Made a little alteration to the site to make things slightly easier to navigate. You'll notice the top bar has a few additional things in it. I'm considering the possibility of having the "story" and "discussion" links be drop down menus to the various series, if I can work out how to make that work. Anyone that knows anything about that, please let me know.
Also, Sirocco appears to be having trouble posting through livejournal. I think it should be possible for him to post non-anonomously without needing livejournal, but if the problem is on the blog's end I don't know what it is. Help for either of us would be greatly appreciated.
Meanwhile, discussing the three winners of last week! Let's get to it!
Oh, Asuka's WP. You remind me of Reflective Seduction. So close to the top, so very near yet so very far away. How long did it take you to finally earn a spot at the top? You've been hovering near it for quite a while now, and it's somewhat gratifying to see you finally get a win.
Anyway. I appear to be in roughly the same place Tainted Cube was in last week. A more perverted Shinji with success with the ladies about to fight his first Angel. Though I am tempted to show the fight, I gotta figure... Make it through Asuka's eyes. She's watching a recording of it while criticising the pilot. Sorta riffing on it, I guess. How does that sound?
Cursed Joketsuzoku... Definitely lots of directions to take that one. I'm tempted to think it might be funnier for Ranma to find out how guy crazy they are, initially think that he can use that to his advantage... Until he sees just how guy crazy they are and figures maybe he'll stay a girl for the time being. Which doesn't last long. Cue Shampoo or Cologne taking advantage of their laws to have Shampoo give him the kiss of marriage, in an attempt to get rid of the curse... Except it doesn't quite work that way.
And finally, Curvy Akane. Again there is plenty of potential for this one, with Akane taking greater offence at Ranma's deception or Ranma being able to hold off on revealing the fact for a longer time. What direction would you all like to see it being taken in?
Wow, a lot of them together :)
ReplyDeleteLet's see... I admit, I was voting for Joketsuzoku cuz I totally wanted to see Ranma-chan get hit by the curse too. :P Especially as 'he's arriving as a girl and his expectations in that area are pretty nonexistent right now (He's had the curse for mere hours at this point, so getting hit by a second one wouldn't be surprising or even noticeable).
I can entirely see Cologne smartly plotting though. She really wants to rescue her grand-daughter and knows that it isn't gonna happen here. It's not like in the normal telling, Ranma ever gets hot water in the village. Certainly, he'd get swamped if he did so, but perhaps a more attentive Cologne realizes the possibilities there. A guy coming into the village who was training at Jusenkyou is probably both going to be hunting cures, traveling, and is a martial artist. If the curse hit Ranma-chan, her stubbornness probably is showing even harder. For Shampoo, a fighting match to get a kiss of marriage set up so she leaves the village. For how to make sure they go with it? Bribe the panda with a suggestion she can help cure their curses, but they have to come along. Not like any Elder would have room to complain given how they're all trying different ways to save the village and/or protect their heir.
Maybe I'm thinking of a different ordering though, since it sounds like you were thinking the kiss of marriage would give Ranma the curse. I think it'd be sad if Ranma-kun got hit with the weakness part too, but if he doesn't get hot water until he gets back, maybe it's a neat setup to roll into Nerima with: Cologne coming along to try and retrain Shampoo, seeing if they can move the village elsewhere to save them, or start anew. Shampoo stuck as a first fiancee before Genma gets to introduce Akane. Ranma-chan and Shampoo both dealing with a curse that likely sets Akane solidly above in martial arts prowess in the short term(That'd twist a lot of scenes, since getting splashed would give lots of trouble). The tendo sisters perhaps easily shooting down this fiancee business to a hottie by pointing out he already has a girlfriend, ...only to perhaps have Shampoo offer to share, genma or cologne backing it and throwing a wrench in any of them getting off the hook for the matter (No tossing it on just Akane, since instead they united along the 'he's half slut and already has a girlfriend' instead of tossing it around like a hotpotato).
Anyhow, hopefully that's some fun thoughts. :) *Quirks head* Longpost. I'll go reread the end of curvy and comment on that next.
I like those ideas quite a bit. I'm dithering on whether the episode would be best from Ranma or Cologne's point of view. I figure, it hits Ranma and Cologne is interested that this girl has been hit by it particularly on learning about the curse. She then makes a bargain, believing the curses are connected, prompting Shampoo to give the girl the kiss of marriage.
