Discuss the story.

Both “Anxious Bakura” and “Someday Ryou will top Bakura (but not today)” actually were being written alongside the Abuse stuff; Of Elevators and Muses was originally written around the cusp of the 2010s and ended in 2013, which was still around the most notorious era of the “Abusive Seme Bakura” trope. In fact, it included a fade to black Top Ryou scene in the final chapter. The “Someday Ryou will top Bakura (but not today)” one that I referenced (by an author who posted solely on mediaminer and adult-fanfiction.org after the ffnet purges) was written from around 2005 to 2009, which was their most prolific period, by the looks of it. (cw nsfw fics)

The further back you go, the more you’ll see this and the more you’ll likely be surprised (maybe, if you’re a modern fan only I think). The “Ryou Kills Bakura” fic finished in 2007, but the “Yandere Ryou Tries To Kill Bakura” fic was written in 2003. It’s very fun, very well written and I still go back to it every so often. The entire thing was written on the heels of a number of 2002-2003 ygo fics across fanfiction.net and mediaminer and adult-fanfiction.org that had things more like melodrama (with or without abuse), jerkish and smarmy Bakura type takes, comedic Bakura takes, and of course the darker suicide and abuse and similarly oof-ish themed Bakura is a Bastard to Ryou type stuff. Etcetera. Bakura beating Ryou had already become notorious (and hated). I’ve seen a handful of fics from the era specifically say “No, this is NOT the cliché/regular Bakura beating Ryou fic!” and the like, in their descriptions, on ffnet of all places.

And even the bait and switch “it was gay all along” with “Girl” Ryou was written in 2003, and that author had a good tendency of treating Ryou as a strong but sensitive character in their fics (cw graphic violence, character death). A lot of their work holds up well as far as I’m concerned, and uses gender au quite thoughtfully. You know, instead of just a stereotypically slapping of the “oh here’s your feminine girl traits now” shtick all over them. Bakura had pretty much textbook gender dysphoria after getting swapped in one of their other fics, which really is interesting to see through a 2003 and 2010 lens (cw suicide attempt, attempted noncon, gender au). I read that one every so often again, too. Bakura had her powers taken away along with this (and is referred to with she/her in fic), which gave Ryou a certain edge he never quite took in the dynamic, even if she still attempted a few times to abuse him—and also gave them the chance to become more genuinely close as the fic went on. It addressed issues of Ryou being scared of the Bakura he knew before. It addressed issues of Ryou not wanting to lose the Bakura he had now, and thus their deeper friendship, too, if I am remembering it right. (These both got crosspostings to ao3 to my absolute delight, actually. I honestly say they’re both well worth a read.)

This is where it gets to a pretty interesting point to jump off from. 2002-2003 had its number of oof moments. I have no clue how much of anything was lost to the ffnet purges, but numerous fics dated from 2002 on do have the abuse (and beating, and suicide, etc etc other oof) themes going on. The site’s saturated with it. Ryou abuse shows up as one of the oldest ygo fics of the ~6300 on mediaminer (it has his Dad abusing him before he got the Ring, even). Lots of fascination with slaves back then. Surprising amount of fics where Ryou becomes one of those. Really common darkness and misery and beating the shit out of Ryou themes. Ryou staying with Bakura in spite of any and all of this pokes its head in frequently. Fair amount of noncon in certain places. Adult-fanfiction.org is about the same as mediaminer, just with more content published there. It even leaks into fics trying to tackle the two without relying on tropes.

The Anime adaptation cutting a lot of Ryou’s character out directly influenced his broader fandom characterization, even in fic that tried to tackle him seriously. I’m sure of it. He’s a pretty blank slate in the Anime without his Manga traits, and the Manga apparently took longer to get to the West in English than the Anime Dub—I recall that one “alpha couple tendies suicidal yugi kaijou beat the shit out of each other” fic (cw nsfw, suicidal ideation, drugs and stuff I think, pretend threats of rape(?) and possibly other oof) saying midway through that like “I just read the new Manga chapter that came out with Ryou and Bakura and Monster World!” and I was just like?? New?? This is a continuation of the series after what was then current, Duelist Kingdom, and that part of the Manga was new?

I just found that so surreal, like, you know? Huh? But it’s legit, as I’m sure tons of people know. The first manga volumes weren’t published in English until mid to late 2003. I actually started wondering if maybe the early horror aspects of the manga had anything to do with eng ygo fandom culture of the time focusing on such dark and taboo things when the anime didn’t, but I digress, as I don’t have as much knowledge on that specific subject.

