Ranma Al'Thor wrote:
On Wed, 25 Sep 1996, Richard Lawson wrote:
Hey John,
I wanted to ask your opinion of "Life's Ingredients". Have you read
it? What do you think?
Hulk working on thorough review.
Goody! Tear in to me as much as you can - I really want this story to
work.
I want to know because you're one of the confirmed Ukyophiles on the
ML. I really want to get this story right, and your input, if you feel
like offering it, would be greatly appreciated. I've already got
opinions from many of the other Ukyophiles on this ML.
Heh. I will sock it to you. Certainly, I think the treatment has
improved from Thy Inward Love(main story), which one of these days before
the end of
the universe, I will actually give you a thorough review of (After I read
it, I was depressed for a week, then got busy and never got around to
sending you any comments on it
I'll toss a few comments that I still remember:
I wanted to beat Nodoka to death by the end of TIL. Nodoka becomes
steadily worse and worse as the story progresses. Rather than improving
like Genma, she degenerates. At the start, he is not worthy of her. By
the end, she is not worthy of him or her son. She is shown to be hollow,
a good front hiding a rotten core, while Genma was the other way around.
The point at which I went from sympathisizing with her to being angry was
when she tried to tempt Genma into abandoning his duties to go be with her.
>From that point onward, she lost her moral high ground. Yet, this was
never really addressed, other than one feeble comment by her. Not to
mention the Nodoka of this story doesn't seem compatible with the nutcase
willing to accept her son peeping on women as a sign of manliness.(One of
the late manga stories). This was one of the things that ended up making
me depressed for a week.
Hmm. My portrayl of Nodoka is deliberately anti-manga, and many people
have commented on that. They've liked the Genma-Nodoka relationship,
which happens to be one of my favorite bits of the original series.
They see Genma struggle to learn a measure of maturity and
responsibility, which he more or less achieves at the end.
This is not to say your comments aren't valid. Far from it; now that I
think on it, Nodoka isn't terribly likeable, is she? The problem I had,
right at the very beginning of the story, is that I needed an impetus
for Ranma to change. Some sort of crisis that forces him to realize,
once and for all, that he needs Akane. Nodoka seemed my best bet.
Ranma has absolutely no respect for Genma, but he worships Nodoka. How
cutting it would be for him to discover that she had some reservations
about his maturity. For Nodoka to make those comments, I needed to
change her character a bit. You're right, the Nodoka who wanted her son
to be a peeping Tom wasn't a terribly good judge of character.
So Nodoka became less the Kasumi clone and more the distant Goddess of
Judgement, by whose standards Genma and Ranma had to measure themselves
by. Her role as seductress was meant to highlight how far Genma had
come, and how much Nodoka was beginning to soften towards him. I never
considered it in the light of how evil that made Nodoka.
Also, I needed an impetus for Ranma and Akane to get married. Again,
you're right, and I happen to agree: Ranma and Akane are too young to
get married. However, the whole point behind the series was to resolve
Ranma 1/2, which meant (in my mind) Ranma and Akane getting married. So
Nodoka went to work as the great manipulator (with Soun's enthusiastic
help) to get them married.
So Nodoka was pretty much reduced to a plot device, the catalyst for all
the major events in Ranma and Akane's lives. Again, I never considered
how bad a person this made her out to be. I'll have to think about
that. I fear there's not much I can do, for to change her would be to
replot much of the story. Maybe I can add a bit that makes Nodoka more
likeable. <sigh> I had sworn that "Life's Ingredients" was my last TIL
story, but maybe I need one more side story about Nodoka and Genma. I
mention that she and Genma go shopping together; perhaps that would be a
good setting for the story.
Kodachi ending up in the insane asylum just felt like a copout. If
Kodachi was going to end up committed, she should have been committed by
now. I dunno if the Asylum was made that could hold her against her
will, either :)
Again, you're right. The reason for this was I didn't much like
Kodachi. It's also why you don't see Happosai; I simply can't abide
him. Sebastian Weinberg also took me to task for taking the cheap and
easy way out with Kodachi.
So I wrote an aftermath story called "The Dying of the Rose". This
deals with Kodachi's release from the hospital eight years after she was
committed. She's more or less sane, and has to find a place for herself
in the Ranmaverse. The story was a bit of a catharsis for me;
afterwards, I found myself *liking* Kodachi, even in her manga, maniacal
form. Once you get inside someone's head, you tend to understand them a
bit better. :) "The Dying of the Rose" happens to be one of my
favorite works, because of that.
Ukyou was disappointing, not because she didn't get Ranma (I love Ukyou
to death, but I didn't let her get Ranma either :)), but because it just
felt sort of ...I dunno. Nothing was resolved. Ukyou breaking her
spatula didn't make any sense to me, and the only sense in which I can
take it, is denied by this new story. Ukyou has clearly failed to reject
her past, and at best has simply gone into a sort of denial (She seemed
too well adjusted in the last part of TIL, also.)
Well, the point to the spatula was that she no longer uses violence to
solve her problems, like she did occasionally in the manga. It is also
symbolic of how she's given up on Ranma. Her obsession with him, in one
form or the other, was the central theme of her life for so long. Those
are the things I tried to resolve with Ukyo, and I thought I'd done
that. What "Life's Ingredients" is supposed to be about if Ukyo trying
to fill the void left by the departure of her obsession over Ranma. She
thought she could do it by throwing herself into her business (which is
why she felt so good at the end of TIL), but it isn't working out the
way she expected.
Ranma and Akane getting married at the end...didn't work for me. For one
thing, it meant that effectively Nodoka and Soun's conspiracy 'won',
which bothered me (another reason to be depressed. Gave me a greater
understanding of why Jon K. Hayashi rode me so hard over DNR 15) Ranma
and Akane aren't ready to get married. Not by a long shot. Not even
with their growth in the story.
Again, I happen to agree with you. Part of what "Life's Ingredients"
was supposed to show was why it was a mistake for them to marry so young
- they both still need a bit of maturing. Still, like I said,
resolution to Ranma 1/2 meant, to me, Ranma and Akane married. I was
certainly disappointed that RT brought us to the brink of marriage and
then backed away. TIL was my answer to that, fulfilling some fan's
needs (including my own) to see the ultimate consummation of Ranma's and
Akane's relationship.
The Ryouga-Akari business was very well handled. I haven't used Akari
much in my own work...Actually, I don't think I've EVER used Akari, but I
like her :) She feels natural, unlike Konatsu, who seems tacked on to
give Ukyou another option as the manga cruised to a conclusion (well, an
ending point, but that's a DIFFERENT rant.)
Agree re: Konatsu, which is why I didn't have Ukyo get together with
him.
I had much more to say on TIL, but I've forgotten it all.
If you ever think of it, let me know. I'd like to hear it!
Here's your chance to get back at me for what I said about "For Want of
a Nail". :) Oh, and for inadverently starting that stupid flamerwar
on the DnR ML.
Heh. I try to avoid taking revenge on people. If I don't like someone,
I usually ignore their work, rather than comment on it :)
And if you think that business was bad...You should see how we yell at
each other in private sometimes or at Jon K. Hayashi :)
Oh, good, that actually makes me feel a little better. I was feeling a
bit unloved on the DnR ML, but if that's normalcy than I can accept it
better. :)
John Walter Biles : MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu bailesu@komodo.hacks.arizona.edu