The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Hylarn, you irrepressible optimist you!

Koishi: Bringing out the depressed in all of us.

For some reason that reminds me of Bioshock and/or Fallout, what with the warped sense of humor regarding freedom.

Also, blood! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD INDEPENDENCE GOD!  ^*

edited 30th Dec '10 12:24:00 AM by Customer

Well, Koishi's backstory and current personality implies that her theme is escapism. She had problems, so she ran away from them. And now she's happy, by continuously distracting herself and ignoring her problems. Which just causes them to pile up for everyone else (her sister in this case).

Since you said it that way and at that time, I'll have to assume that it was triggered by all those depressing write-ups about Pebbles  ^*

^Koishi

here.

I have to get defensive about that, I'm afraid; there's miles of difference between Satori's and Koishi's personal family troubles and Byakuren eating children, directly or indirectly.

I'm actually a very optimistic person and I adore love and peace and happiness in my works. I just also believe that suffering exists and will often have to be endured in order for genuine happiness to exist.

The problem with happiness that never knew suffering is that, realistically (yes, I'm going there), it's likely to just be ignorance. Suffering does and will always exist in the world, and until someone's had a taste of it, chances are they might be happy, but probably aren't as good a person as they might think. Overcoming suffering brings mental strength, catharsis, and the ability to be compassionate.

Well, it's perfectly fine to have series or anything that's just happy and lighthearted. If you desire realism, you can just assume that all the other stuff (boredom, frustration, fights) simply isn't shown. That's perfectly fine. But in order to really impress me, a work will have to make me really feel for a character, and let me accompany them on their journey through hardship and into the good end.

I admit my Koishi story might seem a little dark. For one thing, because I didn't very strongly imply a happy end. For another thing, I guess you could see it as a "realistic" take on a plain quirky oddball character. That's what she would appear like to an onlooker, I guess. An energetic airhead with a low attention span. And there I went and showed the kind of suffering it would realistically inflict on her poor sister who just wants a normal person to talk to. I guess that might seem heartless of me, but nobody wants the two to have a tearful reunion as much as I do.

Has anyone brought up The Light Princess yet? That's what this interpretation reminds me of.

And, man, this is kind of brutal on Satori. I think what might make it even worse is that nobody else would even be able to see what's wrong; Koishi was feared before, and is mostly ignored now. To the extent that people notice her, they see a harmless weirdo, and what's wrong with that? Gensokyo's just lousy with weirdos, after all. Is there anyone but Satori who'd remember Koishi as she ought to be?

Thank heavens she has her pets, or this would be even more depressing.

IT ENDS WITH A TEARFUL REUNION AND A RE-EMOTIONED KOISHI WHO HAS LEARNED MUCH ABOUT THE WORLD AND ABOUT HOW PEOPLE AREN'T THAT BAD AND ABOUT HOW SHE CAN TRAVEL THE WORLD WITHOUT BEING ATTACKED

SOMETHING LIKE THAT

gwaaaaaaaaaah

I had a theory about that, though not enough for an essay.

So, Koishi did something unspecified to seal her Third Eye. The two most common interpretations seem to involve either stabbing the eye with something or ripping out one of the eye veins. This is based on her having one less than Satori. They also have them go to different places but that's probably not relevant. The eye vein that Koishi is specifically missing is the one that attaches to the head. Mind-reading, head eye vein. It seems like it might be connected.  ^*

Either way, I'm exploiting the hell out of this premise.

Even if Koishi eventually opened her Third Eye, without the head vein, she's not going to be doing much mind-reading. So, is what she did to herself reversible?

The wiki says that Satori and Koishi resemble The Two Fridas. I can only sort of see it. ZUN is known for drawing on weird, random things though.

So, when Koishi opens her Third Eye, Satori has a remedy to get her back to her old self again. It will involve the two of them having to sort of become temporary Siamese twins. Koishi will have to connect her heart/Third Eye to Satori's and will be able to read minds again through Satori. And with that boost, Koishi's Third Eye will be able to complete its healing and regrow a head vein.

Orrrrr, they'll be stuck in The Two Komeijis position for the rest of ever. Its all speculative since I doubt Koishi's Third Eye will ever open in series canon or even within Reimu or Marisa's human lifespan.

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ZUN is known for drawing on everything from ancient mythology to obscure scientific theories to 19th century poetry, so this wouldn't be surprising. One could almost play a "spot the reference" game with all the allusions he makes.

ZUN probably has more references to things you've never heard of then some muesems, really.

My Koishiness isn't done yet. =x I'mma sad.

Just to reply to some stuff...

I don't really think Koishi's third eye being closed is something that's fully "reversable". It's entirely possible it may heal with some kind of medication(Help me Eirin etc.), but I don't really think it's something that will naturally heal back.

One thing I wonder: What do you people think Koishi was like before she closed her Third Eye? Personally I think she was, ironically enough, somewhat more mature than Satori at the time. I kind of see Satori as more open about her problems while Koishi keeps it more bottled up during this time, with Koishi being the more responsible-looking one.

