So we got some artwork for a section of the black codex, the original full history of what actually happened in Thedas history.

I just thought i would go over it.

So we get some insight into how the war between the Elves and titans looked, and how an actually awake titan looked like.

We also learn that though the Elves modelled themselves on Humans, they actually got the inspiration for wanting bodies by looking at the Dwarves.

Also i honestly dont get why Solas was so obsessed with burning everything in Veilfire to restore the old elvhen empire, pre-veil Thedas looks pretty chill.

Certainly nothing like the hell Cory tried to unleash by keeping the worlds sorta half connected.

Also Early dwarves werent just drones, but seems to have lacked the true spark of individuality, just tending to the titans.

Most importantly, as we'll cover below, All The titans power was sealed in a little black box.

So... This shot. Here we learn a lot of things.

Firstly if you finished Origins, you will recognize the aura around the square containing the Titans power.

Though it looks calmer, it's the same energy as what explodes out from Urthemiel's corpse after you slay the archdemon at the end of origins, a massive wave of power that surges through the sky.

It recontextualizes the energy that was building up before the explosion. It was the power of the titants finally being unleashed back into the world.

Which in turn explains why the titan under Ferelden began to awaken again, finally getting jolted back up after the breach. The energy was finally free, from from the box, free from the blight.

Secondly we finally get an explanation of how the dwarves ended up underground, and why they shunned the surface so much, having literarily fleed it so long ago to live in the corpses of their creators.

Thirdly... Well it turns out that the people who speculated that the golden/black city was Arlathan wasn't entierly off... Cause it seems that whatever the hell the city actually was, the seat of the maker, a relic of some older civilization, or actually made by the Elves after all, the city's original location was in the aky ABOVE Arlathan.

Meaning the city of Arlathan was founded BELOW the place where the Evanuris kept the box.

That is... interesting.

What i also find interesting is that there is a clear disconnect between the buildings we see here, and the buildings of actual ancient elvhen architecture we see everywhere else.

Clearly there was a MASSIVE shift at some point.

From this, I can see two possibilities.

1. If the Golden city was indeed made by the ancient elves, then it remained as a monument of this early style, a more "primitive" and experimental style that the elves eventually abandoned, but remained in the great prison in the sky.

2. If the Golden city existed before them, and they choose to found Arlethan underneath it as they put the box here for safeguarding, then it is perfectly logical to assume that the Elves innitially modelled their first building style after this monument of power that predated even them, which they may, or may not have known the origins of.

If so, they eventually abandoned the Golden City's architectural style entierly.

Regardless, as Solas notes in Inquisition, the Elves did indeed build palaces in the sky as we see in Veilguard with this entierlg seperate floating city, so it is entierly possible they created the entire thing themselves.

The only question that remains is the chicken or the egg. Did the elves make the golden city and model their future floating cities on it, or did they find it preexisting, and model their later creations on it?

So here we get an actual explanation of how the blight actually began.

Blood magic.

It wasn't just the anger and souls of the titans becoming twisted that created the Blight.

It was the Evanuris, who wanted more power, who used blood magic to enhance the already incredibly mighty and volatile power of the Titans to even greater heights.

THIS was what created the blight as we know it.

What turned the Golden city from a center of power to a prison, but the power was not yet unleashed.

It adds a lot of context to the Evanuris not yet embracing the blight at first, and innitially being weary of it.

They first was terrified... Then eventually decided they needed this power to defeat Solas once and for all.

And the rest is history.

Then next, we get a look into why Solas disliked blood magic.

Turns out the whole binding the Evnaruis and creating the veil wasn't just a blood magic ritual that used their own power to trap them and make the veil... But it also used his own.

And as we see here, whatever the origins of the Golden City, it was THIS ritual, the creation of the Veil, that turned the city black as his little black cube presumably blew up, releasing all the power of the Titans into the now prison of his fellow gods.

The final art piece isnt as interesting, but it does give us some context into the first meeting between tevinter and the Elves.

History of course remembers the Tevniters as the bloodthirsty, slaver imperials that would subjugate the elves... But as we see here, that wasn't quite how it started.

Rather than attacking and enslavging the Elves of this nameless city, the ancient Vints look... Kinda sad.

