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1Q: Who turns out to be the eventual Grand Antagoinist of RCB (and, by extension, RAGG)? In other words, who is Flandre's equivalent in this story? The Big Bad Final Boss?
2A: That's easy. The Grand Antagonist is Yukari Yakumo. 
3
4Q: So saying *she's* the final boss implies that something of her doing, directly or otherwise, caused the Endless Winter. Can we agree on that?
5A: Yes. Yukari was the Winter's ultimate instigator, just as Flandre was the ultimate cause of the Sky Mist. 
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7Q: This already brings a problem. We're dealing with a symptom before we get to the disease beneath it. The symptom was already chosen before work ever began on this story, becuase of ZUN's wacked-out excuse for storytelling. The Problem of RCB *has* to be an Endless Winter, or else we loose our strongest link to the story of Perfect Cherry Blossom. Then it's no longer the Retelling of Oriental Tales, but just TJ writing whatever the crap he wants with plagarized characters. 
8A: That's not a question.
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10Q: Shut up. I'm getting somewhere. So I guess the question *would* be, can this reverse-engineering of storytelling even be done? At least, without making up excuses and crappy deus-ex machina explanations for everything. 
11A: I may be wrong for saying so, but I think it can be done. And I think I can make it good, just like I did with RoSD. *Better* than RoSD.
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13Q: Why is that feeling so persistent in you? Why do you keep trying even when adapting PCB's story to writing presents problem after problem?
14A: Becuase I want to. Becuase I need to.
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16Q: Good enough. So we've established that Yukari is the Baddest Girl, and that her actions in/directly cause the Endless Winter. That rather leaves us with something similar to an algebra problem where we know too few values to solve. Like: 
17{YukariBad + (unknown motive) + (Yukari's unknown actions) = Endless Winter + (Unknown actions taken by hero to resolve)}
18A: So we need to fill in those unknown values. And no ammount of doubt or obstacles will thwart us. We will keep trying. 
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20Q: Agreed. And the best place to start is nearest to the beginning. The first value we don't have, why does Yukari cause the endless winter? Or better yet, what would drive her crazy enough to inflict climate change on her own country? The human and youkai residents of Gensokyo she doesn't care too much for... their lives are short and mean little in her eyes. But the land itself is permanent, and she cares for it. Why would she do anything to harm Gensokyo, or even put it in danger?
21A: For the same reason anyone does self-destrutive things. They want something they can't have, or want something that would harm them, and they want it so badly that it shakes their minds free of sanity for a time. 
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23Q: Do you have an example or analogy to give?
24A: Yes. Problems with chastity are a good example, taking reference to modern human lives. People feel sexual impulses in their bodies, and they want to act on them. Sex is a part of the marraige dynamic, but people don't want to commit or give their entire lives over for five seconds of muscle spasms. So when they try to get sex without the love and commitment of marraige, it's damaging to their minds and hearts. This shows how the desire for something, which might seem like a good thing in and of itself (sex is pleasurable and a great way for people to share love and closeness), drives them to get that thing in the wrong way, which negates the good of the originally desired thing. Another example is my own struggle with forgiving people who are crazy, or angry, or fearful, or just outright mean. I get frustrated with these people, becuase I desperately want my fellow man to be intelligent, kind, passionate and forigving, because I know that's what will make us all happiest. But being angry at people for their personality defects is no better than having a defect of my own. Two wrongs do not make a right.
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26Q: So what does Yukari want so badly that it drives her mad?
27A: The most obvious answer that comes to mind is that Yukari wants to get *out*. That the Boundary is a limitation to her, just as a mortal human cannot leave their own skin. It's hard for Yukari for two reasons: 
281) She has lived *much* longer than any human, and with no opportunity of being freed from her "flesh" (the Boundary). Humans don't have this problem, since they become spirit once their body dies after a measly 80 or so years, if that. 
