#softshipping

Made for @deathandnonexistentialdread

As always, I invite everyone to reblog this with ship propaganda and fic recs. 💛

Softshipping: Ryou Bakura x Serenity Wheeler

Personally I think this ship has the potential to be adorable. Joey might even approve of it, because being the protective older brother that he is, he would absolutely be threatening his sister's boyfriend and keeping him in line. And let's just say, Ryou is no physical challenge for Joey.

Dungeonshipping: Duke Devlin x Maximilian Pegasus

Duke having a crush on his idol is entirely believable, and I could believe in Pegasus manipulating the hell out of him if they got together while both villains. Take out the villainy, and it's almost a cute "crush on teacher" dynamic.

Axisshipping: Seto Kaiba x Siegfried von Schroeder

They hate each other, so they love each other. Classic case of competitors in similar situations being unable to stand the person that is so similar to them. But there are enough distinctions that it's just as fascinating as Puppyshipping imo: Sieg being born into money while Seto is adopted; Seto getting the I² contract over Sieg; different relationships with their brothers.

Buddyshipping: Joey Wheeler x Tristan Taylor

Best friends with benefits. These two are a package deal canonically anyways, let's just raise the stakes, yeah? Seriously though, there's deep care between these two that gets explored a bit better in the manga I think, but they're teenage guys being idiots about liking each other, so they insult each other as friends instead.

according to the anime, shizuka likes nature.

i, being me, have decided to take this into the Full Weirdo Zone.

shizuka loves ALL creatures. all of them. and if given the chance, she will tell you ALL of the weird creature facts. all of them.

Sure, no problem, Anon! And I agree; Softship is one of those pairings that are invisible due to the lack of canon interactions between the concerned characters, and that yet possess a good potential. It’d be interesting to delve into the advantages and challenges such a relationship would bring to the table, for sure.

To name a few: 

Like I said before, Shizuka is one of the few characters who didn’t come in contact with the spirit of the Ring. That would give Ryou the opportunity to develop a relationship with someone without becoming consumed by guilt - something he’d no doubt have in spades, after the whole Zork ordeal. Shizuka is a sweet and caring person. I have no doubt that with patience, she could help Ryou in overcoming his personal demons; in letting go of his reluctance to nurture close bonds with others and learning to trust again. However, I don’t see Ryou fully opening up around her anytime soon. Not only because of his past and guarded nature, but also due to the fact Shizuka is young and still has a long way to go when it comes to understanding certain serious matters (such as trauma). While it is true she had her fair share of difficulties in life (such as, witnessing the divorce of her parents, going blind, being estranged from her brother against both of their wills), there’re still a lot of things Shizuka has yet to learn about the world, most of them revolving around the supernatural/magical/ygo-ish aspect of reality. For this reason, I don’t see anything serious happening between them, at least, until Shizuka becomes old and mature enough, along with the support and enlightenment of Jonouchi and Anzu regarding the whole millenium item thing, as I doubt Ryou would ever bring up the matter with her. 

I’m eternally late to the game since Valentine’s Day was a week and a half ago, but I saw this ask meme, and I couldn’t help myself. Since I never get asks, I’ve decided that I’m going to treat it like a meme on its own. Taken from courierhawk’s reblog; original questions from thevirdirthara. Also, apologies in advance. I use a mix of dub/sub names.

Yu-Gi-Oh

Your favorite non-canon ship?

Considering there’s only one, maybe two ACTUAL canon ships, just about any of my ships are valid, though there are slightly more canon ships if you look at the anime instead of the manga. That being said, Polar (MaiXJoey) is probably my favorite non-canon ship. I know, I know, age difference and it’s not present in the manga and blah blah blah, but I don’t care. I love Polar to death.

Is there a ship you didn’t like at first but ultimately started shipping?

Thorn (AnzuXYamiMarik) is a ship I never would’ve considered ever because I don’t ship Yami Marik with anyone, but one fic on fanfiction.net caught my attention, and my secret love for Thorn was born. Honestly, though, it has to be extremely specific circumstances for me to ship this—pretty much only if Yami Marik is human.

What is the rarest rare pair (that you ship)?

Probably Timid (SerenityXYugi). I’m not certain I’ve ever seen content for this ship anywhere. I’m surprised I even know its name. But if I think about it too long, it becomes super cute. A close tie might be Soft (SerenityXRyou) because it is also quite cute. I like cute things.

Name a popular ship you don’t get the appeal of.

Death (YamiMarikXRyou) and Puppy (SetoXJoey). As I said before, I can’t pair Yami Marik with anyone (except Anzu under special human circumstances), and even if I did, Ryou would be one of the last people I’d choose. Under certain circumstances, like years later when they’re both adults, I can maybe see Seto and Joey EVENTUALLY getting along, but as far as I’m concerned, Puppy is not a ship that would ever work. Just, no.

