History YMMV / ReflectionsLostOnADarkRoad

* DesignatedHero: The Titan’s as a whole can be seen as this, the most obvious is the fact that they treat Ryoga’s and Jinx’s mental compulsion as true love as well as their increasing apathy for the people in the [=XComverse=] because of the dark nature of the universe. Even when they first showed up while the X-Com characters were harsh in their treatment of them the Titan’s wrote off all the damage their appearance caused as well as the people hurt as HeroInsurance and just went about their business. Cyborg was the only one who realized that this was wrong.

*** Ryoga is also depicted as the victim of the love triangle between him, Raven, and Jinx. Raven is repeatedly called out for missing her chance and everyone tries to get Jinx to see reason when the mental compulsion is taken away. However, Ryoga was fully aware of the compulsion even going so far as being assured that she didn’t have a choice but to love him. Further more while his situation was compared to Ranma’s. Ranma was honor bound by all of his fiancée’s something Ryoga isn’t. it just come across as Ryoga stringing Raven and Starfire along while he’s in a relationship with Jinx. Raven is the one bending over backwards for him, she is the one called out for the problems in the relationship. Jinx is made to feel guilty for not loving him. Nothing Ryoga has done is depicted as being in the wrong.

** WordOfGod states that he is thinking of keeping ranma’s new Thanagarian body when they return home, though it's reverting here. Probably tie it into the thing with Shandra Mal which mostly wraps up next chapter. However if mixing Jusenkyo Springs can blend curses (e.g., the addition of tentacles to Taro's cursed from) then mixing Jusenkyo magic with Old God reality transformations could certainly alter the "Curse of the Spring of the Drowned Girl" to "Curse of the Murdered Female Thanagarian" (A very tragic story...).
** Ryoga’s relationship with X-Ryoga is basically the same as what his relationship with Ranma was in middle school. He finally understands what he is going through (Ranma was raised TheSpartanWay, while X-Ryoga is an OlderAndWiser counterpart), but instead of seeing him as a kindred spirit he, [[TheResenter resent how much better he handles things]]. This would have been a nice PlotPoint [[AesopAmnesia to go into]], but never is due to the X-Com characters being [[DesignatedVillain Designated Villains]].

** WordOfGod states that he is thinking of keeping ranma’s new Thanagarian body when they return home, though it's reverting here. Probably tie it into the thing with Shandra Mal which mostly wraps up next chapter. However if mixing Jusenkyo Springs can blend curses (e.g., the addition of tentacles to Taro's cursed from) then mixing Jusenkyo magic with Old God reality transformations could certainly alter the "Curse of the Spring of the Drowned Girl" to "Curse of the Murdered Female Thanagarian" (A very tragic story...).

** Starfire being able to pull off the hiryu korin dan while knowing the hiryu shoten ha can be explained by ChekhovsSkill, that was not the case with the hiryu korin dan. Furthermore, {{fanon}} crept in due to the fact that Ranma, a very private person, explained to her in her own words in excruciating detail how the technique works.
*** FridgeBrilliance Starfire's characterization is actually a lot more similar to Ranmathen Ryoga that her warming nature, plus the fact that they were both recovering at the time, might have gotten him to let his guard down.
*** Better yet, Lathis mainly got his source from the anime while Cap'n Chryssalid from the manga. While manga Ranma is more inclined to downplay his skills, the anime Ranma is more inclined to BadassBoast.
*** She also mentioned that he drilled her endlessly on her knowledge of the technique, most likely to think up new variations. He might have thought the korin dan was an even trade.
*** You forget T-Ranma is based on the anime. Anime Ranma is more trusting and willing to impart information about himself then his manga counterpart.

** A few readers have complained about the Titan’s being a SpotlightStealingSquad.
** The use of lets you and him fight
** While it was acknowledged that the level of justified paranoia and xenophobia in Chryssalids's universe, it would strain credibility if the initial reactions on the part of the natives went any other way. The "hero vs hero due to misunderstandings" plot used can get real old real fast as tension turns to frustration on the part of the reader.
** Jinx’s DesignatedHero status specifically her attacking Kasumi torturing Akari eventhough she had nothing to do with it.
*** There is all so the fact that most of the conflicts seem to revolve around her in some way
*** Lathis claims it was his intention to make Jinx a LoveToHate character

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Ravens dream date with ryoga

** Jinx is incredibly antagonistic with literally every other character in this story. It varies between character weather or not she is an out and out {{Jerkass}}, a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, or just completely crosses over the MoralEventHorizon, yet each time she is treated as the sympathetic party. For example Raven is called out for her dislike of Jinx and even apologizes to her despite Jinx doing nothing but insulting her whenever they see each other.
** Jinx even out right attacked her when she did apologize. which is PlayedForLaughs
** Raven gets [[SmallNameBigEgo increasingly arrogant]] as the series goes on the reason she didn’t tell the X-Com characters what the Titan’s were doing in Azarath because she believed that X-Com felt they were too important to let leave. Despite the fact that they were risking their lives to do just that and as mentioned by WordOfGod the titan’s contributions were minimal at best especially since they weren’t in the departments they would provide the most help. This just makes her come across as arrogant and ungreatful.
** There is also her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to X-Ryoga which was basically telling him that all his suffering and therefore the suffering of the XComverse as a whole didn’t matter [[ItsAllAboutMe because it didn’t directly benefit her like T-Ryoga’s suffering did]].

--> '''Ukyo''': You're a hundred times worse than I could ever be, a sick, indecisive piece of shit who strings his friends along. A pervert who abused the trust of someone he claimed to love. A moron who doesn't even know when he isn't wanted. An arrogant prick who butts in where he doesn't belong. Don't you try and lecture me, Hibiki. Don't you dare.
* DesignatedVillain: The Hyper Griffin was in the process of being dissected alive when it sent the Titans to the XComverse
** The Titans consider XCOM this due to the things they do to remain alive.

** Many fans of the authors prefer to ignore this story as if breaks both their universes by inducing TooBleakStoppedCaring. Reflections Lost on a Dark Road is a crossover between the BlackAndWhiteMorality of ''FanFic/DarkTitans'' and the decidedly BlackAndGrayMorality of ''Fanfic/TheRoadToCydonia''. However a number of [[{{Retcon}} Retcons]] done to induce ALighterShadeOfGrey on the Titans ended up going [[GoneHorriblyRight horribly right]]. However since they are still treated as the moral superior’s this requires Cap'n Chryssalid’s characters to be both [[TookALevelInDumbass dumbed down]] and [[TheWorfEffect weakened]]. So in the end with the exception of maybe Cyborg the Titans just come across as evil while it’s highly unlikely that the X-COM characters aren’t going to survive.

** in universe while connected with Jinx’s mind Raven witness just how horrible her life was before entering the Academy.
** despite the repeated goading by T-Ryoga and Jinx as stated Shampoo is not only older but has far more training in controlling her emotions. So as X-Ryoga stated while it is understandable that she is angry at them she is the professional.

