Sasami chan wrote: Tenchi was distracted by the kettle whose water had
just gone beyond the boiling point and was whistling like a runaway
train.

	 I thought I'd jump into this conversation cuz I'm bored as heck and
have nothing better to do. I liked Shin but Tenchi himself was a purely
unlikable character. This situation right here is an example. He's
talking to Aeka, who as Ed Cho said, sacrificed a lot to stay w/ him.
Even though he was distracted, Tenchi  *did* hear Aeka's proclamation of
love, and he said,"yea I really like you too." However, Tenchi said it in
a way that *I* felt was, as Ed put it, as if Tenchi thought Aeka was a
silly 6 year old with a crush. He was basically saying whatever Aeka
wanted to hear IMO, and I felt he was certainly less than sincere in his
words. This *is* purely subjective, mind you, so many of you might
disagree with me. 
	Tenchi obviously doesn't appreciate the girls as much as they should be
appreciated, even if they are indeed unintelligent and annoying at times.
He is incredibly rude to them, and though he is certainly entitled to be
a jerk once in a while, Shin Tenchi is almost *always* a jerk. I feel
that I'm not spellbound to the OAV/TV image of Tenchi in my dislike of
Shin Tenchi because he incontrovertibly has very few redeeming qualities.
Not to be crude, but it seems as if little Mr. Helmethead does all of
Tenchi's thinking for him. I say that because after Sakuya and Tenchi get
together, he acts like a sexually deprived teenager who wants only to
"get some." Whatever Sakuya wants, she gets. One instance of this is, of
course, when Washu goes through Tenchi's toilet , asking him to help the
girls, and Tenchi basically brushes her off because he promised Sakuya
he'd hang out with her over the summer. Tenchi's priorities evidently are
out of order, since the endangerment of his friends is less important to
him than pleasing his woman.
	 I acknowledge the fact that Sakuya was *supposed* to separate the bond
between Tenchi and the girls. Sakuya did her job, and I don't put the
blame of Tenchi's transformation solely on her. But the fact that he so
*wholly* became a selfish, insensitive jerk speaks volumes to me, even
though the girls he was so mean to were themselves often  less than
likable.
	It seems ironic that I would call myself a fan of Shin, considering the
fact that  I despise its supposed protagonist. To me, however, the most
redeeming and important character of the show is *not* Tenchi, but rather
Sakuya. As Alan Zabaro said, there are a lot of parallelisms between
Sakuya in Shin and the Ryoko of the OAV. Both characters were serving as
puppets of evil when they did their iniquitous acts, and both love Tenchi
completely and utterly - to the point where they would gladly sacrifice
their lives to see him saved.
	That's all I've got to say about this subject, so I'm gonna go back to
being a lowly, disgusting lurker. I've already posted twice in two days,
a record for me. Sorry about the lecture, but I suppose I feel more
strongly about this topic than I realized.