Subject: [FFML] Re: Awkward Consequences 11 (vB)
From: "Mike Feeney" <starrngr@aol.com>
Date: 8/29/2003, 1:31 AM
To: FFML


Sama wrote in Digest 215:

  > Oh, and to get another related issue out of the way. Something people
  > have
  > been bitching about from point one is Ranma smokes.
  >
  > It is not meant to be something Ranma would do. It's ment to show
exactly
  > how far the stress level has pushed him. It's a sign of how far the
  > mighty
  > have fallen thanks to stress.

It also brings up a couple of facets of Japaneese life that a lot of
people overlook.  A WHOLE lot of Japaneese, men and women both, smoke.
Try going into a bar or restaurant sometime...  you'll see what I mean.

However, on the whole smoking issue IN THE STORY I have this to say:

I was jarred at the way Ranma casually lit up that cigarette myself.
Not because of any debate about would Ranma smoke or why, but because it
wasn't set up well in the story, Sama.  I don't recall any prominent
places prior to this in AC where you set this up; seeing Ranma do this
so casually is what makes it Jarring.  It doesn't fit what you've
portrayed so far on several levels.

The casual way in which Ranma lights up and takes a puff; even the fact
that he HAD a pack on his person right then, portrays Ranma as someone
who smokes a bit more than 'under Extreme stress'.  You'd need to
portray, IC, the fact that he occasionally does have a cigarette now
prior to this point in the story.  You didn't really, which is why it's
so jarring here.  YOu need to establish either that he has smoked
occasionally, or that this is his first one.  If this is his first drag
on a smoke, even Ranma would cough his first few drags.  You also need
to establish that "Your friends are driving me to smoke" somehow, and or
show him otherwise aquiring a pack before this point.

That's why so many people commented about the smoking.  Its not anything
for or against smoking, per sey, but in the jarring way in which it
popped up.  We go from a Ranma where we have no clue about if he smokes
at all or not, to a Ranma who not only does, but does so often enought
to have figured out the Ki trick and can light one without coughing.

*Pause while I go and do some Research...*

I have to retract my last statement.  Go to Sama's web page, and re-read
the older chapters.  In particular, chapter 3.  Sama already established
that this particular Ranma does smoke under periods of ultra-extreme
stress.  Most people just forgot that since it's been a while since
chapter 3 came out.

If you were reading the story for the first time, from chapter 1 on, it
wouldn't be shocking at all for Ranma to just what he did.  In fact, he
does exactly this sort of thing in the conversation with Ryoga in
Chapter 3 when he explains how this happened.

Sama's right.  The issue of should Ranma be smoking or not is really a 
null issue.  He has shown that HIS Ranma does have the occasional 
cigarette, and well before this point.  We're making mountains out of 
molehills on this one.


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