OK, this is one half rant and one half question, and rather long winded, so please bare with me.
Commonly in fanfiction authors will change one or more of the characters in some major way. Now some times this can be a good thing, and produce some vary interesting stories - for example, what if Ranma was born a girl, or was a sadistic bastard - and retell the story from the beginning with the characters changed. Other times these changes can just seem ooc, like where Ranma is actually much smarter then was ever indicated in cannon and uses that intelligence to solve many, if not all, of his problems, or Ranma suddenly deciding he wants to embrace his feminine side (though I have read and enjoyed many fics like this, I could never see cannon Ranma EVER doing this.)
But there are others where I can not help but wonder what the point of the change is. Specifically there are many times when the author will make one character act like another character. The most obvious example I can think of is the Naruto fics where Naruto acts like Sasuke, I remember seeing one on FF.net where the summery said something along the lines of 'what if Naruto acted like Sasuke', I didn't read it. If you want to write a story about Sasuke, write a story about Sasuke, don't turn Naruto into Sasuke.
But this is all beside the point, the point I would like to discus is all the times Ranma has been made more civilized. This often happens when some other character shows the error of his ways, and instructs him how to act in society as a proper young lady/lad. The question I would ask is WHY? Why is it that we keep insisting on civilizing Ranma?
While I admit Ranma's unrefined manner is the cause of many of his problems. (If he just learnt to be a bit more polite maybe Akane wouldn't continue to clobber him) Is it not these same unrefined manners the make Ranma such an enduring character? He doesn't think a lot about what should or should not be said, or what others will think of him because of what he said, or how he said it. He always speaks his mind, and does what he wants. Are these not in there own way admirable traits? I know I have wished on more then one occasion that I was courageous enough or just ignorant enough to be able to act like that. This of course is not limited to Ranma but many other characters like him, Naruto or Goku for example.
At the end of the day everyone including the fans are willing to accuse Ranma of the 'sin' of being uncivilized. But perhaps we should remember that being uncivilized is not always a bad thing, and that maybe that this uncivilized characteristic is as important, if not more so, to the character as his history, the circumstances he is in, his curse, his pigtail, or the colour of his eyes. What I'm saying should by no means be taken as an attack on fics that do make Ranma more civilized, some of the best fics I have read end up making Ranma more civilized at some point.
What I am asking you is this: Is Ranma's uncivilized nature a character flaw that should be fixed for Ranma's own good, or a character trait that should be embraced as an essential part of who he/she is and presented not always as a negative but also as a positive characteristic that may also show us the flaws in us civilized people?