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Climbing A Ladder of Questions (Patreon)

Published:
2023-12-02 03:02:40
Edited:
2023-12-02 03:04:16
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Similarly, since I just posted a Climbing Together chapter, there are a few questions I thought about bringing up here:

1. How do people think about tournament arcs? Personally I loathe them with a fiery passion, but here, with the crossovers involved and the motivations of Geese and other baddies, they… kind of make sense. Too much sense for me to ignore. So I am wondering how people would like me to tackle them: full-on announcer POV watching the fights including the main characters, or just concentrating on a few fights and speeding through it, while showing more about what is going on behind the scenes? Should I embrace the slapstick comedy in some of these fights, or keep them all serious?

2. Character deaths. I am thinking of killing off several characters as the story goes that in canon live… mainly because no one really dies in Capcom LOL. One of which is Guile. Another of whom is Blanka. I… eh. I just don’t like his game backgrounds or how he has been portrayed in any of the media. I remember he was once a victim of Bison’s bioengineering ( think in the OLD Street Fighter cartoon), but that has apparently been set by the wayside since. Similarly, I think Sagat might be in for the chop, after a good redeeming arc. A few others, both good and bad. Basically, I am wondering how deadly the fights can get.

3. Should I introduce Herb, Pantyhose Taro, Saffron and Ryu Kumon into the story? Unless I have Ryoga run into someone who can train him, they are the only canon Ranma characters who will continue to be a threat to Ranma and the others after the next two arcs, by which time Ranma, Shampoo and Mai will be far stronger than they are in canon. And yes, that includes Mai. But there are problems with introducing each of them:

a. Ryu Kumon is an asshole. His skill set is super destructive, sure, but I don’t know if he brings enough to the party to matter.

b. Taro means I’d need to have Happy near Ranma. Mai and Shampoo would not approve… or enjoy that at all. Happy will make an appearance eventually, but how much of one is up in the air. He’s comedic relief, he lacks the killing instinct or desire for power of the real villains in the world, so it doesn’t make sense for him to stick around for long, even if he would provide a good opponent for Ranma and co.

c. Herb has no reason to search for Ranma and come into conflict with him. But he’s an arrogant dick who could easily be sent by his father to prove the superiority of their folk in any tournament. Good or bad is up in the air.

d. …Without Ranma searching for a cure, would Ryoga on his own (with maybe Genma and whoever else has been cursed) be enough to force Saffron to interact with the world behind his people’s lands? Saffron’s a great enemy, who I’ve never used except as background. So would seeing him compete with some of the other villains for who will dominate the underworld, and from there the world be interesting, or does he not bring enough to be interesting.

4. What do people think of Ryu, Ken and (maybe) Chun Li joining Ranma and his group as they go around the world? I am thinking that’s too many characters, but it would force me to bring a larger number of villains together to deal with them, pushing the main plot forward faster.

5. Cammy. Still struggling with what to do with her in the long term. I initially thought of Ranma and his crew saving her from getting brainwashed, but now I don’t think the timing will add up. So should she be one of the Killer Bs and saved from it? Should she be one of many clones? Should she be a British agent captured and turned? Or should I just not bother much with her, since I already have Mai set to join the duo?

6. I have recently discovered the Street Fighter X Tekken story line. Thoughts?  A part of me enjoys it a lot, but other parts go… no… that’s not going to work with this story.

I may have more questions over the next few days. Stay safe and have a nice weekend everyone!

Comments

averagejoe32

The Blanka experiment thing was a movie thing that the cartoon decided to use as well. Its just never been a thing in the games.

vimesenthusiast

gotcha. But since I'm going with the anime version fo Ryu and Ken (deaging them mainly) I can use other bits form other fandoms easily enough.

Netveiwer

Ryu, the only reason for him to show is if you want ranma to learn the two sealed techniques. I always like the vacuum blades when they pop out in ranma fanfiction but there are other options with how you've set up the story so far. Herb on the other hand I'm hoping he'll be a more steady rival. Hopefully his character isn't or atleast stays too dickish if he makes a appearance because I like how he has developed in Effect too much. Taro can pound sand.

