How would you fix Ranma's life

[Daniel Jess Gibson]

Going along with that line of thinking, the solution would be to make the girls see where their immediate goals might lead, what life would really be like. What would their reaction to that information be, and what would they do with it?

The next probelm would get them to believe you weren't trying to steal Ranma from them, then actually have them believe what you were showing them. This isn't about their happiness, it's about their honor. A miserable marriage where they gain great honor would actually be a plus for most of them.
You'd have to show them they would be further dishonored to dissuade them. Strangely, pointing out that Ranma is technically Happosai's disciplie and heir hasn't managed to do it.

[pspinler]

Let me ask more specifically, if I may. I'm really trying to come up with some interesting changes to write up for the next chapters of one of my stories.
When I started this story a few years ago, I was into reading the "character(s) travel back in time and fix things" genre, and I wanted to mess with the idea. However, instead of having a more mature character go back and fix things, I wanted to write the idea of a less mature, selfish, or cruel, or even worse character go back, and instead, make things worse.
So, I introduced this story by making the end of manga wedding have the near worst possible outcome in terms of fatalities. Later, I gave Ranma and Nabiki, two of the survivors, along with Cologne, a dues-ex granted opportunity to go back to the beginning of the anime/manga. They tried to fix stuff, but so far have only ended up making things worse.
Now, they've just realized that the nanban mirror still exists, and plan to obtain it, effectively granting them a third chance. Actually effectively granting them a full dues-ex device.
I'd like to make this time around come out happier for the Tendos and Saotome's both. Some mishaps are allowable, so long as the general trend is positive. Romantic matchups are open -- in this story, Ranma and Nabiki are largely partners of convenience, and setting themselves up with someone else is okay.
Given this framework, what I'd really like is some interesting or unique approaches to untangling the knot of the Ranma storyline. There's freedom to pretty much alter *anything* that's humanly alterable. Time travel *is* a huge dues-ex. Change amazon culture? No problem. Make Happi sympathetic? Okay. Influence Genma or Soun into a completely different type of person? Doable. etc. etc. Anything that doesn't prevent Ranma or Nabiki from being born, and that still leaves Ranma at or near his canon level of skill is fair game.
I don't really plan to concentrate many chapters on this stage. Normal characters with happy lives are fun to live, but boring to read. However, I'd like something(s) unique and interesting to put here, to keep the interest level up.
Anyway, sorry for the long ramble, and thanks for all the ideas posted so far.
-- Pat

[bissek]

Another issue of Ranma's is the whole educational issue. Ranma has pretty much been raised to regard anything that doesn't relate to the Art as irrelevent. This is a sizable part of why he sleeps through a lot of classes.
This can be resolved in two ways. The first way makes for a somewhat more interesting story, but would be sort of implausible. Basically, you'd have to rework the educational system to explain the course material in a context that Ranma would find relevent. For example, presenting history lessons as examples of tactical principles (Agincourt: The English archers killed the French horses - derived rule 1 - if the enemy is faster than you, find a way to slow him down. The French all charged to one point in the English line, mainly succeeding in getting in each other's way - derived rule 2 - when outnumbered in a fight, try to arrange things so that you only have to deal with a small number of those opponents at any time. The soft shoes of the English infantry could walk on the thick mud, while the metal boots of the French knights sank into the mud and got stuck, immobilizing them - derived rule 3 - plan your strategy and equipment to take advantage of the battlefield). If Ranma thinks the lessons are important, he'll pay attention. The only problem is that this solution pretty much requires a tutor who understands Ranma's mindset well enough to prepare the revised lessons.
The second notion is simpler, seems kludgy, but would probably work anyway. Ranma is hardwired to NEVER back down from a challenge, and will do anything in order to meet that challenge successfully. If a teacher figured that out and challenged Ranma to make the honor roll, Ranma would view the classes as an important part of a challenge rather than something his dad makes him put up with for some reason. That would probably make Ranma's grades go up considerably. From that point, the teacher should make other challenges of a non-physical nature to Ranma. If he can get Ranma to use the focus he normally uses in his battles on his everyday life, Ranma would be able to make some progress with his problems.
And on the long-term planning issue, just getting the fiancees to think of planning for the marriage instead of just planning for the wedding would probably cause some changes, even if they don't decide to drop their claim.

