Touhou Storyline Routes: Which is True End?

[Blackraptor]

Something that has been bothering me lately:

Are the canonical events in Touhou following Reimu's runs all the time? Both shumps and fighters. If so, this means that Reimu has never been defeated in Windows canon.

So assuming that each incident only happens once, and not multiple times as dictated by the number of characters you can use, is it safe to assume that Reimu really is the only one who actually solves the incidents and every other route is a convenient 'what if'? Is Reimu really the 'True End' and everyone else are 'Side Routes'?

[Ryuu]

iirc Ending 1 is always considered canon


which means that Reimu has been beaten by Suika iirc. It's also implied that Yukari beat Reimu since the Netherworld Border was never repaired.

Also iirc all the routes in SWR are canon, meaning Reimu has lost to everyone who fought Reimu in their route.

[Moerin]

Reimu takes credit for all of Marisa's hard work.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. >.>  Anyone who says otherwise is simply deluding themselves!  Deluding, I tell you!  AHAHAHAHAH~!

...Ahem. >.>

[Sophilia]

As far as I can tell the common interpretation is something like this:
All routes in PoFV, SWR, and Soku are canon.
Suika route in IaMP is canon.
Somehow, everyone fought Yukari in PCB, despite the fact that Reimu route in the main story is canon.
Possibly Yuka route in MS, but that's only if you interpret the KG note as canon.
Everything else is Reimu.

[nintendonut888]

iirc Ending 1 is always considered canon

This was a mostly baseless theory, and ZUN debunked it when he stated the Marisa B has the canon route in UFO, since it leads directly to extra. In a similar vein, it's safe to say route C1 is the canon route in Fairy Wars, since it's the only one that sets up the extra stage.

Beyond that, there's really no way to tell for sure. Elements from every ending show up in future media, so it's pretty much up in the air. One that I'd be willing to bet though is that the Jigoku route in Highly Responsive to Prayers is the canon route, since Reimu had met Mima prior to SoEW.

Cut: And yeah, if Kioh Gyoku really does take place in the same continuity, then Yuka's route in MS is canon. Also it's probable that either of Marisa's routes in LLS were the canon one, since she stole Master Spark (Yuka knows both of them in PoFV though).

That's my handle on the issue at least.

[Iced Fairy]

From the side materials it looks like all endings are canon (Barring IaMP).  A good example would be UFO, where all the endings are confirmed via the extra and 12.3.  EoSD is another good example, since we know all those endings are true as well.

I personally lean towards NONE of the gameplay paths being correct.  For example all the teams for IN act as if they were part of the incident, but that's blatently impossible due to the Marisa/Reimu battle in stage 4.  And we know Marisa beat Byakuren and got the seed of Unknown form to start UFO extra, but that leaves Sanae with no connection to Byakuren and thus no reason to help build the Myouren temple.  The only games that actually can work like that are SWR and PoFV.  And PoFV still has some oddities.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Yeah, that kind of thing is why pretty much all doujins and fics depict the danmaku-games as "all of the PCs at once."

[Drake]

ZUN doesn't care and nobody else should, either.

PCB Extra and Phantasm was decided by a rock-paper-scissors match between the heroines. Considering Reimu's scenario was the only one that involved an actual piece of story, it would be safe to assume Reimu went. Yukari tore a gap in the Hakurei Barrier, and she said she had the intention of fixing the Hakugyokurou barrier now that she was awake. Since the barrier did nothing in the first place, I would assume she didn't bother to fix it.

ZUN doesn't care and nobody else should, either.

[orinrin]

ZUN doesn't care and nobody else should, either.

[Tiamat]

I figure ZUN's going under the "just assume they're all canon... somehow" route.  After all, one can find evidence all over the place that "this ending" happened and "that ending" happened, and often times there's enough evidence that "EVERYTHING" happened.

And yet, meanwhile, the amount of evidence that "this ending" did NOT happen or "that ending" did NOT happen is pretty much nonexistent.

Of course, to pull this off, ZUN likely purposefully makes it so that each ending doesn't really contradict any of the other endings.