[Ranma 1/2] Taming of the Horse

[DB]

Another one by Vince Seifert. This one was a widely hailed work that, even at that late stage of the Ranma fanfic writing game, was supposed to be one of the most original, funny, tear jerking, and most important of all 'original flavor' fics to ever be done. After forcing myself to read it to the end, I was forced to come to the conclusion that....

.... a significant segment of humanity is more painfully stupid than I originally thought. And I worked retail. I encountered first hand just how stupid humanity is, and its depths are deep.

Now on to specfics. I'll get the one mostly, well, not original, let's say underused, thing this story had going for it (and my theory was to the primary reason it got attention). Akane is proactive in this. She got this neat book about taming horses (Ranma's name partially translates as horse, so it's a pun. Not a bad one, though I'm not terribly big on puns). So she applies its rules to Ranma. One at a time as she reads it. That's the impetus of the story as she reads a rule and follows it and things work out (more or less) as they are supposed to.

Actually that alone makes this very non-original flavor. Read the manga and find one single instance where anyone's plan to win anyone ever works. It never does. Yet as you read this, you know from the beginning Akane has no chance of failure. So that kills all the tension right off.  Mind you, it's a failing of the resolution genre in general and can't be avoided, but Vince's means of going about it are especially ineffective and heavy handed. We aren't even given the illusion of the idea there could be any other outcome than Akane being successful in her endeavors. And she isn't.

There is humor in the fic, but it all seemed heavy handed and really, not amusing. But humor is subjective, so take it for what you will.

Now we get on to the complaints. This thing had to be one of the most cliche-ridden, predictible 'continuation' pieces I have ever seen. I predicted 85% of everything that was going to happen by the second chapter. And I was right. It was pretty much a standard 'continuation' fic that's been around since the third Ranma fic was written. All the standard plot points are hit in the exact same way as the hundreds of pieces before it. They aren't even mixed up in an original way. It's like a literary version of a paint-by-numbers set. The only thing that can overcome that is strong writing or characterization, and Vince falls well short of either one.

Oh, the other 15% I was wrong about. Well, 5% was stuff I didn't guess (Hey, no one's perfect) The other 10% were gaping plot holes even Vince couldn't explain when they were brought up. Yes, it was the only thing worse than predictability that threw me: poor writing that I couldn't anticipate.

On to something else. The Ranma-Akane interactions, which are one of the backbones of the fic, are, well, at this late stage in the game, cliche and been done exactly that way hundred if not thousands of times. And while Vince is a decent writer with a good control of grammar, it's not enough to overcome the feeling having read this exact same stuff dozens of times before.

Then we come to the, well, 'disposal' of the romantic interests seems to be the best way to term it, since they are charicatures, not characters, and aren't given any personality or reason for existance outside of how it affects Ranma and Akane. After discussing A Man Among Women by Vince, I think Brian hit on the flaw in his writing. He writes Ranma and Akane fics. Everything else is only important in how they relate to R+A in some way, not that the characters have identities of their own. Oh, Vince tries to make it seem otherwise, giving them subplots and scenes of their own, but there's that feel of it being artificial. Like it's being included because it's obligatory, not because it serves a real purpose. Like it's something he feels should be included because of others, not because it belongs there. And 'Taming' is no exception.

I can't even remember what happened to Kodachi. I think she's skipped over. I know she gets targeted for destruction in the sequal, despite Akane and Ranma already being married. I guess she was underabused by her absense, so R+A go after her for the now past crime of trying to come between them.

After a few very token appearances Ukyou just sort of vanishes. I guess Vince couldn't figure out a way to resolve her part in the story, so she just goes away until all the smoke settles. Oh yes, she appears in the sequal and asks Akane early on how the sex is with Ranma.

Remember, this is one of the most original bestest Ranma fics out there. Can hundreds of gushing fans be wrong?

Shampoo, it's even worse. What happens to her doesn't make sense from either the canon *or* the story. Vince's explanation for why what occurs isn't even internally consistant. As near as I can tell, the people reading what was happening didn't even care about the plot making sense by that point. They just wanted to see Ranma and Akane get together, and Vince had to make it seem as though something was resolved (since Ukyou had vanished and Kodachi never appeared). He had to write something, so this was put in there. I think he probably could have reduced it to [Scene where Shampoo goes back to China], and no one would have said anything. Exept the story seemed a little short.

And then Ranma and Akane live happily ever after. The End.

Except it wasn't since Vince tried to do a sequal (since everyone *loved* this perfect fic so much and he couldn't let something so popular die). I say try to do, since it died after a handful of aimless meandering chapters, since it didn't have a purpose. Ranma and Akane were together, which was what Taming was all about. There was nowhere to go from there, and his efforts to force something died because there was nothing left to write.

It should also be noted that Vince has actually claimed 'Taming' is the absuolute only way he could ever see things being resolved from the canon. Everyone else, while they might write a continuation, fall short. He found the one true ending. Pointing out his direct contradictions from the canon, the gaping plot holes he created, the horrible OOC behavior of every supporting character in the fic not shaking his firm resolve. Mind you, he won't explain why what he wrote isn't a direct contradiction, doesn't have gaping plot holes, and horrible OOC behavior, even when confronted with facts he can't explain. It sort of just is, and that's that.

