Ranma has three rules he operates under:

1> Love Akane.
2> Fear Akane.
3> Do the right thing.

(Note that this doesn't govern his reflexes, like his mouth say)

These three rules have about equal strength and everything else (fear
cats at a distance, i.e., not reflexly) is much less important.

Note that "doing the right thing" is seldom very clear for Ranma, but
usually decisive when it does apply.  For example: his dad picked Akane,
and you should in general obey your parents, but Genma made such a hash
out of his own marriage that this might be a mistake and so openly
committing to the relationship would hurt Akane, make Akane hurt him and
not be the right thing to do.  On the other hand, Akane might accidently
be the right choice (Genma can't be wrong all of the time, can he?) in
which case openly breaking away would hurt Akane and be the wrong thing
to do. (It would increase his margin of safety against Akane, but this
is voted down two to one)

Note clearly that Ranma doesn't hate anybody. (Akane also lacks hate,
but she has anger in addition to Ranma's determination)

Akane has essentially the same three rules in effect back towards Ranma,
but also has a much stronger commitment to play by the rules of society.

Ranma and Akane will get it together when they first talk (and therefore
get over their fear) and secondly decide on a level of "Wildness" they
can both be comfortable at. (Akane might force Ranma to settle down.
Ranma might bring Akane into his antics, or they might meet in the
middle somehow)  The big clue to this will be when they take to walking
hand in hand; are they walking along the sidewalk or the fence?

	Henry J. Cobb	hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb