PART 3

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So let's wrap this case up real quick.

The prosecutor Akane Tendo has put Ryoga on trial and given him yet another ultimatum; where he has to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness for crimes he hasn't commited, to a person who commited those very crimes TO HIM! I will now present my client's final defense to these accusations in summary:

Crime 1: Ryoga Hibiki is accused of betraying Akane's trust. This is the one and only crime he is actually 100% guilty of. He should not be on trial for anything other than this, and any judgement should be rendered ONLY based on this crime. WE PLEAD GUILTY!

Crime 2: Ryoga is accused of having violated Ukyo, when the truth is actually the complete opposite, (she has violated him if anything). In this crime, Ryoga is the victim, and Ukyo is the violator. WE PLEAD NOT GUILTY!

Crime 3: Ryoga is accused of having rejected Ukyo's friendship unjustly. As I have already explained countless times over; there never was no fucking friendship! At least not one that wasn't abusive and toxic from the inside-out. You don't have to be friends with someone who almost murdered you for being a random bystander, but instead just ended up making your life a living nightmare, someone who manipulates you, bullies you, sexually harrasses you, threatens you, someone who shows no indication that they even enjoy your company, who treats you with less respect than an animal, who forces you into situations where you end up stuck between a rock and a hard place, who gives you hope only to threaten to take it away at the sign of any disobedience, who shows no interest in your feelings and shows absolutely no regard towards your well being or future. BUUUUUUT she helps him get to school and supplies him with hot water, so all that balances out, right? No. Akane has no right to put him on trial and force him to be friends with a abusive person like this. WE PLEAD NOT GUILTY!

The worst part is that Ukyo knows damn well that Ryoga is not guilty of crime 2 or crime 3, so why is she not even bothering to clear his name on this front? Akane is under the impression that Ryoga has molested her or something, but Ukyo doesn't make any attempt to fix this misunderstanding. Ryoga was basically executed without a fair trial, but Ukyo doesn't make any attempt to take some of the blame off of Ryoga and put it on herself. Nope. She seems completely satisfied with Ranma and Akane thinking that she is a completely innocent victim, and that Ryoga is a molesting, schizoprenic monster - when she knows that isn't the case. She doesn't try to tell them that it's unfair for Ranma and Akane to stick their nose into what's between her and Ryoga. That they have no right demanding that he forgives her, or else he is thrown back to the gutters.

She doesn't do any of this, and it honestly just proves that Ryoga was right about her all along. That she was just looking out for her own behind, and never really cared what happens to Ryoga, as long as her hands are clean.

Your Honor, I rest my case...

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I'm only going to be skimming through the rest of this fic, it will be too infuriating for me to read the rest knowing Ryoga is going to end up being so castrated and have so little self-dignity, that he will eventually accept all these false premises as truth and swallow all this abuse. I would be interested if the story ended up going the other way, with Ryoga instead ending up becoming more consumed with hatred and vengance than ever before, sparked by his unjust treatment here.

When something like this happens which destroys my immersion in a story half-way in, I usually just make up my own story. The story could be salvaged for me if it ended up being a revenge story, in the vein of Moby Dick or similar stories. Here's how I would have everything pick up after the whole P-chan disaster:

After Akane's complete lack of understanding, and false accusations, I don't think Ryoga would still hold any romantic feelings towards her after this point (but he would still respect her). I would have Ryoga return a few days after being kicked out to make this announcement: He challanges the entire Saitome family (including Ukyo) to a fair and honorable fight to the death. He demands that he will get the satisfaction to fight them 1 at the time, untill one of them has killed him, or he has killed all of them. He states that the fight will take place exactly 2 months from now, and that they better start training. He also warns that if they try to escape from an honorable duel in any way, he will resort to dis-honorable methods. Basically, he pulls out a gun at this point to show them he's being serious.

Remember, that in this story so far, Ukyo ruined his life with the curse. Then she got him feel hopeful for the future, only to ruin his life all over again. If Ryoga was hell-bent on revenge before over lesser things, he should be completely unhinged at this point (remember how he mastered the full powered Shi Shi Houkodan by Akane just PRETENDING to hate him. If he had learned that technique by this point, we would have been a walking nuke). He will be completely convinced that he has absolutely nothing left to live for except revenge itself. Akane and Ranma will mostly just see him as a insane lunatic that's gone way too far and needs to be either put down or put away for good. But Ukyo now start to feel some actual guilt, and will finally make real attempt at being compassionate, and try to somehow convince him that his life is actually worth something.

So after Ryoga's announcment, the plot would progress with other unrelated stories and arcs, but with a looming threat in the background and a 2 month timmer ticking. They would all take their training more seriously incase Ryoga actually becomes too powerful and they don't find a way to de-escalate the situation before it explodes. They will run into Ryoga by chance from time to time. They will find that Ryoga has become basically a husk of a human-being with nothing but revenge inside his mind, training with complete fixation and frighetning determination. Both parties will show off some of their new tecniques, which pushes them train even harder and find counters-techniques. Sometimes they will even have to team-up against common enemies, such as Pantyhose Taro or similar. During these interactions there will be times where they have the opportunity to talk to him. Ukyo will have moments where she ALMOST manages to get through to him. She will try to tell him that it's wrong of Akane to say everything bad in his life is his own damn fault, or that he somehow deserves all of it. But she also tells him that he is also wrong for thinking everything is her family's fault. Ukyo tries to convince him that it doesn't matter who's fault it is, as long as they all support eachother either way.
She'll admit that they all have been extremely cruel, especially her, but if he just stops his insane plans, it's not to late to make everything right again. She tries to make him believe that she wants to help him not because she has to, but because she actually wants to.

Unfortunately, he'll be too far gone at this point. Either he will be unable to trust her, because of how she treated him before, or he will just be too broken to let go of his revenge, which has pretty much become an addiction and life-anchor to him.

When the day of the duel finally comes, it will end with him being defeated in the first round by either Ukyo or Ranma (but both opponents will be within an inch of their life). When Ryoga is defeated and tied up, he will demand that they honor the deal, that it was a fight to the death. They will refuse to finish him off, which will send him into a complete breakdown and into tears. How he picks himself up from that is unclear. Since no one ended up being killed, Ukyo will still try to comfort him and offer to take care of him, if he just lets go of his revenge and gives them a chance to start over. If he accepts, then it's a perfectly happy ending.

But... I think I prefer the idea, that he would be so unstable at this point that he refuses. That he lashes out in rage and tears, kicking and screaming that he WILL have his revenge against them for not even having the decency to finish him off. That he wont be satisfied untill either he, or the three of them are dead. At this point Ukyo would be in tears as well. She and her family would agree to call the athorities and have him arrested, and then sent to jail. Before the police take him away Ukyo would talk to him one more time, saying she will come visit him as often as she can, if he wants her too. Having calmed down by then, he would simply nod.

And so, Ryoga would be sent to prison for like 2 years. But by the time he gets out, after all the regular visits from Ukyo, they would be very close friends and potentially have romantic feelings for eachoter as well. Ryoga would be completely rehabilitated and learned what happens when you're blinded by vengence. I think I prefer this bitter sweet ending.

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Anyway. I'm finally done now. I seriously doubt anyone will bother to read all of this novel sized review of mine, but if you did, you're awesome! I really did love the story overall and was completely hooked up untill chapter 29. If some of the issues I have had been better handled, this would have easily been one of my favorite fics :)

PART 2

If he gets kicked out, it's back to sleeping with one eye open, watching for predators or robbers 24/7, eating scraps for the rest of his life. And the worst part, is that SHE GOT HIS HOPES UP, which is irresponsible and manipulative as fuck if she was just gonna go and threaten to take it all away whenever it suits her. In canon, he had pretty much completely given up on having a normal life. Meaning canon Ranma and canon Ryoga actually had a chance to develop a meaningful friendship over the series, since when it really comes down to it, their rivalry is just a silly game about their mutual crush and being the best (all is fair in love and war). But HERE it's a completely different story! By making this ultimatum, Ryoga actually has a REAL reason to completely despise Ukyo, for giving him a chance at happines and threatening to ruin his life all over again, essentially because she feels like it at the moment. The only garuantee she gives him is basically:

"I'm sure she'll forgive you, so just chill... pretty sure... probably."

There's no, "what if" incase she DOESN'T forgive him. No honourbound promise to still help him get to school somehow, no garuantee that she'll still stand by him and defend him if all goes to hell, no promise to even help contact the authorities and get them to do their damn job by issuing him a service dog or social worker or something (not that Japan is a country that really gives a fuck about disabled people, especially in the early 90s of Ranma 1/2. Did you know they forcefully sterilized people with disabilities all the way to 1996? Yikes... So yeah, if Ryoga wants to have a normal life, he really is completely fucked in more ways than one without a family or the good-will of random strangers or "friends"). He literally has a mental disability that prevents him from succeding at anything normal, even if he tried his best, not even mentioning the curse.

Ukyo seems completely inconsiderate of the fact that there's more on the line than him being a pervert for sleeping with Akane as a pig. What's more important? Ryoga's entire future, or Akane being lied to? The former doesn't seem to be something that even enters Ukyo's mind. She doesn't bring up the possibility of what their next step is if it all does go to hell (and let's be honest, that's exactly what would have happened, no matter how they went about it). What happens then?

"Ops, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell her after all... Oh well, tough tiddies, you had a good run! And at least you're not a pain in my ass anymore. Have a nice life, sugar! Try not to end up someone's Christmas ham!"

What the hell does Ukyo think is gonna happen if he tells the truth?

"Hey, Akane. Ryoga has something to tell you! He was P-chan all along! Also, you don't mind if he still lives with us right?"

Wouldn't it be be better to first ask if Ryoga can start living with them, and THEN worry about what to do about what to do with P-chan? Doing it in the other order seems downright idiotic.

Ukyo doesn't give Ryoga any reason to think she cares in the slightest about the consequences it would have for him. Nothing beyond "I'll try to grease her up a bit so she'll go easy on you." If she actually cared, for starters she wouldn't be forcing his hand and give a freaking 24 hour time limit, she would actually try to LOOK for the optimal solution and have open dialouges about it that take his concerns and personal problems into consideration. It really wouldn't be that damn hard if she was actually thinking about more than covering her own ass for more than 5 minutes. For example, she could say something like this:

"How about we just figure out some way so you wont have to sleep in her bed?... I know! After school I can go to a pet store and buy a small dog-house or something. I'll tell her, someone gave it to me for free so she doesn't get suspicious. Then we can fill it with little pillows and stuff and put in the corner of the room. And then if you show Akane that you prefer to sleep in there, she'll think it's so cute that she wont want to take you into the bed anymore! It's perfect."