This wasn't an army that had come to conquer and destroy, probably just an expedition that stumbled unto a massive and brutal slaughter in the Elves civil warring, and looking over a pointless slaugther.

There is a sense here that the Tevinter Imperium didn't necessarily have to go down the path they did... Of course that is not what happened, but it does add some much needed bit of depth to the ancient vints beyond moustache twirling villains.

They CHOOSE to later go down the path of slaver based empire. But it was just that. A choice.

Other than that, there is what we already know, cory and the rest found the city blighted.

All in all though, it's a rather facinating dew pages.

The Black City WAS Golden Once - The Final Mystery

So in the Veilguard, we learn seemingly ALL the secrets of the black city, and all mysteries are uncovered.

They were done so in stupid, badly written ways, but all the answers were seemingly given, and all made logical sense.

The black city was the prison for the evanuris, it was the origin of the blight already in the world which we already knew, but we learned that the blight was caused by the titans being mentally castrated and the madness and eldrich fallout turned into the taint that blighted everything it touched, solas used the city speciffically as the prison for said taint, then later his fellow gods, and because he used it as the prison for the taint, that's why it was blackened when cory got there.

All of it is logical in it's own way, and demystifies pretty much everything we have learned about it, and conclusively separates it from the maker... At least that was my original thoughts on the matter, before i suddenly recalled one, very specific bit of bioware Questions and Answers.

I dont recall exactly who said what, but after Inquistion, some Bioware story writer was asked something along the lines of "Was the black city always black? and the golden part was just an illusion?"

And the answer actually completely contradicts what we seemingly learn in Veilguard.

No, the city WAS Golden in the distant past. It was not JUST an illusion on the outside. It wasn't always the black city as we know it.

That... is interesting. because that suggests it WAS important BEFORE solas imprisoned the blight there.

Now the obvious conclusion if we accept this theory, is that the city was indeed the maker's citadel(as according to the chantry, he was the original god of mankind, and we now know mankind did indeed predate the elves), but it's not the only possibility, just the most logical one with what information we have.

What i will say though, is that the Black city does not in any way SEEM to have been an elven structure judging by the architecture.

And this architecture seems to have been a point of importance for the creating team, because it has remained relatively consistent since origins, when we only got to look at it up close by breaking the camera and zooming in on it.

It has a very blocky architecture, like someone carved it directly out of the mountains, with one of the roofs having a sorta factory like plating, and there being clear palaces/temples on the top.

And we see it again inquistion, though since we cant see the top(and it probably wasnt added in since we werent meant to get to go there) we cant see the temples/palaces where whoever once lived here probably used for their base.

And we know this throne exists, because Cory flat out tells us it exists, and it was empty, NOT occupied by the Evenris who presumably wandered across it's streets.

So with all of this in mind, we can draw some conclusions.

2. The city was important before the war between titans and elves, and was probably chosen as the prison for a reason, not that it became important because it was the prison. the fact it has a royal throne tells us that SOMEONE used to rule here.

3. The city used to be golden, and it was Solas imprisoning the Blight there that turned it black.

4. The city is THE center of the fade, the de-facto gravitational center of all magic in the world... but is this because it always was so even before the veil(hence why it was chosen as the prison), or did it become so only AFTER Solas used it as an ancher stone when he separated the fade and the physical world with the veil. Both are equally possible.

Regardless of wheter one assumes it was made by some civlization that predates the Elves and known history, or was made by Maker, it's original origins remains one, final unanswered mystery that Veilguard did not give an answer to.

So one part about the terrible direction Veilguard went, made me realize that there was one more prophecy/foreshadowing from across the Dragon Age franchise that was thrown into the garbage.

So in the endings, we learn that Dorian becomes Archon and the Tevinter Imperium lives to fight another day... And that really bothers me.

Not that he makes the attempt, but rather thar the empire survives at all, because the games had been setting up the idea that Tevinter's time was finally up and heading to a close.

The idea is first brought up when the Guardian of the urn of Sacred ashes tells of his duty of protecting the ashes for pilgrims... Until the Imperium has "Crumbled into the sea", and when the Warden tells him that the Imperium is no longer as strong as it used to be, he ominously says that perhaps this is the beginning of the end then.