DeleteGenma isn't particularly happy about this, and conspires to dump them as soon as they get a cure... But it won't be that easy, especially when Ranma turns back into his normal self away from the village grounds and Shampoo starts hitting on him. Hard. Whatever he might feel about distractions, Ranma's likely to give in sooner or later.
As for where it goes next, well, that'll depend on later on. For now I think that's probably enough to form an episode.
Well, with both Cologne and Shampoo along, Genma would have almost no hope of ditching them both. Heck, if Ranma knows that Shampoo is also cursed (from her grandma), he might even be sympathetic to them coming along to hunt together.
DeleteAnd it's not like without a celebration going on, the Guide (or Ranma or even Genma) would have much trouble communicating a curse problem. It was really only the big fight festival that made such a bad start possible at all... and with the village how it is, there's no chance that is going on. :)
Genma would be ticked about this...but if Cologne was dangling a cure (such as temporary man packets) on genma, she'd easily have him in the palm of her hand early on. Surely, he'd be able to con them out of a permanent solution and ditch them before Japan.
Mmm... I dunno on Curvy Akane. I'm not a fan of both designated winner Akane + Ranma getting stomped in the process. Akane is clearly designated winner here (and it's hot), but also Ranma has been quite a gentleman and I could see Akane being more worried than not, but basically from the outside perspective, if Akane throws a fit, there really isn't anything Ranma could've have done to avoid it. None of the other fiancees are around yet and the comedic balance doesn't quite happen if Ranma is obviously lusting after akane as they hurt each other.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how Ranma would manage to hide it longer without outright lying to Akane aggressively. Which would be a good reason to be pissed off, but the initial discovery happens right after the training session. Mmm...
I guess I could see Ranma letting Akane get the shower first, after the reaction, and that leaving room for hiding the curse. But Genma wouldn't let him hide the curse even 24 hours anyway. He'd insist on splashing him with hot water, and Ranma would end up getting hit. Even if not, he'd be vocally revealing the curse. So I can't see hiding it ending well for Ranma, and getting shunned by super-hot akane certainly isn't a very fun story. Or doesn't seem so to me.
Personally, I think it'd be cute to see Akane being a little less fearful/friendly about it. Instead of just being overwhelmed by Ranma, she got some hits in, and Ranma had been really helpful during the spar. It'd be cute if Akane dragged Ranma-chan to the baths herself, since they're both real sweaty from Ranma helping her train for a while (instead of it being a quick overwhelm). Ranma might give some half-hearted protests but if Akane is actually holding his hand and smiling at him, I think he'd be too on cloud nine to realize the danger until too late. Of course, in this one, Akane has experienced sudden body changing magic too. Sure, she could be harsh, sudden and violent, running broken-hearted... or she could be sympathetic, wondering if it was a surprise to Ranma too. That'd be a very cute take on her :). Of course, him being too stunned by seeing her in the bath to grope her, giving her a bit of confidence unintentionally could be fun...though I think her super-sexiness is being played up a little too high (though not unfunly) :3
It could give a real different tone as well to the fiancee scene. Instead of Ranma waking up unconscious, they come out and encounter it together. Nabiki could push it, if you wanted Ranma comedy angles, or actually Akane could offer just as a trial period, since they'd been getting along and perhaps Nabiki suggests having a clear fiancee would really help her out when she went back to school. Because otherwise she's gonna get more than swarmed there.
Basically though, it seems the less friction that's going on between the two mains here, the more room there is for Akane's amazing sexiness to be played up into funny scenes. If it wanders into 'Ranma rehash, but just Akane is super sexy and this changes very little' that'd kind of be sad.
I could see Nabiki trying to make sure Ranma gets splashed before or regularly at school, to sell that Akane is free on the market for her business picture purposes as a funny angle. Though she can probably sell that look to anyone.
It certainly is gonna be a thing when Ukyou shows up. "Cute fiancee? Against THAT?" Not sure how Super Curvy Akane plays off against crazy Shampoo though.
*cuts off as he's getting blathery, but hopes it is some fun ideas*
I hadn't considered the possibility that Akane might believe something similar happened to Ranma as happened to her. I like this take quite a bit. And you're right, in that it should avoid the trap that a lot of fanfiction falls into (including my own work) of simply rehashing the series without actually exploring the effects the alteration to the work would have.
DeleteI do think the two of them won't actually do anything, shall we say, intimate for a long time in this thread.
Anyway. I'm seeing this one going something like...