** the Titans as a whole with the exception of Cyborg. While their complete and utter refusal to except the fact that they are in a different universe with different rule is infuriating it is understandable

* MoralEventHorizon: The enemy is deliberately constructed in such a manner that justifies virtually every single aspect of what by real world standards translate as war-crime acts, and with every alternate angle covered, as such idealists are left with no other option but conform, and run over their lines of restraint. That said, in this type of unrealistic scenario, it would obviously be justified as no other option was left, but the narrative is still very (mis)leading.

** [[spoiler: Raven gets DrunkOnTheDarkSide and {{Mind Rape}}s Jinx into forgetting her love for Ryoga. Ryoga understandably decides to press the RelationshipResetButton because of this.]]

** Jinx attacking Kasumi in MisplacedRetribution for what happened to Akari because she knew that Kasumi wouldn’t turn her in.
** T-Ryoga performed this before the start of the series by consciously allowing himself and Jinx to stay coerced into loving each other.
* NeverLiveItDown: Terra will always remember her face heel turn.
--> '''Terra''': For every person that says Hey, thanks for stopping that building for falling on me, there are two more that throw their wallets at me and run away screaming.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: When T-Ryoga found out about his father he demanded that he be let out calling X-Ryoga a monster for allowing it to happen. However as Ryu stated Tetsuya has alien implants in his brain, meaning containment is the only place where he can hold onto his free will.
** Then there is the fact that once T-Ryoga did meet his father all he did was yell at him for having such a horrible life.

** X-Ryoga’s decision not to immediately teach the Titan’s double circulation as the technique was still in its experimentation phase and with the number of unique scenarios the Titan’s bring to the table it was perfectly logical for him to wait to see if it was safe. Cologne herself agreed in fact she only helped Jinx and Starfire because T-Ryoga had went ahead and taught them without asking anyone.
*** Ryoga later apologized for waiting so long despite mentioning that accidents had already happened with the technique.
** Aiuchi warning about how it is a bad idea to trust Tresspasser even pointing out that since he entered the ship got a lot worse.
** He also mentioned how obvious it was that Konetsu was no longer qualified to pilot the ship

** Didn’t cologne already called ryoga out on trying to teach terra the bakusai tenketsu without thinking about the consequences.

*** It can be argued that Ryoga took the less noble path by becoming a superhero as being a Titan brings fame and fortune something that wouldn’t happen if he had just stayed a regular martial artist.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: The arguments for and against ThouShaltNotKill between X-ryoga, Raven and Ryu especially because it is one of the only instances of the Titan excepting that they [[NotInKansasAnymore weren’t in Kansas anymore]]. As Raven stated the DC universe holds far less consequences then the X-Com universe allowing them to hold a more BlackAndWhiteMorality that simply isn’t an option for X-Com.
--> '''Raven''': You have a duty which you must perform and we have ideals which we need to uphold, it is as simple as that. There is no better or worse, no right or wrong. It is a matter of circumstance, that is all.
** Even when the Titan’s refuse to except this fact this trope still applies. For example when the first got to the universe while the Titan’s were right that X-Com’s shoot first mentality nearly got them killed as they themselves admitted this was an entirely unique experience and X-Ryoga took a big chance not letting them live.
* CompressedVice: During the homebound arc Nabiki mentioned that Ryu's and Ranma's on-and-off stream of sexist and-or misogynist comments weren't nearly as amusing as normal like ranma’s milf commit was a regular occurance when it was literally the first time he said anything remotely similar to that in the entire xcom series.
** Not to mention the ridiculous amount of pop culture reference he has been making which has only been seen in this fic. So it seems that sometime during the TimeSkip Ranma discovered Television and got hooked

* DrinkingGame: Every time Raven and Jinx's lips meet, take a shot.
** If it's an actual kiss or both Raven and Jinx are real, take 2 shots.
*** If it's reciprocal, down the entire bottle.

* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About Their Powers]]: In order for Jinx to be able to openly insult Shampoo using passive aggressive combat Ranma has to become unobservant. While occasionally Ranma will not notice his surroundings and jump on someone he Ranma is generally not slow on the uptake. In fact he is generally the very first person to figure things out. He figured out that Kuno was the principals son before anyone else did, figured out the source of Ashura/Rouge's power, figured out that the cursed spatula was really an iron, etc. This is a person who after just viewing the Umisenken once was able to copy it, viewing the tea ceremony old lady in the proper scooting position was enough to copy it, saw through other peoples disguises (Principal Kuno's, Gosunkugi's, Happosai's), figured out Akane was attracted to Dr Tofu, etc. the fact that he can’t see what is right in front of him makes no sense.
** The gambler king arc was referenced a few times probably to justify this.
** While Trigon is taking it up to eleven Ranma and Ryoga at least have had some experience dealing with oni, spirits, ect enough to know how to properly deal with them.
** Given their dealing with rouge physics such as kagome as well the extensive research done on how to emulate CharlesAtlasSuperpower wouldn’t the various Shinto (onyoudo) and Buddhist (houjutsu) magics have been studied as well. It might not have been nearly enough to stop Trigun but it could have at least given them a fighting chance against slade
** This is also used in story during their first fights both Herb and X-Ryoga mentioned how Ranma had intentionally goaded them into creating counters to the Hiryu Shoten Ha so that he could have ideas for new variations. However during the battle with Saffron he just gawked in surprise that someone was able to counter the technique. All so Starfire can deliver the final blow.

* InformedAbility: We are told that T-Nabiki is a notorious super villain yet the last time we see her she had just joined the Hive Five.
** Ryoga states that since joining the Titan’s he had become so happy that he can barely use the Shishi Hokodan. Yet he is only depicted as incredibly wangst throughout the story.
* InformedAttribute: The comradeire of the squads despite nobody noticing Jinx’s BitchInSheepsClothing attitude towards Shampoo.
** Jinx and ryoga’s love despite it being completely artificial Ryoga himself couldn’t definitively say he loved her when flat out asked.
** Also before they came to the X-com universe TRyoga mentioned that since joining the Titan’s he had become so happy that it makes it hard to use the Shi Shi Hokodan. However throughout the story he is depicted wangst.
* JerkassHasAPoint: When they first interrogated Raven and T-Ryoga India Squad wasn’t very nice about it do the fact that it was blatantly obvious that they weren’t in their own universe (especially since X-Ryoga was interrogating them) things would have gone a lot smoother if Ryoga and Raven didn’t constantly question the reality that was right in front of them.
** Well, Ryoga refused to except Raven attempted to explain the situation only to be told that memories can be implanted and that skepticism is the best they were going to get.
** While she was DrunkOnTheDarkSide Raven ask Ryoga point blank what his feeling for Jinx were. He replied that he didn’t care if his feeling for Jinx were created he only cares that he likes her now. Raven replied then he wouldn’t care if he made him love her. essentially Raven used InsaneTrollLogic to cancel out Ryoga’s making her actions come across as far more reasonable then they should have.
--> '''Raven''': This, this was even better than what she'd planned. If her Ryouga was perfectly fine with people altering his mind, then obviously there was nothing wrong with doing… this. It was just giving him more of what he wanted, and giving her what she wanted as well. It was the perfect arrangement, really. And even better yet, now that she didn't have to worry about any lingering attachments that he might suffer, there was no need for her to bother helping out a certain, pink haired witch
** X-Ryoga pointing out that T-Ryoga is essentially stringing Raven and Starfire along despite being in love with Jinx.
** Not to mention that he was Jealous which given T-Ryoga’s reply wasn’t that far off.
** After T-Ryoga told everyone about Jinx’s condition causing them to think no one cares about them Nabiki told X-Ryoga to shut them up reasoning that T-Ryoga and Ryu are the only [=NCOs=] left, and instead of doing his job of keeping the crew together he is sowing dissent putting everyones lives in danger. She also mentioned how Commander Yasuda wouldn't put up with their poor discipline,
** Jinx calling Starfire out on the fact that the Titan’s saw nothing wrong with having Jinx be mentally compelled to love Ryoga to the point where Starfire was willing to kill her being cured of that compulsion hurts Ryoga.
--> '''Jinx''': Ryouga? Ryouga? Ryouga! Why the hellis everything always about him! How the hell do you think I feel? Every damn person I know telling me, 'Oh, you should love Ryouga, it'll be better that way! Do I not even get a fucking choice in the matter?
--> '''Starfire''': I-
--> '''Jinx''': I don't care! You love the bastard enough that you'll fucking kill me, for him? Then, for the love of all that is evil, take him! Rape him till he bleeds! Screw him till you crush his pelvis to powder, you damned alien slut!
** Despite the fact that his argument came across as incredibly hypocritical titan Ryouga was right in that they couldn’t just destroy cyborg because he was currently running most of the ships systems.
** Due to his IrrationalHatred for all of X-com in general and X-com Ryoga specifically T-Ryouga's POV is generally shewed, and unless he's talking and thinking about martial arts, you can't treat him as an omniscient narrator. While 'skewed' doesn't equate to 'wrong', it does mean that his thoughts reflect what he's seen.
** Akari decision not to tell Jinx that her body was breaking down. As Akari predicted Jinx did not take the news well and ran off causing Akari to waste time and energy looking for her.
** Starfire was assumed to be under alien control. XCOM was called in because the PRC had just had a historic building destroyed (the clocktower), people were in a panic, and their own attempt to handle things had blown up in their face (the ambush). They know about Trenchards. They know that the Sirius Group not only had chemical weapons, but that they were willing to use them in terrorist attacks. ALL the Intel indicated that Starfire was an alien terror unit... except that she hadn't actually killed anyone.
** When Romeo Squad finally caught up to her, Herb could tell this. He still thought she was either an alien or a manufactured Trenchard ("one of Cologne's experiments"), but he could tell that she had no murderous or "killing" intention. He comments on this to her. But she is still an alien and she still needed to be subdued and interrogated. This is what XCOM does and so they subdued her and, when she spun a yarn that contradicted reality as they understood it, they mind probed her to get the real truth.

* KickTheDog: Jinx attacking Kasumi for torturing Akari even though she was there, in the sense that she worked in the medical facility where others were also conducting research.
** Jinx in general seems to have generally antagonistic approaches towards her female peers. She's smart enough not to butt heads with any of the adults on base, and even if she doesn't like them, she doesn't do anything to the local Ryouga or Ranma that wound bring the hammer down... but boy does she enjoy annoying Shampoo and Ukyou!
* ManipulativeBastard: As with back in the road to cydonia Ranma started out as this before "ForgotAboutHisPowers" kicked in. for example during their LetsYouAndHimFight between Starfire and T-Ryoga both X-Ryoga and Herb mentioned how Ranma intentionally goaded them into creating counters for the Hiryu Shoten Ha. Despite knowing that this was done purely so that Ranma was merely using them to bounce ideas off of to create a counter-counter they had no choice but to create the technique.
** It also served to keep them one step ahead of Trencard Cologne, their mutual enemy and another master of the Hiryu Shoten Ha.
*** Ranma grabs the SmartBall every now and then such as his gambit to get info out of Reava by making her think they were fellow Apokoliptians
** According to Jinx she made a big mistake of of categorizing X-Nabiki and the goody to shoes between her and T-Nabiki as if it wasn’t for her Team Yankee wouldn’t have ever been considered.
** T-Ryoga shows signs of this for example in order get a leg up on X-Ryoga he challenged Ranma to a sparing match while mimicking T-Ryoga’s fighting style.
** There is also his disturbing relationships with the Titan females. Ryoga refuses to get rid of the his mental love coercion with Jinx because in his own words she has no choice but to love him. While at the same time stringing Raven and Starfire along who even agree to be friends with Jinx despite her constant insults.
** However Ryoga doesn’t hold a candle to Tresspasser who constantly manipulates the prejudices of his patsy’s as well as the effect the bleed has on their mind to get what he wants. The Guardian is patient, methodical and ruthless which is a must considering he has been stuck in the Hulk Dimension for a millennia.
* MisaimedFandom: Subverted, this fic started numerous FlameWar due to the fact that a few readers [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief couldn’t suspend their disbelief]] of the humans in the X-COM universe not turn into something that looks like the 40K imperium minus the religious overtones.
** It reached the point where Chryssalid treatened to block one reader from his forum.

