[Kai planted her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. His thinking was pretty alien to her. Why give up on something perfectly good because someone else misused it? The fat old tanuki valued pride, endurance, and patience and yeah, pride meaning "I deserve the country more than you," and "endurance and patience" meaning "so I'll wait you out until you're at your most vulnerable to try to take it from you" made him a huge sneaky jerk, it didn't mean those things wouldn't be virtues in the hands of a more virtuous man.]

It wasn't strength that was the problem, though, it was that he was a jerk who was misusing it. Strength is all about how you use it, you know? Where I'm from, the strongest man in the country, the strongest man the country will probably ever see, has never taken any sort of power for himself. He's a loyal vassal, probably the most loyal, too, and he's used that strength to protect his lord and his people, not to rule over them or keep them down. Even when his lord is a sneaky bastard, he's never anything but noble, honest, and fair. Even his enemies respect him and he's never taken advantage of that. If he beats you, you can at least be proud to know you tried and he'll probably feel the same if you gave it your all. I don't see anything wrong with trying to be a warrior like that.

[She may have had her issues with the Tokugawa, but there wasn't a single warrior alive who had anything but pure respect for Tadakatsu Honda.]