This is Richard Lawson, writing from my work email account. Our
database engine has died an ugly death, and I'm having fun paging people
at 2am trying to get it working again. In the meantime, I thought I'd
share my thoughts about the "Errors" drinking game.
It kinda bothered me, maybe because if you played the game while reading
my stories, you could get good and wasted. :) Yet, I don't think my
stories contain "errors" per se.
My introduction to Ranma 1/2 came by purchasing Volume 1 of the dubbed
TV series and watching it at home. I knew very little about Ranma
before that, so it was all new to me. It became permanently fixed in my
mind that onna-Ranma had red hair. Even when I started buying the
manga, in my mind's eye onna-Ranma's hair was still red.
My second purchase was Movie 1: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China. I had
watched Volume 1 of the TV series several times, and had not yet bought
any of the manga, so Akane with short hair seemed strange to me. :)
This was my introduction to Shampoo; so my image of her is now of a
woman with naturally purple hair.
My favorite lines from that movie - and so far, the lines that have
gotten the biggest laugh from me yet - are:
"I, Tatewaki Kuno, offer my unconditional assistance!" <smash>
"Hey Kuno-baby, the door?"
"Be silent woman!"
I laughed so hard I had to stop the tape. Okay, it's not so funny now,
but at the time I just about died. This added another permanent fixture
to my picture of the Ranmaverse: To Nabiki, Tatewaki was "Kuno-baby".
My favorite Ranma 1/2 story so far is "Tendo Family Christmas Scramble",
perhaps because it's funny and touching at the same time.
Unfortunately, it has no manga counterpart; it's an OAV original. Thus,
not canon. Still, I love it so much that I've made it another part of
my picture of the Ranmaverse.
When I started writing fanfics, I tried to keep everything strictly
canon. Thus I never mention that female Ranma has red hair. I don't
refer to female Ranma as "Ranma-chan", instead letting the personal
pronouns determine Ranma's gender. My first fanfic, "Heart of the
Home", was pretty good at being "canon".
Yet in my second fanfic, "The Right Side of the Ledger", I began to
slip. Nabiki calls Tatewaki "Kuno-baby". I can't help it; that's her
name for him. "Kuno-chan" (or whatever it is) just doesn't do it for
me. Tatewaki also spouts lots of Shakespeare, even though he doesn't do
that in the manga or the subbed anime.
I began slipping more in "Thy Inward Love". More "Kuno-baby"; and also
references to Tendo Family Christmas Scramble. Someone also commented
that Shampoo saving Akane from the Phoenix occurred only in the anime,
and was thus not canon.
"Manual Not Included" refers to Shampoo's purple hair. "Storm's End"
talks about male-Ranma's hair being black; implying that it's another
color when Ranma is female.
So, I've slipped. These are non-canon references.
So sue me. :)
I have no intention of going back and making them more canon. I have a
vision of the Ranmaverse; I like it, and I write my fanfics based on
what I see. If it's not strictly canon, I think that's okay as long as
it doesn't deviate too much. My Ranmaverse is still recognizable as
being based on RT's Ranmaverse. I don't think deviations are "errors",
necessarily, but rather a slight remaking of the Ranmaverse to our
liking. Female Ranma with red hair is fine. Satsuke is fine (I'll
never use him, but won't object if you do). Referring to female Ranma
as "Ranma-chan" is fine, too. It's become so common as to be almost
canon itself, in fanfics anyway. Stories based on the movies or the
"non-canon" OAV's are fine as well.
The point I'm trying to make here is that I hope people won't think less
of authors for making these "errors", as long as they are consistent and
true to the author's perception of the Ranmaverse. I think it is the
diversity of the Ranmaverse that makes it a particularly attractive
place to base fanfics on. Don't blast the authors for these flights of
fancy. At the same time, blatant errors (like people who think Jusenkyo
was destroyed in Volume 38, or Nodoka doesn't know about Ranma's curse,
or some people who think "pig-tailed" is wrong and attempt to replace it
with "pony-tailed") should be pointed out to the authors, I think.
That's what the FFML is all about.
In my Ranmaverse, red-haired female Ranma is wearing a badly knitted
scarf with her initials on it. She's looking down as Nabiki calls out
to "Kuno-baby" in the back yard, attempting to sell him some more
pictures of the pig-tailed goddess while Kuno himself spouts
Shakespeare. Akane has pulled a mallet out of thin air and is
attempting to chase away a certain purple-haired Amazon.
If you see such a picture in a fanfic of mine, don't hate me for it. Go
ahead and get blasted as you play the drinking game. :) But I hope
no one attempts to make anyone feel bad for making these "mistakes".
There are an infinite number of universes according to some; therefore,
there should be room for each one of our visions. :)
-Richard
rlawson@informix.com
sterman@sprynet.com