Ryoga's Honor

[antimatterenergy]

This post came about from someone trying to prove to me on a chat line that Ryoga is an incredibly honorable person. It really pisses me off when people say he is incredibly honorable. I am not trying to compare Ryoga's honor to others, or saying that Ryoga is less honorable than others, or that Ryoga is a bad person, I'm only trying to prove that Ryoga is not very honorable.
While it is true that Ryoga while speaking to people uses the more respectful -san honorific this does not mean he is honorable only that he doesn't want to offend people unlike Ranma who rarely if ever uses honorifics and uses peoples personal names. Ranma going by the way he speaks and acts in not very Japanese even though he is Japanese. I don't even know how this could have anything to do with Ryoga's honor in the first place but this was part of the argument they used.
There is no honorable reason for Ryoga to be P-chan and it is a very dishonorable thing for him to do. The person I was arguing with stated that it is honorable because he only did it to protect Akane from Ranma. No way is that true. Ryoga has purposely turned into P-chan to sleep in Akane's bed for no other reason than to piss Ranma off. (During the martial arts gymnastics arc I believe) Ryoga/P-chan has never protested or tried to get away from Akane when she holds him to her chest. I can see no way at all that can be considered honorable.

Ryoga has attempted to use a magical device to force Akane to love him. How could that be considered honorable? The person I was arguing with stated that it is honorable because he loves her. The way I see it, It doesn't matter if he loves her or not it is still a dishonorable thing to do.
Ryoga is interfering with Saotome and Tendo clan business by trying to separate Ranma and Akane. As well as sleeping with Akane (doesn't matter that he is a pig at the time or that Akane beats him up in her sleep) if word got out to the general public Akane's reputation would be ruined totally. Doesn't matter that he doesn't want them together. He is not a part of either involved clan and the actions he has taken are severe enough that if they happened in older times would start a blood feud.
Ryoga's casual destruction of other peoples property is not honorable.
Ryoga almost hurting others while fighting Ranma is not honorable. Almost killed a noncombatant (Akane) with his bandanna. Last time I looked it is not honorable to kill or injure innocent bystanders. Person I was arguing with said Ryoga was in a rage and should not be blamed for that. Why shouldn't Ryoga be blamed? If I got in a fight with someone and was angry then accidentally hurt or injured someone it would still be my fault.
Though I don't completely blame Ryoga for this since he can't control his sense of direction. Ryoga is dishonorable to blame Ranma for running away from the fight. Ryoga should have taken into account his lack of direction especially since he chose the place and time for the fight and Ranma waited far longer than Ranma had to. (3 days I would of waited an hour then figured that Ryoga forfeited since he should have taken account his ability to be lost).
Ryoga coming out of no where and yelling prepare to die to Ranma then attacking is not very honorable. Ryoga should chose a time and place away from possible innocents then wait there for Ranma. But just about everyone but Ranma can be blamed for this since Ranma doesn't attack people until after they attacked him or the people near him and I don't remember Ranma ever choosing where the battles are to be fought.
Oh and though this has nothing to do with Ryoga's honor it also came up in conversation with the other person. Ryoga does get lost and crosses large bodies of water as seen by a postcard with a sign that says welcome to Hong Kong behind him.

[Greybara]

all the same, i think honor is a way to screw people into doing what you want them to do because you arent "honorable" if its not done and therefore a "bad person," alot of people dont understand that not being honorable dosent make you a bad person,
ryouga isnt much for honor anyway, he works better with emotion, in his very confusing part of his life he tends to make foolish mistakes that he wishes he could correct but he is to afraid of the consiquences.

[Atlan]

I think in this case there is a blured line between the arguements "Ryoga is honerable, look: he risks his life to save his enemy, and wouldnt kill him when he is weak" and "Ryoga id dishouourable, look: he destroys random property and pretends to be an engaged wommans pet".
The middle arguement, which carefully factors in these argements is thus: "Ryoga is an honourable f#$%^&g moron!"

[Daniel Jess Gibson]

Ryoga coming out of no where and yelling prepare to die to Ranma then attacking is not very honorable.

Actually, according to Bushido, this is completely acceptable and honorable.
I do agree, for purposes of Ranma 1/2, Ryoga is as honorable as any of the other characters. Which is not at all.