* MoralEventHorizon: See MoodWhiplash. The enemy is deliberately constructed in such a manner that justifies virtually every single aspect of what by real world standards translate as war-crime acts, and with every alternate angle covered, as such idealists are left with no other option but conform, and run over their lines of restraint. That said, in this type of unrealistic scenario, it would obviously be justified as no other option was left, but the narrative is still very (mis)leading.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The titan entry into X-COM universe has given the Visitors numerous advantageous in their war mainly access to the Hypogriff allowing them to travel across universes.
** During X-Ryoga’s reunion with akari as her final request she asked him to allow her to die as a human. Jinx not caring about this got the other Titan’s to get the supplies needed to save Akari’s life ended up causing her a fate worse then death.
** Then there is the fact that she reconnected with the HIVE mind has caused Akari to lose her humanity.
--> '''T-Ryoga''': I mean, she did the right thing, damnit. At least we were willing to give her a chance, anyway...! I can't just throw it in everyone's faces that all of our good intentions were just playing into the hands of some immoral scientist bastards..."
--> '''X-Ryoga''': Your intentions were good, huh? Even I've heard what they say about 'good intentions.'
** The Titan’s decision to not inform Juliet and India Squad what they were doing while in Azarath due to their increasing small name big ego mentality making them believe that X-COM felt that they were in expendable led to Raven being Drunk with Power
** Word of god states that the first thing Raven did upon entering the earth plain was tell the Justice League about her connection to Trigon only for them to end up shooing her off, accusing her of being evil. Which is why she has been so reluctant to inform her friends about it. If the biggest heroes on the planet screw you over on something as important as this, some anxiety over telling her friends is justified.
** Averted Cyborg almost told Jinx that she nearly died when she and X-Ryoga combined their abilities not knowing that T-Ryoga decided not to inform her and let her think she had just passed out from exhaustion. Luckily she though he was referring to the attempt to resuscitate her
** Akari telling Jinx that she was dying caused her to freak out and run off making it easier for their pursuers to find the two.
** The Titan's insubordination has been causing an decrease in soldier moral making it difficult for X-COM soldiers to work with both them and each other.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Ukyou ordering Starfire to kill T-Ryoga caused the later to realize the extent of her moral myopia and perform a heel face turn.
* PlotArmor: Jinx has a bad case of this as everyone she goes up against either is wolfed, they forget about a certain skill or ability that is needed to prevent her from doing what she wants, or the fight is stopped.
** Given her SuicidalOverconfidence this is the only reason Jinx is alive.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: This is the major reason the Titan’s refuse to accept the fact that they are NotInKansasAnymore. As they are on entirely opposite ends of the scale the titan’s idealism with X-com on cynicism.
** actually it's zigged zagged quite a bit as the Titan's can't seem to realize how such an organization couldn't be up to no good.
--> '''Cyborg''': Human losses aside, it seemed like just a matter of time before the aliens were defeated, so what did a clandestine organization hoarding advanced technology do after the aliens were gone? Did they go from fighting aliens to policing humans? One thing was for sure, they weren't just gonna disband and go home just because 'the threat was gone'. Would they? No. No. Cyborg was sure of it. Heck, if this were back home, this 'X-COM' group would probably already be up to no good, even before the war was over. Of course, how they managed to keep an organization with members from across the planet working together was something of a mystery, too.

* TheUnfairSex: While writing issues are the main cause for ShipSinking in this fic due to flanderization and ForgotAboutHisPowers the men are depicted as the main cause of the relationships going wrong. Ryu going from having a more normal attraction to the female form amongst chaste heroes to a HandsomeLech irking Ukyo’s nerves. And Ranma sudden misogynistic and perverted attitude along with his more fanon interpretation draws the blame for the problems of his and Akane’s relationship onto him where before their character development just made it seem as if they just didn’t work well with each other.
** It's not just X-COM ever in TTLB Jinx pulled a HeelFaceTurn because she had truly fallen in love with T-Ryoga and was ashamed about betraying his trust making her TheAtoner. Yet this was retconned into her being coerced into loving him as well and T-Ryoga making a conscious decision into keeping it that way makes Ryoga come across as a sleaze.
** What makes this worse is that it seems to be entirely accidental leading into DesignatedHero. Ryoga and Jinx are treated as in the right with everyone calling out Raven for not fighting hard enough for him.
** Ultimately this is averted with Ryu and Ukyo as both proved not to be above the influence with Ukyo sleeping with Ryu to get access to the remaining green lantern rings and Ryu sleeping with her, to sleep with her even though it aggravated his injuries to the point where he could barely move (meaning it couldn’t have possibly been enjoyable) making them both responsible for their ship sinking.

** The AuthorsSavingThrow for why Jinx attacked Kasumi after Ryoga revealed Akari's fate to the rest of the Titans was essentially the Medical Ward being pretty much a faceless entity, as she doesn't know anything about anyone working in it. Except for Kasumi. Given that Jinx only saved Akari because he cared less about Akari’s wants then her but as stated by Word of god knowing that Kasumi is pretty much the kind of person that wouldn't want to create trouble for all of her friends just made her decision all the easier. Basically Jinx attacked Kasumi because of a combination of ItsAllAboutMe and NeverMyFault.

* VillainBall: After Ukyo was able to withstand the Hishou Kouryuu Ha and vowed to show Ryoga just how powerful a martial artist she really was only for not a millisecond later turn into a DirtyCoward and order Starfire to finish him off.
** Tresspasser trapped Ranma and X-Ryouga in a mental simulation of a piloting training exercise earlier with Trespasser impersonating Captain Ben-Solomon. Yet for some reason he decided to switch the mental landscape to their own private nightmare scenarios. It seemed Trespasser was accomplishing his goals well enough without the new mental prisons (Tricking them into piloting the ship where he wants them to go by running them through piloting training simulations repeatedly makes sense) so these new mental landscapes seemed odd as it allowed the character to explore the world.
*** There was also the fact that he didn’t take the time to properly restrain Kuno, Ryu, and Mousse so they wouldn't be able to interfere.
** The reason that the Mind and the aliens that make up The Mind don’t just mass produce Saffrons is that they have a very low opinion of their terrorist units. They'd see making thousands of Saffrons as a waste.
* VillainHasAPoint: When Ryoga called Ukyo out for not helping after Raven became to tired she replied that simply blasting away with the ring would most likely just bring the whole ship down on them
** Even though she was crazy at the time Starfire did have a point in Jinx’s DesignatedHero status.
--> '''Starfire''': I have heard the last of your lies, You are a plague on those around you, Jinx. All you do is prey upon the love of others; mock us even as you twist our feelings around for your amusement.
*** Of course Jinx fired right back with a point of her own
* {{Wangst}}: T-Ryoga might was well be the new trope codifier as he himself mentions his time is mainly spent looking at things in the negative, which leads his train of thought down some of the darker stretches of Memory Lane.
** This is the main reason he hates his older counterpart as he want him to know that his life is worse in every way possible
--> '''Mitsuko''': Think about what you've been yelling at each other. No one in the world will ever understand you like the man sitting next to you. Yet you spend every moment together trying to poke the other in the most vulnerable places.

** By this point I'd speculate that T-Ryouga is (superficially) somewhat adept at bouncing back after reality suddenly changes on him. He's gained a fair amount of experience putting the pieces of his life back together into something functional following abrupt disruptions (albeit usually with either Cologne or Starfire helpfully threatening violence to knock sense into him), although as this story has made clear the scars linger.
** Alternatively, the threat of female retribution if it's ever discovered that he went on what amounts to a romantic getaway with a (comparatively) happy-go-lucky Shampoo might be giving T-Ryouga an incentive not to focus too much on his Heresiarch experience.

* RonTheDeathEater: Titans ryoga's increasingly jerkass behavior makes him this to some especially in the beginning. It doesn’t help when you combine this with his tendency to hear only what he wants to hear making him a danger to himself and others at time, such as when he ran off to try to free the BrainwashedAndCrazy tetsuya.

