>Well, this damn episode has been
>sitting in my line of sight for five years, and I'm tired of
>looking at it. I need it out of my way so I can move on to the things
>I have a more solid line on.

Is there any author out there who doesn't know that feeling, I wonder?

Well, maybe not the five year part, but I can definitely point to a few "if I try to make myself write this, the story dies here" scenes in my past work.

>>Reimu would definitely be
>>"shoot first, ask questions later" about this, as she tends to be in
>>canon, and her prejudice against youkai fits as well.
>
>You reckon I should've just Chandler's Lawed the hangar scene? G's
>standing there discussing naval armaments and—whoa! Hey, what
>the hell? What's your problem, Red? Do I owe you money?!

Personally, I think the scene as shown - Reimu being about as aggressive as possible without directly initiating violence - fits well. After all, in canon she's pretty much be-your-own-boss, where here she does seem to answer to some sort of hierarchy, and that can change a woman. And besides, she -does- try talking frequently in canon, it just never works before the fight because then there wouldn't be a game.

... Actually, I can almost imagine a version where Gryphon refused to be baited, and she gradually began reconsidering his position upon observing the lack of violence in his response. Maybe if she hadn't insulted Remilia, alas.

(Allow me to also say that I find the whole "reactions when provoked tend to be the most genuine" thing to be the most complete and utter bullshit.)

>I'm not trying to tell you how to feel here, or anything like that,
>but can I just point out that canonically, she's beaten all of those
>people because she's rigged the functioning of the world they inhabit
>so that she can't lose? Seriously. She imposed the combat rules they
>all have to operate under, and they are in many cases the only
>reason she defeats entities she has no business even surviving a
>confrontation with.

In addition to what Zemyla said, I've also seen the interpretation that the spell card rules are the only thing allowing Reimu to lose at all - that she could render herself immune to attack and bombard any enemy for however long it took, except the rules say she can't.

Touhou power levels are weird though. Personally I tend to treat the fighting games as "more like how things actually work", and I'm sure Reimu doesn't win all the time in those, but this probably isn't the most popular interpretation.

-IA.

(Because flatter power curves are more fun.)
(That's not a double entendre.)