How to avoid stereotyping Ranma characters.

Simple, start by going over the source material.

If you want to use Manga based characterizations: read the manga. 
Anime: watch anime.
If you want to write a story set after the manga: find and read the
	translations.

While using fanfics can give you an idea of what the Ranma characters are
like, reading them tends to influence how you see the characters. You no
longer see Takahashi's Ranma, but Kleppe's, Palmer's, Zen's, or whoever
else's Ranma. It's not a bad thing to read the fics, but you should try to
relate their behavior to the source material. If you just go off a fanfic
idea, you start moving farther away from the source.

Example:
In the manga is Cologne hell bent on getting Ranma married to Shampoo? 
No! But in most fanfics, she's usually more insistent than Shampoo is.
In Thy Inward Love, Cologne went insane in her attempts to have Ranma
marry Shampoo, but in the manga this has no basis since Cologne stopped
trying to directly force Ranma to marry Shampoo after the Mt. Terror
incident. With fanfics, such stereotypical behavior is accepted, but it
doesn't fit with the manga.


Second, look at how a character acts closely. Especially the main
character(s) of your fic.

Take a close look as to why a character acts the way they do. Don't just
go, 'oh Akane's anger so she mallets Ranma.' What got her anger in the
first place to cause this reaction? Go through the various times Ranma was
hit by Akane and see what was the trigger. Finding this out you begin to
see deeper aspects of Akane. You begin to find the root of her behavior.
Start taking other aspects of the character's life and see how that
relates. How quickly does Akane pick up a suitor, and how does she deal
with them? Finding the answer to that and you come closer to a full
picture.

By exploring a character into finer details, you add detail to them in
your mind. Making the character 3-deminsional that when you set a scene
you don't ask how do I want them to act, but how would the character react
to the situation. 

Example:
Just how much does it take for Akane to get angry enough to mallet Ranma?
If you said a couple insults, Ranma would be in a pine box now. Akane's
attacks tend to have more substance than a good deal of fanfics give
credit for. (If your fiancee was being hugged by someone that looked like
a super model and failing badly to deter their interest, would you not get
upset to the point of possibly hitting your fiancee?)

Third, try and find stereotypes in fics and avoid them.
Gosunguki does not know magic beyond not burning himself with candles.
Cologne only guides Shampoo, she doesn't interfere directly (if at all) in
	the pursuit of having Ranma marry Shampoo.
Shampoo repeatedly uses love inducing food on Ranma.

To make it clear:
Base characteration in your fic on source material (manga/anime) and not
	fanfics.
Study characters in depth on your own.
Find out where stereotypes exists in fanfics, and avoid them.



How am I studying the Ranma characters?

Currently I'm studying various characters, listing their personal traits.
Then I match their traits to Astrological signs. I've gotten rather in
depth on Ranma's and Akane's natal chart to the point that I've placed
Ranma born just before sunrise April 1st 1976 and Akane was born also just
before surise on April 8th 1976.

Why 1976? It's the Chinese year of the dragon, which has a major trait of
stubborness.

Why April 1st before surise for Ranma? Aires Moon, Sun and Ascending sign.
Anyone with that combination would be EXTREMELY impulsive, self-assured,
and active. Not to mention being social inempt in how to deal with others.
Not only that, but it also carries the conotation of being the New Year's
of at least one culture and of being Aprils fools day.

I will eventually put on my web page a complete natal chart of the main
Ranma crew, and see how close it really is. (It scares me how close it
is, and I'm talking about the placements of ALL the planets.)

What purpose does that serve me for writing a fic? Well, by examining them
that closely, I've developed in my own mind how the characters will
usually act given a certain situation.



The 2 yen thought from the sleep deprived,

			 / LORD ARCHIVE \
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* The JAFO otaku.    *        A Knight of The True Fiancee, Akane.     *
* Slave of GRAAC     *     Addiction, The Footman of the Appocalypse.  *
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*      Web Page: http://www.mich.com/~archive - Ranma fan-fiction      * 
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