Miscellaneous Questions 5: Ask Question, Receive Answer

[Tengukami]

Old thread here.

Here you can ask your random, one-off questions about different aspects of Touhou. Before asking your question, please consult the Touhou wiki to make sure your question cannot be answered through some easily verifiable means.

When answering, please try to cite canon to the best of your ability, and understand the difference between speculation/headcanon/fanon and stuff that is actual canon.

Fire when ready!

[Colticide]

I guess Ill start off with one, is there anything in the cannon that does say that Flandre is emotionally unstable, or that she's the psychotic sociopath that most fanworks depict  her as?  The wiki doesn't have a citation on that information, but I remember hearing that that's not what ZUN had intended for her but I can't confirm that statement.

[Sagus]

Her profile mentions she's "kind of nuts" and that "her insanity makes it difficult for others to understand her". It also mentions that since she never had to attack humans directly (because she was always fed humans in cooked dish form), she doesn't really know how to prey on them without blowing them up.

Fandom took these traits and did what fandom always do: exagerate it to high holy hell and back.

[Fuyuumi]

Fandom took these traits and did what fandom always do: exagerate it to high holy hell and back.

EVERY. FANDOM. IN. A. NUTSHELL.

[Colticide]

I feel so stupid I missed the little .txt at the top and checked the folder and sure enough there it was. Well I now have a reason to be scared again.

[Ozzy]

I feel so stupid I missed the little .txt at the top and checked the folder and sure enough there it was. Well I now have a reason to be scared again.

I always take it as a "don't do anything stupid and she's perfectly safe, if a bit odd." That said, not interacting with anyone outside the mansion, and not even really that, she probably doesn't have a strong sense of right and wrong. But that's speculation, for all I know she's being taught these things.

[CyberAngel]

When she was interviewed by Aya in BAiJR, she talked pretty normally, just somewhat childishly, so she certainly isn't as crazy as some fans believe her to be.

[Colticide]

More of a reason (even if it's just the books) to update and see how even some of the minor characters are doing, I'd LIKE to think Remilia would try and help her since she keeps throwing parties all the time, but it's also Remilia... so anything goes really.

Yes that's where I heard it from, and BAiJR (even if it is articles) takes place after EoSD. Still I'd like to know more about the everyday life of the SDM, kinda like the Inaba books.

[Tengukami]

Yes that's where I heard it from, and BAiJR (even if it is articles) takes place after EoSD. Still I'd like to know more about the everyday life of the SDM, kinda like the Inaba books.

I hope this question doesn't insult your intelligence/fandom, but have you read SSiB? There we get a slice of insight into SDM goings-ons anyway.

[Colticide]

I've been trying to read the books in order (if there is one...) and haven't had time to read SSiB, I have heard about the rocket she builds and a few other things but I though it was mostly about the two ladies on the moon.

[Ozzy]

I hope this question doesn't insult your intelligence/fandom, but have you read SSiB? There we get a slice of insight into SDM goings-ons anyway.

I have regrettably not read most of the print works. Is there somewhere that I can read translations?

[Tiamat]

There's absolutely nothing about Flandre in SSiB, alas.  ...or almost any print work besides her BAiJR interview and PMiSS article.  You can see a little bit of the going ons for the SDM in various print works including chapters where the three fairies infiltrate it etc. From what I can tell, they're constantly finding excuses to throw private parties (stated in PMiSS but also kinda shows up in SSiB and one of the Three Fairies chapters) and otherwise just tagging along after whatever crazy scheme Remilia's cooked up lately (the rocket, temporary sea in SSiB, her pet chucacabra in FS, forcing Sakuya to drag people over to conduct an "investigation" into the odd weather in SWR, soy bean anti-oni festival... though that last one was Patchouli's.  Patchouli also made a bunch of crop circles in the garden once.  ...okay, whatever crazy scheme Remilia or Patchouli has cooked up)

