At 10:55 AM 4/22/00 -0500, rcarson@rcarson.com wrote:
Kevin D. Hammel writes:
Nabiki sighed and shook her head. "Oh brother... another hopeless
cause. First Ranma and Akane, and now you."
Lorelei blinked. "Ranma and Akane? Aren't they...?"
]] Oopsie!
Nabiki's eyes widened. < Oops! Damn... she'll never buy the real
truth.> "Both girls? Yeah, it's not all that different from your
Hanagata, is it?"
I meant to mention this when the chapter came out, but there's no
reason for this. All Nabiki has to do is mention that the original
Ranma whose mind was recorded was male. There's no need to bring up the
curse, and it would avoid some obvious problems later on. I can imagine
why the author wanted the misunderstanding in terms of setting up later
plot elements, but there's really no convincing reason that I can see
for Nabiki not to mention Ranma's orignal gender. If someone asks why
the original Kuno recorded a guy's mind, she could say he made a mistake,
or perhaps swung both ways, or was just plain nuts. I've enjoyed this
story a lot, but that point really bugged me.
Reid Carson
rcarson@rcarson.com
I've had a similiar thought, but it was moderated by why I thought
they would do it.
A conditioned reflex on the part of both Nabiki and Akane.
Kuno recorded Ranma when, and because he was female at the time,
and it has not really occured to them that there is no need
to dance around the subject, they are so use to covering for
Ranma with strangers in this regard, that it's reflex.
Of course, there is also the matter of the Kuno's building their
new bodies to the same specifications as the originals.
There must have been some sort of record giving those details,
and if they could do mind records, they very might have access to
full medical scans, which would show that Ranma was indeed a girl
when she was recorded.
So if Akane and Nabiki tried to tell them that Ranma was really
male, they would be looked at with sceptisim, and the possibility
that their recordings were in some way faulty.
Of course they likely did not think it through that far, as I said,
conditioned reflex.
I can't speak for the author's reasons of course, only my own
take on the matter.
T.H.