Canon portrayals that you wish got used more in fandom

[Phlegeth]

I like Kanako a lot too.  And I'd like to see her compassion get played up a little more.  Most of the time when she does show up, it's all about the Goddess or Warrior part, which is understandable being a Goddess of War.  But she comes of cold hearted holier than thou in most of those.  They seem to forget that even though Kanako came in and took Suwako's land and goddessness or whatever, she didn't banish or kill or do anything to Suwako.  She let her stay there.  And now she is pushing for a industrial revelution and in Ruro's quip, she wants to be viewed as an equal.

[Tengukami]

Hell yeah, Kanako is amazing. I knew I liked her after reading the very same passage that Sakana quoted.

But if Kanako is growing to dislike youkai, and Sanae is mellowing out towards them ... could we be seeing the student emerging to take over where the master left off? I agree, Kanako has a great deal of potential, in particular with regards to her relationships with Sanae and Suwako.

Speaking of Suwako, there's a character I never really cared for. To be perfectly honest, this is mostly because of her design. I just find that hat to be the stupidest, most last-minute accessory ever. I'd love to see a canonical portrayal that fleshes out her personality more, going beyond "happy go lucky me" and whatnot.

[Sophilia]

Well, Yuyuko does tease Youmu canonically.  However, it's not "lol lets make youmu a butt monkey for the lulz."  Usually, there's a lesson to be learned in the process.  Youmu is at once both the dead serious, infinitely devoted samurai, and the classically moe clueless and inexperienced girl.  So you end up with things like her chapter in CoLA, or her fighting game scenarios.

As for Kanako, I don't think the "raaaagh smite teh youkais" is anything personal.  I see it as more of having to do with being a god of war.  Like any other god or youkai, she gets her strength from belief.  And what does a god of war do to get people to believe in her?  Admittedly, these were entirely the wrong people to take that approach to.

[Polaris]

"Lady Kanako is telling me to master youkai hunting like they do." It seems more to me that Kanako wants Sanae to hunt youkai to become more like the other main characters, instead of growing to dislike them. Of course, I would set apart the mountain youkai from the others in the first place, so there's a sort of justification in Kanako encouraging Sanae to "hunt youkai that do bad things to people". But then Sanae gets caught up in "youkai hunting" and ends up just attacking every youkai she sees or something.

Personally I believe that Sanae's enthusiasm for youkai hunting is towards the whole spell card rules thing and not actual extermination. In Sanae B's scenario she more or less mentions that she's not exterminating any youkai for real, so it's probably the same in SanaeA.

[Hanzo K.]

The way i see it, Youmu's brave, unless it involves spooky things.
Fighting a rampaging Oni? She'd do that if Yuyuko asked. Take a Master Spark head on? Same story.
But if it involves going somewhere known to be spooky, then she's not going to be as likely.
See, she's somewhat afraid of ghosts, despite having one for a boss, and working with them every day.
I think it's just the ones in Hakugyoukurou and Higan that she's not worried about, it's any she might find by surprise OUTSIDE of those places that'd spook her more than anything.

Plus, like Sophilia said earlier, she's quite inexperienced in a lot of things. And everyone loves her for it. (I happen to know a guy who's a massive Youmu fanboy in fact.)

[Tengukami]

As for Kanako, I don't think the "raaaagh smite teh youkais" is anything personal.  I see it as more of having to do with being a god of war.  Like any other god or youkai, she gets her strength from belief.  And what does a god of war do to get people to believe in her?  Admittedly, these were entirely the wrong people to take that approach to.

Yeah, see, this is what confuses me. Her official profile calls her a goddess of wind and rain. And in the old days, she was a harvest goddess. Also, as Sakana pointed out, she wanted youkai to come up the mountain to dance and sing and party with her. Why did she suddenly start sending Sanae out to whoop youkai butt?

I'd love to see a work of fanfiction explain that.

"Lady Kanako is telling me to master youkai hunting like they do." It seems more to me that Kanako wants Sanae to hunt youkai to become more like the other main characters, instead of growing to dislike them. Of course, I would set apart the mountain youkai from the others in the first place, so there's a sort of justification in Kanako encouraging Sanae to "hunt youkai that do bad things to people". But then Sanae gets caught up in "youkai hunting" and ends up just attacking every youkai she sees or something.

Yes. This is plausible.

Personally I believe that Sanae's enthusiasm for youkai hunting is towards the whole spell card rules thing and not actual extermination. In Sanae B's scenario she more or less mentions that she's not exterminating any youkai for real, so it's probably the same in SanaeA.

Now this, though, I'm not so sure about. She shows a lot of contempt for youkai in UFO. In Ten Desires, she's more relaxed, almost polite even. I think she's just growing up.

