At 12.42 23.7.1999 -0400, Miller, Bert wrote:
At 23.11 21.7.1999 EDT, Kenjiko2@AOL.COM wrote:
Lina just stared. Breaking bricks with... Magic. Ranma and
Akane must be using some strange magic.
<clip>
But how could anyone do the things she'd just seen
without magic?
<clip>
There is one tiny problem with this scene, a problem which
goes by the name
Philionel Saillune. The guy who can do couple-hundred-feet
jumps (just watch
NEXT episode 13...) disintegrate lesser demons with his
fists, and never
uses weapons.
<clip>
But if you _do_ care, we're never told (to my knowledge) that
Lina has been unable to sense magic when Phil does these
things in her presence. Maybe he's using an amulet, or had
a spell cast on him.
Well, in episode 11 of Slayers (where we first met Phil) Lina
made comments such as 'what the hell' and 'how's he's able to do that'.
That would indicate that Phil-san doesn't use magic. Of course it is possible,
but my opinion is that he's not using magic to enchance his abilities. It's
just a 'justice filled hearth.' ^_^
Lina could eat more than Ranma... possibly. But there
was no way
she could match her speed. Ranma ate with a weird mixture of
delicacy and hyperactivity.
Actually, most of the time Ranma eats rather normally in the
manga (IIRC).
His appetite is rather small compared to Lina and Gourry's.
And this isn't the first time somebody's after Lina's food...
(see NEXT
episode 1. It includes a fork battle between Lina and Gourry.)
Ranma does eat less than both Lina and Gourry in this story,
any time when quantities are offered. But I did think the
proportions off a bit; in my own fusion spamfic, I had Genma
tell Kasumi that "Lina" outeats male-Ranma by 10-to-1, and
even faster than Ranma eats. Of course, I was going for
humorous effect.
<nod> I did the same when the Tendos were introduced to the Inverse
method of eating.
However, Ranma eats much less than Lina or Gourry, in my opinion.
Where Lina's 'typical meal' would include at least eight dishes, Ranma's
usually content with three, when he eats more than normal humans.
For reasons that are hard to explain, Gourry's innate good cheer
and happiness made the two extradimensional travelers somewhat at
ease. In a way, he reminded them of a giant swordwielding Kasumi.
They had found themselves taking an immediate liking to the man.
Umm... Gourry's a mercenary, and a swordsman. He's incredible
dense, but IMHO
has no (other?) Kasumi-like qualities.
I loved the comparison, personally. Other than denseness (which is
actually debateable with Kasumi), Gourry does have an "innate good
cheer", IMO, and if so, he certainly has it in common with Kasumi.
Well, maybe I just remember the times he's a gallant swordman or a dumb
sidekick better than when he's a cheerful person who makes everybody feel
welcome... ^_-
But honestly I think a Kasumi-Gourry comparison is a bit far fetched. Oh well...
Lina turned to the others. "I have a problem here.
One of those
guys is a low-level magus. He's got a detection crystal, which means
the instant I try to charge up a fireball or anything like that it's
attack in force time. Ranma, how big can you make those chi-things
of yours?"
Ummm... I don't really see the problem here... Her casting
time for Fireball
is non-existent. Then again, if she wanted to make a really
big Fireball...
Okay, I confess I had trouble swallowing this one also. On the
other hand, this is a good means to tame Lina down to the point
where she doesn't overshadow Ranma. (The problem you're trying
to solve, Jussi.)
Point. But the ideal solution is _not_ having Ranma overshadow Lina...
Freeze Arrows. And seeing that the others are doing rather
well on their own,
Lina'd be at least as likely to go back to eating as to
participate in the
fight... ^_^
I don't know that I agree here. Lina, IMO, _enjoys_ beating
up bandits. There's no other good explanation for Next
episode 2, among other things. If anything, she's probably
annoyed that she's not the undisputed center of the action,
beating them all up by herself.
Well, there have been many occasions where she's just cheered from sidelines
until asked what she's doing. I think she became more agressive (is that
possible? ^_^)
as the series continued, but in the Shabranigdo-storyline I remember a few times
she let Zel and Gourry do the dirty work. And in NEXT episode 1 she
completely ignored
the tavern brawl, and concentrated on eatin, until her food was destroyed.
Which reminds me... What's she going to do to Ranma once she realises just what
has been happening to her food? ^_^
The one thing that bugged me
was how amazed
Lina (and no one else) seemed to be all the time and how
Ranma seemed to
outshine
Lina througout the chapter.
<clip>
And I do admit that Lina-being-amazed-and-no-one-else has
happened before.
(like when
she first met Philionel...)
Repetitive confounding of Lina, as in the first Phil episode,
is very funny (particularly if you visualize Megumi Hayashibara's
voice screaming "but you don't look anything like each other!".)
This chapter of "Redheads" wouldn't have been nearly as good as
it was without Lina pounding her head against the wall trying
to figure Ranma out.
Well, true.
Now, I only hope there's going to be a chapter
in which Ranma and Akane
are going to have their minds blown off by Lina's rather
strong magical abilities.
One problem here is that Ranma and Akane already know something
about Lina. If they've seen any "Slayers" at all, they've
probably seen Lina toast a town with a Dragon Slave. There are
a few things you can do with this, of course: you could focus
on experiencing it as reality vs. watching an anime, and/or
you could show R & A's astonishment that the townspeople actually
live through such a disaster, unharmed except for the layer
of charcoal.
If they've seen six or seven first episodes of Slayers, they
haven't seen a thing. All the fun stuff happens AFTER that... ^_^
But true, they'd have some knowledge of magic. Just as Lina should have
some knowledge of unarmed fighting, having travelled with a few practioners
on occasion... ^_^
----------
Jussi Nikander
Jussi.Nikander@alien.nixu.fi
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Certified evil GM.