[FFML] Re: that hp/ranma thing

Okay...I'm going to reply to the story and to a few different email comments here, so I'll just start from the bottom of the thread.

To start with, directly from the fic:

"Akane held a hand out with a pair of 5000 yen notes, frowning as she reached for the tape."

I don't think it's likely that Akane would be carrying a hundred dollars (greatly rounded) on her. MAYBE she'd have it stored in her room somewhere, but she wouldn't have it on her, especially when she wouldn't be carrying a purse at the time.

"But what really bugged her was that this was hitting her harder than she expected. It�s not like she really cared for Ranma, was it? Oh, who did she think she was fooling? Of course she did, Nabiki realized. She had cared for Ranma for quite a while, even if she wouldn�t admit it to herself. After all, who was it that pulled her family�s fat out of the fire, time and time again? Sure, sometimes it was his fault for actually putting it in the fire to begin with, but she knew several times where he�d saved them from their own stupidity."

This segment doesn't work very well. It would be far more believable for Nabiki to have already realized her love for Ranma. Trying to make out like she's just noticing it now calls more attention to the transition from cold bitch to Ranma-loving-junkie, which this fic does NOT need. Changing the story so that Nabiki was just hiding her affections would help quite a bit, because it's easier to get the reader to go along with a constant characterization that is present from the beginning of the story than try to carry out a transformation that the reader will be forced to wade through. Justifications for why Nabiki is in love with Ranma just weaken and slow the story down; there is no gain to be made from such an approach in this story where shifting characterizations will not get the extreme amount of focus that will be required for a successful change.

"Tofu shook her head. �You were young. It was a simple enough mistake.�

�I shouldn�t have been doing that anyway. I am glad you�re finally over it, though,� Kasumi said, ashamed."

I have to admit I was pleasently surprised by this. A nice addition. The later revealing of this to Nabiki was going too far, though.

"Here we go, Nabiki thought to herself. �Well, he can�t be a man, considering he�s only 10 right now, can he?�

Nodoka replied, �Eleven. His birthday was a week and a half ago.�"

...I really don't understand this. How would Nodoka know how old Ranma is? Ranma supposedly ate the 10cm mushroom. That makes him ten years old, unless he ate the mushroom before his birthday, which I doubt; the story arc was too short and didn't cover the difficulties that would be present by such a prolonged period. Besides, unless the mushroom were 10cm and some portion of another, it would take a full year from when he ate the mushroom for him to age to being eleven. So...this seems like nonsense.

Regarding the issue of whether the magical school would have hunted down Ranma or either Tendou girl, here is the phrasing of Hogwarts' letter, which seems automatic/standard:

"We await your owl by no later than 31 July."

I read this as "We await your acceptance or lack thereof," with probably a spell put on the letter to ensure that it is not destroyed. If the letter IS destroyed, more are sent, and if no reply is recieved, a teacher is sent. This is supported by Hagrid's statement of "I knew you weren't getting your letters" when explaining things to Harry during the first book. You can agree or disagree with how I read the way the book give the situation, that's just my input. However, it should be noted that this is for Hogwarts, not Golden Sora, and that none of the characters recieved a letter from Hogwarts, so it is pointless to consider whether or not the matter being dropped after only one letter is canon; such a question does not apply here.

"Dear Mrs. and Ms. Saotome,"

This is questionable; Ranma was turned into a girl only shortly before the letter arrived, and his name was gotten from the list of students, which had recorded Ranma's birth, so it should be accurate. The letter would more likely be addressed to Mr. Saotome, not Ms. It can probably be dismissed as "magic," but if that's the case, I would expect that such sensitive magic would recognize a curse and act appropriately...which in this case would be to remain as Mr.. Also, the deliberate mentioning of Mrs. Saotome implies that the situation with Genma is known by the person who sent the letter, which also implies more knowledge of Ranma's sitiuation, which causes the question of why Ranma was left in that situation of he were being monitored that closely. Combined with the prologue, which was very harsh to Genma, that Ranma would be knowlingly left to such "torture" is hard to believe.

"�I�m going to try to find those mushrooms, Ranma.�

The child shook her head. �No, you can�t do that. You don�t want to be a kid again just for me.�"

This is also questionable. If Nabiki finds the mushrooms, what is to keep Ranma from simply using them to return to his normal age? This isn't supported at all in the fic. The question isn't even raised by any of the characters involved here, and it's not one that could be missed; it would come up, and it would need to be addressed.

Also, the general acceptance between Ranma and Nabiki of their new potential relationship goes much too smoothly. I didn't believe it at all; the emotions involved just didn't work out.

"Amazon law does not allow the intermarriage between normal people and wizards. There are so few wizards, the laws were meant to help promote growth.�"

...I'm failing to see the logic behind this reasoning. There isn't, as far as I know, a single case mentioned in the books where a muggle and a wizard had children who weren't magical. There is, however, the reverse; at least two cases, iirc about Tonks's father being a muggle. Also, it is clear that muggles can have magical children. So Cologne's statement would argue that the children of wizards and muggles tend to be non-magical, which just isn't supported. At the very least, Cologne has to state directly that it IS the case, since there is not canon information that anywhere near suggests such.

On a related note...there has been some argument over the significance of the Potter family line and the manner in which Draco addresses Harry. Sorry, folks, but Harry isn't a halfblood. A halfblood has one magical parent and one muggle parent. Tom Riddle is a halfblood. Harry is not, despite the rather widespread fanon misconception that he is.

"Ranma�s eyes widened, then he chuckled. �Of course. I should have figured. It�s sort of obvious looking at it now. Knowing so much about magic and stuff.�"

This was lame. Sorry, but it was REALLY lame.

"�I�m not going to live too much longer. I don�t mean I�m going to die in a day or two, but I mean that I�ve lived a long time and doubt I�ll live too much longer."

Repetitive. Rephrase.

As for the whole Grandmaster Ranma bit...again, sorry, but that's really lame. There is no reason or justification for such an addition to the story. It just feels like an unneeded powerup. It should be cut completely, because it doesn't belong in a fic like this.

And now onto some of the emails:

From: Arthur Hansen <arthur@kindred.net>
Date: 2004/06/28 Mon PM 10:17:40 GMT
To: ffml@anifics.com
Subject: [FFML] Re: FFML send to reply to at work!


[Much snippage ahead... must keep clean and readable.]


Good idea.

[A *whole* year? That seems quite excessive. I'm not sure that I can see

(as portrayed) Akane being "stuck in a rut" because of Ryoga's betrayal
here. Irrational and angry, but stuck in a rut?]


[IMO, Akane's pretty OOC. Not as bad as Nabiki, but till fairly OOC.]


Akane is fairly IC here, for the short time she appears.  Nabiki is not, of course, but Akane does fit her behavior during the mushroom arc, even if

[And Dumbledore is a very "good" wizard, but was more than willing (and seemed to get official backing) to kidnap Harry Potter to make sure he went to school. Merely ripping up their letters seems far too small an impediment.]

First: That was HARRY POTTER.  Who's to say that _ALL_ magi are fetched like he is?
Second: Ranma's name went down in Hogwarts 6 years _after_ it went down at Golden Sora.  ^_-

[With the use of birds as mail-carriers, I'd say that we're expected to think that the Japanese Academy is mostly similar to Hogwarts as a private school to train wizards.]


Addressed above.  Also, it should be noted that Dumbledore often suffers from an extreme case of plot-induced stupidity.  See book five for the clearest example.  I won't go into details here though.  -_-;

[I don't think there is any indication that Arthur and Molly married for anything but love. The fact that they are purebloods seems coincedental, IMO. Yes, there is a lot of prestige to marrying PB to PB. But it isn't even most of the wizards anymore. The Potters were pureblood before Harry, but you never hear anyone (except maybe fanatical purebloods) even mentions about caring about it.]


Harry is pureblood, as addressed above.

[And most students in Hogwarts are either half-bloods or mud-bloods. The only three pure-blood families that I can name off the top of my head is the Malfoys, Longbottoms and Weasleys.]

Uh. Blacks, excepting Tonks, Potters (unless a Potter has kids with a muggle), LeStranges, Nott, Crabbe(sp?), Parkinsons, etc. That Deatheater families are primarily pureblood can be assumed fairly safely. Dean Thomas is halfblood, iirc, but as far as I know, he and Harry and Hermione are the only Gryffindors with specified muggle backgrounds. Maybe the Creevy brothers, I'm not sure. Check the HP-Lexicon if you really want to check on this, as I'm sure it has such information, as far as it is available.

Okay...final comments from previous emails:

On the issue of whether the background for the mushroom arc should be covered in the fic: the answer is no. Add a link to one of the sites with Ranma manga synopsi if necessary, but don't go further than that. Honestly, the more pressing issue, since most of the people who read this fic will have seen or read Ranma, is that people might be unfamiliar with the HP books. I wouldn't reccommend writing that backstory into the fic, either. -_-;

Much discussion has been made about how the invitations to Golden Sora would have been handled, but I haven't seen anybody ask why Hogwarts never sent an invitation during Ranma's first youth. That they didn't send a letter, and that they didn't follow up on the situation despite the obvious amount of work they're putting into Ranma's transfer NOW, seems odd. Why didn't they? This needs to be addressed. Presumably the justification for Ranma getting a letter now is upcoming, though I have no doubt that Ranma should only have recieved a letter from his local school; even Harry did, and Harry is so famous that it's actually hard to believe he didn't get invitations from other places. So, something else that will need to be extremely well-justified, though unlike Nabiki's emotional changes, this isn't a situation that can be avoided.

Hm. That's it, I think.