Part 2c: Episodes 12-14, Intermission Sequence/Analysis

This is a recap and commentary of everything that happens in Diamond In The Rough and why. If you're new to the series, but don't want to spend four and a half hours of 45% bad Touhou fic Pastiche, 45% Deconstruction, and 10% mean-spirited Tearjerker, this might be faster.

Note: My writing style gives English translations to Japanese words and such. My apologies if this bothers you.

Warning: The Analyses contain unmarked spoilers.

Episode 12

Recap:

Nitori catches Brolli sitting in the Kappa Valley alone, admiring the skyline. Although Brolli says he's fine, Nitori senses he's beginning to get homesick and worried about his decision over coming to Gensokyo. At first Brolli denies it, but it becomes more and more clear Brolli wishes he hadn't come to Gensokyo. The only thing keeping him holding on is how thankful he is for all of the people who care about him, only he doesn't know how to repay them. Nitori says merely thanking them is enough. Brolli hugs Nitori and thanks her for making his life in Gensokyo bearable. When Lepus tells him to take advantage of her, he refuses: he will not keep using people, nor cheat on Reisen.

In Heaven, Tenshi voices her disgust to Brolli with how people treat outsiders. There's paranoia building over the Colonel's powers, and yet he hasn't used them. Worse, everyone's been aiding him in gaining more powers, and yet nobody wants to take responsibility for growing him stronger. Brolli thinks Tenshi has a bigger obsession with the Colonel more than anyone else, but she says it's not in the way he thinks: she wants to use him as an ultimate example of the consequences of blindly aiding an outsider. Normally, when they snap, all of the blame goes on the Gappy, and never on Gensokyo. What Tenshi wants is a worst-case scenario where everyone who aids the outsider gets their just desserts. Unfortunately, this can't happen with a villainous Gappy: she needs a "good" gappy everyone can get behind. If she succeeds, nobody would ever want to blindly aid an outsider ever again, nor would an outsider ever get corrupted by the people of Gensokyo. She tells Brolli she got close with the last outside, who Brolli thinks is Arturo, but really turns out to be Brolli's other classmate, Vic, who had returned traumatized from the week he went missing from school.

Tenshi recounts a far different tale of Arturo: Vic was brought over to stop the corrupted Arturo, who had taken Yuuka hostage and raped her. Vic and Mokou kill Arturo together, but Vic's thirst for revenge, thinking Yuuka corrupted Arturo, leads them to burning Yuuka's flower garden. It turns out Yuuka had actually been trying to save/hide the human village's children in her garden, horrifying Vic since he ordered Mokou to burn the garden (and all of the children inside). Vic is celebrated as a hero for stopping Arturo and Yuuka, while nobody believes Yuuka's story. This was the straw that broke Tenshi's back: she could not handle this cycle of corruption any longer and decided to make an example of Vic since he had so many allies. However, before she can get the chance, Vic is regretful over his actions and asks Yukari to leave Gensokyo. She happily complies, relieved he chose to leave.

Tenshi says that her plan can not only still work, but she's moments from enacting it: the Colonel has replaced Vic, he now has enough allies in Gensokyo to punish virtually everyone, and all that's left is for somebody to expose his weaknesses. Momoi shows up with Aya's newspaper, revealing she had published an article about all of the Colonel's strengths, weaknesses, and allies. Brolli realizes what's coming and runs for the hills. Tenshi reveals she knew that Brolli was the Colonel the whole time, and she was only waiting for conditions to be perfect before saying anything. She doesn't want the weaknesses so she'll cause an incident: she's waiting for Brolli to mess up, the paranoia about his powers to build, and for everyone to enter a bidding war for her services to get rid of him. During this, Tenshi chokes up and cries. Although she will end the Gappy cycle, the plan involves killing one of her close friends, along with endanger Gensokyo as a whole...

End of Reel 1.

Analysis:

Personal Favorite Moment: The Spec Ops: The Line Homage.
Fan Favorite Moments: Brolli hugging and thanking Nitori, Arturo's assassination, the Spec Ops: The Line Homage, Tenshi revealing she knew Brolli all along.

We're approaching the end of the pastiche part of DitR. Normally, the Gappy looks around Gensokyo and wishes he could live there, never worrying about their lives at home. Here, Brolli is reminiscing about his life at home in the only place that really looks like home: the Kappa Valley. The moment I knew I was going to do this scene, I had to set it at night, on a bench, overlooking the Kappa Valley skyline: I wanted a setting that screamed, "Lonely in a big city." If I was going to make this series fully-animated or live action, I would have shot the whole thing in silhouettes: all you see are Brolli and Nitori's outlines against a vast, bright backdrop of buildings and distant stars.

Originally, it was planned for Brolli to have a sex scene with Nitori, but this was cut because, again, this made Brolli far too unlikable. When the scene was changed to Brolli hugging Nitori and refusing to take advantage of her, it got extremely favorable reviews. Plus, it made the climax that much more sadder.

Tenshi's comments about people growing paranoid about the Colonel was written after a few test screenings. By this point, the live audiences have been riffing Brolli's antics for roughly an hour and thirty minutes, and yet Brolli hasn't done much other than dick around and try to gain power to protect himself. Tenshi's comments are meant to break the fourth wall, and this whole sequence is meant to yank the rug out from under the audience for their perceptions as to what will happen to Brolli. Test audiences believed Brolli would snap and go all out on Gensokyo, and then Gensokyo would have to defend themselves, and they were all ready for that until this point. After this point, the riffing tends to grind to a halt.

At first, it seems like Arturo's story is meant to echo what will happen to Brolli: that all gappies gain power, go mad with it, and get killed by Gensokyo. Then, it turns out that's not the case: like Vic, Brolli is going to cause an accident, get hailed as a hero, and cause an even worse disaster when people come to save him. Plus, as the Arturo story gets contradicted, the whole audience's perception of Gensokyo and Gappies changes, and now they don't know what to believe.

If you've seen DitR enough times and are begging for a final answer on the Arturo story, I'll reveal the true story behind Arturo and Vic, but I precede it with this: I never reveal the true story within DitR to make the point that the sins of past gappies mean nothing when you're in the middle of your own nightmare.

