THEN SUDDENLY: Now you are the Akane-bashers.

[thepanda]

But... but... Ataru Moroboshi!?

[Dracos]

I dunno.  I think Ranma is a far easier lead to fantasize stories around than Ataru.  I guess I might not have consumed much Urusei Yatsura, but it seemed like Ataru was hardly in the top 3 interesting cast chars.   He's like a significantly less awesome Captain Tylor.

[Brian]

THEN SUDDENLY: Now you are a Shinobu-basher.

Bah--  Spoken like a Lum fanboy.  She should be paired up with Mendou and moved offscreen so we can focus on the far more interesting Ataru/Lum/Yuki dynamic!

...yeah, okay, I can't keep it up.  I think I gotta agree, Ataru doesn't quite get enough 'could easily be interpreted as very heroic' moments.

Takahashi may have created the ideal crossover character as a memetic badass that crawled out of her contiguity and achieved a life of its own -- BEHOLD!  THE RSEs!

[Dracos]

Well, and Takashi's writing style leaves a lot of room for that stuff.  She's often willing to bend a character design for a story, so it's natural there's a lot of 'well if we look at Ranma here and extrapolate...' options that make RSEs pretty reasonable.

[thepanda]

Well, and Takashi's writing style leaves a lot of room for that stuff.  She's often willing to bend a character design for a story, so it's natural there's a lot of 'well if we look at Ranma here and extrapolate...' options that make RSEs pretty reasonable.

She practices the Rodney Dangerfield school of comedy. Throw out five jokes a page; if people only laugh at 1/5th of them that means they're still getting at least one laugh a page. One of the sad things about fanfiction is that the visual comedy doesn't always translate well to text.

[Dracos]

Well, yes, and also a lot of the comedic elements when taken out of context also can be things that are quite serious.

"Here's a promise to be manly...OR DIE." *Friendly smile*

[Jason_Miao]

Bah--  Spoken like a Lum fanboy.  She should be paired up with Mendou and moved offscreen so we can focus on the far more interesting Ataru/Lum/Yuki dynamic!

:)

Lum makes terrible food.  We all know that making terrible food makes you a bad person, or something like that.


Also, there's at least one heroic character in UY, able to defeat the strongest martial art

[thepanda]

I god, I'd forgotten all about that. UY is so damn random.

[Edward]

Alright.  Heroic Ranma isn't problematic, per se, except when he goes into Boring Invincible Hero territory.

About the only thing worse is Boring Invincible Not-Hero where Ranma trains in invincible new powers that he will never use and never helps anyone.

[Edward]

I think Ranma is a far easier lead to fantasize stories around than Ataru.

Ataru tends to be the hapless recipient of bad luck and most of the named cast are more powerful than he is.  He's the prototypical lecher with the heart of gold, but he doesn't get that many chances to show his good side.

Ranma's got a lot more going for him in the cool abilities area.  He's also a hero; Ranma even saved Herb after Herb had (repeatedly) tried to kill him.

The Ranma setting also has some serious story lines, which open things up for a lot more fic possibilities.

[Brian]

Also, it's a guy who turns into a girl when splashed with cold water.  How many fic ideas can you spin around that?!

[thepanda]

Also, it's a guy who turns into a girl when splashed with cold water.  How many fic ideas can you spin around that?!

Ranma gets split.
Ranma becomes a girl.
Ranma finds cure.
Ranma becomes ambivalent to it.
Girl-form has super powers.
Girl-form is own person.
Girl-form takes over Ranma.
Ranma gets locked, searches for cure.
Ranma has sex as girl.
Ranma is bi.
Ranma is gay. Uses girl-form to sleep with men.
Ranma is raped.
Ranma gives birth.
Ranma deals with female issues.
Ranma was a girl who turned into a man.
Ranma is a sailor senshi.

And the most rare of them all. . .

Ranma uses girl-form for comedic hi-jinks. We'll call this the Takahashi option.

[Brian]

Hahaha, wow.  I've read all of those fics -- some of them many times.

[Jason_Miao]

Hahaha, wow.  I've read all of those fics -- some of them many times.

Challenge:  How many of those can be done simultaneously?

[Brian]

All of them.