[Ranma 1/2] Ill Met By Starlight

[Yuthirin]

Ill Met By Starlight is written by Susan Doenime and Mike L.

In this story, Ranma and his father arrive at the Tendo dojo with Ranma not all there. Ranma is a homicidal psychotic maniac. Role-reversal, anyone?

But in this case, Ranma really is crazy.

It's well-written and a fun read, if you don't mind a dark fic with a very depressing end.

[Kwokinator]

I wouldn't call it a depressing end, more like a cheap copout end.  Ranma was made kinda OOC (for the fic) to force the ending  ^_^

And I would also like to note that Ill Met By Starlight is one of the primary influences in my A Broken Casket, so I definitely like the fic, just not the ending :D

[Brian]

It's well-written and a fun read, if you don't mind a dark fic with a very depressing end.

As a non-Loeder fan, I found the chapters leading up to the end much more depressing than the final chapter and epilogues.

Loeder's comments about Shampoo and Ukyou's treatment especially do not sit well with me.

[DB]

Ugh! This little piece of crud. Actually, I shouldn't say it was totally bad, just horribly predictible, biased, unbelivable, and with enough stupid  excessively contrived overcomplicated death traps to make even Dr. Evil shake his head in pity.

First we have our two protagonists (not heroes, in fact, they are the real bad guys in this). Ranma, who is, well, completely unsympathetic in any way, shape, or form since he's a raving looney, and Akane the Enabler, whose brain death and inability to see the obvious before her makes her Ranma's accomplice in his psycho behavior.  Think 'Natural Born Killers' only less interesting and more contrived. This Ranma, a far, far departure from the canon regardless of what anyone claims otherwise, has no redeeming qualities for Akane to fall in love with him. She just does. Yeah, great writing there.

The other part of the fic that failed utterly was trying to portray the people trying to stop Ranma as somehow being as bad as him. They never do for a number of reasons, but the most simple one is because Ranma *is* a mad dog, and he's going to bite (ie: kill) someone else eventually for no real reason. Hell, just look at the crippled and dead he's already left behind (which is why everyone is after him). He has to be put down.

Two, predictibility. You know Ranma and Akane aren't going to die, there's too much effort to make it seem like there's a reason for Akane to love Ranma to do that.  You know the two new Hibikis aren't going to die, there's too much effort put into creating and establishing them, including vague references to a backstory that's never brought to light.  Like they're going to leave that dangling around. Well, someone's got to die in this, (Nabby is only in a coma) so we only have two suspects left: Shampoo, who's received just enough training to fight Ranma, but obviously not enough to kill him, and Girl in Peril Ukyou, who pops up halfway in the story for no reason since she doesn't actually add anything to the plot (Akane already has the role of Enabler)  Since it only works if you have at least one on each side fall, you know it's going to be them (Shampoo: Ukyou's only dangerous with her spatula? Then by all means, let's take it along and leave it outside her easy to escape jail cell, especially after she already cut off my finger with it). And it happens in perhaps the most painfully contrived manner possible. Then again, the whole final fight is contrived from start to finish. An ending this bad would have ruined anything, no matter how good the previous material is, and it really isn't that great. Mediocre at best.

Aside from that, I openly confess to having nothing but disdain for Loader since his 'Only receving 18 comments on a chapter is insulting. I'm not posting on the FFML anymore since I'm not getting the respect I deserve' rant.  I won't touch his stuff now since I can't separate the man from his work. And honestly, nothing he ever did impressed me. Technically sound, but bad plots and characterizations made me roll my eyes.  As to Brian's comments about Ukyou and Shampoo, it was obvious from his previous works he didn't like them. This was acutally pretty good treatment of them for a Loader fic, outside of the slow and torturous deaths they received.

Now that is about the saddest statement you can make about someone.

Basically after reading this piece of tripe, I found only one redeeming thing in it.  A lone piece of advice given by the 'Cool New Guy with the Last Name of Hibiki' to the 'Cool New Girl with the Last Name of Hibiki'

"Shooting people in the head from a sniper position is dishonorable. Trying to trick them into walking into a pool of gas and setting fire to them isn't."

And that sums up the fic.

[Brian]

Aside from that, I openly confess to having nothing but disdain for Loader since his 'Only receving 18 comments on a chapter is insulting. I'm not posting on the FFML anymore since I'm not getting the respect I deserve' rant.  I won't touch his stuff now since I can't separate the man from his work.

Reminds me rather of Grandberry.  On that note, how about a No Dominion review, DB?

And honestly, nothing he ever did impressed me. Technically sound, but bad plots and characterizations made me roll my eyes.  As to Brian's comments about Ukyou and Shampoo, it was obvious from his previous works he didn't like them. This was acutally pretty good treatment of them for a Loader fic, outside of the slow and torturous deaths they received.

Aside from Did She Jump, or Was She Pushed?, I don't think I've actually read anything else by Loader.  I was refering specifically to his comments in the author's notes of IMBS.

Susan is (I think) a fantastic writer, and her efforts shone through the Loaderism in places, which is why I don't hate reading it.  But because it's only in places, it's also why I'll never bother reading it again.

[Edward]

"Shooting people in the head from a sniper position is dishonorable. Trying to trick them into walking into a pool of gas and setting fire to them isn't."

And that sums up the fic.

>_<

Glad I never read it.  That bit you quoted is a monument of stupidity.

[DB]

Man, I'm spending a lot of time here lately :)

I deserve' rant.  I won't touch his stuff now since I can't separate the man from his work.

Reminds me rather of Grandberry.

% Loader's might have been worse simply because he actually said he was taking his toys and going home, berating the list for not paying proper homage to him. Having a**holes like Rod M backing him up only made it seem worse. Rod berated people for commenting on his own fic when they could have been commenting on Ill Met. How unfortunate I wimped out on publically berating him for trying to tell me what I should like and dislike (not that I liked Rod's piece of crap he was putting out at the time either).  

On that note, how about a No Dominion review, DB?

% No. I already reviewed it when it came out , and aside from the character bashing it doesn't suck totally. It was mostly Nick's denial of doing any character bashing that was laughable about it. But then he comes from the 'I like Akane just fine, as long as she's portrayed as the violent gorilla she is' school of characterization, though in his case it's obviously Shampoo whom he has an axe to grind with.

Aside from Did She Jump, or Was She Pushed?, I don't think I've actually read anything else by Loader.

% Actually you reviewed Bliss, which was cowritten by him. Lara helped over him though, and might have kept the character bashing minimal. You didn't miss out on any of his other works. Grammaticaly good, with bad plots and characterizations. Definitely not missing out on anything unless you like the biases he shows. I don't come anywhere near it.

didn't miss much, but
 I was refering specifically to his comments in the author's notes of IMBS.

% Attitudes which were reflected in his previous works. It was sort of like Towler mentioning mid-way through Relentless how there was one character in the series he didn't like. Gee, I wonder who that could be? *Rolls eyes*

Susan is (I think) a fantastic writer,

% Past Present is a brilliant minimalist work. It amazed me how good it was. She does have a dislike for Kasumi, though.

and her efforts shone through the Loaderism in places, which is why I don't hate reading it.  But because it's only in places, it's also why I'll never bother reading it again.[/quote]

% Unless a piece is playing directly into my biases, I can't force myself to read something that's as horribly flawed as Ill Met anymore.  I also don't recommend fics that are flawed, but I like anyway because they play into my biases. For example, I enjoyed some of Bader's early works because I liked his favorable treatment of Shampoo, even though he bashes Akane in those same fics.  For that same reason, I would never recommend those early fics to anyone, nor defend them when their numerous flaws are pointed out. (Yeah, there are a ton of other things wrong with them too, but I'm talking about that character bashing aspect.)  

% At least I'm reserving most of my negative criticisms for 'Big Name Authors' and famous fics though. Loader, Kenko, Seifert, Leifker, Granberry, DNR guys., etc.  I don't know if it's arrogance on my part (well, it probably is), but something's always rubbed me wrong when I hear a work that's widely lauded that has so many glaring flaws, and the flaws never seem to be pointed out.  Liking a work in spite of its flaws is cool (as I mentioned in the above), but denying there are any, or glossing them over like they aren't there, irks me.

[Brian]

Man, I'm spending a lot of time here lately :)

Aside from Did She Jump, or Was She Pushed?, I don't think I've actually read anything else by Loader.

Actually you reviewed Bliss, which was cowritten by him. Lara helped over him though, and might have kept the character bashing minimal. You didn't miss out on any of his other works. Grammaticaly good, with bad plots and characterizations. Definitely not missing out on anything unless you like the biases he shows. I don't come anywhere near it.

Huh.  You're right -- I guess that makes Loader the Jerry Pornelle of the fanfiction world.

didn't miss much, but I was refering specifically to his comments in the author's notes of IMBS.

Attitudes which were reflected in his previous works. It was sort of like Towler mentioning mid-way through Relentless how there was one character in the series he didn't like. Gee, I wonder who that could be? *Rolls eyes*

Yeah ... I've never even looked at Relentless.  I think I glimpsed a bit of a post on the epilogue or so.  I remembered Ginrai telling me about the extensive abuse piled on Shampoo, something about Akane beating Shampoo with the breaking point (yes, Akane would learn an Amazon technique better than Shampoo).  And then something about a head-shaving.

That prompted me to ignore it.

Susan is (I think) a fantastic writer,

Past Present is a brilliant minimalist work. It amazed me how good it was. She does have a dislike for Kasumi, though.

But she does it so well!

At least I'm reserving most of my negative criticisms for 'Big Name Authors' and famous fics though. Loader, Kenko, Seifert, Leifker, Granberry, DNR guys., etc.  I don't know if it's arrogance on my part (well, it probably is), but something's always rubbed me wrong when I hear a work that's widely lauded that has so many glaring flaws, and the flaws never seem to be pointed out.  Liking a work in spite of its flaws is cool (as I mentioned in the above), but denying there are any, or glossing them over like they aren't there, irks me.

Fair enough....

[Jeram]

The story I found to be not very well written - but honestly, the prose was truly haunting at times... although DB is right about the predictability of the plot.  It was far more impressive to me the first time I read it - each successive time far less so.

-J