Brad:
> <snip>
> Weren't you also thinking of this several months back, but using Kid?

    Yeah, but her personality doesn't really mesh with Ranma 1/2.  Though
I'm not sure whether she'll be hopelessly optimistic or suicidally
depressed, either way she's not going to interact with people around her
until she finds Serge (which is never).  Also she is a very tomboyish
character and it'd be like writing a second Akane into Ranma 1/2 which I
just don't think will work that well.  I find tomboy characters to be hard
to write about because by their nature they're very flat characters.  It's
not that exciting writing stuff like "Akane beats up Ranma in various ways
again" but on the other hand you've to have some of this kind of stuff for
it to be Ranma 1/2, so whenever I write about Ranma 1/2 I almost always
leave Akane or Ranma out.  I don't like to write about their relationship,
because frankly it's boring and totally static.  They fight but they will
never break up due to fighting, and they may have tender moments but they'll
never be a happy-happy couple either.  It seems futile, that no matter what
you write about their relationship, it's still essentially unchanging.  Yes,
that's the charm of the series, but it's not very exciting to write about a
forever static relationship.

    So I decided to start from scratch.  I kept the traveler archtype, since
it works pretty well to introduce new characters and have it blend into
Nerima.  At first I wanted to write a friend from Akane's side, but Akane
actually seems to have a life outside of martial arts and being chased by
suitors, so I figure she probably has normal friends (though of course we
never hear about them).  Ranma, OTOH, all the people around him seems to
either want to marry him or kill him, or both!

Don