The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

That...never crossed my mind. So wild.

But it's Remilia's theme and she pretty much hates it if she's undermined by being used as a foreshadow.

Since she boasts about being Drac's kid, she too shall say the "What is a X" speech.

"What is a man, Alex"
"And you got our daily double. Congratulations Miss Scarlet"
"It was fated to happen"

Well, here's my other one then now that I've given it another look-over. There's a lot of repeat info like I said.

Just as planned

Remilia doesn't lose. She gets what she wants. It is her destiny, and whenever it isn't, she makes it so. The threads of fate are strings she uses to control her toy puppets. That is, everyone she meets. She's just a child playing with her toys.

Thankfully, she's a tempramental child: easily amused and rapidly distracted.

While Kanako may turn a failure into an opportunity through clever and flexible planning, Remilia turns a failure into a success by redefining what 'failure' and 'success' are.

For example. Remilia obviously failed her plan to cover Gensokyo in a Scarlet Mist so that she could go outside, right? What about her plan to use it as a test of the brand-new spellcard rules (which I'm almost positive she had a hand in.), or her plan to (re?)introduce herself and her staff to a rather interesting red-white shrine maiden and indeed the rest of Gensokyo? Her plan to remind people of the danger that youkai pose and remind the villagers in Gensokyo just why they should fear their neighbors? I'd say those all went splendidly. Oh, and she could always just go outside with a Parasol anyway, so the whole mist thing wasn't really about going outside to begin with, obviously.

Just about every time we see Remilia, we get this sort of thing out of her. It's heavily suggested that she couldn't care less about conquering the moon. She just wanted to reach it and have a bangin' good time up there. And she did (and forever gained bragging rights because she's the only one who even touched Yorihime.) The chupacabra escaped but I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if it was gone just long enough for her to be like "Hey, supplier, my chupacabra broke free of your cage and I want compensation/another one."

She is, in a sense, a spoiled rotten kid who always gets what they want. When they don't they change what they want so its what they got after all... or they change what they got to what they want... or both. When life gives you lemons, make them into oranges so you have fresh orange juice to go with the waffles you wanted for breakfast.

That said, I do think her fate manipulation has limits, even if those limits are just her own inexperience and shortsightedness. My headcanon has the meteor that nearly hit the SDM being called by Remilia trying to manipulate fate so that 'something awesome will happen here' or something along those lines. Then Flandre destroyed it and 'of course it was just target practice for my dear sister.' It could be she can't make good conscious use of it, but makes plenty of use of it unconsciously. For some reason I'm picking up 'be careful what you wish for, because it might not be what you want' vibes. When she wants something, she gets it. When she says she wants something, she might not... and therefore won't get it.

Remilia's a light eater, but I don't figure that bodes particularly well for her victims anyway. Considering the supply she gets from the contract born out of the Vampire Incident, My guess is that Remilia drinks her fill, then Sakuya... 'processes' the 'imported raw materials' into cakes and such so that Flandre will actually consume enough of them to survive.

She, like all vampires apparently, possess crazy strength, speed, and endurance, along with powerful magic... and a list of weaknesses and vulnerabilities long and varied enough to bore someone to tears. I've always been amused at the thought that someone min-maxed her race. like "Super stats across the board, but crippling weaknesses that are easily avoided. That's fair, right, GM?" And the GM was like "Sure. By the way it rains like all the time here. Just so you know. Also I'm adding beans onto the list for reasons."

Also, Akyuu mentions in a footnote of Remilia's PMISS entry ^note Yes, the least reliable of unreliable sources from an unreliable narrator, but still that Remilia might be able to change you into a half-human-half-youkai. Considering we only know that Keine's were-hakutakuism is an 'acquired characteristic'... perhaps Akyuu isn't merely guessing. I imagine Akyuu would be one of the few people Keine would tell the tale of how Remilia turned her into a werebeast. As for why? "Come on, I'm like an emperor. Gotta have a trusty advisor and everything." Keine obviously didn't approve and instead left but then told Akyuu something that Made Remilia seem more awesome.

Or maybe she did give advice to Remilia: "Cause a stir before youkai forget who they are." Leading to the vampire incident...

