History Headscratchers / CowboyBebop

*** Addiction and various bad habits are not really a product of rational decisions. Plenty of people in the twenty-first century do a lot of drugs or drink heavily, despite the adverse effects of both being known well. Obesity rates in developed countries have been rising for decades, despite this being a leading cause of death - none of that knowledge is enough to stop people from unhealthy eating habits. In a dangerous line of work like bounty hunting, people would smoke, because it's a good way to calm down a bit. Besides, smoking is very much a thing today, so it's entirely possible you're coming at this from the American perspective, where smoking is (from what I understand) more of a taboo than it is even in other developed nations. Unless most people you know lead incredibly healthy lives 24/7 and avoid anything with caffeine or alcohol in it, substitute any rationale you've heard for other addictive/psychoactive substances (again, including caffeine) and it'll work for "why people smoke". There's no reason people will become extremely health-conscious in a future, especially if they're leading unstable, dangerous lives and aren't financially stable (even in the real world, addictions and unhealthy behaviours are heavily correlated with poverty).

*** Addiction and various bad habits are not really a product of rational decisions. Plenty of people in the twenty-first century do a lot of drugs or drink heavily, despite the adverse effects of both being known well. Obesity rates in developed countries have been rising for decades, despite this being a leading cause of death. In a dangerous line of work like bounty hunting, people would smoke, because it's a good way to calm down a bit. Besides, smoking is very much a thing today, so it's entirely possible you're coming at this from the American perspective, where smoking is (from what I understand) more of a taboo than it is even in other developed nations. Unless most people you know lead incredibly healthy lives 24/7 and avoid anything with caffeine or alcohol in it, substitute any rationale you've heard for other addictive/psychoactive substances (again, including caffeine) and it'll work for "why people smoke". There's no reason people will become extremely health-conscious in a future, especially if they're leading unstable, dangerous lives and aren't financially stable (even in the real world, addictions and unhealthy behaviours are heavily correlated with poverty).

** It's implied that Vicious got involved with Julia, but the relationship was extremely unhealthy (for obvious reasons). And given Vicious' penchant for betraying comrades, we don't know where in the timeline Spike almost died from the shootout that caused Julia to take care of him (and if perhaps it was Vicious who put him in that line of fire or abandoned him in the first place). It wouldn't be completely out there that Julia would fall in love with Spike, who is more gentler and kinder than Vicious. Being depraved enough to kill Julia if she didn't kill Spike in turn doesn't do Vicious much favors in the sympathy department.

** It's implied that Vicious got involved with Julia, but the relationship was extremely unhealthy (for obvious reasons). And given Vicious' penchant for betraying comrades, we don't know where in the timeline Spike almost died from the shootout that caused Julia to take care of him (and if perhaps it was Vicious who put him on that line of fire or abandoned him in the first place). It wouldn't be completely out there that Julia would fall in love with Spike, who is a more gentler and kinder than Vicious. Being depraved enough to kill Julia if she didn't kill Spike in turn doesn't do Vicious much favors in the sympathy department.

* Does no one else think that Spike is wrong for what he did to Vicious? It seems like they were friends and Spike backstabbed him like that. It's not like they could claim Spike has the moral highground since they were both in The Syndicate. Yes, Vicious is an evil bastard but Spike kinda has it coming.

** I'm with the original troper; this one really JustBugsMe. We've terraformed moons and planets * and* they've had a chance to grow huge cities with skyscrapers * and* have had time to get old and decrepit looking? C'mon.

* "Jupiter Jazz:" Aside from all of the other Gren-related "headscratchers" and spoilers... at the end, we see a falling star. The Wise Magical Native American Guru dude says something like [[spoiler: "it's the soul of a fallen warrior - a pitiful soul, who could not find its way to the lofty realm that awaits us all."]] This originally was a Tearjerking Player Punch to this Troper, who finds [[spoiler: Gren's death]] painful enough without being told [[spoiler: he]] is a [[spoiler: "pitiful soul"]] who doesn't even deserve /heaven/, or something. But then, remember, someone else [[spoiler: died in that episode; Spike's old friend and Vicious' henchman, whose name escapes me.]] So then, which "fallen warrior" did this refer to? ... Either way, it pretty much sucks, and brings us back to the insistent theory that [[spoiler: even wise Magical Indian witch-doctors can be wrong, and Gren DID deserve to go to heaven or wherever, DAMMIT.]]

*** Betamax lived on in Japan quite a bit longer than anywhere else (plus it lived as a studio format because of it's higher quality)

*** Wait, but if we apply {{Viewtiful Joe}} Slow-Mo and FF physics theory, then the fall would've had been a bazillion times worse as the impact waves stay around for longer!

* The series is generally realistic is its violence and the results of which upon the human body (I.E. despite being cool and {{Badass}}, Spike still gets shot and cut all the time and suffers somewhat realistic physical damage to himself because of it, requiring recuperation). How then, after getting thrown backwards and upside down out of a church window which must have been somewhere between 50-150 feet off the ground, and landing most likely head-first upon stone/concrete, on the middle of a staircase no less, does he just get wrapped up in big band-aids, lie around for a week, and then is right as rain. And this was in one of the most serious episodes in the show no less.

--->'''Jet:''' I wonder why we gave him away?\\

*** Nope, sorry, wrong. This is a myth perpetuated by Nasa "survival tests" from the 1970's. NASA never actually gave anyone pistols because the risk of catestrophic accident was just too high.

** I'm pretty sure the program itself was with the bad guys, the chip is worthless without it.

** The gate incident happened in 2021, Faye's accident was never stated to have happened at the same time. All we know is that all records of it are gone due to the gate incident

*** THe way This Troper has heard it explained before is that Gren couldn't let go of his past and was so fixated on the war and Vicious. At the end of hte sries, Spike lets go and is able to free himself. Which is double-tragic but sort of makes sense...

* The episode where Faye gets involved with collecting a Casino Chip from Spike, it contains data for accessing a major computer program that the equivalent of Interpol has been looking for years for. Why, after the "bad guys" are killed, is the chip worthless after the episode is over? Wouldnt there still be a reward from the Interpol group?