So, after a brief bout of illness (which put a bit of a damper on the 
Confirmation of two of my cousins yesterday, let me tell you), I am
able to send this out! (and I know how eagerly you all were waiting
for me to respond now ^_-)

	I must say, I was a bit surprised at some of the responses (no, there were
no flames-- everyone was/is rather nice and polite, actually).

Anyway, I thought I'd address the points in one fell swoop, so here we go:

The villian bit: Who said Happi was the villain? I didn't. Ranma didn't.
The only person who said anything about Happousai was Cologne, who was made
to look a lot better in comparison to him. 

After all, what exactly would it mean for Ranma to attain a 'soul of ice?'
There's hints of it in the story.
	Cologne mentions the Hiryu Shoten Ha-- leading or manipulating
your opponents. 
	Her training would enable Ranma to figure out/handle his romantic
entanglements.
	The very phrase 'soul of ice' (I found that to be so evocative, it
deserved to be more than just a step in being able to perfom the HSH--
it should be the other way around, I think).
	This is more about control, manipulation, coldness. Cologne saved
her knowledge of Jusenkyou and its curses, until now, to use as a
bargaining chip. That's pretty ruthless, if one thinks about it (but
Ranma's not supposed to do that, he's supposed to see the cure, and how
powerful the training will make him, and what seems to be the fate of
those who practise Anything Goes).

	I think it is there, if one looks deep enough.

	I never mentioned that Ranma accepted Cologne-- on the contrary, I
have him trying to find some middle ground between the polar opposites
of Cologne and Happousai. The time of day, twilight, between day and
night, light and dark, serves to highlight this search for balance.
	The way I see it, there are three possible stories here 1) the
obvious one is that Ranma accepts Cologne's proposal, and eventually
attains the 'soul of ice.'
2) Ranma stays with Happousai (perhaps after hearing Happi's story, or
for other reasons)
3) Ranma's search for his own way, not necessaricly based on either
Cologne's, Happousai's, or some combination of the two's, philosophy,
training, or style.

I submit that the third one would probably be the most difficult to do,
and possibly the most interesting (although the first one has its merits
also. Number two would seem to be easy initially, but I don't have a clue
of where it might go). Too difficult for me, at this juncture, at least.
I need some direction, some idea of where I'm going, before I write, and
for that one, I don't even have the vaguest of notions, which is why I
reiterate: if anyone wants it, take it. If I did it, well, we might see
more this year, but I wouldn't put money on it.



Okay, now, the rest is somewhat of a character debate, and if you reply
to this message, and you're only going to be talking about anything after
the space here, do so privately. We can keep the spam down if we try,
folks.  I suppose I could just forgo mentioning it myself, but it is
related to the fic in question, and is related to the why part of this
fic (as in, why was it written? I mentioned that there were several ideas
dumped into it because I couldn't fit them in other things, and it
involves one of them).








It's about Akane.




You've been warned. Please notify me of any errors in my logic.

	I found it somewhat interesting that I never received a message
disagreeing with Cologne's assessment of Akane. That comes from something
I noticed in some fanfics and some defenses of Akane (for hitting Ranma):
that his insults to her are a lot worse in Japan than they would be over
here, in N.A. and that justifies her hitting him.
Now, before one says anything, read the rest of the message:
Akane haters use this argument too, that she hits him, and is therefor
not a good choice for Ranma. Feh, it is cartoon violence at its worst, 
and his other fiancees are not above being violent with Ranma either. No,
what's worse is Akane's insults to Ranma.
	Think about it. He's from a society even more patriarchal than 
ours, he's a teenaged boy, and even more likely to be insecure about his
manhood and sexuality, he was obviously instilled with even more macho
values than most Japanese by Genma, and later on, he has the Promise to
contend with. And the curse, let us not forget the curse. If Ranma's
insults hurt Akane more than we expect due to cultural differences, we
should expect the same of Akane's insults to Ranma, moreso, in fact, for
the reasons listed above, and because she has the backing of not only
her family, their schoolmates, but even Ranma's father, in most
arguments.
	And then there's the curse, on top of the insults-- not just making
him more susceptable to the insults, but being activated in conjunction
with them, or immediately after them, which would only serve to 
heighten the impact of the insults.
	So, if you're going to be anti-Akane (and I'm not saying you should
be! heaven forfend), I would think this a better reason than "she's 
violent." 
	I just wanted to use this argument, since I hadn't seen it before.

Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is:
Maybeso on IRC
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
Not quite right in the head, if you know what I mean
Member of:
FFML, FFIRCML, El Hazard ML
	maybeso@ican.net
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Yes, I really do like to play Devil's Advocate? 
How'd you guess?
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