292) Humans will sometimes get a taste of the World Beyond their mortal lives, which is invariably better than life here. The small tastes we get are enough to drive us mad with desire, and require immense personal strength to keep ourselves sane and our hearts under control in this mortal realm. Similarly, Yukari has gotten tastes of the world outside Gensokyo. She can't exit the Boundary, or send any of her senses beyond it, but she has managed to bring some things *in*. The largest example would be the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which seemingly popped into existence from out of nowhere. Theoretically, Yukari pulled it in from some Lord's estate in ancient England. This mansion isn't such a big deal in and of itself (Remilia Scarlet came to live there eventually), but the library underneath the Mansion was a *very* big deal. A huge collection of books, all written in a language totally different than the Japanese that Gensokyo was left with once it was sealed from the rest of Japan. Many of the books have scattered around the valley, but a great many more remain. Now Patchouli manages that library, keeping all the volumes she can, and adding new ones in both the Old and New languages (Japanese and English, respectively).
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31Q: Why can Yukari only bring things *in* to Gensokyo? (For it's nessecary to say that she can. We're portraying Yukari here as being the Queen of Gensokyo. She is the oldest and most powerful resident, presumably born when the Boundary was formed. If things from the outside world have gotten into Gensokyo (which they *have*, and we can't avoid that fact, since ZUN himself placed a Victorian-style mansion on the lake (not to mention gave Aya a camera and printing press, gave Rinouske an iPod to sell to Yukari, among other things), and Ibunshuu portrays the characters as speaking and thinking in English), then Yukari must either be aware of these things comming into Gensokyo, or she must be the one who brought them in. If she was *neither* complicit or complacent to these outside things entering Gensokyo, then she couldn't really be the Grand Queen Whatever over the land. The person bringing outside material in without her notice would be the true Emporer Palpatine, and Yukari would be second fiddle to that greater power, which is not how we're portraying her. So Yukari brought all those things in.)
32A:  I don't know yet. Let's go over Rans' explanation of Yukari's Gap power again.
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34Q: Ran compared Yukari's Gap power to knocking a hole in the wall, and pulling herself through by the edges. This analogy works becuase Remilia had already explained the Boundary as a Gap itself, and you can't make a gap within a gap. You can't punch a hole in a hole. So that explains why Yukari can't take herself or other beings past the Boundary. But how can she bring things into Gensokyo?
35A: Ran can keep that analogy, but I'm beginning to think her understanding of the Boundary was imperfect. The Boundary may be a Gap, and a physical barrier, but more importantly I think it's an end to magical power. This explanation *sort of* makes sense, because no magic exists outside Gensokyo and Yukari can't leave it. But this still doesn't explain how things can get in or out of the Boundary.
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37Q: No, it doesn't. Keep going. 
38A: I'm getting an idea for a less than worthy explanation of the Boundary not allowing living things to pass it. We've already established with Sakuya's shift ability that certian magical aspects affect live beings differently, or not at all. This can explain why Yukari pulls things into Gensokyo from the outside, becuase she's hungry for news from the world beyond the boundary. This goes hand-in-hand with why books are so popular in Gensokyo. Yukari brings in lots of books, becuase they are a good way of getting news and information of the world beyond the Boundary. When she gets sick of a book, she let's it float around Gensokyo and become part of the country's informational economy. 
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40Q: The "No living things allowed" solution is good for a start, but it doesn't hold water from end to end. If innatimate objects could pass the Boundary with no trouble at all, then Yukari could simply force all the *land* within Gensokyo outside, effectively destroying the country and freeing Yukari (it might kill her, but she wouldn't know that until after the fact). So what stops Yukari from doing this?
41A: I thought of a good answer to that already. If Yukari *could* move objects (living or otherwise) in or out of Gensokyo, there's an easy way to put a limit on it. Let's say that it hurts her. Like bringing in an object the size and weight of a dictionary could cause a nasty bruise on one of her breasts. Or give her a black eye. Or loosen her teeth for a few days. Or make her start spontaneously bleeding in embarasing areas. (Some good comedic potential there. Good dramatic too.)
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43Q: Why does it hurt Yukari to push or pull items past the Boundary?
44A: Becuase the Boundary's life and hers are one. Bringing a book into Gensokyo would require breaking the Boundary for a short moment. It can be done, just as a human can break his own skin, but not without pain and injury. This explains why Yukari commonly brings in only small obejcts, and not too often either (I imagine the books in Gensokyo span literary eras -- you might find the 1950 Oxford Dictionary on the same shelf with a copy of the Dresden Files. This diversity comes from Yukari slowly building up the book stock in Gensokyo over many, many years). And she sometimes brings in objects other than printed works, like small electronics, tools, toys, or other oddities that might give her a hint about the outside world. But books are her favorite, becuase they have what she craves most of all. Information. 
