David Johnston  writes:

I don't necessarily agree.  Just because something doesn't utilize 

what

we see as strictly Ranmaverse characteristics doesn't keep it from 

being

a fanfiction.  It's just a different kind of fanfic, to me.  And 

one that

I consider well-written as well.  :)  It shows us a different side 

of

Nabiki and Ranma, and they wouldn't necessarily react the same way 

as

usual after such a thing happened.  I know very few girls who would 

stay

exactly the same after a rape, and unfortunately, I've had that put 

to

the test.

I'm very sorry to hear that.  

Unfortunately, so am I.  :)

Of course a lot of fanfiction (including "What Price Peace" and
"Another Letter") uses tragedy as an explanation for characterisation
shifts.  Before someone has experienced the death of a loved one,
rape, or permanent injury, it's difficult to predict their
reactions.  

Right.  Some people are passive in the face of such things because they
don't deal with it or don't really care.  Some people go crazy, or become
so depressed they don't want to live themselves.  I know a person who
swore to me that she was one of the type to be passive.  But when it
actually happened to her, she had to be hospitalized for a suicide
attempt.  You don't even know what you are going to do, so how can you
know what a character would do?  Especially one that you didn't actually
create.

You said it much better then I did.  I understand what the first 

person was

trying to say. However to accomplish this by typical character molds 

would

spoil, at least to me, the plot device and the ending. Allow me to 

give you

an example suppose I changed Nabiki to do what she usually does, 

what

effects would it have on the plot?  She's unlikely to be hiding out 

where

she is, and if we carry it to one extrem might not even have the 

child. In

Almost certainly wouldn't.  If Nabiki kept her closer to her usual 
personality then getting an abortion and trying to pretend nothing 
happened is almost inevitable.  Although she'd probably start 
learning martial arts, and would "freeze" at any unexpected 
physical contact with a man.  But it looks like in your fiction, 
she snapped under the trauma and lost all of her self-respect and 
confidence.

Which is a common happening.  Even the strongest women, when raped, will
tend to be ashamed of what happened to them and blame themselves. 
Self-respect is something that they aren't worthy of anymore.  Keeping
the child might be the right move for any number of reasons.  Abortion is
something that hurts women too.  Nabiki *might* have considered adoption,
but then she would have to explain where the child came from, etc, and
she probably wasn't ready for that, either.  <shrugs>  It seems like the
right ending to me.

Miyaka

"Thanks for coming!"  -Yuuki Miaka- (talking to food) _Fushigi Yuugi_ 
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