The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

She's the only good character introduced in S Si B...I can't really say much besides that since she was mainly used to kick off the plot and had a rather dull personality otherwise.

Also, original the name, do not steal.

Raisin (I'm spelling like that on purpose) is secretly planning to devour the moon after making it and everything on it cheese.

She waits patiently under her masters until the stars align, oh she shall savor their screams as she devours them slowly, dragging it out to torture them.

This is for the rabbit know as Reisen II to most people here.

Not Udonge down on Earth.

edited 26th Jan '14 12:44:30 PM by Grounder

Reisen is a deserter? Reisen is the Anti Christ? Reisen isthe Devil Himself? Is Reisen that bad?

edited 26th Jan '14 7:16:39 PM by GAP

So, Raysen. Like Reisen, but worse in every way. Seems to enjoy being oppressed. ZUN forgets that she exists. I think she may be the only Windows character without a listed ability

Ah, Silent Sinner in Blue, one of the first things I read as a Touhou fan. Let's see what I can say about this bunny.

Reisen:

A Moon Rabbit who's a trainee of the Lunar Defense Corps. Very timid.

You'd think that Reisen would be living the good life since she's under the direct care of Lunaria's rulers. Maybe she is, but there's so much things the original can do that are much better than a replacement can hope to accomplish...

Perhaps Reisen's a gofer, not just for the Watatsukis, but for other moon rabbits as well. Maybe she's picked on more often than the average moon rabbit. She could be the unluckiest rabbit on the moon.

She's a trainee, meaning she was recently drafted into the Lunar Corps. Wouldn't be surprised if she tripped over her feet a lot.

Reisen is a rabbit.

She is a filthy deserter.

She has short hair.

Yorihime says she is dull and doesn't have much sense about her.

I got nothing.

A Fleeting Dream

Once, your average moon rabbit was content with her life of relative harmony and lack of impending mortality. One day that all changed. The recruiters had arrived. Still rather young by rabbit measurement our little bunny was set all aflutter with promises of fantastic adventres, the chance to make new friends and mayben even serve under Princess Yorihime herself. Signing herself up immediatly she took a few days to say goodbye to her parents and her sisters and headed off to join the others in training.

It wasn't that simple however, to her early disillusionment she learned it never is. She had never really had orders to follow before and found remembering exactly what she was suppossed to do rather difficult. Noting this rather significant flaw her superiors tendend to suggest she be given simple jobs and she was often passed over for promotion.

Days became weeks became months yet still she was bottom of the ladder, never having seen hide nor hare - er hair - of the princess either. What had appeared so vividy in her imaginate when she signed that sheet of paper she slowly learned was but a fleeting dream.

Eventually though she did master the simplest of tasks assigned to her and rescieved a little responsibility. Not the most glamorous job but better than sharpening pencils. She was suppossed to sit in a little room at the top of a tower and press a green button everytime she saw someone approaching on a little screen.

Our simple rabbit however had rather a bad case of curiosity and that one button certainly wasn't the only one in her little room. Temptation gnawed away at her day after day until she couldn't take anymore. She pressed the biggest, reddest button she could see and prepared to be shown back to a desk laden with unsharpened pencils.

What happened next however changed her life forever. The little room began to shake and lights flashed up above. A obnoxiously loud voice began to speak.

"SHUTTLE LAUNCH PROCEDURE INITIATED. RELEASE IN 10, 9..." The countdown continued as the little rabbit pressed anything within her reach to make it stop. "2, 1, 0 LAUNCH IMMINENT, FASTEN SEATBELT." Not quite certain what a "seatbelt" was our friend did nothing and sat rigid as a board as the feeling of increasing weight and momentum pushed her down into her seat.

The sight of the ground getting further way from her little screen was the last sight our bunny thought she'd ever have of home. Maybe, just maybe joining the army had not been her best move ever. From that day forward nothing would ever be the same again.

The little room burst apart some several hundred feet above the ground, passing out from a combination of fright and injury sustained during the breakup our rabbit awakes to the beginning of her adventure.

Many things happened - she wasn't quite sure exactly what - but she did get to go home again and with a letter from the Sage as well! Legends didn't come bigger than that! On top of everything she was going back with the Princesses, both of them!

