In other words, let your characters change, as life will change them;
please do not change them for no or insufficient reason.  That is OOC.
Any agreements/disagreements?

       I agree with you, Stormwalker.  Certain events, traumatic or
otherwise, can change a character to such a degree that they become OOC.
Who is to say that characters MUST stay IC at all times, even if a tragedy
had happened?

    <snip>

What if he had gotten raped in female form?  Do you think, just possibly,
that Ranma's general personality and outlook would change a shade, or two,
darker than before (if that happened?)

     Or a few years younger, as happened in a certain, unfinished fic.
    <snip>

You've broken the so called IC mold of your former self (IC as in that
you know that a certain stupid thing you do now would have been IC with
your younger self) and assumed a new IC one.  

     This is exactly what I was trying to say. Eventually, the character
will develop into a character different from the original. It becomes,
in essence, *your* character, no longer RT's original (in this case). This
doesn't mean the character is OOC. Rather, it has grown and evolved into
a new character.
     For example, back to the rape story. Ranma is raped, and then reverts
to thinking that he's an female much younger than he is physically. From
the past discussions on this ML, it was quite an applicable reaction given
everything which had happened in his life. This character acted in ways
very OOC to the manga, but then again, RT's Ranma never got raped, and
she probably never would have him get raped, therefore we would never have
any idea of what happened to him.

I find it helps to explain why the character is OOC (in your story).  

     I'd rather let the story speak for me, but sometimes you do need to
do that (especially if your story starts out with a character acting
"OOC").

"Don't call me Stormy!  I hate that name!"

Hello Stormy! (WebDragon runs and hides)

     Hiyas, Stormy. Sorry, just had to do it.
--
Ben Kosse bmk7411@cs.rit.edu
BGC Otaku and worshipper of the Red-Eyed Goddess. Member of ShAS.
Anime, RPG's, computers, poetry (read/write), music (listen/compose).
Author of the Bubblegum Crisis theme pack (see the homepage below).
Homepage with anime and other interests. (http://www.rit.edu/~bmk7411)