The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Possible explanation to Yukari's origin.

I think I did something last night...

Not sure whether I should post these kinds of interpretations so I included a "normal" one along with the "special" one, depending on how people like it I might do more for other characters.

Yukari-High ELO Player

The undisputed enigma of Gensokyo, so mysterious and powerful she is listed as an incident template, between her and the few who stand amongst her she may be disputed as the most powerful youkai in existence and in Gensokyo. Why that is so is up to dispute however, it's not sure why she is more powerful then say, Okuu who can throw suns or Sanae who can cause you to kill yourself on accident by a "miracle", the power to control borders is strong yet there are powers distributed throughout Gensokyo which can match her, so why is she so much stronger then so many others?

Because she is the better strategist, the better fighter, or in other words, she is high ELO while everyone else is lower ELO. We all know a master beats a rookie, and Yukari is the Grand Master Youkai, the reason for her strength comes not from origin or mythical force, but from her own ingenuity and tactic, even with the greatest power in the world you'll still lose if you don't know how to use it, case in point Cirno and Reimu.

During the Cirno discussion in the previous thread, it was mentioned she could also set things on fire if she wanted to due to control over the cold, yet this thought has never occured to her hence why she is "Low ELO", compare that to Reimu, who has probably the lowest ability ever, the power to float in the sky, something that everyone else can already do, yet Reimu is so strong she had to nerf herself through the spell-card system.

The difference is that Reimu has found an exploit in her ability, an exploit that makes her invincible, and if you notice most of Gensokyo's citizens do the same thing to hop up the ELO ranks, and out of all these Youkai, Yukari is the best at doing this. They say no one really gets how a genius thinks, that's why they're a genius, and Yukari perhaps embodies this the most, she is a genius of the highest caliber; able to manipulate her abilities in such ways everyone else cowers in fear, not because she is crazy or Eldritch, but rather the exact opposite, she can think so fast and so well no one else can compete, she is beyond a simple computer, she is the Flash of Gensokyo.

Other Youkai are equally old or cheap, yet none can probably beat Yukari, there are gods and Moon Bitches yet all will fall into the web of Yakumo eventually, Yukari is not just black and white, she has even gone beyond blue and orange, Yukari Yakumo is a freaking double rainbow.

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Yakumo Yukari - Eastern Wonderland

To analyze Yukari's role in the "real" world, you have to look at what distinguishes her in "Gensokyo", and what distinguishes her most in Gensokyo, is the level of involvement she has in events, from aiding in creating the Hakurei Border to the events of PCB and the knowledge and supplies which keep Kourindou going, she is the character who seems to have a large universal presence in the series and the most knowledge of the "Outside" world beyond "Gensokyo".

Then examine her powers, she has the power to control "Borders", this probably implies she is in a position of control over Reimu, as "Borders" in real-life include rules and restrictions such as curfew, where you can and can't go and who you can talk to, since Yukari also appears frequently in the "ally/partner" role we can also say Reimu at least wants to keep being around her.

Now look at Yukari's "history" in "Gensokyo", she is heavily implied to have to aided in creating the Hakurei Border and Gensokyo itself, which most likely correlates to the real life event of Reimu's parents dying.

All together this implies Yukari is Reimu's guardian or at least some form of caretaker for her, the "Yakumo's" and "Hakurei's" are two close higher middle-class families, when Reimu's parents die she is given to her legal guardian Yukari, who is probably around 20 at the time and suggests she begin writing in a journal to help cope with the death of her parents, in other words the creation of the "Hakurei Border" and "Gensokyo" itself.

And going back to what someone said previously, Yukari is the gardener and "Gensokyo" is her garden, and like how a garden can be trained to grow up a trellis, Yukari in the "real" world is specifically conditioning Reimu to become her "Perfect Housewife", a person with no connection to the outside world and whom she can exert absolute control over, hence why she facilitates the growth of Gensokyo and the fantasy world, it works to stunt Reimu's social growth and cut any connections she might have from the "real" world in favor of "Gensokyo".

