On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, allyn yonge wrote:
@@Hmmm, good point. This tends to support my earlier
comment that there need to be more back-story.
HOWEVER ^_^
Martial arts are traditional and there is a cultural
"box" to fit martial arts and superhuman abilities
gained therefrom.
Ranma is good clean cut _Japanese_ boy, using
traditional Japanese spirit.
Sure, but destroy a wall using chi-ball, and destroy a wall using
electrical discharge, how is the average joe (the ones who are so
vindicative against Akane) going to know the difference?
OTOH, if there *is* a good way to tell the difference, that's a pretty
good justificatino.
MUTANTS on the other hand . . .well you can't really
trust _them_, now can you.
Akane . . .she's a mutant <ewwwww> and you _know_ what
they are like.
Yeah. I've played enough Wasteland to know. ^_^
Prejudice, bigotry, fear are NOT rational. Look at the
anti-witch hysteria in the middle ages. Or the D&D
hysteria now. Heck, some schools are banning "Harry
Potter" books due to their demonic influence. (I kid
you not. There are web sites warning parents of how
Harry Potter will seduce your children to evil and how
to save them from Harry and Hell.
URL for pro/con Harry::
http://www.mugglesforharrypotter.org/)
Heh. That means that there ought to be a Land Over Baptist article on it
any time now... ^_^
Basically, as I see it, if you REALLY want to make
this a Ranma fic, you
have two options. First, set this in volume 1, or
even earlier, and have
Ranma get caught changing with his curse. That way,
you just set the
mutant hysteria as a condition of this new Altverse
and you can skip the
cannon arguments. Secondly, set it much after
volume 38, where Ranma is
living on his own because he fled Nerima, and he's
forced to use his
special abilities in front of a mutant fearing
populace, who takes what
they've seen in the wrong way.
@@Both good ideas. Not, IMO, necessary for the story
as being written. They are interesting, and workable.
They take the story in a slightly different direction
however.
Yes, which is why I don't think the suggestion would be seriously
considered. But because I'm discussing realism, or at least ways to
gracefully ask the reader to suspend his disbelief, I mention them.
Can you set the story at any time in the series? Of course I agree with
you. Are you also risking turning people away by not putting forethought
into doing so? The answer is also yes. More on this below.
But why are you using Ranma anyway, if you're going
to go so far as one of
the first options. I mean, find a good series that
is somewhat more
realistic and has a good potential plot to it,
@@Hmmm, now _that_ is very subjective.
Sure, it's subjective in the same way that I prefer using a hammer to
stick nails into a pice of wood, versus a heavy durable paperweight (which
I have done due to lack of tools). Both will get the job done, and both
are viable tools. But the use of the paperweight is much more awkward,
while the hammer better fits the situation. It's my opinion that the
hammer is better for the task, and that's my subjective stance.
Now, for any significant story you write you're going to have to work with
putting together such things as plot, setting, and character. How well
these are put together will have a great impact on how the story will turn
out.
If I have guessed correctly, Jed has some certain goals, whether they be a
development of character, relationships, whatever. Based on his past
stuff, I don't think he's petty enough to go for the "Let's disrupt the
Game of Life" style trashy fics. To accomplish these goals, the
characters used and the setting can both have advantages and disadvantages
when used. But in this case, my inability to suspend my disbelief is
a very large vote against this story's success.
I just *can't* believe that, as the situation stands, that Nerima
residents would react in this manner. The atmosphere of Ranma in general
was either oriented on combat, humor, action, and relationships. One
could also extrapolate to include issues like growing maturity, a
dysfunctional family, or honor, busido, etc. Things like xenophobia are
completely out of left field.
So to me, using Ranma in this case is like using the paperweight to hammer
a nail. I think it's not the best tool out there available for the job.
But, as you say, that's just my own opinion.
Frankly I think Ranma works just fine. It's entirely up to the author.
Of course it is, but that doesn't mean that it should be done. I CAN fuse
To Heart and Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising if I really wanted to, but it
doesn't mean that what I get is going to be really workable. Taking this
example, To Heart is a character driven anime, and RSR is
technical/tactical/action driven book. Through manipulation of events,
background stories, and development of character, I could eventually get
to where the events I want to take place are plausible by either
developing the TH characters into action characters, or fade the RSR
events in the background gradually, and use them to push the character
interactions of the TH characters.
But that's really just stick a massive kludge onto something thatwasn't
going to mesh very will in the first place. IMHO Much better to take
series that are compatible in the areas that I want to base my story, and
write from there.
I just want more detail, not a
radical change. I want to watch Akane change over
time, see the anti-mutant hysteria develop.
I agree with you there. This would have made it easier to swallow.
Some character who's in the government is accused of
being a manipulative
mutant, influencing the elections (X-term).
Those Windows to Alternate Realities fics
(X-Windows).
@@ You're not a UNIX user, are you?
(X-windows is or was a "windows" emulator for
UNIX.
I'm using pine to read my mail right now.
Mama is a Forth Grader/ Mutant is a Forth Grader
Sailor Moon/ Sailor Mutant
Bubble Gum Crisis/ Bubble Gum Chromosome
Hana Yori Dango/ Hana Yori Bakemono
(Flowers before Monsters)
Kiki's Delivery Service/X-ki's Delivery Service
Wedding Peach/ Wedding Plasmid
Blue Seed/ Blue Seed
Key: the Mutant Idol
(DNA+1)^2
Urusei Bakamono
Hello Kitty (she has no mouth?!)
-Natsume Ranma Ranma
-------
The sardines weren't worth the trouble. A few more shots, then
Ryoga-san would overheat and explode. Ducking around a corner,
I managed to lose him as I entered the ramshackle residence of
my Anime supplier.
One look at his face and I knew that I had been betrayed. "Tell me,"
I insisted. He refused, so I slammed him against the wall.
"Last chance. Where can Ranma-Ranma find good fanfics?"
"Try Jason Liao," he whispered, before he slumped to the floor.
I heard the sounds of a door splintering as I left through the
window, one step ahead of Tendo Heavy Industries...