ranma's pet

[Wyrd]

Personally, I'm fond of the idea that Jusenkyo is to blame, that it arranges for anyone deserving of a curse who comes close enough to get an appropriate one. That's not what's being discussed here, but it is the answer I like.

Legally, in America, the person held at fault for an accident is generally the last person who could reasonably have avoided it, even if they otherwise had the right of way. In this particular case, since both of them were moving through the air before they were in a situation where they could reasonably have seen each other, the fault comes down to how Ranma stepped on Ryouga. For all we know, he actually pushed Ryouga away from the edge when he used Ryouga while in mid-air to alter his own trajectory. Even Ranma can't change direction in mid-air without something to push off of. We know that Ryouga landed on the cliff, and that the cliff then crumbled. The fact that Ryouga landed as safely as it was possible to land in those conditions removes Ranma from blame, leaving the final cause of the accident as the cliff itself, or possibly Ryouga's sense of direction if he tried to roll away from the edge and accidentally moved closer to it. Ryouga cannot accept that there is nobody to blame for most of what has gone wrong with his life, so why should this be different.

As far as Ranma being nice to Ryouga, most of the flashbacks and offhand comments show him being as nice as he knows how, even going so far as to walk Ryouga to and from school so they can hang out more. Ranma is sort of like the new Batgirl, who was trained by her father in such a way that she developed martial arts and body language as her language, not learning to recognize words as a form of communication at all until she was old enough to view it as some strange foreign language. Ranma has almost no social skills beyond martial arts; for him, insults and fighting are the only ways he knows how to show affection, as it is the only way he has received affection since being taken from his mother.

An interesting note about the bread feud: they weren't fighting over the last piece of bread. They were fighting over the last piece of bread of that type. Look in the background of the flashback and you will see that as they start fighting over the piece Ranma grabbed, the cafeteria people are announcing the next type of bread that they will be throwing out.

[Tornado Ninja Fan]

The fact that Ryouga landed as safely as it was possible to land in those conditions removes Ranma from blame, leaving the final cause of the accident as the cliff itself,

Which doesn't remove the blame.

or possibly Ryouga's sense of direction if he tried to roll away from the edge and accidentally moved closer to it.

We have no panel of Ryoga lying on the edge of the cliff. He is shown falling with a couple of stones at his side, which means that he barely managed to grab those rocks from the edge of the cliff as he was falling.

Ranma has almost no social skills beyond martial arts;

He can have normal conversations with everyone he meets. For example Hiroshi and Daisuke when they were watching the girls playing baseball. He knows tea ceremony. He knows what to do on a date (best seen at his date with Tsubasa Kurenai - he dressed nicely, brought flowers, complimented "her"). He was able to recognize Akane's crush on Dr. Tofu. He can fake being ladylike, he can fake being an innocent girl, he can fake being a flirty girl and during the above mentioned date he could fake being a casanova.

All of those are social skills that could give problems to a 16 year old with a normal upbringing.

The only thing he can't do is deal with Akane, because his feelings get in the way.

[Wyrd]

Which doesn't remove the blame.

It does if he pushed him closer to safety, or at least no closer to danger.

Also, it was mentioned above that there is a difference between how the anime and manga depict the incident, with one showing him landing briefly and the other just showing him falling. Looking it up instead of relying on someone else's post, In the manga, Ranma does knock him to the side, though frankly I take all of the flashbacks as being only potentially or partially true, since they tend to match the descriptions of individuals prone to lying, exaggeration, and self-delusion a bit too much. In this panel, it looks like she actively punches Ryouga away from him and towards the cliff, so I would say that in the manga Ranma has a reasonable level of responsibility for the act, even though Ryouga's bull-headedness, lack of direction, and temper lead him to bring a lot of his misfortune upon himself.

Ryouga uses up any sympathy or debt Ranma owes him pretty rapidly, and when he starts using his pig form as a technique to get closer to Akane, he turns his weakness into a strength, so it would no longer be a real violation of Ranma's honor to inform Akane of what he is doing. If he trained in that form like Mousse does in his(Mousse's ability to use his arts in duck form suggests that he does so), he might even become an effective fighter even while porcine.

[Tornado Ninja Fan]

Ryouga uses up any sympathy or debt Ranma owes him pretty rapidly, and when he starts using his pig form as a technique to get closer to Akane, he turns his weakness into a strength, so it would no longer be a real violation of Ranma's honor to inform Akane of what he is doing. If he trained in that form like Mousse does in his(Mousse's ability to use his arts in duck form suggests that he does so), he might even become an effective fighter even while porcine.

