Flandre Scarlet, insane or misunderstood?

[Kasei Honoo]

I would have never guessed XD Who mine who ahead and try to guess ^.^

[Maiden Synnae ミ☆]

Flandre is just insane because it's her nature. She is a lot more outgoing and less refined than her sister, with her destructive power she seems to take advantage from it in order to cause calamities. And by being locked the entire time it only helps her insanity to grow further.

[Esoterica]

Insane, but she has to be at least somewhat innocent.  Otherwise there's no way she'd just stay in the basement like that.

[Hashmalum]

She couldn't understand Remilia very well either. They both use ancient japanese.

That shouldn't be a problem for Aya, who is as old as both Scarlet sisters put together.

Starting a contract such as that is ridiculous. Flan, if let outdoors, would be able to catch her own food easily, as she would just kill random humans as she pleased, whether she's insane or not. One, it's her social ineptitude that makes her unable to care for herself and have such a dependence on her sister; as it was probably planned by Remilia in the first place. If Flan's power was that unstable, then making her dependent on the only person who can control her is the perfect way to keep her in check. And two, if she was originally truly insane she would have probably fought Remilia if a contract like that was suggested, and it definitely wouldn't have been initiated by herself. Flandre respects Remilia more than anyone else and Remilia takes advantage of that to keep her still. There's no real evidence here to suggest that a contract could have been brought into place.

Insane doesn't mean automatically violent (many forms of mental illness render one more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator), or always unable to see what is in one's own best interests and act on it. Insanity isn't necessarily incompatible with willingly being contracted. She doesn't necessarily have any reason to fight it, and lots of reasons to accept.

For example, even if Flandre can catch her own food, if she had something like, say, schizoid personality disorder, she might not want to, since it would involve interaction with people (which schizoid sufferers tend to shun). She also needs a place to stay during the daytime and during the rain, and presumably she'd rather live in a comfortable house protected by others. For all her power, she's still someone with a ton of weaknesses who can be ambushed in her sleep. Besides friendship, why do you think that Remi keeps Patchy around? Because she's a powerful person who doesn't need to sleep. China, Sakuya, and the hordes of otherwise useless fairy maids all serve a similar function as well: they can slow down an intruder long enough for the Scarlet sisters to wake up and get ready for them (and if the intruder is weak enough, the help can keep them out entirely).

Here's another way of thinking about it. Remilia can manipulate fate. Flandre obeying her and staying in the basement is accomplished because Remilia uses her powers to control Flan' fate. Flan never questioning what she eats, Flan coming up only when Remilia wants her to and respecting Remilia in general: is all controlled by her powers. Why do you think they moved to Gensokyo? Why does Flan only escape from the mansion immediately after the heroines defeats Remilia, and the heroines just so happen to be there on the day Flan gets loose? Think about it.

Ah, you're saying that Remilia deliberately altered fate to get Flandre some human contact (with the heroines)? Sure, that makes sense.

[Drake]

That shouldn't be a problem for Aya, who is as old as both Scarlet sisters put together.

Good point. I'm also going to throw in that if Flan has had barely any contact with people other than the maids and her sister, she might have either just been shy or mumbling. A bit of a reacher here, but if she hadn't been let out of the basement for a while her ability to talk might have been garbled, as well.

stuff

Well, there's no real reason for me to disbelieve you as you put it that way, but I still say that it's complicating the matter too much and relies less on canon material than theories. I could say that when she was five, Remilia smashed her in the side of the head with a rock and she's been awkward ever since, because there's no real evidence to say otherwise. Either way, you can believe what you want.

members of the mansion

i agree etc

Ah, you're saying that Remilia deliberately altered fate to get Flandre some human contact (with the heroines)? Sure, that makes sense.

With Flandre having barely any contact with people, if I were Remilia I would think it would be great for Flandre to release on/play with/interact in any fashion with someone strong enough to have bested her. The more I think about this possibility the more I believe in it.

[Hashmalum]

Well, there's no real reason for me to disbelieve you as you put it that way, but I still say that it's complicating the matter too much and relies less on canon material than theories. I could say that when she was five, Remilia smashed her in the side of the head with a rock and she's been awkward ever since, because there's no real evidence to say otherwise. Either way, you can believe what you want.

Theories, sure. But that's all we have here, really. I'm not here to say that this is The Way It Is and if you disagree then You Are Wrong. I'm just here to present interesting possibilities and how those can fit in the canon.

With Flandre having barely any contact with people, if I were Remilia I would think it would be great for Flandre to release on/play with/interact in any fashion with someone strong enough to have bested her. The more I think about this possibility the more I believe in it.

I think it's extremely likely, yes.

[♛ Apher-Forte]

I like to think of her as insane, and that the only reason she stays there is because she wants to.
She doesn't like playing herself and wants people to visit her and so on, except since she is so insane, which she well understood the fact that she is, she calmly presses herself not to do much except wait an eternity.

