The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Speaking of judgement, I wanted to share a theory I've got about the Gensokyo afterlife.

If you're judged white, you go to Hakugyokuro. If you're judged black, but your soul is...just tainted, not corrupted, you go to the Hell of Blazing Fires to be purified in the...well, blazing fires (like Purgatory) and afterwards you can go to Hakugyokuro. And if you're a Complete Monster, you go to Hell (the one from Touhou 1) for eternal suffering.

edited 29th Mar '10 2:18:12 PM by Lemurian

That's my theory as well, Lemurian. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

Also, regarding her name: "Yamaxanadu" is really more of a title than an actual name. "Yama" being the title given to a judge of the dead in Buddhist mythology, and "Xanadu" being one of Kublai Khan's palaces. You can interpret it to mean something along the lines of "The Judge Of Paradise." Based on this, "Eiki Shiki" (using English name order) would be her Romanized name. "Eiki" means "reflection princess" and "Shiki" means "four seasons".

Yeah, she seems to be quite lawful good. Her job requires her to be impartial and Lawful Neutral when it comes to the actual judgement, but she wants people to be good and repent and change their ways and stuff.

Hence the personalized lecturing.

You know, I think Faw and Enlong might be right. That gives her character more dimension than just "A fair judge." So, she might seem rather stern, kind of like she's nagging you, but really, she just wants to help you, because she hates having to judge souls Black.

edited 29th Mar '10 2:29:21 PM by Zudak

People who go into law generally are interested in upholding it and encouraging others to do the same.

edited 29th Mar '10 2:31:35 PM by Scholastica

I think it's evident in one of her lines (never actually played POFV, so my quote may be a bit mangled, or misattributed): "Hell is not there to punish sinners. Hell is there to make sure no-one sins."

Excellent points. Yes. I approve of this interpretation.

The main thing I have to say about her is that people should stop calling her Shiki. Shikieiki is her name as written in Japanese name order, westernized it'd be Eiki Shiki. Yamaxanadu is her job title; she's the Yama of Xanadu (which is standing in for paradise, itself often used to refer to Gensoukyou).

What's wrong with referring to her on a Last-Name Basis?

^^I mentioned that previously, Hylarn, and I have to say I agree.

^Nothing, I guess.

edited 29th Mar '10 3:44:39 PM by Zudak

Yeah. I just want to say that I am amused by the continuity between Eiki's tile and Reimu's subtitle.

edited 29th Mar '10 3:46:54 PM by Enlong

Shrine Maiden of Paradise, right? Heh.

Where did the idea of Shikieiki being short come from, anyways?

I had no idea that was even in fanon.

I myself always saw her as being, yeah, about as tall as Komachi.

edited 29th Mar '10 4:25:23 PM by Zudak

Komachi is mentioned in her profile as being imposing, so she's drawn as tall. Since she's often drawn with Eiki, Eiki ends up looking short.

Also Komachi's dress kind of speads out, making her appear larger compare to Shikieiki whose clothes seem more form fitting.

Also it's funny.

Labyrinth of Touhou does actually refer to her as Eiki in the menues, hmm...

Whenever I think of Shikieiki, I always think of this. Maybe it's the imposing seat of judgment and the vast courtroom that just makes her appear short?

And what exactly is Shikieiki's race, anyway? Was she originally a human who ascended, sort of like Celestials? Or was she just born/created into the role?

"Whenever I think of Shikieiki, I always think of this. Maybe it's the imposing seat of judgment and the vast courtroom that just makes her appear short?"

< - - Like this?

edited 29th Mar '10 5:05:31 PM by Scholastica

^^I always figured it was the latter. Let's see what the wiki has to say, shall we?

Her page lists her species as "Yama".

The Yama (閻魔), also called Enma (閻魔 or えんま) in Japan, is the Buddhist equivalent of the Hindu Yama. This is the judge of the deceased that decides who goes where after death. According to Buddhism, there are ten Yamas for each hell, but Shikieiki Yamaxanadu is the only known one in Gensokyo. Yamas can look into the past deeds of any person, and it is said that no one can pass through their sermons without being scolded.

Hmm, based on that, yeah, I'd say she was created that way. Let's see if there's anything interesting in ZUN's official profile!

One of the gods that resides in hell and judges the deceased. Her ability allows her to get things settled once and for all. Her actual name is Shiki Eiki, and Yamaxanadu part is a kind of title for position in Yamas. Basically the title represents the place they're in charge of. Unlike humans, she has a criteria of right and wrong in her own mind. Her judgement cannot be overturned by the deceased. Her criteria is quite complicated, and the seriousness of the crimes factor in everything from why they occurred to the personal history of those involved.

"God"... "unlike humans"... yep, looks like she's basically a divine being.

She's basically a Hell Official, except with cuter bouncers than the traditional Chinese Hell Official (say hello, Cow Head and Lion Eyes, those guys look like they'd fit in at the doors of any bar/pub). Oh, and she doesn't have that perpetual scowly-forehead look either.

Oh, here's more about her character from Perfect Memento in Strict Sense.

She lectures people in the hope that they will change for the better and so she won't have to send them to Hell. For people with particularly bad karma, she will go directly to that person to warn them. Sometimes, she "urges" them by exaggerating the punishment that they would receive.

So basically, just what we've been saying.

Yamas, including Shikieiki, have a special mirror that lets them look into a person's past. She can find out anything she wants to know about someone with this and then make fair judgements. It's tiring to use, though.

Huh. Interesting. I thought she had the innate power to be able to tell what people had done...

Can distinctly judge anything to be Good or Evil.

...is the exact wording. Maybe she can just get a general sense, but needs the mirror to find out details?

Shikieiki was not always the Yamaxanadu. Rather, she earned this position through her merits.

Ah, celestial bureaucracy. This seems to suggest that she's very good at what she does.

edited 29th Mar '10 5:20:21 PM by Zudak

She's also almost certainly a bit of a workaholic, which could be why she got promoted to her current position.

She's definitely going to lecture Tenshi, maybe even threaten to tell her father how naughty she's been.

Haha, yes.

I think that getting beat up by Reimu (half of Gensokyo, really, if you count all the different storylines in SWR as having happened) probably knocked some sense into her. Some.

Er, interesting thing about the Celestials, they're not truly immortal, just so absurdly powerful that they can beat up Komachi whenever she shows up to collect their soul.

edited 29th Mar '10 5:24:45 PM by Zudak

I've always understood Shikieiki's powers as meaning that she needs the mirror to look into a person's past deeds (she's not omniscient), but her powers let her judge anything she sees as being good or evil. So if she saw you littering today, she'd see that as black, but she won't know what sins you've committed yesterday unless she used her mirror.

Shikieiki's mirror was actually used for one of her spellcards in Shoot the Bullet, if memory serves.

edited 29th Mar '10 5:43:22 PM by Mirrinus