Yeah, but that's not the point of this debate. And I wopuld say he is a pretty effective fighter in his piglet body right from the start. He could escape from Ranma in the bathroom and later even push him down on the sleeping Akane.

[Wyrd]

Yeah, but that's not the point of this debate. And I wopuld say he is a pretty effective fighter in his piglet body right from the start. He could escape from Ranma in the bathroom and later even push him down on the sleeping Akane.

That's actually why I wasn't commenting on certain parts of my prior comments, but I think this comment was relevant. I'm saying that while I feel that Ranma's actions are enough to warrant some blame, and as such some debt is owed, but it is a debt that is nowhere near as large as Ryouga makes it out to be and which is repaid rather rapidly. Issues of fault are rarely clear cut, as the extent of this discussion makes rather clear, so the degree of fault and the subsequent degree of debt of honor invoked should also be considered. Neither Genma, Ranma, nor Ryouga are without fault or blame in this situation. I would place the most fault on Genma for getting them involved with a cursed training ground in the first place and deliberately training Ranma in such a way that his immediate reaction to this particular curse is quite understandable, then Ranma for knocking him to the side, and then on Ryouga for all he did to make the situation possible. If for no other reason, Genma deserves some blame for putting Ryouga sufficiently off balance, mentally as well as physically, for Ranma to knock him in. He would have been unlikely to be knocked over by a casual blow if his feet had been on the ground.

[Crescent Pulsar R]

In this panel, it looks like she actively punches Ryouga away from him and towards the cliff

I just wanted to note that, at least to me, Ryoga was simply in the way, and had collided with Ranma -- with her knee, in particular. If you look at where the contact is drawn (that jagged shape-thingy), it matches with the knee better than the fist, since Ranma is either going straight or still rising (and lowering would have had the jagged shape-thingy drawn above the arm).

Also, since you made a new post while I made this one, I just wanted to add that I like your argument. It has nothing to do with the fact that it works for me. ;p

That's exactly what I'm saying. Can't you read?

Uh, yeah. The question is: can you read what you write:

When there is an accident nobody cares why someone is there, be it incidentally or intentionally, they only want to know who caused the accident.

To find out who caused the accident, often one needs to find out what places who and what where at the when. You're ignoring simple, logical protocol. Things don't just happen; other things lead up to them. You just don't look at a car that has a dent in its front fender, a bloody body on the side of the road, and pronounce that the driver is at fault. You don't. Simple as that. If you investigate things that happened before the accident, you might just discover that it was the fault of the guy lying on the side of the road.

What kind of fucked up Highway Code have you learned?

And what have you learned about roads in general? People cross them, regardless of what kind they are. And I don't recall saying "highway," regardless. Either way, pedestrians cross roads at a time of their choosing, even highways, but it's their responsibility to choose the right time.

Like every time ever? What kind of fucked up country are you living in? Where I come from everyone on the road is supposed to look out for everyone else, including pedestrians. Pedestrians are supposed to look left and right each time they want to cross the road.

I obviously live in a country where no one assumes that every driver pays attention, and that every pedestrian looks either way before crossing the road. You know, a place that exists outside of that fantasy country that you're describing, where no one can miss spotting a pedestrian in time to avoid them and where no pedestrian steps out onto the road without taking precaution.

In this case he followed Ranma to China. It was his intention to be there. No coincidence in sight. He made it there just hours after Ranma (whom he followed throughout China) despite his bad sense of direction.

And you don't find something remarkably strange and, dare I say, extremely convenient about Ryoga being able to keep track of Ranma without getting lost? I do. Not to mention that there's no evidence that suggests he did, and that he was lost as always. He had been wandering for days, after all.

Anyway, you missed the point of the argument. I argued that it's normal for Ranma to be at such a place, because he's been on a training trip. And I argued that it would be normal for Ryoga to be there by accident. Thus, if he goes there with intention, and not by accident, then it's not normal.

I can blame him when he is driving too fast in an area full of obstacles. I can blame Ranma when he is running blindly through a forested area.

That's inconsequential to the argument. What Ranma runs through is normal for that place, a place where the chances of bumping into someone accidentally, with all of that space to avoid someone, is virtually nonexistent. There is no speed limit there, so that doesn't matter, either. What matters is whether Ranma had the time and ability to avoid someone suddenly appearing in his path, and he didn't. Ranma doesn't have wings with which to veer off course, which is essentially the same as having the steering wheel lock up. The steering wheel locked up before he could have seen Ryoga, who himself couldn't "steer" clear. That's why these circumstances alone can't assign blame to anyone, and why the things leading up to that fateful moment need to be taken into consideration.

The metaphorical car was driving too fast and the metaphorical driver did not pay attention to his surroundings. The metaphorical driver could have even metaporically swerved.

Speed doesn't matter, as mentioned before. And a lack of attention is negligible, as well, since he wouldn't have seen Ryoga even if he had been paying attention, before he had made his jump. And once he jumped, his trajectory was set and the ability to "swerve" was no longer an option.

In this case Ryoga jumped up to avoid a collision wth a wild animal. Not that this changes anything in the situation.

That's exactly right. If Ryoga ends up in the road by accident, and before a car can avoid him in any meaningful way, then neither are at fault within that context.

And in each case the driver of a car has still got to brake as hard as he can. What is your point?

My point is that you can't expect a miracle, which is what you're expecting out of Ranma, here. How can he "brake" in the air? The simple fact of the matter is that Ryoga appeared at a time when braking beforehand would be impossible. Even if they were in the air long enough that it would be enough time for a car, the fact that Ranma can't slow down, or change direction, is the equivalent of a person stepping into the way of the car before the driver can react.

What the fuck has this bullshit to do with anything in that situation?

If you don't understand something that was put so clearly, then I can't help you. ;/

Who caused the accident? Ryoga by being there or Ranma by jumping into him?

Jumping into him suggests that Ranma had done it on purpose, which isn't the case. They are both in motion, and can't change where they go. With neither knowing that either were there before their last actions led up to them colliding, neither caused the accident. Or both did. But not one alone unless you investigate further back. In which case, I've argued that Ryoga is at fault.

It doesn't matter why Ryoga is there. It doesn't matter that Ryoga should've never started his feud. It doesn't matter that he routinely gets lost. Nothing about their past history matters in that single moment.

In which case you say that Ranma is at fault, whereas I say that neither are. And I've already argued my point enough times to not have to repeat myself another time.

Ranma pushed Ryoga and this push sent Ryoga down the cliff into the cursed spring. It is Ranma's action that cursed Ryoga. The only one responsible for Ranma's actions is Ranma. Ranma is responsible for the consequences of his actions and in this case he is responsible for Ryoga's curse.

Pushing sounds purposeful, which it wasn't. Again, Ranma's not the only one taking action, here. Ryoga was the one who had chosen to walk next to the edge of the cliff, so Ranma knocking him off of the cliff is only possible if Ryoga had chosen to be there. Otherwise, bumping into Ryoga would have been harmless. So, only Ryoga's action made that possible. And Ranma wouldn't have seen the cliff from behind/inside of the bamboo. Thus, at the very least, they share the responsibility.

And Ranma never denies this responsibility.

That's a different matter entirely. And he doesn't take responsibility, anyway: he only promises, to himself, not to reveal Ryoga's secret. When Ranma realizes that he had a hand in getting Ryoga cursed, his reaction was to act cute and innocent, not to take responsibility.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

On taking responsibility, I can't speak for the manga, but in the anime, while Ranma does put on the "cute & innocent" act when she and Ryoga realise she really did get Ryoga cursed, it seems to be more to try and keep Ryoga from immediately exploding and attacking her. Once she's turned him into a pig so he can't assault her, she tells him "We'll talk more later, after you've cooled down, okay, Ryoga?" This does imply that Ranma and Ryoga could have talked the matter out - but Ryoga chose to attack Ranma instead, got her pissed off so that she chased the pig out to Akane, and that led to the whole fiasco where Akane kisses "P-chan", after which all thought of being reasonable flies out the window.

[Kyoumen]

I find it flabbergasting that Ranma can knock someone off a cliff, and it is seriously argued that Ranma and the victim "share responsibility". What exactly would he have to do to be solely responsible for his own actions?

[Kyoumen]

On taking responsibility, I can't speak for the manga, but in the anime, while Ranma does put on the "cute & innocent" act when she and Ryoga realise she really did get Ryoga cursed, it seems to be more to try and keep Ryoga from immediately exploding and attacking her.

It's worth noting that immediately prior to this revelation, Ranma was saying that Ryouga's curse was in fact due to the "girl", and that Ryouga should hold her responsible instead. I guess he just didn't think that the girl might not have had unobstructed vision when she knocked Ryouga off the cliff and that therefore she could not be held responsible for doing so.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

If Ryoga had been just an innocent passer by, instead of having followed Ranma there on purpose, and/or if Ranma had not been currently in the grips of blinding rage, people would probably not argue so hard that Ryoga is partially to blame. If Ranma had deliberately knocked Ryoga off, or even lured him to Jusenkyo for the explicit purpose of cursing him, then you would find absolutely nobody willing to defend Ranma at all.

