At 09:33 PM 5/10/96 -0600, you wrote:
(SNIP)

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.

I agree with Akane getting a move that's more 'unnatural" then pulling
mallets out of this air being a good thing...She's the only one in that
without either a special skill, extreme speed, *extreme* strength (so she
can toss around boulders, can she split one that weighs obviously several
tons with a single hit?) 'ki' techniques, or some other kind of unnatural
move...again with the exception of the mallet thing in the anime :)

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.)

I don't know abou tthat...I mean sometimes stress and need brings out new
moves/counters in Ranma too...

Of course, I don't KNOW the real reason Akane develops powers, but I think

I have a

good idea...  or perhaps a bad idea.  We'll not know until the story's

posted, will we?

Ranma is so vulnerable that s/he can't stand being turned back into a

male... she 

destroys the hot water heater, blah, blah, blah...  Akane's new powers seem

to be 

based on the absorption of heat... perhaps a subconcious move designed to

stop hot 

water from touching Ranma?  Doesn't Ranma's shoten ha drain heat energy?  What 
if Ranma's ki is being channelled to Akane, subconsciously?  Perhaps these

newly 

developed powers could be short term protection methods that Ranma himself is 
projecting?

Just a thought or two or three...

I'm sorry...but was I the only one who noticed that little spot when Akane
was first talking to Tofu where her back appearantly gets cracked a bit? And
the fact that both Tofu and Colonge hit a bunch of pressure points when they
were checking her? I mean....could it possibly be (I'm truely not trying to
be sarcastic, I apologize if I sound like it) that Ranma accidently did it
to Akane when she popped Akane's back?  That just jumped out at me almost
immediately, so that's my own pet theory....

Aaron Stolz-astolz@direct.ca E-mail me anytime! I'm on for HOURS on end all the 
time, so you might even get a reply soon after you send it! *******************