Okay, I read both versions of this [ALT] fic, and I do like how it's
running along. I for one, am very eager to see what the author has up his
sleeve that's going to tie it all in and surprise me. As for hte
"discrepancies" I *did* notice that this version of Akane did not lose her
temper at any time in any of the matches. She kept her cool, and
maintained her "center". Even when she lost, she didn't throw a fit about
it, (okay, she did brood, as did Ranma, but that's their competative
nature). She did lose her temper later on in class, when the imagined
slight was over something unrelated to her passion, Martial Arts.
It looks to me that Akane is as good as she is because she's learned to
keep her cool when it "counts". Ranma and the whole engagement are still
too new to have been emotionally evaluated and dealt with, so she lost her
temper.
Ranma lost his first round to Akane because of his tendancy to pull his
punches. She said as much when she helped him up off the floor. That
shows Ranma was still running with the "I don't hit girls" mentality and
the "girls are weak" thing he had ingrained from Genma. That will take him
a while to override, but I'm sure with Akane's help, he'll do fine. I can
see them both ending up being highly competative with each other, trying
out and vying for new techniques, just to run home to try it out on each
other. And you know the techniques would be picked over heavily, closing
up any defects and each refind to perfection. Ranma and Akane, in this
Universe, will probably be competing with each other all the time, but can
also end up being very best Anything Goes Couple in the Martial Arts
circuit. Anyone trying to split them up for any length of time will have
their hands full...
But then again, this is just my two bits. I love speculating on
Altenaverse stories. <G>
-Deb "SabreBabe" Matthews, who should really get a move on posting her own
Alternaverse Ranma story before it gets any bigger.....
I've seen three main complaints, and I'd like to address them one
by one.
First is the complaint that Akane couldn't have gotten to Ranma's
level training at home under her father. We know from the Battle Dogi
episode that Akane has the potential to be better than canonical Ranma
at the beginning of the manga, so I can buy that this is possible with
the right training, and as others have observed, we don't know (yet)
how she has been trained, so I have no problem with that.
Thomas Hood writes:
And the [ALT] tag doesn't mean a thing if you don't give a reasonable
explanation for the change.
I'll agree with that, but I don't feel the author is constrained
to tell us everything in the first chapter or two.
Second is the argument that Ranma would have a very hard time
accepting that this girl has gotten to be his equal without having
made the sacrifices he has. My response is: that may well be true, but
he hasn't had time to think of that. He's met this girl, and lost to
her, then managed to beat her. He's gotten engaged, and gone to a new
school. He's had a very busy couple of days. Give him - and the author -
some time. Perhaps by the time this occurs to him, he and we will have
learned something about Akane's life, and he won't have so much reason
to feel upset, since after all effective martial arts training in the
Ranmaverse seems little different from child abuse at times.
Third is the argument that Ranma could never accept an Akane as
good as he is, that his ego demands he be the best. I think this is
a misreading of his character, myself. Ranma has trouble accepting a
powered up Akane in two cases, and a Ryoga who can beat him every time,
in the Shi Shi Hokodan story. I will simply note that Ranma seems to
have no trouble being friendly with Ryoga after he levels the
playing field with the Moko Takabisha, and after that point Ranma
and Ryoga are effectively equals, in my view. His problems with Akane,
I feel, are more due to the convoluted nature of their relationship,
which is in its infancy in this story, and will obviously turn out
differently than the canon. I don't see Ranma as obsessing over
Taro, for instance, even though he has arguably never had a clean win
over Taro. (He can't stand Taro, but that's a personality conflict
more than anything else, I feel.) At any event, I think we're into
an area where different people will have divergent opinions based
on their interpretation of Ranma's character, so I'll end my
discussion there, trying to avoid getting into a character debate.
I will simply say that this is an area where views may differ, and
considering some of the utterly unbelievable Ranmas I've read, I
personally can accept this one for the sake of the story.
Reid Carson
rcarson@rcarson.com
--
.---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List---.
| Administrators - ffml-admins@fanfic.com |
| Unsubscribing - ffml-request@fanfic.com |
| Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject |
`---http://www.fanfic.com/FFML-FAQ.txt ---'