Stephen Grote

1. Shorter tournament fights focused on a few of our leads, a little comedy in the fights since that is an aspect of the various parts of the crossover. Otherwise, why have people like Rufus? 2. Go for character deaths, but not just willy-nilly. IDC about Blanka, but please make Guile's death a little special. Also if our main cast is going to kill someone I would like to see them deal with it even if it boils down to, "It was him or me". 3. A. Ryu Kumon showing up would be okay presumably once Ranma starts making waves in the tournaments, since the Saotome name would be a trigger. Naturally, since Ranma is stronger than Canon Ryu Kumon will probably not be an issue and could be killed off without too much damage to the story. B. I don't think the story would benefit from having Happy and Taro bursting onto the scene. Maybe an epilogue about Happy hearing about a member of his school winning the tournament, if Ranma wins, and going to find out who's representing his school since the two idiots definitely couldn't have won. C. I think making Herb a contestant to prove himself is a good idea, but at a later point in the tournament. D. Bison drawing out Saffron with a plan to backstab him later might work. After all, these evil overlord types all know each other and routinely call up their "friends" to help with their plans. 4. I haven't read chapter 7 yet, but if Ryu, Ken, and Chun Li join the group and push it past six members I think that would be too many. Six people is a little unwieldy but manageable. 5. Up to you on this one. If you are adding her to the relationship I suggest letting her be rescued in some way so that Shampoo and Mai can pick on Ranma for his Prince Charming complex. 6. I think we are good without adding more craziness from Tekken. It might be interesting to do Ranma and Tekken later, but with parts from King of Fighters already I think adding Tekken will cause story bloat.

averagejoe32

1. I think tournament arcs a tool like anything else, but they are best when the pov characters have something at stake so "concentrating on a few fights and speeding through it, while showing more about what is going on behind the scenes." Though they do let an author show off plenty of styles in a relatively exciting way. 2. Killing off characters is fine as long as its done for the proper effect. Considering you've done it before I would love to see you give some of the characters a worthy death. 3. I'd vote for having more Ranma characters show up, even if only for a couple chapters. For Herb and Saffron though it'd be pretty easy to tangle them up in things. Just have one of the bosses do their generic power research thing, just in Jusenkyo might draw in the Musk or the Phoenix people in. You could even have Saffron abducted in his kid form by Shadaloo to bring in Kiima. 4. Sounds like a little too many characters to give them all screen time, though given how much you write it might be possible. 5. I'd go with the one of many clone options, just to hightlight the Shadaloo's mad sceintist credentials.

zagan

1. Yes, focusing only on the most important fight and background event should work well. 2. The occasional death should be fine. It could really up the ante. 3. The cast for this crossover is already pretty big I don't think they're necessary. Perhaps one appearance of Herb during a tournament? 4. Again that's a lot of character. For a brief period perhaps, not more than two or three chapters. 5. No comment.

W1lliam

1. regarding the tournament(s) i say show all fights if applicable, ranma loves learning new styles so a tournament would be a treasure trove of new moves and techniques to discover and try to work into his personal style, yet at the same time this does slow story down to a crawl and a tournament is best used to introduce new characters, so show a few fights of various rounds featuring fighters that will be important in some way, even if not name dropped plus the fights of the main characters, and focus on the background stuff 2. personally i dont think most fights end up lethal, but a few deaths should be fine, some may be accidental, and some deliberate, just be careful of who you kill cause characters kiled cannot be used at a later time, so make sure their arcs of that are finished before they end up on the chopping block, though i wouldnt mind if genma ended up dying either as a consequece of his actions or in some kind of redemption (or even Both!) 3a. Ryu Kumon, if introduced should be introduced early, the yama-sen-ken and umi-sen-ken despite their dubious origin are still very useful techniques, and with Genma curreny at Ranma's place, this may be one of the few times where Genma can offload his troubles onto Ranma with some success. and Ranma may be willing to help if he manages to extract a promise from Genma to teach the techniques to Ranma (paid up front ofc, Ranma should know by now that Genma will never pay any debts, or honor promises after the service is completed) in exchange for Ranma helping him with Ryu, so he/she can get some useful stuff out of. 3b. Taro? no if he makes an appearance it would probably be best as a cameo in something like a tournament. 3c. Herb seems like he/she would be decent recurring character, and if played right he/she could be a decent friend and/or rival, especially if he/she gets his stick puled out of his/her hindside, that said, it would probably best to not introduce him/her until his/her modelock is gone. since herb is the greatest with ki form the ranma series bar, possibly, ranma him/herself 3d. if you think you can make it work? go for it. saffron isnt seen often imo, only mentioned, and he would make for a great excuse to return to the Jusenkyo area and shampoo's home village 4. maybe as regular but temporary companions and allies but not permanent travelmates. only juggle what you can and if you cant juggle you main group then that would be no good for the story itself 5. I do not have enough knowledge on the fighting game side of this fic to comment on it 6. I say, take what you can, ignore the rest, if we wanted canon, we'd be playng the games or be reading the manga