* {{Crossover}} ''crossed'' with a Crossover: ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' + the Franchise/{{DCAU}} / ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' + ''VideoGame/XCom''(with a throwaway Manga/InuYasha reference[[note]]as in Inuyasha shows up and is thrown away to prove that this is a CrapsackWorld[[/note]])

* ShipSinking: Ryouga finally came clean to Akane about being P-chan before the story began and got a chewing out to the tune of "I never want to see you again!" for his courage. While Akane later felt bad about her reaction and apologized, by that time Ryouga had moved on and started to form his own LoveDodecahedron.
** Due to relationship writers fumble this trope comes up a lot. Between T-Ryoga and Jinx’s relationship, the fact that it makes it seem like he’s just stringing Raven along, Ranma’s [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgetting about his powers]] making him exhibit the traits Akane has always accused him of having, and Ryu’s flanderation it’s hard to know if this is intentional or not.
** However Mousse deserves special mention as he devises a plan with Jinx that requires Shampoo being dumb enough to fall for it. While Jinx is shown to have a bad enough opinion of Shampoo to believe this. The fact that Mousse has faith in it means that in spite of his repeated declarations of love he has little to no respect for Shampoo. And the fact that he is this obvious about it explains Shampoo’s hatred of him and makes a relationship between the two highly unlikely.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: WordOfGod states that Jinx suddenly being able to elicits any kind of response (other than laughter), when she elbows Ryoga she is using her power to add extra oomph (such as the cut to his cheek, which would be pretty much impossible for someone to do with a slap under normal conditions as well).
** He’s also used RuleOfFunny and alien sympathizers to explain her sudden SuperStrength
** Given Lathis pension for inflicting PlotInducedStupidity on Ranma many people felt that the brother eye protocol was this for the Brushogun arc as it really gave Ranma the credit they felt he deserved.
** averted for the most part as WordOfGod usually makes the characters look like more of a DesignatedHero. For example Lathis claims that Cyborg and the rest of the Titan’s truly believe that Ryoga and Jinx love each other. However the fact that it’s known that Jinx was manipulated into loving Ryoga makes this fact very disturbing. Also we are told that Raven’s actions in Azerath were key to getting them home. However the reason she didn’t tell the X-Com characters what she was doing was shown as a combination being UngratefulBastard and SmallNameBigEgo.
** This is played straight just as much such as the recon of Ryoga being the one to tell Raven about the Love Rod incident not Ranma, as given their relationship joking about it made her come across as hypocritical.
** WordOfGod claiming that Jinx is using her powers anytime she displays signs of having superstrength such as any time she hits Ryouga and actually elicits any kind of response (other than laughter).

*** All in all, you don't read the fic wondering what will happen to anyone from the [[Videogame/{{XCOM}} X-COMverse]], as it's mentioned multiple times that they will likely [[KillEmAll all die in the titular assault on Cydonia]], but the Titan’s presence has introduced a few [[InferredHolocaust scary implications]].

** WordOfGod states that he is thinking of keeping ranma’s new Thanagarian body when they return home, though it's reverting here. Probably tie it into the thing with Shandra Mal which mostly wraps up next chapter. However if mixing Jusenkyo Springs can blend curses (e.g., the addition of tentacles to Taro's cursed from) then mixing Jusenkyo magic with Old God reality transformations could certainly alter the "Curse of the Spring of the Drowned Girl" to "Curse of the Murdered Female Thanagarian" (A very tragic story...).
* WhatAnIdiot: T-Ryouga deciding to get Jinx back to medical attention instead of allowing Starfire to do it even though she could get there far faster than he could with less strain on Jinx’s existing injuries
** heck, even Slade commented on it
** who ever felt it was a good idea to put T-Ryoga in charge of the Yankee Squad when Cyborg has far more experience.
** The first think that Jinx did upon entering a Nth Metal infected Ship is to take off her gloves leaving herself exposed.
** Jinx does everything she can to stir things up amongst India and Juliet squad
** Titan ryoga not realizing that after everything that happened the StrawVulcan Cyborg who nearly killed one of his men, hurt his girlfriend, willingly worked with the enemy, suddenly decided to hold a cue wasn’t a good thing. Instead using it to go on another hypocritical tyraid against X-Ryoga.
** Jinx not telling anyone that Akari is talking to her
** Jinx attacking Kasumi in MisplacedRetribution for what happened to Akari. If Kasumi had decided to report her she and the rest of the titans would have all been arrested.
** Not once during her battle in the center of the mind with trespasser did raven think to try and wake up Ranma and ryoga
** Only after she had been basically kill did she think of this as a sort of last ditch effort
** Despite her military training after feeling raven heart stop nabiki never tried cpr.
*** Ranma and ryoga were the only ones that thought to perform cpr and they weren’t even fully aware
** None of the heroes treat their BrainwashedAndCrazy teammates like they are BrainwashedAndCrazy.
** Cyborg deciding to warn Ukyo that the Lantern Ring doesn’t have unlimited power AFTER something might go wrong while she is in the vacuum of space.
** A lot of problems could have been avoided if ryoga had dealt with his relationship issues a little more seriously.
** Especially after raven became drunk with power
** While Ryoga is clearly at fault blame should also be given to the Titan’s and the Justice League who allowed Jinx and Ryoga to stay coerced into loving each other.
** Taking T-Ryoga’s idiocy of teaching them the technique despite not knowing what it would do to their bodies. Jinx and Starfire decided to train in double circulation on their own despite knowing that this was an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do.
** Ryoga keeps intentionally antagonizing everyone he talks to xcom ryoga shampoo ukyo even seeing that ukyo is clearly in a precocious position and is wielding what he has been told is the stongest weapon in the galaxy he still feels the need to antagonize her. Yet he never seems to face any consequences for these actions.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** It was initially planned for Jinx's powers to get increasingly unstable.
** because of the various fanart of the characters as Red Lanterns (Ryougas) and Orange Lanterns (Nabiki) and Yellow Lanterns (Ryu or Mousse maybe?) or the like various rings to multiple characters nearly happened
** There was actually a rough plot hashed out that would land the three teams in the Justice Lords dimension (After the Justice League episodes, so with an entirely new ballgame going on). It would have been pretty awesome, but along with some inherent problems, it would have needed to be even longer than the Space Hulk arc just to do it proper justice. So, sadly it will need to stay on the cutting room floor before it ever even hits the drawing board.
* WhatTheHellHero: T-Ryoga gave one to Jinx for attacking Kasumi putting both her life and the life of all her teammates in danger.
** It wouldn’t be a TTLB sequel with out T-Ryoga being given one of these. This time Cyborg called him out on repeatedly antagonizing every XCOM character he talks to.
** Even [[PotCallingTheKettleBlack Jinx had called him on it]]
** Raven called T-Ryoga out for acting like a SpoiledBrat upon meeting his father
--> '''Raven''': What is with you today? Here you have a ... well, maybe a thrice in a lifetime chance to meet your father, and all you can think to do is complain?
** Jinx called Nabiki out while in the bleed when she insulted T-Ryoga over the radio while trying to get them to respond.
* TheWorfEffect: Starfire is a heavy hitter who can duke it out with a tank and win so the bullet hit causing her to melt a hand gun can across as this.
** In the India against slade Ryu was decribed as not being infamous among the teams for his raw power, like Ryouga or even Ranma were, when that is literally the entire point of the Yamasenken a powerfully aggressive style that is designed to overwhelm the defense of an opponent. He should be at least as strong as Ranma.
*** Ryu gets this a lot by both authors. The Kijin Raishu Dan is a technique where the user moves their hand so fast that they create near vacuum slashes that jet through the air at near sonic speeds. However in both Dark Titans and The Road to Cydonia the void wave is created using ki. Not only does this lower Ryu’s speed it takes away from the originality of the technique by making it similar to Herb’s ki blades.
** Anyone who goes up against Jinx goes through this not only does she claim that she can hold her own against T-Ranma in a challenge match for the title of school heir, but X-Ranma as well, she is also shown to be stronger then X-Shampoo (or at least hinted as) and can calsually hurt T-Ryoga with an off hand back and.
** When Starfire fought both Kuno and Jinx, Jinx while curb stomped at least put up a fight while Kuno suffered a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
** Starfire handily defeating ranma powerhouses
* WriterOnBoard: Lathis has a BerserkButton for ranma however he doesn’t seem to understand the difference between not making the character overly powerful and intentionally weakening him leading to many instances of PlotInducedStupidity for not only Ranma but XCOM as a whole.
** He also seems to have felt the need to make the Titan’s personalities more dark to reflect the story. However since they are still presented as in the morally right they come across more as hypocritical EntitledBastard.

