I believe it was Phillip Hacker who said:

Though I wonder what exactly Nodoka will have to say about this, given
her obesesion with "manliness".
Nodoka: "Genma, how could you!  Ranma, you're not marrying one of
_these_ and that's final.  What about this nice Kuonji girl?  She
seems... normal."

That'll be fun.

Is that a sadistic undertone I hear?
What you have to consider is this:
Will Ranma really be willing to marry someone his mother so openly 
disapproves of?  Honor has always been shown to be one of the most 
important things in Ranma's life in the manga, next to his mother and 
(shudder) Akane.  Going against his mother's wishes, when hers as well 
are dictated by honor, if she picks Ukyo as her 'pet fiancee', would not 
be something that Ranma would do.

Ranma, of course, saw her coming long before he could connect. She
leaped over Akane's head and landed softly behind her. Just as she
reached out to tag her one last time on the back of her head, she 

jerked

her elbow backwards to strike her solidly in the stomach. Ranma 

gasped

as the blow connected.

Even with the extra concentration techniques....  I dunno.  Ranma is
_so_ much better than Akane.  It's difficult to believe she could 

catch

him like that. Any reason behind it?

Well, in the canon, Ranma only touched Akane at the end. Here it's for 
real, with Ranma getting in a dozen hits, so I decided to let Akane get 
in just one hit.

Ranma getting in hits?  Sorry, but isn't that at least slightly OOC?  
Ranma wouldn't hit a girl if he could help it.
Exceptions:
The Rythmic gymnastics story arc (Kodachi)
The Ice-skating competition (Asuza)
The Ms. Hinako storyline (Hinako)
Ukyo's introduction (Ukyo, he thought she was a guy)
The Koi-fishing rod story (Akane)

These are just the ones that come immedeatly to mind.

"Well, not the bride," Soun explained. "However, you must realize 

that

our family's unusual, er, trait means that it's the girls who are 

the

fathers."

"WHAT?! YOU MEAN I GOTTA GET *PREGNANT*?!?!!" Ranma-
chan became angrier still and pressed her attack on her father even
harder. Several blows broke through the panda's defenses.

Would that even work?  Instant abortion seems rather likely.

Genma is.... well you get the idea.  Do you have a plan how Ranma will
ever get through this one simple fact?  Actually, I sort of do.

What if Ranma felt _sorry_ for Akane?  What if he considered her 

family

trait every bit as much a curse as his?  What if... what if he 

resolved

to "cure" her?  It could add an interesting subplot to the series.  

Just

as Ranma searches for his own "cure", so he is searching for a "cure"
for Akane.  Of course, Akane might not wish to be "cured", which adds
another level to the whole thing.

Something to think about.  It'll be easier to have Ranma fall for 

Akane

if he starts thinking of Akane as a girl with a curse.

That's an idea, especially if I keep the Dr. Tofu subplot so that we 

see 

that Akane would really rather be normal and all of her hatred is just 
sour grapes.

I don't know, having lived with it for a while I would figure Akane to 
be at least somewhat used to her 'fate'.

"There's no way I'm marrying some pervert!"

"Who're you calling a pervert?!" Ranma demanded. "You're the 

freaks!"

Actually.... where _did_ the pervert crack come from?  It just seems 

to

fly out of nowhere.  Akane has no reason to start thinking "pervert".

Okay. Any suggestions for an argument-opener, anyone?

"There's no way I'm marrying some FREAK who wasn't even born this way!"

:P

"Ranma, just where do you think you're going?" Genma demanded.

"To find a way to get rid of this stupid curse," Ranma replied. He
turned
back to face Akane. "And if you think I'm going to marry some girl 

who

turns into a guy just when you start getting to the best part, 

you're

even crazier than I thought."

See, this is where he could start to feel sorry for her.  Though this
objection is the very heart of your entire proposed series.  You're
going to have to do some major story stuff to get around this.

This is just Ranma's initial reaction. He'll start to feel sorry for 
Akane by the Dr. Tofu story.

Akane-kun scowled as he climbed out of the bathtub. 'Make a fool of
me, eh? That...that... arrrrgh!'

As he headed out of the bath, he came face-to-face with Ranma. He

This always bothered me a bit in the original series as well.  Ranma 

has

announced he's leaving.  Ranma is totally serious about it, he's on 

his

way out the door.  Then Akane hits him with a table and suddenly he's
staying?  What's up with that?