The Actual Arturo/Vic Story:

Arturo was a virgin, wishing he could meet an ideal girl in Brolli's school. He is gapped to Gensokyo by Yukari with the promise of meeting women. Arturo follows the same pattern: he chooses not to read the guides, ventures out into Gensokyo, gets attacked by Rumia, gets healed by the House of Eternity, learns spell card rules from Reimu, but upon his journey to the human village, he suddenly learns how to utilize beam magic when fighting the Myouren Temple: he fights them seemingly in self-defense, but he fired the first shot upon fearing they were going to attack him. The Temple attacks him en masse and he is chased into the Garden of the Sun, where Yuuka saves him. Yuuka says she wishes to be left alone and thanks Arturo for saving her garden from the Myouren Temple. Then, when Arturo suspects somebody else about to attack Yuuka's garden, he warns her, and the two fight Marisa, who was picking sunflowers. Yuuka sees Arturo as useful and decides to keep him around.

Arturo wants to get closer to Yuuka, and he eventually reasons that if he helps her guard the garden, he'll win her love. What he doesn't get is that actually keeping her company is doing more wonders than fighting her enemies. By this point, Yuuka is only a little romantic with Arturo, kissing him on occassion. However, things turn dark when a group of kids wander in the garden and Arturo kills them, ignoring spell card rules. Yuuka is shocked and disowns Arturo, but since Arturo is invincible against her attacks, he holds her hostage and demands her to forgive him. She complies, hiding the bodies in the garden and sleeping with him against her will (but does so in a way that Arturo doesn't suspect otherwise).

In the human village, Keine notices that some of her students have gone missing. Worse, more of them are heading out to find the missing students, since most of Keine's students are interested in incident resolution than history. Now there's a big incident: children are growing increasingly missing in the human village. Yukari capitalizes on this and decided to gap in Vic in hopes of using this scenario to tip the balance once and for all. He warns him that Arturo is on a rampage, and his mission is to find and kill Arturo before he kills more children.

Urgent to save Gensokyo from Arturo, Vic skips reading the guides, gets attacked by Rumia for going the wrong way, ends up at the House of Eternity, gets a sword/gun from the Kappa Valley, and rushes to find Arturo. Along the way, he learns from numerous incident resolvers that Arturo is allied with Yuuka, and he reasons that it was Yuuka's fault Arturo got corrupted. Everyone believes that Arturo is holed up in the Garden of the Sun, but too dangerous to fight. Vic, knowing that Arturo trusts him, goes with Mokou sneaking behind him: he'll kill Arturo and burn down the garden. Around this time, some student incident resolvers are on their way to the flower garden as well...

Arturo happily meets up with Vic and says coming to Gensokyo was the greatest decision he ever made. Vic replies by stabbing him to death and then ordering Mokou to burn the garden down. Yuuka pleads for mercy since she's innocent. By this point, knowing Arturo is dead, the other incident resolvers rush in, evacuating the student youkai hunters from the burning garden, but a few are badly injured. When Vic finds the burnt bodies of the kids Arturo killed, he thinks it's all his fault. Worse, when he hears how there were hundreds of kids missing from the human village, he thinks he must have killed hundreds. When he tries to admit the story to everyone else, people reassure him he didn't kill as many kids as he thought. However, Vic's version of the story eventually makes it to Tenshi, and she likes it more than the real version, so that's what she tells Brolli.

Yukari realizes that word has gotten back to Tenshi, and this puts her plan in danger. On one hand, Vic is gaining tons of allies thanks to his "victory" over Yuuka, and he has also angered tons of youkai for fighting the innocent Yuuka, setting up the ultimate battle between youkai hunters and youkai she had dreamed of. The moment the youkai hear of what happened to Yuuka, they'll be ready for the war Yukari dreamed up. However, Tenshi is now working on her counter-plan to end the war against Vic's and his allies' favor, thus turning Yukari and her plan utterly benign. Since Vic's main strength and weakness is a thirst for justice, it is likely Vic will sacrifice himself for his crimes and play right into all of Tenshi's plans to punish everyone who helped him. What Yukari needs is somebody who has enough self-awareness to avoid the typical downfall like Arturo, but with too little to leave. Luckily, she's pinpointed a replacement: Brolli, whose powers can weaken his self-awareness for him. With that, she aids Vic's escape and waits for just the right time to bring Brolli in. The odds are so stacked against him that there's a 49% chance he'll beat Tenshi and thus start the war in his favor, a 49% chance he'll die and watch as Tenshi battles Brolli's remaining allies (rendering Tenshi's own plan against itself in a way), and only a 2% chance of it ending in a stalemate and causing her to merely start over. Either way, it's going to prolong Gensokyo's lifespan, with a 98% chance of prolonging it for centuries, and a 2% chance of prolonging it for decades.

Now that I think about it, it is possible to peice together to the story throughout the story. Yukari gets the opening right, Tenshi gets Vic's opening part right, Komachi reveals the middle about Yuuka, Keine reveals she had no part in Arturo's plot, and Vic reveals his guess to the bodycount. Plus, you can clearly see kids in the human village in the scene where Brolli picks up Reisen. Sure, that's a huge leap in logic, but one of these days, somebody will piece it all together.

Vic and Mokou burning the Garden of the Sun and finding the civilian bodies is a blatant homage to the white phosphorous scene from Spec Ops: The Line. Appropriately, just as that scene was the big turning point in that game, the finale of Reel 1 is the turning point of the movie from a pastiche to a full-on deconstruction.

It's implied that Tenshi really doesn't have a choice in the matter, especially when you realize Yukari's plans in the end: either she has to create this ultimate incident to kill Brolli, or somebody else will do it, and it won't be a controlled situation. At the same time, Brolli can't leave: either he has to save Gensokyo from Tenshi, or the next Gappy will take his place. Either way, it follows very fatalistic "no free will" circumstances.

Because DitR has so many frames, Sony Vegas cannot handle loads more than two hours worth of footage. So, to deal with this, it is split into three Reels. Appropriately, they each end at distinct areas in the story: Reel 1 ends at the end of the Pastiche, Reel 2 ends just before the climax, and Reel 3 is the climax.

The Intermission Sequence

Since the movie has been running close to two hours, there is a ten minute intermission for people to get snacks, use the restroom, etc.

The concept was straight-forward: begin with movie trivia about the film with the dark Gensokyo backgrounds between the trivia facts, but it slowly begins introducing darker movie trivia facts pointed at the audience, while characters with no faces ask the audience tough questions.

