I'm going to organize this response by looking primarily at the
casting choices.  Since the main plot is more or less straight from *Star
Wars*, the interest in the story lies mostly in the contrast between the
Ranma characters and the characters from the original.

	RANMA: Han Solo
	RYOGA: Luke Skywalker
	AKANE: Princess Leia.
	"Ran Wars," a similar fic from some time ago, had Akane in the same
role, but swapped Ranma and Ryoga.  I remember thinking at the time that
this was a poor choice, not only because the personalities of Ranma and Han
and of Ryoga and Luke are good matches, but because the Ranma/Akane and the
Han/Leia relationships are so similar.  This fic does a much better job of
matching the roles.  The "Lostwalker" joke is nice as well.  However, Ranma
appears too closely pressed into the Solo role.  I'd like to see more macho
swagger from him, and more hand-to-hand fighting instead of blaster fire.
I can already imagine how he'd react to the suggestion that he traipse off
into the Breast Star to rescue some uncute girl just because she happens to
be a princess.

	KASUMI: Wedge Antilles.
	Wedge never had much personality of his own, so there's little
conflict with Kasumi's.  His *job*, on the other hand, makes an odd match.
Kasumi is a sweet, polite, and innocent ace starfighter pilot.  The authors
play this to the hilt, having her paint duckies and bunnies on her
starfighter and run her squadron like a Girl Scout troop.  She's loads of
fun, and I hope to see more of  her in this role, not just as "Tofu's
girlfriend."

	NABIKI: Jabba the Hutt.
	More accurately, Nabiki is a replacement Jabba.  While I think
Kodachi would be a better choice, Nabiki could work well.  Her sidestory
has a major problem, though.  The idea -- Nabiki takes over Jabba's
organization via a clever plan -- is sound enough, but the authors were
unable to come up with a clever plan.  Instead, Nabiki takes over Jabba's
organization via a silly plan that turns on Nabiki's ability to smuggle
large numbers of mercenaries onto Jabba's supposedly impregnable compound.
No information is given on how this is done or why, having done this,
Nabiki bothers with the high-speed aerial insertion or the Mata Hari dance.
Perhaps it gives her a thrill.
	Writing intelligent characters is a difficult task.  The trick is
to show the character's intelligence in action, making sure not to fall
into the Holmes trap ("I happen to have made a study of that, Watson") or
the Janeway trap ("I'll just recalibrate the polaron neutralizers on the
Luxor flow.  That will solve out problem nicely").  But giving your
character an inane plan and justifying its success by pointing to the
supposed intelligence of the character is to fall into the worst trap of
all -- the Marissa Amber Flores Picard trap.

	SHAMPOO: R2D2
	MOUSSE: C-3PO
	Shampoo's essentially self-centered nature brings an interesting
variation to faithful droid R2D2.  She isn't interested in saving the
galaxy; she's just trying to stay in one piece.  She resents being sent on
errands, and why shouldn't she?  She and Mousse are essentially slaves,
sentient beings treated as property.  Her constant desire to control her
situation despite her status as furniture makes her easily the most
compelling character in the story.
	Mousse fares less well.  Shampoo's presence keeps him in blithering
idiot mode, and he never contributes anything.  She has to simultaneously
protect him and fend off his advances.  I would say he plays Joxer to her
Gabrielle, but that's actually more dignity than he really has.

	GENMA: Chewbacca
	Not much to say here except that "Gen-baka" is a perfect name for
him, and I'd like to see it used outside this fic.

	TOFU: Ben Kenobi
	This is more or less a good fit, especially since both Tofu and
Kenobi disappear partway through their respective stories.  I hope there's
not too much emphasis on the Tofu/Kasumi romance, though, since I've never
seen anything interesting done with it.  Oddly, if the story follows the
original, Tofu will die on the Breast Star, leaving only his ghost to date
Kasumi.  Maybe spirit glasses don't fog up.

	TATEWAKI KUNO: Lord Vader
	Kuno makes a funny Vader, but not a very threatening one.  He's a
buffoon and a fool, and his fighting ability's not much better than
Akane's.  Vader needs to be a powerful presence, not a joke.  Pantyhose
Tarou would be a much better choice.

	PRINCIPAL KUNO: Grand Moff Tarkin
	Not much to say here either.

	AZUZA SHIRATORI:  Boba Fett.
	MIKADO SANEZIN:  her partner.
	Mikado is a new character for *Star Wars*, as evidenced by the fact
that he got to keep his entire name.  Azuza is entertaining as the
feared-for-an-unusual-reason bounty hunter, but I could have done without
the I'm-only-pretending-to-be-an-idiot scene, as that's become a fanfiction
clich�.  More important is a badly missed opportunity on the part of the
author -- we never hear of Azuza's sisters, Anaheim and Cucamonga.

	HAPPOUSAI:  Unknown.
	Happousai will probably be the emperor -- err, hentperor, simply
because he's the logical choice.

	UKYO:  Unknown.
	Ukyo will probably be assigned the role of Lando Calrissian, Han's
old buddy.  Ranma, of course, will have no idea that Ukyo's a girl, much
less that she's long been in love with him...

	Overall, I've enjoyed both the main story and the sidestories, with
the exception of the irritating Nabiki one.  I'm looking forward to more.

-- David