The Monster World arc volume didn’t make it into English until late 2004 though, good cripes.

You can see where Ryou didn’t have a lot of character to go on beside fanon back then, for what I am assuming is a large number of anime-only people.

Or maybe it really was just popular to write him like that anyways, in spite of knowing through scans or hearsay how the manga went. Maybe it just became fanon through like, echochamber. People did write him differently, but this one take just popped up, and it popped up a lot, whether you wanted it to or not. It was already hated, it was already cliché, A Story of Abuse parodied it in 2003 (cw nsfw, mentions of rape, character bashing, others listed inside), and one very ranty reviewer left a multiparagraph review under the name Linzy.again railing against the abuse stories. It goes, and I quote:

“I con't believe I forgot to say this: THANK YOU FOR POKING FUN AT THE ABUSE FICS OUT THERE!

I swear, they're almost ALL like your little formula, and sometimes it gets on my goddamn nerves. (Pardon my English.)

There is NO reason why Bakura would beat Ryou, and one very good reason why he would not: they share the SAME body. What good would it do Bakura to damage the body he needs to use? At one point, Bakura even SAVES his host from the wrath of Yami's god card for just this reason, claiming "I still need him" [*spoiler* to collect the Millennium Items and release Zorc *spoiler*]. (The ONLY times I know of Bakura inflicting physical damage to Ryou's body is 1) during the FIRST anime/manga series (well before Pegasus's Duelist Kingdom tournament) when he impales his hand on a miniature tower to keep Ryou from controlling it (and helping his friends), and 2) when he stabs himself in the arm during the Battle City Tournament-this is actually SHOWN in the manga, though I think it's just implied in the anime-and lets Ryou take the pain, and that is for the completely different purpose of convincing Malik that he is a heartless bastard and willing to get the Millennium Items by any means. Or something like that. I don't exactly remember his logic.)

My point: Why the heck would Bakura abuse HIMSELF on a regular basis? It would hinder him more than anything, and besides, only one of them can completely inhabit the body at a time. So not only are many of these "abuse" fics incorrect, they're downright impossible! And I think they ignore any real torment Ryou might actually have suffered with a malevolent spirit commandeering his body. I mean no disrespect to anyone who has actually experienced physical abuse, but I think that suddenly realizing I've missed the past four days of my life-AGAIN-would be fundamentally more traumatizing than a few bruised ribs.

Um...I didn't mean for that to turn into a rant, but it did. Feel free to pick apart and/or use my arguements, should you feel a need to.”

There are 68 reviews talking about this topic on this fic.

(This is also a fic where Bakura and Ryou talk about Ryou topping him later LMAO)

Here is an interesting case study—the “Yandere Ryou Tries To Kill Bakura” fic again. The Hikari Strikes Back was written in 2003 (cw injury, blood, knife, etc, but I swear, it's entirely a comedy) and tackles the two in an absolutely delightful way. It addresses the tropes. It addresses them early on and sporadically through it. Ryou goes full Yandere after a head injury Bakura didn’t cause and Bakura becomes absolutely terrified because he also finds it insanely hot. He doesn’t want to have Ryou like this, though.

It’s a fascinating dichotomy. Bakura feels like a wild, moody teenager in this, albeit one who has access to knives. And gets pissed off a lot. And Ryou has his personality all over the place—yet the fic does address his Manga traits early on. He isn’t a pushover; he’s just turned on by and terrified of his Yami all at the same time, and kind of goes off the walls from it. This fic is absurd to an outlandish degree and I honestly love every second of it.

But what’s really interesting is how multiple times Bakura gets accused of beating Ryou—and every time, Ryou or Bakura deny it. Bakura’s protective. Right after tackling the living daylights out of Yami because he assumed Yami took advantage of Ryou’s Yandere Flirting, you get this scene:

"You'll leave us alone?" Bakura asked suspiciously.

"Yes, of course. If you stop beating up your hikari on a regular basis," Yami warned.

Bakura glared at him for an answer. "I do not beat him up. I never have. And I never will. How can you fathom that I would?"

"The bruises he gets – " Yami began.

"What? Doesn't your hikari pick up a few scrapes? He doesn't tell me what happens! He doesn't let me help him out! I'm fucking stuck when he gets jumped!" Bakura was dead white. "You fucking, fucking bastard."