Novus

1. I, too, loathe them with a fiery passion. Tournament arcs tend to drag down a story horribly. That said…the crossover your using is literally nothing but a series of them, for the most part. I’d say the best way to make them not suck is speed-running the critical fights, maybe showing snapshots of a few others, but not going into blow-for-blow fight scenes very often. Focus more on the interactions of characters AROUND the tournament, rather than all the fights. That sort of thing. 2. Honestly, I’m all for some character death in this one. Given how bloody the series(s) are, the only reason no one dies is because they wanted them in the next game. I wouldn’t go overboard with it, but a few here and there are probably outright useful for this particular crossover. 3. Please no. The fewer Ranma characters introduced the better. Ranma himself is a great character to work with as a base, but even he needs adjustment (which you always do) to take seriously. Most of the Ranma cast are…well, suitable for the slapstick marital arts genre Ranma ½ actually was. Frankly, the only one I’d say is worth bringing anywhere near is, though I’m loathe to say it, actually Happosai. Not CANON Happosai, mind you. But an adjusted one that’s closer to the pattern you’ve set in the latest release for Jubei. A pervert, but one who is actually a serious martial artist with a code under it. I’ve actually seen fics that do that with Happosai, turning him into a bit more of a mentor figure. (A long long time ago when I read pure Ranma fics, something I haven’t do in at least a decade, probably.) He showed signs of it in canon that can be worked with, particularly trying to help a few children here and there. Even he would be a stretch, only valuable if you wanted to get Ranma more Anything Goes style training. 4. I like Ryu a lot and he’d probably be an amazingly good influence on Ranma. Ken…I’m a lot less fond of. They don’t actually need to be a set, though. Ryu, if I remember correctly, did quite a bit of the wandering martial artist thing, where Ken didn’t really. Chun Li…yes. All the yeses. And not JUST because she’s hot. She’s just a flat out good character...though…maybe fewer of the yeses than my initial reaction? If I remember right, she’s literally an Interpol officer who might not exactly be alright with Ranma and Shampoo’s attitude of the law being an optional thing. I think she was only, like, eighteen when she became a detective. So it's probably already happened... 5. Cammy. Hmmmm, I always thought Cammy got a bit…screwed over. I’d honestly hoped you were planning the rescue idea. If you don’t think you can make the timing work on that though…why not intermix her with Chun Li? She became a British Mi6 agent, right? Wiggle the timeline around and you could shift her to work with Chun Li’s whole Interpol period. Maybe. Gonna be honest here and admit I’m far less familiar with the Street Fighter lore than I am with most of your crossover choices. 6. …I know almost nothing about that story line. So nothing to say on this one ;-).

Darth Bayes

1. Well, why do you hate tournament arcs? I feel like the obvious answer here is "do a tournament arc, but without any of the things you hate about them." Maybe a way to approach this is to consider the purpose--what do you want the tournament arc to do? I think most tournament-arc-makers want some of: (i) showing off important characters and techniques and factions, (ii) showing fights that the writers and audience enjoy, e.g. someone hated getting beaten up, (iii) setting up future plots and doing exposition via fighting. (One nice feature is that tournament arcs can give an excuse to bring together people from disparate regions it you want to establish things.) So...pick scenes (and ways to write scenes) that you think are good, easy to write, interesting/entertaining, and add something to the story? 3d. Saffron is an interesting character. I suppose one possibility is him learning about modern technology (via Ryoga or just a random hiker)--he seems to care somewhat about his people and it seems like he could conclude that they need modern technology, so he's going to figure it out, and the tournament is an easy way to get money and find out who to beat up and rob? (Would you like the tournament arc better if Saffron (or someone) interrupts it to declare himself king of the world and demand obeisance, or tries to kill M.Bison and take over Shadloo or something?) 4. It would probably be too many characters. What does "it would force me to bring a larger number of villains together to deal with them, pushing the main plot forward faster" mean? If you want e.g. some villains to think Ranma's group is stronger and more dangerous than they are, that doesn't seem to require anything special. You could also have some Ranma characters team up with those three, if you're looking for some interesting way to use them and have all of those characters get stronger. The two groups teaming up at some point (temporarily, but observers might not know that) could also serve as a catalyst for the villain thing you are considering. 6. Depending on how/when you want to end the story, you could decide to pull in higher-level enemies and forces, like Ingrid or Necalli and his gods. Something like the Street Fighter x Tekken storyline could be usable as foreshadowing? I guess the real question is do you want to write that and do you think it would be useful for plot/character development/killing off characters/w/e.

