And as far as we know, only Tenshi has shown the ability to control the temperaments of other people. We can't equalize powersets just because the people with those powersets use the same UES.
We're not. We're equalizing the one part of the magic system that is a constant factor regardless of who uses magic, in the same sense that Ki users in Dragon Ball all logically have Ki manipulation. Magic
requires the manipulation of temperament, therefore any magic users can manipulate the things it embodies (magic and emotions). That's no longer the debate here; it's a matter of if that manipulation is solely internal or if it is external as well.
It's still a monster at it's core, is what I'm getting at. And we still have the human merchants of the
Road of Liminality physically interacting with youkai, so there's that.
That's... not how lycanthropy works. Also, we never see regular humans and youkai
physically interact. There are more ways to interact than physical touching, you know. In fact, we're doing one of them right now.
Why exactly are you assuming that Tenshi being able to control other people's "temperaments" scales to all magic users just because those magic users can control their own "temperaments"? Self-spirit control is not the same as soul/spirit/emotion manipulation.
It's unique to Tenshi because Tenshi is the only person yet shown in the entire Touhou Project universe/multiverse/whatever to display this ability of controlling other people's temperaments.
It's not unique to Tenshi, is the thing. Bear with me here.
First things first, temperament is equivalent to spirit. We know this because Tenshi's spell cards equalize the two and use the same kanji interchangeably (気質).
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/669613952870645793/912123414205038662/unknown.png
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/669613952870645793/912123108847145011/unknown.png
Then we also have ki (気), the kanji for which is the same as spirit. So we can equalize ki to the other magic colloquialisms as well. So now the equalization chain is
magic = sorcery = spells = spirit = temperament = ki, because ZUN has decided that nothing in my life should be easy. So now we need to prove that characters can manipulate/absorb (insert UES name here) that exists outside their own body.
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/838635605553840169/912140897934803004/unknown.png
A small bit of supporting evidence here (
NOT the main argument, before you hyperfocus on this point) is that magic users are sensitive to changes in temperament. So they can obviously at least
sense temperament outside their own bodies.
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/669613952870645793/912128231258349678/unknown.png...Actually, I just realized this could qualify for extrasensory perception for everyone. Adding that to the list and moving on.
In SWR, one of Suika's spell cards explicitly manipulates ki veins, so that's manipulating outside instances of the UES.
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/900627448192958495/900628652939685968/unknown.png
We also have Takane from UM, who's ability is to manipulate the forest's ki. So she's evidently affecting temperament outside her own body as well.
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/900627448192958495/912141704478490664/unknown.png
Also, note that phantoms quite literally ARE temperament. This is important for a few reasons. First is that they passively exert their emotions (ie; temperament) onto anyone nearby; this further proves that temperament manipulation is not limited to one's internal reserves.
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/900627448192958495/912150899873427526/unknown.png
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/900627448192958495/912151079158956072/unknown.png
Secondly is that since phantoms are temperament, any manipulation of phantoms is manipulation of temperament by extension. We know that phantoms are the spirits of plants and animals, therefore any character with soul manipulation can reasonably be said to have control over phantoms, and by extension, temperament that exists outside their internal reserves (Reimu, Komachi, Kasen, Youmu, Yuyuko, so on and so forth).
https://cdn.**********.com/attachments/900627448192958495/912151254073999360/unknown.png
So no, Tenshi manipulating temperament/spirit/magic/whatever the **** you wanna call it that exists outside her own body is by no means unique to her. At bare minimum it applies to phantoms, Suika, everyone who already has soul manipulation, and Takane, with no real reason to exclude everyone else. I'm sure there are other examples I missed, but it seems fairly consistent that characters can affect instances of the UES outside their own internal supply.
I probably missed a lot, and anyone else knowledgeable on this is free to help, but I'm gonna take a break after this. Too much ground to cover in too little time. I didn't even get to touch on the SWR weather fuckery.
This is an assumption and nothing portrayed or suggested so no.
I was saying it in the sense that if you can control your own soul, you could reasonably fight back against, say, having your soul ripped out. Also, if they aren't controlling their own soul, but also not controlling other people's souls, then whose souls
are they controlling? Because they have to be getting that temperament from somewhere.
I'm going to remain neutral regarding this. My lack of knowledge on the series doesn't help either. The layers being connected to mind, soul, etc doesn't mean everyone should get the power unless they use those specific aspects of it which doesn't seem to be the case for everyone in the verse.
We're not giving everyone every ability that magic is capable of. We're only granting them abilities related to the fundamental aspects that magic is inherently tied to: the mind and soul. You cannot perform magic without some degree of temperament manipulation, and temperament is the soul and mind (I've lost track of how many times I've repeated this point).
Anyways I'm extremely tired and stressed out right now so if you have objections to this at least do me the courtesy of providing scans. Apologies if this seems slightly incoherent, I desperately need sleep.
But I'll probably end up not sleeping because I'm a dumbass. Feel free to ask me for elaboration on any of this, I just can't provide it right away because I'm tired.