Reisen, her name was now Reisen and she was the Princesses' pet. Perhpas her fleeting dream had come back around for a second lap.

Yay! Go Go Gadged Imaginary Backstory!

That's basically how I see her character, an ordinary rabbit who made one too many mistakes and got lumped with the eccentric princesses. Or course to her they're the princesses! So maybe it's a good thing.

edited 26th Jan '14 5:47:30 PM by shiroimahotsukai

Reisen II or Raysen got duped by the recruiter and got drafted into the army. Now she with the Eientei "protecting" Kaguya.

Given that all members of the Lunar Corps do, she's probably not an exception.

'Eccentric Princesses' referring to the Watatsukis.

The Quelled Rebellion

I really think the Watatsuki's nipped this one in the bud.

Raysen ran away to Earth to escape OPPRESION! but ended up going back. Then, the Watatsukis give her a cushy job as a glorified go-fer rather than the endless mochipounding she was doing before. Suddenly, rebellion doesn't seem so tempting, does it?

So now Raysen follows their orders because she's happy in life. She... kinda comes across as really selfish. "As long as I'm happy, I don't really care what happens to the others." Which, considering she's probably still tuned into the moon rabbit telepathy network, would possibly cause immense guilt... or immensly smug satisfaction that she isn't one of those losers that works hard all day.

Regarding her being renamed, it brings up the question of whether or not the Lunar rabbits even have names. In my mind, telepathic races have a lot less use for them, since whenever you're talking about someone, you can just send a mental image of their face instead of using their name. Way less confusing that way. Except maybe in the case of twins or something, in which case you specify 'elder' or 'younger' or something.

If that's the case, then the Watatsukis giving Raysen a name really isn't that bad. Not like she had an old one to lose.If anything, it's a sort of step towards being accepted into Lunarian culture. Of course, being more a pet than anything else isn't exactly -dignified-, but you know... small steps.

Raysen doesn't really seem to have the talent Reisen did, but perhaps Reisen didn't really either at first and only really grew as a result of tutelage under the Watatsukis. If so, she's got a long ways to go.

So unlike Reisen, Raysen was still attached to the moon... but why? It implies Udonge had some personal issues to deal with on the moon, but Raysen still had family or something she cared about. Perhaps even just a strong sort of homesickness.

She used a Lunar Veil to get down to Earth. Where did she get one? I can't imagine you can just pick them up for a dime down at the corner store, and I doubt she'd even have a dime to pay with if you could.

Just think if Raysen had done something different... if instead of escaping, she griped and complained loudly instead. Loudly enough to make the generally not-thinking rabbits question their lot. There could well have been a rebellion on the moon as the Lunarians feared, but not the sort they were expecting. And really not terribly fearful since unarmed peasants don't do well against gatling guns. Still, maybe the rabbit numbers would have won out. Either way, since a bloody rebellion would destroy what made the moon worth living on in the first place, the Lunarians would have been put in a very tight spot if the rabbits rose up.

So the Watatsuki sisters saw this dissident (one of two I remind you, out of countless moon rabbits) that had had the nerve to escape, and made a very wise decision; take her on. It lets them keep an eye over her if she should get any more bright ideas, the other rabbits see she got promoted (Actually it might have been hush hush, I can't remember), preventing discontent, and Raysen herself gets pretty much what she wanted, so she has no real right to complain anymore and loses her drive.

Basically, perfect end for the Lunarians. Given how rare an occurance a rabbit acting up seems to be, they handled the situation splendidly.

Rabbit rights... oh boy. AKA can of worms #1. It really seems they're oppressed and kept ignorant of that oppression. I don't know which Lunarian's in charge of local affairs (the Watatsukis are both on guard duty RE: the earth, mostly), but...

The thing is, whether or not this is a horrible horrible thing depends a lot on whether or not the Lunar rabbits are fully aware. If they're more animal than person, then it's not really worse than domesticating horses or dogs. Unfortunately, they're emore likely closer to people, since they can talk (And Raysen and Reisen both demonstrate the capability of independent thought), and they need to be distracted with menial physical labor.

