At 05:05 PM 26/06/96 -0600, you wrote:

Kun-chan bespoke about Mousse:

But against Shampoo he's a spinless, wimy, whining coward.

You know...  By this logic, that is to say that Mousse is a coward because
he won't beat up on Shampoo to win her heart et al, you make him the
bravest character in the series.

Mousse will not fight Shampoo - so he is a coward.  But Mousse *loves*
Shampoo, and is NOT afraid to say so!

Look people never in either the manga or anime does it say Mousse has
to beat up Shampoo to marry her.  The only reason he did it as child was
to impress her with his martial arts.  Check the faq if you don't believe me,
as I recall Shampoo says in episode: Foul Play, "if you Mousse actually
beat Ranma I will go on date with you".  Nothing about marriage or
Amazon laws.
None of the Ranma guys will knowingly beat up a girl because that
just isn't honourable.  Remember the great debate about Pantyhose
Taro the "woman-basher"?
Anyhow I just don't see how beating Shampoo up will make her love
Mousse.  Maybe a little more respect but if he just did it out of the blue,
she'd just get p.o.'ed (esp. since now she's in love with Ranma).

Ryouga would *never* beat up on Akane, and he is too terrified to tell
Akane how he feels - therefore HE is more cowardly than Mousse - Ryouga
won't even stand up to Akane's temper, but he's more than willing to hide
behind it when shouting at Ranma.

Both Ranma and Ryouga have trouble expressing their emotion.  Either
shyness or youth whatever.  I don't see it as having anything to do with
actual bravery.  They both express love through other ways, i.e. protecting/
rescuing Akane.  Just because they don't actuallly say the "L-word", (Akane
has trouble too) doesn't mean they are cowardly.

Ranma too, would NEVER hit Akane, but at least he yells back at her, even
if he *is* afraid to tell her how he feels!

They are both shy, uncertain, childish teenagers in love!  I mean the whole
point the series is that they are moving toward a more mature, understanding
relationship.  Real bravery doesn't have anything to do with it, also
considering
this is Japanese society with conservative tone.  Mousse being an outsider
is not part of this culture, hence his actions might not even be really
considered
"brave".  For all we know, it is normal or even expected for suitors in his
culture to declare incessantly in public about their love.  

See?  By your own logic, Mousse is the *bravest!*

That depends on how you define the word: brave.  BTW don't use
the movies as examples since they are not written by R.T, nor
versions of the manga.

--Ilsa, OAA and COR

Zen-


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[[                  James Bateman (Otaku@nashville.com)                  ]]
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