The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Has she been given official romanized spelling yet? Among alternate spellings I've seen Flander, Frandle, Flandoll, or Frandoll.

I've been pronouncing it like the French name for Flanders, but with a horrible midwestern accent. Kind of like "FLAN-dur."

How does Keine fly? She has no wings at all.

Anyone can fly in Gensokyo. Its not like Remilia flaps her wings to stay aloft.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

That gives me the uncanny image of her bat form hovering in the air, stock still.

This might be my new favorite alternate name for a character. Right up there with the time I saw Ms. Mizuhashi's first name translated as "Palsey."

edited 19th Oct '15 4:40:12 PM by trepmaws

I joined a turkey club once. It was fun and delicious.

I pronounce it "FLAN-der", like "Spectre" or "Theatre".

Or at least, I would pronounce it that way if I weren't the only person among my friends and family who's even heard of Touhou. Having the only discussion of Touhou I ever participate in being via text kinda makes pronunciation moot.

The Living Guildpact rules that coffee is an acceptable substitution for rest as specified in subsection … whatever.

That makes me think of Parsley to be honest.

I was going to make a "Adventure of Parsley Mizuhashi with [insert herb puns here]" joke, but I suck at making puns.

I think Frandle is probably the most accurate that doesn't look too weird. It's also how she signs her name in PMiSS◊. Flandre just comes from the early translators trying too hard.

edited 20th Oct '15 12:22:45 AM by Clarste

I'd argue it sounds better, though, like maybe some obscure French name. "Frandle" sounds English and somehow disappointing.

Anyway, let's maintain a respectful and safe distance as Miss Scarlet is escorted home by Miss Knowledge. After this will be Koakuma, some sort of floating orb of light, and someone who famously never spills her sake. But first,

Half-Human, Half-Phantom Gardener Youmu Konpaku

Appearance:

Stage: Spirit Battle on the Staircase of Hakugyokurou
The girl lived in the world after death.
She was half-phantom and half-human...
BGM: "Eastern Mystical Dream ~ Ancient Temple"^note This theme expresses the nostalgia that is deep within every Japanese and the frantic feeling that arises when someone is approaching. The sounds of far-off Shinto flutes and bells conjure up images of the netherworld. Or maybe it's just me?
Theme: "Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird ~ Till When?"^note I tried to give the impression of both "A Tough Opponent" and "Childishness" with this theme. Perhaps this is the most boss-like theme in this game. While it uses guitar, I gave up trying to make it sound like rock music almost immediately. The hook's melody resembles the youkai.

Spellcard Motif: Otherworldly sword swipes
Sample spellcards: PCB, GoM, IaMP, IN, SWR, PoFV, StB, 'Soku, TD, ISC
Ghost Sword "Fasting of the Young Preta," Hell Realm Sword "200 Yojana in 1 Slash," Asura Sword "Obsession with the Present World," Human God Sword "Acceptance of Eternal Truth," Heavenly Sword "Displeasure of the Seven Hakus," Life-Cutting Sword "Slash of Meditation," Arcanum "Slash of Saigyou Spring Wind," Celestial Star Sword "As the Silent Nirvana," Cherry Blossom Sword "Flashing Scattered Flowers," Higan Sword "Hacking Slashes of Hell and Paradise"

Write-up:

Half-human, half-phantom, half-baked. Youmu Konpaku is an inhabitant of the Netherworld sworn to the service of its ghostly princess. Youmu is allegedly Yuyuko Saigyouji's swordsmanship tutor, but in practice tends to Hakugyokurou's gardens. Or cooks. Or does whatever else Yuyuko tells her to do, from stealing spring to cause an Incident to being put on the path to resolve an Incident.

Youmu has a straightforward and serious character, and pursues the tasks Yuyuko gives her with single-minded determination, which makes her easy to tease and manipulate. Though young for a half-phantom, Youmu is pretty dangerous with those swords of hers, Roukanken and Hakurouken, which famously can cut through just about anything. Yet despite her nature, employer, and home's location, Youmu does have a glaring weakness: she's terrified of ghost stories and "no good with scary stuff."

All of these occasionally oxymoronic contrasts have probably contributed to Youmu's popularity and appearances in fan works. Whether you need a butt monkey, only sane woman, scaredy-cat or sword-swinging badass, Youmu can play the part with some basis in canon.

