Ranma ½ An epiphany I've had

[Dubrichius]

As a fair number of people on this forum are aware, I have some very strong feelings regarding the Ranma/Ukyo pairing. After spending most of today in deep thought, I believe I have worked out the reasoning for it. To explain it, I need to provide some information about myself. A few years ago, during the second last year of high school, I met a certain young woman who was in the same year as me. Over the course of that year, I began to, on a deeply unconscious level, want to spend more time in her company. It wasn't until shortly after the new year, literally only a few days, that I became consciously aware of my growing attraction to her.

Unfortunately, I am a painfully shy individual (in part due to the fact that I've always felt like I was the Arnold Rimmer of real life,) and consequently I was unable to vocalize my feeling for her. I then spent my entire final year in high school with an almost physically painful crush for her. To this day I still find myself thinking about her, which means either I'm genuinely in love with her, or my psyche is tormenting me over my inability to act on my feelings.

Now, some of you may be wondering what this has to do with Ukyo, and I'll get to it right now. I basically saw Ukyo's feelings for Ranma as being a slightly warped reflection of how I felt for the young woman I mentioned above. In a twisted form of transference, I began to use stories where Ukyo gains Ranma's affection as a way to vicariously live out my fantasies.

Unfortunately, how I feel about Ukyo has since warped into something weird and confusing. I now think about her in three different ways: 1. As a reflection of who I am, and how I feel; 2. as the sister I never had; and 3. as the very woman who stole my heart, all those years ago. Because of this, I feel that my ability to write fan fiction has dropped sharply, as evidenced by the very dodgy addition to add to the Pigtailed Time Loops thread.

*sigh* I suppose I'm only putting this up here because I felt I needed to get it off my chest.

 

[Hawk]

You base writing off your life but don't make fanfiction your life.
She is fake, however the character archetype is not. Of course these characters are made to connect to people.

 

[goldenarms]

As a fair number of people on this forum are aware, I have some very strong feelings regarding the Ranma/Ukyo pairing. After spending most of today in deep thought, I believe I have worked out the reasoning for it. To explain it, I need to provide some information about myself. A few years ago, during the second last year of high school, I met a certain young woman who was in the same year as me. Over the course of that year, I began to, on a deeply unconscious level, want to spend more time in her company. It wasn't until shortly after the new year, literally only a few days, that I became consciously aware of my growing attraction to her.

Unfortunately, I am a painfully shy individual (in part due to the fact that I've always felt like I was the Arnold Rimmer of real life,) and consequently I was unable to vocalize my feeling for her. I then spent my entire final year in high school with an almost physically painful crush for her. To this day I still find myself thinking about her, which means either I'm genuinely in love with her, or my psyche is tormenting me over my inability to act on my feelings.

Now, some of you may be wondering what this has to do with Ukyo, and I'll get to it right now. I basically saw Ukyo's feelings for Ranma as being a slightly warped reflection of how I felt for the young woman I mentioned above. In a twisted form of transference, I began to use stories where Ukyo gains Ranma's affection as a way to vicariously live out my fantasies.

Unfortunately, how I feel about Ukyo has since warped into something weird and confusing. I now think about her in three different ways: 1. As a reflection of who I am, and how I feel; 2. as the sister I never had; and 3. as the very woman who stole my heart, all those years ago. Because of this, I feel that my ability to write fan fiction has dropped sharply, as evidenced by the very dodgy addition to add to the Pigtailed Time Loops thread.

*sigh* I suppose I'm only putting this up here because I felt I needed to get it off my chest.

Good. Now write about it.

Something about reliving those times and how you WOULD have handled things seems to relieve some tension. It's partly how people in the movie business come up with awesome characters and such -- most of it is based off their idealized selves, or the the guy that would do what they're afraid of doing.

Just look at it as just a stepping stone instead of a problem, and that should skyrocket you past this "block"

 

[Hawk]

I'm amazed at the differences in the last post compared to mine.

Just to get this out of the way, I do not mean to be dismissive at all nor do I sharply disagree with the view.

 

[goldenarms]

I'm amazed at the differences in the last post compared to mine.

Just to get this out of the way, I do not mean to be dismissive at all nor do I sharply disagree with the view.

It's understood. I just have a common link with this kind of thing. Not so much about a certain person, just a general thing. I find personally, it's a relief to express it in a scenario of some sort. Not just past events but possibly today's features.

You really have to accept things that had happened, then work them out so that you will have a more positive mindstate to work from. If you're consumed by despair and negative vibes associated towards a particular thing, you're just going to grow more of that fruit until you change the root and cultivate a new plant.

So, it's not big deal about the difference between our posts. I just seem to have a more personal view about his situation, that's all.

 

[Ezit Meti]

... You consider yourself the Arnold Rimmer of real life?

That's the part that really worries me, right there.


The rest? Not at all. We all base our preferences at least partially on our real life experiences. The realisation that this is the case may well force you to re-examine those preferences.

In which case, you might well decide to take a closer look at exactly why else you might prefer Ukyo. Do this. It is helpful. Either you will change your mind, or - as I believe you will - you will realise that there are other reasons to prefer Ukyo over the others.

This might actually be a blessing, because this realisation might be putting you into a position I wish would happen to more people in the fandoms, regardless of their favourite pairings. Think about why you like them. Why other people don't like it.

And once you have carefully considered those, as I did a few months back, you might well find all those arguments about pairings and suchlike to be just water off a duck's back. Once you come out the other side, you might well have an easier time writing than before.

In short, this isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing.