Personally, I like the idea that Mary is a fragment of Yukari that she gave sapience and transplanted into the Outside, maybe for information gathering, most probably because she just wants to experience the Outside even if only through a proxy. Mary's desire to find Gensoukyou is thus her link to Yukari acting on her subconscious.
This also nicely ties into the idea I have that Yukari herself is merely a fragment of a far more powerful being which it uses to interact with our reality, something it couldn't do otherwise (like Nyarlathotep but less of a troll).
Given that ZUN also loves him some Sci-Fi, I think that Maribel will somehow become Yukari in the future by learning how to manipulate the boundaries she already can see, and then she'll travel to the remote past and start creating Gensokyo.
You know, stable time loop and all that shit. It seems like a plot ZUN would use.
Good discussion! I also like the idea that Maribel is like an alternate version of herself that Yukari has created. What really just strikes me as lovely about it all is that she brought Reimu with her, in the form of Renko. Probably one of the most heartwarming stories, how even across space and time, even in impossible alternate realities, these two will always be together <3
Maribel and Renko discover a place where there is a high distortion of dimensional gaps or something and Maribel opens the gap but is almost sucked in, saved by Renko at the last moment. Renko is sucked in instead and Maribel follows her to save her and finds herself in ancient Gensokyo. Upon realizing that she's going to need lots of time to meet Renko, she vows that she'll find her and turns herself into a youkai and, the next page, we see Yukari in present Gensokyo, reminiscing about Renko.
That was my favorite interpretation of the relationship between Yukari and Maribel so far, particularly because it also made a nice nod to Yukari's namesake.
Probably a reference to Hearn and Yakumo and how Lafcadio Hearn changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. Zun kind of maybe made the connection official in an interview.
Zun said: Q. Is Merry related to Yuakin [Yukari] somehow!?? She's so cute!!11 A. How should I say this. In the past, there was this Lafcadio Hearn....Don't think too much about this (laugh)
Touy said: Probably a reference to Hearn and Yakumo and how Lafcadio Hearn changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. Zun kind of maybe made the connection official in an interview.
There's another theory that the name Hearn was derived from Yukari's name through this process.
I'm going with stable time loop. Merry develops powers, becomes lost in Gensokyo's past, turns into a youkai, and even though she forgets why, sets in motion the Gensokyo she and Renko wanted to find.
Maribel and Renko discover a place where there is a high distortion of dimensional gaps or something and Maribel opens the gap but is almost sucked in, saved by Renko at the last moment. Renko is sucked in instead and Maribel follows her to save her and finds herself in ancient Gensokyo. Upon realizing that she's going to need lots of time to meet Renko, she vows that she'll find her and turns herself into a youkai and, the next page, we see Yukari in present Gensokyo, reminiscing about Renko.
That was my favorite interpretation of the relationship between Yukari and Maribel so far, particularly because it also made a nice nod to Yukari's namesake.
If anyone were to ask my opinion about Yukari and Mari's relationship, I think it would go like this. Think of Gensokyo as a parallel universe to ours and that everyone in said parallel universe has one or two counterparts in this one and both of their actions affect each other in some way, thus Yukari and Maribel are not necessarily the same, rather, they are counterpart to each other, ergo their actions subtly affect what goes on this world as their lives are in some way parallel to each other. If Maribel is awake then, Yukari would be asleep and if Mari is awake then Yukari would be asleep, explaining the dreams. As for the hibernation on that note, I don't know.
