The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

I share the same opinions as Clarste when it comes to Sakuya being a serial killer. It's her job, I don't think she's a murdering nutcase.

The Aki sisters are looking pretty strong for votes so I'll throw in a random and futile vote for Elly.

You guys took away my joke vote by taking it seriously. I'm half angry and half elated. Just you wait until I find another joke character to support.

^^ However, she seems to be aware of the stigma, what with having cards like "Jack The Ripper" and "Another Murder"

The Another Murder spellcard sounds so exasperated. Like its saying "What? Another Murder, Sakuya? Really? We just finished cleaning up after the last one. Do you know how hard you make it for me? ... Oh, I can't stay mad at you. Come 'ere!"

^^^ We can't help it. The Catfish is such an enigmatic character, even moreso than Sakuya, and his mere presence hints at a looming threat far greater than anything Gensokyo had ever experienced.

^^^ Maybe saying she isn't a "murdering nutcase" wasn't the best way to describe it. I do agree shes probably aware of the social stigma, so she must be a nut to some degree :p I see her more as a composed murderer, with a certain pride in her work simply to please Remilia.

I don't know if thats still making sense, I really haven't thought too deeply about it.

I thought she was an assassin who was to loving of her work personally, or she loves knives.

Sakuya used to be a circus performer and knife-throwig was her act.

^^ That might be it. Look at her dialogue with Alice in PCB. She's more concerned with not having enough knives than having enough changes of clothing. Or she was trolling Alice. Its so very hard to tell with Touhou.

No, she was concerned that all she brought was two extra sets of clothing.

And some extra knives.

both of those.

edited 20th Jul '10 7:24:12 PM by Enlong

I like the vampire hunter theory - Sakuya is clearly a Belmont relation who figured out how to use the stopwatch and knife without limit, but lacks the Vampire Killer whip to finish the job. But this makes me wonder: why is she so doggedly loyal to Remilia?

From the sound of it canon Remilia is a better boss than the fandom often makes her, if still childish enough to cause an Incident in order to go outside without a parasol. But that can't be all there is to it, can it? And it can't be brainwashing, because of all those subtle jabs Sakuya makes at her employer.

I almost wonder if sparing Sakuya only to make her a maid was Remi's attempt to humiliate her former foe, but it backfired when Sakuya embraced the role wholeheartedly out of her sense of professionalism. "If I'm going to play the maid, I'll be the best damn maid ever." Or did she infiltrate the mansion as an aspiring maid and Remi forced her to live up to the alias as a joke?

Heh, or this was a lifelong dream of Sakuya's. Maybe she kept showing up for her vamp hunting classes in a meido outfit.

An alternate theory is that Sakuya hasn't cast aside her hunter role. Her encounter with Remilia showed that she wasn't strong enough to take down the lil'est vampire, but since her life was spared she might as well make the most of her new role. She's since learned that Remilia isn't much of a threat to humanity, but in case that changes Sakuya will be in position to resolve things. In the meantime, she has something to do and can give her boss little hints if Remi's going bad.

Now I wonder if Remi knows that, and keeps Sakuya around just in case she ever needs putting down. Sure, Reimu/Marisa was able to take down Remilia on her first try, but maybe it's an "if I need staking I want you to be the one to do it" sort of agreement. I'm not sure if that's grim or touching.

Her canon personality is that she tends to act on a whim and then get bored, often without bothering with the short or long term consequences beyond "hey lets do this."

at least in SSIB.

edited 20th Jul '10 10:50:34 PM by anelaidlives

Gruuuh, taking the whole eating humans thing as canon just makes it even more depressing. It's no wonder the SDM troupe is far from my favorite...

So yeah, Akiaki. Give me some time.

After that, finish Mountain of Faith with Kanako and then Sanae? Or is Kanako too popular to have both of these in a row?

I've got one:

ZUN is Hideo Kojima from THE FUTURE.

They look vaguely similar...?

We already did Kanako.

Wow, we did. Looks like I wasn't the one who wrote the profile, so I guess that's why I didn't remember.

The eating people thing is apparently not very canon. Some youkai do try like Rumia but according to Akyuu not much people eating gets done anymore. I think its more like terrorizing these days; a meaner version of what Kogasa tries to do.

And in regards to Remilia, she is a light eater so its possible she doesn't actually kill her victims. And Flan doesn't directly attack them. Since Yukari arranges food for things like this, I imagine she drops humans at the mansion, they get some blood drained, and then get dropped back where they were found.

As for the rest of the mansion, I don't think fairies eat people, Sakuya definitely doesn't, and you can chalk Patchy and Meiling's threats as empty boasts. If you game over against them, you just get the usual game over ending.

There seems to be a wholesale move away from people eating anyway. Mystia goes from hunting humans to scamming them, for example. Nazrin mentions people eating but she has been underground for a while. So, you can still like the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Unless she says more about it outside of Sanae B's path, I think Nazrin actually only talks about her mice minions eating people. Of course, the line "Yes, mice eat people" fits her, too, and Sanae seems to think that Nazrin does that...

Curse your grasp of game dialogue! You have made a fool of me once again!

Again, though, we don't know if its boasting or not. Are there any examples in Japanese mythology of a herbivorous creature suddenly going carnivore when they become a youkai?

edited 21st Jul '10 6:49:59 AM by Bocaj

Well, mice are basically small rats, so.

I know I can like the SDM crew, and to an extent, of course I do, but there's just... more resistance, you could say.

Things are a little stressful in real life right now, so it might be a little till the next profile is up.

I'm left wondering again if the profile business isn't just a relic of a certain purpose I have long abandoned, but I guess it's best to have them for an initial boost and to give information to people who actually check out this thread to learn about Touhou characters...

And in regards to Remilia, she is a light eater so its possible she doesn't actually kill her victims. And Flan doesn't directly attack them. Since Yukari arranges food for things like this, I imagine she drops humans at the mansion, they get some blood drained, and then get dropped back where they were found.

But it's mentioned in Flan's profile that she receives her share of blood through confectionaries and such. Just how many pints are needed for blood tea or blood cake?

...for some reason, I'm now imagining Yukari spiriting away bags of blood from the Outside World's blood banks instead of people. <<

As an aside, while it's mentioned that humans in Gensokyo don't get eaten anymore, Outsiders are a different matter entirely and are considered fair game.

In fact, as the prologue of Perfect Cherry Blossom said:

"However, youkai eat humans and natural humans are favoured as delicacies. Teams of cooks regularly venture beyond the barrier to hunt humans. They apply many methods to conceal their existence from humans of the outer world; accidents and people who run away from home... There are too many humans today for anyone to notice when a few go missing."

edited 21st Jul '10 7:51:17 AM by Servbot

Yeah, basically the idea is that the youkai of Gensokyo eat hobos and runaways. I do think that ZUN is moving away from the idea though. There's less and less mention of it in later games.

Yeah, the whole "flavor" of the setting has been changing slowly, I think. In EoSD, you were up against maneating vampires and were attacked by random maneating monsters on the way there, and everything is dark and gloomy... In UFO, you have a bunch of ragtag antiheroes who want to free Jesus, and the visuals (from as much as I saw) are pretty light, and so is most of the music...

It's kinda moving from a less idealistic Soul Eater towards, uh. Something else.

(Note that I'm not saying Touhou is actually similar to Soul Eater, but, let me put it this way, when I visualize the kind of Gensokyo that Clarste, for instance, likes, the visual style I picture is similar to the one used in Soul Eater. More detailed and with fewer anime trappings, perhaps.)

edited 21st Jul '10 8:47:55 AM by Fawriel

Huh. In Reimu's Extra stage in EOSD, Flan actually says she's only seen humans in the form of drinks, which I assume are chilled blood smoothies or something. I didn't read the part about confectioneries, but I'm assuming that blood drinks take less blood than special Flancakes do.

...then again, a basic cake recipe only uses about a cup of milk, but I don't know how well blood translates into that recipie.

Blood almost certainly wouldn't replace the milk. It'd be the flavoring, wouldn't it? It'd replace the chocolate or the lemon or the icing or whatever.