This one always seems to surface every now and then, doesn't it?

    Of course anyone who has been around long enough knows that I'm a big
manga rules person.  But recently my view has changed.  Those who say that
by allowing the anime you say let fanfic be considered as valid, why not?
Some interpretions of the Ranma 1/2 universe aren't necessarily that good,
like the Anime, but some are pretty good, too.  Ranma 1/2 manga is a very
limiting medium.  Everything is well-defined and exact.  When it comes to
fanfiction, Ranma 1/2 manga is just downright suffocating.  You may think
you're writing Ranma or Akane or whatever, but no, they're not Ranma 1/2
characters unless you stick to the boring stereotypes that are clearly
defined.  It took me a long time for me to realize that I can never write
Akane the way I see her.  You can never write about the gentle side of Akane
Tendo if you want to be truthful to the series.  It doesn't matter if in her
heart she trusts Ranma, or that she's not really that tomboyish.  Manga says
she has to react a certain way no matter what.  Look at every major
character in Ranma 1/2.  They've certain responses that they must do just
because that's who they are.  While you have exceptions once in a while, you
can't write something where exception is the norm.

    But this brings back to what always bothered me.  If you're going
against the established stereotypes (and frankly, any fanfiction that
attempts to develop Ranma 1/2 character does that.  Ranma 1/2 have extremely
rigid, narrowly defined personalities) by filling out the details yourself,
is it really Ranma 1/2?  Or is it your own character with a Ranma 1/2 name
and face?  Ukyou and Ryouga are not supposed to be together by the manga.
There is no need to look further because the answer is definitive, as is
almost anything else you might want to talk or write about Ranma 1/2.  There
exists some absolute answer provided by the manga.  But this is boring, at
least for me.

    I don't support this pairing, but I wouldn't mind seeing someone making
a convincing story about it.


Don
"You were a piece of a star, that fell from the sky..."
Radical Dreamers, the Unstealable Gem