-
Okay! Since the forums got rebuilt, I suppose it's appropriate that I repost the notification of my contributions so far.
All works are on www.usuallydead.com, under:
Stories --> Retelling of Oriental Stories
The main work here is Touhou Ibunshu, which is a long arc of many short installments. The installment list so far includes:
1. Touhou Maiketsu - The Reinterpretation of Scarlet Devil
2. Touhou Jinkeiki - Redepmtion of Precarious Puppeteer
3. Touhou Zetsubunsho - Requiem Bibliophilic
4. Touhou Seireikun - Resolute and Ghostly Gardener
5. Touhou Shikanzai - Remixed Cherry Blossom
6. Touhou Aizokuri - Recovery of Beloved Matriarch
7. Touhou Kimikaku - Repose and Inclusive Power
8. Touhou Toshinanto - Remorse in Secession's Nobility
In addition, some archived and discontinued content exists under the "Story Features" heading. These fall under the title of Touhou Tagigen, and include Ask Yuyuko! and Nitori's Notes.
This thread is more for just giving Ibunshu a presence on MoTK's new build, but feel free to discuss or whatever.
-
whoa UD is mod??
-
Didn't even notice Usually Dead was a mod until wrathie posted it.
I'm not one for long commentary when it comes to this, so I'll just say that Repose and Inclusive Power was an incredibly fun read as usual, though I was surprised that it ended up
perfectly segueing into the events of Imperishable Night, though I should've realized it after seeing who was actually going to attend Reimu's party.
-
Yeah, MSN, that seems to be everyone's reaction. That's one of the ways UD is awesome. He gets you like that.
And yet ... a part of me is on the fence, and thinks that, um ... Well, to cut to the chase, UD's stories are about as different from canon as Blade Runner is from Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? They're awesome, but they take just about every detail of Touhou canon, short of the characters' personalities (except in Reimu's case) and appearance, and run the other way with them; they end up bing "retellings" of the originals the same way a broken clock is right twice a day. I know some people who've been driven away by the poetic license UD's taken.
And when UD isn't being epic-awesome, some bits really fall flat. I facedesked when Suika referred to her gourd as having "immaterial and missing power" in as many words, and not in a good way. The fact that everyone speaks English and refers to Japanese as "the old tongue" is somewhat awkward -- I'm somewhat morbidly curious as to why UD did it like this. Yes, I know the in-character explanation, which is buried somewhere in Nitori's Notes, I want to know why the author decided to do it. Also awkward is the way the stories tend to get rather violent, and at the same time try to fit a "Power of love!" philosophy, two elements which don't go well together.
Plus, there's a bit of Moral Dissonance -- in Reinterpretation of Scarlet Devil, Reimu kills Meiling. Except wait, she's a youkai, so she's okay! The thing is, Reimu didn't know it at the time, and very little is done to address the fact that Reimu basically tried to murder someone, not entirely in self-defense, beyond "okay, I'm not going to act out of anger or fear anymore."
Remixed Cherry Blossom doesn't have that kind of problem, since Sakuya's supposed to be morally ambiguous, but Ran's explanation about the purpose of love in Recovery of Beloved Matriarch is either a rather shrewd look into the mind of an immortal, or seriously messed up. Or both.
I've also noticed the formula of "It was actually the Extra Boss all along!"
which makes me feel kinda "meh" about being surprised by whatever the ending is, and ... I'm gonna be generous and say that about three-eighths of, um, Retellishable Night wasn't completely telegraphed by RoIP.
It's just a vague "do not know if want" which I'm able to rationalize, I guess. I still mostly think they're awesome, but Retellishable Night is going to need a pretty darn snazzy twist to make up for the fact that we basically know most of the story (the bit about Sakuya included). However, I believe that this is something which, on the whole, UD is going to be able to do.
(I also realized: "oh, god, what's going to happen to Mystia, given how unmerciful UD tends to be?" and I thought I came up with an idea for how Koishi would be behind the events of ... Subrevision Aminism, but I forget what it was.)
I also make no value judgments on the fact that, in just about every story, at least one character ends up naked (or depicted naked like in RaIP) at least once.
-
I also make no value judgments on the fact that, in just about every story, at least one character ends up naked.
Oh damn! I've been found out!
