CountVonNumenor

Nice to see someone else taking interest in the Lord of the Rings. The books are actually quite interesting. However, if you come to the books after watching the films, you will have both moments when you will feel the book has more details, and also moments when it feels lackluster compared to the films. Like for example the books have more room for world-building. However, events like the big battles are described in a rather small number of pages, and leave a lot to be imagined (for example, the famous Battle of the Five Armies that was expanded to an entire film literally takes 5 pages in The Hobbit book, while the battle of Helm's Deep, despite having a whole dedicated chapter in The Two Towers, is like just half the chapter at most). I think I can reach a balance in which there are some details from the books I prefer over the film adaptations, but also keep some of the visuals from the films since hey have become quite iconic and feel they would fit. Indeed, Return of the Jedi does give that feeling of "this is the end of the story". I think it also worked extremely well in 1983 since there was no plan for expanding the story after that point. However, I personally really like the way the story was continued in the old Expended Universe (aka Legends). Somehow, that story feels quite natural, with the Empire starting to divide among warlords in the power vacuum caused by the death of the Emperor. I also like the original Thrawn trilogy, while Dark Empire gave what I think to be some of the most badass imagery (both depicted and explained) in terms of the the Imperials fighting among themselves for power just before the reemergence of the Reborn Emperor. I am talking right now about the Imperial Civil War and battle of Coruscant as seen in the opening panels of the DE comic adaptation. The Imperial Civil War is a very interesting image to me. It brings a feeling of apocalypse, especially with all the warlords suddenly turning on each other after conquering Coruscant from the New Republic. And now you have a catastrophic battle on the surface of the planet, while vast armadas tear each other apart in space, and you also have the Emperor releasing his hidden fleets from the planet of Byss against the galaxy. This description on the beginning of the conflict remained with me for quite a while: As a bonus: a lot of new Imperial tech came out of these comics. The Procusator and Allegiance class Star Destroyers, the World Devastators, the Eclipse and so many unnamed space and ground vehicles that more or less found their way into the guide books like the Essential Guide to Warfare. I never really knew what sort of game Nier is. The only thing I could associate it with was the character 2B, which for quite a long while I did not like since she basically looks like a horny/fanservice version of Youmu (tell me if Youmu and 2B do not look quite similar). Oh yeah, and that fact that apparently the creator of these games is not only OK with lewd art of his characters, but he actually encourages it/looks for it and said something like there's more than he can go check out. However, it would be interesting to find out more about these games.

Overall, I really think there is something special about Stack, besides the fact that she is basically what gives life to the songs. I feel she is different from most of the Japanese female singers I have listened to (at least since I got into Touhou). She doesn't (always) sound cutesy, high-pitched like your average anime girl thing. Instead, she makes me think more of an actual woman when I her Stack singing. Is it just me, do I perhaps have problems, or there's some justification in this line of thought?

I think these two videos were part of my first contact with Touhou, even if at the time I did not know what Touhou is Surprise, surprise, Kaliningrad actually is a Touhou fan, with him having a secondary channel dedicated to Touhou animations, as well as a Twitter and Pixiv pages where he posts 2hus

Hello, fellow Balkan neighbor! It is a bit unfortunate Touhou is not really well known in this part of the world, but at least we should be happy there is more than nothing at the very least. For us, in Romania, it is not so much better, as from what I have found we only have that 100 members server on Discord and a few wiki pages translated in Romanian (unfortunately, they are not on the good wiki, but on the Fandom one). But I see we also have an area on the internet dedicated to patching the games and translating them to Romanian.

I was honestly thinking what else I could add to this thread, but I feel like you have brought a perfect continuation to many of the points I have started. And with nothing really significant going on in the game right now, perhaps new material to talk about will come with the 1 year anniversary of Global. However, feel free to address anything you wish related to the game in this thread, and I will come back with a reply. Until that, has anyone played Danmaku Kagura? The title of this thread also mentions DanKagu, but I accidentally ended up focusing it more on Lost Word than anything else.