Hiryo

1. Tournament Arcs I for one don’t loathe the tournament arcs, only the poorly done ones. Example: Dragon Ball. You can have funny moments, introductions of what is to come next, background interactions, only show the important stuff, observing new techniques/styles, showing in the first tournament how it should be and the one after to utterly be broken or what changed in the time from the first and the next. Besides this, I like slapstick, the important stuff and background going all at once. Even in “The Eminence in Shadow” where the tournament so fun with how that was shown. With reading of only POV or only sticking to one thing is the death of the tournament or even the fanfic chapter. Always be unpredictable and keeping the freshness. Of course, there should be serious sections too! I like when there are stakes in all kind of shapes for the person attending the tournament and thus making it so interesting and fun! Please keep in mind, too long a tournament arc is a bad tournament arc, since your story isn’t primarily about tournaments but the Journey, Shadowloo etc…! 2. Character Deaths Well with Bison there and keeping on living, along with keeping the characters playable, that’s usual the thing for each Beat ‘em Up game out there that has a continuation. I would like to keep it rarely and show the character a fitting/deserving death. However, keep in mind, that with those dead, there wouldn’t be a redemption for them, when they fight against a more evil foe with another that could have been killed. Another thing, at least for Martials Arts Masters is that killing is frowned upon and thus Akuma and Evil Ryu happened. Among with wanting to get them back to the light side. Well, there might be a massacre by real evil ones, when backed into a corner and that might change as well how the regular people themselves see martial artists or organize against such. I wouldn’t mind Akane, maybe Ryoga and Mousse though. Especially Akane running against something that she can’t handle… Wow, Natsume becomes somehow the safety pillar for Soun. XD 3. Introduction of Herb, Pantyhose Taro, Saffron and Ryu Kumon a) Ryu Kumon ==> Well if it’s about the Umi-Sen-Ken and Yama-Sen-Ken could be one thing, but just that due him being seen in the tournament would be enough of him to seek out Ranma and know where he is. Alternately, you could have Nodoka finding the scrolls in her house (in canon she did use them as a letter envelope) and thus give Ranma these for either a promise to call her and not lose him or a promise for her to lord over him, depending how you want to handle Nodoka from there. Also Ryu is a good choice for Shadowloo’s troupers, offer power and he will take it. Especially without giving Ranma the promise to seal the techniques as in canon. b) Taro ==> He only goes after Happosai, so the less is seen about Happosai, the less we see him. I’m more likely thinking that Taro should happen after the second tournament, when Happosai is out. Maybe due what is happening and Ranma nearly leaving the Anything Goes, one could see it as such and gets more serious as a teacher, whereby he surely cannot help himself to try to cop a feel of all females. Jubei and Happy together again is a nightmare for all females! c) Herb ==> I think that either Bison or such go after all the legends/myths and get to the land of the Musk and ‘invite’ them to fight in the tournament ‘to have fun,’ while either destroying/stealing something important. With that Herb will be there, and after getting taking down some notches of his ‘princely pride’ will be nice to talk to or great rival then. ;) d) Saffron ==> Saffron via Kiima hunted after Plum, who had the map of Jusendo to get to the origin spring. This could be one of your angles. ==> Same as with Herb, Saffron will be most likely be visited by Bison and invited as well, however that could be with the second tournament, after learning more about the Phoenix tribe via the Musk. Here will be most likely some Amazons delegated to the second tournament as well, to hunt for husbands. XD ==> Well they have to leave the kiss of death/marriage out of when they fight within the tournament. Alternately, in the second tournament it could be as well Rugal to have the tournament held at Phoenix Mountain? XD Or at least ‘invite’ Saffron. XD XD XD Most likely Bison/Rugal get the map or staves for incentive. 4. Ryu, Ken and (maybe Chun Li joining Ranma and his group If, then Ryu and Ken, Chun Li only on the on/off when she has time to leave Interpol. Therefore, I’m for it. However, I think that should be after the tournament, when something with Shadowloo or on the same scale bad happens, like the Ranma movies and afterwards that these three part again until the next Murphy’s curveball. If she joins, she would be, like many other female, after Ryu too. XD I would go for after RanmaXShampooXMai got into their relationship! Not everyone has a need to be in every event and could be elsewhere for the time being. 5. Cammy I personally liked the British Agent ‘brainfucked’ version of Cammy. Use the 911 formula for her? She has the potential to be their (Ranma & Co) direct line to the government and get things done, which they couldn’t by themselves or are as ‘restricted’ as Chun Li. Also the government can give the information forwards Ranma & Co. I don’t think her joining Ranma as a girlfriend would be great, however, with your writing I can be convinced of that. ;) Potential good ally, as well someone who is hunted by Shadowloo. 6. Street Fighter X Tekken I for one think there are enough big stories there and shouldn’t be included. More if you want to do a Ranma X Street Fighter X Tekken crossover, then should be done in a separate setting. KOF is simply too big for all of that. So far, including the Devil and Angel part, and everything that it entails, seems not to fit in that scenario. However, if you include Tekken, then you would have to include Dead or Alive too.

