>From:        Gregory Wayne Matteson, matteson@ccnet.com
>>>If 1300 years of slavery and
>>>700 years pinned in a hole by Funaho didn't crush her, Tenchi won't. Twice,
>>>when she had every reason to believe she was thinking her last thought, it
>>>was of Tenchi. This is a woman willing to die for Tenchi, but never to
>>>surrender.
>>
>>Then she's probably going to win a pyrrhic victory, at best. No smiley 
>>here. Love *isn't* a battle, and if one person loses so will the other.
>>(Snip)
>Part of my own excesses, pardon requested, I certainly think there is
>considerable room for improvement in Ryoko's personality and behavior: And
>we have already seen a lot of improvement, though she sometimes regresses to
>almost a wild child condition, (e.g., the beginning of OVA 7).

True. I think the time I like her the best is the scene in OAV 3? 4? when 
she first talks about watching over Tenchi as he grew up. That's another 
time she opened up and showed some of her true feelings. (I didn't think 
of that one at first, in this context. Gomen.) That's probably when I 
first started feeling sympathetic towards her. If only Ayeka hadn't been 
drunk at that point...

The beginning of OAV 7 is certainly an example of how much growing up she 
still needs to do. ;> Whatever Tenchi's feelings towards her, it would 
take the patience of a saint to put up with her following him around like 
that -- not to mention being literally in his face when he woke up. Given 
the fact that mornings are inherently evil, this is not far from a 
capital crime. :) I could excuse her because it was apparently the 
morning after the big battle and she's still scared about how close he 
came to dying.

>        On the other hand, the original question was, what was left to find
>out about in Tenchi? I think that Masaki Tenchi-sama has pleanty left to
>learn, left for the artists to explore, about Tenchi's own problems. After
>all, he's not  a non-entity, is he? 

Well, no. For me, this comes back to the thread that was running around a 
little bit ago, about how Tenchi's seemingly ignoring the destiny that's 
apparently planned for him -- choosing to grow carrots instead. So far 
he's handled the various pressures put on him with a modesty and 
self-effacement that's almost worrisome -- but as the fulcrum of at least 
two or three major plans, he's going to be in for some interesting times, 
especially if he becomes a magnet for people trying to use his apparent 
powers.



Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
 tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
 <http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
 Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)

..Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.