This is your co-mod speaking...
First of all, many thanks to snarechan for promoting me to mod status. :D
Second of all...
For the purposes of trying to bring some life back to this place, I'm gonna post some questions, which people can pick and choose from if they feel so inclined:
-Why do you like Darkshipping (or, if you don't anymore, why you used to)?
-What do you think would have to happen to get the two of them together after they've hated each others' guts for so long?
-What things make or break a Darkshipping (or Casteshipping) fic for you?
-What types of fanfiction would you want to see more of?
-Which of the two do you think would initiate the relationship?
And on and on and on - the potential for discussion is endless, and I love hearing this kind of stuff. :D Feel free to post with your own questions; these are just the first ones that popped into my head.
[EDIT]
Thanks so far to those who've already answered. Hopefully I'll get a chance to reply to everything at some point, probably this weekend if all goes well. XD; In the meantime, now that there are some opinions circulating, I'm gonna throw in my own answers to the questions I posed. :)
Okay, fine, that's only part of it. :P
Why do you like Darkshipping (or, if you don't anymore, why you used to)?
Well I certainly still like it. I thought they'd be hot together from that first duel they had in Duelist Kingdom back when I was still watching the dub. XD; After I got over the initial "Hey, that's teh smex!" fangirl reaction, and learned more about their characters, I realized that they really do have quite a lot in common. They're both highly competitive, highly intelligent, and highly complex characters. They're both from the same period in history and their lives intertwined due to a horrible misunderstanding. I just think that there is a lot of potential there, and I feel that given the right situation, they could (albeit grudgingly) come to terms with each other, realize there's probably some mutual respect for each other, and possibly go on from there.
That's the best I can do for condensing it. :P
What do you think would have to happen to get the two of them together after they've hated each others' guts for so long?
Well it's certainly not going to happen overnight. No, not even the magical healing buttsecks can fix these two. Actually, I think sex in their relationship would be a LONG time in coming. Even kissing would take them a while, in my opinion; I can't see Bakura being particularly fond of the whole touchy-feely business. There would have to be some sort of mutual consensus there that, hey, that whole Egypt thing? BIG mistake; maybe we should start over. Bakura's going to be reluctant; this is where my interpretation of his character gets a little fuzzy. I don't know if, once he realizes it wasn't Yami's father's fault about his village, he'd feel guilty for putting Yami through all that crap. It's one possibility. Either way, they would have to work out their differences, because 3,000 years is a loooong time to be fighting an epic battle, only to find out they were duped.
And yaoiness_kokoro, your point about Yami not hating Bakura is entirely valid - perhaps I worded the question poorly. I do think, though, that even though he may not have hated him, he definitely had the mindset that Bakura was a threat to him, Yugi, and their friends, and therefore he was an enemy. In terms of Egypt, I'm pretty sure he was pissed about Bakura raiding his father's tomb and desecrating his mummy, and as you mentioned, his killing Mahaado. Since the Egypt arc is biased and untrue (Zork doesn't die in their real past, Yami now is working with the memories and experiences he gained in the modern world, Yugi and the others interfered, etc.) in certain areas, there's some wiggle room there.
What things make or break a Darkshipping (or Casteshipping) fic for you?
Make: I love love love the witty banter, yes I do. >D Their relationship, in my eyes, is probably a constant power struggle. Battles with words, battles over who tops in bed, battles over what they have for dinner... I'm very fond of that aspect of their relationship. Also, it's got to be realistic. They're not going to be all cuddly and nice-nice all the time (maybe on very rare occasions) - there's got to be some tension and conflict. It doesn't have to be the center of the story, certainly, but I feel like they probably couldn't get through a day without having at least some minor disagreements. I'm also with snarechan: DEVELOPMENT. And... I am a grammar h0r.
Break: I am going to admit right here and now that I am terribly nitpicky about the things I love. XD Some of my MAJOR peeves, though, are portrayals of Yami as a weak little sissy, Bakura as being a softy (and somehow this always seems to be Ryou's fault...?), insta!love stemming from one of them deciding the other is hawt, and Yami calling Bakura "Kura" (I just don't see it. The pet-names thing... just... I don't see it. XD). Drives me nuts. I also dislike it when they're shown as failing at modern technology - they're NOT stupid. They could figure it out. And of course, if the writing is unintelligible, I'm not going to try to translate it into proper English. >.>;
What types of fanfiction would you want to see more of?
At this point, I'd love to see Darkshipping/Casteshipping anything pop up, but I know in reality even if it happened, if it fell into my "breaks" category, I'd just be all disappointed and bothered. XD; I'd be happy to read fics in which they've already established the relationship, so then we see how they interact when they're together. I haven't really seen a get-together fic yet that's struck me too hard, or if I have, it's been so long since I read it that I can't remember. Maaaaybe "Crash and Burn," although the relationship wasn't actually established. Good starting point, though.
Which of the two do you think would initiate the relationship?
Personally, I think it'd probably be Yami. I can't see Bakura, who's spent his life alone and probably is lacking in social skills, going up to Yami and being like, "I was wrong about the whole killing-my-family thing... want to be friends? :D" Definitely not. Yami, on the other hand, might try to pick at him and get in there and try to drag out some kind of tentative friendship (this is assuming some sort of post-series scenario), and from there, they'd both partake in the development of it. It would certainly have to be a mutual thing, and I don't think either of them would try to force the process, so it'd be slow going. But ultimately, I feel like Yami would take the first step.
