Every color, every hue 
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the scope
Take a look at the kaleidascope
Make it round, make it twirl
In this kaleidascope world.
	--- "Francism"
 

Hearts of Ice started too soon?  Okay...  So, where *should* it have
started?  I'm honestly curious here, since I'll do anything to improve
one of my stories.  If you can convince me, I just might fix it.  :)

Well that's just the problem, isn't it? What some people
think might have started too soon, some people think
started just right. Oh, how can we possibly keep face as
critics when there's so much discrepancy going on?
 

Now, as far as The Chaos Chronicles are concerned, I don't really think
where the story began is the problem.  I agree that it's way too
contrived (Just another Demon-Akane/Saint Ukyo fic:  Ranma suddenly
abandons Akane -- even being willing to commit sepuku to get out of the
engagement 9_9, and runs off with Ukyo to the Masakis) without giving
any real believable explanation for the circumstances.  But maybe that's

Whatever the case, it seems to be used as a convenient
plot device in order to get the story going to the real 
meat -- Ranma's arrival at the Masaki residence. When
you think about it this way, it isn't so bad, especially
since I'm quite sure it's this part of the story that the 
author wishes to focus on.

I think it's a little too much to expect the author to fully
flesh out all the preceding events, coming up with an
almost epic scope for the story. As critics for these
fics, I truly believe that we should be keeping in mind
certain allowances, especially regarding the nature
of a fic in question. 

The fic is an alternate story, a "what if" paradox where
some things just happened this way instead of that.
That premise alone gives a believable justification
to Ranma's actions. Even some fics which don't follow
a "what if" model take liberties explaining the way a 
certain character's mind works, since no real
explanation was given in the manga or anime.

While it would be nice to have every single detail
fully explained and rationalized, not every author has
the ability or the compulsion to do this. Sure Ranma
is suddenly acting in a different way than we expect,
but is that not the character of a fanfic such as this?
It is not as if his actions are entirely unprecedented.
Certain events happening in the anime can justify 
his actions, if you don't keep any preconceived
notions regarding the characters of Ranma and Akane.

If you concentrate too much on canon and are afraid 
to go against set standards, {standards which
were established by people no more authoritative
than being on this ML}, then you're really shutting the
doors to a greater opportunity.

How many good stories would not have existed if
the writers were too afraid to go against canon? I
dare say nearly all of them.

just me.  I have to confess that as soon as Ranma started griping about
Akane's mallet beatings, I scanned the rest of the fic, and hit delete. 
Too OOC for my personal tastes.  Also, I don't usually swallow character
bashing of any kind, but least of all, Akane bashing.

 
While I admit that the fic treated some of the characters
a little harshly, a lot of other fics do the same thing.
How many evil Colognes have we seen, where she
is depicted as a devilish old hag who we all want
nothing to do with except stuff in a trash compactor?

Just one person's opinion, but those are my $.02 on the matter.

Sessha mo soko ni de gozaru. ^_^x