Hey,

 * Discouraged, postbanning may result for excessive amounts:
   Character debates (e.g. "So-and-so is Ranma's Best Babe!")

Fair enough.  I only posted to the main list 'cus I'm hoping to take this somewhere that is writing-related, as opposed to character-related.  Though I shouldn't be; it's late, and I really need some sleep....

I have nothing against 'Ranma + [someone else]' fics,
heck I'll probably write one myself if I keep going
long enough.  But I do think that in the 'manga world'
Ranma and Akane are in love with each other and
probably have no worse (if not necessarily much better)
chances of 'happily ever after' than any other match
up.

I have no problem with 'anybody+anybody' fics, really, independent of any series (though, since I don't know all that much about most series outside of Ranma 1/2, I don't tackle too much of the associated fanfiction).  I only have a problem with a story when it hasn't been properly thought through.  What I mean by this, is that the plot progresses in a manner that defies easy belief, either because of a) character bias on the part of the author, or b) sheer laziness on the part of the author, or c) an unforseen flaw in plotting forcing some heavy-handed manipulation within the story.  The consequences of any action taken by a character (especially in interelationship-oriented stories) are many, unfolding numerous possibilities, and they have to be rigorously pursued to find the most likely strand that will lead to the desired result.  So, for instance, if your goal is to hook up Ranma and, say, a potato, in loving marriage, you've got the find the (rather unlikely) series of events that'll lead to that conclusion.

Of course, I can't quite say I do that myself--then again, I haven't written a story trying to get any characters together.  Tearing them apart, however, hasn't proven easy either--sure, a properly dropped line of dialogue (and I find dialogue the most treacherous element in developping relationships in fiction) can tear a relationship apart--but to build up the emotional tension and potentiality within that allows the words to be honestly spoken requires just as much prior development.  It's just as hard to genuinely say 'I hate you', I believe, as it is to say 'I love you.'

But I'm straying from whatever tenuous point I might actually be trying to make.  As said above, 'common sense' doesn't really apply when writing out relationships in fiction--I think this applies way beyond just fanfiction.  The Ranma 1/2 cast, I think, often acts quite normally within the arena of love.  It's what makes them so endearing  (though, obviously, there's comedic exaggerations involved.  Mousse's obsessiveness, for example, is somewhat exaggerated--though one could just as easily argue, frighteningly enough, that it isn't in the least).  More importantly, common sense isn't worth anything when love's involved.

It doesn't mean that _logic_, however, isn't involved.  I don't mean some kind of rigid Vulcan view of emotions, but rather a process of thinking that remains consistant within the character as developped within the story.  People are pretty messed up, and we do stupid things, but there's usually some reason to justify it bouncing around in our demented little minds--the logic of it might defy Psych 101 class, but at the time, it sure seems to make sense to hurl spiteful insults at the girl you think you love 'cus she's unwittingly ignoring you in favour of the linebacker across the bar (umm, just an arbitrary example, really.)  If a piece of fanfiction is going to ring true, I don't see any way to escape thinking those lines of bizarre thinking through.  It can be painful at times--heck, I'm trying to puzzle through why a teenage rapist would abuse a helpless aquatransexual, while avoid easy cop-outs--but it adds a lot to the poignancy of a story, I believe.

Where this gets difficult in fanfiction, however, is that we're dealing with another person's characters.  Picking up Ranma early in the series, it's clear there's a certain _something_ between him and Akane, but one could just as easily argue for first-love-infatuation, as for genuine 'true love'; one can even make a good case for overly-competitive-possessiveness (as opposed to genuine fondness).  This leaves a lot more leeway to break him away from Akane and hook him up with that cute potato you've got lined up... or Ukyou, say, if you prefer.  But if you're picking up the cast after Jusendo, well, you've got a bit more to work to do.  Declarations of love howled to the sky usally mean _something_, and it seems pretty clear (to me, anyway) that there's a pretty solid and strong relationship built between them (1).  It can still be broken apart, of course--but it's going to take a lot of work and convincing writing.  Zen's classic 'Bitter End' pursued it ruthlessly, and [SPOILER] in the end, only death could tear those two apart....

(1) [Though the idea just struck me that a great story could be written undermining that idea; some kind of realist story where their relationship is falling apart precisely because it was established on such a powerful, but ultimately timely/transient/short-lived event.  Or something.]

Again I'm drifting... I think.  Sleep beckons.  I'll just finish off the points I raised way above.  Obviously, character biasing is a common thing in fanfiction writing, and one of worse as well.  Cliches are bad--Nabiki mercenary powers are just shy of a Yakuza overlords, Ryouga's direction sense carries him to Nevada--but character favouritism can really ruin an otherwise good story or great idea.  Akane becomes a mallet-wielding sociopathic maniac, Ukyou becomes a kind-hearted loving saint without a stain to her soul, Ranma becomes Mr. Super Nice Guy without a real flaw--fine and all, but neither manga nor manga really supports these views. Short of other readers who share the same belief, such biasing, especially when carried to extremes, wipes out a fics credibility.  It can also lead to some truly vile fics--Ukyou's had more than her fare share, and let's not forget what happens when one has too deep of a love for certain talking white crescent moon cats.

This doesn't mean a character's personality is set in stone, but if it's changed, we need convincing reasons.  If new prior events are added to a character's history, we need to be shown it would have enough impact to overwhelm whatever traits have been shown to be 'innate' to their character (please, no 'nature' vs 'nuture' arguments, here.)  One of the best examples of this I've seen, I believe (though sadly it hasn't been continued), Is Brigit Wilde's "I'm a Boy".  The tension between the potential we know Ranma has, and where he stands from his mother's attempts to raise him as a 'proper' demure young woman, and the obvious urgings he has to develop those skills he instinctively knows lies within--well, it all makes for great drama, without taking easy shortcuts.  If, however, you argue that, because a potato fell on his head when he was young, that he developped an enduring fascination for spuds and eventually, unable to repress his true desires any longer, throws Akane aside in favour for a plate of French Fries... well, I hope it's a spamfic, 'cus otherwise it's a pretty tenuous story.

Again with the potatoes.  I think I'm hungry.  And I'm defintely tired, and not sure what I'm accomplishing, if anything, through writing all this.  At the end of the day, it's presumptuous in the extreme for me to think I really have anything to anyone, in terms of how to write.  I don't really know how _I_ write.  I just know that the one of the main reasons I'm so slow in releasing my own writing is that (aside from being lazy, working, drinking too much, and games like Diablo II or Baldur's Gate II) I get caught in thinking character's actions through.  If Ranma says 'x' to Akane, what are the likely reactions?  What possibilities have I created; which have I closed down--and is this the way I want the story to progress?  It's also why I enjoy writing.  Puzzling out a genuinely plausible path to a desired end--one that feels 'real'--is great; and having utterly unexpected possibilities unfold is often even better.

And this thing is _way_ longer than I expected.  Big time yawn.  Point b)laziness--right now, sounds great to me.

Later,
Mike Noakes

http://www.geocities.com/noakes_m
noakes_m@hotmail.com

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