Update: January 25, 2001: added revised part 1, added new parts 2-5, arc completed.
I believe in heroes.
I believe that heroes are characters who overcome difficulties correctly. And I believe that any character can be heroic if properly handled.
There are, of course, many kinds of heroism, and many variations even within kinds. Pick just about any character in Ranma 1/2 and you'll find half a dozen or more plausible major problems, no? But *can* so-and-so be heroic is not, to me, a particularly interesting question. The interesting question is: *how*?
It has become a convention of many fanfics that the story should be constructed around the "significant event" and work forward. It has also become a convention that one rival will be given heroism, and the other(s) denied it, or indeed reduced to villiany. But I'm feeling ornery today, so I'm going to ignore both those conventions, and sneer at them as they go by.
Herewith, a few stories about Ranma being married. It's easy to _get_ married, you see, but _staying_ married is a bit more tricky.
All of these assume the manga's full run as canon and begin several years after it. All of them assume that something happened to overturn the status quo and get Ranma married in true heroic fashion at last. All of them assume that the marriage is more or less a happy one. All of them assume that it will stay that way after the story, other factors being overcome.
Other than that, they aren't linked at all. I call them:
I happen, just in passing, to like Kodachi. And I don't share the normal view that she's crazy. She's certainly unbalanced, but she's hardly the only character in Ranma Nibbunnoichi of whom that may be said.
However, she does have a problem. And unlike, say, Akane or Ukyou, it's a very simple one. What is it, you ask? This:
She's a spoiled brat.
Now, a brat can continue to spoil for the rest of its life, or it can dust itself off, and decide to grow up. Which it does depends on its environment, the needs of the moment, and one other thing:
It has to decide to expend the effort of will required.
If the brat was spoiled enough, that might be a heroic effort indeed.
But anyone can be a hero, if only they choose to be so.
(2 Years after the manga.)
Ranma + Kodachi
Yet If You Have No Mountain
(32
Kb)
01/25/01
But, as mentioned, all of the girls have something in their makeup that makes them unsuitable, or at least brings difficulty. After all, it wouldn't be much of a story if the right choice was really obvious.
Shampoo, for instance. She has a couple of problems, but they really all boil down to one major one, and, unfortunately, it's a doozy. She is, you see, a gaijin. And she even keeps the accent, just to make sure you get the point.
As an aside, does anyone know why Viz translates Shampoo's speech patterns as "Cute Bimbo" instead of "Sterotypical Chinese"? Just wondering.
Being a gaijin is, shall we say, a major problem in Japan. From a certain viewpoint, it's a real problem anywhere. So much of what we are is interpreted by patterns that our cultural background informs, after all. But Ranma doesn't really understand Shampoo's cultural background, and she doesn't really understand his. And if they did understand, there'd be a lot there they wouldn't like.
If one tried to live in the other's culture, they'd end up fairly miserable. If only one of them changed to fit in, they'd end up fairly miserable. Both of them would have to change, and both would have to change things that are fairly central to their self-images, to their understanding of who they are, and how the world is supposed to work.
Needless, to say, this is fairly unlikely.
And, looked at in one way, this would seem to be enough to sink the match.
Looked at in another, this would seem to be more on the order of a
challenge ...
... and a challenge, of course, is what a hero
is for....
(4 years after the manga)
(Ranma + Shampoo)
Thicker Than Water (And Much Tastier)
15 k
01/25/01
Ukyou gets a lot of bad press, and from both sides. When you think about it, the plaster saint that some of her less discerning admirers profess to believe in is not much more desireable than the grasping demon shrew that seems to be one of the commoner negative characterizations. (Of all of the girls, really.)
Which is not to say that she doesn't have her problems, of course. But then, if she didn't have something wrong with her, she'd be Kasumi, and Ranma would really be out of reach.
In fact, she has two problems. One relates to her getting married to Ranma, and one to her getting married to anybody. Taking them in order:
First, she's a guy. Socially, I mean. She's legally a man, she dresses in drag, she has a male economic role, she acts male most of the time. Yes, this is a big problem. Particularily when you're trying to marry Ranma, who has problems with anything that might make him look 'unmanly'. (And especially when their relative economic statuses indicate that Ukyou would probably be seen as the dominant role. Ranma is many things, but submissive is not among them.) Big problem. Bigger problem in a culture which frequently regards the surface mask as more important than what's underneath.
Second, and complicating the first, Ukyou is not a person with a terribly strong central identity. In fact, of all Ranma's fiancees, Ukyou is the most conflicted. Observe how fast she changes from 'avenger' to 'fiancee' when Ranma mentions that she's cute. Observe how often she acts according to 'what a cute fiancee would do', or similar. Often, she seems to be taking off and putting on masks. (A not-uncommon theme in Japanese culture, by the way.) Letting a person who tends to let other people tell her who she is get married to someone who is nearly always certain about who he and everyone else around him are might be, shall we say, fairly perilous.
Fortunately, both problems can be fixed at one stroke. All she has to do is decide. Decide on one identity. Decide on a long term goal. Choose one of all the things she could be, and be that thing.
Tough thing to do. Better have a good idea of what you want. Speaking of which; what does she want?
Of course, this story is one in which she gets it right, and gets Ranma, too.
All a matter of ...
(8 years after the manga)
(Ranma + Ukyou)
Family Values
10 k 01/25/01
Well, you knew I had to put her in.
And it might seem to be a little silly. I mean, everybody knows that Ranma and Akane are gonna get married. Even if they don't like it, they still know.
But getting married is not the same thing as staying married.
So, what does Ranma have that Akane needs to keep? For that matter, what does Akane have that Ranma needs to keep?
It's not a rhetorical question.
If you map it out, Akane and Ranma have pretty much the same thing. Personality wise, skill wise, prospect wise, whatever. Oh the relative amounts each has may differ a little, but ...
They even share the same Martial Art.
So what is it that's so special about each of them to the other? And is it really important enough to them to pull them through?
What is Akane, to Ranma? What is Ranma, to Akane?
I think it's the same thing, for each of them.
And yes, I think it is that important.
(16 years after the manga)
(Ranma + Akane)
Someone To Fight For
6 k (Lime) 01/25/01
But when it all evens out, it's important to remember that Ranma Nibbunnoichi is a romantic comedy at its core. If only love be true enough, then it will find a way.
No matter how bad the matchup might look from the outside.
They're heros, after all, if you want them to be.
And for heros, in the Ranmaverse ...
(4 to 6 years after the manga)
(Not telling)
Amor Vincet Omnia
4 k
(Lime)
01/25/01
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Last revised 01/15/2001