The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

As far as I know, she's the only Touhou boss who resorts to throwing the scenery at the heroine. Makes you wonder whether she's trying to protect the mansion from intruders, or the intruders from who they'd find in the mansion.

Or, y'know, between Kurumi and the lake of blood she never gets much practice, so Elly's horribly out of condition and having to use every trick imaginable just to be a Stage Three boss. But that's less dramatic.

edited 1st Dec '14 8:16:34 PM by Tacitus

She's got a reverse scythe. So clearly she's a reverse shinigami. Rather than guiding souls from their bodies to their resting place, she guides souls from the beyond into their new bodies. A spiritual midwife, of sorts.

I... don't know if I have a lot to say about her. I honestly can't even remember if she showed up in A Satori's Tale at this point. I think she may have? I know I planned for her to at one point but I'm not sure I ever followed through with that scene... :/

I think she's foreign, because... well. We've got blonde characters with Japanese names, characters with English names that most likely did not come from England, and characters in Western clothing, but Elly is blonde and has an English-ish name and is in Western clothing. Logic, that is.

Anyway, between the scythe and the Ankou thing, she's likely some sort of reaper, someone the protagonists would call a shinigami, but since Elly's from a different mythology she probably doesn't report to the Ministry. So why's she even in Gensokyo? Probably the same reason there's other foreigners, like Remilia, the Prismrivers, and Kana - with faith and wonder in decline in the outside world, magically-minded individuals will take any port in a storm.

So Elly might be The Last Ankou, taking up a gig guarding an unvisited mansion as an alternative to retiring (or winking out of existence). Or maybe she is working for the same Ministry as Komachi and Shiki, and the dream mansion is her posting. Or - well, my other theory involves the -getsu sisters, so it'll wait for later.

edited 3rd Dec '14 8:30:29 PM by Tacitus

Welp, not a lot of Elly activity going on. Unless that changes, I guess we can expect Mokou's profile to go up in 24 hours or so.

In the meantime, the requisite picdump.

Just a simple gal with a very dangerous agricultural tool
Never really noticed the drill hair before
Sunny smile
Believe in the heart of the cards
I guess she makes that face in-game?
Freckles!
Held apple
Chomped apple
Dropped apple
Glare
Kinda crazy lookin'
The smile of a lady who knows how to use that scythe
Pink blade
My hands ache for her
Looks like she's generating her weapon with Rumia darkness
I'm too busy fearing those talons to admire the bust, to be honest
Another from an underrated artist
A shade of realism
Scent of sunflowers
Guess we can add Kurumi for a three-person mansion-based ensemble
Those stockings gotta go
One's a flower girl, the other a girl holding something that cuts flowers
One's a fearsome incarnation of death, the other has a scythe
If true, Elly be hella old
Intense staring action
Can't tell if blissed out or about to wet herself
Have an early Christmas present
The return
Return of the return, with another return
It's her turn to dream

Since the tiles Elly throws turn from blue-with-white-highlights to white, most of her tiny bullets are white, her scythe turns white when it's spinning, and both the tiles and the scythe block the player's shots, I used to think that the tiles and scythe were made of glass. (glass being notoriously bullet-resistant in shmups).

There's absolutely nothing in dialogue that would suggest Elly has any kind of glass-affinity, though.

Yes, Elly does in fact make that face in-game.

edited 6th Dec '14 1:52:38 AM by Leylicite

It's been said that Elly's quite the incompetent gatekeep. But, she wasn't always a gatekeeper. Once upon a time, she was the envy of the whole reaper world. The fastest collector of souls, the commanding aura she gave off while striking an action pose with her scythe... Heck, there was a major spirit crisis, and she single-handedly restored order before things got out of hand. She was everything an aspiring reaper could hope to be.

So why did she quit this glamorous role?

Simply put, she eventually got tired of being put on a pedestal. She was only doing her job as best as she could because she was such a workaholic. She didn't have any life outside of work, no meaningful hobbies. She thought herself imperfect, and reapers aspiring to be her would mean they would probably end up as imperfect as her: rich in work ethic, poor in everything else.

So Elly did a little magic trick and vanished. The sands of history eventually lost track of her, and reapers began to doubt that such an excellent reaper even existed. Which was fine and dandy for her. She also decided to free herself from her workaholic nature and lived a more carefree life. She has tried out lots of things, but her time as a ace reaper will always eclipse her now average endeavors.

