If Ranma could only cure one of two things...

[Crescent Pulsar S]

I found myself wondering this and couldn't readily answer it, so I figured it had a poll coming to it. Or something like that.

Anyway, in my infinitesimal wisdom, I decided that timing probably mattered rather than leaving the circumstances completely to the winds of the imagination. As such, you can vote once for each set of three choices. The time frames are still vague enough to a degree, as I thought it would be better to allow each person to designate exactly which point in the time frame they feel matters instead of having myself choose them for you. (And it saves me the effort of trying to figure out which specific time would be the best for everyone, so there's that as well. ;p ) For instance, someone might see Ranma's desire to head back to China in the beginning as a sign that getting his curse cured is more important, but that same person may wonder later if that's really the case since he gives up that idea soon afterward (and henceforth starts a trend where he doesn't bother seeking a cure for his curse unless it seems conveniently acquirable).

Okay, let's see how this can go wrong. (As it often does)

[Noy Telinú]

Up until Ranma eats ice cream, then Jusenkyo.

After that, the cat phobia.

Mostly because 1, Ranma starts seeing advantages to being a girl and starts abusing the curse.

And 2, the cats getting to him is something that scares him and irritating more than the curse, and later on, would be less manly than turning into a girl attitude wise.

[Konsaki]

I had to choose the Curse at the start because the Neko-ken isn't introduced until the middle, hence it was never an issue before then storywise. After that, I'd put money on him getting rid of his one major weakness before the curse because the curse can be used as an advantage, which he intimately knows.

[jasonjkay]

Ranma was desperate to get rid of his curse at the begging of the series, and he wasn't too bothered about cats if there are none about as none of his enemies know about his weakness yet and Shampoo isn't around with her cat curse.

In the middle Ranma has discovered using his curse for free treats and ice cream so starts to accept it more than he did. Everyone by now knows about his fears of cats and Shampoo is turned into a cat many times while with him scaring him more. I'm undecided which is worse for him but It's getting to be the cat curse

At the end of the manga Ranma has accepted his curse and doesn't seem to mind if he never gets cured since he destroyed the source of the curse and a possible cure. His fear of cats however is just as strong and Shampoo is still around and getting splashed scaring him some more. Thus at this point he would definitely want the cat curse cured more.

[PCHeintz72]

At the end of the manga Ranma has accepted his curse and doesn't seem to mind if he never gets cured since he destroyed the source of the curse and a possible cure. His fear of cats however is just as strong and Shampoo is still around and getting splashed scaring him some more. Thus at this point he would definitely want the cat curse cured more.

I do not know if accepted is the correct word... resigned might be more accurate.

[Konsaki]

I do not know if accepted is the correct word... resigned might be more accurate.

^This

[Noy Telinú]

I would say Ranma got used to the curse.

Heck, he doesn't notice at times that he changed.

But, while getting cured is important to him, it's not important enough to work too hard at it. Only really trying if it falls into his lap.

If you're going to use acceptance, it'll be acceptance that most likely he will have it the rest of his life due to it being so hard to cure.

Not accept that he is a girl, but adapted that he's going to have to deal with it.

But yeah, cats are higher on that list once ge found out that the girl body had perks too. Remember, before that all it did was get Shampoo to try to kill her and have Akane think he's a pervert.

[jasonjkay]

Yes I meant accepted as in hes adapted to the curse,gotten used to it, accepted he may never get cured but not accepted that he has to be a girl or something. I guess adapted would have been the better word to use but too late now.

[uragaaru]

As was mentioned above, a word like "tolerates" or "inured" is probably the more accurate way to describe Ranma's end of series thoughts about the curse.

[Spokavriel]

As was mentioned above, a word like "tolerates" or "inured" is probably the more accurate way to describe Ranma's end of series thoughts about the curse.

If you want to get technical that is as far as you really need to go to accepting a thing instead of embracing it. Too many stories have Ranma embrace being a girl to the point of character death and beyond.

[Noy Telinú]

Yeah, embracing it is too far.

Like I can live with missing an eye and adapt, but I don't embrace it and pretend I'm a cyclops.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

As character death goes, I was outraged when I began to read Ranko's Makeover.

SPOILER - Show Spoiler

As it turned out, so was Ranma, who came roaring back by the end of the second chapter and raised a considerable fuss about it all.

[Noy Telinú]

Oh yeah, that one.

Even Loki was pissed off. ^_^

I was thinking of doing something where Ranma was being diabetes girly and saying that she was a she, but turns out to just be a prank to piss people off. Like a "the look on your face" type of prank. And to troll the readers who like that sort of thing.

[Spica75]

Early on, he was totally set on doing almost anything to get rid of the curse.
Later on however, i wouldn´t be surprised if he were to choose to cure the nekoken instead.
By that time he is well aware that it´s a big potential problem and while he still wants rid of the curse, it doesn´t seem nearly as world-endingly importany any longer.

So my vote is:
Curse
Curse
Dont know

[Crescent Pulsar S]

I thought long and hard on this one. I probably read too far into it, too. First I was torn between his curse and not knowing which one at the beginning, then not knowing which one and his phobia, but I finally decided on the phobia. My reasoning for this required some projection based on what I saw in the beginning, but the middle and end parts were just used to confirm what I already had and not actually included.

I chose his phobia that early because his complaints about his curse seem -- by and large -- to be more for show than real, to uphold an image. For instance, while he put up a fuss about wearing girls' clothing, that completely changed once he was wearing them. And from then onward he'd choose to wear all manner of things himself despite upholding any kind of masculine image. And what am I supposed to think when he doesn't notice when he's changed into a girl, or that there's something off about the length of his limbs in relation to his opponent's? That doesn't sound like someone who isn't comfortable with it at all, if it doesn't feel so wrong that they would be made aware of such things.

And then there's the phobia, with its only good point being very circumstantial. (Because entering the neko-ken is far from instantaneous, not guaranteed to happen even given time (like when a bunch of cats were placed on him), and he's hardly ever fighting an opponent where he needs the neko-ken to win. And even then the "technique" can be compromised easily enough with the right tactics, which even Tatewaki was able to realize and capitalize on very quickly.) The other thing is that Ranma certainly doesn't want to look scared and weak, and crying, running away and screaming in fear do just that. At least when he was made weak by the moxibustion he still had the wits required to overcome it, but he can't hope to do much of anything rationally or have any control over a situation with his phobia, and what is strength if it can't be used? That's not even getting into what it must be like to lose one's mind and having no memory of what happened during that time, and having to find out after the fact.

In the end, he knows where his cure is from the very beginning; it's only about two weeks away from Tokyo one-way and he's more than capable of footing, swimming and climbing the way there. The only thing stopping him is his father's insistent desire to fulfill an engagement that he doesn't want. I find something suspect about that if Ranma really did find his curse to be so bad.