[Yuugioh] Puzzleshipping pet peeves
I just cannot stop abusing myself. Every so often I have to go to the Pit of Voles and see if there's any good Yuugioh fanfic in the offing. I often find myself extraordinarily disappointed; although there are a few writers who carry off the following subject material decently, they are few and far between.
My number one pet peeve, ever, is the continuation fic where Dark Yuugi (Yami in fangirl speak) is in a separate body from Yuugi.
Dark Yuugi can't stay after the series is over. Period.
In other words, this is a rant about why I don't like your Puzzleshipping fic, even though I'm a Puzzleshipper
Your typical fangirl fic
The average Puzzleshipping fic is one where Yami and Yuugi are in separate bodies, magically, after the series is over, living together. Yami is cool and stoic and has to save Yuugi from all manner of horrors, most of which involve other characters trying to rape Yuugi. Yuugi cries a lot. In the background, Kaiba and 'Joey' are dating. Anzu is a terrible bitch. Yuugi desperately needs Yami there, doesn't know how he'd continue without Yami. If there's any strain in their relationship, it's because one or the other thinks the other partner is cheating on them or whatever.
On the flip side you have the average Puzzleshipping fic that's AU. Usually Yami is some kind of dark creature, often a vampire, occasionally a demon. If not they're both students in high school. Yuugi is invariably a recluse that everyone hates and who feels sorry for himself. Yami is invariably admired and loved, but he's constantly dark and brooding. Both of them need someone else to complete their heart! OMG obviously it's the person that looks exactly like them, except Yami is taller.
There's a fundamental misinterpretation of characters here. Why? What are fangirls missing? How can they interpret the characters this way?
What the Fangirls are missing
1. Misinterpretation of the Ceremonial Duel. The first thing is the most important: Yuugi DOES NOT WANT Dark Yuugi to stay. At the beginning of the series Yuugi is admittedly a wimp. He's optimistic but doesn't act on it; he trusts in games, not people. (For goodness sakes, he wishes the Puzzle will bring him friends! It's not clear if he ever realizes it's his own actions that get him friends, not the Puzzle.) But by the end of the series, Yuugi has grown into himself.
Yuugi's growth is kind of awesome. At the end of Duelist Kingdom he expresses a wish that Dark Yuugi will stay with him forever. At about the same time, Otogi shows up and proves that really, Dark Yuugi is very limited in what he can do for Yuugi. Jounouchi is the one that saves the day. Shortly afterwards, Dark Yuugi gets a hint about his lost past and he decides to pursue it.
When Dark Yuugi reveals the desire to find out about his past, Yuugi realizes that all good things must come to an end and he will someday be alone in his head again. He sets out to become a stronger person, and succeeds. By the end of the Memory World RPG, Yuugi stands his own against Bakura and actually accomplishes more than Dark Yuugi does through the whole story. He's become a strong person who can accomplish things for himself.
Therefore, when the Ceremonial Duel rolls around, Yuugi is the one that chooses to battle Dark Yuugi. killyoudead pointed out to me that really, it was over then; their relationship could never be the same. Why?
Yuugi chooses to help Dark Yuugi move on. He's fundamentally, although not so rudely, saying 'get out of my head!' Yuugi cannot grow further with Dark Yuugi still in his mind; it would be like ... like Luke Skywalker if Obi Wan Kenobi never died, and Obi was living in Luke's head: a mentor that's always there, always ready with advice. How can you ever learn to make decisions if someone more experienced is always there to help?
It's not that Yuugi isn't sad to see Dark Yuugi go. He'll miss him, certainly. But they cannot coexist. The reversal is very poignant, really. At this point it is Dark Yuugi that doesn't want to leave, and of course (this being Yuugioh) he can't possibly dishonor Yuugi by not fighting Yuugi with all his strength. But all the same, their desires are at odds.
A popular mechanism fangirls use is 'oh, Yami just decided not to go after the Duel'. If Dark Yuugi has a choice, then what the hell are they fighting for? It ruins the entire point of the Duel if Dark Yuugi has a choice when the Door opens.
1a. But Yuugi cries when Yami has to go! Yeah, I know. But that's because he has to say goodbye to possibly his dearest friend, a person who has been inside his head for two years and rarely anything but gentle with him. I'm sure the fact that he's the one that's choosing to send him away is painful as well. It's very like Dark Yuugi to simply accept Yuugi's will and not cry, but I would say he simply acted with grace, not anything like gladness.
After Duelist Kingdom, Dark Yuugi never again acts in any way without permission from Yuugi. It would be highly out of character for him to refuse to leave after Yuugi has expressly stated (through CARD GAMES! LOL) that he wants Dark Yuugi to leave.