But the point of the matter is, though Ranma himself admits that he does bear responsibility, many feel that Ryoga shares responsibility as well, as he placed himself in a position to receive a curse through his own foolishness.

[Wyrd]

If Ryoga had been just an innocent passer by, instead of having followed Ranma there on purpose, and/or if Ranma had not been currently in the grips of blinding rage, people would probably not argue so hard that Ryoga is partially to blame. If Ranma had deliberately knocked Ryoga off, or even lured him to Jusenkyo for the explicit purpose of cursing him, then you would find absolutely nobody willing to defend Ranma at all.

I'm sure someone would defend him just to be perverse.

Even if you take the flashback at face value, the fact that they were both in mid-air when they collided makes it either shared fault or no fault. Neither looked where they were going until it was too late to do anything about it. However, when looking at flashbacks from Ryouga's perspective in the later comic that show events that we saw happen, you can see that his memory skews things rather heavily to things never being his fault; someone else is always to blame for just about everything that goes wrong in his life. Realistically, all of the characters are bad about their flashbacks being obviously inaccurate, which means that they should all be approached with caution. Ryouga might have been knocked off the cliff by the sight of Ranma's boobs when they came uncovered in her chase of her father, and he just translated that to 'she knocked me off the cliff' when relating it to Ranma. He's not as bad as the Kuno's about delusional fantasies, but he does tend to take a very skewed view of things from what I have seen of him in the manga.

[Tornado Ninja Fan]

To find out who caused the accident, often one needs to find out what places who and what where at the when. You're ignoring simple, logical protocol. Things don't just happen; other things lead up to them. You just don't look at a car that has a dent in its front fender, a bloody body on the side of the road, and pronounce that the driver is at fault. You don't. Simple as that. If you investigate things that happened before the accident, you might just discover that it was the fault of the guy lying on the side of the road.

Nobody does that. Real policemen and insurance investigators look at the the place where the accident happened, where the skid marks are and the place where the dent is and then they decide if the driver had stopped fast enough. They also check if the driver could have seen the pedestrian early enoug and if the driver wasn't too fast in an area with obstructions.

And what have you learned about roads in general? People cross them, regardless of what kind they are.

Pedestrians have to look at the traffic before they want to cross any road.

I obviously live in a country where no one assumes that every driver pays attention, and that every pedestrian looks either way before crossing the road. You know, a place that exists outside of that fantasy country that you're describing, where no one can miss spotting a pedestrian in time to avoid them and where no pedestrian steps out onto the road without taking precaution.

Except that your last post made it sound like you came from a place where pedestrians automatically had the right of way.

And you don't find something remarkably strange and, dare I say, extremely convenient about Ryoga being able to keep track of Ranma without getting lost? I do. Not to mention that there's no evidence that suggests he did, and that he was lost as always. He had been wandering for days, after all.

Ryoga manages to reach his goals even after getting lost. For example he manages to find the Tendo Dojo, because he is intentionally looking for it. And in this case he found Ranma because he was intentionally looking for him. He is often seen asking someone for the right way to a place and he could have asked the Chinese people around him if they had seen two Japanese people.

Anyway, you missed the point of the argument. I argued that it's normal for Ranma to be at such a place, because he's been on a training trip. And I argued that it would be normal for Ryoga to be there by accident. Thus, if he goes there with intention, and not by accident, then it's not normal.

Ranma was on a training trip and this was a cursed training ground, not a place where you can train. It wasn't normal for Ranma to be at the place.

If it is normal for me to be at a certain place and it's not normal for you, I can push you around like I want? It doesn't matter if it's normal for anyone to be at a place. What matters is that Ranma pushed Ryoga.

That's inconsequential to the argument. What Ranma runs through is normal for that place, a place where the chances of bumping into someone accidentally, with all of that space to avoid someone, is virtually nonexistent.

And he still managed to bump into someone. He was in a place where he has already met someone else (the guide) and he couldn't know how populated it was.

There is no speed limit there, so that doesn't matter, either. What matters is whether Ranma had the time and ability to avoid someone suddenly appearing in his path, and he didn't. Ranma doesn't have wings with which to veer off course, which is essentially the same as having the steering wheel lock up. The steering wheel locked up before he could have seen Ryoga, who himself couldn't "steer" clear.

