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I POST yet AGAIN!
Okay I lied last time, it is pretty impossible to just leave describing my fandom with just videos and pictures even if they say a thousand words! Why? Because I can write two-thousand words about it then! There really is no reason to discuss Touhou anyway, with it being so huge and probably discussed about in a multitude of places but damn. This game series has endless potential for fanworks (I've thought of a few amazing ideas that I feel should exist because of it, but lack the skills to do myself--or the motivation, lol) and a plethora of speculation.
One of my favourite areas to think about is the whole "Youkai" vs. "Human" thing. I recently read a pretty dark depiction of UFO, which IMO felt like one of the most optimistic, light-hearted games to me in Touhou and then the dark depiction kind of threw it away. (Because when everyone does exactly what you expect with characters, their depiction doesn't stand out very much...so the doujin I read which was much much different from anything I've seen so far is just standing there in stark contrast, it kind of sticks in your head for a while.)
For any reader who cares nothing about Touhou (HOW!?) or knows nothing (Again, HOW!?) I'll quickly (hopefully) explain what the storyline is in UFO! Basically our "heroines" Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae hear of news of a flying treasure ship that recently appeared in the sky. So they decide to loot it! The conflict in the story though is that all three of our heroines are humans (which tends to be the usual in the non-decimal games) and the goal of the "villain" was to find a way to unseal Byakuren--who was sealed into Makai a thousand years ago by the humans.
Byakuren, also known as "Youkai Jesus" by the fanbase, used to be a human, long long ago--the sister of a monk. When her brother died of old age, she feared death and began to study magic to retain her youth and basically keep herself from aging. Now in the Touhouverse, when you study magic enough you end up turning into a Youkai (of the "magician" variety) which I imagine she became at some point at that time. Anyway Byakuren became a Youkai Exterminator, but through her work realized that the youkai also hungered, also hurt, and also feared. So she began to save the youkai instead, under the guise that she was actually exterminating them--and when found out--was sealed. Her life became all about preaching the equality of human and youkai, and the youkai that are trying to save her in the present were some of the youkai she saved and befriended.
However in the fandom, there is dispute about how "noble" and "kind" and "good" Byakuren really is. She saved one particular youkai so she could pilot a flying ship, the Palanquin in a rather disputed way. Murasa was the spirit of a drown victim who spent her ghostly-years causing shipwrecks and basically killing a lot of people, so Byakuren was given the job to exterminate her. How she did it is another story...
I didn't realize before (because I never paid attention to ZUN's descriptions of the characters that much, lol) but it pretty much states that she just lets Murasa sink the ship, letting her kill all those innocent people that were on board (probably like three, but still) just so she can use her magic to summon the Palanquin, and save Murasa. Before I knew of this, my perception of Byakuren was basically "SAVE EVERYONE EQUALITY NAMUSAN" like she was the most amazing saint in the history of the universe. But here, rather than just getting rid of Murasa, she saves her--which we all know she does. She saves youkai, yet in the progress lets other humans die.
She clearly had the ability to let them live, but she let Murasa kill them. Why? Was it to shock Murasa, who was expecting much more resistance from a powerful monk? To show Murasa that she had clear and concise intentions of what she wanted to do, to save Murasa? Did Byakuren just need her to pilot the ship? Or did she not want witnesses seeing her saving youkai rather than killing? I believe it's a combination of them all. This doesn't mean Byakuren is a horrible person who sacrifies humans for youkai, it just tells me she has the ability to make those really tough decisions, those questions of morality you're always asked in a philosophy class: Would you let one person die to save a hundred? Would you kill an innocent person to save your family?
You're probably wondering...why not just kill Murasa? She's sunk tons of ships already, and getting rid of her means no more people will die because of her. She chose to save her over those humans--to let them die, so she could pilot a ship...I believe Byakuren had a use for Murasa. If it was just any random youkai, maybe she wouldn't have let the humans die, but Murasa could do something for her too--so isn't the reason she let the humans die also a selfish reason?
But what were her plans with Murasa? Perhaps with Captain Murasa piloting the ship, she'd have a greater ability to save even more youkai! See what I mean? Byakuren appears to have this ability to make these decisions in the blink of a second, something many people probably struggle with trying to decide and then realize it's too late to actually make a decision. She would probably make a pretty good politician in my opinion, in terms of knowing what to do--doesn't mean what she thinks is correct however.
