The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Good to know. I didn't know if there was any decorum to using another persons ideas or not.

edited 19th Feb '16 7:50:44 PM by FalseDichotomy

Just how big is Gensokyo anyway?

Small enough to be overlooked by the rest of Japan, but large enough that we keep stumbling upon locations we hadn't heard of before.

Yeah, I'm sorry, I should've said something to this effect earlier, but I've been hellaciously busy lately. And not the fun kind of busy, either.

So we should consider this period the "last call for your thoughts" interval, and Derpy Wings will go up sometime in the next 24 hours.

Probably not. I don't think even mundane farms tried to fortify themselves like that, and it's a doubly wasted effort in a magical land where most threats can fly. The main village's walls are probably symbolic more than anything, a statement that this is human territory thank you very much. Also, they might have been built before the Border went up.

The most notable thing about Gensokyo is the lack of consensus on its layout. Nobody suggests things move around, but no two maps are very similar. Of course, this is just due to lack of any official word on the matter, but what if it was really like that? I could imagine either an indefinite "you go where you're expecting to get to" condition or a state where every now and then things get reshuffled, but people's memories are adjusted too.

Maybe Gensokyo is a chaos location, like Castlevania.

Just saying. It has a vampire castle with a clock tower

I mean, there does seem to be some basic location placement, like the Hakurei Shrine being the easternmost location in Gensokyo, and Gensokyo itself being located somewhere in the Yatsugatake Mountains.

(Which makes Gensokyo itself a mountain valley.)

I wonder if it'd be possible to expand the Barrier? Use a starting population of youkai and humans to create the initial shield against poisonous science, spend some decades recruiting more, pump more magic juice into the thing to spread it outward, repeat as needed.

Alternatively have Yukari mess with the boundaries of distances or whatever, though if she could do that she probably would have done it already.

Anyway, so ends the official Gensokyo discussion, though as always I can't exactly penalize anyone who continues to talk about it. Coming up will be Parsee Mizuhashi, Kana Anaberal, and what unfortunately passes for Gensokyo's most renowned journalist. But first-

☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢ CAUTION ☢

Utsuho Reiuji

Stage: The Tempestuous Second Sun ~ The Deepest Part of the Underground City
BGM: "Hellfire Mantle"^note This is the last stage's theme. I tried to make it feel like an end-of-game song. Flying through lava is standard fare for shooting games. I guess if there's anything in particular I'm trying to say, it's that it's not unusual for shrine maidens to fly above lava like this. Crows, too.
Theme: "Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion"^note This is Utsuho Reiuji's theme. I tried to make it as modern, light, and simply boss-like as I could. In fact, she's not that great a youkai, for a last boss. She was originally just a bird. She's just really, really powerful. I understand very well that even a fool that possesses great power can't cause too much harm. Ah, even if it's the power of dreams.

Spellcard Motif: The Power of the Sun
Sample Spellcards: SA, GoM, 'Soku, DS
Atomic Fire "Nuclear Fusion," Explosion Sign "Giga Flare," Blazing Star "Planetary Revolution," "Hell and Heaven Meltdown," "Subterranean Sun," Geothermal "Nuclear Blaze Geyser," Atomic Fire "Uncontainable Nuclear Reaction Dive," Fusion "Melting White," Seven Stars "Septentrion"

Write-up:
An ordinary subterranean raven who happens to possess the overwhelming power of the sun. Well, maybe "ordinary" is giving her too much credit - Utsuho Reiuji was once a pet of Satori Komeiji's, and helped manage the old Hell of Blazing Fires. But when Kanako Yasaka was looking for a suitable vessel for the sun god Yatagarasu, she singled out Utsuho specifically because the bird wasn't bright enough to realize how difficult this would be.

The downside of this was that Utsuho wasn't quite clear what she was supposed to do with this newfound power, and she decided to share it with the surface by reducing it to a molten wasteland. Fortunately some heroines came and knocked some sense into her, and now Utsuho helps to manage the new fusion reactor that brings the miracle of electricity to Gensokyo. She was recently seen enjoying some gratuitous battles both underground and on the surface, so it looks like she gets some days off. Or else thought it was a good idea to leave a fusion reactor running unmanaged.

Relations

• Satori Komeiji (owner)
• Koishi Komeiji (owner's sister)
• Rin Kaenbyou (bestie)
• Kanako Yasaka (patron)
• The Yatagarasu (very close)

See also the previous two compendiums.

edited 20th Feb '16 6:41:52 PM by Tacitus

I once heard the Utsuho receiving the power of Nuclear Fusion is similar to giving advanced technology to a caveman. I think it was an article I found on Subterranean Animism but I cannot remember it. How much of this is actually accurate?

Hmm. I think with the caveman metaphor, the main focus is on the missing steps between a paleolithic club-dragger and, say, an AK-47. Like the caveman won't grasp any of the science behind the device, so there's a risk of culture shock from just seeing it in use, and he might assume it's a magic thunder stick. And because the caveman is an unsophisticated hunter-gatherer, he probably wouldn't put any technology to the best of uses, so he'd take that AK-47 and murder things with it instead of properly... using that AK-47 to... bad example. Maybe he'd club everything to death instead of shooting the thing.

