Captain Murasa
Feb. 22nd, 2011 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spotto"There is confusion among the fanbase whether she wears shorts or a skirt, due to the way her art is depicted. However, ZUN stated in an interview [1] that while designing the character, he didn't know which was better for Murasa's sailor outfit, a long skirt or a short skirt, which seems to indicate that he always intended her to have a skirt."
SEE. THIS IS WHY SHE WAS FIFTIETH. AND NO IT'S NOT BECAUSE SPOTTO DOESN'T LIKE SKIRTS. SEE WHY UNDER THIS CUT!
If you have ever read my blog at all, you'll know I'm often ranting about personalities and characters of well, fictional characters. The psychology of fictional characters...makes no sense right? Why not just analyze some person in real life? Well not very often is there some person who has gone through special circumstances like being or a ghost or living for thousands of years for me to poke about what their personality is like---I guess I enjoy picking apart fantasy characters because of the setting...and also, if I find holes and problems with it, I could deem it a bad character. Of course, this is just an uneducated person sitting in front of the computer screen throwing out theories and explanations based on what she has seen in real life, which is often nothing like what fantasy characters go through...but, I can try, can't I?
So, I will explain the character Minamitsu Murasa to you. I was first introduced to her by, predictably, a well-known Touhou artist who is not Japanese and thus operates mostly with the western fanbase. I've seen his stuff, very amusing--from comics to .GIFs, to flash, and even though a lot of the reason I started to like Murasa was due to him, it soon became pretty obvious that...well, his stuff is all crack and self-inserts among his friends, plus in-jokes. It's good for a laugh, good for a dumb chuckle, but in all seriousness, if you were looking for some fan-made thing to expand on Murasa's character or something like that...that really isn't the place to look for it.
I don't know why I have a fascination with Murasa. It's pretty obvious why I like Koishi, who is amusing, entertaining, creepy, scary, cute, and moe all in one package. I mean, if you start thinking about why she's fiftieth...it's quite obvious, besides a few certain artists who do like her, we can't expect her to suddenly have popularity just because she's a ghost, or a captain, or has a sad backstory or something like that. Ghosts are not unique, nor are such backstories---the biggest definition of Murasa is that she is a captain, but we see captains as these high-ranked, highly-respected people who everyone listens to. Murasa is a Stage 4 boss, she's not even Byakuren's strongest follower, who is Shou. Also, who exactly does she captain? We only see her piloting the ship to find Byakuren in one short game, does she interact with the other crew members? No. The only person who we see she can possibly captain is Ichirin, and considering ZUN pretty much implied that she was a bland, boring character ("just Unzan's hitbox") who has literally nothing revealed about her besides having a fancy manly pink cloud following her, there really isn't much of Murasa to like.
So my brain starts up its imagination, we know some things, like that Murasa was saved, that she knows Nue, and she was a human before she died. Logically when she was human, she'd be a captain right? Why else would this whole captain business be associated with her so much? Yet, I don't think that was who she was either. Well first, what kind of Captain...just...drowns? I mean, maybe there was a big storm and she fell off the ship or something, but does that mean she'll become a ghost who sinks ships in response? Does that mean anyone who fell off a ship during a storm and drowned becomes a ghost like her? I'd imagine there would be a lot then--was Murasa just the most notable of ghosts who sank ships, sinking the most, or the only one?
Also, why is she associated with anchors THAT much? Yes I know, the whole ship and captain business, but you'd think with an anchor practically attached to her back constantly, that that anchor might actually mean something to her. Maybe it's that same anchor from her ship before--but why would they abandon the anchor? It doesn't look rusted or old, it's in a fairly good state...I suppose it could've fell off during the storm, but that must've been one destructive storm--since anchors are attached to big metal chains and all. She then throws anchors at people as an attack, which is what she does first before going ghost crazy and making you endure for almost a minute of her horrible tear-like things. (Those bullets look boring to me, personally)
So, what does that tell me? Obviously ZUN himself probably didn't put much thought in it, he creates amazing music, and amazing games, maybe the music itself tells you about the character, but beyond that and his descriptions--there's not much to grab hold onto. Her theme, I initially didn't really care for, but I started to like it more due to various arranges. ZUN's own description of the song pretty much sums it up for me, it creates cool, captain like feeling--that yes, Murasa is a captain. Her theme is CALLED "Captain Murasa" after all, and yet she's all these things but only the stage 4 boss. You'd think a captain would be the final boss, you'd think a captain would at least be the strongest one there besides the final boss, you'd think a captain would have a crew to captain, not people she just met to free Byakuren, you'd think.
