#wretchedbirdthing

Foxgirl making foxgirl promises!!!!

burdens you with the knowledge that tengu lay eggs

(EaLND)

RIGHT I READ THAT RECENTLY.. i just didnt think ofthe mechanics of it until now.. the ayussy was a cloaca all along shes just like wakasagihime

How would you describe her? I think there's more to the "greedy tengu" impression that I'm getting from the wiki and from her routes in UM. Her and Momoyo are friends after all.

Would you say that Momoyo brings out the best in her? (or, at least, better than Tsukasa does).

Thanks in advance!! ^^

THANK U for giving me a chance to blab about megumu because if i was more outspoken i would never shut up about her. warning, this is going to be long as fuck because when i said i wouldn't shut up i MEANT i wouldn't shut up

honestly the first thing to keep in mind is that Megumu isn't human, so human moralities shouldn't be so strictly applied to her. i often see people exaggerating her less palatable aspects, but she's........ not a human!!!! because of this i like to apply more leeway to her personality; she's not strictly black/white in terms of whether she's "good" or "bad", which is what i think the main issue is when it comes to general perception of Megumu (she often ends up being watered down to Mean Greedy Bully Boss). it's also more fun when characters have personality traits that should logically contradict each other.

i think she genuinely does have tengu society's best interests in mind, but it's more about the whole vs the individual which can also be seen as a reflection of Japanese society. ayahatamomi's complaints in altfacts was essentially both a comedy bit and meta commentary on Japan's toxic work culture, but it shouldn't be seen as a 1:1 situation imo. but anyway, i think Megumu does have issues with connecting to the other tengu on a personal level because of her position as middle management, but she doesn't like...... go out of her way to be deliberately cruel to them either. at worst it's indifference, at best it's a "means to an end" sort of situation, which results in disgruntled workers on the lower rungs of the ladder suffering because the higher-ups believe that's what's best for the group as a whole. Megumu sucks! but she's not a deliberate bully. maybe an accidental bully but that just makes it funny.

she does obviously care about the consolidation of power as well, but from her weird villain monologue in LE38 it doesn't seem like she's interested in gaining power HERSELF, but rather having the tengu as a whole being the top dogs of youkai mountain and in control of Gensokyo's flow of information. so Megumu is greedy, but not in the sense that she'd do anything that wouldn't benefit the other tengu as well. idk, we'll see if ZUN says anything about what she used the card market profits for in the next scoow issue, but for now i think it's a big stretch to say Megumu had ulterior motives beyond gathering economical strength for the tengu in 18. she's not the type of antagonist to try to grab the throne all for herself, because that would throw off the balance of tengu society.

she's honest! sort of! i don't think she lies to people's faces like Tsukasa does, but prefers lies of omission. if she says she's going to do something she'll do it, but it's the things she doesn't say that would warrant some alarm. this is more headcanon than anything else, but i also think Megumu is arrogant/strong enough to believe she doesn't have to outwardly lie to get what she wants.

going back to what i said about Megumu being unable to form personal friendships with other tengu, i like to imagine she has a weird interest in outsiders that would ironically go against the tengus' isolationist policies. she readily picked up Chimata off the ground and rekindled their friendship after 18, and is friends with Momoyo, and she even expressed interest and concern for Marisa. she was worried about Marisa!! that's kinda funny! Marizza Kirisame strikes again— but yeah, Megumu may be an asshole but she's still nice, and i think consolidating those two ideas is what throws a lot of people off. she's not a good person by human standards, but she's still courteous in general and wouldn't insult others because... she just doesn't have a reason to. but she would still totally throw hands with Kanako.

since she's directly inspired by Izuna Gongen i also like to imagine she also has a weird charitable streak as well. Izuna Gongen fed humans who were going through a famine and one of Megumu's major motifs is her onigiri. hell, even her ability card is her onigiri instead of something with her star lasers. Megumu once said she's interested in brave, powerful people, but i think she also does take pity on weaker beings and likes to help out just because she can. maybe it's to flex her power but it could also just be a Thing she does as a tengu.

MOMOYO..... ok now we're going into fanon territory LOL but her friendship with Momoyo is SO interesting because there's technically 0 canon interaction between them but we do get tidbits of their dynamic, like the fact Momoyo agreed to work for her and also seemed excited to introduce the humans to Megumu. Momoyo also says that Megumu is a "combat-lover" but apparently they also hang out just to hang out, like when Momoyo implied Megumu sometimes vents about work (Kanako) to her. i like to place importance on those scraps because they do show that Megumu isn't just about work work work work work, she does have hobbies and is strong enough to have befriended Momoyo. granted, Momoyo isn't 100% loyal to her either, but since they're both powerful youkai i don't think that really means much. they're on friendly terms!! that's the basic gist of it!!

i do think that Momoyo brings out the best in Megumu!! again, she's not human, so her "best" is probably something extremely deranged, but i like to imagine she's so close with Momoyo because she doesn't have to put on pretenses as the Daitengu with her; Momoyo dgaf about her standing in that youkai hierarchy, so Megumu earned Momoyo's respect and friendship through her own merit and strength. with Momoyo, who does not care about all that Daitengu stuff, Megumu can be true equals with her, and that's what makes their friendship really sweet to me. and inversely, Megumu doesn't mind that Momoyo is a gross centipede monster, but it seems like ZUN kinda walked back on the idea of Momoyo being a loner since she's described to be popular with other youkai in 18.5. Hisona made a series of momomegu doujinshi that really digs into that idea of their friendship being based on pure personal wants outside of their respective social standings that i draw a lot of inspiration from.