You got me. I've been doing it all as cleverly couched pornography the whole time. :P
-
Man, Kimiko, I think we're at opposite ends of this even if we both like UD's work.
The bouts of brutal violence juxtapose with the themes of love in such a way that I find them as appealing as they are striking. Guess it's just the part of me that believes in the school of tough love. I think we can both agree that the bitterness behind the violence certainly adds something visceral to the story though. What's that, Chen? I've gotten so effin' fed up with this world that I'd even try to hurt YOU?
Also, having the Extra/Phantasm Boss being the cause behind everything
makes it much smoother to integrate them into the story than it is to just make them an awkward sidequest at the end. Not that other fanfics don't succeed in making it not-awkward.
I know you probably aren't turned off by UD's personality changes or otherwise you wouldn't be posting in here, but since you mentioned it, I feel like replying to it anyway: that seems incredibly unfair to me! Considering how little the characters' personalities are filled in the games, and how the majority of each individual Touhou character's... erm... character tends to be defined by the fandom surrounding it, you'd think it would be treated more like a breath of fresh air after a lot of the same thing over and over. But to each his own, eh?
TL;DR - I rant too much about relatively unimportant stuff. Take it easy.
-
needs more ask yuyuko and nitori notes. ;D
-
JUST AS PLANNED
Look at what you made UD do Kimiko!
Btw UD your voice is MANLY
-
Bookmaarked.
I really need to spend more time on this board. I love reading this stuff.
-
I also make no value judgments on the fact that, in just about every story, at least one character ends up naked (or depicted naked like in RaIP) at least once.
Were your Mystic Eyes of Subtext Perception turned off that long?
-
Do you think I somehow didn't notice it until the exact minute I typed that? :V
-
Gonna skip all your replies till I finish RaIP... in case of spoilers. I have high expectations and I'm confident that they'll be met. Glad to see you're not dead as usual.
Edit: Done reading. That was an awesome read, thanks again. Looking forward to how the monster fairies will play into the overshadowing plot.
-
I've already talked to you about this over IRC, but since it is apparently a not-very-widely shared opinion, I'll say publicly that
Chapter 5 in RaIP was a great culmination of the Sakuya character development project, started all the way back in Chapter 1 of RoSD
, and it cements her as my new favorite character of your writing.
It really surprises me to not see her in your sig because it feels like you put a lot more effort into her than anyone else
.
For those of you that hate Sakuya (apparently there are a lot of you), go back and re-read RoSD, Requiem Bibliophilic, RCB and then RaIP again, watch her grow
, and then tell me you still feel the same way. It's impossible.
-
@kilga: For the record, even thou she is epic at times.
Any1 who kills Reimu
is automatically black listed in my book
-
Perhaps, but that was necessary to
finally turn Sakuya into a good person. She couldn't repent without a major sin.
Besides, Reimu got better.
-
@kilga: For the record, even thou she is epic at times.
Any1 who kills Reimu
is automatically black listed in my book
Last I checked, didn't YOU kill Reimu
?
(http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Persona%202/Smilies/emot-iceburn.gif)
That said, I'm not sure what to think of UD's stuff. It's very well written, and I like it for that, but it's so counter to canon in a lot of places that I tend to get rather irritated when reading it. The only one I unequivacaly like is Requiem Bibliophilic, which I think got all the characters spot on (personally, the portrayal of Flandre in that one, is probably the closest to my view of her personality I've seen in most fanworks, with a few exceptions.), and didn't do anything that clashed with the canon to the point of irritating me (something that has gotten progressively worse in the later ones, though I haven't read the IaMP one yet.)
Ask Yuyuko and Nitori's Notes were great, and I wish they were still going.
-
you got me there actually but seeing no one actually directly killed her..
so yea.
fact is: She'll always get better
-
You mean she drank the Hourai elixir!?
-
No, every time she "dies" it's because Marisa turned her into a newt.
-
You mean she drank the Hourai elixir!?
shush no spoilers x3
-
No, every time she "dies" it's because Marisa turned her into a newt.
Does Marisa weigh as much as a duck, though?
