At 12:22 AM 4/9/98 -0400, you wrote:
Genma isn't evil. Lots of other things yes, but not evil.
Read Chris Jone's "Guardian Angel" for an opposing opinion. I never
realized that Genma could be so scary. It can be found at
http://www.cyberwheel.simplenet.com/ranma/guardianangel.txt
Thanks for the plug!
I wrote 'Guardian Angel' for many reasons, of which demonstrating my
opinions of Genma is only one.
Genma is, in my mind, worse than Happousai in his belligerance. At some
point, he lost the basic drive to care for one's family in favor of
'Perfecting the Art'. He is intelligent, but doesn't have the basic wisdom
or simple understanding of causality that say... Soun does. He comes up
with impossibly complex schemes, but they fail, because they all depend on
everyone around him to act like he does.
Evil? Sometimes, but usually only emotionally and morally retarded. Look at
the later manga volumes, especially right after Nodoka finds out about the
curse. Takahashi writes Genma as such a... <snip foul language> that it's
impossible to have *any* compassion for him. Yet... she writes Ranma with
many of those same characteristics. Does that make him evil?
Takahashi does a good job of showing that Ranma's and his father's
behaviors are different due to the basic understanding that Ranma gains in
dealing with his many trevails. He's got some of Genma's bad qualities,
but, in concert with Nodoka's qualities and his curse, exploits Genma's
good qualities for all their worth.
Ie: Genma's character traits don't make him 'evil' by themselves. Its
really the combination of the traits that do it. Genma gets in trouble
because *everything* he does is wrong. That's why I don't like him. It
always takes someone else to bring out the good in him. Usually Soun or
Nodoka.
To keep this in line with FFML character debate policy, how does this
affect my fanfiction and other people's work?
In my stories, I usually protray Genma as a cretin.
In the 'Ranma's Apartment' series, I've written Genma as being unable to
comprehend that his son doesn't behave the way he expects him to. This
mostly originates for me from the anime episode in which Genma tries to
force Ranma to bow to Happousai, and then throws him out of the dojo
because he won't.
While I've not stated that they are divorced, Genma and Nodoka are
obviously separated in 'Ranma's Apartment' as well. I beleive that Nodoka
has enough strength of character to realized that Genma's only honorable
behavior comes when she, or someone else, forces it out of him.
Now, this is not the only reasonable characterization of Genma. I've also
seen authors who use Genma's reliance on others for morality in a much more
positive light. The first story that really comes to mind is the scene in
chapter 10 of 'New Horizons' (visit Greg's scenic FF page:
http://www.microlink.net/~sandborn/gregff.html) in which Soun and Genma
defend the dojo from a horde of ninja while everyone else is out rescuing
eachother.
All of Genma's traits come to play in this scene, and his honor and skill
as a martial artist outbalances all the deviousness and dishonesty. This is
not because some one forced his honor out of him, but because the situation
had his family and his extended family all in danger.
So what is the *correct* portrayal of Genma in a fic? It's hard to say.
Genma is one of the more dimensional characters in 'Ranma 1/2' so just
about any portrayal works, so long as it has the necessary environment to
back up his behavior. An example from the Anime would be when Touma kidnaps
the girls. Genma is one of the first to run to rescue (for many reasons),
but he does takes an active part in trying to keep his extended family
safe. By the same token, When Nodoka shows up at the dojo, Genma would
rather run and hide than face his wife. Cowardice and Honor all in one
package, depending on his environment.
The best fanfiction example I can think of comes from MASN
(http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/6184/index.html) by Joseph Kohle.
This (epic) fic manages to portray some emotional growth for Genma, but
I've noticed that it falls into the same pattern of Genma's honor being
dictated by his environment. When everything is hunky dorey, so far as he
knows, Genma is an ass and inconsiderate, but when the battle lines are
drawn between his family and Cologne and Shampoo, and Ranma is
incapacitataed, the shock of the situation Genma forces himself to do what
he thinks is right. His deviousness becomes strategical talent.
Genma is a cretin, but can become so much more, if you put him in the right
situation, or surround him with the right people. *That's* what I think the
correct portrayal of Genma is. You might say this could be true of anyone,
but I still beleive that it *always* takes someone else to help Genma
realize any honor he has.
Tybalt, forgive me if this skirts too close to non-fic character debate.
Chris
* * *
Chris Jones - hamster@arn.net
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