And if he's still being difficult or sceptical, she could reason even more on his level with something like.

"Look, jackass... You want to marry Akane, right?"
"Uhm... yeah I guess."
"Well then if had half a brain you would know that she's going to find out either way eventually, and when she does she's going to be pretty damn miffed to say the least. So you gotta start thinking about the long game here!"
"Yeah, but..."
"BUT if you stop sleeping in her bed now... and THEN tell her the truth like a few months later, she'll be much more likely to forgive you! Then you can tell her that you felt really bad about doing it, so you stopped. Then she definitely wont hate you, for sure!"
"... You really think she wont hate me?"
"Yeah! And if she still does after all that, she's a bitch anyway."

Ryoga grunts and reluctantly agrees, not liking it but knowing she's completely right and that it's a good plan, at least in theory.

There. Was that so freaking hard? If the problem was that he's sleeping in Akane's bed, why doesn't Ukyo try to fix THAT SPECIFIC PROBLEM? The only logical answer is that she doesn't give a shit about finding a solution to Ryoga's problem, she just wants to fix her own problem and protect Akane, who she actually cares about. If you're gonna insist that Ukyo really did her damndest to be friends with Ryoga, and that he's a monster for not realizing it, then she should have been shown actually being pragmatic about it, instead of just throwing threats around on a whim. Or you can have her be the more flawed, inconsiderate jerk as it stands. But pick ONE of them! Because you really can't have both and expect me to buy it, personally.

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And another point, why does such an open-minded person like Ukyo even find it so perverted that P-chan sleeps with Akane? Don't you think it's REALLY FREAKING RICH coming from a girl who takes naked baths with her "brother"? (that's still a eww). If she can claim THAT is completely platonic, sure! But then does she really have the right to automatically assume the worst of Ryoga? Again, fuck outta here, Ukyo, with that hypocritical shit. Would it have been equally disgusting if Ryoga was a woman, cursed into a pig and sleeping with Akane? Would that be different? If so, then why? Should it really matter what gender he is, if he's not even a human at that point?

Ranma is literally feeling Ukyo up when he showers, for no reason (you literally described him doing that after he got kissed by that guy). If he really wanted to 100% respect her privacy, all he has to do is take off his clothes, eyes closed, and instantly walk into a pre-prepared hot bath/shower. It's really not difficult or inconvinient at all, yet he still fucks it up. (But then again, she does secretly want to bang him, so mush so that she got some kind of instant-orgasm-blackout the second he accidentally touched her breast, so I guess she doesn't mind if he does anything perverted either way). But sure, let's ASSUME there's nothing sexual going on here at all, that Ranma would never be anything less than a perfect gentleman! But P-chan on the other hand, why, the freak probably has a little piggy boner all night, every night, right? It couldn't be that he just likes being hugged for once in his life, or that he's acting a role for the sake of survival, or even that he's doing it just as much for Akane's happiness, or that he feels treated more like a human as P-chan than as Ryoga, or that he thinks that as long as it stays a secret it's kind of a win-win situation for everyone involved, including Akane? Sure, Ukyo doesn't HAVE to give him the benefit of the doubt like that, and I'm not saying he isn't in the wrong here, he definitely is. Of course Ukyo can trust her brother more than Ryoga, and of course what Ukyo is okay with isn't necesarily what Akane is okay with! My point is... she should at least know better than to assume all boys are always perverts. If I'm supposed to buy that she actually gives half as much thought to Ryoga's well-being as she does to Akane's and Ranma's, then maybe these are things she should have least considered, hmm? Instead, when she confronts him, the only form of understanding she expresses is "you're a pervert and you have to stop, NOW! Or else..." Even canon-Ranma seemed to put more thought into it, and that says a lot.

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It's also VERY convenient that Ryoga would be stupid enough to accuse Ranma and Ukyo of not caring about Akane. Panic or not, even he's not stupid enough to think it wouldn't backfire. But of course he HAD to be that stupid. Because othewise, if he actually makes a honest, if not clumpsy atempt to apologize, and Akane decides she still doesn't forgive him and kicks him out, then she wouldn't be a perfectly moral and rational character. And we can't have that! Can't have any gray-zones here! So yeah, Ryoga's a lunatic, and everyone else is an enlightened psych-major.

My absolute biggest problem, bigger than everything so far, is how extremely self-rightous Akane comes off here. Akane has every right to be furious at him for lying to her about P-chan, but she really doesn't have any right what-so-ever to get involved with with personal matters between Ukyo and Ryoga, especially when she doesn't have a clue what she's talking about or just how toxic their relationship is. From Akane's point of view, Ukyo has been a complete angel for helping Ryoga all this time, when she seemingly had no obligation to do so. That's the image she's built up in her head over the weeks, but when Ryoga reveals that she's NOT an angel, that she is OBLIGATED to help him, she refuses to let her image of Ukyo change. She's willing to admit that Ukyo may have made a "small" mistake by getting him cursed, but she adamantly REFUSES to let Ryoga claim that any of her actions afterwards were motivated by anything other than completely selfless love or something. And if the two are still on bad terms, 100% of the blame must be on Ryoga.