Outside Touhou, many of us might also have other series and franchises we enjoy. For me, the ones I have gone through over the years would be the following: 1) Star Wars Probably the first franchise I ever heard of. Despite not having watched it as a child, it still had an almost legendary status for me, and was a film series I really wanted to watch one day. From the few documentaries seen and some TV shows about sci-fi, I left with a quite confused image of what was going on the films, but things would soon change. Back in 2014, when I first heard a new film would be coming out, I was quite excited. At the time, I had no idea what the Sequel Trilogy would turn into, I was just happy to hear a new film would be released. Then, in anticipation to the release of The Force Awakens, TV channels started broadcasting every weekend all the six films up to that point, and so I got the chance to see everything (got to see them in chronological order, so there's that). Then the years have passed. I started reading more and more on the Wookiepedia, got quite an interest in the vehicles of the series (ever since a child I was completely fascinated by the whole AT-AT attack scene in the battle of Hoth). However, at the same time was also getting more and more exposed to all the faces of the fandom in itself too (especially to the so-called "Fandom Menace"), as this was the time when I actually started using the internet more frequently. In the end, by the time Episode IX, I started to feel a bit of boredom. I did not even watch the whole film, but already knew it has been quite a mess. Plus, at the time I was also discovering new series, but more on that later. Afterwards, the only things that kept my greatly diminished interest have been like the non-film products - The Mandalorian season I & II, The Clone Wars season 7 (they finally finished the animated series) and Bad Batch. What made it even better has been that I spent my time watching these with a fiend who was also into Star Wars (and film/series in general). I still like the aesthetic for the series, especially for Imperial warships and vehicles, and I am happy when an old design is re-canonized or created from scratch. I am also one of those weird fans who likes Dark Empire, and actually loves the visuals from the comic book adaptation. 2) The Lord of the Rings/anything written by Tolkien Probably on par with Star Wars in terms of seeing it as a legend before having the chance to watch/read it. My oldest memory about it is related to seeing The Two Towers film adaptation as a child, and since it got my curiosity. When The Hobbit films came out, I watched those, and did not have any problem with them. I enjoyed them for what they were, and never went for nitpicking. To be fair, at the time I still did not get to read the original books, and so my expectations were low. 6 or 7 years ago, I actually started reading the books. First, I read the Hobbit, then moved to LoTR. I do not think I have ever read 1500 pages as fast as I did with that book trilogy. despite feeling a bit weird at the beginning (the Hobbit felt quite a bit like a children's book, while LoTR shifts the tone quite a lot, yet it still have the "suddenly song" moment here and there), but after a while, I actually grew to love them. For quite a while, I was fascinated by the world-building, the characters and wars of Middle Earth. At the time I was also playing Medieval II Total War, so it came perfectly when I discovered the Third Age TW mod. Then, after a lot of years, did I get to actually watch the LoTR film adaptations by Peter Jackson. I could finally watch something I only remembered vaguely from my childhood, and in the end, I really liked the films. Even today, I am still coming back to this film trilogy from time to time. Nowadays, I guess I lost a bit of interest, but I still like the Tolkien universe quite a lot. Whenever I feel it, I am coming back to it to see why I enjoy it so much. I have heard all the rumors, discussions and controversy surrounding the upcoming Amazon series, but by now, I really don't care. I am not too interested to watch it anyway, so why even bother. 3) Warhammer 40,000 Even if for the past couple years it has become one of the main series I am interested in, I will probably get it shorter than expected. As I was starting to get more and more bored of Star Wars, especially after The Rise of Skywalker, I was looking for new series to get into. What got me into the grimdark future of the 41st millennium has actually been a little shitpost series called If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device. It was catchy, it was fun, and boi, did it make me curious to learn more about Warhammer. From there on, I have had an entire world pandemic and 2 months lockdown in 2020 to get even more down that rabbit hole. I would have liked to give tabletop a try, but things are ridiculously high even for basic models, so I do not think it would be so woth the investment. If there is a faction I like the most, it would be the Imperial Guard. I am just more interested in an army of human conscripts, but in masive numbers, and armed with a lot of very cool looking vehicles. Of there is a setting in the franchise I would say I am more fascinated by, that would be the 30K/Horus Heresy era. It just feels so archaic, a lost era filled with tons of cool designs and an interesting aesthetic (I really like the power armor models of that era, especially the Mark II and III), as well as the concept of a "space marine legion" instead of mere "chapters" as they are organized in the 41st millennium. 4) BattleTech/MechWarrior Probably the most recent addition to my collection of series I like. I am still in my fist couple of weeks of exploring it, but I got quite an excellent introduction through the TEX Talks BattleTech videos. I ended up from having a slight dislike for BT due to it being a rival to Warhammer (and a series I had no idea about - fear of the unknown, I guess) even if BattleTech is older than Warhammer by a few years, to something I am looking to learn more and more about. Anyway, if anyone wants to get a starting point, TEX is excellent. Easy to digest lore (even if videos are very long - it does not feel as if you spent almost 2 hours watching), a lot of humour, and ending skits are always a gold mine. The series in itself has quite an interesting aesthetic, with some sort of retro futuristic stuff going it - it really does look like a series that came out in the 1980s. For the introductory videos (also adding the Battle of Tukayyid because ALWAYS REMEMBER that a telecom company managed to beat an entire force of warrior caste fighters armed with superior tech and stronger warriors) And some of the extra, entertainment stuff. It is gunny how many of these skits are made as if they were in-universe commercials or shows that would actually be broadcasted