link01742

When it comes to Character deaths I am okay with it, but I would want Guile to live because Charlie (his best friend) dies so Guile can escape Bison. Having Guile die lessens Charlie's sacrifice, having him forced to retire and train the next generation, which is kind of what happened to Might Guy in Naruto (handicapped but a teacher) plus Guile I think has a wife and kid and I don't want them to lose that

Bryan Brown

1. Mix up how you handle the fights. Some should be serious and some comedic. Some glossed over and some concentrated on. Some should invole the main characters some should show the hero of another story. Having the same thing over and over is what makes tournament arcs boring. There are also intresting ways to show a peak behind the scene without ingoring the fights. One of the best tournment scenes I rember reading was two characters talking about something completely different while in the back ground the announcer was doing a play by play of the current fight that was inserted in between the dialoug paragraphs in 1-2 sentence blurbs. Another good one was a character was watching the tourment in an out of the way spot and another caught up to them to talk. Short fight descriptions framed the conversation. 2. Making the whole thing into a blood sport would really change the feel of both Street Fighter and Rama 1/2. Not to mention at least half of the street fighter cast would stop patcipating and attack the tournment organizers in mass the minute someone said "Finish Him". Now if its just making the top end of the tournment so dangerous that people die, get crippled, and put in rehab for months/years then okay. Though you should probably lean towards the third with only a handful of the first two. With Ki Healing being something you can learn subconsiously by extereme training most of the fighters probably have at least the Dresden wizard version of it. Add in defensive and toughness training for all of those styles that don't focus on doging and the dogey guys going down quick if thier oppent can get a good soild blow in, I would say if limbs, organs, or the head aren't missing then most fighters will recover eventually. Sagat did when Ryu almost killed him in the first tournment. 3. With the exception of Happy I would say that these guys should only shjow up if they have thier own reason to join the tournment/Shadowloo. it would be ammusing to have them in a different bracket of the tournment and so they never fight Rama, only haunt the background. I would think that Gemma and Soun would direct Happy at Rama once he got unsealed. Happy would probably seek out the run away student and not go away until Rama manged to earn mastery of Anything Goes. Of course with the work Rama is putting in on Ki techniques completely unconnected with anything goes he might already qualifiy by the time they meet. What Happy would think of Gemma dilibertly not teach Rama Ki might send him straight back to Nermia. You have set up Gemma to train Royga to fight Ramma in the last chapter so that is an option if you want Royga involed. 4. If Ryu gets involed then Ken would get sucked in eventually. You also set up for Chun Li and Rama to meet and I can even see why she might start traveling with them. So this works. The issue is extereme essiclation but if that's what you want for a shorter story go for it. Rama is very good at shark jumping and you good at writing him so it could work. 5. I think the biggest problem with harem stories that is that harems make less sence with each person added and people get added for no reason. So unless you have a good reaason to add Cammey there isn't a reason to bother much with her. Have someone else save her. I will be waiting to see what happen with Chun Li. Personally I'm hoping she ends up with Ryu if you have them all travel with Rama. 6. Don't know the storyline, but you are already blending two worlds so take what you want and toss the rest.

Alec Fowler

Cammy is by far my favorite street fighter char i'd really like her to join up and any of the options are good there is a lot of ways togo with her

Hiryo

I love your points there. ;)