She even gets ridiculously preachy and religous about it, spouting some nonsense about how her Lord and Saviour Ukyo helped her see the light, and that he must also let Ukyo's light into his heart? All in all, pretty nonsensical, infuriating and self-rightous.

Akane, who lives in her two-story estate with a loving family, has anger management issues because... she hates boys (so her problem is that she's sexist? Nice.) - and she goes on to brag about the anger improvements she's made.

Meanwhile, Ryoga is basically a hobo with no real hope at a brighter future, or garuantee that he'll even be alive in the morning. And Akane has the nerve to call him an asshole for having the slightest grudge against someone who pretty much broke the scale and made his life even more shitty than it already was. Apparently he's despicable for not willy-nilly forgiving the person responsible for having him end up at knife point probably more times than one, and who STILL treats him like a stray dog (oh, but it's Ukyo's word against Ryoga's I guess \_(ツ)_/ ) You even made Ukyo intentionally throw him, which makes it NOT a freak accident, like it was with Ranma in canon. If he fell down that cliff and splattered on the ground, rather than falling into the spring, that would be the legal definition of manslaughter, and if any officer was there to witness it, she would have gotten years of jail-time for it. The fact that she's "sorry" wouldn't have changed the fact that she acted like a lunatic and got an innocent bystander killed. By American standards the maximum jail-time for involuntary manslaugher by act of reckless conduct is up to 8 years. You keep acting like his anger and frustration is completely in his head and that he's some kind of schizophrenic nutjub for it, when he literally has a legal and moral RIGHT to demand compensation and to hold her accountable. You're the one who decided to change how it all happened compared to canon. You didn't have to do that, but you did, so that means you can't simply handwave the new implications. In canon, he is being more unreasonable for holding a grudge. But here, he's NOT being unreasonable, but you're still treating it as if he is, as if he has no one to blame but himself. I mean, no one was FORCING him to follow them to China, right? I also suppose that if you don't wanna get raped, no one's FORCING you to walk around in the night with a skimpy outfit, amirite? If you get violated for putting yourself in that situation, it's on you! So-fucking-what if no one was forcing him to be in China? That doesn't change what Ukyo did. He wasn't there to kill Ranma at that point, he just wanted to have his damn fight and then be on his way home. Akane is basically saying "fuck you, it's your fault for being at the wrong place, at the wrong time!"
You're basically giving your version of Ryoga shit for the sins of his canon-counterpart when the situation is completely different here.

And Akane gets off saying that, everything about P-chan aside, if he doesn't completely forgive and try to be friends with Ukyo, and REALLY mean it, he's a piece of shit and can drop dead? What? The? Fuck?
Dude, this is LITERALLY the definition of victim-blaming. She's both obectively, legally and morally wrong here. It's fucked on so many levels. What her words are saying is "if you don't forgive Ukyo, and REALLY mean it, I don't want to see you again" but in the overall context, what she's ACTUALLY saying is:

"If you don't APOLOGISE and lower yourself to Ukyo, AND REALLY MEAN IT, I don't want to see you again. You're the monster here!"

Seriously, if this is not victim-blaming, then I don't know what is... Sure Akane, you can kick him out of your house for what he did to YOU, go right ahead! But I don't see how Ryoga owes Ukyo anything when she did in fact ruin his life, then made a quarter-assed attempt at reconciliation, while treating him like more of a dog than a human being. Sure, Akane could make the argument that forgiveness is for those who forgive... if she was God. But she isn't, so either she should forgive him, or don't forgive him. Anything else or any demands involving any outside party is pure bullshit. It makes no sense for her to stick her nose into a relationship she has zero insight about. How does SHE know that Ukyo wasn't just helping him out of pity and guilt? I'm for real... HOW... DOES... SHE... KNOW? If Ryoga doesn't know (since she literally hasn't done anything that would indicate otherwise) how does Akane know? Can she read minds? Has she spied in on every private conversation they've had and drawn some Mentalist style conclusion about Ukyo's true feelings? Did she break the 4th wall and read the story along with us? No? Then I think she should shove it and stop trying to play guru or mariage councelor.

It's a completely personal matter between him and Ukyo. You might as well write the dialouge like this:

"But Akane! Ukyo shot my eyes out becuase she she started flailing a gun around like a lunatic with zero regard for weapon safety! She ruined my life!"
"Pff, yeah right... And so what if she did? She keeps helping you get around, doesn't she?"
"Yeah, with a leash around my throat! And everytime she does, she keeps reminding me what a pain in the ass I am, and that she hates having to babysit me. And last week she told me if I don't do everything she says she would seriously leave me on a street somewhere, just like that!"
"Get over it you pussy, stop being a victim. If you don't apologize to Ukyo right now I never wanna see you again. I can never forgive you for what you've done to her unless you get on your knees and beg her for forgiveness!"

Fucking hell... it really is exactly like that, don't try to deny it. I don't understand any of the non-logic in all of this! HOW THE HELL IS UKYO A VICTIM HERE? What exactly has Ryoga done to Ukyo that was so bad? How is Ryoga hurting Ukyo for "not being her friend"? Since when is anyone obligated to be friends with someone they don't like, especially when that person is bullying you? AND HOW THE HELL IS ANY OF THIS AKANE'S BUSINESS? Who is she to dictate what kind of relationship they should have when she knows nothing about them? I'm so confused that my head hurts...

