Author Topic: "She's Just Misunderstood!"  (Read 4982 times)

Tengukami

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"She's Just Misunderstood!"
« on: October 29, 2011, 08:49:01 PM »
This is not a serious thread.

The idea here is to point out that your favorite character's so-called "flaws" are really just based on a misunderstanding. You can point to canon, sure, but you can also speculate, make conjecture, or flat-out make stuff up.

Here's a couple samples of how this can work:

Character: Mononobe no Futo.
Flaw: It is said of her: "She says things which indicate that she might be clumsy or has a tendency to misunderstand others a little ... she is a manifestation of the 'idiot child.'"
Why She Is Misunderstood: Come on now. She pretty much suddenly resurrects after being in oblivion since the 6th century. How the hell is she supposed to know a Shinto shrine maiden from half-girl/half-ghost? How about you drop out of reality for a few centuries, pop back into existence, and tell me how many things you understand, eh?

Character: Utsuho Reiuji
Flaw: Power hungry, kinda crazy, not very bright.
Why She Is Misunderstood: Being someone's pet is hard, and if you're competing with a cat for the attention of your master, you've got your work cut out for you. You know how cats are - everyone wants to pet them, and they make everything about them. Do people pet birds? Not really. Utsuho really had no other choice but to swallow a sun and start planning on destroying Gensokyo ... to get her master's attention, and love.

You get the general idea how it works. So, what do you say?

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

KrackoCloud

  • I don't mean to be greedy...
  • ... but white rice is my favorite food.
Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2011, 10:34:51 PM »
Yukari is misunderstood as a giant troll who stirs up trouble in Gensokyo for her own amusement.
In fact, she is only serving her master who's an even greater troll by leading everyone to believe that Yukari herself is the mastermind.
In reality, she's largely following orders out of her own love for Gensokyo, and failure to comply with the master is ultimately damaging toward Gensokyo's state. For example, Yukari may support incidents because the chaos somehow actually allows maintain's Gensokyo's balance of power.
Yukari's unlikable behavior is only an act to distance herself from others. She must be detached in order to function properly as a regulator of Gensokyo.

In other words, Yukari is seen as an unlikable troll, but loyal to Gensokyo. She's actually only the latter. It's actually her master who has both traits, a "true" Yukari in a sense.

Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2011, 10:44:39 PM »
Character: Reimu Hakurei
Flaw: Laziness
Why She Is Misunderstood: She's not lazy, she just likes to take it easy. Wouldn't you take breaks when you work?
Relax

Mimachiro

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2011, 01:36:39 AM »
Flandre Scarlet
Flaw:She's a little psycho who blows people up for fun
Why she's misunderstood:If you were locked up for half a millennium from fear of your ability, and said ability was pure destruction, don't you think people would assume you were some out of control maniac, too? Just because you could level everything around you doesn't mean you will, after all, and sometimes it's hard to know your own strength when you have so much of it.

"I don't have anything against you, but I hope you're ready to die a dog's death!
Oh, don't worry, that cat will carry off your body, so you'll be able to live in our place!"

Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2011, 04:15:41 AM »
Yuyuko isn't ditzy, she just thinks non-linearly on account of having been around Yukari for too long.
Cirno isn't dumb because she's a fairy. She's dumb because she thought super-cooling her brain would make her smarter.
Tenshi isn't a masochistic blood knight, she's a multiclass carpenter-architect who was looking to create higher demand (through destroying buildings) and greater public awareness of her services (through the incident).
Wriggle isn't a crossdresser, she just the only one to realise flying+skirt=indecency.
Mokou doesn't wear pants because it was a symbol of royalty back in her day. She's just a crossdresser.
Letty doesn't have a large hitbox because she's fat, she's just big boned.

game2011

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2011, 04:33:07 PM »
I can say a lot about Tenshi and Kaguya, and to some extent, Meiling.  Those three are easily the characters in the series that got twisted the most by fandom.

Tenshi
Flaw: Masochist
Why she's misunderstood: "Punish me" DOES NOT means asking to get beaten up.  Villains taunting heroes/heroines to defeat them is something very common in medias.  That phrase is nothing more than a taunt in order to start a fight.

Kaguya
Flaw: NEET, obsessed with TVs, video games, and computers, and lazy
Why she's misunderstood: What is this I don't...?!  I'm really baffled on how fandom turned her into a NEET.  Just because she hides out in Eientei to avoid the Lunarians does not mean she's an indoor-type.  Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth shows that she's more or less the exact opposite, what with wanting to hold moon festivals and going outside to perform certain activities.  Being lazy is greatly exaggerated as well; she's not that lazy in canon.

