From: croaker@rochester.rr.com
Date: 2004/06/29 Tue PM 01:39:43 GMT
To: thermopyle@tds.net
CC: ffml@anifics.com
Subject: Re: [FFML] Re: that hp/ranma thing

Nodoka replied, ?Eleven. His birthday was a week and a half ago.?"

...I really don't understand this.  How would Nodoka know how old 
Ranma is?  Ranma supposedly ate the 10cm mushroom.  That makes him 
ten years old, unless he ate the mushroom before his birthday, 
which I doubt; the story arc was too short and didn't cover the 
difficulties that would be present by such a prolonged period.  
Besides, unless the mushroom were 10cm and some portion of 
another, it would take a full year from when he ate the mushroom 
for him to age to being eleven.  So...this seems like nonsense.

I'm not sure how long he was stuck at that age in canon, but if it were before his birthday... well, it's his BIRTHDAY, and she's his MOTHER. Do you really expect her not to celebrate it anyway, even if physically he's only ten-and-a-little? He's chronologically SEVENTEEN!

Yes.  I'd expect her to be confused on the issue, emotionally; a random comment like "Oh, then he's ELEVEN!" that comes out of nowhere and doesn't make any sense just feels weak.  If it's supposed to be a typical Nodoka wierdism, that would be fine, as long as there is it's indicated in some way from her manner or from Ranma and Nabiki's reaction to her statement.

Regarding the issue of whether the magical school would have 
hunted down Ranma or either Tendou girl, here is the phrasing of 
Hogwarts' letter, which seems automatic/standard:

"We await your owl by no later than 31 July."

I read this as "We await your acceptance or lack thereof," with 
probably a spell put on the letter to ensure that it is not 
destroyed.  If the letter IS destroyed, more are sent, and if no 
reply is recieved, a teacher is sent.  This is supported by 
Hagrid's statement of "I knew you weren't getting your letters" 
when explaining things to Harry during the first book.  You can 
agree or disagree with how I read the way the book give the 
situation, that's just my input.  However, it should be noted that 
this is for Hogwarts, not Golden Sora, and that none of the 
characters recieved a letter from Hogwarts, so it is pointless to 
consider whether or not the matter being dropped after only one 
letter is canon; such a question does not apply here.

It's entirely possible that Golden Sora, being a Japanese institution, would have bowed to the will of the families rather than disturb the wa of the land in as great a manner as Hogwarts did when pursuing Harry.

It's also possible that Hogwarts' pursuit of Mr. Potter was, shall we say, rather more than the ordinary attempts to contact a prospective student....

Perhaps.  As I said, I was going by the "We await your owl" and the rather standard writing used in the letter.  Honestly, do you expect that many muggleborn students don't treat the letter like it is a joke at first?  The repeated owls and visit from a Hogwarts staff member does make sense in general, not just in Harry's specific case.

"Amazon law does not allow the intermarriage between normal people 
and wizards. There are so few wizards, the laws were meant to help 
promote growth.?"

...I'm failing to see the logic behind this reasoning.  There 
isn't, as far as I know, a single case mentioned in the books 
where a muggle and a wizard had children who weren't magical.  
There is, however, the reverse; at least two cases, iirc about 
Tonks's father being a muggle.  Also, it is clear that muggles can 
have magical children.  So Cologne's statement would argue that 
the children of wizards and muggles tend to be non-magical, which 
just isn't supported.  At the very least, Cologne has to state 
directly that it IS the case, since there is not canon information 
that anywhere near suggests such.

And how many wizards in the Hogwarts world actually believe and understand that? I'd say... somewhat less than half. There's still a fairly strong level of anti-muggle sentiment, and belief that "purebloods" are better than "halfbloods". Cologne's shown herself to be strongly prejudiced about things in the past, it's no surprise to find her reacting in such a way again here.

Again, something that should be indicated in the fic.  Cologne's statement comes across as fact, and a fact that doesn't make sense, so it needs support either to make it believable or to make it clear to the reader that she's talking out her wrinkled ass.

On a related note...there has been some argument over the 
significance of the Potter family line and the manner in which 
Draco addresses Harry.  Sorry, folks, but Harry isn't a halfblood. 
A halfblood has one magical parent and one muggle parent.  Tom 
Riddle is a halfblood.  Harry is not, despite the rather 
widespread fanon misconception that he is.

True. It's Hermione who's the halfblood.

... ^_^;

As for the whole Grandmaster Ranma bit...again, sorry, but that's 
really lame.  There is no reason or justification for such an 
addition to the story.  It just feels like an unneeded powerup.  
It should be cut completely, because it doesn't belong in a fic 
like this.

That all depends on what Ranma's destined role is, and why he's been handed over to Hogwarts so suddenly. Ask yourself why the premier /Japanese/ institute of magical education would suddenly turn over one of its prospective prize students to a gaijin school, with apparently little prompting? There's got to be more going on behind the scenes here.

Hm.  For Ranma's intended role...well, sorry, but at this point, even with him as a kid, I doubt almost any wizard could do anything to him.  The killing curse would be easy for Ranma to dodge.  Maybe that trick Pettigrew used to blow up a whole street (or did he just use a gas tank or something nearby?) would get Ranma, but otherwise, anybody that goes up against him, even in Ranma's current state, is going to be in trouble.

Also, I'm interested in how the whole English thing is going to be handled.  A translation spell seems unlikely, unless it's passive and doesn't actually involve Ranma being taught the language.  A passive spell such as that could be interesting, if students (Malfoy?) started figuring out how to turn it off.  An active, learning spell doesn't work, because then you have to ask why it can't be used for things other than languages.  That Ranma already knows English is fairly unbelievable, as well...

A passive spell on Ranma would make the most sense, I think.  ^_^

Yup. Again, I think the Hogwarts involvement is something relatively recent and inspired by something in Ranma's recent history... which we will hopefully see in later chapters.

Well, Ranma's name showed up in the Hogwarts book when he was born, IIRC.  That's questionable in itself, really.


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