The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

I don't see what I did there, so whatever it was, it can't have been on purpose.

I thought it referred to how little fancomics were focused on them. So it's pretty much the same as when they first appeared.

No. I was dead seriously noting that the poll's timing could not possibly have allowed for the first major wave of fanwork after Perfect Cherry Blossom, unless they hosted it during December Comiket.

Also, not much competition at the time.

With limited competition, the Prismrivers jumped to the top of the charts. Everything seemed to be going their way. But it wouldn't last. More when Behind the Music continues.

Then Mystia happened with her amazing voice and then the out of nowhere hit star Byakuren and her #1 single Cosmic Mind rose to the top of the charts.

Nowadays the Prismrivers have had to make ends meet by playing floating objects in scary movies.

Almost none, by comparison to how much there is today. The cast of two games with no supplementary material, and maybe the votes of a couple of people who went with PC-98 characters just to be contrary.

So, much-belated Prismriver thoughts... well, they're poltergeists. ZUN's classification as a form of phantom aside, I think the current trend is for poltergeist activity to be the result of a latent supernatural talent, typically manifesting during puberty, rather than a more traditional ghost. In other words, poltergeists wouldn't be any more sentient than Marisa's Master Spark. But the Prismrivers are different, due to that doodad that moved their mansion and boosted Layla's magic, which both allowed her to create the Ghostly Trio in the first place and enabled them to survive her.

So what are their minds like, I wonder? It's fairly easy to emphasize with Gensokyo's humans, with the caveat that the population voluntarily lives in an anachronistic, predatory environment, and Celestials and hermits are just folks with a strong religious bent. Lunarians are pretty much human-descended elves on the moon, which makes them insufferable but understandable. Ghosts are people we used to know, changed somewhat by death and what they've experienced since then. Youkai are the big question, as they appear humanlike yet certainly aren't, can interact with human society peacefully if they aren't preying on people, and can form civilizations of their own unless they decide to wander alone.

These poltergeists would be a magnitude more "alien" than even youkai, I'd wager. They're literally manifestations of a girl's intense nostalgia, created for the express purpose of providing companionship. As such, they have versions of the original sisters' personalities... but maybe that's it. Layla wouldn't have access to her sisters' thoughts and dreams, and as it's been pointed out the poltergeists could have ended up with exaggerated and half-remembered versions of the original sisters' personas. So the Prismrivers might be carnival masks with nothing behind them.

On the other hand, maybe interacting with Layla over her lifetime made them something more than what they started as. Maybe humanity is something you pick up as you go. Maybe playing house with her let the poltergeists grow beyond magical constructs, and their existence since Layla's death let them develop identities of their own.

As for their purpose: "poltergeist" label aside, I think they were more about providing companionship than making a racket. They did their job, life was good, then their creator died - but instead of evaporating, the Prismrivers found something else to do. They made their own purpose. So I'm arching an eyebrow at Shiki's warnings and wondering if she knows what she's talking about in this case (heresy, I know). Maybe she got them confused for more run-of-the-mill, "bang pots and pans together" classical poltergeists, not the unique supernatural phenomena they are. I wonder if, having already redefined the reason for their existence, the Prismrivers could do it again? Go back to school, get a degree in architecture, that sort of thing. They've got to find something to fill the centuries with.

Crimefighting team with Mokou, of course.

The Touhou wiki places the Poltergeist Mansion near Misty Lake - wonder what would have happened if the Scarlets had tried to remodel it instead of moving their own mansion in? Probably nothing but a pile of mulch in the vague shape of a house by now, but maybe if you drop by when there's music playing, you get glimpses of the manor in all its former glory. Maybe you see a fourth person inside.

Now if you'd phrased it as "Touhou's tendency" I'd have overlooked it, but now I'm wondering about Gensokyo the location and its effects on people's minds. Does it have Neverland qualities? An entrapping effect like Elysium or Hades? If things forgotten in the outside world find their way inside, do its inhabitants forget about stuff to better remember the new arrivals, especially if they originally hailed from outside the border?

Money? A fourth band member brought in by one sister that the others despise? A proposed change in the band's direction that proved divisive? Maybe playing together for x-ty years just got boring.

'cause Merlin gets shafted for fan art, that's why. Just over four pages of stuff for her with the solo tag, and it took dedicated searching with -multiple_girls to find a few pieces I missed due to poor tagging. And a lot of what's there is either meh, bad, or porn. Poor overlooked middle child...

edited 3rd Sep '11 9:26:12 AM by Tacitus

Merlin has middle child syndrome? That explains why she tried to stand out the most at the concerts, and why she does the most solo work*

Given that I've used it three times, here it is.

OK, there's been no posts in eleven hours, and Faw said we'd be moving on soon, so I vote we move on.

Aaaaahdon'thurtmeI'msorryI'msohastysorrysorrysorry

Fairies as a species

(I know it's not officially on the list, but I think it'll be an interesting thing to discuss)

Sorry I had nothing really to say on Prismrivers. They proved themselves an interesting topic regardless.

