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I just had a glorious fanfic idea for Nue. Remember that fic I wrote not too long ago? I now realize how completely dumb shoehorning the whole fight between her and Murasa is. It just makes little sense, but I do like the concept of everything else. So now I see it more like say, she's just attempting to be a youkai (or a nue) by scaring some random farmers, but (and I know SoPM disproved this but blah what do we even know about Nue!?) the husband pulls out a replica of the Minamoto no Yorimasa bow. Nue panics and accidentally kills a kid (THIS MAY OR MAY NOT HAPPEN, I am still deciding if the murder of a child is necessary in this story lol) and then gets hit by the arrow and runs off. Because youkai are more susceptible to spiritual attack her belief that the bow and arrow IS the real one (that might be twisted logic though, I dunno) actually almost mortally wounds her and she has to revert back to her true form, which looks like a little girl. (If that IS her true form >_>) So she lays idle in some woods nearby that farm kind of half-dying and very vulnerable to other youkai that may want to eat her, thinking she is a human. The same farmers that attacked her save her from a youkai about to do just that and they nurse her back to health thinking she's really a human. (Since her belief that the arrow was real is killing her, Nue at first doesn't make any progress in getting better, but then one night she overhears a conversation about the replica and her recovery accelerates) Nue is rather confused/somewhat grateful/conflicted/I don't know that they helped her but also this is the first time she's heard of a fake bow. She is about to leave quietly after rejuvenating when the farm is suddenly attacked by rather dangerous youkai and (considering how she is in UFO and TD where she tries to repay Byakuren for helping her) Nue tries to protect them in gratitude of their kindness. In doing so however, she must revert to her youkai-like form which horrifies the farmers. They round up allies including some youkai exterminators who successfully seal Nue underground in her moment of weakness.
Or something tragic like that and that's why she is so BETRAYED that a thousand years later Murasa appears to be helping humans (when in fact she is not!) assuming she met Murasa underground at some point. I think being sealed is a nice common interest to get around. I'm going with the story of that one doujin I read, Nuesis. That might explain why she froze up when she saw that bow and arrow because otherwise I don't see Nue being quite so weak and vulnerable. (I don't think she's particularly STRONG compared to many other named-youkai, especially the other ex-bosses, but she definitely is no pushover and should certainly be stronger than humans not named Reimu)
...you're probably wondering why I don't just go and write just that. I once had a crossover story about a whole bunch of my favourite characters being admitted to an asylum because their fantastical lands and manners are all actually insane hallucinations, but I deliberately made the story in a kind of a journal-format, written by the inmates. I also deliberately did not put down names, so I have no idea who wrote what in half of the entries. I would probably run into the same problem if I began writing a story for Nue. I'd write half of it down, forget about it for a few months, come back and then wonder what plot I was trying to achieve at that point. My other problem is when I write down story ideas I never actually write a fanfic out of them because I once I have everything out in the open the actual execution isn't as enjoyable as having it all in my head and letting my fingers draw it out itself. My confidence in my writing ability, especially the motivation part isn't high enough that I'll recall the details of this story idea later, so I much prefer writing the idea out and hope that someday I'll find a spark of immense inspiration to actually write the fic.
Yep, first world problems.
Moving on...some rants on characters I don't speak of quite as often, like Sanae! My favourite playable character. Remember when I said my ultimate Touhou goal was to beat UFO? Well ultimately it'd be to beat UFO with Sanae, even if I find Reimu easier.
The reason I like Sanae more than any other playable character is not because "herp derp she's the least popular one". HARDLY. I know her fanbase is quite the broken one, with many who hate yet many who love her. All of my friends who know of or are within the Touhou fandom dislike Sanae and she isn't all that popular in the western hemisphere. I actually tried to main her in Hisoutensoku, but I find Suwako easier to handle than her, no idea. Nonetheless, I don't like Sanae for her crazy batshit insane almost-Nazi-like interpretation which makes her out to be some maniacal youkai exterminator. I'm looking at you Stripe Pattern, it's as much Sanae and the Myouren Crew! (And let me not even touch on Koishi's Heart-throbbing Adventure!) But the reason I like Sanae is the same reason so many people like Cirno.
