PoDD Ellen's Theme: Tabula rasa ~ The Empty Girl

This is Ellen's theme from Touhou 3: Phantasmagoria of Dim. (Dimensional) Dream
(HOLY MOLIES, I KEEP WRITING FLOWER VIEW INSTEAD OF DIM. DREAM ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ ) I can't remember what this girl's ability is, only that with each passing day she loses more and more of her memory. That is really sad. Must be what Alzheimer's is like...

[@carbon6111]

She clearly forgot how to hold a cat.

[@kiwikraze255]

lol ikr it looks so helpless XD

[@carbon6111]

Kiwi Kraze "She's touching me inappropriately"

[@carbon6111]

***** Really?

[@Latency345]

aw, poor Sokrates

[@quimiu4400]

@@UmbrakineticMusic she forget what she can't broke the rules of physic (that is how it was named? Sorry for my bad English, *i forget everything* )

[@metabunny7693]

Maybe if Ellen wasn't so busy picking her nose with her pinkie she would remember how to hold that damn cat right.

[@Dreigonix]

Apparently her nickname is "Fuwafuwa-atama", meaning "fuzzy-head". And she has that name not only because of her memory problems, but also because her magic tends to build up static electricity in her hair. As if she wasn't adorable enough already.

[@MihaelGeng]

Actually that isn't Ellen's nickname, but rather her inspiration's - one of the protagonists of an old comic "Hatarakimono" going by the name of "Ellen Fluffy-head Aureus" (btw that middle name is actually her legit name given by her granddad...), who is also a witch with golden hair and also has a pet cat named Socrates, just like the Touhou Ellen. :D

[@Dreigonix]

@@MihaelGeng They’re the same character- ZUN added Ellen here as an actual crossover.

[@MihaelGeng]

​@@Dreigonix A crossover indeed, but they don't have to be the exact same. I'm just saying that nickname is nowhere to be found in Touhou's lore :P

[@Dreigonix]

@@MihaelGeng Fair- but still, it’s adorable.

[@MihaelGeng]

@@Dreigonix Oh ofc it is :3

[@deiji_hime]

Sokrates: WHAT THE HELL, ELLEN THIS IS CAT ABUSE WHY CAN'T YOU HOLD ME CORRECTLY

[@deiji_hime]

***** It's sokrates

[@Park-ll6mj]

Daisy Sarasoom It's Socrates. Named after the Greek philosopher. (Edit) I was wrong.

[@deiji_hime]

Parker Baird ._. if it's "socrates", then why the fuck does it say Sokrates on the touhou wiki?

[@Park-ll6mj]

Daisy Sarasoom maybe they made mistake? Which wiki is it?

[@deiji_hime]

Parker Baird Touhou Project wiki. and they're also another one that says Sokrates.

[@GooberousBeast]

My mom says Ellen is the best Touhou girl. I'm not saying that she's not, just sharing.

[@shin-5325]

"I can't remember what this girl's ability is, only that with each passing day she loses more and more of her memory. That is really sad. Must be what Alzheimer's is like..." I think her ability is effecting you.

[@lordrichardverania3698]

What if that's her true ability? Manipulating memories?

[@ZXNovaBoom]

TheAwesome Riui Her ability is not dying. But it comes with the cost of her losing her memories after a set period of time. So Mokou's ability but worse. She is also a witch, so she can use magic.

[@AutumnS.]

ZXNova I think that's debatable. Ellen seems to enjoy her life a lot more than poor Mokou does. Also hey Explosions. =w=

[@kebbie98]

She's fine now that she got Kaguya, but before, during a period of time, she used to be depressed and during another, she used to be violent etc EDIT: Checked it up and yeah, it's written in the short story about how Mokou got the elixir in the first place. As stated in said story: "For the first three hundred years, other people hated me, and I lived a sad life who only caused trouble to myself and those around me if I didn't stay in hiding. The next three hundred years I spent harboring a grudge against this world, and was able to preserve the faintest sense of identity by immediately dispatching anything that crossed my path, youkai or otherwise. For the next three hundred years the youkai in the area couldn't hold my interest anymore, and I lost all motivation towards anything, surrendering to tedium. But during the next three hundred years, I was finally reunited with my immortal archrival, and we discovered the joys of killing each other, over and over." It's a good read if one is interested in the lore ^^ en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Cage_in_Lunatic_Runagate/Fourth_Chapter

[@farafureimu]

...Nova? That's the first time I've seen anyone in the Touhou community in two places except for Danmakufu scripters who have KZbin channels.

[@lyndotwav]

Ellen is the Mokou of PC-98 but happier

[@Latency345]

Can’t it be Kaguya? But then again looking at her clothes makes it less convincing. BUT most of her happy personality is probably on Kaguya.

[@DimentioMOD]

Mokou + koshi = Ellen

[@narutofan2171]

I dont like fighting her...she is just too nice T^T

[@liampalomar2772]

Yeah same... She's too innocent more than koishi or flandre

[@terminategumball225]

@@liampalomar2772 Flandre isn't innocent though.

[@liampalomar2772]

@@terminategumball225 How?

[@terminategumball225]

@@liampalomar2772 She's insane. She may look innocent, but she isn't.

[@icecreamflavouredjunko599]

@@terminategumball225 That's not true in the slightest, even without taking into account the new Chireikiden manga.

[@yamahadx7synthesiser]

this is the touhou variant of the “i forgor 💀” meme

[@ZackLikesBreadAlot]

i rember 😀

[@theturtwig50]

Love this song. So cheerful, yet so sad. Just like Ellen herself. :(

[@Kiiro]

Wait,how is this sad? It's happy and cute to me.

[@martindouge4504]

+Rumia Scarlet Most of PoDD themes have this nostalgic feel. I think Kana's and Kotohime's are the most obvious though.

[@liampalomar2772]

+Martin Douge you're right about that, Ellen's theme is cheerful, but somehow sad secretly

[@hleghe810]

People are saying her memory loss is terrible, but to me it feels more like a tendency. After living so long, it's inevitable you'll forget unimportant tunings anyways. At least, that's what I got from the wiki. (I bet the dialogue says different)

[@euniceerica]

So, she's like the Dory of Touhou. wait a sec...

[@metabunny7693]

Finding Ellen.

[@amaratuber]

i just get it jeez like 3 months its december

[@LilyKazami]

Just keep shooting~

[@Dreigonix]

And Dory is played by ELLEN DeGeneres. MORIYA SHRINE CONSPIRACY CONFIRMED

[@mynameismmandimheretosay7979]

Now I picture her memory loss as less sad now that you compare it to dory. Thanks(still think it’s kinda sad though, but less).

[@kazawakazalik]

Let me share my story here just because I discovered the meaning of Ellen's Theme song title I'm a Touhou Fan since 2015 and Discovered this song too not long ago, My opinion about this song is it's soo catchy, cute, and kind of emotional, An adorable earworm ngl. And then I went into Education College this year (2022) then I found out that... Tabula Rasa is an Education Theory by John Locke explaining that children is like an empty canvas or stone. Zun, You're insane

[@the24thcolossusjustchillin39]

Man still managed to pull a fast one on us sometimes

[@no-oe8fd]

wait so Ellen is just like Dory,and the voice over of Dory named Ellen DORY IS ELLEN CONFIRMED

[@mynameismmandimheretosay7979]

No Ellen is Ellen from the Ellen show

[@carrotsandcucumbers8214]

Ellen DeGeneres is Ellen's real world alter ego confirmed!

[@LilyKazami]

Just keep shooting~

[@BinglesP]

@@mynameismmandimheretosay7979 Damn old account of mine, you sure do be fucking stupid as hell since that Ellen is the exact same person

[@MarthaRoseQuartz]

Junko is Zurg

[@user-mg1ic2fi1d]

Lowest speed, lowest charge, better damage than her poltergeist, a shrine maiden and maniacal princess, most complex attack patterns in game. Her homing charge makes up for these. In other words, she is actually extremely powerful

[@Papaya.bloxx12]

0:27 this part has a emotional feel to it.

[@neoxrave]

Her ability seems more like a curse with the memory loss... not really a great ability to have. But then again, to stay young and then go insane with the amount of memories that pile up in your head doesn't sound too enticing either. :P

[@Charlie-pg5wy]

this is such a beautiful theme, wow i wish this character would be brought back

[@sylvierose2799]

@@hacksawbunny sadly

[@AugustA447]

It's okay, Flandre. She forgot her ability too

[@MonochromaticYukari]

SOKRATES!!! Hang in there... Ellen's just... gonna do... something... CUTE!!!

[@TechShowCanine]

Her ability is the inability to grow old, and she also has the ability to use magic.

[@disc06]

I feel so sorry for Ellen, she has such pathetic stats in game. I srsly wonder why ZUN made that character so weak compared to other ones

[@MrTheboomboxer]

Her patterns are strong though.

