Saturday, November 24, 2018

Comic 751 -- Saving Maxwell Mah - Part Two

Hey guys, early post! Owing to vacation plans, it makes sense for me to get this online now.

For best results in a riddle game...

http://www.talesfromthevault.com/thunderstruck/comic751.html


... make sure both sides really have to have the same cultural frame of reference. Otherwise, things can get a bit wacky.

Many thanks to reader "janedotx" on the message board for alerting me to the fact that I didn't manage to transfer my old fanfic over to my new website. Whoops! For those of you who haven't seen it, I wrote a story called "Relentless: A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic" some years back. If you're a fan of the anime or manga. (or even if you're just familiar with the original, I guess), you might get a kick out of it.

Ranma 1/2 (by Rumkio Takahashi) is somewhat tough to explain if you don't know what it is. The central premise involves a macho young martial artist who is "cursed" to turn into a girl when he is hit with cold water, and changes back to a boy when hit by hot water. Other people in the series have similar curses that transform them into animals. It's zany martial arts comedy, basically, but it was written in a time when transgender awareness was lower than it is today, so I'm not sure how well it has aged.

Nor am I sure how well my own contribution to the Ranma Fanfic lore has aged, for that matter. The anime and manga versions of Ranma 1/2 were not rigorous about maintaining a shared continuity, and since "Relentless" draws on both, it is particularly un-rigorous. The same can be said of its editing. But you might find something to enjoy in there anyway.

Cheers, everyone...

8 comments:

janedotx said...

SWEET.

You know, I first read "Relentless" when I was in college? High school? It's been a while, and I saw some Ranma at a library and I picked it up, and someone on the Ranma subreddit mentioned your fic, and then I tracked it down on the Internet Archive.

Honestly, it's _better_ than I remembered. I thought you gave Ryoga a really wonderful character arc, the martial arts was all kickass, you gave Shampoo a great arc, same with Akane, and the ending was on point.

You're a storyteller, dude, a good one, and Thunderstruck proves you've got your own voice, too.

Terranovan said...

I think that the sphinx deliberately gave one of the most famous - and therefore easiest - riddles it knew because it wanted the people who annoyed it to be petrified. Am I right to think that it's out of earshot of the music box? And that the other statue is Max? (Also, Aegis and/or Medusa's head seems like a useful thing to add to the toolbox if the dragon's willing to part with it or unable to keep it).

Grayson Towler said...

Hi Douglas,
You're right that they're out of earshot of the music box, and the identity of the other statue!

As for the Sphinx's riddle, she got sent to the Exile World at a time when that riddle was considerably more fresh. As the Dwarves that Sharon encountered earlier hinted, the residents of the Exile World don't get the same sense of time passing as residents of the "normal" world do. Maybe she thought it would still work! Or maybe, as you suggested, she knows that anyone who guesses the riddle is in for trouble of a worse sort anyway.

In any case, she didn't have any chance of sorting out Sharon's home-brewed riddle.

Grayson Towler said...

Thanks, janetdotx. That means a lot to me. One of my little psychological tics as a writer is I go through periodic spells of thinking everything I put on the page is the worst imaginable garbage. Most of me knows this is some strange self-sabotaging inner voice that I'm best off ignoring, but once in a while that voice gets its turn on the mike and won't shut up.

Not saying that to fish for praise, just to say that genuine fan appreciation is always welcome.

I'm still pretty pleased with "Relentless," all things considered. In addition to the arcs you talked about, I was always happy with the way Nabiki's storyline grew and spun after I got started. That was fun to write.

Deltarno said...

Yes, relentless is back up! Many thanks, I thought is was lost to the ages.
Love the riddle contest, and it seems as though Sharon forgot that our madam of the head loves to set these things in threes. Hopefully they can bring the sphinx with them when they escape.

Gary Kleppe said...

Hey, I noticed that your Relentless page is still linking to my old fanfiction page. When you get a chance you might want to update your links.

http://www.garykleppe.org/fanfiction.php (general fanfic page)

http://www.garykleppe.org/?catid=13&blogid=2 (HaM, which by the way is now finished)

http://www.garykleppe.org/index.php?itemid=197 (For a Dying Friend)

Ketrus said...

Relentless is how I found about Thunderstruck, in fact. Glad to see it's still around. Thanks for all your hard work, then and now. This remains one of my favorite webcomics, and the one I simply won't shut up about whenever the topic comes up in conversation.

Grayson Towler said...

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the new links! I've updated the "Relentless" page.
GRT