The Vampire Incident was almost certainly Remilia's work. It just all fits her prideful personality too perfectly to me to ignore. Also, the incident resulted in the spellcard rules, and this bit from the spellcard draft in PMISS...

along with the fact that the only contracts ever mentioned anywhere else are the ones around the vampire incident ^note "A devil's contract is absolute, thus one can never betray it.", and Remilia 'The Scarlet Devil' Scarlet's title, and a general thematic connection between devil's contracts and fate/destiny within fiction, along with the sort of 'game' vibe the spellcard rules evoke that suggests a child seeking entertainment was involved in them...

Well, it's a firm part of my headcanon that Remilia (Almost certainly alongside Yukari, who's probably the one who stopped Remilia's rampage in the vampire incident) was one of the creators of the spellcard rules. And thus, one of the 'founding fathers' of the Gensokyo of today. The spellcard rules shapes interactions between humans and youkai alike, and with the Scarlet Mist Incident, have shown that youkai are anything but defanged despite that. It keeps a sense of danger without requiring daily, dangerous demonstrations of dominance from youkai. So the people of Gensokyo are safer but don't necessarily feel safer, and the youkai have a fun new game to play that's not only entertaining, but allows them to assert dominance over each other while also aweing and instilling fear into observing humans. It's perfect...

And it was all because of Remilia. She came into a Gensokyo where youkai were becoming complacent... willing to live side by side with humans. While her initial reaction was likely one of disgust and caused her to lash out in a desperate search for some human blood, when [probably Yukari] demonstrated that youkai still had some strength, Remilia found or was willing to accept a compromise in the form of outsider sacrifices and later the spellcard rules. After all...

Remilia got what she'd wanted.

Guess Reimu has the "I Win" button, and Remi has the "I Can't Lose" button, eh?

Anyway, good vampire talk. After this we'll be discussing Elly, Mokou, and it looks like Wriggle Nightbug! Scythe, bird, bug. But first, turtle.

Genjii

Write-up:
An old turtle Reimu managed to catch while training one day and subsequently used as a steed, because she couldn't fly. A scenario that sounds ridiculous now - who can imagine Reimu training of her own volition?

Beyond serving as his lady's steed, Genjii attempted to provide sage counsel for the young shrine maiden, and more or less failed. Small wonder he doesn't speak after Story of Eastern Wonderland. Genjii also seemed to know a fair bit about the borders between worlds, as well as the amazingly mundane true power of the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb. Reimu displayed as much interest in where he got this knowledge as she did in his more general advice.

Relationships:

• Reimu Hakurei (finally learned to fly)

Interpretations:

"The Sage Times"
by Diamite

See also the two previous compendiums.

edited 30th Nov '14 3:30:35 PM by Tacitus

In Taker's Imperfect Metamorphosis, Genji is related to the dragons somehow.

That's all I've got right now.

Genjii is completely invulnerable; a bullet that passes over him won't harm him at all, whereas a bullet that collides with Reimu's hair-bow will hit her hitbox and cause a giant explosion.

He was also perfectly fine just flying around in Makai in Mystic Square, presumably breathing in all the miasma.

Genjii is a turtle. He flies. Reimu captured and "trained" him, so he carries Reimu around.

He tries to be the old mentor figure, but Reimu just ignored him, so he stopped.

And then Reimu realized she could fly on her own, so he stopped doing that too.

Now he just kinda relaxes in the pond behind the shrine. Turtle retirement?

My headcanon of Genji is an old turtle who hangs around the back of the shrine, claiming to have taught Reimu everything she knows. If you let him he'll ramble on for hours about adventures they went on together, though some of the details (like how people seem to randomly change names and hair colours) make it seem like he's making stuff up or just senile. In short, The Münchausen.

If you ask Reimu she'll say "Huh? Yeah, I used to ride a turtle when I started out, but I don't really remember the details. I think his name was Kenji or something?"

He makes an appearance in Genius of Sappheiros, and it goes kinda like this. Amusingly Marisa remembers. Actually, Reimu's even more cold, since she's like "See, I used to ride him because I couldn't fly. Now I can fly." And just leaves it as a self-evident truth that of course she has no reason to remember him, in a prime example of Reimu being a jerk.

