Hmm.
First, I would like to say that I truely enjoyed this fic.
Second, I can't help but comment on the whole Shampoo thing:

    The first time I read it, my personal thought was that
Shampoo was a little over the top, but I didn't think it really
detracted from the story at all. Then again, maybe I have read
too many Shampoo as the villian storys.
    Then after reading all of the C&C on it, I thought about how
I see Shampoo.
    There are those that see Shampoo as villianized in this
story, and to some degree, that is true. True only so far as
Shampoo is never given the chance to redeem herself to Akane and
thus the reader.
    The entire story is Akane's words, thoughts, and feelings,
not the narrator's or even the narrator looking over Akane's
shoulder. Thus, both what Akane does and doesn't know should
color how she sees things as she looks back through her life.
Leifker had his thoughts on why Shampoo would do this, but Akane
wouldn't know those reasons. This, to me, only adds to the story.
    Now, could I see Shampoo doing this? Sure. Given the proper
motivation, anyone short of Kasumi could probably have been cast
into that place. So why Shampoo? Since the original story doesn't
include those reasons, please walk with me while I give my
thoughts on why.

    From the first we meet Shampoo, she was out to 'kill'
girl-type Ranma. But she never does. To me, I don't think Shampoo
is/was capable of it. The only thing Ranma did to earn his death
sentance was to defeat Shampoo in a contest. Thus begins, in my
mind, the whole process that could very well go the way this
story finishes.
    Picture Shampoo, raised by her great-grandmother to be a
warrior. Then forced by her pride and village law to hunt down
and kill girl-type Ranma. In the flashbacks, she is shown to get
very close several times, but always fails. Also, she choices not
to kill Akane, dispite giving her the dreaded "kiss of death."
    She gets to Narima and begins chasing Ranma in both forms. I
don't believe, at this time, she was serious about boy-type. My
reason for this was that she was willing to give boy-type the
cure for Akane's memory loss, in effect giving him back Akane, if
he would kill girl-type. Ranma gives her the run-around, to
confuse her, which works. But before Ranma can finish his plan,
they discover the alternate cure for Akane. Shampoo shows up,
sees this then goes back to her original plan, chase boy-type
until girl-type shows up. (Hey, it always worked, didn't it?)
When Ranma reveals his curse, she is presented with a girl who
was, from Shampoo's point of view, willing to give her life to
cure Akane. Not to mention the humiliation of acting cutesy to a
girl and target all the while everyone was probably laughing at
her. And once again, her compassion stays her hand from killing
Ranma.
    Now, about the whole Juesenkyou curse as punishment cliche.
If that was her punishment for failing to kill girl type, why
aren't the other elders there? or any of the other warriors?
Friends to lend their support, and jealous foes to witness. Other
than the Guide, only her great-grandmother and her father are
there. Very private, family affair it would seem. I always read
it as Shampoo, seeing her compassion as a weekness, asking
Colonge to further her warror training in hopes that she would
overcome her precieved failings.
    Once she was cursed and had the curse explained to her, she
is given her first chance to redeem herself in her own eyes. She
convinces herself that she must have known deep down that Ranma
was a male. Thus, the reason she wants to believe she couldn't
kill him was she must be in love with him. Thus the rest of the
cannon.
    Now we flash forward into Leifker's story. At this time,
Shampoo has seen Jusendou and the results of the first wedding
attempt. With this second, she knows she has truely lost.
Precieveing this as failing her great-grandmother, her tribe, her
up bringing, and herself she takes action.
    From the way Akane recounts it, I get that Shampoo didn't
wait until Akane was alone. She didn't attack her before the
wedding, nor while she was getting ready and Ranma would have
been away. She didn't wait until their honeymoon when both their
guards were down. She instead attacked her at the wedding right
in front of Ranma. This sounds to me, more like she wanted Ranma
to kill her than actually kill Akane. The "If she couldn't live
as a warrior, than she would die as a warrior" thought.
    Truely a tragic. A girl pushed to the edge, because she
couldn't meet, in her own eyes, what she was taught a warrior
should be.

    Now, a word about Akane's view on things. Cannon Akane
forgives fairly easily and, as was pointed out in earlier
comments, would probably see in Shampoo a potential friend. With
her wedding deceiding the whole Ranma issue, I can see her having
a great hope that things could be settled. With Shampoo's attempt
on her life being seen as the utimate betrayal both of that
potential friendship and of her dreams.
    That Akane still feels so strongly about what happened this
many years later, to me, speaks volums of how deeply Shampoo's
act hurt her. And since Shampoo was never allowed the chance to
redeem or at least explain herself to Akane, and thus the reader,
makes the whole affair that much more tragic.

    This is merely my opinion on things and this story. My views
of Shampoo and Akane my not, and probably don't reflect Leifker's
or most of the list. But I think they make since.
    Personally, I don't think a good or great story should tell
or explain everything. Certainly, an author should wrap up the
main points, but there should always be something for the reader
to think on. Somethings to left to the reader to decide for
themself whats going on behind the door. Something this story
does wonderfully. If the reader has some burning need to see
Shampoo as the villian, then it is left open for that
interpretation. If you want to see her as something more, the
door is still open.
    This is an emotional story told as if by one who actually
lived it. For the story not to be colored by how Akane would come
to view things would take most of the empact away, I think. And
while I would wish that things could have been settled between
Akane and Shampoo, that they aren't makes the story that much
more real and somewhat tragic. I think it makes it a better
story, because everything doesn't wrap up nice and neet.

    Anyway, these are my thoughts on the story and the discussion
on wiether or not Leifker hired the same actress to play Shampoo
as normally plays fanfic-cliche Akane. :)

kit
=====================================
We the unwilling, led by the unknowing,
  are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful.
We have done so much, for so long, with so little
  we are now qualified to do anything with nothing


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