The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Yep. She definitely looks good with a pipe.

Red gleam in her eye, evil grin, malicious ghost heads... Yep, she's a soul-hunting tonight!

So that explains why souls can't swim in the Sanzu River. Darn sea monsters!

Eh, I am fine with moving on. Sorry that I didn't have much to say...

Hmm... This one got me thinking.

Komachi: "So, we meet here once again, Lady Hieda."
Akyuu: "A pleasure to see you too, Komachi. Please take care of me as always."
Komachi: "Yes..."

Since Komachi's the ferrywoman, she must have taken Akyuu's past lives across the Sanzu River. My headcanon's that Komachi treats Akyuu reverently, and as an old friend of hers. In Akyuu's case, Komachi will probably work twice as hard to make sure Akyuu gets to reincarnate safely...

Man, that kinda makes me sad.

edited 16th Dec '13 1:57:39 PM by Diamite

It feels like there should be a joke here about "moving on," but I can't quite work it out.

Sara

Stage: The Elements of Creation ~ Materialization
bgm: "Dream Express"*

Theme: "Magic Formation ~ Magic Square"*

Write-up:

Just your average Makai person, presumably a demon, possibly not. She's encountered guarding the entrance to the demon world, and predictably fails. Not much else to say about poor Sara - due to being a Stage One boss she has the ignominy of being the weakest gatekeeper in the series, she doesn't have the flair of someone like Meiling, or even the strong character design of other State One smallfry like Wriggle or Rumia.

Plus, going up against potentially four protagonists in the same day, including Yuuka? Poor thing.

Relationships:

• Shinki (goddess-mama)
• Ellen (guest fighter from a manga that features another character Sara is a shout-out to)

Interpretations:

"Gensokyo's Unluckiest"
by Diamite

See also the first two Compendiums.

edited 16th Dec '13 11:09:38 PM by Tacitus

She has almost universally bad luck, and as such is incredibly jaded and generally just sad.

Don't think being a gatekeeper was good luck, either. It's the Makai equivalent of being a target dummy, and has it even worse than fanon Meiling's treatment.

OK. Sara. She guards (one of?) the gateways between Makai and Gensoukyou. We don't know for sure which side she comes from, but since she is letting Makai folks out but not Gensoukyou folks in, it's a pretty fair guess to say she is from Makai.

That, or everyone beats her up to pass through.

She isn't very strong, but tries to stop the heroines from entering Makai anyway. Of course, they all defeat her effortlessly.

Her hair is pink.

Sara:

The person tasked with guarding the gate to Makai. Very unlucky.

For reasons unknown, Sara's the gatekeeper of Makai. Was she created by Shinki to be a gatekeeper, or is she a human who thought it best to prevent humans and youkai from entering the realm, unless they were tough enough to beat her. She could be a Gensokyan-Makaian hybrid.

So here she was, minding her own business, when suddenly she sees four people heading her way. As a gatekeeper, it was her duty to gauge their strength and chase them away. It...didn't end so well for her. It must have been especially horrible fighting Yuuka and Mima...

So, one other thing that Sara does is that her last attack involves her shooting out hand lasers, trapping the player within a small wedge, and forcing them to dodge other bullets. This is actually a really common stage 1 boss attack - Rika from SoEW does that, and so do Rumia and Nazrin. On the other hand, further development of this attack gives us the infamous "Bury In Lake", so it has some potential to be dangerous.

Anyway, this is the Alternate Interpretation thread, so here's a crazy theory: It was actually nearly the end of Sara's gatekeeper shift when the heroes fought her - Luize was coming through the gate to take over for her.

edited 15th Dec '13 3:54:01 PM by Leylite

Um, Tacitus, you forgot the next characters bit

Anyway, Sara. In the running for easiest boss in the series. Makes me think that her job isn't so much to stop people from coming in as to make sure that returning tourists have everything in order

Maybe I didn't forget, but the NSA excised that line from the post? Ever think of that, huh? Anyway, since I forgot, here's the next three characters after Sara: Sanae, Ellen, and Eiki!

I think last time we floated the idea that Sara is Makai's version of Raditz.

I like to think there's an equal opportunity employment agency in Makai. Sara was originally created to serve as a teacher's assistent in a local school somewhere relatively near the gateway but decided the work really didn't suit her and moved on. This turned out not to be such a good idea, but if she quit now she'd just look foolish so she sticks at it no matter who(or what) comes her way. Truly determined to prove herself as an adequete gatekeeper and nobody has the heart to tell her she isn't very good at it so the status quo remains.

Sara must be one of the most unluckiest Touhou characters considering who she has fight against. I hope the Makai has life insurance, Sara is gonna need it.

Gensokyo's Unluckiest:

There was a time in Sara's life when she thought being the gatekeeper of another realm was the best thing ever. She was fully committed to making sure Gensokyans never had a chance of passing her.

Except no one never came around those neck of the woods.

"No, I must stay vigilant," she said. "There's no telling when people will come to this place."

One day, she caught wind of the Makai Tourism Plan set up by Shinki. It involved giving the demons of Makai the chance to visit Gensokyo. Finally, excitement! Sara has another role to fulfill as a gatekeeper: To make sure they were given safe passage.

Suddenly, from a distance, she saw four stars that were headed in this direction. Cracking her knuckles and flexing her arms, Sara was ready to conduct her first battle as a gatekeeper.

