The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Possibly relevant.

Even if Sakuya isn't directly connected with the lunar civilization, I suppose Eirin might have been surprised to see someone with powers that appeared to be similar to Kaguya's.

That... adds a certain twist to those "can't make an omelet" rants.

I imagine Remilia's opinion of them plays a role to some extent. Hard for Sakuya to be properly loyal if she didn't hate her mistress' enemies.

Within the mansion, I'd say Sakuya has absolute loyalty to her mistress, for reasons that may not make sense to outside observers. Flandre is appreciated as the mistress' little sister, but is also treated as a potential hazard that must be properly handled. Sakuya is probably neutral to Patchy since they mostly do their own things in different parts of the mansion. But with Meiling, we've got the fussy indoor maid contrasting with the rough gate- and groundskeeper, the cold Sakuya with the amicable Meiling, the attack dog and the smiling dragon - classic opposites attract scenario.

That's all just my opinion, though. Some folks dig the "nosebleeds around the cute lil' Scarlets" portrayal of Sakuya.

Beyond that, she seems to get along well enough with Reimu and Marisa, though most people do. I must mention that the wiki points out that Alice has a habit of attacking Sakuya on sight for no real reason. Something to do her "Killer Doll" techniques, perhaps?

edited 3rd Aug '15 6:33:35 PM by Tacitus

Alice seems to like to freak people out. Look at her interview with Aya or the interaction she has with the Three Fairies.

She might not like that Sakuya won their first encounter in that regard, especially since Sakuya is a human.

Sakuya Izayoi, Elegant Maid of the Slaughter!

Lunar Clock: Her "I'll utterly devastate you!" theme.

Flowering Night: Her "Would you like some tea after I defeat you gracefully?" theme.

Elegant Time
Eternal Night
Night of Nights
Time to Act
Whimsical Night
Maid in Time
Time Stream Panic
Flower Party
Roar of Time
Moonlit Garden
Clock of Ages
The Dark Night
Fear of Time
Night Fight
Lunar Timelines
Elegant Night
Time Traveler
One Calm, Happy Night

edited 3rd Aug '15 9:18:15 PM by Diamite

Crack theory:

Sakuya wasn't a serial killer, a vampire hunter or anything like that. She was just a knife salesman. Because her knives wasn't selling, she learned to perform tricks like knife-juggling and stuff to attract customers. It only make her customers scared though.

One day, Remi was walking through the mall, and saw Sakuya desperately trying to sell knives. Filled with both awe with her knife skills, and pity for her desperation, she offered her a job at the mansion.

Time stopping skill? Just some random magical watch she bought from a shady peddler who also sold medicines a long time ago.

"I've seen you slice through a tomato, but I was wondering how your products dealt with... meat."

Ohohoho, just realized - Sakuya is a maid. And depending on Yumeko's role in Makai, Alice might have issues with maids.

Oooh, like Kitsune Workshop's Lunar Dial, you can just see it in a cinematic action sequence, and "Clock M" gave me goosebumps. The only thing I can think to add would be Tutti Sound's "Lunar Dial", which has an interesting galloping beat to it.

Sakuya probably finds 'meat' for Remilia and Flandre to eat. Who knows what kind of 'meat' it is?

edited 4th Aug '15 8:54:24 PM by GAP

Optimistically, Yukari has made an arrangement with a group of Outside World denizens who have tired of life on this mortal coil and are only too happy that the act of exiting it will allow others to thrive.

Pessimistically, Sakuya gets to go out "grocery shopping" along with other youkai from time to time.

Sakuya could had assassinated some individuals in order to get to the mansion.

I believe that Yukari is gapping in folks specifically (and not so specifically as well, but that's irrelevant) for Remilia to feed on, but that they don't have a say in the matter. Does that mean I'm a realist?

I'm not sure "realist" is the best way to describe a theory explaining how a fantastic land of man-eating monsters operates. Maybe we could say your theory is a notch closer to the "grimdark" side of the tonal continuum?

Hmm. If you wanna be the maid, you must prove you're capable of defeating the previous maid? Or maybe it was a direct demonstration of Sakuya's skills that made Remilia consider her in the first place?

I was actually referring to how she gets 'food' for her mistresses. I guess that whole 'there can only be be one' plot with the maids is somewhat plausible. Sakuya is a consummate professional with time stopping powers as well as a bit of a sadistic streak. She could had defeated the previous maid of her position and ended working for SDM since.

edited 8th Aug '15 10:10:45 PM by GAP

That seems kind of unlikely. Remilia seems to just hire whatever is available. I don't think she is looking at their skills when she hires them.

I mean she has fairies and goblins and some of them aren't known for their productivity.

If you had one ultramaid with the skills to care for your entire mansion, but you just want some more noise and liveliness in the halls, fairies are probably the way to go.

I suppose you are right Sakuya is a one woman supermaid and Remilia doesn't look like the type who look at applications. the fairy maids are useless anyway but they do provide some life.

It's hard to appreciate a super-maid unless you have some contrast in the form of maids in name only.

Well, it's been about two weeks, so we should probably move on to a new character. So now's the time to share any last thoughts about Sakuya before Rumia appears (or fails to appear) sometime tomorrow.

Here's mine: what ethnicity is Sakuya? She has a Japanese name but Remilia gave it to her, she presumably arrived with the Mansion from beyond Gensokyo, but to my knowledge nobody makes a point that she looks even a little bit foreign, in contrast with Yukari.

On the other hand, I can't remember anyone saying Remi looks European, so who knows.

Maybe being a vampire might overshadow whatever markers that could help you put a race to her beyond "kinda pale." She might be uncanny enough that you could squint at her and think that the human she once was might have been Japanese... or maybe not.