Luckily, my best friend is also a Touhou fan. I managed to drag him in get him back into the series (he knew about Touhou a few years prior, but never got too much into it) soon after I got in, and ever since both of us enjoy. We have different tastes, but this has been common ground for us, and it's been quite fun to play some of the games (or at least trying to...)

I will start with talking about my country, Romania: We are a small-medium nation just at the border of the Balkans with Eastern Europe. In general, foreign pop culture used to, and still does, comes with a very long delay, sometimes of even 5-10 years. When we were getting cartoons as children, many of them were already at their god knows how much-th rerun in th US and the West (yes, we grew up with Cartoon Network, Getix and later Disney Channel in the early 2000s), and we were never getting a full series, just a few seasons that were dubbed. Anime broadcasting was not a thing, at least not since the end of 1990s on Romanian television. Even today, many people would not understand if you made a reference from a foreign series, as nowadays it is mostly on us, the teenagers, thanks to the internet, to see what is going on outside. And for this reason, for a lot of time, I thought Touhou would be a completely niche series, that nobody heard of. Things changed though when I found out apparently there is a Romanian Discord server dedicated to Touhou and its community. The series is still very much underground here, as our pop culture seems to be very much still isolationist (possibly a result of 45 years of communism, followed by 30 years of uncertain democracy), and so people were not too interested in foreign pop culture. Anyway, a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one: (this is not a promotion; I am simply amazed a community exists at all in here)

This is actually very nice. Unfortunately, we really cannot rely on official art, because it is extremely inconsistent. Characters tend to get a different height from one artist to another, and from the same from one game to another. Another quick example, precisely related to Eiki (spoilers for Touhou 17): So yeah, even the official materials can be confusing at times.

I've seen this MBT video (and whatever video he has featuring Eiki). As for this bit. How tall is Akyuu? She's an adult, but from what I've seen in images from the manga, it's not very clear if she's just short/petite, or something different like artistic liberty was going on.

Also for more tall and serious Shiki Eiki Artist: Evil demon (Pixiv) Source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/73598994

You are in luck. Iganashi has posted a new Eiki drawing today Source: https://twitter.com/Iganashi1/status/1514997029705236485/photo/1 Seriously, his version of the Yama really makes me like to imagine her as an actual, mature woman that has good intentions, even if the way of showing it might be a little rough sometimes.

That is very much how I like imagining her too, even if slightly taller than those around her. However, your idea is perfectly balanced, as all things should be

Meanwhile, about the 300 SCs Ultra FES, I was reading this attempt at explaining whether the event is a scam or not: Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou_lostword/comments/u1ewmw/comment/i4dh5so/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 At least 600 God Crystals seems to be an OK thing, especially if you are a f2p. With the 300 more players will get in a few days, it just gives you more.

