Subject: Re: [FFML] Why ignore? (was Re : Stagnant SMoon Writing)
From: Hunter Kid
Date: 10/4/1997, 5:47 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

That's because the Ranma 1/2 universe offers countless possibilities for
fanfiction.  The folks who complain about seeing too many Ranma fics - why?
Because they 'dominate the fanfiction?'  

Did you ever stop and think that there might be a *reason* why this is the
case?

Does it really?  This is news to me.  I have always taken the attitude that
Rumiko Takahashi's method of writing was to introduce a new character when
the old ones became boring, or impossible to use anymore because they were
nothing more than one-idea plot devices anyway.  And the ocean of Ranma has
been well and truly fished out in the world of fanfics.

Mind you, I didn't always have this attitude.  I started reading the Ranma
fics and liked them.  (It was the first series I follwed as a general
rule).  That was before my collection of Ranma fics went over 700
(individual stories or chapters), just over half the total number of fics
available (or those that I've found, they make a huge dent in my hard
drive).  And then I got to see what a creative black hole this series has
become.  People are spending so much of their time writing fics for what is
now a dead series, both in manga and anime form, and people are ignoring
the plethora of other series available to them.

And so, with a slowly evolving dislike for Ranma fics, I sat and wait for
people to post their fics on the FFML to be faced with piece after piece of
Ranma fiction and proceed to get more and more bored with what is being
written.  Some of it is good, yes, but there has been so much that was good
previously that what was once considered a "moderately good" Ranma fic is
today just average and average fics have become downright BORING.  The only
way you're going to get a Ranma fic noticed today is if you right something
that is RIGHTEOUSLY good or controversial.  And even then, I only go back
to read them if I see a lot of c&c posted on them.

This is why I say that the occasional SM, Tenchi, Eva, YYH or AMG fic is
like a gift from Heaven.  At last, I'm reading something from someone who
is willing to expand their horizons.  The Ranma fic has become a cosy
little bolthole for people who aren't willing to extend themselves.  The
increasing number of fics on Evangelion is great.  I haven't read a bad one
yet.  I've read a couple of bad SM fics, but then that series is second to
Ranma in terms of numbers.

But I refute the suggestion that there is something wrong with me if I say
I don't like reading Ranma fics anymore.  Whether or not I read the damn
things is my business.  And I'm letting you know my displeasure at the
continuing high number of them.  

It's not that we care whether you personally like Ranma fics or not, but
the blanket statements that 'they're all the same' is an unfair,
unwarranted, and untrue statement.

People have been complaining of late about the low volume of c&c they have
been receiving.  Put 2 and 2 together.  Maybe people aren't reading the
fics anymore because they're bored shitless with them.  When someone sees
"Ranma" or "R1/2" in the subject header, maybe they're saying to themselves
"Oh shit, not another one".  You may think that there are endless
possibilities for fictions with Ranma, but those endless possibilities go
as far as the interest in the readership.

Maybe.  I complained about lack of C&C on my Mirror Images third chapter
('Slightly Angry,' if you recall, and I did wind up getting a fair bit of
C&C, so...), but besides that, I usually get plenty of C&C on my
fanfiction; I got quite a bit on 'Ryoga 1/2,' for instance, and a modest
amount on the first two Mirror Images chapters.

The only major disappointment I had as far as C&C was my first fanfic,
Wanderlings.  I'm not sure why, but it didn't appeal to the masses at all.
<shrug>  Oh, well.

And people aren't 'bored shitless' with Ranma 1/2.  *You* are.  If they
were, why do some fics, like Roses of Shadow and Bitter End draw so much
attention?  How about the folks that keep asking for Winding Road? -
there's a lot of them.  And TMTC/TPOH.  And A Lesson in Love.  Etc. etc.

Hunter Kid
http://www.serve.com/guilds/ranma/
guilds@mail.serve.com