Her theme, her theme title, and what is shown completely contradicts each other. The only reason the song must be like that is because, in the past, which we're never told of...she was a captain then. After all, Byakuren saved her to make her a captain. I don't think she was called a captain as a ghost, was she? Was the Palanquin Ship actually her ship, or something she just sailed on before she died? The Touhou wiki only tells me that it was the ship that she died, so she somehow drowned, off that ship.
So those are the facts, here is opinion.
A long time ago, there was no Gensokyo, so I'm throwing the "EVERYONE IMPORTANT IN GENSOKYO MUST BE FEMALE" rule out the window for now, even if doing so makes no sense as it's more like the universe that Gensokyo is in, rather than Gensokyo itself, but still. How many sailors a long, long time ago were females? Probably like, oh, zero. I don't know for sure, but men often rode those ships, did the physical gruff work of either transporting goods from place to place, or waging wars. So I believe Murasa couldn't have been a captain. She was just on the ship for some reason, no idea why, but she was. Maybe she was going from place to place, or she was a family member of someone important on the ship or something, why else do men bring females with them on such trips? I won't go into XXX reasons, lol.
Now, what did Murasa wear on such a trip? Logically as a ghost, you're wearing what you died in, right? Well, there was a lot of confusion whether Murasa wore a skirt or shorts due to ZUN's rather iffy official artwork of her, but I really, really loved her in shorts. It made her different, it made her somewhat unique, and gave her a bit a character the skirt wouldn't, why, you ask?
Well, first , why would she wear EITHER on the ship?
Short skirts and shorts--I don't believe they existed back then, did they? In fact I don't even think sailor uniforms themselves existed THAT long ago, so because the history of these things are so iffy, it doesn't matter if either existed back then or not, does it? So then the reason she must wear something will land on what kind of personality she has. Now in that quote above, ZUN was trying to figure out if she was to wear a short skirt, or a long skirt.
I'm just crossing out long skirt entirely because that is not practical at all--but if it isn't practical, why did ZUN not just automatically give her a short skirt? Because I don't think a short skirt fits her personality, and I don't believe ZUN thought so either. From what we know of Murasa so far, she is a CAPTAIN--and a short-skirt to me, does not give you the view of a confident, strong, leaderlike-person a captain MUST be. When you see a girl wearing a short-skirt...well, what do you think of when you see someone wearing a short skirt? Too bad Murasa wasn't Scottish, she could've worn a kilt (and even then, only men wore those...argh, more inconsistencies!)
You see someone girly I suppose, someone vulnerable. It is super easy for the breeze to just blow at that skirt, and huzzah free panty shots for fanservicey animes and mangas galore! I'd like to say she wore a skirt because of fanservice, I'd like to say that's why Nue's outfit is a Zettai Ryouiki, because of fanservice. Why did ZUN do that? No outfit before was meant to be fanservice...everything looked so traditional, everything was covered--probably because ZUN couldn't draw. I'd like to say that, but I once truly believed ZUN isn't that kind of person--though I must be in denial because the ONLY reason I can see that Murasa suddenly wears a short skirt, and what Nue wears...is due to fanservice--it's not like people in the Heian period wore black kneesocks and a dress like that. (EDIT: Nue's outfit, in contrast to what I think Murasa's should be, IS vulnerable-looking though, which further contributes to my explanation on Nue further down in this wall-of-text. :P)
I guess all the gothic lolita styles were meant to be fanservicey too? I suppose. Once Reimu looked like a regular Miko, now she has armpits. But in terms of a character standpoint, in terms of that---it really really contrasts to that cool, captain-like feeling Murasa has. It's like rather than portraying her as a proud captain, ZUN decided fanservice was more important--and that's like saying Ichirin is a bland, boring character--which he did. I don't think ZUN is an advocate of characters anyway, as much as I believe the music he makes does that just perfectly, but no man is perfect, not even such a talented man like himself. The game was mostly about Byakuren anyway, the rest of them sans Kogasa and Nazrin are followers...that's what he's saying.
It is up to the fandom to make them more than that, and so I see Murasa in shorts. I see Murasa as more of a popular character if she wears shorts, more unique, more akin to the captain-like atmosphere that is Murasa, but I don't know what the Japanese think. I really hate to see fanarts with her wearing a skirt, with her in a vulnerable position, where she is helpless and requires the protection of a manly Japanese male to take care of her--no, she is not a wife. She is a CAPTAIN. Her theme title flat-out STATES it. There must've been a reason she was made one, even if it doesn't seem that way in the game itself--and so comes Spotto's imagination. (Finally!)