Alright, so right now we have multiple festivals ongoing: - 300 Seal Crystal Ultra Festival - Reisen & Sanae (Moon War alts) - loli Junko Ultra Festival - (EoSD alt reskin) Cirno Festival - Byakuren (UFO reskin) Festival - Moon EX Festival - Miko & Yoshika Festival - Event Festival (Yorihime, Yuyuko and Tenshi) Most of these will end up in a couple days, but at least there's still a lot of variety going on right now. Maybe a little too much in one go...

Oh, seems like a nice compromise option. Not too tall, but still dignified. As for the child-like Eiki, I guess it is just the fandom what fandom does. Takes a character or a part of it, and overblows it. I am not very sure who was the first to implement it in fanon, but I would also blame official art (especially GoM) for it. After all, even official art drew her as a kindergartener, so I guess fans thought why not giver her a matching personality.

At its origin, this thread was more about preference. Especially since the Reddit version of it also had a poll for deciding if you like the tall, short or somewhere in between depiction.

I think you are right. First, I really should go for a therapist. It is something I've been looking to do for a while, even just for having a talk or out of mere curiosity. Second, I indeed tend to focus way too much on things that normally do not matter so much. Which just leads to me getting stressed over nothing. Third, I think things will get slightly better once I finally get to have face-to-face courses, especially since I like my new student group (at least from the little I managed to meet them until now), which is always a good chance for making new friends. Last but not least, I stil have a college year to finish, so better mobilise and feel satisfied at the end that I passed. Especially since I currently do have a set of priorities. I just feel a little lonely, but that can be solved with a bit of effort.

Wow, I am quite impressed how all of a sudden this thread gathered so much attention, weeks after original post. But I am happy to see discussion going

True, and that is what I am most scared of. Maybe I should have kept it for myself. Now I only made myself look like a loser online

Oh, I really forgot to add a few more points. Indeed, perhaps I should feel better for the fact I still have a lot of freedom left. Especially since there is enough time for anything, and I guess things will develop naturally. besides, I do agree that stereotypes are just that, stereotypes, but I feel like a lot of people only guide based on those nowadays, without actually taking care to see how that person actually is. So that is why I sais that Touhou and Warhammer are a bad combination for a dude, since it just makes you look even more like a nerd. And even my parents told me: girls are no longer looking after smart guys, they just want people who are rich/have a high-paying job. I did discuss exactly that final meme with some other groups of people, and results were, obviously, rather mixed. Some said that the whole idea of "teenage love" is stupid, while others said they completely agree with the meme, and it is a "me problem" that I am still single at this age. But yeah, I think I am just too negative and harsh with myself perhaps.

There is respect for you to be given too. I am also rather short, at least for the standards of my current generation and all those I have lived with (I'm just under 175cm tall)(for some reason, a lot of those from my generation seem to be very tall, towering around me at over 180-190cm). But back on topic. Personally really am not too much of a fan of the style/depiction from GoM:

