David Lerman wrote:
Is Ranma bound by any agreement his father enters into?
Yup.
Is family honor that easily manipulated?
Yup.
Can Genma so readily play fast and loose with family
committments and have Ranma always follow the current
promise?
Well, that's what Ranma has to decide, isn't it? Genma, as the head of
the family, basically owns Ranma's honor, and can do anything with it
that he wants. Read "The Sword and the Chrysanthemum" for an excellent
translation of Japanese honor into terms us Westerners can understand.
Ranma has to decide if Genma's promises are binding on him, even when
such promises are based on less-than-cool motivations.
Wouldn't the family honor require that Ranma attempt to
uphold the agreement with the Tendos which did not
specifically call for a Ranma-Akane marriage but a
Saotome-Tendo marriage?
Genma has dissolved that agreement in favor of the Kuno-Saotome
pairing. Soun was so incensed that he, too, dissovled the agreement.
There is no longer any reason why Ranma and Akane should be obligated to
wed. However, this doesn't mean they can't get married if they *want*
to. This all depends on how seriously Ranma takes Genma's pledging of
his honor.
I would think that the earlier promise would continue to hold
and would take priority and there are two other Tendo sisters
available.
Nope. The heads of both families have annulled the agreement.
And of course, if Nodoka ever found out about Genma's latest
sale of Ranma, there would soon be a nice panda skin rug in
the Saotome home since Genma really did dishonor the family name.
Hehehehe... well, Nodoka is another matter altogether. I'm not sure
she'll appear in this series, and she would probably be very unhappy if
she did. However, Genma is the head of the family (scary as that
thought is) and his word is law in these instances.
dml
Thanks for the feedback! :)