First, I think Murasa is arrogant if not egocentric, simply because her theme is named after herself. Her dialogue doesn't tell you too much, but that is one thing I do agree with that well-known Touhou artist. She must've been arrogant--she sank many ships for fun, for a challenge, but no one could stop her, and she did it for, well, we don't know, but I imagine quite a while. So she thought of herself highly, no one can defeat her! I also believe the reason Nue is how she is, is due to Murasa. (Yes I am discussing Nue here too, shut up P:)
See, Murasa was unstoppable, but I don't believe this was how she wanted it. Even if Murasa was having fun, I don't think she would be thinking of sinking ships for eternity. She's having fun with it because if she wasn't she'd be miserable, and it's better to enjoy something than not, since sinking ships is pretty much all she knows--that's the type of spirit she was. She sank so many ships for so long that she even became a youkai, while still being a spirit (it seems like you become youkai if you do "bad" things like magic or whatever for a long time, if Byakuren and Alice are any indication) and I believe the reason anchors are so extremely associated with her because, well I like to say that's how she drowned.
She was tied to the anchor and thrown off board--I like to think that. Was the ship taken by pirates or something, and she was killed like that? The ship itself apparently sank though, or why else would she be capsizing all the ships she sees? I don't know entirely, but I don't really see her just falling off the ship like that, it just feels anticlimatic. To Spotto, EVERYTHING must be awesome and have meaning, or else I wouldn't be typing this wall-of-text up. So, that's why anchors are attributed with her so strongly, and why she sinks ships--not just because she happened to be on one.
So yeah, Murasa looks for challenges in sinking ships, trying to defeat the strong humans that approach her--to deviate from the topic a little, I think Nue knew her at this time-period...and she was jealous. Nue was a, well, a nue, who goes around scaring people in order to exist, she has no form, and according to her profile, she had been defeated "numerous" times. This tells me that Nue often doesn't actually kill people, either because she isn't strong (which I doubt) or her role is to just scare, not right-out destroy. So, when people start realizing the nue actually isn't a threat, and stop being afraid---this is the part where Nue is defeated. Nue then must leave and go to another area and scare the people there! (The legend of the Nue is that someone shot this black floating cloud thing with an arrow, and a dead nue fell out of it, so the legend itself has the nue being defeated!) Of course we don't want Nue to be DEAD at this point, so being defeated in this fashion makes a lot of sense.
She's jealous because of Murasa's success--many people fear her, and respect her power, her ability to go about sinking ships. Murasa doesn't have to move away and go to the people to do her job, they constantly go to her to try to exterminate her, get rid of her. Nue probably wishes for that--and you're probably wondering "well why doesn't Nue just kill some people so they start fearing her" or something? A nue goes around with a messed up form to scare others, her power is to shapeshift--in that way frighten people...killing humans so they'd fear her would not be a nue at all, just like if Murasa stopped sinking ships she wouldn't be the kind of ghost she is! These are youkai remember, not humans, these are all the things they knew
I also believe that if Nue did not scare people, she'd die---not fade away because she's that type of youkai, but if people stop fearing her, they would be curious of what she is. They may actually TRY to kill her because of the fear, if the fear is not great enough. She could easily escape I suppose, but I think that's the limit of her power. She won't cause someone to explode or whatever, all she does is shapeshift and changes the forms of others, which might be way many people have the opinion that Nue is one of the easiest-EX bosses ever, lol.
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Well, if she can scare them enough she might give them a heart attack, but yeah. So, Murasa is saved by Byakuren, and that further fuels Nue's jealousy because Murasa has killed tons of humans and she hasn't, so when someone finally shows up to stop Murasa, rather than exterminating her as expected--she goes free? She doesn't have to do what she does anymore, can do whatever she wants now? THAT is what Murasa gets for killing Byakuren's own kind? Nue probably hates Murasa at this point, but always follows her, trying to ruin her plans, make her life, er, afterlife, not so perfect by her standards. She doesn't necessarily hate Byakuren though because she knows what she's doing for youkai, but she isn't grovelling at her feet like some people are because she didn't come save Nue herself. Murasa even gets to captain a ship, and she was never captain, or even if she was, hasn't been one in forever and likely forgot all about her life when living!
This is why I think Nue tries to mess with Murasa during the game's plot because of this resentment. I don't think she's that nasty of a youkai at all, so her pranks and troublemaking-traits are less extreme than someone like Tewi. She still respects people like Byakuren, and other youkai maybe, but she just wants Murasa to have problems and not be faced with such a better-than-expected predicament.
But then Murasa does, when Byakuren is sealed.
We also have no knowledge of what the hell is happening during this time period besides "EVERYONE GETS SEALED AND SHOU IS TOO BUSY TO NOTICE LOL" and I don't really think the Myouren crew knew everyone at this time, they all just knew Byakuren at this point. I think the timeline is something like Byakuren getting sealed, and then everyone else after. I like to think though (and yes this has nothing canon or whatever to back it up, but eh) at this point a lot of the youkai are SUPER dependant on Byakuren, particularly Murasa which is why after Byakuren is gone so many other youkai get sealed too. (Well the ones affiliated with Byakuren, but I imagine it was a lot more than Murasa and Ichirin.) So I don't believe Murasa was being very-captain-like at this time period either, still following Byakuren's orders and grovelling at her feet because she is her amazing saviour.
