On Fri, 4 Apr 1997 22:09:14 -0500 (EST), Luigi Mattera wrote:

On Sat, 5 Apr 1997, Gary Kleppe wrote:

Zen, I don't want or expect your pro-Ukyo bias to be kept out of your
work, but couldn't we have just a _bit_ more balance? I just can't
accept Ukyo as the Angel of Compassion and Akane as the Bitch from Hell
to the degree that you have portrayed them that way in this story.

 Zen did mention why Akane acted the way she did.  There is a real life
medical condition in which people become more and more angry over time,
and Akane according to him exhibited all the symptoms.

Okay, point taken. I can accept the mental illness as a reason why Akane
would have changed the way she did in this story.

 Ukyou was simply
trying to keep Ranma alive.  She still loved him after all, and was upset 
at watching him fall down into dispair.

 Yes, her actions were irrational.  Her physical attacks on Ranma have
*never* been rational to begin with.  It is very easy to interpret Akane 
as a bitch from hell because she *is* abusive towards Ranma normally.  

And so was Ukyo. Reread the stories where she fixes up Akane and Ryoga
(for example). She bashed both Ranma and Ryoga over the head with her
spatula without any more provocation than Akane generally gets. Ukyo has
a bad temper that is comparable to Akane's. Her's wasn't seen as often
only because she wasn't in the story as often.

The only thing which has kept Ranma alive is the fact that the series is 
a comedy, not a drama.

Or else that's the only reason the slapstick violence exists in the
series at all. Two possible explanations. Take your pick. But let's have
a little consistency, and not make one character's slapstick violence
into a big problem while ignoring the fact that another character did
pretty much the same thing in the original.

 How would you "balance" the characters?  Make Akane less abusive?  She 
still beats Ranma regularly.

No. Not in this story. That would defeat the whole point of it, and it
is a great story despite my objections. I would go the other way and
make Ukyo less perfect, show that she has to at least struggle against
the same violent tendencies that consume Akane.

Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, Home page http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe
My fanfics and the FFML map are on my comics/manga page,
       http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics