Brad:
> 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

	I'd have posted something earlier, but I've been busying hunting those
who would spell Kid's name wrong recently (it's Kid, not Kidd!).  :)

> 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.

	So far as in her ability to do 'female tasks', it's pretty obvious that
she probably never attempted most of them before the series begin. 
Though it doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense, that's how the
series goes.  She certainly didn't cook before the series begin.

	I'm sure she's aware that she can't do them very well, but she always
think she can do better and keeps on trying, even though she will
continue to mess up as the series requires.  The only exception I can
think of is the story is that story where Nodoka was helping them out
with cooking.  Otherwise, Akane just tries to do whatever is required of
her, messes up, probably gets angry, and then tries it again another
time.

	As far as martial arts is concerned, it is not her life.  She wants to
be strong, if only as a way to showoff to Ranma (also part of the
martial arts school probably have something to do with it), but she's
not going to revolve her life around it.  So a lot of people are better
than her.  Big deal.  She'll continue to try to to get better, and even
if she can't catch up, she's not going to worry too much about it.  The
example with super strength noodles comes to mind.  Ranma said that she
always lost to Shampoo and Akane acknowledged that, but she continues to
try.

	As for appeal?  Akane doesn't really care about the attention of the
opposite gender.  I'm sure she is aware that she is pretty popular in
school.  I don't know if she thinks she's more appealing than the other
girls in the series, but she certainly do not think she's inferior in
terms of attractiveness.  

> 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?)

	You want to talk about obliviousness, Ukyou didn't notice Mousse was
the duck she was racing with in the onsen race even though it's still
tied at her feet.

	Akane's relationship with the other girls is pretty hard to define. 
Akane gets along with the other girls, but it doesn't mean she'll just
let them do whatever they want.  

> 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.

	Yeah, and Shampoo figures Ranma wants to marry her so if they found
some way to drag him back to China and get married, everyone will be
happy too.  For that matter, just about everyone in the series figure
what they do makes everyone else happy.

	As Caroline might say, if it's okay for one person to do whatever
because he's igorant of the truth out there, it must be okay for
everyone else to do that too, OR you can have it so that everyone has to
be accountable for everything they do, igorant or not.

> 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.

	Errr, I think the other girls at least has a clue that the Akane and
Ranma relation may be a little bit more than what it appears on the
surface.  

	Besides, most of the time none of the girls are in a position to
threaten her, so why would she get angry with them?  Akane certainly get
along with them as friends, so if they're not going to take Ranma away,
why does she have to stay angry at them?  Sure she's not going to like
Shampoo or other people scheming around, but when all is said and done,
the schemes never work anyway, and everything is back to the way it is
always been.

	Though I've to admit the relationship between Ranma and Akane gets
weird toward the end.  They act like an engaged couple (or at least good
friends), but there is no sign they want to be married anytime soon, and
of course if you really ask them they'll probably still tell you that
it's not their will to be together, but they don't actively resent the
fact either. 

> >*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?

	No, because Bitter End is a very illogical interpretion of the
characters.  I suppose some people don't really care about whether
something is canonical or not, and it's hard to have meaningful writing
with Ranma 1/2 considered how limited the stuff you're given is, but I
don't think that justifies tearing apart the character foundation to
write a story.

	Though the notion Ranma might marry someone else is already outside any
canonical Ranma 1/2 references we can look upon, I'm inclined to agree
that Akane will get over it.  I don't see the other girls scheming to
kill Ranma and Akane for the rest of their life if they do get married. 
I don't see why Akane would get so worked up if Ranma ends up with
someone else.  They got separated a couple times in the story already. 
Yes it hurts her to be separated, but she can get over it.

> 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.

	Akane and Ranma is just a couple that was meant to be.  I don't look
for any deeper meaning in their relationship besides that.



Don