/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>44096091
>>44096091
> She owns several COMPLETE slaves that have entirely submitted themselves to her to the point that they have NO true will of their own as their original selves are suppressed by a new personality

I’m gonna be frank, this shit about Ran not having a personality and no free will is utterly retarded. The worst fanon I’ve ever seen. Anyone who believes this doesn’t know anything about her character and there seems to be a worrying number of people who perceive her this way. For one, we see her personality make itself known multiple times despite her not getting much attention in the story. Her interactions with Aya and providing mathematical proofs of the sanzu river's dimensions is one example of this. She enjoys math so much that she tries to bring Aya into it (and then the bird brain got filtered because of how complex the math was).
Aya: Hmmm. I haven't seen a pointless accomplishment on this large of a scale in a long time.
Ran: I told you that I only did this out of boredom.
Aya: You must always be really bored.
Ran: I've got time to waste, since Lady Yukari is sleeping all the time...
This AI that lacks all free will and lacks a mind of her own (let’s pretend her "Shikigami of the Ego" and "Shikigami of the Id" spellcards dont exist lol) has ''time to waste'' and fucks around doing absurdly complex math.
Now there’s something I want to address from Bohemian Archive:
> Naturally; equations themselves are shikigami. Just as equations that neither diverge nor converge produce an infinite number of solid objects, so do the equations Lady Yukari uses to increase my power indefinitely. I therefore act as the equations command.
> So that's how it is. I don't think I could keep up acting in a predetermined fashion. It'd be too constraining.

Now when Ran says this, she isn’t saying that Yukari is dictating every minute action she takes, thus robbing her of agency. Yukari isn’t using equations to make Ran eat her kitsune udon in the most optimal way so as to not spill her dashi broth or some shit. If Yukari had this tight control over Ran, she wouldn’t disobey Yukari and be abused
Then there’s this, ‘’ Oh, I see. Since you use a shikigami, you're good with equations, which means that even as you're run by equations, you're also controlling them...’’
Source: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Bohemian_Archive_in_Japanese_Red/Ran

Now if you read through this text from Perfect Memento, you’ll see words like ‘’slave’’ or that Ran ‘’must’’ do whatever Yukari says. But as we’ll later see, Ran serves Yukari only in an official capacity as her servant, without any magical or psychic coercion influencing her actions.
Source: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Perfect_Memento_in_Strict_Sense/Ran_Yakumo

Now for the best part, a paragraph that completely destroys the notion that Ran has no free will:
''At any rate, I will explain once again for Ran's sake. It is not abuse; it is discipline. Ran is a shikigami, so if she does not do exactly as I say, she will be unable to perform at her optimal efficiency. Despite that, she ignored orders and fought with humans. (This is likely referencing her taking revenge for Chen's defeat in PCB) So, I scolded her.’’

If Yukari really did replace her personality, then why is she acting like this? Why would Yukari program her computer in this way? It makes no fucking sense to give her a personality that acts defiantly. Yukari is frustrated by Ran's disobedience and feels a need to correct it and sees that correction as a sort of ''lesson'' (it’s just her being a massive bitch but that’s beside the point). It's almost as if Yukari doesn't have total control over her servants and resorts to abusing them when they disobey her (otherwise she could just program them to always obey her orders or replace a personality that’s ‘’defective’’). This seems to be a running theme with the Yakumos. Yukari can generally get Ran to do what she wants, but she will sometimes disobey. Ran can’t really get Chen to do jack shit for the most part. She only ever helped Ran during the events of Detective Satori. And Chen has no authority over anyone, despite her trying to get control over the cats in Mayohiga.
Source: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Bohemian_Archive_in_Japanese_Red/Yukari

On a lighter note, in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia Ran hid her kitsune ears because Aya was taking photos (she likely perceives her ears as a sort of private part). Aside from being adorable, it again proves that she is very much in touch with her fox self. Just as Chen is with her cat self. Which explains why Chen is always on her own, doesn't like being sprayed with water and is easily distracted by catnip.
Source:https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Alternative_Facts_in_Eastern_Utopia/Essay/Aya_Shameimaru#Essay_1