I agree, you can't just push away factual points, Mindripper. You are failing to realize that the significances between an actual 'kitsune' and a Ninetales are pretty recongizable, if you get my drift. It isn't a 'maybe', for why would a Ninetales have nine tails, live over a thousand years, and so on and so forth. You are trying to set so many different abilities of a kitsune against a Ninetales that you fail to see what they have in common, which is enough to say that Ninetales was inspired by a kitsune. >> And it really isn't difficult to see; Mindripper is only making it difficult. ;_;
It is stuff like this that will cause a failed career in research. I have left the door open to the Kitsune being the basis of Ninetails' creation, and I have NOT rejected the notion, but am just saying that it is only possible at best. If you would prefer me to, I can name examples of other mythological creatures that bear resemblances to Ninetails, but that is beside the point.
Without showing you the same lack of courtesy that you showed me, I shall let you know why Ninetails are only POSSIBLY based on the Kitsune. They do not share the same characteristics, and that is the end ofr story. Saying something should be taken as a fact
means that there is no room for logical extrapolation of any sort, and that any other contradictory notions must be rejected. Suddenly, the argument does not look so sound anymore, does it? I am not trying to make life difficult. Unconfirmed theories remain conjecture until proven beyond doubt.
So, they say that Troy is located in present-day Turkey, buried under at least 5 other civilisations, but that is mere majority conjecture. You willing to say that Troy is located in present Turkey as a fact because of something like that? Like Ninetails and the Kitsune, there are more than enough factors constant to establish that connection. In fact, due to Greco-Roman maps and information from the Iliad, Turkey is approximately where ancient Troy would be located; thus, it would have a more solid approach than Ninetails and Kitsune. You willing to state that abovementioned account is FACT beyond doubt?
On Troy and the Iliad, no one knows who Homer is, or rather, was. Samuel Johnson came up with a theory that the author of the Iliad and the Oddyssey were two different people, and that the latter's author was a female. It is common knowledge among scholars and researchers in that area, and they even have her hometown pinpointed. You willing to say that is a fact? That there is no reservation for doubt?
As long as any of the above answers is a no, welcome to my club. Very few things in life are fact. Read some thesis papers on that. Religion, however, deals mostly in fact. That the word "Armageddon" was derived from the bible is fact, and there is no room for other logical arguments. That e=mc2 is a fact, and there is no space for logical argument. That Tyrannosaurus Rex was a predator is NOT fact, because there is room for logical argument against that stance, which I am too lazy to post. That Ninetails is derived from the Kitsune cannot be solid fact too, and is merely a possibility, or a probability, if you prefer, because as long as there are arguments against, there is no solid fact.
Please, I am just doing a researcher's job. Do not make my life difficult. Your opinions are valid, and I understand them, but my statements are based on fact or lack thereof, and that is the end of that particular story.