by Crescent Pulsar S » Wed Dec 19, 2012 1:38 am
It's hard for me to say. Nabiki's character, like several others, becomes quite flanderized by the end of the series. The character in the beginning isn't quite the character at the end. For the most part, though, she doesn't actively go out of her way to set up the situations where she does the things she's infamous for all that often, and she mainly does it for money rather than for the sake or enjoyment of it. So, I suppose I'd go with "mean girl."
She just doesn't care if there are victims or casualties, though I wonder if it's because she's sure (or convinced, if you want to split hairs) that things will work out in the end. Particularly in regard to Ranma, which might be why she would be unconcerned about him (her, at the time) getting hauled away on a chain to pay the debt at the casino (and he did indeed get away from that). And she may have only bothered going as far as she did in the ten yen story because she was confident about winning the challenge and avoiding the bulk of the consequences, which included anyone who had a stake in her performance. Basically, the end justifies the means so long as others aren't too worse off than she is when all's said and done. If a character can handle what she can dish out, though, you can probably expect her to dish it. Tatewaki's an example of, "what one doesn't know won't hurt them," because of his stupidity, and Ranma's a victim of his own tolerance level (which is a lot).