When Patchouli or Remilia don't have a crazy scheme going on at the moment, life is kinda boring as far as I'm aware. Meiling's bio says that every day life can get boring so she subliminally cooked up her adventure in Hisoutensoku, Remilia's more than happy to find an excuse to do SOMETHING when Aya drops by in SWR, Patchouli's been depicted on multiple occassions as just reading books in her library (on one occassion with Marisa n a Three Fairies work, on another with her getting really mad at Marisa after a theft by Marisa results in a book avalanche), the three fairies once infiltrated the mansion at a non-party time and everything was pretty quiet (IE, boring?) with Remilia sleeping in the day and Meiling looking out and Sakuya cooking, etc.  Although making life not-boring is probably a primary reason why Remilia keeps coming up with wierd fleeting schemes in the first place. The fairy maids seem to mostly just take this in panic'd efforts to keep up or in stride (SSiB) while sometimes grumbling about it (an early Three Fairies chapter. Possibly a case of early-installment-wierdness, although I do wish there were other depictions of Remilia's maids showing capacity to socialize and live and think about life)

Again, there's sadly a noticeable lack of Flandre in all of this.

I have regrettably not read most of the print works. Is there somewhere that I can read translations?

The touhou wiki (en.touhouwiki.com) has pretty much everything besides the latest FS and WaHH chapters (although there might be a few FS and WaHH chapters that you can only find on other manga sites, and the latest chapters aren't available).  The SDM always gets a story arc/chapter or several in almost every print work.  ZUN seems to like them (well, he did say in an early afterword we could expect to see them a lot in print works).  ....again, not very much (...none, really) Flandre alas.

[Clarste]

A lack of information is a kind of information. We can infer that Flandre doesn't participate in any of Remilia's social gatherings or schemes, and basically everyone in the mansion just leaves her alone. The description of her as "locked in" seems to have made people imagine that she's some kind of dangerous lunatic, but I think it's more likely that she just doesn't like crowds or leaving her room. An eccentric shut-in.

In terms of general SDM stuff though, she's a footnote. She's probably the character with the least appearances in the series, especially if you count the crowd scenes filled with cameos.

[LunarWingCloud]

EVERY. FANDOM. IN. A. NUTSHELL.

I relate to this so hard, specifically because the users at Pojo.biz Yu-Gi-Oh! boards overexaggerate EVERYTHING.

[Ozzy]

In terms of general SDM stuff though, she's a footnote. She's probably the character with the least appearances in the series, especially if you count the crowd scenes filled with cameos.

This is why I still hold out a small amount of hope that she'll be in Impossible Spell Card. It seems the most likely of a chance she'll get to reappear, with characters like Keine and Yuyuko coming back for no discernable reason. But I realize the odds are astronomically low. She was one of the only characters to NOT appear in a background even once in HM (though that's likely because there were no SDM stages).

The touhou wiki (en.touhouwiki.com) has pretty much everything besides the latest FS and WaHH chapters (although there might be a few FS and WaHH chapters that you can only find on other manga sites, and the latest chapters aren't available).

Thanks, I'll go check that out sometime.

[SirSlarty]

What is Sanae wearing around her neck in her UFO profile pic?

[Sagus]

What is Sanae wearing around her neck in her UFO profile pic?

Cuc answered that here.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Is it possible for Sekibanki's body to move on its own accord while her head is detached from it? In-game, if I remember correctly, her body generally stays immobile when her head goes flying, presumably because it is in a state of paralysis because the spinal cord has been severed (however with how Sekibanki's ability works, she can be decapitated and the head put back on without Sekibanki becoming quadriplegic). However, a lot of fans depict her as being able to move her body when her head is detached from it. I know this is a pretty silly question, but it's been bugging me for quite a while...

[Yookie]

She moves around in her last spell. Kinda slow and stops in between but still moving, so that's that I guess.
She definitely can move around but since body and head are still the same person she has to control the movement of both which is probably straining.
Like writing with both hands at the same time. :V

[SirSlarty]

Cuc answered that here.

