HOME | DD
Zer0beat — [WSW Contest Entry] Forbidden History
Published: 2014-06-01 05:28:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 3666; Favourites: 36; Downloads: 4
Redirect to original
Description
Contest Entry for 's 2014 Vanilla ContestEntering for: Best Story, Best Drama, Best Fanon.
Comments: This was my own take on an idea based on a roleplay some of my Tumblr friends did (though my friends' session started in a different direction, with Mokou teaching herself Necromancy). Personally, I'm sick of Keine being stuffed in the fridge just to give Mokou angst. People take death really dramatically in Touhou (I guess it's hypocritical in my case), but some of us forget that there's a thing called the Reincarnation Cycle, known to Buddhists as The Samsara. It helps that Shintoism is heavily derived from Buddhism.
Mokou earns her own happy ending in the far future at the brink of despair and becomes a little less pessimistic.
I took a different direction with the actual comic, based on a basic comic template I downloaded off of some tumblr post. It's read Left To Right, and if you ask me why it's not the other way around, it's because I'm not someone in Japan making comics for Japanese people in Japan to read. Thanks to the style of this comic, it feels more dynamic and it takes up less space vertically.
Because this is my first time trying this, the text might be a little hard to read in some instances and I apologize.
Related content
Comments: 29
"Obscure by the Smoke that Reaches for the Moon"
"Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke" ?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
But that's a Buddhist belief, and Buddhism is only one of the three religions of Gensokyo, so there's only one chance out of three that she reincarnates.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That doesn't change the existence of the Ministry of Right and Wrong and the existence of the Sanzu River, where Shinigami like Komachi row people across to await judgement from the Yama.
As you might expect, the Yama are unlikely to deem many worthy of entering Heaven due to political manipulation, as you know, everyone in Heaven says Heaven is full despite the fact that it's not, as revealed in SWR (Bhava-Agra being one of those sections of Heaven). On the other hand, the Yama does not condemn all to the Avici either, where they are irredeemable.
Thus, the Yama grants reincarnations, though only the next best get to reincarnate as a human, Mokou does not care what Keine reincarnates into.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh! But as seen in many games, there are people who don't even get to be judged and become ghosts (like Yuyuko). And seeing as how spirits are often spilled out of the afterlife, they might actually lose her soul among the daily spirit outbreaks.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The only way spirits ascend through the reincarnation cycle is through Youmu's Hakuroken, or Kasen's bandaged arm. The Ministry of Right and Wrong specifically requested these two do not use their powers for unworthy spirits to obtain Nirvana when they should be meditating and being able to free themselves of thought on their own, as well as waiting their given time.
Yuyuko is a special case because of the nature of her abilities (manipulation of death and departed souls), she was personally appointed by the Yama as the keeper of the Netherworld. As such, she is beyond the Samsara so long as her earthly body and spirit do not decay. The stunt she pulled in PCB was nothing more than a whim and forgotten memories, and so accepting being a ghost and the head of the Netherworld at the request of the Yama. Of course, as bad as releasing her body and awakening the Saigyou Ayakashi would be, Yukari knew she would fail, else she would have stopped Yuyuko herself.
The Netherworld is a sort of purgatory that the Yama sentences spirits in the afterlife to in a sort of queue on who gets to be first to be judged on what their appropriate reincarnation is. This is where Yuyuko comes in, capricious as she may be, she is 100% serious about the job the Ministry has given her. However, the Netherworld is not to be confused with the fires of Avici, from which their soul will cease to exist, and thereby removing them from the Cycle of Samsara (Arturo from DitR).
The spirits that were spilling out were more than likely the result of the manifestation of the Ten Desires, and are not to be confused with spirits of the afterlife. Even if it weren't, to think that certain spirits that belong in the Netherworld are beyond Yuyuko's control is unfathomable.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I thought Kasen just erases the spirits with her arm.
Actually, the reason why she didn't do anything was because she was hibernating.
When she's not asking for food, of course.
Then keep in mind that, if Seija is still alive, she would mess with Mokou by flipping the way Keine's soul is going so that it doesn't get reincarnated. She just loves to cause pain to others.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Then why don't I ask why YOU won't let Mokou have a happy ending or your hellbent obsession with letting Keine rot dead in the ground huh?
Quit being so persistent and argumentative, you're almost ignoring everything I say and you've been getting on my nerves with your penchant to make me write out walls of text that you seem to glaze over and ignore.
Perhaps I misattributed information while reading the wiki to BACK UP MY INFORMATION, but I'm not pulling shit out of my ass. 1. Faith isn't a slot machine where things are random chance. 2. Shintoism is a heavily Buddhist-influenced Japanese faith (though Reimu herself is more Taoist in nature and actions).
And 3?
For the love of fuck, DO NOT rely on exaggerated fanon personalities for your argument like you just did with Yuyuko. I hate being a fun police, and I'm not going to tell you how you should or shouldn't try to enjoy something, but are you even trying? Why would a ghost hibernate, and more importantly, how? Where is this supported? Or are you confusing Yuyuko with Yukari? Yuyuko watched from Hakugyokurou from one thousand springs as all of the cherry blossom trees would bloom except for the Saigyou Ayakashi, until then, she had been kept with the eternal company of ghosts. While her company never changed, she found a text concerning the method of awakening the Saigyou Ayakashi, leading to the events of PCB.
I mean, what are you EVEN trying to accomplish with this? "Welp, you're right, guess Keine is going to die forever and Mokou will forever be sad paving the way for GRIMDERP and LOLEDGY." I'm trying to inform you of your incorrect notions, but what you do with the information I give you, I can't control.
Try to think before leaving a comment because evidently you wasted two of my hours typing up something that you didn't even read. And if you respond to this without THOROUGHLY reading everything, then I will ignore your reply, because I'm done, I can't waste any more time on you on these comments.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Huh?! That's not it. It's just that the whole thing about reincarnation is something I don't like. I mean, with all the mosquitoes I brutally slaughtered, "they" might have me reincarnate as one of these creeps just because of some karma bullshit.
What did I say about Yuyuko? I only remember saying that the reason why Yukari didn't do anything was because she was hibernating at the time.
What I meant to say was that Mokou would be more likely to meet Keine's ghost than her reincarnation due to how unstable the cycle is with all of these incidents always happening.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I've read this over and OVER ever since it showed up in my feed and I had no idea how to answer this, but...
Just what didn't you understand? If you could be more specific, I'd like to clarify.
But needing to clarify on its own might just be a sign that my writing isn't suited for my audience...
I wonder myself, if you're not the only one who didn't understand, is that why so little people actually cared about my work?
I guess I can understand you and probably some others' reasoning, if you can't understand, how can it be good?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
For fuck's sake, just tell me what you didn't understand about the comic
I had one shitposter in the comments already, I don't need another.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
oh sorry it's just I didn't read it much
I'm sorry
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I get that you're trying to have fun, but please pay a little more attention in the future.
...God damn I feel like shit for treating you like that, but I just needed to know.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
...I don't have anything funny to say.
There aren't enough short, dramatic comics like this.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Evidently, there's no demand for these kinds of comics in the first place.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I don't think there's really demand for any kind of comics - it's all about what's actually put out there.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Maybe you should remember what you've said here once you've considered who makes what comics, and how much people want them time and time again.
All that's been highlighted here is the pointlessness of my effort and that people don't like happy endings to their drama comics.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Now you're just beating yourself up over it. If you need evidence, then please note that while your profile has lower traffic, this comic has managed to receive a higher view count and favorites than most of my own comics.
Clearly you are doing something better than I am ;3
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I wasn't in a particularly good mood then, but I suppose I'll just have to somehow keep doing better.
Numbers just seem kinda arbitrary anyways.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That's a better way to think ;3
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
It's quite a wall of text throughout the entire strip, but I personally think this is one of the most well-done comics in the contest so far. It's got a lot of drama and internal conflict, and even though Keine would probably never become a jiang shi in canon, none of the characters were OOC. Readers can sense the tension and may empathize with Mokou, since she's losing someone dear to her. Also, you never showed how Mokou managed to turn Keine into a jiang shi, but the implications with Seiga Kaku easily allow the reader to acknowledge this.
Honestly, I would love to see this comic win at least one category. Comics with deep feels are too few and far between. Great job!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
To clarify, it's more like "Seiga desecrated Keine's grave by digging up her body while it was still fresh and reanimated her like Yoshika."
I made this comic over the span of 2-3 days, so there's likely oversights.
I really wanted to make something emotional that wasn't totally depressing, and I appreciate your words.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well, at the very least, you took this comic to a logical and somewhat heartwarming ending. I honestly still think it's one of the better entries.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
