With that in mind, I'd like to throw Byakuren into the hate circle. Well, honestly I don't mind her as a deeply flawed character, but basically she's a vain, arrogant, selfish idiot who hides between a twisted veneer of religion. Truly a fallen monk. She was afraid of death so she became a youkai magician, and the very first thing she did was make herself young and beautiful. Yeah, apparently being immortal wasn't enough for her, she also needed to be young (which is not an automatic part of the magician kit: she had to go out of her way to research the body transformation magic). So she's totally vain, and even when she had a change of heart and decided to help out the youkai she still kept up the act. Heck, she wouldn't have been caught if people hadn't noticed her eternal youth. She could've "helped" more youkai!
Not that her help is actually worth anything, because she's deeply ignorant about how youkai work. All her followers are either completely ignoring her teachings or suffering through an existential crisis like Kyouko. And, well, the ultimate goal of converting a youkai to Buddhism is to kill them. That's just how it works. They lose their purpose and accept their own death. That's the only result that can happen, because, well, that's what Buddhism is all about. She's no better than the vengeful spirits youkai are so afraid of: to change a youkai is to kill it. And yet she has the nerve to tell other people how to do things! She's basically a cult leader.
Not to mention she's just generally kind of shifty. She tried to seal Miko without even knowing what she was, and Miko was certainly convinced not to conquer the world pretty easily with dialog.
A little warning for incoming wall of texts.Well, since Byakuren is one of my favorites, you already know the reason why I'm here.
And gotta say, you're mostly right. She's everything you said she is. I'm just going to add a little bit into that.
First, about her reason and actions.
About being vain and selfish, you got that right. I just want to stress the "was" you've put there(And I believe, it was you who said that somewhere in the past). I too think that her reason was selfish, that is obvious, but I take her change of heart more than just to help out the youkai. She knew she was wrong, and tried to redeem herself in the way that she thought was right. I see it as her gaining a new purpose in life, something to replace her original reason, which is her fear of dying.
In short, to me, Byakuren no longer fears death. That is no longer the reason for her to keep on living. It's truly a redemption in every sense of the word.
And like you, I agree that her immortality and young appearance are caused separately. Nothing much to say, other than why didn't she go for a more young look? When you think of being young, most people will aim to be late teen at best(thus the whole 17 is the limit of young, past that and you're an old hag to the majority), but Byakuren looks like a mature lady. Of course, it could just be her preference, but I guess it won't hurt to think that her current form is where she is most fit and capable, and that's why she sticks to it. Just my opinion.
And I think the reason she kept up the act is that because she knew she was an irregular. A human helping youkai certainly must be something that was unheard of back in her time. Why else would people like Jeanne D'arc had to hide their identity from others? The less they know about it, the better. But that itself is a form of selfishness, depending on how you see it. Moving on.
Also, I think saying that she was suspected due to her eternal youth is a bit too early(especially because you won't change much after your 20s for several years), because we don't know exactly what caused her to be found out. It could be because someone saw a youkai in her temple, the youkai screwed up, or maybe even an "external interference". I'm not ruling out the possibility you said though.
Now onto whether what she does is worth anything or not.
Sure enough, SoPM and HM, and perhaps WaHH and FS, showed that she's not so successful, nor does she seem to know exactly what should be done to each of those youkai. But that just means that it's not an easy thing to accomplish, which it should be. Changing how a society works is never an easy thing to do, I believe I don't need to explain that further.
But is it worthless then? I can't say so, yet.
Yeah, like you said, many don't follow her teachings or maybe even quit all together, but we know that it made a progress even for a bit.
Murasa who was a mass murderer is reduced to a serial-killer that's not so successful(the only thing she sunk that we know of is Komachi's Titanic), other than that she splashes water to people.
Ichirin... well, dunno how she was back then. Maybe she bashed people to death with Unzan? Then I guess limiting herself to just beating shit up is quite an improvement from that past. And Byakuren does scold her for that in HM.
Educating others, in the sense of changing their vision in life, is not easy. I say this speaking from experience. And calling her ignorant to their actions and how a youkai works is again, too soon in my opinion. She is implied to go scold them after knowing about it in SoPM, and she's highly concerned about how Kokoro and her emotions works, so she does care.
As for her knowledge, I think the most popular one is with Kokoro, where people said both Byakuren and Miko don't know anything about helping her regain her hope. Even though in the end, the way Kokoro finally got her emotions back is influenced by both of them. The "you have to control and make your own emotions" taught by Byakuren, and "you cannot rely on others to make an emotion for you" due to the incompatibility of Miko's New Mask of Hope. Mami just put two and two together into Kokoro's head.
