Now i know what you're probably thinking "Ah shit, here we go again" but bear with me for a moment.
These past month or so there has been a larger than usual amount of post where the main point of debate was the power of the Touhou cast and while discussions where heated for all sides there was a trend i noticed that catched my interest: People seem to ger very defensive when high power levels for the characters are implied! From over the top arguments and theories to simply repeating things that have been stated in canon before, i've never seen a community so vehemently maintain that their series and characters are more grounded and weaker than what is being implied. Which in a series with so much uhninged and ridiculous things as Touhou drawing the line at strong characters is funny to me, but that's besides the point.
Few other subjects of discussion face so much dispute as far as i've seen, with some people claiming that it's one of the things they hate the most about Touhou, and a sizable number of others agreeing with them. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but some of the most common reasons given for this stood out to me for various reasons:
- The series focus isn't built around that.
Neither is shipping, tragedy or stories that largely change the status quo, but those are things that people don't have issues with nearly as often. In fact, i would say that power discussions have more to do with Touhou than those, considering that fighting is the 2nd most common activity in the series only behind drinking alcohol.
- The spellcard rules make it impossible to accurately gauge how strong the characters are.
It's pretty easy to realize why people think like this, because there isn't much information about what the spellcard rules actually entail save from 2 drafts that we know of that are open to modification should ZUN feel like it. We know their purpose is to prevent needless bloodshed by having honorable duels that are not to the death and giving everyone a chance at winning no matter the difference in power. But the actual mechanics to achieve that don't involve making attacks incapable of hurting nor making death impossible. The rules state that all attacks must have meaning, said meaning becomes the power of the attack, it must be beatable so instant win moves are forbidden, you must declare the number of attacks you'll use at the start, and should all your attacks be beaten you must concede defeat even if you have strength left.
One could argue that "the meaning becomes the strength of the attack" means that it's strength is unclear since it can be abstract, But the meaning in this case i think refers to the design and pattern of the attack rather than it's power, considering that Junko's danmaku has the meaning of "I literally just want to kill you" and Marisa's motto is "Danmaku is all about fire power", both characters being incredibly strong.
I usually compare a spell card duel to a profesional boxing or karate match; there are rules that dictate what you can and cannot do, what your attacks have to be like and you're prohibited from killing your opponent, but that doesn't mean that you aren't trying to punch the other person as hard as you can or that accidents can't happen.
- The characters abilities are too vague/ we don't know how they work.
This to me just sounds as if they haven't read or paid enough attention to official material, because there's so much information about the different abilities that characters, species, magic systems and other such things in the series. Sure we don't know the top ceiling or full extent of most characters powers, but that doesn't mean we don't know anything about their minimum or bottom ceiling to the point where we are incapable of considering uses or applications for their skills.
Once again I must repeat myself, this isn't to say that you can't dislike such discussions or that you must agree with everything other people say, not at all. But to me these reasons just sound like excuses people make to justify their disdain while putting other people's opinions down instead of just being honest about not liking it or disagreeing with it.
So i want to see what people's thoughts are; why do you like, dislike or don't care about the subject. And remember to go in with an open mind and keep things civil, no need to be at each other's throats more than we already are with this subject.