What Ryoga did to Akane is not even on the same chart as what Ukyo did to Ryoga. But I have to call out anyone who equates what is an essentially-harmless white lie to a literal life and death matter, as being a special kind of petty asshole. The only positive to his curse is that girls will instincively offer him protection for being cute, but literally everything else he comes across will try to brutally rip or slice him to pieces. But of course, he's not even allowed to accept that protection, because then he's comparable to rapists and a destroyer of womens' honor, for simply being a male "sus scrofa", or in other words, a male pig (the real curse in this situation is that he wasn't born a girl). So he's expected by everyone to deal with the fact that he's probably going to be eaten at some point in his life, and is not allowed to demand any kind of compensation for the fact, or hold anyone accountable (except himself), and if he doesn't hold the one who wronged him (and actively bullies him) in the highest of regard he deserves to be ostracized as some kind of monster? Fuck outta here, Akane...

Lastly, I find it very strange that Ukyo is never questioned or scolded by Akane on why she decided to even keep the secret at all in the first place, or asked to offer more insight into her and Ryoga's motivations. She is immidiately given the benefit of the doubt and gets treated like some fragile rape-victim in immidiate need for a hug. Even though she knew the truth the whole time, Akane just ASUMES that Ukyo felt utterly repulsed and violated by Ryoga somehow, as if she was laying herself up willingly on an altair to be a human-sacrifice to some predator (she really does treat Ukyo as a Messiah, doesn't she?). Of course Akane's judgement is so clouded that it doesn't occur to her that Ryoga wouldn't have been able to so much as look at Ukyo in the wrong way, if she didn't want him to. Ukyo straight up threatened to break all 4 of his legs if he tried anything. So no, Akane. Ryoga didn't put a gun to Ukyo's head and force her to do anything. It WAS actually Ukyo who suggested that he make his stay permanent, and even forced him to agree to it.

The truth is that if anyone was being violated between the two of them, it was Ryoga. Ukyo put P-chan between her breasts willingly just to make him uncomfortable. She knew he was a human, so she could have just put him at the foot of the bed, and he would have stayed there. But she basically forced him to molest her, for no real reason other than to make a mockery of him and make him feel like a pervert, as a way to break his spirit and hold power over him. Then consider how exposed and panicked she made him feel when he was naked in the bath tub. Basically, Ukyo uses her sexuality as a weapon to emasculate him, in order to make him more vulnerable to her manipulation and suggestion. Straight up sexual harrassment with malicious intent, and it doesn't make it ok just because she's supposedly manupulating him "for his own good".

-

So let's wrap this case up real quick.

The prosecutor Akane Tendo has put Ryoga on trial and given him yet another ultimatum; where he has to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness for crimes he hasn't commited, to a person who commited those very crimes TO HIM! I will now present my client's final defense to these accusations in summary:

Crime 1: Ryoga Hibiki is accused of betraying Akane's trust. This is the one and only crime he is actually 100% guilty of. He should not be on trial for anything other than this, and any judgement should be rendered ONLY based

I looked through the reviews to see if there was any sort of criticism regarding the somewhat poor implementation of Ryoga in this fic, and I didn't find that much about it. Therefore, I have decided to take it upon myself to pretty much be devil's advocate and express my thought on Ryoga.

I'll do my best to not flame, but to keep everything constructive.

First of all, I do love what you're trying to do with the story, and I'm not against more negative portrayals of Ryoga. But I feel like the execution leaves a lot to be desired to the point where some twists and turns in the story just feel straight-up nonsensical.

I know Ryoga is really a polarising character. Ranma 1/2 fans either think he's a tragic saint with anger issues who does his best to get by, or that he's an insane piece of shit who deserves all his misery, people's opinion of this guy are always in extremes. I would have loved this fic to fall somewhere in the neutral area but here it really does feel like your personal bias falls more into the "piece of shit" category. For the sake of fairness, I'm only going to express how the treatment of Ryoga is flawed in the context to this specific story! I am not going to be doing much comparisons to his canon counter-part, except where I feel it's necessary. So let's get on with it!

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The biggest problem is how the story is kind of twisted to scapegoat all of Ukyo's sins on to Ryoga. Most of all, I REALLY don't see how Ryoga is crazy for thinking that Ukyo is anything short of utterly repulsed by him at all times, or at least completely indifferent... Ryoga is called out for being an insensitive jerk for not appreciating Ukyo's "friendship" and I just don't get how this makes any sense...

How is he actually wrong here? I actually think his viewpoint is pretty valid! This really takes me out of the story, because it's implied here and there that he's just being petty and narrow-minded, and that HE is the problem, but that's not what the overall story tells us. It feels like I must have missed a few chapters or something, because I haven't seen a single thing that would show Ryoga that Ukyo actually likes him as a person... I'm serious, show me ONE line of dialouge that would give Ryoga any indication that Ukyo gives two shits about him beyond moral obligation and pity. Just ONE interaction, I dare you!

The answer is unfortunately, that there are none. There's not a single instance where Ukyo tries to just have a casual, friendly, strictly non-business conversation with him. If they do ever talk (more like fight), the topic is always about curses or fiances. There are no attempts made to actually befriend him, no:
"Hey, got any crazy stories about your travels around the world? How many languages do you know? What are your feelings about X or Y? Nice weather we're having huh? How's school going? Need help with homework?" There's plenty of this involving Akane, Ukyo and Ranma, but NONE involving Ryoga. This makes any claim that he could be friends with either of them feel extremely hollow.