Eventually, you even get this. Major Spoilers:

"I can be beaten too!" Bakura screamed. "I'm not perfect! I'm broken!"

"And then at the church – "

"Oh, gods!" Bakura sat back from Ryou. "I'm not the fucking pharaoh!" he snarled through the hands covering his face. "I'm not the high-and-mighty all-powerful smartass that he is. Get it through your head that I've been doing my damndest to protect you and get revenge on him simultaneously, and it isn't easy. I'm not the perfect protector. I'm worthless at it. Worthless. But you kept me." Shuddering breath. "You kept me."

End Spoilers.

One Hundred (cw discussion of Amane death) is another fic by them, and treats them both like teenagers, treats Bakura like a teenager, noticeably. He’s jealous Ryou thinks more about Amane than him, even though both of them are dead. Ryou and Bakura’s portrayals are one of the most endearing qualities of this fic. It’s fluffy. It’s warm and fuzzy. It’s beautifully 2004.

Yet these are sandwiched between Utterly Tropey fics that the author also wrote between 2002 and 2005. You have melodrama 2002 Bakura and Ryou in To Loathe The Reflection (cw blood, knives, suicidal ideation, Ryou abuse, present below too) that just goes like this:

I threw my hands into the glass with a vengeance, feeling the shards score my hands and wrists...carving marks into me to my elbows...kissing me with pain...

I stare at the shattered marks, still seeing a fragmented face swirling with torment and my yami dropping the knife and storming over.

"That was fucking stupid!" He pulled one of my wrists to his lips and began licking away the blood, as if I were only one of his weapons...

Only a tool...

The reflection won't go away...

"Make it stop," I whispered, almost delirious. "The reflection..."

My yami felt me collapse and dropped me to the floor. "What about it?"

"The reflection...make it go away...yami..."

I felt him kneel next to me. Felt his eyes on me. "I am your reflection," he breathed, his voice hissing in my ear. "Do you want me to die so much?"

"Maybe..."

And you can see in 2005, Strange Kevlar (cw the entire city burns down), the more mysterious, hard to reach Bakura coming into play. There’s a timeline for this. There’s a shift in many people’s writing during this year, and it’s interesting (and almost strange) to see this author’s portrayal of Bakura change from that failed protector purely teenager just-trying-his-best vibe in both One Hundred and THSB vibe to things that are like Strange Kevlar.

Like, you get the melodrama, you get the world burning and Bakura going on about embers burning his skin and not being able to find Ryou. He’s got a bit of that hard to reach vibe to him. He’s got a drier tone to him. He’s like this:

"You would guard my sleep? Such touching loyalty," Bakura mocked in his ear, his long delicate fingers shifting lightly over Ryou's hands.

Like? That’s a hoity toity vibe there. Such touching loyalty. THSB and One Hundred Bakura never would have said things like that.

And this is what I’m thinking: a fair amount of fans were anime only. Maybe to avoid spoilers, maybe due to lack of access to the translated manga. Ryou’s characterization either speaks to this being true (aka not a lot of ppl realizing what traits he has in manga canon) or people breezing by this and following fanfiction conventions anyway (because it really is fun to just write them doing whatever their little “lol so random” hearts desire, or people really liked the angst in the abuse).

Enter the Church Scene. This did not air in English until October 2005.

It’s a turning point; even though it wasn’t the notorious era of it, this was still a time the Abuse Trope was common. It rose into common fanon. It stuck around. The Church scene, being Anime Only, is one I assume every Bakura and Ryou fan latched hard onto at the time, especially since it gave screen time to Ryou. A lot of fics exist either referencing, taking place during, or putting nsfw into the scene. Maybe it awakened something in people, I don’t know. Again, not the be all end all of the trope era, but important to note nonetheless.

Then you get the DDM manga arc and the English volume of it coming out October 2006.

Bakura pretends to be friendly. He tells Yugi he’s changed, and continues that in the alley when he shows up and gives Yugi the Millennium Eye and says they’re friends. He does the pointy fingers. He said something along the lines of “Bingo,” of all things.

2006-2007 starts a very specific Sugar Rush High School AU “LOL so random wowwee Hikaris/Yamis with Seto and Jou lumped in hehe rawr XD!” period that stretches into 2009 and beyond, and nobody can tell me otherwise. We get both Bakura Abusing Ryou solidifying once again in this period, alongside the Bad Boy Bakura Is Our Tsundere Friend Sugar Rush High School AU fic characterization.

