On Fri, 19 Sep 1997 00:50:28 -0600 (CST), Sean Connor <sec@frodo.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Sep 1997, Gary Kleppe wrote:

Consistency in a premise is a good thing IMO. If character X's tendency
to glomp women for comedic effect in the original makes him a sadistic
rapist in your story, and if character Y does the same thing in the
original, then the premise should apply to Y too -- even if Y is your
favorite character.

There is quite a problem here in applying the "does the same thing" part
of this.  Look at it this way.  In the original Ranma manga, Happousai
frequently fiddles with women's underwear, and most fanfics portray him
as a hopeless hentai.  Ranma also frequently fiddles with women's
underwear, but he's _not_ usually portrayed the same way that Happousai
is because of this.  The reason for this is that, despite outward
appearances, they are _not_ doing the same thing, because, in this case,
their reasons for their actions are different.

Yes of course. This is a case where what I said doesn't apply, because
of what you say. The similarities are totally superficial.

However, if a fic portrayed Happosai as a rapist but had Lukkosai
(Happi's friend whose Jusenkyo curse turns him into a child) as a kindly
gent, I'd have a problem accepting it -- though I might well enjoy it
for its other aspects if it were otherwise well done. I'd want to see
Lucky at least tempted.

<rant>

If I have to read through _yet another_ alternaverse variant of the Golden
Pair match, I'm going to SCREAM!!!!

But those variants are soooo CUTE!! (-:

(Letssee, just for my own curiosity, have I ever written of those...
nope. Just checking.)

</rant>

Dealing with unwanted complications is a difficult but necessary job. If
you just move certain characters or situations quietly out of the way,
the believability of your story is threatened; wheras if you give them
too much influence they can interfere with the story you're trying to
tell. Sometimes problems can cure each other; e.g. Shampoo marries
Ryoga, and they go off leaving your Ranma/Akane story to proceed
undisturbed.

As long as it's done believably.  If Ryouga and Shampoo suddenly up and
get married out of the blue, it's a fairly good indication that the author
simply wanted them out of the way.

Mark Latus' "Shampoo Variation" shows us how this one could've happened.
But I agree with your general point.

4. CONCLUSION. The story comes to an answer of sorts to the "what-if"
question. We see how things would have resolved themselves differently
as the long-term results of the premises are known.

Well, we see the author's vision of how things would have resolved
themselves, anyways. :) 

Well, obviously; unless the author is letting someone else plot, yeah.
:-)


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics