At 10:49 AM 7/8/1997 +1000, Caroline Seawright wrote:
Particularly since Nodoka's katana indicates that her social status
is very high, while Genma isn't exactly the classiest man in Japan.
So does that mean that Ranma will become Ranma Tendo? (Although
strictly speaking, Akane is only the heir because she is going to
marry Ranma.)
In Japan, mukoyoshi (where the husband is adopted by the wife's parents,
so he takes their family name) is seen as rather unmasculine thing to do.
So no way will Nodoka let Ranma do that - she'd rather have him commit
seppuku than take his wife's name - she wants a MANLY son, remember!
But she's got a less mainstream concept of masculinity. This is someone
who thinks spying on girls in the bath is "manly" while everyone else thinks
it just means "loser", remember?
Plus, families sometimes even disown the men that marry into a girl's
family, or are treated badly by the family.
And another point - Ranma is an ONLY son. If Ranma _was_ to do the unmanly
thing and be adopted by Souun, so becoming Ranma Tendou, what will happen
to the Saotome line? Somehow, I don't think that either Nodoka OR Genma
wishes to kill off the Saotome clan.
They seem to be young enough to have more...besides, who says the clan
depends on Ranma? Maybe he's just a tiny little twig on the family tree.
Takahashi never said he didn't have a whole bunch of Saotome cousins who
could carry on the family name. What if we don't know about all his aunts
and uncles because they're just too embarrassed to admit they're related to
Genma?
The Tendou family still has two more daughters. If someone WAS going to
marry into the family, it is the eldest daughter who marries a man to
take on the family name, not one of the other daughters.
Unless Soun decided to modernize the tradition a bit and engage Ranma to
whichever daughter was least incompatible.
There's no way that Ranma would take Akane's family name, due to honour,
Honor - what about filial piety and all that? If his dad agreed he'd marry
Akane and change her name, then is it honorable or not for him to do that?
masculinity, carrying on the family clan, and because the youngest
Hmm...what if he becomes a Tendo but A&R name half the kids Tendos and half
the kids Saotomes? That way the clan doesn't die out but just skips a
generation.
daughter of a family is one of the least likely to take the husband into
the family - especially since she'll be one of the first of the girls to
marry. The Tendou family still have two more daughters to go, remember!
So there's no way that Saotome Ranma would become Tendou Ranma!
Hmm...did Japan have primogeniture (in England this meant only the first
son would inherit the family estate to keep it from getting split up again
and again over generations, and the other sons got nothing)? If Japan did
the same thing then this means a younger brother could still inherit by
becoming some other father's only son.
So the whole deal makes sense for Soun if he really wants a male heir, but
not for Ranma since he has no older siblings. Unless there are other
Saotome kids floating around somewhere that Genma and Nodoka forgot to tell
him about....
Good points, though. Hmm...what if you make an honor-bound promise to do
something dishonorable?
Kun-chan...
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