Chris McNeil wrote:

-Ranma promised Ukyou TWICE to marry her, of his own free will.  Once
when they were children, once when adults.  The child time he didn't
quite know what he was promising, but the second time he DID.

 
	Okay.  I just happened to review the story a while ago.

	First of all, Ranma never did promise Ukyou to marry her in the Ten
Year Sauce Story the first time.  He cannot promise to someone that he
doesn't even know is a girl.  He just agrees to take care of her for the
rest of her life, and he doesn't know this means that he'll marry her. 
To him, he never did promise to marry Ukyou, because he didn't know
Ukyou was a girl back then.

	The 2nd time he did promise, though he never said marry her.  He said
he'll live up to his promise to take care of her for life.  His attitude
seemed strictly compensatory and conciliatory, a way to get Ukyou off
his back for the moment.  It's pretty similar to that when he said that
he and Akane are getting married in the same story.  Again, such
measures are improvised to deal with the situation.  It's not unlike the
time he told Ukyou she was cute, because he really wouldn't want someone
to be chasing after him for the rest of his life.  You probably wouldn't
want to, either.

	Ranma had essentially two choices.  He could act mean toward Ukyou, or
he could hang around Akane.  He knew he couldn't do the latter.  He
tried to tell Ukyou the truth, but Ukyou didn't believe him.  And she
pretended to cry to get Ranma to sympathize with her.  You see that in
her thought bubbles:  "Crying sure is useful!"	

	So basically Ukyou made the situation impossible for Ranma.  Ranma
tried to tell her the truth so she'd leave, but she didn't want to hear
the truth.  Do you really expect the poor boy to do what Akane suggests,
just be close to her?  Those two communicate poorly, and it is evident
that the plan for them to pretend to be married was doomed from the
start.  The alternative, which is to persuade Ukyou to leave, is blocked
because Ukyou didn't want to hear the truth.  What other choice did he
had?

-Ranma did this because he did not want to make a choice between Akane
and Ukyou (they had previously tried to force him to choose); Ranma
decided the preferably alternative was...well, let me give it to you
in fem-boy's own words:

 
	Like I said above, what other choice do you propose?

	The best and most logical choice, telling Ukyou the truth so she'll
leave, is rendered impossible because she doesn't want to hear the truth
and doesn't want to leave.

	Knowing Ranma, he can't possibly pretend he is close with Akane.  Even
though he may love her, they still don't get along well.

And, I might add, he tried to implement this plan.  First, he tried to
do so by throwing away her cooking and calling it 'slop'; foiled by
the quick reflexes of everyone else at the Tendo table.  He also bought
booze, dumped it over himself, and tried to feign drunkeness as he came
home and beat up Ukyou; this didn't work because she gave her
patented cure for drunkeness by splashing him with ice water.  Third,
he tried to put lipstick on his clothes, but Ukyou caught him (in
female form) in the process of doing so.  Finally, he went to spend
the night in Akane's room, calling her his lover.  This almost worked,
except that Ukyou eavesdropped and got the impression (due to what
was said and what had happened earlier, a quite reasonable one) that
Akane was forcing Ranma to do all these things.  Ranma's next plan
was to treat her like Akane (in other words, insult her), but this
was cut short because Ukyou, in an attempt to prove her devotion, had
drank some of the horrible okonomiyaki sauce that was the root of the
mess and gotten sick.

	And, I might add, the humor of the story is that he can't act mean
toward Ucchan like he imagined.  Earlier with Shampoo's reintro, he
imagined he would be able to able to act tough and explain everything to
Akane, and that she'll just have to listen to him because she's a girl. 
It turned out that he was not at all able to act so tough in front of
her.  Same with Ucchan.

	As for Ukyou dranking the sauce, I'm skeptical on that.  She was lying
on the floor and instantly recovered when Akane showed up.  A few frames
earlier, she said that:  "For Ranma, I even gave up on okonomiyaki.  I
won't give up easily!"  She was evasdropping on Ranma and Akane, and I
think its probable that she anticipated what Ranma may plan to do next
and moved accordingly.

Thus, because Ranma had been afraid of telling the truth (he had
ruined the sauce ten years ago), he was caught in a web of lies,
and finally he decided that the 'best' way out was to promise to
marry Ukyou,

	I'm sorry.  Ukyou is the one who is afraid of the truth.

	Ranma told her several times that he made the sauce.  In the final
incident you mentioned, when Ukyou dranked some of the sauce, he said: 
"Didn't I tell you?  I made the sauce!"  He tried earlier, too, but
Ukyou assumed Akane told him to say this, because she was afraid of the
truth.

	I appluad Ukyou for going so far to get Ranma, but definitely Ranma did
tell the truth.  She is the one who is not willing to accept the truth,
because that would mean she'd have to go home.	

and then try to drive her away by hurting her where
she was weakest: he tried to insult her cooking, 

	Kasumi said that her cooking isn't that good besides okonomiyaki. 
Cooking is only one part of his plan, anyway.  He is doing what he
thinks would work.

the most important
thing in the world to her; he tried to physically abuse her, and
he tried to pretend he was unfaithful to her.  What excuse can you
give for this?  What possible justification?  And what's more...did
it even work?  

	Please.  Don't tell me for a moment you believe Ranma was actually
going to pull off, that someone like him has the gut to abuse a girl. 
He is almost afraid of girls.  He could've gotten away from his
engagements by just saying no, but did he ever did so?  No.  

No.  Through all of that, Ukyou didn't even waver
in her devotion to him.  Why did she leave?  She left because she
had vowed to herself that she would give up okonomiyaki for Ranma,
and when she reflexively tried to cook it later, SHE decided she
wasn't ready for Ranma and left OF HER OWN FREE WILL.  She didn't have
to.  She HAD Ranma, she had him and there was nothing anyone could
truly do about it, because he had given his promise (and there were
witnesses, yet).  If Ranma didn't inspire such total, selfless
devotion from her...well, they WOULD be married.  Ranma was even
getting closer to her by the end of the story... <shrug>  Maybe,
would be, should be, all irrelevent.  The point is, there's no excuse
for what Ranma did in that story.  NONE.

	Ukyou never had Ranma.  You don't have someone if they're only
pretending to be with you.  Just as Ranma was never Kodachi's boyfriend
during the White Lily incident, Ukyou never had Ranma in the Ten Year
Sauce incident.  Ranma pretended to be with her because that's how he
preceived to solve the problem, but he never thought about actually
marrying her.

	If Ukyou stayed longer, it still wouldn't have resolved a thing.  Ranma
will still be torn from making a decision on how to tell her to leave.

	When Ranma gave his promise, I can't help but to suspect everyone in
the Tendo household that knew him so well knew it was a lie.  If you're
Soun Tendo, why would you let someone live with another fiancee in your
house?  He had every right to kick Ukyou and Ranma out of the house, if
truly Ukyou had Ranma, as you claimed.

	If Ranma is to adhere to all his promises, he still have to go kill the
female Ranma when he promised to Shampoo.  He'd have to let his daughter
be engaged to that French guy because he lost a fight to him.  He
should've conceded to Mousse when he couldn't make the match as a man. 
And what did he do in those incidents?  He arranged with Ryouga to fool
Shampoo into thinking he'd 'killed' female Ranma.  He dressed up as a
guy in his girl-form to make the match against Mousse.  While it isn't
stated, I'm sure if the French guy returns he wouldn't let his daughter
marry them.

	Ukyou's departure is a nice wrapup to the story, and I agree she left
out of her own will, as you said, because she wasn't ready for him yet. 
How is this Ranma's fault?

Don

Akane's Dojo (still under construction)
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dwang/ad.htm