Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Where stuff about fanfiction that doesn't fit into any other category goes. Try to make sure that new topics here actually couldn't actually go somewhere else.

Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby frice2000 » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:20 pm

As to the Choose your own adventure book series (which yes I was a fan of) that doesn't really count. The author for the most part had those planned out before you read them and even then they have a set ending. The Anime Adventure and the like is a good example and there are a lot of good stories there but almost all of them lack one thing...an ending. A good story has a beginning a middle and finally an ending. I've yet to see a good AA story or any similar site that was written that had that sort of structure. Not that I don't like lots of stuff that comes from there but some of the stuff that entertained me on there wouldn't be enjoyable if I was reading it as one coherent narrative rather then a branch of choices. You have to hold it to a different standard and that's usually due to the author/authors having zero vision on the next paragraph much less the ending.

In regards to the curses even by your argument that they are activated when it's funny let us keep In mind that first and foremost Ranma is a comedy series. Thus funny moments should occur. Second Ranma switches forms willingly at least once a day when showering (which can lead to humor and often does but keep in mind he rinses in cold water seemingly regardless) so that's simply another opportunity. Third Nabiki requires photos of Ranma to sell so she would I'm sure arrange for him to end up in his cursed form if enough time passed. Fourth the most common method that we've witnessed in regards to awakening Ranma is Akane hitting him with water or his father tossing him out of the window on occasion. And even if you want to haven him wake up not using one of these methods he spars with his father outdoors almostvevery morning. They seem to make a game of getting one or another wet on occassion so that is yet another opportunity. Fifth the guys at Furinkan all know about his curse and are all perverts I have no doubt they subject him to some unwanted changes at least a few times in an average week. Sixth as Spok said Japan is an island nation in the Pacific rain happens their sporadically, quickly, and unexpectedly getting caught without an umbrella is likely very common. Seventh Ranma on occasion invokes his cursed form willingly in order to get food/scam someone/spy on someone/work/etc. All of those to me indicate plenty of instances where Ranma could very plausibly be in his cursed form at any one time and preclude an author who is writing about this series for a significant chunk of time from not mentioning him in his cursed form if only in passing.

Like I said you don't need gratuitous Ranma-chan (you are correct I do like It however) but if you end up rarely if ever him changing into it with no explanation of a method he is using to avoid the change it feels like you're simply being sloppy. If you don't want to focus on his female form that's fine I've read plenty that don't have him in it but come on the curse I've summarized above should get activated at least once or twice a day so it should at least be an innconvience to him and not something one can ignore.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby SpaceKnight of Chaos » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:36 pm

When it works for the chapter, I work the curses in, when they don't really add anything to the chapter, I leave them out. It's not as though they aren't implied to spend the majority of their time in their true forms in canon anyway. This particular story doesn't rely so heavily on the random whacky hijinks as canon ("Ryoga-as-P-Chan has run into the girl's locker room, so Ranma must change shapes and flash her breasts to prove her 'right to enter'!" "Happosai is running amock with a squirt gun because he's got a special set of lingerie he wants to harass Ranma into agreeing to wear!" "Ranma is off for a meeting with his mother at last, so he keeps running into watery accidents that throw obstacles into his path!"), so there's less call for the changes. I've no problems with using them, but they need to fit into the story. If I ever get that oneshot about Ranma and the amefurashi going, his head will probably end up spinning from how often he changes back and forth. In CTR, where he needs to be in male form much of the time for the plot to work, his change isn't played up so much, because there's fewer moments where it's appropriate for him to change or to need to change back.

You're correct, those are all things that canonically happen to him, with the exception of Nabiki, who makes sure to change Ranma back if she dumps water on him while sleeping and otherwise simply takes advantage of him having gotten changed by some other fashion, but none of those instances have been related to the chapter. None of the chapters have needed to show him taking his morning spar with Genma or at school (not to mention that Ranma has no code against hurting guys who try and mess with him and so his fellow students, while content to ogle when he does get wet, learned pretty damn quick that changing him on purpose is the easiest way to get hurt), he hasn't been around Akane enough to fight with her (part of the main plot is that he's trying to distance himself from her)...