It is possible that there are tiers of Lunar rabbits. The lowest tier which really are basically just animals, then a middle tier which are sentient, but only just. Primitives in a very literal sense. Then an upper tier which includes the real 'thinkers', ones almost as smart as (or perhaps even smarter than) a normal human. The Lunar defense Corps would generally fall under mid or upper tier, and Raysen probably moved from middle to upper. Udonge is upper, of course, but how many others like her have that similar level of talent isn't clear.

The Lunar rabbits are presumably pure (in the kegare sense). Which implies that their birth rate is probably not the astronomical sort that earth rabbits display, since the death rate is basically nil. (I mean, what predators would they even have?)

As a final aside, I find it amusing she arrives in a Tewi outfit ^note "This is what earth rabbits wear, right?" "So you're not an earth rabbit?" "Why would you think that?" :/ but it does sort of beg the question how she learned that little factoid. Offhand, probably Udonge leaked it out or something at some point.

"Earth rabbits wear pink dresses AND ARE GIGANTIC ASSHOLES."
"Yesssss, now I know how to blend in."

"Whaaaat? I don't wanna enlist."
"But if you enlist, you will be eating the highly rich, highly legendary Lunar Carrot! To eat this means you'll be the awesomest super solider around."
"Okay, I'll join!"

She later learns that the Lunar Carrot is just your typical carrot grown on the moon.

Come to think of it, Rei must have been overwhelmed after meeting Eirin. I mean, it's Eirin! In the flesh! Also, she would consider being a personal pet of the Watatsukis as punishment to be an honor. Having ran into Eirin helps.

All she has to do is to avoid the expectations trap, and she'll be golden!

Raysen is selfish, short-sighted, and prone to rationalizing her own behavior. In other words, she's a completely average person. She can't see beyond herself because she's never needed to, and as such doesn't consider how her actions might affect others. Or herself. I'm pretty sure she honestly believed that she would be some kind of revolutionary and fight the power alongside her propaganda-inspired image of Eirin as the greatest enemy of the Moon*

And you know what? I don't blame her for that. Her actions are poorly thought out and she was pushed around by the whims of fate more than she made her own decisions, but that's just life. She never tried to hurt anyone, went out of her way to improve the lot of her fellow rabbit (after projecting her own dissatisfaction onto them) and gave up when it turned out she didn't know anything about anything. This is probably better than pressing forward while continuing to not know anything about anything. All around, a decent person. Neutral Neutral NPC.

We've all read The Fool’s Sealed Letter, right?

I've read it, but it's been a while so I may have forgotten some details.

Just did!

I take back what I said about Rei being the unluckiest rabbit on the moon.

I really need to read the rest of the Lunar Saga already.

Getting the art dump out of the way:

Raysen
Abstraction
Lunar cold war
Soft-looking
Sketchy
Raysen
Veil
Alphes-style
Raysen
Sleeping Raysen
The name that was passed down... Sin and madness
Petit cold war
Little rabbit
Light Magic "Cool Pose"
Moon rabbit
Raysen
Jewelled Rabbit Model
Dilemma
Jewelled rabbit
Raysen
Raysen

What we learned here:

• Raysen has more art than most PC-98 characters, but most of it doesn't focus on her and/or is porn
• No one knows what colour her hair is supposed to be
• No one wants to devote enough effort to her to draw anything actually good

I just don't get why Raysen has more art then some of the PC 98 characters although I guess it is justified that not a lot of people remember the PC 98 characters. Why does everyone keep calling Raysen an archfiend?

edited 27th Jan '14 2:23:59 AM by GAP

Reread the fool's letter.

Er, this is perhaps a bit of an aside, but... was it ever established if this was actually a thing? In my memory, Eirin started stirring (Through Udonge) the rumors, but I thought that was just the rumors of a rebellion or something. Then its implied that Reimu was the one summoning the moon gods without permission but almost certainly she wasn't (Actually no, maybe she was training on some of them?) but Reimu wasn't even on the moon.

Like, did the Lunarians seriously think "Yorihime can summon gods, she -must- be the one summoning Lunar Gods!" And just entirely discount the possibility that religion was a thing on Earth? I suppose it's possible, but the impression I got was that the fear was more of an internal one... so then why would they have been satisfied being shown Reimu did it?

