We've all seen the "Ranma (or others) go back in time to take things from
the top, knowing everything they do now." Here's my idea though. What if
Ranma's (or whichever character you find easiest, I don't think this would
work for Ranma) first time through was actually a different universe.
Say...
Ranma and Akane were greatly and openly in love with eachother but in
doing
so offended Shampoo to the extent that she killed all the Tendos, and
Ranma
ended up killing all the Amazons (not a exceptionally viable idea, but
work
with me...).
This has actually been written. Not exactly, and not in the same fic, but
damn close. Can't remember which fics, though. For some reason, darkfics
don't appeal to me. :)
Now, this Ranma has an idea of how things SHOULD go, and for the most part
tries to re-enact what originally happened, up until the critical moment
where he can do something different to save the world as we know it, yadda
yadda yadda. However, getting all the details of the first time through
would be very hard, and mistakes will abound. Hense, he will accidentally
play through the canon story, which is not what he wants. (So you can see
why Ranma isn't particually viable, as this one would probably not act as
ambivilent to the fiancee situation or be as mean to Akane, etc. [provided
that is what happened the first time through])
OR, you could say that Ranma is trying to prevent everything that happens
and fails for the most part. You could argue that the whole fiancee mess is
his mucked-up attempts to find a balance so that no one gets unhappy and
goes ballistic.
Seeing how most people know more or less what the canon story is, the
trick
isn't to tell that story well. The trick is to make sure you explain WHY
this neo-Ranma is acting in the all too familear way, seeing how the
though
"he should know better" will always be present, and the "acting this way
to
keep everyone from being suspicious" would become very tedious (both to
the
reader and the write) and would begin to look like a cheap cop-out if done
too often. Also, throwing in dashs of the "regular" universe, so the
reader
can compare and contrast them (but not put in too many as to become one
amoung hundreds or simple aternate universe fics).
You would concentrate less on the activities, and more on Ranma's personal
thoughts and feelings. Yes.
This idea can be used for any story, and any character. Now that I think
about it, it would be a perfect candidate for a Sailor Moon fic, seeing
how
Serena (I haven't seen the original Japaneese :( ) can quickly shift from
ditzy (an act in this case) to very serious (which would be what the
mature
Serena would do when necessary).
Serena's 'ditzyness' can be explained by the fact that the first actor had
a 'ditzy' quality to her acting(which IMHO fitted very well) and the actor
that replaced her when she moved on sounded much more mature and IMNSHO
'forced' the ditziness. It's all in how the actors interpret the part.
So, anyone up for the idea? (If you are, I'm interested to know so I can
keep a look-out.) Thanks for reading all the way through.
Um, no... I'm not gonna write this either. I absolutely HATE fics that go
over the original series. I could never finish 'Destiny's Wish.' I just
got bored to death.
(I wonder if more people would have read this if I labled it a challange
instead...)
Makes no difference. I really doubt anyone will pick this up. Make it a
simple one-hour shortfic challenge, and maybe someone will do a little
character thing with Ranma at the end of Manga 38.
Thomas Hood
thood@cs.mun.ca