[crystlshake]

Building on bissek's comments about education. It could be argued that an additional part of the problem is that there are at least a handful of presented cases where Ranma'a sleep is interupted at night for one reason or anouther. Fixing that problem could create a bit of an impass with Ranma if despite his habit of sleeping in class he finds himself too rested to do so.
Perhaps something along the lines of some midnight encounter trashes the kitchen, or Kasumi or Nabiki's bedrooms. Have one of those two give an ultimateum to everyone that the tendo house is offlimits for conflict at night. Lack of breakfast, a few Akane breakfasts or preasure from Nabiki should keep the majority in line. Plus it has the added benifit of having the better sleep for everyone as a secondary effect with the detrimental reduction of the urge to sleep in class as a tertiary. Kasumi on the warpath for the destruction of her kitchen would also be cool.

[Black Rose]

Here's one I've never seen. Soun dies, instead of Kimiko (or whatever Soun's wife's name is). Give her the velvet touch with the spine of steel. (Kasumi and Nabiki had to get it from somewhere).
That gives Akane the female example and the moral support. Make her a good enough martial artist that when Tatewaki starts giving Akane trouble, mommy demonstrates some advanced techniques. With the promise of more. Kuno crawls away whimpering.

I've seen this sort of thing (heavy on the sort of), and while it wasn't exactly bad, per se, it really felt like a retelling of the first manga volume. I say first, because most of the time they never got past that point, or I simply couldn't keep reading them.

My personal opinion is that momma would assign Kasumi (the heir as the eldest) to make Ranma presentable, and puts the question of who marries him off for another day.

I absolutely LOVE this idea! Instead of that "we'll give it a year, and then see which one of the sisters the author has the hots for" schtick, have Kasumi work with him, originally just for a week or so, but then after the true realization of how messed-up Ranma really is, she takes it as a personal challenge to make him the very best "gentleman" she can.

[Pale Wolf]

Either solution Bissek proposed isn't exactly hard to achieve.
Time travel. Teacher who understands Ranma. I'm sure you can fill in the last slot yourself

[FOG3]

Ah so it's to be the Bet all over again?

[Fatherz]

Time travel. Teacher who understands Ranma. I'm sure you can fill in the last slot yourself.

GTO or Gokusen, then ? Though, Time Travel is kinda too 'Deux Ex', and you'll have to deal with all those paradoxes too. *shrug* Meep...
But it's still probably better than my solution: Cross Ranma with the H2G2 Movie and have a 'Point-of-View Gun' circulate around Nerima. That would remove a lot of misunderstandings, though I doubt if it would work on some people (like Genma, or Kuno... They're too stubborn, methinks...)

Ah so it's to be the Bet all over again?

Though the Bet concept is interesting, no more please...

[FOG3]

That wouldn't work. In true HHGttG fashion the gun would result in more and bloodier conflicts.

[claymade]

Problem: this is another variation of the "someone else goes with ranma on the trip" overused storyline.

It's very tempting to mess with the trip if fixing Ranma's life is your goal, since that's where so much of the problems find their root, and the longer you let the problems build momentum, the more drastic and unrecognizeable the changes will tend to need to be later on to counteract. (And really, IMHO, half the fun of speculating on these kinds of scenarios is trying to do it with the smallest initial change, and with the least radical change to the characters themselves...)

That said, my personal favorite life-fixing change wouldn't quite involve someone going with them on the trip. All that's really necessary is for someone (who was already following them anyway) to show up at one crucial juncture. Specifically, I'd have Ryouga manage to catch up with the Saotomes just before they arrive at Jusenkyo, instead of just after.

Thus, Ranma and Ryouga get their fight while Ryouga's still in "finish our bread feud" mode instead of "vengance for my curse" mode. Ranma wins after the usual long and grueling battle. As an olive branch (since he doesn't have any bread on hand this time around) he offers to lead Ryouga back to Japan with them. Ryouga grudgingly accepts.

Ranma and Ryouga are both half-dead from their fight (as is usual for them), so nobody starts sparring immediately upon reaching Jusenkyo. Thus, the guide actually manages to tell them about the curses, and they leave post-haste, uncursed.

