The PC98 Reset Theory (The Rebirth Incident)

[Flame Sniper]

Welcome to my first topic in here!

 

Disclaimer: The theory is based on the information given in Touhou 4 Lotus Land Story, Touhou 5 Mystic Square, Kioh Gyoku, Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red Touhou 7 Perfect Cherry Blossom and Touhou 12 Unidentified Fantastic Object. Spoiler warning!

 

If you've spent enough time enjoying the Touhou Project, it's likely you know the saga's origin in the PC-9800 Computers before the jump to Windows with Touhou 6 Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil.
ZUN never gave an official explanation citing the reasons for the changes in the continuity after Touhou's jump, aside leaving hints of the past events and characters existence through cameos, like Mima in Akyu's Untouched Score 4, Shinki in Touhou 12 or even character remakes like Yuuka and Alice.
What if I told you I found an explanation with somewhat solid footing? Here we go...

The story begins in the events of Touhou 5 MS, with Yuuka Kazami, the mysterious, aggressive and powerful Youkai. She noticed the residents of Makai in Gensokyo and decided to explore their origins as a form of entertainment.
She just wrecks everything in her way, either by force or words, just read what she said to Shinki:

"Massacres are a kind of game, too.
It doesn't matter whether it's humans
or Makai residents."

After you beat the game in a 1 Continue Clear (1cc), the ending is revealed. Yuuka learned something valuable in her destructive tour in Makai, Magic is powerful. She tried to cast her own spells to no avail, so she started stalking Marisa to at best learn from her or at worst steal her magic.
Apparently, Yuuka failed.

Some time later, a Magician from Makai, Alice Margatroid, that tried to stop Yuuka in Stage 3 of Touhou 5 decided to get revenge with the help of her new magical powers, granted by The Grimoire of Alice.
Even with the Ultimate Magic, Alice failed in her mission, but surprisingly could escape total defeat at the hands of Yuuka (or so she thought).

After that...
"Hhhhh, this time, let's follow this girl around.
And then, let's take away her magic. "

In Mystic Square, the ending is left open, but Yuuka's plan worked. We can know that from Her Character Profile in Kioh Gyoku (Seihou, a collaboration ZUN did with Shunsatsu sare do? and Amusement Makers).

"Also, after Mystic Square's extra ending, as planned, Yuuka received the ultimate magic. The author himself doesn't know exactly what it is."

Here's when the theory kicks in into full gear. What's the worst that could happen with the Ultimate Magic (whose limit we don't know) at the hands of a powerful psychopath with no control over magic, like Yuuka? Universal destruction.
Yuuka's playing with The Grimoire caused unforeseen consequences that lead to the destruction of the PC98 Universe.
Luckily, this Universal Destruction was the Rebirth of the Universe, with unforeseen consequences. Most of the inhabitants of Gensokyo faced one of these fates.

Erasure from the Universe
Memory Loss
Being Replaced by a Doppelgänger
Physical Changes

Of the main characters, we are certain that Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame likely suffered physical changes coupled with Memory Loss.
Yuuka Kazami, the culprit behind The Rebirth Incident, was replaced with a Doppelgänger as her personality is completely different from PC98. She is now the flower Youkai who lives in the Garden of the Sun. Although, a faint memory of what appear to be the events of Mystic Square remains.

"Flowers and ghosts and..., hmm.
Speaking of which, this happened once before, didn't it?
How many decades ago was it?
It's been so ordinary since then, I can't remember."

Other characters that we know survived the Rebirth, with a lack of detail, are Shinki and Mima. But what about Alice?

 

Alice was the only true survivor of the Inccident, likely due to her being the owner of The Grimoire.
We don't truly know what happened to Alice or how she recovered and sealed The Grimoire (reinforced by her theme in Hisotensoku being a remix of "The Grimoire of Alice").
The story does tell us that she became less childish and is a Youkai-Magician who's very friendly to humans. Alice learned her lesson, The Ultimate Magic brings unexpected consequences.


The theory is now over. At first i thought that Alice was the one who reseted the universe, but finding that Yuuka actually stole The Grimoire was unexpected. Without that the theory falls apart, unless you consider Marisa reading The Grimoire in her Touhou 5 Extra Stage as the catalyst.

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, Canon!?!?

Before I go, I want to add how this theory ties in with another theory related to Alice. It's a bit of a stretch even for theory standards. This is why it'separated.
 

The Crazy Alice Theory.

Alice awakened in Gensokyo without memories in a frail mental state as part of the Eight Honest People transported to Gensokyo in the scrapped story of Dolls of Pseudo Paradise.

Keep in mind that this is highly unlikely to be canon, as ZUN changed the story in the next release of Dolls of Pseudo Paradise. It would be a strange decision by ZUN to make 20-year-old side material canon.

In this story, these Eight Honest People, suffer death at the hands of the Pierrot (not Clownpiece) except The Coward, who committed suicide in a forest due to his weak will. But something happened to him, He Revived.
He then returned to his friends, hiding his Rebirth. Soon after, The Pierrot killed everyone except The Coward, who realized He was the murderer. Filled with guilt, he once again tried to commit suicide.
The ending of the story tells us about a Shrine Maiden (implied to be Reimu Hakurei) who saw a Blond Woman coming from the direction of the Western Abandoned House, who stuck her tongue at the Shrine Maiden to quickly bow and walked away (apparently leaving Gensokyo from the Maiden's perspective). She also realized she was the only woman in the Group of Men (was she the murderer and only 7 Men were present?)

"Yes, that was the day we were lost in this paradise.
And right away, I stopped being human."

In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, we get to know that Alice performed a ritual pretty similar to one of the deaths of the Honest Men, thanks to Aya's reporting. She also showed sings of bad memory, as Aya spoke with her during the ritual, but Alice forgot about it. Another reveal we get is that Alice is a frequent user of Eirin's Butterfly Dream Pill that guarantees dreaming about becoming a butterfly and enjoying the life. Overdosing in this drug or just having a too enjoyable dream causes the Dream Self to switch places with you.
That's maybe related to her personality shifts? After all, it's revealed that the Dream Selfs present in Touhou are much more aggressive and more like a direct line to their feelings, closer to the unconscious.

Pretty unsettling, right? The amount of coincidences scares me, although Alice looks too friendly for a mass murderer, even with the Dream Self. That's why I think in this theory PC98 Alice somehow got mixed with the Original Windows Alice, that's crazy. Only explanation that comes to mind.
 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Pepi
Typo. Missed some "

[RandomTouhouFan124]

I like this theory