#sometimes historical figures will embody the thought of their times and I'd love to pick one per span of thought for the entirety of histor | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lyricalive · 6 years

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What are your headcanons on the Yukari/Maribel relationship ? Same person ? Relatives ? Alternate universe version ? Past/future self ? This question has always fascinated me and I also love to read you talking about Touhou so I'd like to hear your opinion on this subject ^^

What a fascinating topic. Take a seat, take a seat.

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to collect all the thoughts I’ve ever indulged on the subject! So long as it remains ambiguous, I’m interested in considering all the most interesting possibilities, rather than pushing one particular theory, though I have preferences for ones that allow happy endings.

BACKGROUND:

–> Maribel Hearn and Renko Usami live in a future era of Japan, relative to the Gensokyo we see in the games.

–> Maribel seems not to be not native Japanese, and has no family in Japan. She claims to come from a long line of people with natural abilities to perceive gaps in boundaries.

–> Maribel can commute across both time and space via her dreams, evidenced by this note from future-era Maribel discovered in past-era Gensokyo.

–> Yukari Yakumo has probably existed as a youkai of boundaries for countless ages, since the concept of “boundaries” existed. In the late nineteenth century, Yukari led the Great Hakurei Barrier project, officially sealing off the world of fantasy from the world of reality and creating the society of Gensokyo.

–> In real life in the late nineteenth century, a foreigner named Lafcadio Hearn immigrated to Japan, adopted the name Koizumi Yakumo, and published a collection of “Stories and Studies” about youkai and Japanese legends. ZUN presented this historical figure as the only hint to the characters’ relationship.

SAME-PERSON THEORIES:

–> Maribel is known for confusing dreams with reality. Doubting objectivity, with only Renko keeping her grounded, she has teetered on the border of her own existence by essentially doubting whether she herself is real. A youkai is something that a human fantasizes that takes on a life of its own. Humans can become youkai, which is a huge issue emphasized in the print works. If a human like Maribel fully loses contact with reality, and believes herself to be a fantasy, then she may indeed become a fantasy, a youkai. Renko knows this and, in Changeability of Strange Dream, she has to decide what kind of advice to give her about her situation. Rather than to validate her experience as truth, or to dismiss her dream as just a dream, the advice she chooses to give is… to clearly separate dreams and reality, so that dreams can be turned into reality with their own hands.

This struck me as (extremely inspirational and) extremely parallel to the concept of the Hakurei Barrier itself. Though the similarities between Maribel and Yukari are more blatant, I want to point out that similarities between Renko and Reimu are there too, from her hair to the red-and-white shrine-maiden-like sleeves she’s sometimes depicted in… and most of all, this particular role she plays with regard to her Yukari-counterpart.

In the ultimate fitting paradox, perhaps the dream-chasers Maribel and Renko are actually retroactively responsible for creating their very own dream. As Merry’s boundary-sensing powers develop, she will eventually be thrown back in time to take on the role of the boundary youkai who establishes Gensokyo.

It feels like a leap of logic to assume that Maribel is the “before” and Yukari is the “after,” but of course “the opposite of common sense” is exactly what Gensokyo is about. Despite time flowing differently between them, it seems plausible that “Hearn” came first. After all, in the case of Lafcadio, “Hearn” was the original name that existed before “Yakumo,” and Yukari is indeed said to have chosen that name for herself rather than it being her original. She also feels nostalgic about the outside world when she visits, as if it’s a part of her past.

Maribel is destined to become a/the gap youkai… and along with her, Renko is going to become a/the first Hakurei shrine maiden. Hakurei shrine maidens are not necessarily related by blood but rather they can be chosen (by youkai), so there’s no need for her to actually be related to Reimu, just parallel in role. Her role is to help enforce that barrier for Maribel between dream and reality, and somehow they can combine their powers to do this.

Because the Sealing Club ideologically encapsulates so much of what makes Touhou meaningful to me as a fantasy world, constantly echoing and reflecting its fascinating principles from an outside perspective, it’s a high-key ideal to be able to see those two girls as being so foundational and important to the scope of the whole series in the most literal way. This is really the main train of thought that I tend to have in mind whenever I write anything about Yukaribel.

–> The more common spin of the theory involves the inevitable angst of Renko being left behind as Maribel disappears to transform into Yukari. I definitely get the appeal – but only when Renko gets to try her damnedest to chase after her and will someday definitely get the chance to meet her again in a really awesome way like a danmaku duel. As I said, a happy ending is very important.