* {{Fanon}}: Unlike ''Fanfic/DarkTitans'' and ''Fanfic/TheRoadToCydonia'' which characterized mainly from the Anime and Manga respectively, not only is this fic is heavily Fanon it takes it UpToEleven. For example it takes the idea of Ranma being a secret trekkie to him making AMERICAN pop culture references every other sentence.

** Ranma like X-Ryoga has PTSD from his fight with Trencard Cologne which explains why he ForgotAboutHisPowers. Ranma is currently just going through the motions acting like people have always perceived him as instead of how he usually acts (the pop culture references are just him repeating things he’s heard from the various soldiers). He stays focus when he’s needed but every other time he’s just has his head in the clouds which is why Jinx can openly insult shampoo in front of him. Even in battle he’s already defeated Saffron so he didn’t fight nearly as seriously as he normally would have so was caught completely unaware.
*** Ranma’s friend or idol mental battle with Saffron was him coming to terms with this and had nothing to do his and Akane’s relationship. Akane represented his psychosis. Does he give up let her go and continue on as he has. Or does he keep fighting. The fact that he chose the later will mean that will start to see the characterization depicted in ''Fanfic/TheRoadToCydonia''.
*** Ryu’s flanderization to HandsomeLech is caused by his worry about what would happen at Cydonia. This causes him to push the issue with Ukyo because he wants to be intimate with the woman he cares about at least once before they die.
** Due to the relationship between Ryoga and the female Titan’s, which makes him come across like an emotionally DirtyCoward who is unwilling to get into a relationship you can’t help but wonder was Ryoga confessing to Akane about being P-chan really the noble act he tried to make it out to be or was he just running away again.
* {{Anvilicious}}: Due to their complete and utter inability to except the CrapsackWorld they’ve been transported to many of the Titan’s arguments come across as this, such as their reason’s for not allowing Akira to [[DyingAsYourself die as a human]].
* AssPull: Ranma thinking Akane is holding him back nothing in the narrative before this revelation even hinted that he was thinking this.
** Plus the fact that akane has barely been around him for quite sometime for this to even be a factor
** Starfire being able to pull off the hiryu korin dan while her knowing the hiryu shoten ha can be explained by ChekhovsSkill that was not the case with the hiryu korin dan. Further more fanon crept in due to the fact that Ranma a very private person explained to her in her own words excruciating detail how the technique works.
*** FridgeBrilliance Starfires characterization is actually a lot more similar to Ranmathen ryoga that, her warming nature, plus the fact that they were both recovering at the time might have gotten him to let his guard down.
*** Better yet lathis mainly got his source from the anime while Cap'n Chryssalid from the manga. While manga ranma in more inclined to downplay his skills the anime ranma is more inclined for BadassBoast.
*** She also mentioned that drilled her endlessly on her knowledge of the technique most likely to think up new variations he might have thought the korin dan was an even trade.
*** You forget t-ranma is based on the anime. Anime Ranma is more trusting and willing to impart information about himself then his manga counterpart.
** It has been noticed that despite the fact that the Titan’s have been transported to a world that averts the good guy’s always win they still seem to be getting lucky every time something happens to them.
** Jinx’s status as CreatorsPet causes her to repeatedly use moves that she shouldn’t know or even have the ability to perform such as Ranma’s ability to stick to walls.
** Ryoga being able to defeat Ukyo’s final attack by kissing Starfire.
* AudienceAwarenessAdvantage: At one part of the story it was mentioned that the Watchtower’s main gun was hijacked yet the fic appears to be set some time during season one of Justice League Unlimited. So that means the Lex Luthor taking control of the tower hadn’t happened yet.

** The Titan’s insubordination has been causing an decrease in soldier moral making it difficult for X-COM soldiers to work with both them and each other.

* PositiveDiscrimination: Jinx is not only able to hold her own against the X-COM character’s who are a year older but actually match them after only a few months of training when all of them have been training since they could walk. In addition for all her talk about happosai being a grueling master and bragging about how she got him to take her seriously it’s pretty obvious that he didn’t do anywhere near the stuff he did to Genma and Soun to her.
** I find it doubtful that Ranma doesn’t know blind fighting.
* RonTheDeathEater: Titans ryoga’s increasingly jerkass behavior makes him this to some especially in the beginning. It doesn’t help when you combine this with his tendency to hear only what he wants to hear making him a danger to himself and others at time, such as when he ran off to try to free the BrainwashedAndCrazy tetsuya.

