I don't suppose you'd mind sending my reply to the FFML?  Somebody 
requested it...

I'll make this simple.  I was arguing from an anime standpoint.  You,

>from the manga.  I haven't read it, so means absolutely nothing to me.

I won't get into what I think of the anime, but...

So, in my eyes, you wasted an awful lot of time writing all that to me.
Sorry.  Now, go back and do it again from an anime standpoint and I
shall respond to you accordingly.  Ranma sounds completely idiotic in
the manga the way you explain it, I agree.  Later,

I don't like and don't watch the anime, for a variety of reasons, but
I _do_ know the Secret Sauce story is still in it.  And that means
that this general sequence of events still came about:

-Ranma promised Ukyou TWICE to marry her, of his own free will.  Once
when they were children, once when adults.  The child time he didn't
quite know what he was promising, but the second time he DID.

-Ranma did this because he did not want to make a choice between Akane
and Ukyou (they had previously tried to force him to choose); Ranma
decided the preferably alternative was...well, let me give it to you
in fem-boy's own words:

Ranma: I'll make Ucchan dump me!  I will get dumped!
(Flashback: Ranma promises to take care of Ukyou forever, who is 
ecstatic, saying "Really, Ranchan?")

Ranma: Then all I have to do is treat her like dirt!
(Scene shows a mental vision of a drunken Ranma kicking Ukyou; the 
vision then switches to Ukyou, crying, running out of the Tendo's
saying "I can't take it anymore!"; back in the real world, Ranma 
smirks.)

Ranma: It's a perfect plan!

And, I might add, he tried to implement this plan.  First, he tried to
do so by throwing away her cooking and calling it 'slop'; foiled by
the quick reflexes of everyone else at the Tendo table.  He also bought
booze, dumped it over himself, and tried to feign drunkeness as he came
home and beat up Ukyou; this didn't work because she gave her
patented cure for drunkeness by splashing him with ice water.  Third,
he tried to put lipstick on his clothes, but Ukyou caught him (in
female form) in the process of doing so.  Finally, he went to spend
the night in Akane's room, calling her his lover.  This almost worked,
except that Ukyou eavesdropped and got the impression (due to what
was said and what had happened earlier, a quite reasonable one) that
Akane was forcing Ranma to do all these things.  Ranma's next plan
was to treat her like Akane (in other words, insult her), but this
was cut short because Ukyou, in an attempt to prove her devotion, had
drank some of the horrible okonomiyaki sauce that was the root of the
mess and gotten sick.

Thus, because Ranma had been afraid of telling the truth (he had 
ruined the sauce ten years ago), he was caught in a web of lies,
and finally he decided that the 'best' way out was to promise to
marry Ukyou, and then try to drive her away by hurting her where
she was weakest: he tried to insult her cooking, the most important
thing in the world to her; he tried to physically abuse her, and
he tried to pretend he was unfaithful to her.  What excuse can you
give for this?  What possible justification?  And what's more...did
it even work?  No.  Through all of that, Ukyou didn't even waver
in her devotion to him.  Why did she leave?  She left because she
had vowed to herself that she would give up okonomiyaki for Ranma,
and when she reflexively tried to cook it later, SHE decided she
wasn't ready for Ranma and left OF HER OWN FREE WILL.  She didn't have
to.  She HAD Ranma, she had him and there was nothing anyone could 
truly do about it, because he had given his promise (and there were
witnesses, yet).  If Ranma didn't inspire such total, selfless 
devotion from her...well, they WOULD be married.  Ranma was even 
getting closer to her by the end of the story... <shrug>  Maybe, 
would be, should be, all irrelevent.  The point is, there's no excuse 
for what Ranma did in that story.  NONE.  


Note: Everyting above was sent to me by Blade himself. These notes are by me,
WarHammer.