The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Satori Komeiji

Theme:
Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye*

Stage: Those Terrifying Eyes Nobody Loves
Palace of the Earth Spirits
bgm: Heartfelt Fancy*

Spellcard Motif: Recollection (copies of danmaku previously experienced by the opponent)
Notable spellcards: SA, DS
Recollection "Terrible Souvenir", Memory Sign "Brain Fingerprint", Heart Flower "Camera-Shy Rose"

Write-up:
Imagine you were born with the ability to see into a person's mind. How deep does the ability reach? Perhaps you can read passing surface thoughts, uncovering plans and detecting lies before they are even spoken. Perhaps you can see deeper, and get a perfect picture of what a person is truly like inside. Perhaps their entire soul is laid bare to you, with all the ideas, all the memories that are the fabric of a person's own universe.

What would you do with this ability? What kind of a person would you be yourself? How would you live if those people whose hearts you can see, hated and feared you for what you are?

Satori is the lone mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, a forsaken mansion on the outskirts of the Underground village that served as a refuge for the rejected Satori maidens. Since her sister Koishi left, only her myriad of pets are there to keep her company. Animals do not lie and deceive. They do not discriminate against those who know their true intentions, but are grateful to be understood. Under her care, some of her pets grew old and strong enough to reach a humanoid youkai form.

What kind of an existence does she lead? Is she sad to be alone, especially now that her sister had left her? Or has she developed the kind of independence and strength of will that allowed her not to go down the same path as her sister? Is she truly that alone, or are her pets, including Utsuho and Rin, more than enough company? Are there in fact some among the youkai of the village who dare to be friends with the triple-eyed girl? And above all, what impact did Koishi have on it all...?

There is little known for sure about the girl with the third eye. Yet, everyone has their own idea of who she is – the crying maiden, the acerbic snarker, the gentle and wise soul, the loving sister and mother... Everyone has a place in their heart somewhere, for the forsaken soul with the seeing eye.

Relations:

• Koishi (estranged sister)
• Utsuho & Rin (surprisingly humanoid pets)
• other known underground people (often depicted as friendly towards her)

Alternate Character Interpretations:
Smiling
-by Clarste

This small world of ours
-by Fawriel

Sealed Eyes (Deviantart link, please read description first)
-by Fawriel

The Burden of the Mind-Reader
-by horselesshorseman

The Eye of Truth
-by Pulse

Satori ~ Eyes Wide Shut
-by yarrunmace

edited 8th Oct '11 4:02:11 PM by Fawriel

Alright, read my mind! I said read it! "I am awesome!" Read it!

Notes:

Satori is a satori... I bet her parents were very creative people.

Satori uses your team mate's spellcards. The attack before this is called "Terrifying Hypnotism" (hard or lunatic only) So I always wondered if this ability was just a trick of the mind. That would mean Satori doesn't just read minds, but can influence them. However, unlike Koishi this doesn't extend to the subconscious level, I guess? According to Mari's Grimore, it does use actual hypnosis... but what does Marisa know about that!

According to Hatate in DS, the satori were originally native to the Youkai Mountain. Better for Koishi's discussion, but I wasn't here then.

Satori's colors are the inverse of her sister's. SYMBOLISM!

Her heart is inexplicably attached to her clothing. Now back to that silly Youkai clothes debate!

She can read the minds o' the animals, that's why they like her. However, this is why humans and Youkai feared her.

Of course, she doesn't exactly hold back the thoughts she hears, she just kind of blurts out what your thinking. She does apologize in the Reimu/Aya scenario, not to sure about the rest of them.

She says she hasn't seen Orin in while, as we brought up in Orin's discussion, but she is quick to defend her when she gets blamed, then promptly sees the truth with her third eye. I thought that was interesting.

Music: Satori Theme is awesome.

Danmaku: Mind Reading/Hypnosis

Hers is someone else's. So just read my comment above.

Overview:

Satori is a very interesting character, and I want to see what we all have to say about her. Her somewhat close-knit family and her decidedly different personality make her stand out among all the amazing characters of SA and TH in general.

What secrets lie in the hearts of men?

The Satori knows.

edited 19th May '11 4:56:25 PM by Horselesshorseman

I wonder if Satori is really Satori's name. It would be weird if her species name was the same as her given name.

Maybe and perhaps, Satori is used to address the ruler of the satori. A sort of title or honorific. The word does mean "enlightenment" after all.

Edit: The species name satori apparently means "consciousness."

edited 19th May '11 6:03:45 PM by Bocaj

I maintain that the species is named for her. It worked for Nue

The species is named for Nue? I just assumed that she didn't really have a name so she's just going by a description. Nue Houjuu, the sealed beast Nue. The one Nue that got caught and imprisoned underground. The Nue that did hard time.

It makes sense if you think about it. A name identifies someone. In many fantasy settings, knowing a person's true name gives you power over them. But Nue doesn't have a real name. She's unidentified.

edited 19th May '11 6:24:32 PM by Bocaj

Hmm...

I think I'm going to have to steal that line from you for the Nue discussion.