Transcript:

Calm music playing.

Movie Trivia: There are over 8000 frames in Diamond In The Rough. Roughly 2000 of them go into the battle scenes.

A picture of Brolli surrounded by Marisa, Reimu, Reisen, and Aya. Only Brolli has a face. Superimposed over Aya's face is the word "Fame," over Reisen's is "Love," over Marisa's is "Adventure," and over Reimu is, "Safety."

Movie Trivia: The collective files for Diamond In The Rough (pictures, music, sounds, and notes) are 4 gigabytes in size, including some remixes made by Spaztique himself.

A picture of Nitori, Patchouli, and Eirin, all without faces. Over Nitori's face are the words, "Free tech," over Patchouli's is "Free Books," and over Eirin's is "Free Medicine."

Movie Trivia: Reimu and Marisa have only been in *one* scene together in this whole movie so far!

Now, the characters have longer notes over their blank faces...

Sakuya: Are we people to you?
Sanae: Or are we a means to an end?

Chen: If you could get away with anything, why would you do it?
Ran: You’d do it because you want to feel something: happy, loved, safe, or something else…

Movie Trivia: The original Diamond In The Rough was going to be a one-hour response to Colonel Diamondback's videos. It has since changed into a four-hour response to virtually every Touhou self-insert fic.

Reimu: If somebody criticizes you, do you ever wonder why they’re saying these things? Or do you just take it as a personal attack?

Movie Trivia: Diamond In The Rough set out to destroy many Touhou self-insert fic cliches, but has instead bred new ones, such as Remilia drinking blood as payment, Yukari giving gappies guidebooks, and so on.

Movie Trivia: You cannot be original if you copy somebody else's ideas. That is called a "cliche." You're the reason this movie exists.

Darker music begins playing...

Marisa: Is it better to gain power to help people, or help people to gain power? Be honest. Which kind of person are you really?

Movie Trivia: Although Brolli has acted quite selfish, has hasn't really done any harm to Gensokyo in this movie. Why do you hate him so much? You're not perfect, either. (In the background are various acts of kindness Brolli has committed in Reel 1.)

Reisen: Do you love people who care for you selflessly? But is it easy for *you* to love selflessly?

Movie Trivia: According to a 2002 study, over 1.6 million children run away from home every year. 80% of runaway girls report sexual abuse. 43% of runaway boys report physical abuse. Half of both think their parents don't care about them.

Movie Trivia: Gappy fics romanticize running away.

Miko: You are not perfect. Why do you want to pretend to be? Do you think you’ll be liked, even though nobody is perfect?

Movie Trivia: (Picture of the actual Brolli.) Like many self-inserts, Brolli Diamondback is based on a real person. You have been rooting for the death of a real person.

Yuuka: Do you believe everything that everyone says to you without looking for the truth?

Movie Trivia: The only reason you're waiting four hours is to see a teenage boy die a cruel and tragic death for your entertainment.

Movie Trivia: You are watching a snuff film.

Tenshi: When we see someone we don’t like, why do we wish for their death? Why don’t we ever wish for their improvement or for them to change? And why are *you* exempt from your weaknesses? Your flaws? Your sins and vices? We judge others by their behaviors and ourselves by our motives. Do you let your motives justify your crimes?

Movie Trivia: In German, the word "schadenfreude" is used to describe the pleasure derived from somebody else's pain. The closest equivalent in English is sadism, which was originally defined as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

A calm arrange of "Night Falls - Evening Star" begins...

Movie Trivia: However, Sadistic Personality Disorder was removed from the DSM since clinicians unanimously agreed that only serious criminals like sex offenders and serial killers had this disorder, and when offered treatment, all patients refused, saying they were all perfectly fine, just like you...

Then, a normal-looking Yukari appears, staring at the camera on what was supposed to be a blank background…

Yukari: So, you want to see the dumb, selfish gappy die, don’t you? The good news is he will in the next two hours. The bad news will have to wait… But let me ask *you* a question: what is missing from your life? Go ahead. Type it in the chat to the right. *Long pause* Now tell me, why is it you don’t have this thing you are missing? What one thing could get you that missing thing? *pause* Chances are, you are missing a behavior or a key “thing.” Both are merely an excuse, and here is why… If changing your behavior would get you the thing you wanted, you’d *find* a way to change, no matter what. And if it’s a thing, you’d find a way to get that missing resource, no matter how long it took. But if you had a chance to get that thing missing from your life without having to face any conflict, would you take that offer? Be honest. Type it in the chat. If you could get what you wanted without effort, would you take that chance? *pause* If you said no, I hope you are not saying it just to spite me. I hope you put in the effort to get what you want. As for you people who said yes, do you think this object of desire will really make you happy? And why? More importantly, who said yes, but has been rooting against Brolli this entire time? What if I offered you the same trip to Gensokyo with the promise of what *you* wanted? Would *you* be different? Do you want powers? Do you want adventure? Do you want love? You can have powers in real life. You can have adventure in real life. You can have fame in real life. You can have love in real life. But only if you work for it. Is this why you want to go to Gensokyo? Because you don’t think you can get it in the real world? If that is what you truly believe, you will *never* get the thing you desire…

Analysis:

After all of the riffing of the pastiche part of DitR, this part hits audiences like a brick. I've actually recieved some tearful PMs regarding how people reflected on their lives after reading this intermission sequence.

All of the comments the characters give are pointed at two audiences: the typical unstable fanfic writer who indulges in power fantasy and the unstable audience member who thinks railing against them is the best idea.

The frame of Reimu, Marisa, Aya, and Reisen with the words Safety, Adventure, Fame, and Love printed on their faces is a take on Anthony Robbins' idea that all humans crave Certainty, Uncertainty, Significance, and Love (along with Growth and Contribution). Chances are, you probably lack something that gives you one of those four, so in one way or another, that frame is bound to hit you. In fact, many of the frames are based on the psychology/self-help guides I read.

When Sakuya and Sanae ask if they're people or a means to an end, that has a double meaning: either Brolli is using everyone, or the author is merely using the characters as tools.

Reimu's comment is focused on people who take criticism as personal attacks.

Marisa's comments on power reflect those who wish to gain power selfishly vs. those who to use it to help others. Sadly, most people really just want power to help themselves instead of helping others.

