On Fri, 16 Jan 1998, Matthew Campbell wrote:

Susan Doenime wrote:

On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Matthew Campbell wrote:

Ukyou... isn't as likely to be trained. She's already very good - better
than Akane, worse than Shampoo - and Ranma would only train someone he
knew wouldn't use it against him. 

I suppose she's worse than Shampoo because of the extra-intense training 
Shampoo got from Cologne before she left?  Also, neither of the Hibiki's 
is actually as good as Ryoga was, correct?

I always understood manga Ukyou to be slightly below Shampoo in fighting
prowess. In particular, this Shampoo is arguably tougher than the manga
version due to the training Cologne gave her.

(Although I personally think that Manga Shamps knows the BTK as well.
After all, she _is_ always busting down walls.)

Koji is roughly equivalent in skill to Ryouga - that is, Ryouga at the
start of the series. Mariko's skill level is significantly lower than her
brother's - she's around Ukyou's level, with her umbrella. Unarmed, she's
only slightly better than Akane, mostly due to inherent toughness.

Time is running out for Nabiki.  She's made an open attempt on Ranma's
life and he's got to at least suspect.  It has her fingerprints all
over it.  How long before he decides it's her or him?

Well, there are lots of suspects. And Tsen, for instance, did something
very similar to this in the last fight.

The use of a tape recorder is a dead give-away.  We all know about 
Nabiki and tape recorders.  Also, Ranma dangled from the pit for an 
undetermined amount of time.  Tsen or the Hibikis would have simply 
walked up and finished him off.  The fact that no one did will suggest 
to Ranma that the party responsible was afraid of confronting him 
physically.  Only Nabiki matches that description.

Well... microphone, not tape recorder. Tape recorders don't adapt to
shifts in dialogue. And there are non-technology ways of doing that;
throwing one's voice. Even if it was clearly tech, so was the trap in the
Ichishi building. Finally, leaving him to hang by his finger over a bit
until he loses his grip and falls... that's a nastier death than just
dropping a rock down on him, and would have (in his mind) been pleasurable
to al the factions after him.

In short, there's no clear evidence pointing towards Nabiki. Yet.

But rest assured that she's going to be way up there on his list of
suspects.

- Mike Loader
===/\=====+==================================================================
  /  \    l  "For, look you, there is humour in all things, and the truest
 / () \   l   philosophy is that which teaches us to find it and make the
/      \  l   most of it." - Jack Point, _The Yeomen of the Guard_
--------  l                    mike@thekeep.org
==========+==================================================================
Fnord.

-- 


Matthew Campbell 
E-mail me at mgcampb@clemson.edu