If we are moving on, which character's next?
I vote Mokou.
Rumia being Flandre is a fun idea, but only really works for jokes... Well, it could be played seriously, but it'd be out of place. In any case, the two aren't terribly alike, though that could of course be explained by... whatever triggers the change. I mean, yeah, the ribbon limits the power and might also make Flandre saner at the expense of intelligence or somesuch, but why is the ribbon?
edited 16th Jun '10 3:46:11 PM by Fawriel
Funny but not helpful
Probably better saved for a Rumia discussion but I always liked to think that the sealing ribbon wasn't put on her after a epic battle. Rather, I like to think that someone told her that the ribbon would make her look like a pretty princess so she agreed to have it put in her hair. Defeat by vanity.
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Some kind of a New Leaf
Probably better saved for a Rumia discussionWhy wait? If we're switching toons *, why not do Rumia next?
Alternativley, Yamame, because with my mascot being a fellow spider creature, I feel a sense of obligation. A kind of kinship, if you will. Also stage 1 bosses in general need more love. Don't think we've done a single one yet.
edited 16th Jun '10 4:14:03 PM by XionGaTaosenai
I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.
Well, we just finished an OU character, so probably not Mokou.
Since we're talking about Rumia, how about her?
(BTW, the first post seems kinda outdated <<)
Aww poopers.
Well, I sure ain't launching the discussion anymore before going to sleep now, so, how to segue between Flandre and Rumia:
- Are they the same person?
- Have they ever been seen together?
- For that matter, Rumia is part of Team 9. Would Flandre make a good member of that group of friends?
I do like the EX-Rumia=Flan theory, even if it doesn't make any sense.
Probably best not to let Flan get friendly with the weaklings. They be all impressed with her power and ask to show off, and it'd be all downhill from there.
Funny but not helpful
Some doujins
show Flan hanging with team nine. It does not end well. Luckily the Strongest knows just what to do in these situations. Surgeon General Warning
Gentleman Adventurer!
I don't understand how digging a hole is supposed to defeat Flan.
Another one where she's seen hanging out with... well, in Life of Maid she hangs out with Cirno and Suika. It sort of functions like Team 9, but I'm not sure it counts. Pretty sure the whole team's there for the Patchyball game though.
Your funny quote here! (Maybe)
Court Dragon
Speaking of that doujin:
I do believe that Reimu has finally gone insane.
Funny but not helpful
I don't understand how digging a hole is supposed to defeat Flan.Well, in the next comic the hole defeats Meiling so Cirno is on the right track. She just needs to dig a more powerful hole.
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THIS IS PASTAAAA
That doujin looks like a Touhou version of Excel Saga.
AWESOME.
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Rumia
Theme:
A Soul As Red As A Ground Cherry, Apparitions Stalk The Night
Traits:
- Not intelligent
- Cheerful
- Also a man-eating monster <=> Trying to be, at least.
Relationships/Shipping:
- Other low-level characters often depicted as young (aka Team Nine)
Write-up:
Rumia is quite a phenomenon. The ability to manipulate darkness. Sounds badass. Having only enough power to create a small blob of darkness without the required secondary powers to not be affected by the blindness herself? Less so.
Rumia holds the distinction of being the first Windows game boss, the first boss to use the spellcard system, and yet being pretty much the only named character who isn't absurdly popular. In terms of fanworks, she always seems to be overshadowed.
Get it?
There are, however, several points of interest about her. For one, she has a ribbon in her hair that is a charm she cannot touch. Was this just a little design quirk given to her to make her more unique, is it just a joke about the position of her arms, or is there more to it? Some rumor that removing the ribbon would unleash the terrible Ex-Rumia... or, even worse, Flandre.
Speaking of her arms, according to her, she chooses to always stretch out her arms in order to depict a cross, for dark symbolism purposes. This generally only serves to make her look like a child in a bird run position. What's interesting to think about is why she would choose to do such a thing in the first place? Looks like Rumia has ambitions to become a big bad one day! She does apparently believe in the youkai's "job" to attack humans, and claims to have eaten some... Whether you choose to believe her, that's a different story.
Similar characters:
- Cirno (ambitious, big mouth, not much behind it)
Not happy with this one, but, alas. The OP is outdated, too, as per usual... Sorry.
Rumia is... a thing. She has potential for some humor, but again, that's mostly for the sake of bouncing other characters off of her. I think if Rumia and Cirno play together, Rumia will always choose to be the villain, and Cirno will always choose to be the hero, because the hero, of course, always wins. I do like to think about how Rumia has a bit of a What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic? schtick going on. It's more interesting to think of her as a kid trying to act all tough and bad and dark, rather than just a dumbass.
Also, interesting thing to think about:
- Rumia: Some youkai who thinks she's all that but is only a small fry.
- Cirno: Some fairy who thinks she's all that, and is... by fairy, or rather, small fry standards.
- Meiling: A big, bad youkai who is pretty strong. And a small fry compared to anyone else who actually matters.
edited 17th Jun '10 2:43:55 PM by Fawriel
Funny but not helpful
Rumia's "just there"ness is such a part of her character that Danbooru has a tag for "Rumia cameo." The tag is a bit underpopulated because I know for sure there's more pictures than that. Rumia cameo is when an artist has Rumia's shadow orb in the background of a picture.
