One of the things I remember of OAV3 is that Tokimi drops "Z" as a spirit baby/fetus from the sky into Japan somewhere. Rea shortly got married to Nobuyuki in the series and was pregnant IIRC.

I doubt it. It was a popular theory back before we knew much about SKT, but now that it's come out, we can see that Kenshi bears no resemblence to Z at all, and we've gotten no indication that he is connected to Z in any way.

Well, since it was a soul, I don't think there needs to be physical resemblance or even personality (much of Z's personality borne from trauma and might not be natural to him without said trauma).

The strong implication from the oh-so-hated OVA 3 is that Z was deposited back in time so that he would grow up with a normal childhood without the powers he had and the drive that sent he, his family, and a massive armada from his planet to find the Choushin Realm and attack it. Remember, the Choushin pressed the giant cosmic red reset button at the end of OVA 3 with only the Tenchi harem (and maybe some others) actually remembering what happened the first time around. Noike had to stage things so that Misao would attack again and that she'd be part of the Tenchi harem because Z wasn't around to do so.

Further, if Kenshi has powers, then he can't be Z because while the Choushin can bring back the dead, they cannot restore the powers and abilities that one who died used to have. That's why Z told Tenchi that even though Z was going to kill Tenchi, the Choushin would bring him back. Earlier in OVA 1, Tenchi's life is saved thanks to Aeka's guardians and the branches of Ryu-oh so that Tsunami could restore him. If Tenchi died, he would no longer be able to generate LHW's.

People, not ships. Z basically said the same thing while they were fighting.


Also, I was always under the impression that the first time after ryu-oh was owned by Ryoko, it was just damaged to the point it couldn't be used and they ryo-ohki fused with the remains and then Washu created that seed after Kagato destroyed ryu-oh...ki and that is an entirely new ship growing, just with ryu-ohs name.

What does being a person have to do with anything?

I also feel at this point that Ouki no Ki are capable of producing a special kind of seed from which they can regenerate. It is this kind of seed that was given to Tenchi by Tsunami. On a spiritual level, the sapling growing in Washu's lab is the same being as tree known as Ryu-oh.

Well, they apparently can't bring them back with any Light-Hawk based powers, but I doubt there'd be any other limitations.

It's a little hard to use the right term, given that the nature of the koh-oh-yoku hasn't really been defined clearly.

based on his reactions, Z seemed to have never had any prior knowledge of the LHWs until they were unleashed during the attack on Tokimi's realm. I believe that he was Tokimi's 'creation' only in the sense of the result of the experiments/chaos she had been performing in order to find the potential.