Right alongside each other. Straight up next to each other.

Bakura sent a toaster to the Shadow Realm in spite of not knowing the name for it in 2007, ran advice columns in at least a couple of fics, and repeatedly started crushing on Ryou in high school (and sometimes hating it). Conversely, he also kept beating Ryou, or terrorizing the shit out of him, or only realizing after his behavior and/or Ryou nearly died that hey, he really did love Ryou all along; he was The Light to His Dark.

These are two completely different genres of Bakura Fic.

Smile (cw murder) is an interesting example here—the “Ryou Kills Bakura” fic. Bakura plays his long con of homophobic chicken for money and Ryou straight up kills him when he finds out. This is 2007. I have no idea what purpose this was written for. All I understand (and remember from being much, much younger) is that the ending came out of complete left field and whacked the absolute shit out of me, and man did that thing have a punch.

I quote from an A/N: “Come on, we all know that Bakura's really a horrible, sadistic maniac. It was bound to happen sooner or later.” I quote from a later A/N: “I hope I still have at least a few readers left who don't hate me. This fic was never going to have a happy ending from the moment I chose the title.”

Sometimes you get fic where the author’s trying to make a point, and sometimes you get fic where the author’s entirely sure they’re writing The Most In Character Thing Ever, And No One Can Tell Me Otherwise. Either way, this fic pretty solidly puts Bakura in the Shitty Uncompassionate Asshole territory, and maybe even the Unable To Be Humane And Empathetic At All corner, too.

It is… Quite a Fic ™

And yet, that is not it for the late 2000s. Oh no, no, no.

High-Mode was popular at the time. This is when we get into doujin. Doujin will come up a lot in this. High-Mode doujin was coming out in the 2008 era, 50%-50%, Intensive Care Lv1-3, the online stuff, etcetera etcetera, and tons of it was getting scanned and translated. It’s sometimes risqué but never fully nsfw. It’s absolute “Sugar Rush, Moody Teenager Bakura, Flanderized Peppy Malik, Everyone Just Lives Their Slice Of Life AU And Bakura Is Whipped For Ryou” fic with the Yamis x Hikaris ships forever incarnate.

It is incredibly present, and has some sort of symbiotic relationship as far as I am concerned with the ffnet brand of Sugar Rush 2007-2009 yugioh fic with the Yamis x Hikaris and Seto x Jou lumped in as an equivalent on the side. No question about it at all to me; they mimic each other too greatly not to be.

In the background, you have ygotas (and the ygotas to thiefshipping pipeline honestly, lmao). This is another Peak Sugar Rush Flanderization Genre at this point. People try to write fic and try to write ygo and not ygotas fic but ygotas Malik still makes it in there somehow. Of Elevators and Muses, my beloved, was positively dripping with ygotas references. Of Elevators and Muses Malik was ygotas incarnate. Parodies, everywhere, even when the people didn’t want it.

In the further background, you have the Tendies Abuse Renaissance on the horizon. It is 2009-2010. It has never fully left.

Then we get LECHE and Goendama.

Holy fuck did LECHE and Goendama influence an era. I talked shop about what I was finding in chronological order for this and as I was about to get to it Len asked, “Where’s Goendama?” Any old school yugioh fan active 2010-2013 with a penchant for the Bakuras in some form (especially the tendies form) knows of them as far as I’m concerned. If not by name, they will recognize the art on sight.

LECHE was pretty chill, and a mix of sfw gag stuff (Bakumamire my beloved 😭💕) and nsfw tendies at first, before hardcore switching to geminishipping (top tkb and bottom yami b). A good number of their things were scanned, even if not all of them were translated. Goendama, on the other hand, worked with a mix of noncon and dubcon nsfw alongside the genuinely in love (and longing) tendershipping. Every one of their works that was scanned had a complete and well-circulated translation.

I’m sure this is responsible for yugioh tendershipping 2011-2013. If not heavily, at the very least it contributed to and stoked the flames of the Abuse Tropes beyond your wildest dreams. This is the most notorious era of Abusive Tendershipping. It was fanon mainstream. It was everywhere. Goendama was everywhere. Goendama was really everywhere. Tendershippers were eating it up, tendershippers were passing it around, tendershippers were reading the noncon, the dubcon, the sweet sweet consenting and longingly tragic ones, the one actually sfw one. People were in love with it, awakening to it, I don’t know! It was synonymous with tendershipping, I really think, or at least for a lot of tendershippers, it was tendershipping.

