I don't know where you guys are getting "so unpopular" from.I'm assuming from you asking for an unpopular character and then Koishi getting accepted as the next profile (at least that's why I was wondering about it).
And considering how much Koishi art there is, I wouldn't worry about the ninja. Chances are there won't be that many repeats, if at all (assuming you were ninja'd by the other pic dump).
I think the point of the reversibility is simply a reference to backmasking, which might have a slight connection to paranoia (the kind that people might have who see subliminal messages where there are none). Another interesting thought is that listening to a reverse song makes it feel like the sounds are being sucked out of your head. Brrr.I assumed the backmasking was a reference to Koishi being seen as an inverted mirror of Satori, but the paranoia/subliminal message reasoning makes sense too.
edited 29th Dec '10 2:46:21 AM by Customer
"Justice!"
Up to page 50 on danbooru.So out of those thousand-odd images, only 47 were worth making note of?
That depends entirely on what you consider "worth making note of". There were a lot of perfectly good ones which didn't showcase Koishi well. After a certain point, there were a lot of good ones that simply seemed too similar to ones already showcased. Though admittedly, I had a whole bunch of OH MAN SUPERCUTE ones there because I thought that the dark side would be overrepresented otherwise. And I didn't even look at some of the comics or other images so large I couldn't make out details from the thumbnail.
... Didn't check out Tacitus' picdump yet! I think I'll have to take my time for that one.
"Justice!"
I guess what I meant was "worth making note of for your purposes here".
I suppose that when it comes down to it, the advantage of having fewer than 47 pieces of fanart in total is that all of them are novel and different.
I think my appreciation of Koishi has risen somewhat lately.
Ghosts' Poet
Same here. I never really thought about the implications of closing the Third Eye until now, or of Koishi's personality. I like her a lot more now that I see her as a low-key Sense Freak
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
Gunpla is amazing!
Why is making Touhou Darker and Edgier so popular? Oh well.
I'd say the lighter interpretations are far more popular, given the amount of comedic stories. We just happen to be toying with different ideas here.
Ghosts' Poet
That, and write-ups tend to work better when they're dramatic
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
Avvie-free for life!
The lighter interpretations are closer to canon in overall tone if not in details (only ZUN himself can match the details from what I've seen and even he is inconsistent in that area). THE MAN is right on or closer to Miyazaki's end of the sliding scale than Lovecraft's when it comes to fleshing out a fantasy setting.
edited 29th Dec '10 4:17:01 PM by Recon5
...No. I definitely have to disagree with that one. The setting is the result of a Gotterdammerung. Fantastic Racism is necessary for survival. People still get eaten. The future is less than pleasant. All sorts of horrible things can happen to souls. Heaven has a perpetual budget crisis. There's something like three characters that are genuinely concerned about others.
edited 29th Dec '10 4:30:07 PM by Hylarn
Avvie-free for life!
And yet nothing particularly horrific has happened, or all the horrific goings-on are treated as nothing. The closest I've seen in (Windows) canon is Kasen's and Komachi's ominous warnings in the new manga and yet those practically came to nothing as well. There must be some reason the bloodshed and tears are limited to the backstory, which the PC-98 games are at this point.
Then again, the border does invert common sense. The more horrific the outside thinks it has to be, the more paradisaical the inside can become.
edited 29th Dec '10 4:56:41 PM by Recon5
There's two predominant fanon versions of Koishi: The cute, affectionate girl that happily lets the target of her feelings (usually Satori) know how she feels, and the batshit insane one that does horrible things to people (usually Satori). The former is more common in doujin, the latter in stand-alone pictures.
Neither are at all supported by canon, and I frankly have no idea where they came from.
Aha. So this is why I'm so confused about Koshi. I need to read more.
Wow, Extensive pic dumps. I only have three on hand so I hope they haven't been posted yet(still looking through).
I missed this avatar.
Darker and Edgier interpretations of Touhou are popular because people are assholes.
WHO IS THIS LOSER
That hardly seems fair. Some people just favor drama over comedy, either of which can be entirely consistent with canon.
One Winged Egret
Canon is ridiculously dramatic, at least in the backstories. If people want to roll with that that's their choice.
edited 29th Dec '10 8:01:14 PM by Clarste
I don't mind the darker interpretations. It's when they get extreme that it starts to bother me.
To me, the series canon seems to be mostly lighthearted, but reading into some aspects does allow for a lot of other interpretations.
edited 29th Dec '10 7:57:35 PM by Customer
Gunpla is amazing!