She is somewhat clueless about the youkai, but she wants to know. Perhaps if Mamizou, the youkai yakuza boss, (or maybe even other knowledgeable youkai, like Yukari) were to share a little bit more on what she knows about youkai then maybe she can do better in the future.
Though I'd like to know more about what you said on Kyoko. Where was that said?
What I know is that Yamabikos having an existential crisis was caused by the humans, who no longer shout to the mountains because they believe in Yamabiko, nothing to do with Byakuren at all. That's just Gensoukyo rules in action. In fact, giving Kyouko another purpose to recite(shouting) sutras, since no one shouts for her anymore, is what keeps her alive as a youkai. Of course, her not understanding what she's saying is another job for Byakuren to fix in the future.
As for Buddhism. Well, I am a Christian, so maybe what I'll say here is not completely right. This is just my knowledge of their teachings from reading and discussions with my Buddhist friends.
Becoming free of wordly attachments and embracing death, doesn't mean that you'll just die right after it. It's more like, realizing that you'll eventually die and not being bound by fear of it, will make it easier for you to live for selfless reason. You still have to find your purpose in life. It's quite similar in Christianity, though we add to live for God into it too. So I'll have to disagree when you said that's what Buddhism is all about.
And you're right. Youkai who lose their purpose do die, if they don't find a new one, which is what Byakuren and her teachings to them is aiming for. Case in point, the only really successful one we know so far, Shou. Yes, maybe that got something to do with Bishamonten's help, but still, it's a proven fact nonetheless. And since it's possible, I think it's worth betting on. And again, 'course it's not easy.
And about Miko, let's just say that Byakuren has nothing personal against her as proven in HM. You're free to call her shifty/deceitful, but I see it as being cautious. I think it's normal when you know something is in there and decides to play safe, especially if it's potentially harmful. And when she did know, there's no use sealing her back then, and decided to confront Miko herself later on. TD extra stage was caused by Nue herself, unbeknown by Byakuren, so no aggression coming from her, yet.
Anyway, this is just how I see her from just the canon. Obviously, others can agree and disagree. But I'll listen to what you have to say about it.
Also, another reason I decided to reply you, Clarste. You "liked" Byakuren, didn't you? It's just that what happened in TD, SoPM, and HM, not to mention several stories of how youkai works in WaHH and FS, kinda disappoint you. Correct me if I'm wrong though, and I apologize if that's not the case.
I can understand it, those reasons you said. They are valid reasons for people to hate Byakuren. But I decided not to.
You may say she's an idiotic woman, who's striving for a pointless goal in a world where her ideal won't go well with the system. But I like seeing those kind of people trying their best doing something that others doubt, but secretly desire in their heart. Her struggle is almost like how we struggle in life, it's not easy and requires a lot of efforts, along with help from others. It makes it hard for me not to cheer on her against all those odds. This is why I think that she's not done yet, I hope to see what will happen to her story in the future. But that's for ZUN to decide whether to give more development to her or not.
In the mean time, I'll trust the most human and relatable character in any form of fiction I've ever known.
Thanks for reading and sorry for anything that might offend you or anyone here.
EDIT:
At this point, I haven't read your next comments, so pardon for not commenting on them. Maybe later.
But enough about Byakuren, let's talk about others.
I don't think I despise any in particular, but if there's any then it's probably
HM Koishi and
Kokoro.
Agree with Clarste, the one thing that made Koishi interesting is her connection to Satori. SA extra ending, gave hope for an interesting development, but that turn out to be somewhat naught in HM. She changed a bit due to Kokoro's mask, but in the end she's back to zero, which I hope isn't the case. Basically, her development felt kinda cut off. Plus, she can be quite annoying, since people mostly think she can get away with everything because of
subconcious. I sympathize her character, but not like that.
And I like Satori more because she decided to persevere, while Koishi, in my opinion, is just running away.
Moving on to Kokoro. Nothing against the character herself, but more on what she did in HM. Blaming everyone in the end for the incident she caused is, frankly, hard to take nicely even if it turned out fine in the end. I know, fighting game and all, she needs a reason to fight everyone else. But unlike Tenshi, who still has to do some chores later, she's all peachy, with no feeling of guilt that it was kinda her fault in the first place(which Tenshi realizes, 1 points to the Delinquent Celestial).
Thankfully that was only in HM, because FS shows her in better light and the others don't really mind what she did.
As for Reimu, gotta go with Clarste, Drake and Polaris. I like her when she's not too rude, and does what she does because that's what people ask her to. Though in a way, that sorta makes her identity meaningless to humans or even youkai, since what they see is not "Reimu" the Hakurei Miko, but just her role as the "Hakurei Miko". Hope that doesn't sound so confusing.
Oh Reimu, she really needs a hug.