In hindsight, what seems to be said here is that he is referring to the "Beginning of the end' as the first step to leading to the climax of the series as it was planned and already being set up this early.

The concept that eventually became Veilguard, when the Elvhen gods would finally break free and it would all end in a cataclysmic battle that would end the Tevinter imperium as the Guardian(By far the living person who is the strongest argument that the Maker was real after all) has forseen.

Obviously we didn't get that, but this isnt the only place where this idea is floated around.

We get talks here and there of there being a time for something new, a "next great empire" as one of the Inquisition soldiers calls it.

And time and again we are hit by the reminder that the Imperium has seen much, much better days... And that the Qun WILL invade again in the near future, and when it does, it will probably level it.

There is the mention of the elvhen revolts starting up, the culmination of thousands of years of abuse and slavery, and just the nastiness of tevinter in general having completely degrading their society and its hopes for the future.

Vivienne actually talks about this with Dorian, as she pretty much tells him that Tevinter WILL fall, and she would prefer he had a backup plan to survive and thrive when it does.

And most of this does happen... But in ludicrously cartoonish ways.

The Qunari Antaam does invade... But not for the Qun, but instead because they serve the Elvhen gods.

As does the Venatori, because... Why? Why does the Tevinter supremacist follow false gods none of them have worshipped for near a hundred years? That they now know are elves?

The elvhen revolt never really happens.

The Evanuris does break free and begin destroying shit... but rather than elvhen followers as all logic dictates, are instead backed up by humans and Qunari... Because.

Also, rather than turning all their wrath loose upon the Tevinter imperium, the logical target that should either be conquered or exterminated to begin the rebuilding of their ancienct empire, they isntead focus the wast majority of their attention on the south... Because.

Im just gonna come flat out and say it.

I 100% believe that when Bioware was originally laying the foundations for This story, the planned climax was going to LEVEL Tevinter and make it "Crumble into the sea".

THAT was the direction as originally planned, and was the logical endpoint that everything was hinting at, and building towards and frankly would have served as a great climax and ending to this evil, decadent empire.

Unfortunately, Veilguard had no interest in a climax where the parts of the world YOU the player fought to save would be utterly decimated no matter what you did, so instead the empire survived, while the south of Thedas was obliterated.

So hey, the evil, slaving empire that is the source of so much of the world's evil, and will innevitably fall back into utter decadence and never change it's ways got to live on...

While Ferelden, the true heart and soul of this entire setting, burned to cinders and it's was people exterminated offscreen because Bioware wanted to get ridd of all player choices.

What a climax.

Ferelden is Wiped Out Offscreen

So in Veilguard Ferelden was destroyed and at best 99% of it's population was killed offscreen by darkspawn, with the tiny, tiny minority of people holed up in Redcliffe Castle survived.

It's dead. And even if the population hadn't been destroyed, the entire land is entierly blighted. there is NO HOPE for recovery.

So is Orlais and Kirkwall too.

Everything is fucking dead and gone.

Every single choice you made in origins, Inquisition and DA2 DID NOT MATTER.

It was ALL FOR NOTHING.

EVERYTHING WAS FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

The only place still standing in Ferelden is Orzammar, and that being a city state when EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF FARMLAND IT RELIES ON FOR FOOD IS DESTROYED is going to die too.

I CANT believe people are not talking about this. THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TIMELINE and NOBODY who actually talks about this game here even brings it the fuck up!

So i wasn't exactly surprised that Veilguard ended up being trash after that awful first trailer... But damn the level of cartoonish evil that went behind making it was something else.

So what we have now learned from Ex-Bioware producers is that EA systematically forced Bioware staff to begin to train up a replacement mid development, then once they had a reasonable competence level and knowledge about the game, they flat out fired the developer in question with their new yesman.

Leaving the actual bioware employees with the option to either hang on for as long as they could for the paycheck, knowing they would be replaced, or to just walk away and leave the development to sit and spin as there was no one to immediatly fill the now empty development chair.

No wonder this game both sucks so badly as both a story, a game, and as a Dragon Age product.

Not only is Bioware not really Bioware anymore, but it's very essence was siphoned out, and replaced mid development, which explains why it took 10 years, and 3 internal reboots to get it done.