2. It would be disaster if Dark Yuugi stayed. Most fangirls operate under the assumption that the two of them keep their own bodies after Yami simply declines to die. This means that 'Yami' becomes Yuugi's roommate, living with Yuugi and Sugoroku, and attending school with Yuugi.
Practically, this is ... difficult. Imagine, a person from thin air! Where is he from? A birth certificate? Living costs? Working knowledge? Citizenship? Schooling? You could make a fanfic from tackling these issues alone (and I'd probably read it).
But socially, this is still difficult. Yuugi has clearly, clearly expressed his wish that Dark Yuugi pass on by simply fighting him in the Ceremonial Duel. But Dark Yuugi has now violated this wish by choosing to stay with Yuugi. If Yuugi won this would be extremely out of character for Dark Yuugi, who since Duelist Kindgom has never acted without Yuugi's agreement. But even if Yuugi lost, just knowing that Yuugi was willing to fight with all his strength against Dark Yuugi staying would put a serious strain on any burgeoning relationship, sexual or otherwise. Here's a person that used to live in your head - now they're living in the same room as you. It's bound to be hard. I would argue it might not even be possible.
I realize many fangirls are just using the separate bodies thing to tackle the sex, but the Puzzleshipping relationship is already pretty effed up. Why can't they just have sex in the Puzzle? I'm down with that.
If anyone tackled these issues in a fanfic, I would kiss them.
Mischaracterizing Yuugi, Anzu, and Dark Yuugi
I'm sure the other characters get misinterpreted too. In fact, I know they are. I just don't care as much about them as I do about Yuugi, Anzu, and Dark Yuugi.
1. Yuugi. Most Puzzleshippers like Dark Yuugi best. They crush on him. It's not really about Yuugi at all. Therefore, Yuugi becomes a vessel for themselves. In other words, Yuugi is Your Mary Sue, with a canon skin.
For as much as the feminists complain that men don't respect women, I think women respect themselves less. That's a rant for another day, but have you opened a romance novel recently? In the end, 90% of them (or more) are about the man coming to save the day for the woman. The woman NEEDS the man. When Yuugi is Your Mary Sue, s/he becomes the woman that needs the man (Dark Yuugi). I'm accusing most Puzzleshipping fics of being romance novels, and I'm not sorry. I think it's true.
In actuality, Yuugi is never the sort to fall on anyone else in need. Even when he's a wimp, he's a loner wimp. (When he starts relying on Dark Yuugi to deal with bullies, he still thinks Dark Yuugi is a part of himself ('mou hitori no boku', lit. 'my other self').) He'll fall head-over-heels trying to help his friends, but he rarely asks his friends for anything other than their friendship, if ever - although he knows he can rely on them if he was ever in need. He's not especially weepy. The whole world doesn't hate him. He really, really likes games but no longer relies on them. Even when things are at their bleakest he will hope for the best. Stop making him a suicidal wreck that needs Yami to save him. (Or a cynical bastard.)
2. Anzu. Hm. I seem to have made a rant about this before. Oh, yes, Why fandom hates girls. I almost forgot. I think Anzu suffers from this same malignment. She likes Dark Yuugi - just like you, just like me, just like half the fangirls of the series and nearly every Puzzleshipper. Therefore, she's competition, never mind she's pen and paper.
I do understand. She's probably the most realistic character in the series and suffers from character flaws: she's overbearing sometimes, and mothering to the other characters to the point of lecturing. But she's also an encouragement in bleak times, she sticks with these DORKS who play CARD GAMES for two whole years despite her differing interests, and she's far-sighted in terms of the future with clear goals and the means to attain them. But most Puzzleshippers portray her as a downright bitch.
I think this is a shame. It's a way to legitimize downplaying her crush on Dark Yuugi, which does create a fascinating 'love triangle' (so to speak), but that's a side that no one wants to deal with. Come on, if you're going to make 'Yami' a separate person, where's the fic where Anzu confesses and he has to gently turn her down? Where's the 'breaking the news' fic? Where's the story where Anzu is still their friend, no matter what? AUGH.
3. Dark Yuugi. I don't think this character is as maligned as Yuugi and Anzu. I think, rather, that he's played up. A Lot. Yeah, he's pretty cool! He can command control of a room even though he's a foot shorter than anyone else. He was a Pharaoh, a King, he's stoic and powerful and (later) benevolent.
HE'S ALSO A DORK WHO PLAYS CARD GAMES! Come on! I need more fic where Yuugi and Dark Yuugi are nerds together. The night before Battle City they stay up all night long together and organize their deck together. I think people are missing out on the 'otaku' aspect of their favorite character.