He could have grabbed Ryoga to push him down where he came from, instead of just bumping off of him.

That's why these circumstances alone can't assign blame to anyone, and why the things leading up to that fateful moment need to be taken into consideration.

Wrong. Every action that someone makes can be used to assign blame. If there is an accident nobody cares where you're from, where you're going and why.

[Cheb]

Ryouga shares no responsibility as he has no control over his directional curse.
He happened to be in a high risk area with no intent of getting there.

It's either a purely Ranma-s fault for losing self-control or an accident where no one is to blame.

[Kyoumen]

I'm sure someone would defend him just to be perverse.

Even if you take the flashback at face value, the fact that they were both in mid-air when they collided makes it either shared fault or no fault. Neither looked where they were going until it was too late to do anything about it.

Ryouga - Jumped straight up in the air to avoid a wild animal barreling towards him.

Ranma - Was chasing said wild animal, leaped in the air, slammed into Ryouga and kept going without noticing, knocking Ryouga off a cliff.

This is not "shared fault or no fault". It is Ranma's fault. It wouldn't matter if Ryouga looked where he was going (he did; he saw both Genma and Ranma coming), because Ryouga was the one who got hit. If you throw a baseball blindly and hit someone in the back of the head, it is not "shared fault or no fault" because neither you nor the victim were looking at where the ball was going. One guy was the victim here. One guy was the one charging through the wilderness without looking or caring what they ran into in a hazardous area. They aren't the same guy, and they do not share the same amount of blame.

I mean, when Ranma slammed a child in the side of the head with his fist (Hiryuu Shoten Ha story) due to not paying attention where he was punching, was it equally the child's fault for not looking at Ranma when he did so? Was it Miss Hinako's fault that Ranma jumped on her head on her first day at school? After all, she wasn't looking at him! And she had bad intentions in going to the school, too! Clearly it is therefore just as much her fault that Ranma knocked her unconscious by using her head as a springboard?

Also, "too late to do anything about it"? Are you serious? This is Ranma Saotome. If he'd actually been paying attention, he had hundreds of options besides "slam guy with my knee, keep going, let them plummet over cliff".

[Crescent Pulsar R]

That's some twisted logic, right there. For one, the kid that Ranma accidentally punched was something that would normally be there. A kid riding a tricycle on the sidewalk in a residential area is normal. Ranma being at Jusenkyo is normal because he's training. In that context, that baseball-throwing would have to take place in a ballpark, where it's normal to throw baseballs around. Which means that Ryoga, who was out of place at Jusenkyo (because he hadn't simply gotten lost, but, for once, wanted to go to China instead of trying to attend school and trying to go back home (and junior high isn't optional, like high school)), would essentially be someone walking out onto the field without being taken into consideration with the activities therein. Not only that, but walking right next to the cliff is like walking between the pitcher and the batter while they're doing their thing.

I mean, how hard can it be to understand that Ranma isn't the only one who is taking action and setting up the circumstances? Everyone is where they are because of their own decisions and actions, and Ryoga's make him just as responsible for being in a position to get knocked over a cliff. Like I said once before, Ranma didn't put Ryoga next to a cliff, so Ryoga only fell over one because of his own bad decision. Otherwise, Ranma would have simply knocked him out of the air; which is all that he did. He didn't choose where to run into Ryoga, so only Ryoga can be blamed for being near a cliff. But, because Ranma also made the mistake of not paying attention, he shares equal blame. Why? Because it wouldn't have happened had they both not made bad decisions.

Also, how can you expect it to not be too late for Ranma to do anything about it, when you yourself said, "if he'd actually been paying attention," which means that he hadn't been paying attention and, thus, could not have been in a condition to do anything. And it shows, both in the anime and the manga.

Nobody does that. Real policemen and insurance investigators look at the the place where the accident happened, where the skid marks are and the place where the dent is and then they decide if the driver had stopped fast enough. They also check if the driver could have seen the pedestrian early enoug and if the driver wasn't too fast in an area with obstructions.

*I slap my hand over my face and shake my head*

Do you know what they are doing when they look at the place where it happened, and the skid marks? They're looking at the past. The past tells them how the scene of the accident came to be. When they see the present condition of things, they're actually time traveling (not literally, but you should get what I mean).

And you're still arguing that Ranma could have reacted, yet haven't refuted my argument that says he couldn't have. And you're still using examples as if the speed and obstructions mattered, which they don't: because I doubt that there were Ryoga crossing signs, or any kind of crossing signs for people, at Jusenkyo. And, thus, there could not have been a warning unless the circumstances provided it; which they hadn't.