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46Q: So what was the effect of Yukari bringing in the SDM?
47A: After centuries of occasionally bringing in little odds and ends, she became frustrated and decided on something much more grand. She prepared and planned, gathering the nessecary spells and organizing a lengthy ritual. When she executed the grand spell, it worked just as planned. A mass of land carying a Victorian mansion materialized on the lake. But she wasn't ready for the consequences. The spell nearly killed her. I imagine Yukari lying on the ground before the gate of the newly-established mansion, her bones broken, her skin torn, her clothes soaked with blood. She healed after a while, of course, as any good youkai queen would. But her hardiness is a double-edged sword. It kept her alive, but it also made her aware of every iota of the pain she'd inflicted upon herself. Any human subject to such mutilation would pass out, their minds unable to handle so much hurt at once. Yukari wasn't so lucky. It was perhaps the greatest agony an individual ever felt in Gensokyo. 
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49Q: Can we explain why the Boundary allows objects to pass, but not living things?
50A: Yes, but keep in mind, the Boundary does not *allow* them to pass. Typically the Boundary is a solid barrier to both living and dead things. Only Yukari can force it open at all (and she only becuase the Boundary and her share some common life force, and everyone is granted some self-mutilation now and again). However, the one thing she cannot do is alter the Boundary to allow magical energy to pass. Spiritual energy and physical matter are substances of a different nature. She has learned how to make the Boundary allow one (with great personal pain) but not the other. This means, theoretically, she could kill a person by throwing them outside the Boundary. The spirit would instantly separate from the body as soon as the Boundary was passed. She could also pull a person into Gensokyo from the outside, killing the person and retrieving only a corpse. Yukari has never done either. If she wants to kill a person within Gensokyo, she has much easier ways of doing so. And she would have no use for a dead body from the outside, since dead men tell no tales.    
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52Q: Okay, I think that will work. This is a good explanation of Yukari's relationship with the Boundary and how it limits her. Now, how to we translate this into a motive to create the Endless Winter?
53A: Her motive is to get out of Gensokyo. She wants to be free of it. Not nessecarily to destroy or harm it (Gensokyo is a very beautiful place, and I'm sure Yukari would still want to call it home even if she spent her days exploring the rest of the world.), but just not to be imprisoned in the place. 
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55Q: How does causing Endless Winter gain this goal? 
56A: I don't think it does. My best idea is that Yukari succumbs to the madness we mentioned earlier... becoming so upset and frustrated at our limitations that we allow it to literally drive us insane. For humans, this insanity would typically only last a short while... just long enough to do some great hurt to ourselves or our loved ones (and usually feel terrible about it afterwards). But in Yukari's case, since she's had centuries and centuries to stew over her imprisonment in Gensokyo, her madness is more measured and calculated. In her desperate desire to GET OUT, she forms a plan.
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58Q: Pray, tell of this plan.
59A: Yukari seeks some way to weaken the Boundary, so that she may pass beyond it. Yet she knows that she will weaken if the Boundary does. And it may be nessecary for the Boundary to vanish altogether for her to leave Gensokyo, which would mean her own death. She has pondered this for a long, long time... and if she must die to escape her bondage, then so be it. Making a long story just slightly less long, Yukari gives in to suicidal despair. If she can get out of Gensokyo alive, then great. If not, then that's fine too.
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61Q: That's not a plan. That's just emo.
62A: Be patient. I'm getting to it. Yukari knows better than anyone Gensokyo's magical nature. From on perspective, all energies exist attributable to either *yang* or *yin*, active or passive, heat or cold, male or female. Normally, these two aspects are balanced in Gensokyo. But if one were weakened, it would cause instability on epic scales. Take away the *yin*, and the valley's natural life would grow explosively. The weather would be hot year round. The water table would lower, and the atmosphere would become muggy. For a short time, Gensokyo would become tropical, before its balance was destroyed entirely and cooked into a dead pan of dry earth. But if you take away the *yang*, Gensokyo would quickly fall into an endless hibernation. The skies would pour feet of snow on the ground, until there was no more water in the air to precipitate. All the water would stay frozen on the ground and in the mountains. Plants and animals and people would freeze to death. With me so far?