What is your most fluffy + happy ship?

With the power of fanfic, I can make any ship fluffy and happy. As far as pure canon is concerned, I don’t think one exists. So, with the power of my fanfic abilities, I declare that the fluffiest and happiest ship I have is Sibling (SerenityXMokuba). There might be a little angst in this relationship just because their brothers don’t get along, BUT! These two are precious fluffy babies.

What is your most angsty ship?

With the power of fanfic, I can make any ship angsty XD AUs are a particular specialty of mine in this case. Combining both canon with possible AUs, I’d have to say Manipula (AnzuXMarik) just because, canonically, there’s a lot of potential bad blood between them because of what Marik did to her and Joey and Yugi, and Marik’s not exactly a goody-two-shoes either.

A non-canon ship that should be canon?

Sibling because I consider Peach (AnzuXYugi) almost canon, and Sibling is almost the next best thing. I mean, I do ship her with Duke and Tristan, both of which are kinda canon if you look at the manga and anime respectively, but I love Sibling too much to ignore it in this question.

Your oldest ship; the one you’ve shipped for the longest time?

Peach was my first OTP in the YuGiOh franchise, and I still ship it to this day.

What ship represents the kind of relationship you’d love to have?

Peach again. I think the most important part of a romantic relationship is friendship. If you’re not besties with your significant other, then I don’t believe the relationship will work out as well. I want to be able to be myself around my significant other, and I want to be understood by them. I feel like Peach embodies this well.

Is there a ship that makes your skin crawl?

I have never been nor will ever be super comfortable with yaoi and yuri ships, but they’re not so bad as to make my skin crawl, but incest will forever make me sick, and so will pedophilia. NO THANK YOU.

What is a character you can only imagine in one particular ship?

Surprise, surprise, it’s Joey. Blame it on the lack of female characters available in YuGiOh, but I have only ever shipped him with Mai. The only way Joey gets any love in my writing/headcanons is if there are OCs involved, assuming he’s not already paired with Mai.

What is your favorite canon ship?

Rose (CeceliaXPegasus). I’m super sad that it ended so badly in canon because they are adorable, and one of my ultimate favorite YGO pairing fanarts is for this ship.

Name a ship that deserved more content.

Peach if only because I want to see them actually get together. I think that because friendship is a super focus of YuGiOh as a whole, we got a lot less romantic content than we otherwise might have liked, but that’s okay with me. That’s why fanfiction/fanart exists XD

Is there a ship you feel gets undeserved hate in fandom?

Depends on what corner of the fandom you’re in. I personally hate it when people hate on Anzu, no matter the ship she might be in, especially when they hate on her in favor of their yaoi pairings. That’s super unfair to Anzu as a character since she’s awesome and one of my favorite female characters of all time.

What is the first ship you had?

I already mentioned this in the oldest ship question, but I’ll say it again—Peach.

Is there a ship that made you realize something about yourself?

I don’t know if I can cite a specific ship, but shipping in YuGiOh is what made me realize that I like character/ship potential almost more than I like ships themselves, hence why I multiship. Because of this realization and multishipping in YuGiOh, I’ve been able to extend that to other fandoms, especially Harry Potter.

Is there a type of ship you always go for?

Depends on the situation. I’m a sucker for strong female characters who could be paired with lots of guys because I’m such a multishipper, and I love cute fluffy pairings. I do like ships with interesting conflict, but the fluffy ones always get me.

Is there a ship the writers have ruined for you?

Not that I can think of. I mean, almost no ships are canon in YuGiOh, so rather than “ruining” ships, it’s mostly just unknown for the various potential ships.

Is there a ship the fandom has ruined for you?

Not really. I already had my reasons for not shipping certain ships, and I’ve never been turned away from a ship I already shipped. I will say, though, that I wish people would tag their freakin’ ships so that I don’t have to see stuff on my dash that I don’t ship.

Have you ever created fan created content for a ship?

Yes. I’ve never drawn any of my YuGiOh ships, but I have written a couple oneshots for Peach and one for Polar. I’ve also referenced/included the following ships in stories focused on OC ships: Peach, Polar, Ardent (SerenityXTristan), Kiddy (RebeccaXMokuba), Half (MihoXRyou), Tie (MihoXTristan), Azure (AnzuXSeto), and Sedate (SerenityXMarik).

Favorite thing you’ve ever created for a ship?

Do children count? Or grandchildren? My YuGiOh OC story has an entire second and third generation to follow. I have children/grandchildren for the following ships: Peach, Polar, Ardent, Kiddy, and Half.

Is there a ship you’ll never admit you have?

No. I’m not ashamed of my ships. I admit that I don’t talk about some of them as much, but that doesn’t mean I don’t ship them or that I’m afraid to admit it.

Have you ever started shipping a ship because of the fans?

