>>1516 There is nothing preventing you from being Agnostic in regards to capital G God in Gensokyo at which point you can just say that small g gods are simply powerful beings instead of divine,it's not like they get raided by Blessed Templars throwing around holy bolts shouting about the invalidity of the current pope every once in a while.

>>1620 There's a good chance this will put you on the gods' bad side, though, as they actively need faith to survive. Touhou (or general, Shinto) gods come with both blessings and curses, and they make ample use of the latter if they feel wronged.

>>1623 Isn't the mechanism of that whole thing belief anchoring them to reality? Interacting with them as 'people' should still suffice for that,sure they might miss out on a power boost but they don't get that if they curse you to death either.

>>1627 A demonstration of power ought to reinforce their reputation as powerful entities. Smiting the faithless publicly brings some solid shock value.

>>1627 I doubt just interacting with people suffices. The people need to have faith in you, that is, need to BELIEVE you are an actual god. Divine Spirits like Kanako only became divine in the first place because enough people did, in fact, believe her to be a goddess, even if she originally may have been something like a tribal leader (or potentially multiple ones merged into one figure). Fun fact: Amongst the Japanese population of Hawaii, George Washington also was deified as a Kami.

>>1631 I'm pretty sure Aki sisters were brought into existence by faith as opposed to people believing that "these here Aki sisters are actually gods and not some schmucks."

>>1631 As for GW, I think that Kami are born into existence by people's faith and are separate entities from the actual physical objects of said faith. However they do use these physical objects as vessels as well as spread into any other objects symbolizing or being associated with the original object of worship. So, let's say if George was an abstract concept then the god associated with it would be only weakly tied to the physical realm, being spread across people's consciousness and only obtaining a fickle physical form in a fantastical place like Gensoukyou. But Gorge Washington was a real physical living being, so during his lifetime the original "god" Washington silently inhabited human Washington's body the same way Kogasa's vessel is a paper umbrella, but it's presence was once again undetectable outside of Gensoukyou. Now if he was to somehow arrive in a place like Gensoukyou, the Kami inside him could potentially gain control of the host body and act in accordance with how the populace saw him, which would be extremely cool and someone should make a doujin out of that. The interesting part is that supposedly gods also spread their influence into the objects and symbols of faith, so each one dollar paper also houses a spirit of George Washington. And if we believe what Reimu said in SSiB, Japanese gods are incredibly OP because while western gods always only exist in one instance and only use physical objects as their proxies, Kami copy over their entire existence, essentially impregnating multiplying themselves into the object. So, every cross will always symbolize the same, single Jesus (or at least the christian God wishes that was the case) because western gods are afraid of competition. Meanwhile it's entirely possible for the same Kami to exist in two different rocks for thousands of years until over the time people's perception of those different entities changes to the point where both of them "mutate" into different, completely unrelated gods. So, in a sense Kami are like viruses. Erratically multiplying and spreading from one host to another and constantly evolving through random mutations. This means that Shinto religion is the greatest corona. I shouldn't post when sleepy, hope this makes some sense.

>>1633 The Aki sisters presumably are one of the myriad gods, not divine spirits. As such, they were never human to begin with, but rather act as the personifications of natural phenomena humans back in the day could not explain (i.e, why the leaves turn red or how a rich harvest comes about). >>1634 I'm more inclined to believe kami (as created from actual humans) evolved from a form of ancestor worship. Or more bluntly put: You're worshiping your "ancestor" so hard, you're giving him or her god-like properties. As for gods copying themselves - looking at the way Kanako and Suwako set up a proxy shrine at the Hakurei shrine, I think it's more that Eastern gods can separate small parts of themselves in order to inhibit physical objects. Then again, Eastern mythology is a mess. In CoLA, Rinnosuke claims effectively all things are gods until they are properly identified and given names.

>>1638 >small parts of themselves Nope. >myriad gods, not divine spirits What the fuck is supposed to be the difference between them? I've seen the therms both being used interchangeably like Reimu does here and being differentiated. So, Rinnosuke basically says that gods are ideas and Reimu says it's souls. Maybe god is an idea backed up by faith and a divine spirit is a type of god that has obtained soul/will? I guess youkai and fairies are also gods in a sense. Then if the god is just an idea it means that it does not necessarily have a mind of it's own. For example fairies are dumb spontaneous and noncommittal like the nature they embody and that is probably ways off from how primal a deity can go. I wonder what differentiates youkai from gods then if they're just ideas. Since there are both animalistic youkai and phenomena-youkai that have little to no will of their own as well as youkai that have gained full free will and ascended into qtgirlhood they do pass both the criteria for being gods as well as for being kami, so that means the only difference between a youkai and a god is worship, right? Well, whatever.

