[Ranma 1/2 Crossover] Mirrors Multiplied

[Yuthirin]

I know you've all been thinking the same thing: "Boy, I'm glad nobody's bringing up Jornstead's works. I'd have to stab him in the eyes."

Time for target practice.

Mirrors Multiplied, written by Jared Ornstead, aka Skysaber, is an always wild, somewhat risque, often confusing whirlwind of deviant fantasies. It starts out fairly cliche, and spirals wildly out of control within the first chapter.

Imagine, if you will, that an author wrote fifty different Alternate Universe and Crossover Ranma fanfics. Now imagine each of those fics being crushed together into one massive, convoluted story.

Ranma starts out, grossly out of character, as the victim of wish after wish gone awry. He proceeds to try to go home, and, well...it's really difficult to explain, as the story is not monolinear, but multilinear. It jumps around like a firecracker strip. It goes from humorous to thoughtful to dark to introspective and plunges back through randomly, until you have totally forgotten how all of it happened.

It's unfinished, and will likely remain so, as Skysaber tends to flake out and vanish for periods of up to three years, before returning to spew hellfire and brimstone at the unbelievers.

But that's not really why we're here, is it?

The story is okay for the first few chapters; after that, it's like trying to find your way out of the center of a hedge maze. It is, however, amusing at three am after six cups of coffee.

[Edward]

Agreed.  Ranma's OOCs has more justification than most fics by Skysaber, but he loses track of the plot pretty quickly.

[thepanda]

You mean there is a plot outside of 'make various Ranma(s?) godlike/gods/sympathetic and bash every character I don't like'?

The author's personality aside, I never understood the appeal of this story.

[Dracos]

Wow, that surprised me.

I never expected to see a review of this here.

Dracos

[Yuthirin]

I'm trying for diversity, here.

[Anastasia]

Heh, heh.

It's not a bad fic at first if you accept the fundamental premise and that Ranma's obviously changed over time. As far as that goes, it's entertaining at first. The problem is that it spirals into a confusing mess, too many strands and paths opened. Lacking focus, I didn't enjoy the later chapters nearly as much.

[Brian]

I maintain that the fic was entirely readable right up unil Robotech came into the mix and it exploded far (and obviously) beyond the author's control.  The 're-write' chapters emphasize his inability to plot/pace, etc.

[Dracos]

Hmm, that's an interesting point.  With robotech in the mix, you get something that is eons, technology wise, beyond everything else in the mix.

Dracos

[thepanda]

Was that before or after Marisu Picard showed up? Or was that after god himself saved Ranma from Doctor Where?

[Dracos]

Don't ask me to remember.

Dracos

[thepanda]

Face your past, you must.

Or grow, you will not.

[Edward]

I'm with Brian, I stopped reading when CrySaber threw Robotech into the blender.  Hey, let's write like Akane cooks, just throw some more random stuff into the fic.

Mercifully, I have no idea what Panda is referring to.

[KLSymph]

I know the parts Panda is talking about. Of course, back when I read it I didn't know who Skysaber was (beyond "author", that is).

Reading MM caused a particular state of mind for me when I read it in long stretches. Nowadays, I recognize this state as "numbness", but back then it was just something that happened which allowed me to enjoy the story, because my mind would automatically start ignoring selections of the text so that I can keep going to the interesting bits (if any).

For instance, the whole MM last chapter thing about education and his battery thing or whatever it was; my mind completely glossed over that (even though, technically, it was the entirety of the chapter).

When I first read some of the ECB stuff, etc. on Skysaber, and about how that last chapter was ranting, I was mostly: "Ranting? I didn't even notice!"

[Dracos]

Panda, I think there are flames about it if you dig far enough back =P

Dracos

[Ragnar]

I'll make a note to read this so I know what everyone's talking about. >_>