In UFO, several fans believe the heroines were in the wrong this time (which is usually an iffy case but Reimu tends to be on the good side whether she intends to or not in the games) which doesn't help because their motive was not exactly noble. First off because Sanae's storyline was portrayed in a rather negative light (causing people to call Sanae a "nazi to youkai"!) and basically for the first time in forever the antagonists were trying to do something noble themselves--a stark contrast to our human protagonists. So why would you ever argue that the humans are right in this situation, even if they acted like jerks?
First, it's been a thousand years. There's a spellcard system in place so people can freely beat each other up without killing each other. In other words the present seems much better than the past in terms of the relationship between youkai and human. Secondly, humans are completely, utterly weak. Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae are simply exceptions to this rule. If they weren't there, humans probably would've been wiped out a while ago (maybe Mokou will help them, but who knows). Also unlike the massive amount of fanworks that exist at the moment, youkai aren't really as "human" as they're portrayed. Yes, I do love the fluffy stories of the Chireiden Youkai, or the amusing antics of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but in a strictly canon sense, I believe ZUN sees the youkai as what they're labelled as, youkai.
Despite their human appearance, think of youkai as animals. Animals that have the intelligence of a human yes, but the instinct of an animal. Remilia probably doesn't need to drink all the blood of a human to fill her stomach, and in that sense, let them live, but it doesn't mean she can't kill them. What's stopping her? What do the youkai even eat? If the Gods of Harvest in MoF are first-stage bosses and never given ANY respect by the fandom whatsoever, that tells me crops aren't particularly important to youkai considering the majority of the cast are youkai. So what do they eat then?
In that UFO doujin, a bunch of youkai ended up dying until one lived--Shou Toramaru, who was the most upright and "straightforward" of all youkai for Byakuren to choose as a disciple of Bishamonten, and attract the youkai back to their temple. The doujin questioned what exactly made an "upright" and "straightforward" youkai. If Shou was so perfect at her job, why did she have to hide the fact that she was a youkai from the humans? Because she is the most "upright" and "straightforward" youkai! It means she is the most honest of the youkai, the one not afraid to be who she is, even in front of gods--to show the youkai that you didn't have to be an amazing uptight human just to come to the temple. A disciple of Bishamonten is a youkai, the most youkai of all the youkai that Byakuren found. The emphasis isn't on the "upright" and "straightforward" part, but the youkai part. An upright and straightforward human would be something like...Youmu, serious at her job, loyal, always completes her goals and missions, never questions the decisions of others...a perfect follower. An upright and straightforward youkai on the other hand...
There was a chilling page with skeletons of humans scattered all over the ground with Shou sitting there alone, eating some meat. Her face was smeared with blood. She was smiling, happy that she was eating such a delicious meal. Yes, you youkai are welcome to this temple along with the humans...we do not judge you for feasting on the weak--it is equality after all. If a human can hunt and kill youkai, if a human can kill animals for food, why are the youkai hated for doing the same? "Such self-contradictions" Byakuren said.
If you still don't understand, think of it as us killing a bear, and then animal activists are screaming on TV for killing the bear. We killed the bear because it was threatening the city, since it came too close and it might've attacked someone once before. I myself personally would wonder why they won't just knock out the bear and return it to the wild--apparently just because the bear killed someone we must immediately kill the bear too. They weren't human, they didn't understand that killing a human was wrong--they were hungry. We destroyed their habitats and depleted their food source, of course they'd come running down the mountain to find food here. However many people would disagree with me...the bear could return even if it's put back on the mountain, and a long time ago tranquilizer darts did not exist--just like spellcards did not exist a thousand years ago. Byakuren would be that animal activist--just that instead of being completely annoying and hypocritical like PETA, she actually has tons of charisma--like Obama, and enough leadership to go with it.
But again, that doesn't mean she's right. After all, if she let some humans die saving Murasa--what else did she do? Her beliefs seems a tad extreme...isn't another name for complete equality communism at some parts? Who knows? There is no definite answer, and people will still speculate about this for as long as Touhou exists. That's why I love this fandom. I can think about those things, the game itself seems so simple, so shallow, so one-dimensional and yet the little tidbits we get can be expanded into something much more indepth.
That doujin was rather heavy on the dark side though so I don't completely agree with it either. I think Byakuren has extreme beliefs myself, but her intentions are pure. We just believe her to be amazing and saintful because NO OTHER CHARACTER IN THE WHOLE SERIES has been as sincere and kind as Byakuren seems to be portrayed. And how she became this way seems realistic too, since she started doing everything for her own means, for greed--it was only through the longevity of her life did she realize that the youkai too, were suffering. It helps that she was once human as well. I think people who become youkai rather than be born as them still have that inkling of morality in them.
