The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

and i hate when people interpret characters as being complete assholes but ohhhh welllll

who we talkin' bout, Shou? I got nothing on Shou. Literally nothing. She got a spear-thing. S'cool I guess. Maybe she stabs people with it.

edited 9th Oct '12 1:23:50 AM by StarkMaximum

WHO IS THIS LOSER

You know, you mentioning the tendency of most characters to have an evil/horrific interpretation floating around emphasizes the lack of one for Shou. Outside of Stripe Pattern's (Which, well, it's Stripe Pattern. Saints eat living babies in those eyes.) and maybe That "Hungry Tiger" doujin... Even Byakuren has more negative interpretations as a political schemer than Shou... Totally adding this to my writeup.

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.

yes, i know you're fucking with me, but even so

WHO IS THIS LOSER

It's pretty hard to interpret Shou as unpleasant.

Song of the Sirens

Shou doesn't stab people with her spear. In fact, I don't think she knows how to use it as a weapon. She carries it as a symbol of her god boss, and according to Akyuu, uses it more as a walking stick than as a weapon.

Not sure if this has been commented on yet, but I see Shou is someone who has good things happen to her, duh, but sometimes she forgets about the whole "benefits to avataring for a god of good fortune" and has to be reminded. As in, she is so devoted to her duty that she forgets that the benefits also apply to her. If that makes sense.

Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.

Maybe, maybe. I doubt she'd forget, though. Since one of those benefits is her main weapon.

It's possibly not her only weapon, though. A couple of her spellcards imply she's also got a vajra and a mandala

And I know a mandala is technically an artwork, but I still think she carries one around with her.

EDIT: Speaking of Double Spoiler, both Aya and Hatate seem to think that Shou is, basically, a fraudster. Interesting.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:07:46 AM by asterism

Song of the Sirens

Aya's Reporting: Completely Unreliable Unless We Want To Believe It

WHO IS THIS LOSER

It's possibly more of an insight into Aya than Shou, yes.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:16:15 AM by asterism

Song of the Sirens

Well, I didn't mean forget as in "Oh, I forgot I was an avatar" but more as when good fortune happens to her, she at first thinks she is just lucky them remembers "oh, right. Avatar to a good fortune god." Less that she forgets and more that...it slips her mind?

Also, it doesn't seem that Aya and Hatate think that Shou is so much a fraudster as much as they think that her usage of divine golden laser shows to gather faith is a bit suspect. Basically, they are saying that Shou is using flashy tricks to gather faith.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:19:08 AM by Otherarrow

Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.

You would say that.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:18:10 AM by StarkMaximum

WHO IS THIS LOSER

Then again, when you're an avatar of a god of concepts than of substance, laser light shows are probably a good way to handle faith gathering...

I sure said that!

The Shameimaru is a FILTHY LIAR, Stark. FILTHY! LIAR!

Also, a lot of gods in Touhou are flashy. They need to be spectacular so they can allure more victims worshippers into their web.

edited 9th Oct '12 7:05:42 AM by asterism

Song of the Sirens

There was a doujin where Shou was looking for Naz and started accumulating treasure from people accidentally, with a loose definition for treasure. And then fandom jokes happen.

Of course, her ability doesn't say she only gathers treasure that doesn't belong to anyone so, yeah, she might be an accidental pilferer.

edited 9th Oct '12 7:52:23 AM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

I can just imagine peole bursting in on Nazrin demanding their stuff back only for shou to walk in traling a line of valuable caught on a string.

The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul.

If Nazrin sees the picture under your pillow, she gives you your stuff back. Truly, she is the Stuff Fairy.

Song of the Sirens

My understanding of the whole avatar business is that the mortal in question could be "worn" by her god at any time if he wanted to interact with the world. Now, during her boss banter with Reimu, Shou refers to herself as Bishamonten. So I guess the question is whether or not she was actually being "worn" by the god at that moment, or if she had a close enough relationship with her deity to feel confident in speaking for him, as it were.

Maybe Shou-As-Bishamonten is almost indistinguishable from Shou-as-Shou (though if she was channeling the god for her boss fight, we wouldn't have a baseline Shou to compare her behavior to). Or maybe Bishamonten rarely if ever feels the need to utilize Shou as his avatar because either 1) he's pretty chill or 2) she does a good enough job representing his interests that he doesn't have to formally assume direct control.