It would be a lie if she said she didn't miss being in the spotlight, but this way of living is a lot better than being looked at as an aspiration instead of a person.

Take her music apple and eat it.

Deep Red Crisis
Apple Rock Rondo
Eurobeat Apple
Hyperspeed Crisis
Dancehall Crisis
Defiance in Crisis
Black Apple
An Apple full of Heart
A Peaceful Crisis
Ancient Apple
Apple Jazz, quite the Crisis
Funky Crisis

edited 6th Dec '14 10:33:18 AM by Diamite

As with Meiling, I will say that not being able to stop Reimu/Marisa/Whoever doesn't make you incompetent. If they're able to go on and beat your stronger boss, you had no chance anyway.

All those dozens or hundreds of weak youkai or humans that Meiling/Elly keeps out - that's her/them being a good gatekeeper.

Although Meiling letting all those people slip past her in Inaba of the Inaba while she was checking all of Tewi's fake invites - that didn't look good on her annual review. Even in a gag series, shame on you Meiling.

Anyway, largely off-topic sorry.

Hmm, the Mansion of Fantasies as a retirement home for supernatural heavyweights? I can see it And it certainly makes me wonder who else could have been in it besides Yuuka.

Good musicdump, by the way, I'm starting to appreciate "Perdition Crisis" now.

Righto, next we have Wriggle, then - okay, we still need to decide whether to lump Mary in with Renko. And after that will be... Orange! On the bright side, we're down to just 17 PC-98 characters, including A-listers like Marisa, Yuuka and Alice.

Fujiwara no Mokou

Stage: Doll of Hourai
Under the full moon, even the plants are asleep in the dead of the night.
Just what is there to be afraid of in this human and youkai's trial of guts?
Just where is the victim of the greatest sin?
BGM: "Extend Ash ~ Person of Hourai"
Theme: "Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke"

Spellcard Motif: The immortal, fiery phoenix
Notable spellcards: IN, GoM, StB, ISC
Immortal "Fire Bird -Flying Phoenix-", Forgiveness "Honest Man's Death," Everlasting "Phoenix's Tail," Hourai "South Wind, Clear Sky -Fujiyama Volcano-", "Possessed by Phoenix," "Hourai Doll," "Phoenix Rebirth," Regretful Life "Immortality's Reckless Sacrifice," "Fire Bird -Legend of Immortality-"

Write-up:
One of two known Hourai immortals, and probably the one worst-equipped to deal with that immortality. Mokou's father was humiliated while trying to win the hand of the beautiful Kaguya Houraisan, so to get revenge Mokou stole and drank her Hourai Elixir. Mokou has spent the intervening 1300 years dealing with the consequences of that rash decision.

After some very bad centuries, Mokou wound up in Gensokyo and was surprised to find her old enemy Kaguya living there as well, so now the two pass their endless time by pointlessly killing each other. Other than that, Mokou mostly keeps to herself, living alone in the bamboo forest. But she's not quite a hermit either - Mokou's willing to escort villagers to Eientei to get medical attention, and she's struck up a friendship with fellow not-quite-human Keine Kamishirasawa. For now, at least, Mokou's life seems pretty good.

Mokou's a perennially-popular character, for plenty of reasons. She's got the whole fire magic thing going on that lends itself well to action scenes, and it's easy to portray her as a vengeance-seeking lunatic out to kill Kaguya in exciting new ways. Other works focus on the tragedy of Mokou's situation and the doomed nature of her relationships with other characters. And of course being able to recover from any injury lends itself well to physical comedy.

Relations

• Kaguya Houraisan (recreational nemesis)
• Keine Kamishirasawa (friend)
• Iwakasa (victim)

Interpretations:
"Living Ghost"
by Tacitus

See also the previous two compendiums.

edited 22nd Dec '14 8:43:28 PM by Tacitus

I am upset with myself for still not having written that 'Mokou scales Youkai Mountain' fic yet. (Which, for newcomers... Youkai Mountain is where the Elixir that Mokou drank was supposed to be disposed of properly, since the god of the mountain whose name I can't remember right now was a god of eternity or somesuch).