Not that bottling up your problems is very effective if your sister can read your mind.

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Not very effective, yes, but it seems like something she'd do.

Hey, its what she does in At Cherei. And its not very effective since Satori can tell somethings wrong but Satori is too afraid to bring it up with Koishi.

edited 30th Dec '10 7:39:22 AM by Bocaj

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Which leads to sadness, happiness and...tomatoes.

Hmm, where did you get the idea that Koishi was more mature? Well, I guess it depends on what you call "mature"... I also see Satori as more closed-up (until character development, perhaps?), but most people would call that more mature... Well, talking about your problems is probably more mature than that in actuality, but what gives you the impression that she did that?

I dunno, I guess...

Well, first, lemme just warn you. What I'm about to say is likely to not make sense, as it is 8 AM as I am writing this and I have not slept.

To me, to do something drastic like shut your third eye and potentially somehow remove one of your veins to your head, most likely a somewhat mutlative affair, would take something quite incredible. And I think it's made clear enough that Satori, too, is displeased with her powers. But I think it'd take something more than just feelings about being hated with yourself.

I suppose I feel Koishi would be more responsible because it seems like an interesting way to transition into the almost opposite way they are now. Satori took her powers worse to begin with, perhaps being quite emotional about it, and perhaps had even a slightly tougher time with it at first. Koishi had her troubles with it too, but also added stress layered upon it: Until arriving to the underground and further to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, I can't help but imagine the two didn't stay in one place very long and that Koishi was usually in charge of this. In this sense, Koishi had to somewhat be the "responsible" one. I think she somewhat burdened herself with this: At the time, Koishi may have played a very Satori-like role to Satori herself, going to great lengths for her sister. I imagine that she may have tried to look stronger than she was, even if Satori could see righ through it, just to try and look strong and reassure her.

Bluh, none of this comes out right, but whatever. Might as well continue...

Essentially, I suppose this would mean Koishi's third eye closing is a combination of factors. The first and foremost is the most presence: the omnipresent dislike of Satori species and their mind reading period. But, complimentary to this, the stress of putting up a strong "front" in front of Satori and perhaps even now Satori's pets, and...shit, I dunno anymore, it's been like five minutes of me trying to think of an adequate end to this in my sleep-addled state and I got jack. Maybe I should try too long.

teal deer Koishi and Satori started out somewhat reversed in roles, with Koishi being the more leader-ish of both, but Koishi was less able to cope with her issues than Satori was, although Satori was more expressive with it, which led to her trying to run away from her issues by cutting away from the percieved source of all her problems: Her third eye.

EDIT: Also, it may be a good idea to update the links. The thread is getting a bit far ahead in that department.

edited 30th Dec '10 8:25:50 AM by RukiMotomiya

Agh! I've gotta admit, I kept forgetting entirely about adding the links to the first post. Oh dear.

Anyway, that does make sense to me! I guess it just comes more natural to have the elder sister take responsibility. Especially in Touhou, it can't be wrong to give the older sibling the credit they deserve for once.

In other news, I just realized how Koishi's newfound knowledge of how the world works could actually help Satori get into the diplomat's position she got in Gensoukoumuten's world... Tee hee. Of course, that would kinda entirely remove the whole "search for Koishi" factor...

I've got a word-of-the-day feature on my phone, and today's was "dithyrambic". Means either wildly irregular or wildly enthusiastic. A good word for Koishi's danmaku, no?

Time keeps dragging on.

Oh gosh, so many things to factor in to my writeup now, how will I ever get done, WAAAAAAAAHHH!

Fawriel, there has to be a reason you called Koishi "Pebbles" up there, because I want an excuse to call her that from now on.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

I thought Koishi was the younger sister and Satori was the elder sister? @ Fawriel

EDIT: Kids, this is why you shouldn't try to read threads at 10 AM without sleep!

edited 30th Dec '10 10:07:59 AM by RukiMotomiya

@Ruki: Yeah, I dunno. I think at some point one of us might have gotten confused about just which one of the sisters the other was talking about. I don't really wanna go through the trouble of figuring out who it was when!

@Kyler: Very well then!

恋子 = koishi = beloved child

小石 = koishi = small rock, pebble

Ah, wordplay. Awesomesauce.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Koishi is the younger sister, filling that whole younger sister more powerful Touhou trope thing.

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^ Related.

Too lazy to see if that was posted already.

Not sure if it's even wordplay. Both sisters' names are canonically written in Hiragana rather than Kanji. In Satori's case, I guess it's in order to make her name less obvious, but in Koishi's case... well, I guess it's in order to keep the reader guessing. Might be intentional that the meaning can alternate between one of love and one of stone...

I dont mind some seriousness, its basically when it gets Grimdark do I mind, but I'm not good at adding my opinion now

If I may request our next character, since someone brought up ZUN using mythologies, I'd LOVE to discuss Kasen, since I think she has some interesting and hidden things ZUN added as a sort of Viewers Are Geniuses thing.