Zen writes (in response to Gary's response to Sean's response to...
whatever.):

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.

              ^^^^

note the word "best".

(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).

Ara?  Strong evidence that she's not his friend?  Like what?

Actually, there's strong evidence that Ukyou is Ranma's friend.  But what
they're talking about is whether Ukyou is Ranma's *best* friend, which is
another story entirely.

No one has been able to prove Ukyou is Ranma's *best* friend, although it's 
been speculated in a lot of fics.

Perhaps she mallets him into the ground without hearing his side of a story
first?

Mallets?  She doesn't use mallets :) too bulky :)

Maybe she assumes that a situation is his fault, even when there is direct
visual evidence to the contrary...

No.  She just sees it as Akane's fault for everything...

Ah!  Zen knows!  She assumes that he's making out with the purple haired
amazon despite the fact that the AMAZON glomped HIM right in front of her
eyes, and his obvious struggles to escape.

Hmmm... they don't meet that often...  reversal jewel?

Of course!  She's always angry with him!

She can't be angry at anyone, that's for sure.

Mmmm...  She sells pictures of him, and charges him for hot or cold water
instead of giving him free food?

Now, now, let's not compare her to other characters, shall we?

<think think... think...> Ah!  Sou!  She blames him for all her problems,
and tries constantly to kill him, while sleeping with his fiancee!

....... (Girl sleep with girl?  Zen, you're really starting to run out of
ideas.)

Gosh... could it be that she gave up her vendetta against him 'cause he
called her cute?

Calling anyone cute could stop them in their tracks... especially if the
one doing it is nice-looking...

Zen gives up.  What is this evidence that Ucchan is not Ranma's friend?

Ucchan is Ranma's friend.  We just don't know if she's his *best* friend.

And if Ranma wanted Akane, do you think that Ukyou will really try to stop
them? (She did once...)

Oh wait, scratch that thought.  You wrote "A Bitter End" already.

That said, Zen freely admits that his interpretation of cannon may not
agree with yours... and beloved Ucchan is as good an example as any.

Cannon?  Let's not play with fire here (kapow!)...

Hurm.... again, you bring up Ukyou... if one were paranoid, one might think
that you didn't like her or something...

Fortunately, Zen knows better. ^_^

Yup.  Otherwise Zen will go on personal vendetta for ten years ^_^

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.

Well... as for the Ranma/Ukyou friendship, you have yet to prove to Zen's
satisfaction that Ukyou is any less a friend to Ranma than anyone else...
most notably the hammer happy harridan you're so enamoured of.  Certainly

Still, calling Akane names isn't good.... (even if you *do* hate her...)
and even if it is true...

there's a stronger case for Ukyou being Ranma's friend than there is for
Ryouga being his friend... but no one ever seems to have a problem with
THAT interpretation.

Yeah, but Ryouga won't be Ranma's friend out of the blue... it will take
time and effort (so will Ranma and Ukyou getting together, or Ranma and
Akane getting together, for that matter)

 While Ukyou wins in Zen's fics, Zen is quite capable of enjoying
interpretaions of the characters that pair him with other people.

Me?  As I told the guy who runs the Ukyou and Ranma webpage (Phillip Mak),
if a satisfactory explanation is included, I don't really care who Ranma
ends up with.  (As a matter of fact I like LaWR thank you very much except
for the introduction...)

What Zen will say, is that character issues aside, Zen tends to enjoy most
the stories that have a lot of the AUTHOR in them.  No, Zen does NOT,
repeat NOT mean the dreaded 'Self Insertion' fics.  Zen means a fic where
the author put a piece of his or her heart and soul into what they wrote
because they CARED about it... and the characters in it.

Does that mean you'll hate darkfics? :) (it will be a very dark soul indeed
that writes a dark story with all of his/her heart)

So, say what you want about IRIS, or Preludes, or any of them... if the
author didn't invest any time or effort in them, neither will Zen.  If they
did, then Zen will tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, with your degree of busyness, it'll be a long time before you
ever stray away to anyone else... even if they poured their soul into the
fanfic.

Not that I'm criticizing you, but...



----------------------
Jonathan Ng
jonathan@worldy.com
alternate address: jonathan_ng@my-dejanews.com
Organizing Editor of Ficsation magazine

     "It feels like ten kilos of life in a five-kilo box."  His voice
gained in strength and lightened in tone.  "I can only feel a trickle now,
like dust motes floating in a sunbeam, one by one, just moving through me,
but it's just so right there's no describing it.  It tickles a bit, feels
like a first kiss or the jolt you feel when the flux in sabacc just makes
your hand better than what you were already betting." - Two Jedi trainees
discussing the Force

	-Excerpt from I, Jedi, P.96, (c) Michael Stackpole