Sakuya might be European or she could be of mixed ancestry.

Alright, Sakuya's time is up. Next we'll discuss Yuuka, Yamame and Rikako Asakura! But first, a little blot of darkness.

Rumia

Stage: Scroll of the Fantasy Night ~ Mystic Flier
BGM: "A Soul as Red as a Ground Cherry"^note Stage 1 theme. The image of a midnight forest. As it's the first stage, I aimed for something a little energetic, so hopefully people would get into it. But isn't it something a little more comical and hectic?
Theme: "Apparitions Stalk the Night"^note Rumia's theme. Not just this, but all the music this time is meant to be light. This comes from an image of youkai in night...or, at least, I hope so (^^; It's fairly relaxed and a little silly.

Spellcard Motif: Darkness and the night
Notable spellcards: EoSD, GoM, StB
Moon Sign "Moonlight Ray," Night Sign "Night Bird," Darkness Sign "Demarcation," Darkness Sign "Dark Side of the Moon," Night Sign "Midnight Bird"

Write-up:
A youkai whose power at least sounds cool. Rumia can conjure an area of impenetrable darkness, cloaking herself in shadows and robbing her victims of sight. Unfortunately she can't see in this darkness either, leading her to crash into trees when she attempts to fly with her power active.

Rumia is simultaneously a bit childish and ditzy, and yet remains a man-eating youkai, at least in theory. We have no confirmation that she's managed to actually catch anyone, and some other youkai or fairies like to use her little sphere of darkness as shade during the summer. Other than that, there's not much to say about Rumia - well, she does have a charm tied to her hair that she can't touch, but that's probably not important...

See also the previous two compendiums.

edited 10th Aug '15 6:47:08 PM by Tacitus

Rumia:

A youkai with the power of darkness at her beck and call. But she has issues using it properly...

So her sphere of darkness is a nice way for folks to cool down in the summer. But...they wouldn't be able to see a thing. I wonder if Rumia's darkness can devour any source of light lit within.

Rumia is unable to touch her amulet. A good call by whoever managed to put it on her, because without that amulet, Rumia would've drowned the world in black. Within the amulet lies Rumia's true self, a supreme being with absolute dominion over the darkness. It also includes the darkness in people's hearts. Manifesting their darkest desires, watching them kill or be killed because of it...all child's play to her.

Why would she do such horrific actions? Because.

Whew. Good thing we're stuck with this foolish fool of a foolish youkai who foolishly uses her power, right?

edited 12th Aug '15 1:06:23 AM by Diamite

It is interesting that Rumia is a stage one boss despite a potentially awesome power. It was something of an inverted trope by ZUN as usually characters with the power of darkness are usually superpowerful villains and/or anti heroes. ZUN played with this trope by making Rumia somewhat weak in comparison to the rest of the cast.

Interestingly, despite being a darkness youkai, Rumia uses lasers and really colorful danmaku.

My theory, she might not be "emitting" darkness so much as absorbing light around her. And the light around her can be pushed back out as danmaku. In this sense, Rumia is a light youkai as much as she is a darkness youkai. Makes sense actually, as darkness is simply an absence of light, and one who can manipulate one should be able to manipulate the other.

There are similar theories about Cirno and heat/cold. Maybe that's something they have in common.

Great, now I'm imagining a whole electromagnetic spectrum of weak youkai.

One crackpot theory that amuses me (so much that I wrote a short fic about it) is that Flandre is Rumia. You know, because they're both blonde, have red eyes, eat/kill people, are in the same game, and are sensitive to light.

Tying in her power to light is an amusing one (Her name is another way to link it to it). My own crackpot theory? The ribbon is (maybe actually, maybe merely metaphorically or representative of) a light youkai. Light and Darkness are locked in a constant battle, and right now, Darkness is winning. And with all the power it has left while surpressing light... it's forms Rumia. So.... winning, but not by much.

But my headcanon isn't quite so strange. Basically, in the past, Darkness was one of those universal fears of humanity. It represented all that was unknowable. And now humanity knows it. What causes it, how to control it, how to fight it, and how to see in it. What was once something to be feared is now nothing more than a minor annoyance. An inconvenience easily dealt with.

In other words, Rumia. While perhaps in the past she was once a mighty unstoppable grue (Or perhaps they were different and the grue is now extinct thanks to humanity's efforts), now she is... almost nothing.

Also, she really is dumb. We see in Aya's interview that Rumia can make her darkness less opaque (she lets some in for Aya. Though Rumia thinks it's still too bright, Aya can't even see yet.). Point is, she can adjust it to a point where she can see... but usually doesn't. Maybe's it's kinda hooked up to a dimmer switch and she doesn't usually have the dexterity or concern to turn it to anything other than all on or all off.

Hmm, hadn't heard that interpretation of her power before. Good show.

Maybe it's not so much a class of Conservation of Energy Youkai as it is the difference between your average monster girl and someone like Yukari. Like if Cirno ever figured out she could generate heat as easily as she creates cold, she could ascend to, like, at least a Stage Three boss. Maybe even Stage Four if it wasn't one of those games where you end up fighting the other protagonist.

Yeah, it's easy to imagine Rumia as a really old youkai, the stuff of legends, if humans had writing back then. But it's all just been downhill for the past six thousand years or so: campfires, torches, lanterns, oil lamps, and so on. The past century has been the worst, and it's where she gets her ribbon - it represents how the main source of what has made humans stop fearing the night, electricity, is something forever beyond her reach, outside of Gensokyo. So she's like a faith-starved deity, reduced to a hapless child barely able to control her own powers.