And for real though; how the hell is Ryoga not failing like ALL of his classes? He's already at least a year behind on his education if not more, he goes missing for days on-end, sometimes Akane steals him away from his classes as P-chan... so it feels almost impossible that he would pass anything at all, let alone get good grades. And why is he always absent when Ukyo, Ranma, Akane, Hiroshi and Daisuke are doing things in school? Is he a year younger? Ryoga honestly feels kind of invisible to both you the writer and to all other characters, he migh as well be Kasumi. He often either just stands in the background with nothing to say, or is just plain missing, like he's really a complete afterthought in the overall story.

All this considered, I honestly do agree with Ryoga in that he really has absolute no reason to believe Ukyo cares about him in any way beyond basic human decency, moral obligation or compensation for what she did to him. It's completely reasonable for him to think that. Maybe you intended for it to be something more there that you failed to get across, but from what I can see, you didn't bother to flesh any of it out beyond "Ryoga is an nutjob and an ingrate" and "Ukyo is a good samaritan with the purest of intentions".

Every single one of their interactions basically involve them fighting over something. Either it's Ryoga trying to break up her OTP with some scheme, or it's Ukyo scolding him for the P-chan situation, or it's Ukyo making dishonorable power-plays and threatening to throw him under the buss if he gives her too much sass. And you can't play it off as "oh, they're just like Akane and Ranma, it's cute when they fight". No, it's not. I don't think it's cute at all. "She ruined my life!" doesn't sound as cute as "he keeps calling me a tomboy". When Ranma picks on Akane, it's cute. But when Ukyo does it to Ryoga, it's disturbing as as all hell, and you know why? Becayse Ranma and Akane have equal standing, which can definitely NOT be said for the other pair. If Ranma says something mean to Akane, she can fight back, both with words and by literally clobbering him to oblivion. They are equal in power.

When Ukyo picks on Ryoga however, depending on how determined she is or what mood she's in, he can't do jack to fight back. Because when push comes to shove, Ukyo holds power over him. She figuratively holds his life in her hands, and she has only promised to keep his secret "for now", because she doesn't really belive in all that honor crap. Anytime he steps out of line or even annoys her, she jockingly, or for real, threatens to blow his cover. And like an authoritarian dictator, what is defined as "stepping out of line" is entirely up to her whims and discretion in that moment. If she decides that she's fed up with him for indirectly, in some round-about manner, embarrassing her in front of a crowd, she can decide to play the "I can make you go poof" trap card.

If Ranma picks on Akane he can get a punch to the face as payback, so she doesn't have to pent it up and let it get to her. Ryoga can't do that, he can't fight back, because Ukyo is a girl. He can only fight her as a martial artists. He can't for example, slap her on the back of the head when she's not prepared, like she can do to him, or like he could if it was Ranma. So whenever she's the aggressor, all he can really do is grunt like an idiot and take it in stride. She has complete power over him, in more ways than one. Ukyo feels more like a strict foster parent than a friend to him, kind of like
"I give you food and a roof over your head, so stay on my good side or you'll be out on the streets!". That's not exactly what I would call friendly banter or cute bickering... feels more like gas-lighting or straight up bullying.

And Ryoga is not Akane. Emotionally, he's more of a girl than both Akane and Ukyo are (for better and worse). Akane has grown up in a stable family and knows that a family fights sometimes. Ukyo and Ranma had eachother. Ryoga is a single child who's lived years in isolation. He has a completely different background and personality, so any insult thrown at him, he takes it as a personal attack. I know people who I can have a heated fight with, and then 10 minutes later give them a fist bump, and then others who can stay depressed for a whole week after an argument. And the idea that someone who says mean things is actually trying to be friendly, is a concept that goes completely over his Ryoga's head.

People are different like that. This is not him being over-sensitive, that's just his personality. He has no obligation to like or get chummy with someone that he feels is bullying him or making him sad or angry. If Ukyo has a problem with Ryoga not thinking of her as a friend, it's on her to change her behaviour or make more of an effort. No one is ever "entitled" to someone else's friendship, as Akane and the overall writing seems to suggest, especially during the big fallout later in the story. If Ukyo really wants to be friends with him that badly, or have any higher level of respect, she actually has to EARN IT in some way as far as I'm concerned.

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But what really makes me uncomfortable, and brings everything full circle, is how Ukyo is treating Ryoga EXACTLY like Genma has been treating her all her life. Sure, she gave Ryoga a roof over his head (or rather P-chan, there IS a difference believe it or not) and a chance to go to school, but so did Genma! Genma tried to abandon her countless times, and Ukyo in turn threatens to throw Ryoga under the buss on several occasions. She goes ON AND ON about how much she DESPISES Genma, but whenver Ryoga holds even a small grudge against her or Ranma, everone else thinks he's just being an over-sensitive prick that needs to get over it, because only girls are allowed to be victims or something to that effect? Do you see the atronomical amounts of hypocrisy here? By her own logic, if she refuses to call Genma her father, she has no right whatsoever to call herself Ryoga's friend with the way she's been treating him. If this was actually intentional on the author's side, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME! Instead of her being a Marry-Sue who's always right, she would be portrayed as a flawed character that projects the emotional abuse that was inflicted on her, onto others, making it difficult for her to form lasting friendships, like many actual bullies IRL. At some point, she should realize that she has become the thing she hates. Ukyo should be just as much in the wrong for her and Ryoga not being friends. They should BOTH be at fault, and BOTH of them need to grow. But instead you opted to just victim-blame Ryoga 100%, and say that ONLY HE is the problem.

