Hello! Sorry it took me a bit to answer this. I was asleep, but I also put it off a bit because it’s going to be a long one. I have plenty to say about both (apologies in advance to anyone who’s read my thoughts on this before), so I’m going to break it up. First post goes to Aya. A few disclaimers first. One, I’m not 100% up to date and informed about canon things. You can probably dig up a snippet from SoPM or something from a printed work I’ve not read and shame me fairly readily. Fish in a barrel. Luckily, I am offering this only as my opinion, so I’m not aspiring to much more than hopefully being interesting. Two, I’m fairly neutral on Aya (an improvement over past years, even then) and like Yuuka (though I’m almost guaranteed to dislike the things people do with her). I’ll try not to let that bias me, though. Now then, bird time, below the cut.
There’s a line in MoF, typically glossed over, that I consider to be highly defining for Aya. She uses it, at the time, to defend fighting the protagonists on orders from above. “Belonging to a group means that sometimes, you don’t get to have your way.“ This kind of puts a dent in the whole careless free spirit thing, doesn’t it? Well, yes and no. Aya is not young; she’s been part of a rigid, hierarchical and protocol-based society for a long, long time. She knows how it works, and if she ever had a ‘down with the system’ phase, it’s over now. She plays along, understands the methods of her society, and works with its rules. She does as she’s told, like many tengu. She is also not your typical tengu. She’s carved out a niche for herself that’s the best and worst of both worlds at the same time. On one hand, she’s important enough to attract notice, scrutiny and responsibility, but not so much that no one can question her (see: Tenma). On the other hand, she’s faffing about with reporting rather than politics for the most part; she’s important enough to push herself into a less fancy position on the basis of ‘I feel like it’, as I see this, and it’s a less stifling one that regularly takes her away from the mountain. Does she hate and reset tengu society or something? Nope. But it’s limiting, and she’s not someone who’s a huge fan of limits, so she appreciates a role that lets her do what she wants, within reason. It’s hardly unimportant, given the role it plays in keeping Gensokyo both informed and selectively uninformed, too (FS has a lot more on this). Basically, you’ve got Aya the tengu, who falls in line and does as she’s told, and acknowledges that the rules are important. You’ve also got Aya the careless, chaotic reporter, her public face to non-tengu, who’s basically just messing around, or gives the appearance of such, and follows her own whims. She’s found a balance of sorts, but she’s a good bit more serious than most would guess. This is veering yet further into speculation, but I like to think she approves of any tengu who tries something else or dislikes her, like Momiji or Hatate. She’s been there too, and it’s important that they get a chance to do that sort of thing. Her attitude might come off as condescending, mind you, and maybe it is: “It’s okay, they’ll grow up, but I hope they don’t have to do it too soon.” I don’t see her as tired or beaten down or anything, though. She knows how her world works and has an attitude towards changing it that might be taken as resignation, but she’s still a very cheerful and energetic person, doing work that she considers important, not to mention it appears to be a hobby for her. Do what you love, and all that. Finally, her reporting. Aya’s got something of a… reputation. I’m not even talking about the whole fanon paparazzi routine, let’s not dignify that with a response. I mean that, yes, she gets a rap for inaccuracy and outright lies. This is true if you assume her goal is journalism, but it isn’t. It’s a small subsection of what she’s trying to accomplish. Another is propaganda and deliberate misinformation; FS shows us that manipulating human opinion is a hugely important part of her work. Besides that…I just realised this isn’t absurdly pretentious enough to be one of my Opinion Posts yet so let’s fix that with a comparison: Herodotus. Guy gets a bit of a tough reputation these days for his fanciful stories and inaccuracies. The thing is, history wasn’t a thing back then, as an academic field, so we can’t actually judge by those standards. Similarly… Exactly how much of a modern journalistic tradition do you think feudal Japan had? Zero. Therefore, there isn’t much of a perception of how the field ought to behave. No, she’s not all accurate, and yes this is a problem for some, but how many people actually care? Her paper circulates well enough, no? Basically, her relationship towards the truth becomes a lot less strange once you realise two things. One, this is part propaganda. Two, there’s no precedent to follow, and she’s about 50% telling stories. There’s a real chance that neither author nor audience sees a problem with making up a few things or diving into the fray to tell a more entertaining story. That’s about it. I’ll work on Yuuka in a bit!