So there's a lot of potential drama there (Especially considering the appearance of the Moriya Shrine and potential conspicuous absence of the previous mountain god, there.) It's seriously such a perfect plot bunny it makes me sad that people keep writing Mokou's feud with Kaguya instead. Or her romance with Keine.

I mean, it's not even really buried across 4 different character entries like a lot of the stuff is. It's basically all there in CILR CH 7. Which may just mean basically no one read CILR, which would be sad.

Also, on the topic of her Romance with Keine... I really think their relationship is different. More like Keine is a huge history buff and Mokou is a living chunk of history/artifact. I imagine Keine fangirl squees ^note As much as she ever would equally over Mokou and Miko. Honestly, probably more over Miko, being an important historical figure, rather than Mokou miss lady-time-forgot.

And what about her awesome interaction with Aya in BAIJR? "So, I hear you like yakitori? If not, then maybe you should stop asking so many questions about firebirds and poking your beak where it doesn't belong." Also, Mokou claims to be much older than Aya, but they'd be... around the same age, IIRC? (on the order of 1k years?)

To be fair, it's not like Aya looks that old either.

Mokou of the Fujiwara Clan:

A human who became immortal due to drinking the Hourai Elixir. Very aloof.

Mokou is a loner by nature. Since she has lived for so long, and will continue to live, she found it better to not forge long-lasting bonds with anyone.

She knows her way around the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, making her a lost traveler's best friend. ...Well, as best as a silent-type like her can be. She's not one for small-talk, except when it's time to smash some faces in.

As an immortal, Mokou has grown mostly uncaring towards human necessities like food. I mean, she'll never die, so what's the point of doing human stuff.

....

....

The key word is "mostly." Dying over and over again must hurt a lot. Or has she grown accustomed to the many deaths of her?

Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke is easily the most solemn of the Extra Stage boss themes. And the first piece of Touhou music I lent my ears to.

My guess is that Mokou provides easier sources of drama than something from CiLR thanks to the whole Kaguya feud and Tragedy of Long Life angle. Plus, sending Mokou to the mountain would give her some sort of closure and could potentially lead to character development. And we can't have that! She's supposed to be static and eternally unchanging, dammit!

More like Mokou actively sat out the history of her nation in favor of being a crazy person for nine hundred years. Genpei War and rise of the shogunate? Living as a wandering hermit. Sengoku period? Going through the "burn everyone I come across" phase. European contact, Tokugawa Shogunate, Meiji Restoration? In Gensokyo killing Kaguya.

Mokou's the girl who time forgot, and the feeling is mutual.

Mokou comes from the 8th century or thereabouts, while the most I can find about Aya is that she's at least a thousand years old. So this could be the human perception of time saying that three more centuries is a huge difference, or Mokou being melodramatic and saying that each decade of her tortured existence is worth a hundred years of tengu-ing. Or maybe Mokou forgot how to do math at some point.

I can think of two reasons for an immortal like Mokou to cook for herself. First is that it's a mundane activity that reminds her that she is human, allowing her to cling to that identity as opposed to thinking herself a monster. Second is the same reason we put seasoning on food - we don't strictly need it, but it makes life worth living, you know?

I can think of one reason for Mokou to ignore these points and starve - a desire to punish herself. Not so much out of masochism as self-loathing, I'd guess.

As far as I can tell, she is a tsundere and attacks Kaguya because it is fun.

Tsundere, mainly that she says things she doesn't really mean. Like she doesn't really hate Kaguya enough to ignore invitation for food. And she is also concerned when she thought Kaguya would leave. Just like how Mokou says she can ignore food bribery, but in reality, food bribery was too much for her.

The second reason, mainly because her reasoning for attacking Kaguya doesn't seem that substantial. In Inaba of the Moon & Earth, the food that Kaguya stole and ate seemed to cause her more anger than that slight on her dad.

Mystia and Aya probably have a negative relationship with Mokou. Mokou runs a yakitori (bird meat) stand sometimes. That's probably kind of miffs Mystia. Mystia runs an eel stand to prevent this bird eating deal. I wonder if Iku is irked by Mystia's food choices.

Mokou is a very rugged individual who lives alone but is she still socially awkward after all this time? I wonder how she met Keine and Akyuu?