Reisen's comment on selfless love is quite a tough dillema: we love those who love us selflessly, but we often forget to love others selflessly because it's harder than it seems.

Miko's comment is for those who fear imperfection: extremely common among anxious people in-general.

Yuuka's comment is directed at everyone who's been harping on the character errors.

Tenshi's comment is for the people who deal out criticism while ignoring their own flaws. The comment about how we judge others by our own moral standards comes from Stephen M.R. Covey's The Speed of Trust.

Yukari's final monologue is based on the principles of a lot of success literature: the only way to get what you want is just keep taking action to get what you want, see what works and what doesn't work, and keep going until you finally achieve it, no matter how long it takes. (After all, I kept trying to finish DitR, and I eventually succeeded despite the odds.)

Episode 13

For the next two months, Brolli is helpless in figuring out how to figure out how to stop Tenshi from killing him and using him to destroy his allies. Reisen reassures him she will protect him, saying she loves him, but he ponders if he really loves her back. Mokou asks Brolli if this is what he wanted: he now has Gensokyo worshiping like he wanted, but Brolli doesn't want fame. He just wants to live and save Gensokyo. He contacts the Myouren Temple, but they tell him his powers outmatch anything the Temple has. The only weakness he has is that he revealed all of his powers, and they question why Brolli wants even more help. Byakuren says if his heart really is in the right place, he could train in Makai, but the last boat has left. Marisa says she won't endanger Brolli's life by sending him to Makai and says if worse comes to worse, she will protect him.

Brolli's beasts assure him he's safe, but Brolli knows the rest of Gensokyo is in danger. His beasts tell him to protect himself, but Brolli is starting to get fed up with their suggestions: he doesn't want to be corrupt like many of the heroes he's encounted, and he's tired of everyone else depending solely on him for protection. He even begins questioning why the beasts are so loyal to him. The beast reveal they are actually Brolli's past sins from his previous lives, and they are using him as a conduit to act out their/his desires. As terrified as Brolli is of this new information, he doesn't have a choice: it's up to him to save Gensokyo, and his beasts have to aid him in gaining even more power. That involves going to Makai, and the only way there would be to steal some summoning magic from the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Brolli tries to sneak past Meiling, only to get caught. Lepus tries to reason Brolli is the only one who can save Gensokyo, and that all of Brolli's allies are soon to come under attack. Meiling reasons why they don't just betray Brolli to save themselves, prompting Lepus to hypnotize and shoot her, much to Brolli's anger. Sakuya says this is all Brolli's fault, and there's very little he can do but run. Brolli tells her that if he leaves, Yukari will just gap in another child to take his place. Either way, the incident is going to happen, but he's going to stop it before it gets any worse. Brolli's reply stuns Sakuya, and she thinks maybe he really will be different from every previous Gappy.

Brolli and Sakuya recount Tenshi's plan to Remilia, Patchouli, and Koakuma. Sakuya thinks it would be a good idea to help Brolli get to Makai, but before Remilia can get him a book to summon a portal, Patchouli and Koakuma have information of their own: there have been more than seven "Colonel Diamondbacks," each one more destructive than the last. The most recent reincarnation was sent far from Gensokyo to keep his self-awareness, while his sins manifested into beastly forms and caused widespread destruction before being sealed away. While Brolli is self-aware, the beasts are not, and how much he used his powers will determine how much self-awareness he has left. To everyone's relief, Brolli has only used his powers sparingly to gain more powers. Remilia says he has enough self-awareness left to protect himself and others on his own, but the beasts continue to goad everyone into giving them access to Makai. Remilia says if worse came to worse, he can still become Remilia's new butler: they'll protect him, they'll protect Reisen (plus he'll get Sakuya "on the side"), and if he gets rid of his beasts, he will keep his self-awareness. Brolli says he wants to remain friends with everyone, but Remilia says the alliances of Gensokyo are very loose and can break at any point. Plus, there really isn't any escape: Brolli has been away from home for almost three months, so he has nothing to go back to. Brolli says he can only give up his beasts after the incident, but the beasts just want to gun their way through the Scarlet Devil Mansion crew.

As tension mounts between the beasts and the Scarlet Devil Mansion crew, Sakuya brings in Flandre. At first, this scares Brolli, but when Flandre reveals she was only joking the last time they met, he calms down. Flandre tells Brolli she can help defeat Brolli's beasts, but Brolli's beasts are eager to fight. Brolli knows the obvious answer is to lay down their weapons, but then Hydrus tricks Brolli into handing over command to him. Knowing what's coming, everyone evacuates the mansion as the beasts face off against Flandre. Brolli is worried they're going to destroy the mansion, but Sakuya affirms that Flandre is strong enough to beat them. However, Hydrus and the rest of the beasts plan to violate spell card rules by destroying the mansion and crushing Flandre with it. Flandre, used to conventional spell card rules, tells them they're going too far, but they don't listen: Lepus hypnotizes Flandre and the rest of the beasts bring down the major supports, crushing her. Outside, everyone is stunned as they see the Scarlet Devil Mansion in ruins.

Analysis:

Personal Favorite Moment: The Flandre Battle.
Fan Favorite Moments: Meiling catching Brolli, The Flandre Battle

This is probably the most controversial episode of DitR for what happened between the beasts and Flandre. Normally, I address stuff in the order it happens in the episode, but this needs to be addressed up front, especially given that most of the criticism for this episode comes from people who haven't seen the series.

I'm going to put this in big bold letters:

You're not supposed to be rooting for the beasts! You're supposed to be rooting for Flandre! You're supposed to dislike the beasts for violating spell card rules. Flandre assumed it was going to be another normal duel, and even if she hadn't held back at all, she would have still lost to the beasts because they're that powerful. I'm not character shilling the beasts by showing them how "cool" they are for beating Flandre: you're not supposed to like them after this point!

Got it? I hope you got it. I've gotten many angry messages about this scene, but it completely violates what this scene was going for. This is supposed to be the beasts' Moral Event Horizon: an act so heinous that they've immediately/permanently crossed the line into "villain." Even if Flandre used her instant destruction abilities on them, I could have re-written the scene to have them utterly immune to it: again, the point is to show just why we hate horrendously overpowered characters. I did not merely "forget" Flandre's powers, I did not do this to "make the beasts look cool by beating Flandre," I did not do this to show off the beasts' powers: although I wrote this scene to evoke anger, it should be directed at the beasts for violating the rules, not me as the writer for violating the rules. Plus, the fact you're angry at Flandre's defeat by the beasts means I did my job as a writer. Sadly, there'll still be people who will misunderstand this, but I hope everyone else understands what I was going for.

