Just a question for you all out there.

If you had a brilliant idea for a story, one that would knock the socks
off people, but one that you knew would get bad press from a few
overzealous, overauthoritative people, would you write it?  Would you
release it, knowing that it would cause you a lot of unnecessary grief?
Would you even think of it, when narrow-minded people are blasting
other characterization ideas right and left?  

I had a brilliant idea for a fanfic once - one that sat at the back of my
mind for months.  However, I was so wrapped up in what I thought was
'right characterization' that I thought it not worth the effort to write.
I didn't write it for a long time - not until I found that there was
actually a decent amount of evidence to support the view.  

The original version of "Clothes Make The..." was released a short time
later.  I braced myself for OOC flags flying... only to find that only one 
person replied to call it such.

Gary's goal is to see that the characterizations are as close to Takahashi
as possible.  However, by encouraging this 'right characterization', he
closes doors, rather than opens them.  My goal is different.  I want to
see the best stories out there.  I don't want to see good writers give up
on good ideas because of anyone's intimidation.  

I make no apologies for what I said.  I still say Gary's a hypocrite, as
he expects of others what he himself isn't able to give.  I still say
Gary's harming fanfiction, for the reasons above.  And I have yet to hear
a response from him that he would EVER be willing to do otherwise.
Perhaps my earlier message was too inflammatory, but the reasoning behind
it has yet to be disproven.  

In the 'best friend' debates... Gary, it is true that there was no
Ranma/Ukyou heart-to-heart.  However, whose to say that their wasn't?  Can
you prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that their wasn't?  You claim
'indirect evidence'; perhaps there is.  However, indirect evidence is not
*proof*.  Allow others the same leeway you give yourself in your writing;
this is the hypocricy that bothers me so much.  Also, there is 'indirect
evidence' that points in the opposite direction; after all, Ranma and
Ukyou are friends.  Is there any friend you have that you've never sat
down with and *talked*?  If not, then they're not much of a friend, are
they?  And, yet, Ranma was willing to help Ukyou out on a number of
occasions.  Unless, of course, they're *more* than friends... ^_^

Finally, to the person who said that people do not put their souls in
darkfics... we all have dark sides to our souls.  Indeed, good darkfics
are good BECAUSE the writer puts their soul into it.  I've met some of the
best writers out there, and know about the pasts of many of them.  Trust
me, there are shadows on their souls - nothing dangerous, but simply a
place where the soul still mourns.

-- Nick