On the topic of Satori, I just find it hard to believe that she is either the first satori (or old enough to have named the species) or in a high enough position to earn it as a title. She does live alone satori-wise. Well, sort of. Koishi is hard to count at times.

edited 19th May '11 6:30:04 PM by Horselesshorseman

Given the lack of other satori that show up, its sometimes assumed that Satori and Koishi are the only ones in the underground. And possibly in all of Gensokyo. And Koishi really isn't in any state of mind to be the leader of the race, even if the only duties that seems to require is inhabiting a really cool palace.

Edit: But maybe instead, its satori custom to name the first-born Satori. Or something.

edited 19th May '11 6:31:04 PM by Bocaj

Let the record show said palace is located above the ruins of Ex-hell/Utsuho's generator.

I think it might have been abandoned by citizens of the former hell.

EDIT: Wait, that generator is new... let the record show that the generator is new.

I don't think Biology works that way.

edited 19th May '11 6:34:20 PM by Horselesshorseman

Welp, better hope the satori gene is a dominant one then, or their race is screwed

According to her profile, Satori took up residence in the palace and then people stopped visiting it. Because she was there. I guess you can assume there was cause for people to visit it semi-regularly before that.

If satori are anything like most youkai, they have a long time to come up with a solution and/or face their extinction with quiet dignified snarkiness.

She was sent underground for the wrong reasons. It's just like your friends who hack you on Face Book, she means no harm and is just curious...but hasn't realized she can just talk to people.

Edit: I'm not a very grammatical person

edited 19th May '11 6:48:23 PM by raigakuren

1. I think that simile needs work. It still sounds bad.

2. Yeah. That's one of the things I like about Satori. In a world where even the shy character's are hammy, she is really, really bad at talking to people. It's one of those things that just inspire character study. Why the awkwardness, Satori? Her pets certainly meet the ham quota of Gensokyo.

Its kind of interesting the kind of youkai that were forced underground.

You have the earth spiders who can manipulate diseases. You have the Tsurube-otoshi who drop down and eat people. Or immolate them with demon fire. You have the kasha who can steal your corpse and prevent your spirit from passing on. And then you have the satori who will voice your thoughts out loud and are kind of annoying.

One of these is not like the others.

But does one of these things still not belong?

We also have the oni who... get drunk. That's kind of a public nuisance. Kind of.

We also have Parsee.

edited 19th May '11 6:53:18 PM by Horselesshorseman

The oni voluntarily exiled themselves because humans were getting them down.

And Parsee wasn't exiled. She was the guardian spirit of the bridge. The horrible jealousy came later.

This is why Gensokyou doesn't have any buses.

Speaking of which I recently rewatched Inception and am seriously considering if Satori could do the same thing and enter people dreams. Dreams do count as thoughts in the mind right?

edited 19th May '11 7:00:50 PM by raigakuren

Either way they're down there, I wanted to be thorough.

I don't know, but I'm going to say yes. If only for rule of cool.

A bullet within a bullet. Inception.

Agreed.

That might be into more Koishi's territory. Or maybe THE KOMIEJI SISTERS WORKING TOGETHER!

Of course.

It takes two to break into people's minds and mess with their innermost desires and goals while avoiding mind guards and a large musical score plays.

edited 19th May '11 7:13:30 PM by Horselesshorseman

Touhception, it needs to be made...NOW

You guys are thinking of Mugetsu and Gengetsu.

I like the suggestion that Yuugi is cool with Satori - the logic goes that oni are naturally truthful and straightforward creatures, so they wouldn't have any reason to fear a mind-reader because they have nothing to hide. I've never seen this realized romantically, though. The Yuugi-Parsee ship is just too strong.

Satori has a great theme, kinda like Remilia's in that it sounds distinctly Western and has a strong Horror! vibe to it (and I'd argue that it's even darker and more threatening than "Septette"). It's nice and Gothic without becoming suffocating, staying energetic despite its tone. I find it an interesting contrast to Koishi's theme - both are musically intricate and energetic, but Satori's theme is much more composed, while Koishi's is wild and almost overwhelmingly hectic. Satori's music gives you the impression that you're in a Dracula-like entity's power, while Koishi's theme is unsettling because you can feel it doing stuff to your brain but you're not sure what. I've said it before and I'll say it again, ZUN is superb at fitting music to his characters.

My two favorite "Third Eye" remixes - "Stein der Kirche" will please pipe organ fans, while Neo's remix is an exquisite orchestrated piece.

The two Satori-centric doujin I'm impatiently awaiting updates for are "Chirei de" by the always-spectacular karaagetarou, and "The Kasha At That Time" by gensoukoumuten, who I want to yell at for not finishing his story, though maybe he did and nobody's uploaded the rest of it yet, so he's off the hook for now. Standard Danbooru warning due to NSFW banner ads for mind-destroying H-games.

Given Mugetsu's and Gengetsu's location, it seems more likely that they are the one's getting Incepted.

Doesn't matter though. Turns out Koishi is a horrible architect.

I really liked that second remix, though I've never really felt the horror from it that people keep mentioning, sounds melancholic to me, no reference intended.

Once again, music has no given interpretation, and all opinions are valid.

edited 19th May '11 10:55:54 PM by Horselesshorseman

Holy shit, Genso made another comic?

He also was making one about Daiyousei but the plot had a flood in it and it was being released right before the big earthquake in Japan. He released the pages that he had with added commentary but I haven't seen any additional pages.