Pedestrians have to look at the traffic before they want to cross any road.

No, they're supposed to. That doesn't mean that they will, and thus always do. Arguing in absolutes is not your friend.

Except that your last post made it sound like you came from a place where pedestrians automatically had the right of way.

You can not fault me for your own assumption. People will do what they are wont to do, whether it's wise, good, or not. There are people that step out onto the road without caution, or by accident; it's just a fact of life.

Ryoga manages to reach his goals even after getting lost. For example he manages to find the Tendo Dojo, because he is intentionally looking for it. And in this case he found Ranma because he was intentionally looking for him. He is often seen asking someone for the right way to a place and he could have asked the Chinese people around him if they had seen two Japanese people.

That's besides the point. You said that he managed to follow Ranma throughout China despite his bad sense of direction:

In this case he followed Ranma to China. It was his intention to be there. No coincidence in sight. He made it there just hours after Ranma (whom he followed throughout China) despite his bad sense of direction.

Which is basically suggesting that he can ignore his bad sense of direction when it's convenient. I mean, when does it ever help him to ask someone for directions? There are a ton of examples where he asks someone where to go, and time and time again he doesn't go in the right direction. It doesn't matter if he's asking for directions or if the droids he's looking for are nearby.

Anyway, given enough time, it's no surprise that Ryoga eventually manages to find where he wants to be. But China is not where he normally wants to go, and there's no evidence that he gets lost and ends up in other countries while his starting location is Japan.

Ranma was on a training trip and this was a cursed training ground, not a place where you can train. It wasn't normal for Ranma to be at the place.

Seriously? That's you're argument? They go there to train, and Jusenkyo is referred to as being a training ground (because that's what it was used for, even if it's not in official use anymore), and you're saying that it's not normal for Genma to take Ranma there for training? Aye, aye, aye...

If it is normal for me to be at a certain place and it's not normal for you, I can push you around like I want? It doesn't matter if it's normal for anyone to be at a place. What matters is that Ranma pushed Ryoga.

You're arguing as if the pushing was intentional, which it wasn't. And you still make it sound like he did it on purpose, or even did any pushing, which isn't the case.

And it does matter what is normal, because things that are out of place cause accidents. You know, like a toy left on a stair, instead of being in a toy box, or the owner's room, when it's not being used. Ryoga's room was Japan, which is where he should have stayed, but wrongful thinking and bad decisions led up to him being in a place where he normally isn't. And we, as the readers, know that Ryoga had gone there under the wrong pretenses, which is the same as a kid leaving a toy where it shouldn't be left.

And he still managed to bump into someone. He was in a place where he has already met someone else (the guide) and he couldn't know how populated it was.

Wow. They met one person. Wait... maybe everyone's hiding! Hide-and-seek! Yay!

Sarcasm aside, I'm pretty sure that they saw some villages along the way, and that they could tell that the area immediately around the valley of Jusenkyo wasn't a popular thoroughfare. And this is a remote location, not just some rural area, that we're talking about. Basically, Ranma had a good idea. Especially since he's probably had to train and camp in such low-populated areas many times before.

He could have grabbed Ryoga to push him down where he came from, instead of just bumping off of him.

But he was otherwise preoccupied. And what about Ryoga? Surely he could have handled someone who was too distracted to even notice that he had bumped into someone. And if you say that Ryoga didn't have enough time to react, who was more alert than Ranma was at the time, then you can't argue with any reasonable certainty that Ranma had enough time to react.

Wrong. Every action that someone makes can be used to assign blame.

Oh, well, thank you for agreeing with me.

If there is an accident nobody cares where you're from, where you're going and why.

Depending on the context, that would be irrelevant. But I'll assume that it was phrased within the proper context.

One, they do care where you come from. For instance, not everyone sticks around after an accident. Once they find out where you're from, it can help lead them to where you now are. Investigators do this to find suspects in states, work places, friend's places, favorite venues of entertainment, their homes, et cetera. All of which can afford investigators with more of the information that they will need to find and/or convict a suspect. And using that same example, where it's a hit and run accident, they'll definitely want to know where you're going, which usually leads to finding out where you're from. And why? I don't even have to answer that; the answer should be obvious enough.

Anyway, my argument still stands; and I'm just repeating myself, besides. All I'm doing is defending an opinion, anyway, so I don't see any reason to continue arguing. I need to get back to writing my story, anyway.