A Cruel Angel's Thesis

What is Alice Margatroid?

We all know Alice. A simple human turned Youkai Magician. Nothing too special in Touhou overall.

Some might dig deeper, into the mythical and oft forgotten lore of PC98 era Touhou. There, Alice is also a simple Magician. Though perhaps still human at that point. Most end their journey here, simply settling on Alice being a yet another resident of the Magical Makai.

But we’re not most, are we?

No. We dig deeper. We know there is more.

So it brings us back to my original question on which I will have based my thesis.

Just what is Alice Margatroid?

She is indeed a Youkai Magician, at the surface level. But she hides secrets.

Alice comes from Makai, which essentially means something along the lines of ‘Underworld’. That’s our first clue, but nothing is too clear yet. Makai is ruled by its creator Goddess Shinki, from the great tower of Pandæmonium. Curious. This is where we can begin to unravel the truth behind the scenes.

1. The Mother

Pandæmonium is ‘the High Capital, of Satan and his peers’. But where is Satan then?

In front of our noses. Satan is Shinki. Shinki is the Fallen Angel. Intriguing. There are more connections. Sariel is another fellow Angel and she Fell due to lust. Obviously, Sariel Fell for Shinki.

So we have established that Shinki is the Mother, antithesis of the Father of the Holy Trinity.

But what else makes up the Unholy Trinity? Shinki has many children. All of Makai could be considered to be her kin. We need to narrow this list down.

1. The Daughter

When we do that, we end up with a couple of options. There is Yumeko, the Doll of Misery and Shinki’s Maid. She has been said to be her greatest creation. An obvious choice for the Daughter?

Initially, yes, however, we shall now take a look at the second option. Alice Margatroid. Shinki clearly holds some favoritism for her. Alice’s Grimoire, a source of ‘Ultimate Magic’ couldn’t have come from nowhere. Did she just find it lying around? Ridiculous. It must have been given to her by Shinki, the Goddess of Magic.

Therefore Alice is the Daughter. The Antichrist.

We can find further proof connecting Alice to Abrahamic religion. There is a largely unknown character from the PC98 era, indeed it does not even have a name. It is Alice’s cat. It appears on a cover, where it sleeps on Alice’s lap. This is a clue. If we look back to the original story of Alice in Wonderland, Alice has a pet cat named Dinah. This is a Hebrew name which means both ‘justified and ‘God will judge.’ Justify what? Judge what? Alice.

Shinki believes she is justified in her work. She believes she has the right to defy the Will of God. She believes she is right to have made Alice. But God will be the judge of that. Using the proxy of Sariel. Oh yes, Sariel Fell, but she still held loyalty towards the Heavenly Father. And when Alice was created, Sariel Judged her. Alice passed and was given a Familiar, a Shadow of the Lord. Dinah.

1. The Unholy Ghost

We’re missing one last part of the Trinity. This one might be a little hard to find too. But it was actually right in front of our unopened eyes too. The Unholy Ghost is Alice’s Grimoire.

Shinki didn’t make all of Makai easily. She had to use a conduit and for this she had constructed a Conduit using her own Essence.

With this Conduit she was able to fully use all her Power and created an entire world.

Then she sealed it away. Put a Lock on it. It was too dangerous to do anything else.

Until Alice came along, that is. Alice was created to be a Magician from the start. Shinki poured her Essence into her too. This allows compatibility between the Grimoire and Alice. She can use it as a Conduit.

1. Where does this leave us?

Fuck if I know. I’ve forgotten most of what I’ve written by now. The text does not allow itself to be read. It slides out of my mind. It won’t remain. It won’t remain*. It won’t remainIt won’t remainIt won’t remainwon’t remainwo^{ntremainwontremainwontremainwontremain}*

Thank you for attending my Ted Talk

Umm... I did this thing...