On Feb 5, 10:11pm, Gregory Wayne Matteson wrote:
> Subject: More about Ryoko's jewels( 12&13 stuff)
> WARNING: This is 12&13 stuff. If you havn't seen them,
> you might not want to read.
>
> Kagato discovered that Tenchi can't be copied.

I heard Kagato say that, and I remain baffled as to why he
said it at all, and why he happened to say it at that moment.
Unless I missed something, Kagato hadn't tried to copy Tenchi,
and copying Tenchi hadn't even been an issue up to then.

> Zero and Dr. Clay discovered that Ryoko can't be copied.
>
And yet it sure looked like he copied her. On a first viewing,
the copying sequence in #11 and Washu's explanation at the end
of #12 seem wildly contradictory. My interpretation at first
was that Washu let the Ryoko-copy live on by merging it with
Ryoko, for humane reasons: Ryoko II was a second Ryoko for all
practical purposes but had acquired a life and identity of its
own, so extinguishing it would be like killing Ryoko. Merging
Ryoko II with Ryoko I would preserve Ryoko II, and since Ryoko
II hadn't had time to diverge significantly, the merger wouldn't
change Ryoko I too much. And for reasons of her own, Washu told
the others that Ryoko II was really half of Ryoko I, which
Ryoko I disputed ("You big fat liar!").

Now, after reading your explanation, I'm not at all sure. Could
somebody explain, then -- when Zero took on Ryoko's form, just
what happened? Did Dr. Clay _think_ he was making a copy of
Ryoko, but what was happening was that a previously separated (by
Washu) part of Ryoko's personality was downloading into Zero?

> I was shocked, on careful re-viewing, to discover just how
> vague Washu (and the editors) keep things about the jewels,
> there may be a big surprise in store.

I've kind of lost track of how many jewels there are, how many
Ryoko has at the moment, and how powerful she is supposed to
be per jewel. I wish the editors had been clearer on the point.
Most of the time, Ryoko seems able to do just about anything,
but if some major plot development depends on her being unable
to do something important because she's one jewel short, it
should be established clearly and in advance.

> Might have beens:  It is noteworthy that Dr. Clay would
> have been in big trouble anyway, had Zero not found it
> necessary to take the jewels. He would have had one irate
> Oni in his fishtank, able to create lighthawk wings, and
> powerful enough to collapse a black hole, undoing its effects.

Does Ryoko know she can create lighthawk wings? It's probably
something she can do only when she has all the jewels, right?
I get the impression that even Ryoko doesn't know everything
about herself that Funaho and Yosho mentioned about her in
their conversation.

If Grandpa really isn't old and feeble, and really is still
the young and virile Yosho, where was he during the final
battle with Kagato? Sending young and untested Tenchi up
against an all-powerful archvillain seems a little unwise.
Yosho knew that Tenchi had the power to defeat Kagato, but
Tenchi certainly didn't and Yosho was depending on Tenchi
to figure it out in time. In the event, Tenchi almost didn't,
and everybody went through a lot of pain and grief.

I'm also puzzled by that scene in episode 7 where Ryoko asks
Grandpa for permission to seek Tenchi's hand. Granted that it's
a satiric scene in which Ryoko is going through the motions of
a formal ritual she doesn't really understand, this is Ryoko
and this is Yosho. Their last significant encounter was
when he had her impaled through the neck with a sword. In other
episodes, Ryoko is shown to remember Yosho quite well and not
very fondly, even if she had been Kagato's puppet at the time.
Something like this should color their relationship a bit.
It just seems to me that something important hasn't been explored
very well here...Was Tenchi _expected_ to free Ryoko sooner or
later? Did Grandpa know Ryoko was free as soon as it happened?
And if he was expecting to see Ryoko with Tenchi, wasn't he at
least a bit surprised to see Ayeka and Sasami show up, too?
How coincidental was Tenchi's house being moved so close to the
shrine (apparently with electrical and plumbing connections
intact...)?

Oh well...

--Dwight Decker