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64Q: Yep. Keep going.
65A: Yukari didn't care which of these extremes happened. Both were equally deadly, and would cause her the same ammount of hurt. She spent a short while trying to decide weather to burn or freeze her homeland, but something tipped the balance for her. The neighboring realm of Hakugyokuro was home to Yukari's age-old friend, the ghost Yuyuko Saigyouji. Also in that netherworldly place dwelt the Saigyou Ayakashi, a huge tree which symbolized some of Yuyuko's personal complexes. Yukari then understood how best to knock Gensokyo off balance. She could take the *yang* energy and give it to Yuyuko, for feeding to the Ayakashi. It would have no lasting effect, but it would force the spirit tree to blossom for a short time. Yukari knew it wouldn't be a permanent fix to Hakugyokuro's problems (Yuyuko would have to let go of the materialism and pain (how she killed her parents) from her mortal life, or the Ayakashi would neither bloom nor disappear.), but it would make Yuyuko happy for a little while to see the Ayakashi bloom. Yukari figured, if I can make Yuyuko smile on my way out, then maybe it'll be worth it.
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67Q: How does Yukari execute her suicidal plan? 
68A: Well, first of all, Yukari knows she can't transfer the spring energy from Gensokyo to Hakugyokuro all by herself. She does technically have the ability, but taking Gensokyo's life away from it would be similar to a human slowly cutting his own body in half. Natural self-preservation complexes kick in, and a person can only just go so far in hurting himself. She needed to get someone else to cut her metaphorical self in half, so she could retreat to her mountain mansion and suffer silently while the deed was done. 
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70Q: Who did she choose, and how did she choose? 
71A: We already know she chose Youmu Konpaku for the job. As for the *how*, Youmu was the natural choice. As Yuyuko's servant, Youmu could be easily motivated into anything if she honestly believed it in her mistress's best interest. (That's where Yukari's falsehoods come in, telling Youmu that the Saigyou Ayakashi and Yuyuko can be saved if infused with spring energy.) Youmu is also stubbornly noble, and will finish anything she starts. (I believe she continues to gather spring even after she sees the harmful effects on Gensokyo, because she sees how beautifully the Ayakashi blooms and how happy it makes her mistress. She believes if *all* the spring can be gathered and given to the Ayakashi, that Yuyuko can gain some form of closure and the Ayakashi will no longer be needed. Then the spring energy can return to Gensokyo from whence it came, and everything would go back to better than normal.)
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73Q: How does Yukari enable Youmu to transfer spring between Gensokyo and Hakugyokuro?
74A: First, Youmu must have a means of travel. Not only between the mortal- and netherworlds, but within Gensokyo as well. (Gathering spring would be hard if Youmu had to tromp around the whole valley on foot.) To this end, Yukari imparts a lesser version of her Gap ability to Youmu. An enchanced flower is tied to the sheath of Roukanken, the longer of Youmu's two swords. With the magic from that flower, Youmu can draw the sword and cut a Gap to lead anywhere else in Gensokyo. The sword must be sheathed between each use, to regain magic from the flower. As for traveling between the mortal and immortal worlds... I think that will be the only way we can squeeze the Prismriver Sisters into this tale.
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76Q: The Prismrivers? How to they fit in? 
77A: I think we first need to ask, what in the world *are* the Prismrivers? I want them to be the method by which Youmu (and therefore, Sakuya after her) access the netherworld. This probably means the Phantom Ensemble will be secondary characters at best but... come on! There's way too many characters to squeeze into a novel here. I had to cut Koakuma and Daiyousei out of RoSD altogether. I felt okay about doing that, becuase neither of them were canonically named characters. But the Prismrivers are the STAGE FOUR BOSS of Perfect Cherry Blossom. Oh, and I can't forget to squeeze Lilly White in there somewhere too. >.< This is getting hard. 
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79Q: So answer the simpler question. What/who are the Prismriver Sisters? 