Ukyo even has the balls to play the blame game with Ryoga of all people because he is SOMEHOW responsible for her making an idiot of herself on the ice-rink, and she still manages to weasels herself to the moral high-ground and WIN the argument! Gheez! Never mind the fact that it was HIS porky ass on the line, and he was just trying to make sure they won. I mean, at any point he can straight up tell her that if he ever gets eaten or killed in his cursed form, his blood is always going to be on her hands. But sure, Ukyo, that's a cute attempt at mental gymnastics and shifting blame because your reputation got a little hurt (at least she actually has a reputation). A for effort, Ukyo.
So who is really the petty asshole here? Both? Well only one of them gets called out on it and is held accountable (and that's really my main problem overall). Keep every story-beat and every character exactly as it is, no problem, call it realistc, I don't mind! But don't play it off as Ryoga being the only one who's ACTUALLY in the wrong and then give that viewpoint the seal-of-aproval as narrator. That's bull.

If Ukyo actually cared about Ryoga as a friend, here's a bright idea! How about going to the rest of her family and saying:
"Hey guys... Ryoga's kind of homeless, and since he's my friend, how about if he could stay here so I can help him get to school easier? With how much he travels around, I'm sure he can be pretty resourceful and will contribute in any way he can."

That's something a friend might do. Instead she seems content on letting him stay as an animal, when she knows full well that he's a human - ONLY, I repeat, ONLY bothered by the fact that he sleeps in Akane's bed. Of course she's not bothered at all that he literally has to be de-humanized by himself and by others to get any semblance of safety, stability, education or social interaction. Because... that's more than he deserves I guess? No, seriously, why DOESN'T she suggest that he could live in the Tendo household? I really don't get it. Then he would even be sleeping in Ranma's room instead of Akane's bed. ALL PROBLEMS SOLVED!

I literally can't think of a reason why Ukyo would not at least TRY to ask the family about this, other than her simply not giving a shit either way, as long as Ryoga doesn't bother her?

And if Akane gets worried about P-chan, he could still show up from time to time either way, untill she learns to worry less, or Ryoga and Ukyo can figure out some solution together. But if Ryoga after that STILL decides to sleep in Akane's bed as often as possible, despite Ukyo's objections, THAT could have been a more logical source of conflict. Maybe he claims that he doesn't like to worry her, but Ukyo thinks he's just being perverted since it's not necessary anymore, and that could lead to some sort of fallout? But at least then the whole thing would have been more amicable, and I might buy that they're actually friends deep down, or that only Ryoga is in the wrong. But as it stands, I really don't see where the friendship is. She barely even treats him like a human-freaking-being for crying out loud and I'm supposed to believe she thinks of him as a friend or even potentially something more? I promised myself I would try to keep this constructive instead of just flaming, but... fuck outta here, mate.

Canon-Akane actually did treat Ryoga like a friend. Helping him study all night for the entrance exams, and letting him stay at their house (all this witout any kind of guilt-baggage). Did Ukyo do that? Did she ever offer to help him with homework? Why did she even go so far as to out-source the job of guiding Ryoga to his classes to Hiroshi and Daisuke? Was it because she was embarrassed about being seen with him too often? Or because she was too lazy to do it herself? (Or did they conveniently not have any classes in common, so that Ryoga could be f***ing off somewhere while the 3 REAL main characters are doing their thing?) All of this considered, what the hell would make Ryoga think that Ukyo saw him as anything more than strictly buisness? From Ryoga's point of view, Ukyo in this story does in fact feel like some kind of gas-lighting bully who only gives him the bare minimum of niceness to lord her power over him or make herself feel better.

"Oh, but they really did have friendly encounters from time to time! It all happened 'off screen'!"

Dude... show it "on screen" OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! I know I'm going in circles a bit... but if you had shown just ONE friendly moment, not involving any fighting, JUST ONE, then I could believe it. If you had actually bothered to write half as much interaction and dialouge with Ryoga as you did between Ukyo, Ranma and Akane, then all of my points would be moot. But don't expect the reader to fill in the star-sized gaps when Ryoga is treated as a background character 90% of the time. If you were gonna half-ass it I honestly think the story would have flowed better if Ukyo DIDN'T help him get to school at all, if he just spent his human-time training martial arts and then showed up from time to time as either pig or human, just like in canon. As it stands now, Ryoga is not wrong for thinking Ukyo sees him as anything more than a charity case, who she helps get to school to feel better about herself or alliviate her guilt, because that's literally why she does it from a writing standpoint. You never wrote a single line of dialouge about how Ryoga feels about starting school again, or any challanges he might face with it. It really does feel like you made that change from canon ONLY so that Ukyo would come across as a better person in your story. So I think Ryoga's conclusion that Ukyo has no desire for real friendship, beyond throwing a pity-party, rings true and is perfectly reasonable from both a meta an in-universe standpoint.