You'd think an immortal would be the master of several hobbies and disciplines since becoming an expert in something only takes, what, 10,000 hours? But I think abandoned skills litter Mokou's past.

She doesn't have the patience of Bill Murray, nor the stuck in one dayedness.

If Keine is anything like Kagerourou then she likes to chill in the forest during the full moon so nobody sees her HIDEOUS YOUKAI FORM or tacky green dress. From thence, she could have met Mokou.

edited 10th Dec '14 6:45:29 AM by Bocaj

According to an illustration in the original magazine printing of CiLR, modern Mokou is pretty much the same height as the "young Mokou" who stole the Elixir. So either Mokou is short, or Young Mokou is taller than I thought.

It's worth noting that Mokou's PMiSS art, by the same artist, has her kinda long and lanky looking, but that doesn't necessarily mean tall. It's not like she has something we can scale her to in the image.

(I might have more in depth Mokous later)

I think Akyuu explicitly went to her when gathering info for PMiSS (and Mokou's stoic vagueness lead to Akyuu getting info from less credible sources. Darn it Mokou, Akyuu's unreliability is your fault)

edited 10th Dec '14 8:32:01 AM by Otherarrow

It's also likely she doesn't know Aya's age. The general point of "I'm not a kid relative to how old you are." which is probably a fair assumption youkai make.

I think she has a

Probably Young Mokou is taller. She was probably her full adult height. I mean, she might just be tall by standards of the series (So like... 5'7" or something), but yeah.

Her PMISS article is basically "Uh... so I tried looking into her but I got just absolutely nothing." I suspect that Akyuu's making a mental note... "So if I see her again in my next reincarnation and she looks unchanged, she probably wasn't lying about the immortality thing."

I wonder why Akyuu doesn't bring up the importance of the Fujiwara name. It wasn't exactly a minor clan, and IIRC Akyuu's own has some ties with it. Considering the nonsense she stuffed into Wriggle's profile ("There are bugs!") I'm surprised she didn't grasp harder at these straws to flesh out Mokou's article. Maybe she's trying to downplay the significance of the Fujiwaras for some reason.

A Fujiwara in the midst might offer a threat to her family's 'probably most important' position in the village.

Or something. I dunnae.

They're an old clan, with a lot of history, but their glory days are past. Perhaps Gensokyo is too small to really get into clan politics? Or maybe Akyuu knows about Mokou's position within that clan - since little Mokou wasn't allowed to go out in public, and her father was seeking Kaguya's hand despite producing Mokou, it's possible she was an illegitimate child. Though if true this would raise the question of why she kept the clan name. Or maybe this explains precisely why she kept the clan name, and was willing to go to such lengths to avenge daddy.

I'm not sure if tsundere is the right term for whatever Mokou is, but there's certainly more to her than pure hatred, yes. On the one hand she gets her kicks by killing Kaguya, on the other hand she hates the thought of her leaving, and then there's the fact that Mokou managed to forget about her nemesis for several centuries. And while she picked up the feud again to have something to do, obviously Mokou wasn't spending every day hating Kaguya.

Now, some might say that we should be careful treating Inaba-Inaba as canon. These people can't handle Tewi with an automatic weapon and Suwako winning at life.

Keine might have decided to investigate that legend about a youkai-hunting ninja clan in the bamboo forest, and was quietly disappointed by the truth. And as for Akyuu, well, there's that whole familial connection theory I can never keep straight.

Upon seeing Kaguya again, she was reminded of the humiliation her father went through. But more than that, the fact she saw her again after all that time ticked her off even more. Here was Mokou, lamenting and agonizing over the fact that she accidentally removed herself from the life cycle, only to see that Kaguya had done the same thing, except she seemed pretty fine with immortality. That felt like another slight to her father. And to her, who was generally bitter about this way of life. With intense rage that had reached its boiling point, this marked the first of many eternal deathmatches.

Looking back, Mokou considers that event a cherished memory.

Wonder how many times the cycle will repeat itself? If Mokou will ever get bored with fighting Kaguya, get separated, go crazy again, and then rediscover the hate of her life?

That might be a blessing, really. Mokou could relieve the same thousand years as the limitation of her memory allows, rather than all of the years.

Wait, is Mokou the Reapers now?

