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Misapplied Danmaku

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The cast of Touhou Project is vast, with a wide variety of wacky powers between them. However, are the characters using these powers to the best effect? (Warning, link leads to TVTropes. Muffin will not be held responsible for hours of time lost as a result of following it.But see also this disclaimer) Or is it the case that all they've done is just fling danmaku around?

This examination will attempt to answer this, comparing the best application in-story to the best idea I can come up with. I will only use canonical works, such as Perfect Memento, or the appearance of their abilities in-game. I will also assume that, in Imperishable Night, it is Reimu and Yukari who stopped the night from ending. However, this is disqualified from "best use" because the cure was arguably worse than the problem (i.e. the moon getting stolen to begin with). Furthermore, I do not regard the "Last Word" Spell Cards as being remotely canonical. For one thing, it brings Wriggle Nightbug up to the level of "even extra-er boss" ...

The ability to fly is also disqualified, since everybody can do it. (Possibly literally everyone in Gensokyo, depending on how you interpret a footnote to Flandre's article in Perfect Memento.)

Note also that this isn't specifically about danmaku; it is about the characters' "special ability," i.e. "manipulation of boundaries," or "control over weather."

I'm only examining the Windows games, since it has plenty of canonical out-of-game uses, whereas the PC-98-exclusive characters have had precious little. I'm also skipping mid-bosses, who practically have no story presence whatsoever. I'll also save the post-Phantasmagoria of Flower View games until the characters from Mountain of Faith on have had more than precisely one canonical appearance. (Shoot the Bullet, which has no characterization or story, doesn't count.)

Definitions:

  • Under "Best application in-story", "Nothing besides Danmaku" means that a character never used their ability for anything more interesting than bullet patterns (or individual bullets) that looked like they had something to do with their ability — or not even that much (c.f. Rumia). This also includes attacks in the fighting games Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. (This has the side-effect that Marisa's butt-slam counts as "danmaku" by this definition ...)
  • Under "better possible use", IGN stands for "I Got Nothing". Either the best canonical application is perfectly acceptable, and trying to come up with a better use for it would be seriously over thinking things; or it doesn't have much use, and there really is nothing you can use it for besides the way it's used in-story.
  • "Combat-only" means that it has been shoehorned into the Inverse Law Of Utility And Lethality (Warning, link leads to TVTropes. Previous disclaimer appliesBut see also this disclaimer) — that is, you can use it to great effect for attacking things, but buggerall else; therefore, I Got Nothing more or less by default.

If anyone else has better ideas, feel free to tell me.

Games

Wriggle Nightbug

  • What: Firefly youkai.
  • Ability: Manipulation of insects.
  • Best application in-story: Best combat-use which was actually shown: at one point in Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, she floods the area with a gigantic swarm of insects that blots out Reisen's vision. Best non-combat use: in her Bohemian Archive article, she creates a messenger/wakeup service delivered by insects, which (as the interview then reveals) promptly falls apart due to the fact that the memory of insects is so limited, they couldn't remember their clients' schedules.
  • Better possible use: Well, let's see: youkai are apparently immune to most poisons and illnesses, so she's obviously limited to threatening humans. Unfortunately, ingame, said humans are Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and Youmu. Before the Bohemian Archive article was translated, I had suggested something similar to her messenger service (with the additional idea of using insects as an SOS if that became necessary), but since that basically collapsed, IGN.

Mystia Lorelei

  • What: "Night sparrow" youkai.
  • Ability: Able to cause night-blindness in humans, and cause confusion/madness with her songs, hence why she is considered a "night sparrow" even though her nonhuman features are only slightly sparrow-like.
  • Best application in-story: She induces night-blindness in a human, who shortly thereafter encounters a grilled lamprey stand, run by ... Mystia Lorelei. Since lamprey eels are said to improve one's eyesight when eaten, this looks like the perfect cure! As they eat the grilled lamprey, Mystia gradually removes the night-blindness effect.
  • Better possible use: This is actually one of the most crafty in-story uses for one's abilities. She's using her power to more or less directly make a profit. Admittedly, it's self-evidently a scam, but it's better than what some other characters have done.

Keine Kamishirasawa

  • What: Were-hakutaku: when the moon is full, she grows horns, her eyes glow red, and her general color scheme shifts from blue to green.
  • Ability: In human form, she can "hide" history. In hakutaku form, she can create and change history.
  • Best application in-story: She hides a village during the imperishable night.
  • Better possible use: Well, why kill someone when you can make it so they were never born in the first place? She could theoretically recreate the entire history of the world if she wanted, to be something she liked better. Admittedly, this is only a really viable option during the full moon; that said, it's probably just as well that in general, she's a glorified history teacher.