Meiling
Flaw: Falls asleep often and does her job badly
Why she's misunderstood: She takes siestas, not falling asleep all the time, and she instantly wakes up if intruders shows up.  If she really is incompetent, then Remilia would have fired her since a long time ago.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2011, 04:41:06 PM by game2011 »

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
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  • I said, with a posed look.
"She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2011, 04:49:51 PM »
Er, this isn't really a fanon v. canon thread. Like I said, this is for offering your own explanations - serious or silly - for your favorite girls' actual flaws, showing why they're just misunderstood.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2011, 04:51:53 PM by Tengukami no Futo »

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2011, 08:43:38 PM »
Who: Yukari

Flaw: Yukari is a misunderstood troll who does so for her own amusement.

Why She is Misunderstood: She's doing it because as the sage of the youkai, she has a reputation to uphold.  People are supposed to fear youkai, and yet Yukari can't bring herself to attack humans (not without reason, at least).  Thus, Yukari needs to find an alternative way to make sure she's the most feared youkai in Gensokyo, and this takes the form of trolling people to the extreme.  So far, as Reimu has stated she's the worst youkai in Gensokyo, it seems to be  effective. This is also why she keeps her more altruistic actions a secret, to the point of actively keeping them out of history's records.

....that and she's doing it for her own amusement.









I can say a lot about Tenshi and Kaguya, and to some extent, Meiling.  Those three are easily the characters in the series that got twisted the most by fandom.

Tenshi
Flaw: Masochist
Why she's misunderstood: "Punish me" DOES NOT means asking to get beaten up.  Villains taunting heroes/heroines to defeat them is something very common in medias.  That phrase is nothing more than a taunt in order to start a fight.

I think this subconciously came about because Tenshi said it so often, as other characters have said the equivalent of "Punish me!" yet it hasn't been picked up. Of course, there's a logical reason why Tenshi said it so often. She instigated the entire incident in the first place to get people to fight her (unlike every other incident in the series, where there's been some other motive). Fandom seems to have ignored that though, but this is also due to Tenshi never having any further storyline roles ANYWHERE to show her other aspects of her personality that she presumably has (despite quite a bit of foreshadowing in some SWR endings that she might have an even more serious motive she's keeping hidden, sadly)


Quote
Kaguya
Flaw: NEET, obsessed with TVs, video games, and computers, and lazy
Why she's misunderstood: What is this I don't...?!  I'm really baffled on how fandom turned her into a NEET.  Just because she hides out in Eientei to avoid the Lunarians does not mean she's an indoor-type.  Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth shows that she's more or less the exact opposite, what with wanting to hold moon festivals and going outside to perform certain activities.  Being lazy is greatly exaggerated as well; she's not that lazy in canon.

It's actually been the opposite as early as Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red.  It was Kaguya's idea to set up the Lunar Expo, after all.

I think this came about because, before BAiJR came out, there was very little characterization for Kaguya, so the fandom made their own conclusions and it was too late by the time her characterization was further displayed in official sources (that and people tend to ignore many further official sources in fandom, anyways). She has very few lines of dialogue in IN, including the endings.  Admittingly, even the endings imply the opposite from what little can be gleamed from them.  Of course, considering that fans don't post endings and it's very hard for the average human being to see an ending in the first place, well....

Quote
Meiling
Flaw: Falls asleep often and does her job badly
Why she's misunderstood: She takes siestas, not falling asleep all the time, and she instantly wakes up if intruders shows up.  If she really is incompetent, then Remilia would have fired her since a long time ago.

I think the whole "Siesta" thing was a joke that Akyuu thinks she's taking a siesta, but she's actually falling asleep (then again, maybe not, considering it's a scheduled thing at Noon).

Her article in BAiJR does have her give a suspiciously specific denial that she wasn't sleeping, though.

I could be wrong though. It doesn't particularly matter much to me (though both are funny jokes if I'm right, IMHO)

Hisoutensoku's confirmed that at least some of the sleeping on the job is canon, however.

None of that confirms or denies that she does her job badly. Me personally, I think she does a decent job at it (she's on the lookout the times she's shown in Oriental Sacred Place) but that the task is simply too daunting to expect too much of her.  After all, she's required to do her job 24/7 without any breaks and her BAiJR article implies that the SDM garden is pretty friggin' huge (it looks huge in Oriental Sacred Place the few times it's shown, too) in a world where everyone can fly.

Of the people known to break into the mansion, most of them were the insanely powerful types or insanely sneaking types to begin with (Marisa, Yukari, Eirin, and um... Alice, I guess, etc. Well, ZUN said she's basically Youkai Marisa)

Remilia's probably aware that the task is too daunting for her but doesn't care because it's A) funny (BAiJR implies that Remilia does this sort of thing to Meiling often), and B) not too big a deal.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2011, 08:47:34 PM by Tiamat »

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2011, 12:35:14 AM »
Who: Marisa Kirisame.

Why: She steals whatever she wants, lies all the time, and thinks only of herself, no one else.

