Character discussion thread: Byakuren vs Miko

[Juuni]

One thing that has always been a very weird topic to me is how and why miko and byakuren are still so divided even though they have worked as Allie’s on multiple occasions. So, I’m opening this thread for a quick discussion. So my first point on this matter is their motivations. Byakuren as we know is much more passive in her approaches, as she holds a lot of fear with her. In fact, the reason she uses magic in the first place is due to her fear of death. Miko however takes an active stance on the issues she’s is involved in. She wants to protect the humans, which is the main reason she wanted to step up as the human village’s leader. However, she was convinced to back due to it killing youkai as a result from lack of fear. This shows an important part to miko in my opinion, where she does care for youkai’s existence. She just prioritizes humans, so honestly it would be likely that byakuren and her aren’t as far as we could originally think. 
The second part of it is their peculiar allyship in specifically AoCF. They worked together to eliminate joon and Shion, fighting her but failing due to not knowing about the trick joon pulls. What really comes of this incident though is that it establishes an environment where they agree to disagree, and a similar, albeit tenser and more divided, way to how it was in symposium of post mysticism. That, and three characters basically force them near each other. Miko and byakuren both took Kokoro under their wings, with miko giving her the hope mask and byakuren letting her be around the temple. Ichirin and futo gain an established friendship after AoCF, as they bond pretty well during it. Overall, I feel the notion of byakuren and miko being incredibly divided doesn’t quite work anymore, as canon provides a subtler arc between them as a kind of odd enemies to friends story.

[Gri]

1 hour ago, Juunimeta said:

Overall, I feel the notion of byakuren and miko being incredibly divided doesn’t quite work anymore, as canon provides a subtler arc between them as a kind of odd enemies to friends story

Actually, this is my question on the topic: Are they still divided?

I mean, yes they are from different religion, so they are competing for "faith", just like Reimu and Moriya Shrine, but they are not "at war" with one another. Even then, Byakuren's getting a lot of faith from youkais, so it's not like Miko has to work that hard to get the humans faith (no many human would want to hang around youkais, even if officially youkai stay "undercover" at the temple, rumors would keep most humans away). They are "divided" because of their religion, so they won't hang out together just for fun, but they can talk casually when meeting one another (much like business rivals) and work together when thing get serious like in AoCF.
 

1 hour ago, Juunimeta said:

She wants to protect the humans, which is the main reason she wanted to step up as the human village’s leader. However, she was convinced to back due to it killing youkai as a result from lack of fear. This shows an important part to miko in my opinion, where she does care for youkai’s existence.

Haven't read the print-works/omakes, so I don't know where that part is coming from.

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Gri

[Juuni]

1 minute ago, Gri said:

Actually, this is my question on the topic: Are they still divided?
 

Haven't read the print-works/omakes, so I don't know where that part is coming from.

 

Firstly, miko wanting to lead the village is in alternative facts of eastern utopia. And to go for the question, how I see it in fandom is the issue. There’s still quite the heavy notion they are separated due to differences in faith, even though much more supports otherwise. Also, to put a bit more, both byakuren and miko do not need faith, as they both are not gods. Miko has no avatars or really any living figure for faith due to Taoism being more about the actions rather than beliefs, and byakuren while having gods, she has an avatar in the form of shou, who acts for bishamonten. If anything, Shou has no competition with miko either because of bishamonten being a fortune god and not one with a religion based off of them. In this case, both byakuren and miko are priestesses for their corresponding religions, and therefore don’t interfere with each other much in that sense. It keeps adding up to that seeing the notion of them being enemies just. Doesn’t work. It’s one of the many cases where fanon is so wrong it’s actually comedic.

[Gri]

2 minutes ago, Juunimeta said:

Doesn’t work. It’s one of the many cases where fanon is so wrong it’s actually comedic.

Now it makes sense. I wasn't too sure you were referring to fanon. Indeed, canon wise it makes no sense. Fanon likes to overly simplify characters and their interactions or even turn characters into common anime cliché (like Yuuka for instance, who just slightly troll people in PoFV but somehow became a typical Sado-dere in fanon). This is why I tend to avoid fan-stuff until I know about how things are supposed to be officially. 

Same thing happens with Satori (turned into a weak, frail and lonely person tortured by her ability, when in reality she uses her ability without asking permissions, turns people fear against them and rules over former-hell), and it makes me angry. While Touhou has a girl-only cast and the story is fairly light (nothing bad ever happens), it's never been about "waifus" (at least from my perspective). But, that's another topic.