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'''''The Bitter End''''' is a ''[[Ranma ½]]'' [[Continuation]] and [[Dark Fic]] written by James A. Bateman (under the name "Zen") in 1996 and 1997. After Ranma finally confesses to Akane that he loves her and resolves matters with the Amazons and Ryoga, he and Akane are wed, with Akane receiving the Saotome family sword as a wedding gift from Ranma's mother Nodoka. Their honeymoon is idyllic, but on their return to Nerima their relationship seems to revert to their earlier bickering and casual violence. Indeed, it grows ''worse''
A confused Ranma has no idea what to do. Unwilling to either leave Akane or return her escalating violence in kind, he resigns himself to simply ''accepting'' what she does to him in the hope that he can still somehow make their relationship work out. And despite advice from Ukyo, Ryoga and Akari, this hope, along with Ranma's innate pride and stubbornness, keeps him from taking ''any'' action
▲'''''The Bitter End''''' is a ''[[Ranma ½]]'' [[Continuation]] and [[Dark Fic]] written by James A. Bateman (under the name "Zen") in 1996 and 1997. After Ranma finally confesses to Akane that he loves her and resolves matters with the Amazons and Ryoga, he and Akane are wed, with Akane receiving the Saotome family sword as a wedding gift from Ranma's mother Nodoka. Their honeymoon is idyllic, but on their return to Nerima their relationship seems to revert to their earlier bickering and casual violence. Indeed, it grows ''worse'' -- Akane's anger and willingness to take it out physically on Ranma grows more extreme than it had ever been before the wedding.
As the only male in the group, Ranma's time with them does not start off easily, but eventually he is accepted. He begins teaching the group members self-defense, and takes an active role in helping some of them escape their abuse. In turn, the group eventually deduces that Akane is suffering from "rage syndrome", a mental disorder that causes her to suffer unpredictable bursts of intense fury. This elates Ranma, as he believes that this can be used to help cure Akane. Unfortunately, when Akane finds out Ranma is attending a support group for abused spouses, she flies into an indignant rage
▲A confused Ranma has no idea what to do. Unwilling to either leave Akane or return her escalating violence in kind, he resigns himself to simply ''accepting'' what she does to him in the hope that he can still somehow make their relationship work out. And despite advice from Ukyo, Ryoga and Akari, this hope, along with Ranma's innate pride and stubbornness, keeps him from taking ''any'' action -- even when Akane brutalizes him so badly he ends up in the hospital. Desperate for any way to help him, Ukyo eventually convinces Ranma to join a support group for domestic abuse victims.
Ukyo decides she has to take Ranma away from Akane for his own safety, and Ranma himself is finally willing to concede that maybe he and Akane shouldn't be married anymore. But Akane comes upon them at the moment of their decision and explodes in fury at what she interprets as final incontrovertible proof of Ranma's infidelity. In a fit of literally mindless rage she kills both Ranma and Ukyo with the Saotome family sword. When the fury leaves her, the
▲As the only male in the group, Ranma's time with them does not start off easily, but eventually he is accepted. He begins teaching the group members self-defense, and takes an active role in helping some of them escape their abuse. In turn, the group eventually deduces that Akane is suffering from "rage syndrome", a mental disorder that causes her to suffer unpredictable bursts of intense fury. This elates Ranma, as he believes that this can be used to help cure Akane. Unfortunately, when Akane finds out Ranma is attending a support group for abused spouses, she flies into an indignant rage - being told that she is mentally ill and needs psychiatric help only infuriates her. She hospitalizes Ranma again, and when he wakes up, tells him he is never to go back to the support group. By this time, both Ranma's father and his sisters-in-law have noticed how wrong Ranma and Akane's relationship is going, but none of them can bring themselves to help.
''The Bitter End'' is generally regarded as the ultimate ''Ranma'' Dark Fic, ruthlessly and relentlessly extrapolating the causes and results of comedic slapstick behavior into and through a far more realistic world than the anime depicts. It is a monumental presence in ''Ranma'' fic, and has spawned a number of both sequels and parodies. It's also singlehandedly responsible for the widespread awareness of rage disorder — also known as [[w:Intermittent explosive disorder|Intermittent explosive disorder]]
▲Ukyo decides she has to take Ranma away from Akane for his own safety, and Ranma himself is finally willing to concede that maybe he and Akane shouldn't be married anymore. But Akane comes upon them at the moment of their decision and explodes in fury at what she interprets as final incontrovertible proof of Ranma's infidelity. In a fit of literally mindless rage she kills both Ranma and Ukyo with the Saotome family sword. When the fury leaves her, the realisation of what she has done drives Akene completely over the edge. As the story ends, Akane remains committed in a mental asylum, leaving behind a saddened, fragmented group of survivors.
Upon its release, ''The Bitter End'' hit the ''Ranma'' fanfic community like a bomb, starting [[Flame War]]s and prompting several explicit sequels by other authors as well as numerous other responses ranging from [[Spamfic]]s to parodies to [[Fix Fic]]s attempting to soften the blow. The diagnosis for Rage Disorder behind the behavior of its [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] Akane became popular to the point of [[Fanon]] for several years.▼
▲''The Bitter End'' is generally regarded as the ultimate Ranma Dark Fic, ruthlessly and relentlessly extrapolating the causes and results of comedic slapstick behavior into and through a far more realistic world than the anime depicts. It is a monumental presence in ''Ranma'' fic, and has spawned a number of both sequels and parodies. It's also singlehandedly responsible for the widespread awareness of rage disorder — also known as [[w:Intermittent explosive disorder|Intermittent explosive disorder]] — the story's explanation for Akane's [[tsundere]] behavior — among anime fandom.
