Reply To: Tenchi Masaki Kami Tenchi

A lot of mystery surrounding those wings, huh? 😉

None of the following is sourced, btw, it’s just what I can remember from years in the fandom.

The LHW’s were always enigmatic, and purposefully so; like the forging of Tolkien’s Silmarils or El-Hazard’s Eye of God, the ineffability of their exact origin and power made them quite iconic. So, time for some fun speculating!

In OVA 1, we learn of their connection with Jurai, its trees (ships) and its people, particularly the Royal Family. Continuing from there, we learn about the matron deity of said nobility, Tsunami, who is also described as the first tree and the most powerful ship in the Jurain fleet. This “ship” can create ten lighthawk wings, something outside the capability of any other ship. So, the big revelation at the end of OVA 1 is that a person alone could somehow activate “the wings of the lighthawk” because we already knew royalty paired with a tree could conceivably do so (as Yosho did fighting Kagato).

From here, it seems their connection is specifically with Jurai and ultimately with the progenitor Tsunami. But how did Tenchi do it without being bonded to a tree? His heritage seemed to be the answer. However, as it is eluded to in OVA 2 and revealed in OVA 3, neither connection to the royal family by blood nor a connection to a Jurain tree seem to be required to produce these manifestations (what’s more, GXP shows that not even the former is required for harnessing power, real or political, and any John Doe that pairs with the right tree will do just fine apparently). The mysterious character Z is not only able to produce them by his own power, as Tenchi can, but trumped the protagonist’s three with five wings total. He’s not connected to Tsunami in any way, nor is he Jurain. How is this possible? Well, we find out Tsunami has siblings, and Z is some sort of champion of Tokimi. So, did he pull power from Tsunami’s sister (similar type of power)? Actually, apparently not; apparently, lighthawk wings aren’t all that special after all, and our understanding of probability apply to them just as much as they hypothetically would to a room full of monkeys and typewriters (Heard of that one, right?.) Tokimi, utilizing a cosmic form of laissez faire, simply did nothing for long enough and again some John Doe was eventually born at the right time and inexplicably obtained lighthawk wings, once thought to be exclusively the power of the Chousin (or at least, the divine in some form).

Why does the heredity theory of divine powers still exist? Well for one thing, we’ve all been influenced to speculate as such in general, but other than that, the presumptions about Ryoko and the gems and her own lighthawk abilities have strongly contributed. It has been asserted that Ryoko could boast up to ten lighthawk wings potentially (I don’t know if that gained steam solely from the cover image) if in possession of the gems, because she would be using them herself (not under the influence of Kagato), and thus as the daughter (not merely creation) of a ‘god’ (Washu), assuming the Chousin’s power does share some sibling similarities (which according to Lady Funaho in OVA 2, they apparently do, with the gems aiding in Yosho’s longevity on Earth), she would ‘grow into’ the godlike powers of her mother (if Washu decided to retire from being a know-it-all).

But there is another, more concrete reason the heredity conceptualization still persists: War on Geminar.

As anyone who has seen it knows, the conclusion of WoG involves Kenshi, Tenchi’s half brother, materializing his own lighthawk wing out of the blue. How is this possible? One might point to the seikishi’s pillar-sword, but I contend this is not the case: it acted as a catalyst, a physical and mental aid for Kenshi to harness the LHW into a sword; the rock itself was useless (whether it’s Tsunami telling Tenchi to “trust in your own power” or Yogurt telling Lonestar the secret of the schwartz, we all have pop culture precedence for the power of the placebo effect). So how did Kenshi do it? The series itself does not give us anything concrete. Did Tokimi herself intervene unbeknownst to everyone? Did Kenshi randomly obtain them as did Z? (On that note, I’m reminded of a theory I first heard from our own Dagon123 about the possibility that Kenshi is in fact a reincarnation of Z, done so out of Tokimi’s desire to have bonded with him as Washu had with Tenchi and Tsunami with Sasami.) Or did it in fact have something to do with the fact that Kenshi just happens to be related to Tenchi, the ‘Kami’ figure of Kajishima’s oeuvre (be it by blood or inter-dimensional nepotism)? Maybe Nobuyuki, the boys’ father, holds the secret? Perhaps another installment of Geminar, whether animated or written, could elaborate someday.