Another attribute of Rumia in fanworks is her pokemon-esque tendency to only be able to say "Is that so~?" Which takes flanderizing a catchphrase to absurd lengths.
Rumia is kind of unfortunate, fanworks wise, because her big-mouthed small name big ego personality is done by Cirno and done better. Kind of like Mystia, who in her game is kind of a big ego. Mystia, fortunately, has her victim and eel cart-owner roles to fall back on. Rumia is left with "bonks into trees because she can't see where she's going."
From what I've seen, when Rumia isn't being used for her EX-Rumia goodness, she's used as a weak but cute youkai for the main character to doesn't afraid of anything towards.
Rumia got an entire anthology dedicated to her entitled Rumiac World. I read them a while back so I don't remember what each of the stories is about but there's a good one by Fuantei titled Rumia vs Yuka.
Another one from the same anthology is Tomorrow is Now's Three Dark Times which has an interesting take on EX-Rumia.
There's another one where Rumia comes to the Hakurei Shrine because she wants to ask Yukari how to become a scary youkai which is oddly heartwarming but I can't remember the name.
The important thing is that Rumia wins for her epic troll face in Touhou Battle Royale.
One thing I find somewhat amusing about Rumia is that she seems to be the only youkai who is constantly depicted in fanworks as trying to hunt humans (Closest rival in that regard is Mystia, but fandom remembers her more as either Yuyuko's prey or the eel cart lady).
Of course, "trying" is the key word here. Stage 1 Boss + Bumps into trees = Wannabe predator who won't look out of place in a Looney Toons cartoon. <<
Rumia tends to be used as one of four things:
- Cute predator
- Funny Background Event
- DARKNESS
- Member of Team 9
Funny but not helpful
Does EX-Rumia fall under DARKNESS on that list?
Of course, "trying" is the key word here. Stage 1 Boss + Bumps into trees = Wannabe predator who won't look out of place in a Looney Toons cartoon.You say that and more and more I want a slice-of-life comedy Touhou anime.
Also, @Fawriel, Meiling may be a comparative small-fry but unlike Cirno and Rumia she seems to have a good grasp on her relative power-level. Dream sequences not included. Besides, she's roughly equivalent to Alice, Keine, Nitori, or a sake not dropped Yuugi.
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I know, Bocaj, hence why I included her. There seems to be a steady progression in mookness going on there. You have a mook, a King Mook, a relative mook, a badass not fighting at full power, a badass, a final boss, and a bonus boss.
DARKNESS
Art, art:
- Mugi brows
- Why are there so many of these?
- The answer is yes
- This is it
- Paired with Mysty surprisingly often
- Are those wings?
- Will (not) be missed
- Cute smile
- Kind of worries me
- Moon Sign "Moonlight Ray"
- What
- Can't be good for her
- Is she using a tie as a belt?
- She wants a hug
- Shadows
- Fall into darkness
- So~ nano ka~?
- Om nom nom
- ZE!
Yeah, she cameos a lot.
edited 17th Jun '10 7:04:37 PM by Hylarn
Court Dragon
Eh, being paired with Mystia ain't that weird. They'be both nocturnal youkai with powers that keep things from seeing well. Plus, they've both called Reimu bird-eyed.
That's more than enough for shippers in this fandom.
I have a message from another time...
One Winged Egret
Patchouli also called Reimu bird-eyed. It's sort of a running joke.
Funny but not helpful
Rumia/Patchy = OTP. Clearly.
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Gentleman Adventurer!
One other joke I've seen Rumia played for a lot is Big Eater. I can't remember a ton of examples at the moment, but for one this was her role for the first half of Misadventures in Gensokyo, in which she was ultimately befriended by the main character giving her lots of food and eventually a pair of sunglasses (for the second half she faded into the background and the only mentions of her anymore were her crying when events got scary). Most of the time, though, when she's not completely inconsequential Rumia quite fittingly functions as a "first boss" for characters to encounter near the beginning of a story; she's a low power monster who thinks she's big stuff and is consistently depicted as trying to eat humans.
Amusingly, she was fought 3/4 of the way through A Scarlet Stained Memoir, attacking a party of four (though they didn't all fight her). The scene was very creepy and impressive thanks to her going on and on in rambling, ryhming and nonsensical singsongy whispers that only the main character seemed to hear, of a very macabre bent, and dramatic for entirely spoilery reasons. In the "Table of contents" one of the players wrote up near the end that gave every update a chapter title, the post where it became clear it was her was named "But didn't we already beat stage two?" (since the lead fought Cirno in a danmaku duel much, much earlier), and there were also a number of jokes about her being a grue. And the author, being awesome, managed to work the phrase "attack the darkness with a magic missile" into the story so seamlessly you wouldn't even notice if you didn't already know the joke.
Your funny quote here! (Maybe)
One Winged Egret
^ Sounds like the characterization there is that she's easily bribed rather than being a Big Eater. That seems to be a pretty common "childish" trait, that they'll do anything for you if you give them ice cream or candy or anything tasty.
We could always discuss the theory that Flandre is ex-Rumia. Which I've only ever heard on the Touhou wiki even though its an interesting idea.
Granted, it doesn't really make much sense since you'd expect Sakuya or Patchy to notice if Flandre was missing for long stretches of time. And the theory is mostly based off the fact that they're both blond and the mysteries of Rumia's sealing ribbon.
edited 16th Jun '10 3:25:37 PM by Bocaj
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