kkslider5552000 wrote:I think some of the scenes and parts I've mentioned before might've ruined Ran's character for some, but I'm willing to see her given another chance to be interesting and better written.
The problems many people have with Detective Conan right now—not just Ran—are still problems because Gosho hasn't addressed them, yet. There's still time to course-correct for him.
Ran has been without a suspicion arc for 40 volumes—people are waiting to see what comes of it, just like with the characters introduced in the Bourbon arc. Tired of waiting? Not me, but I completely understand why others are.
Ran still hasn't responded to Shinichi's confession—I think there are a few telling moments related to this:
1) When Sonoko asks about Ran's reaction, at the time, assuming it was "Oh, my gosh! No way, no way! I can't believe it! I've been in love with you the entire time, too!" Ran's reaction to Sonoko's imitation of said assumed reaction? "W-why would I have to say something like that?!"
This relates to the undercurrents of suspicion she's carried throughout the Bourbon arc—it's as if she thinks Shinichi knows how she feels, already... like she's thinking of her confession to Shinichi/Conan when they "first met." (Volume 72, File 5/File 756)
2) The next thing Ran says is "Do you think I should have?"
3) In Masumi's introduction case, Sonoko explodes at Ran for still not having responded to the confession. "WHAT THE FLIPPING HECK RAN!? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEN?" Ran's response? "B-But I never really had the chance..." even after she had just mailed him about her victory in the karate championship.
Ran appears to be unsure of how to respond... perhaps her answer to Shinichi will not be the one he expects. We'll have to see where Gosho takes this.
irishock wrote:found this gem
Once again, too simplistic—TV Tropes description of Mary Sue: "The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favorite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series.
In other words, the term 'Mary Sue' is generally slapped on a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature."
Ignoring that this a fan-fiction term, Ran is not treated like a "True Companion" by all the characters, and other characters aren't awestruck cheerleaders when it comes to her. Shinichi/Conan has been deceiving her from the beginning, essentially believing that her knowledge of his condition will spell doom for the two of them and everyone tied to them, and he hasn't been punished by circumstance or other characters for this kind of behavior. Shinichi/Conan is Detective Conan's problem solver—Ran hasn't even solved as many mysteries as her father has, and she is completely oblivious to the Black Organization. While she is kind, compassionate, and forgiving, there have been times where she has used her karate prowess full-force against strangers (someone in the Chinatown Deja Vu case, a man she thought was her mother's lover, Subaru, Masumi) without considering the consequences beforehand. She is afraid of the supernatural, and has an average intellect.
She is not perfect, and is not treated perfectly—your standards of Mary Sue may be lower, but for me, she doesn't meet the criteria.
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.”
“Education never ends... it is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and His Last Bow
"I have decided to stick to love... hate is too great a burden to bear."
— Martin Luther King Jr. (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr)