And leaving that behind, Dark Yuugi is not fundamentally a good person. If having Dark Yuugi as a mentor and a support helped Yuugi grow, Yuugi's kindness and benevolence changed Dark Yuugi as well. He drove people crazy for singing badly. He issues corporal punishment for stealing figurines. Dark Yuugi starts out very, very dark; don't just dismiss it with a line. What if Yuugi found out about these things? For that matter, Dark Yuugi doesn't change his ways until the end of Duelist Kingdom, and the only reason he changes is because Pegasus accuses him of being 'a monster'. This forces Dark Yuugi to reevaluate his responses to threats, and it's not until then that he stops initiating Dark Games.
AU fics: Why does Yuugi always have to be a slave?
You know what's a great, totally orginial idea? Yuugi is a slave to the Pharaoh. NOT.
There's a lot of AU fic that run along these lines. Yuugi is a slave to Pharaoh 'Yami'. Yuugi is the helpless human that becomes entangled with a dark, angsty vampire. Yuugi is the kid nobody likes in school who falls hopelessly in love with the hunky Yami, the most popular kid ever (who is secretly angsty and emo himself).
Hm. These all sound suspciously like ... romance novels! Replace 'Yuugi' and 'Yami' with 'Julia' and 'Antoine' and tell me you haven't read that back cover summary before. Once again, Yuugi is Your Mary Sue, destined to be 2gether 4ever with Yami.
Why can't Yuugi and Yami ever be on the same footing? Why not, instead of Yuugi the slave (who, by the way, would never be able to look Atem in the face much less fall into bed with him - and Yuugi would NOT be a pleasure slave, chances are pretty high that the Pharaohs did not have male harems), have Yuugi the High Priest? Why can't Yuugi be a incubus for once? (or is that succubus? I forget.) Why is Yami always so cool in school? (Considering that he loves games so much, I'd think he'd be as much an outcast as Yuugi.)
Yuugi and Dark Yuugi view one another as equals. If Dark Yuugi thought of Yuugi as useless or otherwise, he would never have accepted Yuugi as his challenger at the Ceremonial Duel. If Yuugi thought Dark Yuugi was out of reach, he would never have stopped Dark Yuugi from doing things Yuugi himself didn't approve of. So why have this massive difference in power in AU fic? I think it does them both a disservice.
Holy crap this rant is REALLY LONG. I'm ... I'm gonna go play The World Ends With You some more. Uh.
My number one pet peeve, ever, is the continuation fic where Dark Yuugi (Yami in fangirl speak) is in a separate body from Yuugi.
Dark Yuugi can't stay after the series is over. Period.
In other words, this is a rant about why I don't like your Puzzleshipping fic, even though I'm a Puzzleshipper
Your typical fangirl fic
The average Puzzleshipping fic is one where Yami and Yuugi are in separate bodies, magically, after the series is over, living together. Yami is cool and stoic and has to save Yuugi from all manner of horrors, most of which involve other characters trying to rape Yuugi. Yuugi cries a lot. In the background, Kaiba and 'Joey' are dating. Anzu is a terrible bitch. Yuugi desperately needs Yami there, doesn't know how he'd continue without Yami. If there's any strain in their relationship, it's because one or the other thinks the other partner is cheating on them or whatever.
On the flip side you have the average Puzzleshipping fic that's AU. Usually Yami is some kind of dark creature, often a vampire, occasionally a demon. If not they're both students in high school. Yuugi is invariably a recluse that everyone hates and who feels sorry for himself. Yami is invariably admired and loved, but he's constantly dark and brooding. Both of them need someone else to complete their heart! OMG obviously it's the person that looks exactly like them, except Yami is taller.
There's a fundamental misinterpretation of characters here. Why? What are fangirls missing? How can they interpret the characters this way?
What the Fangirls are missing
1. Misinterpretation of the Ceremonial Duel. The first thing is the most important: Yuugi DOES NOT WANT Dark Yuugi to stay. At the beginning of the series Yuugi is admittedly a wimp. He's optimistic but doesn't act on it; he trusts in games, not people. (For goodness sakes, he wishes the Puzzle will bring him friends! It's not clear if he ever realizes it's his own actions that get him friends, not the Puzzle.) But by the end of the series, Yuugi has grown into himself.
Yuugi's growth is kind of awesome. At the end of Duelist Kingdom he expresses a wish that Dark Yuugi will stay with him forever. At about the same time, Otogi shows up and proves that really, Dark Yuugi is very limited in what he can do for Yuugi. Jounouchi is the one that saves the day. Shortly afterwards, Dark Yuugi gets a hint about his lost past and he decides to pursue it.