Frankly the surprising thing isn't that this game is terrible, it's that it actually seems to run decently at a technical level at least.

I guess those drones from EA ended up with technical skills, if nothing else.

So just a bit of Rumiko's originally planned color scheme i have never seen anyone comment on.

Ryoga's entire assemble was originally supposed to be very glaring pink, whoch has several meaning in Japanese, as it's speciffically a very masculine color... But with a twist.

In Japanese, Pink is the color of Sakura, and in terms of masculinity, is used to symbolize Samurai who died before their time, in the prime of their lives.

Which you could easily connect to Ryoga's feelings that his life effectively came to a premature end at Jusenkyo.

Meanwhile, Shampoo's most notable different feature is that she was originally meant to have scarlet hair.

Now this is of course a reference to the fact that Shampoo, more than any of the other of Ranma's love interests represents war, fighting, ruthlessnes and martial arts.

In the context of Japan, it also is the color of authority, happiness and strength.

It is also meant to be a clear cut contrast to Lum, the Heroine of Rumiko's first hit series, from whom Rumiko took a lot of inspiration, but ultimately made her a mirror of, as defined by Shampoo's red, to Lum's generally green.

As for Ranma's design, while there is of course the more notable fact that Manga ranma always had black hair regardless of form, there is also the original color of Ranma's famous amrtial arts uniform, which rather than the familiar red and black/blue se all know and love, was instead a very distinct orangish yellow.

Rather than any symbolism, thia is instead a reference to one of Ranma's contemporaries/predessecors, Dragon ball, as Manga Goku's Kame Gi as shown on the cover above, is almost the exact same shade, much brighter than it's animated counterpart.

Overall, Rumiko just loved this color scheme in general, as a lot of art has ranma in orange duds.

Its even the main color on the final volumes of the series.

Similar to Shampoo, Ukyo also has an element of red that was dropped in the anime, in the form of her ribbon, the trim of her short, but also her lipstick and Eyeliner.

It also symbolizes strength, power and war... But in a much more subdued manner, as while Ukyo is just as monstrously strong as Shampoo(With word of god estimating her raw, brute strength on the level of Ryoga, though lacking his monstrous durability), she lacks Shampoo's comfortable with violence, nudity and such, with her loss against Ranma in large part due to feelings of personal emberassment at her own nudity that Shampoo has never shown.

She also in general just lacls Shampoo's comfortable with true, murderous violence as the go to answer to her problems.

Hence while it was meant to be a defining color on Shampoo, on Ukyo it was meant to be a very small yet noticable aspect of her coloring.

It is also the color of sacrifice, and more than anyone of Ranma's finacee's, Ukyo is willing to change herself if it means winning Ranma's heart.

Later down the line, this red color would also link her to her introduced at the last minute love interest Konatsu, who wore red in general.

Also, speaking of character who never got the animated treatment in the original series, Ryo Kumon stands out as not only was he given a color scheme by Rumiko, but his color scheme was speciffically influenced by the Animated color scheme of Nodoka as having purple hair, in order to contrast him with Ranma as looking far more similar to Nodoka than her flesh and blood son.

Its an interesting choice as manga Nodoka had black hair, which meant Rumiko specifficaly chose this color design to make the similarity between him and Nodoka much more obvious for when the arc was adapted for the screen(Which didn't end up happening in the first anime).

The Maker - Post Veilguard

So the Veilguard did not exactly manage to subvert my expectations after that disasterous first trailer, as other than allowing an ending where everyone dies if you want that(Something inquisition didn't have), it was about what I expected.

A limp, weak final product for a series that is NOT Getting another instalment, with what little good is there to be found is building upon the lore(and delivered in an abyssmally bad manner) of the previous games.

One thing i did not expect though, was that this game would actually throw a curveball in regards to my thoughts on the Maker, the possibly not even real creator god of the Thedas setting.

One of the biggest arguments against his very existence, is that what we knew of dragon age lore did not add up with the chantry's supposed origin story.

The Elves predated Humanity by thousands of years, it seemed unlikely that Humanity would thrive or even survive in the kind of magically infused world we are suggested existed, the dwarves dont fit in at all, and there are clear cut examples where its obvious a lot of stuff were just added in to connect the Maker to the black city, the blight, and all that.

However, Veilguard, in its ridiculously blunt manner just throws in the biggest curveball about this timeline of events, and doesnt reqlly go into real depth about it.

Namely that the first elves speciffically modelled themselves on Humans, meaning Humanity was indeed the first known sentient race on the world of Thedas.

Humanity predated both Elves, dwarves, not to mention the Qunari, and it was THEY who were the real contemporaries of the Titans, NOT the elves who effectively killed them.

That... Means that the Chantry's version of events, where Humanity was the first sentient, non-spirits of the world is actually plausible, something that seems much less believable if Humanity just sorta popped up from somewhere all at once like it seemed according to history.

Obviously there is a heck of lot of stuff that the chant teaches that is just flat out wrong(The black city seems to just have been a random elvhen palace that became important due to what happened there, the darkspawn have nothing to do with the maker, etc), but this reveal, and the confirmation that elves joins the Dwarves and Qunari as "artificial" races(Who's origins is not explored in the Andrastian original doctrine), with very clear, non divine origins, paradoxically opens the door for the Maker to have been the maker of the original world, and humanity much more than before the game was revealed, even if so much of what the chant says is indeed proven to be completely non related to him.

So i just thought i might as make a list of all the Loki references from Norse myths and history.

1. The mythical loki was chained up and had poison poured into his eyes routinely as torture for setting the murder of his nephew Balder.

2. When he broke free from his chains, it was time for ragnarok and the destruction of the world tree which burned in fire by a fire giant surtr, hence why all this sun god stuff is kinda important.

3. Blood eagle was the most horrifying execution method employed by the norse, where they cut your back open while you were still alive, and rearranged your ribs so that it looked like an eagle flapping it's wings as you took your last breaths.

Its sorta referenced here with his eagle tattoes that lines up on the other side of where the "wings" would have been splayed.

4. Harald is a Norse king name that has been associated with a lot of family bloodshed and overthrowing in the fight for supremacy over the crowns of norway and denmark.

Just like loki killing his dad.

5. Loki was the brother of the ruler of asgard, Odin by blood oath, not the brother of thor. Just like this Loki is the brother of the current king.

6. His hair seems to have a distinct flame shape, which is a reference to how the original loki in aome itterations had literal hair of flames, while in others he was just a redhead like his nephew thor.

7. His horned helmet is based on a kettle helmet, but more speciffically on the kind of kettle helmet later scandinavians would have used.

8. Like Loki, his greateat sin for which he became universally hated and chained up for was kinslaying for the most vile of reasons, only here it was brutal pragmatism, while in the myths he had his nephew killed for the lulz.

So one interesting aspect of Akane is how Ranma's go to insult of her as "Fat" or "Macho" is one that completely changes in tone as the manga goes on due to Rumiko's developing artstyle.

Akane was never portrayed as particularly overweight, but in the early chapters, as shown above, she was portrayed as having a particularily big rear and huge outwards flaring hips.

Something that meant that when she is actually dressed in her regular, loose on her body attire, she has the appearance of being much, much stockier than she actually is.

Hence why Ranma when he wants to insult her calls her fat, something she really is not, but he knows she is very selfconcious about(as we see when she gets pissed about making a jab at her waist).

and as for macho, Akane was never particularily musclebound, but she has noticably thicker and more developed arms, and an especially thick neck than female ranma does, showing her muclemass.

in other words, the things ranma insults her about are not aspects that does not exist... but he really is making a mountain out of a molehill because he understands that akane is sensitive about these parts of herself, and when ranma gets mad, his go to strategy is trying to hurt the person who annoys him either physically or with words.

meanwhile, skip forward and as Rumiko's artstyle begins its march to becoming more and more like her animated adaptions(that would crystalize during inuyasha's run) Akane's body loses pretty much everything that innitially separated her from Ranma or the rest of the female cast(except cologne) where the only thing that really makes their bodies look any different from each other is differing heights.

she completely loses her rather distinct lower curves, her musclemass, and her thick neck that once stood out is now as slender as everyone else.

this in turn also completely changes the tone of Ranma's go to insults to seeming like something completely pulled out if nowhere. completely generic insults, rather than actual physical traits unique to Akane that she feels very selfconcious about.

