The world is full of people who for some inexplicable reason do not agree with me on every issue that has ever crossed my mind. It's bizarre, because obviously I am right. However, even when they feel the need to make me aware of the difference of opinion, they usually do so respectfully - even Tomoe fans. (Joke, people... sort of. I'm sure most Tomoe fans are nice, reasonable, logical people, but most of the ones whose webpages I've visited are militant and obnoxious, and sometimes seem to have been watching/reading a completely different series than I have.) I have no problem with reasonable disagreement, and I can respect other peoples' views. But I can't help feeling that at least some of the "Tomoe's better than Kaoru" reasons are just wrong. So here are some points I gleaned from a guestbook flaming and a few other anti-Kaoru rants. The actual flame (with commentary by me) is available here, if you wanted to see why this specific person pissed me off so much. Points not included in that came from other sites, because there are certain issues my flamer didn't touch that continue to bother me... most notably the "accepting Battousai" issue. Why SHOULD Kaoru accept the Battousai? Kenshin doesn't accept it, so why should she? Ahem. Time to start.

Kaoru beats up on Kenshin.
Well, yeah. It's called slapstick comedy. Sano beats up on Yahiko, does that make him a child abuser? No, because it's slapstick - Yahiko is always healed within a couple of panels. You aren't required to find it funny, but at least recognize it for what it is. RK has its serious fights - lots of them, in fact - with all the blood, sweat and tears you would expect of serious violence, but Kaoru smacking Kenshin in the face by accident or clobbering him for not complimenting her cooking -- NOT the same thing. And it's unjustified sometimes... So? Usually it's based on a misunderstanding, and that's standard procedure in all anime. I bet you hate Ranma 1/2, too.

Tomoe sacrifices her life for Kenshin! Kaoru didn't!
She tried, though! Really. Shortly after the final Tomoe flashback, Kaoru says that she would not get herself killed, because if anything happened to her, Kenshin would suffer. This is a valid point, borne out by his later reaction when he thinks she's dead. But in the heat of the moment, she forgets this vow. About two volumes later, when Enishi is chasing her down, apparently planning to kill her, she refuses to run - she's too worried about Kenshin. And much, MUCH later, in the last volume, she throws herself in front of Kenshin when Wu Hei Shin is trying to shoot him. Obviously, when it comes down to it, she puts his safety above her own. It's not HER fault she lived.

Kaoru's a whiny bitch.
WTF? This doesn't even give me much to grab onto... "No she's not!" Dude... when does she whine? When is she a bitch? She's basically nice to everyone. She doesn't take a lot of crap from the guys, but if you think that makes her a bitch, then I wish you luck in building a time machine and heading back to the Fifties, because here and now I think it's a GOOD thing for a woman to stand up for herself. So shut up, Neanderthals! And whiny? Whatever. The guy she's in love with leaves her and says he's never coming back - I'd cry too.

Kaoru can be paired off with anyone else on Earth.
I find this really bizarre. Well, sure, you CAN pair anyone off with anyone, but WITHIN THE SERIES Kaoru only has one love interest: Kenshin. I wish they'd at least clear their systems of drugs before signing my guestbooks. If anyone's a tramp in the series it's Kenshin, who's got three women interested in him and gets matched up with most of the male cast in yaoi.

She's so weak!
Jeez, it's a shonen series! How much do you see Misao fighting? Megumi never enters a fight at all, and the one time Tomoe tries she gets her fool self killed. Kaoru at least knows to stay out of the way of men with sharp weapons. Which leads nicely into point #2...

She's stupid!
And Tomoe's a mental giant, I'm sure. You can't administer IQ tests to anime characters, and since none of them are in school we can't even go by their grades. You have absolutely no proof for any comments on anyone's intelligence, so just admit that it's a moot point and go on with your life.

She's so obnoxious/mean/she hits people all the time! or She's a wimp! She spends all her time crying!
Make up your mind and call me in the morning. The contradictions in these speak for themselves... Neither is true, because she has more than one side to her personality. Unlike a certain emotionally frigid ex-wife we could mention. (Sorry, sorry. Yes, they're both multi-faceted. But Kaoru actually SHOWS it for more than one scene.)

