The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Normal fairies can also manipulate the seasons if they put the effort in. The three stooges did it in the most recent chapter. So I don't see it as a contradiction, just a weird fact about fairies.

Lily White:

The one who heralds the season of spring. Very hyper during spring.

As winter's cold and brittle touch goes away,
A certain fairy comes out to play.
Lily White, the one who calls forth spring,
Along with the budding joys that the season shall bring.

Yes, while The Three Fairies and Clownpiece were able to make the trees bloom spectacularly, it could be because, unknown to them, Lily White bestowed on them some of her power.

White summons spring in Gensokyo, Black summons spring in the otherrealms.

Remember that all fairies are aspects of nature. So in some broad sense, they're all different parts of the same being. So their power is definitely connected on some underlying level, but for the same reason I'd hesitate to call Lily's power uniquely her own. She's just a fairy who's very attuned to the spring lifeforce. It's not her power, it's the power of Mother Nature.

I guess another way to put it is that they're all just conduits for an external power.

edited 18th Jul '17 12:20:49 AM by Clarste

Which begs the question, if they can all tap into the same source, and even the tres hadas de luz can summon spring to some extent, what about Lily has Sunny spooked. And why she in particular gets to be the spring fairy.

I'm kind of liking the notion that Lily might have been an ordinary sprite back in the day, but she latched on to the idea of becoming something greater, and through a lot of sweat and determination rose from the masses to become the spring-est fairy of them all. Presumably this would make her a mentor to Cirno if they ever got around to talking.

I hear spring in Makai is particularly nice. The plants are singing, the birds and the sun are almost down from the top of the sky...

Should be no surprise that there isn't much Lily art, and a lot of it is samey stuff of her flying around, presumably shouting "it's spring!" But some of it caught my eye.

Cheerful fairy
Happy fairy
Fairy in a tree
Bursting into song (after a haircut)
Making the rounds, with herself?
Waiting with an owl
Waiting in a chair
Definitely the party's healer
On that note
Or maybe she's a monk
With a cat
With a cat, in black
Maybe it depends on the angle
Fancy Lily White
Fancy Lily Black
Ring ring
A fleeting glimpse among the petals
Is it?
"Sleeping Terror" intensifies
Got a bit of the firebird in her
Seems embarrassed by your attention
Weird wings
Kind of elbowing in on Yuyuko's motif
Soft and pale
I'm imagining a shockwave of blooming plants
Looking like she slammed on the brakes after forgetting something
Spring in the mountains
Spring in the sky
Little pleasures
Take the hint
A peaceful passing
A less peaceful passing
Letty seems reluctant
They share interests
With Youka too
All together now
Dual Tech with Kyouko
Cirno attempts to destroy the natural order
Sometimes it comes quickly
Sometimes it's indecisive
A double-edged, seasonal sword
Incoming! (animated)
It sure is (animated)\\

Lily white is an aspect of nature just like the other fairies huh? I wonder if that alppiles to the other heralds of the seasons.

Lily shall always be greeting a new spring with a smile.

Bridge of The Lotus
Assault of Cherry Blossoms
Earthly Paradise
Blooming Tranquility
Coattails of Spring
The Changing Seasons- Spring

Ooh, nice remix of a new song and a new circle to look into, sweet.

Well that's just the thing, we don't have any other real seasonal heralds. The Aki sisters hit their stride in autumn, but Minoriko is but the friendliest of multiple harvest deities, and poor Shizuha isn't making the leaves turn red and fall from the trees with a wave of her hand, she has to manually get the fall foliage right. Letty's only active during the winter but admits that extending it is beyond her abilities, so she's not quite channeling a seasonal force or anything. And despite popular perception, Yuuka doesn't have anything to do with summer.

So what's so special about this particular embodiment of nature that enables her to be spring's herald? Such is the mystery of Lily White.

edited 22nd Jul '17 3:59:48 PM by Tacitus

And if she's the herald, then who is her Galactus?

We may never know.

Yuyuko could pull off a Galactus helmet pretty well.

Is "nature" a single being?

"That is *funny*. You think you *see* fairies but fairies are not *light reflections*. Maybe you think fairies are *many bubbles* too. It is such a joke. Fairies are not *many bubbles* like *campers*. Fairies are just nature."

