Was Remilia a good sister?
Apr 25, 2015 0:12:13 GMT
Post by Aki on Apr 25, 2015 0:12:13 GMT
So this question came to mind after a conversation on Skype. Obviously rule one to being a good sister is to NOT lock your sister up for 495 years…Or is it?
Personally I feel the ideas of “good” and “bad” are too subjective and time based to make such a judgement, however I can provide a theory I had, for why Remilia’s choices might not have been so stupid, and that there is more to the story of the SDM than meet the eye.
First of all, Remilia, being born in 1502 (1) comes from a time where society* did much worse to people who are insane (2). Contemporary morals and psychological knowledge/expertise had not been attained at the time, this means the only real mistake Remilia made in this theory was not paying attention to Flandre to see whether she has improved or not, and even that can be countered by the knowledge that people of the past did not expect the insane to recover (as evidenced in the treatments (2)). The fear of insanity was so great, famous short stories such as Tell-Tale Heart (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe, have been written (7).
One could argue that Remilia could also have paid more attention to the outside world for psychology cures. But that can also be countered as Remi could indeed have tried, but it is hard for Vampires to get their hands on medicine, especially when Remilia cannot hide her wings (8). Even if they did get their hands on medicine, it didn't work since psychology with successful results really only became a thing /after/ Remilia stopped caring so much about the outside world, since she would have been approximately 400 by then (9).
So locking Flandre up may not have been such a cruel choice at all.
*I assume there was a vampire society, or just a society of some kind, since Remilia and Flandre are quite well cultured and skilled in their abilities, people who are subjected to isolation and neglect at a young age (3). Also, they have a mansion obviously meant for more people than just the Scarlets. Mansions aren't the best place to settle down in, if you're just two people. I honestly cannot imagine the Scarlets trying to maintain Scarlet Devil Mansion without Sakuya, if they didn’t have some sort of motivation from emotional attachment to want to keep the mansion. I theorise that there used to be more people in the mansion, but something happened for them to have disappeared.
Note, Sakuya and Meiling, the two people who would have been helpful in maintaining a mansion did not become relevant until much later. Meiling only came along after the 17th century since that was when Franco-Chinese relations started (4). Meiling could have come as late as 1998, since that was the time the SDM moved to Gensokyo (1). Sakuya might be even later, her interest in Jack the Ripper (1888) would indicate thus (5), since if you lived for any longer (and thus would have seen more serial killers), then Jack the Ripper's cases really wouldn't be that interesting. I assume that they would be more interested in relatively recent occurances to the time when they were young, also due to Remilia’s fascination with Vlad Tepes whose reign was approximately 100 years before her birth (1). Even if the Scarlets were alone the entire time, they used to be in Europe, as indicated by their style choices (6). European Vampire legends say that they have many many weaknesses, not to mention the fact that vampire hunters exist. These weaknesses would be reflected upon the Scarlets, in the same way legends do to other youkai. What would happen to a vampire who was reckless? Surely Remilia would be worried about that.
Honestly I feel sorry for both the sisters for having to deal with all of this. Especially since for some /reason/ the rest of the society is gone and I'm willing to bet that it wasn't a good reason. They've been through a lot, to have the attitude they have in Touhou.
I'm sure ZUN would have thought of at least part of this since he did specify 1884 as the founding year of Gensokyo, Remilia and Flandre's exact ages (by year), and the fact that it is a really ridiculous idea to lock your sister, insane or not, in the basement for if you were a person of modern times.
(1) touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Gensokyo
(2) thelimbicregion.tripod.com/id38.htm
(3) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29
(4) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93France_relations
(5) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper
(6) www.vam.ac.uk/page/0-9/19th-century-fashion/
(7) poestories.com/stories.php
(8) en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Remilia_Scarlet
(9) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychology
Personally I feel the ideas of “good” and “bad” are too subjective and time based to make such a judgement, however I can provide a theory I had, for why Remilia’s choices might not have been so stupid, and that there is more to the story of the SDM than meet the eye.
First of all, Remilia, being born in 1502 (1) comes from a time where society* did much worse to people who are insane (2). Contemporary morals and psychological knowledge/expertise had not been attained at the time, this means the only real mistake Remilia made in this theory was not paying attention to Flandre to see whether she has improved or not, and even that can be countered by the knowledge that people of the past did not expect the insane to recover (as evidenced in the treatments (2)). The fear of insanity was so great, famous short stories such as Tell-Tale Heart (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe, have been written (7).
One could argue that Remilia could also have paid more attention to the outside world for psychology cures. But that can also be countered as Remi could indeed have tried, but it is hard for Vampires to get their hands on medicine, especially when Remilia cannot hide her wings (8). Even if they did get their hands on medicine, it didn't work since psychology with successful results really only became a thing /after/ Remilia stopped caring so much about the outside world, since she would have been approximately 400 by then (9).
So locking Flandre up may not have been such a cruel choice at all.
*I assume there was a vampire society, or just a society of some kind, since Remilia and Flandre are quite well cultured and skilled in their abilities, people who are subjected to isolation and neglect at a young age (3). Also, they have a mansion obviously meant for more people than just the Scarlets. Mansions aren't the best place to settle down in, if you're just two people. I honestly cannot imagine the Scarlets trying to maintain Scarlet Devil Mansion without Sakuya, if they didn’t have some sort of motivation from emotional attachment to want to keep the mansion. I theorise that there used to be more people in the mansion, but something happened for them to have disappeared.
Note, Sakuya and Meiling, the two people who would have been helpful in maintaining a mansion did not become relevant until much later. Meiling only came along after the 17th century since that was when Franco-Chinese relations started (4). Meiling could have come as late as 1998, since that was the time the SDM moved to Gensokyo (1). Sakuya might be even later, her interest in Jack the Ripper (1888) would indicate thus (5), since if you lived for any longer (and thus would have seen more serial killers), then Jack the Ripper's cases really wouldn't be that interesting. I assume that they would be more interested in relatively recent occurances to the time when they were young, also due to Remilia’s fascination with Vlad Tepes whose reign was approximately 100 years before her birth (1). Even if the Scarlets were alone the entire time, they used to be in Europe, as indicated by their style choices (6). European Vampire legends say that they have many many weaknesses, not to mention the fact that vampire hunters exist. These weaknesses would be reflected upon the Scarlets, in the same way legends do to other youkai. What would happen to a vampire who was reckless? Surely Remilia would be worried about that.
Honestly I feel sorry for both the sisters for having to deal with all of this. Especially since for some /reason/ the rest of the society is gone and I'm willing to bet that it wasn't a good reason. They've been through a lot, to have the attitude they have in Touhou.
I'm sure ZUN would have thought of at least part of this since he did specify 1884 as the founding year of Gensokyo, Remilia and Flandre's exact ages (by year), and the fact that it is a really ridiculous idea to lock your sister, insane or not, in the basement for if you were a person of modern times.
(1) touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Gensokyo
(2) thelimbicregion.tripod.com/id38.htm
(3) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29
(4) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93France_relations
(5) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper
(6) www.vam.ac.uk/page/0-9/19th-century-fashion/
(7) poestories.com/stories.php
(8) en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Remilia_Scarlet
(9) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychology
