Jaakuna Ubume - why not an Ancestor?

[Paddywhack]

Why or why did they not make her an Ancestor? This would have made her at least somewhat attractive to take with Yan Lo and would appear to fit theme-wise. 

Maybe a 0SS upgrade at some point?

Would definitely make me think harder about her as I find she dies very quickly. Generally I can get more use out of a Dead Doxy or Belle. 

[Fetid Strumpet]

Because she isn't an ancestor. She was created for the Twisting Fate book (Book 3 in 1.5), and the ancestor concept was created in Storm of Shadows (Book 4). The Ancestors are actual ancestors related to Yan Lo and presumably the Katanaka family. Every Ancestor was, at least in the stories, personally raised or called back by Yan Lo, with the possible exception of Chiaki who seems to have been part of the force that called him back. Jaakuna Ubume isn't connected to them at all. Making her an Ancestor would make about as much sense as making her a Belle. 

[Paddywhack]

But she could be  

Who knows who she is? Maybe she is one their ancestors? If they had released her in Book 4 perhaps she would have been given the status.

Besides, she isn't great now as it is and this would at least give a reason to take her with Yan Lo. Just a thought really. 

[Fetid Strumpet]

If you're speaking mechanically, sure she could have any trait. As I mentioned she could be a belle, we don't know that Seamus didn't create her. She could be a Horror as well, we don't know that Molly didn't gather her to her side, or have some connection with Albus Von Schtook. She could also be Family, as we have no evidence that she isn't related to the Ortegas in some fashion. The fact that she is an Asian inspired creature doesn't automatically mean = Yan Lo ancestor. If you want to argue that then every Asian inspired spirit should be an ancestor, and every female undead should be a belle. That isn't an attack on your perspective, just illustrating that she could be given any trait. The question isn't could she, but should she, and at least to me I'd argue no because she's fine as is.

If you're arguing that Jaakuna isn't very good and needs something to make her better I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree. I think she is appropriately costed for what she does. The issue I find with her is much like many of the other indirect effect abilities. You never directly see how her presence on the board royally annoys an opponent, or how her presence causes the opponent to make different choices. She tends to pop into various lists of mine with fair frequency, but mostly for reasons other than Lure.

[daniello_s]

The most important thing with her is that she is Tormented. My Jackie-boy loves her and often brings her a present in form of Creeping Terror upgrade

[Bengt]

13 hours ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

with the possible exception of Chiaki who seems to have been part of the force that called him back

I thought that, technically, Chiaki was Yan Lo's descendant, but perhaps that is not stated explicitly anywhere? Or descendant of his immediate family at least, assuming that she is called "The Niece" because she is some level of grand-niece of his. Then she got the "Ancestor" characteristic for mechanical reasons.

[Munindk]

Its pretty explicit here http://www.wyrd-games.net/yan-lo "His niece Chiaki floats behind them".

I think she's got the Ancestor characteristic for mechanial reasons too, and maybe because it was too weird to give her a Successor characteristic and ruling that Successors counts and Ancestors

[Daysleeper]

The ability could just be named "bloodline" or something like that "katanaka" maybe. Doesn't realy matter to me to be honest. 
I think Jakuuna is great and i realy realy want one.

[Wake of Godzilla]

She's not an ancestor due to the fluff - all the ancestors are part of Yan's family.

But she would be cool if she was a Retainer somehow, bringing her and Datsu Ba into 10T would be great.

I think equally if Yan could bring in more from 10T to ressers he would have more people look at him.