On Sun, 20 Apr 1997, Sean Connor wrote:

(I suppose, though, that anyone who manages to come up with any 
reason at all to believe that a Ranma/Akane marriage would actually 
work might just be able to believe Ryouga/Ukyou as well. :)

Uh, what's wrong with the Ranma/Akane pair?

You don't _really_ want me to get into this, now do you?

Well, anyways, here's a list of the problems:

- Akane is overly sensitive about a number of things, and Ranma is 
awfully good at insulting her about those things (both 
unintentionally and intentionally.)

Such as?  (asking for examples from the Manga _not_ the anime)
 

- The reverse is also true, albeit to a lesser extent.

Again such as?
 

- Akane simply can't seem to trust Ranma.  Whenever anything happens, 
she automatically assumes the worst from Ranma, and then either won't 
give him a chance to explain himself, or if she does let him explain, 
she won't believe it.  This has happened _countless_ times in the 
manga, and Akane just can't seem to catch on.

_Countless_ times!  Surely you're exagerating.  It does happen but not
_that_ often.  In the anime, yes.  In the manga, no.
 

- Ranma is usually the guinea pig for Akane's cooking 'experiments', 
and she doesn't give him much choice in the matter.

Such as when (in the Manga the only times I've ever seen Akane cook and
Ranma eat it was in the Breaking Point set and the Kodachi Picture set and
both times Ranma ate her food willingly!  Even to the point of eating her
cooking after she left with Ryoga!)

- And, of course, Akane is _excessively_ violent towards Ranma.

Only in the Anime.  In the Manga she very rarely hits Ranma and it's
usually for a good reason (the table in the first volume, a slap for
insulting her in the Ryoga intro, a trip out the window for being in her
bedroom in  volume 2, hitting him for insulting p-chan in the rythmic
gymnastics practice.  And in few of these does she ever hit Ranma that
hard, mostly it's just a knock up side the head rather than a full blown
hammer strike.  In fact Akane's mallet is from the first move not the
Manga.)

 Not to mention the Ryoga/Ukyo
pair?  

Despite the similarity of the situations they find themselves in 
(which seems to be the main reason they get stuck together in so many 
'fics), they are largely polar opposites personality-wise.  Take, for 
example, Ukyou's optimism and Ryouga's chronic depression.  Ukyou is 
generally constructive, whereas Ryouga tends to be destructive.  
Ukyou tends to be forgiving, while Ryouga has shown his ability to 
nurse a silly grudge practically to the end of time - resulting in an 
'arms race' with Ranma along the way.  Also, don't forget Ryouga's 
directionlessness - in fact, I find this to be the supreme irony of 
this relationship - they get together because they're both lonely, 
and, because Ryouga is so prone to getting lost, they would likely 
both end up lonely most of the time anyways.

Ryouga tends to be quite immature - instead of trying to deal with 
his problems, he tends to blame them on Ranma - and almost seems to 
believe that all his problems will be solved if only he can beat the 
#@$%$#@ out of Ranma.  He is absolutely hopeless at expressing 
himself - often destroying things in the process.

Really, Ukyou would have to be mother as well as girlfriend/wife to 
Ryouga, and I'm really not sure how long she'd put up with that.

I can also see Ryouga's infamous 'glass heart' being a source of 
trouble.  Although Ukyou is one of the nicest characters on the R1/2 
cast, if you manage to make her mad, you'll wish you hadn't.  Ryouga, 
I'm afraid, would assume the worst about such an episode, and would 
be likely to do something stupid.

OK I can see your point here.

Thanx for listening to me rant and rave.

AJ

"Ooops"
	-Someone, Somewhere, at the most inappropritate time possible