In a message dated 11/16/2002 9:55:58 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
GlaziusFalconar@peoplepc.com writes:

You might as well subsitute all the character's names with new original
names and no one would notice. ^_______^;

Explore the character's motivations for doing what they do - e.g. why
Shampoo did what she did, etc, ad infinitum.

    Again, that's going to be covered in the main story, and is actually
going to be an important plot point. I *CAN'T* clarify or explore it here
without ruining something later.

...

So... what was the point of all this, exactly?

Georg Simmel, in his "Philosophy of Money", advances many
non-philosophy-of-money points, among them this:

'Truth' in a work of art, the quality that makes the work 'good', boils down
to the work as a whole keeping the promises that any one part has offered
us.

This does bring a lot of subjectivity into things, as far as individual
interpretations of promises go. But...

This story follows the events of "Ranma 1/2". "Ranma 1/2" was originally a
screwball martial arts slapstick romantic action comedy. (With a heart.
Probably.) It is not unreasonable to originally expect a story featuring the
cast of Ranma 1/2 to be, in some respects, a screwball martial arts
slapstick romantic action comedy _story_. With a heart, maybe.

You summarize parts of Ranma 1/2, and then have Shampoo kill Akane for no
elaborated reason.

    That reason is going to be a plot point in the main story. If I 
elaborated here... anyway, no one from Ranma's world *KNOWS* the full reason. 
There are hints both here and in the main story, but the full explanation is 
*SUPPOSED* to be a mystery for now.

Can you see how some people might feel their expectations have been cheated?

If you can't make this story fit Ranma 1/2, or through description and
suchlike bend Ranma 1/2 to fit this story, but you're planning to do so
later, why even do this now?

    This is a *SIDESTORY*. It's meant to provide clarification on things that 
aren't going to be shown in the main story. This chapter fills a neccessary 
role, but it's mainly there as a transition, to set the stage for the real 
stuff, things like what happened to the remaining Tendou sisters, what 
happened to Ukyou, and so on.

I don't understand, myself.

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