The Bitter End
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Bitter End |
| Author(s): | Zen |
| Date(s): | 1997 |
| Length: | |
| Genre(s): | |
| Fandom(s): | Ranma 1/2 |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | The Bitter End (offline, archived link) |
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Zen was a popular Ranma 1/2 fanfic writer on the Fanfiction_Mailing_List and generally wrote stories pairing Ranma Saotome with Ukyo Kuonji. After promising to write a story pairing Ranma and Akane Tendou, he wrote The Bitter End, in which they get married. However, rather than the happy story he'd originally intended, the fic took a darker turn when he depicted Akane as an abusive spouse while Ukyou watched, unable to stop the coming disaster. In his author's notes, he explains:
Zen started out to write an Akane gets Ranma story as the result of a promise made to Caroline Seawright - who sort of took exception to Zen's 'Ukyou deserves Ranma' bias. Zen is afraid that bias shows up in this story as well. Funny how that works.
Zen did not start out to write a darkfic... Though Zen does tend more toward serious stories than light hearted fluff most of the time, Zen never really intended for this to go down the path that it did. But, as Zen was thinking, trying to come up with some new angle from which to view the Ranma/Akane relationship, Sebastian Weinberg made a careless comment or two in the C&C of another fic that struck a chord in Zen - It helped to nail down in Zen's mind just why Ranma and Akane are *terrible* for each other.
But Zen had promised to write an Akane gets Ranma fic. So he did - and this is the result. It just turned out to be an Akane GETS Ranma fic. [1]
Impact on Fandom
"The Bitter End" raised a strong reaction in the Ranma 1/2 fandom, sparking great controversy over the accuracy of the characterizations. It inspired many fics and parodies, and other fics made both sly and obvious references to it. There were also several critiques/analyses/explanations written, such as Brian Randall's satiric reduction [2] posted on Reduced Ranma Fan Fiction of the whole affair.
Reactions and Reviews
- The Bitter End Review by Raphael See and Noriko Hirauchi (1997)
- The Bitter End: Reviews, Archived version at TV Tropes
- Topic: Ranma 1/2: The Bitter End, Archived version at Soulriders 5.0: Legend of the Unending Games
References
- ^ Author's Notes to The Bitter End (offline, archived link)
- ^ The Bitter End (offline, archived link)