The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Hmmm... Considering Yuyuko and Youmu's relationship is an open book, one question to ask is what Youmu's relationship with Yukari entails. She often gives Yukari a great deal respect but she also referred to Yukari with this line: "such a familiar and suspicious person as this."

@ Fawriel - I'll have to go with So Sweet as my favourite Yuyuko/Youmu doujinshi (That one is also hentai, mind you.)

You ever have those times as a kid where your parents would invite their friends over, and they'd sit in the living room talking and laughing about things you didn't quite understand, but you didn't want to impose, so you'd just mind your own business, or maybe find something to do in that room so you can listen in on their conversation to figure out what was going on?

I always imagine that's Youmu's relationship with Yukari. She knows Yukari, but she doesn't know Yukari. I imagine she's generally polite to a fault to her, which makes Yukari laugh and compliment Yuyuko on what a fine girl she's raised. Which would probably cause Yuyuko to start gushing about her and cause Youmu to blush and suddenly find something to do in another room. I imagine she could easily be suspicious of Yukari, simply because she knows so little about her, but since she's Yuyuko's close personal friend, she must be okay.

Curse you, Clarste! That actually makes a lot of sense. I wasn't sure what to make of "concentration", either, but it was listed as an ability on the Touhou wiki, so I just sort of accepted it... Should I erase any mentions of it from her write-up?

The misconception arises from a ZUN interview where someone asked him "Why does time slow down in the Youmu fight?" to which he responded "Concentration" with no qualifiers. Ever since then I've been fighting a losing battle where the fandom insists on the interpretation of that which makes no sense at all instead of the one that's perfectly logical and follows what's written about her in her write-up.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Youmu does have concentration just due to her skill and personality, it's just not a supernatural ability. So it's not exactly wrong to say she has concentration.

"concentration" is basically a synonym of "Focus".

Youmu is capable of making the entire world go into Focus Mode temporarily

^ Superfocus mode. She makes the entire world's computer lag.

I'm not sure what powers or abilities come from being a half-ghost (aging slower seems to be fairly accepted in fanon) but I think Youmu's prowess is entirely the result of training. Which is awesome.

Although the swords have powers of their own.

edited 12th Aug '10 4:26:12 PM by Bocaj

But they're also too huge for a human to use them without serious training, so yeah, Youmu's pretty awesome.

Did we already do Youki Konpaku, or should we do him and Youmu in tandem?

Is there anything to say about Youki?

Other than the pretty self-evident observation that he's totally fuckin rad?

"Little Blossom" was lovely! Karaagetarou delivers as always. I'm happy for his commentary at the end, too. "If I was able to create the kind of book that will bring a smile to your face when you recall it, I'm satisfied." Oh you.

Youki, well, of course there's something to say about him, namely what his relationship to Youmu and Yuyuko entailed. Why did he leave? Why is the Konpaku family committed to her like that? How did they meet?

Well, the commitment part seems self-evident. A Japanese samurai is loyal to his liege, no questions asked. But how did they meet? Was Youki, like, assigned to Yuyuko after she was made the ghost princess? Or does their bond go back to when she was still alive?

I wish I could remember more of the doujins I read.

There was one where Youki was a traveling samurai, a ronin probably. And Yuyuko had to be hidden away because she couldn't control her power. And Youki comes knocking on the door or something and Yuyuko accidentally half-kills him. Or something.

My memories are garbled but I think that was it. The Konpakus became Yuyuko's servants while she was still alive because they were partially resistant to her out-of-control powers.

I don't think shes dumb, just a badass in training. To me, I feel sorry for her since she has big shoes to fill and is trying to do too much for her capability. She also has the problem of being too straightforward with her line of thinking, as evidenced in IAMP and SWR. Most of it is that Yuyuko is very floaty and distant, but Yuyuko is subtle with her teachings of Youmu, but is perhaps more playful than Youmu, who takes everything seriously.

I like to think that Youmu does everything with deadly seriousness.

Including cooking.

Oh god, that's an amusing mental image goldmine.

Indeed. What Do You ''Mean'', It's Not '''''Awesome'''''!?! is one of my favorite tropes.

EDIT:Dammit, Can't get the italics and the bold to work in the wikiword...

edited 13th Aug '10 12:48:42 PM by Chagen46

"The vegetables that cannot be cut by my Roukan-ken, forged by youkai, are close to none!"

...

...

...

"Accursed ginger root!"

Hard not to like Youmu - she's got that badass samurai thing going on, tempered with the fact that she's still a child and can get in over her head. More arts: reflection, ready for action, phantom blade, queen of the hill, classy, sword’s almost as tall as she is, half-ghost, 3/8ths human, myon nom nom.

So what's up with the half-ghost thing? I remember reading somewhere that Japanese folklore has a critter whose soul exists outside its body, but ZUN has said Youmu isn't one.

Here's an idea: Youmu isn't "half-baked" due to being an air-head, it's part of her nature. As a half-phantom she's simultaneously in the physical world and spirit world, or to put it in D&D terms she exists on two coterminous planes. Therefore she's constantly aware of both worlds at the same time, kinda like someone with an infrared camera over just one eye. She had to develop her concentration and focus to compensate. And Myon isn't her soul, it's just a side-effect of her duality, sort of like Yuyuko's ghost lights.

Also, her EWI video is just precious.

edited 13th Aug '10 10:38:36 PM by Tacitus

On two planes at the same time... That's interesting. Wonder if that means that she's half-enlightened, too. Her spell-cards sure have a lot of enlightenment going on.

The EWI video was met with my usual annoyance towards these, but I've gotta admit I laughed when Yuyuko provided the percussion... and that the non-chibi pictures are pretty nice. ._.;

Now that I'm done embarrassing myself, I'm gonna go ahead and browse through all sorts of dialogue from her for some noteworthy stuff.

Immaterial and Michigan Power Scenario...

She demonstrates that "simple-minded"ness in her encounter with Reimu. "I came to slash the suspect." "I think you're pretty simple-minded." [battle] "You weren't the target what I was looking for." "Gee~z, can't you listen to your target without slashing them?" "You're wrong. Slashing will tell me who the target should be." "That means you're just a maniac."

Reminds me of Shou. "You beat me, so you must be righteous after all."

Encounter with Marisa is... weird. Marisa is playful, Youmu first apologizes for disturbing Marisa, then just flat-out says she's gonna slash her, and Marisa allegedly accepts out of respect for Youmu's balls for being out in the forest of magic at night?

"You seem like the kind of person who'd tell lies. However...this sword doesn't lie."

Next is Patchy.

"What's this? Some vengeful ghosts are in my library?" "Rather harsh to a vengeful ghost. I didn't die with a grudge against everyone, and I'm not dead in the first place. I think."

"Oh~. However... there's nothing interesting in the books. They only have old things written in them."

Why is everyone ZUN writes for a jerk? Must be something about incident mode... Youmu's whole scenario is full of flimsy excuses for battles. Like how Youmu actually challenges Sakuya for annoying her.

Hah. "I'm just about done slashing stuff, and you're the only one left. This disaster is all your doing." Now that's what I call a greeting for Remilia.

"You could say, since I'm not the one who's doing anything, that I'm innocent. Even if you put me on trial. The trial however; how are you going to do it?" "This sword, Hakurouken, shows the truth."

Well then. And after the battle, we get the beforementioned scene of Remilia suggesting that Yuyuko is the most likely suspect, to which Youmu replies: "Well, that's expected... You could say, it's probable, but not likely."

Timeskip, Youmu's talking to Reimu, still some time till the feast, Yukari comes... "Yuyuko-sama, I'm sorry for doubting you. I forgot such a familiar and suspicious person as this."

Aaaaand Suika appears and marks the third person to tell Youmu that her training is insufficient (Sakuya, Yukari twice, now her).

"Spiritual auras aren't limited to the ones ghosts give off. Don't get caught up in stereotypes. To begin with, what spiritual aura? Unless you see it with a certain eye, the truth isn't visible. Your training isn't enough."
"As for me... Truth is not visible to the eye, nor audible to the ears, Truth-slashing is something which you know, When it was taught by the master. Therefore, everything doesn't begin unless you slash it. The sword is sure to lead to the truth."

Youmu slash fic.

I guess this is her being focused. She set herself a goal, she's gonna attain it. It seems that she defines herself as nothing more than a swordsman...

Anyway, Perfect Cherry Blossom!

"That barrier was like a "Do not enter" sign... You're like a kid climbing a pole that says "Don't climb". Selfishly tearing it, then saying "That's just too dangerous"? Nonsense."

Youmu acting cool facing Reimu.

"You're quite a talkative ghost." "I'm half non-ghost, you know!" "That's what needed correction?"

Youmu not looking cool anymore.

"...At any rate, with just a little more spring, our Saigyou Ayakashi will soon reach full bloom. The small trace of spring that you've brought here... will give us the last step needed." "You're quite a talkative half-ghost." "Are you even listening to me?"

Poor Youmu, Reimu is just that much more experienced at being cool.