When Dark Yuugi reveals the desire to find out about his past, Yuugi realizes that all good things must come to an end and he will someday be alone in his head again. He sets out to become a stronger person, and succeeds. By the end of the Memory World RPG, Yuugi stands his own against Bakura and actually accomplishes more than Dark Yuugi does through the whole story. He's become a strong person who can accomplish things for himself.
Therefore, when the Ceremonial Duel rolls around, Yuugi is the one that chooses to battle Dark Yuugi. killyoudead pointed out to me that really, it was over then; their relationship could never be the same. Why?
Yuugi chooses to help Dark Yuugi move on. He's fundamentally, although not so rudely, saying 'get out of my head!' Yuugi cannot grow further with Dark Yuugi still in his mind; it would be like ... like Luke Skywalker if Obi Wan Kenobi never died, and Obi was living in Luke's head: a mentor that's always there, always ready with advice. How can you ever learn to make decisions if someone more experienced is always there to help?
It's not that Yuugi isn't sad to see Dark Yuugi go. He'll miss him, certainly. But they cannot coexist. The reversal is very poignant, really. At this point it is Dark Yuugi that doesn't want to leave, and of course (this being Yuugioh) he can't possibly dishonor Yuugi by not fighting Yuugi with all his strength. But all the same, their desires are at odds.
A popular mechanism fangirls use is 'oh, Yami just decided not to go after the Duel'. If Dark Yuugi has a choice, then what the hell are they fighting for? It ruins the entire point of the Duel if Dark Yuugi has a choice when the Door opens.
1a. But Yuugi cries when Yami has to go! Yeah, I know. But that's because he has to say goodbye to possibly his dearest friend, a person who has been inside his head for two years and rarely anything but gentle with him. I'm sure the fact that he's the one that's choosing to send him away is painful as well. It's very like Dark Yuugi to simply accept Yuugi's will and not cry, but I would say he simply acted with grace, not anything like gladness.
After Duelist Kingdom, Dark Yuugi never again acts in any way without permission from Yuugi. It would be highly out of character for him to refuse to leave after Yuugi has expressly stated (through CARD GAMES! LOL) that he wants Dark Yuugi to leave.
2. It would be disaster if Dark Yuugi stayed. Most fangirls operate under the assumption that the two of them keep their own bodies after Yami simply declines to die. This means that 'Yami' becomes Yuugi's roommate, living with Yuugi and Sugoroku, and attending school with Yuugi.
Practically, this is ... difficult. Imagine, a person from thin air! Where is he from? A birth certificate? Living costs? Working knowledge? Citizenship? Schooling? You could make a fanfic from tackling these issues alone (and I'd probably read it).
But socially, this is still difficult. Yuugi has clearly, clearly expressed his wish that Dark Yuugi pass on by simply fighting him in the Ceremonial Duel. But Dark Yuugi has now violated this wish by choosing to stay with Yuugi. If Yuugi won this would be extremely out of character for Dark Yuugi, who since Duelist Kindgom has never acted without Yuugi's agreement. But even if Yuugi lost, just knowing that Yuugi was willing to fight with all his strength against Dark Yuugi staying would put a serious strain on any burgeoning relationship, sexual or otherwise. Here's a person that used to live in your head - now they're living in the same room as you. It's bound to be hard. I would argue it might not even be possible.
I realize many fangirls are just using the separate bodies thing to tackle the sex, but the Puzzleshipping relationship is already pretty effed up. Why can't they just have sex in the Puzzle? I'm down with that.
If anyone tackled these issues in a fanfic, I would kiss them.
Mischaracterizing Yuugi, Anzu, and Dark Yuugi
I'm sure the other characters get misinterpreted too. In fact, I know they are. I just don't care as much about them as I do about Yuugi, Anzu, and Dark Yuugi.
1. Yuugi. Most Puzzleshippers like Dark Yuugi best. They crush on him. It's not really about Yuugi at all. Therefore, Yuugi becomes a vessel for themselves. In other words, Yuugi is Your Mary Sue, with a canon skin.
For as much as the feminists complain that men don't respect women, I think women respect themselves less. That's a rant for another day, but have you opened a romance novel recently? In the end, 90% of them (or more) are about the man coming to save the day for the woman. The woman NEEDS the man. When Yuugi is Your Mary Sue, s/he becomes the woman that needs the man (Dark Yuugi). I'm accusing most Puzzleshipping fics of being romance novels, and I'm not sorry. I think it's true.
