Nah, it's not so much that Nue can transform things as she can put a big inkblot image over them, so we all squint and decide for ourselves "oh, it's a lion with a monkey's head and a snake for a tail," or "it's a retro flying saucer." She doesn't build an illusion, she disrupts our process of seeing something.
And again, we've been assured that the cute monster girl in the profile pic is Nue's "true" form, but how would we know for sure? I'm also wondering what young Nue saw when she looked at her reflection, and how she developed a self-image when everyone around her described her differently.
Maybe she doesn't see anything in the mirror. I guess it depends on whether she can alter her own perspective on things or if she's always going to see herself the same way.
I mean did she look different to herself before and after her imprisonment?
The eyes are the windows that let us gaze upon the soul.Suppose that would depend on how much the event changed her. Some folks see a different person in the mirror after a major experience, and in Nue's case this could be more literal than others.
Anyhoo, should probably put the next profile up now before things get crazy over the holidays. Next will be the Youkai Mountain, Mamizou, and... does anyone else hear that? Sounds like some sort of heavy, tracked vehicle. Anyway, please give a warm welcome for
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Stage: The Forgotten Snowy Former Capital ~ The Streets of a Former Hell
BGM: "Walking the Streets of a Former Hell"
note
Theme: "A Flower-Studded Sake Dish on Mount Ooe"
note
Spellcard Motif: Supernaturally Strong Oni
Sample Spellcards: SA
, GoM
, DS
Oni Sign "Anomalies, Strength, Disorder, and Spirits" Mysterious Ring "Hell's Wheel of Pain," Shackles Sign "Shackles a Criminal Can't Take Off," Feat of Strength "Wind Blowing Down from Mt. Ooe," Big Four Arcanum "Knock Out In Three Steps," Light Oni "Adamant Helix," Oni Sign "Dreadful Raging Waves," Oni's Voice "Annihilating Roar"
Write-up:
A hellaciously strong oni, who like most of her kin enjoys a good brawl. Once upon a time, Yuugi Hoshiguma was counted among the four most powerful oni in the world, and even among this elite group, Yuugi was known as "the Strong." This is probably tied into Yuugi's vaguely-defined power to wield unexplainable phenomena, which can be interpreted as "ruinous super strength."
But that was then, in the time when the oni ruled Youkai Mountain, back before they got tired of human treachery and relocated beneath the surface. Yuugi seems content with her new rowdy life in the Former Hell, though she was happy to scrap with a tough-looking human who came to investigate an Incident, especially if she was able to have a long-distance conversation with an old friend at the same time. Yuugi didn't use her full strength in this fight, of course - that would be overkill, and she was also trying to see if she could fight without spilling her drink. At any rate, it looks like the encounter got Yuugi interested in the surface again, as she was sighted in the background during a recent religious conflict.
Relations
- Suika Ibuki (fellow Deva of the Mountain)
- Kasen Ibaraki (...acquaintance)
- Konngara (???)
Yuugi is sort of a funny character. Generally the first member introduced of a species in Touhou is supposed to be representative of their entire species. Suika, however, is a Token Heroic Orc, so presumably Yuugi fulfills this role. Which makes a certain degree of sense. She is locked up in what was formerly Hell. I still don't know that much about her, though, so could someone get back to me on that?
I think the first thing to understand is that the shackles are just for show. Well, they probably have some symbolic meaning, but Yuugi and the other oni aren't prisoners - they relocated underground voluntarily, moved in to hell's former capital, and were given control of the disused hell in exchange for helping seal away lingering evil spirits on behalf of the yama. So now they consider the place their paradise, where they get to pal it up with the damned souls and get in fights with other oni or youkai, and no dirty humans try to trick them and weasel their way out of being kidnapped.
But you're right, Yuugi is probably the most oni-like oni we've seen yet. Whether that makes her a villain or not - or Suika heroic for acting differently - well, that's definitely open for discussion.
The Oni moved to the Underworld because they got sick of humans always telling lies (ie: the common story archetype of the clever hero overcoming the monster through trickery). Since, as mentioned, Yuugi embodies the archetypical oni, she hates lies and liars. Naturally, this also means she's an incredibly honest person herself. She's a straightforward person you can trust.
Ironically, the other two oni we know of are pretty much the biggest liars in the cast, although Kasen is notable bad at it.
