The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Kyouko does seem a little directionless after her existence was explained by science.

edited 12th Oct '16 3:45:35 PM by GAP

Seriously though: what ignorant outsider told everyone in Gensokyo that echos were the result of sound bouncing off of surfaces? Or was that something that Gensokyans found out before the barrier was created?

I think that it's something they could have known even before the barrier went up. It's possible that there's more to maintaining the strength and existence of youkai than factually thinking that they exist because you can see no other explanation for what they represent.

The barrier is only 130 years old. People definitely knew about science by then. It's also described as "freeing youkai from the curse of human imagination."

See, I wasn't sure. I figured that if such a Youkai could exist in the first place then maybe the idea is relatively recent? It's weird. Most scientific ideas along those lines are thousands of years old. People knew that the world was not flat. If they did not know the "truth" about echos recently enough that a Youkai that revolves around the concept lives on the inside of a 130 year old resort...

Perhaps Kyouko was an old wives tale that persisted until she was debunked or people stopped believing in such nonsense.

I suppose there's also the question of whether Kyouko felt an existential threat or just decided there was no point if physics were going to do her job and get the credit. If you take a sick day and your job gets done regardless you feel extraneous.

Like she had a Chanticleer moment without the sun going right back down

I wonder if youkai can feel it when they aren't getting the proper metaphysical nourishment. Like was Kyouko yelling back at someone one day, and it just felt strangely hollow? Did she start losing weight without knowing why? Or did she have to overhear someone gossiping about the superstition of sound waves to realize that her job was in danger?

Welp, any final thoughts on Kyouko before we move on to Seiran?

Kyouko is very interesting member of Myouren especially as she is suffering an existential crisis who is trying to find a new purpose in life.

We can only hope she shows up in later works, so we can see what progress she's made toward sorting herself out. Good news is, even if life at the temple continues to get her down, Kyouko ought to be able to channel that emotion into her music.

Well, let's leave Kyouko to her duties (and clear out before she starts singing). Coming up will be a look at the Netherworld, followed by Sumireko Usami and someone who makes bald eagles shed single patriotic tears. But first,

Seiran

Stage: Probe from the Pure Land ~ Eagle Rabbit
Foot of Youkai Mountain
BGM: "Unforgettable, the Nostalgic Greenery"^note The first stage theme. This song is a bit long for the first stage. The game is pretty long as a whole, so I designed it to match. It feels like they are making up their mind to leave their beautiful green earth for a while.
Theme: "The Rabbit Has Landed"^note Seiran's theme. I brought out the feeling of having fun with a really light-hearted battle. Rabbits don't seem to have it in their nature to be serious. You can't see it, but she does have a tail.

Spellcard Motif: Eagles and Firearms
Spellcards: LoLK
Evil Bullet "Speed Strike," Bullet Sign "Eagle Shooting," Bullet Sign "The Eagle Has Been Shot," Gun Sign "Lunatic Gun"

Write-up:
A member of the "Eagle Ravi" Earth Recon Unit, Seiran is an infiltrator sent to Gensokyo in anticipation of a Lunarian invasion. Naturally she's underpaid, unsupported, and ultimately considered expendable by her superiors. She may only be on Earth in the first place as a result of losing a game of rock-paper-scissors.

Seiran was evidently in the middle of preparing some mochi when she encountered the protagonist, attempted to "purify" them, and promptly got her fluffy tail kicked. She'd probably be a forgettable Stage One character were it not for that mochi - when the demo version of LoLK came out, the mochi paste on her mallet was mistaken for blood by some fans, leading to a characterization of Seiran as a hammer-wielding psychopath. Certainly not the most flattering of interpretations, but at least it helps her stick out, eh?

Relations:

• Ringo (squadmate)
• Reisen Udongein Inaba (former associate)

edited 18th Oct '16 6:42:14 PM by Tacitus

My first shot at one of these titled interpretations.