For example Yukari's "teasing" is most likely actual emotional abuse toned down to fit an "ally" character, picking at sensitive issues and problems to help agitate her stress levels to encourage the creation of more "incidents" and gently push her towards the overall goal of isolation. In "real" life Yukari probably works in some high-end business company and frequently is talking to her assistant Ran ("Talking through the magic box" in Gensokyo), and most likely has a separate estate away from Reimu (No one knows where the Yakumo household is) and is not home much.

This explains why the Shrine is often "Deserted of visitors" in "Gensokyo", it reflects Reimu's "real" home life, she is often alone and only does chores occasionally because there's no point in doing it for herself only, she is poor because her allowance probably comes from Yukari who's not there half the time, a mixture of image issues and apathy mean she probably doesn't eat much either.

By gently nudging her into her own self-imposed isolation from people Yukari is able to both create a situation where she can put in the least amount of effort to accomplish her goal as well as monopolize Reimu's attention and affections, slowly pushing out other positive influences like Marisa and Suika all without being directly held responsible for any grievances by Reimu, pushing her away from doing something like calling the police or telling someone as Yukari makes the relationship more intimate.

You guys have such serious characterizations. Mine are so simple...then again, I'm not good at coming up with long analysis' like that anyway.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

The eyes were originally probably just creepiness for the sake of creepiness. PCB was a fairly dark game, and Yukari's first title was 'The One Behind the Spiritings Away'. Of note is that the gap in her PCB art had arms coming out of it, and the gaps in the fighting games lack body parts entirely

As for seeing out of them, a spellcard description in the fighting games says that she uses a specialized gap to observe, but the canonicity of this is debateable

Only has purple eyes in PCB. Gold in all other appearances

I think the fighting games show her with her hair in a bun of sorts. So, long

No, all speculation

edited 6th Feb '11 5:36:27 PM by Hylarn

Hmm, applying gender studies to the Pink Bishōjo Ghetto? Interesting. Come to think of it, most mythological creatures, assuming they aren't bestial things like dragons or kraken, seem to turn out as monstrous females - the sphinx, harpies, medusa, mermaids, lamiae... sounds like a thesis paper.

Or Maribel!

Heh. Yukari wet the bed.

Neat idea all around. Wonder if Ran's ever had a heart attack because Yukari went through the Border of Life and Death while sleeping.

Well, if Yukari was a traditional supernatural entity, I'd posit that the Gaps are openings to another dimension that allows for nigh-instantaneous travel. But she's a youkai of boundaries and borders, so that's probably not what's going on. Instead she's manipulating the border between here and there so she can reach out and swipe Reimu's lunch from the other side of Gensokyo. So strictly speaking, there isn't anything in the Gap. Everyone else sees that creepy eye-studded darkness because they don't have a way of coping with seeing Yukari give space-time a wedgie.

Similarly, we must remember that most youkai are the humanoid forms of various animals - Ran is a magical fox that has a human form, Chen is a magical cat that has a human form, and so forth. So... Yukari is the human form of what, exactly?

Some sort of... gap... dragon?

I get the sense that Yukari is an arch-Munchkin who, having thoroughly broken the game, is having fun messing around while the players and GM are left behind trying to figure out how she did it.

Until now, I had never made the jump from "trickster mentor" to "crazy-ass stepmom." Interesting theory with Reimu having lives on either side of the Border and Yukari prodding her towards one of them, too.

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Hmm? That's not true. There are a large number of animal youkai, but they're not even the majority. Vampires, demons, witches, oni, fairies, aren't animal-based as well as a number of individuals who might be satori or yuki onna or various other mythological entities that aren't associated with animals. Lastly, we have the "other" category for youkai who are just youkai with no other descriptors. Yuuka, Parsee, Meiling, Rumia, etc are given particular powers but have no particular origin. They're just youkai. Yukari falls into this category. It's popular to speculate what kind of origin they might have, but they're definitely not associated with animals.

As for the eyes, it's a reference to Laplace's Demon, or at least it turned into such a reference in 12.3. Those are the eyes that know everything about the world.

I don't buy that Maribel and Yukari are secretly the same person, especially since Maribel's from our future. For all we know, the fact that she looks kind of like Yukari could just be a coincidence.