I don't want to sound hasty, but if we vote again, I vote for Sanae, Koakuma, Kaguya. If that's OK.

One last thing about the Prismrivers:
The instruments the poltergeists play are actually the spirits of the original Prismrivers.

I'll vote for Cirno, Patchouli, and Flan.

Someone else is voting for Kaguya? GLORY!

Okaaaaaaay....I vote for Kaguya, the three fairies aaaaaaand... Mokou.

Since everyone seems to be getting 3 I'll use another of them on Sanae.

(That gives me either 1 or 2 left depending on whether my suggestion of fairies as a species counts)

Why not vote for a specific fairy? Or, y'know, a specific three fairies.

Are you trying to influence my voting?

How dare you accuse me!?

I don't have to listen to these wild, BASELESS accusations. (/storm out)

I vote for Colonel Squeakers, Cirno, and Flandre.

I vote for Mokou, Nazrin and my standard vote of Koakuma.

For A Song

There was once a successful and wealthy merchant who had four daughters. Even though he was always going on long trips, he loved his daughters very much and always brought them home something interesting from the far flung places he ended up. Baubles and geegaws and whatsits, they had plenty. And his daughters would fill the time that he was gone with some hobby or another and then show off to him when he got back. Paintings or music or juggling. No matter what it was or how terrible at it they were, he would be very proud of them.

One day, their father brought home a trinket from an eastern trip. Some say it was a locked chest and others say it was some kind of crystal but the important thing is that at first blush it looked pretty and didn't do much else. They ooohed and ahhhed and fawned over it but eventually put it with the others.

And some years passed as years do, brushed over in a blink of an eye in order to get to something else. And the something else was Layla messing about in the store room where the various baubles were kept. She found the old trinket and started messing around with it like she did years previously but this time the trinket reacted to her innate magical power, causing a tremor which collapsed part of the house.

She and her sisters were alright but their father was crushed in his bed and expired shortly after. After mourning, they found the will he had left and followed its instructions. The oldest sister, Lunasa, inherited the family trading business and set to it with grim diligence. Merlin, the second oldest, inherited the farms that their father had owned. Lyrica was supposed to inherit the house but with it wrecked she inherited only the family cat and set off to be in a different story. And Layla forwent her inheritance to stay in the ruined house attempting to fix it up on her own, not having the money or influence to swing any help.

Just her alone in the house, that quiet house the once bustled with noise. Her sisters too busy in their new occupations to visit her and their pleas that she come live with one of them falling on deaf ears. How could she choose one of her sisters to live with when she ached for them all to live together again? If she could only fix up the mansion, then her sisters would come, or so she rationalized.

And somehow, she once again crossed paths with that trinket. Except this time, instead of knocking down the mansion, it created three dopplegangers of her sisters who would wander around the house acting out memories Layla had of her sisters. The house was once again filled with the noise of four girls and Layla's heart was briefly sated.

But soon she was begging her "sisters" to talk to her and after a while they did, breaking from the repetition of dusty old conversations. She talked to them and taught them and laughed with them. Eventually, the four began living just like the Prismrivers used to, just like if they were waiting for their father to return from an especially long trip. She gave them their old instruments and laughed at the cacophony that ensued. They had fallen way out of practice! What would father think when he returned? But something nagged at the back of her mind.

Her joy at having her sisters back had taken up so much of her attention that she had fallen way behind in fixing up the house. She pleaded with her sisters to help her repair the mansion and they eventually agreed so she left the mansion for the first time in a long time and found it was not where it was supposed to be.

Such a shock, so much change, could kill someone like Layla but her poltergeists helped her through it, protecting her as they journeyed out of the mansion. But she was still shaken and remained so. A big change had intruded into her life and it wasn't something that she could easily ignore. The poltergeists learned -after grasping the idea of harmony, melody, and rhythm- that their music could calm her down and started writing and performing songs for her.

And they passed the time like this until she died of old age. And they kept practicing their music in that empty, dilapidated mansion until they wrote a masterpiece. Wouldn't Layla like to hear it? Asked Lyrica. Well, why don't we go and play it for her?

And so they stormed the Netherworld to find their sister and were met by a princess.

"What do you seek, poltergeists?" She asked.

"We seek our sister." They answered.

"Your sister isn't here, poltergeists, but I can find her for you if you'll pay a fee."

"What do you want?"

"You can see her for a song."

I got bored.

edited 3rd Sep '11 3:06:31 PM by Bocaj

Awww. Yuyuko's so cool. And that's a really clever backstory for Mister Prismriver.

Aya (have we done Aya?), Keine, Watatsuki

I continue to vote for the Watatsuki and the Watatsuki only.

You win with that. Forever.

a bit: We have not done Aya. I must warn you that my opinion is that she's a horrible person, and this will not likely change.

edited 3rd Sep '11 4:05:52 PM by asterism