Now, let's get back to things in chronological order.

After Reel 1's darkly humorous take on Gappy Fics, Reel 2's tone is far darker. The Pastiche is coming to an end and reality is ensuing: Brolli is stranded in a dangerous fantasy world, stuck in a relationship with a girl he can't really return his affections to since he's using her, everyone is depending on him when it's clear he can't save this realm by himself, and every other hero seems corrupt. As much as I was initially reluctant to self-contain DitR, this tone switch made it worth it: after setting up a legit bad Gappy fic, the whole of Reel 2 has a field day taking it apart.

This is also where we begin building Brolli's final moral choice: of Gensokyo, his friends, or himself, which two will he save? However, it first seems that Brolli can only save himself or Gensokyo, and that there is a way to save both with no consequences. However, notice that whenever Brolli brings up Gensokyo, he is only referring to his friends and allies, leaving out all of his acquaintances and factions he's yet to encounter. The truth is Brolli wants to take the choice where he saves only himself and his friends, but leave Gensokyo to rot: something Brolli gets to see the consequences of when he goes to Makai.

Another interesting dynamic change: Brolli is now becoming the most level-headed person in the cast, surrounded by either doormats or well-meaning jerks. He spends a great bulk of this episode actually trying to warn Gensokyo of its impending doom, only for the same cast who gave him everything to not listen.

I absolutely loved writing the scene where Meiling springs awake to catch Brolli sneaking into the mansion. In the guide, it warns that should you try to sneak in while she's sleeping, she will attack you. Meiling also foreshadows Remilia's choice whether to aid or fight Brolli: if all of Brolli's allies are going to get punished for aiding him, perhaps the best choice would be just killing him.

I really love many of Sakuya's scenes with Brolli: despite being less mature than her, she genuinely wants to steer Brolli in the right direction and protect him. She's a great mentor figure for him, and I will say that Sakuya does really care for Brolli's safety. Plus, to any potential shippers, notice how Sakuya blushes each time Remilia tells Brolli he can "have" Sakuya. It just makes the ending all the more tragic: of the SDM crew, only Sakuya will know that Brolli was set up and mercilessly killed. Perhaps there's an alternate timeline where Brolli did choose to remain a butler at the SDM and developed a sweet romance with Sakuya.

In Beta DitR, the reveal of the multiple Diamondback incarnations came on the boat ride on the Sanzu River. It was Komachi who would reveal the incarnations, freaking Brolli out. However, as the backstory was filled in with the final version, it slowed things down to reveal it after the climax, when everyone's emotions were riding high. Plus, it violates a personal writing rule of mine, the 75% rule, which I'll define later. Rather, the Komachi scene after the climax was shortened so the audience could cool down quickly before the emotional epilogue, and this information was moved to the front of Reel 2 to let people know Brolli is bound to repeat the same mistakes his past lives made.

Now to define The 75% Rule: Upon reaching 75% through your story, do not add any more elements. Just keep using what you've already established. 75% is just a rule of thumb: you can introduce things before the 80% mark, and in rare cases, the 90% mark. The point is that by the time you get to the climax, you should be reusing things that have already been set up so they may be paid off. Look at any of Edgar Wright's movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, World's End), and you'll see everything set up in the beginning is used by the end. Wright is a master of setups and payoffs, opting for a 50% rule than a 75% rule. Marvel Studios is also a stickler for the 75% rule: look at the climax of any Marvel film, and you'll see that every power, every move, every moment of badass is set up prior to the 75% mark.

Breaking the 75% rule can be dangerous: even twist endings have setups all throughout the film to hint what's to come. A few examples (guess the twist if you haven't seen these films): In Fight Club, the narrator has trouble finding Marla and Tyler in the same place, and in the one instance he does catch them together, Marla asks, "Who are you talking to?" Throughout The Sixth Sense, nobody really responds to Malcolm except the boy who can see dead people, to which he adds, "They don't know they're dead." In Planet of the Apes, upon reaching a dig sight at the 80% mark for what was believed to be a lost ape civilization, Captain Taylor discovers a talking human doll, which didn't make any sense since humans weren't believed to possess any ability for speech on their planet.

When you break the 75% rule, bad things happen. For example, in Planet of the Apes (Remake), Leo finally travels back in time to Earth, only to find out he's now in an alternate timeline where the apes rule the world in the present day. This alternate timeline deal is introduced at the 98% mark: at the resolution. This is why we look on at the original Planet of the Apes' ending as a classic, and the remake's as an exercise in what-the-fuckery. Another great example of a bad twist: The Village. I've used this example before in another guide, but it should be reiterated. Throughout the movie, a colonial town is being harassed by monsters living in the woods, but it turns out it's just the village elders trying to keep people from escaping. Then, when somebody gets injured, they have to leave the town to go get medicine. Up until this point, The Village has been a slow-paced mediocre domestic drama with some fantasy horror elements mixed in, but there's one scene that makes it all worth it: the leading girl encounters what appears to be a real monster. The scene is suspenseful, terrifying, and a great climax that made the slow opening worth it. How could it possibly go wrong? At the 95% mark, we learn it's actually modern day, which raises tons of questions, leaves tons of unexplored territory/plot ideas, and wastes the idea of the monsters being real. As a result, The Village marked the beginning of the end for M. Night Shyamalan (some say it's Signs, which also breaches the 75% rule by showing the invading aliens are weak to water, but at least Signs had decent pacing, even if the content is thin).

Back to the plot, Remilia mentions that Brolli doesn't have any fluid alliances to anyone. He's gapped in by Yukari, but never listens to anything she says. He's told to train with Reimu, but he leaves her for Sanae. Marisa wants to help, but Brolli doesn't want to follow her rules.

Remilia's line about the alliances in Gensokyo being very loose is based on how virtually every game (especially the fighting games), friends and allies will start fighting eachother for petty reasons, and enemies become new allies. This also sets up the climax, when everyone starts betraying eachother over Brolli.

