----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Hansen" <arthurh@utah-inter.net>
To: "Brendan O'Donnell" <brenda02@sprynet.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 8:48 PM
Subject: Re: [FFML] Re: [Ranma][Draft] Birthright
<SNIP>
There's no way of telling. Although Genma is definately better than
Soun because he created the Yama and Umi Sen Ken, there are no signs
that
Soun ever created any sort of Martial art style.
This Soun isn't the cannon Soun. He's got far different motivations and
buttons. We don't know how good he was in comparison to Genma under
Happosai. They might have been almost equal.
Hmm, You know it occured to me that if Soun was in fact near equal to
Genma, then he might have developed a secret style of his own. And unlike
Genma it's very likely that he never sealed it away, and he might in fact
have trained Akane in it.
And it'd be interesting to see how Soun would react upon learning that
Genma had sealed away the Yama and Umi Sen Ken. With the type of intensity
he's being described, he might wind up feeling that Akane's initial
victories over Ranma were charity on Genma's part by not teaching his son
his best techniques. He might become obsessed with getting Genma to teach
the secret techniques to Ranma, so that the real match can take place.
And of course there's always the question of how this Akane would react
when she learned about the Saotome Secret Techniques. And especially if she
got the chance to see Ranma learn both styles from Genma in one half hour
training session.
Soun probably did run the Dojo at one point, but it's completely
conceivable that the Dojo was there before he took over and he never
actually taught a lesson to anyone besides Akane.
Conceivable, but not how this has been shown in the fic. There isn't any
hard evidence that Soun was a bad teacher, either. It's just possible.
<snip>
Ranma isn't quite that fast, though he is amazing. Ryoga is good, but
it
did
take him a day or so to master the breaking point *with* a teacher.
They're
good, but not quite gods!
Hmm, well, contrasting Ranma's attitude with this Akane's 110%
attitude
is something to think about. Normally Ranma approaches everything with
a
very laid back passive attitude. Unless it's a challenge to him, in
which
case he makes it the focus of an incredible ammount of concentration and
effort onto it. So his improvement isn't a constant thing, it's that
he's
perpetually training and maintining an acceptable learning curve, but
the
moment he is challenged, he brings his full learning potential to bear
against the situation and his learning curve shifts to near verticle.
That 110% is her *attitude*. This Akane is very focussed, when she wants
to
be. Getting good grades so she can graduate, even after all of the
training
trips is what she's focussing on.
So the fact is that when Ranma decides to focus in and train
himself,
his skills are going to skyrocket. However if Akane is already
directing
110% attutude onto her training, her current learning curve is almost as
steep as it can get. And there's not much chance of her being able to
just
refocus her efforts to push herself faster, part of that 110%
concentration
is an attachment to her endeavor, she's not just a great martial artist,
she's also a great student, and if she has to abandon one to attain the
other, it's going to be one more reason to hate Ranma.
Ranma only really has three major increases in skill. The Tenshi
Amigurikan,
Mouko Takabishi, and the Hiryo Shotan Ha. (Two of which were taught by
Cologne) He's always training, but not that seriously until he has a
challenger with a trick that has to be countered. Most of the time, he
doesn't even have to learn a new techniques. He just improvises one on the
spot.
And this brings up Ranma's greatest advantage, the one even more
impressive than his learning curve. His ability to adapt to any situation.
In point of fact if he and Akane were both comprable in terms of Martial
skill, then the advantage would shift to him anytime they fought on an
irregular surfact simply because for Akane fighting outside the Dojo is an
adjustment(Small but present), whereas Ranma has had no constants in his
training and thus adapts to variations even better than Akane.
And of course there's no way Akane could possibly match Ranma in terms
of adaptability, if nothing else, that hyper focus would make her have
trouble seeing the divergent potentials that Ranma can sort and use so
easialy when he has to.
And I've never said that Akane is a great student. She just listens
attentively and tries to do her homework in the class.
Both of these guys (in my fic) are highly trained devoted martial artist.
Akane is just *barely* better than the cannon Ranma (which this Ranma is
very similar to at the beginning of the fic.)