At 13:25 11/12/96, J. Austin Wilde wrote:

Reid Carson wrote:

        As I think about it, in fact, nearly everyone in these
stories lets Ranma down very badly. If we take the OOC behavior of
Ranma and Akane in stride, I don't much blame Ranma for choosing
Kentaro over this Akane. Indeed, the thing I find more dubious is
that he would want anything to do with any of these people again.

Reid Carson
rcarson@mnsinc.com

Thank you Reid,

Although I enjoyed the stories and thought them well crafted, I heartily
agree with you that Akane's love for Ranma is woefully cut down to
accomodate the story line. While I see that a certain distancing from
the rest of the cast is required for Ranma to interact in her new and
troubling circumstances, (and to allow Kentaro an in-road) perhaps there
could have been a little more detail concerning the break-up of R&A.
That's for Mister Lawson to decide, but I felt compelled to respond to
this post, and to post it back to the FFML to see if anyone cared to
debate this point.

J. Austin Wilde

Well said, both of you!

Debate it?  Not bloody likely...

Zen has been saying the same thing since the initial prereading stage.
Richard is the first person to produce a clan Tendou, and a clan Saotome,
that Zen would actively dislike as people with the expected exception of
Kasumi, and the anomalous exception of Nabiki.

Mind you, they do turn out better at the end, but Zen was/is surprised that
Ranma didn't tell Akane to get stuffed, when she showed up after four years
of nothing, just wanting to waltz back into Ranma's life.

The thing is, while it was a very disturbing element to the story, it is
also a large part of what made the story good, in Zen's opinion.  The
character reactions were believeable, if a bit harsh, (okay, MORE than a
bit). That is a large part of the story's impact, and strength.

The biggest OOC for Ranma was not the fact that s/he could come to love a
man, so much as s/he seemed to frogive her shabby treatment by her family
so easily.  Zen knows that Ranma doesn't hold grudges much, but this was
exceptionally... magnanimous of him.

'tis a wonderful story that Lawson-san wrote - whether one accepts the
premise or not, it is a unique and insightful look at what might have been.

Zen the Heretic-
(Welcome to the fold, Lawson-san! ^_^)