Blade wrote:
Nabiki never organizes a betting pool in the manga, nor does she ever run a
major scam. She has no ties to the yakuza, she is not particularly
brilliant,
there is no evidence she has connections to business, she is not a really
good
extortionist, and she is fairly poor despite being extremely miserly.
Who said anything about links to the Yakuza? On the gambling pool I will
concede that I have mixed up the video with the manga. There is no betting pool
in Volume 2. If what she got into in Volume 29 was not a series of scams,
please explain.
However, manga Nabiki does love money, and money alone, above all else.
This is clearly shown in several stories where Nabiki sells out her family
for
relatively small portions of money, not to mention that when a magic item
made her fall in
love with Kunou, she still was only interested in his money; just a lot more
grateful
to get it.
One of my favorite episodes by the way, but your statement that she loves money
and nothing else is equally remiss in my opinion. That being said, money is
Nabiki's great weakness. So, if she did suddenly develop an overwhellming
interest in business, who would be surprised? If she became entangled with the
Yakuza, who would be surprised? If she does have a hundred money making schemes
going at one time, so what? Business ain't nuclear physics. Brilliance is not a
requirement of success. While none of these things happen in the manga, what
makes them OOC Nabiki? The bitch LOVES money.
So if somebody's claiming Nabiki has any interests other than money in the
manga, it is they who are guilty of fanfic convention. However, if your
story has her
as some brilliant machiavellian ponzi-scheme running genius, so are you. I
mean,
cripes, RANMA'S outsmarted Nabiki before. <shrug>
I have already plead guilty to using a "fanfic convention" version of Nabiki.
My point is that none of this is so OOC Nabiki, that it will ruin an otherwise
good yarn. Why is it you think Ranma is stupid? He _is_ unsubtle, but stupid?
Where does that come from? He cannot be stupid and do what he does, certainly
not what he does in Volumes 13 & 14. But wait! You didn't say he was stupid,
did you?
The other point of this is that yes, one must be careful of canon and the
characters Takashi created, or you otherwise produce a story that has nothing
to do with Ranma1/2 other than the character names. On the other hand , the
"canon" is not holy writ. So if you are won't to criticize a work for being
OOC, you need to be a bit more specific than, "Aw, that's just fanfic
convention." My response is going to be, "So what?" A lot of the "fanfic
convention" ain't half bad entertainment wise.
Regards,
Don Granberry.