True, Takahashi never saw fit to explain it.  However, you've provided
Ranma a much stronger motivation that she every did.  An explanation 

of

why Ranma hasn't already left is in order.

I could use some suggestions here. How can I integrate Ranma's reaction 
to finding out that he will be a mother with him sticking around?

All I can think of is this:

"That's it!  I'm takin' a bath a then I'm OUTTA HERE!"

"Just give it a while," said Genma. "Things are bound to get better
sooner or later."

So says the scum.  I really hope Nodoka kills him.

Okay, so maybe I overdid Genma a bit.

I don't think so.

Here's a thought.  It's certainly probable that Kuno has met Akane 

while

in her male form.  Therefore, it's possible that in _this_ continuity,
he's beaten the shit out of her a few times.  That would certainly
change her attitude towards him and might make an interesting 

alteration

to Kuno's introduction.

Yes, Kuno would beat a male Akane.  Concentration techniques or not. 
Maybe not easily, but Akane certainly wouldn't have the same 

effortless

victory as when she's a girl.

Yes, but he won't know it's Akane.

Will Happosai grope female-Soun?

probably.

Will Ukyou elicit the sigh of, "Oh, not another one!"

another what?

Will we see a new pattern emerging?  Akane get angry, turns into a 

guy,

trys to hit Ranma, and gets hurt for her troubles?

One more thing: can any of you suggest a name for Akane's male form?
I am hesitant to use any of the more conventional names for a male
Akane (Kaneda, etc.)

Here's a cool idea.  What if Akane can't decide?  She's always picking 

a

new name every week, deciding it doesn't 'sound right' and then
discarding it for a new name.  Her family is heartily sick of it.

Great idea, but Akane-kun needs a public alias so that he can attend 
classes as a male. What do "his" classmates call him. Please remember 
that the male Akane is a permanant rather than a transient character, 
and will be seen often by the same people.

Isamu (Brave)
Koenma (Junior god of death?)
Akira (Can't remember)
Wataru (Wanderer)

......


I know I promised not to, but how about one final plea _not_ to match
Ranma and Akane up? For one thing, it kind of goes against the Futaba
tone of the story.  There, Futaba pursues a relationship with a girl 

his

family disapproves of.

For another, you're blowing a good opportunity to explore a 

relationship

between Ranma and a girl other than Akane.  Alternate relationships 

for

Akane too.

You say you want to match them up, but the story you keep writing
honestly doesn't seem to flow in that direction.  Why not just 

postpone

the decision, write the next few chapters as feels right to you, and
then look at the character relationships at that point?  That way,
there's no chance you'll have to right the story, and then keep
rewriting scenes to get it to go in the direction you want.

I mean, look at this chapter.  Your original fight scene was great and 

I

liked it.  But you had to rewrite and replace with an (IMHO) inferior
scene, because the original didn't get you to the goal you thought you
wanted.  Something to think about.

I still think that Ranma would like the idea of marrying another guy 

who 

turns into a girl more repulsive than marrying a girl who turns into a 
guy.

Does anybody have any suggestions on integrating a sex-changing Akane 
with a Ranma/Akane matchup?

If Genma (Stupid as he is, I don't think he would) consented to Nodoka's 
promise of a man among men, Ranma would not marry Akane.  If Ranma 
decided to bear the children in the relationship (which he wouldn't) 
Nodoka would most DEFINITLEY hold him to said promise.  I also feel that 
Nodoka wouldn't have allowed Ranma to leave home without that promise.  
As such... well... think about it.  Either Ranma marries Futaba (If he 
goes along with the Tendo promise) or he dies.

You say you want this to be a Ranma/Akane matchup fic, but without going 
as far OOC as if you were making Kuno say "Yo, wassup Ranma.  How's my 
fav'rit homeboy hanging t'day?  Cologne! youse a babe, lady.  You wants 
to hit the movies wit' me?"  It just won't work.

The fic holds potential, and lots of it, but if you limit yourself to 
the Ranma/Akane relationship you're... well... limiting the potential of 
the fic.  Let it grow by itself, do what seems in character and let the 
fic write itself.

?_?
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/6648/
Brian, Knight of Broken Hearts and Crushed Hopes, singing off...

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