Old Fic Glory: The Bitter End (July 29, 2002)

[Dracos]

The Bitter End, a work whose name is bantered around in hidden chatrooms and on public  forums.  Emotional baggage always is attached.  Whether they like it or hate it the truth of the matter is I've never met someone who isn't emotionally effected by The Bitter End.  Written by the legendary slow writer Zen, it is perhaps the greatest tragedy fanfic ever written.   Don't take my word for it, read it for yourself, and remember to drop Zen along as he slowly types his Long and Winding Road, He'd love to hear from you.

http://fanfic.tass-anime.com/ranma.the-bitter-end

Fearless Leader
Fanboy at Large

[Kwokinator]

But I'm not emotionally affected by The Bitter End... ^_^;;

It IS one of the greatest fics ever written though.  Just not enough to affect me, I guess ^_^;;

[Anastasia]

Ah, the Bitter End.  IMO the best Ranma fic ever written, it's one of the most emotion inducing fics ever done.

Yep, try dropping this fic's name around certain people, and BAM!  Instant debate.  Personally, I love the fic and think it's a all to possible(Abeit very dark) path if Akane and Ranma hooked up.

The funny part about this fic is that it's very sympathetic to Akane and her role in it, yet the majority of Akane fans I know that have read it tend to hate it with a burning passion.  Go figure.

[Black Dragon]

The Bitter End.
A glorious story. One of passion, romance, and a helluva lot of tragedy.
The ULTIMATE Ranma fanfiction.
Hell, I don't even consider it fanfiction. More like literature. A must-read for a Ranma fan, regardless of fiancee preference.
It's the only fic that I truly consider "canon". Others have tried, but only Zen has managed to portray the characters so utterly perfectly. If it wasn't for the fact that BE hardly has a speck of comedy in it, I would practically consider it part of the R 1/2 series. Surely, it all makes sense.

[acetalon]

Definitely one of the greats.  After reading this, it took me awhile to not relate characters by how they were portrayed here.

[Carthrat]

* Carthrat reads this fic.

After this somewhat emotionally draining experiance, I think I need to lie down.

[Kaneda]

This story really opened my eyes up to the other serious fiction on the net.

While it did affect me emotionally, it also inspired me to seek more of the further from the norm non-canon stories.

At the time I hadn't seen any fics that ventured from the Ranma/Akane thread, and I was a bit jaded to everything else. It really urked me because I hadn't seen anything like it at the time.

It still to this day remains one of my favorite fics. A magnificent story if there ever was one, I must say.