So, right before Murasa and a bunch of other youkai are sealed, they are trying to find leadership--and where else to find leadership but CAPTAIN Murasa? Because of the extreme dependency though, Murasa attempts but really doesn't know what to do here, and thus they are sealed and Murasa, the captain, fails her crew. I'd throw Nue in as well just to make it fanfic-like, but Nue showing up to see Murasa in trouble to laugh at her, and then get caught in the sealing herself is actually amusing to think about. Now she blames Murasa for being sealed too, after all that jealousy. I think it is the time Murasa is sealed underground (which was like forever, a thousand years?) is where she actually developed her skills to actually be a captain (otherwise how would UFO even happen!?) due to being guilty for failing Byakuren and the people around her, and wanting to pay them back. I don't know if Murasa is STILL egocentric and arrogant here because at this point evidence says no, but I still like to think so, it's just subdued. It'll show up when the happy endings come (and also, to be mopey about this incident for A THOUSAND YEARS and not retaining parts of your personality back is kind of really, really whiny. Or I just like arrogant Murasa, bwah.)
So a thousand years later, SA happens and Utsuho blows geysers throughout the underground, sending Murasa back to the surface. The crew from long ago has since deserted her, only Ichirin still there (God knows why, perhaps this is what makes CaptainxIchirin popular) and Nue sneaking along, still wanting to see Murasa fail because she's Parsee's "ancestor" or something (okay, I'll knock off the outrageous theories, lolol) or well, she probably still hates her somehow. The underground has less humans to scare (well, like zero) so she probably had a hard one-thousand-years and was too prideful to ask for help, especially from someone like Murasa, thus still resentful of Murasa sending her down there in the first place.
So UFO happens and then Nue is guilty that once again, she was trying to cause Murasa to fail, but didn't realize Murasa's goal of freeing Byakuren, who she looks up to as well due to her youkai-saving long, long ago--again hitting Nue's conscious but also pride, trying to make her fail, trying to make her look bad--but then realizing Murasa wasn't going around sinking ships this time, doing something good for once. And that is finally, how I see this pairing as well since I'm an avid supporter of CaptainxNue. And Murasa is a captain, not from long ago, but underground, here. She may not have much of a crew left, but she did assemble one--she did initiate the events of UFO after all. She found Shou (and Nazrin, technically), she and the crew collected UFOs to free Byakuren, here is where her leadership stood out. Shou needed someone to actually push her to do something because she was so busy with Bishamonten (I'm VERY irked about the odd reason Shou did absolutely nothing this entire time, after one thousand years and only Murasa showing up actually got her moving. I guess she was just THAT devoted to her work!? That is crazy--but this is not a post about Shou, maybe one later.)
Therefore, Captain Murasa--therefore, shorts! SHORTS!
I think the reason the Captain isn't all that popular is because besides the reasons I've just stated...she's in the same category as Orin. "The ones who cause the plot but aren't the bosses." Not that the bosses themselves are all that popular, Kanako is alright in the ranks, Kaguya and Eirin are rather low, I'd count PoFV but no one actually caused that incident--making the only ones who brings about the incident in the first place who are also popular, Remilia and Yuyuko.
But their motives are either selfish or curiosity than the motives of our lovely not-final bosses in SA and UFO. Remilia wanted to go outside, so rather than taking a parasol (because holding those are such a hassle after all! I myself dislike using umbrellas!) she filled the air with red mist and kept the sun from giving off its usually healthy-life-sustaining light to the majority that need it. Yuyuko was basically "This tree never blooms! Let's steal all the spring to see it bloom because WHY NOT, it'll probably be PRETTY! :DDD" Kaguya hid the moon because she didn't want to be taken back there. Kanako wanted MOAR faith because she had none in the real world, in order to exist, but didn't realize she was assimilating everything else and imbalancing Gensokyo. Now in SA and UFO, while Utsuho did have a plan to disintegrate all of Gensokyo, it was Orin who caused spirits to escape out of the underground to draw powerful youkai in and stop her friend--and it was Murasa who flew her ship into the air to collect items and crew to find Byakuren--these last two are not final bosses, but their motive wasn't "For the lulz" or for selfish reasons they were being noble, trying to help people they love and know.
SO NICE PEOPLE IN TOUHOU ARE DISLIKED, THUS WHY EVERYONE IS A JERK, AND WHY REIMU IS NUMBER ONE! The true reason of Murasa's (and yes, Orin's) unpopularity, and why she needs all the support she can, like shorts, to keep her "afloat!"
