YMMV / Dark Titans

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The whole basis of this fic is the authors belief in this trope. Lathis is a firm believer in the theory that the only reason Takahashi put Ryouga in the situation of being Akane’s pet was because it gave him a flaw that made him worse than Ranma. If he had only been the tragic figure that got lost and had a worse curse than Ranma, then he would easily be the most pitiable character in the story. Making him her pet gave people a reason to not like him.
  • This is also done in-universe. Starfire has a very friendly relationship with Ranma, but in an effort to make Ryoga feel better she joined him in his rants until she found out that Terra actually believed them.
  • In Shampoo's case, fanon crept in quite a bit in this fic. Shampoo IS the 3rd most skilled martial arts after Ranma and Ryoga. Lathis, however, showed her as being single minded and brutal. While the character of Shampoo was often sneaky, she was rarely as violent or boastful as he made her. Making Akane forget Ranma instead of braining her is just one example. While Shampoo may have issues with learning another language, no one gets to be as skilled as she is without having some brains. This mistake was rectified later.
  • Is Kasumi a chessmaster, or has she just gone crazy?
  • Lathis has managed to go beyond the cheerful alien girl on the outside, and presented Starfire as someone that gets angry, sad, and even jealous.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Starfire's parents died after she was sent away as a slave by Blackfire to the Gordanians. This isn't brought up at all in the episode she returned to Tamaran. Granted, the comic came out after the episode aired, but watching it again, it becomes particularly jarring considering that Starfire displays no form of grief. Ryoga being the complete and utter opposite of this annoyed her greatly.
  • Ranma shows shades of this as well.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Ranma is definitely this. Ask any random fan or reviewer of the story, and they will either say he’s a spoiled brat or the best thing to happen to it.
  • Ryoga as well. No one in Nerima is squeaky clean, and he showed both the best and worst in Ryoga. Despite being the main character, he spent an awful lot of time brainwashed. Lathis showed a nicer Ryoga away from Ranma, and how he sort of found a measure of peace. Then he showed a Ryoga drowning in Ranma, for the lack of a better term, and it came off as scary. He is a tough fighter, and a very emotional guy; and Lathis managed to show both the good and bad consequences of this.
• Broken Base:
  • Which is stronger: the Yamasenken or the Shishi Houkodan?
  • Perhaps the biggest is where do Ranma and Ryoga’s respective skills lie.
• Damsel Scrappy: Akane come across as this not only was she the one who gave Brushogun the idea on how to make himself stronger, but after she had been rescued she decided to go back into danger to tell Ranma something he had already figured out (because it was ridiculously obvious) but was no help to the situation at all. She then chose to start arguing with Ranma when he pointed this out. This not only got her recaptured but put Ranma’s life in danger as well requiring both to be saved Daizo.
• Funny Moments: Private Hive’s attempt to prove himself had Nabiki nearly collapsing to the ground from laughter.
  • Ryoga asking Raven out to breakfast caused Cyborg to nearly explode into laughter at the shocked expression on Raven's face.
  • This:
    Ranma: "Damn! It's time for the Saotome School's Ultimate Technique-"
    Ryoga: "We don't have time for any stupid techniques! Everyone, run away!"
  • Pedicure of the Fierce Tiger
• Harsher in Hindsight: Raven’s conversation about Akane’s constantly beating Ranma and him not seeing anything wrong with it will strike a cord in anyone who has read The Bitter End.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Dark Titan Ryu fought Tetsuo from Akira who pretty much ignored everything he did anytime Ryu managed to get in a hit Tetsuo would just put up a psychic barrier. Dispite having no experience in fighting such an opponent Ryu was able to figure out that Tetsuo was weak against ki attacks. Two years after Dark Titans started Thrythlind wrote the fanfic Divine Blood where experienced warriors refer to people who think born power means you don't need to train as "Akira’s"
• I Am Not Shazam: The Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire is a training technique, not an actual attack. It is basically composed of removing several chestnuts from on open fire by hand without getting burned, success means that the trainee is now not only very fast, but accurate. It is used to show exactly where Robin’s skill lie however, for while Ranma doesn’t need to shout to uses his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, Robin does.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Ryôga Hibiki has terrible luck, has one of the worst ever seen cases of No Sense of Direction, the direction issues are inherited from both his parents and so he almost never sees his family, is a dedicated romantic, was brainwash to attack all of his friends, nearly killed the woman he loved. He's also bad tempered and most of his immediate problems are his own fault. He repeatedly blames Ranma for things he himself has done. Worst of all not only did Starfire have to drive home the fact that other people have problems but anytime he tells people about his past instead of telling what actually happened he puts him self in the best possible light while putting Ranma in the worse.
  • Mousse spins a heartbreaking tale of devotion and unrequited love that spans the better part of a decade, refusing to give up on his attempts to woo his childhood acquaintance no matter what blows life deals, to the point that an audience in-series cries after hearing it. However, the object of his affections makes it clear that he's more a Stalker with a Crush who happens to have been a childhood friend than the Unlucky Childhood Friend he sees himself as. There's also the fact that his response to the Love Triangle he's personally caught in as part of the Love Dodecahedron is to literally Murder the Hypotenuse, and as he has very poor vision, even with his glasses, and literally doesn't care who gets in the way. Not to mention his sheer vicious actions when he thought Raven had killed Shampoo.
  • Shampoo, genuinely loves and cares for Ranma, but gets little affection from him. Due to his Harmful to Minors training and a Forced Transformation curse inflicted on her as punishment early in the series, he actually runs away from her quite frequently. She's also a stranger in a strange land and has no friends at all outside of Ranma and Mousse (Akane might have counted as well if she and Shampoo had not been rivals in love). However, she knows absolutely nothing about it. She admitted to herself that she believes Ranma is chauvinistic this belief was later used against. The simple fact that she is married to him disproves her belief that he doesn’t respect and wouldn’t hit girls.
• Moment of Awesome: Mainly Ranma versus Brushogun; and Nabiki versus the Titans and Brother Blood; but there are plenty of more general examples, including:
  • The final battle against Brother Blood.
  • Kasumi escapes from a hostage situation by cursing.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Ranma hates feeling helpless because it reminds him of how he felt during the Nekoken training. Whenever he doesn’t feel in control there is a risk that he might go cat. Out of everyone in the series Ranma has the least control over his life. Even getting up and going to the bathroom is met with suspicion.
  • Members of the Wrecking Crew trying to get a library card.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: There are so many, it’s hard to know where to start.
  • Titans and the Lost Boy introduced a disturbing element of the Neko Ken but it was never elaborated upon.
  • Starfire’s similarities with Ranma were never addressed despite Ryoga seeing them as polar opposites.
  • A fight between Neko Ken!Ranma and Beast! Beast Boy.
  • The titans never saw Ranma's curse, so we never get to see their reaction to it.
  • We never get to see the Titans' reaction to Ranma defeating Godzilla.
  • Even after Brushogun found out about Ranma’s fear of cats, he never used it against him and just taunted him with it instead.
  • Ranma never asked Goku how to fly.
  • Happosai vs Superman.
• Wangst: Ryoga, relentlessly and mercilessly. It reaches the point that anytime Ryoga goes into a rant about how Ranma destroyed his life, the Titan’s reply with a sarcastic "sure, he did". Starfire even goes so far as to play along with him (as explaining that his pain is nothing compared to what she went through didn’t take). Eventually, though, they did give him a What the Hell, Hero? when they found out that Terra was taking him seriously.

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