She really hasn't shown him anything other than the bare minimum amount of kindness. Helping him get to school because he has a mental disabilty doesn't make her a friend on it's own, it makes her a social worker. And most of the time Ukyo didn't even do that, Akane did. And Ukyo hasn't actually offered him a place to live at all. He managed to find a home as Akane's pet all on his own by accident, and all he asks of Ukyo is that she keeps her mouth shut about it. So tell me, in what chapter is Ukyo actually doing something nice to him? Literally the only thing she's ever done for him is to leave some hot water for him in the school shed, and keeping a secret. That's literally all there is, there's nothing else. And protecting him from Kodachi or Azusa and stuff like that doesn't count, because as far as Ryoga is concerned, she seems more concerned about protecting Akane's P-chan than actually showing any concern for HIM. And either way, you hardly get friendship points for saving someone from a lunatic, especially considering it's her fault he's even in those dangerous situations to begin with.

Sure, there's one or two places here and there where she THINKS some positive thoughts about him, but it's pointless if she doesn't SPEAK it or ACT it for him to see. And as a side-note, her getting enraged at Shampoo for thinking she just ate Ryoga-ramen does not mean she cares for Ryoga, it simply means she isn't a canibalistic sociopath. I would expect of her to react more or less the same way if it was some random jusenkyo-cursed classmate that was being served for lunch. And after that whole ordeal was over she didn't even bother to apologize in any way for playing that dumb prank on him and being responsible for him ending up in yet another situation where he could have met a very gruesome death. Instead the story just cuts to Ranma and Akane, and who knows if any sort of apology or fight happens between Ukyo and Ryoga? It's never adressed or seen as imporant... These kind of holes in the story are what really make it or break it for me.

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But everything before the ultimatum aside. Looking from Ryoga's point of view and assuming that he's a perfectly rational individual, with the way Ukyo came and threathened him out of nowhere over some petty unrelated reason, any person in that situation would see it as a complete betrayal or showing of her true colors. All of his conclusions about Ukyo are surprisingly logical. I'm even impressed he was able to deduce that she wants HIM to confess so he can take most of the fall. For the reader it's somewhat implied that she was actually just worried about losing him, but Ryoga himself has no way of knowig what's going on in inside her crazy head if she doesn't tell him that! She doesn't TELL HIM that she's worried about his well being, at least not i any convincing maner. And there's definitely also a lot of truth in his claim that she just wants him to take most of the fall.

Of course, she denies that her intentions are selfish and says she's prepared to take the consequences. WHAT FREAKING CONSEQUENCES? Worst thing that could happen to her is Ranma and Akane give her the cold-shoulder a day or two tops, then it's buiseness as usual. The fuck outta here, Ukyo! For Ryoga literally EVERYTHING is on the line, and you can't even compare it to the dilemma in the canon universe. Here, it's not just about how Akane would hate Ryoga, now his education is also involved which should arguably be higher on the priority list. (At this point you still haven't adressed at all how he feels about his education, and what it would be like for him to lose it again, because he's just that uninmportant and not worth the time to read about I guess?).

If he gets kicked out, it's back to sleeping with one eye open, watching for predators or robbers 24/7, eating scraps for the rest of his life. And the worst part, is that SHE GOT HIS HOPES UP, which is irresponsible and manipulative as fuck if she was just gonna go and threaten to take it all away whenever it suits her. In canon, he had pretty much completely given up on having a normal life. Meaning canon Ranma and canon Ryoga actually had a chance to develop a meaningful friendship over the series, since when it really comes down to it, their rivalry is just a silly game about their mutual crush and being th

Siento pena por Ranma. Está atrapado en su forma maldita por culpa de Cologne.
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I feel sorry for Ranma. He is stuck in his cursed form because of Cologne.

Akane está enamorada, jaja.
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Akane is in love, haha.

This is an awesome story. I loved Ranma 1/2 when I was younger and this just brings back the good memories while fixing up the plot holes in it and making it better. I’m so grateful for this story and I loved how you incorporated Ryoga during the last few chapters. Also liked how you added Ukyo and his relationship. I really want to see them grow together

Hello! It's me again. Basically I just wanted to let you know, there's been a few times I've been down during the last few months, and I've thought of your fic, and gone back and sporadically read sections. It always makes me feel better, rereading my favorite parts and remembering long forgotten brief moments. This fic has really been part of my life for years now. When I imagine the Ranma 1/2 cast, honestly I imagine your characters more than I do their canon counterparts. I love the story you've created and the development never ceases to amaze me. Thank you so much, again, for writing this, it really keeps me going in those stressful or sad moments. :)

Why did you delete tragic magic?

Shampoo no va a rendirse fácilmente.

Ukyo está enojada.
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Shampoo is not going to give up easily.

Ukyo is angry.

Loved this beautiful moment here!

What a nice fic! Love it and can't wait for more

Kuno is still a weirdo and awfully dense. I think this will be interesting in later arcs.

Well, it's interesting how having a sister has changed (and at the same time, not so much) Ranma. Now I've got to see what happens next.

Finalmente Ranma y Akane se besaron.
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Finally Ranma and Akane kissed.

Pobre Ukyo. Se siente reemplazada.

Cologne está en Nerima.
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Poor Ukyo. She feels replaced.

Cologne is in Nerima.