer" position.

Hmmm...actually, a good idea for how to imagine her personality in my mind is a slightly less jerkish, slightly more cheery Feferi Peixes.

As for her spellcards...

Gensokyo's Tempest seems like a nice parallel to Scarlet Rhapsody of All Gensokyo. The latter is a focused assault, perfect for Tenshi's thinking: While the Tempest seems well to reflect Hikari's relaxed or more chipper side, plus being not focused in reflection.

I really like the idea of all of her X signs having a special effect appended to them, like you did. It inspired a similar mechanic in some of my own characters, actually. I definately imagine her as a late or even final boss.

Oh, also, while I have little to comment on it, I also really like her appearance. It seems both fashionable and unique.

Oh, double also, I didn't discuss shipping much. But the only shipping I really see her with is with Tenshi that I have thought of so far.

—-

Suketchi/Kyuuki

Okay, first off, I just wanna start with this: I love the Spellcards here. All of them. Both the way they are written and the names. Especially Ancient Sign "Stonehenge", Dance Sign "Tango of Roses", Modern Sign "Splatter of Paint" and Art Sign "Prequel".

As for her personality...she's one of the oldest youkai in existance, if not arguably the oldest(Depending on how you define artistic inspiration and how far natural youkai a thinged). Because of this, I imagine she is also very wise in many other, non-artistic exploits, and the ills of the world are rare to get to her. This also makes her at times incomprehensible and an oddball, sort of like Yukari, but in a less Yukari-manipulation way.

Thanks to her ability to make her art come to life, I like to imagine she basicaly has her own instant entourage or party for when she goes around critiquing as the more rude and aloof Suketchi. Just imagine her strolling in, maybe adjusting her glasses a little, "Tsk tsk tsk.", then going off on the piece of whatever it is she happens to be going off on, with actual living demonstrations and exquisite examples that all probably ends with a paint-throwing danmaku battle.

Given the Muse aspect and the stated engineering feets, I bet she's a good friend of the kappa. Even if her critique as of late is a bit harsh, the bursts of inspiration, design streamlining and prettification and overall creative flow seems very much appreciated in one of, if the only, engineering-based civilizations in Gensokyo. The tengu probably less so, with her as-of-late ruthless deconstruction of their journalistic skills.

When she's in Kyuuki mode, she's much more amicable. I imagine this is when she gathers her ideas, when she listens and absorbs the information of the ever-changing world of art around herself. This is when you can get a nice, friendly debate over qualities and merits: But asking directly is often not a good idea, because Kyuuki has thousands of years of information to pour through, something few people are prepared to slog through or remember.

I like to imagine she has a tendacy to just go from topic to topic as Kyuuki, just because she has so much, all with a connection, perhaps in a bit of a Motor Mouth way. When you've been seeing the creations of man and youkai from the dawn of time, it's not hard to connect a simple painting back to the Parthenon.

Aside from that...hm. I really feel like I should have more to add, but I honestly do not. I cannot think of much in the way of shipping nor in terms of cards and I've honestly exhausted my thoughts about her personally...

I do like her, though. So that's a plus.

—-

Hanabi Kozui

Okay, first two thoughts. First off, flamethrowers are awesome, so I already love her. Especially for being the watery Kappa.

Second thought...she's a kappa, so she has a natural affinity for water. She uses fire. What do you get when you quickly evaporate water over a high surface, such as a flame?

Steam!

Therefor, I propose that Hanabi makes a lot of inventions that run on steam. This seems to fit well with being a Kappa exile too: Most kappa use more futuristic stuff and we stuff like nuclear processes, so the idea of a steamworks-esque Kappa who has left the normal society of it seems both very fitting and very cool, to me.

So I like the idea of her kind of at the edge of the Misty Lake, mucking around with these little steam inventions, perhaps even contributing to it's mistiness. Cirno and the ice fairies tend to stay away from this strange outcast and her natural enemy, fire. And with the lake right there, she has all the water she'll ever need for her kooky inventions.

I like to think she holds a bit of disdain for Kappa society. Hanabi is outgoing, raging forward like an inferno or a blast of steam. Kappa society shys away from the world that could use their inventions and is reactionary in personality. She wishes that Kappa society would just grow a spine, basically.

Mokou seems obvious as a friend of her. She probably stops bye to see Hanabi when she gets bored of waiting for Mokou, slams a few drinks(Possibly drinks that are on fire), maybe throw some flames at each other or have Mokou do some stuff around. A simple friendship.

Marisa also seems like a good choice. Marisa is all about advancement and Hanabi is all on board with that. And Marisa is a very sharp person with a good mental intellect, so she would be able to provide nice conversational fodder too. Not to mention, of course, providing a good fight.