Because Sanae is an idiot. However, I find her to be...if this doesn't already sound ridiculous, a deeper idiot than Cirno. Reimu's not an idiot, just somewhat cynical, lazy, and a bit cold. (I do like Reimu as a protagonist however. I have little bad words to say of any Touhou characters really. And my personal dislike of the tanuki is petty and stupid, so yeah even then) Marisa's not an idiot either, just a thief, liar, and an insanely hard working ordinary magician. (Again, Marisa too is an awesome protagonist, especially as the lancer) I always found the human characters of Touhou to be refreshingly flawed, most of them at least. This is why I'm not all that fond of Sakuya. All I see in her character is the maid of the vampire, the dog even. I know a cool, cold, and collected character who is pretty much a ninja maid with knives instead of shurikens and can STOP TIME is pretty freakin' cool, but that's mostly from an aesthetic standpoint. We otherwise know absolutely nothing about Sakuya. Her personality is kind of boring imo, maybe she's a Lunarian, but otherwise eh. People (I'm assuming) like Sakuya because she is cool. At least Youmu acts like a foil to Yuyuko and Reisen is a buttmonkey of some sort, even if I find the two of them kind of bland personality-wise as well. It's no wonder one of the stupidest memes of Touhou to exist is of Sakuya. They needed SOMETHING to joke about her, after all. (If you don't know already, it's the dumb pad joke) She is the perfect and elegant maid and that's exactly why she isn't a favourite because I see no flaws.
Alright, I am heavily digressing. Sanae is an outsider from the real world. She's been dropped into Gensokyo from a completely different environment. I guess it's just like why everyone likes Futo so much. The fish out of water type is rather amusing to watch and I too like Futo. She is the shrine maiden for two Gods (you know, ones we actually get to know and can see unlike Reimu's) and they make a pretty amusing and interesting trio. The backstory of Suwako and Kanako...I've seen plenty of doujins on it, quite some fascinating stuff. But with Sanae comes a flurry of questions, like what she was like before Gensokyo. Logically you would think her human-life was either dull or horrible otherwise she'd have left a nice life behind this side of the border. Her whimsical airheaded nature reminds me of Yuyuko, but in contrast to Yuyuko she isn't over a thousand years old. Sanae has this air of naivety and inexperience around her and she responds in such an amusingly ditzy way. Like, I see the green shrine maiden, the player two to be the "derpy" shrine maiden, y'know? I know Cirno is an idiot, but there's no explanation for that beyond she's a fairy. And fairies aren't very deep in the first place.
Well, I can't really explain why I like Sanae now that I think about it. I just do. I can certainly see the multitude of reasons people have for not liking her. The fact that a second shrine maiden was introduced. Her attitude throughout the majority of UFO (I still want to use Sanae B or whichever Sanae had that crazy attitude in UFO to beat the game though. EXTERMINATE MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS!) She also usurped Sakuya's role, but I don't really see it that way. By the time UFO happened Sakuya hadn't been a playable in forever and in PoFV she had a reason not to, but I guess since she's a fictional character and ZUN plans everything people may resent Sanae for taking over the third protagonist role everyone thought was reserved for Sakuya. Also I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I dislike or rather do not care for a majority of the Stage Five Boss themes. Sakuya's is okay, Youmu's is okay, Reisen's is okay but none are my favourite. I absolutely love Sanae's, and Orin's is awesome as well, but Shou's is merely okay and I can barely remember Futo's. It's like the themes peaked in MoF and SA. I wonder if Komachi or Iku count because I do like their themes.
Or maybe it's the green! I like green. Murasa wears green. Koishi's full of that green. Keine turns green on full-moons. The green and the blue! Although if that's true why don't I like Yuuka as much as I should or Hina or Kisume or Kyouko or Tojiko or even Youmu. I like Shikieiki though! She's pretty green. I think you need to also be blue if you're green. That's the rule. I also heard Sanae referred to as the "Green-Blue" similar to Reimu being the "Red-White" and Marisa being "Black-White". Interesting...
