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Original Message:
-----------------
From: Sebastian Palm sebastian.palm@myrealbox.com
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:21:06 +0100
To: ffml@anifics.com
Subject: [FFML] Re: [Fanfic][Ranma/SM] Relatively Absent: Chapter 5 (part 1
of2) ...
The most time Ranma has ever been stuck in girl form before was during the
Phoenix pill incident - which we have only guesses as to how long it was.
The metaphysics of the situation are also under debate - I could interpret
the effects of the pressure point as being that Ranma would change back to a
boy - then revert immediately (such as when he fell into the hot bath after
getting the lemon drop, in which case he wasn't stuck at all). If so, then
Ranma never spent more than a day or two as a girl at a time.
(( As I read the description of the whole affair, Ranma was never actually
-stuck- at that point. It was simply that the whole issue with transforming
back was made excruciatingly painful, to the point where even Ranma just
wouldn't bother, he'd fix on getting the cure. I mean, imagine having to
immerse yourself in molten lava five-six times a day. This is what he's
going through. ))
Going with this assumption, we come to the situation with Herb - Ranma gets
locked, and chases after Herb towards Horaizan. Suppose this takes a few
days - we have no official word, IIRC. Then the day of the fight, plus a day
under the mountain, and another two or three at the house - at least a week
total since he changed, and by now there's been plenty of time for the
changed hormones which never showed before to become apparent. Good enough?
(( Yup. ))
I disagree. My interpretation only of course, but IIRC Ranma's
ability to
deal with failure has never been developed beyond going after an
obvious
solution. (admittedly I ahven't read all the manga so there may be
an example I am
unaware of) Here he doesn't have a clear target to chase to solve
the problem so
there reaction might be lesss positive. Granted it's a bit cliche in
fanfiction for this sort of thing to hit Ranma hard but that's not
to say it can't be
used again.
Hm. I'm not really sure what the failure you're referring to is. He
won the fight against Herb, didn't he? The fic cites physical and
emotional trauma as being Ranma's problem, but he's been close to
dying a number of times before. For emotional trauma, he's been stuck
as a girl before, and Eiko has a cure coming right up, so that's not
really an issue, either.
Eiko said that he'd always be a girl for real - that the male form would be
a disguise. That, while it might look like a cure, isn't really one, and for
some people there's a difference.
(( And remember, Ranma's been taught all his life that his value to his
family is rooted in his being a man. This isn't going to change just
because his brand-new never-seen-before cousins think she's cute. In fact,
once he notices this, I predict another breakdown... ))
*The situation was quickly becoming intolerable, yet there was
almost
nothing more Eiko could do at the moment. It was really quite
irritating.*
Yeah, it is. if Eiko was so pissy about the stuff Pluto was doing,
why
didn't she tell Pluto that? But no, Eiko sits in silence for a few
THOUSAND YEARS and then gets pissed and goes to talk to somebody
completely different. Yeah, that's the way to go. Eiko doesn't
have a
single reason to bitch.
Why Eiko couldn't get Pluto to acknowledge her - by shouting into
her ear for
a month or so non-stop perhaps? - needs to be explained. I can think
of a
couple of possibilities but it is a plot hole that needs to be
addressed.
Hell, Eiko probably could have been able to make big letters appear in
the surface of the Gates, or something. Regardless, Eiko has no right
to bitch about Pluto not doing what Eiko wanted her to do if Eiko just
sat around and did nothing for so long. At the very least, Eiko could
have searched for a new guardian any time after her old guardian died.
Pluto turned Eiko's I/O off - Eiko says so when it talks to Ranma in chapter
one. Only Pluto being "dead" allowed Eiko to circumvent the lockout -
referred to as "emergency command override" in the next half of the chapter.
[many words and sentences and paragraphs of Ranma's modified
family
history.]
Umm...does this stuff matter? It's not interesting. I don't CARE.
Unless the family history and great samurai lineage nonsense is
going
to make a difference in the fic (so far there are no indications
of
this being the case) there is no reason for it to be here.
I rather liked that part. It explains a certain amount about the
family
relationships and does so in character voice rather than author
voice.
Hm. While that may be true, it doesn't contribue anything to the
plot. Actually, all those ANCs don't really contribute anything,
either. Unless the girls are going to end up as Ranma's knights or
something after Eiko decides to give him some, there's no need for so
many of them running around.
It gives us setup for a resolution for the fianc�e mess, and Ranma's
parents. I've got a pet theory, which I'm not sharing...
(( It also gives us a setup for yet more trouble. Ranma being of a real
noble samurai family puts him above Kuno... which is going to tick the heck
out of said kendoka. ))
*The continual failures were wearing her down as well; she
required
more and more time between each attempt to recover even a small
part
of her strength. Unfortunately, there was little else she could do
except to keep trying - without control of the gates she could
neither
communicate nor leave the space-time warp the Gates currently
occupied.*
Hah! So Eiko was not only being a bitch about Pluto trying to
regain
control, she was being a bitch AND locking Pluto out beyond time
for
millinea, and complaining that Pluto wanted out?
Millennia? Where'd you get that? What's happened is this: You need a key,
and the user privileges to get to or from the time gates - either the minor
or major key. Pluto and Chibi-moon's user privileges have been revoked,
pending a replacement for Pluto. Thus, Pluto is stuck until Ranma can get
the minor and major key. I saw nothing regardin how long Pluto had been
stuck, or perceived she was - only that she'd tried everything she could
think of.
(( Read it this way: Pluto's contingencies revived her -at the gates-.
Which were in the process of deactivating her access, as triggered by her
death. Her arrival, revived, doesn't stop this, it just gives Eiko a chance
to snicker at the way she blows up when she finds she can't do anything. ))
Good point, which does need to be addressed. Again, plenty of ways
to deal
with it but having Pluto trapped at the Gate doesn't make sense in
the context
of her losing her powers. And I agree that her assumption that only
a member
of Serenity's court could be the guardian doesn't make a great deal
of sense.
This was probably Serenity's idea - "Gee, here we have a bunch of seriously
powerful artifacts, all in need of guardians. If I choose the guardian's
from among my court, I'll have more or less personal control of the
artefacts. Heck, I'll take the most powerful one for myself." Besides, who
says it wasn't Serenity, or one of her ancestors, who created the gates and
decided the rules? What if Ranma is the only viable candidate because he's
the only currently female member of Genma's line - which turns out to have
been major nobility in the Silver Millennium?
(( Ouch. This could explain why Happousai is so upset about losing the
Ranma/Akane match -- not because of the potential for molesting them, but
because they're important to some plan of -his- that relates to this. Maybe
he's after the Ginzuishou for himself? ))
--
Croaker
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