Yes. It wasn’t until fandom hit really hard in recent years that Sibling joined my roster of ships.

What is one scene you want to see happen for all your ships?

A proposal. Is that cliché? I don’t care XD

Is there a ship you wish you didn’t know existed? 

Any incest ships. I don’t know why they exist or if there are people who ship them, but I wish they’d never been conceived (the ships, not the people).

Name a ship that ended like you wanted it to.

Considering both canon ships ended in death, I’m gonna say none of them. All my ships end nicely in my head.

Name a ship that deserved better in the end.

Rose and Mizu (KisaraXSeth). Both of these ships ended in tragedy, and it makes me so sad. I NEED THEM TO BE HAPPY.

Is there a character you have several ships for?

Oh yes. Many of them. I’m a multishipper XD I have Anzu in the most ships. My Anzu ships are Azure, Host (AnzuXRyou), Manipula, Peach, Persevere (AnzuXDuke), Thorn, and Vex (AnzuXYamiBakura).

What is the ship you ignore 98% of canon for?

I don’t ignore canon, I bend canon *coughAUISMYFRIENDcough* Okay, okay, maybe my two Miho pairings, Half and Tie. Not much info is given in the manga except that Tristan/Honda has a crush on her and that she’s kinda shy, and she doesn’t exist in DM. I ignore season 0 super hardcore when it comes to Miho. To be perfectly honest, she almost feels more like an OC most days.

Is there a ship you like but you dislike the fandom?

Not really. It’s usually the other way around ’cause I love my YuGiOh friends, but most of them ship stuff I don’t.

(*Because I think it just would be funny if Serenity was ALSO into the occult, which why she gets along so well with Ryou

Which on one hand is much to Joey's dismay, because godDAMNIT he already has to deal with Bakura's creepy occult stuff keeping him up at night, But on the other hand he's like "Well, she's into what she's into, and I'm pretty sure most girls are into that stuff at one point"

BUT on the other OTHER hand he sees this as a blessing in disguise because then he can Impress Ryou with his Extensive Occult Knowledge)

(Also apologizes if any of this is like worded weirdly or the paragraphs are cut weirdly, English was never my best subject-)

-🌻 Anon

thank you again sunflower anon, these are good thoughts. 👍

you might enjoy this thing i drew a while back

Softshipping will always have a special place in my heart. Ryou and Serenity are two of my favorite characters and I especially love fleshing out their personalities together because it helps me avoid a lot of common traps they both fall into. For example, being meek? Neither of them strike me as such. There’s a difference between being quiet around people until you get to know them and being too shy to entertain conversation whatsoever.

So, without further ado:

-Ryou is an adrenaline junkie and before he and Serenity ever start “dating” he takes her on roller coasters and through haunted corn mazes. The first person to scream buys ice cream at the end. Serenity sometimes lets him win so Joey doesn’t get suspicious of him paying for her all the time. I get the feeling he’s still overprotective.

-Ryou and Serenity both get into psychology and attend Ryou’s last two years of undergrad together. Before he moves for grad school she asks him why he chose the field.

“To figure some things out.” He replied.

She nodded in understanding. “Do you ever worry it’ll make things worse?”

Ryou shrugged. There wasn’t an easy way to say it couldn’t. “I consider myself cautiously optimistic.

She grazed the cross around his neck with her ring finger, "That explains this, I suppose.”

“That.” He corrected, “is entirely selfish. Some things you just can’t carry on your own.”

-Serenity could never understand the appeal of tabletop RPGs until she stayed after hours at the game shop to help clean up after a tournament. Ryou, the dungeon master at one of the tables in the back, is at the tail end of an event, narrating with rapt attention and enthusiasm. She realizes the game itself is one big whirlwind of interactive storytelling and jumps in without turning back. Their first date is a D&D session.

-Other girls constantly flirt with Ryou so he and Serenity eventually face it by looking at them silent, deadpan, and taking off their clothes to wear each other’s. Serenity’s in a white crop top and high waisted shorts? Those are Ryou’s now. Never mind that his boxers are longer and they don’t button. Serenity? Looking like a goddess in his T-shirt and jeans. Usually the girls are just kind of stunned and leave, but if they don’t she leans her head on his shoulder, “Hey babe? I need my belt.” And he takes it off and starts putting it on for her.

-They both only like pink cotton candy, no the colors do not all taste the same.

-Ryou puts ketchup directly on his fries while Serenity raps him playfully on the shoulder and tells him that’s what dipping is for.

-They’re both tone deaf. This doesn’t stop them from belting the chorus of their favorite songs together with the windows down. (Serenity drives. They’re married ten years before Ryou can get behind the wheel.)

-Serenity’s biggest pet peeve is that Ryou doesn’t refill the ice cube tray, so one day he makes those weird gelatin eyeballs in them and leaves them in the freezer for her to find. “This is not funny Ryou!”

…