? Nothing but a miserable pile of desires. Like if, say, the original Yoshika loved painting, her jiangshi wouldn't be able to paint but might instinctively horde paintbrushes.
edited 24th Apr '14 5:09:39 AM by Prime32
Idiotic Good
Ah. That helps a lot, really. That's kinda a pitiful existence in my opinion. Then again, mindless zombie jiangshi is mindless. The very idea would probably get in the way of stuff like... well, whatever a mindless obedient jiangshi would do. Like guarding a place that doesn't really need to be guarded anymore.
I also learned today about souls. What is this.
...should I feel bad that I find this unintentionally hilarious?
"Creative" doesn't mean "good", but it's fun no matter how you slice it.
Main Character
Yoshika is likely to become a tragic figure in the near future.
As western zombies come more and more global, her personality, thoughts, and memories will slowly give way to mere instinct, reducing her to merely a hungry shell.
...She isn't that already?
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One Winged Egret
She's already a meat robot. Her personality is just what Seiga programmed into her.
Incidentally, I get the impression that Seiga actually seriously loves her. Just in her own poisonous way. She's not a tool, she's a toy.
edited 24th Apr '14 9:25:52 AM by Clarste
It's afavorite idea of mine that Seiga personally killed Yoshika, because she likes her so much that letting her be subject to that annoying Celestial Bureucracy thing would be such a waste.
edited 24th Apr '14 10:18:07 AM by TrueShadow1
Main Character
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Poor Yoshika was the reason Seiga was even born, but when she grew up she dropped her future zombie down a pit.
...Huh?
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Rainy Echoes
I like to think that Seiga loves Yoshika enough to treat her with some respect. I mean, at least she didn't resurrect Yoshika to be a killer zombie that metes out someone's twisted sense of justice. Isn't that right, Dark Raiden?
One Winged Egret
Seiga treats Yoshika like a puppy, or a small child.
Main Character
YOSHIka.
edited 25th Apr '14 8:51:01 AM by Grounder
This. Cannot. Continue.
Looking at her dialogue... well vs Reimu she's a bit fawning towards the Mausoleum and serious about her guard duties. vs Marisa she's extra stoopid. vs Sanae she refers to herself in plural? And vs Youmu she's self-conscious and might be foreshadowing HM. In all cases, an undead ham. Not a deep or complex character, but one proud of her role and reception. I guess the fact that Seiga animated her like this instead of as a voiceless flesh golem tells us something about the wicked hermit's relationship with her minion.
On the other hand, Yoshika could work well as a mute character. And that combined with speculation over her relationship with Seiga is as good a place as any to suggest Myon Myon Typhoon.
edited 25th Apr '14 9:47:32 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "The White Witch"
Baring hearts for years
Sorry I'm not saying much about Yoshika. I mean, there's plenty to say, probably, but she's really just a part of Seiga's character.
Maybe about how her being controlled by Seiga means that her actions and personality are indicative of Seiga's. Let's try that: Yoshika is dumb (So Seiga can feel smart), rigid (because Seiga's flexible, unrestrained by walls), smelly/ugly/unapppealing (because Seiga's beautiful).
Basically Seiga built and programmed the best wingman/pick-up-buddy ever. There's no doubt who's in control here because Seiga is very clearly the superior-in-every-way one.
Also, it could be that Seiga made sure Yoshika had all these negative traits, and now Yoshika's the tank because Seiga wants to see those traits be damaged and destroyed. That is, that Seiga is so against the concept of stupidity that she wants to see it destroyed over and over again, and Yoshika tanking for her lets that happen.
Or maybe the implications of Jiang-shi creation and necromancy in general. It seems the body still has whatever earthly attachments and desires of the gestalt it was once a part of did. Practicing necromancy is like reveling in the smell of someone else's used clothing. Kinda creepy, even if you know the person intimately. Very creepy if you don't.
It's contagious! Temporarily. Which is neat. I'm kinda surprised there haven't been 'zombie survival games' held for kicks. Well, I guess since Seiga'd have to be the one refereeing and would probably have or be able to easily exert control over whoever else was infected, its kinda putting your life into her hands, which seems unwise.
Unless she goes first, of course. Then she's just as mindless as anyone else. It could be great fun!
edited 25th Apr '14 10:34:03 PM by Antimatter625
I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.
Rainy Echoes
If Yoshika got commands such as "Make some tea", "Cook up a nice meal", or "Play this instrument", I wonder if she'll do them flawlessly.
Probably not. Her limbs barely bend as is.
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From her entry So PM:
So yeah, "make a tea" probably equals "drop teabag in boiling water", and "play guitar" would equal "pick strings randomly"
Rainy Echoes
The Wicked Hermit's Undying Machine
Yoshika Miyako is dead. She has been dead for ages, kept from decomposing by the magics of her master Seiga Kaku. Yoshika died young, possibly of poison, with no relatives to claim her body, allowing her to be snatched up by the wicked hermit. No one in Gensoukyou knows who she is(1), whatever legacy she had is forgotten to the sands of time.
