[Ranma 1/2] Can't Let Go

[Brian]

AKA: that one that traumatized Brian

Yeah.

This is a dark fic.  It's not the sinister well written darkness of a seasoned author with a vicious sense of subtlety.  It's not the overriding horror of someone who's filling the fic with bloodthirsty alien abominations.  It's not (really) the darkness of a character losing a battle against psychosis and then snapping.

It's the darkness of two authors who worship different matchups fighting over how their fic will work.  Which is dark because they want it to be dark.  Now, how to make that darkness happen?

Oh, yeah.  You know this is gonna be good.

I found this fic (curiously) through the Index once day, when I was looking for Ukyou/Ranma matchups.  Not sure what to expect, I dove in.  The fic takes the premise that Ukyou didn't really forgive Ranma, it was just a plot to try and manuver herself to such a position that she could extract her revenge.  Also, Mousse never loved Shampoo, he's just wanted to figure out how to kill her for hurting his eyesight.

It gets better.  No, not really.

The two authors initially work well together, as the dynamics change, plans come to fruition, and extra characters are gorily disposed of.  After a while, they apparently decided it wasn't grim _enough_, but they lost their willingness to kill.  Gotta drag out that angst, eh?  Things get convoluted here, in what honestly feels less like an attempt at storytelling, and more an attempt to stab you in your emotional kidneys and twist.  The story nearly redeems itself here, several times.  And falls short.

There's a lot of emotion, but the begining was too slow, the third quarter dragged on waaaay too long, and things happened waaaay too quickly in the end.  The ending is especially fun to read, as the authors begin to disagree on how the characters should be written, and each PoV shift signifies a change in personality.

Well, anyway.  The grammar is generally okay, until the second half, where it becomes spotty and clumsy (quite rushed, to appearances).  The emotions are subtle at first, well-expressed later, and then clumsily expressed and inconsistant towards the end.

If you want to read a dark fic, I guess this would work.  I enjoyed it about as much as Ill Met By Akane and Ranma Still Match Up.  If you're looking for a Ranma/Ukyou matchup, well....  I suppose moments technically qualify, but hesitate to encourage reading this.  Really, read the first chapter and the last if you want to get everything important.  That'll pretty-much cover it.

As far as scoring, I dunno....  2/5?  It's not technically awful.  I just loathe it with all my being.

[Anastasia]

I read Can't Let Go nearly ten years ago. It was one of the first dark fics I read; I generally like well done dark fics. This isn't one, it's simply grim, depressing and a bit schizo with its presentation. It did one thing of note for me: It crystallized that I really like Ukyou and loathed the portrayal of her in this fic.

2/5? It's good if you want a super angsty drama bomb instead of your normal martial arts hijinks.