So just a bit of homoerotic imagery and context from Ranma that most people miss because of not understanding japanese cultural norms.

In Japan, Roses are often a symbol of Gay and bisexual men, with the word for such, Barazoku, literarily translating to: "Rose tribe".

Just adds a fun bit of context to the way Rumiko lovingly uses rose imagery between Ranma and Kuno, especially this scene.

So a fun bit of wordplay from Rumiko.

Ryu Kumon's name, when read in the usual japanese manner of Family name first, then given name, read Kumon Ryu, which can be read as "Dragon of Nine Markings".

The Yama-Sen Ken, Ryu's martial art style that he learned from reading a scroll, has exactly 9 different techniques, if you include the two additional variants of the Final technique, the Demon God's Assault Bomb.

So a fun, layered cute detail from the first Ranma 2024 ending.

One of the pictures that shows Akane's mental thoughts on Ranma, is the word Batsu, accompanying a boxers sign.

Now the word batsu means "Wrong" or used when you want to show that a word has been "Censored" the equivelant of having a loud, annoying beeping sound in the west to cover up a character saying "Fuck" but you have to get in by the censors while not actually hiding it.

The word batsu is also used in the context of being symbolized by an X mark, hence why it's often used by japanese people as a gesture for a No, or refusal.

However, that is generally used in front of you, while the overhead gesture is rarer, though still used.

However, there is another meaning, one related to martial arts.

This symbol, used in boxing, is(or at least was as i'll go over below) the japanese symbol a referee uses to illustrate a Knockout, or K.O.

or due to the complexity of the Japanese language, you can read that in turn as O.K instead, which obviously spells out loud Okay, a sign of approval.

The final twist, as the above example uses, is that from what i can tell, Japanese boxing referee's changed what sign they used to reference a K.O at some spot after the year 2000, but it was still used in the 80's and 90's when Ranma is set.

Meaning this one, single, quick shot most people would totally miss is a multilayered reference showing how Akane is a tsundere who actually wants Ranma while professing the opposite, using a dated sports reference modern people wouldn't even get as it's so dated that when Saotome Senshu(the manga the modern sign reference is from) did it for the same point, they used a completely different, more modern sign to get the same point across.

I have my reservations about this newer version, but i'll give them 10 for just going all in on the smaller details.

So I love how Ranma did the whole "Look how much i trust this person meme" by jumping into Ukyo's Arms with no hesitation, certain she'd catch him rather than letting him fall on the hot ass stove, 30+ years before it was a thing.

So one thing that both of Ranma 1/2's best arcs(The Ryo Kumon and Ryugenzawa arcs) does really, really well is that they manage to create strong, emotional stories by both deconstructing the usual Ranma storytelling tropes and devices, then repurposing them into an entirely new way.

In the case of the Ryu Kumon Arc, it was in the service of creating the best antagonist Ranma ever faced, his true mirror(As opposed to his true rival Ryoga), but in regards to Ryugenzawa, it was all about the using the usual bickering, misunderstandings and bad communication to put Akane and Ranma's relationship under the microscope and show us how much Akane both really does love Ranma, but also how much she genuinely takes their relationship completely for granted.

In many ways, Akane treats the first half of this arc as just yet another Ranma story, with a new love rival of the week, wacky side character, and an outlandish yet powerful foe to face at the climax... But where it differs so much from every other arc in the series is how Ranma, usually the focus, is effectively pushed to the sides, both by her, and the narrative.

But rather than this being treated as a wacky series of misunderstandings, we are instead shown how Ranma's and Akane's usual back and forth bickering, and refusal to just treat the other with openess and respect makes their relationship both dynamic(and with it surprisingly powerfull given how it bounces back from the worst shit immaginable)... But also very, very fragile under the wrong circumstances.

When Ranma in his usual way is angry/concerned, Akane reacts in her usual way. That is to say she gets into a completely avoidable fight with him over something trivial, in this case how Ranma(Correctly) thinks that there has to be something more to Akane's suddenly good cooking rather than just give her the compliment she so desperately craves.

