Richard Lawson Pontificated:

It kinda bothered me, maybe because if you played the game while reading
my stories, you could get good and wasted.  :)  Yet, I don't think my
stories contain "errors" per se.

Yah, but a hell of a way to get blasted... ^_^

My introduction to Ranma 1/2 came by purchasing Volume 1 of the dubbed
TV series and watching it at home.  I knew very little about Ranma
before that, so it was all new to me.  It became permanently fixed in my
mind that onna-Ranma had red hair.  Even when I started buying the
manga, in my mind's eye onna-Ranma's hair was still red.

This is true of a lot of people.  Don't sweat it.

Now HEAR THIS.  Onna Ranma's hair IS red, dammit!  The bloody manga is
black and white - yet everywhere in the manga that there are colour
pictures of onna Ranma, she is depicted with red hair.  (There are a few
variations, but it is predominantly drawn as red - and Zen has *all* the
manga.)  For Zen too, onna Ranma is indelibly endowed with red hair.  And
it is even canon.

This was my introduction to Shampoo; so my image of her is now of a
woman with naturally purple hair.

Check the manga covers...  Purple still works!  ^_^

To Nabiki, Tatewaki was "Kuno-baby".

A rough but not too inaccurate translation of the Japanese...
Zen sees no problem here...

Of course, it does sound strange if someone mixes the two... using
Kuno-baby AND -chan or -kun, but there it is.

When I started writing fanfics, I tried to keep everything strictly
canon.  Thus I never mention that  female Ranma has red hair.  I don't
refer to  female Ranma as "Ranma-chan", instead letting the personal
pronouns determine Ranma's gender.  My first fanfic, "Heart of the
Home", was pretty good at being "canon".

Zen stays pretty canon too, but Zen DOES refer to Onna Ranma as a redhead,
'cause she *IS* - and will refer to onna Ranma as Ranma-chan.  But Zen only
uses Ranma-chan in description - if the name is in dialogue, then it is
simply Ranma.  The test will refer to her eith the -chan, but Akane, for
example, would refer to her as simply Ranma.

So, I've slipped.  These are non-canon references.

So sue me.  :)

Zen's lawyers will be contacting you.  ^_^

I have no intention of going back and making them more canon.

Good.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I hope people won't think less
of authors for making these "errors", as long as they are consistent and
true to the author's perception of the Ranmaverse.

Hear Hear!

At the same time, blatant errors (like people who think Jusenkyo
was destroyed in Volume 38, or Nodoka doesn't know about Ranma's curse,
or some people who think "pig-tailed" is wrong and attempt to replace it
with "pony-tailed") should be pointed out to the authors, I think.
That's what the FFML is all about.

OK, Now HERE Zen will argue a bit - In the manga, Nodoka does find out
about the curse, eventually.  But whether or not a story is in error
depends on WHEN in the Ranma Chronology it is set.  Zen's stories so far
take place BEFORE Nodoka found out, and his Ranma-verse branches off the
main stream from there.  Zen does not regard that as "error" - blatant or
otherwise.

In my Ranmaverse, red-haired female Ranma is wearing a badly knitted
scarf with her initials on it.  She's looking down as Nabiki calls out
to "Kuno-baby" in the back yard, attempting to sell him some more
pictures of the pig-tailed goddess while Kuno himself spouts
Shakespeare.  Akane has pulled a mallet out of thin air and is
attempting to chase away a certain purple-haired Amazon.

Sounds good to Zen.

If you see such a picture in a fanfic of mine, don't hate me for it.  Go
ahead and get blasted as you play the drinking game.   :)   But I hope
no one attempts to make anyone feel bad for making these "mistakes".
There are an infinite number of universes according to some; therefore,
there should be room for each one of our visions.  :)

(!)  ^_^  Concur.



Zen-

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[[                  James Bateman (Otaku@nashville.com)                  ]]
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