[FFML] Quantum Destinies - any heroes?

[Matthew]

So with all the recent list traffic on Quantum Destinies, I decided to go back and read the first chapter.  I wasn't really a follower of QD when it first came out, though I read a few chapters here and there.  Anyway, I wanted to ask- do the characters ever get likable or become people you can cheer for?

In the first chapter the characters range from being merely self-centered and concerned with their own ambitions to being outright evil.  They live in an oppressive empire that openly exists for the sole benefit of the wealthy and powerful, ruthlessly exploiting all other nations and people for sport.  They have televised blood matches in the arena, and the first time we meet spymaster Soun he's thinking how nice it would be to have a troublesome subordinate killed*.  Basically they're all kind of horrible.

As I recall the original plot, Ranma (and later other characters) start getting brain downloads from their counterparts in other realities.  They pick up various new abilities and skills and emotional connections and ambitions and all that.  But do any of them ever become... well, better people with some sense of morality?

I'm not just talking about one character developing feelings for another.  I mean like developing the idea that hurting other people to benefit yourself is wrong.  That ambitions should be sacrificed if the cost is too high.  That a stranger in trouble should be helped at cost to oneself.  Do any of them ever become the sort of people who would look at Nabiki and Akane's behavior in the first chapter and say, "This is wrong and I won't allow it to go on."?

I mean, I know the characters in canon Ranma 1/2 aren't all that nice, it being a comedy series and all.  But it's at least possible the look at canon Akane and Ranma and believe that they have basically good hearts, just kind of thick headed and stubborn and young.  QD Ranma is a genius, and the scene where he watches Nabiki and Akane act like gangsters to some desperate schmuck without the slightest inclination to help- that's where he lost me.

I vaguely remember a lot of cool stuff in QD.  I'm just hoping that some protagonists pop up whom I actually have reason to cheer for.  So is it worth my while to read the other 22 chapters by that criteria?

*I know by historical standards the Empire is hardly the most brutal nation to have existed, but I judge them by modern day standards.

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Matt