Hmmmm.... Genji. I'll have to scrape my brain barrel for this guy. He's rather notable for being one of the very few named characters that has an inhuman appearance (And IIRC he's the only one with dialogue, even!).

Genji is the closest thing to parental figure Reimu has other than Yukari and Kasen...and she doesn't two shits about him.

edited 24th Nov '14 5:48:14 AM by GAP

Genji:

An old turtle, and Reimu's original means of transport.

Genji lived a long life, so his Wisdom should be high. Sometimes, I like thinking that he has the same amount of wisdom as the Lion Turtle. Oh, Reimu doesn't know what she's missing out on.

When Reimu was young, like before her first outing as a youkai exterminator, she called Genji "Ji". Hehe, I'm so clever.

Since practically no one comes to visit Lake Hakurei, he has to keep the pond clean. Gotta keep them algal blooms from occurring. No worries, he eventually got used to the routine despite his age. Heck, he likes it now.

Hmmm... I suppose he can still fly, but his skill of flight makes cleaning the lake much easier since he has become more adept at swimming.

Algal blooms... well, I suppose an old turtle would be used to such fare. But I still like the idea that he has tea with Reimu from time to time, just the two of them. Maybe help Reimu feel like she doesn't live by herself as much.

I mean, obviously Reimu doesn't have any use for him these days, and we could take his silence in his last three games to mean that he sees little purpose in interacting with her. But I want to be charitable. He seemed to be looking out for Reimu's best interest when he was talking, and even if she won't listen to his advice, she may still appreciate having someone else around when Marisa's busy, Suika's drunk in heaven, and Sukuna has been carried off by birds again.

She's just so enlightened, isn't she? With so few worldly attachments beyond, you know, greed, boozing.

Having him as a source would explain a lot about Perfect Memento...

Shell!

Yeah, I could see that if... ahah, it wasn't just made up for D&D! Maybe Genjii's a long gui, which according to Wikipedia are symbols of "courage, determination, fertility, longevity, power, success, and support." Interesting how many of these traits we associate with Reimu. Maybe not fertility, though.

I'm not sure where this would fit in relation to the Dragon. But it wouldn't surprise me that the powers that be parked a draconic VIP right next to one of the most important sites in Gensokyo. Is that why Meiling guards the SDM?

edited 25th Nov '14 9:43:08 PM by Tacitus

Poor Sukuna

Mystia just really needed a captive audience.

I kinda figured Genji keeps talking in the later games, and Reimu's just completely tuned him out.

That would be a Reimu thing to do, tbh.

Eventually she forgot that he could even talk, and then it got to the point where she forgot she actually needed him to fly, and one glorious day Reimu took off on her own without noticing. Genjii nodded to himself with the satisfaction of a job well done, ambled out to the pond in the back, and dove as deep as he could.

Genjii's kind of an odd duck compared to the rest of the PC-98 cast. Unlike, say, Rika, he has a space to inhabit within Gensokyo, and his reappearance wouldn't clash with the way it's developed. It's even been more or less confirmed that he is still around, the problem is that he doesn't have a role to fill anymore. Reimu has Yukari as a mentor figure, a much more important character to the setting (as far as we know). Perhaps more importantly is the kind of mentorship the two can offer: Yukari can talk to Reimu about border stuff, but Genjii seems to have only general advice and knowledge about the Hakurei Shrine - and it just wouldn't be Reimu if she wasn't ignorant and disinterested in the specifics of her own shrine, would it?

Either there's been a bit of fanart between now and the last compendium, or Danbooru and Safebooru have different offerings. Anyway, here's some Genjii pics that weren't in my last picdump:

Source for profile pic
Who outgrew whom?
Ritual protection and lung cancer
Come to the Hakurei Shrine, ride the turtle

Kinda surprised how often Genjii's depicted with a horsey tail. Makes sense though, he already has facial hair, so why not?

edited 27th Nov '14 9:52:14 PM by Tacitus

Not sure if the quiet is due to lack of things to say or the holiday weekend. Unless things perk up I think we'll move on to Ms. Elly sometime tomorrow, so now's a good time to get any turtle-related thoughts of your chest.