Seiran? She comes across as the archetypal Moon Rabbit, a servant/slave of the Lunarians seen mainly as just a tool. However, the fact that she's apparently not that great of a conversationalist when using telepathy would suggest someone who's rather introverted by nature, or otherwise just Not Good With People. Her own comrades obviously don't treat her any better than the Lunarians do, for instance. Wouldn't surprise me if they had her do the absolutely worst jobs that no one else wants to do.

Her power is the ability to fire bullets from another dimension, which comes across as rather redundant when basically everyone can use danmaku, but would probably be super deadly with the right training since there appears to be no real limit as to where they can be fired from. Unfortunately, Seiran lacks anyone willing to experiment like they did with Reisen, so it's unlikely that she'll reach her full potential in her current position.

So that's Seiran, a cannon fodder, kinda unpopular amongst her peers bunny that has the potential to be more, but is stymied by her station.

The puzzle is that she's cannon fodder but still got assigned the important mission of reconnoitering in preparation for a mass migration. So why didn't the Lunarians send one of their bunny elites? Someone focused, well-trained, and dangerous enough to hold her own? Or was Seiran really the best they had?

That's the paradox of the Lunarian society, that they're super-advanced moon people but have a pretty pathetic military. But I guess that's what happens when you're afraid of the impurity of death and have a servant race of moon bunnies to draw upon.

Wait, the Watatsukis aren't afraid to confront invaders, why weren't they playing any part of this invasion? Do we know what they were doing during LoLK?

I always got the implication that Lunarians think the job of defending the capital is fundamentally impure and put the Watatsuki sisters in charge of it as unofficial punishment for their association with Eirin. Note how easily bad rumors of them started to spread in S Si B. What I'm saying is that the Lunar Defense Corps gets very little respect, and while they may be in charge of that particular branch of the military, it's ultimately not considered important, politically. So I'd imagine that the Watatsukis simply weren't privy to the classified information about the Earth invasion plan, and continued the "defend the capital" while it was in the dream world..

On that note, I just realized that Sagume fights with automated drones. She goes out of her way to have a fighting style that keeps her hands clean.

edited 18th Oct '16 7:54:45 PM by Clarste

I'm not sure they need a conventional military, is the thing. It's likely that if they ever moved to war footing, most opponents would be instantly annihilated from a direction they didn't even know existed, with no chance to defend themselves and nothing left to retaliate.

edited 18th Oct '16 9:16:39 PM by Durazno

Yeah, they don't need to occupy territory or anything, they just need to "purify" the landscape generally. Eagle Rabi is more of a scouting party than an invader. They're more like CIA operatives than soldiers.

edited 18th Oct '16 9:17:47 PM by Clarste

The lunar elite are determined to avoid the impurity of a military coup. (Even an unsuccessful one.) To prevent a coup, they: 1 - Split the command between two generals 2 - Chose generals with no political following (In fact they are the proteges of an exiled criminal.) 3 - Give those generals an army of silly bunnies!

I wonder whether some member of the lunar elite enabled Reisen to escape because she was too diligent and competent.

The lunar elite don't want the Watatsukis to get the reputation as successful military invaders, so Seiran and Ringo get sent to the front without them.

Are we sure that isn't blood on Seirans hammer?

Heh, I'm not sure how likely it is, but I enjoy the idea that the Capital's population got shunted into the dream world without knowing it.

Begs the question of why they don't use such attack orbs exclusively for their defense force, though if they did, what would they do with all the bunnies? Put them on a reservation or something? Dump them on Earth?

Her profile says "It seems she was attacked as she was making mochi for her comrades while on break," which suggests she was pounding some, I dunno, strawberry mochi? Which apparently is a thing, along with anko, red bean paste mochi. But I'll go with strawberries since they seem to pop up more often than not in ZUN's work.

I'll also note that there are three pages' worth of Seiran fanart with the "blood" tag on Safebooru compared to four pages with the tag "ambiguous_red_fluid."

That's... not speculation. That's what it says in the profiles. The move to the dream world was kept secret from the populace.

