On Mon, 02 Mar 1998, David Johnston <rgorman@telusplanet.net> wrote:

Matthew Campbell wrote:

Louis-Philippe Giroux wrote:

At 18:01 -0500 01/03/98, Thomas Schmidt wrote:

   Lan vs Kuno:  Agh...

   In mortal combat, I would say Lan wins, because our favorite Warder
knows how to fight to kill, whereas Kuno doesn't really seek to kill
anyone.  Also, Lan probably knows more dirty tricks than Kuno.

   If you only go for potential, though, Kuno would win because of his
unbelievable resistance to damage.

Pretty much agreed.  I just think Kuno could score more "points" in a
formal duel, but yes, Lan would go for the kill.

I'm inclined to think that regardless of the objective valuations
of the two fighters Lan as a "super-fighter" in his own world 
should rank equally with the Kunos, Mikados and Akanes of Nerima.
And I don't think an objective valuation could be made in the first
place, since we don't have enough information about how good Lan 
really is.  

   For the channelers, the present table reads as follows:

Akane: Has the spark, and it comes out very fast...

Ranma: both sides have the spark, another reason for Ranma to find a way
back as soon as possible.  I couldn't find a reasonable explanation why one
side would have the spark and the other side would not.

However, Ranma will be extremely reluctant to channel in male form, and
not just because of all the bad effects.  Remember, male channelers are
repulsed by the taint on saidin.  It feels absolutely disgusting to
them.  The only reason they continue is because the One Power is so
addictive.  However, Ranma will be able to taste the sweetness of pure
saidar.  Comparing the two will be like comparing pig swill to gourmet
cooking.  Both will allow you to survive, but one is certainly
preferable!

Thus, I see Ranma being drawn to return to his female form more and
more, as the urge to channel grows.  The only time he'll want to channel
in male form is 1.When his life depends on it, or 2.When he's been stuck
in a male form for a long time, and the urge to channel overwhelms him.

Unlike other male channelers, Ranma can probably avoid taking in too
much of the taint for a long, long time.

	If you want to completely skew the plot in the noveles, then after Ranma 
gains enough understanding of both sides of the one power, he might apply that 
mental capacity he only uses to create new techniques to figure out a way of 
bypassing the Dark one's taint or even purifying Saidin completely.  Of course 
if that purification required breaking the world again, or a large numberes of 
Saidin channelers working with precision and coordination...

Ryouga: no spark, but he can learn.  (Whether he will or not is another
matter entirely)

Probably not until the time of the Black Tower (if you go that far).
Until then, the only ones around to teach him will be the male forsaken
and I don't see that happening.  One, none of them have shown an
inclination to take on students.  Two, Ryouga has enough inherent
goodness that they'd rather kill him then teach him.  (I don't think

Nah.  Ryouga's corruptible...particularly if he sees Ranma getting
an edge he can't beat.  

	Hmm, Well Ryouga would definately be willing to do just about anything 
if he thought it would let him beat Ranma, but he has enough compasion toward 
everyone else that he'd probably start fighting the dark friends before he got 
round to learning from them.

even he's obsessed enough to sign with the dark friends.  I mean, they
even sound evil.)

Ukyou: same thing as Ryouga

Ukyou on the other hand, is probably going to start learning
immediately, almost as soon as Akane.  The Aes Sedei are on the look-out
for women who can channel, and I can't see her being missed.  In any
event, once she sees Akane doing stuff, she'll beg to learn, out of a
sense of competition.  She'll probably be quite upset that Akane is
stronger than her, but will comfort herself with the thought that she
can kick Akane's butt physically.

By the way, even after they learn to channel, I think they'll still rely
a lot on martial arts.  Force of habit, if nothing else.

	Of course since their all used to some subtle uses of Chi, they could 
very well start incorperating channeling into Martial arts techniques.  Ranma 
especially (He is the one with a record of creating new techniques)

   I use the following ranking among the females (strongest to weakest)

Nynaeve
Elayne/Egwene/Akane/Onna-Ranma/Aviendha
Ukyou (if she learns how)

* >

What are their elemental specialties?  That is, who is strong in earth,
firwe, water, wind, and spirit.  Do Ranma's elemental specialties change
when he changes form?

As I recall in my own fic, I gave Air to Ranma, Earth to Ryoga, and Fire 
to Akane, based on their fighting styles.  Water would also be good for 
Ranma of course.  However, I gave Wood/Life to Ukyo, which would 
probably be confusing to the Aes Sedai.  But then, there's no guarantee
that Ukyo is even trainable.

	Ranma has a preexisting understanding of Air from his understanding of 
the HiruShutenHa and the new techniques he created using that understanding.  
Water would only fit in the sense that his style is strongly defensive and 
fluid, though air fits in that too.  Ryouga's understanding of earth gained from 
the Bakusai Tenketsu hasn't demonstrated the same depth but it's there and it's 
significant.  Akane hasn't actually shown any inate ability toward fire, but she 
definately has the personality of fire wielder.  I honestly can't see where the 
life wood idea came from, I'd associate her more with water since she has a 
fiarly defensive fighting style.

What constitutes Ki usage, exactly?  Do they need to access Ki for all
their super-human stunts, or is it just for special attacks like the
Tenshin amaguri-ken or the Moko Tkabisha?  Arguably, the Bakusi Tenketsu
 requires no Ki at all, just the ability to sense Ki.  Personally, I'd
say Ki is only for special techniques.

A number of the things Ranma and Ryoga do only make sense if they
are burning ki to boost strength and very probably healing.  
Ryoga's cloth trick pretty much has to be ki based.