On 2003-09-16 at 14:04 Bickham Jourdan wrote:

NOTE: Since /me feels that it's unnecessary to
inflict three
separate mails onto the subscribers of FFML, I've
cut'n pasted
from both of Jordans letters and Tymes letter into
this one.

Thanks.. that was considerate of you.

that.... no matter how he behaves.. Soun is the

father and

head of the household.  Kasumi has no power to

tell him

anything... a) because she's his daughter and b)

even if

she is filling in the wife's household duties, the

wife

still is not so in control.

We are still talking about Tendo "BWAAAAAH! My
daughter is
scary! *sob* *sob* *sniffle* *sob*" Soun, aren't we?
His daughters
probably has more power over him, then any wife ever
could.
Especially now that the wife is pushing up the
daisies and his
daughters ( and the Saotome-Tendo agreement ) is all
he has left.

With one or possibly two exceptions, the only times
I can recall
him acting as he actually has a spine and some
slight measure of
authority, is when it comes to pushing the pact onto
Ranma. He
never seems to try to force it down Akane's throat (
Or ever berate
either one of his daughters in any way, shape or
form... ) after the
initial meeting with the Saotomes, at least not that
I can recall.
Even when they ( Granted, only Akane and Nabiki
seems to wind up in
this category... ) deserve a toungue-lashing or a
solid spanking,
he never seems to confront them. He merely sobs and
cries, gets drunk,
blames Ranma or plays Shogi/Go with Genma.

I'll give you some ground on that, but take it back with
the fact that many Japanese fathers have been sidelined in
their families.  They spend so much time working or out
drinknig, combined with how their wife refers to them to
the children... they have lost most of the respect and
real power.  BUT... Japan is all about outward
appearances, not what is really going on. Thus the girls
and Kasumi may hold the real power, they would at least
appear to not going against his wishes in "public."  Akane
was opposed to the engagement, but she never really went
against Soun on it... she could have totally ignored it
and gotten other boyfriends, etc.  But she didn't.  

Though I must confess that I'm still haven't read
further then
volume 25 of the manga and season five of the anime
( + a few stray
episodes from later seasons... ), so there's still
quite a bit of
Ranma 沼for me left to observe and there may be
instances later in
the anime/manga which might contradict me on this.

Heck, considering just how crappy my memory is,
there might even be
instances that I've read/watched that contradicts
me. *sheepish smile*

You aren't the only one there... (^^;

I would suggest rewriting this scene or dropping

the part

about trying to box up Happosai and ship him away.

But that's what the two fools try just about every
time Happi
is incapacitated. Though why they insist on sending
him to Siberia
or one of the poles just boggles my mind. If they
truly wanted
to rid themselves of him, why not send him to
someplace he might
want to remain in? Florida. Key West. The French
Riviera. Ibiza.
Malibu. Hawaii. They'd never see the old pervert
ever again. :)

That is true.. I mentinoed dropping it just to avoid that
confrontation.  Just because he is a "guest" doesn't mean
shit really.  If he is robbing and raping them, you aren't
going to serve him tea and ask if he's tried Akane yet. 
It just seemed to me that you were blowing things out of
proportion when guest or not, Happosai was waaaay out of
line.  And then there's the fact that Soun knows more
about him than the girls...

Soun may have instances of being
strong willed, but especially in fan canon, they

are

rare.

When the Saotome-Tendo agreement isn't involved?
*chuckles* Well,
I suppose he does that, once or twice. He did grow
that gigantic
battle aura to fight Hentaizilla Happosai during
that whole
mess with the panda-painting comming to life, which
is one of the
few instances I can recall where Soun actually seems
to have a spine.

His lack of a spine is what makes the manga work...

Let's say this was a manga to be published...

Oh, no fear of that ever happening. My completely
ridiculously
inept drawing style would make people hurl the
moment they saw
it. :)

it may not end up this way, but at this point
the fic looks like a Ranma + Kasumi or "Kasumi the

goddess

fixes everything" fic.

Ah, no fear of that happening either. While I do
confess to
a certain weakness in occationally wanting to read
fics where
everything turns out all right, I have absolutely
zero ability
to actually write anything like that. :)

No, there is a reason why nobody in the household
will stand up
to Kasumi, though it won't become ( too ) apparent
until sometime
around chapter 13-14 ( unless I once again start
adding more
unplanned stuff somewhere along the way... ) and
that reason certainly
won't be any sort of universal problemsolver, rather
a completely
new problem for the gang to tackle.

Well, not *completely* new actually, but I don't
want to give away
too much at the moment. :)

Well... that sounds interesting.  You may want to at least
let on that something is wrong with Kasumi earlier. 
OTherwise the reader will just attribute the different
behavior to the particular universe of the story....

J

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