But I do think that they are related somehow.

Wait, I've just realized something. Maribel and Renko both have Abilities, even though they're supposed to be from the outside world. What's up with that? Yeah, Yukari has something to do with that, I bet. Faw's idea of her using Mary to keep an eye on the outside world doesn't make any sense, though. I mean, she can already go back and forth between Gensokyo and the outside all she likes! She attacks people by summoning subway trains! XD

Those eyes must have some deep magic.

So, YuugenMagan was one of Yukari's spellcards?

That's what I'll always try to argue. The kanji for "Magic Eye" in "Magic Eye 'Laplace's Demon'" are the same as the "magan" part of its name, but that's probably just either a linguistic coincidence or a very low-level callback.

edited 6th Feb '11 10:48:41 PM by SuperDimensionman

Magan means magic eye. If you want to talk about magic eyes there's no real way to avoid using those words with being pointlessly wordy.

Have the feeling we'll be segueing into Maribel and Renko next, because Mary always pops up once you get into Yukari. But the weird thing is we haven't done Chen yet.

Wait... I bet Mary owns a cat. Because she's kinda mirror-Yukari, and she probably has a personal computer, so all she'd need would be a cat to complete the Yakumo set.

Shhhhh! You're ruining the Cosmic Horror!

Hmm. So maybe the endless field of eyes is Yukari's consciousness, which exists independently of her body. Maybe Yukari's mind counts as its own dimension.

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Hence the "linguistic coincidence" possibility. The only way that it couldn't be a coincidence is if whoever named it (would that be ZUN, or did someone from Tasogare Frontier name the new spellcards in that game?) deliberately did so as a reference to Yuugenmagan. (Which I don't think is particularly likely, sadly.)

edited 6th Feb '11 10:55:25 PM by SuperDimensionman

Actually, I believe that, setting-wise, most youkai are former animals, but few of them are strong enough to be important. Doesn't mean that Yukari has to be one, though. But where exactly she came from is a good question

I think setting-wise the vast majority of youkai are fairies or ghosts. Generic animal youkai like Tewi's followers and others probably make up a big bulk too though. However, most of them are unnamed and unimportant.

Oh wow. Suddenly, activity.

I haven't fully booted up yet, so I'll just reply to something sort of directed towards me for now:

I might have forgotten about that part! Which is kinda silly of me. However, it could still have some use being able to observe the world through the eyes of someone nobody would expect of being any sort of outsider. In fact, I reckon Maribel wouldn't even be the only one she enters. She's just the one we hear about... Possibly because she's the most often used observer in Yukari's repertoire due to her tactically valuable position of "somewhere close to Gensokyo".

I don't buy that Maribel and Yukari are secretly the same person, especially since Maribel's from our future.

Maribel's from the future? I thought she lived in present, and also that Gensokyo and the outside world existed at the same time...

You're half right. Gensokyo coexists with a real world identical to our own (probably barring the existence of a particular series of indie shooting games), but the stories with the two humans from the outside world take place in the future.

edited 7th Feb '11 3:13:52 AM by SuperDimensionman

Maribel and Renko live 20 Minutes in the Future. They have things like (expensive) passenger trips to the moon as well as some kind of Unified Field Theory that's studied by college students.

edited 7th Feb '11 3:14:42 AM by Clarste

I think the most viable theory on Maribel I've seen is that she ends up going into the past and becoming Yukari. There's a mysterious document that strongly suggests time travel, so it's entirely possible

I was never really one for the "Yukari is Maribel or al least connected to her" theory, but I keep forgetting Renko and Maribel exist anyway.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

I probably would too if I weren't playing Touhoumon games and watching Touhou Soccer.

That's a theory I can get behind. I actually once had a very similar idea myself.

It seems like ZUN is trying to collect every typical fantasy origin story in one universe, so if nothing else, it's appropriate for the sake of completion.

Maribel is Yukari's projection into the mundane world.

Alternatively, Maribel is Yukari's love child with Marisa and Renko her love child with Reimu for no reason at all.

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