Tewi Inaba

  • What: Earthly youkai rabbit.
  • Ability: Can give people good luck; she has the best control of the rabbits living and working in Eientei.
  • Best application in-story: Pulling pranks on people (particularly Reisen); helping people who have gotten lost in the Bamboo Forest surrounding Eientei.
  • Better possible use: Potentially, she could give someone really good luck right before they tried to do anything, thus ensuring their success. It isn't specified whether she can only manipulate probability, or if she can also affect the result of something hinging on circumstances, skill, etc., in which case, unless she's explicitly limited to "someone's luck" (and even then), she's a lot more powerful than her description implies ...

Reisen Udongein Inaba

  • What: Lunar rabbit.
  • Ability: Manipulation of waves; lunacy-inducing eyes; telepathic communication with other lunar rabbits.
  • Best application in-story: Apart from danmaku that looks like actual bullets, alert reader Wakuseino has brought to my attention that the dialogue of the game, as well as a description in Perfect Memento of exactly how "manipulating waves" translates into "causing madness," implies that the entirety of Stage 5 was an illusion Reisen created. Also, in the official manga Strange and Bright Nature Deity, she manipulates the bamboo forest so that it is impossible for Tewi (or the three protagonist fairies) to leave. She uses the third for exactly what it says on the tin.
  • Better possible use: The first two are kinda combat-only; the third has exactly one use, and she uses it exactly as specified. IGN.

Eirin Yagokoro

  • What: Lunarian pharmacist/healer.
  • Ability: She can create any kind of medicine, and she has a genius-level intelligence.
  • Best application in-story: With the former, she serves as the best medical doctor in Gensokyo. With the latter, she figures out Yukari's plot in Silent Sinner in Blue long before anyone else knows she's plotting anything.
  • Better possible use: Maybe if she wanted to become the Great Detective L ... nah, that would be silly. She's using her powers just fine; IGN.

Kaguya Houraisan

  • What: Lunarian princess.
  • Ability: Manipulation of "eternity." She also drank the Hourai Elixir, thus making herself not only immortal (like most lunarians) but also impossible to permanently kill.
  • Best application in-story: She ends the Imperishable Night with a snap of her fingers (and a spell card). Up until the events of Imperishable Night, she had been using her eternity powers to ensure that nothing in Eientei changed or broke.
  • Better possible use: Theoretically, this eternity-manipulation could allow anyone to become immortal. Or invincible, for that matter: before a fight began, she could simply render her own body (and that of her allies) "eternal", and everything would just bounce off them. Or she could make it so that it takes an "eternity" for her opponent's attacks to even reach her.
  • Notes: It has been noted that Kaguya's eternity-manipulation closely resembles Sakuya's time-manipulation.

Fujiwara no Mokou

  • What: Human.
  • Ability: Manipulation of, and immunity to, fire. She also drank the Hourai Elixir, making herself immortal and impossible to kill, even with abilities like Yuyuko's; however, she still feels the pain from her injuries.
  • Best application in-story: Nothing besides danmaku. Ingame, she merely uses fire-themed bullets, and apparently "dies" a few times but regenerates. Story-wise, she uses her "invulnerability" to keep fighting until she can't move from the pain.
  • Better possible use: Combat-only.
  • Notes: In the canonical story Cage in Lunatic Runagate, she also demonstrates being immune to dying of hunger and cold, and doesn't need sleep.

The winners

Yukari Yakumo: Theoretical omnipotence.

Suika Ibuki: Successfully took over Gensokyo (temporarily).

Mystia Lorelei: Most crafty con.

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Zemyla

I just realized something. Yamame could create any disease. This includes genetically modified retroviruses that can alter DNA (such as the ones used to cure cystic fibrosis). If she learned about this, she could theoretically create a disease that could alter someone's DNA in any way she wanted.

Also, PMiller, Yuugi's ability is "Manipulation of supernatural phenomena". That's so vague as to be potentially omnipotent or potentially useless, until we find out more information.

BigB

Another possible use for Keine's Hakutaku powers is manipulating history to where there is only a full moon, thus making her in Hakutaku form forever.

GreatLimmick

Desu Cake: Not every plant has a flower. Presumably, Yuuka would be helpless against conifers (which produce seeds without flowers) as well as ferns and mosses (which lack seeds entirely and reproduce via spores).

There's also a bit of a leap from "flowers" to "flowering plants". She might not have influence over any part of the plant except the flower.

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