1: Akane drags Ranma off to the bath, and manages it because Ranma's too lost in the close contact to really think things through.
2: The change occurs, and while Akane is shocked at first she immediately leaps to the wrong conclusion. Ranma scrambles out of the bath and douses himself in cold water, and faces the wall after the period of shock wears off.
3: The engagement bit. Nabiki teases that Akane might well need to have Ranma around to keep the guys from getting *really* enthusiastic with her, and she reluctantly agrees this is a good idea. Ranma would prefer to be actually engaged to her, but decides this is good enough for now. Or mistakenly interprets the situation to mean that Akane likes him the way he likes her.
And the very next episode after that should have the two of them heading off to school together. Perhaps with Ranma showing off in an attempt to impress his new fiancee? Ah, that can wait until I update this one again.
Heh, well, I think Ranma not getting the short end of the stick here with engagement seems nicer. I mean, Akane was going to get shoved into an engagement anyway, but here it's a protection from an enthusiastic kuno too. Why wouldn't she at least acknowledge accepting it in public? It's not like she expects to have a shotgun wedding and equally she's not in a great place to shout the parents down with anger anyway.
DeleteSo, sleepily what I'm saying is why have it be some partial engagement thing. Nabiki can handle the 'you can dump him anytime if it doesn't work' idea on her later. Or Kasumi could.
Nabiki: "If you go to school like that, Kuno will have bribed Dad into engaging you to him before lunch time."
DeleteHmmm... Nabiki's going to be the wildcard here. She'll find a way to exploit the situation. Which may include finding out the hows and whys of the change.
DeleteAlso a wildcard, the power behind the change, which is currently left vague.
Heh, I've got no cleverness to add on Asuka WP. The original was such a wide-changing set.
ReplyDeleteAsuka certainly is gonna frustrate herself though. I mean, just getting in her Evangelion makes the angels run away. She's gonna be kept from engaging in all but the worst cases since they do have to kill the angels I think?
Certainly it'd transform all stall for time bits though. Just her getting in the cockpit would give plenty of time.
I'm sorry, but the mental imagery of the Angels running away the moment Asuka enters her cockpit is just too funny for me. I'm imagining them sort of doing the kind of mad scramble away you'd see in Loony Tunes or something similar. Tripping up as they go in their desperation to flee!
DeleteAnyway, this one is likely to focus on what Asuka's up to... and I'll probably get to it last of the three, so there's a little more time to think about it.
Interesting discussion…
DeleteCursed Joketsuzoku: I quite like the idea for how things would play out at the village. A little less into the suggestion about events in Nerima, but that would be for later.
Curvy Akane: If anyone thinks Akane's "super-sexiness is being played up a little too high," they ought to refer back to the establishing episode for Waking Up with Curves. If anything, I think her attractiveness here is actually still being understated a bit.
So…the two of them would get along better, but the engagement would sort of be less real than in canon? What I mean is that Ranma would consider it real but Akane would just be going along with it in theory to help deflect attention at school? Or am I misreading that part?
And I do agree that it's probably better if Akane's attractiveness is generally played for humorous effect more than for tension or even hawtness.
Asuka WP: I had to re-read, as all I remembered was that it involved a variant of "spine-injection Shinji." Asuka commenting on a recording of the first battle sounds good, along with maybe a bit more of her doings.
Tuatara:
DeleteI agree...and yet, a situation where every character is jumping Akane instantly certainly makes it hard for having a fun situations rather than a single amusing scene (or a crazy Blonde 1/2 fleeing). Compare with the Fate with Curves which is significantly underplaying it, but also providing a very amusing tale while doing so and keeping the feel right.
But yeah, I boo at a fake fianceeship, both on the Why would the dad's go for that? and the Well, sucks to be Ranma not even being on a remotely even keel with Akane.
You think the Fate thread is amusing? I mean, I guess there have been a few grin-inducing moments here and there, but it seems like a pretty serious-minded thread to me. But yes, it's a tone that's appropriate for the source material.
DeleteBut I actually don't really understand why what you described would be bad for Curvy Akane. How is that not humorous? Just because everyone would find her desirable doesn't mean everyone's actually going to be pursuing her. Isn't each individual character's response to that attraction a potential source of more crazy hijinks? If not, then what am I missing?
And yeah, I'm still hoping this doesn't turn into Akane essentially using Ranma as a "beard" of sorts, as that would be kind of a bummer.