80A: Here's my current running thought. A long tmie ago, before any of the current human characters were born (including Youmu, and perhaps before the SDM was summoned into Gensokyo) there lived a family of nobles under the patricarch Prismriver, so named for the crystalline river his family had always lived near. Lord Prismriver had four daughters, each of whom he loved very much. The eldest was Lunasa. The second eldest was Merlin. The third was Lyrica, and the youngest of the four was Layla. Each of the four sisters had their own talents according to their personalities, making use of the natural magic that exists in Gensokyo. Layla was strongest in her own gift, the ability to summon and counjour beings made of pure energy. Put in modern contexts, she could call fairies to her will, and she could construct rudimetarlly intelligent pseudo-youkai to do her bidding. This ability was an amazing one. Used wisely, it lent a great deal of security and utility to the Prismriver family (Imagine being able to summon a brainless, muscled youkai guard to protect your family while on shopping trips. Picture being able to compel fairies into cleaning your house for you, without resorting to Sakuya-esque measures.) In addition to her summoning ability, she had a deep love of music. Though it was not an interest her sisters shared, they loved her enough to sometimes play music for her. Their performances were weak, as none of them rightly knew how to use their instruments outside of a few home-taught lessons, but Layla hardly cared. That her sisters were playing for her was more than enough to bring her joy.
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82Q: Keep going.
83A: Layla, though the strongest magically, was weakest physically. She suffered severe chronic athsma, and would contract cold and fever several times per year. Her sisters did all they could for her, feeding her and cleaning her through the worst bouts of sickness. Now, by the time Lunasa had become a young woman (I imagine her being about 19), and Layla had just passed puberty, a tragedy occured. House Prismriver had a long-standing rivalry with another noble household of the time. As the years progressed, this rivalry became an outright fued. The men of the two houses would often go to blows, either in honnorably arranged duels or in spontaneous hot-blooded fights. Combat mages going at it can be a terrible and beautiful sight. Lalya would lay awake looking out her bedroom window on many nights, seeing distance flashes of spellcards discharging. 
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85Q: I'm only asking a question here to keep your Prismriver backstory from being a single unbroken paragraph.
86A: The fighting between the two houses continually escalated, until the Lords themselves were forced to get involved. They agreed upon a duel to the death, the victor to become the new Lord of the two houses unified. Neither Lord had any support from their houses, for their families would not wish to serve a new Lord if theirs had died. But the two were proud men, and went through with the duel. They fought, and the battle raged one for one whole day and night. A few square miles of land were leveled in the battle. Dozens of trees were knocked down. Many foolish bystanders were killed for getting too close to the action. At long last, almost 24 hours to the minute after the fight had begun, Lord Prismriver was struck down, though his rival was perhaps fatally wounded. The Prismrivers were leaderless.
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88Q: What happened then?
89A: Each house went mad for the injustices commited upon it by the other. Open war ensued, though house Prismriver was the weaker of the two since it had lost its Lord, and quickly fell to the other house. The Prismriver mansion was invaded and ransacked. All the men were slaugtered, all the woman raped and then killed or taken into servitude. This sadly included the three eldest Prismriver sisters, who were brutally defiled before dying, for being their father's daughters. Only one resident of the Prismriver home was overlooked. Layla, who hid under her bed during the attack, hoping to go unnoticed. 
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91Q: What happened to her?
92A: Once the harriers had thought the house clear of all thier enemies and loot, the set fire to the place. At first, Layla thought she was safe once the noise within her home had died down. But then she smelled burning wood, felt the heat of fire encroaching unpon her bedroom. She fled in terror, taking nothing with her but the nightgown on her back. She made it out of the mansion alive and unhurt. Though sickly, even the weakest person will find new strength when her life is in danger. Once outside she saw the gang that had burned her home down, and ran into the woods. It's unknown whether any of the harriers saw her or chased after her, but none caught her. She was soon alone, barefoot and barely dressed, no food or water or medicine, with nothing but woodland in all directions.
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94Q: Continue.
95A: After running for a long time, and suffering numerous cuts on her feet and legs, she sat upon a stump and wept. She knew her family was dead. And having no survial skills, she feard she would soon die herself. Worst of her grief was the loss of her sisters, who she loved and admired. With her abilities, she could have called fairies to bring her food and water, or create a magical guardian to protect her. But her sorrow was so deep it never occured to her. She could think only of her sisters, and that desire instead manifested in her magic.
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97Q: Sou na no ka?
