<snip quote from fic>

Tom Flair wrote:

Alright, alright, whilst I know that this is a spamfic (gotta love 
'em),
              an interesting question is brought up.  Is crying out 
the name of the
              attack (bakusai tenketsu) REALLY necessary to finish 
the move?

              I was always of the opinion that it was the honourable 
thing to do, to
              give ones opponent an opportunity to counter-attack.  
But, if the
              villain truly wanted to hurt/maim/kill/utterly-destroy 
their opponent,
              why call it out and take the chance the good guy would 
already know the
              counter?

              Just a question.

              -Tom

This, of course, is not official as it comes from a fanfic.  In that 
fanfic, someone is trying to show Ranma a new chi technique, and does 
not give a name for it.  Ranma is unable to master the technique until 
he thinks of an appropriate name and shouts it out while trying it.  The 
explanation given was that shouting the name helped Ranma to focus his 
chi in the proper form for the technique.  This would indicate that, 
while it's not exactly necessary to shout the name of the technique, if 
that's the way someone has always done it, then that's the way they 
_have_ to do it.  In Robert Jorden's _The_Wheel_of_Time_, all that's 
neccesary to perform a particular task with the One Power is to weave 
the flows in a specific way.  However, since most channelers have become 
accustomed to using certain hand gestures with their weaves, they would 
be unable to form the weave without those hand gestures.  Of course, I 
could also bring up David Eddings _Belgariad_ and the Will and the Word.

--
Erik

"If you see my mind out wandering, be sure to send it back."

     -Marion Zimmer Bradley, _Witchlight_

http://www.cs.transy.edu/ejessup/homepage.html
--

P.S.  The fanfic I mentioned early is Meiyo Ai soshite Nikushimi, by 
Joseph Kohle.  The technique?  Well, Ranma called it "Hurricane Eye 
Deflection".  It's a method of blocking chi attacks.

P.P.S.  I've been lurking on this list for a little while, and thought 
I'd go ahead and respond to this post.  I hope to post a fic of my own 
sometime after Christmas.

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