Pierre :

>Stiffanie speaks a lot:

Yeah, you *always* take care to notice *that*, of all things... ^_^
Well, I have a feeling I'm gonna talk a lot in this post, too.  So get
used to it! ^_^

>I don't know why, but whenever the argument comes up, it irks me.
>I have no idea why their mother's death would affect the psyche of
>the Tendou girls that much.

Just like Don would reply later, what I was trying to say that Akane
would probably be a whole lot more "feminine" if her mother were alive.
In the Ranma-world we know now, Akane's idea of femininity (at least at
first) is trying to emulate Kasumi.

>"Love is to be happy if she is happy"; that's an ideal. An ideal I'd
>like to believe in, but that I never could apply to my life.

Yeah, it is.  But like you said, it is one ideal I myself like to
believe in, although I very much doubt that I could practice what I
preach.  We're only human, after all.


Bradster:

>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,
>being asked for a date by
>all the boys at school wouldn't reinforce any insecurities about
>femininity or appeal,

I don't think that having a mob of boys trying to defeat you to get a
date is at all flattering.  It's more of "annoying". I very much doubt
Akane thought that was very "ego-boosting".  I think she probably
thought it was some male "ego" thingie, since it *was* the school's
current "champion" who issued the challenge.


In HSH, when Ranma said, "I didn't even want you to come here in the
first place!"  Akane began to cry and said, "Is it because I'm not as
good a cook as Ukyou, or I'm not as strong as Ryouga?  I'm so clumsy,
I'm just in your way..." then she ran away crying and thought, "This is
the time when Ranma really needs me, and I can't do anything to help
him....."  How's THAT for insecurities?

Ranma :
"I ain't holding you, 'cause I like you or nothing!  Get real!"
"Put your clothes back on!  With such small breasts, who'd wanna look at
a flat-chested girl like you?"
"Compared to a nasty older sister, I think I'm a LITTLE better off with
a violent little sister for a fiancee!  Hah hah hah!!!"

Do you think that words like these from Ranma, who's supposed to love
and cherish her like a fiancee, actually inspire her to think that Ranma
*does* care for her?  That he won't laugh in her face if she told him
she cared?

"Who'd wanna marry a tomboy like you???"

Ranma's a real master at putting his foot in his mouth.  He cares for
her, but he never shows her how he feels, always denies having any sort
of feelings for her... it's one of the things I wish Ranma would work
on, too.  But what makes me still love Ranma is that I *still* think his
good points outweigh his faults, just as Akane's good points outweigh
her faults.

>it's obvious that Ranma's feelings don't include Akane, based on their
>behavior to each other.

Really?  Shampoo was in Jusendo, too, and saw Ranma nearly kill himself
trying to defeat a god to save Akane... and then later, Ranma crying
over Akane when he thought she was dead... how about that for obvious?

>(Ukyou picked up on that within an hour or so of
>meeting Ryoga- how's that for oblivious?)

I never said she was oblivious to everything - I said she was oblivious
to what Ranma seems to want, and if she would open her eyes a little
wider, she'd see that trying to force what she wanted on him wasn't the
right way to win him over.

Like in HSH story, she was so lost in her daydream of her future with
Ranma that she never noticed the scowl on Ranma's face when she was
babbling about "Now that you're weak, ....."

Ukyou's a lot smarter than Akane in some things.  But hey, Akane has
some pretty good points about herself that makes any Akane fan proud of
her.

>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.

If Ukyou is so convinced that Ranma and Akane aren't the "loving couple"
that they're supposed to be, why did she bring them to the "Cave of Lost
Love" to break them up?

>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.

I wasn't just referring to her anger at the other girls.  She's also
been furious with Ranma plenty of times, sometimes with Nabiki, and with
a whole lot of other people, but the she just doesn't stay angry for
long.

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

The reason why I didn't like "Bitter" is that, IMHO, the author totally
blew it out of proportion.  I'll be  the first one to admit Akane's got
a nasty temper, and it's one of the things I like least about her.  But
I don't think that's enough basis to say that she has some mental
disorder that eventually made her kill off the one person she loved the
most.

Akane gets angry often, sure.  But never for long.  And she doesn't get
angry for no reason at all.  Usually Ranma has to put his foot in his
mouth or something like that to trigger her temper.  But in "Bitter"
Ranma was as docile as a mouse and she *still* gets angry at him.   She
got angry at him for imaginary crimes that she doesn't have any proof
of.  In the manga, she *does* get angry at him for things he didn't do,
but even then, there are some things that had led her to think (wrongly)
that Ranma did something...um...naughty? ^_^

Also, in "Bitter", she'd get angry at him for days, which I think is
unlikely, since Akane simply doesn't hold a grudge for that long.

>>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.

Well, I guess we just see things a lot differently, then.  Because I
think that there are voids, but they aren't made that obvious, since as
you and plenty of other people have pointed out, Ranma is a comedy.

Take this for example.  Ranma's never had a family, never experienced
what it was to live with a real family.  Akane's lost her mother when
she was very young.  And guess what?  Ranma came to live with the
Tendos, and had a feel of what it's like to have a family.  Kasumi's
almost like a mother, Nabiki's the typical bitchy older sister, Akane's
almost like a younger sibling you never get along with... and when
Nodoka came, she treated Akane just like a daughter, trying to teach her
how to cook, noticing that she'd "bloomed" (in v34) when they were
brassiere shopping - things that only a mother would notice about you.

Or, Akane's the only one who could break through the spell of the
Neko-ken to reach Ranma's sanity... and this is one thing that only
Akane could do.

Or, when Ranma was kissed by Mikado, he was so annoyed that no one
understood him, everyone just laughed and made fun of him... but there
was *one* person who did understand, and she was the only one who didn't
make fun of him for that...


Why we're disagreeing, I think, is because the word "perfect", when
applied to love, is still pretty subjective, I think.  There simply is
no really perfect love or marriage... you can only strive to make it as
perfect as you can, but it is one goal that I doubt anyone can ever
achieve.

I like to say that a love is perfect if both parties are happy with each
other.  It doesn't have to mean that there are no disagreements, no
heated arguments, no misunderstandings... because people are people, and
they'll think what they want to think... you can only hope to make them
understand, if they're wrong about something.  And love isn't about
being perfect, it's about being happy, about giving and receiving - it's
a two-way process.

Ranma and Akane *are* happy together, even if they don't realize it
consciously.  When Ranma was going to move out of their home, the
sadness in their eyes was so obvious.  When Nabiki was engaged to Ranma,
Akane regretted it so much that her angry words drove him away.  When
Ranma was trapped under a rubble of rocks in v37 and he saw Akane's
picture, he thought of her, and he thought he couldn't wait to get home
to her, even if they always fight, it doesn't really matter...

It's simply because only Akane would make Ranma feel that way, and vice
versa.  That's why I said they are perfect for each other, because the
others just won't do - it has to be Ranma/Akane, or nothing at all.

At least that's what I think.  Everyone's free to form his/her own
opinions.  I'm not forcing anyone to agree here, it's just that I can't
resist putting in my 2 cents.  ^_^

Stiffanie Flores