98A: Hai hai. In her will to be reunited with her sisters, she unknowingly worked an intense spell. She summoned forth Gensokyo's energies, wove them into complicated patters to mimic the shape of three human minds and hearts. In effect, she created youkai versions of her three sisters, Lunasa, Merlin and Lyrica. However they were not the true girls, only imprints of Layla's understanding of them. Her sisters appeared before her, far lovlier than their human selves, each dressed in performance clothes and carying a magically constructed musical instrument. Lunasa wielded a violn. Merlin carried a trumpet. Lyrica had an odd piano-like device that was not truly a piano, but a flat board of ivory and ebony keys that still played just like a piano. This spell was an accomplishment that some of the grandest mages of Gensokyo would have envied (And I'm sure Alice would've loved to learn about it). But it cost Layla dearly. Her own body was weakened significantly in the spell. 
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100Q: How did it end?
101A: The three youkai Prismrivers, having been created from Layla's memories, believed themselves to be the actual eldest Prismriver sisters. Lunasa knelt before Layla and asked her, "May we do anything for you, beloved sister?" With her dying breath, Layla said, "Play me a song." And so they did. The played a song to usher her out of the world. Yet it was a song that neither Layla nor anyone in House Prismriver had ever heard. It was a new composition, completely original and born from the three's love of music (instilled in them by being born from Laylas wish). This goes to show that while created by Layla, the Prismriver imprints were not restricted by their late sister's memory, and could live and grow on their own. They soon even chose a name for themselves... the Phantom Ensemble. The rest is history.
102
103Q: Beautiful! Now how does Yukari use this in the present day?
104A: Yukari knew the Phantom Ensemble from occasional run-ins during their time in Gensokyo. She would sometimes even employ the Prismrivers to play music for her at parties or for private entertaining. Having centuries to practice, they became the finest musicians in Gensokyo.  They've sometimes had "jazz" sessions, where the three of them just play whatever comes to mind, and some masterful pieces have come from this. They don't know how to read sheet music, becuase they've never needed it. Their memory for sounds is perfect. They could reproduce a tune exactly after hearing it once. Yukari used *this* ability to her gain. 
105
106Q: Oooh I'm getting excited. I'm on the brink of Touhougasms here. Keep going!
107A: While she had Youmu out gathering spring, Yukari wanted to stay up in her mansion to meditate and keep any self-preservational instincts from kicking in. So she needed to give Youmu a way of getting back and forth between Gensokyo and Hakugyokuro without having to keep the door open for her at all times. Traveling between dimensions is more complicated than going elsewhere within the same dimension, so enchanting a sword to cut gaps was out of the question. What she did then was this. In a fairly high-powered spell (prepared ahead of time, long before she ever approached Youmu for help) she created a semi-permanent doorway between Hakugyokuro and Gensokyo. Yukari had the Prismrivers play while she created this doorway, capturing some of their music into the spell. The door was created to only open when either the Prismrivers played, or if Yukari herself ordered. Yukari could also cause the door to vanish at any time. She planned on doing so once enough of the spring was in Hakugyokuro, trapping it there and effectively killing Gensokyo. 
108
109Q: So the Prismrivers become her doorguards, basically. 
110A: Yep. And Sakuya somehow tricks them into letting her through the door later on... but let's not worry about that just yet. We have one last mechanic to cover. 
111
112Q: How does Youmu gather spring from Gensokyo and give it to Hakugyokuro? 
113A: Yukari gives her a magical artifact, simliar to Lavatien, but with different purpose and function. It's a small bird-shaped carving that appears as though made of wood, but can move and flex like a living thing. When released, it flies around the nearby area, within about a 20 foot radius, gathers magical energy of a predefined type, and stores it. Before giving the artifact to Youmu, Yukari programed it to gather Gensokyo's power of spring. Yet the artifact can only hold so much spring at a time, so Youmu must often return to the Prismriver gate to unload her gathered spring into Hakugyokuro. 
114
115Q: Does this artifact have a name?
116A: Yes, Yukari did name it. It's the Ayashi Tori or "Strange Bird" in the modern language. Though Yukari has nicknamed it President Strangebird, since the characters for Ayashi Tori can also be pronouced "Kaicho", and that word can refer to the chairman of an orginization. 
117
118Q: So are we good?
119A: Yeah we're good.