From:        Sebastian Weinberg, bastian@enterprise.mathematik.uni-essen.de

: I agree, it's the 'other things' that make this story worth writing.
: Though I'm going to leave the 'thorough' review to Sebastian or someone
: else, since I really don't want Frito to come within 30 miles of this. :)

Whoa!  I don't have the time to do in-depth reviews.  God, I
don't have the time to do in-depth *reading*.  If my workload got
any fuller, I wouldn't have the time to *breath*!

Now wait a minute here! *Who* was it that groused about my doing a WFL 
review of "Brother," even after I left the Shampoo side-story open for 
them to do? ^_^

I did a *little* one, that's gotta suffice.  Anyway, the
*interesting* points were already brought up by you here:

: I've always felt these 'suddenly his/her emotional attitudes changed
: forever' bits to be pretty cheesy, with very *very* few exceptions. I
: have seen (and experienced ^_^) emotional storms that suddenly sweep away
: old attitudes -- *temporarily*. However, the old attitudes usually make
: at least one last-gasp return after the storm has passed; even in the
: cases where the storm has dealt them a death blow, they don't vanish
: immediately.

Yep, this is a kind of trademark for Richard.  It *does* happen,
though.  Especially so, since the characters in _Ranma 1/2_ all
share the same kind of deluded denial that strains against the
forces of better knowledge.  Complete and utter turnabouts of
attitude are more likely in such situations than just slight
modifications.  Just as it is easier to go from love straight to
hate (or the other way round in Ukyou's case) than to go from love
to indifference.

Hmmm. Well... perhaps. My point was that even if the attitudes are 
delusional constructs (which I don't think is terribly likely in this 
case), if they're strongly held it's not at all likely that they'll just 
'go away' in a flash. Even if they're false, proven to be false, and even 
*accepted* as false by the holder, force of habit will still bring up the 
attitudes until the habit is broken. In some cases, the habit has been 
worn down over time, so that the emotional storm can and does break the 
habit altogether -- that's what I meant by 'prepared for in advance.' We 
saw this with Shampoo in TIL; Richard brings up past examples of 
Shampoo's changing attitude (like saving Akane from the phoenix) to show 
how the change was not something sudden, but something that had come over 
time.

TIL generally does a good job at this -- witness the way Nabiki muses in 
"Brother" about how Kuno's sense of honor is gradually changing her 
attitudes towards business dealings. Though I admit, Richard does walk 
the line a little close at times. :)

--
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
rearranging their prejudices.
       - William James

How appropriate. :)



Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
 tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
 <http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
 Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)

...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.