This is also where we get a glimpse of the beasts' true colors: throughout the film, the beasts would do everything they could to persuade Brolli to take their advice, often with rewards, but this is really the first time he's absolutely refused their advice to go to Makai. While Brolli is technically in charge, the beasts can still use coercion to get him to do things he doesn't want to do. Throughout this movie, they've gotten their way, and this is the first time somebody has stood up to them (with disastrous consequences).

Look at Remilia's facial expressions throughout this scene. Throughout the whole scene, Remilia is smug about the beasts' responses, but when they're unintimidated by Flandre, Remilia finally shows fear.

I actually had some trouble with the scene in Remilia's room. I had to accomplish tons of things in a short amount of time, so I had to pre-write it before going into create.swf (normally, I can just hop in with a vague idea and materialize a decent scene). Here is what I wrote (notice how it's different from the final version):

DitR Library Scene Notes:

Sakuya's scene objective: Help Brolli aid Gensokyo without getting in Patchouli's way.
Brolli's Scene objective: Gain passage to Makai/defend himself no matter what.
Patchouli's scene objective: Stop Brolli from going to Makai or using his powers.
Beasts Scene Objective: Get rid of Patchouli.
Remilia's Scene Objective: Curb Brolli's powers.

Opening of the Scene:
-Sakuya wishes to aid Brolli, but everyone thinks Brolli has destroyed his self-awareness.
-Brolli is confident that he can save Gensokyo going to Makai, but he doesn't want to hurt any more people.
-Patchouli wants to stop Brolli from using his power and endangering Gensokyo.
-Remilia thinks this is a prime opportunity to curb Brolli's powers and offers him aid by letting him stay at the mansion during the incident, should he become her butler.
-The beasts want none of Patchouli or Remilia's guff and believe their actions will destroy Gensokyo.
-Flandre wants to protect Remilia and the mansion.

How it plays out:
OPENING VALUES: Self-awareness (+), In Danger (-), Good Reputation (+), Relatively Confident (+)
Beat 1: Sakuya mentions Brolli wants to save Gensokyo without hurting anyone, so he must go to Makai, but Patchouli mentions that his beasts are eroding his self-awareness.
Beat 2: The beasts tell Brolli he must use force, but Brolli will NOT harm anyone to gain more power: he will be different.
Beat 3: Remilia says there's a safe alternative: he can stay at the mansion as a butler: they'll defend him, protect him, and even send aid to his allies. Unfortunately, it means a life of servitude with Remilia for the rest of his life, including his beasts. The beasts want none of this, and Brolli doesn't like this idea either, but Remilia reminds him he simply can't go back and this is the best deal he has.
Beat 4: The beasts threaten Remilia, telling her this is going to destroy Gensokyo. Patchouli reminds them there are more youkai hunters, and that even Sakuya can save him if he stays. When they don't listen, Remilia asks Sakuya to bring in Flandre. Brolli freaks out, only for Flandre to recognize he could be a new butler and a new caretaker. Remilia tells Brolli that unless he listens to Patchouli and curbs his powers, there will be dire consequences.
Beat 5: Brolli says he will release his beasts, but he will not join the SDM, nor destroy it. Instead, he decides he'll run to find a book on passage to Makai. Remilia, Flandre, Patchouli, and Sakuya give chase.
Beat 6: The beasts hold off everyone and Ferin acts as Brolli's spare lives, but the library is a giant maze and the ensuing battle destroys large chunks of it.
Beat 7: Velupe eventually finds books on summoning portals, only to be blocked by Remilia. Velupe burns the hell out of Remilia with his light, only for Flandre to come in and clean his clock.
Beat 8: Sakuya catches up to Brolli, but Brolli tells Sakuya they need to stop the fight.
*Unfinished*
ENDING VALUES: Self-Deception (-), Seemingly Safe (+), Bad Reputation (-), Guilty (-)

End of the Scene:
-Sakuya aids Brolli, but at the expense of the mansion.
-Brolli gains passage to Makai and releases the beasts, but feels also feels regret over his actions.
-Patchouli and Remilia vow to get back at Brolli.
-Flandre is buried under the remains of the SDM.
-The beasts are confident that Brolli will save Gensokyo.

If you'll notice, Beats 5 onward don't happen, and Beat 4 is different in the final version. Rather, here's what happened:

Beat 4: The beasts threaten Remilia, telling her this is going to destroy Gensokyo. Patchouli reminds them there are more youkai hunters, and that even Sakuya can save him if he stays. When they don't listen, Sakuya brings in Flandre. Although this scares Brolli at first, Flandre tells him she will help fight his beasts.
Beat 5: The beasts yell they wish to open fire, but Brolli wants a peaceful resolution. Hydrus tricks Brolli into giving him command, and he does so, only to realize what he's done too late.
Beat 6: Remilia and the others are mad for Brolli giving command over to the beasts, but they hope Flandre will defeat the beasts before the mansion is destroyed. Turn out Flandre has the upper hand.
Beat 7: The beast realize playing by the rules isn't going to work and destroy the mansion. Before Flandre can react than brief shock, the Beasts stun her and bring down the mansion on her.

What led to the change is when I was talking to the actual Brolli. I asked for his input, and he said, "The obvious choice is to lay down your weapons and walk away!" This line is then echoed by character Brolli. Then, I tried to think of how the beasts could rampage through the mansion, and I'm pretty sure Hydrus was thinking this when I asked, "So, do you think it'd be a good idea to just let them go and hand over command to Hydrus?" The real Brolli said yes, just before realizing he had made a major, major mistake: a mistake that led to an iconic moment in DitR.

Now we're back to the Flandre Battle. I had a ton of fun animating this scene because of all of the destruction: book shelves collapsing, tons of debris everywhere, and we get to see all four beasts fighting four Flandres. Despite the later battle scenes being much wider-scoped than this, I love the Flandre Battle for the sheer destruction involved.

As destructive as Flandre is, she still follows Spell Card Rules; otherwise, the EoSD Extra Stage would be a lot shorter. As I said before, I could have rewritten the scene where Flandre didn't follow Spell Card Rules, but it would have had the same effect/ending.

If you'll look at Koakuma throughout the SDM's destruction, she is crying. When everyone evacuates, you'll see her just staring at the mansion before crying, and Patchouli is watching Koakuma breaking down as the mansion falls apart. Since she helps upkeep the library, I wanted her to have a really emotional reaction to it getting destroyed. Besides, she's just a stage midboss who doesn't even get a big role in this movie: I wanted to give her depth as much as I could with as little as I could work with.

