On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, E. Knudson wrote:

  One of the greatest standards of an piece of literature is that the main
character(s) change.  That's what makes you feel for the character, you
are with him/her as they undergo new experiences which institute change.

One of the -other- 'greatest standards' of a piece of literature is that
the characters are recognizable, or at least start -out- so.  See RpM's
"The More Things Change"; -everything- changes, but everyone starts out
the same; in fact, that's one of the themes.  Akane -not- 'loving' Ranma,
as it were, makes the character unrecognizable to me, not without good
explanation.  I admit to not having read Slayers 1/2; I haven't had time
lately, and I'm not commenting on it at all.  

Richard Lawson, in a different post, said something about 'what is canon'?
and then mentioned that Zen and Blade, in particular, 'ignore' the last
few issues of the manga (I'm assuming probably the last story arc
involving Safron and the Akaneniichuan).  And, IMHO, -that- is
irresponsible.  Those events canonically -did- happen or -will- happen,
depending on your place in the timeline, and you can always, of course,
rewrite that little section of history, but assuming it plain 'doesn't
exist' doesn't work for me.  Especially in (IMHO) Blade's overfanaticism
about Tarou.  

There's one other thing, regarding 'canon'.  'Canon'icity, that is, making
a character act true to form, almost always has a lot of possible
interpretations.  And many of those interpretations are supported by one
story or the other, with opposing stories being quoted at one another. 
And certainly, who you like out of a certain cast... Shiro Kamui, Kuonji
Ukyou, even Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect... will be reflected at least a
little bit in your writing.  One of the challenges is, IMHO, to keep your
personal feelings about character 'X' from overriding what they should do.
I can't recall any instance where Ranma was in a 'serious' fight (not even
the 'non-canon' OVAs) and Akane just stood around or wanted it to happen. 
Of course, there's probably a story out there to 'prove me wrong', but. 
I've no great love of Akane, I think personally that Ukyou is a much
better person overall (I think it's that large spatula. *.*) But I *DO*
believe that Ranma and Akane -are- meant to be together. Why? Because
every truly 'romantic' moment, and every indication given by Takahashi,
says that they will.