On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Zen wrote:

Okay... Zen has been thinking about that, and Zen thinks that this may be wrong.

Granted, Herb came out of the pool not looking like Ranma-chan.

But the *monkey* looked a LOT like Ranma-chan, but with her hair down.

Herb's lineage is from a dragon.  Strong magic.

Might that have something to do with it?

Assuming so, then any human that was dumped *would* look like
Ranma-chan. 

I think it had more to do with the fact that the author was having a
little fun at Ranma's expense.  Ranma's female form looks like a female
version of himself (q.v. its resemblance to Nodoka).  Herb's female form
looks like a female version of himself.  I'd guess that the monkey's
female form was meant more as a veiled insult to the effect that Ranma's
no more civilized/intelligent/handsome/etc. than a monkey.

Otherwise, you have to say that the curse is that anyone who falls into
the spring will take on the form of a female child of Genma and Nodoka
Saotome, unless they have high magic in their bloodline, in which case
they will look like themselves, only female, which doesn't mean that Ranma
has high magic in his bloodline, only that he's a child of Genma and
Nodoka anyway, and so looks like a female version of himself because...
Anyway, it just gets too complicated.

--
Scott Johnson |
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