[@yamjay5613]

boi, rika made evil eye sigma which is pretty hella

[@hleghe810]

ᴍᴀʟɪᴄɪᴏᴜꜱ тєηgυ That's like saying a support class is terrible because they can't defeat a boss singlehandedly. She doesn't need to be "strong"

[@Link3000XD]

when u make a roleplay or torll comment but change the profile pic and name right after

[@raikaria3090]

She's not even the worst character in PoDD; that honor goes to Chiyuri.

[@cipeentity463]

Probably the cutest theme in Touhou series

[@RawFish2DChannel]

0:13 I hear a bit of "History of the Moon" here 0:25 this part for some reason reminds me of "Love-Colored Master Spark"

[@longlivethe9989]

but this is Love-Coloured Magic because SoEW...

[@lexrilrideout1757]

This composition was made before touhou even existed in zuns head. :0

[@kirimusse]

Interesting... Source?

[@shaunfrost720]

@@kirimusse touhou wiki touhou 3 music omake

[@kirimusse]

@@shaunfrost720 Thanks.

[@Lennily]

So innocent

[@MrTheboomboxer]

She is really cute.

[@snr-iw5dz]

I feel nostalgic already... I miss the PC-98 era... ;-;

[@examswillkillmeoneday1265]

I never even knew about Touhou in the PC-98 era and yet it's still nostalgic ^^' I think my parents had a 95 which is sorta similar, so maybe that's why.

[@MrTheboomboxer]

So cute, even her magic mainly consists of fluffiness and puffiness.

[@Kiiro]

I hear bits of Gensokyo Millenium and Old world.

[@DanTMC5398]

Where? Where? Where? Tell me please, I am looking for something sound like Theme of Eastern Story

[@wong.mattie.4440]

Actually , Ellen's full name is 'Ellen Fuwafuwa-atama Aureus' (remind me of Reisen Udongein Inaba XD)

[@groudonsbest]

Her ability is the Inability to grow old and Magic. its weird that one of her Abilities is an Inability XD

[@emeraldarwyn5367]

can I adopt her? she's so cute!

[@BinglesP]

@kibble h I want Keine

[@rumia8913]

bro they are 19 year old

[@destinyweb1311]

ELEN MY BABY- She's one of my favourite characters, everyone need to love her ;v;

[@ryujisimp5835]

I have the same makeshift Alzheimer's that Ellen has, but the most traumatizing moments I lived through stay. Though, a difference is I'm going insane after the amount of emotions and feelings I bottled up.

[@bonelessmice6828]

are you ok bro

[@ryoga808]

She has eternal youth. She doesn't age and because she has lived for so long, she has a problem of forgetting her past in chunks. It's kinda sad, but she is a hard working fluffy head magician so it doesn't bother her much.

[@amaratuber]

Immortal Age=Immortal Smoke Ellen =Moukou OOOOOOOOOMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[@ryoga808]

Naw, she can't hold a memory well while Mokou holds a damn strong grudge for years on end.

[@amaratuber]

+ryoga808 Oh

[@ArmezhiaTakashi]

Sounds a lot like Love-Colored Magic.

[@tonick2208]

It first kinda disturbed me a little when i learned she wasnt ZUNs original character, but she is too innocent not to love

[@sylvierose2799]

She is basically a "rip-off" of the sorts but I can't blame ZUN, the first five 2hu games were very experimental

[@tonick2208]

@@sylvierose2799 her creator consented for including her in podd so she s not technically a ripoff but ye i agree

[@robotron6420]

​@@tonick2208 Is mostly like a "parody"

[@GourmetSubZee]

Ellen's song always reminds me of the theme to Braveheart whenever I play PoDD... maybe she was once an independence-seeking Scotswoman in her early life? :p

[@ryoga808]

After all this time looking at this picture and listening to this song, it looks like Ellen is blankly sniffing her finger.

[@charles8740]

Cannot unseen.

[@tonick2208]

*Mmmm Sokrates said not to stick it in that pink hole. I w o n d e r h o w i t s m e l l s*

[@naif9464]

2:25 you can hear a slight part of “Gensokyo millennium ~ history of the moon” (Eirin’s theme) in these 2 seconds

[@shrimpfrymenreikiarchivelo6682]

Ellen's ability is just like me..

[@LunaExpiX]

Coming back to this song is very awkward now, 2020 broke our perception of memory

[@battykat7086]

I find it funny how closely associated with Marisa she is, because this theme sounds like ZUN forgot how Love-Colored Magic was supposed to sound... ironic considering Ellen's ability.

[@j-ace3106]

I will never hear this theme the same. Part of it sounds like another part of that dumb Milkshake song where it goes, the boys are waiting. ; - ;

[@nashitamaniran5867]

I think she forgot that she was holding the cat... the cat doesn't seem in shock though. Maybe it happened a lot before

[@mima5356]

That's just about right. My late mother worked in elderly care for many years.

[@Thunderdude96]

You got to wonder, since Ellen forgets blocks of stuff at a time, if she's forgotten something that's important to her, like the name of her cat...

[@AlexandroDarioFessia2007ARG]

Ellen haves too much memories problems, doesn't? She even forgot how to exist in windows era for more than 20 years 💀💀💀💀

[@FlandresOldWorld]

@groudonsbest Thanks for clearing that up, I forget most of the abilities of the PC-98 characters... ^^;

[@NaCl586]

she looks like madoka kaname from this picture. she's so cute.

[@ronglun227]

Me too! Sometimes when I try to remember it, I always make mistake between it and Love-Coloured Master Spark

[@ThornHailsnap]

In this picture to me it always looks like she's picking her nose.

[@nashitamaniran5867]

Her theme song sounds so nice^^ so playful and childish. It's so lovely (๑´`๑)♡

[@xXNightSparrowXx]

actually people can see koishi but they forget her upon her leaving the field of vision and children can see her so she's said to be an imaginary friend of sorts. Plus in HM people started noticing Koishi and she did enjoy the attention

[@Floats736]

*pats Don't put fingers up your nose Ellen

[@KiraFan1983]

Forget Mima, ZUN should bring back my man Sokrates #sokrates4touhou20

[@a-User-]

This soundtrack reminds me of blade of banishment

[@fezcrystal9]

*_Ellen Raya_* _エレン • ラヤ_ ¤ Witch ☆ Inability to age, magic A witch who travels Gensokyo freely with her cat Sokrates. She tends to forget things because of her inability to get old, but Sokrates sometimes reminds her.

[@mynameismmandimheretosay7979]

Someone get her on The Ellen Show

[@joserubenuriberusca1248]

I was playing Shin megami tensei II And there is this girl named Hanoun. She is literally Yumeko from MS but with Ellen personality. Well ZUN got inspired by smt in a Lot of his early works (Castle kether from the same Game is similar to shinki stage, And also shinki's wings are pretty similar to Lucifer and Satán wings

[@lordrichardverania3698]

Ellen, Y U FORGET HOW TO HOLD A CAT PROPERLY?

[@hatsunemikusleftnostril]

best girl

[@elvergalarga-jo9vs]

Aside cat abuse, can we talk about how cute this song is?

[@Sharutia]

The intro looks kinda like Lunate Elf from the stage 2 of EoSD

[@kimcringson7106]

Imagine how badass it is if there's synthwave arrangement of this

[@CartoBalow]

My favourite song of PoDD :)

[@Harpuricle]

Wide Ellen

[@rizekcajk3410]

Wide Ellen

[@mothman3781]

guys the cats name is Socrates.

[@haraldisdead]

Child with dementia picks her nose and drops a cat. Noice. EDIT: And grows insanely long hair.

[@EpreTrollII]

I hear a bit of Cennestial Festival for Magical Girls in here, am I alone?

[@lumishark]

Omg Ellen, you didn't

[@gooorireimuhakurei4002]

One of the charecter's from touhou that i think it is easy to just come back. At the end of PoDD,she opened a shop at hakurei shrine grounds.i think it would be fun that we could see her shop in HM or ULiL or AoCF.but i thibk she is not gonna come back.not because she is not interesting(4 magician of touhou,Marisa's harem was going to be banger.reimu,alice, patchouli,flandre,nitori and ellen.that is impressive)or because she is weak.but because she is based of a comic from izumi takemoto.it would be seen as.... PLAGIARIZED. But still i think she is marisa's harem,not because she is magician,but because her alternative colour is marisa's dress.even her magic is green in alternative version of her.is marisa copying ellen or something??.i dunno (Fun fact:did you know that Ellen name means (sun ray)in greek.also her cat name(sokrates)is a reference to(Socrates)one of greek philosopher's.tuss make her from greece. Fun fact:one of Marisa's alternative colour from UNL is ellen dress,or Marisa's dress from lostword.but it was created before lost word was created.so it is ellen clothes.

