Hey! Gary's written a fic. You know what the first thing that went through
my mind was? I wonder if Ukyou's going to end up the butt of his jokes
again. Let's find out.

<DB reads fic>

Wow! It was! What a surprise! Now the question you should be asking yourself
is, exactly how was it I was able to guess it without reading a word? The
title doesn't give it away. I swear to you I didn't read ahead. Could it be
because you've been doing this incessantly since after Justice? (Which was a
damn fine fic and lacked the sort of ranting you've been engaged in ever
since) The truth is, Gary, a large quantity of the Ranma material you've
been writing reads like little more than a personal crusade against 'Ukyou
fanboys', who seem to have honked you off so badly. It's affected your
writing, and in an entirely negative way. Hell, even Colleen Morgan knew
what Tenshi was and called it 'Gary v. Ukyo round 3! ;)', though I would
contend it's gone a heck of a lot more rounds than that.

Maybe you think you're just arguing about something you feel passionate
about, but don't kid yourself, it went beyond that with that monotonous
Ukyou dog 'gag' which grew tired after the second reference, but which you
continued to beat to death long afterwards by refering to it every
opportunity you could. And you haven't gotten any better since then. I
haven't bothered mentioning this before simply because I figured you'd get
tired of it and get back to writing stories rather than ranting and trying
to irritate a certain group of people, but evidently it's something you
never grow tired of. But I have. Maybe I'm the only one. Maybe I'm just
paranoid and I've misinterpeted nearly every Ranma thing you've written
lately that has Ukyou in it for more than two seconds as little more than
attempts to vent and see if you can get some 'fanboys' riled up. But I don't
think so.

Don't get me wrong. You aren't the only one to feel like this. I won't deny
there have been many times I've felt like you and found some annoyingly
stupid fanfic convention I've wanted to skewer repeatedly through a fanfic
or two dozen, but you know what? I stop myself and look at what it is I've
really written or was considering writing. Is it a story, or just a rant I'm
trying to disguise?  I will give you credit in that you were open about what
you were trying to do here in Tenshi by skewering a fanfic convention, and
if you hadn't been doing it for years now it probably would have been all
right, (I confess to taking a handful of jabs at several conventions here
and there) but this is territory you've gone over many, many times, and
frankly Tenshi comes off as little more than yet another rant by you rather
than anything like an actual story you're trying to tell.

So here's where I say something that might actually be 'useful' though
whether it is or not is up to you to decide. The next time you want to write
a fic where Ukyou ends up the butt of your joke, like Tenshi, try resisting
the urge. If you have something where she has a reduced role, you might want
to consider leaving her out of the fic altogether. Takahashi frequently left
characters absent with no explanations, so it's not like it hasn't been done
before.

I don't like doing this, giving little more than unilateral, blunt, negative
commentary. In fact I downright hate it, which is why I so rarely engage in
it. I honestly prefer using what little time I have to give more helpful C+C
that won't end up getting tossed because it's not positive criticism. But
you used to be so much better than this that I feel compelled to say
something on the offhand chance you might listen and at least consider what
I've said. The only reason I'm publically posting it at all is it might do
others (including myself) good to look at our works and make sure we're not
engaging in this behavior as well.

And let me make it clear that I'm not saying whether you're right or wrong
in your viewpoint. Despite what it might sound like, that's not what I'm
contending here. To be honest, it's irrelevent to what I'm trying to say.
You haven't been writing stories lately; you've been grinding your axe. If
you want to waste your time doing that, fine. It's certainly within your
rights, and I'd never deny you the ability to write whatever you feel like
anymore than I would anyone else. Just let me know when you want to go back
to writing stories again. They used to be quite good.

Just my two cents worth,

D.B. Sommer

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