[FFML] [Ranma][Revised] Hearts and Minds, Part 1 of 10

[Michael Clark]

> A bit of history here: The ten Preludes that detail the action between 
> the end of the manga and start of HaM proper were written over about a 
> year's time. The release of HaM itself was started about a year after 
> that. So the assumption at the time was that people would've read the 
> preludes and that there was no need to explain things that had been 
> shown in detail there.
> 
> Fast-forward to over fifteen years later, and I'm starting this series 
> of revisions, and it occurs to me that with just a few additions, HaM 
> could stand on its own and be accessible to people who haven't read
> the 
> preludes. You've served as the guinea pig for this. :)  And based on 
> your feedback I think I need to maybe add a couple more things, but I 
> think overall it seems to have worked okay.

I'm glad to do it; I hoped this might be a useful perspective to you.

> > We go back to China, where Ti Pi gives her report to the Amazon
> > elders,
> > and we finally get some sense of the threat that the natives face.
> > A
> > Mongol warlord, whose motives are unclear but whose intentions are
> > very
> > clear: surrender or be taken by force.  I understand the desire to
> > maintain some level of intrigue and secrecy, but at this point, I
> > find
> > myself asking, "Why should I care what this Mongol wants?"
> 
> Not sure what kind of answer you're looking for. His wants have led
> him 
> to order an invasion of the village, so they have to care at least
> that 
> much. At this point I don't know that we need to know his motivation; 
> that'll come later.

Perhaps not.  With an angle of it being 7 years later and many things
having changed, yeah, it's probably fine, in retrospect.  While people
are reading to find out how Ranma and Akane got together and all the
other relationships settled themselves (or possibly didn't settle
themselves), you do have the luxury of working in more about the Mongol.


> > It could be I missed something, but all of a sudden, we warp back to
> > Japan, and Kodachi is being a little snide to people and, in Ranma's
> > words, picking fights.  They seemed to get along quite well by
> > comparison in the earlier scene.  I can't quite place any strong
> > reason
> > for Kodachi to suddenly be antagonistic.
> 
> 
> It's not so much that she's antagonistic. Kodachi is trolling for a 
> fight because she expects to win and she knows how much that will get
> to 
> Ranma.

I see.  So it's more like the joke she and Kuno played on Ranma when
they first arrived.  That makes a lot more sense to me now.

> I'm very, very open to such remarks and I appreciate the time it 
> obviously took you to do this.
> 
> I would ask one thing: Following these comments you included a full
> copy 
> of the original story at the bottom of your post. Please try to turn 
> this off next time. Since the fic was already on the list, copying the 
> entire thing just takes up bandwidth.

Yeah, an entirely unintended act on my part that I realized mere seconds
after sending the message.  I guess I'll stick to something other than
gmail web interface from now on.

I'm glad I could be of some help!

-Michael Clark