And on a completely different standpoint, as Shou is not blue or green whatsoever, I remember SoPM made the whole "Shou is more formidable with her pagoda, or rather not very impressive without it" canon. In fact she cannot even use her spear. I remember this being noted in a certain short fancomic of the Myouren Crew and I found the interpretation of Shou in it very fitting (and hilarious). This page and the page right after have formed a powerful headcanon. Now I can see Shou as wicked badass and hilariously hopeless at the same time! The compromise is perfect!
Anyway I suppose that is all. I think with all the discussion between the youkai-human relations and what youkai are in comparison to human (I found the idea that youkai are far more vulnerable to spiritual attack than physical immensely interesting, which is why they cannot survive well outside the border) has made me wonder what being a half-youkai really is like. Surely Keine is more fascinating than merely the history teacher of Gensokyo who can hide and consume the past? Hmmm...
I leave the post pondering...
Or something tragic like that and that's why she is so BETRAYED that a thousand years later Murasa appears to be helping humans (when in fact she is not!) assuming she met Murasa underground at some point. I think being sealed is a nice common interest to get around. I'm going with the story of that one doujin I read, Nuesis. That might explain why she froze up when she saw that bow and arrow because otherwise I don't see Nue being quite so weak and vulnerable. (I don't think she's particularly STRONG compared to many other named-youkai, especially the other ex-bosses, but she definitely is no pushover and should certainly be stronger than humans not named Reimu)
...you're probably wondering why I don't just go and write just that. I once had a crossover story about a whole bunch of my favourite characters being admitted to an asylum because their fantastical lands and manners are all actually insane hallucinations, but I deliberately made the story in a kind of a journal-format, written by the inmates. I also deliberately did not put down names, so I have no idea who wrote what in half of the entries. I would probably run into the same problem if I began writing a story for Nue. I'd write half of it down, forget about it for a few months, come back and then wonder what plot I was trying to achieve at that point. My other problem is when I write down story ideas I never actually write a fanfic out of them because I once I have everything out in the open the actual execution isn't as enjoyable as having it all in my head and letting my fingers draw it out itself. My confidence in my writing ability, especially the motivation part isn't high enough that I'll recall the details of this story idea later, so I much prefer writing the idea out and hope that someday I'll find a spark of immense inspiration to actually write the fic.
Yep, first world problems.
Moving on...some rants on characters I don't speak of quite as often, like Sanae! My favourite playable character. Remember when I said my ultimate Touhou goal was to beat UFO? Well ultimately it'd be to beat UFO with Sanae, even if I find Reimu easier.
The reason I like Sanae more than any other playable character is not because "herp derp she's the least popular one". HARDLY. I know her fanbase is quite the broken one, with many who hate yet many who love her. All of my friends who know of or are within the Touhou fandom dislike Sanae and she isn't all that popular in the western hemisphere. I actually tried to main her in Hisoutensoku, but I find Suwako easier to handle than her, no idea. Nonetheless, I don't like Sanae for her crazy batshit insane almost-Nazi-like interpretation which makes her out to be some maniacal youkai exterminator. I'm looking at you Stripe Pattern, it's as much Sanae and the Myouren Crew! (And let me not even touch on Koishi's Heart-throbbing Adventure!) But the reason I like Sanae is the same reason so many people like Cirno.
Because Sanae is an idiot. However, I find her to be...if this doesn't already sound ridiculous, a deeper idiot than Cirno. Reimu's not an idiot, just somewhat cynical, lazy, and a bit cold. (I do like Reimu as a protagonist however. I have little bad words to say of any Touhou characters really. And my personal dislike of the tanuki is petty and stupid, so yeah even then) Marisa's not an idiot either, just a thief, liar, and an insanely hard working ordinary magician. (Again, Marisa too is an awesome protagonist, especially as the lancer) I always found the human characters of Touhou to be refreshingly flawed, most of them at least. This is why I'm not all that fond of Sakuya. All I see in her character is the maid of the vampire, the dog even. I know a cool, cold, and collected character who is pretty much a ninja maid with knives instead of shurikens and can STOP TIME is pretty freakin' cool, but that's mostly from an aesthetic standpoint. We otherwise know absolutely nothing about Sakuya. Her personality is kind of boring imo, maybe she's a Lunarian, but otherwise eh. People (I'm assuming) like Sakuya because she is cool. At least Youmu acts like a foil to Yuyuko and Reisen is a buttmonkey of some sort, even if I find the two of them kind of bland personality-wise as well. It's no wonder one of the stupidest memes of Touhou to exist is of Sakuya. They needed SOMETHING to joke about her, after all. (If you don't know already, it's the dumb pad joke) She is the perfect and elegant maid and that's exactly why she isn't a favourite because I see no flaws.