....man, I can't believe I wrote all that because of what Murasa should wear. @_@ SHORTS!
SEE. THIS IS WHY SHE WAS FIFTIETH. AND NO IT'S NOT BECAUSE SPOTTO DOESN'T LIKE SKIRTS. SEE WHY UNDER THIS CUT!
If you have ever read my blog at all, you'll know I'm often ranting about personalities and characters of well, fictional characters. The psychology of fictional characters...makes no sense right? Why not just analyze some person in real life? Well not very often is there some person who has gone through special circumstances like being or a ghost or living for thousands of years for me to poke about what their personality is like---I guess I enjoy picking apart fantasy characters because of the setting...and also, if I find holes and problems with it, I could deem it a bad character. Of course, this is just an uneducated person sitting in front of the computer screen throwing out theories and explanations based on what she has seen in real life, which is often nothing like what fantasy characters go through...but, I can try, can't I?
So, I will explain the character Minamitsu Murasa to you. I was first introduced to her by, predictably, a well-known Touhou artist who is not Japanese and thus operates mostly with the western fanbase. I've seen his stuff, very amusing--from comics to .GIFs, to flash, and even though a lot of the reason I started to like Murasa was due to him, it soon became pretty obvious that...well, his stuff is all crack and self-inserts among his friends, plus in-jokes. It's good for a laugh, good for a dumb chuckle, but in all seriousness, if you were looking for some fan-made thing to expand on Murasa's character or something like that...that really isn't the place to look for it.
I don't know why I have a fascination with Murasa. It's pretty obvious why I like Koishi, who is amusing, entertaining, creepy, scary, cute, and moe all in one package. I mean, if you start thinking about why she's fiftieth...it's quite obvious, besides a few certain artists who do like her, we can't expect her to suddenly have popularity just because she's a ghost, or a captain, or has a sad backstory or something like that. Ghosts are not unique, nor are such backstories---the biggest definition of Murasa is that she is a captain, but we see captains as these high-ranked, highly-respected people who everyone listens to. Murasa is a Stage 4 boss, she's not even Byakuren's strongest follower, who is Shou. Also, who exactly does she captain? We only see her piloting the ship to find Byakuren in one short game, does she interact with the other crew members? No. The only person who we see she can possibly captain is Ichirin, and considering ZUN pretty much implied that she was a bland, boring character ("just Unzan's hitbox") who has literally nothing revealed about her besides having a fancy manly pink cloud following her, there really isn't much of Murasa to like.
So my brain starts up its imagination, we know some things, like that Murasa was saved, that she knows Nue, and she was a human before she died. Logically when she was human, she'd be a captain right? Why else would this whole captain business be associated with her so much? Yet, I don't think that was who she was either. Well first, what kind of Captain...just...drowns? I mean, maybe there was a big storm and she fell off the ship or something, but does that mean she'll become a ghost who sinks ships in response? Does that mean anyone who fell off a ship during a storm and drowned becomes a ghost like her? I'd imagine there would be a lot then--was Murasa just the most notable of ghosts who sank ships, sinking the most, or the only one?
Also, why is she associated with anchors THAT much? Yes I know, the whole ship and captain business, but you'd think with an anchor practically attached to her back constantly, that that anchor might actually mean something to her. Maybe it's that same anchor from her ship before--but why would they abandon the anchor? It doesn't look rusted or old, it's in a fairly good state...I suppose it could've fell off during the storm, but that must've been one destructive storm--since anchors are attached to big metal chains and all. She then throws anchors at people as an attack, which is what she does first before going ghost crazy and making you endure for almost a minute of her horrible tear-like things. (Those bullets look boring to me, personally)
So, what does that tell me? Obviously ZUN himself probably didn't put much thought in it, he creates amazing music, and amazing games, maybe the music itself tells you about the character, but beyond that and his descriptions--there's not much to grab hold onto. Her theme, I initially didn't really care for, but I started to like it more due to various arranges. ZUN's own description of the song pretty much sums it up for me, it creates cool, captain like feeling--that yes, Murasa is a captain. Her theme is CALLED "Captain Murasa" after all, and yet she's all these things but only the stage 4 boss. You'd think a captain would be the final boss, you'd think a captain would at least be the strongest one there besides the final boss, you'd think a captain would have a crew to captain, not people she just met to free Byakuren, you'd think.
Her theme, her theme title, and what is shown completely contradicts each other. The only reason the song must be like that is because, in the past, which we're never told of...she was a captain then. After all, Byakuren saved her to make her a captain. I don't think she was called a captain as a ghost, was she? Was the Palanquin Ship actually her ship, or something she just sailed on before she died? The Touhou wiki only tells me that it was the ship that she died, so she somehow drowned, off that ship.
