David Homerick wrote:

        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.

I have to agree that we've stuffed Ranma into the Han Solo role, even if
it fits from from an attitude perspective. Expect to see more of the old
Ranma in "Hentpire." I wouldn't touch how we've done Ryoga with a ten
foot pole. 
 

        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."

Kasumi Antilles is a lot of fun to write for, and she will have a lot
more attention paid to her than her motion picture counterpart. Also
expect to see Akari take on an active role. The head banging Kasumi came
from an old song-fic I wrote about a year and a half ago, and caused
quite a debate as I recall. 
 

        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.

I am compelled to point out that Luke Skywalker's rescue of Han Solo
from Jabba the Hutt was about as contrived and half-assed as you can
get. I think Nabs covered her bases much better, and put a lot more
thought into Jabba's downfall than Luke ever did.

1. Nabiki cultivated a traitor in Bib Fortuna, Jabba's majordomo, and
therefore gained access to the palace for her thugs without suspicion. 

2. Nabiki knew her enemy. She knew he would want to gloat over her, and
would become careless, especially as he was overconfidant in his secret
cadre of bodyguards. She took care of his lawyers, his bank accounts,
his bodyguards, everything. Most of it while he was busy watching her
dance. She destroyed him utterly, and yet didn't need or desire to kill
him -more than our heroes from "Jedi" can say. They settled on blowing
the whole place to shreds.

3. If you wanted to see more exposition here, all I can say is that it
was a sidestory to set up the character, and that giving it that kind of
treatment would have turned it into a novel I was unwilling to write.
 

        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.

Shampoo Deetoo had the most possibilities of any of the characters
because you could actually understand her without having to get it
second hand from an interpreter. It meant that she could actually stand
alone. 
 

        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.

Hey, he's big. He hairy. He can't speak. What more can you want? :)
 

        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.

Tofu will obviously have continuing roles in the story. We haven't
gotten too far into plotting "Hentpire" because getting out "Ranma Wars"
has been such a pain in the tukas. (We started this in July of 1996???)
 

        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.

Kunou is a bonehead, and that's rather the point. Besides, we need a
reason to have him chase the Million-Yen Yaki across the cosmos, and
what better way than for him to discover the "Pig-Tailed Girl" !!!
 

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

Hey bruddah, it worked...
 

        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.

Not going there. Not even if I wanted to. The Azusa Fett angle stands
alone just fine as far as we're concerned.
 

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

Of course.
 

        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...

Lucas covered this one well enough in his reply.
 

        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

"Ranma Wars" is going to be the hardest to write. I think now that we
have set up the story, the plotlines will start to diverge from the
movie in more and interesting ways. Mostly because core plot elements
from the films are irrelevant here. Kuno is not Ryouga's father.
Likewise Akane isn't Ryouga's sister. The addition of Ukyo as Ran's only
fiancee, set against the blossoming romance of Ran and Akane will
generate more conflict. Throw Shampoo into the mix, as the lustful
former Hentperial servant doid, and you can see the chaos brewing. 

I'm glad you enjoyed the 'fic! We'd hate to have almost two years of
effort flushed down the tubes.

Jamie
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