Alright, I am heavily digressing. Sanae is an outsider from the real world. She's been dropped into Gensokyo from a completely different environment. I guess it's just like why everyone likes Futo so much. The fish out of water type is rather amusing to watch and I too like Futo. She is the shrine maiden for two Gods (you know, ones we actually get to know and can see unlike Reimu's) and they make a pretty amusing and interesting trio. The backstory of Suwako and Kanako...I've seen plenty of doujins on it, quite some fascinating stuff. But with Sanae comes a flurry of questions, like what she was like before Gensokyo. Logically you would think her human-life was either dull or horrible otherwise she'd have left a nice life behind this side of the border. Her whimsical airheaded nature reminds me of Yuyuko, but in contrast to Yuyuko she isn't over a thousand years old. Sanae has this air of naivety and inexperience around her and she responds in such an amusingly ditzy way. Like, I see the green shrine maiden, the player two to be the "derpy" shrine maiden, y'know? I know Cirno is an idiot, but there's no explanation for that beyond she's a fairy. And fairies aren't very deep in the first place.
Well, I can't really explain why I like Sanae now that I think about it. I just do. I can certainly see the multitude of reasons people have for not liking her. The fact that a second shrine maiden was introduced. Her attitude throughout the majority of UFO (I still want to use Sanae B or whichever Sanae had that crazy attitude in UFO to beat the game though. EXTERMINATE MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS!) She also usurped Sakuya's role, but I don't really see it that way. By the time UFO happened Sakuya hadn't been a playable in forever and in PoFV she had a reason not to, but I guess since she's a fictional character and ZUN plans everything people may resent Sanae for taking over the third protagonist role everyone thought was reserved for Sakuya. Also I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I dislike or rather do not care for a majority of the Stage Five Boss themes. Sakuya's is okay, Youmu's is okay, Reisen's is okay but none are my favourite. I absolutely love Sanae's, and Orin's is awesome as well, but Shou's is merely okay and I can barely remember Futo's. It's like the themes peaked in MoF and SA. I wonder if Komachi or Iku count because I do like their themes.
Or maybe it's the green! I like green. Murasa wears green. Koishi's full of that green. Keine turns green on full-moons. The green and the blue! Although if that's true why don't I like Yuuka as much as I should or Hina or Kisume or Kyouko or Tojiko or even Youmu. I like Shikieiki though! She's pretty green. I think you need to also be blue if you're green. That's the rule. I also heard Sanae referred to as the "Green-Blue" similar to Reimu being the "Red-White" and Marisa being "Black-White". Interesting...
And on a completely different standpoint, as Shou is not blue or green whatsoever, I remember SoPM made the whole "Shou is more formidable with her pagoda, or rather not very impressive without it" canon. In fact she cannot even use her spear. I remember this being noted in a certain short fancomic of the Myouren Crew and I found the interpretation of Shou in it very fitting (and hilarious). This page and the page right after have formed a powerful headcanon. Now I can see Shou as wicked badass and hilariously hopeless at the same time! The compromise is perfect!
Anyway I suppose that is all. I think with all the discussion between the youkai-human relations and what youkai are in comparison to human (I found the idea that youkai are far more vulnerable to spiritual attack than physical immensely interesting, which is why they cannot survive well outside the border) has made me wonder what being a half-youkai really is like. Surely Keine is more fascinating than merely the history teacher of Gensokyo who can hide and consume the past? Hmmm...
I leave the post pondering...
