On Thu, 24 Dec 1998 arromdee@inetnow.net wrote:

On Thu, 24 Dec 1998 kleppe@execpc.com wrote:

"RANMA! YOU IDIOT!" Akane came charging
at him, a frying pan in her hands.

*Yawn* Cliche opening. Wonder how many readers hit the delete key at
this point?

I disagree.  I think your pro-Akane bias is, well, biasing you.

Entirely possible, although Gary's Akane-support is fairly justified in
this case.
 

Usually the purpose of a scene like that in a story where something
unexpected happens is to show that things were normal and everyday up until
the unexpected event happened.  Cliches in this context are perfectly valid.

Well, they're always valid. They're also amazingly tedious. If a fic opens
with Akane hammering Ranma for no disternable reason (or the old standby
'Ranma eat my cooking!'), or if the fic opens with Ranma fighting Genma
over the pond (in which they inevitably fall in)... if the cast goes
through the normal motions of 'generic fanfic ordinary day' - wella,
gents, I D-key that fic. Because, quite frankly, I'm not as patient and
waffy as Gary, who reads and reviews most things that come down the pike.
I just yawn, say 'generic mediocre unorginal opener, been done a few
hundred times, not worth going on' - and I toss it.

-ML