#anyway i imagine some of it is very based around Lafcadio Hearn/Koizuki Yakumo being expressly cited by zun when asked

[ouroborosorder]

My belief that Maribel is Yukari is based on reading a few RenMerry fics I really liked a few years ago that used that assumption but I'm curious what other theories exist about that connection. It used to drive me so insane before Len'en gave me much more to drive myself insane over (turns out I'm addicted to getting attached to plot threads that aren't getting resolved anytime soon).

okay so i'm going to level here. I really don't know what they are. I honestly also really don't care. I'm sure the evidence is good, I'm sure the theory is fine.

But when I say I hate the theory that Maribel is Yukari, I mean I hate it on a conceptual level. Not only do I think it adds nothing to the story, I think it takes away from it at a fundemental level.

Part of why Maribel and Renko are so important to me is that they're so... weird structurally. They're completely disconnected from Gensokyo and Touhou in general, but are undeniably linked to it. They feel like echoes of Gensokyo. Maribel and Renko are iterations of Marisa and Reimu the same way that every Gundam series echoes Char and Amuro. It's the same heart and narrative sensibilities, applied to a different angle, a different part of the world, expanding outwards in a way Touhou can't always do - the comfortable dystopia of modern life.

When I first found out about them, that was the thing that made me compelled by Touhou as a series. That this world felt suddenly so big. The story's point felt so distinct. Touhou is a story set in Gensokyo, a fantasy world running concurrent with our own reality. But there's sidestories set in Tokyo, but in a distant unnamed future. There is no reality here. There is only two different fantasies, adjacent to the reality we live in, and yet undeniably shaped by it.

So if Maribel is Yukari then... it undoes... everything I love about them.

The world is not bigger than you think. The story is not about the fantasy layered over our reality, there is no grander scope to the world beyond the setting. It's all about Gensokyo, and always was. Not even Gensokyo, but about the central characters in Gensokyo.

And then... What's the point of the Hifuu Club at all?

This is why I like Sumireko so much, ironically. Because she feels like an echo of Renko the same way that Renko feels like an echo of Reimu. The layers of fantasy echo back in on each other. And the result is the one character who is most closely tied to reality itself. The girl who is escaping it, and drifting deeper and deeper into the fantasy.

As time passes by, we're destined to become the future depicted in the Hifuu club. A smaller, comfortable dystopia. They're building apartments on Mt. Fuji. Nobody can eat strawberries due to climate change. We escape into this dreamlike fantasy, bringing reality and the fantastical future we're inevitably running towards with us.

maybe this is just me justifying shit because Sumireko is my favorite Touhou but idk it feels tangibly different