Clearly Genjii was the justification back in the day for why Reimu was the slow-movement shot type and Marisa was speedier: Reimu was riding a turtle, and turtles are slow!

When Reimu learned how to fly on her own, she learned to float lazily in the air, and is still a slow mover.

...

Finally, Story of Eastern Wonderland is the only game where Reimu's yin-yang orbs shoot lasers (with the forward-focus and slowest-moving shot type), and also the only game where Genjii played his most active role and spoke. Coincidence? I think not!

edited 29th Nov '14 5:54:27 PM by Leylicite

So basically, Genji is the reason Reimu is Reimu. He spoiled her!

The Sage Times:

Genji used to be Genbu, one of the Four Saint Beasts. He held a ton of power, a true force to be reckoned with.

But after a long time in that position, he retired and changed his name to what we know now^note Worry not, a new Genbu appeared. Moving to Gensokyo was such a perilous time for him, as there were many who sought to destroy him to gain unlimited power.

He was eventually ended up in a battle against the Hakurei and lost. Now, all he could do was await his end.

But he was taken in instead. Due to this act of kindness, he devoted his time to become well-versed in the Hakurei teachings. He was so stoked to pass on everything he knew to the new heir.

But Reimu, of course, only learned a fraction of what he garnered. Eventually, the girl became super strong and self-reliant, no longer needing his services.

And so he rests in the pond, half-happy at what she became, half-sad at the further potential she will never unleash. But an occasional visit from her is said to raise his spirits exponentially. There is no room for doubt. This sage old turtle knows he did his job as best as he could.

edited 30th Nov '14 5:21:33 PM by Diamite

Not a bad way to end Genjii's discussion.

Up next will be the incendiary Mokou and the luminous Wriggle, followed by... hmm, question time! I rolled up Renko, so do we want to discuss her by herself, or pair her with Mary since they're basically a binary system?

Until then, it's...

Elly

Stage: Darkness
BGM: "BAD Apple!!"
Theme: "Spirit Battle ~ Perdition Crisis"

Write-up:

The girl with the scythe from that black-and-white Touhou music video. She's encountered guarding a mansion within a dream world located at the bottom of a lake of blood, and that's about all we know about her.

What with the scythe and all, it looks like she could be some sort of grim reaper, and Elly's design seems to evoke Ankou, the Breton personification of death. It's also possible that Elly is a shinigami like Komachi, although it's uncertain why she would have a permanent position as a gate guard. For that matter, we don't know why Yuuka would need a gate guard, or even how well the two know each other. So like a lot of PC-98 characters, we have a lot of unanswered questions about Elly, leaving plenty of room for fan interpretations of who or what she is.

Relationships:

• Yuuka Kazami (inhabitant of the mansion whose gate Elly keeps)

Interpretations:
"Red Crisis"
by Diamite

See also the first two compendiums.

edited 7th Dec '14 8:17:27 PM by Tacitus

Bad apple is a popular tune but why do fans love it so much?

The shadow art animation? Not sure honestly.

Because of this video, which aside from smooth animation, has a pretty catchy song.

For Elly herself, I think Yuuka's mansion is just some kind of villa she goes to when she feels like it, and Elly is just a guard -as well as- housekeeper she hired for that. Most of the time the mansion is vacated only by her and Kurumi.

Elly:

The gatekeeper of the dream mansion that Yuuka took residence in for a while.

Elly claims that she was out of shape when it came to combat, which is why Reimu and Marisa kicked her butt so easily. ...Even if she was running at full power, she would still get turned to dust.

She has a reverse-edge scythe. ...Maybe she crafted it wrongly?

I...don't think Yuuka hired her or anything like that. Elly just saw the mansion, thought it looked nice, and just decided to stay there for a spell. She did enter the mansion, but the "horrors" contained within made her decide to admire it from a safe distance.

I'd like to think that Elly first met Yuuka amongst the sunflowers. Elly likes a lot of things, but sunflowers are high on her list. After pledging to never ever harm her pretties, Yuuka decided to let Elly hang out. Woo, lazing about in a sea of sunflowers is the best.

I also saw on her character page that she's quite pragmatic/desperate in combat. Never really noticed that.