...OK, I looked up where I got that impression.
Apparently oni kidnap people. I also remember feeling like "regular" oni were too honest, to the point that they were Lawful Stupid. Suika is neither of those things. Of course, that's just my own personal theories and opinions on this series.
Continue the educational discussion.
And having a captive audience to appreciate your hobby is even better.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYuugi Hoshiguma:
An oni residing in the Underground. Strong.
Yuugi hates lying liars who lie. Perhaps more than Suika. And she would probably think little of Kasen since she's hiding her past heritage like how one would hide a shameful secret. She's very straightforward and honest. What you see is what you get. And if you can't respond in kind, she won't think of you as a worthy opponent.
Wonder if she hands out more devastating beatdowns on liars. Nah, why should she unleash her full fury on weaklings like liars.
...Wait, maybe the kind of liar she despises most are battlers who rely on cunning than brute strength.
edited 27th Nov '15 11:20:22 PM by Diamite
To fulfill their purpose as the scary brutes who come down from the mountains and carry away naughty children? Other possibilities include to gather ingredients for stew, find opponents for the great oni gladiator games, or snu-snu.
You're probably right, which raises the question of how far ahead ZUN was planning during SA. 'coz in that game Suika talks about getting together with the other two Devas to go mountain climbing, implying that they were all on good terms with each other, considered each other oni buddies, and none of them had at some point become a yaksha/kishin/astral knight or hornless faux-hermit.
Yeah, I'm trying to reconcile Yuugi holding back during her fight with her honesty and showing "no mercy towards the weak, the cowardly and the sly." It sounds like if she's stronger than you - and she is - she's going to utterly crush you, yet when she goes up against the protagonist she's absent-mindedly playing with her drink.
So either Akyuu's wrong or there's more nuance to Yuugi. Like if she sees you swaggering along, boasting of your prowess, she assumes you're stepping up, accepts your challenge, and brings her A-game. If she sees you getting in a fight with someone else, or carrying yourself like a warrior while still restraining your ego, she might challenge you to get your measure, and won't use more force than the situation warrants. And if you're obviously not a warrior and aren't causing trouble, she'll ignore you.
And/or this. It looks like even Yuugi's spellcards are just ways to focus her incredible innate strength, her crude attempt to conform to the spellcard system without drastically changing her fighting style. It's really easy to imagine someone who puts some an emphasis on physical power having disdain for those who let magic or tactics do the heavy lifting for them.
Maybe Yuugi doesn't consider them all deceptive. Marisa likes to tell falsehoods, but she's usually blatant about it and doesn't expect others to fall for them - it's a kind of trash talking, because that's just who she is. Might as well get mad at Seija for being oppositional.
You could extend the same logic to Suika, and as for Kasen, maybe Yuugi's decided that if her old friend has decided to be a hermit instead of an oni, that's good enough for her, so Kasen's not lying when she claims to be one. That'd be a bit d'aww-worthy, unconditional support for a buddy's decision to drastically change her identity.
Also, none of these liars rely on falsehood to win their battles. Sure, Marisa uses magic and Kasen her animal friends to fight with, but they're abiding by the nebulous spell card rules as they pertain to 2D fighting games. Even Yuugi mixes some danmaku with her physical power these days.
Yuugi pictures can be divided into stuff of her in her low-necked kimono, stuff of her cuddling Parsee, and stuff of her punching other stuff. Not a lot leapt out at me, and some of it was the same stuff that leapt out at me last time around. But there's still some good 'ums.
Approach with respect and courtesy
Screw it, let's party
A wild look to her
Just gonna have to accept that Yuugi is manlier than I'll ever be
Ah, it's called a kiseru
Imminent hug
Dat smirk
Right, so my theory is that Letty hibernates somewhere just above the main cavern
Grim denizen of a former hell
Back study - scars
Back study - tattoos
Nice of her to invite you rather than resorting to kidnapping
Very soft
Soft yet pointy
Yuugi got lung cancer once, but just pounded her chest and knocked it all out of her
Interesting trivia about the tattoo in the comments
A very fem Yuugi
How inviting this expression depends on what kind of hunger she's about to sate
I suppose she'd know
Realistic
Got her winter clothes on
Steampunk underground drunken devil?