I dont mind some drama. For example perhaps Mokou dealing with her self inflicted loneliness?
I do mind however obviously dark drama, like that one doujin which has Byakuren leading some youkai for 'independence' or whatever, and they are like eating children left and right.
I missed this avatar.
OM NOM DELICIOUS FREEDOM
WHO IS THIS LOSER
That'd be Love and Peace
, by Stripe Pattern. That one kind of pissed me off; I like dark stuff, but character assassination like that just bothers me.
This. Cannot. Continue
Now we'll have to try and pick a bunch of these and oh dear god how.
ninja
oh noooo
And yet I can only spot two or three pictures that ended up in both picdumps. I don't even remember seeing half the stuff you pulled up. Weird.
Though admittedly, I had a whole bunch of OH MAN SUPERCUTE ones there because I thought that the dark side would be overrepresented otherwise.Oh, heh, that's why.
I never really thought about the implications of closing the Third Eye until now, or of Koishi's personality. I like her a lot more now that I see her as a low-key Sense Freak.
Why is making Touhou Darker and Edgier so popular? Oh well.
Eh, depends how you read it. To me shutting off the Third Eye sounds like something akin to a lobotomy, but I guess it could be as simple as covering your ears with your hands and going "blah blah blah!" Which would make a lot of these interpretations sensationalist overreactions.
Thing with Koishi is that it's her backstory that's grimdark, not her character. She's easygoing and whimsical, lighthearted to the extreme, a Sense Freak in the vein of those who want to try everything on the menu at least once and visit a different country each year. It's her past that has the grimdark, what with the I Just Want to Be Normal and self-inflicted Poke in the Third Eye. I guess she could qualify as a Woobie, though she seems to be having too much fun, and she's certainly no Broken Bird.
I guess that's one summary of Gensokyo: Grimdark in terms of ingredients, but not practice.
Darker And Edgier interpretations of Touhou are popular because people are assholes. /thwack
But yeah, I dunno man... I wouldn't pin it to some underlying darkness in the human spirit, or some sadistic urge to despoil and warp what was once pure and benign. Maybe it comes from suspicion that such a setting could be proposed as a paradise, making the observer put forth a more "realistic" interpretation of the elements? Is it an attempt to "balance" out the Disgustingly Adorable and Heartwarming media that comes out of Gensokyo? Or are people just stubbornly sticking to the notion that, however human or adorable these youkai look, they are still monsters?
Maybe it's mood. Some days you want flowers, some days you want the heads of your enemies.
Current earworm: "A New Journey"
One Winged Egret
I think the easiest answer is that it provides emotional torque that a bit harder to come by otherwise.
I missed this avatar.
"realistic"Call the overly darkandedgylol interpretations that again and you'll get more than a thwack.
WHO IS THIS LOSER
The main thing that keeps most of the darker interpretations from being realistic is that reality is usually more depressing.
I don't know where you guys are getting "so unpopular" from. The list is pretty much divided into "not popular", "rather popular", "very popular" and "even non-fans will quite possibly know who these dudes are". I had to draw the line somewhere, and it just happens to fit kinda neatly between Satori (the quintessential satori) and Koishi (mostly a satellite character for Satori).
@Kyler: Hmmm, I see what you mean. I guess I could only recommend that if you still want to write stuff, you could just, well, write something, and keep the possibility in mind that you can just write another, different interpretation at another time. It's not like one of them would be "wrong" and the other "right".
I think the point of the reversibility is simply a reference to backmasking, which might have a slight connection to paranoia (the kind that people might have who see subliminal messages where there are none). Another interesting thought is that listening to a reverse song makes it feel like the sounds are being sucked out of your head. Brrr.
Now, let's try that picdump thing.
Koishi is practically not even there in this one, but damn it's awesome
.
Up to page 50 on danbooru.
I'm not entirely sure what I was going for with this dump. I tried to showcase a lot of different styles, but still only took what appealed to me in some way. Which excluded a lot of things because I'm very particular about faces. I focused on style more than content, because, well, most styles draw every character about the same way, so the trick to finding a drawing that depicts a character well is to find a style that suits them. But I do also have a few there that favor content. Fancy backgrounds aren't very prominent because I focus on Koishi herself. And stuff. I dunno! Now we'll have to try and pick a bunch of these and oh dear god how.
ninja
oh noooo
edited 29th Dec '10 2:29:57 AM by Fawriel