My take on Childhood's End: pretty much every criticism was dead on the 

   <CHOP>

scenes in any fanfic.

Uh . . . You DID read pretty deep into it . . . maybe I oughta give it 
another chance . . .

I didn't see much similarity between that story and Clarke's
_Childhood's End_, other than that both were depressing.

What I ment was they both left me feeling the same.  They had the, "guess 
what, sometimes no one wins" feeling.  I can't explain it.  "Dropping 
Anchor" was depressing <REAL depressing>, CE just left me feeling  . . .
I don't know, down . . . Oh well, either you know what I mean or you 
think I'm a complete idiot now <c: all of the above>.  I think the story 
might work better in one of two formats,
  1> Much shorter.  In a very short story you can excuse low work on 
      characterization, just a plot and as you said, maybe a point ...
  2> Much longer.  Characterize as much as possible, give everyone well 
      defined reasons.  Make people see the transition from Ranma A(Hell 
      no I don't wanna be a girl) to Ranma B(I have to stay a girl for 
      my child), and make them buy it.
Well thats just what I think . . . blabla bla blablabla my opinion bla 
bla blablablabla bla I'll shut up now blablabla

Matthew Trotter, anybody care? anybody? anybody? Buler? Buler?