Writing Gemshipping

If anyone's been keeping up with the YGO fanfiction contest - and if you haven't, I'll still provide details here - you would know that the pairing for this particular round was Gemshipping, also known as Ryou Bakura x Thief King Bakura (who is also known as Akefia, I just learned). I had quite a bit, I found, to say on the topic, so I'm going to copy and paste what my thoughts were about that particular story and the characters here:

Notes on my characterization of the Bakuras: When posting this pairing, Ryou VeRua (the admin of the contest) made it clear that she wanted there to be a distinct difference between Yami Bakura (who is essentially Zorc's corruption of Thief Bakura's original soul) and the Thief himself. So, not only did I try to make them different, but a large part of this story is going to be Ryou's perception of the two of them, which he hasn't quite worked out yet. As far as Yami Bakura goes, he's the same bastard from "Mirror", just with a minor appearance (there's going to be a chapter with more of his poor treatment of Ryou to put this scene in more perspective - it was just unrelated to the contest entry, so I couldn't quite work it in there without it being so much filter it would irritate you). As far as the Thief goes, his motives are a bit obscure here but I tried to make a point with his character. Although he's quite violent and he's pitted against the Pharaoh, that doesn't make him not a person, without respect for any other human beings (aside from the Pharaoh, whose father he believes to be the reason why his whole city was torched, and I think that resentment in that case is rather justified). If Yami Bakura is Zorc, I can only imagine how much more humanized the Thief would be (before being influenced heavily by Zorc), or at least as human as a thief could be. I tried in this story to get across the fact that he's a multi-dimensioned character, someone who knows when to steal and who to steal from but not to take too much; someone who can still appreciate a person who is being kind enough to dress a wound for him despite being held captive.

Notes on my characterization of Ryou: I tried to continue Ryou's strong personality here, to make eagerness to be agreeable a measure that he takes to preserve his life as opposed to being cowardly, and I tried to express his understanding of the human psyche through his own suffering, as well as his capability of deep thought on the concept of what is 'real' in this situation. I think that Ryou is a very intelligent, resourceful character, if only he was given the chance to show that he's capable of it. He wasn't given that opportunity on the show, and I think that because Ryou didn't do anything particularly heroic, people assume that he's weak - however, if you're up against someone who is stronger than you, that doesn't make you a weak person or character. Yami Bakura is tough as nails and three times as ruthless. In addition to that, since he's Zorc, he's literally evil. You can't take on someone like that alone - and the fact that Ryou's been getting by means that he's stronger, not weaker, than most, especially considering that his method of remaining alive hasn't involved sacrificing another person in his place.

Notes on the Millennium Ring: It's a bit mischievous here, with its own plan on how to do things. I like the idea of the items having a consciousness of their own, constantly struggling to bring about peace, always chasing after the happy ending to make up for the lives that were stolen to create them. This works better for me than any other explanation of the show, because it's more optimistic to think that even when it seems as though evil is succeeding, the success of evil for a short while is a part of the seven Items' intricate plan to have good prevail overall.