Gary Kleppe wrote:
Bridget Engman posted the following writing exercise as a
challenge last December 11. To the best of my knowledge,
nobody submitted any responses.
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[Quoting Bridget Engman]
This is an exercise in characterization which I am calling
"the people you love to hate."
It is a two-part exercise.
First, pick a character from any anime (or even make one up)
that you hate. Write a short scene involving that character
in which you make the audience also hate that character. Try
to do so narratively, without speculating on the character;
show it through actions, dialogue, and description instead of
telling us.
Now take that same scene and rewrite it from that character's
point of view. Try to get inside the character's head and
express how he/she/it sees him/her/itself. Justify the actions.
Just wanted to say that I've already done this. :)
A year ago, I hated Kodachi. With a passion. She was second only to
Happosai on my list of "Ranma characters I wish RT hadn't created".
You can see how much I disliked her in "Thy Inward Love, Part 4: That
Way Madness Lies". Kodachi is a hateful, sneaky, darned-near psychotic
person who betrays the trust given her in setting up a fair fight. Only
her brother stops her. At the end I had her carted away to a mental
hospital, safely out of everyone's way. And there I planned to keep
her.
It was Sebastian Weinberg who called me on this. Too easy, he
complained. Too neat. Ukyo and Shampoo had their moments of
redemption, as did Tatewaki, Ryoga... heck, even Genma finally became a
half-way decent human being in the end. Why wasn't Kodachi given that
chance?
I had to acknowledge his point as valid. As much as I hated Kodachi,
she did deserve the same careful portrayl the other suitors received.
So I wrote "The Dying of the Rose".
In that story, I got into Kodachi's head and wrote from her
perspective. The tragedy of her life, the struggle to overcome her
mental illness, the deep regret for oppotunities wasted. I came out a
changed man. Suddenly, I liked Kodachi. :)
Now I root for her. Even the maniacal form still found in the manga.
Go Kodachi! Too bad Ukyo and Shampoo bumped into you while you were
trying to poison their drinks at the Christmas party. Would have been
nice to get a chance to be alone with Ranma, neh? ^_^
My conversion was so complete that I gave her a fairly significant role
in "Magic". Shampoo only appears at the beginning and end, and Ukyo
only has a few lines despite being there for the entire expedition.
Kodachi had suddenly become dear to me, in a way I find very surprising.
This doesn't always work. Despite "Adjustments", I still despise
Happosai. Always will, I think. :)
But it did work with Kodachi. Look for "Roses of Shadow", coming
sometime this summer. :)
Gary Kleppe