And it really led to a lot of the Abusive and Unhealthy Dynamic shippers latching onto Goendama, I’m absolutely sure of it. Tragic Tendershippers too, for the obvious reasons.

LECHE had their fair share of tragedy in their work too, and cemented notoriety in their own right. Things got pretty slice of life toward their later releases, and less and less scanned (or translated) as far as I can tell. Maybe that’s why, later into the timeline of YouTube AMVs especially, most active tendershippers attached to the Unhealthy And/Or Tragic And/Or Abuse Tropes latched almost entirely onto Goendama.

But remember. I reiterate: not all Goendama’s work dealt with oof topics, and a number of their well remembered doujins are their tragic romantic ones—Kamisama Onegai, What Can I Do For You, Boku to Maou.

Oh, Boku to Maou. Oh, how you break my heart into pieces.

It’s just fascinating, seeing how concurrent these tropes are, you know? These differing characterizations, almost polarizing in their portrayals. You see it across fanfic, you see it across art, you see it across YouTube AMVs, even, and the YouTube AMVs are particularly interesting—we’ll get back to the YouTube AMVs in a second.

For now, we’re still getting settled into yes, 2011-2013 was the era of Goendama, and even Goendama had different styles of tendershipping.

And this fact pops up all over the remains of tendershipping AMVs on YouTube.

Now, views alone can be finicky, since you never really know how many people were able to find a given video, how much subscriber count played into it, and how many videos were just popular because they were very well liked. However, I think they can be really important to look at because of what sort of content was being made, and around what time, by the people in the ygo fandom during those particular years.

For tendershipping specifically, you can see the rising and falling trope trend. You can also really clearly see when Goendama and LECHE (particularly Goendama lmao) started circulating and becoming insanely popular.

I’m not linking every video in existence, and honestly there’s some noncon type ones that I don’t feel like looking for again anyway. Those tend to be from around 2011-2013 as well. I’ve tried to cw everything else, since blood and Ryou’s arm wound do come up a lot, among other things.

As a rough timeline aside from that, you’ve got:

2007

ryou bakura. 6,975 views. (cw some arm wound) [pretty gentle though, and definitely a time capsule for lost old art.]

2009

Tendershipping-Fall into me. 4,400 views. (cw one maybe risqué but not nude image) [Romance.]

Bakura’s Lovegame. 14,182 views. (cw blood, arm wound, risqué images, nsfw song) [Goendama appears.] [“SO HOT!” vibe.]

2010

Obsession - Bakura & Ryou. 4,466 views. [Goendama, LECHE, High-Mode.] [Romance. More Pining, maybe.]

Again: ♥ A Tendershipping Love Story ♥. 6,592 views. (cw some arm wound, possibly risqué smidgen of art and lyrics) [Goendama.] [Longing, Romance.]

“Please be aware that this video contains mild scenes of tasteful Yaoi, (a love between two boys) if you do not like Yaoi, please do not watch!”

Tendershipping-Impossible. 4,528 views. [clips.] [Drama.]

2011

Ryou x Bakura - Meteor shower. 9,561 views. [Goendama.] [Warm and Fuzzy. Fluff.]

this one mentions that “Ryou and Bakura are the the cutest couple ever:)”

Ryou x Bakura - Vanilla Twilight. 8,388 views. [Goendama, a blip of High-Mode.] [Warm and Fuzzy. Fluff.]

Tendershipping: Delusional [Bakura♥Ryou]. 6,359 views. (cw blood, fair amount of blood in some pics, and knives) [Bits of High-Mode, Goendama, LECHE.] [moreso the “oh Bakura is hot when he’s intimidating etc etc” vibe.]

Tendershipping -- The Bird and The Worm. 703 views. (cw blood, chest wounds) [High-Mode appears, as does LECHE.] [Scary Bakura.]

“It describes how he’s [Ryou] alone — no longer has a family, and can never hold onto friends — and always so scared of the mysterious but frightening monster inside of him (Yami Bakura).”

Isn’t Someone Missing Me? - tendershipping & gemshipping. 14,240 views. (cw blood, arm wound) [Goendama, LECHE.] [Angst.]

Tendershipping - Love The Way You Lie. 3,426 views. (cw blood, Ryou’s arm wound, song about abuse.) [Goendama.] [Abuse.]

[ygo] back to where you are; tendershipping. 8,306 views. (cw blood, arm wound) [Blips of Goendama, High-Mode.] [Warm and Fuzzy.]

