In a message dated 8/30/98 11:30:36 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
rbarnes@moscow.com writes:

<< In a couple of ways.  There's the obvious way, in that a smilodon
 could disassemble most of the enemies Ranma faced in the canon story line
 without breaking a sweat (do big cats sweat? don't think so, but you get the
 point, I'm sure)  And a less obvious way... which is, with a large slice of
 cat in his personality, Ranma probably won't give much of a <del> about the
 impossible dilemmas that bedevil him in the canon story.>>
like he couldn't anyway? mind you, he's gonna be miserable in tiger-form for
the nasty parts of summer in Tokyo.
yes, his laidback feline nature is going t cause neko-Ranma to just ignore
a LOT of problems that would normally occur. doesn't keep him from having
problems from: Tokyo Zoo officials, Humane Society, Police officers, little
kids
coming up and pulling the tiger's tail, megacorps planning on breeding a whole
buncha smilodons, etc. this is Ranma, after all, for every problem he resolves
two more crop up. 


<< So far as I know, in the canon, we never see anything like a curse that
 enhances fighting power except for Taro's composite one.  They are all
 either neutral like Ranma's or Genma's or very weakening like everyone
 else's.  What I propose is that if you want to give Ranma a cat curse, give
 him one that isn't so all powerful like making him a bobcat or lynx.  Those
 smaller wild cats are still pretty formidible, trust me on this one, and
 combined with the brain of a martial artist and the cat fist capabilities
 (claw through anything and so on) would give Ranma a definite edge without
 eliminating all the competition.  In short, it might make for a more
 interesting story.  On that note, remember, the originators of Superman had
 to invent kryptonite in something like the second or third issue of the
 comic to prevent him from being too boring.>>
think about the smilodon for a moment. he outweighs Genma's giant panda
form by double. no hands, and can't manipulate objects very well with his
mouth. he's BIG. While he can leap up onto a tree branch, it'd better be a
strong branch. not to mention the problems if he changes from boy form to
tiger form in a cramped area.
even with all that said, i WAS planning on a possible change to occur later.
with one change, other seemingly unrelated changes may occur. SO instead
of trying to splash Ranma with Spring Of Drowned Duck, Mousse attacks with-
Spring Of Drowned Girl?
though the scene with P-chan meeting the tiger would be...amusing.
 
<< Meanwhile, I'm just taking in what a tour d'force the whole "The Bet" cycle
 represents.  It's as if you had taken a whole years worth of "what if..."
 story ideas from the list and wrote at least an introductory piece on each
 of them.>>
hmmm. there's a sad thought, though i've only been on the list a few months,
i had thought that most of these were fairly original... 

 <<Here's a thought.  Several folks have pointed out that Shampoo may face a
 fairly ugly fate if she fails to marry Ranma.  Ukyou may also be disowned
 completely by her family if she fails. The Tendo family will be at the least
 dishonored if Ranma doesn't marry a Tendo daughter, and there may be more to
 it as well.  Thing is, as long as Ranma doesn't marry anybody, none of that
 negative stuff can actually happen because the chance of a marriage still
 exists for all of the fiancees. >>
these have been referred to in various stories such as "Purple Haired Destiny"
if i'm not mistaken.
 
 <<What if Ranma figured this out, or maybe had it pointed out to him? I'm
 remembering something from Japanese culture and I may have it wrong, but I
 think it is the responsibility of the parents to make it possible for the
 marriage to happen.  This includes things like payment of debts and
 settlement of conflicting obligations.  Ranma could, so to speak, go
 medieval on his father and say something like, "I'm not saying no to any of
 these marriages, yet.  I'm saying the time is not right. It will not be
 right until all the obligations are settled and that's your job, Father.
 Until then, I'm not going to marry anybody because it would be dishonorable
 to do so."  In a way it's a matter of accepting all the engagements as valid
 and putting them all on indefinate hold until the parents work things out.
 Naturally, no one wil be very happy about that, but at least no one suffers
 the pain of loosing.  Interesting?>>
the problem is Ranma trying to get Genma to do something of an honorable
nature. for all their scheming, neither Soun nor Genma seem any more capable
of thinking through consequences than their sensei- Happosai.
 
 I'll go back to waiting for yet more installments in the story.  I'm
 enjoying this very much, indeed, Gregg.  Thanks for sharing it with us.
  >>