>Have you ever thought that the reason she isn't able to admit her
>feelings is because of fear?  Fear that Ranma would mock her, laugh at
>her, insult her?  That she has insecurities about her own femininity,
>her attractiveness, her appeal to men?  Insecurities because she can't
>cook, she's thick-waisted and flat-chested, she's inept at most female
>tasks, she's so clumsy and uncoordinated that she makes a terrible
>martial artist...

I was expecting Don to refute most of this in a post, because even an Akane
fan like him doesn't agree with the insecurity excuse, and has posted
rebuttals several times in the past.  I think he usually posts something
along the lines that being asked for a date by all the boys at school
wouldn't reinforce any insecurities about femininity or appeal, and until
the 'supernatural' martial artists showed up, she was one of the best, if
not THE best, at school.

>*I* don't have much respect for Shamps or Ukyou, because although they
>are honest about their feelings, they very seldom take Ranma's feelings
>into consideration.  

You can't damn what they do or think from a 3rd-person omniscient POV,
which they don't have access to.  To most of the characters in the story,
it's obvious that Ranma's feelings don't include Akane, based on their
behavior to each other.

>Because Akane is nice to them,
>almost thinks of them as friends, even after Shampoo tried to kill her,
>or Ukyou tried to set her up with Ryouga so that Ranma would be "free".

Akane got angry with Ukyo for that, thinking she'd roped Ryoga into her
plot.  Of course, what she didn't know (and STILL doesn't) was that Ryoga
was a willing accomplice.  (Ukyou picked up on that within an hour or so of
meeting Ryoga- how's that for oblivious?)

I can't see anything wrong with what she did.  Ranma and Akane don't get
along, Ukyou wants Ranma, Ryoga wants Akane- a successful outcome could
make 4 people happy, instead of 4 people miserable.  At least Ukyou makes
an attempt at everyone ending up happy.


>She's all angry words and flaring hot auras, but she's never capable of
>lasting hatred, 

Again, because remaining angry at the other girls for an attempt to woo
Ranma would be a tacit (or overt) admission that she also wants him. 

>.  She doesn't
>use any dirty tricks to get him, like Shampoo's one-time Nannichuan...

She doesn't need to get him- he lives in the same house she does, and
they're already engaged.  All she has to do is not give him up, and she
wins by default.  Even though she 'doesn't want him'.

>Didn't they think that, hey, maybe
>Ranma *did* want to marry Akane?

If anyone in the series were capable of thinking that, they would've given
up long ago.  R & A remind anyone who will listen that the engagement is
their 'stupid parents' idea.'

>*I* believe that Akane wouldn't try to force Ranma into any situation he
>didn't want.  If Ranma were to marry any of the other girls, she'd snarl
>and shout and maybe not speak to him for the rest of his life, but she
>won't deny him his happiness.  Of course, I don't have direct proof of
>this one, but I like to think that's the way Akane would react.

The same way you don't like Bitter End because you don't like thinking of
Akane reacting like she did?

>As I said, no one's perfect, certainly not Ranma and Akane.  But
>together, each of them is able to fill a gap, a void, in the other... so
>that, together, *THEY* are perfect.

Too WAFFy and melodramatic, not to mention just plain wrong.  There are no
voids in either of their lives and if there were, they're so shallow that
anybody else could fill them just as easily, and their love will NEVER be
perfect- their own natures make it impossible.


Bradster            Founder of SAUCE & EOE
Ranma Preview Gallery and SAUCE thru  http://members.xoom.com/wyvern_1/
Ecchi Ranma site at http://kei.animenetwork.com/ranma/nerv/
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