[DBHay]

Ryoga to me seems to be very immature due to the lack of parenting he's had.
He got through life by being stronger than anyone until he ran into Ranma (The bread duels), his reaction to being beaten was way over the top, much more like a child than someone whose had to learn to accept the occasional defeat.
He's not likely to improve, at least until he stops blaming Ranma for his own stupid and dishonorable actions.
His playing P-Chan for Akane while understandable as a desperate need for any kind of affection (Much like Ranma's first reaction to her) is still selfish and ignores the likely consequences, both her reaction and the dishonor it will bring on her.
DBHay

[Dark Magic]

in Ranma it seems more like honor is used for the weaker person to control stronger people. Basically just to get what they want at the time. I mean just look at Genma.

[BlueDragon]

There is a big difference between polite and honorable. Yes Ryoga tries to be very polite to everyone except Ranma and maybe Genma. But that by no means makes him honorable.
The Problem becomes one of perceptions; He feels Ranma is a cad and darn near any other vile term that can be applied to someone. As a result he perceives his actions as Honorable. P-Chan defends Akane from the Evil Ranma in her room because Ranma is a ‘Cad’ therefore his actions are in Akanes best interest. And if he feels he loves her, he should do what he can to protect her…
The Problem with this is because he is not really a pig, he is using his curse to violate Akane and the day she finds out P-chan is really Ryoga Hibiki is the day he beats Ranmas flight record, probably all the way to the Chinese Mainland would be my guess.
As fans and readers anyone can play devils advocate and say, so-n-so is honorable or dishonorable. These points apply to all of the Ranma½ characters. And as a result are really only as relevant as any particular individual story.

[Vasey]

Ryoga coming out of no where and yelling prepare to die to Ranma then attacking is not very honorable.

Actually, according to Bushido, this is completely acceptable and honorable.

When he attacks a sleeping opponent? He did that fairly early on in the manga as I recall and the only reason he didn't beat Ranma to a bloody pulp in his sleep was because Ranma can apparently defend himself more than adequately even without being awake.

[Dragonboy]

Actually, according to Bushido, this is completely acceptable and honorable.

When he attacks a sleeping opponent? He did that fairly early on in the manga as I recall and the only reason he didn't beat Ranma to a bloody pulp in his sleep was because Ranma can apparently defend himself more than adequately even without being awake.

But he didn't attack him when he was asleep. If I remember correctly, he actually said 'Wake up, Ranma. I'm here to finish our fight.' That actually seems incredibly honorable to me. If it had been Kuno or Mousse or Happosai, they would have just flat out attacked him.
And as for the 'coming out of nowhere and attacking' part, with the exception of Ryoga's initial meeting with Ranma, he's almost always sent a challenge letter beforehand to let Ranma know of his intentions to fight him. Even if he usually doesn't make it in time, he at least makes the effort to do the honorable thing.

[Vasey]

But he didn't attack him when he was asleep. If I remember correctly, he actually said 'Wake up, Ranma. I'm here to finish our fight.' That actually seems incredibly honorable to me. If it had been Kuno or Mousse or Happosai, they would have just flat out attacked him.

And then when Ranma didn't wake up, he attacked anyway, and continued to attack the sleeping Ranma till Ranma finally tossed him out of the room. There's no honour in those actions.

[Dragonboy]

But he didn't attack him when he was asleep. If I remember correctly, he actually said 'Wake up, Ranma. I'm here to finish our fight.' That actually seems incredibly honorable to me. If it had been Kuno or Mousse or Happosai, they would have just flat out attacked him.

And then when Ranma didn't wake up, he attacked anyway, and continued to attack the sleeping Ranma till Ranma finally tossed him out of the room. There's no honour in those actions.

You're mistaken. When Ranma didn't wake up, Ryoga shouted 'WAKE UP!', at which point Genma woke up and threw them both outside. Ryoga never attacked Ranma while he was asleep.

[J. St.C. Patrick]

[Vasey]

Well my memory wasn't quite accurate but that's still multiple attacks against a sleeping opponent. Not exactly what I would call honourable.

[Dragonboy]

Neither of those pictures are showing up for me, but judging by Vasey's next comment, it seems I was proven wrong, which tells me it's about time I go back and reread a few of those older volumes. My bad.
In any case, honor really doesn't have much place in a series like Ranma 1/2, because I can't think of any characters (the fighters, at least) that don't act dishonorable in some way throughout the series.

[Dark Magic]

honor really doesn't have much place in a series like Ranma 1/2, because I can't think of any characters (the fighters, at least) that don't act dishonorable in some way throughout the series.

I agree even Ranma uses tricks to win in a lot of his fights to win.