[/EDIT]
Second of all...
For the purposes of trying to bring some life back to this place, I'm gonna post some questions, which people can pick and choose from if they feel so inclined:
-Why do you like Darkshipping (or, if you don't anymore, why you used to)?
-What do you think would have to happen to get the two of them together after they've hated each others' guts for so long?
-What things make or break a Darkshipping (or Casteshipping) fic for you?
-What types of fanfiction would you want to see more of?
-Which of the two do you think would initiate the relationship?
And on and on and on - the potential for discussion is endless, and I love hearing this kind of stuff. :D Feel free to post with your own questions; these are just the first ones that popped into my head.
[EDIT]
Thanks so far to those who've already answered. Hopefully I'll get a chance to reply to everything at some point, probably this weekend if all goes well. XD; In the meantime, now that there are some opinions circulating, I'm gonna throw in my own answers to the questions I posed. :)
Okay, fine, that's only part of it. :P
Why do you like Darkshipping (or, if you don't anymore, why you used to)?
Well I certainly still like it. I thought they'd be hot together from that first duel they had in Duelist Kingdom back when I was still watching the dub. XD; After I got over the initial "Hey, that's teh smex!" fangirl reaction, and learned more about their characters, I realized that they really do have quite a lot in common. They're both highly competitive, highly intelligent, and highly complex characters. They're both from the same period in history and their lives intertwined due to a horrible misunderstanding. I just think that there is a lot of potential there, and I feel that given the right situation, they could (albeit grudgingly) come to terms with each other, realize there's probably some mutual respect for each other, and possibly go on from there.
That's the best I can do for condensing it. :P
What do you think would have to happen to get the two of them together after they've hated each others' guts for so long?
Well it's certainly not going to happen overnight. No, not even the magical healing buttsecks can fix these two. Actually, I think sex in their relationship would be a LONG time in coming. Even kissing would take them a while, in my opinion; I can't see Bakura being particularly fond of the whole touchy-feely business. There would have to be some sort of mutual consensus there that, hey, that whole Egypt thing? BIG mistake; maybe we should start over. Bakura's going to be reluctant; this is where my interpretation of his character gets a little fuzzy. I don't know if, once he realizes it wasn't Yami's father's fault about his village, he'd feel guilty for putting Yami through all that crap. It's one possibility. Either way, they would have to work out their differences, because 3,000 years is a loooong time to be fighting an epic battle, only to find out they were duped.
And yaoiness_kokoro, your point about Yami not hating Bakura is entirely valid - perhaps I worded the question poorly. I do think, though, that even though he may not have hated him, he definitely had the mindset that Bakura was a threat to him, Yugi, and their friends, and therefore he was an enemy. In terms of Egypt, I'm pretty sure he was pissed about Bakura raiding his father's tomb and desecrating his mummy, and as you mentioned, his killing Mahaado. Since the Egypt arc is biased and untrue (Zork doesn't die in their real past, Yami now is working with the memories and experiences he gained in the modern world, Yugi and the others interfered, etc.) in certain areas, there's some wiggle room there.
What things make or break a Darkshipping (or Casteshipping) fic for you?
Make: I love love love the witty banter, yes I do. >D Their relationship, in my eyes, is probably a constant power struggle. Battles with words, battles over who tops in bed, battles over what they have for dinner... I'm very fond of that aspect of their relationship. Also, it's got to be realistic. They're not going to be all cuddly and nice-nice all the time (maybe on very rare occasions) - there's got to be some tension and conflict. It doesn't have to be the center of the story, certainly, but I feel like they probably couldn't get through a day without having at least some minor disagreements. I'm also with snarechan: DEVELOPMENT. And... I am a grammar h0r.
Break: I am going to admit right here and now that I am terribly nitpicky about the things I love. XD Some of my MAJOR peeves, though, are portrayals of Yami as a weak little sissy, Bakura as being a softy (and somehow this always seems to be Ryou's fault...?), insta!love stemming from one of them deciding the other is hawt, and Yami calling Bakura "Kura" (I just don't see it. The pet-names thing... just... I don't see it. XD). Drives me nuts. I also dislike it when they're shown as failing at modern technology - they're NOT stupid. They could figure it out. And of course, if the writing is unintelligible, I'm not going to try to translate it into proper English. >.>;
What types of fanfiction would you want to see more of?
At this point, I'd love to see Darkshipping/Casteshipping anything pop up, but I know in reality even if it happened, if it fell into my "breaks" category, I'd just be all disappointed and bothered. XD; I'd be happy to read fics in which they've already established the relationship, so then we see how they interact when they're together. I haven't really seen a get-together fic yet that's struck me too hard, or if I have, it's been so long since I read it that I can't remember. Maaaaybe "Crash and Burn," although the relationship wasn't actually established. Good starting point, though.
Which of the two do you think would initiate the relationship?
Personally, I think it'd probably be Yami. I can't see Bakura, who's spent his life alone and probably is lacking in social skills, going up to Yami and being like, "I was wrong about the whole killing-my-family thing... want to be friends? :D" Definitely not. Yami, on the other hand, might try to pick at him and get in there and try to drag out some kind of tentative friendship (this is assuming some sort of post-series scenario), and from there, they'd both partake in the development of it. It would certainly have to be a mutual thing, and I don't think either of them would try to force the process, so it'd be slow going. But ultimately, I feel like Yami would take the first step.
[/EDIT]