Like I keep saying, it's not that he's not changing at all, he is, all of the time, it's annoying to him, but it's happening in unneccesary background details and other times he's not on screen. When helps the story, I gladly throw it in. When it does nothing for the story, or detracts from it, I don't include it. In a chapter where he's actually trying to get the courage to actually kiss a girl of his own free will, having him spontaneously get changed just before it happens can only be done once or twice before it just gets stupid.
Water, water, everywhere, and all was cursed and black!
Drowned ones cast bad spell and out come pig, girl, duck, panda!
Swirl, swirl, slithery pond, and join with magic spring!
Swirl, swirl, dirty pond, and rid the cursed sting!
Here my prayer, I beg you please!
Now turn these curses BACK!

http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-boys-names.shtml
http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-girls-names.shtml
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby frice2000 » Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:48 pm

I'm not referring to Chasing the Rainbow entirely when I make that statement there are lots of other fics guilty of this as well some mostly good some bad. I enjoy that story though i wish the end match up had been slightly clearer from like chapter 5 or so at least to the author. I do think that fic disregards the curse though. It's fine if you don't want to do an hour by hour minute by minute recap of him and any of the other cast having their curses activated. It's also fine that you don't particularly like the curse. But you're trying to tell me in that story all these machinations he's achieving it doesn't crop up to give him an additional hurdle? So he wants to kiss a girl or get to know one of his fiancées better fine fine. But when in that story has his curse cropped up to screw with one of these attempts? I can't think of one. I know you're not a fan of the curse and you want to cure it which I'll buy too but still he has it in that story. He should have to deal with it making his life harder and more annoying. Go on a date get splashed and solider on is very in character for that show. Trying to kiss a girl and having the curse get activated to make it awkward also in character with that show. True it would get old if that happened every single time he went to kiss/cuddle whatever with a girl (or it could be really a funny consistent plot point of how exactly he gets splashed even if he took tons of steps to avoid it) but it hasn't happened once yet much less become annoying that I can remember. Hell a lot of relationship progress and character development could be truly made if one of the girls accepted that side of him or simply pretended to. But no it's disregarded.

You know the real problem with disregarding the curse is because of exactly that which is what the story is about, relationships and character development. The main character in the story turns into a girl when splashed with cold water. This adds a huge problem in regards to his relationships with others. But is that explored at all? Nope almost totally disregarded. If one of the girls told him they didn't think it made him any less of a man unlike what Akane did to him on a regular basis that wouldn't lead to emotional growth and a change in their relationship? All of that could be easily explored in a story about relationships.

Also in that particular fics prologue I would think after viewing all of those futures with that brilliant mirror plot device it would've been in character for Ranma to wonder exactly what would've happened to him if he was stuck in female form or somehow ended up with Kunou as a morbid question. I mean that'd be a pretty scarring event for him I would think he'd be curious. And you know what thats not indulging in a -chan fic that would be a realistic character wondering if his life was totally screwed up what would've happened to him. Instead the author is uncomfortable with that subject matter so they don't explore it. And while I don't have too much of an issue with that as I doubt an author could write something compellingly that they don't like it is a missed opportunity in a lot of ways. The problem is that the barest mention of the curses at all makes the story not Ranma 1/2 but something else. A ten word mention is nice but if you can't fit it into your plot then why are you writing a fic in this genre? That is a big annoying 20 ton gorilla part of his life like it or not. You want to cure it sure, not focus on it sure, but you're ignoring it or paying the barest lip service to it's existence and that is just as much not cannon as Ranma waking up one morning and for no reason deciding to wear a pretty dress and make-up at least to me and I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in reading that story.

For all that I'm still a fan of that particular story but it definitely has lots of elements that bug me.

