Sean Connor <sec@softhome.net> wrote:
On Fri, Aug 21, 1998 at 12:58:27AM +0000, Gary Kleppe wrote:
Huh? When was this shown? As I understand it, Soun didn't do any cooking
in the canon for the simple reason that Kasumi was there to do it for
him.
This isn't canon. It's a possible (and entirely reasonable)
explanation of the canon, but it isn't canon.
I didn't say it was canon. I said it was *my understanding* of the
canon.
Now, in Sydney Kyle's fic, "Akane and Ranma", Mr. Kyle portrays Ukyou
as Ranma's best friend. Again, there's no real proof either way.
(But again, however, there are reasons why she might be, or might not
be.)
There's strong indirect evidence that she's not, and I know of
absolutely no evidence that she is (I've challenged people to come up
with some).
Your response to Mr. Kyle's fic was to demand evidence for his
position -- quite loudly and rudely, I might add.
I don't remember anything loud and rude about that post. I even said
"please," for goshsakes. It was, perhaps, a little overzealous, and for
this I apologized to Kyle long ago. Take the chip off your shoulder,
please.
Nick's response was to ask you for evidence for your position, in
terms that were rather more polite than yours.
Why is this? Why do you think Mr. Kyle should provide proof of his
characterization, when you obviously don't think you need to provide
proof of yours?
My fic wasn't trying to persuade the reader of anything. Kyle's, at
least the way it seemed to me, was. When you're writing to persuade the
reader that fiancee X is a better match for Y than Z, IMO you have a
bigger fairness obligation.
Even if it were proven that Soun wouldn't learn to cook, this would be
an exceedingly minor quibble.
Indeed it would.
No, no, no... I only CLAIM loudly and proudly to be a hypocrite... but
deep down, I'm secretly sincere. ^_^ (Figure THAT out. :-P)
I don't really have to waste time trying to untangle your verbal
Gordian knots.
That's a joke, son.
Read his post again. He stated that you critisized _other people's_
characterization on a regular basis, not his in particular. Do you
really care to dispute that charge?
I would admit to "other PERSON." Namely, Zen. And I'm not the only one.
Nick himself once admitted to having had an OOC complaint *every* time
he pre-read one of Zen's fics.
First of all, from your criticism of Mr. Kyle's fic, one could easily
get the impression that you think that something shouldn't be shown in
a fic unless it can be conclusively proven. (ie. Ukyou and Ranma being
"best friends".)
Oh, bull. I have NEVER advocated this kind of Guy Under the Bridge
stance, and I'm on record against it. BTW, why weren't you up in arms
over Gubby's criticism of Lawson? Because it didn't unvolve Ukyo?
Now, you criticized Bitter End in a post you made to RAAF a few months
back. Among other things, you stated that it featured a friendship
between Ranma and Ukyou that wasn't present in the manga. Well,
assuming, for the sake of an argument, that this is true, we still
have the fact that the situation between Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou had
changed to what it was in the manga, and changed in such a way to make
such a friendship more likely. Clearly, then, it can be inferred from
this that you believe that characters are not allowed to change in
response to changing circumstances.
I criticized Long and Winding Road for claiming a Ranma/Ukyo friendship
DURING the manga. Admittedly, it may have been erroneous of me to lump
BE into the same category, but I still stand by my other criticisims of
that story.
Now, of course, I hope you realize that this is a little over the top.
However, all I'm doing is taking the characterization standards you
seem to have set for others, and applying them to your own works. By
doing this, I hope it makes you realize that your ridiculously
stringent standards for characterization in other people's work are
not appropriate, and that perhaps an apology to Mr. Kyle and all the
others that you've given a hard time over this is in order.
As I told you, I've already talked to Kyle. What others you're talking
about, I've no idea.
Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics