[FFML] Quantum Destinies - any heroes?

[Jurai Knight]

To be honest, I was intending to do a serious story, not really a darkfic.
If I were to characterize the type of story it is, I guess it's mostly an
action-adventure story with drama and romance mixed in. It's a mature story
with mature themes, and I understand that not everybody is going to like
that. You are going to find characters that are likeable and others... not
so likeable. Some you will even hate. Hopefully, the ones you hate are the
villains and not the protagonists like Ranma and Nabiki.

Take QD Nabiki as an example. When she started in the story, she was
preparing to be a spy someday, professional, detached and ruthless. She was
basically a gangster on campus. She still has those qualities after the
download from the "Nabiki 1/2" analog, but even that version of Nabiki had
bad points too. The QD Nabiki is still a flawed character, but less flawed
now than she was before and with room to grow into something different. She
is a darker version of the original Ranma 1/2 Nabiki Tendo, but that Nabiki
wasn't a very nice person either. Fan conventions have it that she extorts
money from people and takes advantage of Kuno and others only to turn
around and help out her family. From what I've seen in the manga and anime,
this isn't true. Nabiki in Ranma 1/2 is out for herself, and she enjoys
causing mischief. Oh, she won't totally screw over her family, but she
likes to have money and buy nice things for herself, and she isn't shy
about doing questionable things to get that money. QD Nabiki is like that,
and then made even more ruthless. As for not having friends, she is friends
with Yohko Mano and has been from the beginning, and the two of them do
stuff "off camera" together like shopping and other activities.

As for Ranma and the whole slavery thing, he is a teenaged boy who grew up
in a society where being an Imperial citizen is to be a step above other
people under the Empire's control. He was looking at it as "Well, if she
has to be a slave, its better that she's my analog's slave." He glossed
over the whole "slavery is bad" idea because he was more focused on Shampoo
herself. As I said in the chapter,

"He was grateful for this chance to offer the Amazon a good home. He could
see in the mind of his counterpart that this Ranma was a very honorable
sort, and he would never mistreat her."

You are right that treating people as objects is something that isn't as
objectionable in a comedy as it is in a more serious treatment of things.
Just look at the girls in Ranma 1/2. Do any of them really try and talk to
him about his feelings on the matter? It's more like "I want Ranma, no
matter what, and let's get these others out of the way of my happiness."
Nobody ever really asks Ranma what he wants.

If you keep reading to the later chapters, you will see Ranma develop
friendships with others. In the beginning, he was a loner, staying to
himself pretty much and focused on his research. But over time he's getting
more and more friends. Kyosuke Kasuga becomes a friend and so does Ukyo. I
tend to have an easier time putting the girls together with friends than
the guys. When Shampoo is introduced, she is very good friends with an
Apache girl named Running Deer.

I'm sorry if the story comes across to you as sad and depressing. There is
more going on than cool fight scenes and adventure, and things do get
better (at least I think so). The characters are more ruthless, but the
main cast isn't composed of villains. I do have some real dangerous,
vicious villains in the story. You will be able to tell the villains from
the heroes.

If you want to read a QD side-story that I really enjoyed, check out DB's
"Path of the Warrior" that is Shampoo-centric.

I hope you keep reading. I am finishing up chapter 26 and hope to have it
off to pre-readers soon.




On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 7:23 PM, Matthew Campbell <dayriff at gmail.com> wrote:

> So yeah, I thought I'd copy both the author and DB Sommer on this, since
> you seemed to be the two interested in discussing this.  And let me say
> before wading into the block of text below that I'm certainly not trying to
> berate anybody or say "you wrote it wrong".  I want to share the reaction
> I'm getting from this, coming in and reading it fresh, and I'm honestly
> curious if you meant for this to be as dark as it's coming off.
>
> I've now read through chapter 7.  What's kind of depressing me right now
> is that none of the characters have any friends or have shown the slightest
> bit of kindness for anyone whose pants they don't want to get into.  (And
> frequently not even then.)  I think the only instance of interaction based
> neither on lust nor "how can I use this person to my own ends" nor on "how
> can I control this relative of mine" were Tatewaki and Mikado acting like
> bros all the way back in chapter 1.  I mean, I just read the scene where
> Akane is being transferred off to another school and begs Nabiki as her
> sister to keep another girl from stealing Ranma.  For all her talk about
> rethinking her life and starting to open up again, Nabiki doesn't feel even
> the slightest tinge of guilt.  Not one bit of doubt in her smug thoughts
> that it's all for Akane's own good (but really Nabiki's own good).  Which
> is actually kind of disgusting, considering that Akane has shown Nabiki
> nothing but sisterly loyalty and support.  Seriously, I hated her right
> then.
>
> Or like right at the end of chapter 7, Ranma jumps into a quantum reality
> where another version of himself is buying Shampoo as a slave.  When he
> comes back, does he even for a moment think to himself, "Man, slavery is a
> disgusting practice.  Glad my version of the Empire has some lines we don't
> cross."  No, he's all like, "Wow, go other me for getting Shampoo as a
> slave."
>
> We get the internal monologue of character after character, and it's just
> one long parade of how eager they are to use everyone around them.  How
> they view even the objects of their romantic interest as nothing but prizes
> rather than people in their own right.  Nobody ever, ever thinks, "Man, X
> seems kind of down.  I want to make them feel better."  Even family
> affection comes across as incredibly self-centered every time.  And you
> know, I understand that there's going to be some characters like that, but
> it never lets up.  I get the impression that Kinnosuke is being set up as
> some kind of villain, but if he's worse than the others it's mostly a
> matter of degree rather than kind.  He doesn't really seem to think in a
> way differently than they do.  All anyone cares about is the pleasure of
> fighting and dominating others and (I think literally) never a genuine word
> in kindness.
>
> It honestly does come across as really sad.  Did you really mean to write
> it that way, or was it more of a matter of spending so much time putting in
> the cool plot and the fighting moves and trying to give characters room to
> develop that you maybe made them a little more absolute dicks than you
> actually meant to?
>
> I don't miss the fact that "treating the objects of my romance as objects"
> was basically the cardinal sin of the characters in the original Ranma 1/2
> manga.  But well, it's less distressing as a comedy and besides Ranma and
> Akane actually did like each other and treat each other like human beings,
> which was the whole reason readers could root for them in the first place.
>
> Anyway, that's my take so far.  I'm going to keep reading, but I think I
> need to take a break from the grimness before continuing.  Thanks for
> writing and for getting back into the story!
>
> ---
> Matthew
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 3/20/12 6:47 PM, QD Author wrote:
>
>> Hi Matthew,
>>
>> Thanks for reading and being interested enough in the story to send me a
>> comment. I understand where you're coming from. To answer your question,
>> yes, there will be heroes emerge in the story, one of which will be Ranma
>> himself. His is probably what I would call the main "heroic journey" going
>> on in the story, but Nabiki has her own as well. Yes, in the first chapter,
>> Akane and Nabiki are horrible people and Ranma is a coward for not trying
>> to interfere. That chapter is where things begin, taking a darker world and
>> injecting a new light into it from a brighter one like Ranma 1/2's world.
>>
>> I hope you would read at least up to chapters 4 or 5 before making a
>> final decision.
>>
>> I'll be honest and say that I'm not writing a "light and funny" story. I
>> suppose, in a sense, I am doing a deconstruction of Ranma 1/2 and exploring
>> how the characters would be in a different setting like the Empire of Japan.
>>
>> For the most current version of chapters 1-20, you can find it on
>> fanfiction.net. The link is in the chapter heading info.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Steven
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Mar 20, 2012, at 2:20 PM, Matthew<dayriff at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>  So with all the recent list traffic on Quantum Destinies, I decided to
>>> go back and read the first chapter.  I wasn't really a follower of QD when
>>> it first came out, though I read a few chapters here and there.  Anyway, I
>>> wanted to ask- do the characters ever get likable or become people you can
>>> cheer for?
>>>
>>> In the first chapter the characters range from being merely
>>> self-centered and concerned with their own ambitions to being outright
>>> evil.  They live in an oppressive empire that openly exists for the sole
>>> benefit of the wealthy and powerful, ruthlessly exploiting all other
>>> nations and people for sport.  They have televised blood matches in the
>>> arena, and the first time we meet spymaster Soun he's thinking how nice it
>>> would be to have a troublesome subordinate killed*.  Basically they're all
>>> kind of horrible.
>>>
>>> As I recall the original plot, Ranma (and later other characters) start
>>> getting brain downloads from their counterparts in other realities.  They
>>> pick up various new abilities and skills and emotional connections and
>>> ambitions and all that.  But do any of them ever become... well, better
>>> people with some sense of morality?
>>>
>>> I'm not just talking about one character developing feelings for
>>> another.  I mean like developing the idea that hurting other people to
>>> benefit yourself is wrong.  That ambitions should be sacrificed if the cost
>>> is too high.  That a stranger in trouble should be helped at cost to
>>> oneself.  Do any of them ever become the sort of people who would look at
>>> Nabiki and Akane's behavior in the first chapter and say, "This is wrong
>>> and I won't allow it to go on."?
>>>
>>> I mean, I know the characters in canon Ranma 1/2 aren't all that nice,
>>> it being a comedy series and all.  But it's at least possible the look at
>>> canon Akane and Ranma and believe that they have basically good hearts,
>>> just kind of thick headed and stubborn and young.  QD Ranma is a genius,
>>> and the scene where he watches Nabiki and Akane act like gangsters to some
>>> desperate schmuck without the slightest inclination to help- that's where
>>> he lost me.
>>>
>>> I vaguely remember a lot of cool stuff in QD.  I'm just hoping that some
>>> protagonists pop up whom I actually have reason to cheer for.  So is it
>>> worth my while to read the other 22 chapters by that criteria?
>>>
>>> *I know by historical standards the Empire is hardly the most brutal
>>> nation to have existed, but I judge them by modern day standards.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Matt
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>>
>
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