A thought I just had... If Mokou's been messing around with Kaguya for quite a while before IN, then...

Ok, the spell of eternity on Eientei was released shortly before IN, right? So if they'd been fighting... Ahhh, there's something just out of my mental reach.

Like, because Mokou's a Hourai immortal, maybe she wasn't effected by the spell of Eternity and so could 'freely' interact with/fight Kaguya? Or perhaps the spell drew Mokou to Eientei (Quite possibly even back across the Hakurei Border into Gensokyo) as a result of its eternal nature.

Yet nothing could change (I mean, more or less) because of the spell of eternity. So it really would have been a very unique experience for Mokou. Finally she was in a place meant to be eternal, just as she was. Maybe it's finding that reliability or purity of time or something that's mellowed her out, rather than Kaguya's presence, per se. (And Mokou may not realize this).

If time is like a river, then Mokou was is a rock stuck in it, forced to fight against its inevitability. And when Kaguya and Eirin finally dammed up the river just upstream of Mokou, suddenly relieving all that pressure (And at the same time, introducing her to the strangeness of 'dry land'), of course Mokou would have strong feelings... The fact that Kaguya/Eirin had earlier jammed Mokou into the river to begin with confounds the issue.

I thought the eternity spell was dropped after the events of IN, which convinced Kaguya that rejoining the flow of history might be fun. Or something. Which if true would mean that normal... miko, vampire, Sakuya... well, it would mean that ordinary black magicians and absolutely-not-a-demons could get through the eternity field without any trouble, which would make Mokou's ability to bust in from time to time not that unique.

But I do like the idea of the eternity field calling out to Mokou in some ineffable sense - though if it didn't, we can speculate what led her to Gensokyo. Did she just randomly blunder in during her wanderings? Did she decide she had no place in the outside world anymore? Or did the idea of an antique stretch of pre-modern Japan appeal to her, even if it wasn't quite the same Japan she grew up in?

Also, it makes sense that the Eientei eternity effect was something designed in part to deal with the weight of ages, a way help Lunarians deal with their potentially endless lifespans, and in the process dissuade them from messing with perfection to stave off ennui. Or, you know, it's a way to keep the groceries fresh without a refrigerator. But if it was designed for Lunarians, would Mokou necessarily appreciate it the same way?

In picdump news, I've got nearly two hundred candidates to whittle down before they go in a post. Expect to be utterly bored by fire at the end of it.

Mokou is one of my top 10 Touhou characters. In a fit of greed she consumed the Hourai Elixir and subjected herself to an existence completely cut-off from the cycle of reincarnation.

Come to think of that, her life had been full of suffering from the beginning. She was born into the famous and powerful Fujiwara clan, yet her existence had been kept in secret, perhaps because she was an illegitimate child. Her father had fallen head over heels with an alien princess who sent him for an impossible mission. Unable to fulfill the request, Mokou's father faked the required Branch of Hourai, and after having his scam discovered, was shamefully disgraced. The consequences of the disgrace are unclear, but it was enough for Mokou to seek revenge for her father's behalf. But before Mokou had the opportunity to do anything, Princess Kaguya had already returned to the moon as the rightful Lunar heir. Or did she? Boiling her rage, Mokou was left to execute her revenge on the present Kaguya herself gave to the Caesar, the Hourai Elixir. The Caesar, in is wisdom, ordered the elixir to be destroyed in the maw of Fuji Mountain. Mokou followed the group ascending the mountain, and after pushing one of the to his death finally required the Hourai Elixir.

Details of what happened to Mokou after consuming elixir are very unclear, but it seems she spent long years wandering endlessly, have fallen into madness, and became a flaming slaughter machine. She eventually got over it when she discovered Kaguya had never left Earth and could finally have her revenge, not only for her father, but for what Kaguya did to herself. Unfortunately, Kaguya was a Hourai immortal as well, and no matter Mokou did, Kaguya just wouldn't stay dead. Regardless, they kept on fighting and don't show any sign of stopping anytime soon, despite the reason for the feud being long irrelevant.

Along her wandering, Mokou had met Keine. Details of this are few as well, but we can assume their similar natures had brought them together. Maybe I'll discuss headcanon and shipping when I'm less tired. It does seem to have a positive effect on my writing, though.