That would be true if she'd come along in any other era, but given that Avatar Kyoshi was born in 1807 and lived for 230 years, it's likely that Patchouli's tenure at the library overlapped parts of no more than two Avatars' lifetimes at maximum.

>Still waiting on Shanghai's opinion...

That's not the sort of question a lady doll answers, but, I mean, she is called "Shanghai"...

>My impression is that Patchouli hasn't ever been in the best of
>health, even in Touhou canon. I think she's based on one of the
>standard anime characters - sickly badass bookworm.

It's EoSD's explanation for why such a theoretically powerful witch is only a stage-4 boss--her asthma and anemia make it impossible for her to cast advanced spells, even though she knows them.

(She appears as a playable character in at least one later Touhou game, the explanation being that she's having a better day, and she is indeed extremely capable there.)

--G.
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