“This pairing still irks me some times. On one hand, I get it - Bakura is part demon or whatever but there's still some remnants of his human side (or at least that what I think) somewhere inside of him. And if there's anyone that can breakthrough to him - it's Ryou. On the other hand, I don't get it when people take this to the complete opposite extreme... aka Bakura beating or abusing Ryou and Ryou still being hopelessly in love with him? No, NOT WORKING FOR ME (or in canon, jsyk) ON SO MANY LEVELS KTHNX.”

[This one is just so sweet, oh good gosh…. qwq. Also, the description in its near entirety is copypasta worthy hjdhjfdh]

Bakura x Ryou - Kiss Me. 989 views. (cw some blood near the end) [High-Mode, bits of Goendama.] [I think this one is cute too.] [Fluff.]

⌈Cannibal⌋. 3,747 views. (cw blood.) [LECHE present.] [Yes, you can guess what this Kesha Cannibal song is about. Bakura eats boys (Ryou) up.]

Tendershipping ~ Good Girls Go Bad. 3,952 views. [bad boy corrupting the good girl guy, ah, yes.] [it even throws some season zero in there, actually.] [Upbeat Bad Boy Song.]

Tendershipping - Snuff. 4,016 views. (cw arm wound, blood) [Goendama.] [Angst.]

He Ate My Heart [Tendershipping]. 15,640 views. (cw nsfw song, some blood) [a lot of LECHE, some Goendama.] [Bakura’s a Monster; eats Ryou’s heart up, leaves him.]

Pain [Tendershipping]. 16,390 views. (cw blood, arm wound, swearing) [LECHE everywhere. Clips, and LECHE; some Goendama toward the end.] [Drama.]

I’ll Find You Somewhere… - Tendershipping. 7,472 views. (cw blood) [lots of doujin, predominantly Goendama.] [Tragic.]

OTP Contest [Tendershipping]. 400 views. (cw some blood, Ryou’s arm wound) [Goendama predominantly, LECHE.] [Softer, Regretful Bakura.]

Tendershipping [Ryou/Bakura] - Just Let Go!. 7,397 views. (cw maybe abuse) [Goendama in the beginning, predominantly clips.] [Plausible Abuse, Terrible Asshole Bakura, “angsty shippings”.]

The End. 1,105 views. (cw blood, ryou arm wound) [LECHE, Goendama.] [Heavy Vibe, Possibly Abuse.]

[ygo] all the things she said; tendershipping. 14,882 views. [some LECHE, Goendama, and High-Mode.] [Drama.]

TenderShipping- Everytime We Touch. 781 views. (cw a few risqué images) [Some High-Mode, Goendama.] [Fluff, honestly.]

Tendershipping - Toxic. 10,844 views. [clips.] [Upbeat; what do you expect, it’s Toxic by Britney Spears LMAO.]

[Tendershipping] Bakuras Pet. 37,646 views. (cw abuse, blood, etc) [The Quintessential Bakura Abuses Ryou Video.]

Judas -- Pardonshipping/Tendershipping [Mini-Vid]. 714 views. (cw blood, possible bit of mouth body horror on one Bakura image) [High-Mode and LECHE appear.] [Ryou wants to love Atem but still loves Bakura, the Monster??]

2012

Tendershipping || An Absence of Mine. 1620 views. (cw Ryou put his head in the tub in one panel, arm wound.) [Goendama.] [More Tragic Vibes.] [I just really like this video like, oh man, aw man.]

Bakura Shattered AMV. 12,509 views. (cw some arm wound and blood) [anime clips.] [Drama, Yearning, Bakura POV focus actually. Ryou is his “heart.”]

Ryou and Bakura || Darkness. 788 views. (cw some blood) [some LECHE, mostly Goendama.] [Drama.]

[By Now] - Tendershipping. 202 views. (cw blood) [fair amount LECHE, Goendama, plus a bit of High-Mode surprisingly.] [Moreso Drama and Yearning.] [I like this one a lot.]

In My Heart, Always (Tendershipping). 805 views. (cw brief gender au Ryou, some blood.) [Brief flash of Goendama and High-Mode.] [Fluff.]

Tendershipping DJ Flesh. 1,903 views. (cw nsfw song, explicit nsfw images) [“WOW, THEY’RE HOT!” vibe.]

Tendershipping-{Love Game}. 18,946 views. (cw nsfw song, nsfw images) [Goendama.] [“WOW, THEY’RE HOT!” vibe.]

