Subject: [FFML] Re: The Fourth Tendo 4
From: David Johnston
Date: 5/5/2002, 5:17 PM
To: Thryth
CC: FFML mailing list <ffml@anifics.com>


OK, so you've got an off the rack "Akane is a bitch" characterisation.
She's always angry, she never lightens up or does a kind thing and she's 
basicly a worthless human being.  This is not a new thing, and probably 
reflects your feelings about the character.  The question is, what 
function does characterising her this way fill in the story?  

Consider this first as an alternate universe.  Why is Akane angry at 
Ranma in particular?  After all, she was never engaged to him against 
her will, he didn't totally embarass her in the sparring match, and I 
don't recall him seeing her naked in this continuity.  So why's she 
calling him a pervert?  Why is she just as angry at him (well, actually
more angry at him to tell the truth) here where many of the reasons for 
her anger at him are missing?  Because she did in the original 
storyline?  But the whole point of making an alternate universe is to 
make things different in a way that flows naturally from the initial 
change.  

So, dramatically what's the intent?  Takahashi's original intent was to 
put as many barriers as possible between Ranma and Akane so that they 
could be dramatically overcome in a lengthy process lasting at least the 
duration of the whole series.  You obviously have no interest in hooking 
Ranma up with Akane.  In fact you may have no interest in hooking Akane 
up with anything except a pit of giant Iranian maneating cockroaches.  
But dramatically, having disposed of Akane as the True Love, you have to 
stop and think what replacement role you will have for.  

One option is to make her totally unimportant.  Give her next to no 
lines and just let her be a background carrier the way Kasumi generally 
is in the real series.  Difficult when she's the one that Soun and Genma 
are intent on hooking up with Ranma.  

That brings us to the next option, which is that Akane could play the 
role of the romantic rival to Tarre.  The problem with that is that 
Akane would have to both have even the remotest interest in Ranma, and 
you are writing her, she doesn't, and she would have also have to show 
some qualities of personality that make it remotely plausible that Ranma 
might have the slightest interest in her, and as you are writing her, 
she doesn't.  

The third option that comes to mind is that you can make her a villain, 
in which case she should probably hate Tarre or hate Ranma more, and she 
should be upgraded in power by making her either tougher or smarter or 
both.


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