yOn Wed, 23 Oct 1996, WebDragon wrote:

At some point, Paul Corrigan wrote :)

This is for the benefit of the ML.


        First, I want to thank you for your extensive C&C, so no hard
feelings there, and I felt I had to reply to your statements....

  For Ranma to respond to any advances by Ukyo would possess much of 
the damning quality "being out of character," not least because, out 
of habit if nothing else, he still views her to a greater or lesser 
extent as a boy. Any advances she makes alarm and embarrass him, as they 
would if (say) Ryoga tried something on him.

Ranma doesn't see Ukyou as a BOY anymore than I do.

        I would like to point out that in Desperately Seeking Shampoo, Ranma
asked Ukyo if she still loved him.  Would Ranma do the same thing to, say,
Ryoga?  (do not include the "Koi no Fishing Rod" incident :) )

        And another point.  Any advances Shampoo or Kodachi makes toward him
(Ranma) alarm and embarass him, too.

qUITE.
 

        And yet another point.  Viewing Ukyo as a boy may have been a matter
of perspective, but ever since Ukyo revealed herself to be a girl, it is no
longer such.  What bothers me is that she STILL wears boys' school clothing
once in a while, and I have never been able to understand that.

there are several possible explanations for that:
1.  Ukyou is used to it, and it doesn't bother her.
2.  Ukyou registered at Furinkan High as a boy and hasn't bothered to 
change that, and thus has no fuku to wear to school :0
3.  Ukyou enjoys confusing people (I doubt this one, but who knows :))
4.  Takahashi thought it was cool.  (The most likely reason :)


 

        Remember how Ranma was attacking Ukyo all out when they first meet
as teenagers?  The truth was exposed (forgive my pun) and Ranma, realizing
that Ukyo is a girl, treats her as such.  He beats the hell out of male
characters without turning a hair, but he won't lay as much as a finger on
female characters - and I do believe Ukyo qualifies as one. 

Nod.
 

        Ukyo is a controversial character.  Remember the part when Ukyo got
sick and Konatsu offered to run the business for her?  Near the end, when
Ukyo wakes up from her fainting spell, Akane is seen taking care of her.
Would Akane do the same for Shampoo?  Or Kodachi?  I do not believe so.
Reciprocity must have something to do with Akane's reaction to Ukyo's
sickness, or events in that part of the manga would have been quite different.

        Ukyo is not blameless.  In Akane and her Sisters, Ukyo tried to hurt
or seriously injure Akane with various flying objects of increasing weight.  

Well, it STARTED as training, sort of :)  They certainly don't qulaify as 
best friends.
 

Some less charitable interpretations would have her rub Akane's face in 
the fact that Ranma was there (and half-undressed to boot!). It would 
have been clinching proof to Ukyo (and to Akane besides!) that Ranma 
didn't want Akane after all.

        Clinching proof?  So....following your line of reasoning, a naked
Shampoo intimately hugging a fully-undressed naked Ranma, in the bath to
boot, is NOT clinching proof?  As I recall, Akane was angry for the rest of
the night and the day after, but nothing further was mentioned of the
incident.  

Short Memory spans at work :)
 

  Neither is it obvious that Ukyo's perfect for Ranma. On the contrary. 
Ukyo's been raised to play the role of a man, the dominant role. I find
the idea that Ranma "Wild Stallion" Saotome would willingly play what is 
generally a woman's role perfectly absurd.

        I have to agree with you on this one.  So Ukyo is NOT perfect for
Ranma after all....

Yeah, but when Ukyou has Fantasy sequences, we see Ukyou as Happy 
Homemaker and chef, not as dominant male.

She doesn't seem to want to play 'male' to Ranma's 'girl'.  Thus her 
efforts to play the 'wife' in terms of traditional 
behaviors/responsibilities in the Secret Sauce story.  

Yes, she is agressive, but so are ALL of Ranma's women.  None of them are 
submissive.  If that's what Ranma wants, he's screwed, cause Akane won't 
play submissive any more than the rest of them.

 

  To remind Ranma of his responsibility. Sense of duty towards someone 
is not love, you know. If he loved Akane, as you believe he does, he 
would have at the very least told her to stop the moment she did 
something untoward ("Aw, come on, Ucchan...I hate it when you act all 
weird like this!"). I can quite easily see him giving her a good hard 
slap and leaving for greener pastures forthwith.

        But the two weren't acting weird....in their minds, that is.  They
had thrown away their adult roles and assumed their old mantles as the
Ranchan and Ucchan of a decade ago.  They forgot that things were different
now than they were ten years ago.  

Not to mention, Ranma Doesn't Slap Women.  At most, Ranma froths 
ineffectively or runs away.  I thought this worked very well in the story.
 

  Love is not doing one's duty and doing what one likes after that; it 
is complete selflessness, the complete purging from oneself of all desire 
contrary to the interest of the beloved and the relationship with the 
beloved. Your Ranma does not love Akane at all.

Oh PLEASE!  Like ANYONE ever succeeds in that. That is SO COMPLETELY 
UNREALISTIC as to be surreal.  No human could be that perfect.  

        According to your definition of love, a relationship along these
lines would be dull beyond belief, not to mention unrealistic.          

Quite.
 

        Do you deny that Ranma and Akane love each other, despite their
obvious disregard of your concept of 'love'?

WebDragon wins.  Fatality :)
 

Love : Caring for another person.  Respecting their personalities and
learning to work with them, not against them.  A committment to share the
joys of life with them together, to stand up to trials and tribulations
together - as a couple.

And often failing, but you keep trying anyway.

it has been found too light. Please reconsider it before the real 
anti-Ukyo forces start moving in on you. Miss Seawright can be quite a 
punisher, far more than I am.

You mean Caroline Seawright?  Anti-Ukyo forces?  Bring them on.  

HEh.  Well, I think Mr. Corrigan's conception of Ukyou is Incorrect.  
You've got my FEEBLE support, WebDragon :)


John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu      bailesu@komodo.hacks.arizona.edu  
http://www.hacks.arizona.edu/~bailesu/falcon.html 
     "I am tougher than the average bear,"  Davrosite replied.  "I
merely wished everyone to believe I was dead."  --Lemon Sherbet, Chapter 
5 (Draft)