All in all, this is a blase stinker that is way overrated. Basically only read it if you are a R+A fanboy that doesn't care about anything other than R+A getting together, with everything else being unncessary and in the way. If that's you, then this fic is for you. If not, avoid at all costs.

[Dracos]

I vaguely remember this.  In retrospect, I'd suggest it fails from the concept really: It will be easy was part of it.

Dracos

[kpjam]

A bit harsh.. but not untrue.
I would remove the bits about what previous fanbots dubbed this and just stick to your impressions.

I do take one small issue with you're complaining about Vince treating the other characters as cariactures.  Don't we all have takahashi to blame for that?  And isn't it following the original flavor of the magna to treat the characters as empty drones with a single narrow motivation, only changing when situation demands, with no reason other than the situtation demands?

I will agree, that if you are looking for more of a book feel to a Ranma fanfic, this isn't the one.  But I think maybe you were a bit too rough on Vince for writing this, based a lot on the reaction he got from others that I prefer to forget.

Truthfully. With the first 37 episodes, and knowing how Takahashi wrote, would anyone be suprised if she ended it with a series of implausible declarations of love, marriages, and happily ever afters?

[DB]

% kpjam wrote:

A bit harsh.. but not untrue.
I would remove the bits about what previous fanbots dubbed this and just stick to your impressions.

% I usually mention my reactions to things against what the standard public reaction was to the piece and why I disagree with it. I've done it in nearly all the previous reviews for fics. Ranma 2096, DNR/DNU, Fair Warning, etc. That's just the way they are. I am aware that makes these vitrolic, in some places editorial rather than objective (as objective as C+C can be), but it does provide context for the fic, as well as me contrasting what others laud as points of criticism for myself. And heck, maybe even a part of me likes the idea of going 'Look, I'm bucking the trend so many others are following'.

% And Vince's contention of this being the 'only ending possible' did strike me as extremely... arrogant. I can be arrogant and obnoxious, of course. Been so on many occasions (perhaps even here and in this review) but i will not deny his statement made me give this a very critical eye. Sort of if he's going to go out of his way to have his mouth write that sort of check, the writing better be able to cash it in, otherwise you really open yourself up to harsh criticism. I think he didn't have the funds for it to clear in this one. Not by a longshot.

I do take one small issue with you're complaining about Vince treating the other characters as cariactures.  Don't we all have takahashi to blame for that?  And isn't it following the original flavor of the magna to treat the characters as empty drones with a single narrow motivation, only changing when situation demands, with no reason other than the situtation demands?

% Yes and no. Yes, they are what you say in the canon. However I'd say this includes Akane and Ranma, just to a lesser degree. Neither of them is given true depth in the series: it just seems that way since they have so much more than the others. But looking at them, they are not deep (the series doesn't lend itself to that), and more like archtypes. Better than Ataru and Lum, nowhere near as good as Kagome and InuYasha, and certainly nothing like Kyoko and Godai, for  comparison to Takahashi's other couples in other works

% Now in Taming, Ranma and Akane aren't treated as charicatures (I will add no writer is obligated to convert every charicature to character with depth). But reading this over, I don't think Vince is intentionally writing the lesser characters as the charicatures they were. It feels like he's trying to give them some depth, you can tell by the way he's writing them, and yet they're still coming across as charicatures. And with R+A given some depth, it makes that shortcoming stand out even more. It's sort of like trying to write a clever antagonist and just making a moron whom people roll their eyes at. He's not *trying* to write them as empty drones. He's trying to do the opposite, and it's not working.

% I suppose to a large degree it is Takahashi's fault, as they are charicatures in the canon. And maybe that's a shortcoming to Vince's writing: He's only capable of giving R+A depth, no matter how hard he tries to make others not two dimensional.

I will agree, that if you are looking for more of a book feel to a Ranma fanfic, this isn't the one.  But I think maybe you were a bit too rough on Vince for writing this, based a lot on the reaction he got from others that I prefer to forget.

% I stand by all the critcisms I made for the reasons I gave and why. I also admit one of the reasons I pointed this fic out is the public reaction to it. However I will add it makes more sense in this forum to criticize a popular (IMO poorly) written fic than an obscure one that's equally as bad. The reason being something like Taming is more likely to be read than some forgotten piece of tripe that was bad as well. Since the fanfiction reviews are sort of recommendations as to what individuals think is worth reading and what isn't, and I think it's more likely someone  would read Taming than some other equally bad piece, I give advice on why I think it's best to steer clear of Taming.

Truthfully. With the first 37 episodes, and knowing how Takahashi wrote, would anyone be suprised if she ended it with a series of implausible declarations of love, marriages, and happily ever afters?[/quote]

% Heh. No. But I can guarentee it won't look anything like this unless she  went out of her mind. I mention Vince's contention mostly because I find it a touch insulting to anyone else writing a continuation ("You did it wrong") and conceited on his part. I mean how often do you see fanfic authors make that contention, that only they have the insight and skill to write the 'ending the author would have written'?

% Anyhow, yes, I am aware I could have sugar coated it and dropped a lot of my personal reactions to things, but I'm more comfortable doing it that way, at least in this forum. *shrug* My opinion is certainly not the end all or be all. It's just an opinion.