In loneliness, she cannot destroy, and cannot harm, it would save her the trouble of going overboard and having to clean up her mess. In my opinion as well, one does not simply develop multiple selves (4 of a kind) that easily, it may be why she is in there, she may have found consolation in talking with her 'selves' instead of going out there and having to face unpleasantries. IOW: NEET VAMPIRE.

[Helepolis]

Flandre is insane (ZUN decides this), but people just take it too much by making her a total maniac or lunatic that loves to destroy humans and does it intentionally ( overdone Fanon lol ). She doesn't even know how blood tastes so let alone she would go destroy a village.

[Ghaleon]

I've accepted her as being somewhat insane via the zun quote linked in this thread previously. However I always felt that she's also sane as well in many regards. Nobody with the power of destruction WILLINGLY sits in a basement for 495 years without attempting to bust their way out violently at least ONCE without an incredible amount of self-control, even by a sane person's standards I mean. The whole respect for her big sister thing also goes a long way. Which also makes me think Remilia isn't really much of a "spoiled brat" that people think her as. I mean it's easy to think someone is spoiled when they have their own mansion with a staff of maids and whatnot. But Sakuya has a loyalty to Remilia that goes beyond a sense of maid duty, and her friend patchy seems content enough to live there and get along with Remi just fine, even tutor her young sister as well. Plus Remi is the first vampire I've heard of that decides it's rude to finish off a human while eating it. I know ordinary people with those kinds of resources tend to spoil a whole lot more than that >=P.

It's kind of hard to really describe why I think Flan isn't utterly insane due to the lack of lore surrounding her in the 'canon' Touhou I've seen/played. But honestly, Cirno seems more insane and bloodthirsty to me from what I've seen.

[Esoterica]

She doesn't even know how blood tastes

She does, she just doesn't know where her food comes from.

[Aya Reiko]

She's a little nuts.  Even Aya had trouble making sense of what she was saying.

Maybe Remi should introduce her to Satori, maybe Satori can figure out which gear is stripped.

[Drake]

More fic ideas.

[Knuckx117]

Flandre isn't crazy, fans just assume this because she has spell cards named after a book about a serial killer, and she likes to have her meat* made into cakes.

*human flesh and organs.

Why do I think Sweeny Todd when I hear that? :V

[Tinari]

I'd just like to throw out there that people use the term "495 years" as if it's significant.

To a vampire, I don't think 495 years is the same as it is to a human.  Waiting a month for us can be difficult.  Being locked in a small dark cell for 24 hours is hard for us.  I could imagine a vampire just sitting quietly for days on end just being "lost in thought" and 495 years being "just a little while."

[Ghaleon]

I'd just like to throw out there that people use the term "495 years" as if it's significant.

To a vampire, I don't think 495 years is the same as it is to a Human.  Waiting a month for us can be difficult.  Being locked in a small dark cell for 24 hours is hard for us.  I could imagine a vampire just sitting quietly for days on end just being "lost in thought" and 495 years being "just a little while."

not when 495 years is more than 90% of your age it's not.

[Tinari]

not when 495 years is more than 90% of your age it's not.

Wouldn't that make it seem normal?

There are cases around the world where children are thrown in with packs of animals (dogs, etc) where the child grows up with very animalistic behavior.  Wouldn't that then, logically, mean that more than anything being locked (willingly or otherwise) be of no matter to her since it's what she knows and is used to?

[Kinzo the Astro Curious]

Thats an interesting theory. She would probably have very little, if any perception of time. hours probably go by like minutes, blankly doing nothing.

Read a good doujin on flandre and remila once, what happened between them and why flandre is "insane" not being because of her power, but what it caused her to do once, And remila is trying to make her remember and come to terms with it.

[Sabino]

Although Prof.Drake summed up lots of the things that everyone was thinking very nicely,
I think everyone is forgetting one thing.
In the book she called Remillia "アイツ"
(Which literally means "that person" which is used in a more disrespectful manner.)
... Which is inconsistent to her "Looks up to and respects Remillia" sort of character.
This inconsistency in character is also one of Flandre's mysterious charms I guess.

I can't really state any opinion when it comes to Flandre, since the other infamous sister Koishi makes the matter so much more difficult to comprehend. (Koishi says quite morbid things too and her insanity seems to be on a different vector than Flandre's, but judging insanity is... *goes on endlessly*)

[Matsuri]

Flan isn't insane. She's just destructive and lonely

[Helepolis]

Flan isn't insane. She's just destructive and lonely

And adorable.

[Kuma]

Koishi on the other hand, is fucking buttshit loco

[Ghaleon]

Wouldn't that make it seem normal?

Probably, I'm  just saying 495 years isn't a trivial amount of time to someone whose age isn't even 1000 (not even close in Flan's case).
I don't see what feeling normal about location has to do about her supposed insanity though. I agree with hele that she's adorable though >=P

[orinrin]

Everyone is misunderstood to some degree.  I don't think Flandre is an exception to this rule.

We may think of her as insane when it is just that her thinking is a bit different from ours.

_{Having U.N. Owen Was Her? as her theme doesn't really help this theory though.}