On Wed, 1 May 1996 dwang@sprynet.com wrote:

On Wed, 1 May 1996, Ben Kosse wrote:
Likewise, she'd have killed Akane by now if she was really intent
upon killing her.

	I got a question on that.  I always thought Shampoo didn't kill Akane 
because she knew Ranma would hate her forever if she did kill Akane.  When 
Shampoo first appeared she was going to kill Akane until Ranma stopped 
her.  

Shampoo was going to beat the location of Ranma-Chan out of Akane.  
Uncertain as to whether or not she would have killed her if Akane refused 
to tell.

She only changed her mind because she found out the killing Akane 
would not work and Ranma will protect Akane.  

She didn't change her mind, Ranma-Kun stopped her attack and then 
diverted her attention by (under Joketsuzoku custom) becoming her 
husband. 

She still continues to try, 
however.  If I remembered correctly, when Akane was kidnapped by Tarou 
(sp?), Shampoo planed on to kill Akane while everyone else was fighting 
so no one will notice.

Given the way the actual fights between Shampoo & Akane have been shown, 
Shampoo has never seriously tried to kill Akane since AKane is still 
alive.  In the episode featuring Pantyhose Tarou Shampoo saw an 
opportunity to kill Akane while placing the blame squarely on someone 
else.  By amazon standards a cunning and subtle plan that failed due to 
"divine intervention".

This is consistent with Shampoo throughout, she doesn't *OPENLY* 
persecute Akane since this would only alienate Ranma, and she doesn't try 
to kill Akane secretly since she would inevitably end up on the suspect 
list (along with Kodachi and probably Ukyou), only in a situation where 
someone else is already set up to take the blame is Shampoo willing to 
seriously think about killing Akane.

	By the way, I have another question.  Does Shampoo ever realize that 
Ranma loves Akane and never likes her?  I sort of think that maybe 
Shampoo did figure it out, but was too ignorant/proud to accept that 
fact and therefore continues her thoughtless and often violent pursue 
for Ranma.

On the evidence available in the series, Shampoo's problem isn't that 
Ranma doesn't like her, it's that Ranma likes Akane more.  When Shampoo 
first declares her love for Ranma, Ranma gets a scene thinking about 
whether or not Shampoo would be better than Akane.

And in everything that follows afterwards it shows clearly that Ranma can 
get along with Shampoo (despite what Kun-chan thinks Shampoo doesn't 
*ALWAYS* glom onto Ranma, just frequently) quite well.  Ranma is usually 
willing to accept Shampoo's gifts of food (outside of fanfic authors 
imaginations, how many times has SHampoo played with drugged food - think 
about it) and often drops by the Nekohanten of his own choosing, usually 
to scrounge a free meal.

Shampoo has a number of good reasons to think that Ranma likes her, the 
problem is he doesn't like her enough.  And when Shampoo gloms onto 
Ranma, Ranma complains about it and asks to be let go, and often says 
afterwards (to Akane!) that he wishes she wouldn't do that.  But he 
doesn't ask or tell Shampoo to stop it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Major"                     |  "Funny Games, Strange Cartoons, Confusing
David Bateson                   |     Computers and too many Books!  No 
                                |     wonder you're weird."
major@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au     |       - My Sister.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|******************  E N D  *  O F  *  M E S S A G E  ***********************|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------