This post is inspired by a conversation I had with someone on a forum. Alternate universe stories are pretty common, most commonly they are asking and then answering the question what if? For example what if Mary Jane was bitten by the spider instead of Peter Parker or what if Superman was raised by Lex Luthor. On this forum someone asked the question what if Ranma had battled Saffron going into the battle knowing what he learned during and immediately after the battle, basically another fight with Saffron.
There is many ways that could go. The first thing I thought was that Ranma would not let Saffron attain his ascension, child Saffron can not stop Ranma. That said I'm going to assume that Saffron has already attained his adult form and that the battle in question is the final battle versus Saffron. A lot of people view Saffron as the most powerful character in the manga, even going so far as to call him a god. Calling him a god doesn't bother me in the least since by many non monotheistic religious standards (including Shinto) he would qualify as a god (or Kami). To me it is very debatable that he is the most powerful, energy wise Herb, Happosai, Miss Hinako depending on whom/what she drains of power, Rouge in her Ashura form (a literal goddess/demoness in several religions) could probably match him or even beat him in raw power were they to really try to do so. Skill wise a lot of the characters beat him in that. Physical abilities other than healing and flight he is beat by a lot of the characters as well.
I am going to assume that the scenario (get Akane to the water) and local is the same and that Ranma has not had prep time. I also want to point out that in this battle Ranma knows about Saffron's attacks/abilities and Saffron is clueless about Ranma's (which is an extreme advantage for Ranma). Though Saffron still has several minor advantages in his favor in that as a being who can fly Saffron has an advantage for aerial combat. Saffron's regeneration beats Ranma's healing ability (which is still pretty impressive). Both are under a time limit Saffron in that he is burning himself out since his transformation was incomplete and Ranma because he has to get Akane to the water before her eyes close. Saffron still has more knowledge and practice with the magical staffs than Ranma does (recall Ranma didn't even know how to turn his on). Saffron has the advantage in that he knows Ranma's goal and can focus his entire concentration on Ranma whereas Ranma's concentration is split between fighting Saffron and getting Akane to the water (to the point that he tried to break off the battle and get Akane to the water) also Saffron knows where Ranma is trying to go whereas Saffron can go any where and attack from any direction.
Another thing I want to point out before getting to how I think the battle will go is that Saffron's statement about how his blast should have killed Ranma and his idea about how Akane blocked the blast is pretty meaningless. The reason I state this is because Saffron does not know of Ranma's abilities such as his ability to take physical punishment or what Ranma's heat tolerance is and he was just guessing. Saffron is not the first character to think that Ranma should not have survived their attack take Mikado very early in the manga, he too could not believe that Ranma survived his attack. It is possible that Saffron's theory is correct about Akane taking the heat (not that that theory makes any sense by real life physics but going by real life physics Saffron shouldn't exist either) but personally I don't like that theory since Ranma still took the physical impact (impacted the rock with enough force to compress it) and Akane was very small at the time and most of the heat would have just continued around her (Akane was like six inches tall the blast was several times her size she was not big enough to stop it). While I'm on the subject of that blast, it might have missed Ranma entirely had he not dropped Akane forcing him to change direction (Ranma stopped dodging/running in favor of catching Akane, hell he stopped paying attention to Saffron entirely in favor of catching her).
Okay here is how I think the battle would go. Ranma would pretty much curbstomp Saffron. The reason I say this is: In this scenario Ranma knows about Saffron's healing ability and that killing Saffron will only cause him to be reborn so Ranma is a helluva lot less likely to hold back. Which is something he did in the manga, once he decided that he was running out of options he sliced off Saffron's wings instead of going for a killing blow. This time Ranma would turn on the ice staff and just slice Saffron to pieces (in the manga Ranma did not know how to turn it on only did so accidentally) and Saffron has no way of stopping Ranma from doing that since he did not get the fire staff until later in the battle.