** Many readers don’t like X-COM’s treatment of the Titan’s despite their actions being perfectly justified given the circumstances. As well as the fact that they are shown to be far more reasonable and understanding of the Titan’s then vise versa. Instead they focus more on the fact that they live in a decidedly grey world.
* RootingForTheEmpire: You kind of want jinx and ryoga to get their ass kicked after awhile especially with how ensufferable and suicidally overconfident they are

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Cap’n Chryssalid himself mentioned that relationships weren’t his forte which is why it will surprise reader to know that he put so much focus on them in this fic. However it won’t surprise them that this backfired.
** Back in the road to cydonia while Akane and Ranma grew and matured as individuals they still displayed the same problems they always have in their relationship (such as Akane demanding ranma tell her more about himself) this just makes it seems that they aren’t right for each other. However the two seemed to have had a RelationshipUpgrade between fics. Unfortunately the fics starts to imply that Ranma is the main problem. Not only has he taken a level of dumbass giving him a personality usually seen in bad bash fics but he has also become openly perverted for some reason. Finally Ranma’s TailorMadePrison essentially had him confessing that he see’s Akane as a burden and longs to be back on the road. Not only does that not make since given his character but also the scenario (fighting saffron). All in all Ranma and Akane come across as better as friends then lovers.
** Ryu has been flanderized to be far more perverted. Initially he had the sex drive of an average male compared to his fellow ChasteHero however it now appears he thinks of sex 24-7. what makes matters worse is that Ukyo’s and Ryu’s first time was done for their own self interest. While Ryu their love making aggravated the injuries he received from Cyborg to the point where he could barely move. This makes it seem that he was only in it for the sex as it couldn’t have possibly been a joyous experience. All in all seem to have a lot of problems.
** Ryouga shown to be intimate with Jinx and stand up for her against the other titans, and everyone(Raven excluded obviously)consider her his girlfriend. This is despite the fact that everyone knows that their feeling are mentally compelled. It makes Ryoga and the Titans look like jerks as Ryoga appears to be stringing Raven and Starfire along while the other Titan’s get on Raven for missing her chance. So in the end reader’s don’t want Ryoga to end up with Raven due to how he treats her and will find his and Jinx relationship disturbing.

* TheUnfairSex: While RelationshipWritingFumble is the main cause for ShipSinking in this fic due to flanderization and ForgotAboutHisPowers the men are depicted as the main cause of the relationships going wrong. Ryu going from having a more normal attraction to the female form amongst chaste heroes to a HandsomeLech irking Ukyo’s nerves. And Ranma sudden misogynistic and perverted attitude along with his more fanon interpretation draws the blame for the problems of his and Akane’s relationship onto him where before their character development just made it seem as if they just didn’t work well with each other.

** Akane and Ranma have gone through a RelationshipUpgrade however a combination of the continuation RelationshipWritingFumble and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. Where before while both ranma and Akane when through character development their relationship didn’t making it seem as they just didn’t work well with each other. However, the negative traits added to Ranma plus the fact that akane has barely been around makes it appear that all the blame has been shifted to him.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy:
** Titans!Ryoga is told by his X-COM counterpart that all his work with the Titans at suppressing the darkness in his personality will just lead to him losing control of it. He's blowing it off, but only by admitting that the only reason he hates X-COM!Ryoga so much is because he hates ''himself'' for being vicious.
** Cyborg's superhero efforts are mocked by X-COM, who want him to [[StayInTheKitchen stay in the lab and build superweapons.]]
** Jinx makes a real friend her own age for the first time since she rejected both the HIVE and the Titans - [[spoiler:Trenchard!Akari - only for X-COM to accidentally-on-purpose subvert her efforts to save her so they can [[PlayingWithSyringes turn her into a test subject.]]]]
** Raven is encouraged by X-COM to utilize the dark emotions that she's suppressed to keep her father, [[EldritchAbomination Trigon]], from entering the universe and killing it, mostly because it's an easy way to develop her new MindControl abilities and they don't actually believe he could be any worse than their alien enemy. [[spoiler:She of course gets DrunkOnTheDarkSide.]]
** And Starfire runs right into Herb of the Musk, [[spoiler:who is so dedicated to JustFollowingOrders that despite realizing that she's desperately trying ''not'' to kill him, he just uses her hesitation to [[CurbStompBattle casually beat her unconscious]]. X-COM then {{Mind Rape}}s her and almost ''[[TheyWouldCutYouUp vivisects]]'' her. Only the appearance of the other Titans proves her a non-combatant(due to being more subtly Mind Raped), which leads them to instead draft her without a second thought and imprison her in an environment that browbeats her with UN legislature that [[InhumanableAlienRights aliens have no rights]], and she's ''not'' an exception.]]
*** All in all, you don't read the fic wondering what will happen to anyone from the [[Videogame/{{XCOM}} X-COMverse]], as it's mentioned multiple times that they will likely [[KillEmAll all die in the titular assault on Cydonia]], but the Titan’s presence has introduced a few [[InferredHolocaust scary implications]].

** Many fans of the authors prefer to ignore this story as if breaks both their universes by inducing DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Reflections Lost on a Dark Road is a crossover between the BlackAndWhiteMorality of ''FanFic/DarkTitans'' and the decidedly BlackAndGrayMorality of ''Fanfic/TheRoadToCydonia''. However a number of [[{{Retcon}} Retcons]] done to induce ALighterShadeOfGrey on the Titans ended up going [[GoneHorriblyRight horribly right]]. However since they are still treated as the moral superior’s this requires Cap'n Chryssalid’s characters to be both [[TookALevelInDumbass dumbed down]] and [[TheWorfEffect weakened]]. So in the end with the exception of maybe Cyborg the Titans just come across as evil while it’s highly unlikely that the X-COM characters aren’t going to survive.

** While stuck in the Hulk Dimension X-Ryoga came up with a plan to send Two teams to the Thangarians ship to get the object they need. However this was Vetoed by T-Ryoga and Raven by stating that Raven and Starfire could take far more people, hit more targets at once, as well as get to the target faster. Which would reduce the amount of time that they're all being driven slowly insane. However as Nabiki mentioned while speed is important the Hulk Dimension is riddled with hazards and the ship is the only way to map the area leaving the real possibility of them being lost in space.

*** Ryoga’s second argument was that the entire basis of the Anything Goes style is blatantly stealing any technique they can find. First Ryoga isn’t a student of anything goes second no it is not its basis is to learn and adapt many different style taking what works and discarding what doesn’t. Genma and Happosai’s penitent for stealing techniques was never once presented as a good thing as they cause more harm then good. With Genma the fact he doesn’t understand te nature of the techniques causes irreculable damage such as the neko ken. With Happosai it is the fact that he has a pensient for using those techniques to turn children (Hinako, Kurumi, Natsumi) in to living weapons making it so they can never have normal lives.

** Ryoga’s and Shampoo’s argument about the morality of being a martial artist versus being a super hero presented Ryoga as in the right when he argued that martial artist are every bit as reckless and dangerous as any meta-human, but without any of the redeeming qualities of concern for the social good. The problem is that simply isn’t true. In Ranma1/2 martial artist play the same function as superheroes. Soun has been repeatedly called upon to stop escaped oni, Ranma has gone out of his way to help people in need even when it has noting to do with martial arts such as trying to convince Densuke (sick kid who wouldn't take his medicine) to take his medicine. (After Densuke fainted Ranma spent the entire night at his bedside to make sure he was well), helped a little boy was afraid to go outside. He repeatedly helped Ryoga to and from school and class and has gone on a number of oni exterminations himself. Ryoga has helped a number of people in his journey’s in fact this is how he met the Titan’s. so while ryoga was presented as in the right neither party gave compelling arguments merely stated their own bias.