Both of you are bringing up very good points. So, to put it like this: - while I was in school, getting a GF was like my very last concern; I was way too busy trying to give my best and learn - when I was in like the 7th grade, I got my first crush for a girl - almost a year older, but both of us were colleagues for some private classes - after almost an entire year of being hesitant, I decided to finally tell her what I feel - in short, it did not end well, as it went into basically her leaving the conversation under the pretext of "I am busy, need to solve something" - we have never spoken since - in high school, I continued to be just as interested in learning, even with whatever BS the teachers throw at you (Romanian education system, oh you magnificent being) - colleagues around me started asking me why I am not bothering with getting a GF (I was already 16-17), and my simple answer was "I do not feel bothered to do so" - in the end, I got at best to be good friend with some of the girls in my class who helped me a lot especially after I moved up to make my accommodation easier, and at least got myself a group of friends - whenever I was looking at a girl and was thinking "she looks good", most of the time it happened that she already had a partner - actually, one girl apparently got a crush on me; however, she was two years younger (I was in the 11th grade, and she was a fresh(wo)man), and the whole thing was shared - I was fine with her as simply a buddy I could talk to about matters like history (unlike other girls, she really seemed to be curious to learn new things, and wanted to find out about the history of the town - she was coming from another place when we met) - what initially started as me giving her history meditations ended u as totally not dates, which I realized way too late - when she wanted to pull her move, and I was still too oblivious to what she was intending to do, especially since I was not really interested, we had an argument, and did not speak to each other for more than half a year - afterwards, I was told that I basically dodged a bullet with her as she was apparently a bit out of her mind; but I think it was better for both of us as in the end I got well over high school, and she moved again, this time managing to achieve one of her dreams (publishing a book she kept telling me about) [Intermission - how 2020, the pandemic and 2 months of lockdown have messed my mind] - in the late autumn of 2019, I got my first graphic novel - I really liked the story, but the main attraction for me was the protagonist - a Russian immigrant girl called Anya - I though she looks cute (really liked the design), then after a while I started asking myself in disgust if I got my first fictional crush (apparently, this is a thing in the United States, and t happens to kids when watching cartoons?) - ever since, I also got such a feeling while in the quarantine that was early 2020 related to a character called Tari from the web series Meta Runner - combined with the loneliness and lack of proper contact with others until the lockdown was over, I start to think whether any serious change took place in my mind at the time (it was also that I recently turned 18, merely a few days after lockdown started) - in the end, I found Touhou towards the end of 2020, and ever since I am stuck into this rabbit whole of a series filled with cute or badass designs and tons of awesome fan-art - now that I got into my first year of college, I started to feel more and more alone and isolated from anyone else - online courses seem to be dragging on and on, and I cannot meet anyone as everyone from my generation has left the town - I would go visit them, but that would mean a 4 (now 5 or more) hours commute from my small province town to Bucharest, the capital - it just made me feel more and more alone, as I really miss going out with people and having a chat - to make it worse, my best friend, who I really used to spend a lot of time with, is no longer an option; nowadays, I am lucky if we manage to chat once a week, as he is also very busy with preparing his own entrance at university (Medicine, so a lot of stress), and wants to make sure he will pass the entry exams; therefore, no more time to chat with me and his generation friends (he is one year younger) So yeah, this is a bit more of a proper content about what is going on with me. And why I feel like not very sure what I actually want, what I feel/impulse that I want, and what I am actually missing. And seeing messages and discussions that basically my whole way of living is wrong does not help at all. Like I felt perfectly fine until now with how I am and what I prefer to focus on, but it feels like a sudden change has taken place and made me reconsider my values and things I like. As on the whole matter of "waifus" and whatever since I originally said liking Touhou might be like a women-repellant thing (especially since it is not like I was called a weeb for liking Touhou, despite me never having watched an anime or read a manga in my life), I got to remember about this little thing I was reading a couple years ago on 1d4chan:

That is how I knew it too. However, where did the short, fanon-favorite version of Eiki come from? Is it due to the depiction from Grimoire of Marisa (I really do not like so much the style in that book, as everyone looks like a kindergartener - especially Eiki) and Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, or was it purely something done by the fans in order to create a contrast between her and Komachi (on the model of that from Bleach with Rangiku Matsumoto and her short boss)? Yeah, I really like his/her style of drawing. It has enough simplicity, yet at the same time conveys so much. That, and the characters drawn look extremely cute.

Sometimes, I feel like I got into two of the most women-repugnant interests possible: Warhammer 40K and Touhou. Warhammer due to obvious reasons (plus the stereotypical image of a middle-aged, greasy, basement dwelling neckbeard who can barely socialize), and Touhou from almost as obvious reasons (by now, Touhou is basically an anime fandom without an anime, and anime fandoms in themselves are their own cans of worms filled with stereotypes). And then we start wondering why we are alone, not liked by anyone. And then, there's stuff like this, told more or less ironically by people who themselves are in our fandom or outside of it... This brings me back to some points I was doing a bit more than a week ago: And of course, this Makes me feel bad for already being 20, but never having had a gf. Is the message actually real, a fabrication of modern conceptions created artificially through media and pop culture, or just me who actually needs to get a life? And to be honest, I would not blame others for my very own failure in the field or romantic life. Or otherwise I would be an incel for that. I just feel like I failed, picked exactly the worst, most boring traits and interests, and am just overall an unpleasant person. Is it just me, or there are others going through the same situation? Maybe I should just be more patient... or maybe just ashamed I am currently failing one of the natural functions for which mankind still exists