Now we've come full circle: the beasts defeating Flandre by destroying the mansion is meant to invoke anger. When I was producing this scene live, the audience was cheering on Flandre. Every time I stream it live, the audience cheers for Flandre. Then, when the SDM comes crashing down, you ought to be as shocked and mad as Remilia is.

Episode 14

Recap:

Remilia calls out to Flandre in the ruins of the mansion, only to hear nobody. Remilia is in tears, but Flandre soon calls back to reveal she's still fine underneath all of the rubble, and she cannot use her destruction abilities since her hands are pinned under the debris. Remilia shouts she should have used her powers against the beasts when she had the chance, but Flandre says she wishes to fight fairly; besides, once she knew they were going to violate spell card rules, it was too late. Remilia pins this on Brolli for not controlling his beasts and demands he pick up the mess, but the beasts have no time and wish to get him to Makai. Brolli scolds the beasts and says once the incident is over, he will get rid of them and find a way to repay Remilia. He apologizes and flies off while the beasts are ordered to protect Gensokyo. Remilia asks Sakuya to partake in this incident, enlisting the aid of the Myouren Temple.

Brolli opens a portal to Makai at his house, only to find the realm abandoned and war-torn. Ferin wishes to ransack the place, but Brolli wants to search for legit help. They encounter Yumeko and numerous youkai, who question why they're there. Ferin wants to fight, while Brolli wants to play the peaceful route, saying he'd only fight if he didn't have any common sense. Then, Brolli realizes that since the beasts are his sins, they are basically him without any common sense, steering him into bad decision after bad decision, including egging him to go to Makai. Ferin refutes him by saying that even though they suggested their ideas, he still followed them. Ferin says that in the end, they'll save Gensokyo and rule over it, but Brolli admits he just wants to be liked by Gensokyo. Yumeko, hearing this, kills Ferin and tells him she will bring him to her master Shinki to help him.

Back on the surface, Reimu gets news that Brolli has destroyed the mansion and the Myouren Temple is preparing for the incident Brolli had warned Sakuya about. Nue believes that Brolli may be the key to saving Gensokyo and says she should go save Brolli. Reimu asks why she can't do it, and Nue says she's doing this undercover. Reimu says she won't save Brolli to stop the incident, but just save his life in-general.

In Makai, Shinki tells Brolli of the battles of Mystic Square and the even worse Vampire Incident: the tipping point before spell card rules. In Mystic Square, the forces of Gensokyo battled the forces of Makai, but it was not the villains who did the damage: it was the heroes of each side destroying eachother, all while the villains got away. Shinki chose to throw her fight with Reimu to save Makai: if she had won, Gensokyo would be locked in battle with her until either side gave out. Now, Makai lies mostly in ruins: all that's left are Shinki and a few of her creations. Brolli now sits on the brink of the end of the Gappy Era, and he will have to choose between saving himself or saving Gensokyo. Brolli wants a middle ground, but there is none: either he dies, or Gensokyo dies. He asks for something to aid him, and realizing Brolli's predicament, gives him a power to test his self-awareness: the ability to throw swords at will. Brolli is disappointed, saying he has a spell card that can do this and he doesn't wish to waste his swords, but Shinki asks if he's really as self-aware as he thinks he is.

As Reimu catches up to Brolli, Shinki tries to help Brolli make a decision whether to save himself or Gensokyo. Brolli yells he'd rather save himself: even if somebody else is going to end the Gappy Era, he'd rather stay in Makai. Shinki says he can't stay, since Reimu will show up to rescue him at any moment. As Reimu drags Brolli off, Shinki tells Yumeko that Brolli is going to make the right decision and sacrifice himself to save Gensokyo in the end. Reimu escapes Makai with Brolli and destroys the portal.

Analysis:

Personal Favorite Moment: Brolli's Apology to Remilia/Scolding the Beasts
Fan Favorite Moments: Brolli's Apology to Remilia/Scolding the Beasts, Ferin's Death, Shinki's One Scene Wonder

Once again, I should reiterate my love for the destroyed Scarlet Devil Mansion backgrounds. They're hard to make, but they're the most elaborate shots in all of DitR.

Since we don't really explore Remilia and Flandre's relationship, the scene of Remilia calling out to Flandre kinda feels as it would from Brolli's perspective: all he knows is Remilia cares for her sister, and he screwed up big time. Of course, DitR is likely to be seen by diehard Touhou fans, who will feel just as Remilia did (and in the screenings, that is how they felt).

The reaction shot of Remilia and Sakuya looking up at the mansion has some interesting lighting that's not really employed elsewhere in DitR, save for the Makai scenes. Also, if you'll look carefully, you can see Brolli looking at Remilia and Sakuya, while Patchouli is staring down at crying Koakuma.

Back to the angry letters about Flandre's scene: a lot of them tell me Flandre can just destroy things at will, but all of the guides say she needs to squeeze her hands to do it. Let me cite my sources:

Perfect Memento In Strict Sense: "Her method of destroying things so effortlessly involves pouring her power into the "eyes" of any material where its tension is the highest. She can use her ability to cause these "eyes" to move into the palm of her hand. In other words, by crushing the "eye" held within her hand (*2), she causes things to break." "*Subnote 2: When she clenches her fist, the subject breaks."

Bohemian Archive In Japanese Red: Flandre explaining her powers in her own words: "You know, everything has an 'eye'. If I squeeze that eye, it will go 'kaboom'. Huh? How did I get close enough to the shooting star to squeeze its eye? It was right here. Right in the palm of my hand. And not just the shooting star's eye, but the eye of everything is in my right hand. So all I have to do is give a little squeeze and..."

So, if she can't move her hand, it ain't getting destroyed. I wonder if that's how the fight would have played out: she tries clenching her fists, the beasts pry them open with enough force to-... yeah, let's say what we have is good enough.

In response to Flandre following spell card rules, Patchouli had a cut line saying vampires were excessively polite, but this was too "on the nose," even after all the explanations.

I like how Remilia's first idea for a punishment is to have Brolli repair the whole mansion by himself (and later, have Sakuya do it after Brolli dies). I wanted to play with the more unreasonable side of Remilia for a bit with that.