So those are the facts, here is opinion.
A long time ago, there was no Gensokyo, so I'm throwing the "EVERYONE IMPORTANT IN GENSOKYO MUST BE FEMALE" rule out the window for now, even if doing so makes no sense as it's more like the universe that Gensokyo is in, rather than Gensokyo itself, but still. How many sailors a long, long time ago were females? Probably like, oh, zero. I don't know for sure, but men often rode those ships, did the physical gruff work of either transporting goods from place to place, or waging wars. So I believe Murasa couldn't have been a captain. She was just on the ship for some reason, no idea why, but she was. Maybe she was going from place to place, or she was a family member of someone important on the ship or something, why else do men bring females with them on such trips? I won't go into XXX reasons, lol.
Now, what did Murasa wear on such a trip? Logically as a ghost, you're wearing what you died in, right? Well, there was a lot of confusion whether Murasa wore a skirt or shorts due to ZUN's rather iffy official artwork of her, but I really, really loved her in shorts. It made her different, it made her somewhat unique, and gave her a bit a character the skirt wouldn't, why, you ask?
Well, first , why would she wear EITHER on the ship?
Short skirts and shorts--I don't believe they existed back then, did they? In fact I don't even think sailor uniforms themselves existed THAT long ago, so because the history of these things are so iffy, it doesn't matter if either existed back then or not, does it? So then the reason she must wear something will land on what kind of personality she has. Now in that quote above, ZUN was trying to figure out if she was to wear a short skirt, or a long skirt.
I'm just crossing out long skirt entirely because that is not practical at all--but if it isn't practical, why did ZUN not just automatically give her a short skirt? Because I don't think a short skirt fits her personality, and I don't believe ZUN thought so either. From what we know of Murasa so far, she is a CAPTAIN--and a short-skirt to me, does not give you the view of a confident, strong, leaderlike-person a captain MUST be. When you see a girl wearing a short-skirt...well, what do you think of when you see someone wearing a short skirt? Too bad Murasa wasn't Scottish, she could've worn a kilt (and even then, only men wore those...argh, more inconsistencies!)
You see someone girly I suppose, someone vulnerable. It is super easy for the breeze to just blow at that skirt, and huzzah free panty shots for fanservicey animes and mangas galore! I'd like to say she wore a skirt because of fanservice, I'd like to say that's why Nue's outfit is a Zettai Ryouiki, because of fanservice. Why did ZUN do that? No outfit before was meant to be fanservice...everything looked so traditional, everything was covered--probably because ZUN couldn't draw. I'd like to say that, but I once truly believed ZUN isn't that kind of person--though I must be in denial because the ONLY reason I can see that Murasa suddenly wears a short skirt, and what Nue wears...is due to fanservice--it's not like people in the Heian period wore black kneesocks and a dress like that. (EDIT: Nue's outfit, in contrast to what I think Murasa's should be, IS vulnerable-looking though, which further contributes to my explanation on Nue further down in this wall-of-text. :P)
I guess all the gothic lolita styles were meant to be fanservicey too? I suppose. Once Reimu looked like a regular Miko, now she has armpits. But in terms of a character standpoint, in terms of that---it really really contrasts to that cool, captain-like feeling Murasa has. It's like rather than portraying her as a proud captain, ZUN decided fanservice was more important--and that's like saying Ichirin is a bland, boring character--which he did. I don't think ZUN is an advocate of characters anyway, as much as I believe the music he makes does that just perfectly, but no man is perfect, not even such a talented man like himself. The game was mostly about Byakuren anyway, the rest of them sans Kogasa and Nazrin are followers...that's what he's saying.
It is up to the fandom to make them more than that, and so I see Murasa in shorts. I see Murasa as more of a popular character if she wears shorts, more unique, more akin to the captain-like atmosphere that is Murasa, but I don't know what the Japanese think. I really hate to see fanarts with her wearing a skirt, with her in a vulnerable position, where she is helpless and requires the protection of a manly Japanese male to take care of her--no, she is not a wife. She is a CAPTAIN. Her theme title flat-out STATES it. There must've been a reason she was made one, even if it doesn't seem that way in the game itself--and so comes Spotto's imagination. (Finally!)