Why she is misunderstood: Marisa figured out at an early age that greed is good. Greed for power (for protecting yourself from meddlesome youkais), greed for knowledge, and greed for life are all noble pursuits. Not only that, her lying is so no one knows just how smart she really is. ("Knowledge is power; hide it well.") Also, she learned that concepts of morality, like good and evil, are entirely subjective; not indisputable facts. Henceforth, she freed her mind and heart from the social burdens of morality, and set forth to become a powerful human sorceress, scholar, and is not afraid of putting Incident-makers back in their place, even if it makes her look like a selfish criminal to the morality police in the process.

Tengukami

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2011, 12:48:42 AM »
Who: Marisa Kirisame.

Why: She steals whatever she wants, lies all the time, and thinks only of herself, no one else.

Why she is misunderstood: Marisa figured out at an early age that greed is good. Greed for power (for protecting yourself from meddlesome youkais), greed for knowledge, and greed for life are all noble pursuits. Not only that, her lying is so no one knows just how smart she really is. ("Knowledge is power; hide it well.") Also, she learned that concepts of morality, like good and evil, are entirely subjective; not indisputable facts. Henceforth, she freed her mind and heart from the social burdens of morality, and set forth to become a powerful human sorceress, scholar, and is not afraid of putting Incident-makers back in their place, even if it makes her look like a selfish criminal to the morality police in the process.

Yes.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

KrackoCloud

  • I don't mean to be greedy...
  • ... but white rice is my favorite food.
Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2011, 12:50:15 AM »
Who: Marisa Kirisame.

Why: She steals whatever she wants, lies all the time, and thinks only of herself, no one else.

Why she is misunderstood: Marisa figured out at an early age that greed is good. Greed for power (for protecting yourself from meddlesome youkais), greed for knowledge, and greed for life are all noble pursuits. Not only that, her lying is so no one knows just how smart she really is. ("Knowledge is power; hide it well.") Also, she learned that concepts of morality, like good and evil, are entirely subjective; not indisputable facts. Henceforth, she freed her mind and heart from the social burdens of morality, and set forth to become a powerful human sorceress, scholar, and is not afraid of putting Incident-makers back in their place, even if it makes her look like a selfish criminal to the morality police in the process.
But, this doesn't actually deny the misconception, right. It only justifies her actions.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 01:14:29 AM by KrackoCloud »

Tengukami

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2011, 03:07:09 AM »
But, this doesn't actually deny the misconception, right. It only justifies her actions.

Yeah, that's the point - you're providing an explanation, silly or serious, for an actual flaw or flaws in one or more of the girls. It's pretty straightforward.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

game2011

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #12 on: October 31, 2011, 04:38:46 AM »
Er, this isn't really a fanon v. canon thread. Like I said, this is for offering your own explanations - serious or silly - for your favorite girls' actual flaws, showing why they're just misunderstood.
If you're referring to me, then I'm sorry if my post looks like that...

Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2011, 08:14:58 AM »
I think this subconciously came about because Tenshi said it so often, as other characters have said the equivalent of "Punish me!" yet it hasn't been picked up. Of course, there's a logical reason why Tenshi said it so often. She instigated the entire incident in the first place to get people to fight her (unlike every other incident in the series, where there's been some other motive). Fandom seems to have ignored that though, but this is also due to Tenshi never having any further storyline roles ANYWHERE to show her other aspects of her personality that she presumably has (despite quite a bit of foreshadowing in some SWR endings that she might have an even more serious motive she's keeping hidden, sadly)
Too bad too. Well, at least I think she appears in Oriental Sacred Palace for a little bit.


Character: Komachi
Flaw: Laziness
Reason: Komachi is not lazy. Everyone knows you got to take your time to talk to ghosts. And if the ghosts don't talk to you? Well, into the river they go.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 08:21:20 AM by Starxsword »

KFCbbQ

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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2011, 11:25:12 AM »
Character: Hong Meiling
Flaw: Slacks off
Why is she misunderstood?: Don't be fooled! She may look like that she fell asleep but actually it's to trick invaders to let their guard down! In fact having her eyes closed it even increases her concentration, allowing her to detect the movements of any potential enemies using her other senses, as expected from a true martial artist indeed.

Zap

  • Embodiment of Lightning
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Re: "She's Just Misunderstood!"
« Reply #15 on: November 06, 2011, 02:52:28 AM »
Character: Yuka
Flaw: Being a sadist and being slow.
Why she is misunderstood?: Now it's not like Yuka likes hurting others for no good reason. They obviously did something to receive punishment (like maybe stepping on a poor defenseless flower), and she always smiles while she does so just to show there are no hard feelings after said punishment is applied properly.
Also, she's slow just because she finds no point in rushing. She just likes to stop and smell the flowers when she can, an example everyone should follow.