It's the usual Ranma/Akane fight, seen it a thousand times before, and thousand times after.

The difference here is that rather than get into their usual rythm of sorta making up and continuing with their day, Akane sending Ranma flying once again isolates him from her, and means that her relationship with Shinnosuke and his grandpa once again takes center stage, while Ranma gets shoved off to the side.

And when Akane realizes Ranma is jealous of shinnosuke, she does the thing she always does in that situation, she rubs it in his face, because she wants him to admit it.

You'll find this very same thing a dozen other places theough the franchise.

The difference here compared to all other times, is that here, this is a genuine mistake on Akane's part, as she completely fails to read the situation, thinking it's just another moment just like it.

Just the same as always... Right?

Then after saving Shinnosuke's life, Ranma and Akane have their usual misunderstanding, where Ranma leaves before Akane can explain herself.

Again, seen it a thousand times elsewhwere.

Except this time, it's a bit different, because Ranma is taking this very, very serously, and badly... Meanwhile Akane does not in any way even consider that this was something important. Just another misunderstanding eith Ranma.

This time with the roles reversed(Which is rarer, but does happen), but still, just another unimportant thing thst will be glossed over in time.

Just like it always is.

But this time, that doesnt happen.

The breakdown of her and Ranma's relationship that Akane has been too oblivious even realize was happening reaches it's climax as Ranma has finally had enough, and decides he's gonna do the exact thing that Ryoga wanted to do, to lay out his feelings and demand she give an amswer here and now.

If she really wants to break up with him for real, he'll accept that... But if so, she will tell him that, face to face.

Of course the big thing this entire thing relies on, and is about, is that neither Akane nor Ranma is reading the situation correctly at all.

Ranma is not wrong in his assessment of Shinnosuke as by far the most "Dangerous" of his many love rivals for Akane's affection, but he believes they are much farther along on this journey than they actually are. In essence, he thinks this is the final climax of the love triangle one way or another, when it's really only about a third in.

Meanwhile Akane completely misreads the situation as her boyfriend just being jealous as usual, and completely overreacting to Shinnosuke's pressence, and so rather than try to calm him down or reassure him, she makes the choice of prioritising keeping Shinnosuke's mental state in better condition than Ranma's, rather than recognizing that Ranma is pouring his heart and soul out to her, and that he is being dead serious that this time is NOT just another argument between them.

He WILL take whatever she does next 100% seriously as her definite statement of where she wants their relationship to go next.

Which is why when she slaps him, for him, that's it.

It's over.

He poured his heart out to Akane, and told her to give him an answer one way or another, and her answer was to slap him.

She doesnt want him. Simple as that.

Then, to drive the nail into the coffin even further, rather than apologize in a more meaningful way, Akane instead feebly tells Ranma to hit her back.

As if that would make up for what she just did, or be something Ranma would actually want to do.

What she tries to do with those words is to get them to go back to the dynamic they had before, the bickering, the arguments, the bullshit teen drama... But it doesnt work.

Ranma does NOT come back to her.

For Ranma, all of that was built around the foundation that Akane really did love him despite it all, as he loved her, and once that is gone, that's that.

There is no going back to what they were before. Not withouth that foundation of mutual love.

While i personally think the Ryu Kumon arc is much more solid overall in action, development, resolution and as a character study of Ranma and the Saotomes, I still find the sequence of events as Akane Tendo completely unintentionally burns her own relationship to ashes using all the same storytelling tropes and character tics and traits that the manga spent almost 300 chapters before this exploring, to be Rumiko's single best bit of writing.

While It's a shame that the arc as a whole isn't quite as good(The choice to end the big, final battle against the Yamato at a joke anticlimax was... not a good decision), this very specific bit of writing(along with Akane's love triangle as a whole) is still the best Ranma has to offer.

It's a perfect example of for all that Rumiko addmits she writes by the seat of her pants with no planning, her greatest strength as a writer by far, is that she understands fully how her characters tick and works, and how to get the best out of them for her stories.

One Piece/Ranma - Amazons

So one huge Ranma Reference/inspiration that is stupidly obvious that i never really thought about despite having read both one piece and Ranma for close on 20 years now, is how blatant Oda was about taking inspiration from Rumiko's "chinese amazons" for the Kuja.

