If she was trying to kill Ranma, wouldn't Shamps have done a better job? :)

Yes, she was trying to _KILL_ Ranma.

<nneeeeeeEEEEOOWWWWWWwwwwww!>

Missed the ":)" at the end, didn't ya? Sorry. It was bad humor.

<snip>

him, the outcome of the "misunderstanding" would be the same:  dead ranma.

Yes, and dispite what you said, it's _still_ a misunderstanding. Ranma was
really male. They thought the first prize was a buffet table. They didn't
understand Amazon law. _There was a failure to understand_, which is the
definition of a misunderstanding. No matter how you look at it, someone
fucked up.

There's _nothing_ in the definition of misunderstanding restricting the
seriousness of its consequences. Wars have been started over
misunderstandings. Although caused by accident, the result is the same for
diliberate wars: millions of dead people. Recognizing the cause as a
misunderstanding doesn't make it any less tragic or costly, but it makes it
infinitely easier to bury the hatchet and move on. A chain of
misunderstandings caused WWI; but a failure to recognize those
misunderstandings for what they were, and instead placing the entire blame
on Germany, ultimately lead to WWII.

Yes, being chased after someone with a sharp sword could make you seriously
dead. Shampoo _was_ quite serious about killing Ranma, but ultimately it
started over nothing. Lots of things start over nothing. Deadly things
start over nothing. Being caused by nothing doesn't prevent the situation
from being deadly.

Further, I have no argument that Shampoo spent a year trying to kill Ranma.
But my point there was that she had an *obligation* via Amazon law to kill
Ranma. Ukyou could have just held the yatai over Ranma's head and force him
to marry her and honor would be satisfied. She was out to hurt Ranma for
jilting her (c'mon, lady, get over it). Akane just gets mad at him (girl,
just chill out). Shampoo was obeying Amazon law. She has to obey it
regardless of her personal feelings. Once she discovered the truth (the
real truth, not the one Ranma fed her), she had a way out and took it.
Again, it doesn't make it any less right, but it's does, or at least
should, make it easier to forgive and forget.

<snip>

I said that Shampoo was the most violent of Ranma's fiancees, nothing
you've said convinces me otherwise.

Putting her reasons aside, inarguably Shampoo was showing the brunt of her
beast in her first appearance. However, by her return, level of her
violence had dropped off drastically, even towards her rivals. Even if she
was violent then, she's not neccessarily that way now. People can and do
change. Should former criminals be viewed with suspicion for the rest of
their lives even when they have done nothing to deserve such suspicion
since their release? I don't think so. Everyone deserves a second chance.
In my opinion, Shampoo has made good on it.

      Shampoo is admittedly pushy, manipulative, and ruthless

That's supposed to be a _good_ thing!!!

"admittedly" suggests that it _IS_ a point against her, baka, but it
doesn't put her out of the running.

The rest of the message said that Shampoo's being pushy, manipulative, and
ruthless was better than Akane's bashing Ranma over the head.

Ranma is far less likely to be crippled for the rest of his life from
Shampoo being pushy, manipulative, and ruthless than from Akane hitting him
over the head. Personally, I'd rather be pushed, manipulated, and be
ruthless to then bashed over the head. Would _you_'d rather be bashed over
the head? You DO? Well, not everyone's a mastocist, AJ. (Just Kidding)

Shampoo's major problem with Ranma _isn't_ her ruthlessness, manipulation,
or pushiness, it's the fact that Ranma's been associating her with _death_
for most of the time that they've known eachother.

She's been a good girl since her return. She may have started out on the
wrong foot (understatement of the year), and it will almost certainly
follow her in her relationship with Ranma, but her behavior has been
exeplorary recently. For a fiancee of Ranma, of course.

Shampoo can't change the past, but she can change herself. It seems to me
that she has. Shampoo has solved that problem. Ranma's NOW-unwarrented
associating of Shampoo with death and the inability for Ranma to put their
past behind him is, quite frankly, _his_ problem.