First, I think Murasa is arrogant if not egocentric, simply because her theme is named after herself. Her dialogue doesn't tell you too much, but that is one thing I do agree with that well-known Touhou artist. She must've been arrogant--she sank many ships for fun, for a challenge, but no one could stop her, and she did it for, well, we don't know, but I imagine quite a while. So she thought of herself highly, no one can defeat her! I also believe the reason Nue is how she is, is due to Murasa. (Yes I am discussing Nue here too, shut up P:)
See, Murasa was unstoppable, but I don't believe this was how she wanted it. Even if Murasa was having fun, I don't think she would be thinking of sinking ships for eternity. She's having fun with it because if she wasn't she'd be miserable, and it's better to enjoy something than not, since sinking ships is pretty much all she knows--that's the type of spirit she was. She sank so many ships for so long that she even became a youkai, while still being a spirit (it seems like you become youkai if you do "bad" things like magic or whatever for a long time, if Byakuren and Alice are any indication) and I believe the reason anchors are so extremely associated with her because, well I like to say that's how she drowned.
She was tied to the anchor and thrown off board--I like to think that. Was the ship taken by pirates or something, and she was killed like that? The ship itself apparently sank though, or why else would she be capsizing all the ships she sees? I don't know entirely, but I don't really see her just falling off the ship like that, it just feels anticlimatic. To Spotto, EVERYTHING must be awesome and have meaning, or else I wouldn't be typing this wall-of-text up. So, that's why anchors are attributed with her so strongly, and why she sinks ships--not just because she happened to be on one.
So yeah, Murasa looks for challenges in sinking ships, trying to defeat the strong humans that approach her--to deviate from the topic a little, I think Nue knew her at this time-period...and she was jealous. Nue was a, well, a nue, who goes around scaring people in order to exist, she has no form, and according to her profile, she had been defeated "numerous" times. This tells me that Nue often doesn't actually kill people, either because she isn't strong (which I doubt) or her role is to just scare, not right-out destroy. So, when people start realizing the nue actually isn't a threat, and stop being afraid---this is the part where Nue is defeated. Nue then must leave and go to another area and scare the people there! (The legend of the Nue is that someone shot this black floating cloud thing with an arrow, and a dead nue fell out of it, so the legend itself has the nue being defeated!) Of course we don't want Nue to be DEAD at this point, so being defeated in this fashion makes a lot of sense.
She's jealous because of Murasa's success--many people fear her, and respect her power, her ability to go about sinking ships. Murasa doesn't have to move away and go to the people to do her job, they constantly go to her to try to exterminate her, get rid of her. Nue probably wishes for that--and you're probably wondering "well why doesn't Nue just kill some people so they start fearing her" or something? A nue goes around with a messed up form to scare others, her power is to shapeshift--in that way frighten people...killing humans so they'd fear her would not be a nue at all, just like if Murasa stopped sinking ships she wouldn't be the kind of ghost she is! These are youkai remember, not humans, these are all the things they knew
I also believe that if Nue did not scare people, she'd die---not fade away because she's that type of youkai, but if people stop fearing her, they would be curious of what she is. They may actually TRY to kill her because of the fear, if the fear is not great enough. She could easily escape I suppose, but I think that's the limit of her power. She won't cause someone to explode or whatever, all she does is shapeshift and changes the forms of others, which might be way many people have the opinion that Nue is one of the easiest-EX bosses ever, lol.
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Well, if she can scare them enough she might give them a heart attack, but yeah. So, Murasa is saved by Byakuren, and that further fuels Nue's jealousy because Murasa has killed tons of humans and she hasn't, so when someone finally shows up to stop Murasa, rather than exterminating her as expected--she goes free? She doesn't have to do what she does anymore, can do whatever she wants now? THAT is what Murasa gets for killing Byakuren's own kind? Nue probably hates Murasa at this point, but always follows her, trying to ruin her plans, make her life, er, afterlife, not so perfect by her standards. She doesn't necessarily hate Byakuren though because she knows what she's doing for youkai, but she isn't grovelling at her feet like some people are because she didn't come save Nue herself. Murasa even gets to captain a ship, and she was never captain, or even if she was, hasn't been one in forever and likely forgot all about her life when living!
This is why I think Nue tries to mess with Murasa during the game's plot because of this resentment. I don't think she's that nasty of a youkai at all, so her pranks and troublemaking-traits are less extreme than someone like Tewi. She still respects people like Byakuren, and other youkai maybe, but she just wants Murasa to have problems and not be faced with such a better-than-expected predicament.
But then Murasa does, when Byakuren is sealed.
We also have no knowledge of what the hell is happening during this time period besides "EVERYONE GETS SEALED AND SHOU IS TOO BUSY TO NOTICE LOL" and I don't really think the Myouren crew knew everyone at this time, they all just knew Byakuren at this point. I think the timeline is something like Byakuren getting sealed, and then everyone else after. I like to think though (and yes this has nothing canon or whatever to back it up, but eh) at this point a lot of the youkai are SUPER dependant on Byakuren, particularly Murasa which is why after Byakuren is gone so many other youkai get sealed too. (Well the ones affiliated with Byakuren, but I imagine it was a lot more than Murasa and Ichirin.) So I don't believe Murasa was being very-captain-like at this time period either, still following Byakuren's orders and grovelling at her feet because she is her amazing saviour.