Sakuya's scenario:
"In coming here, you have exercised great composure. This is Hakugyokurou. The deceased live on in this place. Acting on the common sense of the living will land you in a mess."

Is that so~ She actually does a lot better at bantering with Sakuya.

Imperishable Night now!

As can be expected, Youmu is entirely focused on rushing forward and finding the culprit, while Yuyuko is so unfocused that she doesn't even notice Wriggle for a while as she was asking for Youmu to slow down.

Huh, Youmu appears to be strangely emotional. Keine called ghosts suspicious, Youmu took offence, Yuyuko tried to calm her down or just disagreed, and Youmu told her to shut up... I guess she can't stand not knowing what's going on. The "shut up" is totally going on my Discontinuity pile, though.

"Lady Yuyuko, please concentrate on NOW, not what happens NEXT."

What happens next isn't particularly interesting for the purposes of Youmu, but after that, they encounter Reisen and Eirin at the same time, with Yuyuko asking Youmu to slash them both times, and both times, Youmu is like "errr so I attack now?" Sudden change of pace seems to have left her confused.

Against Eirin, Youmu finally manages to sound cool.

"Lady Yuyuko, give me a command."
"Oh, Youmu, now you get what I was saying? Well then... First, be my shield."
"Affirmative. I will be the hardest shield in all the Netherworld."

... Which is then followed by Youmu calling Yuyuko rotten, which is a whole discontinuity pile of its own.

And against Kaguya, Youmu just sounds like a complete idiot... Hrmph.

Let's see what Scarlet Weather Rhapsody has to offer.

"What's with the sleepy face?" "Yuyuko-sama, there's something I would like to report to you. Also, I'm not really that sleepy."

I'm a lot happier with this already! She and Yuyuko seem to be getting along better. It's still hard for Youmu to communicate properly with her, but she doesn't let herself get thrown off as easily.

Against Reimu, she's pretty calm and only wants to talk. Of course, it's not hard to be calmer than Reimu in that situation. Now, on to Komachi...

"I didn't think I would have to resort to such a thing... But maybe I should try asking a shinigami for once..." "What's up? What's with your sleepy face?" "No, well, haven't you noticed the absence of ghosts recently? ... I'm not sleepy."

Oh lawdy.

Skipping forward to Tenshi for lack of anything terribly interesting... Oh wow, Youmu really doesn't handle being thrown off her train of thought well at all.

Tenshi: "The weather is the essence of the Heaven of Non-perception. Sorry to keep you waiting."
Youmu: "Pardon?"
"What's wrong? Looking for the criminal when she's right before your eyes?"
"Eh? Ehhh!?"
"Did everything unravel too quickly for you to react?"
"...."
" "Are you the one slaying all the ghosts?" "
"Uhhh, is it you who's been slaying all the ghosts?"

Oh Youmu.

Youmu: "I'm starting to get angry."

Grr!

Well, that was a lot nicer.

Unfortunately, I forgot PoFV and don't have the time right now to work my way through that, so that'll be it for now.

In conclusion, Youmu is indeed pretty darn focused and can't handle being thrown off focus. She seems to define herself as a swordsman and built her life's philosophy around it.

PS: You know, from what I saw of her in-game dialogue, Marisa is pretty much the most likable person in canon. Funny how that goes.

She actually does a lot better at bantering with Sakuya.

But Sakuya doesn't even try to banter with her. Every one of Sakuya's responses to Youmu is some form of "Shut up, I don't care, I don't want to talk to ghosts."

No wonder Yuyuko tries to get her to take things less seriously, and pranks her and stuff like that.

I like to think that she wears the mask of a swordsmaster to hide her all-too-feminine insecurities, so after a tough day challenging randoms to sword duels, she collapses in a nervous heap behind her door.

I don't tend think of Youmu as being particularly feminine as she seems to me to be a perfect tomboy. I chalk up her insecurities to her being relatively young for the role she's chosen to take on.

In a lot of ways, she reminds me of players who follow the knightly code too rigidly.

Youmu, ah...

A serious girl. Extremely focused and determined, but she can also be a little arrogant. Naive about people and the world at large, so she's mocked without even noticing it. Yuyuko teases her a lot, but they get along well enough. Short, choppy sentences.

Don't really have much to say, really. I love Youmu's design and the concepts around her, but I don't have a solid feel of her personality. Might try to do more later.

Do our alternate character interpretations have to make sense?

Because I have one for Youki that's 100% Rule of Cool.

Go for it. The McFussyfangs will come out and try to assail you with logic but that's just their way.

edited 14th Aug '10 3:06:00 PM by Bocaj