On Fri, 10 May 1996, White Wolf wrote:

On Fri, 10 May 1996, Stormwalker wrote:

      As it has already been said, it is not likely that Ranma, even in 
girl-form (though he IS considerably weaker in that form) could be 
physically defeated by ordinary thugs except under extreme 
circumstances.

Please!!  For those who were not here the first time it was posted, we've 
*had* this discussion.  Drop the basic premise, and there is no story.

Yeah, but when the basic premise doesn't seem to make sense in the 
context of the series, you do have a problem...But then I've had the same 
problem with several DNR episodes, and I'm now one of the writers of that 
series :)

(Several DNR episodes have had Ranma losing fights he shouldn't have EVER 
lost.)
 

And there are other things that need flam^H^H^H^Hdiscussion instead.

Like Akane's powers.  Immune to heat, can lock something in mid-air, and
can generate a punch more powerful than enough Cologne can. 

That bothers me much less than Ranma losing the fight :)

Given the level of power some of the characters toss around, Akane 
developing these powers doesn't bother me, except that it is all coming 
without training or conscious effort, which is contrary to all the other 
"power-ups" the characters have gained...to the extent that any aspect of 
martial arts is seriously represented in Ranma 1/2, it's that you have to 
train and fight to get better and learn new things, not just be alive.

Powers don't just come to people.  (If this was Sailor Moon, it would be 
different.  It's times of need and emotional stress that bring out new 
powers in Sailor Moon.  But Ranma operates by a different set of genre 
rules.)

Still, the real heart of the story is how everyone reacts to what 
happened to Ranma, and that is right on the money.

 

John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu   http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~ranma/falcon.html 
                            http://www.dhp.com/~wraven/john/index.html
"All dressed up and no place to go...but Oblivion!", "That's so 
sweet...I'm getting cavities!", "Welcome to hell, Sailor Moon!"--Queen Beryl