Interesting horn, but points deducted for insufficient muscle tone
Including this one because I love the presentation of the Underground
I assume she'll manage to defeat her opponent and scoop it all up before it hits the floor
Either a tree trunk or her club
Red shift
A-one and a-two...
And the third is a doozy
You can usually tell it's an imizu pic before seeing the artist name
Limbering up
Burning with the power of booze
Love the glowing horn
Vs. a magician
Vs. a dragon
Vs. her old sparring partner
With her old drinking buddy
Awfully sporting of them to pretend those beans bother them
Suika's pretty perky in this one
They're both pretty brutish in this one
They high-fived once and destroyed a city
So what attributes should we give to the members of this Triforce?
One horn, two horns, no horns
With her fan-preferred shipping target
There is so much stuff like this you wouldn't believe
Boobhat
D'awww
Hope they steer clear of Orin
Much more energy-efficient than their previous ride
No, Waggysaggy
Fun fact: there are six pictures tagged with "narwhal," and Yuugi's in two of them
Genius
Long-lived creatures like oni must find ways to pass the centuries
The prettiest princess
They raise a good question
Never mind, found it
Whoops
I was trying to think of a way of replying "'cause she's an oni" without it sounding like I was being condescending towards you for not noticing the obvious - except on further review you ask a pretty good question. It's not like the ZUN art, or any official art for that matter, suggests a good deal of muscles on Yuugi, and as Ibuki demonstrates you can be a scrawny little thing and still be hellaciously strong. So there's no reason for Yuugi to be built like She-Hulk.
One answer would be simple Author Appeal, artists and authors using Yuugi's oni-ness as justification for drawing her with lotsa muscles. Another might be that Yuugi is considered a "physical" combatant, someone who like Meiling would be better off in a fistfight than a spellcard duel, and thus ought to have some muscle mass. Suika probably avoids this treatment because she's so well-known for using her density-manipulating powers in combat, so she wouldn't necessarily need a lot of muscles to kick ass. Plus, a ripped body type on a four-foot frame would look a bit silly, like a very buff hobbit or something.
I've also noticed that, at least in the fanart I've gone through, the muscles tend to disappear when Yuugi puts on the kimono, or gets cuddly with Parsee.
It's a festival of brawls and fun! Exactly right up Yuugi's alley.
Underground Night Club of Saturday
Test of Might
A Flower's Resilience
Drunkard Ondo of Mt. Ooe
Streets of Style
Lively Streets
Pugilist's Anthem
Street Wisdom
Party in the Streets
Elegant Rondo
edited 3rd Dec '15 6:38:28 PM by Diamite
Huh, think that's the first time I've heard a rap in Japanese. It gets real interesting there at the end, too, with "Missing Power" overlapping with Yuugi's theme, almost like she and Suika are arguing. Makes me wonder what their parting was like when Suika decided to return to the surface. When the two meet (somewhat) in SA, Yuugi doesn't sound hostile, but she seems more surprised with how Suika's contacting her than jubilant that they've been reunited. Or maybe I'm just looking for drama where there is none.
Musings... well, last time I called Yuugi "the Strong" because I viewed her as a paragon for her people, and Kasen's introduction has only reinforced this interpretation. Ibaraki gave up the oni lifestyle altogether, possibly even before her kin left Youkai Mountain. Suika tried to recreate the old status quo, but in the process picked up a deceptive streak. Only Yuugi stayed true to her nature, even when the oni moved below ground and everything changed.
I'm just wondering which of the three chose the best strategy. Kasen's getting by and seems happy enough as a faux hermit, the oni who abandoned her kind and thus avoided their decline. Suika's managed to come close to recreating the old oni lifestyle on the surface, picking gratuitous fights and drinking with humans, but she's less an oni for it, and is doing so alone. Yuugi's still telling truths, kicking ass and getting crunked, but she's gone from the subject of frightful campfire tales, a ruler of weaker monsters, to a distant legend.
Given how Touhou's youkai are defined by their relationship with humans, is even Yuugi much of an oni if she's so far from her former frenemies? What will become of her people, voluntarily exiled far underground amid the damned and the darkness?

So Nue can transform into anyone who into what we perceive her to be? I wonder if she even has 'true' form.
"Fan, a Mega Man character."