Man, The Lunar Saga plus Imperishable Night (And SSIB in particular) is some sort of continuity snarl.

RE: her hair color: man, I don't know. I always imagine it to be purple because that's Udonge's hair color.

Whoa. So like... the rabbits we see in SSIB aren't just a representation of a larger force. They are the entire force. Wow. Well, they're just glorified cheerleaders anyway, so yeah.

Raysen... She's a normal person thrust into a battle. She's the only person who was on both fronts, and saw both the glory of victorious combat and the dread silence of an impending conflict. The other rabbits perhaps will be more eager to battle, inspired by Yorihime's example, but Raysen's the one on the team who's been on the field while being out of battle. Sure, she goes and cuffs Yukari/Ran or whatever, and looks eager enough doing it... but I maintain that Raysen has the most experience over the other rabbits.

Also... she was there when Yukari Ran and Toyohime were discussing that Lord Daikoku is imprisoned. It's likely Raysen now knows that the whole pounding mochi labor was as meaningless as she had suspected. She is a bloody riot just waiting to happen. All the more reason to keep her complacent to the point of dropping any critical thought.

Great, now I want to write a fic where the 7 or so members of the Lunarian army are like holed up somewhere hostile, and Raysen steps up as the impromptu leader because she's totally been in this quiet anxiety before.

I think it's just Bocaj being like "BETRAYER!" because she took the carrot the Watatsuki sisters offered rather than continuing to 'fight the good fight'.

Also, the Lunar veil is... interesting. And with the whole "moon/heaven" parallel and the celestials 'accidently' dropping their scarves for marriage I feel there's something there. The removal of spirit to purify Kaguya or something upon her return? The entire Lunar Veil seems like it's got plot bunnies all over it.

edited 27th Jan '14 7:20:19 AM by Antimatter625

Woo, found the links to the old Compendiums! Boacj had a particularly engaging take on Reiisen in the second compendium, read it if you haven't yet.

At least she's not pounding mochi for the rest of... wait, do Lunar Rabbits get the same "immortal purity" stuff the Lunarians do? Urgh. An eternity making eternal life medicine you don't strictly need and will never be given as atonement for someone else's sins.

The moon sucks.

Why would they bother developing what talents she has? Their last bunny commando ran away, and the rabbits in the lunar defense corps. have all the gung-ho and combat skills of X-COM recruits.

Guess she's like one of the nameless fairies flying around in the shooters, not even Nameless Midboss material that could be promoted to a pseudocharacer, except she doesn't even put up a fight. So she's more like one of those nameless characters in the background of HM.

Poor Reiisen. You're so inconsequential, other than the effect you have on the plot.

Do I have to? God, fine... huh, could've sworn she was conscripted before running away. Whoopsie.

Man, the moon sucks!

I could've done that if Comcast hadn't decided to knock out my internet for an evening in the process of fixing a neighbor's.

I'd call kuronuko neero's version of her definitive. She looks like such a conscript... bet the Lunar War was a lot like the Soviet campaign in Call of Duty.

'cause she's from the source of all that is evil in the eyes of the Touhou fandom, and that would also be a more interesting characterization than what she usually is given.

They're planning for the last war, when all they were up against was two guys in a lunar lander. Granted, two of the guys were Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, but that's still about six bunnies per enemy, more than enough to bog the invaders down under a pile of useless while the Watatsukis take aim.

edited 27th Jan '14 10:59:58 PM by Tacitus

Since I missed my opportunity in the other thread here are some alternate spellings that I'm fond of:

Rayzen, Reyzen, Ray Zen (Is this a real name? Does anyone know a Raymond Zen?)

In other words, "Z" makes things look cooler, but can be pronounced exactly like an "S"! English, it can be abused.

edited 27th Jan '14 11:17:36 PM by Horselesshorseman

Maybe it's just my dialect, or a lack of creativity, but I can't think of a single word in English where a 'z' is pronounced as an 's'.

You know you could always call her 'raisin'

Reisen Zwei.

I'd assume that the moon rabbits are/were made immortal just because the mooninites wouldn't want dead bunnies harshing their buzz.

The moon rabbits were already immortal and then the Lunarians stole their land because they were jealous.