On Sat, 06 Sep 1997 04:07:14 -0400, Eric Adams <eda104@erols.com> wrote:

This is a hard one to evaluate.  I think that Mr. Lawson is correct in
saying that it lacked passion.  Much like Ukyou's part the story seem to
go beyond beyond the basics. Ranma and Akane decide to get married,
Akane finds out something about herself.  No passion, nothing that would
make me suggest to these two that they should get married, in fact i
would probably suggest that they dont until they sort out some of their
problems.  

That may or may not have been the smart thing to do; but their choice
was to get married.

Ryouga and Akari worked cuz it was a stand alone story that could've
worked in any context you put it.  But also in that one there is no
passion, no reasoning, they just are in love but why did they decide
they are in love..

Actually they did not decide that they are in love -- though personally
I don't doubt that deep down they are. They merely decided to get
married.

I've seen fics with Ranma and Akane in a big romantic scene, where they
confess their secret passions to one another and the uncertainty in
their relationship is from then on gone. That seems to me wrong, at
least for this particular couple, and this chapter is (in part) a
reaction to such stories. What they have (in this series) is a more
subtle kind of love, a gradually developing  feeling of comfortability
with each other. This is a continuous process that's never finished.
You'll see in upcoming installments that, though they improve, they
still have difficulties, and there will be no "happily ever after".

That's not to say that I'm not sensitive to the concerns of you and
others. I appreciate hearing what you have to say on this, and will take
it into account as much as possible.

I dunno to me thats kinda imp't, to others it isnt.  I'm still very
intrigued by whats going on and i even felt sorry for shampoo (oy did i
say that?).  On shampoo's note she may have been a little more upset
about cologne dying,

She was, but 'twould have been a sign of weakness to show it, especially
to Ranma. You'll see this in the next part.

I can't wait to find out why she would seek out
Ranma though...

Because Cologne told her to. Why THIS is you'll see next time, and it
will have important consequences for the main series...

E-mail reaction to this chapter has been mixed so far. I'm going to work
on a re-write that will (hopefully) address the concerns of those who
thought this part could've been better, while (hopefully) keeping the
qualities that the others liked. Once again, many thanks for your input
on this.


Gary Kleppe
kleppe@execpc.com, Home page http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe
My fanfics and the FFML map are on my comics/manga page,
       http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics