T.H. Tiger wrote:

At 01:26 PM 7/25/98 -0500, David Lerman wrote:

At 01:32 PM 7/25/98 -0500, Mike Allen wrote:

All,

One thing everyone is missing is that the situation is not similar to
someone with gender dysphoria or someone who has been castrated.

The magic of the curse has turned Ranma into a fully functional female.  His
genes are XX when female.  More things are different between men and women
past the obvious ones.  Our brains are different.  Hormones are different.

I think it's obvious that the curse somehow allows the mind to be
independent of the physiology of the alternate form.  Otherwise, Shampoo,
Mousse, Ryouga and Genma wouldn't have human intelligence and goodness
knows how Tarou would think and behave when in monster form.

                                                        dml

Ah, but that is the curse in regular operation, who is to say what its
affects are in the present situation.

By what we already know from the other times Ranma has been trapped in
cursed form, one way or another.  In both the All-Over-Body-Cat-Tongue
incident, and the Chiisuiton incident, Ranma demonstrated that his male
mind was independent of his cursed form, as dml pointed out.  This
"poison" doesn't seem to be much different, except they haven't yet
found a cure.  
 

I've maintained for some time that Ranma's female form is not a curse in
the manner of a werwolf, who would return to normal upon death, but rather
it is the transformation itself that is the magic, the form Ranma wears in
either shape, is perfectly natural.

I wonder if Ryoga, Mousse, or Shampoo (not to mention Ranma) would feel
this way.  Somehow, I doubt it.
 

What the curse does, is allow humans to retain their core personality, and
inteligence, no matter what form they take.

So if whatever trapped Ranma, destroyed the curse, ridding her body of it,
rather then simply turning it off. It could also have removed the
protection that kept her male no matter what body she was in.

Ah, but whatever trapped Ranma didn't destroy the curse, but rather
sealed it.  It was not the curse that was destroyed, but rather Ranma's
true form.

All this debate aside, I thought the story was well-written and
entertaining; a good angst read, even if my feelings echo Gary Kleppe's
about Ranma's character.

But there's something else, that has nothing to do with the
gender-debate, that's been bothering me.  Cologne and Happosai are the
main suspects in the crime, because they both disappeared after Ranma
was "poisoned."  Now, I can't see them working together on this, so I'm
guessing that one chased after the other.  But what I can't figure out
is a convincing motive for either one to do this to Ranma.  Happosai may
be a pervert, and may enjoy putting Ranma in his place, but he's never
been *that* malicious.  Why would he bother locking Ranma in cursed
form, when he takes so much obvious delight in the ol' Splash and
Glomp?  And as for Cologne, even if I thought she was capable of such a
pointlessly cruel thing, stealing Ranma's manhood right before his
wedding just to *show him*, I honestly can't see Happosai chasing after
her to get revenge for Ranma.

So, Nick, what's up with this?  Normally I like your vague hints at
what's happened in the past, but this just doesn't make sense to me. 
Please explain?  ^_^

Ja ne,

Krista