Hunter Kid:
> Yes she does.  I'd wager that she couldn't beat any of the other fighting
> characters in the series.

	And just how might you know that?  There is lack of Akane fighting
experience, too.  Prove it.

> It's not what you use, it's how you use it.  And Ukyou's very good with her
> chosen weaponry, probably a notch behind Shampoo, but certainly better than
> Akane.

	I haven't seem her use weaponry to any good proficiency yet.  In her
battle with Ranma, she basically just threw everything she's got at
him.  That is not necessarily skill.

> I don't have the tankoubons, just the graphic novel.  I think that's what
> you're talking about.  At any rate, he was making fun of her (Akane's reply
> was 'don't make fun of me!'), not being serious.

	She wants him to fight him more seriously, but Ranma was complimenting
that she did better than before.

> Still, it says something about Akane's reflexes/agility/balance/etc.
> Nabiki puts it into words perfectly:
> "My sister, the klutz.  Tripping yourself."

	I do not take any comment from Nabiki regarding Akane as 100% reliable
after the Nabiki-fiancee story.  I don't want to offend Justicar, but
Nabiki is often overcritical of her sister.  It's beyond what is
necessary.  She, for some reason, doesn't know the bounds she is
supposed to step on with Akane.  Even though she may have good
intentions, she seems to overstep that boundary quite often (Nab-fiancee
story in particular.)
	
> Thing is, Akane *should* have been prepared for the ball being there.  She
> put it there, after all.

	Ranma often sees the cold/hot water too, but he doesn't dodge it,
either.

> It could be, but swinging a ribbon doesn't seem to me to be the sort of
> thing that would require really intense concentration.

	Almost anything the cast does is beyond human level of competence.  It
follows that an inordinate amount of concentration is needed to do so.

> Prove it.  They both lost to Ranma, and Ukyou did better than Mousse did.
> In an all-out fight, Ukyou's probably very similar to Mousse.  Look at
> their arsenals and you'll note remarkable similarities, though the weapons
> themselves are different.

	I can't imagine why you expect someone to take you up on this.  Of
course Mousse is better than Ukyou.  Ukyou, for the most part, is armed
with nothing except for the spatulas.  It'll be quite easy for Mousse,
with his number of range weapons, to beat her without ever the need to
get close.  Mousse did a lot better against Ranma than Ukyou, and he
improved toward the end of the series, too.  Besides, he is better than
Shampoo, IMO, since Cologne stressed on that Shampoo beat Mousse when
they're little, and Mousse's indiginate reply shows that this kind of
thing won't happen again, at least that's how it seems to me.

> He was in a bad spot by the time he started fighting seriously, I'll give
> him that, but there's the fact that even after he started fighting
> seriously (that would be about when he burned his hand on the grill), Ukyou
> was still landing hits, with the tempura flakes, oiler, noodles, slap, etc.

	Wrong.  He started fighting seriously after Ukyou nailed him with the
gunpowder.  He reversed the situation in one move and seized the
advantage from there.  

> No he couldn't have, because he was stuck by the glue batter at the time.
> Ukyou's tactics were actually pretty good.

	If you think Ranma can't even break that, you're seriously mistaken.

	Look at how effortlessly he chased Ukyou after throwing her out of the
ring.  He was just playing with her, that's why he didn't break the
glue.

	Her tactics is basically:  "Immoblize the enemy, and then throw
everything we got on him."  That is pretty banal tactics.  Most people
know that an immoblized target is easier to hit then a moving one. 
Using glue to trap the target is not ingenous.  

> At first, yes.  That desire left him after he got burned, though, and she
> was still smacking him around.  She let her guard down after the gunpowder
> blast; that's why he was able to snag her so easily.

	Pity for those who underestimates their enemy.  Underestimation is one
of the biggest flaws of a martial artist.  She should've realized that
it did merely token damage to him.

> The small ones are about equivalent in power to Ryoga's bandannas, which
> isn't all that weak.

	Not at all.  Ryouga's bandanna spins at a very fast speed, and that's
why they can cut.  Ukyou's spatula are just sharp object.  And no matter
how sharp it is, it is no better than a sword, and probably not even as
good as a bokken except the range, since Ranma 1/2's bokken can slice
through a lot of things.

> So it's like Akane's mallet, then, in which case she *does* always have it
> with her.

	There are circumstances she went without it.

> I disagree.  Ukyou was able to catch him with the glue due to his own
> sloppiness - she  threw him onto the grill (at which point he became
> serious about the fight), then tossed some of the batter on him, then
> wrapped him up with the noodles and knocked him onto the grill again, all
> which he was trying to defend against - a futile gesture while tied up.
> That shows that Ukyou is, among other things, fairly good with battle tactics.

	Ranma still evaded with his mobility compromised.  He forgot the fact
that the boundaries are grill, because normally it would be safe for him
to get there.  He was saying:  "Do you have enough fun?" or something to
that effect, merely irriated and hoping Ukyou would end this stupid
fight.