The problem was that it was her first battle.

Towering above her were four people surrounded by malicious auras, and they wore psychotic grins^note Her P.O.V.. Obviously, they were here to stop Lady Shinki's plan. No way she was gonna let them pass despite feeling that sense of intimidation. She is a gatekeeper, and one of her duties was to stop people from entering Makai!

She got steamrolled in a few seconds. The four then proceeded to put an end to Shinki's ambitions.

Time passed mercilessly. Sara began to question the benefits of guarding a gate no one bothered to come to.

"This is so boring! I wish something happened again."

Admittedly, she enjoyed the rush of actual gatekeeping that time ago. She honestly thought that event would lead to an outbreak of invaders. So, she was miffed that no one else came after that. Her job's too damn easy!

She got her wish. She got it all right.

She heard a roar in the sky. It was neither human or beast. She looked up and saw a ship making a straight beeline towards the gate. She couldn't believe her eyes! When did a ship get here!? Why was it heading here!? And why did the gate open on its own, as if it was expecting its arrival!?

Since it was a ship, the only thing she could do was to get out the way before she got flattened.

After that, no one came by again. "At least give me something to do, dammit!"

Despite her protests, she continues to guard the gate to this day, with the spotty hope that she can prevent people passage. People she can actually handle! Her diligence is admirable, at least. Sara's Gensokyo's Unluckiest. But she won't give in!

Oh yeah. It sort of slipped out of my mind.

edited 16th Dec '13 8:10:48 AM by Diamite

Actually, I am pretty sure that tourists did come through. The whole incident in Mystic Square was that the tourists were supposedly causing trouble in Gensoukyou (though knowing Reimu, said trouble was probably just "being there")

Looking up the wiki and stuff...I'd say Sara's unlucky more for the lack of attention at all on her. Barely any information in the Wikis, poor girl, probably because there isn't much info about her.

I'm a little conflicted. Looking at her artwork(Both the fan one posted here and the official ones), I kinda get the impression she's one of those characters who are oblivious to her own misfortune, somewhat like say, Mutsumi from Love Hina, except she's probably more haughty. Listening to her theme though, she feels more like a pessimistic person, and is someone who's very tired of her job and just wants to get things over with.

Additionally, she's a pretty good fighting type Touhoumon, at least in the version I've played(Think it was Touhoumon World ver. 1.32). Pretty good Touhoumon earlier on, no idea about mid-late game though, as I haven't gotten that far.

I wonder if she was created specifically to gatekeep. I suspect not since Shinki is generally hands off enough to let a tourism agency be created (and lets not even wonder about the disposable income that makaijins must have if tourism to an alternate plane is a lucrative business).

I suspect she got the job when there wasn't much traffic between Makai and Gensokyo and is actually a glorified customs officer. Repelling invasions was never in her job description because before this, nobody really crossed from one side to another. Some magicians would go there to study and train and such but that's about it.

She'd ask how long they intended to stay in the country, what their purpose was and then stamp a visa maybe.

But one day she asks "business or pleasure" and gets the response "VIOLENCE!"

"Oh, hello again, Miss Mima. Will you be staying long this time?"

edited 16th Dec '13 11:15:48 PM by Antimatter625

Ooh, or what if Sara's just a generic youkai, guarding Gensokyo from Makai? The local magical monsters don't want any Makai folk wandering about willy-nilly, so they always put someone to monitor the border. But it's been so long since a proper invasion that they thought it was safe to put a scrub on guard, who completely misses the demon tourists slipping through. Sara attacks Reimu et al on general principles.

An alternative is that there's the "main" Makai entrance somewhere, with fifty-foot fel iron gates and level 60 elite guards flanking it, but the protagonists were smart enough to take the back door.

Just imagine looking over a UFO playthrough, slowing it down, and noticing the one of the very first enemies isn't a fairy, but the latest PC-98 character to make a reappearance. And get downed in one shot, without being noticed by anyone.

If she wasn't before she probably is now.

This is just my headcanon with no base whatsoever, but I have a theory why Sara is so weak despite being a gatekeeper. Makaijins are created by Shinki, and draws their powers from her. However, like reception signals, being farther away from her makes the power weaker. Therefore, Sara, stationed at the farthest end of Makai, gets very litle power. Alice was a Makajin, but after messing with the grimoire shenanigans happen and she no longer needs Shinki for power. Sara was totally going to reappear as EX-Boss, now with Shinki nearby and she's at full power... but little Alice has to muck up with the Grimoire and stole her chance.

Yeah, that could make sense. Alternatively, maybe it's the lack of magically-charged miasma in the outside world? Both explanations at once would probably be overkill.

Not too many pieces of artwork I didn't link in the last compendium, but...

She's on the left
A YouTube video background waiting to happen
Either a dance of joy or a concussion
Such misplaced confidence
Shame she's not wearing pants
Team Gatekeeper!

I think Sara is one of the unluckiest characters yet she isn't so much incompentent as much the opponents she faces are a more....pragmatic than most. Never bring mini hakkero to a fist fight.

Sara must be pretty bored, guarding a rarely visited gate. She uses music as a means to a clear, occupied mind.

Speed Express.
Rock Express.
Rave Formation.
Unshakable Formation.
EMOTION Square.

edited 18th Dec '13 12:00:03 AM by Diamite

Oh, wow, we didn't say much here. Not that we have much to work with...

Her hair is pink.