I like the latter idea.

Not just "special moments," but "unexplained phenomena!" For unbeknownst to either of them, Shou has an inexplicable cosmic connection to a certain oni Deva. Sometimes, in a process still not understood by thaumatologists, Yuugi's vague and possibly mistranslated power to manipulate supernatural weirdness interacts with Shou's innate power to attract treasure, temporary reversing it. Since the most valuable treasure Shou could ever carry is of course the jeweled pagoda, Yuugi's unintended meddling sends the divine artifact careening away for Nazrin to retrieve later.

D'you think it's 'cause she's got a connection to an actual deity with a following in real life? We can jeer at Kanako because she's fictional, and spin Byakuren darkly because she's not a "real" Buddhist, but Shou's the avatar of someone people actually pray to.

Maybe this is why Miko got genderflipped, too.

Maybe the tengu are a bit leery of divines, Moriya Shrine or not. Or maybe they're traveled enough to know what a real tiger is.

Current earworm: "A New Journey"

For the record, Kanako is partially based on Take-Minakata.

Song of the Sirens

This is a good point... though given that Shou is merely an avatar and not actually the god, I doubt it'd be enough protection from grimdark on its own.

Hmmm... Nazrin doesn't steal from people who have a Shou portrait under their pillow... Depending on the price of and source of those portraits, it almost sounds like a protection racket. I just imagine Nazrin looting a room, then as she's stealing the pillow she sees her boss under there! So she freaks out since she's been caught, puts everything back, and awkwardly leaves the room wondering why Shou was hiding under a guy's pillow of all places.

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.

Naz is specifically called 'clever', though, and I'm fairly certain that the 'pictures' Shou gives out aren't dakimakura covers.

edited 9th Oct '12 2:44:05 PM by Recon5

But then why does she have arms?

But yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah, it's sorta a protection racket. I'd imagine the photos couldn't be that expensive, if its common enough knowledge that it'd work.

edited 9th Oct '12 2:44:01 PM by Pulse

I sure said that!

If Nazrin isn't selling the pictures its more like "oh crap, this guy is a follower. I'd best leave their loot unyoinked."

She is a servant of Bishamonten after all.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

If everyone starts doing that she end up broke. I mean surely there's only so much dowsing that needs doing. She might have to sit on Shou's head hoping to catch treasure falling from the sky.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:44:12 PM by Shiroimahotsukai

The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul.

Well, I don't even know what she needs the money for other than to have it. Servants of Bishamonten must like shinies.

But anyway, one of the reasons she moved out of the temple and built a place near Muenzuka to look for buried treasure in the area.

She may warrant a fedora.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:51:31 PM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

And dowsing whips.

The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul.

The once and former youkai

Shou Toramaru is one of many youkai who have found a new purpose in life, and lost touch with their roots. Koishi Komeiji, who closed her third eye... Kyouko Kasodani, who became a yamabiko as she left her beasthood behind, and even now explores another new life... Kyouko's life as a mere beast youkai is but a distant memory, now.

For Shou, her life as a mere beast youkai is even less. That identity has been lost... and without Byakuren's intervention, Shou herself likely would be as well. Her beast form was an illusion and nothing more... indeed, she was never a beast youkai in the way that Chen or Ran were... Shou entered existence as a youkai, rather than as a beast. When that youkai stopped existing because tigers became better known, that part of her died.

Fortunately for Shou, she had already left that identity behind. By this point, she had become Bishamonten's avatar. So devoted to this cause, was she, that she even let Byakuren, the reason Shou continued to exist at all, be sealed away. Perhaps fear of losing her avatar status prevented Shou from acting (Knowing she might vanish/die entirely if she lost her new identity.) Perhaps it was simply a sense of duty... Byakuren had given her a task, and she knew that seeing it through is what Byakuren would have wanted.

Whatever the case, Shou chose Bishamonten over Byakuren. Centuries passed, and Murasa and the others were unsealed. Now, perhaps more enlightened or selfless, or perhaps because the temple was failing, Shou decided to repay Byakuren for all she'd done. She started preparing for breaking the seal... then broke the seal (With protagonist help), and freed Byakuren. Notably, this makes her one of the few Touhou antagonists to unambiguously accomplish her goal (Orin also springs to mind).