That's... oddly obscure. I knew it wasn't quite a shimenawa or something similar. I was thinking that Sanae was going all out in Shinto gear for youkai extermination. She's got extra streamers on her oosuna, that necklace and a lot of shide hanging off her skirt.

[Tengukami]

On behalf of Nobu:
What kind of tea does Reimu drink?

[Colticide]

I always thought it was green tea but then I guess that's mostly in Fanon, I don't think a kind of tea has been mentioned except for what Remilia drinks.

[Nobu]

I always thought it was green tea but then I guess that's mostly in Fanon, I don't think a kind of tea has been mentioned except for what Remilia drinks.

Oooh, then may I ask what has been mentioned for Remilia? I'm intensely curious about the tea drinking habits of the resident Gensokyoans, and any attempts at interviewing them myself have been met with vague comments that I should just write a fic about it myself if I am so interested in knowing.

[Tiamat]

Sakuya slaps in a different ingredient depending on her mood for experimentation purposes, not all of which Remilia likes.  Several of the print works or game endings have Remilia asking Sakuya what she put in and Sakuya responding that she was trying a new ingredient, although I forget the exact print works in question (Pretty sure Remilia's Imperishable Night ending is one of them though).

Remilia's ESoD profile says it's blood (actual blood) tea, but that hasn't come up in any other print work or game ending afterwards (though one of Sakuya's ingredients that she tried was meant to simulate it, IIRC).

[Biakmon]

Is it known if Satori can read into Eiki/Yama mind? For that matter are Yamas in general even living creatures?

Is it possible for Eiki to use her 'Cleansed Crystal Mirror' to look into the past of any creatures even those higher in ranking/status(high gods in heaven) than her?

[Sagus]

Is it known if Satori can read into Eiki/Yama mind?

I don't see why not, but it's not mentioned anywhere in canon.

For that matter are Yamas in general even living creatures?

As much as gods are, I'd wager.

Is it possible for Eiki to use her 'Cleansed Crystal Mirror' to look into the past of any creatures even those higher in ranking/status(high gods in heaven) than her?

This is never discussed in canon, although since it's used specifically to judge mortals, I'd argue that it can show only their past, and it wouldn't work on beings that normally wouldn't have to be judged by a Yama (like gods).

[HarroImAZN]

Is there a specific reason that even recent Touhou games (th14) are locked to 4:3 resolution (640x480, 960x720, 1280x960) without the option of 16:9?

[Drake]

The alternative being... letterboxing? The naive answer here is "that's the aspect ratio of the game window". I'm guessing the reason you ask is that your monitor doesn't have the capability to keep aspect ratio when playing fullscreen?

[Colticide]

This is gonna be very stange but is there a reason why when playing music from your PC through you xbox, why Kourou ~ Eastern Dream... comes out very different? It's very slow and much of the song is gone and not to mention it's 10 min's long! I thought it was a new track I had but when I looked The one from EoSD is the only version I have, it's got that Last End feel from Zelda MM.

Never mind, that was a stupid question, sorry for wasting room.

[HarroImAZN]

The alternative being... letterboxing? The naive answer here is "that's the aspect ratio of the game window". I'm guessing the reason you ask is that your monitor doesn't have the capability to keep aspect ratio when playing fullscreen?

My bad, I should have phrased the question better. My original intent was to know why ZUN's later iterations of touhou are rendered in 4:3 and why he doesn't develop the ability for the game rendered in 16:9 when 4:3 is considered "outdated". For example, Skyrim(and many other games) have the ability to be rendered in 4:3 and 16:9 as per their graphics options.

I'm guessing the answer being that the game engine is incapable being rendered in other aspect ratios and that touhou has probably been running off the same engine for a long time. ZUNs probably too busy composing the BGM for the next game to update/ remake the engine. Or Maybe JP computers still use 4:3?

Also I remember your signature and avatar, you're the guy that made the bossrush mods for th11 and 12 I dl'd a long time ago before I at MOTK. Thankyou!