“WARNING! Has Tendershipping smex in it! Don't like it? TO BAD!”

Haven't Had Enough ♡. 416 views. (cw brief gender au) [High-Mode, Goendama, LECHE. High-Mode the most, actually.] [Fun, Comedy.]

{Paralyzed}. 118 views. (cw blood(?)) [Goendama, entirely.] [Terrible Bakura, Abused Ryou.]

All we had is over now. 1,488 views. (cw blood, possibly noncon) [Goendama.] [Abuse vibes; Again, possibly Noncon.]

Sink Your Teeth Into My Flesh [Tendershipping] Yaoi. 852 views. (cw blood, nsfw song) [High-Mode.] [“WOW, THIS IS SO HOT!” vibes.]

Kiss The Girl AMV- Tendershipping. 22,269 views. (cw blood, arm wound) [High-Mode, some Goendama, LECHE.] [Romance.]

2013

TenderShipping - Just the Boy/Girl. 765 views. (cw M/M but does have some gender au F Ryou in places) [High-Mode, Goendama, LECHE appear.] [Upbeat Cute Aww Vibe.]

tendershipping ~sober. 369 views. (cw blood, risqué(?) images, one gender au Ryou) [Goendama, High-Mode.] [Angst.]

Tendershipping- I Miss The Misery. 2,116 views. (cw ryou’s arm wound, one risqué image?) [Past Abuse.]

“Story goes, yami bakura starts to treat ryu better, but it turns out their relationship only really works when he’s being cruel. Fluff, nonsense, I was bored, pick your reason.”

YGO Tendershipping - Monster [WIP]. 448 views. (cw blood) [Goendama, some LECHE.] [Definitely more Terrible Bakura vibe.]

Tender-GemShipping - Boy like you. 14,801 views. (cw blood, brief gender au) [LECHE and High-Mode predominantly present. Fractions of Goendama.] [Very Much For Fun.]

2014

Heart Strings. 3,368 views. [Goendama.] [Drama, Knowingly Unhealthy.]

“the people that know me from 2011 remember my ygo days, 2011 throwback / this ship is so unhealthy, and like most ygo ships it makes almost no sense.”

Dear Agony - Tendershipping. 724 views. (cw blood, Ryou’s arm wound, Ryou’s hand wound) [Goendama, manga scans, others.] [Drama.]

“I’m Sorry!”|| Tendershipping♥. 4,517 views. (cw blood, hand wound, arm wound, maybe a risqué image.) [Goendama, LECHE, High-Mode appear.] [Drama.]

“You call me a Stranger”?!? || RyouXBakura. 946 views. (cw blood, possibly risqué but clothed images.) [Goendama, some LECHE.] [Romance, Yearning.] [ghgjfhg gosh I love this one so much.]

Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy Bakura♥. 14,964 views. (cw blood, arm wound, knife, a few risqué images, risqué song) [minor appearances of LECHE and High-Mode.] [For Fun; “WOW HE’S HOT! vibe.]

2015

I’ts been so long || Tendershipping ||. 5,699 views. (cw blood, Ryou’s arm wound) [Goendama.] [Drama.] [I love this one so much.]

G A S O L I N E. 4741 views. (cw blink and you’ll really miss it blood) [Goendama.] [Asshole Bakura.] [this one is incredibly well edited.]

F R A G I L I T Y. 7,459 views. (cw blood, Ryou’s arm wound, definitely a manipulative Bakura) [Goendama.] [Drama, Knowingly Unhealthy.] [gosh, I love this one. the editing is divine.]

“It's basically just the idea around the fact that Ryou is stuck with the ring and Bakura's an asshole to him and Ryou doesn't wanna hurt anyone close to him so he lies and says he's fine and that he doesn't have the ring or it doesn't bother him, basically distants himself from everyone. And Bakura will keep sayin he'd be lonely without him anyway so Ryou eventually just accepts it and keeps the ring and he's a sad lonely lil shit, that's it, boom. ygo.”

Face down - Tendership. 3,824 views. (cw abuse, song about abuse, blood, hand wound, ring scars on chest) [Goendama, BRIEF blips of LECHE.] [Abuse.]

“This song fits Ryou and Yami Bakura I really have been wanting to make this for awhile.”

2016

Black Widow {Tendershipping} Bakura x Ryou. 3,681 views. (cw nsfw song.) [Goendama appears.] [Leaning toward Abuse possibly, Unhealthy.]