Of course, as an Avatar of Bishamonten, I suspect Shou saw a lot of change. Bishamonten wasn't always a treasure god, after all... and I suspect that Shou changed as Bishamonten did. Perhaps her tiger-like ferocity and skill at arms made her a warrior without peer back in the day. In which case, how would she now feel, relying almost entirely on a gift from Bishamonten to fight. Given her devotion, I don't think she minds at all. She's thrown her chips in with Bishamonten, and she's willing to see the bet through.

Ah, but the Pagoda... She had it, then she didn't, then she did. We don't know how she originally obtained it, or how she lost it.... only that Nazrin got it back for her. My headcanon has Shou simply not needing it for several centuries, after which time it falls into Gensokyo/Muenzuka, to be scavenged by Rinnosuke many years later, then put up for sale. So Shou didn't lose it; it kinda got up and walked away, in a sense. This is especially likely if Bishamonten was primarily a war god at the time; the treasure pagoda would be a relatively minor accessory compared to, say, the spear, so she wouldn't have even noticed its absence until she needed it to unseal Byakuren. And besides, she's got a handy pet mouse and a power that work in concert to get such a valuable item back to her in in but no time at all.

And importantly, Nazrin actually got the Pagoda back for Shou, rather than turning Shou in to Bishamonten. This alone makes me think that Nazrin legitimately thinks that either it wasn't Shou's fault, or that despite that flaw, Shou is still the most promising person for avatardom. *

While Shou probably didn't want to raise a ruckus about the pagoda ogne missing, I don't think what she did (failing to announce she had lost it) was particularly underhanded. No one else probably thought to ask where it had gone, and in her mind it was probably just one of several things that had to be collected (recollected, in this particular case, but still...) in order ot free Byakuren.

Shou's relationship with Byakuren is... complicated. Ultimately, though, it comes down to mutual back-scratching. Bishamonten got a very reliable avatar, Shou got continued existence and a new purpose, and Byakuren gets a role model to show that Youkai can move beyond being murderous beasts.

Of course, Shou wasn't much of a murderous beast to begin with, I suspect. She was the most honorable and honored youkai around... that's why Byakuren even suggested her. Considering she lived up to divine standards despite close scrutiny for centuries, Shou really is honest and straightforward. Even when the protagonists confront her, she avoids deception, plainly stating the situation and asking for their help... and getting it once the protagonist realizes there's not really another way home. As an extention of this, I think Shou dislikes dishonesty in general; her personality would clash badly with Marisa, or a tsundere Alice. In Shou's mind, say what you feel. In this reard, I think she'd probably get along relatively well with Satori or oni.

As for her power, I think it manifests as a sort of "homing beacon for treasure", I guess? She turns it 'on', and treasure finds its way to her, mostly via fortune/luck, but sometimes directly through the efforts of Bishamonten's followers (Like Nazrin). That thing Tewi does in Inaba Inaba where she digs up the trasure? Yeah, I see Shou's power working like that. She puts a shovel in the ground, and there there be loot.

Regarding her love of drink, It's not terribly surprising. Gods love them their drink, and in Gensokyo, alcohol is in no short supply (somehow).I suspect her self control falters a lot while drink, leading to her reverting to a more primal nature, one she forgets was her origin.

A maddening Reisen, a violent Youmu, Serial Killer Sakuya, Sanahilator, Socipath Reimu, Kleptomaniac Marisa and monstrous/murderous -insert youkai here-... they've all shown up time to time...So why not Shou (The closest thing is can't keep track of anything interpretation... and while negative, it's not... evil)?

Because she's so darned good. She's loyal, honest, respected, willing to give her all for a cause she knows little about. She's forgotten her monstrous maneating roots and now lives as an avatar of a god instead... A complete transformation. Perhaps if she were tied to Kratos-god-of-war or something, we'd see more negative interpretations. But really, she just doesn't fit well in a grimdark world. Her backstory is relatively angst-free (some guilt over Byakuren... I don't know if I'd call a midlife crisis like that quite on the same level as Mokou's attempts to live with eternity, though).

Shou really is a role model. She's lived a good life, and gotten her just rewards. Byakuren may not be the best judge of character, but she must have had luck on her side when she recruited Shou; there's no better proof that a Youkai can leave behind their monstrous origins... and few people, youkai or not, who would be such devoted friends.

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.