At 03:32 PM 7/31/99 -0700, Christopher J Olsen wrote:

My thoughts as I read.

OK, so Tenchi simply has no interest in Ryouko.  Poor girl.

Yeah, her attacks on Ranma have changed Tenchi's outlook on Ryoko away from
what he otherwise might have felt.

Not completly.
To me he seemed scared stiff of her for the first several episodes.
His affection for her was slow in developing. I don't see why that
would change. I don't think Tenchi out and out loves any of the girls,
at least not in the 'till death do us part' way.
He is very fond of all of them however, and would risk his life
for any of them.

A unique approach to a trapped Ranma.  It's the only time I've seen her
written with anything except lasting depression.

Not that aliens showing up would distract anyone from their depression or
anything...

Ranma has never struck me as the sort of person who could go into
long time depression. She adapts. The first month or so of being a girl
were likely pretty hard on her, and she likely was depressed for a lot of 
that time. By now, however she's started to grow use to her new body, and
her normal cheerful disposition is once more at the fore.

Repair modules.   Plot device from the original, or is the author just
filling in the blank?

Hmm, in the original OAV's, didn't that giant floating bath kind of appear
out of nowhere, before Washu ever showed up?  It's a strong argument that
Ayeka's ship did have something of the sort, salvageable.

It was also a rather clumsy attempt at a movie related gag. ^_^;;;

I don't much like the idea of Ranma switching gender orientations.

Me either.  Ranma suddenly feeling attracted to Tenchi is a bit hard to
swallow.  Give the guy/girl a few years, and perhaps....  If you were to
back up Ranma's new feelings with some sort of plausible explanation, it
might play better, but that would be a tough one.

The last thing I want to do is to get into a would she, or wouldn't she debat.

There is something in us that determines who we are attracted to. I don't
know what
that is, or what parts are, nature, nurtur, or enviroment.

Please don't send me reams of theory. I've read lots already in other
debats, and from other sources. In a situation like Ranma's, that's all
they are, Theories. We have no way of knowing what the reality would be.



In this story, Ranma is a girl in all ways that matter. Her physical nature
is such
that she 'could' become attached to a boy. However, that is on a purely
physical 
level. Her accepting that in her mind is a completly different matter.

On that point I agree. It will take years, if ever, before she can acept that
attraction. 
But, in the Tenchi universe, Characters have life spans in the centuries.
do the math.^_^

Why is Ayeka calling Ranma "sama"?  Ranma doesn't outrank
Ayeka.  "fiance", not "fiancee"

Good point.  If anything, she might call Ranma, "Ranma-san", out of respect
or "Ranma-chan" seeing that she's a lot younger, but Lord Ranma doesn't
fit.  Ayeka calls Tenchi that, because he's her host, and she's in love
with him, and she knows he's Yousho's ancestor, which does put him on the
Jurian line of succession, if he wants it.

This could be my misunderstanding.
Ayeka did not address Ranma as Sama, she refered to her in that way when
talking about her to someone else. 
In this regard Ayeka saw her as Tenchi's equal, and gave her the same title
she would give Tenchi.

If I'm wrong about this, let me know, and I'll change it.

Really, Ranma should be working on some kind of counter to that cage
manuever.  Letting a girl push her around that way has got to bug her.

Absolutely.  Of course, countering a forcefield isn't exactly up Ranma's
alley, especially since she doesn't know any advanced Chi techniques yet.
Noticing it forming, and dodging, would be Ranma's only hope.  Of course,
with her danger sense, speed, and just a little bit of practice, say,
getting Ayeka to generate a few of her little logs at once, and trying to
sense them, Ranma might be able to learn to avoid it all the time.

Ayeka has an advantage that most people don't have when dealing with
Ranma. Ranma has filed her away in her mind as a mother figure. 
I'm not saying Ranma is aware of this on any sort of conscious level, but
she has the same reluctance to disappoint Ayeka, or to fight her, as she would
with Nodoka. Which does not mean she would not try to weasel her way
around Ayeka's demands. She just wouldn't fight her straight on.

This may moderate over time if Ayeka pushes it too much.

Ryoko should probably call Ayeka "sourpuss" rather than "sourface".

Heh.

Unless something actually interesting happens on the shopping trip, it
is just as well skipped.

I agree.

It would be interesting if Ayeka's efforts actually managed to suppress
Ranma's innate joie de vivre.  Of course in order for that to happen,
she'd actually have to convince Ranma that being un-ladylike was a bad
thing.

Well, appealing to Ranma's sense of honor is a good way to get her to go
along with what she wants.  I mean, in the canon, Ranma seems willing to
let his mother chop his head off, if she were to have found out about his
curse and demanded it, that is.  If Ranma's willing to be killed to keep
his/or her honor, than accepting the engagement to Tenchi and acting more
like a proper lady be almost reasonable.  Of course, Ranma might actually
prefer to die than go through with it, but if Ranma's honor is stronger
than his will to live, then if might very well be stronger than his/her
dislike of being a woman.

And it's not like she's suddenly been trapped a girl, and been faced with
this situation. She's been a girl for three and a half months, so a lot 
of her dislike of being a girl has faded. At the point when this story started
she had grown confortable with being a girl, in a purely day to day way.

SHE, has not acepted the social strictures placed on girls, or the 
concept of having a relationship with a boy, or with a girl, while being
a girl, for that matter.

There is a big difference between living with a disability, or a sex change,
and another to like that condition.

All of this is merely my opinon, and the tack I've taken for this story.

I don't concider it the definitive answer to Ranma's responce to being
traped a girl.

I'm just in this for the fun. ^_^

I just hope enough other people like the story enough to keep
reading.

T.H. Tiger.