[MLS] Your Last Smile ((Tendershipping MMV)). 921 views. (cw blood, arm wound) [Goendama entirely, save for one image.] [Drama, Tragic.]

2017

Heathers Meant to be yours tendershipping bakrua x ryou yu gi oh DM. 1,919 views. (cw literally a song about bombing a school.) [clips.] [COMEDIC BUT MURDEROUS BAKURA LMAO.] [I really find the vibe of this funny lmaooo.]

Yugioh - Closer //Tendershipping Bakura x Ryou - MMV TEST. 1,151 views. [LECHE.] [Fluff.]

Sing Me To Sleep //Tendershipping. 685 views. [clips.] [Romance, I think.]

2018

{LHS} Let It Die //Tendershipping. 383 views. [DSOD clips.] [Drama.]

The ones with descriptions are fascinating. Time capsules, really. You see the editors going back and forth between how nice the ship was or could be, versus editors who wholly edited it abusive, shippy or not. I quoted a few of the really interesting ones. You can see how the 2011-2013 tropes linger into later yugioh and especially into 2015 yugioh, just before the DSOD Movie’s release. The idea that they’re inherently unhealthy pervades after that, to the point that I remember a particular vein of people branding tendershipping unshippable at all. And that idea lasted.

Yet some of my favorite fics still come out of this era. Possessive (cw Ishtar abuse, blood, demonic possession) and All That Glitters (cw hospitalization, possession, says bayshipping (noa x priest set) but I don’t see it + noa’s been dead for ages) portray Ryou beautifully. I still get surprised this Ryou was from 2012. Fiver was very famous for Homecoming already, where Ryou beat Bakura up with a freaking baseball bat upon first post-canon meeting, and had the one zombie thiefship fic that never ended up completed either. A Persistent Shadow (cw possible dubcon interpretation, undetailed but present nsfw, iirc blood and such) is beautiful; a tendershipping classic with that push-pull between Bakura and Ryou. I’ve been reading it every year or so off and on for nearly ten years at this point. It’s incredibly well written and plotted.

Other interesting fic pop up in that era too—A Mile High (cw nsfw themes, nsfw, blood, they joke about rape briefly together; it’s a comedy) was published in 2013 and dealt with the “one day Ryou will top Bakura (but not today)” topic. In the same vein, authors like sitabethel were writing Top Ryou around 2013 (“because fuck conventions”) and a number of them were really messing around with the topic of Bakura—in multiple pairings—not being Chronically On Top. I remember reading a thiefshipping one that specifically wrote Top Malik to criticize the subject. Many people were responding to That Bakura™ across ffnet and ao3 around this time.

But even before that, Dom and Seme Ryou get mentioned a number of times in the context of Bakura and Ryou (though sadly one has had its text glitched or mistakenly replaced, as the fic is a copy of one of the author’s other works; it seemed to treat it as “astoundingly weird” in the description, and was written in 2007). Dom and Seme Ryou even pop up sporadically in those early 2000s fics on ffnet. A songfic from 2005 comes to mind as having “Seme!Ryou” (and Bakura making the change himself for Ryou to be, iirc) on AFF, and I believe it was crossposted to ao3 as well. I distinctly remember a “Super Seme Ryou” parody somewhere in the same era there, found on ffnet and ao3.

We won’t even get into the literal singular handful of Ryou nonconning Bakura fics out there so yeah, just know the ones I know of 99% have been self purged from the Internet LMAO.

The more I go through this, the more I think new yugioh fans just never learned their roots. Maybe they got to 2013 tendershipping and decided they couldn’t go further. By 2015, people had already started migrating away from the Abuse Tropes—but also from a lot of mainstream tendershipping, as well. Some people yelled loudly about it being nothing but abuse. People yelled loudly about a lot of the shippers (if not all, to some users) being terrible, horrible people. There’s a lot that we could go into that I’m not tackling here, as this is my general cut off point for the era. The Modern Fandom kind of starts here, as far as I’m concerned.

I really get the feeling the fandom just forgot its roots, and how these things did coexist. A lot of old yugioh is tropey in one sort of direction or the other. The trends just became what the old yugioh fandom became known for, especially to newer fans. That really is just what it is, I think—the interesting content’s always been there, it just gets ridiculously drowned out by the rest of it. Things came in waves. The Abuse Tropes came in waves, as did the Sugar Rush, and the Flanderization content, and every other part of it.