Ok. As I see it, there is a balance to be struck here. You will
excuse me if I take the debate out of the Ranma environment into one
with which I am more familiar, won't you?
As most of you know, I wrote a Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction titled
"Bubblegum Collision". Two of the characters in said story behaved in
ways which would be, according to the source material, OOC. However, in
the context of the story, I feel that both were perfectly IC.
Experiences change people. The key to writing such changes is to
understand the magnitude of the experiences required to induce certain
changes. For example :
Nene Romanova. Young, intelligent, but rather naive in most ways. In
Collision, I caused her to suffer severe injury in battle at the hands
of another person. In fact, she ended up having her left hand amputated
and replaced with a cybernetic piece. Traumatic, to say the least. Her
naivete was shattered, and her innocence placed in peril. She was
introduced to the emotions of anger and hatred, which she had never
truly known. Though she fought her way back from the edge, for a time
she was more cold than Sylia could ever pretend to be.
The Nene of Bubblegum Collision is not the Nene of Bubblegum Crisis.
She began as such, but events in the story caused her to change. It has
been said that change is life, and life is change. I believe this
wholeheartedly.
On the other hand... look at what happened to her to provoke these
changes. She suffered through a great deal of anger and pain, and then
was forced to endure the insult of her assailant being allowed to join
the Knight Sabers. When taken in combination with her idealistic view
of the world, this is a crushing blow.
Yes, characters change. It happens. However, there are forces in the
human soul which are strong... very strong. Love is one of these.
Love may end, for some... but if the love is true, it will be a very
difficult bond to break indeed.
In other words, let your characters change, as life will change them;
please do not change them for no or insufficient reason. That is OOC.
Any agreements/disagreements?
Storm