From: Matthew Campbell [SMTP:mattgav@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 1997 11:06 AM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com; sterman@sprynet.com

From: "Richard Lawson" <sterman@sprynet.com>

I'm sorry, but I have a MAJOR problem with this story.

Don't apologize.  I *want* to hear whatever you think doesn't work in this story.

If I understand the above correctly, they're absolving Akane of all 
responsibility and that's just not right.  Sure, the rage disorder 
caused her to beat Ranma, but what about between episodes?  It was 
Akane's decision not to seek help, though her friends and family begged 
her.  It was Akane's decision to pretend that everything was fine, even 
when it obviously wasn't.

That was part of the same disorder.  An interesting statistic I found in researching domestic abuse is that 90% of people who go to counseling for domestic abuse do so *involuntarily*.  It's part of the same disease.

Once or twice she could be excused for, but Akane *knew* that there was 
something wrong, that she'd lost control, and still she refused to act.  
To absolve her of all responsibility is ridiculous.  She was criminally 
negligent.  Some would say she is paying sufficiently for her crimes, 
but where does that give TiL Ranma the right to pardon her?  She 
murdered two people, and it happened because of her own indifference to 
the suffering her rage disorder was causing.

Look at it this way:  a woman is driving a car.  She has a heart attack.  She falls unconscious; the car swerves off the road and hits two people, killing them.  The woman, however, survives the heart attack.  How much of it is her fault?  She had a serious medical problem that caused her to lose control in an important situation.  The result was tragedy.

The exact same thing is happening in "The Bitter End".  Akane has a serious mental disorder.  Yes, she knows some blame, but my opinion is that the major part of the blame falls with her friends and family.  *Every* one of them, in one way or another, turns a blind eye to Akane's obviously deteriorating condition.  Instead, many of the blame Ranma.  Ranma also unfairly blames himself.  He doesn't help matters by constantly running away from his problems.  If you read the story carefully, there is not one person who is not guilty in some way.  Ranma, Kasumi, Nabiki, Nodoka (especially her), Genma, Ukyo, Ryoga... *all* played a part in the tragedy that followed.  I blame them much more than I blame Akane.  Akane was sick, that's all.  Part of that sickness prevented her from voluntarily seeking a cure.  It was up to her friends and family to see that she got help, and they blew it.

In conclusion, I'd have to say that the deaths of Ranma and Ukyou *ARE* 
Akane's fault.

But not *entirely* her fault.  In my opinion, not even *mostly* her fault.

Or, another way to look at it, it *was* her fault, her *fault*, a genetic twist that gave her an extremely serious mental disorder.  Who should we blame?  God, if you believe in a supreme being?  Her parents for passing on those genes?

A better way is not to try and assign blame for every tragedy.  Instead, learn whatever lessons you can and try to keep it from happening again.  You incarcerate cold-blooded killers.  You try and heal people with mental disorders.

How can she ever get better until she accepts her own 
culpability?

Exactly.  And how can she do that unless she allows the doctors at the mental hospital to cure her?  TILma helps her start on the path to healing.  After she's healed, then there can be acceptance of the sins she's committed, and the results they came to.  But again, her blame, in my opinion, is much less than that of the people around her at the time.

Richard, why must you always take these things so seriously?

Why would you think that I wouldn't?  All of my stories are serious, except for the occasional spamfic and "Manual Not Included", my one attempt at comedy.  I am a serious writer; I try to write "realistic" stories, where actions have consequences.  If you don't like that style of writing, don't read my stories.  I don't mean that in a spiteful or sarcastic way; I'm just saying that most of my stories are going to be like that.\

I was expecting a fun story where TiL Akane wandered around town,
clueless as to why everyone is screaming in terror.  I was expecting
BE Akane to try to kill everyone, only to be thwarted in many amusing
and coincidental fashions.  That would have been fun, that would have
made me say COOL!  Instead I got this, which while good, isn't really
great.

Um... why were you expecting that kind of story?  And why should I be put out that I didn't write a story that met your expectations?  Again, that's not meant spitefully or sarcastically.  I just don't understand why you thought I had to write the story you were imagining.  I'd rather *you* wrote it.  :)  Seriously, if this story and the way it was written bothers you, write it the way you'd like to see it done.  It was exactly that motivation that led me to write "Thy Outward Part"; after seeing yet another poorly-done (in my opinion) Ranma-gets-stuck-as-a-woman story, I'd decided I'd had enough and wrote TOP to show how *I* thought the story should be written.

Write a TIL/BE crossover that lives up to your expectations.  You have my permission - I can't speak for Zen.  I'd like to see what you come up with.

I was just hoping to see a little of the wackiness that drew me
to Ranma 1/2 in the first place.

I'm no good at wacky.  :)  Read "Manual Not Included" and see why I never tried to write another comedy.  ^_^

Again, if you want to see wacky, *write* wacky.  I like to see serious, studied stories, so that's what I write.

Matthew Campbell

-Richard
sterman@sprynet.com

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