In actuality, Yuugi is never the sort to fall on anyone else in need. Even when he's a wimp, he's a loner wimp. (When he starts relying on Dark Yuugi to deal with bullies, he still thinks Dark Yuugi is a part of himself ('mou hitori no boku', lit. 'my other self').) He'll fall head-over-heels trying to help his friends, but he rarely asks his friends for anything other than their friendship, if ever - although he knows he can rely on them if he was ever in need. He's not especially weepy. The whole world doesn't hate him. He really, really likes games but no longer relies on them. Even when things are at their bleakest he will hope for the best. Stop making him a suicidal wreck that needs Yami to save him. (Or a cynical bastard.)
2. Anzu. Hm. I seem to have made a rant about this before. Oh, yes, Why fandom hates girls. I almost forgot. I think Anzu suffers from this same malignment. She likes Dark Yuugi - just like you, just like me, just like half the fangirls of the series and nearly every Puzzleshipper. Therefore, she's competition, never mind she's pen and paper.
I do understand. She's probably the most realistic character in the series and suffers from character flaws: she's overbearing sometimes, and mothering to the other characters to the point of lecturing. But she's also an encouragement in bleak times, she sticks with these DORKS who play CARD GAMES for two whole years despite her differing interests, and she's far-sighted in terms of the future with clear goals and the means to attain them. But most Puzzleshippers portray her as a downright bitch.
I think this is a shame. It's a way to legitimize downplaying her crush on Dark Yuugi, which does create a fascinating 'love triangle' (so to speak), but that's a side that no one wants to deal with. Come on, if you're going to make 'Yami' a separate person, where's the fic where Anzu confesses and he has to gently turn her down? Where's the 'breaking the news' fic? Where's the story where Anzu is still their friend, no matter what? AUGH.
3. Dark Yuugi. I don't think this character is as maligned as Yuugi and Anzu. I think, rather, that he's played up. A Lot. Yeah, he's pretty cool! He can command control of a room even though he's a foot shorter than anyone else. He was a Pharaoh, a King, he's stoic and powerful and (later) benevolent.
HE'S ALSO A DORK WHO PLAYS CARD GAMES! Come on! I need more fic where Yuugi and Dark Yuugi are nerds together. The night before Battle City they stay up all night long together and organize their deck together. I think people are missing out on the 'otaku' aspect of their favorite character.
And leaving that behind, Dark Yuugi is not fundamentally a good person. If having Dark Yuugi as a mentor and a support helped Yuugi grow, Yuugi's kindness and benevolence changed Dark Yuugi as well. He drove people crazy for singing badly. He issues corporal punishment for stealing figurines. Dark Yuugi starts out very, very dark; don't just dismiss it with a line. What if Yuugi found out about these things? For that matter, Dark Yuugi doesn't change his ways until the end of Duelist Kingdom, and the only reason he changes is because Pegasus accuses him of being 'a monster'. This forces Dark Yuugi to reevaluate his responses to threats, and it's not until then that he stops initiating Dark Games.
AU fics: Why does Yuugi always have to be a slave?
You know what's a great, totally orginial idea? Yuugi is a slave to the Pharaoh. NOT.
There's a lot of AU fic that run along these lines. Yuugi is a slave to Pharaoh 'Yami'. Yuugi is the helpless human that becomes entangled with a dark, angsty vampire. Yuugi is the kid nobody likes in school who falls hopelessly in love with the hunky Yami, the most popular kid ever (who is secretly angsty and emo himself).
Hm. These all sound suspciously like ... romance novels! Replace 'Yuugi' and 'Yami' with 'Julia' and 'Antoine' and tell me you haven't read that back cover summary before. Once again, Yuugi is Your Mary Sue, destined to be 2gether 4ever with Yami.
Why can't Yuugi and Yami ever be on the same footing? Why not, instead of Yuugi the slave (who, by the way, would never be able to look Atem in the face much less fall into bed with him - and Yuugi would NOT be a pleasure slave, chances are pretty high that the Pharaohs did not have male harems), have Yuugi the High Priest? Why can't Yuugi be a incubus for once? (or is that succubus? I forget.) Why is Yami always so cool in school? (Considering that he loves games so much, I'd think he'd be as much an outcast as Yuugi.)
Yuugi and Dark Yuugi view one another as equals. If Dark Yuugi thought of Yuugi as useless or otherwise, he would never have accepted Yuugi as his challenger at the Ceremonial Duel. If Yuugi thought Dark Yuugi was out of reach, he would never have stopped Dark Yuugi from doing things Yuugi himself didn't approve of. So why have this massive difference in power in AU fic? I think it does them both a disservice.
Holy crap this rant is REALLY LONG. I'm ... I'm gonna go play The World Ends With You some more. Uh.