So, right before Murasa and a bunch of other youkai are sealed, they are trying to find leadership--and where else to find leadership but CAPTAIN Murasa? Because of the extreme dependency though, Murasa attempts but really doesn't know what to do here, and thus they are sealed and Murasa, the captain, fails her crew. I'd throw Nue in as well just to make it fanfic-like, but Nue showing up to see Murasa in trouble to laugh at her, and then get caught in the sealing herself is actually amusing to think about. Now she blames Murasa for being sealed too, after all that jealousy. I think it is the time Murasa is sealed underground (which was like forever, a thousand years?) is where she actually developed her skills to actually be a captain (otherwise how would UFO even happen!?) due to being guilty for failing Byakuren and the people around her, and wanting to pay them back. I don't know if Murasa is STILL egocentric and arrogant here because at this point evidence says no, but I still like to think so, it's just subdued. It'll show up when the happy endings come (and also, to be mopey about this incident for A THOUSAND YEARS and not retaining parts of your personality back is kind of really, really whiny. Or I just like arrogant Murasa, bwah.)
So a thousand years later, SA happens and Utsuho blows geysers throughout the underground, sending Murasa back to the surface. The crew from long ago has since deserted her, only Ichirin still there (God knows why, perhaps this is what makes CaptainxIchirin popular) and Nue sneaking along, still wanting to see Murasa fail because she's Parsee's "ancestor" or something (okay, I'll knock off the outrageous theories, lolol) or well, she probably still hates her somehow. The underground has less humans to scare (well, like zero) so she probably had a hard one-thousand-years and was too prideful to ask for help, especially from someone like Murasa, thus still resentful of Murasa sending her down there in the first place.
So UFO happens and then Nue is guilty that once again, she was trying to cause Murasa to fail, but didn't realize Murasa's goal of freeing Byakuren, who she looks up to as well due to her youkai-saving long, long ago--again hitting Nue's conscious but also pride, trying to make her fail, trying to make her look bad--but then realizing Murasa wasn't going around sinking ships this time, doing something good for once. And that is finally, how I see this pairing as well since I'm an avid supporter of CaptainxNue. And Murasa is a captain, not from long ago, but underground, here. She may not have much of a crew left, but she did assemble one--she did initiate the events of UFO after all. She found Shou (and Nazrin, technically), she and the crew collected UFOs to free Byakuren, here is where her leadership stood out. Shou needed someone to actually push her to do something because she was so busy with Bishamonten (I'm VERY irked about the odd reason Shou did absolutely nothing this entire time, after one thousand years and only Murasa showing up actually got her moving. I guess she was just THAT devoted to her work!? That is crazy--but this is not a post about Shou, maybe one later.)
Therefore, Captain Murasa--therefore, shorts! SHORTS!
I think the reason the Captain isn't all that popular is because besides the reasons I've just stated...she's in the same category as Orin. "The ones who cause the plot but aren't the bosses." Not that the bosses themselves are all that popular, Kanako is alright in the ranks, Kaguya and Eirin are rather low, I'd count PoFV but no one actually caused that incident--making the only ones who brings about the incident in the first place who are also popular, Remilia and Yuyuko.
But their motives are either selfish or curiosity than the motives of our lovely not-final bosses in SA and UFO. Remilia wanted to go outside, so rather than taking a parasol (because holding those are such a hassle after all! I myself dislike using umbrellas!) she filled the air with red mist and kept the sun from giving off its usually healthy-life-sustaining light to the majority that need it. Yuyuko was basically "This tree never blooms! Let's steal all the spring to see it bloom because WHY NOT, it'll probably be PRETTY! :DDD" Kaguya hid the moon because she didn't want to be taken back there. Kanako wanted MOAR faith because she had none in the real world, in order to exist, but didn't realize she was assimilating everything else and imbalancing Gensokyo. Now in SA and UFO, while Utsuho did have a plan to disintegrate all of Gensokyo, it was Orin who caused spirits to escape out of the underground to draw powerful youkai in and stop her friend--and it was Murasa who flew her ship into the air to collect items and crew to find Byakuren--these last two are not final bosses, but their motive wasn't "For the lulz" or for selfish reasons they were being noble, trying to help people they love and know.
SO NICE PEOPLE IN TOUHOU ARE DISLIKED, THUS WHY EVERYONE IS A JERK, AND WHY REIMU IS NUMBER ONE! The true reason of Murasa's (and yes, Orin's) unpopularity, and why she needs all the support she can, like shorts, to keep her "afloat!"
....man, I can't believe I wrote all that because of what Murasa should wear. @_@ SHORTS!