Listen, dispite what it might appear, I know where you're coming from. When
Shampoo first appeared, I thought she was the bitch from hell too. That
changed when she started behaving herself. I can forgive past mistakes,
even the most serious, because I have faith that even the most vile of
humans can change for the better. I'm funny that way.

paranoia, as your next meal might be your last, and nothing short of a
chemical test will tell you if a meal IS safe.

Kodachi's association with death isn't as strong as with Shampoo.
Otherwise you're right.

Not deliberately, no. But a lot of nasty things can occur by accident.
Certain drug combinations can be lethal in small doses. Acetaminophen
(Tylenol) is very deadly in combination with certain high blood pressure
medications, for example. Allergies for a patient's medications can spring
up at a moment's notice, and sometimes these allergic reactions are
life-threatening. This is why most medications are on prescription;
pharmocology is a very touchy science.

If Ranma is regularly exposed to Kodachi's poisons, he might become
sensitized to one of them. The more exposures, the more likely he'll
develop an allergy. The next time Kodachi hits him with that paralysis
powder, even a tiny dose, Ranma might swell up like a marshmallow, cutting
off his breathing and smothering him.

In other words, Kodachi might not intend death, but a fat lot of good that
will do Ranma.

      And this is assuming that Ranma couldn't talk her into remaining
in Japan as an embassary of some sort.

An embassary, from the _AMAZONS_ the people who are the size of a
village...are you serious?

They resisted going over to the Communists since the Cultural Revolution.
That indicates they weild some serious diplomatic pull. Besides, size is
not as important a factor as you think. There are countries called
microstates which are only big enough to have one important city. The
Vadican is a small country onto itself. All it takes is to be officially
recognized by another country, like the US.

Um, the village of the Amazons isn't exactly a powerful city.

You don't _need_ to be a powerful city to be a city-state. They crop up
everywhere. Basically, all you need to be is significantly distinct from
the surrounding territory to be recognized as a unique national identity.
The Amazons (and surrounding peoples) are as different from Communist China
as can be.

 My view of
why they weren't pacified forcefully:  1) They live next to Jusenkyo and
you've got to be willing to lose a large portion of you're army to go
through there.

Bull. Jyusenkyou is not big enough to pose a problem for modern warfare. A
five second back-of-the-envelope computation showed that one thousand
springs spaced three and a half meters apart (a not unresonable assumption)
can fit into an area two hundred meters square. NOT A PROBLEM. It might be
a shock when someone first marches into the area, but once the danger is
recognized, the area is easily avoided.

 2) the Chinese may not know about them (they're a small
village in the middle of nowhere.  And if they're found by anything less
than ten people, who's going to be left to report back.

The Chinese government almost certainly knows about them. At least one
Maoist knows about them, likely more. Jyusenkyou is published in a guide
book, in Chinese, and Joketsuzoku is a stone's throw away. Finally, there
are very few places on this earth that are not thoroughly mapped and
measured by some means. No one is truly in the middle of nowhere anymore.

I don't see very much diplomatic skill in either of the two amazons we've
seen to date.  Shampoo is far to blatent, and Cologne, while she does have
considerable skill in manipulation, continues to use combat as a deciding
factor (Phoenex Pill Episode, Breaking Point Episode, Fast Food Episode,
etc.)

You can't judge an entire population on the actions of a few. So diplomacy
isn't Shampoo and Cologne's bag. It's not MY bag either. It's not the bag
of anyone in this dorm either. The abilities of any member of a population
are highly variable. A two- to four-person sample will not give you an
accurate slice of any population.

                           ---------------------
##   ## ##   ## #######  ##   ##  AKA Tom Jefferys, Time Lord for Hire
##   ##  #   #   ##   ## ### ###    "Have TARDIS; Will Travel."
## # ##   ###    #####   ## # ##  Weilder of ANVIL and SPAM! Breaker of
### ###    #     ##  ##  ##   ##  <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>      the Mold!
##   ##   ###   ###   ## ##   ##    <JEFFERYSTR@rascal.guilford.edu>
Spring of Drowned Cannon-Fodder "You'd better find a cure quick!"
Darwin was wrong: Man is still an ape!