-
Okay, time to update my opinions after reading the IaMP one. Quite good. No flagrant violations of major game canon, good plot developement. So far so good, though if
Mokou is the source of the eldritch horror fairies
I will be rather irritated, as that is A: way out of character for her, and I mean rediculously so, and B: missing out on a good segue to SA at some point. The portrayal of Suika is great. The Remilia bit was, frankly a bit... squicky. I kinda wish Flandre made an actual appearence. Overall, it's good, I'll be waiting for IN.
-
No flagrant violations of major game canon,
are you even reading the same fics I am :V
-
are you even reading the same fics I am :V
Compared to his PCB one, his IaMP one is fairly close to canon. His PCB one buttraped the canon.
-
Does Marisa weigh as much as a duck, though?
Obviously, she does. She was weighed in front of the King of the Britons himself.
-
Obviously, she does. She was weighed in front of the King of the Britons himself.
Saber does not approve of the masculine nouns and pronouns.
-
Compared to his PCB one, his IaMP one is fairly close to canon. His PCB one buttraped the canon.
I'm not sure what your basis for comparison is. "Suika manipulates everyone into having a bunch of parties, and then they beat each other up after they find out something's up, and she beats them up when they find her" versus "Suika moves in with Reimu, then astral-projects her into the brains of the cast of IaMP so that she can invite the cast of IN to one party where they can have fun, and also lol-monster-fairies caused by Mokou, lol assraping of IN's canon, I need scissors, sixty-one
" ...
-
I'm not sure what your basis for comparison is. "Suika manipulates everyone into having a bunch of parties, and then they beat each other up after they find out something's up, and she beats them up when they find her" versus "Suika moves in with Reimu, then astral-projects her into the brains of the cast of IaMP so that she can invite the cast of IN to one party where they can have fun, and also lol-monster-fairies caused by Mokou, lol assraping of IN's canon, I need scissors, sixty-one
" ...
I wasn't refering to storyline details and more to the background info. Yes, the story was different, but that was expect and allowable (most of the time). Especially since the plot of IaMP doesn't exactly lend itself to what he's doing.
-
Well, all right.
-
You guys do realize that a strict canon retelling of games like EoSD would be incredibly boring, right? >_>
-
You guys do realize that a strict canon retelling of games like EoSD would be incredibly boring, right? >_>
EoSD. THE SKY IS RED.RAAAAGE. Rush to beat up who's responsible.
PCB. SPRING IS GONE. RAAAAGE. Rush to beat up who's responsible.
IN. THE MOON IS MISSING. RAAAAGE. Rush to beat up who's responsible.
etc.
Something like that. I quite like re-interpretations of characters. If I want canon, I play the games.
-
It's not the plot changes that irritate me, for the most part. It's changes to background details. Like, in canon Touhou, REIMU INVENTED THE SPELLCARD SYSTEM!
-
Is that really such an important detail that it gets in the way of a quality story-telling job?
-
I know, I'm just poking fun, mostly. I did say that the awesomeness of the writing mostly overcame that for me ...
-
Is that really such an important detail that it gets in the way of a quality story-telling job?
Some of it I just find incredibly aggravating. I only really have a serious issue with Remixed Cherry Blossom, where Yuyuko is basically a huge Mary Sue. I mean, all the responsibility the events is moved off of her onto Youmu and Yukari. Yes, I know that he was changing the plot, but I find the whole deal INTENSLY irritating. I like Yuyuko. She's one of my top 3 favorite characters. But I really don't like what he did with her there. Or what he did with Yukari. However, the rest of the series is good enough that I'm willing to ignore that.
-
FYI UD's waifu is Yuyuko :V
-
FYI UD's waifu is Yuyuko :V
No.
No.
No.
The world... is not that perfect.
-
No.
No.
No.
The world... is not that perfect.
/me pats UD on the back
There there I'm sure she's just tsundere for you.
-
/me pats UD on the back
There there I'm sure she's just tsundere for you.
No, it's because I got there first. ^_^
-
huh? whats with the 14 day lag note?
anyways, IMAFREE!
i must read Repose and Inclusive Power nao!
-
Something that's not totally related, but I didn't think it was worth starting a new thread for:
Kelvin and I have just done an hour-long talkshow-style recording on some thoughts about Touhou. Give it a listen!
