I too skimmed this story (Chaos Chronicles), deleted it, and
made a mental note to ignore future chapters. Unfortunately, I happened
to read some of the C&C, and ran across one of the defenses that never
fails to tick me off.

Pardon me then for running into the mortal 
affront, but I stand by my principles. But
please take note that my message uses
the characterization problem and springs
from it to my other, more vital, concern.

     I've seen contentions like this before, and frankly they strike
me as nothing more than a feeble excuse for laziness and poor
writing.

As you will, but I'm quite sure the author put a 
certain amount of sweat and effort into it. Is it
a person's fault to be unable to write as perfectly
as his audience would want him? Try to remember
that not all people can meet your standards. 

     Why do I read Ranma fanfics, and not, say, fanfics about "Odin:
Photon Space Sailor Starlight" (God forbid there should be such a
fanfic)? Because I like the Ranma characters (or most of them), and
find the overall theme of the series an intriguing one. As a fanfic

So intriguing that it's so much of a temptation
to envision a storyline based on it. And when
someone writes a fanfic, it is *based* on
something, is it not? All this basis provides
grounds for coming up with really strange,
different, and wondrous stories. Not everyone
may like them, certainly not one such as
yourself who seems to cherish the original
canon so much, but try to cut some slack. 

Simply changing them about for no good reason other than it's more
"convenient" for the story you want to tell is sloppy and annoying.

 
Sloppy, perhaps, but annoying is a relative
feeling which not everyone shares. I certainly
do not share your feelings of annoyance.
Almost all fanfic authors make changes in
order to more conveniently write their story.
Even beloved writers like Mr. Lawson do this.
Some people probably liked his work, and some 
people probably got annoyed. 
 

     How do you do it right? Read "Ill Met By Starlight." Here's a
rather different Ranma (to put it mildly). Or read "Paint It Black."
Here all the characters seem like reflections in a fun-house mirror,
strange distortions of themselves. Why do these stories work, while
others don't?

I'm sure you've drawn a good analysis hear, which is a bit
beyond me since I haven't read IMBS or PIB. I can get the 
gist of it, tough. You've just mentioned the ideal makings of
a story which *you* enjoy. 

That is, a story doesn't necessarily "not work." More
precisely, it may "not work" for *you.* And while it
may not work for you, it may work for others. Fanfics
were written with the entire world as the potential
audience, but not everyone will like it. Not even
the original Ranma 1/2 is enjoyed by everyone.
<gasp! no! it can't be! sacrilege!> Well, it's true,
and there is no real *right* way to do it. It's all relative.

---< Snipped commentary on Chaos' lack of canonical truth >--- 

As I said, some people worry too much
about characterization. While all that you
said is good and true, it is an alternate
world, right?
 

     Well, that's the problem, isn't it? The author isn't interested
in writing a convincing Ranma-Akane break-up, so he simply scribbles
some stuff down to try to get to the story he wants to tell. Frankly,

Well, the author probably did have this in mind.
So why did he not write a more convincing
break-up? Well...

     (I don't see what's so hard about writing a convincing break-up.

Really? Well, then why is it that...

Still, I don't at the moment recall any really convincing break-up
stories since "Angel Spit", however many years ago that was. Odd.)

Well, it seems that you've answered your own question.
You yourself imply that it would take a certain amount
of effort to detail such a break-up. As such, my case
earlier stands that it is an author's tool in order to
facilitate easier writing of the fic.  The author probably
chose to take this shortcut because the fic is about the 
Tenchi/Ranma cross, and not the Akane/Ranma break.

Why write about something you don't want to write
about, after all?
 

     The set standards, to my mind, are the characters and events
described by the author, who is a lot more authoritative than anyone
on this ML.

Events which do not ever delve into the psyche of any
of the characteres. Hence all the fanfics considering
all these possibilities. 

At times it feels as if some people on the ML seem 
to have the "definitive authority" on how a character
must act. While qualifications for this are hard to
measure, a fanfic need not be concerned entirely
about this, because it is a fanfic, after all.
 

     Let me turn your last question around. How many good stories are
there whose writers haven't really cared about characterization? Not

My, what an extreme turn of events, is it not?
I don't think I ever mentioned neglecting 
characterization completely.

You seem to be going overboard with your particular
feelings for the defense, it would seem. Your entire
tone seems to be taking a far too overzealous approach.
I fear that my motive for writing that defense has
been defeated by your reply.

You mentioned that you skimmed the story, didn't 
like it, and got rid of it.  That's fine. That is an 
exercising of your right to your opinion. You were 
ready to let it be. But  thanks to my defense, you've 
jumped back up, gone overboard and shot it down 
with a passion. I had hoped to avoid getting the fic 
bashed like that, but it seems that I have only 
aggravated the damage.

What I was fighting for was an ML where new and 
old writers alike can continue to produce stories 
of all width and breadth, from the overly serious, 
near-perfect canon stories to the wild, insane 
stories that characterized the early days of fanfics.
I had done so because  I had noticed an increasing 
trend in how such wild stories were badly received. 
Badly received  to the point that these types of 
stories have become increasingly less frequent as 
the years went by. While I would like to have let it 
alone, I wanted to try to revive such interest in this
type of fanfics.

I fear that this aggression against such stories is 
still too strong on the list. I am to have caused so 
much trouble, and sorry that no one paid heed to 
my allusion of the "kaleidascope world." 

At this point, I fear I will drop this thread before it 
escalates into a larger vocal war. While this can
be quite interesting, and surely in the old days I
would have gladly taken up arms, I did not start
that thread in order to bring about such a thing.
You can call  yourselves the victors, you can 
paint my hide however you want it. This was not 
what I had hoped for, after all.