Though, I’m actually even more stubborn than is reasonable in my definition of “happy”… While I have always found it more interesting to think that they are the same person… at the same time, having become very personally attached to the close-knit context of Maribel and Renko, I might hesitate because… I don’t really want the Sealing Club to be such a relatively small part of this one huge person’s lengthy life, you know? It makes for a very uneven relationship, whereas I idealize the Sealing Club’s pure interpersonal equality. Yukari is so much more than Maribel, but Maribel is all that Renko knows. Even assuming that Renko comes along, she’ll only live out a normal human’s lifespan while Yukari by nature is more or less eternal. Renko has said that she would drink an elixir of immortality if given the chance, so she would surely have no qualms about things like training to extend her life in the way of a magician (“physicist=magician,” as noted on the cover of Magical Astronomy), or being kept alive by whatever means. But the main issue is that a person in her role (if she becomes a shrine maiden) isn’t really allowed to be youkai-like or long-lived. So it’s still hard to think about.

And then there’s the fact that Yukari and Yuyuko have their own whole important history together and are wonderfully deep BFFs. If Maribel is Yukari… you can’t have two best friends!! (Disclaimer: You can, but it doesn’t personally satisfy me.) This unreasonably sentimental protest is probably the only thing that keeps me unsure about my main headcanon nowadays… even as I do believe that the conceptually-all-encompassing Yukari should indeed have a shifting, multifaceted life, and that it’s a good answer. (Also *grumble grumble* Okina and whatever other suddenly-confirmed Gensokyo-founding sages can exist in her life too, I guess! I try to be a good, well-rounded fan who accepts and respects all of canon, but I have to confess that sometimes I’m very into cherry-picking what I like about things.)

RELATIVE THEORIES:

–> You don’t have to deal with that kind of drama if they aren’t actually forced to share an identity! Alternatively, let’s say Yukari once used the surname Hearn as she spent time in the real world, and left behind a descendant there. It’s not unheard of for youkai in myths to have relationships with humans, and this would truly make Maribel one of those paradoxically “two-sided” sorts of characters that I love, whose birth roots are “half-fantasy, half-reality,” fittingly along the border. This is, like, a really simple and obvious and likely solution that I rarely think about… I want to say it’s because there’s nowhere to go from there, but there can still be the interesting ongoing dynamic of whether Yukari would approve of her meddling in other worlds as part of the Sealing Club, or whether she would need to keep her away to preserve the balance.

Despite actually aiming more for “same person” implications, I had her speak with sort of a mother-to-daughter tone in my Merry the Magician cover, and that might have helped convince myself. She seems to be a rather encouraging mother, while at the same time it could be interpreted as a trap to lure her fully into fantasy and out of the club. (Can’t she just re-adopt her, grooming her into her role for when she retires, and then have Renko come live in the Human Village? No?)

–> By a more magical conception of “relative,” perhaps Maribel is some sort of leakage or fragment of Yukari’s powers. The doujin Fantasy Melt is a really wonderful and beautiful take on this idea (if a bit confusing on the first read): As Maribel’s power develops, along with the outside world’s attitude toward this kind of power, Yukari feels the need to reabsorb or eliminate this “fragment” to preserve the important distinction between the real and fantasy worlds, while Renko needs to protect her by convincing Yukari that she deserves to exist on her own.

I’m not sure whether she meant the exact same thing, but the phrasing in this post by @amemenojaku struck a chord with me: that there’s something interesting about portraying Maribel as a “concept” rather than a normal “person,” per se. I agree. Believing that the meaningfulness of humanity is defined by experience, and being in the mindset that youkai themselves are concepts, I ironically don’t think the technicality of “being a concept” feels reductive to her personhood or relationship with Renko or anything, if it were to be the case. In the above doujin, Renko says, “For me, [Maribel] is dream itself. That’s why I want her.” The most powerful role for a character, in my opinion, is when they can represent, embody, or express a specific concept. For example, she already as a character represents the “concept” of subjective fantasy, while Renko counters her with a particularly optimistic brand of objective reality. I wish all the best for the dream(er) and the doer.

CRACK THEORIES?

–> Lafcadio Hearn had an actual wife… Would it be problematic to headcanon a real person cheating with Yukari? Maybe it’s less problematic to headcanon that Yukari herself was Lafcadio…? I’m sure that taking a different-gendered form is nowhere near an impossibility for a youkai of her nature, and it would actually make more sense with regard to it being her original name and being passed down through generations. She imparted some youkai stories (his published works) specifically to leave behind as records of “fiction” in the real world, concurrent with the founding of Gensokyo that was meant to solidify that line: it would make sense if she influenced him – or if she was him. I’d file it under “crack” only because of the inability to explain the rest of his unrelated life and why she’d be doing all that outside of Gensokyo at such a busy time, but I think the concept of this more literal blood-relative theory is interesting. And having this simplistic connection to a specific historical counterpart actually seems more like a legitimate Touhou design choice than some of the more complicated possibilities. (You know, like how Miko is just literally Prince Shoutoku.) Furthermore, if “gap youkai” is not necessarily a linear person’s identity but rather a flexible role to be filled by one person at a time, then maybe you could just say Lafcadio was his own person who later fell into that role after delving too much into occult studies, somewhat like the theories about Maribel herself.

