On Mon, 23 Nov 1998, Grayson Towler wrote:

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                      CHAPTER SIX:
                      Hard Lessons
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I won't get into Ranma as I'm sure you're probably tired by now of the
number of people commenting on his behavior.  I will though talk about
Ukyo.

As noted the roaring fire is large among other things, but if you will let
me also note a few things.

Ukyo is a very good chef.  How good?  She can make an okonomiyaki in a few
seconds.  What does that mean?  The grill would have to be hot enough
first of all to cook it in that amount of time, but I suspect some of
Ukyo's skill also comes into play here.  She can cook an okonomiyaki with
dozens of different toppings all placed probably immacably given the high
rated chef that she is and all done an inch or too from the grill.  I
imagine she burnt herself a few times to get to this level but what good
chef hasn't?  I do _not_ think that Ukyo would be as afraid as she was.
All good chefs develop high tolerance levels to heat over time.  I know
plenty that can pick food that have just come out of the deep frier with
their hands.  Ukyo, I would give much higher ability than an average chef.
Also given her skill at doing dozens of little things when she works all
in that small space of time, why would she be 'hunting and pecking' as you
put it?

My thoughts.  Ukyo would most likely, _if_ she learns how to do the
technique, use her spatulas to perform the move.  She could probably do it
without extra training already.  The reach advantage could avoid most of
the flames and her already very good skill with them.  I might want to
practice her hand-to-hand, but Ukyo really doesn't have a chance if she is
without a spatula and running is more adviseable.  Ukyo should understand
this and will let Ranma know when he is being unreasonable as she has done
in the past.

This is an interesting point.  It also relates back to the highly subjective
question of "How good a martial artist IS Ukyou, really?"  You make a
good argument for her having an advantage of learning this particular
technique with greater rapidity than someone else, but I still think she'd
have to work up to it, especially if she's doing it with her hands.  Ranma
expected her to do the full technique with no preparation - for all sorts of
reasons I've already been over.

Not very subjective at all from her scenes in the manga.  She might not be
as good as Ranma but she did put up more of a fight than many of the
female chars the first time.  She holds her own when in 'wolf pack' mode
(ie. with Shampoo and Kodachi).  She's also had a story devoted to her
fighting skills.  I still don't get why she is fighting with her hands
when she doesn't.  Like I mentioned if she lost with her spatulas, why
would she have a better chance unarmed?  Also, Ranma understands the
weakness of an armed opponent since he often takes advantage of some (Kuno
and Mousse to name a couple).  He should know that Ukyo would be worse off
when learning with her hands.  He would _not_ expect her to be able to do
it with her hands.

Later,
Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless