*Spoilers, yo* Bitter by Firewind

[Anastasia]

http://www.geocities.com/moonfirewind/Bitter.html

*Note* Read the forward before you plow into the story. *Note*

The word bitter seems to have a good track record with darkfics, eh?  My second favorite darkfic, falling only to The Bitter End, it deals with depression, darkness, suicide and so on.  While I have a few quibbles with the story, it is still a fine piece of writing.

-Mega magic spoilers ahead.-

The good- How the author painted Ranma's, Ryouga's and to a lesser degree, Ukyou's depression.  Well done.

The bad- In fairness, I think Akane got rather hosed in this story.  She was in an element where she wouldn't show well, and boy did she ever.

And I'm not one to complain much about that bitch, you that should say alot.

The ugly- Not much.  I don't like a few elements, but nothing is that bad.

[Kaneda]

Heh, I read that fic when I first started reading darkfics, and it has to be one of my favorites, next to 'the Bitter End'.

Those fics got me interested in reading the more serious and darker toned fics out there. I really liked the way Firewind portrayed Ranma and Ryouga's friendship.

The part about Ukyou admitting she had loved Ryouga towards the end seemed a bit off to me though, as if it had just been put in as an after thought. Other than that, it was a really good read for me.

[Anastasia]

The part about Ukyou admitting she had loved Ryouga towards the end seemed a bit off to me though, as if it had just been put in as an after thought.

I think it was a tad bit of a contrivance. I'd guess that Firewind needed someone for Ranma to interact with in the last third of the fic, and Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi were out.  If I recall, the Amazons didn't play much of a role, so they were not an option. That left Ukyou.

But, even with that, I honestly think it could have worked if Ukyou just considered Ryouga a friend.  The love bit was just a bit of an overreach.

Perhaps it is because the author appears to be a Ryouga/Ukyou fan.  Maybe I'm being unfair with that deduction, but it works for me with what I've gathered.