On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Redneck Gaijin wrote:

However, I still don't much like the idea of this, because despite your
Author's Notes, I am still left with the notion that the text, from Akane's
first hearing about Ranma's 'free lessons', is done with the singlular
purpose of getting Akane to kill Ranma.

And quite frankly, I do not believe that

  Please, if you are going to argue, come up with reasons why.  Explain 
why you don't believe it.

(1) Nodoka would EVER give up her katana.> 

  Why not?  Her giving up the katana was ment to be a bad omen.

(2) Akane gets more powerful through anger

  It is possible, especially considering that Ranma has a fixation with 
not hitting Akane.  Ranma can easily hit another woman.  He's fought 
Kodachi, Rouge, and a few other women with little trouble.  Akane is his 
only major deviation from the role.

(3) Akane ever gets as mad as you have her. (This is a major point, you
drill it into the reader's head that Akane's anger has been getting steadily
worse. This seems to me to be rationalization in order to have her, at the
end of the fic, ready to kill Ranma and Ukyou.)

  By this point, Akane's anger is irrational.  She has no control over 
it.  Ranma tries to explain this, but she won't listen.

(4) Akane can so utterly fail to listen. Akane at least -tries- sometimes to
make her relationship with Ranma work... but in this story, she does
absolutely nothing but be a hair-trigger emotional psychopath. In fact, now
that I think of it, she is very OOC by the end of the 'fic, but she has to
be so she can kill Ranma.

  It doesn't matter that a character goes OOC in a story, so long as the 
author has a justifiable reason why the character is acting that way.  
Akane is very jealous and stubborn, just like Ranma.  She's *never* 
trusted him with another woman, despite what he does.  She is always 
forcing her cooking on him, and then bashing him when he gets ill from 
it.  By the end of it she is irrational and no longer in control of her 
emotions.

(5) Ranma wouldn't avoid or defend himself from Akane. Ranma's emotional
calm in this fic seems a bit much, but more importantly although he might
not attack Akane, if she attacked him with a potentially lethal force he
would NOT let it hit him. 

  Ranma does not have a fixation against women.  He has one against 
Akane.  Ultimately, it is his promise to stay with her and protect her 
which gets him and Ukyou killed.  Ranma by that point was locked into a 
downward spiral.  The only way out for him would have been if Akane had 
killed Ukyou first.. then he could have exploded, because his only friend 
was killed due to his mistakes.

  Why won't Ranma defend himself?  Simple.  Emotions are *damn* hard to 
overcome.  Why else do battered spouses stay so long in such a 
relationship?  Remember the old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my 
bones, but words will never hurt me?"  Bullshit.  Words hurt far more 
than stones ever could.
  I thought about why Ranma didn't fight back.  I couldn't figure out 
why.  Then I looked back at my life.  Here I am, 23 years old, and I am 
still trying to overcome the crap I was put through in elementary 
school.  I am fighting my emotions, and let me tell you, it is one DAMN 
HARD fight.  I may be doing this for all of my life, and yes, I have 
setbacks.  I still haven't graduated from college.  Depression during 
school does that to you.
  On a bad day, I could contest with Ryouga in Shi Shi Houkoudan 
strength.  Yet I keep going.  I've never had a fair break once in my 
life, and I've been hit with just about everything.  I'm lucky I have my 
health, but I have my father's genes to thank for that.
  Which is why I _like_ Ranma despite his faults.  He keeps going.  He's 
had a ton of shit slammed on him, with no control over it.  Yet he 
survives, and does it well.  Akane is his one real emotional weakness.  I 
dislike Ryouga because the fool hasn't realized that the only one who can 
solve his problems is HIM, not defeating Ranma.
  My only complaint about the end is that Ranma should have lived because 
he's been hit with worse.  One Shi Shi Houkoudan would have shown Akane 
what he is going through.  She probably knows where that attack gets its 
fuel from.

As a story in general, this is very good.

As a story about Ranma and Akane, it doesn't wash. Not for me.

  Keep an open mind.  That is something I try to do.  Not everyone has 
the same opinion, and their opinion is no less valid than yours.  I found 
the fanfic very believeable, but my background is probably different from 
yours.