[@akiradkcn]

he doent have the legal rights for the character so adding her is impossible

[@Phantasma6621]

Great allat

[@marisakirisame867]

fun fact : this bro body is unchanged but the brain go dementia crazy midname huh:?

[@kuadralinkzero5197]

Also Other Fact : She is not a Touhou character that only appear in Touhou

[@marisakirisame867]

@@kuadralinkzero5197 yes

[@DeclanDSI]

It's like the Shrine of the Wind almost, but like as if one has forgotten how to play it and as such are trying to make do with the miniscule bits one can remember and recreate it wholesale.

[@yamahadx7synthesiser]

last time i listened to this i was looking at cursed images

[@DaydreamEuphoria]

ELLEN HONEY THAT IS NOT HOW YOU HOLD A CAT

[@DimentioMOD]

The og witch of scarlet dreams

[@nekomissy595]

How can I still discover old Touhou OST after 7 years in that fandom ???

[@WindowsDrawer]

0:19 Marisa sneaking in

[@smilinggeneral8870]

ok this is epic also, i still don't get how louder than steel is a remix of this

[@arata-ka1386]

Same

[@songoku9566]

Ellen the fluffy girl

[@marianegracel.gumban2823]

So this is where Witch's House came from. Ellen is a Witch, and Sokrates is a demon taking the form of a cat.

[@kreng823]

WTH are you Doing with Sokrates!!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?! BTW Ellen's Theme is the BAST.

[@mysticanime309]

0:51 I hear U.N Owen Was Her?

[@amaratuber]

i heard it as well

[@insomniatic991]

MysticAnime also 0:25

[@Le_Corsaire]

@@insomniatic991 That would be Love Colored Magic, not Flandre's theme

[@yannicklindelauf5271]

my grandpa has Alzheimer its terrible that he starts to forget my name and that of his other grand children

[@longlivethe9989]

one of the best themes in the series for a character that never made a return, nor had any real potential for the series... *sigh* ... maybe I shouldn't even go past MS and play these three games (3-5) forever...

[@Lolatfunkytoes]

Poor Socrates!

[@thenumberquelve158]

My takeaway from this is that Ellen should sign up to be a receiver in the NFL. If she can hang on to a CAT with one hand, surely she can catch a football with one hand. May have to cut some of that hair first, but she's got potential.

[@captaindoesyoutube7925]

Isn’t Ellen technically a crossover character

[@akiradkcn]

A dunnut steel OC

[@yumemisstrawberryjam6759]

*[Hardworking witch who dreams of love]* ELLEN Ellen is a witch who never grows old. To make up for living for a very long time, she does not have a very good memory. She forgets drops of memories, one after the other. Because of that, she is always a child.　　　　　　　 (quoted from Ha**raki**no...what?) As such, while she may not look like one, she is a creditable witch. Truly, she has lived for a quite long time. Today too, the fluffy goes popping by the magic. ZUN's comment about the track: "Yeees. The composer is not too good at cute songs. This song doesn't seem very cute, does it? (If anyone knows the comic Ellen came from... sorry, it doesn't match her very well, does it?) Well, anyway, this song is actually a song I wrote a loooooong time ago to practice MIDI; I rewrote it all in FM. It was one of my favorite original songs, but it was completely Oriental-style, and... (I think this song is, too ...) I don't know how it ended up being a foreign girl's theme."

[@uzzuamyonnia8357]

Can't unhear the lyrics

[@terminategumball225]

She looks exactly like Flonne from Disgaea.

[@NEETKitten]

And she existed first. That's interesting...

[@terminategumball225]

@@NEETKitten Maybe Flonne's design was inspired by Ellen's.

[@NEETKitten]

@@terminategumball225 Could be.

[@patheticloafofbread]

This song is Louder Than Steel

[@YuuyaKZMI]

Ellen's theme has similar motifs to some HRtP songs in it. Namely Iris and Blade of Banishment.

[@TheGreenManThom]

I want the Picture ._. Ellen is best

[@ArceusShaymin]

Alzheimer's You get it even when you don't grow old, kids. :D

[@joegamewaffle5967]

Yes, I see the similarity to Love-colored master spark/magic too!

[@spaghettiking7312]

I hope she finds her love.

[@HatateHimekaidou899]

Snow White Echo is an arrange of this song its really good. i found it on osu!stream.

[@Syindomex]

Same, it was pretty good that the fact i miss the note lol

[@ghostprincesswithagun370]

Original source for Amane's Snow White Echo...