Gregory Wayne Matteson said:
>Dwight Decker responded:
>>Gregory Wayne Matteson wrote:
>>>
>>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.

    There are only three of Ryouko's jewels at this point.  This has
    been a remarkably consistent fact throughout the OVA series.  And
    the 101 Facts has been kind enough to explain the extras (and why
    they seem to blow up so).

    Also according to the 101 Facts, if Ryouko had all three jewels, and
    her body was mature enough to handle the sheer power, she would be
    as powerful as Tsunami!  And because she doesn't, and because she
    isn't, she was thwarted by Jurai's forces during her attack, and was
    defeated by Youshou following the attack.

>>Does Ryoko know she can create lighthawk wings? It's probably
>>something she can do only when she has all the jewels, right?
>
>NAI

    We don't know if she can.  No evidence supports it.

>>I get the impression that even Ryoko doesn't know everything
>>about herself that Funaho and Yosho mentioned about her in
>>their conversation.
>
>IPPON- I just got through checking a flash memory of mine.  When the Masu
>blasted Ryoko in OVA 10, There are 10 frames (that's 1/3 of a second), of
>Ryoko with a shield like the one Tenchi produced in OVA 1, before he knew
>about the lighhawk wings. The Masu-blast never actually touched her!

    That shield looked more like a typical "defense shield".  The
    tenchiken emanated one in OVA 1, Aeka one in OVA 4 and 6, Youshou a
    tres-cool one in OVA 5, Washuu one on the "offensive" in OVA 7, and
    the example as mentioned above.  The difference between these
    shields and the kou-ou-yoku is that the former appears to emanate
    simply as a curved surface, while the latter always emanate an
    diverge into three distinct, solid, radiant beams of light.

>>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?

    Because in OVA 5, Youshou had already defeated Kagato.

>>Sending young and untested Tenchi up
>>against an all-powerful archvillain seems a little unwise.

    True.  Kagato was a fool to accept the challenge.  ^_^;

>>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.
>
>This is one of my major reasons for pursuing the theory, I think well
>founded, that the trees are running the show, and letting the Jurian
>chimps...er, uh, Chumps, think they are in charge.
>Pardon my saying it again, Tsunami and her trees wanted Kagato dead, and
>they were willing to sacrifice a great deal toward that end.

    Hmmm, pardon the pun, but do the trees have any life in them?  ^_^
    And supposing this is true, what is the ultimate purpose of Tsunami
    and the trees of Jurai?

>>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.

    I disagree.  The Ryouko we know now seems to be much different that
    her more violent self 700 years ago.  And this isn't Youshou either;
    it's "jicchan".  I think the malice they bore before have forgiven
    on both sides now.  Their first encounter following her awakening in
    OVA 3 was that of "dirty old man" versus "punky girl".

>>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.
>
>After what Kagato did in OVA 6, it would be easy and correct for Ryoko to
>conclude in a rational moment that, ultimately, being impaled and imprisoned
>for 700years was a very good thing.

    Times have changed, and so have their views.  But you don't really
    see Youshou interacting with Ryouko very much anyways.  ^_^

>>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?

    You're talking about Youshou here, the man who cannot be surprised!
    In fact, the only person able to catch him off-guard is perhaps his
    mother...


___/^_^\___ Eugene Lee                                    Ryo-oh-ki Muyo! Tenchi
	    zangief@netcom.com                               The Memory of Trees