Relations

• Yuyuko Saigyouji (mistress)
• Youki Konpaku (predecessor)
• Yukari Yakumo (mistress' friend)
• Shikieiki Yamaxanadu (mistress' boss)
• Komachi Onozuka (coworker she rarely gets to interact with)

See also the first two compendiums.

edited 20th Oct '15 6:22:44 PM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Youmu seems like if someone were to try to mesh Luigi's scaredy-cat and brave, kind of try-hard braggart personalities in a way that makes some degree of sense.

She's definitely one of contradictions...

Yomu is a master swordsman but she isn't too sharp herself as Suika points out. Youmu can be clueless sometimes.

"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"

She's terrible at stealth and that is hilarious.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Youmu Konpaku:

Yuyuko's right-hand assistant in the Netherworld. Steadfast, serious, and quite naive because of it.

Youmu can't handle scary stuff. ...I wonder if she was afraid of her own existence at first...

Youmu's swords are family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation. It is said that Youmu's the most efficient user of the blades, using finesse and skill never seen in previous generations. It's because of this reason that Youki Konpaku left Yuyuko in her capable hands.

Gardening, cooking, other errands... I wouldn't be surprised if Youmu treats all of these everyday things as ways of getting stronger. How she devotes all of her energy into these things is what makes her the perfect goferis so admirable.

To this day, of the Stage 5 bosses, I believe Youmu's non-spells are the hardest to figure out. Darn circular motion!

I wonder what she thinks of humans. Like the Konpakus have their Kon floating outside of their bodies, and people like Yuyuko are all Kon and no body. But then there's humans, who are lurching around with nothing but body... scary stuff.

Maybe Youmu has some additional soul senses? Like she can pick up visual cues from those floating wispy things as easily as some people can read faces, which would place her at a disadvantage when interacting with humans. Or maybe she can still see and therefore read someone's Kon even when it's in their body, which would give her an advantage. If she weren't Youmu, anyway.

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Off Topic: I cannot believe I just got the Konpaku pun. >_<

On Topic: I kind of see Youmu as being socially awkward that even having that ability would be more of a detriment than a blessing. Youmu is just clueless outside of swordplay and gardening. Yuyuko practically led the way in IN to keep her from getting lost.

"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"

An idea I had is that this is why she seems so half-baked. See, it takes longer to get used to those extra senses. Perhaps it even requires a sort of heightened awareness to make sense of them, and most of the time it's just this indistinct haunting sense. Which also helps explain her fear of ghosts!

As for her ability, My old interpretation was basically that she had a goku sort of ability to learn sword techs.

But upon learning that the ability translation is more literally something close to "power to the extent of", it carries a different implication. Because in a sense, it's that she doesn't even have a power at all. Anyone could learn swordsmanship. Which turns her into a Badass Normal in one interpretation. Or someone who's super out of her league in another. Given how she seems to be one of the universe's butt-monkeys, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Youmu and Yuyuko aren't on the same page. In fact, what Youmu thinks is the Book Yuyuko is reading is actually a painting.

Yuyuko keeps trying to get Youmu to think for herself, but Youmu seems a big fan of the romanticised idea of the Samurai and their unquestioning obedience...

And also she's not real quick on the uptake, so... maybe it's for the best.

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

A notion I'm starting to like is that Youki - oh, hold on a minute. Do we want to include him and make this a general Konpaku discussion? Or wait until his number comes up and discuss him later?

Anyway, I like the idea that Youki vanished and let Youmu take over because she was not ready for the position. See, I imagine Youki and Yuyuko having a completely different dynamic than Youki and Youmu - Youki is reserved and subservient, but also mature and smart enough to know when to say no, so Yuyuko gets to be even more immature and whimsical than usual. Youki bows out, and in comes Youmu, who acts like (she thinks) a proper samurai should, but has very little experience and is still fairly childish.

So Yuyuko is more or less forced by become more responsible, to restrain herself (somewhat) and behave as a ghostly princess should. And the sooner she can teach Youmu some sense, the sooner Youmu can grow into Youki's role and Yuyuko can go back to being the irresponsible one. And meanwhile, Youki's on a beach somewhere. Or working seven other jobs to pay for Yuyuko's groceries.

edited 26th Oct '15 6:34:07 PM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Youmu is a serious individual but is also a little naive. Youmu is skilled but naive.