[Jana]

Yeah, see, this is what confuses me. Her official profile calls her a goddess of wind and rain. And in the old days, she was a harvest goddess. Also, as Sakana pointed out, she wanted youkai to come up the mountain to dance and sing and party with her. Why did she suddenly start sending Sanae out to whoop youkai butt?

The "God of War" usually comes up because of her role in the Great Suwa War. I don't think war is actually one of her "domains," so to speak.

[TAKE IT CACODEMON!!]

I love Kanako. I was considering writing something about her forever ago, since so many people seem to dislike her around here.

Is it just me, or do Shikieiki, Byakuren, her, Remilia, and Yukari always get the "lol evil" short end of the stick?

[Savory]

Byakuren? That's new...

[ふとくていなねこじょおう]

I've really never seen that Nazi psychobitch Byakuren you guys keep talking about. All I ever see is the sweet, saintly Byakuren that she is meant to be.

[Athrel]

While I definitely don't believe in "Nazi Byakuren" I still dislike her character a lot for a couple of reasons. My main reason is that despite the fact that she states her goal is to unite Humans and Youkai, she hasn't really done much to help realize it, and perhaps made things worse with some of things she did before she was sealed away. For example, instead of trying get the humans she lived with to understand that youkai aren't evil she pretended to hunt youkai in order to please them (reinforcing the thought that youkai are bad).

Byakuren also seems to be all to willing to brand the protagonists (who have a legitimate reason for youkai hunting) as cruel, yet seems to be unaware of the fact that there are several youkai who eat and terrorize humans

Her group of followers also only contains youkai as opposed to both humans and youkai which would be more fitting considering her apparent goal.

I don't see Byakuren as evil as much as just misguided and having a slight dislike for humans, but maybe I'm just misinterpreting her backstory and ingame dialouge and am completely incorrect.

 

[TAKE IT CACODEMON!!]

I've really never seen that Nazi psychobitch Byakuren you guys keep talking about. All I ever see is the sweet, saintly Byakuren that she is meant to be.

There's a doujin circle by the name of Stripe Pattern that made a story about Byakuren helping youkai perpetrate a massacre, but then again, this same guy wrote "psycho Sanae who hates her goddesses" and "emo Aya" and is extremely fond of stupid grimdark.

Hell, the guy turned Nue into some sort of heroine for helping to seal Byakuren.

[orinrin]

There's a doujin circle by the name of Stripe Pattern that made a story about Byakuren helping youkai perpetrate a massacre, but then again, this same guy wrote "psycho Sanae who hates her goddesses" and "emo Aya" and is extremely fond of stupid grimdark.

Hell, the guy turned Nue into some sort of heroine for helping to seal Byakuren.

That doujin actually made me appreciate her a lot more.  Stripe Pattern is <3.

[Tiamat]

Her group of followers also only contains youkai as opposed to both humans and youkai which would be more fitting considering her apparent goal.

Byakuren's group of followers contains only youkai because Byakuren was hiding her love of youkai from humans, so it'd make sense that she wouldn't get that many human followers at first (lest they find out her secret).  However, now that she's in Gensokyo, her new temple is stated to be popular with both youkai AND humans alike (in one of the Hisoutenko win quotes, if I recall correctly)

Though of course ZUN still hasn't created any named human characters for it.

Byakuren hiding her love of youkai from humans in the past is probably supposed to be a character flaw anyways.  Not sure there's anything in the canon that celebrates the fact that she did that.  Course, in Gensokyo, she doesn't need to hide that anymore.

[akira.izayoi]

I Really , Really Wished That Kanako Is Used More. She's almost Invisible in Fanon, and only used probably as a background character in Fanon...

[TAKE IT CACODEMON!!]

That doujin actually made me appreciate her a lot more.  Stripe Pattern is <3.

What, Hero Nue or Canon Rape Byakuren?

The guy even used quotes to back up his interpretation, which made it even dumber.

[Savory]

I Really , Really Wished That Kanako Is Used More. She's almost Invisible in Fanon, and only used probably as a background character in Fanon...

I wouldn't say invisible. In fact, she seems to be present almost every time Sanae appears.

Plus, she does have that guncannon meme...

[Athrel]

Byakuren's group of followers contains only youkai because Byakuren was hiding her love of youkai from humans, so it'd make sense that she wouldn't get that many human followers at first (lest they find out her secret).  However, now that she's in Gensokyo, her new temple is stated to be popular with both youkai AND humans alike (in one of the Hisoutenko win quotes, if I recall correctly)

Though of course ZUN still hasn't created any named human characters for it.