>>1640 >What the fuck is supposed to be the difference between them? The Myriad gods ("Yaoyorozu no Kami", includes Suwako, the Aki sisters, etc.) purely consist of faith. They are not based on historical individuals, but rather are personified natural phenomena or abstract concepts. Divine Spirits ("Shinrei", includes Kanako and Sagume) are the spirits of humans who attained godhood during their life or after their death. >so that means the only difference between a youkai and a god is worship, right? I would guess so. Youkai need fear, gods need faith. But if you look at Shou, a youkai can probably turn into a god if enough people believe it to be a god. Though Shou technically is a "gonsen", an avatar/incarnation for an actual god.

>>1512 >>1511 Wait, if she worships Remillia, then doesn't that mean that she's committing idolatry? That's not really atheistic now is it?

>>1682 Idolatry would be the worship of false images. As far as Sakuya is concerned, Remilia is the real image.

>>1689 That’s still worship all the same, Remilia might be a vamp but she’s still human. Worshipping humans goes against Sakuya’s supposed atheist values, ergo she doesn’t worship her master.

>>1703 I strongly doubt Touhou vampires either are or even just used to be humans. And atheism does not (formally) reject the concept of worship, but only the existence of gods. Which ultimately means jack in a realm that defies common sense, but if I had to describe Sakuya's fervor towards Remilia, it could definitely liken it to religious fanaticism - especially since her job requires her to regularly slaughter members of her own species.

>>1705 Yup, towhow vamps are a type of devil, much like oni. The only thing is that Remilia came from the outside and is thus supposed to be a western vampire and not the one that's a type of devil. I wonder if local beliefs influenced her after arriving in Gensokyo and turned her into an eastern vampire (perhaps even without her realizing). Or maybe she's actually is an eastern vampire and is just a reverse weeb larping as a foreigner. Yes, I know that the correct answer is ZUN just appropriated all vampires in his view.

>>1706 Touhou vampires are vampires. Your "oni" bullshit probably comes from the difficulty of translation. The word for "vampire" in japanese is something like "blood suck oni", some 3 kanji I don't remember. Vampires are still vampires.

>>1710 At least to Akyuu, they do belong to the same type as oni. But Akyuu's an unreliable narrator at any rate (so ZUN can say 'LOL NOPE' whenever he writes himself into a corner again.)

>>1710 Well, vampires are also supposed to be afraid of crosses instead of soy beans, so no, they are not the same. >>1712 It's funny how you can see ZUN leaving himself leeway to avoid writing himself into a corner at every possible opportunity if you look hard enough.

>>1713 >It's funny how you can see ZUN leaving himself leeway to avoid writing himself into a corner at every possible opportunity if you look hard enough. He's mentioned before with specifying things about the setting that he didn't want to "tie a noose" for himself that way. It's probably for the best, especially when it comes to not officially mapping out Gensokyo, so that he can continue to add new subsettings as needed.

>>1713 >Well, vampires are also supposed to be afraid of crosses instead of soy beans, so no, they are not the same. Westerners themselves aren't sure what vampires are afraid of, it varies from story to story.

>>1713 >>1714 I think he learned his lesson after having to retcon the PC-98 games. In his defense, he probably never expected Touhou to become a thirty-year project and counting.

>>1713 >vampires afraid of soybeans I think it's just that they hate soybeans (or despise the festival) rather than be scared if soybeans altogether. Kasen herself is also afraid of the prospect of the beans but i think that's just her faking her fear since Suika likes getting pelted with soybeans. So no, i still think the Koumakan Sisters are still true Vamps. >>1716 Do you think that he's glad that the fact the huge fandom it spawned from exist because his fans and not from his work entirely?

>>1732 https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Doujin_Barrier:_The_Work_Called_Touhou_and_the_Fantasy_of_Game_Creation#Part_2:_Creation_Barrier_.22The_Border_of_Creation_and_Derivation.22

>>1732 I always thought that Suika just conquered her innate fear of soybeans while Kasen didn't. I don't think that Remilia despises the festival itself if she's been holding her own version of it for god knows how long now, and especially if she's rather uplifted and attends immediately when Reimu gets rid of the soybean throwing in her own festival.

>>1735 Beans supposedly give oni blisters. And Suika is just so strong she kicks any blister's ass before it has time to appear.

>>1732 >vampires afraid of soyboys

>>1788 A lady has to watch her diet.

>>1795 Meaning she mustn't drink the blood of fat people? Would 2hu vampires even be capable of properly digesting regular food? Or does it all turn to shit?

>>1796 >shit Touhous have small nuclear reactors installed in place of digestive systems that decompose any type of matter into base atoms, providing power for supersonic high-altitiude flight and high-temperature plasma barrages. Utsuho's manipulation of nuclear fusion is just an ability to summon vomit reflex at will, Yatagarasu is just a cov

^ provocation successful

>>1806 How much radiation do you need to completely sterilize a pile of shit from all microorganisms? (Or at least bring it to level with the rest of the environment).

What are some hats Mumei would enjoy wearing and what would they let her do?

>>1996 She could wear one of Sekibanki's heads to increase her head count.

>>1807 You think mumei would wear those white hats from the show?

>>2906 From what show?