"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"

So Yuyuko spends all her time trying to teach Youmu in subtle ways and getting frustrated when she doesn't even realise there was a lesson... but she was just as oblivious when Youki did the same thing to her? That's some fine irony there.

edited 25th Oct '15 8:57:01 PM by Prime32

Youmu has properly learned the lesson that she should stop thinking because everyone around her is crazy smart and never explains anything anyway.

Wrong thread.

edited 26th Oct '15 2:10:11 AM by joergenjetsam

Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable

Still sorting the Youmu picdump to determine which of the uncountable pictures of her posing with swords to include, but until then, some Youmu-centric comics to recommend: "Little Blossom" and "Myon Myon Typhoon" from the esteemed Karaagetarou.

Not irony, hypocrisy. The way I see it, Yuyuko knows how to be a responsible adult, but doesn't have much incentive to do it if she has an underling who is the right mix of obedient and independent and thus can act as a babysitter brake on her misbehavior. Yuyuko wasn't oblivious when Youki was around, she just didn't need to be responsible if we was willing to be. When Youki left, Yuyuko was given a much more subservient servant, and the result was eventually Perfect Cherry Blossom. So as irresponsible as Yuyuko can be, at some level she recognizes that she can't be that dangerously whimsical. So she can either subtly try to teach Youmu to be responsible enough to keep her from doing something like that again, or give up and become the practical member of the Hakugyokurou duo.

Or something like that.

Guess that contrasts her with Sanae. Sanae has given up on logic and embraced the crazy, Youmu puts her faith that there's some method to the madness and doesn't bother to discern it herself. Not sure which if either is right.

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Man, Youmu gets a lot of great art. Combination of the swords and the Netherworld imagery, I think. I'm proud of myself for keeping it below a hundred links.

Pretty good traditional media
Assume this is also traditional media
Big blue eyes
Kinda clueless
Confident smirk
Looks like she's getting creeped out from moving through her own house at night
Swinging a sword in a not-so-badass way
Lantern onna stick
Having fun
Realistic
She's not actually standing on the stairs
Awaiting the sun
Ronin?
Classy
The perfect and elegant do-anything lackey
You gain in chocolate what you lose in steel
Kinda punk?
Gone goth?
Better in blue
Black n' blue
Interesting splashy Myon
Dantewontdie doing his thing
Good ol' Banpai Akira
Lanky lady
Older and younger
Distracting your opponent with your revealing costume is dishonorable
Youki would be proud
Interesting eyes
At some point it stops being a sword and becomes a sharp piece of scaffolding
What is she wielding, and what is she wearing while wielding it?
A pretty girly nodachi
She only needs one swing
She can also stomp you good
Not enough samurai archers out there
Up close and personal
Kept the flower in her scabbard
Whoosh
Energetic Myon
Something sharp near your eye
Blood and a sarashi
Queen of the hill
Versus Sakuya
Still fighting Sakuya
Fighting Sakuya in stylish new outfits
Running battle with Momiji
Mokou's goofing off
Pretty good showing from the stiff
The sequel
Planes
Train
A skimpy show of fealty
Making music
A prayer
White petals
Sleepy time
Age reversal
Don't get any ideas about her Yuyuko
As the eye travels down, it is reminded why it should not have
Rockin' the sarashi
Boots in the afterlife
Wonder where those other swords came from?
Glow-in-the-dark (half-)ghost eyes
Bit of a departure from his later art, innit?
Tiny but fierce
I'd like to see more of this dynamic
Mini-Myon
The carrot was primarily used as an off-hand weapon, or in extreme situations, for ritualistic suicide
Dammit, I'm going to binge on that guy's comics, aren't I?
Subtle, Yuyuko
Stretches
Flump
Can't tell if Yuyuko is trolling or not
She has to rescue Kogasa's umbrella from the Dark World to upgrade Roukanken
Myon perils in visual medium
I would not put my ass on my own soul, but to each their own
Ride yourself
Ride each other
So damn happy
Kid samurai
Finally doing her job

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Ah Screw it, what i just said made no sense and it was probably not going to go anywhere anyways. ignore me please.

edited 28th Oct '15 10:03:17 PM by honeyishrunkmyself

Youmu is clueless but I wonder, does her clueless stem from her naivete?

"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"