This Nodoka's background had more to do with the 'Saiyans' of the 'Dragonball' worlds, rather than something as... cultured as the people of Jurai.
Massaging her temple with one hand, the Senshi of Time took a moment to focus herself before turning her attention back to what was being shown. But it didn't change what she was seeing, as it was clear that this race was really around. That meant that there was something that would give reasons for Ranma's abilities, though she did have to wonder if his 'new' ancestry was going to bolster them.
The race in question was one of warriors, who were basically seen by those from Jurai as thugs, brutes, and blowhards, but since Nodoka's race basically considered a lot of Jurai nobles to be the latter, it wasn't like they had concern about that. Others from outside the two cultures liked to compare the two races to each other, with them being thought of the opposite sides of the same coin. This warrior race was focused on the physical and emotional more than the spiritual and intellectual of the Jurai.
Basically, they were a race that glorified struggle, and combat prowess, but were not the 'barbarians' that the 'Saiyans' were in their universe. Rather, these were a race of people who'd found a culture that actually wasn't all that different from Jurai or the Earth nation of Japan. But instead of something that was peaceful and introspective, they were of the sort that would hold personal honor up high, and think the idea of running full tilt into battle to be something to aim for. They were a people who might leer at a good looking member of the opposite gender, pull people into drinking contests, and take on masses of enemies with their bare hands.
That was also their downfall. As they were constantly fighting, and getting stronger, there were always enemies around who were willing to attack them back. Even though their contact with the Jurai and other cultures had dulled their abrasiveness, and their natural strength had proven to be powerful over any enemy, other races had their own advantages. And one of them had done so, destroying the homeworld of Nodoka's race, killing most of its citizens, and leaving the rest to be interstellar drifters.
Fortunately, they had ships, and were still a force to be reckoned with. All they had to do was to fight, and they could find work. The remaining warrior clans were quite skilled in what they did, and had learned from past mistakes. They found places to live as time went by, and eventually some came to Earth, which resulted in a pretty odd thing happening.
They found that they liked it on Earth, and got along pretty well with humans. Most of the Earthlings were initially wary of this rather brutal and strong race, but lost a lot of their fear when it turned out that the biggest pain that these particular aliens would usually give humans would be to give tight one armed hugs as they tried to cajole people into sharing a drink. These folks were sort of like Saiyans who'd learned to appreciate civilized behavior, even if they didn't think that 'quiet' and 'calm' were all that important. That might have led to a possible holding back of the growth of their strength to the level the Saiyans would have had, but Setsuna thought that they had enough power already.
Genma came into all of this through the fact that he was a fighter. Arranged marriages were part of Nodoka's culture, and had been the choice of many parents with single children for a very long time. Not only were there the traditional political affairs, but her people had found the idea of marrying their children off in certain situations to be fairly welcome, no matter what species the prospective spouse was, so long as they were compatible and able to grow a physical attraction of some sort with her race. To them, the idea of arranging a betrothal with a member of a strong family, someone of a powerful lineage, or a person of great promise was seen as attractive. The last set was a group of people that included Genma, and when the marriage was arranged to Nodoka, it was seen as a union that would bring strong children.
They didn't take into account his future personality, but then they didn't exactly have the ability to look through time to see how the child would grow up.
As a result, Nodoka and Genma married, and went on to have a son by the name of Ranma. Since that was what was expected, that wasn't exactly something that Setsuna was shocked by, and she took that as a given. Even if members Nodoka's race did sometimes become passionately in love with intellectual types, or become scholars themselves, Ranma Saotome was going to become a martial artist. Her surprise would come from a slightly different direction.
Nodoka held onto her husband's gi as he tried to leave the house with their son in his arms. "Please, my husband! Don't take my son from me!"
"Let go woman," Genma instructed her. "This is for his own good."
"Please don't take him away!"
Her husband just sat there as she slapped him with a slipper.
"Please don't take him away!"
Ranma stared up at his father's face as the elder Saotome male got a wooden bucket smacked into his head until it broke apart.
"Please don't take him away!"
Genma could only let his son crawl away as his wife bashed him with a table until his head went through it.
"Please don't take him away!" Nodoka cried out as she reached over, ripped the sink from the counter, and began to smash her husband with it.
Luckily for Genma, he had a hard head, so he was able to take the pain that his loving bride had dealt onto him until she realized that she'd knocked him unconscious.
"Oh dear. I didn't mean to do that."
Setsuna pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. This was going to be an interesting situation, what with Nodoka Saotome being a 'proper lady' who had the strength of at least a rogue elephant, and all the training of one. Apparently, she could control it enough to do gentle work, but she could also unintentionally do some major damage.
Not that she had any love lost for Genma anyway. The guy was not exactly the sort of person that Setsuna had much respect for in the first place. However, it was a rather odd thing to see his wife pound him into the floor without meaning to.
Still, she had better things to do than to nurse headaches, and so she turned her attention to the Gate, while:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 07 May 2006 05:53)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.