On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Richard Lawson wrote:
: There have been an awful lot of fanfics where Ranma, as a woman, does
: some awfully OOC things. From acting feminine to having sex with Ryoga
: (or the male version of Ranma), a *lot* of stories have Ranma acting
: like a woman for no reason. There are exceptions - at least "Nullifier"
: gave Ranma-chan a reason for abandoning her masculinity - but for the
: most part, female Ranma is made to act so OOC it makes my teeth hurt.
[so he wrote _TOP_]
: The funny thing was, even then, it was considered OOC for Ranma to kiss
: Kentaro. Kun-chan, Sebastian, et. al. were actually arguing on my
: behalf when they pointed this out.
Well, the difference is that the OOC fics that you cite are mostly
just fluffy, silly pieces that do not attempt to hide or explain
the fact that Ranma is OOC. You fic, on the other hand, is very
*very* realistic, thus making the enormity of the change in Ranma
even more glaring. What can be glossed over in a "Oh, it's OOC,
but who cares" way in other fics becomes hard to ignore in a
setting like the one you paint.
That aside, I did not think that it was *so* hard to accept. I
thought that a few more sentences on Ranma's part would have been
necessary, explaining what he thought, that made him take this
step. You have him explain what he *feels* about doing it, but not
what *motivated* him. We can guess, based on his reactions to
Kentaro's advances and advice, and in this case, I seem to have
guessed pretty much correctly what you meant - but it was not made
clear enough, apparently.
: Anyway, thanks for allowing me to indulge myself. I apologize for
: playing the devil's advocate here, debating points on which I actually
: agreed in principle with the poster. I still think it's possible that
: Ranma would react the way she did in my story - maybe not probable, but
: possible. :)
Definitely. I did not so much think it OOC, but underexplained
just a tad.
: I've actually begun writing a sequel to this story, trying to explore in
: greater detail the issues raised in these debates. I don't know if I'll
: finish it, or post it, but I've gotten a lot of food for thought, and
: it's sparked the fires in my brain, and those fires has spread down my
: arms into my fingers, causing them to type furiously, almost against my
: will. :) I'll let you know.
Hmmm, I dunno. On the one hand, I'm tempted to say that everything
added after this point could only be detrimental - on the other
hand, it's *you* who would write it, so it would probably be great.
<shrugs>
: -Richard Lawson
: who also agrees with Zen about Trish-bashing
I don't know who she is, never tried to find out, never payed
attention to the bashing, nor contributed.
Sebastian