The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

She also has crazy zerging ability.

Unfortunately, as an insect, she's to stupid to use or even remember much of the information she gathers.

She already has the cape. Maybe she lost her crown? Maybe Marisa stole it!

I'm disappointed that Iku is such a blank/uninteresting character that she doesn't seem to have much of a presence (even in the memetic scene). Shame, since her and her theme (which is a favorite of mine) were part of my introduction to the Touhou scene.

Since Wriggle's the topic of conversation at the moment, I assume she may be next for a write-up? Or are we still in the discussion phase?

Iku is just a messenger. She comes down to give an omen, but she doesn't even really know what it's an omen for. She has no control over the events and no responsibility for them. It's true that she floats around where life guides her in the sense that she has no control over anything, but she also seems to take her job seriously. One of the most serious characters in canon actually. I find it odd to see her described as lazy, since that's pretty much the opposite of my impression of her.

I don't think she knew Tenshi personally before the events of SWR. She knew about the celestials and the celestials know about the oarfish, but she's not a family friend of the Hinanais or anything like that. She meets Tenshi during SWR and they live in proximity to each other, so I guess something could be made of that, but I think calling her responsible for Tenshi's behavior is a bit cruel.

Well, her official profile describes her as lazy. Probably because her job consists of her swimming through the clouds watching the dragon god and waiting for him to say something important. That and her ability to read the atmosphere makes her the ultimate go-with-the-flow type of person. That and

She's always laid-back and has no interest in others' behavior. She almost never insists on her own opinion, and mostly watches what others do.

Aside from all that, she does take her job seriously when there's something to actually do. She's even willing to beat up a handful of people to make sure they listen to her message. Not that the residents of Gensokyo gave her much of a choice.

Addendum: Iku was apparently more familiar with Tenshi than I thought. In her SWR scenario, at the very least she already knows her and has an unflattering opinion of her personality.

It says lazy, but then goes on to give more detail as "laid-back" and "go-with-the-flow". Sounds more like she has no initiative rather than being lazy. Maybe it means something slightly different in Japanese.

I don't see why they can't go together.

It's not that they're mutually exclusive, it's just that there's nothing in her dialog that indicates that she's particularly lazy. Then again, maybe there's some selection bias because you only encounter her when she's actually doing her job.

Her canon relationship with Tenshi seems to be distant aquaintances. Seen each other around in heaven, but probably hadn't spoken.

Another aspect of her canon relationship with Tenshi is that she's supposed to report to the Hinanawi family before going to ground to warn people about an earthquake. She couldn't find any of the Hinanawi's in SWR (because Tenshi was hanging around the shrine and the other Hinanawi's were just inexplicably away) so she skipped the initial report. When she later finds Tenshi, Tenshi tells her she should have looked harder.

Oh wow I somehow managed to not notice this got started. Been too busy to post anyway, but it was quite a shock to come back to two new pages.

Anyway, Iku...

Definately a non-entity in the Touhou scene. She's usually confined to just being kinda there with Tenshi.

She has one of my favorite designs, though, although I could say that about half these characters. XD Her outfit makes her very pretty and elegant looking, and her leitmotif of attacks is LIGHTNING and DRILLS.

How is she NOT popular? I mean, really, LIGHTNING. DRILLS.

LIGHTNING DRILLS EVEN.

It's part of why I always wanted to main Iku, but I could never adapt to her style of play.

As for her personality? A lofty and floaty daydreamer who isn't quite lazy but is not proactive. She often thinks of and dreams about the future and what it will bring, of her hobbies and of the world's futures. Despite this she does not often act on her impulses and sticks to her current position and duty. Because of this, she's often floating around, enjoying life while doing what her job requires of her. Despite this, I see her as somebody who is chiding of one who does not go after their dreams and those such as Tenshi who would abuse their position or not appreciate it or even not work for what they take forgranted. Despite this, she does not take charge of her own self as such. Maybe she's happy just being a messenger?

I can't really see Iku as a mentor for Tenshi often and I actually think of them as somewhat at odds. Tenshi is a very proactive person who is consistantly unhappy with her life. Iku is a very reactive person who is never bothered in her life.

I had the feeling I had more to say at the start, but I'm tired(Finally got on a normal sleep schuedle!) and Iku isn't someone I vested too much interest in. So Yeah. That's all I got for now.

EDIT: Also post 2012 so TV Tropes is about to end in a fiery hellfire of fire

edited 23rd May '10 9:51:05 PM by Ruki Motomiya

What's with the drills, anyways?

(Also, on a random note, I named a Fearow/Onidrill "Yuugiku" recently.)

^ Noooo you killed us all!

Well, drills are just the thing to pierce/create the heavens. Clearly, the celestials used cheap oarfish labor to construct Bhava-Agra.

What's with the drills, anyways?

One of her special moves in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody turns her scarf into a god damn drill. And it is awesome.

Don't even need the cards to get the drill. 8A will do it.

Y'know how Iku's story-mode in SWR was set later in the timeline? Because Tenshi is living at the shrine by the time Iku gets around to her?

That makes her earthquake warning a little late considering that some of the other characters had already predicted a earthquake. I know that she spent too long waiting for one of the Hinanawi's but still.

It would be an interesting fanon trait for her to be depicted as delivering messages too late to be relevant.

Haha, ain't that Hatate's shtick?

That's more of a lazy journalist thing considering her spirit photography basically lets her poach from other newspapers. Other than that, point grudgingly granted.

Haha, I didn't think of that. Now that you mention it, while she does warn almost everybody in their own story modes, she runs into them, almost invariably, when they're already halfway through the trip to the heavens. And she's supposed to be warning the people on the ground. Which means she's probably just left home or something, and they're almost certainly the first people she warns. Or alternately it means she's not really doing her job properly at all, is too lazy to go deliver the message, and just happened to run into a bunch of people looking for Tenshi and warned them because doing so didn't take much effort.

Nagae is my favorite character because she is so understated. She is interesting because she plays the straight man to Tenshi's antics without being a deadpan snarker.

I also like her laid-back and elegant personality, especially when, while smiling softly, telling Yukari to basically beat the crap out of Tenshi.

To my knowledge, Tenshi and Nagae are only tangentially related to each other, I saw nothing beyond Nagae's ending in SWR to see that they see each other but it seems that Nagae doesn't like Tenshi or at least doesn't like her while drunk anyways.

Her depiction in fandom is pretty much like an older-sister to Tenshi or not being there. And it was established that she liked Travolta from the beginning.

Also Oarfish are the most fucking awesome fish ever invented I mean look at them 49 meters holy shit.

I wish I could say more about her but she didn't do a lot in the game. She is my favorite character as well, next to Youmu.

^Er, oarfish are only recorded as going up to 17 meters long. Still damn impressive, but not that absurd.

I meant 49 feet, I hate the imperial system.

Darth Vader will hear of this slight!