Hypothetical situation...I'll try my best to keep the Ryoko fan in me as quiet as possible

Lets say there's one world where Tenchi meets only Ryoko, and Ayeka never shows up.

Another world where Tenchi meets only Ayeka, and Ryoko never shows up.

Who do you think would do a better job of winning Tenchi without the distraction of their opponent all the time?

We could probably agree that Tenchi doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by making a choice, but he also obviously connects with both of them on a different level. Both Ryoko and Ayeka have a lot to offer Tenchi in their own ways, but listening to the constant arguing, fighting, and belittling of one another day in and day out surely is a major turn off for Tenchi.

So if Ryoko and Ayeka both had the opportunity to win Tenchi over without their rival around, who gets him first? Or at all?

In which universe?

Hm.. I feel like Aeka would probably get him first. Just because she's pretty demure and bland. Her snottiness could get in the way, but that aside, if she was the only girl to choose from, I feel Tenchi would get together with her pretty quickly and live a happy, if boring life.

With Ryoko, it might take some more time. Ryoko has more personality. She's more fun-loving and out-spoken and it could take Tenchi a while to get used to that, especially with his quiet upbringing. But I feel once Tenchi adjusted to Ryoko, and once Ryoko adjusted to Tenchi, and they both knew each other pretty well, they would get together and have a better quality of a relationship than Tenchi/Aeka because they would balance each other out. Tenchi becomes more fun, Ryoko settles down a bit.

In the OAV, there are 5 (6 with Noike) women in love with him. Not just 2.

So you have to be more specific. Are they there? Is this TU instead? Or TinT? Or some other universe.

In the OAV, if it were no Ayeka - I have a feeling Ryoko's aggressive ways and how she deals with the girls will alienate her from Tenchi much faster as Ryoko has no clue how to deal with another girl with affections for Tenchi that won't fight her back. Look how lost Ryoko/Ayeka were when Sasami went into Tenchi's room at the end of episode 7 and Washu was already there. Or how enraged/impotent to do anything Ryoko became when all the other girls but her congratulated Tenchi at the end of the Kagato fight (where she wanted to be first). This is probably why Washu had her merge with the softer, more emotional Zero.

In the OAV, if there was no Ryoko, Ayeka would have a good shot at Tenchi, but she has no release for her Misaki side and her Funaho veneer is only maintainable for so long. She'd have to take up fighting more seriously as a practice and perhaps beat up Yosho now and then for a release valve. I don't see how the 1st Princess is at all boringXD

There is no guarantee that Tenchi will fall in love with them in absense of the other, or that the other Tenchi girls won't attract his attention. Or an outside girl like Sakuya.

In the OAV? Sasami/Tsunami gets him either way

so are all the other girls still there?

i suppose it would make it a lot easier, since if there was no ayeka there would be no sasami ether (she wouldnt be looking for her/with her on the ship)
i mean most of the story wouldn't even happen. ryoko would just rock up, and i suppose after a while he and her probably would get together, they'd probably be
friends for a while first. I dont think Mihoshi takes any interest in Tenchi in TU ether so yeh.

For ayeka, its same thing really, but no ryo, but ayeka was all like 'i am princess its my duty, our love is forbidden' would she still find out that tenchi is related to her
without ryo? or would she leave before then? maybe shed defy her family and stay on earth with him.

its a tough hypothetical. so i cant really say. but if this is based on their character traits alone. i think ryo's boldness would give her the win in the end because when u have 2 shy
people like tenchi and ayeka, who would make the move?

so if this is suppose to be some sort of race, id place my bets on ryo.

Reading some replies, I see some of the flaws in my scenario. I guess I didn't really consider which universe, or the other girls, lol

The way I look at it (this is just me personally, doesnt have to be the ground rules for everyone)

-Kiyone never really showed any interest in Tenchi, so I rule her out.
-I don't recall Mihoshi showing much interest besides her moment in the bathhouse with Ryoko and Ayeka, which Im pretty sure she was drunk during that time anyway.
-As SPK mentioned, if theres no Ayeka, theres no Sasami, so I don't think its fair to include her in the picture on one side and leave her out on the other.
-Although Washu has shown she has feelings for Tenchi on more than one occasion, she did fuse Zero with Ryoko so Ryoko would be more open about her feelings. Washu doesn't need to be a genius to know this means more openness around Tenchi. A motherly gesture to help out her daughter.


As far as which universe goes,

Lets say its OVA Ayeka, Tenchi seemed to be leaning more towards her in the OVA
And Ryoko from TU, since it was obvious Tenchi was more interested in her in that series.

Basically its taking both girls from the time Tenchi was most interested in them and seeing where it goes from there.

(For the record, I have no idea if that makes sense or not, like I said I didn't realize the problems with the scenario until i read some replies, so feel free to call me on that )

As far as Sasami in the OAV goes, you guys are forgetting one important element- Tsunami. Because Tsunami will still be interested in Tenchi (since he is the "answer" to the Chousin experiment), Sasami will have to get involved at some point.

f!@# this is confusing. ok.

in OVA. for the no ryo scenario. ayeka is still looking for yosho and sasami with her of course. how do they find their way to earth?
isnt it because they detect ryo on earth? no ryo would surely indicate no them. that said, with tsunami being in sasami, she might have
an influence on this at that point time, somehow making them go there. but tsunamis interest in him isnt the same as ayekas and sasami
is still a kid. ayeka is much closer to getting tenchi then her.

for ryo, if theres no ayeka, that would indicate ayeka never leaves jurai, which means nether does sasami. so what happens there? what possible reason/purpose
could sasami ever have being anywhere near tenchi? again the whole tsunami 'steping in' thing comes into play. but i mean...what? what happens? on both accounts
no of us could say.

oh god i cant be fuct with doin TU now

I'm confused as well...I'm going to say Ryoko anyway.

I personally always thought he'd be best with Mihoshi

but out of the 2 probably Ryoko.

I thought this topic was about Ryoko and Aeka. How did we get involved with discussing other girls? That's kind of off topic.

Not to mention that in the OAV, if you remove either one of them, then the story as we know it ceases to exist.