Anyway, it's similar to but not quite the same at Okuu's situation. Here we have a bird who already lives in a world of magic and deities, and with those things she was given a power far greater than what she could achieve on her own. The culture shock wouldn't be as great, the main thing is that she let her newfound power go to her head. Like a lumberjack who was given a monofilament hyper-chainsaw that could fell a tree in a single stroke, and who then went around clearing forests by himself for fun.

I think the most accurate way to describe the situation is that Kanako was invoking Achievements in Ignorance, looking for someone who could use the power of the sun without worrying about the mechanics of it (or someone whose head was empty enough to stuff those mechanics into). A caveman might snap trying to figure out how advanced technology worked, but Okuu was like "I can shoot suns now! Awesome!"

edited 22nd Feb '16 8:31:23 PM by Tacitus

Ultimately, all energy technologies are increasingly efficient ways to boil water. Utsuho happens to be really good at boiling water, and isn't that enough understanding?

What does the Former Hell let alone Gensokyo actually do with their nuclear technology? They've got a generator sure but where does the energy go? There's a hot spring and... That's actually all I can remember off of the top of my head. Ultimately are Okuu's efforts actually accomplishing anything other than keeping her occupied and sane? Notthat it's not a good thing to do in itself but still...?

All this talk of cavemen just makes me think of this.

Which in turn evokes this. If only they had mikos and witches to sort out those incidents.

Good question. Might be that there's an enormous amount of wasted juice getting grounded somewhere as a result of the Moriya project, or a better scenario might be that Kanako and Suwako graciously lets the underground tap into the produced power. Maybe even the current Hell is running partially off of the fusion project, a way to get in good with the Powers That Be and make for some of the unintended consequences of the Moriya group's actions.

Or maybe there's a spliced cable somewhere and Rika is leeching a lot of power for her secret tank factory, who knows. She probably had to get Tewi involved for the tunnel work, and split the spoils 50/50, so there's also a deluxe rabbits-only entertainment room underneath Eientei that Reisen still doesn't know about.

I always Kanako and Suwako might trying something to get Utusho to power the generator so that they can get electricity for hot springs or something.

I wouldn't be surprised if Satori did try to get something out of the snake and toad for using her pet like that.

As I said, nuclear power is just a ridiculously efficient way of boiling water. You can use that steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity, or... you could just have hot springs. You would not convert the steam into electricity and then use that electricity to heat a hot spring, because that is a ridiculous waste of time and also wastes energy in the process.

Likewise, electricity doesn't need to be grounded or thrown away, you just turn off the turbines you don't need. The wasted heat energy just goes to the hot springs, like it would have anyway.

edited 23rd Feb '16 12:36:57 AM by Clarste

Honestly, if an entrepreneur would have ever found a way in and out of Gensokyo, they probably would scoff at the inefficiency of using one of the world's most coveted power sources only to boil water and offer Okuu a cushy job and a bird feeder.

Of course, that's kind of the joke.

Well, having people bathe in the irradiated water directly instead of using the power to heat normal water might cause horrible cancer. Either that or give people super powers. This being Gensokyo, the latter might be plausible.

edited 23rd Feb '16 2:24:39 PM by Lightblade

Utsuho Reiuji:

A hell-raven with the power of Yatagarasu residing in her. Very basic in terms of intellect.

So Kanako gave Utsuho Yatagarasu, Utsuho went crazy, nearly razing Gensokyo's surface, Utsuho got beat, and now she's working in a nuclear reactor. She sure went through a lot.

Sometimes, I wonder if Yatagarasu's possessing Utsuho in some way. For example, the amount of power she puts out in the power plant is just enough to not cause a nuclear meltdown. Was it her doing alone, or was she subconsciously guided by him?

Aren't they using Nuclear fusion? Which has no radiation whatsoever. Or am I getting this backwards?

Nuclear fusion creates radiation (just step outside during the day and bask in it), but it doesn't create long-lasting radioactive waste products, I think.

You know someone should make a Walfas where Utsuho sings Mike Oldfield's Ncclear.

I'd make a Phantom Pain joke, but that seems like more of a Kasen thing.

I'm gonna guess "no." Well, I mean I don't know much about Mr. Yatagarasu, but you'd think if he had a tendency to go on nuclear-powered rampages, Kanako would have hesitated before using him as part of a scheme. So if the Yatagarasu was capable of having an influence on Utsuho, I assume he'd have used it to talk her out of causing SA.

...Which means he's dead, then? Or clocked out while Utsuho wields his incredible power. Hmm. Was he looking for a divine vacation of sorts? Why'd he agree to this deal, anyway? Or was his compliance even necessary? Did some frog-monster jump him in an alley and serve him up on a platter to a birdbrain?

We got an ozone layer between us and the sun, though. Hopefully the protagonist checked in with Eirin's clinic after the credits rolled.