Bob Barnes wrote:
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Cut Wood, Carry Water
Any and all responses, comments, suggestions and/or
observations (including flames) are very much appreciated.
I'll try to respond to them all and will at least consider
incorporating any suggestions for changes I receive. Despite
all the effort, I know there are still errors in
spelling/syntax/usage lurking in here as well as possible
continuity conflicts. I've tried, hard, not to violate
canon, but you should know that I have my own ideas as to
what canon actually is.
A comment from a different perspective. I know you in no way intended
this to be the message, but as I read this fic, one thought kept
intruding into my mind....
Ranma and Akane are the _villains_ in this fic.
No, think about it. For over a year they have lied to everyone, whether
they be family or their supposed friends. They have conspired to
decieve and manipulate all those around them in a massive hoax
perpetuated purely for their own benefit.
Ok you ask, but why should they care about anyone else but themselves?
Well, just because other people's feeling do matter, for one thing.
Take Ryouga. He has every reason to believe Akane is his friend. She
has been kind to him, defended him from Ranma, and called him her
friend.
And it was all a lie. This self-aware Akane must surely have known how
much Ryouga loved her, worshipped her. Even if she didn't figure it out
for herself, Ranma would have told her in private. Yet did she ever
talk to Ryouga about it? Try to let him down easy? Nope, it didn't fit
her self-assumed disguise, so she was perfectly willing to allow him to
suffer in the unending torment of unrequitted love.
Villainous behavior?
Oh, and about P-chan. It isn't the same thing. Ryouga may have been
lying to her about his identity, but she lied to him about her emotions.
IMO a far worse crime. Besides, self-aware Akane should have figured
out P-chan a long time ago. If she's still been letting him sleep with
her, then apparently, she doesn't care.
What about Ukyou? Ranma has been pretending to be her friend, but
obviously he isn't. Obviously he doesn't really give a damn about her.
To him, she's just one of the faceless "them" that have to be taken
care of so that he and Akane can be together. He's intentionally woven
a deception for Ukyou that he does not love Akane. That's what this
whole "mask" idea was about in the first place, yes? He knows full well
that the longer he keeps up this deception, the more hurt and devasted
Ukyou would eventually be.
But he's perfectly willing to let her suffer. Some friend. He has
deliberately and with full intentions created a false personality around
Ukyou, apparently never letting her see the real him. Friendship simply
isn't possible when you're constantly lying to your "friend". The
phrase "letting people down easy" doesn't seem to have occured to Ranma
or Akane.
Now let us look at Shampoo. Akane has the sheer, unmitigated _gall_ to
be angry at Shampoo for interupting the wedding??!! Let's lay this out
piece by piece. Akane and Ranma are putting up an illusion that they do
not love or particularly like each other. This is a choice on their
part, done with conscious intent. Shampoo falls for this charade, hook,
line and sinker.
Now, Ranma and Akane are going to married. Shampoo hears about it. By
all that she thinks she knows, these two do _not_ want to get married.
Their parents must be forcing them. Even if she didn't love Ranma, even
if she didn't love him at all...... Ranma saved her from the ghost cat.
She owes him a debt, and now it's time to repay that debt. She'll stop
the wedding, the wedding that Ranma has repeatedly told her that he
_does_ not want.
Now he hasn't even so much as thanked her for her heroic efforts. Now
Akane has the nerve to come up and start threatening her. Wait, Shampoo
is confused. Shampoo thought violent-girl no want wedding.
Face it, the whole wedding fiasco was Ranma and Akane's fault from
beginning to end. They hornswaggle everyone into believing they don't
want to get married, and then they're surprised when those who care
about them show up to stop the wedding?
In the real series, Shampoo is a lot more culpable. There you can argue
that she should have seen the signs that Ranma and Akane are in love.
That or she has seen the signs and has been ignoring them. Here she's
the innocent victim of a very sick deception.
Needles to say, this all goes double for Ukyou. Self-aware Ranma has
been playing her emotions like a fiddle, and he shouldn't be surprised
when it literally blew up in his face.
So in summary, the charges are these. False friendship, hypocripsy, and
the lie after lie after lie about their true identities to these people
who have shared their lives.
They're even acting in the behavior patterns of villains! Plotting in
secret, where they laugh at everyone else and celebrate their deception.
Also, notice that Ranma and Akane have taken the active role in this
fic. They're the ones with the plan. Most often it is the _villains_
in a story who have the plan, the need to mold the world to suit their
own desires. It is the hero's role to stop the plan and keep everyone
else from being manipulated to the villain's ends.
Admittedly this isn't always the case. I'm sure people can come up with
numerous counter-examples. However, it begs the question that if Ranma
and Akane aren't the villains, who is? Right now, they have the plan
and are so far ahead of everyone else, it isn't even funny.
Traditionally, it's at this point that a hero would step forth to start
untangling their web of lies and expose them for what they are.
I know it'll never happen because that isn't the way this fic is going.
Personally, though, I'm rooting for Akane and Ranma to get the
thrashing they so richly deserve. Preferably administered by Ryouga.
Whose betrayal cuts deepest, but that of one we love?
Separate point!!!!!!
I ask that this point be considered in separation from the rest of this
nonsense.
The original premise of this fic was that "martial artists aren't stupid
people". It's an interesting idea, but why is it only being applied to
Ranma and Akane?
Shampoo's a martial artist. Where is her hidden intelligence? What
about Soun? Or Genma for that matter? Or god help us all, could Kunou
actually be smarter than he lets on?
The premise just doesn't make as much sense if Ranma and Akane are the
only ones wearing "masks", and everyone else is the emotional and
intellectual cripple they appear to be in the normal series.
As I said, a differing view.