The ending of "Building Bridges" was not the worst of the story, but the 
way you portray events there is laughable.  Alcohol does not act in the 
fashion you would have it, at least in my experience.

3>	They don't lose control in the first place, eliminate scene and 
come up with something else.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

        This seems to be the best idea.

On other aspects of "Building Bridges":

<snip>

The way you showed Ranma losing control and lashing out in rage was 
utterly unbelieveable.  

The Ranma-Akane confrontation... sucked (IMHO), I 
can believe that you could get the desired result (A serious Ranma-Akane 
breakup) but not like that - you had two characters I've never [s]een 
before interacting there - they merely happened to have the tags "Akane" and 
"Ranma" attached to them, and I say this in terms of "Outward Part" and 
"Nature of Love" as well as more 'mainstream' Ranma.

        Ok, taking into account that you said this in term of 'mainstream'
Ranma ONLY.  And forget "The Nature of Love" for now.

        They are NOT the Ranma and Akane of 16yrs of age.  They are 20 years
old and people can change.  

        You were saying it in terms of "Thy Outward Part"?  How about when
Ranma told Akane to "go away" when she told her that she had a boyfriend in
"Thy Outward Part"?  

        According to your statement, the Akane and the Ranma in that scene
from "Thy Outward Part" were characters you would never have seen before. 

        Why?

        In "Thy Outward Part", Akane told Ranma that she had a boyfriend.

        Ranma then lashed out at Akane in "Thy Outward Part", verbally not
physically, but she still lashed out at her nonetheless.  That is not a
Ranma you're not accustomed to.  

        Whatever Akane is in the RT-verse, she doesn't go out and get a
boyfriend like *THAT* if her fiancee was stuck in girl-form.  I would expect
her to stick it out till the bitter end.  

        Your Ranma, and Akane, are those of the RT-verse.

        How would you expect YOUR Ranma to react to that?  Most likely she
would just look sad and leave quickly without a word.

        Richard Lawson's Ranma had told Akane, in no uncertain terms, to "go
away".

        My Ranma got really pissed when Akane said she couldn't love her,
yet she still clung onto Ranma, "like some sort of possession", and tried to
hold her back - to prevent her from leaving YET Akane knew that Ranma knew
who her boyfriend was (Ryoga).  

        Granted she shouldn't have struck Akane, and maybe I shouldn't have
made Ranma strike Akane, but the point is that you're seeing Ranma as OOC
for getting mad at Akane.

        Richard Lawson's Ranma was OOC when she told Akane to "go away".  

        My Ranma was OOC when she lashed out at Akane.

        The only difference between Lawson's Ranma and my own is that mine
struck Akane (and I have a good mind to change that).

        Akane's character in my "Building Bridges" was based upon a
precedent set by "Thy Outward Part" - that being of an Akane that wasn't
faithful to Ranma.  For crying out loud, she went and got herself a
boyfriend to take the place of Ranma!!

        She is not the Akane of RT-verse.  

        Summary :

        Ranma and Akane have changed.  They are OOC in the RT-verse sense,
but I think they're sufficiently IC for the purposes of TOP and BB.

The Ranma-Kentaro situation was well handled, although I think Kentaro 
got away with far too much on the first date.

        What did he do to get away with?

        1) Held arms with Ranma - quite acceptable.

        2) Put arm around Ranma.  - 1 thing he got away with.

        3) Told Ranma he loved her. - quite acceptable.

        4) Kissed Ranma. - 1 thing he got away with, but Ranma was NOT
enjoying the kiss.

        So he got away with two things, which is not a lot.

The other thing "Building Bridges" did that I thought useful was it 
pointed out a lack in the whole sequence that I hadn't really thought 
about, Ukyou.  Ukyou has built her life around Ranma and has forsaken her 
gender once for his sake - that she would just fade away the way the 
authors would have her do (for the sake of simplicity) is totally OOC.  
Of all of Ranma's iinazuke, Ukyou is the one who strikes me as being 
perfectly willing to stay with Ranma no matter what - even if it means 
loving another girl.

        That's it?

        What about the expansion of Kentaro's character? (he tried, in his
own way, to help Ranma with her problems)

        How about the description of the process of Ranma's acceptance of
her new lifestyle?  (TOP ends with the first kiss, TNOL starts with them
going to a room to have sex)