Though the actual japanese wording for the group isnt directly amazons(instead basically using their homeland of Joketsuzoku as the denominator of their ethnicity as opposed to the english official translation) in every other way they are stupidly similar, down to the meta beats.

Both are heavily Chinese inspired societies of warrior women, with similar architecture who's only settlement is a mountain town, who famously value strength above anything else.

Even our first main look into their cultures both feature competitive matches between amazons.

Both luffy and Ranma had a seemingly inconsequential match on these very same introductionary arena's that both ended up being some of the most important fights of their entire lives(This setting up everything Ranma ever learned from cologne, and for luffy this was the beginning of him winning hancocks heart and everything that came from that) where both wowed the onlooking amazons with their massive power, but also lead to both of them winning the heart of one of the amazons there in the long run(though for somewhat different reasons).

Also, Oda famusly made Hancock as "perfect" a romantic partner for luffy as he possibly could have in order to have some fun with parodying the tropes regarding love stories, with even her name Hancock being a reference to one of the big early names of rubber during the victorian age... but one aspect that was dropped for the final product was that Hancock was originally supposed to have purple hair... An aspect she would have shared with Shampoo, though her's is a bit different in shade.

the most important dynamic within both amazon cultures as related to the actual plot is between a younger, more contemporary amazons(Hancock and Shampoo), and their wiser older mentor who used to be incredibly beautiful but who's looks withered away with age.

For bonus points, both are famous for carrying around a staff in their old age.

The twist of course is that Cologne and Shampoo's relationship is defined by their shared blood and with the older woman loving shampoo dearly and generally doing everything in her power to help her achieve her dreams, while Gloriosa and Hancock do not share blood and have a much more tumoltous relationship though they still care about each other.

Furthering their meta connection, Both people also are essential for the story through introducing more mystical techniques into the story, With Ranma being taught several of Cologne's techniques, most famously his trademark hiryu shoten ha, while in One Piece, though they didnt introduce it, it was here where through the kuja we finally got a real introduction to the 3 colors of haki that would dominate the second half of the series.

Honestly im baffled i never really realized how much ranma influenced One Piece before, and how Oda managed to still make it his own while clearly taking inspiration from one of the big series of his childhood that wasn't dragon ball.

Also given how Oda was one of the first(and by far the biggest author) to just blatantly steal Ryoga's "Strong Guy with terrible direction sense" schtick with Zoro, i honestly dont get how i never really realized how much Ranma influenced One Piece before.

So one very obscure detail from Ranma 1/2's character designs that shows just how much Rumiko knows her stuff, is Principle Kuno's original design from before he moved to Hawai and converted his entire self to the local culture.

He is in most ways the most sterotypical old-school Japanese man imaginable, with a top-knot, with the rose that is his family crest being so stylized to look like the japanese sun that you would be hard pressed to figure out that it even is a rose unless you already knew it, The pink colors of sakura that represent the masculinity of samurai that died in the prime of their life, and a really, really oldchool japanese outer robe over the pink shirt.

All of it screams "Traditional Japan" as much as humanly possible... All except for one, thing.

The big frock on his neck, which stands out like a sore thumb... unless you happen to know one very specific part of japanese history, because this one detail is just as old school japanese as all the rest, just taken from one, specific moment in time.

This kind of frock is european in nature, and was adopted by a number of Japanese noblemen that traded with the portugese for guns and cannons, and also in many cases converted to christianity.

It also became complely went out of fashion after the civil war period when the Shogunate enforced total isolation, and also did it's best to exterminate christianity in japan by any and all means necessary.

So, the fact that Kuno wears this frock is basically him declaring(through a very obscure archaic fashion statement) his religious faith in a society where christianity is a tiny, tiny minority.

This in turn also explains his daughter's school of choice, St. Hebreke's School, a unisex(Girls only in the manga) catholic school.

So it's an interesting detail, which shows that Rumiko was still aware and interested in Japan's relationship with the cross, even after she abandoned One Pound Gospel(Her previous series that she put on hold for decades right before Ranma's run).

And nobody but the most esoteric history buffs would ever notice this tiny detail.