Edit: After re-reading this post I mace I just want to clarify something. I like your stories and the plot devices you've created. You've changed how I've seen Shampoo as a character and you've surprised me with some really unique plot ideas. I hope you don't take the above too harshly I like your work. Parts of it annoy me a lot yes, but that's true of even my favorite books/movies/etc. so don't take it too personally. I just think that some of your prejudices in regards to the characters you're dealing with get into your stories a little too often. If you did something slightly more unexpected you'd become much more sophisticated as an author and reach a lot higher in terms of story quality.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby SpaceKnight of Chaos » Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:32 pm

When you phrase it like that, then you have a point. I will admit that I haven't been taking it as fully into account as it should be for even this sort of story. While I stand by it not being as important in something like this as it would in the actual canon of Ranma 1/2, where it made an excellent hook for plots, random comedy and ensuring the status quo remained as was, you are correct in that it would and should be more of an issue. I will repeat that most of the chapters that have been written have been written in ways where the curse didn't really contribute anything, but I will also admit that those chapters weren't written quite as well as they might have been, which is why the curse was so unimportant- we haven't actually seen more than one real date, for one thing.

I have to ask though; would one of the girls accepting, or at least pretending to accept, Ranma's curse actually help them as much as you think they would? Ranma himself doesn't accept his curse - now, I know that he willingly wears dresses and acts flirtatious to mess with people's heads, but that's really just an extension of that "there's no such thing as cheating or a cheap shot" philosophy he seems to have. From the start of the series to the finish, only his inherent nobility and desire to protect Akane from harm (not to mention a buttload of bad luck) have kept him from achieving a cure. Even in the final arc, where he had all the proof he should have needed that Akane, the girl he loved, loved him back and wanted to marry him, he thoughtlessly ran off to grab the cure that, for all he knew, would have been his anyway the moment that he put that ring on Akane's finger. That does not bespeak of acceptance.

Come to think of it, don't they technically already accept and prove their acceptance for his curse? Shampoo makes it quite clear that she doesn't care what form Ranma is in, and will glomp and try to kiss him whether he's male or female. Ukyo took the relevation of his curse calmly and without the slightest fuss, and treats him the same no matter how he looks. Hell, the ending of chapter 11 was Kodachi being willing to tell Ranma that she wanted to try and see if a relationship would work even though he was in female form at the time - and then she kissed "Ranma-chan" for added emphasis.

You say that it would be in character for a person with a similar situation to Ranma's to try and look at a "what if I was stuck as a girl permanently/married a guy" timeline. That may be so... but would it really be in character for Ranma? Even beyond Ranma's canonical disdain for Kuno, fear of the idea of becoming a girl full-time, and tendency to try and ignore his curse until it's staring him in the face, Ranma is a very... what's the right word? I think "light hearted" is what I'm looking for. Unlike Ryoga, who broods and mopes (not that he doesn't have legitimate cause to do so), Ranma ignores or otherwise pushes aside his worries and looks for the bright side of things. This upbeat, cheerful, focus on the good and live in the moment attitude is why he's so hopeless with the Shishi Hokodan - even though there's so much wrong in his life, like constantly getting groped by Happosai or the fact he may have to kill himself, knowing that he disappointed his mother so badly she wanted to die to be rid of the shame, if his curse is revealed to his mother, he just can't seem to focus on those and thusly generate the misery he needs. Ranma's canon character is that not only would such a thought be unlikely to cross his mind, due to the combination of his attitude being... whatever the opposite of morbid is, and his ingrained habit of ignoring the bad in his life until and unless it's right there at him, it's a canonical fact he would not act on such a thought but push it aside in disgust. See the Chardin story, the final duel: Ranma admits to himself the barest bones of what the consequences for losing might be, then firmly pushes it aside and refuses to think about it, other than a mental declaration that he's better off dead if it comes to that.