Less jokingly, it's interesting that we've got this whole celestial bureaucracy to handle departed souls and the Netherworld and heaven and hell, but the natural world doesn't seem to be managed like that, there's no Department of Seasonal Transition or anything, no authority figures supervising it. Is it divided among a bunch of deities and spirits instead of arranged in a hierarchy? Or is it something innately uncontrollable and chaotic?

Well, any last thoughts on the herald of spring before we move on to the puller of strings?

I wonder if Lily Black is Lily white's evil counterpart?

So, what, she'd attack people at the end of spring? Show up at the start of autumn? Totally ignore the seasons, let spring start but not tell anyone about it?

It's kind of hard to come up with an evil opposite for Lily because it's hard to pin "It's spring!" down on a moral axis.

Chaotic Euphoric

So if that's El Dubya, El Bee would be Lawful Apathetic, showing up the instant spring starts and clocking out as soon as she can, flying around with no enthusiasm to announce the season in her own way. "It's spring, or whatever. Just like last year. Whoop-de-frickin'-doo."

Well, let's let Lily relax to wherever she goes for the other seasons of the year. Coming up later will be Kaguya Houraisan, Luize, and the closest thing we've seen to law enforcement in Gensokyo, sadly. But first,

Alice

Appearance:

Stages:

Makai ~ Devil's World
BGM: "Romantic Children"^note It has a pretty good Makai feel about it, doesn't it? The stage 1, 2 and 3 songs all turned out with a real sense of speed. Since it's Makai, I think it feels more western... hmm.
Theme: "Plastic Mind"^note If you listen earnestly(?), it's pretty dark. ^^; I think the third stage boss of a shooting game is a significant turning point, so I put some extra spirit into the making of this song. (Well, it's not like I was slacking on the other songs or anything... (^^;;;)

Opening the Door of a Picture Book ~ Open Sesame
BGM: "Alice in Wonderland"^note Fairy tale-esque and cool is what I was going for this time. Well, it's probably not fairy tale-esque, but it's pretty coooool. You have to dodge lots of bullets in the game, so you probably can't listen to it too closely, though. (lol)
Theme: "The Grimoire of Alice"^note Compared to my other extra stage boss themes, this has heavy emphasis on the rhythm. No matter how cheap their attacks are, let's emerge victorious with a superior groove. (^^;

Write-up:
One of the many magic-flinging females encountered during the protagonist's rampage across the realm of Makai. Alice stands out for a couple of reasons: she seems younger than the rest of the demon folk but was the first to engage the heroine in Makai itself (with the help of a pair of little minions in nice dresses), and made a second attempt to defeat them later in some of wonderland, after cracking open a spellbook and gaining access to more colorful magic. She was unsuccessful in both cases, of course. Depending on who ended up beating her, Alice might have been forced to do Reimu's chores, put in a maid outfit, had her grimoire stolen, or been briefly abducted for some magical training.

Another one-shot PC-98 character, in other words, if one with the good fortune to appear twice in the same game... but then came Perfect Cherry Blossom.

Alice Margatroid

Appearance:

Stage: One Night in the Settlement of the Dolls
Is it snowing even in this paradise?
The paradise that is already Alice's playground.
BGM: "The Doll Maker of Bucuresti"^note This makes you wonder if you're near the end of the game. This is because the demo was released very early and I had finish it so it would be ready in time. Due to that, I put the first pivotal moment in stage 3. The mood is more serious than usual, too. However, that means it's similar to my older tunes. It might be just me, but this song gives a nostalgic feeling.
Theme: "Doll Judgment ~ The Girl Who Played with People's Shapes"^note Alice is kind of a special character in this series, so I composed the theme with renewed vigor (not that I was lazy with the other songs). This theme's goal is to show that the characters' peace of mind despite the intensity of the fight. This peace of mind shows their virtue in my opinion... (the virtue is) not the gothic-lolita costumes, I swear (haha).

Spellcard Motif: Dolls
Sample Spellcards: (PCB, GoM, IaMP, IN, SWR, StB, 'soku)
Blue Sign "Benevolent French Dolls," Scarlet Sign "Red-Haired Dutch Dolls," White Sign "Chalk-White Russian Dolls," Darkness Sign "Foggy London Dolls," Elegant Sign "Spring Kyoto Dolls," Curse "Eerily Luminous Shanghai Dolls," Curse "Hanged Hourai Dolls," Magic Sign "Artful Sacrifice," War Command "Doll's War," Curse Sign "Straw Doll Kamikaze," Testing "Goliath Doll"

Write-up:
A young magician who lives in the Forest of Magic and doesn't identify as human. Her title makes her fully seventy-one percent stronger than any two-tone shrine maiden, but while Alice has a well-rounded magical background, her passion is for dolls, and her quest is to recreate an independently-functioning doll she remembers seeing somewhere. Until she meets that goal, she uses her doll army as familiars in battle, to help with household chores, as little toy suicide bombers, and so forth. Alice tries to just barely exceed her opponent's strength in battle rather than fight at her full ability, which may be why that book she's carrying is wrapped shut.

Alice is no threat to humans and can be an accommodating hostess to travelers lost in the Forest of Magic, but she isn't much of a conversationalist, and most people find a cottage jammed full of little dolls to be a tad creepy, especially when Alice holds one-sided conversations with the things. She shares Marisa's interest in magical items and has a clashing personality with the witch, but the two of them have been able to team up to great effect to help resolve some Incidents. Alice also seems to remember Reimu from somewhere even if the shrine maiden doesn't, and judging from the time Alice was caught nailing straw effigies to trees behind the Hakurei Shrine, the seven-colored magician might have a grudge against the red-white miko.

See also the previous compendiums.

edited 26th Jul '17 6:05:17 PM by Tacitus

Hmm, when was the last time Alice gets the spotlight, again? SA? She doesn't appear in WaHH or FS, does she?

For a prominent character in the first Windows games, she has been quite shafted, hasn't she?

Well, I mean, she had a non-cameo moment in the Three Fairies manga! ...Ten years ago. Ouch.

Guess Alice's problem is that she's a background character - a distinct one, but still someone off doing her own thing while others are playing an active role in the story of Gensokyo. She doesn't have an agenda or master plan that can't be accomplished by herself in her workshop, she doesn't have any strong ties or relationships to major mover and shaker that would see her dragged into the spotlight (unless there's another team-based shooter in the future), and she's not positioned in one of Gensokyo's centers of power. She's just making dolls and probably learns about Incidents weeks after they're over.

To add insult to injury, Strange Creators of the Outer World reveals the reason she's in the modern continuity in the first place:

Yep, Alice with a Margatroid is only around because ZUN decided to mess with us. The prank is over, yet she remains, killing time by playing with her dolls.

edited 27th Jul '17 5:50:14 PM by Tacitus

I forgot about her giant doll in Hisoutensoku. So, I guess that's still...5 years ago?

To be fair, ZUN is only one guy and Touhou already has Loads And Loads Of Characters as it is. Yeah, I think her being mainly a single player makes it hard to come up with ideas about her, especially with the recent big themes about the standing of youkai and its factions.

Well, it's not like ZUN isn't prone to bringing an old character into the spotlight. We haven't heard anything from Eientei in ages, then the Urban Legend arc happened. I dunno, maybe ZUN could come up with a Makai Invasion arc in the future?

One thing I like to imagine about Alice is what her relationship with the tsukumogami characters would be like. They're basically naturally occurring versions of what she is trying to create, and she could learn much from them.

There's also a lot of things to speculate about from Aya's Article and Interview of her, in which she was seen nailing dolls to trees. For example;

Could it be that her statement that she wants to make a living doll was just a cover story she made up after being caught? And if she was indeed doing it for her research, would it mean that she's willing to curse innocent people just for an experiment? Or perhaps she was cursing an actual enemy for her research and killing two birds with one stone.

While a tsukumogami is animated by a similar mechanism, I think the process itself is quite different from what Alice is attempting. Tsukumogami spirits are naturally occurring while Alice wants to create an artificial soul. It's like telling a researcher studying the origins of life to take a look at fruit flies.

Well it was through fruit flies that the hox genes that determine the body plan of all living organisms were discovered.

edited 29th Jul '17 1:26:25 PM by rmctagg09

Alice is a scientist err magician so it is within her boundaries but I have to wonder about her ethics or if they apply to her?

Which is great for studying genetics and how things that exist work, but not so much for figuring out how DNA was formed in the first place.