When they arrive at the Amazon village, it's as a trio, and with two members who are willing to fight. A game of rock, paper, scissors puts Ryouga on the log, thus neatly taking that bullet for Ranma. (Not that Ryouga minds, as the most affection-starved character in the story is safely paired away with the most affectionate.) Mousse is also now Ryouga's problem.

Ryouga wants to introduce Shampoo to his parents, so they head back to Japan for a meeting of the families. Shampoo's great grandmother comes along well, both to meet her grandaughter's new family and because she's intrigued by the two boys' potential and wants to oversee them personally.

The dominoes start falling quickly after that. No curse means Ranma and Akane don't get their usual (cataclysmically bad) first impression of each other, making that road a little bit less rocky. No P-chan means no fights over him, and it also means no Kodachi-as-fiancee, since Ranma never clonks her on the head chasing P-chan and thus never saves her. No curse also means the seppuku pledge isn't a worry, and Ranma can meet his mother without fear.

Meanwhile, as Shampoo's unresisting groom, Ryouga is getting training from Cologne directly and often, causing him to rocket up in skill far faster than he would otherwise have done. Of course, Ranma isn't going to take this lying down, and trains furiously under Cologne and/or Happousai to keep ahead of his rival. Thus, despite having a much less emotionally taxing life, he can still progress even faster than in canon.

The main entanglement that this doesn't avoid is Ukyo. She and Akane, however, are the two saner of the fiancees, and without Shampoo to escalate things (and without Ryouga as her partner-in-crime) what were once the "fiancee wars" would probably become something a lot more civil. He'd still have to make a choice between the two... but hey, we don't want to cut out all opportunities for him to learn to show a little backbone...

Anyway, just looking at it as an excercise in pure "fixing things with the smallest possible change" that's my favorite solution. I don't know if it's really what you're looking for, though. In fact, I suspect not, since although I think most of the benefits flow logically one from another, some of them aren't the kind of "sure things" that actual time travellers trying to fix things could really depend on. (But then, I suppose technically they could just start with that as one step in a larger plan, and be pleasantly surprised at it actually solving darn near everything...)

In any case, that's my rambling $0.02. Hope it was at least mildly interesting.




[EDIT: Found this again in response to another thread, and decided to fix the line break issues brought on by the old server crash while I was here.]

[pspinler]

thanks claymade! That was most helpful, actually. I think I was able to gel together a number of other ideas, as well as yours, from what you wrote.
Thanks again, and merry x-mas!
-- Pat

[Pale Wolf]

GTO or Gokusen, then ?

Not sure I understand the reference.

[Fatherz]

Not sure I understand the reference.

Un... You did say a "teacher who understands Ranma". Unfortunately, I only know two anime teachers though that might apply here, GTO=Great Teacher Onizuka (though he's definitely not on Ranma's level), and Gokusen is about a female teacher who's actually a Yakuza boss, if memory serves me right. Oh well, doesn't matter much...
Ah! Perhaps you were refering to some other teacher (title escapes me at the moment... something about Strawberry Eggs?) ? My bad...

In any case, that's my rambling $0.02. Hope it was at least mildly interesting.

Mildly interesting? That stoyline actually flowed rather well, with very little influence from 'outside interference'. Plausible cause and effect as well. That ideas' definitely a keeper.

[stratagemini]

Here's a simple way to fix Ranma's life. Move him out of Japan and/or away from Genma.
Have him kidnapped by/sold off by Genma to the Triad or something. Organized crime has to be better than Genma. Maybe he manages to escape captivity in a different country, like the U.S. if we do this during the china Trip then you still have Ryouga and possibly Shampoo (Curse intact for Ranma) but no Genma. At that point in his life Genma doesn't actually have all that much more to teach Ranma, and most of the Fiancee's are hunting for Genma Saotome (having either a vague or no description of Ranma himself).
Of course, if you actually manage to fix Ranma's life you just need to screw it up again. A Happy Ranma doesn't make a good story.

[Pale Wolf]

Un... You did say a "teacher who understands Ranma". Unfortunately, I only know two anime teachers though that might apply here

Cross-reference it with the statement about time travel