Click for sure! (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kz41lmzdmrn)
(.mp3 audio file, about one hour long and 56MB in size)
-
Something that's not totally related, but I didn't think it was worth starting a new thread for:
Kelvin and I have just done an hour-long talkshow-style recording on some thoughts about Touhou. Give it a listen!
Click for sure! (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kz41lmzdmrn)
(.mp3 audio file, about one hour long and 56MB in size)
Decided to listen and I actually found myself sitting through the whole thing.
While our perceptions of Kaguya and Eirin are almost entirely different I did enjoy listening to you two discuss some of the more silly and out there topics in Touhou.
If you plan on doing another then I'll be sure to listen in! Try to avoid having background noise on the next one though, around half way through I was having difficulty making out any of the conversation over the sound of whoever was watching Hellboy in the background.
-
Decided to listen and I actually found myself sitting through the whole thing.
While our perceptions of Kaguya and Eirin are almost entirely different I did enjoy listening to you two discuss some of the more silly and out there topics in Touhou.
If you plan on doing another then I'll be sure to listen in! Try to avoid having background noise on the next one though, around half way through I was having difficulty making out any of the conversation over the sound of whoever was watching Hellboy in the background.
Yeah, sorry about that. I'm in a shared room with a loud TV, and there's nowhere else in the house I can really record from. While that doesn't excuse the fact that roughly half of the recording was much more difficult to listen to, I've tried what I can figure out as far as sound suppression and it's just kind of not happening, so the only other option to reduce background noise would be to ask people to just not make it and hope for the best. I'll keep trying to figure out how to reduce it as we release these, as well as other bits of professionalism that have landed on me after being scattered to the wind.
We do plan on doing some shows in the future - this was a lot of fun - though we aren't the most organized bunch, so your guess as to a release date is good as mine. If anyone found that the amateurish sound put you off more than the content, you may be interested in the next release, for which we've already looked into a lot of ways to make it sound smoother and cleaner.
-
I actually enjoyed the banter between UD and Kelvin and I too am a rather big Mokou fan so...yeah...I'd her parachute pants too.
Hope to hear more stuff from you guys in the future.
-
Kelvin and I have just finished another talkshow! This one has fewer audio problems and is longer than the last one.
Link so hard! (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jzfyhyygnym)
(About 80mb, 128kbps mp3, approx 90 mins long)
-
Kelvin and I have just finished another talkshow! This one has fewer audio problems and is longer than the last one.
Link so hard! (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jzfyhyygnym)
(About 80mb, 128kbps mp3, approx 90 mins long)
Many Kudos on the audio quality, I also noticed Kelvin seems to be as much of a guitar fag as I am (I pulled up my Demetori collection as he was talking about them).
"As I'm totally interested in anything that has to do with Yuyuko climaxing"
Way to pull a fast one, that comment made me spray ginger beer all over myself.
-
Ok, I'm an absolute retard, and deleted the zip file after unzipping the mp3, DELETING THE GODDAMNED SONG LIST.
Can someone upload it externally for me, please?
-
Here ya go.
-
UD, did I mention that i love you?
-
Those talk shows sure are addicting, I can't wait for the next one. You guys should have some other "guests" over sometime (I nominate Kilga).
I also read Sakurei, and liked it a lot. I always felt some sexual undertones in most of the Ibunshu stories, and it was good to see it addressed tastefully without affecting unnecessarily the main line. Reimu and Sakuya is a strange pairing, but makes complete sense in the context. Also, hawt.
I hope you write more of these in the future. Though I'm also hoping for more of Yuyuko and Nitori's columns. And for the IN rewrite. Or one around CoLA or SaBND...
(tl;dr: Write more, literary slave!)
And something I've been meaning to mention from when I first read RaIP. When reading Alice's
WHY DID IT HURT SO BAD WHEN I THOUGHT SHE WAS DEAD
I just couldn't help seeing it as:
WHY WHY WHY DID I MISS HER A LOT FOREVER?
-
UD, it's because of your first story and the Yuyuko column that countless hours of text-scrolling has managed to make me look productive while searches were running in the background.
Ironically, your writing -> my wasting time -> looking productive -> job security O_O
-
WHY WHY WHY DID I MISS HER A LOT FOREVER?
That'd be IOSYS, used for evil instead of good.