If it took actually having the possibility staring him in the face to admit that it existed and he still refused to think about it, then I just can't see why he would be at all the slightest curious about such a possibility on his own. To actually wonder "hey, I want to see what it'd be like if I really was a girl" would be about as in character for Ranma as... well, Kasumi suddenly wondering what the taste of roast baby would be like. In fact, becoming a girl permanently would be a form of losing to Ranma, and he never thinks about the possibility of losing - even when he gets beaten, he never admits his loss but merely considers it a temporary respite while he figures out a new plan of attack. Look at when Happosai hit him with the UWM and then beat him from one end of Furinkan to the other; Ranma still refused to admit he was outclassed and remained fixated on the victory he was certain he would eke out.

That was the real reason I refused to consider a Ranma-chan/Guy matchup for Another Rainy Day; not only did I know that my disdain for such materials would produce something of non-existent quality, I simply could not see a believable way to make Ranma, in character, suddenly wonder at the possibility and thusly excuse actually showing such a oneshot. It would have just come out of nowhere, and ultimately hurt it more than the absence ever could. Just because iy could be done, does not mean it should be done.
Water, water, everywhere, and all was cursed and black!
Drowned ones cast bad spell and out come pig, girl, duck, panda!
Swirl, swirl, slithery pond, and join with magic spring!
Swirl, swirl, dirty pond, and rid the cursed sting!
Here my prayer, I beg you please!
Now turn these curses BACK!

http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-boys-names.shtml
http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-girls-names.shtml
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby frice2000 » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:02 am

You have good points. However if you suddenly got that mirror yourself I could imagine you using it to determine the best outcomes for a whole bunch of events. You'd eventually get to a point though regardless of who you are and how happy go lucky your personality is where you would wonder what would have happened if I did something totally against the grain of my values (one of those possibly being the curse). For some this would be a small fantasy of what if they had killed an annoyance, destroyed someone emotionally when they had a chance, etc. We all have a dark part of our personalities. For Ranma this could come from him wondering hey what if I had killed Shampoo when she was legitimately trying to kill me? What if I had refused to travel with Genma anymore after one of his more boneheaded mistakes? What if I had accidently killed someone in the Neko-Ken? And another one of his fears as you've stated is in fact what if I accepted my cursed form or was stuck in it and forced to marry? Wondering any of those things doesn't change who he is. It's a simple dark fantasy that he'd wonder about. I don't think anyone no matter how 'light' their personality wouldn't eventually use a magical item like that for that very purpose. They wouldn't have wanted any of those outcomes true but they would have wondered how exactly they could have happened. I'll give you that I like Ranna-chan fics i like it when he accepts that part of himself especially when it's done dramatically. But how often do we have a male Ranma who is sickened/horrified by being forced into that role. Often he accepts it or accepts it eventually it would've been fascinating for you to do one chapter with him seeing one of his greatest fears. You don't like the curse and a Ranma/male form pairing. That's fine I can see where you're coming from. But that's the whole point you could write something that would be very very creepy and dark and be very in character. It'd be a unique perspective one you don't see often. I just lament that lost chance to do anything really dark with the mirror since it was such a missed opportunity. If for a chapter of that fic you just dedicated it to some of his dark fantasies it would've been really intriguing.

I don't really think either of the girls have accepted his cursed form. Shampoo will cuddle with his cursed form and Ukyou will also treat him similarly but they all provide kettles for him asked or not. If one of them when giving him a kettle told him something like 'you don't have to do that you know I don't mind being around you like that', that's accepting that form. Or if when they went on a date and he was accidentally splashed they just held his now her hand and completed the date and told him he didn't have to go change right away for their benefit that's accepting the change. What they do now is close and true it is far better then Akane's reaction and cannon material doesn't make it exactly clear how far their acceptance goes but I think it would go a long way in one of their relationships for them to do one of the above or something different. I could see Ranma at first reacting badly to that but after thinking about it for some time feeling that they must actually like him for who he is then rather then what he is and looks like.

