OK, I now feel secure enough to comment on the ongoing OOC/IC debate.

  There are two separate general issues that I've seen come up:

  1)  Does such a thing as OOC exist, or is the series itself too 
inconsistent for the label to be applied?  Can virtually any actions be 
accounted for by pointing to a small section of one of the stories?

  2)  Assuming OOC does exist, does it have value?

  As for the first, OOC does exist.  Ranma and Akane have both had, not 
only their external actions, but also their internal thoughts put down 
on paper.  Once we know what a character thinks/feels, portrayals of 
that character require an accounting of those feelings, or else the 
portrayal is OOC.

  Akane and Ranma do love one another.  Any attempt to have them NOT 
remain in love is going to require an explanation--And a very simple one 
is simply, ``I got tired of waiting for that baka/tomboy to make up 
his/her mind.''  I give permission to anyone who wants to use that line 
in any future fic, just to get the issue out of the way. :)

  Similarly, Ryouga has had ``though bubbles'', thinking about his 
feelings for Akane.  Any attempt to pair him up with Ukkyo (lucky boy!) 
should first get him over Akane.

  OTOH, many of the other characters have had little more than their 
outward actions presented.  As such, a character's true motivation may 
not be as simple as it appears (such an idea motivated a fanfic I am now 
working on, in which I attempted to explain the ``irrational'' behaviors 
of several characters).

  The real question in deciding OOC/IC is not, ``Can I find something in 
the stories that supports this?'', but rather, ``Can I find anything in 
the stories that cannot be accounted for by this?''.  If so, you're at 
least a little OOC.

  As for the second issue, I have to disagree with the purists.  A story 
is of great value, even if the characters have to be tweaked (or even 
mangled) to get it to work, so long as the reader responds in the 
desired fashion.  If you laugh at a comedy, or get choked up by a 
darkfic, then who cares if it had to be a slightly alternate universe?  
OTOH, in order to help ensure that response, the author probably should 
warn readers of ``alternaverse'' tendencies.

--Freemage,
    Just another know-it-all Newbie

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