Her body, however, has gained quite a reputation as Seiga's undead minion of choice. As a corpse, she will not feel pain nor flinch no matter how hard you hit her, and, as someone who cannot feel pain, she has incredible strength usually inaccessible to humans. The trade off for this is that she is not very mobile. Her body is hard and her limbs are stiff, so she is slow and inflexible(2). Indeed, she can barely walk at all (I wouldn't be surprised if she got around by hopping, like the jiangshi of lore).
Yoshika, being basically a puppet with a rotting brain, isn't very smart. As Akyuu notes, she isn't very useful for most tasks as she cannot understand what is going on in front of her; while she will do what Seiga commands, she will likely miss the point (such as letting a cooking meal she was told to watch burn, since she cannot understand that it is burning and, hey, she is still watching it, right?). Likewise, Yoshika doesn't really "think" or "feel", and just does what she is told and responds when spoken to, closer to a computer than a person. She is basically a mindless weapon.
Seiga "programs" Yoshika through the use of the charm on her forehead. When removed, Yoshika will revert to a a dormant state starring into nothingness. In this state, she is reported to recite poetry, perhaps the last remnant of Yoshika Miyako's life.
Yoshika has two special abilities, the ability to eat anything, and the ability to turn whoever she bites into a jiangshi. The former ability means that she cannot be stopped by any obstacle, as she can just eat her way through it, and can devour even the spirits in the air in order to heal her body. The later ability is what truly makes her into a threat, as any one she turns will attempt to bite and turn others, leading to a potential crisis if she is unleashed in a popularized area. It is recommended to avoid her at all costs because of this.
Seiga seems quite fond of her undead underling, referring to her as "cute" and generally doting over her as one would an adorable puppy. This fondness is also why she made sure that Yoshika's body will not rot. Who knows if Seiga was as fond of her alive as she is of her dead?
1.The self-styled hermit Kasen Ibaraki has been seen reciting poetry attributed to a Miyako no Yoshika, but the exact relation, if any, between the two figures is unknown. It's worth noting that Miyako no Yoshika's name is written differently from Yoshika Miyako's.
2.Allegedly, Seiga has been recommending exercise training to improve Yoshika's poor flexibility. Can the undead even exercise themselves?
I wrote a thing. With footnotes!
edited 26th Apr '14 5:20:39 PM by Otherarrow
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Baring hearts for years
Again, unfortunately not so much about Yoshika, but here goes.
So, otherarrow got me to thinking. Yoshika really is an awful lot like a computer, who will follow the literal command given because she cannot comprehend anything beyond it.
Now, the computer programming analogy has come up before, if you'll recall.
So what are the differences between Jiangshi and Shikigami? Shikigami seem to still have their own will, but receive a power boost when following programmed orders. Hence, they can choose to subjugate themselves when needed to obtain their master's power. Without a master's orders (or even with them), they're free to do as they please. Further, they are able to adapt and expand on orders well beyond what's needed, while probably still retaining the power boost.
Contrast Jiangshi who are without wills. Without a master's orders they just kinda idle and sit in a 'powered down' mode. They must follow orders, and they follow them to the letter.
So which is 'better'? I would say shikigami, in nearly every way. It's less evil, in that it's a mutually beneficial consensual relationship that can be abandoned by other party at any time; complete freedom is maintained. Further, being able to make their own decisions allows them to better aid their master; if told to go answer the door, they're not going to go to it and knock in response.
But if you don't care about the morality, and have extreme confidence in your ability to issue orders: "Go to the front door of this house, open it, remember who is there, close the door, come back, report to me who you saw at the door."... then those disadvantages aren't terribly important.
And if you don't care about losing the flexibility (har har) of a shikigami, then a Jiangshi has a very, very big advantage: it's reliable. It'll never betray you, or question your orders, or act without instruction, or leave you, or care more about its own life than your orders...
In other words, it's perfect for someone who is both extremely confident in their abilities, wants a meat shield, and has good reason to be paranoid about things like betrayal. That is; Seiga. She's constantly hunted, and keep alive only through her own awesome. If she had a shikigami, that shikigami could easily be turned against her. But Yoshika? Loyal beyond thought. Simply a shield (And isn't she just an adorable one?) to help keep the assassins of hell off Seiga's back.
edited 26th Apr '14 8:31:04 PM by Antimatter625
I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.
Idiotic Good
It's hard for me to come up with questions about Yoshika without bringing Seiga into the picture in some way. Granted, my thought process tends to think about relationships with other characters or compare one character to a tangentially similar character...
...so maybe I should share my thoughts about her through my usual thought processes. (if this is against the rules, I'm sorry, I won't do it again)
Steadfast Corpse: Yoshika
Statwise, while Yoshika has a pitiful enough Speed to be double attacked by almost everyone else, a sizable amount of Strength and HP along with a decent Defense allows her to shrug off weak attacks and retaliate with a crippling blow, with a poison chance allowing her to kill off weakened opponents. While she does have access to Skill-based skills (Pavise, Luna, and Sol come to mind), the less said about her Skill, the better.