Of course, if I go into Koishi and Chireiden...everything I'd discuss about that would make everything above this sentence incredibily contradictory! That's Touhou for you though, different interpretations for different folks.
All from Spotto.
One of my favourite areas to think about is the whole "Youkai" vs. "Human" thing. I recently read a pretty dark depiction of UFO, which IMO felt like one of the most optimistic, light-hearted games to me in Touhou and then the dark depiction kind of threw it away. (Because when everyone does exactly what you expect with characters, their depiction doesn't stand out very much...so the doujin I read which was much much different from anything I've seen so far is just standing there in stark contrast, it kind of sticks in your head for a while.)
For any reader who cares nothing about Touhou (HOW!?) or knows nothing (Again, HOW!?) I'll quickly (hopefully) explain what the storyline is in UFO! Basically our "heroines" Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae hear of news of a flying treasure ship that recently appeared in the sky. So they decide to loot it! The conflict in the story though is that all three of our heroines are humans (which tends to be the usual in the non-decimal games) and the goal of the "villain" was to find a way to unseal Byakuren--who was sealed into Makai a thousand years ago by the humans.
Byakuren, also known as "Youkai Jesus" by the fanbase, used to be a human, long long ago--the sister of a monk. When her brother died of old age, she feared death and began to study magic to retain her youth and basically keep herself from aging. Now in the Touhouverse, when you study magic enough you end up turning into a Youkai (of the "magician" variety) which I imagine she became at some point at that time. Anyway Byakuren became a Youkai Exterminator, but through her work realized that the youkai also hungered, also hurt, and also feared. So she began to save the youkai instead, under the guise that she was actually exterminating them--and when found out--was sealed. Her life became all about preaching the equality of human and youkai, and the youkai that are trying to save her in the present were some of the youkai she saved and befriended.
However in the fandom, there is dispute about how "noble" and "kind" and "good" Byakuren really is. She saved one particular youkai so she could pilot a flying ship, the Palanquin in a rather disputed way. Murasa was the spirit of a drown victim who spent her ghostly-years causing shipwrecks and basically killing a lot of people, so Byakuren was given the job to exterminate her. How she did it is another story...
I didn't realize before (because I never paid attention to ZUN's descriptions of the characters that much, lol) but it pretty much states that she just lets Murasa sink the ship, letting her kill all those innocent people that were on board (probably like three, but still) just so she can use her magic to summon the Palanquin, and save Murasa. Before I knew of this, my perception of Byakuren was basically "SAVE EVERYONE EQUALITY NAMUSAN" like she was the most amazing saint in the history of the universe. But here, rather than just getting rid of Murasa, she saves her--which we all know she does. She saves youkai, yet in the progress lets other humans die.
She clearly had the ability to let them live, but she let Murasa kill them. Why? Was it to shock Murasa, who was expecting much more resistance from a powerful monk? To show Murasa that she had clear and concise intentions of what she wanted to do, to save Murasa? Did Byakuren just need her to pilot the ship? Or did she not want witnesses seeing her saving youkai rather than killing? I believe it's a combination of them all. This doesn't mean Byakuren is a horrible person who sacrifies humans for youkai, it just tells me she has the ability to make those really tough decisions, those questions of morality you're always asked in a philosophy class: Would you let one person die to save a hundred? Would you kill an innocent person to save your family?
You're probably wondering...why not just kill Murasa? She's sunk tons of ships already, and getting rid of her means no more people will die because of her. She chose to save her over those humans--to let them die, so she could pilot a ship...I believe Byakuren had a use for Murasa. If it was just any random youkai, maybe she wouldn't have let the humans die, but Murasa could do something for her too--so isn't the reason she let the humans die also a selfish reason?
But what were her plans with Murasa? Perhaps with Captain Murasa piloting the ship, she'd have a greater ability to save even more youkai! See what I mean? Byakuren appears to have this ability to make these decisions in the blink of a second, something many people probably struggle with trying to decide and then realize it's too late to actually make a decision. She would probably make a pretty good politician in my opinion, in terms of knowing what to do--doesn't mean what she thinks is correct however.
In UFO, several fans believe the heroines were in the wrong this time (which is usually an iffy case but Reimu tends to be on the good side whether she intends to or not in the games) which doesn't help because their motive was not exactly noble. First off because Sanae's storyline was portrayed in a rather negative light (causing people to call Sanae a "nazi to youkai"!) and basically for the first time in forever the antagonists were trying to do something noble themselves--a stark contrast to our human protagonists. So why would you ever argue that the humans are right in this situation, even if they acted like jerks?
