In a message dated 11/16/2002 12:29:54 PM Eastern Standard Time,
defender@sluggy.net writes:
Having never intended to actually reply to this, I no longer have either a
copy of the story that began this discussion or many of the parts of the
discussion itself, so please forgive me if I have misremembered something.
Okay.
Keep in mind that the author has already released some four chapters of a
work that assumes the events depicted in this side story as background. I
do not recall all the details of that work, but I believe the gist of it
can be summed up thus:
Bingo.
After the deaths of Akane, Shampoo, et al and the destruction of the
Amazons, Ranma devotes his life to even more intense training than during
the manga, developing god-like powers and becoming immortal. Millenia
later, for some purpose and by some mechanism that I do not recall, Ranma's
mind is transferred into an alternate version of himself at the age of 16
who never went on a training trip and who has a (younger? twin?) sister.
There have been changes on the Tendo front as well, such as Nabiki's
friendship with Hino Rei. (I do not recall whether Nabs knows that her
friend is Sailor Mars.) This transfer strips Ranma of much of his god-like
abilities, though he still remembers how to do the various techniques if he
could simply build up the necessary ki reserves and train his new body to
the point where it can handle the strain.
Hardly god-like. I'd put him (as Tenmou no Heijin) somewhere between
Eternal Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity in power. Also, it was only three
centuries later, Ranma's sister is his twin, and Nabiki *DOES* know about
Sailor Mars (through a minor divergance in the SM plotline which I haven't
revealed yet).
As for this side story, I believe the author's intent is to skip over the
events depicted in this first chapter quickly and focus on Ranma's life
afterward. Given that, I would assume that the purpose of this synopsis is
to provide readers with certain background information without going into
detail the author believes unimportant to the story s/he wants to tell.
From the perspective of readers being hit with just this synopsis and
nothing else, perhaps that was not a wise decision.
He, and your explanation is correct... mostly. I mentioned in the
intro's AN that the point of the story *WASN'T* Ranma's life. Perhaps I
should elaborate on that a bit. The next chapter is going to focus on Nabiki
and Kasumi, and what happened to them, followed by one on Ryouga, one on
Ukyou, and so on.
Now, on to the story itself and certain specific comments about it.
One respondant stated that ZERO people died in the manga, to which I can
only say: Saffron. That the pheonix was reborn immediately thereafter is
immaterial. It has been established that Ranma is capable of killing to
protect Akane if he has no other option. Whether he would kill for revenge
is less clear, but, if he came home to find Akane dead and her killer
standing over the body, I can easily see him immediately lashing out in a
lethal fashion. I can't, however, see him moping for two days and then
going on a killing spree.
Plausably twisting Shampoo's character to the point where she would kill
Akane (or make a serious attempt to do so) is more difficult, but it has
been successfully done in other fanfics. I do agree, though, it would be
nice if the author spent some time on that.
Hmm... I'll take your comments about Ranma's character into
consideration; I may revise this chapter when I get the time. In any event,
as I've said *SEVERAL* times before, Shampoo's reasons are a major plot point
for the main story. I can't reveal them here without ruining it.
Defender of the Light
Elite Mage
junior member of the Inner Circle of the Mages Council
.---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
| Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
| Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
| Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject |
`---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'