** Its not just X-COM ever in TTLB Jinx pulled a HeelFaceTurn because she had truly fallen in love with T-Ryoga and was ashamed about betraying his trust making her TheAtoner. Yet this was retconned into her being coerced into loving him as well and T-Ryoga making a conscious decision into keeping it that way makes Ryoga come across as a sleaze.

*** However Starfire did admit her hypocrisy putting her more in JerkassWoobie territory.

*** Despte X-Ryoga repeated attempts to find common ground with T-Ryoga even going so far as to suggest they see the therapist T-Ryoga repeatedly downplays the suffering of X-Ryoga specifically and the X-Comverse as a whole such as saying that his biggest problems are booty calls and his ego. He even went so far that Akari’s [[FateWorseThanDeath suffering]] didn’t matter as the Titan’s did the right thing by saving her life.
*** Ryoga is also depicted as the victim of the love triangle between him, Raven, and Jinx. Raven is repeatedly called out for missing her chance and everyone tries to get Jinx to see reason when the mental compulsion is taken away. However Ryoga was fully aware of the compulsion even going so far as being assured that she didn’t have a choice but to love him. Further more while his situation was compared to Ranma’s. Ranma was honor bound by all of his fiancee’s something Ryoga isn’t. it just come across as Ryoga stringing Raven and Starfire along while he’s in a relationship with Jinx. Raven is the one bending over backwards for him, she is the one called out for the problems in the relationship. Jinx is made to feel guilty for not loving him. Nothing Ryoga has done is depicted as being in the wrong.
*** Finally there are his arguments with his parents. While Ranma and the others can understand the consequences of his curse, (i.e not having a lot of friends, being alone a lot, endless traveling) they can’t really understand how ([[NightmareFuel truly dehabilitating it is]]) so it is understandable why he would get angry when they mention it. However his mother and father understand perfectly what he is going through so his yelling at them doesn’t have the same impact as say Ranma doing the same thing to [[CallingTheOldManOut Genma or Nodoka]]. Tetsuya and Mitsuko are shown to be loving and understanding parents and despite the horrible situation they are in (Tetsuya being BrainwashedAndCrazy, Mitsuko worrying about her husband and son) they except responsibility every hurtful thing T-Ryoga says to them. When you add the fact that he isn’t even their actual child and he is essentially calling them out for [[{{Wangst}} giving birth to him]] and he just comes across like a SpoiledBrat.

** Jinx’s main focus in Dark Titan’s was TheAtoner who performed a HeelFaceTurn in order to make up for kidnapping Ryoga and manipulating him into loving her. however the revelation that she was coerced into loving ryoga as well completely ruins this interpretation as well as introduces many disturbing implications.
** The entirety of X-COM have been dumbed down or changed in order for the Titans to remain morally superior so instead of older and wiser counterparts were have a sex crazed Ryu, a Mousse who can’t understand why not enslaving Shampoo didn’t instantly send her into his arm (and later plan on working with Jinx into manipulating her into loving him, and a Shampoo who is treated as the TheChewToy for somehow being weaker then a girl who has only had two month’s of hard training.
** Akane and Ranma have gone through a RelationshipUpgrade however a combination of the continuation RelationshipWritingFumble and WhatHappenedToTheMouse. Where before while both ranma and Akane when through character development their relationship didn’t making it seem as they just didn’t work well with each other. however the negative traits added to ranma plus the fact that akane has barely been around makes it appear that all the blame has been shifted to him.
** Saffron his defeat was nothing more then CharacterShilling for the Titans and it requires both Ranma and Saffronto hold the IdiotBall to create the need for Starfire to defeat him.

*** Ranma’s friend or idol mental battle with Saffron was him coming to terms with this and had nothing to do his and Akane’s relationship. Akane represented his psychosis. Does he give up let her go and continue on as he has. Or does he keep fighting. The fact that he chose the later will mean that will start to see the characterization depicted in TheRoadToCydonia.

** The statement Ranma made in Azarath came completely out of no where and was utterly out of character not only for TheRoadToCydonia but for this fic as well.

* {{Fanon}}: Unlike DarkTitans and TheRoadToCydonia which characterized mainly from the Anime and Manga respectively notonly is this fic is heavily Fanon it takes it UpToEleven. For example it takes the idea of Ranma being a secret trekkie to him making AMERICAN pop culture references every other sentence.

** Many fans of the authors prefer to ignore this story as if breaks both their universes by inducing DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Reflections Lost on a Dark Road is a crossover between the BlackAndWhiteMorality of ''FanFic/DarkTitans'' and the decidedly BlackAndGrayMorality of ''FanFic/TheRoadToCydonia''. However a number of [[{{Retcon}} Retcons]] done to induce ALighterShadeOfGrey on the Titans ended up going [[GoneHorriblyRight horribly right]]. However since they are still treated as the moral superior’s this requires Cap'n Chryssalid’s characters to be both [[TookALevelInDumbass dumbed down]] and [[TheWorfEffect weakened]]. So in the end with the exception of maybe Cyborg the Titans just come across as evil while it’s highly unlikely that the X-COM characters aren’t going to survive.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: X-COM Ryoga’s statement to Titan Ryoga that an AllTakeAndNoGive relationship based entirely on guilt is unhealthy, and there is nothing wrong with asking what do I want.

* ScapegoatCreator: While the PlotInducedStupidity is mostly blamed on Lathis as a lot of the changes bear his mark as [[WordOfGod Cap’n Chryssalid himself as stated]] he is just as responsible for the character and has just as much say in what is going on.

** Many fans of the authors prefer to ignore this story as if breaks both their universes by inducing DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Reflections Lost on a Dark Road is a crossover between the BlackAndWhiteMorality of ''FanFic/DarkTitans'' and the decidedly BlackAndGrayMorality of ''FanFic/TheRoadToCydonia''. However a number of [[{Retcon} Retcons]] done to induce ALighterShadeOfGrey on the Titans ended up going [[GoneHorriblyRight horribly right]]. However since they are still treated as the moral superior’s this requires Cap'n Chryssalid’s characters to be both [[TookALevelInDumbass dumbed down]] and [[TheWorfEffect weakened]]. So in the end with the exception of maybe Cyborg the Titans just come across as evil while it’s highly unlikely that the X-COM characters aren’t going to survive.

** The added multi crossover elements some fans felt that the portrayal of Inu-Yasha and ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' were both offensive and in poor taste and didn't need to be included. While others felt that it provided a lot of context for how Xcom operates and had a bigger impact using characters that people know then if they made up OCs for that part of the story.