Matthew Campbell wrote:

Lord Archive wrote:

Forgive me for saying so Lord Archive, but I detect a tiny bit of bias
toward the Akane/Ranma pairing in your fic ideas. :)

And what's wrong with that?  ^_^
 

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Time Lost:

The idea is that unusually harse upbringing of Pantyhose, without parents
and generally wandering Ryoga style (he can find his way, he just doesn't
have anyplace to go), is necessary for some climatic battle. Ranma and
Akane not only find out about the battle and the pivotal role that he
plays, but that they are his parents! A very pregnant Akane is sent back

This would be kind of neat, and it would explain why Tarou seems to be
Ranma's superior.  (The son shall surpass the father.)  A suggestion.
Why not have someone *besides* Akane be the mother?  The thing is, I've
never seen an epic Ranma story where Ranma being paired with another
girl is a side-note, not the point of the story.  Sure Purple Haired
Destiny and LaWR are great, but if it's a Ranma vs. the demons of hell
type story, he just gets quickly paired with Akane.  I know why people
do this (True Love and all that) but it would be kind of cool to see
something like "Four Birds of Fire" or "Ranma goes to War" where Ranma
is paired up with Ukyou or Shampoo and no particular big deal is made
out of it.  Just a suggestion the next time one of you gets the yen to
write a Ranma epic.

The only problem is that in an epic the author is dealing with _so_ many
threads that he/she needs to keep their complexity down to a minimum or
he/she runs the danger of getting lost.  Most people pair Ranma and
Akane in their epics because they're the most firmly established
couple.  think about it, getting Ranma to think of Ukyo/Shampoo/any
other character as more than friends and Akane as only a friend is a fic
in itself, look at "Love, Marriage, and the More Dangerous Path" by
Anand Rao, or "Thy Outward Part" by Lawson.  Doing something like _that_
in the middle of an epic is just asking for trouble--most of us have
enough problem writing epics, we don't need to pile a major reshaping of
love tangles on top of it.
 

Right of Possession:

Akane wakes up after a battle with Shampoo, a battle in which Ranma was
the prize. Akane won the battle, but is afraid of a video tape made of

Shampoo would kick her butt, even with chi attacks.  But let's say for
the sake of argument Akane won.

Do you have any idea what kind of sheer _skill_ you need to use a chi
attack?  Unless Shamps has been doing some _serious_ training, she's
toast.  It would be like pitting Bruce Lee against a first dan Kempoist
or a Tai Chi _MASTER_ against a first dan Aikidoist.  NO CONTEST.  Both
Bruce Lee and Tai Chi Masters used Chi attacks (not like we see on Ranma
1/2 but they were Chi attacks all the same).  Shamps is the equivalent
of a first or second, maybe third, dan in Kung Fu (sorry to any
practictioners of Kung Fu, but I'm not sure what the equivalent rank
is).  If Akane has the skill to learn Chi attacks, Shamps is toast.

AJ