Granted, she probably doesn't need it very much anyways. I suggest Counter and Miracle; guaranteed to get people's blood boiling.
The first comparison to another character that comes to mind is Hong Meiling; Yoshika is a Chinese vampire turned zombie (while the body itself is Japanese in origin), Meiling is a Chinese human-like youkai (whatever kind she is), and both were guarding something in their debut games. Both may be defensive-oriented girls, but I'm a bit hard-pressed to compare the two any further. "Attack on sight" is a bit different from "attack intruders", and while both do a decent job at what they do, Meiling's well-roundedness allows her to filter the exceptional from the weak, while Yoshika's strength and defenses allows her to do the two things she really needs to do: drive off intruders and protect Seiga.
At the very least, Yoshika consistently gets room and board (graveyard counts as "good room" for a zombie, I think), which can't be said for certain others in some fanon.
The second one is, strangely enough, Konpaku Youmu, though it's probably because I've been playing Ten Desires recently. Both have at least a foot in death, had no choice in their state (as far as I know of), and have an "act first" mentality. While Youmu can append "think later" to the previous phrase a few times a month, Yoshika doesn't have the mind to, not that she cares or needs to most of the time. Youmu tends to get first strike and can slice things to ribbons, while Yoshika tanks and breaks things consistently harder.
Out of the two, one can think, disobey, and be reasoned with... and my bets are not on Yoshika.
Concerning her support pool, it's... I dunno what to say, really. While most of the servants can and sometimes do have interesting relationships with other people around them, Yoshika's relationship with her "peers" can probably boil down to "not on the menu", "Seiga's pet", and, occasionally, "nuisance".
On the other hand, her relationship with Seiga is a bit unique in that the line between servant and master (probably not the right way to describe their relationship, though) isn't very blurred outside of the usual romantic stuff. Snark, defiance, and laziness don't really fit Yoshika very well, which is fortunate for Seiga. In exchange for complete loyalty and obedience is... well, a computer-like mindset; Yoshika does exactly what she is told to do, no more, no less. In a sense, the relationship is a bit uncommon in Gensokyo; not many people can boast that kind of loyalty. Then again, no one would be jealous of her relative lack of almost anything else.
Still, it does say a bit about Seiga to get a jiangshi instead of something more conventional.
While my personal fanon is prone to changing often, Yoshika hasn't really changed much in my mind. Absolutely obedient to a fault, and when left alone, she's predictably dangerous to "friends" and foes alike. She won't attack Seiga; the thought would never cross her mind. She might also not attack people who feed her, but that's like hoping that a lion doesn't try to eat you while/after offering it antelope.
While I do like her to an extent, her personality seems almost as rigid as her body, and though my personal fanon tends to have everyone go up in intelligence and kindness just a little bit, all that means for poor Yoshika for me is... well, someone who, on her off time, would recite several poems without rhyme (couldn't resist) or reason.^
...on the other hand, some fan art shows her bending her limbs, so what do I know about her, really.
Edit 1: Thanks otherarrow. Knew that Yoshika the person was Japanese; should've mentioned that. Also added some bits.
Edit 2: Cleaned it up a bit, added a few more things, and added a title.
edited 29th Apr '14 7:03:12 AM by nuclearfairy
"Creative" doesn't mean "good", but it's fun no matter how you slice it.
Fanart is wrong. Her body is explicitly stated to be rigid and inflexible.
Also, while her type of being is Chinese in origin, Yoshika is stated to come from a unknown era of Japan. She is Japanese, in other words.
Anyway, I liked the little ramble.
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Formerly G.G.
To be fair, fanart (and fanfiction for that matter) had never been accurate for any of the characters.
Rainy Echoes
Put Yoshika up as a post. She guards one's interests. She scares away those pesky pests.
Yep, Yoshika is a perfect scarecrow. Just be sure to tell her not to eat the crops along with everything else in the vicinity.
edited 27th Apr '14 10:32:10 AM by Diamite
Idiotic Good
x3 Thanks. I'm kinda flattered, actually. I wanted to claim it as a write-up, but that assumes I know what a good write-up is. One could probably guess one of my favorite series from just reading it (assuming they know of it).
Anyways, should I spruce it up to a more, er... traditional format? Mostly a bold title and better formatting.
"Creative" doesn't mean "good", but it's fun no matter how you slice it.
I am pretty sure it is explicitly stated that Yoshika is a mindless meatpuppet controlled by Seiga via the paper thingy on her head.
The person named "Yoshika Mikayo" is long gone, with only the memories left behind in the rotten brain remaining. According to Akyuu, if the paper thingy controlling her is removed, she will basically stare into space and murmur half forgotten poetry.
edited 24th Apr '14 4:43:34 AM by Otherarrow
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