At 01:27 AM 22/04/97 -0700, Wade Tritschler wrote:

On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Mark Doherty wrote:

Well, as one of the 'Ukyou' people out there, let me say that I can
forgive your portrayal of Ukyou... if and only if you offer her some 
redemption later on. I'm not talking about matching her up to some 
guy, that is secondary to her getting forgiveness. If she gets her 

I'm glad to see you can forgive.  It's a good trait.

Oh, I can forgive. I just never... uh... something, can't remember how
that saying goes. ^_^

In this case I think the characterisation of Ukyo is perfectly fine, she
just happened to end up doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.  With
how her other plans backfire so badly it's isn't unexpected.

Mmm, characterisation isn't something that riles me too much. If something
is badly characterised, I might roll my eyes a bit, but it won't annoy me
too much. And if the characterisation changes are _believably_ explained
(as Shampoo's was in this fic), than I can stomach almost any 
characterisation.

I had no problem with Ukyou's characterisation in the fic, I just have a
hard time seeing Ukyou go through self-inflicted emotional horror. We all
don't like certain things happening to our favourite characters. The 
Shampoo fans, from my observation, are sick of seeing her treated as an
evil bimbo who doesn't have a chance of getting Ranma, and they seek to
address that in their fics. I just hate seeing Ukyou ending up with 
nothing. So, as I said, as long as Ukyou gains redemption... 

redemption, I'll be ok with it...(OOOooooo I hate it when Ukyou feels
miserable for something she did in a fic! That isn't a flame, BTW, just
me venting.)

Yeah, and I hate it when Shampoo ends up with Mousse.  OOOOOOoooooo.
So far, at the very best I've said "Errr, ummm, okay" and at the worst,
well, "DIE MOUSSE!!!!  DIE A THOUSANDS, NO TEN THOUSAND DEATHS!!!!!"
and more often than not, like 99% of the time it's the latter.
Gladly this story isn't one of those.

Hmmm... I'm guessing you're not a fan of the Mousse-Shampoo matchup. :P

Personally, I have no great problem with any matchup, as long as it is
explained to my satisfaction. In a way, that seems to be (one of) the 
problem(s) that people have with the Mousse/Shampoo, Nabiki/Kunou, 
Ryouga/Ukyou and even Ranma/Akane matchups, in that they are often seen
as the easy ways out, and therefore are not logically explained. 

Demonstrate good enough factors/reasoning/deciding events for relationship
development, and you'll never get a complaint from me. (Good luck, BTW, of
convincing me that Happosai'd marry anyone in mutual willingness without 
major magic ie love potions involved.) Hell, to prove just how much I believe 
in my own philosophy, I'm writing a fic right now that explores a 
relationship I've never seen done before(and will probably never see 
done again). 

(I still want to see a Mousse/Akane matchup. I've never seen it done, outside
one person's VERY incomplete fic, and there it was only a possible matchup.
Come on people, please, someone write a Mousse/Akane fic. I would, but I'm
swamped with unfinished stuff as it is. Waaahh!!! I've asked for this one
before, and no-one's done it yet!!!) 

And wasn't it you, Wade, that was one of the ones to recently challenge
writers to write more 3 Dimensional Shampoo stories, or Shampoo gets Ranma
stories or something like that? (Sorry, I went through my mailbox with a
razor a day ago and wiped every message I'd read, so I can't go back and
check. If it wasn't you, I sincerely apologise.) I think you said that if
the writers hated the characters, then work with them to make them better. 
(Again, if that wasn't you I apologise.) So why don't you write a believable
Mousse/Shampoo matchup? I know, I know, you don't like the match, so why
should you write it. Still...

************  
Mark Doherty  -  mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
My fanfics are at http://www.uq.edu.au/~zzhdoher

"Kawaii must die."