The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

2) Why is she so often portrayed as being short? I think I'm going to picture her as a tall and gawky kid just to go against the grain.

I'm with you on this.

There's a similar thing where Shikieiki is portrayed as being short, but she and Komachi are both actually pretty tall IIRC.

Youmu is probably portrayed as short because she's also portrayed as childish, so people make her look younger to fit it.

Shikeiki is depicted as short because it's funny. It also makes for good and amusing contrast to have her subordinate towering over her.

I get why it's done. I just don't like it.

Shikieiki suffers from what I have just now named "Too Awesome Headgear syndrome." A condition where you headgear is so tall that the character portrait is lowered to show all of it. Common sufferers are the yama and Reisen.

Because of this, they appear like they are shorter than other characters.

Though Reisen isn't usually depicted as short. Hmm.

edited 20th Aug '10 10:49:08 AM by Bocaj

And surprisingly, Wriggle often isn't portrayed as particularly short. In spite of being, you know, a bug.

She's got that lanky tomboy thing going on, which is pretty cool.

You need leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegs with which to execute a Wriggle Kick.

Wriggle is often associated with Kisume because of a shared tendency of theirs.

Obscure trivia: ZUN once gave a vague listing of heights for the cast of EoSD and PCB in an email, so Youmu being on the shortish side actually is Word of God! But by no means the shortest. Actually, Gensokyo is just generally full of shrimps, it seems.

However, backing up a bit...generally speaking, they're about as tall as girls in their early teens. A suitable breakdown would be something like:

Tall: Sakuya, Meiling, Yukari

Fairly Tall: Reimu, Yuyuko, Alice, Letty, Ran

Fairly Short: Marisa, Youmu, Patchouli, Lunasa, Merlin

Short: Remilia, Lyrica, Chen, Cirno, Rumia, Flandre

Basically, if we consider the top level as the height of a human in her late teens or older and the bottom level as the height of a human in her early teens, that puts them in a fairly short class (though none of that level are human). If their sizes appear to be different on the game screen than given above, it's because of some mystic force like perspective, so pay it no mind. :-)

edited 20th Aug '10 11:50:27 AM by Caprice

I never saw Youmu portrayed as particularly short. Just, well, young. Which I guess she is, to whatever extent a creature like her would be young.

I wanna see Wriggle in a fighting game so bad. Her kick combos would be amazing. Spinning kicks all over the place! Or even better...

Butterfly kicks!

If nothing else, a surprise drop-kick from out of nowhere. Just how fast is Wriggle, anyway? I imagine her doing one of Raven's moves where he disappears, and then reappears in midair and performs a Death from Above attack.

Butterfly kicks!

YES.

Wriggle: "Oh hey, you found another of those shiny round things! I love these! Thanks centipede number 13532!" *adds to gigantic pile*

• Keine: Those can be exchanged for goods and services, you know.
• Wriggle: -blank look-
• Keine: So, er, for instance, name something you want.
• Wriggle: I want it to rain tomorrow.
• Keine: This is going to take a while.

^ Yes. Just, yes.

^^ Thank you for this laughter. But, why would Wriggle want it to rain? What flying creature likes rain?

edited 20th Aug '10 3:45:13 PM by yarrunmace

Youmu is short (or rather, young). The fighting games make the relative heights of everyone involved extremely clear.

^^That is a very good question. The only thing I can think of is that mosquitoes are also her subjects, and she may have noticed that there isn't a lot of stagnant water around for them to lay eggs in.

Either that or she thinks rain is pretty and likes the smell.

There's a good doujin where Wriggle writes a haiku during a rainy day and Mystia starts bothering her. And I can't remember the name.

But aren't there a lot of bugs around on hot, humid days? As Queen of Bugs she might enjoy them too.

I'm not entirely certain how accurate the fighting games are. I'm pretty certain that Reisen isn't supposed to have Eye Beams, and Yukari's gaps look different, among others.

Or she wants some plants to grow for food. Ever think of that?

I'm not entirely certain how accurate the fighting games are. I'm pretty certain that Reisen isn't supposed to have Eye Beams, and Yukari's gaps look different, among others.

They're just as canon as the normal games, moreso than things like St B and Fairy Wars in that they actually have their own "incidents" and introduce new important characters. Obviously they have different gameplay and graphical needs, but none of them seem completely absurd or anything. Why shouldn't Reisen shoot eyebeams, and what's so weird about gaps looking different in different situations?

edited 20th Aug '10 4:59:58 PM by Clarste

The gaps could be as simple as artistic license; they probably don't "really" look different. You know, Literary Agent Hypothesis and all that.