First, it's been a thousand years. There's a spellcard system in place so people can freely beat each other up without killing each other. In other words the present seems much better than the past in terms of the relationship between youkai and human. Secondly, humans are completely, utterly weak. Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae are simply exceptions to this rule. If they weren't there, humans probably would've been wiped out a while ago (maybe Mokou will help them, but who knows). Also unlike the massive amount of fanworks that exist at the moment, youkai aren't really as "human" as they're portrayed. Yes, I do love the fluffy stories of the Chireiden Youkai, or the amusing antics of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but in a strictly canon sense, I believe ZUN sees the youkai as what they're labelled as, youkai.
Despite their human appearance, think of youkai as animals. Animals that have the intelligence of a human yes, but the instinct of an animal. Remilia probably doesn't need to drink all the blood of a human to fill her stomach, and in that sense, let them live, but it doesn't mean she can't kill them. What's stopping her? What do the youkai even eat? If the Gods of Harvest in MoF are first-stage bosses and never given ANY respect by the fandom whatsoever, that tells me crops aren't particularly important to youkai considering the majority of the cast are youkai. So what do they eat then?
In that UFO doujin, a bunch of youkai ended up dying until one lived--Shou Toramaru, who was the most upright and "straightforward" of all youkai for Byakuren to choose as a disciple of Bishamonten, and attract the youkai back to their temple. The doujin questioned what exactly made an "upright" and "straightforward" youkai. If Shou was so perfect at her job, why did she have to hide the fact that she was a youkai from the humans? Because she is the most "upright" and "straightforward" youkai! It means she is the most honest of the youkai, the one not afraid to be who she is, even in front of gods--to show the youkai that you didn't have to be an amazing uptight human just to come to the temple. A disciple of Bishamonten is a youkai, the most youkai of all the youkai that Byakuren found. The emphasis isn't on the "upright" and "straightforward" part, but the youkai part. An upright and straightforward human would be something like...Youmu, serious at her job, loyal, always completes her goals and missions, never questions the decisions of others...a perfect follower. An upright and straightforward youkai on the other hand...
There was a chilling page with skeletons of humans scattered all over the ground with Shou sitting there alone, eating some meat. Her face was smeared with blood. She was smiling, happy that she was eating such a delicious meal. Yes, you youkai are welcome to this temple along with the humans...we do not judge you for feasting on the weak--it is equality after all. If a human can hunt and kill youkai, if a human can kill animals for food, why are the youkai hated for doing the same? "Such self-contradictions" Byakuren said.
If you still don't understand, think of it as us killing a bear, and then animal activists are screaming on TV for killing the bear. We killed the bear because it was threatening the city, since it came too close and it might've attacked someone once before. I myself personally would wonder why they won't just knock out the bear and return it to the wild--apparently just because the bear killed someone we must immediately kill the bear too. They weren't human, they didn't understand that killing a human was wrong--they were hungry. We destroyed their habitats and depleted their food source, of course they'd come running down the mountain to find food here. However many people would disagree with me...the bear could return even if it's put back on the mountain, and a long time ago tranquilizer darts did not exist--just like spellcards did not exist a thousand years ago. Byakuren would be that animal activist--just that instead of being completely annoying and hypocritical like PETA, she actually has tons of charisma--like Obama, and enough leadership to go with it.
But again, that doesn't mean she's right. After all, if she let some humans die saving Murasa--what else did she do? Her beliefs seems a tad extreme...isn't another name for complete equality communism at some parts? Who knows? There is no definite answer, and people will still speculate about this for as long as Touhou exists. That's why I love this fandom. I can think about those things, the game itself seems so simple, so shallow, so one-dimensional and yet the little tidbits we get can be expanded into something much more indepth.
That doujin was rather heavy on the dark side though so I don't completely agree with it either. I think Byakuren has extreme beliefs myself, but her intentions are pure. We just believe her to be amazing and saintful because NO OTHER CHARACTER IN THE WHOLE SERIES has been as sincere and kind as Byakuren seems to be portrayed. And how she became this way seems realistic too, since she started doing everything for her own means, for greed--it was only through the longevity of her life did she realize that the youkai too, were suffering. It helps that she was once human as well. I think people who become youkai rather than be born as them still have that inkling of morality in them.
Of course, if I go into Koishi and Chireiden...everything I'd discuss about that would make everything above this sentence incredibily contradictory! That's Touhou for you though, different interpretations for different folks.
All from Spotto.