On occassions in need of fireworks and such, Suika and Hanabi team up to put on a show.

Damn, now I want to make a clockwork Kappa...

Another character I enjoy, but who I had little to say. I like to imagine her theme as kind of hard, beating, unrelenting, maybe with some sharp whistles thrown in at times. Dunno for a name, though... "Candid Flame, Misty Steam" or something?

—-

As for republishing my characters...honestly, most of them felt more or less completed to me. The only ones I'd want to repost are Shinkusu, because she didn't get much discussion, and Kagamichi, as by far my most successful toon and one I never edited in some stuff for...

I'd love to see Xion's reposts of them and then add my own thoughts, though. Just to see what others think of my characters.

And of course, I still need to post Ayu...

—-

For Tenshou and Kusari...I'm afraid to say I have nothing to say on them at this time. I may try to think of stuff for Tenshou...but I am literally drawing a blank on even a simple construction of a sentence here.

Dreadfully sorry.

—-

Interesting for new characters...

Chieko: Scholar, hm? That's a pretty nice job for a Touhou character. Space bending abilities...not new, but not explored either, and...oooh, Alien Geometries? I don't even know what those are, but they sound exciting! The last part with Keine-Sensei solidifies a 3 Interest given, I feel.

Cyndy: I'll be honest here. I start very much with a bias here: Almost any dragon character(And although you use the word dragonic, I'm pretty sure that just means dragon) makes me very uneasy in Touhou, because so far it's implied there are very few, if not only one, Dragon character(s) in the series, and the Dragon mentioned always seems to be absurdly powerful and such. So it always, always makes me uneasy to see a dragon character.

I feel the rest of the writeup is worth a single point of interest through the bias, because the insecurities about yourself angle seems like something that, while not quite too Touhou-ish, could be done VERY well in the setting.

Bingo: I don't really care much for anything here, sorry to say. 0.

Slenda: Interesting character, wrong medium. I honestly don't care to see her writeup much. 0.

Did I miss anyone?

—-

Regarding my own submissions...did everyone just not like them or were they just glossed over? I'd love to get even a little one sentence long thing or something regarding my characters getting 0, since only Xion even commented on mine...

—-

Would it be okay if I posted some information on the game I mentioned in Evangeline's profile, Beloved Witches' Rondo? This is partially because I want somebody else to come up with a Stage 1 boss and partially because I want to get it out, heh.

I can understand if it'd be forbidden, though.

—-

I'm going to try and be here more often, I've just been...preoccupied, I suppose. I'm sorry this post is a lot shorter than I intended(About half length), but I ran out of things to say.

I should probably decide to put up a new character sometime...and post Ayu.

As a suggestion to Xion: Copy the queue into Notepad, make changes in there, then paste into the post. This makes it easier to get more space like you desire! =)

I think that's everything I wanted to go over...

edited 26th Jul '11 12:38:30 PM by RukiMotomiya

Wish I could wall o' text stuff... Anyways...

Honestly, I had no idea if there were dragons in Touhou, or if they're supposed to be strong. I don't intend Cyndy to be exceptionally strong though, I prefer to avoid that. That, and I figured a dragon could make a good subversion of Cute Monster Girl. It was either that or make her a Gria expy from FFTA 2.

This and This are the only informaton that we have on Touhou dragons, so it's not surprising you wouldn't know.

Gleaming from it, there seems to me as if there would be few dragons(If not only that one) and they would be very powerful. I feel, anyway.

Huh... Well, if I ever get around to that fan fic idea starring my OC's, that information will provide some great back story ideas. Awesome.

Hehe...glad to be of help! ^_^

Ruki Ruki Ruki Ruki! Yeah Ruki!

I- what?

Yes, this exactly. I've mentioned this at least twice already.

Hmm... I'd like to avoid having a big wall of text go up about a toon who isn't even published (On that note, depending on how big your thing on JB is, you may want to just PM it to me). Can you get it posted up anywhere else? If you can, you can link it here. Otherwise... I'll have to think about it.

Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh!!! ...Wow!

Great idea! Thanks!

edited 26th Jul '11 1:08:24 PM by XionGaTaosenai

It's not really a wall of text. It'd just be an explanation of the game's plot, mostly.

Err...I see my error there. I think I meant "waiting for Kaguya"(Mokou waiting for her, for their fights and stuff) and my mind got messed up.

And yeah...my original goal was to have 5,000 words written, but I only got up to 2,159.

Also, yeah, I could PM the Jol thing, since I doubt anyone else cares to listen.

edited 26th Jul '11 1:11:42 PM by RukiMotomiya

ruki

ruki can i hug you