It's Yukari. She can probably just change however her gaps look when she feels like it. The fighters are most certainly canon, given Ia MP introduces Suika(Definately Canon) and SWR introduces Iku and Tenshi. So info can be taken from it somewhat accurately.

Also, I thought that Wriggle didn't forget the delivery service, but her bugs forgot the packages/messages, so the service went down?

Then Wriggle got bored.

My fave Wriggle remix? Ahn...probably Miss Moonlight.

Anyway, I guess it's time for a round of WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WRIGGLE IS?!

I find her...I dunno...

Kind of badass, for some reason. Maybe because Wriggle Kick = FALCON /KIYCK/. And insects seem like they were once a lot more powerful and influential, you know? I kind of imagine Wriggle like a fallen badass, as her species has persisted from threat to pest. Downgraded from Queen of the Night to Queen of Insects, if you will. I almost kind of like to imagine Wriggle fighting Remilia for the title, ala Wriggle vs. SDM.

Wriggle is prolly one of the more dangerous of the cast against the Muggles of the world, given she can gather large numbers of poisonous, microscopic bugs. Of course, youkai are immune to such poisons, and either way Spellcard System.

Wriggle + Yamame or Medicine is scary. Imagine microscopic, mass gathered insects that could deliver deadly, contagious poisons or youkai-affecting poisons. Wriggle would like, walk forward, and all the regular humans would be all "Oh my. We appear to be dying." and she would be all "This...is how you start a panic.". And stuff.

Personally, I love her design too. I think she has one of the nicer ZUN artworks, too. Then again, I like most of IN's art, so. She's real easy to beat long as you don't get WRIGGLE KICKED, though.

I hope she makes it in the next Fighter, mostly because you and me both know it'd be a Captain Falcon inspired moveset. And that would be amazing.

Wriggle's personality...

A little cocky(hehe) and prideful. I like this idea you guys have of her having a very "efficient" memory, discarding irrelevent data. She's like some forgetful-remembering duality double reacharound jesus.

Too sleepy to continue, so this is what you get. I'll try to be more active tomorrow. =) Ah, but before I go, some images.

Legend of Touhou: The Wriggle Waker

Is so.

wriggle kick etc

This could have been UNL.

Princess Wriggle.

This is badass.

Also this Wriggle.

EX-Wriggle?

Add me to the list of those who loved that dialogue Durazno wrote.

There's a good doujin where Wriggle writes a haiku during a rainy day and Mystia starts bothering her. And I can't remember the name.

You had me at "haiku". Please remember where you saw this!

Man, all these varying interpretations of Wriggles make me consider pulling a sort of meta-characterization and writing her as a character who seems to keep changing. Much as she forgets stuff to organize her personality efficiently, her personality is malleable and always adapts to the situation.

Heck, that's another thing that makes a lot of sense for a bug. After all, the reason insects are so successful is because they live short lives, reproduce rapidly  ^*

You could say that Wriggles keeps being reborn within herself every day. Or even more often!

Wriggle: Puny humans. You step on us. You are disgusted of us. You kill us for merely existing in the same space as you. Now... it's your turn to be stepped upon.

Cirno (suddenly appearing behind her): Hey Wriggles what's up! Are you playing prisoner with those tied-up dudes?

bzzzzt [CIRNO DETECTED - ENGAGE CHILDLIKE MODE]

Wriggle: Oh hi Cirno! Wanna join the game? How about it, let's dress up these people all silly like and then we drop them in the town square!

Cirno: Awesome!

edited 21st Aug '10 4:09:49 AM by Fawriel

Also if anyone wants to see a badass Wriggle I suggest the short comic Yuuka & Wriggle Comic it's got a badass Wriggle and a crying emotional Yuuka, pretty cool, really.

Also as for shipping, I've always shipped Wriggle with Cirno for some reason, I have no idea why...

Also, I thought that Wriggle didn't forget the delivery service, but her bugs forgot the packages/messages, so the service went down?

Apparently, it's all of the above, though what she remembers and forgets seems kinda complicated...

Wriggle: What? We're doing something like this?

Aya: You mean your article? It was only the other day I was collecting data for it, wasn't it?

Wriggle: I don't remember.

Aya: I wonder how small the brains of insects are?

Wriggle: It's not like that, we omit information as soon as it's no longer in use. Otherwise, we can't provide the Insect News Service. Because we can't remember the schedules of our customers.

Aya: What, you remember that after all.

Wriggle: I can't remember.

The article also has Aya giving Wriggle the idea of breeding insects that will eventually be immune to the strongest insecticides humans could make. I wonder if this means we'll get an EX-Insect youkai sometime in the future (provided she doesn't forget that one too <<)...

edited 21st Aug '10 5:50:44 AM by Servbot