Byakuren hiding her love of youkai from humans in the past is probably supposed to be a character flaw anyways.  Not sure there's anything in the canon that celebrates the fact that she did that.  Course, in Gensokyo, she doesn't need to hide that anymore.

That is true, I guess my main problem is that Byakuren's seen as this saintly near perfect person even though she acted in some pretty questionable ways before she was sealed away.

[Alfred F. Jones]

Byakuren also seems to be all to willing to brand the protagonists (who have a legitimate reason for youkai hunting) as cruel, yet seems to be unaware of the fact that there are several youkai who eat and terrorize humans

Her group of followers also only contains youkai as opposed to both humans and youkai which would be more fitting considering her apparent goal.

To the first, she has been sealed up for 1,000 years and was just released from her seal a couple of minutes ago when we meet her in UFO, which might go a long way towards explaining why she's so uninformed.

To the second, it's not her fault that it was only youkai who hopped onto the Palanquin Ship to save her-- they're the only ones who'd have the long enough lifespan to remember her the first time around, and even then, ReimuA's ending lays out that this has now changed:

Spoiler:

The treasure ship cruise was popular among humans and youkai.
Sometimes humans and youkai would end up onboard at the same time, but the youkai were never hunted then;
Byakuren was surprised at how much the world had changed - youkai were no longer victims.
Reimu didn't really understand what Byakuren was on guard about, but she had an idea why Byakuren had been sealed away.
She was too powerful and willing to aid humans and youkai without distinction, so the humans got mad and sealed her away.
Nobody would fear powerful humans anymore, though. Byakuren and her youkai friends would never be sealed away again.

[ふとくていなねこじょおう]

I freaking love ReimuA's ending. It's just so happy. 

[TAKE IT CACODEMON!!]

That is true, I guess my main problem is that Byakuren's seen as this saintly near perfect person even though she acted in some pretty questionable ways before she was sealed away.

What's so questionable about saving youkai from human lynch groups and humans from youkai raiding parties?

[Athrel]

What's so questionable about saving youkai from human lynch groups and humans from youkai raiding parties?

What I was mainly thinking about in my last post was the event with Murasa where she let the entire crew of the ship drown before actually doing anything.

Also, some of the things she says made me think that she's just not a fan of humans in general: such as in Marisa's scenario where she says "I've already given up my humanity" as if she was eager to get rid of it.

[TAKE IT CACODEMON!!]

[fanwank]She nearly drowned herself when Murasa trashed the ship[/fanwank]

Come to think of it, do we have any portrayals of the current tensions between youkai and human as stated in PMISS (extermination = arse beatings and youkai only kidnap humans for show)?

[Tengukami]

Also, some of the things she says made me think that she's just not a fan of humans in general: such as in Marisa's scenario where she says "I've already given up my humanity" as if she was eager to get rid of it.

That seems like a reeeal stretch in trying to find reasons not to like her. If you were a civil rights activist, trying to establish harmony between youkai and humans, and humans sealed you away from centuries, uh, yeah. I think I'd have an eensy weensy lil grudge about humanity in general.

[ふとくていなねこじょおう]

I want to see some more cannon Reimu. YEs, she can be a bit greedy, but the way fans tend to portray her towards money is ridiculous. And yes, she can be a jerk, but not THAT much of a jerk.

[Athrel]

That seems like a reeeal stretch in trying to find reasons not to like her. If you were a civil rights activist, trying to establish harmony between youkai and humans, and humans sealed you away from centuries, uh, yeah. I think I'd have an eensy weensy lil grudge about humanity in general.

Maybe it was a bit of a stretch. I'll just drop this subject now since it's sort of getting off topic from the thread's purpose.

[Savory]

I want to see some more cannon Reimu. YEs, she can be a bit greedy, but the way fans tend to portray her towards money is ridiculous. And yes, she can be a jerk, but not THAT much of a jerk.

YES.

[Savory]

I think the one of the very few characters who hasn't been corrupted by fandom is Mokou. Can anyone confirm this?

[Koakkuri]

What about Medicine, lesser-known PC-98 characters, and other characters hardly ever used? But of the popural ones, I think you're right.

[OkashiiKisei]

I think the one of the very few characters who hasn't been corrupted by fandom is Mokou. Can anyone confirm this?

Nope. Mokou is frequently depicted in fanart as a chain-smoker, despite official material stating that she's a health nut. It would be ridiculous to make her a smoker in that case, but for some reason or another the fandom made her one anyway. Probably because of her fire magic, tomboy look and because it's 'cool'.

As Koakkuri mentioned, Medicine is mostly unaffected. Hina and the Akis too to a certain extent. Pretty sure they didn't tinker much with Yamame and Kisume either.