At 01:45 PM 11/27/98 -0800, Tempus Skylorn wrote:

I've been doing a little bit of thinking on this "Love Conquers All" thing
in the Ranma universe and have come to the conculsion that here Love is not
the great conqueror, but the great crippler.  I've also come to the
conculsion that this isn't much of a challenge.  Nobody, with the possible
exception of Ranma and the one he chooses, will get what they want.  People
will get hurt.

But wouldn't their love win out, then? It would depend on your point of view
in this case. If our point of view is from one of the ones who do not get
Ranma, then yes, love didn't win-- at least, not their love. 
	But if Ranma got together with the one he loves, then their love has
triumphed over all everything that's been stacked against them, even
themselves, as I am coming to the conclusion that they are not yet ready
for a committed relationship.

	Just one question: why assume it's in the Ranmaverse? My challenge
did not explicitly, or even implicitly say that. A previous Tenchi story
(mine, because I am so self-referential) got mentioned as an example, in 
point of fact.

The only way I can see love conquering all here is if Ranma marries Akane,
Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kunos (both of them).  Akane would also marry Ryoga and
Kuno.  Shampoo would have Mousse and Ranma. Ryoga would marry Akane and
Akari.  Ukyo- Ranma, Tsubasa, and Konatsu. etc, etc.

What are the odds of this happening? Can we say only in a lemon?

And what is true love anyway? Does it exist here? Or are we dealing with
some serious crushes?

That seems to be the main point of contention: how we define love, since I
myself did not offer up a definition in the initial challenge. On the
other hand, one could use that very question of 'what is love?' as part
of the story.

To write a story where love doesn't conquer all, but things turn ok is easy.

Is it? (well, okay, I find it easy, but then I generally don't consider
myself representative of others) Who said it had to turn out okay, anyway?
Not I. I leave direction up into the hands of others, I merely suggest
at least one of the themes.

We do it all the time and in fact, that's a major reason why I think we
write these things.  We have favorites (mine's Ukyo) and we don't like to

I used to have a favourite at one time... at one time. Now? Well, there's
only one that I really, truly dislike, one that I cannot find redeemable
qualities in. Everyone else? I can find something about them, some
redeemable quality or some excuse, some form of understanding and
comprehension, at least.

	Heheheheh. As has been pointed out, yet another challenge of mine
seems to be getting dragged down into quibbling over semantics and being
called easy (if it's so easy, then where all all the entries? ^_^ ). 
You'd think I'd have learned, eh? You'd think that, anyway....

Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is:
InDefinitelyso on IRC
See him on FFIRC [bachman.newberry.edu fanfic]
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
	maybeso@ican.net
Playing the fool in a foolish world
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Evil: adjective. wicked or bad; mischievous; very 
disagreeable or angry; unfortunate (rare or archaic)....
			-The Chambers Dictionary, 1993 ed.

(So yes, I really AM evil!)
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