>>       End justifies the means.  You're the real Machiveilian Prince.  I guess
>>if Ukyou gave her shop to Genma and made him say that she can marry
>>Ranma now, you'll appluad the action, too.
> No, it would be true, though.

	How did I guess?  And I take it you think this is an honorable
agreement, too?

> How so?  Why chaotic to orderly?  Having Nodoka accept it would have just
> screwed with RT's plans for the end of the series, so she avoided the
> problem by it never coming up.

	Gosh!  Your foolishness never ceases to amaze me!

	For the moment, I'm willing to concede that the rest of the cast did
accept the engagement as valid for the sake of the argument.  Now let's
work from there:

	If Nodoka's going to accept the engagement, is it going to make any
difference?  No.  Because if everyone already accepted it, it makes no
further difference.

	So why is the scene not written?  It could only be that it would throw
off the balance of the story, by rejecting Ukyou's engagement!  It would
swing things too close toward the solution that Akane is the only one
left.  Nodoka has already accepted Akane.  It is extremely unlikely
she'll accept a second one.  The most she might do is to ask Ranma to
sort out his things, though it's equally likely she just go ahead and
throw the wedding anyway.

> If Nodoka accepts the engagement, then the readers will have more sympathy
> towards Ukyou.  RT doesn't want that.  So she doesn't make the question
> come up.  If Nodoka refused to accept the engagement, nothing would change.
> If RT thought this was logical, she would have just put it in there.
> Seeing as though she didn't, Nodoka would obvious accept Ukyou as a fiance
> for her son.

	I will never cease to be amazed by your efforts to promote the
importance of a otherwise minor-major character.

	Ukyou is not a serious threat to begin with.  She's the last fiancee. 
She does not have any standout traits that makes her the obvious
choice.  She appears less relative to Shampoo, and her chances of
getting Ranma are minimal.  The only story she has a good shot at it is
the Ten Year Sauce story.  There is zero reason why RT needed to avoid
sympathy for her.  She never made Ukyou look like a likely choice.  No
need to worry now.

> Excuses.  She could have just gone OOC - not a big deal, considering she
> did it anyways - or she could have justified it with 'Ukyou was pissed at
> Ranma's mom' or something to that effect.

	She refers to RT, I suppose.

	I don't understand the audacity to say Takahashi-san would do an OOC
scene all in a big conspiracy against Ukyou just to keep the reader from
being sympathic with her, when clearly Ukyou isn't even anywhere near
the most popular character to begin with.  Oh, I know.  You're one of
those who believe in the conspiracy theory, no?  It's always *they* who
are responsible for the mess.  It's a *their* fault, no?  Blame it all
them, if you will!  I guess everything you happen to not like with Ukyou
is OOC, right?

> Prove it.  How in the world can you say that she's less of a threat than
> Kodachi, anyway?

	Zero and zero.  Maybe not less, then...

> I don't think 'backstabber' is the right word, because Ukyou never gave
> Akane a reason to be nice to her.  She's actually not very nice to Akane at
> all.

	Poor guiliable Akane.  Of course she is at fault for being stupid to
trust every person she knows of as friends when she should've treated
them like witches and hunt everyone of them down, right?  Of course it's
her fault she's so generous to extend an invitation for Ukyou to come to
her house, no?

> Ukyou is not a 'hypocritical backstabber' because she doesn't try to make
> Akane think they're friends.  She plots behind her back, yes, but since she
> doesn't try to 'lead anyone on' or anything like that, that pretty much
> shoots down your theory...

	Tunnel of Lost Love.  If Akane/Ranma aren't friends with Ukyou, they
wouldn't followed her so easily.

> Yes it is.  It's emotional cowardice, and Ranma's hurting everyone around
> him with it.

	Interesting... so you propose anyone who can't admit they're in love
are cowards?

> Beating Ukyou up is *not* a viable solution.

	What color do you see the sky of Ranma 1/2?  Red?  Black?  Do you
honestly think Ranma has the guts to beat up a girl?

> I don't try to excuse Ukyou's actions if they're unexcusable - however,
> they aren't.

	Explain tunnel of lost love first.  Of course jealousy is the
explanation I'll usually accept, but since you've already ruled that out
yourself, feel free to think of some other way to explain her actions.

> Yup, I'm sure you know exactly what I have and haven't read, right, Don?
> Can you read my mind, now?

	No, it's because you happened to say:  "I own the graphic novels and
anime", which translates to about volume 10 or so.

> I don't think so.  Pretending to get drunk so he can beat her up isn't a
> good solution.

	Propose a better one, then, and propose one that Ranma is capable of.

> The point is, he didn't really care whether Ryoga was alive or not.

	You think he was going to die?  It should be obvious because he wasn't
dying, at least before Ukyou smacked him I'm sure he wasn't dying.

Don
Akane's Dojo - http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dwang/ad.htm
"Future?  What about future?"
"We have no future."