Unlike Misao/Tomoe/Megumi/whoever, she has no emotional fortitude; when Kenshin leaves her, she won't even get out of bed. (similar to the past few points, but more specific.)
Okay, first of all, that reaction is in line with clinical depression. It's not exactly nice to bash someone for an illness, and depression IS an illness. Okay, PSA over, let's set the depression thing aside. More to the point, that's how Watsuki portrays intense grief. We see Kaoru too devastated to move when Kenshin leaves for Kyoto, and we see Kenshin too devastated to move after Kaoru's "death" and Tomoe's death. Yes, it's not entirely healthy, but you have to accept it for what it is; this is Watsuki's code for "true love," much the way "She's so ugly!" and "I hate him!" are Rumiko Takahashi's code phrases for true love. Furthermore, it indicates that Kaoru and Kenshin process grief the same way. I don't think that necessarily means that Misao doesn't truly love Aoshi, although her ability to cope after he goes to Shishio might be read as a signal that it was just infatuation. That's where the "processing grief" thing comes in; Aoshi and Misao are both businesslike about it, figuring out what needs to be done (give the bodies a proper burial, make Enishi understand that he's wrong, etc.) and doing it.

She can't accept the Battousai side to Kenshin, and Tomoe can.
The Battousai is not just another aspect of Kenshin's personality, like a temper or a creative side. He really is a different person from Kenshin, a person who looks at the world differently. He puts goals - winning a fight, bringing freedom to Japan, whatever - above people. Personal isn't the same as important, to him. He looks at the world in black-and-white, he's constantly on the alert, and he can kill without thinking. Kenshin has a more nuanced and balanced view of the world, he values individual rights and happiness, and he simply cannot kill. Kenshin's personality has to give way to the Battousai for him to kill. This was a change that came about as a result of his relationship with Tomoe - up until the day that he killed her, he still thought of the deaths as unimportant compared to the future he was fighting for. When she died in his arms, he realized that it's all important to someone. The Hitokiri Battousai of the Ishin-shishi was a political assassin who was working for what he believed to be a good cause. He did not kill for fun; although he wasn't paralyzed with remorse, he did feel the moral consequences of killing, as evidenced by his brooding over the taste of blood in the sake. However, the Battousai who emerges twice in the series is not a freedom fighter - he's a killer. He may be a killer for a good cause (saving Kaoru's life, and eventually the lives of others Jineh would kill) or for a not-so-good cause (settling the feud with Saitoh) but in the end, he's motivated not by higher principles but by personal drives. Is killing Saitoh going to liberate Japan? No. It's just going to satisfy a stupid, ten-year-old grudge. And he doesn't feel guilt - he WANTS to kill people when he's in Battousai mode. When he fought Saitoh, Kaoru saw him turn into a different person before her eyes, and she had no way of knowing that he would ever turn back. Not only that, but he has made it very clear that the Battousai will cause him to leave - if he kills, he's out the door, both mentally and physically. It doesn't have a thing to do with "the Battousai is evil" - it's more like "the Battousai is not Kenshin." Think of it as a split personality; I hesitate to call it that because he doesn't exactly fit the profile, but RK is not the world's most realistic series. I don't think it's stretching too far, within the context of the series, to say that the "Hitokiri" personality was created by the trauma of Tomoe's death and eventually began to fade as he found happiness - which it did. At the end of the Jinchuu Arc, Saitoh refuses to fight Kenshin again because Kenshin is no longer the Hitokiri he'd wanted to defeat.

Kaoru's so generic. Tomoe's much more interesting and mysterious.
Yeah, like Ayanami Rei and Sailors Pluto and Saturn, and Ayukawa Madoka (who inaugurated the role and did it best, I might add, in part because she was allowed to express emotion in a subtle way) and Quistis Trepe, and (kinda) Seiryuu Seishi Soi, and that ninja girl from Idol Project, and at least one woman from every single dating sim ever made? I love Watsuki-sensei's artwork and his bizarre merging of historical fiction, American superheroes and bishounen... but honestly, his characters are ALL stock figures. Kaoru too - she's the Tough yet Sensitive Tomboy (like Akane) just like Kenshin is the Tragic Bishonen With Scars Both Physical and Emotional (like Chichiri), and Sano is the Hot-Tempered Sidekick/Yaoi Love-Interest (Bart Fatima, Hibiki Ryoga), and Yahiko is the Rude Young Boy (like, ummm..... well, he'll grow up to be a Hot-Tempered Sidekick, or possibly a Tragic Scarred Bishonen... too close to call) and Megumi's the Bitchy Rival (Kiryuu Nanami, Naga, that girl from Yawara who isn't Yawara) and Misao is Genki-Genki (like Wakaba, and too many shojo heroines to count)... are you getting the idea here? "Mysterious beauty" is no more creative than any of the others. You may LIKE it better, but that doesn't make it original.

Tomoe's perfect.
My initial reaction: Who died and made you people God? I don't think a woman who never asserts herself is perfect. I think she's boring, and a doormat. "Perfect" is a matter of opinion, and while you're certainly entitled to state your opinions as fact, I'm entitled to think you're full of shit.