On SRS TOUHOU.
Okay, so, as I tend to do when I'm feeling particularly violent, I was trolling around Gelbooru's "bad_end" tag (WARNING: Any who dare do so willingly subject themselves to hideous amounts of guro and pictures of a 'how the hell do people get off to this' nature).
If nothing else, watching people spaz and troll each other about their beloved characters getting murdered and/or sexually exploited is halfway amusing when I'm in my most misanthropic of mindsets. FUCK HUMANITY WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE BUT YOU'LL NEVER BE FUCKING HAPPY UNLESS YOU SUCK EVERY LAST DROP OF BLOOD FROM ME, HUH.
However, one trolling victim in particular made me facepalm HARD ENOUGH that I just had to say something about it, even if it's just on my personal LiveJournal under a F-lock and "HERE THERE BE DRAGONS" LJ-cut.
Y'know, I get really REALLY sick of people who see Touhou death pictures or watch ridiculously heart-wrenching Touhou movies like Alice->Dere (where Marisa dies, leaving Alice heartbroken and alone), and they totally ruin the mood with "It's cool, she's got extra livez/continuez/quarterz so she can come back lol". Scenes like this are powerful and beautiful works of art, and are not meant to be taken as a joke.
I'm not going to sperg out about the whole "OH GOD ALICE IS TSUNDERE/KUUDERE/YANDERE/etcetc" fanon that has absolutely no basis in anything but an OBNOXIOUS fan-made remix of her theme song, surprisingly.
No. See, the thing is? When someone posts SUPER-SERIOUS DEATH PICTURE/FANFIC of Touhou, I can't help but not take it seriously. Touhou is the exact OPPOSITE of a grimdark setting. Everything is bright, colorful, and bright and colorful. Yeah, it sucks to be a human since it's a land full of youkai of all shapes and sizes, but those youkai manifest themselves 99.9% of the time as loli girls with neat headwear. There's a chance of massive, magically-induced death... except there's a duelling system that involves danmaku (read: bullet hell) that was put into place explicitly to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and to allow humans and youkai to settle differences regardless of relative power levels. (THIS IS TOTALLY CANON, I SHIT YOU NOT.) That tree of eternal damnation over there? Yeah, the woman who sacrificed her life to seal away its evil energies is totally chill with being a ghost now, as it hasn't hindered her ability to attend stargazing festivals or her ability to drink tea. Her vassal is somehow HALF-GHOST, which defies any and all logic but we're totes okay with it because hey, she's got awesome katanas and apparently can move faster than Sonic the fucking Hedgehog. The two notable squishy vulnerable humans in the setting? One got powerful enough to rival Lina Inverse on sheer strength of will alone, the other has God Mode Sue powers like WOAH because seriously, she's the main character, she is NOT FUCKING ALLOWED TO LOSE. Again, this is pretty much canon - Reimu CAN NOT LOSE in a battle of any serious import because that is NOT HOW THINGS HAPPEN. Her only canonical losses weren't in Gensokyo, but on the moon, if memory serves. (Not counting alternate route fuckery in Mystic Square or Imperishable Night. Also, it makes sense in context.)
Everything that is NOT a human in Gensokyo is stated as being pretty much immortal, either through not being able to die or by being able to regenerate from damage. Pretty much EVERYONE in Gensokyo is batshit crazy to begin with, so you don't really have to deal with mental trauma (though a few dojins handle it well - there's one that deconstructs the Boring Invincible Hero rather beautifully, I'd think). It's hinted that the main characters either will likewise transcend mortality (in Marisa's case) or will simply pass on their bloodline and be okay with death anyway (in Reimu's case). So why are all the fanwankers focused on suicide and death and fml?
tl;dr Touhou does not take itself seriously. It never has. Why do fans take it so serious? Why is grimdark an accepted artistic medium for Touhou fans when NOT used in parody?
tl;dr pt. 2: Aggh I need sleep I'm ramble.
If nothing else, watching people spaz and troll each other about their beloved characters getting murdered and/or sexually exploited is halfway amusing when I'm in my most misanthropic of mindsets. FUCK HUMANITY WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE BUT YOU'LL NEVER BE FUCKING HAPPY UNLESS YOU SUCK EVERY LAST DROP OF BLOOD FROM ME, HUH.
However, one trolling victim in particular made me facepalm HARD ENOUGH that I just had to say something about it, even if it's just on my personal LiveJournal under a F-lock and "HERE THERE BE DRAGONS" LJ-cut.
Y'know, I get really REALLY sick of people who see Touhou death pictures or watch ridiculously heart-wrenching Touhou movies like Alice->Dere (where Marisa dies, leaving Alice heartbroken and alone), and they totally ruin the mood with "It's cool, she's got extra livez/continuez/quarterz so she can come back lol". Scenes like this are powerful and beautiful works of art, and are not meant to be taken as a joke.
I'm not going to sperg out about the whole "OH GOD ALICE IS TSUNDERE/KUUDERE/YANDERE/etcetc" fanon that has absolutely no basis in anything but an OBNOXIOUS fan-made remix of her theme song, surprisingly.
No. See, the thing is? When someone posts SUPER-SERIOUS DEATH PICTURE/FANFIC of Touhou, I can't help but not take it seriously. Touhou is the exact OPPOSITE of a grimdark setting. Everything is bright, colorful, and bright and colorful. Yeah, it sucks to be a human since it's a land full of youkai of all shapes and sizes, but those youkai manifest themselves 99.9% of the time as loli girls with neat headwear. There's a chance of massive, magically-induced death... except there's a duelling system that involves danmaku (read: bullet hell) that was put into place explicitly to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and to allow humans and youkai to settle differences regardless of relative power levels. (THIS IS TOTALLY CANON, I SHIT YOU NOT.) That tree of eternal damnation over there? Yeah, the woman who sacrificed her life to seal away its evil energies is totally chill with being a ghost now, as it hasn't hindered her ability to attend stargazing festivals or her ability to drink tea. Her vassal is somehow HALF-GHOST, which defies any and all logic but we're totes okay with it because hey, she's got awesome katanas and apparently can move faster than Sonic the fucking Hedgehog. The two notable squishy vulnerable humans in the setting? One got powerful enough to rival Lina Inverse on sheer strength of will alone, the other has God Mode Sue powers like WOAH because seriously, she's the main character, she is NOT FUCKING ALLOWED TO LOSE. Again, this is pretty much canon - Reimu CAN NOT LOSE in a battle of any serious import because that is NOT HOW THINGS HAPPEN. Her only canonical losses weren't in Gensokyo, but on the moon, if memory serves. (Not counting alternate route fuckery in Mystic Square or Imperishable Night. Also, it makes sense in context.)
Everything that is NOT a human in Gensokyo is stated as being pretty much immortal, either through not being able to die or by being able to regenerate from damage. Pretty much EVERYONE in Gensokyo is batshit crazy to begin with, so you don't really have to deal with mental trauma (though a few dojins handle it well - there's one that deconstructs the Boring Invincible Hero rather beautifully, I'd think). It's hinted that the main characters either will likewise transcend mortality (in Marisa's case) or will simply pass on their bloodline and be okay with death anyway (in Reimu's case). So why are all the fanwankers focused on suicide and death and fml?
tl;dr Touhou does not take itself seriously. It never has. Why do fans take it so serious? Why is grimdark an accepted artistic medium for Touhou fans when NOT used in parody?
tl;dr pt. 2: Aggh I need sleep I'm ramble.