YN2 Rob Barba <n5yn@c7f.navy.mil> wrote:

**Sorry, but this one had been tried before and all three times few rose up
to the challenge.  Initially, Jeanne Hedge tried that, which was reiterated
a few months later by Gary Kleppe.  A year after that, I reissued it with
TOS-VSTF.  I'm not sure if anyone else has tried to try this, but you're
welcome to reissue it, and who knows?  Maybe it'll happen this time.  

Actually it was Bridget Engman, not Jeanne Hedge. The original challenge
was as follows (with typos corrected by me):

"First, pick a character from any anime (or even make one up) that you 
hate.  Write a short scene involving that character in which you make
the audience also hate that character.  (This probably won't work well
in script form.)  Try to do so narratively, without speculating on the 
character; show it through actions, dialogue, and description instead of

telling us.

"Now take that same scene and rewrite it from that character's point of 
view.  Try to get inside the character's head and express how he/she/it 
sees him/her/itself.  Justify the actions.  

"This exercise is supposed to help in characterization.  Sometimes it is

too easy in characterizing someone unpleasant to make that
unpleasantness superficial. (i.e.  Shampoo/Ranma/Nabiki is simply evil)
By delving into that character's motivations and opinions, you bring
yourself and the audience closer to the character, giving it that much
more depth.  It should also be useful in consciously making you think
about point of view.  At least, I hope it'll do these things.  And, if
nothing else, it should be fun.  That's what we're all about, ne?"

Bridget originally posted this in December '96. I re-issued it a little
later, during a time when Akane-bashing fics were popular. As Rob says,
there were few or no takers; I never even got around to writing up my
own entry. Maybe I will this time, and I hope other people on the list
will, too.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics