At 04:17 PM 1/12/98 -0800, you wrote:

TimeRunner wrote:

After receiving several comments to the effect, I have been considering
putting the tag on the header, but wasn't quite sure...

And so I pose a question to the list: Do I label 'Yen Town' [Dark]?

I mean, no one dies (?), no one gets raped (?), no one kills in the heat of
passion or rage (?), and yet I've been told that it's 'dark'.

What the heck IS 'dark'? I thought 'dark' fics had Akane killing Ranma, or
Genma selling Ranma off as some child-sex-toy, or something like that. What
qualifies a fic to be 'dark' in the first place? And must I label it [Dark]
just so some cold, heartless mail filter can sort it out and throw it away,
even when I don't think it's dark?

"Dark" is when the characters go through some sort of graphic physical
suffering or intense emotional suffering.  For example, Zen's "Bitter End" is
dark.  Not only because Akane beats Ranma, or that she kills Ranma, but

because

of the intense emotional pain that Ranma goes through.  That, more than
anything, is what gave the fic it's "Dark" tag.  Physical pain can be

shrugged

off by a reader--especially if he/she hasn't suffered much of it--but
psychological and emotional pain is a lot harder to ignore.  when I read
"Bitter End" (and I've read it plenty of times) I get physically ill, not
because of what Akane does to Ranma, but because of what Ranma does to

himself.

Then Yen Town ISN'T dark then... I guess.