Let's have a little thought experiment. Say large segments of the Ranma 1/2 world were real and you had a girlfriend who became a man when splashed with cold water. This is creepy and I don't think it'd be easy to wrap your head around. At first I think you'd be amazed that this kind of magic exists since it's your first exposure to it. Over time you get past your initial reaction. Now let's say you really still love this girl. Random accidents occur on occasion and she is often a man. Now you probably aren't sexually attracted to this man but I don't think if you love her you just stare at her when she changes and tell her to go off and change back immediately. I have no doubt that you'd have to get over a lot of homo-phobia and around societies reactions but if you truly loved the girl I think you would for her benefit.

This is by no means an easy thing to do and I don't really think any of the girls in the cast could do this but for Shampoo since she grew up and lives in an area where this sort of magic is common and where a close relationship like that with a person who changes like that wouldn't raise that many eyebrows as a small village would know both of his forms. Someone doing that for Ranma is a really big event. It's also a really big decision and shows a lot of commitment by the girl who manages to get over their own societal values especially if they are Japanese as any sort of deviant behavior like that would probably not reflect well on them.
Last edited by frice2000 on Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:27 am

I received a large turnoff a few days ago, in a Ranma fanfic which shall remain nameless. Akane had just done some excellent martial arts moves, and Ranma was proud of her, so he began insulting and belittling her. I can take some foot-in-mouth disease, but this time the foot had stiletto-heeled combat boots. The relationship between Ranma and Akane may be dysfunctional, but I'm not hanging around when it gets just-plain-nasty.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby Spokavriel » Wed Apr 28, 2010 11:38 am

That's almost as bad as one I read a few months ago that had Ranma on the roof thinking about how much he cares about Akane then Kasumi calls him down and they share a glare. Instantly he's mentally ranting on to himself in his mind about what a hateful spiteful bitch she is. I had to double check by reading the previous chapter to make sure I was still reading the same story.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby three headed dog » Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:47 pm

frice2000 wrote: Third Nabiki requires photos of Ranma to sell so she would I'm sure arrange for him to end up in his cursed form if enough time passed. Fourth the most common method that we've witnessed in regards to awakening Ranma is Akane hitting him with water or his father tossing him out of the window on occasion.


I'd like to point out that Nabiki splashing Ranma when he is asleep only occurs in the anime it never happens in the manga. I'd also like to point out that Ranma being thrown out the window and being awoken by Akane splashing him are not common occurrences in the manga. Akane only did that very infrequently in that I can only remember her doing so once (If Akane did that frequently Ranma would start to hate Akane and he would go for revenge based on other peoples actions that caused him to seek revenge) and the room Ranma sleeps in does not have the koi pond outside of it in the manga as evidenced by the arcs when we see outside of his room such as the time his dad knocked him out the window when Ryoga showed up or when Konatsu moved him out of his bed. In the manga it is shown on at least three occasions that his alarm clock wakes him up.

Space Knight of Chaos wrote:Even in the final arc, where he had all the proof he should have needed that Akane, the girl he loved, loved him back and wanted to marry him

That is a comment I see too often and always argue. First off Ranma is not sure he loves Akane, it is my opinion that while he does have a strong attraction to her he doesn't have enough experience with it or understanding of it to know what love is. Second he is a teenager and I view the love for her to be of the Puppy Love variety mainly because I believe that true love requires other things such as trust and neither Ranma or Akane trust each other and both have good reasons not to (for example her using his fear of cats against him or tricking his mom to taking him bra shopping and the fact that he is a pretty damn manipulative person, who has even manipulated Akane sometimes just for the fun of it like during the dojo destroyer arc of the manga, that gets into extremely compromising situations a lot, and is secretive a thing Akane has actively complained about). Thirdly, Ranma is not ready for marriage and he knows he is not ready for marriage in late manga volumes such as 37 (35 VIZ) he even argues that they need more time. Fourthly, he doesn't have any proof that Akane loves him back. There are a lot of reasons why she might be willing to marry him at that time besides love (if she had stated because I love you when he asked her why they probably would have gotten married instead of saying what she did which was because you love me) such as gratitude for saving her life, because she thinks that he loves her and is willing to sacrifice her happiness for his (like Ranma was shown to be willing to do during the time he thought Akane was turned to a duck), because the families want it (this is Japan that is an extremely common reason and was the most common reason for most of Japans history), etc.

Something that bothered me that I noticed recently in fan fiction is the characters calling each other by names or nicknames they didn't in the source material for no given reason for example from Star Gate fan fiction (lately I've been browsing that fandom and strangely a He-man fic though I'm not sure how I found it) Teal'c calling Daniel Jackson, Dan.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby SpaceKnight of Chaos » Wed Apr 28, 2010 1:01 pm

frice2000 wrote:You have good points. However if you suddenly got that mirror yourself I could imagine you using it to determine the best outcomes for a whole bunch of events. You'd eventually get to a point though regardless of who you are and how happy go lucky your personality is where you would wonder what would have happened if I did something totally against the grain of my values (one of those possibly being the curse).


Even if he did wonder such a thing, given who Ranma is, he would not be able to bear watching it long enough to make a chapter. Morbid curiosity might prompt him to ask if there are any timelines where something that happened that caused him to get married to a guy, but Ranma's fear and disgust for such an idea means that he would inevitably break off watching such a chapter just when things are getting "good": if he can't bear to watch it, the Eye would stop showing it to him. What's the point in starting up a chapter where making it at all believable means it's going to be cut off before going anywhere? When confronted by something that horrifies him or he just plain does not want to think about, Ranma is Genma's son: he runs away. If only metaphorically.

Even beyond that fact, there's one major problem with trying to do such a chapter. The whole point of ARD was that it was looking at how things might have flown with a minor change in actions - if Akane hadn't put tape on Ranma's lips to kiss him during Romeo & Jueliet, if Ranma had kissed Shampoo back, if Ranma had lost the MARG match to Kodachi, etc. There just aren't any such "choices" that could have gotten Ranma into a relationship with a guy. Well, alright, there are three, and none of them particularly work well.

Kuno using Manganmaru: Kuno possibly could have wished for Manganmaru to make "the pigtailed girl" fall in love with him. However, Kuno is delusional and fanatically convinced that Ranma-chan is in love with him already, which is fuelled by the fact that Ranma already does act nice and flirtatious to him to play with his mind. So the chances of him thinking of such a wish, nevermind actually using it, are astronomically low - remember, this is the man who initially couldn't think of any wishes at all because he was convinced he already had everything he could possibly want. If anything, he's more likely to wish Akane would act more like the pigtailed girl. Hmm... wonder if that would have given Akane a power boost?

Ranma lost the final duel to Picolette: This one could have happened, but while it would have been dark, I don't think it would have been dark in the way you'd have liked. At this point in time, Ranma is particularly closeminded, and not only that doesn't like Picolet on general principal. Fundamentally, Ranma is Genma's son: he will drop his honor and run the moment that things get too uncomfortable. I can't see Picolet taking it very well when Ranma uses the fact he's finally been allowed out of the iron corset to reveal he's actually a man - that snooty blueblood would divorce Ranma (and maybe break off the engagement with the Tendos out of disgust/fear that they might all be similarly cursed boys as well) the instant it happened. Hell, Ranma actually planned on doing that at one point until he found he couldn't physically stand changing back into male form while wearing that ridiculous contrapation. And if Picolet gets too grabby, say trying to force Ranma to give him is conjugal rights, Ranma is not going to play nice. He's going to pull an Akane and lash out with all his strength at Picolet - Ranma may be more honorable than Genma, but he is not a stoic and he won't allow any man to touch him like that, no matter what the circumstances are. If this doesn't kill Picolet outright, the fact he gets sent through a wall every time it happens will give Ranma physical distance enough to either reveal his secret, or persuade Picolet to agree to a rematch with their "marriage" staken on it, as she can "explain" that she's convinced Picolet cheated by taking advantage of her starvation-induced weakness and he'll have to beat her in a fair battle where both of them are at full strength to make her win. This time, of course, Ranma would win, given his knack for pulling off victories on the second try and the fact he wouldn't be fainting from hunger this time.

Ranma didn't get cured after hitting his head: While this could very well have happened, I'm not so certain Ranma is even aware that it did happen; he doesn't seem to remember anything about what he did after taking that blow. More to the point, the concussion-induced persona is such a flat, stereotypical character that having her get together with anyone would have just come out of nowhere. And that's even assuming that Tofu or Cologne wouldn't interfere and fix his head the moment they hear about this mess.


Three Headed Dog:
Actually, Nabiki has only done the "splash Ranma while he's sleeping" once, and probably doesn't bother again seeing as how Ranma's bad luck gets him female and unconscious fairly often. Akane has also only woken Ranma by splashing him once in either canon that I'm aware of: because she was mad at Ranma when she found Shampoo sleeping in his bed. And I don't think Ranma has been awoken by getting tossed into the koi pond on any occasion, in either canon. Ranma gets thrown out the window into the garden pretty much when Genma wants to sleep and something is happening in the room that makes things too noisy. For example, Ryoga trying to kill Ranma in his sleep.

And yeah, I forgot about those facts; I got too impatient trying to make my point.
Water, water, everywhere, and all was cursed and black!
Drowned ones cast bad spell and out come pig, girl, duck, panda!
Swirl, swirl, slithery pond, and join with magic spring!
Swirl, swirl, dirty pond, and rid the cursed sting!
Here my prayer, I beg you please!
Now turn these curses BACK!

http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-boys-names.shtml
http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-girls-names.shtml
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby Wyrd » Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:30 pm

I really do not like fics in which EVERY girl in the story falls for him (or "the hero", if we are talking about fics in general) within seconds after seeing him for the first time.


I've seen one of these that was passable, for as long as it lasted. Then again, it never actually became a lemon, thanks to heroic efforts on Ranma's part, who had gotten a curse which made him literally irresistible to women when splashed with cold water. There was a lot of use of the Saotome Ultimate Secret Technique while he looked for hot water in that one.

- fics which change the basic elements which define the series


I have to qualify this as 'too many of the basic elements.' Otherwise I agree with most of your points. You can change just the curse, or get rid of the curse, and see what happens. You can change who raised him. You can switch genders between the fiancees, so Ranma is a girl turning into a boy and all of the Tendo children are boys. Any of these can make for a good fic. Just please don't use all of them at once. When the only resemblance to the original story is the names of a couple of characters, just change those names and make it a completely original fic. I've put Genma in jail so that the initial meeting and first few months would go differently, before Genma had a chance to get there and screw everything up. Genma's stupidity/impulsiveness is a basic element of the series, but as long as it is one of the few changed elements and the story is recognizable, it can be good.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby TerraEpon » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:49 pm

jbm wrote:I do enjoy lime and even the occasional lemon, there is nothing wrong with the couple ending up in bed after defeating all the bad guys. But, please, no superhuman lemon action with fluids gushing out of every opening by the gallons.



To be fair, this is hardly limited to fanfiction. It's a problem with erotic stories in general.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:08 pm

TerraEpon wrote:To be fair, this is hardly limited to fanfiction. It's a problem with erotic stories in general.

If it has gushing fluids, I don't count it as erotica.
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby Wyrd » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:51 pm

Well, it helps if they can avoid landing on the You Fail Sex Ed Forever tropes page. You can get poetic in describing something without getting disgusting or making people go, "Whuh?"
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Re: Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

Postby Spokavriel » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:16 pm

It makes me remember a scene in a Simpson's episode based on The Shining where Burns comments on the Blood usually getting off the elevator on another floor.
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