Colliding SYmphonies said:

Permit me to interject. . .

 In the process, pretty much every character acts
very OOC, to varying extremes.  I'm going to focus on a few
moments which stood out to me.

Its fanfiction. If you want to see it stick to Character lines, go read
the original stuff, because only the original authors know for sure how
they would act. It's their series, not ours. All we can do is guess.

I believe the scene would have been much, much stronger if
Akane had been devastated by the discovery, if she had wept
because she was hurt and betrayed by someone she trusted.
If she had said something like "How could you?  I... I believed
in you!" it would have conveyed her feelings far more succinctly,
genuinely, and powerfully than this acidic rant which you've
written for her.  Certainly, for Ryouga, a single harsh word from
Akane is enough to send him sprinting halfway across Japan.

A matter of preference. Either reaction is supported in the manga, but
again, only the author knows for sure.
 

Soun comes across as quite the stuffed shirt here.  While it is
certainly plausible that he would step up to the plate and be
courageous if he perceived a threat to one of his daughters, this
speech of his does not make any sense.  You have suggested
that he is keeping Ryouga's secret because of his Bushido honor,
which is one explanation as to why he might not have revealed
P-Chan's identity to Akane.  However, if you establish that he has
felt this way all along, why did he wait until now to bar Ryouga

"Go ahead and kill me, then."
    "Ra... Ranma?"
    She looked up at the full moon, eyes shining.  "I'll do
anything for you.  Anything...  Even die..."  She continued to
gaze at the moon for a long moment, filling her heart with its
beauty, then closed her eyes again and tilted her head forward,
stretching her neck for her love, waiting for the end to come.
    She prayed it would be quick.  She brought her hands up in
front of her face in an attitude of prayer and made her last
wish, silent tears leaking from her eyes as she readied her soul
for death.
    For what seemed like a very long time, nothing happened.
Then there was a rustle of cloth, an intake of breath, and then
Ryouga yelled, beginning his kiai...
    "IYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Unquestionably, this was one of Ryouga's darkest moments.  If you choose
to perceive this as his character-defining episode, then that is certainly
your prerogative.  The author's message by including this scene is
very clear - "Don't feel too sorry for Ryouga, THIS is who he really is."

. . .re read the entire scene again. This is not a random re-counting of
the manga, for there are examples of Ranma being quite malicious as
well.  It is systematically re-called in a dream by Ranma, where dreams
are often distorted perceptions. If Ranma is recalling this moment with
Ryouga, then you can't append something like you just did on the
'author' for including this scene. The ideas could be very real for
Ranma, and maybe -RANMA- is defining Ryouga's character by this moment.

-Not- the author.
 

However, I believe it is a disingenuous bit of storytelling to re-write
the scene.  If you are recounting a scene from the manga, it behooves
you to do it accurately.  When it came down to it, Ryouga could not
bring himself to kill Ranma.  Ranma was aware of this.  This casts
a very different light on the whole situation.  Ryouga definitely comes
across in a negative way in this scene, but Takahashi makes it clear
that, at heart, he is not a cold-blooded killer.

Irrelevant when the above is realised. If you don't believe the
portrayal of the characters in the story, then I'm sure you know where
you can find the original works.
 

I also found the way that Akane so quickly forgave Ranma for any
blame in the P-Chan affair to be extremely unconvincing.  I miss the
real Ranma in your story - he's a wonderful character, in a large part
because of his flaws and failings.  This Samurai Ranma, who bears
the cross of his own honor so nobly, this martyr who is so easily
absolved from all blame in this tale, is not nearly as interesting to
me.

Cute. Be-littling by contrast, a clever debate device. However it is
absolutely useless arguement where fanfiction is involved.

Why?

'I miss the -real Ranma- in your story. . .'

There is only one _real_ Ranma, and he/she never appears in fanfiction.
The way you state your aruguements leaves most people who read it to
think that no fanfiction will ever appeal to you because it is just
that.

Fanfiction.

Not the original.
 

Again, this started out as a promising idea.  I wish you had just
stayed focused on Ranma and Akane and the way they handled
her curse, rather than insisting on wrapping up all the conflicts.
The last chapter, especially, came across as very mean-spirited
and vitriolic, especially towards Ryouga, Kuno, and Shampoo.  I
find stories that degenerate into transparent character slams to be
very disappointing, especially when written by someone who so
clearly has talent and ability.

Ever read Daigakusei no Ranma?
 

If there are certain characters which inspire in you nothing but
spite and revulsion, my suggestion would be to simply leave them
out of your stories.  

Of course, this is -your- view that you are imposing Dave to have, when
he probably doesn't think that nonsense in the slightest.

I appreciate it when an author struggles to give a character a fair
shake in spite of his or her own  prejudices.  I did not see
that in "Nekophobia."  As a result, the story was a very
disappointing experience.

You are of course entitled to your opinion on these matters, however the
entire 'opinion' seemed to be a 'diplomatic attack.' Most of us are
writing for personal entertainment, much like Mr. Eddy, or most of
Colliding SYmphonies, as are many readers. I've read many works where I
did not enjoy the content, and took the entertainment out of reading
fanfiction, but I didn't use subtle attacks on the author because his
story didn't agree with me, which is what this seems to be.

I'm sorry if you were dissappointed by the story, but the way your
arguement is laid out reminds of of other authors who think that
'original flavour' is the only kind of fanfiction which has a place
here. Though this may/maynot be your view, it could have been much more
acceptably 'gotten across' than it had. Either way, don't expect much
support for that view, because it narrows the field of view for
fanfictions.

I think thats wrong, and I've tried to follow through on these thoughts
with the way I run FFIRC and Colliding SYmphonies. 

I encourage EVERYONE that I can to write as much as they can. True, many
of them write things I donot like, but I've only 'ripped' people for
poor use of English, not for content.

To have others to adhere to the opinions that were pointed out in your
response to Dave Eddy's Nekophobia, many -good- fanfictions would never
have been written.

Including Nekophobia.

Lastly, just because a character is portrayed a certain way does not
equate to the author having the same feelings about the character as the
story did.

Any counters to the above, feel free to reply, but keep the flames to
just me.

-TJ
-Colliding SYmphonies head
-FFIRC head