▲Upon its release, ''The Bitter End'' hit the ''Ranma'' fanfic community like a bomb, starting [[Flame War]]s and prompting several explicit sequels by other authors as well as numerous other responses ranging from [[Spamfic]]s to parodies to [[Fix Fic]]s attempting to soften the blow. The diagnosis for Rage Disorder behind the behavior of its Flanderized Akane became popular to the point of [[Fanon]] for several years.
Decades later, it remains a powerful influence on the surviving ''Ranma'' fanfiction community.
A copy can still be found at [https://archives.eyrie.org/anime/Ranma/ranma.the-bitter-end.gz the eyrie.org archives]. It can also be read at the [[Wayback Machine]] archive of Bateman's fanfiction page, [
Not to be confused with the first album from the band [[Right Away, Great Captain!]], the song by [[Placebo]], the ''[[Lord Darcy]]'' story of the same name, the sixth episode of the second season of ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'', the season three episode of ''[[Blue Bloods]]'', or the ''[[Warcraft III]]'' campaign ''[[To the Bitter End]]''.
{{Unmarked Spoilers}}
{{Examples|Other fanfics that reference ''The Bitter End'':}}
* ''[[The Bet (fan work)|The Bet]]'': The Nabiki Tendo from the timeline of ''The Bitter End'' timeline discovers a way to contact [[Great Gazoo|Toltiir]] and joins The Bet to win a
* ''[https://www.fanfics.dev/1997-12/messages/19971218-%5BRanma%5D%5BTIL_TBE%5D%20Goddess%20of%20My%20Harmful%20Deeds-1085.html Goddess of My Harmful Deeds]'' by [[Richard Lawson]] offers a chance for both recovery and redemption to Akane via the device of a brief [[Folgers Crossover]] between ''The Bitter End'' and Lawson's ''[[Thy Inward Love]]'' series. (And at the same time, the Akane with whom she swaps learns a horrifying lesson about her own temper.)
* This is one of the many [[Bad End]]s Ranma sees when he asks fortune teller Mio to find a way out of his canon entanglements in [[Twoflower|Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne]]'s "farewell to ''Ranma ½''", ''[http://stefangagne.com/twoflower/fanfic/TheEnds.txt The Ends]''.
* Three [[Sequel]]s (by other authors) exist: ''Death is Not the End'' by Sean Gaffney, ''A Long December'' by Rei Nakazawa, and ''Long Live Akane Tendo'' by Dark Alpha. The first two are [[Song Fic]]s.
* Other fics written in response to the story include:
** ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110724130453/http://www.rakhal.com/dpr/bitterend.html The Bitter End (reduced)]'' by [[Kyon: Big Damn Hero|Brian Randall]]
** ''The Batter End'' by CrazyFic.
** ''The Better End?'' by Brad Angell
** ''Witness to a Bitter End'' by Clifton James Fernando Sawit
** ''The Bittern End'', a parody by Gary Kleppe.
** ''Alt-Bitter End'', a [[Spamfic]] by Sean Gaffney.
** ''Just Like That'' by Scott K. Jamison features a TV show, ''The Last Drop'', which parallels ''The Bitter End''.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Abuse Mistake]]: Type B. The members of the support group for domestic abuse victims (all women) initially refuse to believe that Ranma could be abused by Akane.
* [[All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"]]/[[It Was His Sled]]: If you've been a member of the ''Ranma'' fanfiction community
* [[Armor-Piercing Slap]]: All of Akane's attacks upon Ranma are this, because he refuses to defend himself against her. [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] when it escalates into genuine abuse and her justifications become weaker and weaker.
* [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends]]: In order to set up the rest of the story, the Amazons are quickly disposed of, Ryoga is paired with Akari, and Ukyo abandons her romantic intentions for Ranma (although she does remain in Nerima, unlike the rest).
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* [[Dark Fic]]: This story deconstructs the [[Fanon]] "psychobitch" Akane into a real person with a real mental disorder, and then follows this premise all the way to its dark, bloody and horrifying conclusion. It is considered ''the'' definitive ''Ranma'' Dark Fic.
* [[Death Fic]]
* [[Domestic Abuse]]/[[Domestic Abuser]]: Akane routinely beats Ranma, and he takes it because he loves her and he's been conditioned to believe that he "deserves" it.
** Eventually, Ukyo convinces Ranma to join a support group for battered spouses... which is entirely made up of women, most of whom can't understand why this strong-looking man is among them.
* [[Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male)]]: Perhaps the single most powerful ''rejection'' of this trope in the ''Ranma'' fandom, this fic is the pinnacle of applying [[Reality Ensues]] to the original work's [[Slapstick]] violence. Instead of taking her blows like anyone else would take a light slap upside the head, Ranma was actually and seriously ''injured'' by Akane's abuse, ending up in the hospital ''twice'' over the course of the story. And like many abuse victims, not only did he refuse to get away from Akane or even acknowledge that what she did was wrong, but his passivity led to progressively worse treatment.
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* [[Single-Issue Psychology]]: Akane's rage disorder is depicted as stemming from her "inability" to fight off Death and save her mother. (Note that Akane was barely older than a toddler when her mother died). This obsession was exacerbated by Ranma's seeming ability to overcome any opponent.
* [[Tear Jerker]]: Acknowledged as the most depressing and sad ''Ranma'' story, ever.
* [[Twist Ending]]: Even with the foreshadowing at the very beginning, Akane's murder of Ranma and Ukyo in a rage-fueled fugue state at the climax shocked and surprised readers. However, in the decades since its release in 1997, it's become subject to [[It Was His Sled]] among what remains of the ''Ranma'' fandom.
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[[Category:Fan Works of the 1990s]]
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