[Ranma 1/2] Stellarcraft

[Brian]

Stellarcraft is written by Eric Warner, another of those authors who vanished without a homepage or working e-mail address.  The story in question can thankfully still be found (g-zipped)here.

The story takes the premise that Genma has a piece of an ancient, mystical amulet ... one that defines the defenders of reality.  Honestly, it gave me fits, and is oddly reminiscent of the much more recent Nocturne, by Aondehafka.  Stellarcraft is the older story, though, and what Nocturne used as a plot device, Stellarcraft uses as the meat of the story.

After accidentally touching a piece of the stone to one that Ukyou was holding, Ranma and Ukyou find themselves transported to the Plot Device Zone, where Fanboy particles get them to realize that they're meant for one-another.  Yeah ... it's a bit contrived.  But they get powerups to fight evil!

Anyway, beyond that instance of what I consider character cludging, the story generally flows well.  Interactions between characters felt fairly well realized, actions generally made sense ... and Mr. Warner was not afraid to make his characters grow.  Genma's character came across as the very first fanfiction panda-man to not be bashed/static.  I was impressed and touched.

The fights tend to be interesting, if somewhat abstract (works better; Mr. Warner studies the emotions, not the technical aspects generally).  There's one semi-ANC, but he's not even human, and actually ends up turning more into a plot device, one who manages not to get in the way too much.

All told, while I enjoyed this story, and would like to reccomend it ... I'm not sure if it's really that good.  It speaks to my inner fanboy, and I seem to recall the grammar being good throughout all three of the times I've read it.  So if you're a fan of the Ukyou/Ranma matchup, this is probably a worthwhile fic.  There was a time when I told Ginrai, "Stellarcraft is probably one of the best written Ranma/Ukyou fic that's actually complete."  At the time (2001), he agreed.  How has it withstood aging?  Fair enough, surprisingly.  I rate this a solid decent.  Othwerwise?  Another stone in the fanfiction desert, but one you probably won't regret reading (unless you're a Ranma/Akane shipper).

[Edward]

IMO, all the matchups suffered from some level of character cludging.  Still, it's noticably better than the average hamhandedness in setting up the author's favorite couples.  I found it an enjoyable read, though.

[Brian]

Yeah ... after another re-read, the grammar's also not as clean as I remembered it being.  Still, it speaks to my inner fanboy, even if it'd send Mr. Sommer into a seething rage.  Not that I can judge; the majority of Ryouga/Ukyou matchups cause me to simply stop reading the fic in question. <_<;;