I'm sure that everyone's read this. I mean, really. But just in case....
The Bitter End, by Zen. The fic can be found in the RAAC archives here (http://www.fanfic.net/pub/Anime/FanFictions/Ranma/ranma.the-bitter-end.gz).
Unfortunately, despite his last comment and insistance that TLaWR is only resting, I think we can safely say it's bleedin' demised. Zen no longer maintains a website, and his e-mail address bounces. But he left behind this landmark piece of fanfiction.
It's hard to describe or review the Bitter End without discussing the social ramifications, and its effects on the fanfiction community. But I like a challenge, so here we go:
The Bitter End is arguably Zen's masterpiece. I say this because while I enjoyed Between a Rock and a Hard Place, The Bitter End had much more impact, and ... well ... it's finished. Zen's got a reputation as a slow writer, or at least, he did. But considering the sheer volume of abandoned fanfiction....
Regardless. This story sets out to explore Ranma and Akane as a married couple. It also explores the dynamic of Ranma and Ukyou's friendship, and how that evolves and changes. Ryouga's a part of this story, too, but really, almost everyone else is peripheral (outside of some semi-original characters Zen borrows the descriptions/names from elsewhere; they exist largely as foils for Ranma, and to a lesser degree, Ukyou).
After their marriage, once Ranma sorts Ukyou into the 'friend' list, things appear to mostly work out between Ranma and Akane. Of course, it's not quite that easy, is it? The story basically sets out to show that while Ranma's willing to make the relationship work, there are a few problems, and some of them are a little too big to be swept under the rug.
Akane becomes increasingly violent. Ranma assumes that it's his fault. Ukyou tries to help, and only ends up making the situation worse. Who's to blame? Well, that's kind of up to the reader, I imagine. Really, the focus of the story isn't blame, it's character. And in that, I consider this fic to be a resounding success. The evolution of Akane and Ranma are captured and detailed so well.... This fic is what Can't Let Go wanted to be, and failed at badly. If you want a darkfic, this is a great one; no happy ending, really.
But it explores the evolution of a character in ways that are more horrifying than simply endless gory violence or mindless extermination of a character.
And now the replies with the social commentary:
Egads, when I read this back in high school, I remember wanting to fucking KILL myself. What a depressing story. Jesus.
Well-written, though.
Back in dim reaches of the distant past, when Michael Jackson was still black (okay, it wasn't -that- far back) I happened across the fanfiction section of Anipike and in a fit of obstinacy or something, I decide to go through the links in reverse alphabetical order.
It wasn't long before I found Zen's page and the Bitter End. Mindless idiots dismiss the work as Akane bashing. They either haven't read the work or they had their brains turned off the entire time, as she is clearly a victim here, too, destroyed by something she doesn't understand and cannot defeat without the help she does not get. In fact, her ending is perhaps the most tragic in the story.
Regardless, the Bitter End stands IMO as the ultimate dark fic and a testament that a fanfic can be something great. It's also the fic that inspired me to start writing fanfics myself.
This is a painful fanfiction to read. I love the story, yet I also assert it's so well done that it's easy to lose focus of the point(Moreso if you really like Akane, I suppose). Even though Akane is portrayed with sympathy, it's...just...
Yeow. Hell of a fic, even if it's sent years worth of Akane fans into irrational fits.
Quote from: "Anastasia"Yeow. Hell of a fic, even if it's sent years worth of Akane fans into irrational fits.
Hey, it would be worth it just for that. ^_^
I enjoyed this fic quite a bit. It was dark, certainly, but more specifically it really got a sort of empathy for the characters. More specifically, it was an empathy drawn with characters doing something about it. Not just the simple "Hey, you see things the characters don't and watch them walk into disaster" that lots of crappy stories use.
Dracos