Author Topic: Background Research  (Read 5661 times)

Hieda no Mukyu

  • Eastern philology in limbo
Background Research
« on: July 11, 2017, 05:50:22 AM »
This thread is intended for discussing details of Gensōkyō and related things, specifically in order to help fanfic writers and fan artists in crafting their works. (If the forum already has a topic for this, please consider merging.)

Note: I am no specialist when it comes to Tōhō canon, I just like to view and read this and that, and sometimes my brain cooks up new combinations in the form of headcanon, short stories, poetry, illustration ideas, or more. When it comes to this fandom, I do background research more to find and refine inspiration than to stay true to canon.



My first question would be about Alice Margatroid?s house. It would help me to imagine indoors scenes if I had more visual clues. I am interested in both canon and your favorite fanon sources.

The Touhou Wiki shows that ?Strange and Bright Nature Deity? has at least some panels depicting the interior of the house, so I am going to take a better look at that comic. In the meantime: Has anyone ever seen a floor plan of the house, official or unofficial? Do we know what kind of rooms are inside the ?tower? part? Has it ever been addressed what Alice needs the ?tower? for?

JetSet

  • Nyahaha! - SR
Re: Background Research
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2017, 09:23:38 PM »
I always considered the tower to hold the workshop she uses for the dolls when they get too big for her to work on them at her table or living room, such as the Goliath class of dolls. I would imagine it would be ringed with catwalks and ladders, allowing her to reach different heights depending on what she's specifically working on. Or it could be her personal library, with books spanning all around the walls.

As for her house, I would imagine the floor plan to be a Large living room, which is connected to the kitchen through an open arch, and two smaller rooms serving as a master and guest bedroom. I have very little other than headcannon to back this one up, but it always seemed that Alice has a rather small house and that she wouldn't be the kind of person to have much more than what she needed inside. That and it looks to be only one story in the fighting game, aside from the workshop tower.

Iced Fairy

  • So like if you try to hurt alkaza
  • *
  • I will set you on fire k'?
    • Daisukima Dan Blog
Re: Background Research
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2017, 04:45:39 AM »
All the details about Alice's house are speculation and fan theory.  There's no real blueprints in Touhou, and the size of buildings shifts about.  (Reimu's shrine is comically small in some endings, while bigger in the manga.)

Magical experiments are dangerous.  Especially given Alice stuffs dolls with gunpowder.  The tower is almost certainly designed so that if something goes wrong the rest of the house might survive.  It's probably two stories so dangerous fumes will be above the ceiling height of the rest of the house.

Strange and Bright Nature Deities does show some internal shots, including her parlor.  She's got a very comfortable cottage it seems.

Hieda no Mukyu

  • Eastern philology in limbo
Re: Background Research
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2017, 10:38:04 AM »
Thank you very much for the replies!

If anyone else feels like further discussing Alice Margatroid?s house, please do!

In the meantime, I would like to ask you about maps of Gensōkyō. Currently, a simple Danbooru search produces five different maps, and in addition I know of one map programmed in Flash. What maps do you know of? Which ones are your favorites, and why? How have these maps evolved as we have learned about more residents and locations over the years? Have any canonical maps ever been published?

I tend to look at the existence and backgrounds of Gensōkyō?s residents in a Tolkienesque way

The idea of creating a map of this land of wonders does not. Instead, it reminds me of how I read ?The Neverending Story? (Die unendliche Geschichte) by Michael Ende for the first time.

I do not have the book at hand right now, but I recall it felt pretty contradictory when I was in my early teens. On the one hand, covering vast distances seemed often necessary to get from one place to another within the magical land of Fantastica (apparently known as Fantasia in some sources; originally Phant?sien in German). On the other hand, I think it was once explicitly stated that it was impossible to draw a complete map of Fantastica, because the land was not static. Which parts of it lay adjacent to each other depended on the traveler?s state of mind and other similar factors. Somehow I believe this might be the case regarding Gensōkyō as well.