–> This is just something I thought about once, in light of the themes of recent games and the upcoming game that deals with possession. If you flip the script… Perhaps Yukari has been possessing Maribel, a normal human, thus giving her visions and abilities, because she is interested in supporting or fostering or distracting Renko, Sumireko’s descendant, who has the potential to cause another incident like Sumi did. Maribel herself is incidental, and maybe her long lineage of power is a false memory. Renko is actually the more special one with real latent abilities!

–> Edit: Well, that “upcoming game about possession” has been released. It was absolutely amazing, and it solves everything. All you have to do while playing Antinomy of Common Flowers is pair up Yukari with Sumireko, take off your glasses and squint, and voila! This is how RenMerry makes it to Gensokyo!! In seriousness, more and more interesting information is being revealed in the core games about the “dream world” and “dream selves,” something that was only a vague concept when Merry first explored it in her stories. Apparently, every person has a “dream world” counterpart. This version of yourself is you, except it expresses all your weird, repressed thoughts and acts fully how you want to. Normal dreams are supposed to take place within the dream realm with your dream self. However, if your physical body enters the dream realm, which it’s not supposed to, but which Merry’s does, the “dream self” is pushed out into the outer world to roam free. The two are essentially the same person, yet they are separate and capable of coming face to face. ….Well, unlike a lot of characters in AoCF, we never actually met Yukari’s dream self. Perhaps because Yukari is Merry’s “dream” self? The idea of one being awake while the other is asleep has been a popular (though hole-riddled) theory for a long time, implicating a very loose definition of “dream self” in terms of the classic “butterfly dream.” But I feel that Touhou’s new and specific lore on dream identities could really be put to good use in Yukaribel theories. Incidentally, someone has also pointed out to me how AoCF’s portrait artist draws both Merry and Yukari with uniquely pupil-less eyes, which is a great nod towards the connection being supported by a very important source.

–> According to Strange Creators Vol. 1, the games called “Touhou Project” canonically exist as fiction in the outside world of Gensokyo. Renko canonically plays danmaku shooter games; she once compared herself to the protagonist of one. One day, Renko is going to pick up and play this ancient game and be like, “Merry, why does this hag look like you?” They play the game while knowing too much, and whatever they do in the game causes an incident’s worth of ripple effects in the actual Gensokyo. This is the long-awaited climax of the Sealing Club stories, revealing the truth that they were “alternate universe” counterparts simply between the game world and the real world all along. I mean, it’d make a fun fanwork anyway.

YUKARIBEL REFERENCES IN MY OWN FANWORKS:

(Just in case you ever thought, “Hm, was Asa trying to imply X?” Yeah, I probably was. It’s usually written in the mindset of the “same person” theory, but just nudging at the connection in general is always fun and widely applicable.)

Schrodinger’s Bakeneko:

(We are the observers now, but what would it take to switch our positions?)

The girls take a lighthearted stance in favor of protecting youkai by keeping their memories alive… underscored by implications that this is actually particularly important because Merry may someday be in the position of a youkai herself.

(My lost kitten, are you far from home? Have you reached the end of your line?

My, perhaps it isn’t just a matter of distance… No, it’s a matter of time.)

The intro and outro can be read as Maribel speaking to the cat she saw (which was totally Chen), or Yukari speaking to Chen, or Yukari speaking to Maribel. After all, in one of the song titles from another album, Merry has been called a “mysterious cat,” compared to Renko’s “strange bird.”

I saw a funny thing floating out on the river:A tattered piece of cloth, all washed up by the rain.Its dye in the water was trailing behind,Where the once-striking pattern looked only like a stain.

The sights you see beyond are the remnants of something;The prints they leave behind, ever hard to discern.If the cat was the dye… if I touched it, would I…?Let’s be careful with wet paint, ‘cause soon we’re gonna learn.

This verse is based on a particularly ominous section of Dr. Latency’s official story (#8, The Taboo Membrane Wall). G-go read it, and try to figure out what ZUN meant when he had Merry suddenly whisper, “…if contaminants get mixed in, they’ve got to be eliminated.”

Hiroshige No.36 ~ Neo Super-Express:

Is it one straight line, first to last?Split this track into a brand new past…(Unbound, turn around at the end of the line~)(A retrospective, back in time…)

The idea is to reach something new by going to the past, implicating the unnatural flow of time involved in the relationship between the worlds and the characters. The world of the past is of course Gensokyo, and the method of transportation to get there is of course a train, something Yukari is fond of pulling through her gaps.

There’s no ticket to be going back!

Hanging on that rail, don’t you fall!

It’s implied that this type of trip is a “one-way street,” if you will, and Merry is the one in danger of falling off…

My my, a conductor’s life is fun!

But she seems to have a natural affinity for the powerful role of a conductor.

By the way, it’s kind of silly, but the verbal tic “oh my” / “my my” – the equivalent of the Japanese “ara ara” – is something I associate very strongly with both Maribel’s and Yukari’s personalities.

Girls’ Sealing Club:

In lucid thought, there’s something caught across the other side.

In broken parts, our maidens’ hearts are never satisfied.

To become what we’re destined to be!

Implying that whatever they seek on the other side of the dream-line is actually a part of themselves. …Also implying that their missing parts are each other, ‘cause they’re in LOVE and they’re being lovey-dovey through the whole subtext, but yeah.

Greenwich in the Sky:

Maybe the day that we next look in the mirror, we’ll even be seeing a new face.

What if they’re just like us? Well, and what if they’re different completely?

The theme of these lyrics is about the importance of seeing new perspectives, and no example of that is more relevant than a possible impending change of identity. The echoes are constantly there, just waiting to be heard.

Transcendental Revelry:

– “Lucky she didn’t hear you make that mistake. Tanuki… simply hate foxes, don’t you know?”

– “Izzat so?”

– “I mean, I don’t really see why. I think a fox would make… a lovely…”

For no reason whatsoever, Merry cut herself short and burst into a fit of laughter.

The laughter was contagious and, in equal ignorant bliss, Renko soon began laughing together with her, almost to the point of tears.

To any passersby, their dazzling smiles may have easily let them pass for tanuki.

This is a fic where a drunken RenMerry catch some glimpses of Gensokyo. In this bit, Merry ends up getting an idea that references Yukari’s shikigami Ran. I was playing with the implication that, if she gets close to anything that would trigger some sort of paradoxically forbidden knowledge of Yukari before the time is right, some force of the universe might be stopping her from reaching it. They get their memories wiped of the experience in the end – but, well, that may have been the fault of the alcohol, not Yukari.

Matryoshka:

Like a matryoshka, there’s a seal to peel away!

It’s the best kind of story when the people who solve mysteries end up being the biggest mystery themselves. A doll with another self hidden inside of her…

AH, I’m about to bust… hold me steady quick, before I tumble free…AH, with the hands I trust… catch my fall for me…

Maribel is slowly increasing in fear of her own growing powers before an oblivious Renko, who pushes forward without realizing until it’s too late. Incidentally, thanks to delicious double entendre, Maribel is also slowly increasing in the strength of her feelings for an oblivious Renko, who doesn’t realize until too late.

Dance along, till we dance out of the frame…!

The notion is that, if you play along with a game for long enough, you’ll eventually become a part of it. In this way, the Sealing Club’s adventures in fantasy run the risk of not letting them return to reality, particularly the very susceptible Merry. The video mostly tells the story of the first theory here, while adding some of the angst from the second. I actually meant to directly reference shrine-maiden Renko at the end by changing her coloring, but I ended up not doing that… Still, the clocks in her eyes clearly turn back time to follow Merry into the past.

Honestly, I don’t think I would ever actually write a story specifically about the culmination of these theories. I love “Yukaribel” just as a really fun idea to play with as part of her character’s concept of being on the brink of a precarious border (of knowledge or identity). I might be happy if it were given a satisfying conclusion in canon, but I’d also be happy just having the Sealing Club explore worlds collecting just short of this knowledge forever… since I just appreciate them all as “concepts.”

P.S. I am also, vaguely yet strongly, interested in the train of thought that involves Renko and Maribel somehow fusing to become Yukari. Yukari’s gaps are a physics-related thing, manipulating time and location, relevant to Renko’s ability. And, as stated before, her Gensokyo was founded largely in accordance with Renko’s ideology. Because I insist that Merry can’t go anywhere without Renko, and because I really adore the sentiment of them being the “two-in-one” Sealing Club – and I’m a Steven Universe fan who idealizes “fusions” – this would pretty much be the ultimate good end for me, even beyond them making the trip back in time as two people. This way, they can truly be together forever, by a manner that emphasizes the direct mutual impact they have on each other and the unity of what they each represent. However, I haven’t found a specific way to explain how that fusion would happen in the Touhou setting without it sounding weird or creepy or unfitting. L-like, there are songs about one literally consuming the other and stuff like that. I don’t know about that. But as a concept of a permanent fusion representing the mixture of their ideas and experiences… *thumbs up*

Thank you sincerely to anyone who read all this!!

A-AND I DON’T THINK IT WAS ANYTHING GROUNDBREAKING BUT I HOPE IT WAS OKAY!!

#ask #touhou #yukari yakumo #maribel hearn #renko usami #renmerry

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