Big lead up, very disappointing fight. The reason the fight is so disappointing is because Ranma's advanced knowledge causes it to be a curb stomp. Were this a true second battle where both Saffron and Ranma have some idea as to the other opponents abilities; both are unarmed, or both are armed with the magic staffs from the beginning, or one armed with one of them the other unarmed; neither have a time limit or one of them under a time limit; etc. the battle would and could go very differently. Personally a second battle between them could go either way, hell that's how it was in the manga. Saffron had an upper-hand, then Ranma did, then Saffron, etc. the battle was much closer than most fan fics I have read make it appear to have been.
Were this a fight versus Herb than my opinion would be very different. Herb unlike Saffron was curb stomping Ranma for the majority of the time, it wasn't ping ponging between them. Even were you to give Ranma post battle knowledge prior to the battle against Herb it would not really matter. Even post manga knowledge (giving him further adaptations/better understanding of the Hiryu Shoten Ha and knowledge of the Senkens) without preptime and I'd still give Herb better odds of wining than I would Ranma (without preptime because given enough preptime the odds would/could change drastically).
3 comments:
Saffron wasn't the first person to think Ranma should be dead. By all rights Ranma should have been dead just from the water in his body turning to steam.
In volume one Kasumi and Nabiki are sure Akane killed Ranma.
In the Romeo and Juliet arc Happosai was surprised to see Ranma alive after he knocked Ranma out, rapped him in chain, sealed him in a block of concrete, and buried him in the back yard.(Ranma should never have even woken up)
It is almost a running gag that Ranma survives things that should kill him if not for the fact the person who did it was really trying to kill Ranma, and expected Ranma to die.
Ranma seems to not need to eat much if at all, or breath. He has also shown to be uniquely nigh immune to temperature extremes often swimming in ice water, or shrugging off fireballs. Ranma was the only person besides Saffron who could literally take the heat.
An interesting thing about Saffron is the speed at which he regenerates. He had re-grown his wings before he even began to fall. That is very fast, and Ranma was seeing it.
If Ranma and Saffron face off again I think Ranma would just rip Saffron's head off. It is basically what Ranma ended up doing.
Yep Ranma is much tougher than quite a few characters believe him to be.
Though he does have demonstrated limits for example while he can go without eating for awhile he lost a lot of weight and fainted from lack of food during the martial arts dining arc.
After swimming in ice cold water, breaking the ice up as he swam through it, he is shown to shiver (though walking around in the winter time under-dressed does not bother him like it does others such as Akane).
As for breathing he demonstratively can hold his breath for longer than a normal human should be able to but still needs to as shown by the cursed swimsuit nearly drowning him by forcing him to the bottom of the sea.
Yep Ranma is much tougher than quite a few characters believe him to be.
People who should know better are the ones underestimating Ranma.
Though he does have demonstrated limits for example while he can go without eating for awhile he lost a lot of weight and fainted from lack of food during the martial arts dining arc.
Yet his male and female forms seem to show no sign of the extreme weight loss implied seconds later such as clothing not fitting properly, ribs being visible...
In the cradle from hell we see Genma starving Ranma all his life and yet is perfectly fit, and average sized
I think something else was going on.
After swimming in ice cold water, breaking the ice up as he swam through it, he is shown to shiver (though walking around in the winter time under-dressed does not bother him like it does others such as Akane).
He froze himself solid when fighting Saffron. It is a matter of comfort rather then health.
As for breathing he demonstratively can hold his breath for longer than a normal human should be able to but still needs to as shown by the cursed swimsuit nearly drowning him by forcing him to the bottom of the sea.
It's more he thinks he needs to breath. Even your own example kind of implies this.
You can not hold your breath when unconscious. The only way Happosai could have gotten the chains and concrete on Ranma is if Ranma was not conscious at the time. The chains or concrete alone would make breathing impossible, and burying him would be icing on the cake. There was very good reason for Happosai to be surprised to see Ranma alive.
There is a lot of president for characters not needing to eat, breath, or drink in Ranma 1/2 even if they want to, and even think they need to. Saffron and Happosai are both prime examples. Happosai went over ten years without food, water, air, and sun light. Saffron produces far more energy then he should be able to with the amount of fuel he takes in, and is even able to convert it to matter. Ranma is shown to be capable of similar feats.
I would not be surprised if Ranma and Happosai had what amounts to eternal youth from the age they mastered the skills on, and could only be killed by something like beheading.
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