Well that's a detail it'd be useful for the wiki to include in its plot summary. And also hilarious, that the heads of the lunar defense force are so unimportant to the moon's defense that they aren't even consulted when it's time to evacuate. Now I'm wondering whether the Watatsukis even knew they were under attack in the first place - I'm guessing the answer's no. And that they weren't aware of Junko either.

...Huh. Well, that begs the question - if the Watatsukis were left in the dark, but Seiran was telepathically radioing in updates and requests for reinforcements and whatnot, who was she reporting to? The telepathy only works between bunnies, yes? So who is the bunny chief liaison for the head of the lunar CIA?

Maybe that's why they still keep Chang'e around.

Sagume led the invasion. I see no reason to believe she wasn't Seiran's boss.

Boss, yeah, but somebunny had to be receiving those telepathic signals from the Eagle Ravi team and letting Sagume know what they were saying.

But on to the picdump. There's a good split of stuff that depicts Seiran as a good-looking bunny gal who happens to hold a mallet and a mallet-wielding psycho bunny, no surprise there. But I was struck by how much showed her sympathetically, which is to say as a low-ranking grunt more or less abandoned by her superiors.

The third image chronologically, but one of the first in terms of score
I appreciate the juxtaposition of her clueless expression with the splatter on her hammer
A series of sketches
Little girl, big hammer
Time for a spellcard
A veritable danmaku heroine
On track
Hi, mom!
Not a huge improvement over her game appearance
Sketch with a gun
She is a soldier, after all
Those gleaming red eyes
Magnhild?
Not a good perspective to view her from
"Aww, it broke"
A shame Stage One bosses don't get do-overs
Homesick
Lonely meal
SOS
Almost close enough to grab...
...but still so far away
Splat on the snow
Persona!
koto inari stuff incoming, you have been warned
Selection process take one two and three
Is it an ornament, or a sign of ownership?
Can she do the lunatic eyes thing like Reisen?
Trick-or-treating
Wrong place to abduct specimens
And then there were none
Which isn't to say there's no dangers to be found en route
Okay, koto inari stuff's done
Such power!
Out on the town
If I saw something like that I'd probably take a swing too
Lunar bunny fragging?
Tewi being Tewi
Yeah, I know how this story ends
...or maybe I don't
Sure wish I had context for this
Damn, now I hear the music
Uh... huh

Seiran:

A member of Eagle Ravi, a special ops unit that specializes in infiltration. Bad at holding conversations.

I wonder if she willingly volunteered to head the infiltration operation or she didn't have lucky feet when it came to drawing lots.

She may be bad at holding conversations, but she doesn't have to talk much to be amicable to her fellow members. I do think she was making mochi for herself and her fellow members after all. ...But sometimes, I think her kindness is taking advantage of. ...Maybe she pours all her hidden stress into making mochi.

I'm not sure we can say Seiran "specializes" in infiltration, she doesn't seem to be trying very hard to stay hidden. What, the moon can't afford camo?

As for how she got in her unit - Marisa's scenario alludes to a roshambo game, while Reimu's has Seiran talking about not wanting to be in the ground forces, which implies some choice. Maybe she got conscripted like all the other poor moon bunnies and volunteered for what she thought would be a low-risk, low-stress job? It's hard to imagine her being singled out for her, ah, skills. And then it came time to decide who'd be sitting by herself a good distance from camp, and Seiran's bad luck struck.

And for the mochi... well, it's not like she has much else to do while on watch, so yeah, she might as well distract herself by getting involved in food preparation, on duty. So it'd be easy to play this as a sign of the lack of discipline in the Lunar Defense Corps in general and Seiran in particular. Buuut I also really like the characterization of Seiran as a socially-awkward individual who can't communicate effectively even when using telepathy, but she still desperately wants to fit in, so she'll risk making snacks while on duty just to have a chance for positive interaction with her squadmates. And instead she gets protagonist'd.

She knows Reisen, too, and seems to be on decent terms with her. I doubt they were in the same unit, but still, did Reisen's desertion mean Seiran lost one of her few friends?