We're now slowly approaching the end of Act 3. Remember that this whole plot revolves around Brolli's self-awareness, each scene swings between that and Brolli's selfishness, and each Act If you'll notice the pattern...
Act 1: Brolli begins as utterly blind to his weaknesses to being shocked awake by Gensokyo.
Act 2: Brolli is shocked awake by his time in Gensokyo, only to cheat his way into power.
Act 3: Brolli cheats his way into power, only to realize that everyone else will just keep getting stronger.
Act 4: Brolli realizes everyone will just keep getting stronger, but he can't run because he is devoid of free will and will have to pay for his weaknesses.
Act 5: Brolli can't run because he is devoid of free will and will have to pay for his weaknesses, but he accepts his weaknesses, now able to fully utilize his strengths.

Brolli's decision to leave Gensokyo ends Act 3, which is why it really feels like one possible ending to DitR: Brolli has escaped Gensokyo, Reimu and Marisa are going to take care of the incident. After all, many conventional modern films run in three acts, and by this point, we're up to feature length. However, the story is not set up to end with Brolli's escape: it's set up to end with the climatic battle. To set up the story where the final goal is to escape Gensokyo would require so many changes that it would no longer resemble itself anymore.

So, leading up to the end of Act 3, Brolli's act to send the beasts to protect Gensokyo and run off to Makai with Ferin is an extremely blind act. Patchouli and Koakuma predicited he'd lose his self-awareness if exposed to the beasts, and what's neat is while Brolli's act seems heroic, and while Brolli actually has a few revelations, he still commits himself to gaining more power: even when he sees Shinki, he gets a new ability from Shinki, giving him more power.

Another seemingly-heartwarming-but-in-hindsight-is-actually-a-dick-move moment is Remilia asking Sakuya to participate in the incident. After all this build-up to see Sakuya back in action (and when this was being made, Double Dealing Character was not out yet), the climax reveals she only sent her there to make sure she couldn't save Brolli.

We never see Flandre for the rest of the movie, leaving the audience to wonder what happened to her. It's implied she was eventually dug out, and it was planned for Meiling to dig her out, but this scene messed with the pacing of the epilogue. Plus, it's one legit strategy in some writing circles to leave some loose-but-easily-solvable ends so the audience can fill in the gaps. We know they're going to dig up Flandre, but when will it be? And how will it happen? Flandre is getting out of there, but it's up to the audience to linger on that information after the story is all said and done.

When Brolli enters Makai, the "ghosts" have bullet holes and wires sticking out of them. Rika from Story of Eastern Wonderland says she made them, meaning there's a chance they're mechanical.

The random turtle shell Brolli walks by is not Genji.

Yumeko and Shinki are in different outfits: I'm thinking of Windows Era equivalents.

The "Romantic Children" signs were the idea of PC-98 expert DeityDiz93, who also made the sign props. Many of the backgrounds are by MegaGundamMan: the very few instances of custom backgrounds in all of DitR.

Ferin's death went through many, many changes. The Makai scene was actually in a big turning point in The Colonel's Adventures in Gensokyo: it was the first episode after Brolli saw Beta DitR. At first, it was planned Brolli would accidentally kill Ferin with a weapon he picked up. Then, as the beasts took on a more sinister form in the second reel, a new idea emerged: Ferin would continue fighting for all the wrong reasons while Brolli wanted to somehow salvage the situation.

Once again, yet another scene that turns out to be Harsher In Hindsight: you'd think Nue asking Reimu to rescue Brolli would be a nice gesture, only to later find out she wanted to set him up and assassinate him. Also, when she says, "It wouldn't be the first or second time this has happened," in response to Reimu asking why she thinks bringing Brolli back could save Gensokyo, she's referring to her bringing over Mamizou and aiding with finding Byakuren.

Shinki's scene is a sensitive scene: we're only in Makai once, we only see Shinki once, and this scene has to send Brolli into the end of Act 3 and to Act 4. For this, I outlined the story using Dramatica: a theme calculator. I'll spare you the technical info (Dramatica is notoriously complex), but here's what I got out of it:

Makai Scene Notes:
-Brolli goes into Makai hoping for powers and such. He gets there and notices most of Makai is in ruins. Ferin thinks they need to loot it for all its worth to save Gensokyo, but Brolli doesnt want a repeat of the SDM.
-The beings of Makai ask Ferin and Brolli their business. Ferin will do anything to save Gensokyo, but Brolli wants to just talk. Ferin is killed for charging the creatures of Makai. Brolli realizes that his beasts are basically him if he didn't have any common sense.
-Reimu learns from Nue that Brolli is in Makai and goes out to save him. She tells Reimu that she's working behind Byakuren's back to save Brolli.
-Shinki tells Brolli that he should have planned his trip, and Brolli is well-aware of that just being in Gensokyo at all. Shinki is willing to bestow powers on Brolli, such as Yumeko's sword-throwing ability, but he doesn't want it. She says it's more important to recognize that Brolli stands at the end of the Gappy Era just as Shinki was part of the end of the Makai era. Brolli will have to choose between saving himself at the expense of Gensokyo, or save Gensokyo at the expense of himself. Brolli realizes that his endless pursuit of power is just going to get worse and worse, so he decides that the only option is to escape.

Interestingly, much of that last beat plays out backwards until Brolli vows to leave Gensokyo once and for all.

There are very few ambient remixes of Infinite Being, so I had to make my own out of the midi Zun provided on his website.

This is the first time since Brolli got his beasts do we ever seen him without his hat. He puts it back on when he realizes he's not as self-aware as he thought. The hat seems to symbolize Brolli wanting to appear more powerful than he really is. After the climax, he finally throws his hat into the Sanzu River.

Shinki repeats Yukari's line that Reimu will go through any length to protect Gensokyo, but there's a subtle thing to notice that many hardcore viewers will still miss: what Yukari, in the wide scale of things, meant with False Reassurance, Shinki meant with sincerity. Yukari wants Reimu to protect Brolli to destroy the balance. Shinki wants Reimu to protect Brolli so he can escape or help save Gensokyo in the wake of his death.

The credits for this episode were something special: nobody expected Shinki to appear in DitR, and the preview team was favorable of Shinki getting her own picture in the credits sequence.


Continued in Part 2d...